BearOfaTime

Given that even peer review is a shit show, I'd say there's no value in these publishers reviewing anything.

Meh, everything I've read says that people dealing with chronic pain really don't get the high like someone without chronic pain.

Having dealt with significant chronic pain for 30+ years, even the stronger drugs (like the oxy family) don't do anything other than let me go about my day (though those do make me tired when they wear off).

When my friends or family without chronic pain take similar meds for something like post-op, they're all kinds of wonked out - they get sleepy, disoriented, goofy, etc, at smaller doses than I take.

I don't feel like that from the meds, just reduced pain, same with the people in my pain management group.

I'd say the greater risk is in these people, who only need it for a short time, so they do experience that "everything is alright" effect.

There's some fascinating research these days, into how GABA works, and the interactions with dopamine and norepinephrine. Should help us understand these things better.

Wow, thanks for that link.

Prefrontal cortex - IIRC that's also the area associated with ADHD isn't it?

Double-checked, yep, PFC malformation or dysregulation is the core of ADHD.

I suppose people with ADHD are more susceptible to chronic pain.

Here's a great read on PFC dysfunction in ADHD, seems really much the same problem.

Some of the anti-depressant meds affect things like GABA or norepinephrine (so an SNRI as opposed to SSRI), so it's not just the anti-depressant angle, as they're often used in much smaller doses than when used for depression.

It's pretty fascinating stuff - I just learned about the norepinephrine angle recently. The thinking is that chronic pain causes people to become more sensitive to small pain signals - their nervous system is over-sensitized to pain, and these meds help with reducing the signaling/response to signals.

If you're curious, lookup gabapentin (it's been around for at least 30 years) or tramadol (an SNRI), which has also been around a long time.

I saw some CNC controllers in the 90's that were loaded up using paper tape - essentially punched cards but in a tape format.

The admins said they had to load a machine maybe once a year, so no reason to switch to anything else.

These things ran non-stop for years at a time, in a rough environment. They had added some kind of networking (not sure what back then, may have just been a serial connection) so they could send jobs to specific CNC machines using a desktop on the network.

They do/don't?

Gonna need a source for this claim.

Oh fuck, improperly designed HVAC + changes made to a building that really fuck it up... There's no fixing that folks.

"This one room is always hot!" Well, there's no return, the door's always closed, and oh, someone replaced the door 20 years ago and now there's only a 1/4" gap between it and the floor. No, "turning up the fan speed" isn't going to fix it.

Yep, imagine that, work that anyone can do sucks balls.

Now let's go back about 80 years or so, when simply growing enough food for your family was a real concern for a large portion of the "First World" nations.

My parents and grandparents were always hungry. Always. It's why my grandparents emigrated to the US, and my parents moved from where they grew up to somewhere with opportunity, hundreds or thousands of miles away from family.

So yea, my soul-sucking jobs (usually 2 at a time until my 30's, sometimes 3 at a time) sucked. But they were still better than what my parents went through, by a long shot.

I had heat, hot water, food, and a car. Multiple changes of clothes and shoes, not just one or two (or none). I didn't have to sleep in the barn with the animals like my grandfather. Or in a cold house with nothing but a wood stove in the kitchen like my parents. And I could shit inside, not have to go to an outhouse in the winter (these still existed, even in cities in the US in the 50's).

Just as bad, what does the recycling program look like?

Every time I've looked into a municipality recycling program, it does little to nothing.

Have you weighed a modern car?

Ironically, most modern cars don't weigh significantly less than their forbears - they've just swapped what the weight is used for.

So plastic bumpers weigh a lot less, but now there are 42 airbags and their controls, air-conditioning, power steering, power windows, power mirrors, remote gas/trunk/hood release, tire sensor systems, tilt steering wheel, and power brakes are nearly standard since the 90's, adding a couple hundred pounds. Then there's the massive strengthening of the A/B/C pillars for rollover safety (notice how modern cars have major blind spots in the front from those pillars compared to even a 1980's car).

And today nearly all cars are AWD (perhaps 500lbs), and then things like power seats, heated seats/steering wheel, folding rear seats, even battery cooling (seriously, I've seen Honda add a cooling fan for the battery, apparently the compact space doesn't permit enough airflow, so there's a fan, a sensor, ducting, and controls).

Some weight examples:

2020 Ford Taurus curb weight: 4000 lbs.

1974 Ford Maverick (4 door) curb weight: 2800 lbs 1974 Ford LTD: 4277 lbs (a larger and more spacious car than a Taurus).

BTW, the Taurus weighs about as much as a mid-size pickup such as the Toyota Tacoma @ 4200lbs or the Honda Ridgeline @ 4436 lbs.

This isn't a complaint, just an observation that franky surprised me when I randomly looked into it recently.

Unit-body construction saw extensive growth through the 60's and 70's, so pre-60 cars may weigh more, though I haven't done much research into it yet. Those vehicles had fewer amenities (like heat!), so it's hard to compare.

For example?

Pro gives you Group Policy, which is essential for controlling things any more (especially telemetry and automatic updates, for example).

And yea, gonna need some ram to run a VM. Linux may run OK on lesser amounts, but even a VM of Windows can get pretty hungry. It'll run ok with 8 allocated to it, and it'll slog along with less, but still run.