SoleInvictus
@SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- Comment on po-tay-toes 10 hours ago:
I’d agree if you weren’t misquoting me and referring to another statement out of context.
Do you have any specific criticism based on both what I actually wrote and actual medical science?
- Comment on po-tay-toes 19 hours ago:
You’re also overstating their dangers by providing incomplete, inaccurate information. I worked on a pharma study on long-term benzo usage, so I’m familiar. Needless, inaccurate fear mongering like this is exactly what individuals with anxiety, recalcitrant insomnia, or seizure disorders do NOT need to read when looking into treatment options.
Benzodiazepines are an effective, appropriate treatment for a number of conditions, including treatment-resistant insomnia, anxiety and panic disorders, and epilepsy.
Long-term use is safe if prescribed and used correctly. Taking a low to moderate dose 2-4 days weekly is unlikely to result in tolerance or addiction. Higher-dosage and/or daily treatment is also safe under the care of a knowledgeable physician. Other modalities, such as SSRIs, tricyclics, and MAOIs, are preferable first-line treatments for anxiety and panic disorders, but some individuals have symptoms recalcitrant to treatment and require adjuvant therapy. Benzodiazepines are used as rescue medications by epileptics, and some have such serious symptoms that their use is a major facet of treatment. See Lennox-Gastaut syndrome to get an idea.
Abrupt withdrawal symptoms can be unpleasant but “seizures and loads of horrible symptoms” is more fear mongering. The most common symptoms of “quitting cold turkey” from frequent and long-term usage are minor but unpleasant: agitation, irritability, increased anxiety, increased sweating, etc. Seizures are rare and tend to be in individuals… wait for it… using these medications for acute seizure treatment. These can be easily avoided by tapering down the dosage over time.
I don’t know what your motive here was, but consider the impact before trying to give people a scare.
- Comment on The world if USA just stopped fucking with other countries for no reason at all 1 week ago:
As an American, I’m certain only the citizens, and only the stupid ones (which is the majority), think we’re the world police. It’s just the propaganda used to justify imperialist resource grabs.
I never know what to say about it. I try my best, but I’m vastly outnumbered by aggressive idiots. If I leave, it actually makes the country a little worse because it’s one less person to push back. The whole situation just sucks for everyone and I feel awful I can’t do more.
- Comment on Causes of death, or track list for latest black metal album? 3 weeks ago:
Cancer, and Wolf, refers to the old common term for cancer: wolf. It was thought to be a parasite that ate up the afflicted, like a wolf.
- Comment on Causes of death, or track list for latest black metal album? 3 weeks ago:
It’s the same as chrisomes. Infant mortality was so high, the ones who died without obvious cause just get lumped together by age group.
Chrisomes refers to those who died within the first month, during the time they’d be baptised. The baptismal cloth, the chrisome, would often be just as a burial shroud.
Teeth meant they were old enough to have one or more teeth, 6-24 months. Teething was thought to be potentially fatal because so many infants died during that period. Correlation, causation, yadda yadda yadda.
- Comment on Anon likes Mario 3 weeks ago:
Did you ever play any of the early online 3D games where you could build your own little spaces? I remember one where you started in a central hub then could move to this endless plane of green space where people had built homes and similar. It was so empty of people yet full of random things. Nightmare material.
- Comment on Forbidden Fruit 3 weeks ago:
Just to preface, I’m a scientist: micro- and molecular biology. I’m not saying to take what I say as gospel, just giving context that I might know things. Sometimes.
Outbreeding depression has more possible implications than fertility decrease and infant mortality increase, entirely dependent on the heritable traits responsible for the depression effects. While the probability of persistent outbreeding depression as a result of one or more crossings would be lower in traits subject to higher selective pressure, such as increases in early infant mortality, the overall probability of outbreeding depression itself isn’t influenced post facto by its results, just its persistence.
Given we don’t know the original extent of neanderthal/human interbreeding, what we’re seeing now COULD be the “much lower percentage” you mention and still could come from multiple events. In fact, if these crosses resulted in stronger depression effects, I’d argue a greater number of crossings would be one factor behind the persistence of some genes today.
- Comment on Forbidden Fruit 3 weeks ago:
Two ways.
First, sex chromosomes. In mammals, sex is determined by the sex chromosomes - males have XY, females XX. If interbreeding was equal between the sexes of both species, this would be reflected in the frequency of neanderthal genes on each chromosome in the current human population, but it’s more heavily skewed toward the Y chromosome than we’d expect if equal pairing was true. This suggests a higher proportion of successful male neanderthal/female human offspring.
Second, mitochondrial DNA. While genomic DNA in a sexually-reproducing species is a mix between the parents, in most species the inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is purely maternal. This is because only the egg’s mitochondria typically survive, though on rare occasion paternal mitochondria are also passed on. There is no known existent neanderthal mtDNA in the human population. This suggests either female neanderthal/male human crosses didn’t happen much and/or didn’t often produce offspring capable of further reproduction.
Of course, there are many other explanations for all of these. These are just amongst the simplest possible options, and in population genetics, it’s not uncommon that the simplest answers are frequently correct.
- Comment on Forbidden Fruit 3 weeks ago:
Keep in mind heterosis isn’t always the result of hybridization and even then the magnitude of isolation doesn’t always positively correlate. Outbreeding depression can also be the result, increasingly so when two groups are more genetically distant or when one group is already subject to heavy inbreeding depression, as the neanderthals were thought to be.
- Comment on Ouch 4 weeks ago:
I can smell both this comment and the people that would seriously say something like this.
- Comment on Womp womp womp. 4 weeks ago:
Is that an electrophoresis gel?
- Comment on Womp womp womp. 5 weeks ago:
- Comment on Two sides to every story 5 weeks ago:
If you haven’t seen Vice Principals, I can’t decide if I should recommend it or warn you to avoid it. Both. Let’s go with both.
- Comment on deez nutz save lives 5 weeks ago:
I’m allergic to coconut, so I would.
- Comment on Western Digital is already sold out of hard drives for all of 2026 — chief says some long-term agreements for 2027 and 2028 already in place 1 month ago:
I purchased two 12 TB HDDs last year when they were on sale and wow am I glad I did so. I joked how they’d last us the rest of our lives and now that might have to be true.
- Comment on Annon punches a Nazi 1 month ago:
Punching isn’t usually the best first move, but the normal rules go out the window when you’re dealing with fascists so I support him 100%. Punching is a very mild appropriate response in that context.
- Comment on The radical woke subliminal message in Bad Bunny's halftime performance 1 month ago:
Emotional ambivalence isn’t only normal, it’s healthy. I love my partner for being my friend and supporter, but have also felt genuine hatred due to them not doing the work necessary to be a good spouse, leading to us separating.
The trauma bond is a bit different, though. It’s unhealthy ambivalence, where even the positive feelings are ultimately rooted in strongly negative behavior. I had one with my father, so I get it.
- Comment on Real Struggle 😔 1 month ago:
I need to start faking computer illiteracy or at least downplaying my level of literacy. Employers notice how quickly I get computer-related tasks done, but then they expect that as my norm while my coworkers are struggling to use any device without a touch screen.
The last new hire I trained was in his mid-twenties and lacked basic tech literacy outside of the iPhone. I asked him to write up a quick protocol using a template I sent him. He typed the text of the Outlook file preview into notepad and went from there. I was baffled.
- Comment on ICE agents attempt to arrest US Citizen in St Peter, Minnesota 1 month ago:
Anyone’s best bet is to try to swerve around in that situation, before they stopped. I’ve had yahoos once try to box me in like that when road raging. You don’t know what they’ll do once they get out, so just swerve around before you find out.
- Comment on Anon likes pizza 1 month ago:
Italian rarebit.
- Comment on Anon likes pizza 1 month ago:
Why even make pizza? What is it really? Bread, cheese, toppings, and tomato sauce. I can knock that down to $0.25 or less per pizza.
Take a slice of bread, spread with tomato sauce, top with cheese and toppings, then broil until toppings melt. Want a calzone? Add a second piece of bread on top of the end, broil until toasted.
Boom. Pizza.
/s…?
- Comment on in all fairness italian cuisine is a relatively recent invention 2 months ago:
I hate Italian breakfast. My stomach doesn’t fare well with coffee, sugar, or wheat. I skip breakfast when I’m there.
- Comment on Truth hurts! 2 months ago:
Good question. Slender is a better term. Their skeletal structure is horizontally compact, more so than a Border Collie. Scientists can estimate musculature based on the size and shape of attachment points, but it’s all speculative.
- Comment on Truth hurts! 2 months ago:
Plus they were much smaller than depicted in movies. They are estimated to have weighed about 15 kg and were about 2m long, but over half of that was tail. A Border Collie has about the same body length and a much thicker build.
They were long, skinny murder turkeys.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
Those were the days, when Musk still had a “will they, won’t they” relationship with being a total piece of shit.
- Comment on You don't say. 2 months ago:
Can confirm. I was given it to help with a medication known for spiking anxiety during the initial doses. Not only did my anxiety not increase, I was better able to do things I was usually reluctant to do because of stress or anxiety. It’s like I just didn’t care as much.
The major downside for me was lower blood pressure than normal, so I got dizzy easily if I stood up too fast.
- Comment on Lab anxiety 2 months ago:
Same. I’ve used tens of thousands of pipette tips. I can’t imagine what my lifetime plastic consumption is like compared to your average person. I’m guessing I’m like a small neighborhood.
- Comment on Annual merit increase 2 months ago:
I worked for a call center as a stop gap when I was younger. The economy had shit itself and while this company was doing great, it was looking to save money because they knew they could squeeze desperate people. Annual raises were coming up. They were based on a system heavily influenced by disciplinary action, so many of my coworkers started getting verbal and written warnings for ridiculous things.
I finally got written up for not pulling up a reference before telling a customer about a past event. I didn’t pull the reference up because I already had it and other common topics open for easy access, which my supervisor told us to do.
I disputed the write-up but the department manager denied it as “the information could have changed between calls, so you should have looked it up through our knowledge base”. I asked how the past could have changed and was told it doesn’t matter: it’s policy. I asked to see the policy. The goalposts immediately changed: “disciplinary action is at management’s discretion and this was a serious error in judgment”. I told them that I was shocked anyone could say that and still expect to be taken seriously, even by themselves, and refused to sign my write-up. I was pulled into the HR manager’s office and given a “Final Warning” write-up for my attitude and not signing my initial write-up. I signed that one and got on a PIP, so they were happy.
Annual reviews were that week. I had extraordinary performance stats but got a $0.04 per hour annual raise - $83.20 per year! I walked out once I got a new job.
I just checked: my old manager is now a “boss babe” who sells essential oils and scented candles for MLMs. Sometimes a life well lived really is the best revenge.
- Comment on Valid Theory: Scientists Are Actually Wizards 2 months ago:
I’m even the kind in your picture!
- Comment on dating 2 months ago:
I agree, you just should tell people first! Unsolicited story time:
We had been dating for a few weeks. She was smart, nice, and very fun. I really liked her and had decided to consider getting serious. I thought she had ghosted me for our dinner date, though, so I had left and was feeling sad. She called over an hour later to apologize profusely and beg me to come back, saying she’d explain and buy everything that night as apology.
What she didn’t mention was that she was going to alternate between incoherent rambling and staring, silent and unresponsive, into one corner of the cafe’s ceiling. I had no idea what was going on. I got ahold of her roommate, who said she had eaten a bunch of shrooms and walked to her friend’s house. I left after he arrived and I learned he was her roommate… and her boyfriend. Fun.
I went full no contact. Years later, we worked together briefly in graduate school, where she pretended not to know me despite having already told our lab mates we used to be friends. Super awkward, maybe mental problems.