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GeekNights Praising Blog Post
Hey all!
Check out the post I wrote on GeekNights
If you like it, pass it on! If not, lemme know how I could have done it better!
I'm not that active on the forums because to be honest, the discussions happen very fast for someone in a different time zone. Interesting to read, am always too far behind to catch up. Hopefully I generate some new traffic for you to make up for it!!
Long live GeekNights!
Check out the post I wrote on GeekNights
If you like it, pass it on! If not, lemme know how I could have done it better!
I'm not that active on the forums because to be honest, the discussions happen very fast for someone in a different time zone. Interesting to read, am always too far behind to catch up. Hopefully I generate some new traffic for you to make up for it!!
Long live GeekNights!
Comments
As for hypercubic board games, I doubt they exist, but I know you can get polychoron Rubik's Puzzles for your computer.
@Apreche: don't worry, I know your opinion on homeopathy
Thanks y'all
I maintain - it is not ALL bullshit. Pharmaceuticals contain products that originally came from plants - they are just more refined. I don't think that it is outside the realm of logic to believe that those compounds have been incompletely synthesised and understood and may in fact be better delivered in their natural form. Human's aren't that great at medicating themselves - look at how antibiotics kill the germs but throw your entire body flora out of kilter.
I can sympathise with a patient who doesn't want to have the squirts, stomach cramps and vaginal thrush instead of taking antibiotics for a sore throat. I can also imagine that this sort of person would seek alternative treatment, which may or may not work, but will more than likely make them feel better. It helps the placebo effect, if you really want me to discredit it completely.
I think you don't actually know what homeopathic remedies are. It's not about natural substances derived from plants, it's all just water.
Think about this; let's say a "western" medicine company sold something that was proven not to work beyond the placebo effect. It wasn't just that it doesn't seem to work; there's no way it could possibly ever work, no matter what. They sell it and get rich off of it. How would you feel about that?
Or to summarise - you hate homeopathy. Apreche hates homeopathy. I understand why you feel that way. I just don't agree with your view on the complete quakery of all homeopathy - that's a blanket punishment.
Paracetemol tablets only contain 500mg of paracetemol - the rest of the tablet is inert substances like gelatinised maize starch and sodium. There is a span of things in those tablets that do absolutely nothing. Furthmore, generics contain unguaranteed tablet compositions - there could be a few placebos in there. Still, this more about the psychological effect of treatment and not the chemical composition thereof - I got sidetracked.
You can indeed get a homeopathic remedy for essentially free, however - just pour yourself a glass of water, it's the same thing. A well-deserved blanket punishment. Homeopathy is specifically based on the "law of similars", the idea that anything that causes specific symptoms can be used to cure the cause of such symptoms, and the idea that the more diluted a remedy is, the stronger it becomes, and neither of those ideas have a scientific basis. Hence the entire field of homeopathy is, in fact, bullshit.
@lackofcheese - I agree that the theory is complete and utter bullshit, don't think that I am advocating the practice of serial dilution and succussion to increase the life energy of the liquid or whatever the f*ck nonsense they spout. But they are not all the same concentration - and again, some use the same ingredients as laboratories do to make commonplace meds. So if even a tiny little bit get through there (a few picograms even), that's treatment.
Then again, like I said, I'm more talking about the psychological healing effect. Even the placebo effect has been proven to work.
@lackofcheese - yeah, I guess it is paid for by taxes... although as per usual, the rich pay for the poor to go to hospital
Yes, unfortunately people with limited education really do believe that there is pixie dust in paracetamol tablets. Ask around amongst the average population - as far as they are concerned, from my opionion and interactions with patients, they really do just take tablets to make themselves feel better. There is no-one to listen to them or understand their background - they walk into a clinic, tell a doctor what the problem is, are examined, prescribed treatment and sent home. There isn't even time to ask how the patient feels or if anyone else in their family is sick. There is no emotional interaction with the patient.
That emotional interaction and interpersonal interaction is really important in patient treatment. Hence I say, having someone pay attention to you and treat you with water may make you *feel* better. It won't necessarily make you better. On the other hand, pharmaceutical treatment is reliable and empirical, which gives doctors the confidence to send you away with the tablet without giving you all the hugs and kisses. That doesn't necessarily make you *feel* better, but it cures the illness.
By the way, would you like to buy some of my homeopathic remedies? They've been known to increase activity in the happiness parts of your soul and make you temporarily smarter! Great for break up blues and pop quizzes alike! Made with all sugar (Everyone loves sugar!), it has zero calories and acts quickly and you feel the effects almost immediately!* I sell them in tablet form, which are available in a multitude of flavors! Orange, Spearmint, Cherry, Mango, Cinnamon, and Wintergreen!
If you're interested in purchasing some from me, I sell them in "insta-use" packs, designed for six, four tablet quick effect dosages for $20. Also available 1 month use packages for $50. Two per day for 24 days, giving your system a 6 day balancing phase between usage phases. I recommended you take them with Mineral Spring water; it quickens the effect and give your body some of the water it needs during the day.
Of course, every product I sell comes in it's own handy dispenser unit that is small enough to fit in a coin pocket! And I offer something others don't, all the products I sell are manufactured in an FDA approved facility.
*happiness is subjective and this effect is not guaranteed in all cases.
Nah, I'll pass on your western homeopathy and go for the real stuff - sangoma traditional medicine!! All I need to do is bring the sangoma the blood of a chicken and he will put a curse on all my former lovers, making them unable to have sex!
On the other hand, maybe I should try visiting a Nigerian doctor.
Perhaps a modern day shaman? No, no wait - I'm a practicing Wiccan!
All bullshit. But does it make people think they feel better? Yes. Why? Because I was the sucker on the other end going "WTF why do you waste your time with this nonsense - you just make my job harder because these people screw you up more and then you come to see me!!". And the patients would actually respond - "It's because they are kinder to us and listen to our problems. You don't listen to me, you just give me a piece of paper and tell me to go and get pills."
Human psychology - fraught with intricacies, not always treated by drugs. It's like... you know... when a kid hurts himself and his mom kisses him better and he stops crying? He doesn't stop crying because he is healed, he stops crying because he *feels* better. Does that mean that hugs cure pain? No, but it does mean they do something beneficial to the psyche. Not the physical body.
Here is a 2008 study by the University of Michigan. More doctors than patients believe that patients receive benefit from homeopathy. It's not just about treating the physical. God. Treating the whole can make the physical better. I can't say it any more succintly than that.
Also
@Apreche - I don't know which blogpost *you* were reading, but I said that your discussion was on "holistic medicine" and not "homeopathy".
Just because a study is done does not mean that it is done properly, accepted, or peer reviewed. Also, all its citations are from homeopathic bullshit sources.
You seem to be discussing natural and alternative therapies, many of which are bullshit but are less bullshit than homeopathy. Homeopathy is a very very very specific thing which is complete and utter bullshit.
And just because you're a doctor doesn't mean you're right. There's a doctor in a Saratoga county in New York who is telling his patients - young, elderly, immunocompromised, pregnant - to drink unpasteurized milk. The man is a quack. Of course's there's a psychological component to healing. However, that has nothing to do with the medicine itself. That's what it means when we say homeopathy doesn't work; it doesn't do anything special that you couldn't replicate through other means. This is absolutely true. The optimal scenario, though, is to have this AND actual medical treatment. If someone goes to a homeopath, and that person has an actual medical problem that could be cured with real medicine, that person will feel better but will not likely treat their problem.
This isn't about the optimal treatment or being right - it's about me believing that a patient should be treated holistically. Not homeopathically. If the patient wants homeopathy and it makes them feel better, I'm all for them using it. Whether or not in conjunction with conventional medicine and other forms of therapy.
@Jason: I hope that answers your question - and my answer to my own question is yes, there is a psychological component to healing.
I highly question the efficacy of "holistic" medicine. In some cases, I've seen it practiced well, but most of the time it's a cover for quacky bullshit. If a patient just needs the attention of a doctor, you can give that to them without turning to homeopathy or bullshit "spiritual" healing. Aside from that, most of what these complementary therapies do is treat symptoms without touching the underlying problem.
The other major problem I have is that these alternative therapies turn legitimate medicine back to with-doctoring. You do things that don't really make any sense - wielding arcane knowledge from long ago - and the patients think they feel better. It actually obfuscates medicine even more, which just contributes to ignorance of the public.