I think the issue with this particular tool is it can authoritatively provide incorrect, entirely fabricated information or a gross misinterpretation of factual information.

In any field I've worked in, I've often had to refer to reference material as I simply can't remember everything. I have to use my experience and critical thinking skills to determine if I'm utilizing the correct material. I have not had to further determine if my reference material has simply made up a convincing, "correct sounding" answer. Yes, there are errors and corrections to material over time, but never has the entire reference been suspect, yet it continued to be used.

I take Xolair, which is billed at about $5k for four syringes. Insurance pays $4875 and the Xolair copay program, run by the manufacturer, pays $125. Why are they so willing to pick up the copay? Before four syringes of Xolair cost about $60 in total to produce.

I have an S and it's the best car I've ever driven. The Musk taint makes me feel gross, though.

What's insane is that million dollar McLaren was about 0.0004% of his net worth. He could buy 250,000 vehicles that I could never even dream of affording.

We need to eat this motherfucker.

It just occurred to me to wonder: does he even drive one of his own company's cars?

Sorry! We're both biologists, we get nerdy.

I have stout, wide, "Fred Flintstone" feet. Is there a market for my people?

I came to mention the same. Static phenotype ≠ static genotype.

I have ADHD with ASD tendencies, despite not being autistic (long story). People like us are more frequently the types who find something new to be interesting, then dive in and learn EVERYTHING about it. For example, I recently bought a new car and spent days near obsessively learning about it. How it works (first electric car), how to model current vs acceleration, how to tear it down and rebuild it, etc. I'm now in the process of compiling a FAQ for my wife, who doesn't share my obsessive tendencies and can't retain my frequent "hey sweetie, this is interesting!" data dumps, and setting up monitoring and automations for it on our home lab.

I used to think this was what everyone did. Turns out it's not normal.

I just tried this and it's genius! I haven't ever given side mirror adjustment any thought.

Idaho, the South of the North. I now live in Washington, where that kind of shit doesn't fly.

No, you're fine! I didn't specify. I lived with it for so long, it didn't even occur to me to outline the process.

I didn't notice his motion relative to the background the first time and rewatching it with this in mind makes the video even cooler.

Perfect five out of seven.

Nice

We had to fix it or arrange to have it fixed, then the landlord would verify it was fixed to their satisfaction. The landlord was otherwise hands off until it exceeded the cost limit. This was the norm for the area.

They provide maintenance free housing...

Keep in mind this isn't always the case. Landlords where I used to live are increasingly requiring tenants to pay for some maintenance costs. A past landlord had us pay for anything $300 or less.

I live in a state with an online training requirement and it's a joke. The employees at sporting goods stores actually encouraged me to quickly click through to the end and print the results.

As someone who supports firearm ownership, I also believe it should require a background check, a thorough psychological evaluation, and equally thorough, in-person safety training and testing, all repeated periodically in order to maintain ownership.

That rate is insane. I live in the PNW in a high cost of living area and drive an EV. I don't even see charging stations, which during peak times often charge five times or higher the market rates for energy up here, charging that much.

I have a relatively common "rare" condition and saw over 40 doctors while seeking a diagnosis. I can personally attest that most physicians range between not very bright to astoundingly stupid. You don't have to be intelligent to become a physician, just dedicated with access to the right resources.

Thanks for the recommendation, I just snagged a copy.

Ambulatory yeast infection?

She's 31?! Goddamn, it looks like being evil really takes it out of you.

That essay isn't terribly well thought out. They have an issue with the increase in employees, but lack any evidence that they're not actually required. The core of their thesis seems to be "it was fine with fewer employees before, why do we need more now?" but they fail to provide much supporting evidence beyond substantiating increasing levels of spending over the years.

Edit: also, this is seven years old and it appears Guy's predictions have yet to even begin to manifest.

I felt that a lot, especially when I was trying to be helpful. It's like as soon as your comment score went to zero or negative, people would start piling on, regardless of what you actually said. I'd even see people later expressing the same sentiment getting upvoted. It was weird.

I think we should do away with downvotes on Lemmy. Blahaj got rid of them and it's great.

I would donate towards this.

It's WAY too over the top for me. I feel like I'm going to stroke out from overstimulation after a few minutes.

And not even the cool or fun perverted. I'm always hesitant to kink shame, but forcing your kink on someone else, even just conversationally, is incredibly awful.

At the very least they should be left outside in the sun for a year.

Keeping itself clean while we're gone is such a huge benefit. We have three cats and finding people to care for them used to be a pain in the ass. Now we have the Litter Robot and a couple of automatic feeders so we can leave for days at a time and the cats barely notice we're gone.

You are far braver than I.

I watched this before bed, big mistake.

Whoa there, let's keep it PG for the children.

-J.D. Vance

Sure! You should be able to direct message me here and we can figure communication out from there.

And my pleasure! I'm an EDS advocate because it's an under reported, poorly understood, and often poorly treated condition, so figuring out if you have it and figuring out what to do afterwards can be terrifying. I'm hoping to save at least a few people from the trial by fire that so many of us have gone through.

You might have hEDS. I do! I used to work as a research scientist, so I've read a fair amount of primary literature, plus I have twenty years of experience since "shit got real". Here is what that has generated. It's a lot.

Commandment One: Get a Doctor
Start finding an EDS literate doctor, especially one that will listen to you. Do it. Do it now!

I know you don't want to, but later you will thank you. Welcome to hEDS: Land of Doing What You Don't Want to Do. Either you do it now, you do it later when things are worse from waiting, or you risk option three: being the person who never handles their medical issues and now complains about being stuck in a wheelchair. New issues will crop up over time - I've had surgery on my wrist and will soon have it on my elbow (Tommy John, motherfuckers!) - and either you take care of them or injuries begin to accrue. Another reason is some EDS variants, like cvEDS, can and will kill you. Getting checked out early means adding years to your life.

Look for private practices over big medical chains. If you have hEDS or any sort of hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD), you're going to need a doctor. I highly suggest contacting doctors by email or writing first to screen their HSD awareness. It's not common and it'll keep you from wasting your time/developing medical PTSD, a sadly common complaint of our people. I'm happy to help write a letter with you if you need assistance.

Commandment Two: Get a Diagnosis
Use it to learn about your condition. If you have EDS, odds are it's hEDS, the least serious but one of the most painful variants. Common co-morbidities are postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS); I also have the latter.

Medical science has been dragging its feet on hEDS, so treatment is often a CYOA situation. I've found a few primary literature trends on HSD that have been useful.

First, we tend to have higher oxidative stress than the general population. I've found that hitting antioxidants HARD helps with pain a lot. It's as easy as a dairy-free blueberry smoothie three to four times each week.

Second, we might have central sensitization issues on top of tissue fragility. Central sensitization at a very basic level means your brain gets better at feeling pain to the point where things that shouldn't hurt much at all hurt instead quite a bit. What I've learned is, using the 0-10 pain scale where 0 is no pain, 1 is barely any pain, and 10 is so bad you're pissing and shitting yourself on the floor, what feels like a 5 is more like a 3 in terms of actual damage. For me. Everyone is different.

Third, we still react positively to resistance training, with research showing adaptive changes in our tendons in response to a training regimen, which leads me to...

Commandment Three: Start Physical Therapy
Yes, it'll hurt, but graded resistance exercises are key. As long as your joints aren't fully dislocating (if you're not sure, they're not), it'll help by increasing muscle strength and tone, which will help stabilize many of your joints. I started by getting a gym membership and starting with a number of exercises using the machines (better stability, no free weights) at the lowest setting for ten repetitions each. After two weeks, I'd bump the weight 2-5 pounds for smaller (upper body or lower body stabilizing) muscle groups and 5-10 pounds for larger (lower body) muscle groups. After four months of this, instead of bumping the weight, I'd increase repetitions 5 reps a week until I finally hit three sets of ten repetitions. DO NOT exceed the normal human range of motion during exercise. DO NOT increase your weight too quickly. Slow is better - the worst thing that happen from going too slow is it'll take longer for you to progress, while the BEST thing that'll happen from going to fast is you overdo it, strain some muscles, and are in a lot of pain for a bit. It gets worse from there. Go slow.

Anecdotal: judicious use of strength training reduced my joint hypermobility in my knees, elbows, and ankles. My ligaments tightened back up. Woot!

Commandment Four: Improve Your Mental Health
A lot of HSD folks are crazier than a sack of cats. It seems to be a trendy self-diagnosis for hypochondriacs, drama royalty, and various other hysterical personality types. I've known many with HSDs, both in-person and online, and the people with the worst eventual outcomes typically started with and maintained their poor mental health.

Colleagues have reported success with the Gupta Method, which I also used and found beneficial. Some of the rationale behind it is a bit shaky but the resulting message (basically, freaking out every time something feels wrong with your body is making you feel worse) was beneficial for people like me who do/did exactly that. I also use the Wim Hof method and mindfulness meditation to great success.

I also had a lot of childhood trauma I hadn't processed. Seeing a counselor and working that out resulted in a reduction of all of my symptoms.

Commandment Five: Improve Your Physical Health
It's exactly what you think: eat healthfully, lose excess weight, sleep enough, etc. If you have an HSD, you'll want to reduce as much day-to-day strain on your joints as possible, so you should strive to be on the slim side. I've been on a ketogenic diet for the last year, running primarily on nuts and seeds, vegetables, and meats (arranged descending by average quantity), and it has MASSIVELY improved my EDS and MCAS symptoms.

That's really the 3,000 meter overview. If you have questions, let me know!

This is an art form if you play a lawful good face character and your DM says you aren’t allowed to lie.

This is the real pro tip.

It actually is the seed of the coffee plant.

I had the same thought. Most people I encounter online and in person are not great at summarizing information regardless of the context.

For example: those who don't summarize the content of a conversation and instead poorly and inaccurately act out the entire encounter, "word by word ". Ughhhhh.

Increased surface area. Only male glowworms metamorphose into adult forms and they use their feathery antennae to track females down by their pheromones. Increased antenna surface area helps them pick up those pheromones.

Their grubs can be pretty destructive, but I still love them.