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I’m not an expert in the field, but I am someone who has recovered from depression. The “lack of serotonin” theory always made me laugh. It’s like if your computer was running abnormally and you said it “doesn’t have enough electricity”.

Neurotransmitters send signals. The amount of neurotransmitter tells you nothing about what information is actually encoded in those signals. You can transmit happy and sad music using electricity, for example. It seems to me that you can transmit happy and sad thoughts using neurotransmitters. (And of course the brain is much more complicated than a computer, because a computer “just” uses electricity, whereas in the brain some processing happens at each neuron, and signals coming in on one neurotransmitter can cause signals to leave in others.)

I see the term antidepressant as a bit of a misnomer. A drug that inhibits re-uptake of neurotransmitters will amplify the “loudness” of the signals. If you only have negative thoughts, and you take such a drug, your depression could realistically get worse (and this does happen to some people).

If you can get in to a positive feedback loop (e.g. an activity that leads to positive thoughts that lead to more of that activity) and _then_ start amplifying those signals, then these drugs can do wonders.

No surgeon should be removing healthy body parts, in my opinion. You wouldn’t fit a gastric band to an anorexic person, no matter how badly the patient wanted it, and that’s not even permanent.

I sympathise with all people who have issues accepting the body they were born with. If someone believes their body should be different, but otherwise their body is healthy, I think it’s fair to say that whatever is causing the feeling of mismatch is happening in the mind. It’s no surprise to me that a significant fraction present with other mental disorders.

In an ideal world, there would be some form of therapy that helps people come to terms with and accept themselves with what they’ve been given. But again I do sympathise, because contemporary medicine simply isn’t very good at treating mental illnesses.

Smell the floss ;)

The guy's voice is almost a whisper, the ambient sounds from the garden or the forest or the road are oddly pleasant, and he's speaking pretty slowly, with none of these glitchy quick cuts you see in a lot of YT content. It's also unusually personal-feeling, like he's just talking to you.

This sounds very much like ASMR. I find the most relaxing/entrancing videos are the ones that are unintentional/not forced, although obviously personal preferences do vary.

Reminds me of the theory that dreaming (and music) evolved to "practice" hypothetical situations and emotions before they happen - https://whatismusic.info/blog/AUnifiedTheoryOfMusicAndDreami...

It's easy for me to believe that this could have initially evolved to give babies slightly more preparation for the outside world (and therefore a slightly higher chance of survival), and that we just happen to retain the ability throughout adulthood.

Median age of COVID deaths here in the UK is 83[1]. Life expectancy is 81.

1: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/fre...

This link is indeed a very good explanation of mRNA vaccines, probably the best that I've seen.

After I read it, I noticed that it was the first time anyone had ever tried to explain _exactly_ how these new vaccines worked, like down to the molecular level.

Most explanations I had seen were usually extremely high level (literally just "the RNA gets read by your cells, which then produce the spike protein, then the RNA is destroyed") or used analogies (as you have done here).

I don't consider myself a conspiracy theorist, but I admit I had been harbouring some concerns/fears over these new vaccines. This link is the only thing I have read that actually allayed those fears.

I think there is a lesson here.

I have a feeling that everyone fears stuff they don't understand, at least a little bit.

I know that the high level explanation is technically correct, but here's the problem: Many conspiracy theories are actually _extremely_ detailed. I have personally seen covid conspiracies that appear to be backed up by scientific papers.

This is what the truth is competing against. A basic, high level "ELI5" explanation is never going to convince a conspiracy theorist who is looking at a stack of science papers.

So I think this link is very important, more people need to read and share it.

I know this is an inflammatory topic that evokes visceral feelings but.. you should be aware that when you are trying to change someone's mind, aggressive arguing like this is much more likely to make the other person believe what they already believe more strongly (i.e. the opposite of what you want).

I believe the source of that quote comes from this Q&A session with Kary Mullis, the inventor of PCR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT3IqZjT_9A

The relevant quotes from Kary are:

"With PCR, if you do it well, you can find almost anything, in anybody"

"If you can amplify one single molecule up to something that you can really measure - which PCR can do - then there's just.. very few molecules that you don't have at least one single one of them in your body"

"It doesn't tell you that you're sick"

My interpretation is that Kary Mullis did believe it was at least possible to "misinterpret" the results of a PCR test. It doesn't seem such a stretch to believe that you could be sick with the flu, while also having a single molecule of a coronavirus gene present in your nasal cavity (triggering a positive coronavirus test).

Note: I know this is an inflammatory topic. The views of Kary Mullis are not necessarily my own. I am posting this here because I think it is interesting.

For the benefit of anyone not in the UK, there is a marvelous Christmas advert inspired by this event, which aired in 2014 (100 years later): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM

I used to suffer badly with anxiety (and depression) for years. I was fortunately able to get the help I need and eventually recover. Around the same time I had about a month off work.

The day of my return, as I drove in, I noticed I felt physically sick. It took me a few moments to realise it was anxiety, and that I had forgotten what it felt like.

I handed in my notice 3 days later.

I feel like I must be missing something, because I don't understand this author's point at all.

"Lots of websites think “Vertical Screen == Mobile User”!" No, they don't - They think a 720px wide screen is a tablet user, which is probably a fair assumption.

I could equally write "Just because I browse zoomed in 500% doesn't mean I'm on a mobile"

When you zoom in, things get bigger, so fewer of them will fit on the screen... You have a choice between horizontal scrolling, or the website showing you the version of itself designed for smaller viewports.

Looking at the "How it should render" screens - I just checked the Guardian site, and that is exactly how the website looks at 1080px wide. The author admits that because of their zoom solution they are running at an effective width of 720px, so maybe just.. don't do that??

The proposed solution doesn't seem to solve anything, because physical size of the screen isn't the full story, it also depends on how far away from the screen the user is - which the browser can never know.

Given that there is only a finite amount of money/resources available to help people, giving extra to someone based on their race is equivalent to depriving another of help based on their race.

I've also suffered from depression, and am now on meds. I can honestly say they have changed my life for the better, with no side effects (other than an initial 3 days of tiredness, which wore off).

However, there are a few caveats:

I am convinced that the placebo effect is so powerful, that if you believe the meds will harm you, they actually could. I can't back this up with science, but I think the only reason meds worked for me is because I was able to lose the negative preconceptions I had about them (same for therapy). Unfortunately, negative perception of antidepressants is so prevalent that this is very difficult (but doable).

Antidepressants shouldn't make you feel numb. Neither are they "happy pills". The goal of them is, in theory, to stop you feeling depressed _over nothing_. What they will hopefully do is bring you back to a stable normality, encompassing the entire range of normal human emotions.

Curing your depression will not automatically make you happy (but it will certainly help you on your way) – Only living a happy and fulfilling life, full of people you care about and things you enjoy, can do that.

You also need to give your body the best chance, by making sure no basic aspect of your life is severely lacking - sleep, food/drink, exercise, family/friends/social, hobbies that give you a feeling of accomplishment etc.

~25Hz is the _lower bound_ for video* to appear smooth, _as long as there is motion blur_. But user interfaces do not add motion blur to moving objects. A computer monitor at 25Hz would be horrendous to use.

Lower framerates are less noticeable in low light, which is another reason why films look acceptable.

*Talented animators/cartoonists can get away with lower framerates

Insurance companies can only afford to pay out because not everyone files a claim at once.

I find it very disheartening to see antidepressants described as "happy pills" that "numb your senses". Comments like this only serve to reinforce the stigma around these medications. This stigma is the part of the reason why I held out from seeking help for years.

My experience taking Mirtazapine has been the exact opposite. At the deepest point of my depression, that is when I was "numb". Like many people I would listen to sad music when I was depressed, but eventually sad music didn't make me feel sad anymore, I literally just felt nothing.

Since being on Mirtazapine, my depression is gone for the first time in 13 years and it's completely changed my life. I still have the full human emotional range - I have good/bad moods (mostly good), days where I feel bored/meh, I cry at the sad parts in films. The antidepressants cured my depression, they haven't given me a false sense of inflated happiness. The question of "am I actually happy?" doesn't even really cross my mind. I'm just content.

The only side effects I experienced were 3 days of extreme tiredness when I first started taking them, which then subsided. And my appetite increased, so I have gained a few pounds, but since I was already quite skinny and had started lifting weights, this has been a net plus.

I found this lecture by Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky highly insightful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc - We all get depressed, it's a normal part of life, but depression is a disease which causes you to stay depressed for no reason, and it's as real of a disease as diabetes (we know this because the brains of people with depression look different, even when they're sleeping)

What's weird is that, when I was depressed, I already knew everything that he says in that video. I doubt this will make sense, but it was as if I knew it, without really "knowing" it. I knew I had depression. I knew how depression affected the brain. I knew how antidepressants worked. But if you'd asked me if I wanted them, I would have said no.

One thing that I have come to realise, is that I had to unlearn all the negative preconceptions I had about "happy pills", and be ready to accept that the medication had the _potential_ to work, in order for it to work.

During the 13 years that I was depressed, there were still lengthy periods of time when I felt relatively happy. Unfortunately, this led me to the (incorrect) conclusion that I could cure my depression myself if I just found the right combination of lifestyle choices. I started exercising, eating better and trying to get enough sleep. I tried to maintain good relationships with my family and friends, and explore my hobbies. The depression always came back.

Ironically, all this time spent trying to get better without medical help, probably extended the years of suffering, yet it was absolutely necessary to create the conditions that were needed for me to actually get better. The final pieces of the puzzle were: to truly accept that I had a disease, caused by unresolved trauma in my childhood, to seek counselling to resolve those issues, to lose the preconceptions about antidepressants, and to start the medication.

This process alone took around 2 years. I am one of the lucky ones, I genuinely count myself as lucky that I "only" wasted 13 years. Depression is an insidious disease.

The final thing I will say is that I often felt at the time that the therapy sessions weren't achieving much - it is only looking back that the impact becomes clear. (Also, you don't have to be depressed to benefit from counselling.)

Talking to friends and family can have just as big an impact, but therapists are trained listeners, you don't have to explain "why" something was traumatic, they just get it.

Ah I see, my apologies! For what it's worth, your English is so good that it didn't even cross my mind that you weren't a native speaker.

Yes the space shuttle was designed to be partially re-usable. The "plane" bit would come back down to Earth and land on a (very long) runway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOxZsbyjSb8

This really makes it easy to see that the SLS (far right) is derived from the space shuttle, with the orbiter removed and the payload placed on top instead.

Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1053/

But I also have to admit I cannot fathom how someone could have not heard of the space shuttle? It was only retired in 2011?

I rely on 4g for my internet and mine was totally down yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon until about midnight. SMS and calls weren't going through either. Other people in my neighbourhood also experienced issues with both Virgin Media and 4g.

The article doesn't seem to say where was affected, but does say it was fixed Tuesday morning, which is not what I experienced.

Local news is reporting that the outage was due to a cable being accidentally cut: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2020/04/28/shropshire-in...

I am not a doctor, but if true, that sounds completely consistent with this hypothesis (deoxygenated blood is darker, and being able to breathe won't help if your hemoglobin can't carry oxygen)

I would be fascinated to hear their take on this article.

There was a post about this doing the rounds yesterday. Annoyingly it was posted on Medium and has since been removed, but a copy of it, along with some interesting discussion, can be found here: http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/04/05/wuhan-f...

The hypothesis is that the virus is somehow attacking the hemoglobin, stopping it from being able to carry oxygen AND releasing a toxic form of iron, both of which eventually cause organ failure.

I am not a doctor, but if this hypothesis is true, it could explain why the death rate for those who end up on a ventilator is so high. If your immune system doesn’t fight the infection off fast enough, eventually your blood becomes incapable of carrying oxygen. At this point, a ventilator won’t help you, you would need a blood transfusion containing healthy hemoglobin.

The tone of the post was that we are currently fighting the wrong disease - treating Covid-19 like we would treat pneumonia, when it is actually something unique.