Random Thread

[keenir]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummies_(2023_film)

Looks like they finally made a movie with good guy mummies. After all those books and movies and TV shows with vampires as protagonists, I had seriously been waiting for this. I mean, say about mummies what you want, at least they don't go around sucking people's blood. I think before this movie, the only work in the "mummies as sympathetic characters" subgenre was one old episode of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

There was a sympathetic (or at least harmless and comedic) mummy in the movies about an archaeologist named Thad, if i recall.

[alice]

An odd question but something I have always wondered. Plenty of chemical substances cause euphoria or pleasure when consumed. But does anything have the opposite effect, making you miserable? It has always seemed odd to me that drugs with largely opposite effects, like stimulants versus depressants, nonetheless both feel good when consumed.

Something which induces vomiting might qualify; I doubt anyone enjoys being persistently sick.

[Ares Land]

An odd question but something I have always wondered. Plenty of chemical substances cause euphoria or pleasure when consumed. But does anything have the opposite effect, making you miserable? It has always seemed odd to me that drugs with largely opposite effects, like stimulants versus depressants, nonetheless both feel good when consumed.

Oh, yeah, there are.

The wikipedia page for 'Dysphoria' lists a few: notable are Salvinorin A (found in known hallucinogen Salvia Officinalis) and quite a few anti-psychotics. People that have been on Haldol report that it feels awful.
As for salvia, there's a very article on it on Vice (where else?): https://www.vice.com/en/article/nexkvg/ ... Highlights: 'Each time I’d tried salvia the experience had been uncomfortable at best and terrifying at worst.'

I used to think reserpine had the effect of making you depressed, but apparently that's a urban legend.

[chris_notts]

The wikipedia page for 'Dysphoria' lists a few: notable are Salvinorin A (found in known hallucinogen Salvia Officinalis) and quite a few anti-psychotics. People that have been on Haldol report that it feels awful.
As for salvia, there's a very article on it on Vice (where else?): https://www.vice.com/en/article/nexkvg/ ... Highlights: 'Each time I’d tried salvia the experience had been uncomfortable at best and terrifying at worst.'

Common sage is a hallucinogen? Somehow I missed or forgot that one. I guess you need the concentrated oil to get any kind of effect, otherwise people would be tripping out over pork dishes or sage and onion stuffing.

[Ares Land]

salvia divinorum, dammit... and sorry. It's a different species, native to Mexico.
Common sage has no such properties.

That made me think of nutmeg though -- hallucinogenic, unpleasant and toxic in high doses.

[Raphael]

And another blog post, keeping with this week's general theme:

https://guessishouldputthisupsomewhere. ... s-of-life/

[Raphael]

The neighborhood is mostly covered in snow. Also, the ice cream truck just appeared for what I think is the first time this year.

[linguistcat]

salvia divinorum, dammit... and sorry. It's a different species, native to Mexico.
Common sage has no such properties.

That made me think of nutmeg though -- hallucinogenic, unpleasant and toxic in high doses.

Also bananas but as far as I know (no personal experience with the drug side of this), whatever causes it is mostly in the peels. However I have had weird dreams after eating a banana before bed so maybe a small amount is found in the fruit as well.

[WeepingElf]

Ah, hallucinogenic banana peels I've heard of that, but AFAIK it was an April 1 joke in a hippie magazine. Yet, US authorities apparently examined the case but found nothing.

[Travis B.]

Also bananas but as far as I know (no personal experience with the drug side of this), whatever causes it is mostly in the peels. However I have had weird dreams after eating a banana before bed so maybe a small amount is found in the fruit as well.

Classic urban legend, like WeepingElf says. People will do anything if told that it will somehow get them high/make them hallucinate.

[Moose-tache]

For those who haven't heard, there was a VC that identified as a bank called Silicon Valley Bank. They do have a state charter, but (and apparently this is true of all state chartered banks, and since 1991 technically true of nationally chartered banks as well) they were not required to apply for FDIC insurance. And they focused on investments into tech startups. So basically, it was a big box where you could go and be an angel investor and let someone else do the paper work. You've probably heard that the era of "free money" and insane post-Covid growth is over. Interest rates are up, tech companies are scrambling to make a profit, and even the Saudis are reluctant to inflate random startups. So SVB, with its two hundred billion dollars of uninsured holdings, went belly up on Friday. It's one of the biggest banks collapses in US history. If this happened four years ago, I would allow people to be surprised. But in 2023, anyone who was still drinking this snake oil should have known better.

[Nortaneous]

An odd question but something I have always wondered. Plenty of chemical substances cause euphoria or pleasure when consumed. But does anything have the opposite effect, making you miserable?

yes

(source: I know some people who've had a bad time with psychiatric prescriptions - a category with much more selection pressure against good side-effects than against bad ones)

[Raphael]

For those who haven't heard, there was a VC that identified as a bank called Silicon Valley Bank. They do have a state charter, but (and apparently this is true of all state chartered banks, and since 1991 technically true of nationally chartered banks as well) they were not required to apply for FDIC insurance. And they focused on investments into tech startups. So basically, it was a big box where you could go and be an angel investor and let someone else do the paper work. You've probably heard that the era of "free money" and insane post-Covid growth is over. Interest rates are up, tech companies are scrambling to make a profit, and even the Saudis are reluctant to inflate random startups. So SVB, with its two hundred billion dollars of uninsured holdings, went belly up on Friday. It's one of the biggest banks collapses in US history. If this happened four years ago, I would allow people to be surprised. But in 2023, anyone who was still drinking this snake oil should have known better.

Thank you for the summary. You might have forgotten to mention the delicious irony of a bunch of libertarians being angry that the government hasn't bailed them out, though.

[Moose-tache]

Under Communism, ten people have five dinners between them, so five people must go hungry.
Under Capitalism, ten people have ten dinners between them, so five people must go hungry.

[rotting bones]

The whole point of physics is to make prediction machines, though. A model’s no use if it can only tell you stuff you’ve already verified. (This is the reason why many people don’t like string theory etc.)

The problem is that there are many different models that serve as practically usable extrapolations of the evidence. Since it's possible that the true description fits none of the models that are currently in use, you need a definition of "description" that fits models that are only true in the sense that their predictions happen to coincide with the model that's actually true in most contexts.

PS. BTW, overfitting is not as easy to reason about as you seem to think. If it were, the AGI problem would've been solved already.

[rotting bones]

An odd question but something I have always wondered. Plenty of chemical substances cause euphoria or pleasure when consumed. But does anything have the opposite effect, making you miserable? It has always seemed odd to me that drugs with largely opposite effects, like stimulants versus depressants, nonetheless both feel good when consumed.

There are many drugs that make you feel terrible, but some of them become acquired tastes, like cold medicines. I think even drugs that are not pleasurable in the ordinary sense can take away the stress of having to be present, alert and flexible if your life sucks in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTRT794IQBg

[Raphael]

(Ignore me, I'm just testing something)

E=mc²

[bradrn]

(Ignore me, I'm just testing something)

E=mc²

Did it work?

[Raphael]

Did it work?

Yes, thank you. I wanted to know whether the ZBB can properly show exponents.

[Raphael]

Last Saturday, there was snow here. Right now, during moments when the sun is shining, in sunny places, we've got almost t-shirt temperature outside. The winter/spring transition can be weird.