People don't realize the magnitude of the information that they're giving away. They also don't read the TOS/Privacy Policies so they don't realize they're often giving ownership of their data.
I think it's important to remember that people can say one thing and intend to act in accordance with that, but do otherwise out of ignorance. Of course, however, that's not always the case.
What does it actually mean when a thread is "Flagged"? This thread is marked as so, and often there is a comment explaining why the thread should be flagged, but I don't see one here.
It's absurd to call psychedelic advocates "cultists and shills." What do you even define as "psychedelics advocates?" Are people who want further research into the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics cultists and shills? Obviously any substance will have side effects, and some will be very negative. But perhaps people with crippling mental health issues will be willing to take that risk when the science exists to allow them to give *informed* consent. Are those people cultists and shills?
Yeah, both the title and content of the arstechnica are spreading misinformation. The mainstream media has always been terrible at accurately representing the findings of a given academic study, but this is disappointing.
The study was conducted with people who had chronic constipation as measured by complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBMs). A bowel movement qualifies as a CSBM if the individual had not used a laxative within the last 24 hours. Prior to intervention, participants had a mean of 0.77 CSBMs/week with an SD of 1.0. That is quite extreme so the results of the study cannot be generalized to the general public.
Additionally, both the probiotic group and control group experienced positive effects, even if the probiotic group didn't outperform the control group. That's extremely meaningful and requires further investigation. Perhaps the belief of taking a digestive supplement caused individuals lower stress and/or motivated other healthy lifestyle changes? Science shouldn't be viewing the placebo effect as evidence that something else is BS; we need to view the placebo effect as a psychological tool to effect positive change.
Finally, the study tested only one bacteria strain. I have not seen any recommended probiotic supplement that includes only one strain of bacteria.
More research is needed; the title is clickbait and the article doesn't sufficiently emphasize the major limitations of the study. Really a shame to see that type of reporting.
>> Unfortunately, our culture seems to have two settings: legal ban; full celebratory embrace.
If something is legally banned, there's generally a black market for it. Once it's legalized, the bar for consumers to enter the market is nearly eliminated; large companies can pour a ton of money into gaining new users in the legal market and moving users from the black market to the legal market.
>> Should there be half a dozen betting ads every hour on primetime TV? No, that’s crazy too.
It's even worse than that. There are betting ads during the actual game broadcast. Commentators read ads listing various odds on the current game. Betting companies sponsor a ton of stuff related to the teams and leagues. ESPN (Disney) both broadcasts games and runs its own sportsbook. You can't watch a sports game without hearing about betting on that game itself, much less sports in general.
In the US, depending on the state, murder need not require intent to kill or cause death. For example, 3rd degree murder in Minnesota explicitly states that the perpetrator acted without intent to cause death [1].
The theory behind murder requiring intent is very reasonable but, at least by statute, isn't actual legal practice.
From a pragmatic viewpoint, the CSVs that I get from finance (usually saved as .xlsx) have the same issues for parsing the data as a CSV. But since the issues are consistent, I can automate conversion from .xlsx to CSV, then process the CSV using awk to eliminate errors in further parsing the CSV (for import, analysis, etc.). Sure, I'm essentially parsing the CSV twice but, because the parsing issues are consistent, I can automate to make the process efficient.
Obviously that wouldn't work for CSVs with different structures, but can be effective in the workplace in certain scenarios.
> "...you specifically mentioned a "deficiency in memory", relationships, and emotional regulation – all traditional fields for such therapists to work in..."
I support the recommendation of seeing a mental health professional, and wanted to emphasize that the scientific literature suggests a moderate to strong link amongst the symptoms you mentioned (citations below). I selected articles that reference ADHD and Cluster B personality disorders because they very broadly map onto the symptoms you're describing; I'm by no means making a diagnosis, but only trying to provide additional insight.
From the abstract of a journal article regarding the link between emotion dysregulation and ADHD [1]:
> "Emotion dysregulation, a major contributor to impairment throughout life, is common in ADHD and may arise from deficits in orienting toward and processing emotional stimuli, implicating dysfunction within the prefrontal cortical network. Understanding the nature of the overlap between emotional dysregulation and ADHD can stimulate novel treatment approaches."
From the abstract of a journal article regarding the link between emotion dysregulation and Cluster B personality disorders [2]:
> "Individuals suffering from personality disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder, often evidence substantial problems in regulating and managing their emotions...The newly developed brief General Emotion Dysregulation Measure (GEDM) has shown good reliability and validity with a clinical sample of 100 individuals diagnosed with Cluster B personality disorders."
I am not a licensed clinician but have considerable experience in clinical psychology research, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to reach out. But to be clear, I am offering academic views; a licensed clinician offers medical views.
I think replacing it is the way to go. It's important to differentiate between the acute symptoms of COVID and the chronic, persistent long-term symptoms, even if they both emanate from the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on the body. It will be helpful for research, treatment, and the general understanding of physicians, mental health practitioners in the general public.
I think there's precedent for such a decision in how concussions are generally viewed. An individual can be diagnosed with a concussion, which has common, acute symptoms. If the acute symptoms last longer than is typical for a concussion of a given severity, the individual could be diagnosed with persistent post-concussive symptoms (a.k.a. post-concussion syndrome). Of course brain injuries are different than viral infections, and we still have a ton to learn about brain injuries, but it's the idea of clearly differentiating between the acute effects and the chronic, persistent long-term effects.
To be clear, I'm not trying to relate COVID with concussions beyond the medical nomenclature, but I think the nomenclature is effective in making the distinction to which I'm referring. It's not perfect, but we'll never have perfection in research.
Edit: It's unclear if the paragraph breaks are displaying properly, so I apologize if it appears as a wall of text.
I think it's important to remember that people can say one thing and intend to act in accordance with that, but do otherwise out of ignorance. Of course, however, that's not always the case.