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#31
Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on January 29, 2014, 07:08:31 PM
Not familiar with that one.  The lower 48 must not include horrible, uninhabitable deserts.
Dunno, it's a succulent.  It would look less leafy where you live, and in the heat of the day the leaves would fold into the stem.
Maybe like this?:


Portulaca Grandiflora is probably sold in garden centers where you live, though I don't know if it's as nutritious:

Note the round leaves.  There's a pointy-leafed version of P Grandiflora, but the leaves are bitter. 

#32
This is spiffy:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15182905
....Boiled extract of common portulaca/purslane has about the same bronchodilatory effect as theophylline.

Grows everywhere in the lower 48, often quite happily in parking lots. Can be grown super-easily from branchlets.
  IIRC, also a very good source of plant omega-3-EFA's.
This stuff. 

(Reason for edit-wanted smaller picture.)
#34
Techmology and Scientism / Re: Psychobiotics?
January 29, 2014, 06:46:56 PM
Thanks for heads-up.  I hadn't heard of the guy.  Just felt I get too science-daily dependent.
#35
At one point waking up screaming was somewhat normal; but my nightmares were repetitive and in black-and-white.
...Don't have nightmares anymore.
Will still occasionally sleep in jeans and a sweater and with the lights on anyway.
#36
Techmology and Scientism / Re: Psychobiotics?
January 29, 2014, 05:32:56 PM

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/20/gut-brain-connection.aspx

QuoteYou may not be aware that you actually have two nervous systems:

    Central nervous system, composed of your brain and spinal cord
    Enteric nervous system, which is the intrinsic nervous system of your gastrointestinal tract

Both are created from identical tissue during fetal development—one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. It is now well established that the vagus nerve is the primary route your gut bacteria use to transmit information to your brain.

While many think of their brain as the organ in charge, your gut actually sends far more information to your brain than your brain sends to your gut.

...In fact, there's a method of treating treatment-resistant depression called "vagus nerve stimulation."  A pacemaker-type implant is used to send regular zaps to the vagus nerve; over time this can alleviate depression:

QuoteResearch into the effects of VNS on people with treatment-resistant depression has generally been positive. A study in Biological Psychiatry in 2005 compared 124 people that received usual treatment to 205 people that received usual treatment plus VNS. After one year of treatment, the combination treatment group showed more improvement than the usual treatment group. Significant improvement was seen in 27% of patients that received VNS vs. 13% that did not.
http://www.webmd.com/depression/vagus-nerve-stimulation
(I should ask for this.)

I heard about some of this recently through this radiolab program:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/197112-guts/
#37
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on January 29, 2014, 04:27:51 PM
Combine that with the Peter principle, and you've got a hell of a workplace.

Quotepeople will tend to be promoted until they reach their "position of incompetence".
The Peter Principle seems to explain my current manager amazingly well.  He's a nice guy, but a bloody horrible manager.
#38
Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on January 29, 2014, 03:52:50 PM
Going to a meeting in 9 minutes.

It occurs to me that most memos translate out to "hey, I wrote a memo".

It also occurs to me that most meetings are actually based on "I had the juice to call a meeting and make all of you fuckers attend".

So now I have to make sure that nobody ever wants to invite me to one of these again.

I get the impression you work in a place that's rather like a nightmare version of a Dilbert cartoon.

...
QuoteI wrote The Dilbert Principle around the concept that in many cases the least competent, least smart people are promoted, simply because they're the ones you don't want doing actual work. You want them ordering the doughnuts and yelling at people for not doing their assignments—you know, the easy work. Your heart surgeons and your computer programmers—your smart people—aren't in management. That principle was literally happening everywhere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert_principle

#39
As regards storage of excess capacity:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106094557.htm

If we choose to manufacture methane as a way to store capacity, we already have an infrastructure to handle that output.
Admittedly a goodly bit gets lost in the hydrogen-to-methane process. 
#40
Quote from: The Johnny on January 29, 2014, 03:48:13 AM

The military mobilized against the vigilantes, killing couple guys, a woman and a child... this was about a month ago if my timeline isnt too off...
I read there were 2 deaths.  Thanks for clarifications and such.

Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on January 29, 2014, 04:12:08 AM
Quote from: The Johnny on January 29, 2014, 03:48:13 AM
Things are kind of grim when death squads start to seem like a good idea.

Johnny is awarded the Understatement of the Year award. Apologies that it's happening in your own country.
Same from myself.
#41
Quote from: THE PHYTOPHTHORATIC HOLDER OF THE ADVANCED DEGREE on January 29, 2014, 06:37:05 AM
I just now found that a very old friend whom I may have mentioned here or there (I know I have, at least once) is currently back in Boston. His Foster Mother is dying.

I don't know what to say to him.


Just show up, be prepared to listen...or just bullshit.  Either will help.
#42
@ LMNO...What I've got so far...

Either the Feds could have co-opted the vigilantes or they could have demanded the vigilantes demobilize.
If the feds kept pressing for the latter the vigilantes would have (and did) politely refuse, though it would not have stayed polite.
If the vigilantes disarm anytime soon the templarios will start slaughtering vigilantes.

If the feds had chosen to push for disarmament they would have got a state in revolt instead?
...It's not as if the federal Mexican  government is terribly popular now, and I'd guess that putting the vigilantes down would not be a popular action.

As for them becoming paramilitary death squads?  I dunno.
Cain's the predictions guy.

The Johnny lives in Mexico, right?  I'm kind of curious as to what most people in Mexico are thinking about all this.
#43
Quote from: The Suu on January 28, 2014, 11:56:08 PM
Quote from: Nigel's Red Velveteen Skinmeat Snacks on January 28, 2014, 09:26:08 PM
Yet, curiously, fermented fish is a delicious seasoning for many foods! And of course, we eat many other "rotten" foods, like pickles, sauerkraut, cheese, yogurt, and so on.

And it has been for many years, actually. Fermented fish sauces are usually divine, but hakarl is supposedly extremely vile.

Quote from: Random anger problem on January 28, 2014, 10:45:05 PM

She also writes about eating another icelandic delicacy...svið:
http://www.meemalee.com/2010/06/satans-face-on-plate-iceland.html

Edited to add: I doubt "stinky tofu" even compares, so there's no vegan equivalents, methinks.   Though I'm willing to give that particular one a whirl.

I've done the sheep's head. It's scarier looking than it really is.
Back when I ate meat, I tried tongue tacos...the meat tasted very much like a chewy roast beef, and was very good.
  I imagine sheep's head tastes similar.
#44
I can't find the county psych clinic phone number; the Abilify isn't doing anything for me. 
I put in a call to the number I do have; they'll get back to me with the number I actually need.
The main hospital doesn't have the outpatient psych clinic number.

The thought of going to the outpatient psych ER has crossed my mind. 
I don't know that that would even help though; and it might cost me my job if I get locked up...I can't see that convo going well.
"Hi, boss, I can't make it to work.  I'm locked up and they took my shoelaces."

Maybe I'll just go spend money I don't have instead and go eat something deep-fat fried and dripping in MSG-laden sauce, this might be good for a slight lift...Or have a pint of almond milk based ice cream or something...

Apparently, the only  atypical antipsychotic that showed any anti-depressant effect in meta-analysis was risperdal anyway. 
http://www.thementalelf.net/mental-health-conditions/depression/atypical-antipsychotics-dont-improve-quality-of-life-in-treatment-resistant-depression/
If the doc wants to stick to adding AP's I will tell him I want to try risperdal instead
...I think I want to try a tricyclic though. They're more powerful than the SSRI's.  They have more side-effects though,but then so does risperdal.
#45
Quote from: The Suu on January 28, 2014, 07:33:33 PM
Some of the guys in my SCA household are trying to plan a Norse feast, in which they are talking about eating hearty meats and drinking mead.

So I showed them hakarl, and said that in order to be a real Viking, you have to eat REAL Viking food.

...Suddenly, they changed their mind.
Had never heard of that...so I found this blog entry:
http://www.meemalee.com/2010/12/hakarl-rotten-shark-worst-thing-i-have.html
Quote
(So moved am I by the noxious fumes - like ramming bleach right up your nostrils - I break my self-imposed holiday Twitter ban that night to tweet that it resembles "a tramp's sock soaked in urine").

The hilarious thing is how (in contrast to svið), hakarl appears to be the most innocuous thing in the world - little creamy-white cubes stuck on toothpicks - like 70s party food, if that party was held in Hell.
Eyes watering with pain, I decide the easiest way to get rid of the unholy fug is to just eat the damned stuff. Holding my nose, I poke a cube of shark in my mouth and chew.

UUhhhhhHHooorraAAAAAAUhrrrRRRRrughhhauuKAAAarrrrUUUuull.

Hákarl is in fact a good approximation of the sound your throat makes as it contorts and constricts in a desperate attempt to regurgitate the chunks of fetid fish.
She also writes about eating another icelandic delicacy...svið:
http://www.meemalee.com/2010/06/satans-face-on-plate-iceland.html

Edited to add: I doubt "stinky tofu" even compares, so there's no vegan equivalents, methinks.   Though I'm willing to give that particular one a whirl.