It is a mystery how this guy died. The symptoms sound like an allergic reaction to me. He drank ayahuasca and apparently at the same time put frog toxins on an open wound.

The article says “frog” toxins and not toad. I wonder if the journalist got that wrong because the active ingredient in ayahuasca is DMT, and DMT also happens to be present in the Bufo Alvarious toad (not frog).

Would be nice to know if it really was toxins from a frog or from the Bufo Alvarious toad. The DMT toxins secreted from the toad are enough to kill a small animal like a dog (this is the defensive purpose of the toxins) but not enough to kill a human AFAIK. Though I have no idea if it can threaten a human to smear a large amount of it on a wound which I suppose would be comparable to injecting it.

Why would he have a cut on his oesophagus? Since ayahuasca is made using tree bark (which contains the DMT) I wonder if a splinter from the bark would do that.

The ACM.org website published the work of a team at Carnegie Mellon (#CMU) which was said to include source code. Then the code was omitted from the attached ZIP file, which only contained another copy of the paper. I asked the lead researcher (a prof) for the code and was ignored. Also asked the other researchers (apparently students), who also ignored the request. The code would have made it possible to reproduce the research and verify it. ACM ~~also ignored my request and~~ also neglected to fix the misinfo (the claim on the page that source code is available). Correction: ACM replied and tried to find the missing code but then just gave up.

It seems like this should taint the research in some way. Why don’t they want people reproducing the research? If the idea is that scientific research is “peer reviewed” for integrity, it seems like a façade if reviewers don’t have a voice. Or is there some kind of 3rd party who would call this out?

I acquired a ~16 year old laptop. The mat black plastic top (back of the LCD) is sticky. At first I thought the previous owner had stickers on the back that were removed. But that seems like a bad theory now. I rubbed it with a cloth and denatured alcohol and it only got slightly less sticky, but black residue came off on my hands and the cloth. This is apparently not adhesive.. it’s the plastic itself.

What’s my best move? I don’t suppose I can do anything to re-polymerize it. I don’t care about cosmetics.. I just don’t want it to be sticky and marking anything that touches it. One temptation is to put plastic film on it, like cling wrap. But that could just make a bigger mess.

Since sauerkraut is fermented it contains probiotics to add to your beneficial gut bacteria (#microflora). I grew up eating the stuff, but never got that benefit because it was always cooked at high temps in an oven. That classic pork roast in sauerkraut is a typical New Year’s dish.

Cooked sauerkraut is prebiotic (with an E), which feeds the microflora.

So what I am tempted to conclude is that the pork roast should cook in some sauerkraut (for flavor and for the prebiotics. But before serving some cold or room temp uncooked sauerkraut should be mixed in to increase gut bacteria.

Do folks agree or disagree with this?

Unlike kimchi, sauerkraut is much better cooked because uncooked is strong and acidic. So I’m trying to get the best of both worlds. There must be a temp at which sauerkraut can brought to without compromising the microflora. What temp is it, though?

Woah.. ho.. Gotta love that clickbait title. I’ll cut to the chase though- more research is needed before you can get roach milk on the shelf. From the article:

“But today we have no evidence that it is actually safe for human consumption.”

“Plus roaches aren't the easiest creatures to milk.”

Running this gives the geometry but not the density:

$ identify -verbose myfile.pgm | grep -iE 'geometry|pixel|dens|size|dimen|inch|unit'

There is also a “Pixels per second” attribute which means nothing to me. No density and not even a canvas/page dimension (which would make it possible to compute the density). The “Units” attribute on my source images are “undefined”.

Suggestions?

The website of the producer of this coffee liquor is useless for getting info about this product. Some digging around on 3rd party sites reveals that it’s made of 70% Arabica from South America and 30% Robusto from Africa, and that 3 different coffees are made in a giant moka machine (thus unfiltered) and blended. One source says it’s “steeped in grain alcohol, blended and sweetened with sugar. No coffee aromas, chocolate, extracts or distilled additives are added.”

I cannot find any direct info as to what spirit is used. Coffee liquors are all over the map (rum, jenever, tequila, brandy, vodka, whisky, etc). If the source claiming use of grain alcohol is correct, I suppose that rules out rum, tequila, & brandy. Whiskey and jenever have a clear character. So I’m tempted to assume vodka is in play. Can anyone confirm or deny?

My house has a tankless water for most of the house. Exceptionally, one floor gets hot water from a tank. I rarely need hot water on that floor so I keep the tank unplugged. But when I need a backup shower (e.g. the tankless gets clogged with limescale) I plugin the tank, let it reach a quite high temp, then shower.

Is this risky? I just heard from someone saying they only unpower their water heater for 1 day at a time because of some specific kind of bacteria. I was assuming whatever bacteria colonizes in 6 months or whatever would be killed off when I fire it up. But I know that some bacteria (which goes after spoiling meat) produces toxins, so even when the bacteria is dead there are dangerous chemicals remaining. Is this the same risk with water heaters?

If it’s unsafe, what do I need to do? Do I have to fill the tank with air between uses? Or can I just run the water for as long as needed to get all new water in the tank before powering it?

I just got burnt. Wrote up a relatively high-effort post in:

http://mandermybrewn3sll4kptj2ubeyuiujz6felbaanzj3ympcrlykfs2id.onion/c/water

clicked sumbit, and it simply ate my msg. Redrew a blank form.. no way to recover the info loss. This is my 1st use of the onion, so I did not think to enable 1st party j/s (which is strangely off be default in noScript on Tor Browser despite clearnet sites having 1st party js enabled by default). It’s unclear if it’s a JS problem or if it’s because the onion version uses a quite old/classic reddit-like theme. In any case, it sucks.. it’s a defect for sure.

Hospitals will often give patients an IV as an automatic procedure and then use it for just one blood draw or injection, or even not use it at all. Then charge ≥$~~60~~ 600¹ for it (in the US)!

I went to the ER in Europe and got an automatic IV. They only used it to take blood and nothing else. So I took notes and prepared for a dispute. When the invoice finally came, I found no charge for the IV. But had to probe because I’m the type that will fight over a nickel on principle. I asked for details on some of the doctor’s fees, since it was not itemized separately. After my investigation, it turns out the IV was bundled in but only €6. LOL. So insignificant indeed.

Not sure if it’s fair to call it a swindle in the US. Is it typically a deliberate money-grab when the IV is not really needed? Staff are (generally rightfully) unaware of pricing and just focused on giving the best care for the patient independent of cost. And for insured people that’s ideal. But I often steer the staff, saying I’m an uninsured cash payer and need price quotes and to asses the degree of need on various things. It’s a burden on them but it’s important to me. I have gotten discharged a day early on a couple occasions (which generally saves me ~$/€ 1k each day I avoid).

Funny side story: a doc who I steered well toward budget treatment pulls out his smartphone with a gadget that does an echo. He said this is free but unofficial… maybe we can get out of the pricey proper echo imaging. And indeed the pics were good enough.

Anyway - to the question:

Whether to give an IV involves guesswork on whether more things will need to be injected. Do docs have any criteria to follow when ordering an IV, or is it their full discretion and they just order it for convenience without much thought?

1. ~~$60~~ was the price ~15-20 years ago.. probably even more today. CORRECTION: the ER nurse in my family apparently tells patients who possibly don’t need an IV that the cost on the bill will be $600 (as a good samaritan warning). I don’t have direct contact with this family member.. heard it through someone else. Can any other ER nurses in the US confirm whether that’s accurate? I am really struggling to believe this price and wonder if someone’s memory failed. I think if I were quoted that price I would surely say for that price I do not need it.. feel free to stick me 10-20 times if needed. (update 2: seems realistic)

The manual for my dishwasher says to refill salt just before running a wash cycle, because if any grains of salt spill onto the stainless steel interior it will corrode. If it runs right away, no issue because the salt is quickly dissolved, diluted, and flushed.

So then I realized when I cook pasta I heavily salt the water (following the advice that pasta water should taste as salty as the ocean). But what happens when I leave that highly salty brine in a pot, sometimes for a couple days to reuse it? Does that risk corroding the pots?