@bentomn@hachyderm.io
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

bentomn

@bentomn@hachyderm.io

app, web backend lately. #GameDev has-been. enjoyed #PostgreSQL. #infosec voyeur.

he/him in Oakland, California
Cover photo shows a fountain pattern in firework powder by Cai Guo-Qiang from the movie Sky Ladder (2016)

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bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“On Wednesday night, the ICC’s board of directors took the unusual step of going against its own experts to side with the fossil fuel companies, scrapping key codes meant to make electric cars, solar panels, induction stoves and heat pumps more affordable.”

via Sammy_Roth

Gas Industry Guts Green Building Codes | HuffPost Latest News https://www.huffpost.com/entry/icc-iecc-building-codes-energy-climate_n_65f89e3de4b030e8357af5cc

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“PBMs are now dropping reimbursement rates considerably,” Seiler said. “What they’re trying to do now is drive independent pharmacies out of the market, steering patients to their own pharmacies so that the black box can return.”

The PBM-Insurer Mafia Comes for Community Pharmacies - The American Prospect https://prospect.org/health/2024-03-21-pbm-insurer-mafia-community-pharmacies/

bentomn, (edited ) to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“Adderall’s reputation as a cure for ADHD, and its popularity among the Professional Managerial Class, has helped obscure what a strange and deleterious drug it can be. Adderall is highly addictive, the returns it delivers are steadily diminishing, and the risks of heart disease and psychosis increase by the year. In the meantime, it just makes you kind of annoying.” -The Editors

Via ZachWritesStuff

Writers on Adderall

https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/club-med-adderall

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“a senator’s son had been taking Adderall before the FDA intervened; the senator “pitched a fit” and the agency rushed to approve it. Who that senator was Schwarz doesn’t say, but my research suggests it was Orrin Hatch, who took a curious interest in Richwood’s plight.

Sensing an opening, pharma giant Shire purchased Richwood for $185.7 million in 1997, and from there worked to advance a paradigm shift in psychiatry, one which would posit ADHD as an underdiagnosed scourge” -Daniel Kolitz

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“the so-called ADHD crisis has escalated. [..] It’s hard to say when, exactly, but sometime in the last four years, something insidious snapped into place. It was the feeling of watching the last remaining escape routes—out of the endless scroll, away from the screen—get sealed off. What used to be a piece of paper is now a QR code. You can’t turn off your phone to work because you need it for dual factor authentication.” -Danielle Carr

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“You can’t fix the Internet attention economy crisis with Adderall, because the Internet was made by people on Adderall, for people on Adderall. The more Adderall you take, the better the whole thing gets (by “better” I mean “worse”). This is the upshot: the very medical fix currently touted as the cure for the attention crisis is, in fact, exacerbating it.” - Danielle Carr

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“I had begun to keep a mental list of the highly specific tells that a writer was working with the “edge” a long time ago, back when I started editing other peoples’ work. Like a psychotic co-author, Adderall changed the way people wrote and what they wrote about, usually for the worse. Its influence stood out on the page in very specific ways.

This is the Adderall House Style. Once you recognize the signs, you’ll start to see them everywhere.” -Amber A’Lee Frost

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“I now feel about Adderall the way people do about their most infuriating exes: you were so close to being perfect for me. I am not nostalgic for the drug as much as I wish there were a better version of it out there. Imagine: something equally euphoric but impossible to abuse. Something that gets you to work, but also lets you laugh and dream.” -Kendall Waldman

GrantMeStrength, to random
@GrantMeStrength@hachyderm.io avatar

The LISP Machine was a computer designed around a specific programming language: LISP. In 1979 it had networking, windowing, high res graphics, and 12K of standard memory.

image/png

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@GrantMeStrength 5-bit type, 24-bit pointers. packed bitarrays and bitblt. 32 level subroutines. seems like a fun device.

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“If you’re already taking walking breaks when you feel like you’re going to pass out,” Rob said, “Let’s plan to take them before you get to that point.”

How I Ran a Marathon with a Chronic Illness https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/marathon-running-chronic-illness-pots/

cramsay, to random

Well, there's your problem.

This was supposed to be a technical marketing document, but what I got for layout was just a jumble of repetitious buzzwords, never really described the product we're selling. To be fair, I think the client here was using ChatGPT as a crutch for not being a native English speaker, and they're a newer hire and I don't think the company has set a policy on LLM use like this yet.

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@cramsay I’m seeing some do this at deadlines.

It’s the sense that they choose the most unlikely multi syllable words, and also left several dangling phrases across multiple sentences.

It’s odd to deal with, and difficult to choose what to respond to. I can ask questions, and get no reasonable response back sometimes.

Some may use speech to text, or phone keyboard autocorrect, which have different nonsense errors and swaps.

ai6yr, (edited ) to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Interesting, an ad hoc VW meet up at a taco truck at the Home Depot. Didn't think an old beaten up Westfalia would be $15K, but I guess they are unique.

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@ai6yr Buslab in Berkeley stocks parts for these. If you can do your own mechanical work, it’s a more approachable hobby. https://www.buslab.com/

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

Won’t know for sure until they cool enough to eat but I think I finally have nailed down croissant making.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@wordshaper Looks fantastic!

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

Pruned back a few shrubs and trees. Removed dead canes from the roses. Started in on this year’s crop of weeds the rains left. Removed lavenders that had become overgrown. And now the green bins are full.

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“There's nothing in the Clean Water Act, its enabling regulations or any of the case law that would suggest that we have any legal right to rewrite the [local plan].”

Iowa has 576 sections of impaired waterways | The Gazette https://www.thegazette.com/environment-nature/iowa-has-576-sections-of-impaired-waterways/

mikeolson, to random
@mikeolson@mastodon.social avatar

We have an emptied-out, tall round plastic take-out container that we throw dead batteries into, to save them for our irregular trips to the hazmat recycling place. I have always lazily thought that was a bad idea, but it worked fine.

I was sitting in the kitchen at 9:30 tonight and the fucking thing exploded. Flash and BANG. Soot all around the inside, on the cabinet above.

It's outside on concrete now, far from flammables. Will diagnose closely tomorrow.

Mischief managed, but oh, my.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@mikeolson Wow. Lucky it flared out quickly. I tend to imagine the CR2032s as stable, and yet. Starting to think I need to collect all the batteries, and get them off site.

anca, to random

Back in my day, we had to find a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook to get a recipe for these kinds of things. Now kids can just get it from an Amazon search box.

https://indieweb.social/@emilygorcenski/112090714963183481

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@anca a cursed text. as recently as “2015: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein pushed to have the book removed from online databases.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20190430032504/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/william-powell-author-who-later-renounced-his-notorious-volume-the-anarchist-cookbook-dies-at-66/2017/03/30/76838842-1551-11e7-9e4f-09aa75d3ec57_story.html

mcnado, to random
@mcnado@mstdn.social avatar

Here’s a thing to consider: under the ACA (“Obamacare”) insurance cannot exclude pre-existing conditions. A GOP-led Congress and Presidency will destroy that. This is a problem for you and me because:

  1. Nobody has been hiding chronic health problems for 12 years, so we all have pre-existing conditions.
  2. Data mining means insurance companies know how much you drink, what you eat, and what your smartwatch thinks of your heart rhythm.
  3. DNA test services know your genetic risks now.
    1/…
bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@_L1vY_ @mcnado The potentially good news is the DNA test data isn’t useful for much by the health system. It’s a story people may have wanted to be true, but is probably less significant than diet, exercise, sleep, stress, infections and social/economic factors. Boring right? Health systems screen for common things because they expect some people to have some conditions. That said, the research continues for rare differences that might be factors with some treatments or conditions.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcnado @_L1vY_ I don’t work in this field, my background is a curious person with some math training. BRCA is an interesting story, and what I’ve learned is the consumer tests only test for a couple types, and those types are only a portion of who gets breast cancer. Cancer is so common, everyone that should be screened can be screened by the health system. ACA makes this screening more reliably available. If you know family history or BRCA status that’s used to start screening earlier.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcnado @_L1vY_ The ApoE alleles are another interesting story. Not everyone develops the conditions of concern. Infection history may be a larger contributor to some conditions, and ApoE may play role when combined with infection history. Avoid more infections, maybe the risk is different? The signal in the data might be occupational exposure, or other factors we don’t have as good a handle on in public health.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcnado @_L1vY_ I agree that the thing to be watchful for is unregulated insurance markets. If someone is going to figure this sort of thing out, my money is on the actuaries behind products like life insurance or long term care insurance. We should seek stronger regulations of insurance products we may rely upon.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@_L1vY_ @mcnado We were definitely in a bad space pre ACA, and some want to go back to that because profit. There is understandable fear of that around elections and court cases. From what I’ve encountered and my friends have encountered, the ACA regulated plans are a bit better in important ways. I agree that there is work to be done. Denials, pre approvals, and group plans in some states, some orgs are still inadequate and unfair. If I can leave with one idea, its to get the annual checkup.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcnado Apparently there are studies showing mid age high blood pressure and cholesterol level is sufficient to predict Alz in the absence of ApoE information. If that works, that seems like a much more straightforward risk model. It also could mean ApoE dementia risk may be modifiable through diet, exercise, and statins. It seems some of the these challenges of aging come down to losing motivation and inactivity. While there are genetic risks, some are likely modifiable for a period of time.

sree, to random
@sree@ublog.thirdlaw.net avatar

Park Ave Restaurants, all under the same management as Verns, I believe.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@sree the depth down the sidewalk works here. tree, street light as well, nice.

sree, to random
@sree@ublog.thirdlaw.net avatar

Inconspicuous, I clearly was not.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@sree nice evening colors.

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