Over the years I've had a few outpatient procedures that resulted in residual pain. The doctors have prescribed oxycodone to be taken as needed, just in case ibuprofen or acetaminophen aren't sufficient to reduce the discomfort to tolerable levels.
The danger of addiction to opioids like oxycodone has been publicized for years, and it's prudent to stop taking it as soon as one can. Now there's another reason to set the bottles aside:
They focused on approximately 50,000 patients, 30% of whom had received prescribed opioids, over a three-year period. Those who had received prescribed opioids were significantly more likely to later develop cardiovascular disease (CVD), the researchers found. The researchers also found that higher doses were associated with a higher risk of CVD.
Although the exact mechanism by which opioids cause cardiovascular disease isn't established, it is known that long-term opioid use is correlated with higher concentrations of triglycerides and low-density lipoproteins (LDL), as well as a higher incidence of atrial fibrillation (Afib).
Doctors prescribe medications because they believe that the benefits exceed the cost to a patient's health, but patients should not be reticent in asking about the side effects. In the case of pain relief and opioids, sometimes it is preferable to tough it out.
The documentaries that I find most fascinating are the ones that tell me something new on topics that (I thought) I was familiar with. Netflix' "/the social dilemma" is such a movie.
It describes how the Internet companies--Google and Facebook, primarily, but also Twitter, pinterest, Tiktok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, et. al.--watch everything that we read, write, upload, download, or view. They know the identities of our friends, families, and business associates and where we are at all times.
The companies use that data to show us ads that are likely to trigger a sale, but marketing efficiency is only a small part of the algorithms' power. The programs predict what we'll do next; a search that begins Climate change is.. will fill in "a hoax" if one is a conservative or "a threat to humanity" if one is a liberal.
The user is steered toward sites and news--even fake news and conspiracy theories--that the algorithm believes will keep the eyeballs fixated. By making it so easy to view materials that one agrees with leads to today's political polarization; it is the rare user who actively seeks alternative points of view.
The movie dives into the ways in which social media hooks the users--for example, continuous notifications about friends and celebrities, or beeping when someone likes their selfie--but is weak when it comes to suggestions about what to do about its pervasive influence. Some speakers call for much greater government regulation--just after a section on the danger of letting tech tools fall into the hands of governments. Parents wage a lonely battle trying to keep their children unplugged when all the other kids stay connected.
Your humble blogger doesn't have any solutions either. I'm just grateful that I grew up when high schools and colleges actively introduced students to different points of view. My education and career beginnings occurred long before the Internet but after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, grossly simplified, said we must judge individuals for what they can do and not who they are. (Obviously there existed a large gap between the law and reality, but everyone knew what the aspiration was.)
15 minutes from the end, the movie runs a clip from Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) at a 2019 Senate Commerce Committee hearing:
I am 62 years old, getting older every minute the more this conversation goes on, but I will tell you that I'm probably gonna be dead and gone, and I'll probably be thankful for it, when all this s*** comes to fruition. Because I think that this scares me to death.
I identify with Senator Tester more than anyone else in the documentary...and I'm sure that Facebook, Google, et. al. already knew that!
Below is the testimony from Tristan Harris, whose ideas are featured prominently in /the social dilemma, at the same hearing.
in 2018, the program distributed 5.8 million syringes and collected 3.8 million, an improved collection rate of about 65 percent. There was a significant uptick in dropoff of needles at kiosks which increased to 241,080 in 2018, a more than 300 percent increase from the 59,000 in 2017.
An unaccounted-for two million syringes with drug residue are an environmental disaster, whether they end up on the streets, on playground and parks, in landfill, or are swept into the Bay.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city has a combined sewer system that “ensures that all debris that flow into storm drains are filtered out at the city’s wastewater treatment plants.” She called Trump’s remarks “ridiculous assertions.”
“No debris flow out into the bay or the ocean,” Breed said.
The whole premise behind the ban on plastic straws was that the straws end up in the Pacific Ocean, hurting ocean wildlife.
It's a very strange system that catches all the needles but not all the straws.
Update (9/21/2019) -- once again Willie Brown, tongue firmly in cheek, has the final word:
But, of course, Trump overplayed his hand by falsely claiming drug needles on San Francisco streets are washing into the ocean. Rather than having to deal with a national focus on the city’s homelessness failures, local officials got to turn the story around as just another Trump lie. And they were right, of course. The needles don’t wash into the ocean.
BART worker's regular duty: pick up syringes (Chron)
The European cities Hemphill visited featured mostly clean sidewalks without needles, poop or heaps of trash. He felt safe working on his laptop in parks or cafes without worrying that someone would snatch the device. The public transportation was efficient and tidy. He didn’t encounter people who seemed clearly out of their minds because of drugs or untreated mental illness.
There was some graffiti and litter, yes. And a few homeless people begging for spare change. But nothing like San Francisco....
But when he arrived at his South of Market condo on Clara Street, he couldn’t get in his own front door. A man who appeared homeless had dropped his pants to urinate against the entryway. When Hemphill asked him to move, the man shouted “F— off!” and continued using the door as a toilet.
Sometimes frustrated citizens spend time and money trying to fix the problems themselves. There are encouraging stories like the Bernal Heights staircase to motivate others. However, the ending isn't always happy:
[Hemphill's] alley got a little cleaner and friendlier for a while thanks to the diligence of a neighbor, Brian Egg, who cleaned the sidewalks, watered trees and chatted with other residents while out walking his dog. That was before Egg’s headless body was found last year decomposed in a fish tank. The case is still under investigation.
Some readers think the solution is "offering universal health care and a far more robust social safety net" while others opine that it's "higher expectations for decency and civility elsewhere".
Before we think the solutions involve making massive changes to American culture, institutions, and government, however, we should ask ourselves why it's only some states that have the worst problems.
The two States, California and Hawaii, where I spend all my time, seem helpless to stem the tide.
The solution is always more money, and yet the numbers keep growing. Other States, including those with warm weather, don't seem to have as great a problem. The answers are out there, but they involve single-minded dedication and reliable funding over a long-period of time
The readers' solutions sound half-hearted because, even if they work ("universal health care", "civility") they will take years to implement. Meanwhile in the once-beautiful City by the Bay homelessness is rising, residents are fleeing, and high taxes will rise higher.
Desperate smartphone addicts are turning to a hardware solution to address their compulsive behavior:
2008: The 3G and my office view.
A growing contingent is embracing a new crop of minimalist phones, priced around $300 to $350, to wean themselves off premium models that keep them constantly connected.
I still possess every iPhone I've ever owned, including the iPhone 3G acquired in 2008. Current apps don't work on the 3G, and the 2 MP camera is barely adequate. So I don't have to buy a stripped-down phone; all I need to do is swap out the SIM card from the new XS Max.
I'm not (yet) downsizing to the 3G or iPhone 4 because my screen time is "only" two hours per day. So you see, I don't have a problem...
The iPhone 6 is a perfectly fine smartphone, as we noted in July. Mine is fairly new, replaced under the AppleCare extended warranty this May.
We ought to have the discipline to hold off buying a new iPhone 8 or iPhone X until 2018. Reports on the new phones' reliability are mixed. But I'm getting that new-phone fever....
Another reason I shouldn't upgrade is because the 8 or X would be even "better" at hijacking my mind.
Not only do our phones shape our thoughts in deep and complicated ways, but the effects persist even when we aren’t using the devices. As the brain grows dependent on the technology, the research suggests, the intellect weakens.[snip]
"Mind-blowing": Apple's right again.
In an April article in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Dr. Ward and his colleagues wrote that the “integration of smartphones into daily life” appears to cause a “brain drain” that can diminish such vital mental skills as “learning, logical reasoning, abstract thought, problem solving, and creativity.” Smartphones have become so entangled with our existence that, even when we’re not peering or pawing at them, they tug at our attention, diverting precious cognitive resources.
many of these younger technologists are weaning themselves off their own products, sending their children to elite Silicon Valley schools where iPhones, iPads and even laptops are banned. They appear to be abiding by a Biggie Smalls lyric from their own youth about the perils of dealing crack cocaine: never get high on your own supply.
As if the iPhone wasn't engrossing enough, the new models come with souped-up augmented reality.
I shouldn't upgrade if I know what's good for myself, but why start now?
Since 2006 we have reflected on the eighth deadly sin:
Our minds need to be perpetually entertained, an eighth sin that the ancients would have listed if they had round-the-clock cable with 500 channels. Universal wi-fi, blackberries and cell-phones, and portable audio, video, and game players have banished boredom forever. Stimulation is available 24/7; life has become Las Vegas.
“Only a small percentage of people qualify as addicted...but many people overuse their smartphones....if you can’t help being on it even when you know you shouldn’t be, that loss of control is the hallmark of an addiction.”
Like other addictions, Internet smartphone use is rewiring our brains:
Referring to the Internet as “the world’s largest slot machine,” Greenfield says the fact that we don’t know what we’ll find when we check our email, or visit our favorite social site, creates excitement and anticipation. This leads to a small burst of pleasure chemicals in our brains, which drive us to use our phones more and more.
Cutting back is hard; Dr. Greenfield suggests keeping one's bedroom cellphone-free: “Nothing good comes from keeping your phone next to your bed.” I agree wholeheartedly, which is why I leave the phone charging in another room overnight.
I'm glad he didn't say anything about the iPad....
A modern slot machine, at its core, is nothing more than a [Random Number Generator] going through millions or billions of numbers at all times. When a player hits a spin button, they are simply stopping the RNG at a particular moment. Everything beyond that — the music, the mini-games, the actual appearance of spinning reels, Rachel, Monica, and the rest of the gang keeping you company — is window dressing to keep you hitting spin.
the company commissioned a study to find out why people love the Wheel of Fortune line so much. "People said it was as much about the brand as anything...People said, ‘That brand — I used to hear it in the living room at my grandma’s house.'"
Player tracking systems revealed more than a pit boss ever could: over time, Harrah’s can create a portrait of the person’s risk profile, including how much money a player typically loses before they stop playing and what kinds of gifts to give them to keep them on the gaming floor.
The small slots customer, over a lifetime of spending, is just as valuable as the high roller.
In 11 years of legalized gaming, the state [of Pennsylvania] has earned $3 billion from table games and $17 billion from slots.
The "zone" is flow through a lens darkly: hyperfocused, neurotransmitters abuzz, but directed toward a numbness with no goal in particular.
capitalism can harness the human play drive for better or worse — and that increasingly, games aren’t allegories that say something about our lives; they are our lives. As people move toward more data-driven existences where points are accumulated from health apps (the subject of Schüll’s latest research) and status is accumulated in identifiable quantities on social media, gamification becomes so total that it can sometimes mask whether what we’re doing has any inherent utility outside the game that surrounds it.
[The Hook model of tech product addiction]: a trigger turns into an action turns into a variable reward turns into a further personal investment back into the product.
This article was so interesting that your humble observer put down his iPad slot-machine game for 15 minutes in order to read it.
