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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 11th, 2023

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  • You really have no idea.

    Drinking enough will make you overdose, it’s called alcohol poisoning and can be fatal. This isn’t really any different to other substances you can overdose on. There are some substances where a fatal overdose has never happened in fact, THC and LSD being notable examples. I don’t know about you but I consider death to be pretty show stopping for me. Obviously if your some supernatural entity or something it might not be a huge deal for you.

    As for effect length: how many drugs do you think take longer than 24 hours to stop being high? There are some that have long legs don’t get me wrong, but they are the minority. Some substances such as DMT and Ketamine actually last a shorter time than alcohol, and have less after effects like a hangover. In fact a bad alcohol hangover can easily last longer than 24 hours after imbibing. Alcohol withdrawal for serious addicts lasts quite a while too, up to a couple weeks I think, and can also be fatal if not treated correctly.

    All you are doing here is proving you don’t understand how drugs work nor do you have practical experience by the sounds of it. I would argue if you don’t understand how drugs work you shouldn’t be allowed to set policy on them. Uninformed opinions are dangerous.


  • Unfortunately some people have no idea women like this actually exist and need to be told that drug use is a part of normal suburban life. Though to be honest I am kind of against the idolisation of suburbs, they are really inefficient, but I digress. Articles like this help break down the stigma around this kind of drug. A stigma that makes little sense as well given their safety profile and effectiveness in treating some illnesses like treatment resistant depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

    I don’t particularly commend the women, nor the news outlet, for coming out about this though; it is still very much technically illegal by current law. But, I also do agree that the stigma attached to drug use, even when done so responsibly, is in fact ridiculous and stupid in general. However, I don’t see a better way of achieving what that does…so I couldn’t suggest any better alternatives and I don’t support going back to a previous era in Law where drugs that factually are provably dangerous, for some reason, are not regulated. Reasonable and Sensible Regulations on dangerous Drugs are REQUIRED; it’s just that some people have a different definition of ‘Reasonable and Sensible’ which has to be ironed into a proper consensus for society.

    We should start with the most dangerous drug in our society: alcohol.

    Oh wait the Americans tried that and it actually made things worse. Shocking.

    Drug prohibition doesn’t and has never worked. We also know neither voters nor politicians understand nor follow scientific consensus on drugs. Not popular consensus. Scientific consensus. Very different things unfortunately.

    Look up any ranking of drug harms published by scientists. You might honestly be shocked. Things that people consider safe like alcohol normally end up being ranked much higher than other things commonly thought of as dangerous like nicotine or amphetamines. As much as smoking is bad there is way too much focus on it compared to alcohol and some other stuff. I know there are even some people that think of cocaine as being relatively normal and safe because of its overall popularity, yet if you actually look into it it’s not healthy at all.



  • Also another serious question: why the fuck are you trying to demonize an anxiety disorder? In fact while I am here why are you trying to demonize personality disorders caused ultimately by childhood trauma?

    I can understand making the argument that someone with NPD doesn’t belong in medicine for safety reasons. But anxiety disorders? Really? How is that going to impact their performance? Surely someone with anxiety is more likely to double or triple check things that others would miss.


  • Now if drugs in general were legalized this would be less of a problem as there wouldn’t be pharmacies running out because of recreational or off-label use, but I will get off that soapbox for a second.

    NT people who are using amphetamines or methylphenidate for performance enhancement are idiots. There is only one area where these things can actually improve NT performance, and that’s in situations where you absolutely need to stay up at unusual hours. That’s why militaries across the world have used them, and some countries continue to use them. Soldiers falling asleep during battle is apparently not ideal. Outside of that scenario though I have only seen evidence of it harming performance overall. Even in military use the USA military have switched to modafinil for a reason.

    Adderall is an amphetamine derivative, so I can’t imagine it’s good to abuse that long term. Being prescribed it by a doctor does not count as abusing it though. The fact that people think it is abuse is part of the reason diseases like ADHD are so stigmatized.

    As for the phenomenon of running out in the midterm and finals: it is entirely possible that some people with legit ADHD only need their medication during times when more is being demanded of them. I don’t think it’s fair to punish these people. There are also people with prescriptions selling the stuff though, which isn’t great, but again could be resolved through legalization.










  • In a world where this fake shit didn’t take hold we could have had real wireless charging by now, if you think the “wireless” charging is good now, just think what true wireless would be like. You could walk into a room and your phone just starts charging with 0 effort. None.

    You know this is possible how exactly? Wireless power distribution has been considered since Tesla’s time. Yet it still hasn’t been done outside of laboratory environments or very short distances. It’s definitely possible, but making it practical might not even be possible within physics as we currently understand it.

    For example a very power light beam like for example a laser beam can transfer a lot of power over some distance. It would also cook you, burn you, or make you go blind. It would also require precise alignment between transmitter and receiver, as well as very expensive transmission equipment.


  • People don’t drink because it tastes good. People drink it because they like getting high and alcohol is one of the few legal drugs you can do. People who drink it because it’s the cool thing to do are being idiots.

    If alcohol isn’t your thing you should probably get out there and try other drugs. The good thing about drugs is how many different kinds there are. There really is a substance for almost everyone if you look hard enough. Now if only stuff was legalized and people didn’t abuse it to the nth degree and get themselves in trouble.

    Edit: also forgot to mention that brewing is probably the easiest and cheapest way to make a psychoactive substance known to man, and is an entire hobby people (such as myself) have. While lots of homebrewers spend money on fancy equipment and ingredients you don’t need to spend much at all to make alcohol that will get you drunk it can literally be done using a used plastic bottle and a fucking balloon. You can make pretty drinkable stuff with even fairly basic equipment like a hydrometer, couple of plastic or glass fermenters, yeast + nutrients ordered online, and supermarket ingredients.



  • I am from the UK. This idea of states having an influence over their education system seems weird to me, though I guess we might allow something similar with Scotland, Wales, or Northern Island.

    As I said we really don’t teach handwriting that well. They give kids either ball points or these triangle grip things that are actually designed to increase the force it takes to write. Why? No idea but someone thought that was a good idea to stop people who write too quickly and mess it up. Weirdly that actually helped some people. Even though it makes no sense to me.

    It’s interesting though that you say cursive is more legible for dyslexic people. I think for everyone else print handwriting beats cursive. Not that that’s the issue as it’s still perfectly readable when done right. I am talking about people with typical doctors handwriting who can’t actually write it properly. I am also talking about the difficulty of the technique needed and how that could be a problem for some students. You say teachers adapt but my experience is that they don’t. If making students use cursive improves grades though it might be worth it. I am wondering why that’s the case that it improves grades.

    Either way I think typing should be much more of a focus in modern education. People type more often than they write by hand, yet there is almost no education on how to use a keyboard. Heck lots of modern school students apparently don’t know how to use a computer. I’ve heard of people going to University and not understanding how files and folders work, because it’s just presumed that new generations actually know this stuff without being taught.


  • Feathers are the things birds have that are part of their wing and help them fly. Pens were made from feathers at sorme points in history. I think the term you are looking for is nib, if you mean the metal part of a pen that touches the paper.

    You have pens like the platinum Preppy and platinum plasir which have double seals around the nib. I left my preppy for an entire year and it still didn’t dry out. They aren’t the only brand to use tricks like this, my TWSBI Eco was also left for a year and was a-okay. It’s always good before buying a pen to check the reviews and see what their cap seals are like. Rollerballs do require less maintenance though you are correct. If you do leave a fountain pen and it gets clogged there are ways to fix it, as I had to do with two more of my pens that did clog when they were left with the others.

    I’ve used cheap mechanical pencils before but not expensive ones. How much better are more expensive mechanical pencils?


  • Maybe I haven’t explained this but with regards things like handwriting and special education my country isn’t that well put together. They hand kids ballpoint pens for the most part unless you are in private school. Some schools force kids to use pencil even.

    Cursive is fundamentally less legible and harder work for most students to learn. It should be taught yes, but not as the only way. Schools often force people to use cursive even when that person doesn’t have that skill, and the school isn’t willing to give them proper lessons on it or the lessons they give aren’t of good quality. It was a whole thing in my primary school.

    I have actual clinical issues in several different areas of development, not just coordination. You can’t remove all issues before primary school starts, I am entitled to some help even now as a 23 year old PhD student and still have issues. I wouldn’t even have been accepted into primary school if my parents hadn’t gone out of their way to get me tested by psychologists as I had issues the school weren’t willing to get me tested for that were picked up on in preschool.

    I can write pretty well now including cursive. It’s not clear to me how much of the problems I had were because I was younger and at a lesser stage of brain development or how much was bad teaching. Maybe if you know more developmental psychology than I do you could answer that question, but I suspect that answer will be different on a case by case basis.


  • I too think ball point pens are horrible. Fountain pens are not that expensive, last a lot longer as they are refillable, and just write better. There are some rather bad fountain pens out there though lol. Platinum Preppy is pretty much the gold standard for cheap pens under £10 or $10. Platinum plasir is a little more expensive but has a more durable body and cap made of metal using the same nib and feed as the preppy. You can also get disposable fountain pens now that aren’t half bad.

    Liquid ink roller balls are a good product too and are a nice middle ground between ball point and fountain pen. Although to be fair I wouldn’t be against a return to good old fashioned dip pens as these are the best for calligraphy and honestly look cool as heck in my opinion.