Ranvier

@Ranvier@sopuli.xyz

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Ranvier, (edited )

Sorry to post a serious comment on a shit post, but just in case this is bugging anyone:

Turn the clock away from your bed. The anxiety from potentially not getting enough sleep can prevent you from falling asleep in a vicious cycle.

Sometimes people can even be sleeping for quite a while without realizing they had been sleeping, then just look at the clock and be like, oh no I lied here for another hour with no sleep, and feel even worse, and now ironically be unable to fall back asleep. If it’s bad enough sometimes people can even get what’s called paradoxical insomnia. Where the person will insist they hadn’t been sleeping or barely slept, even if you had them in a sleep lab with video and eeg and you show them they’ve been sleeping for hours (they aren’t trying to lie or anything, it’s an issue with perception of sleep amount and the perceived low amount then causing symptoms and distress).

Anyways, set that alarm, turn the clock away. Stop micro-calculating how much time until morning.

Description of paradoxical insomnia from a patient point of view if anyone’s interested:

www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2017/0615/p770.html

Ranvier,

It’s never had the cornucopia in the logo.

www.snopes.com/…/fruit-of-the-loom-cornucopia/

It’s pretty common for people’s brains to want one to be there for some reason though. My guess is because we’ve seen so many similar pictures of fruit or vegetables spilling out of a cornucopia that we misremember and merge similar pictures.

Ranvier, (edited )

One, fruit of the loom bought that company after this event happened (were not owners during the event), they became liable by buying them. Two, that has nothing to do with a coronocupia being in the logo, there is no good evidence of a cornucopia ever being in the logo, that was just a tik toker driving up views by trying to link it to the more popular mandela effect thing. Removing a small section of a logo to cover up a chemical spill? That makes absolutely zero sense (not to mention it’s not exactly covered up, it’s on the epa website). But good on them for spreading awareness of chemical contamination by companies. Bad on them for doing it by making up nonsense about the logo to drum up views.

www.snopes.com/…/fruit-of-the-loom-cornucopia/

Ranvier, (edited )

Yes that’s all true, I agree with you. And I hate how big companies pass on the cost of their waste to the public in this and so many other instances.

The linking it to a supposed coronocupia logo was the clickbait nonsense to drum up views though.

Ranvier, (edited )

Europe is doing their best to catch up on some fronts. Keep at it, you’ll get there. We’ll continue sending fast food chains your way to help.

https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/68ec2e4d-faba-46cb-b472-713c3d522e73.png

Ranvier, (edited )

Common misconception about the voltage though, the US does have a 240v system (well in houses, some places have three phase power which gets weird). The breakers can be wired to give 120v or 240v. The large appliances like driers or electric car chargers and things that do need a large ampunt of current get wired up for that. It’s really only a slightly slower electric kettle to deal with as a minor inconvenience. Or maybe if you wanted an absolutely enormous electric space heater or something, but those are dangerous as it is. Not a lot of things used need more than the 1800 watt maximum. As far as I can tell it’s just a relic of history, Edison ran his generators at about 110v originally and that’s the voltage original light bulb filaments wanted and higher voltage filaments weren’t used until after the US had already been electrifying to a good extent. Theoretically 120v might be a little safer from a getting shocked standpoint, but electrocutions are pretty rare as it is, just a historical artifact and not a conscious design choice as far as I can tell (and yes, volts do matter too, not just amps. Especially if what’s being shocked has very high resistance, like human skin).

Technology connections has a fun video on this too in addition to the plug hole video someone linked elsewhere: youtu.be/jMmUoZh3Hq4?si=4a1SCYOZUy-1z2h_

Ranvier,

I think “US doesn’t use the metric system” is really overblown. Sure some common things like miles and weights and cooking that people use every day are still done with standard units. But you could say that about many other countries that are “officially” on the metric system. You can’t really force people to stop using units they’re familiar with. Any product I can think of in America is required to have both metric and standard units labeling it. Technical fields like science and medicine don’t touch standard units, would be ridiculous. All metric. If you tell your doctor your weight in lbs it’s instantly converted to kg and that’s what’s used in the system (dosing is done in mg per kg bodyweight often). Every kid in America learns how to use the metric system in school. Construction is probably the big place where it still gets iffy, but even then you can easily get metric or standard bits and things like that. Like what do people want to say we’ve “converted?” Slap all the current cooking/measuring cups out of people’s hands that say both mls and cups, saying no how dare you use cups to measure out the water for your recipe, here have a measuring cup with only mL labeled instead, you’re welcome.

Also ripping out and replacing the entire electrical system of every building in the United States, and scrapping every 120v electrical appliance in the entire country, seems like it would be horrifically expensive and wasteful for some very minor benefits. Maybe a switch could have been made early on in the development of the electrical system, but that ship has sailed. And you can wire up outlets in America for 240v plugs too, the breakers let you do both. So if you need more current for your clothes drier or another large appliance for instance it can be done.

Ranvier, (edited )

Appoint this internet commenter as surgeon general of Florida! We must get the truth out about medicinal lava!

Ranvier,

Poor point of comparison, lol.

snopes.com/…/donald-trump-fifth-avenue-comment/

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters, OK? It’s like incredible.”

-Donald Trump

Ranvier, (edited )

This is real. It’s also one reason why laws against gay sex were on the books in many states until finally overturned by the Supreme Court in 2003 in Lawrence v Texas. Sometimes police would use the laws directly, but more commonly since gay sex was considered a criminal activity, landlords would use it as an excuse to deny lgbt people housing or evict them.

Ranvier,

Eh, the fine they’re paying is over double the amount of taxes saved (~$50 million dollars) and the settlement says they have to cooperate with investigations on those accounts, so looks like the justice department is going after the account holders in addition to the bank. Might be a rare instance where it didn’t pay in the end for them to help tax evaders.

Ranvier, (edited )

Yes. This guy:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Bout

A US sting operation in cooperation with Thailand and Interpol caught him in 2008. He was eventually extradited and convicted in the US. In 2022 he was traded back to Russia in exchange for Brittney Griner.

Ranvier,

Nononono, you’re doing it all wrong. The dude in regards to kissinger wrote something like, “when will that bastard finally die?”

Ranvier,

If you’re in Europe, we’ll I’ve got news for you, 2/3rds of European schools have at least one child with an anaphylactic peanut allergy. So peanut allergies are not just from excess freedom it would seem.

businesswire.com/…/Largest-European-Quantitative-…

Ranvier, (edited )

/shrug

I think it’s mostly people in the thread are over exaggerating how common it actually is to ban them for a humorous effect. Maybe overly litigious society, schools don’t want to be sued because some dumb bully throws a peanut at a kid who can die from it. Peanut bans are becoming a thing in Europe though. A quick googling will show that. I found a proposal in European parliament. Here’s the BBC talking about banning them on all public transport:

www.bbc.com/news/uk-41017657

That seems a bit aggressive to me.

But all that aside, the increasing allergies across the industrialized world is really interesting though, and not a United States specific thing. A lot probably has to do with eradication of parasites. Much of the immune system parts responsible for allergies don’t have any role in response to bacteria or virus, but are intended to fight off parasites. And this is a gross over simplification, but the basics are without any parasites to fight off (since they’ve been eradicated in the industrialized world) it gets dysregulated and starts reacting to benign targets.

Ranvier, (edited )

Any source that he advised Obama? I’m curious because it sounds like Obama wasn’t a particular fan of his:

"We dropped more ordnance on Cambodia and Laos than on Europe in World War II, and yet, ultimately, Nixon withdrew, Kissinger went to Paris, and all we left behind was chaos, slaughter and authoritarian governments that finally, over time, have emerged from that hell.”

Mr. Obama noted that while in office he was still trying to help countries “remove bombs that are still blowing off the legs of little kids.”

nytimes.com/…/kissinger-biden-trump-nixon-preside…

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/…/471525/

Ranvier, (edited )

Unfortunately doctors have no magic fixes for back pain related to muscular strains or degenerative disease/arthritis, which is most back pain. Treatments are basically physical therapy and nsaid medications. Surgery for low back pain from degenerative disease/arthritis alone has poor evidence with most randomized trials suggesting no difference. Even opiates fail to show any superiority over nsaids (like ibuprofen or naproxen) for back pain. Not saying don’t see your doctor about bad persistent back pain, there’s always edge cases or bizarre causes that may need addressing. But unfortunately no magic bullet for the vast majority of typical low back pain.

Review on surgery indications in back pain ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10107811/

Randomized trial of opioid and nsiads in back pain, hip pain, and knee pain from degenerative disease/arthritis pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29509867/

Also, I know it’s a meme, but the billing code doctors use for even the most complicated of visits going over an hour and involving multiple potentially life threatening conditions or treatments isn’t anywhere close to $3000. Let alone a visit for routine back pain which wouldn’t qualify for anything like the highest billing codes.

Ranvier, (edited )

That’s true! But the mri costs are billed by the facility and hospital and generally have nothing to do with the doctor. Doubly the insurance and hospitals play games with each other, so the billed amounts end up being way more if not paying with insurance. I get bugged by memes and statements suggesting that doctors are the driver of the cost when it’s actually insurance companies, health care facilities, hospitals, medical equipment companies, and pharmaceuticals that are primarily driving all of this. Your doctor probably wanted to be sure there was nothing dangerous or abnormal. If it only showed arthritis there’s usually not much more that can be done besides pt and nsaids. Even the radiologist fee is a small part of the actual mri charge. Doctors just want to get people the tests and treatments that are indicated, but are the person people actually interact with so tend to take all the blame. I agree with you our health system is a mess.

Ranvier, (edited )

People say the content of the meme in all seriousness all the time too is mainly why, thinking the doctor is responsible for that cost. I didn’t want it to become an attack on OP though, not my intent. And maybe my comments will encourage more wholesome memes about evil health care administrators and insurance company execs instead, the true enemy, haha.

Ranvier,

Or never had a run in with Olestra

cookist.com/olestra-the-embarrassing-story-behind…

Damn you fat free Pringles!

Ranvier, (edited )

You’re right it wasn’t a very scholarly article, that article was just the first thing that pops up on a Google search meant for people who weren’t familiar with Olestra, was mostly intended as a joke.

To take it more seriously though, a lot of those studies took place after a formulation change, so the later incarnations may have been better. It’s also possible that some of the reports came from people consuming large amounts of it at once. The studies I saw that didn’t show much difference all had a relatively small amount of chips ingested (see studies cited by article here www.acsh.org/news/1996/…/whats-the-story-olestra#…), for instance one of these studies was a double blind crossover with only 2 Oz of chips. I’m not aware of studies that would simulate downing a whole can of Pringles with Olestra at once. It was often included in snack foods that people don’t always moderate themselves on. Many of these studies, like the one you cite, were run by the manufacturer so important to be skeptical of the methods. They apparently started to fortify it with fat soluble vitamins to address concerns it could exacerbate deficiencies of those vitamins (besides basic science which should logically suggest this would happen, there’s evidence to back that up as well jn.nutrition.org/article/…/fulltext). The principle of every stool softener on the market now is that it’s something your body cannot absorb that will remain in the gi tract, eat enough Olestra or anything like it and it’ll have an impact on your stool consistency, just a matter of dosing. Animal studies also suggested it doesn’t cause weight loss and may even lead to increased weight. In the end it stopped being sold in the US altogether, because why go to all that trouble for something that probably doesn’t have any benefit.

It’s tough though, common symptoms are common. Many side effects you see on medications or things like Olestra may not even have anything to do with the product and were just coincidence or nocebo effect.

Ranvier,

Holy crap you did it. Be very careful how you use your powers.

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