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Starting on June 30, I started experiencing symptoms of extreme nausea, vomiting, and dry heaves; severe diarrhea; and extreme abdominal pain (worse than a kidney stone). I was admitted to the emergency room, then the hospital, where testing showed my gall bladder was non-functional, so I had my gall bladder removed on July 19.
Unfortunately, this has shown to not be the primary cause of my symptoms, which continue unabated by the removal of my gall bladder. ??? I have remained hospitalized until August 14, where every test imaginable has been run. My doctor calls my situation a diagnostic conundrum, and they are now looking at transferring me from my hospital in Houston, to Mayo clinic in Minnesota, to see if they have some other ideas.
It is too bad that House is just a fictional television show instead of reality show with a super diagnostician.
So your prayers and insights into my situation would be most welcome! Thank you for thinking of me!
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Lord.
One never knows what to say in these situations. Earthmichael, you are in our thoughts.
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Here's for finding a medical Holmes&Watson team in Minnesota.
Best of luck in this, Eartmichael. ;b;
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Yeah, in such situations my eloquence never goes much far beyond "this sucks, dude" and religious I am hardly, but I wish you all the best and hope you'll get in that hospital all the medical assistance you need. Take care, mate! ;b; And keep updating us with the info.
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Some civilian workers got in among the research patients today and became so hysterical I felt compelled to have them nerve stapled. The consequence, of course, will be another public relations nightmare, but I was severely shaken by the extent of their revulsion towards a
project so vital to our survival.
—CEO Nwabudike Morgan ;morgan; ,
The Personal Diaries
It is a medical commonplace that the tissues of the human body replace themselves regularly, essentially creating an entirely new body every seven years. From whence then come cancer and the slow degeneration of age? They exist as faults in the patterns of intelligence within the genes themselves; by reprogramming these smallest parts, the whole becomes well.
—Academician Prokhor Zakharov ;zak; 'Nonlinear Genetics'
If we pool our EC, do we have enough to rush a Nanohospital?
Get well soon, Earthmichael.
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I hope you soon feel better,
We're with you,
call if you need any help,
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Hopefully it's not a resource shortfall in your base.
Let's wish for a speedy recovery!
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The gwillybj household wishes you a speedy diagnosis and swift recovery.
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I hope you find out what is wrong and get better quickly.
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MP guys, I know that winning at MP is serious business but y'all did not have to poison the guy just to get ahead in the ladder! ;lol
Seriously, EM. Get better.
I have not been in the MP portion of the boards long enough to properly reveal myself to you. You still have not kicked my tail yet.
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Get well EM!
Maybe if there was no diagnosis it means there is no really serius problem.
Hope to see you back soon!
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Hey EM - can you think of any forum goodies you'd like that are within my power to bestow? You are a Valued Member - for your quality play, for your participation in discussion elsewhere on the forum, for the nice things you've posted in Downloads - and for being you. We'd like to make some gesture reflecting that.
Guys, I think he might draw a blank. Feel free to suggest a big (loud, dumb, funny) way for us to honor our ailing friend in a way he'd like...
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A custom faction based on him as a forumite or his ideals.
More likely the former if you want the funniest outcome though.
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EM, you'll be interested to know that Sigma just finished the art for an Objectivist faction...
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I am all for rushing the Nanohospital! Great idea!
I would like an Objectivist (more like Liberatarian) faction. It would be interesting to see what artwork and faction attributes are there. The biggest problem I have with most Objectivists, is that that they are rabidly anti-supernatural, rather than going with wherever the evidence leads. A lot of scientific phenomenon was thought to be supernatural when it was the evidence was first discovered, and it was investigation of this evidence that went against conventional science that led to the scientific breakthroughs we have now.
I think the whole idea of segregating evidence into categories of natural and supernatural is absurd; if something is a part of objective reality, it exists. Maybe it cannot be perceived directly with the senses and instruments that we have available yet. It just means we don't know enough about the reality or the natural world to say how the phenomenon can be accounted for. No one has objectively proven that God, extraterrestrials, or other such beings do not exist; as such evidence for God and other elusive beings should be gathered and studied for what may be found. It is foolish to reject evidence just because it does not fit our current worldview. But that is what I find many Objectivists do. Of course, I am all for debunking claims of supernatural workings when the evidence leads that way. "Faith Healers" which are fed information by radio claiming to receive a word from God are just con artists, who deserve to be exposed. Yet if you shift through the frauds, you can find some seemingly true Faith Healers who do have a genuine track record of legitimate healing, usually without a lot of hype and million dollar infrastructures. I think these are men and women are worth studying and understanding.
It looks like Mayo clinic is out for now, because I have to be narcotic free for at least two weeks to be seen, and I currently cannot endure one of my abdominal attacks without resorting to prescription narcotics. I wonder if Mayo has some alternative pain management method that I can use?
Thanks for all of your kind thoughts!
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I would like an Objectivist (more like Liberatarian) faction. It would be interesting to see what artwork and faction attributes are there. The biggest problem I have with most Objectivists, is that that they are rabidly anti-supernatural, rather than going with wherever the evidence leads. A lot of scientific phenomenon was thought to be supernatural when it was the evidence was first discovered, and it was investigation of this evidence that went against conventional science that led to the scientific breakthroughs we have now.
I agree that some too rationally-oriented people may falsely infer that if science deals only with the evidence for the observable, this proves only the observable exists. A more true statement is that science is simply not concerned with the supernatural, be it God or haunted houses, so it can only shrug when you choose whether to believe such things or not.
Having said that, the supernatural is still something beyond (current) evidence and as such, gives you no reason to believe it. As some smart-ass scientist put it, a theory not backed with any evidence doesn't need any evidence to be refuted. I guess I subscribe to that school of thought. Yes of course some 'supernatural' events may be proved in the future, like for example the possible placebo effect provided by homeopathy or 'faith healers', but until researchers publish relevant study papers with conclusive results, we have no reason to assume one way or the other. And I haven't heard of any 'alternative' (meaning 'employing methods not verified positively by science') ways of healing which didn't turn out to be a scam.
This reminds me of a great routine by a comedian Tim Minch: "By definition", I begin "Alternative Medicine", I continue "has either not been proved to work, or been proved not to work. Do you know what they call "alternative medicine" that's been proved to work? Medicine." ;lol Enjoy the link below, most SMACers will probably like it:
Tim Minchin's Storm the Animated Movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U#ws)
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It looks like Mayo clinic is out for now, because I have to be narcotic free for at least two weeks to be seen, and I currently cannot endure one of my abdominal attacks without resorting to prescription narcotics.
Holy craptastic catch-22, Batman! :(
I wonder if Mayo has some alternative pain management method that I can use?
Faith healing? ;)
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My real gripe with some Objectivists is that they will play fast and loose with evidence, only "accepting" evidence that fits their current scientific viewpoints, and rejecting all other evidence, not because of some forensic flaw in the evidence, just because the evidence does not fit their worldview. I have seen this creative evidence ploy used in carbon verses sunspot global warming, to determining age/intelligence level for archeological artifacts. Also, eyewitness accounts for healing cannot just be ignored, just because they cannot be replicated. And using hand waving arguments to dismiss difficult issues, such as how with common ancestry theory, the serious issues with evolving from asexual cell division to sexual reproduction, and what kind of common ancestor would have both plant and animal progeny, and evolving from single celled to multi-celled organisms. These are all serious problems with the common ancestry theory. Problem is, they want me to accept common ancestry more as a tenant of faith, not because there is strong body of evidence for this theory.
I am a very skeptical person. I am skeptical of many theories that are in vogue. I am very skeptical of CO2 based global warming. I am very skeptical of evolutionary evidence of common ancestry. I doubt modern medicine is even 50/50 for correctly explaining biochemical processes. And I doubt more than 50% of any group of leaders is really working for the good of the masses, but are much more interested in furthering their own agenda and consolidating power. I suspect that most of the money spent on the "war on poverty" is intentionally keeping and growing a class of people depending upon a government "dole" to ensure a political power base (just as the "dole-ist" party in the Honor Harrington novels).
Yes, the catch-22 of being narcotic-free without any alternative form of pain control being offered means Mayo clinic is off the table for now.
I am probably much more chatty and less coherent that I would be without the narcotic patches I am wearing constantly delivering a pain-reducing (and inhibition reducing) payload. So take it as a streaming ramble of thought ...
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EM, you're entertaining when you're high. ;b;
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Sad to hear about this, good luck to you.
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Also, eyewitness accounts for healing cannot just be ignored, just because they cannot be replicated.
There is a good reason that replication is such a key point to scientific research. First of all, if eyewitness accounts were to be accepted, there is no line to draw between crazy and non-crazy. After all, why not Elvis sightings? By now, thousands of people have seen him playing a banjo in Mexico. This is why the 'I swear I saw it but I can't show it to you' line is not enough to warrant full acceptance, at least not mine.
Second thing is, science doesn't really ask 'is it true?', what it truly asks is 'how does it work?' and for this you can't do away with stuff like blind samples, control groups, placebo injections, anal probe insertions, you name it. If something cannot be examined, science simply doesn't deal with it. It doesn't mean such a thing doesn't exist or that you shouldn't believe in it. I'm just saying it is not scientific to go with second-hand observations only.
As for the rest, I don't think I know enough to discuss it. But despite being a dilettante, I still love to increase my knowledge in sciences and I also work as a translator for the Polish issue of 'Scientific American'. I'm quite sure that there is actually no controversy as to that common ancestry thing or human-induced global warming among professional scientists who subject their work to peer-review verification. For me, this is good enough. Dismissing theories widely accepted by the collective 'body of science' doesn't fit my definition of skepticism, I'm afraid.
This reminds me how SMAC was actually important for my life. Before I played it I wasn't really interested in hard s-f or sciences which shape our contemporary world. 'MMI' or 'bio-engineering' was for me just s-f babble along the lines of 'warp drives' and 'reverse polarity generators'. But slowly I started to get immersed, I wanted to read more and explore the many topics touched upon in SMAC. I took me a while to realize that yes, a Nano Factory or Clinical Immortality may very well be a thing this very century and it made me come back to SMAC with that 'awesome, dude' feeling when you still find new aspects in a thing you knew so well. Few video game titles would go with the word 'inspiring' in the same sentence, but SMAC is definitely on the top of that list. I will forever feel grateful to Brian Reynolds and may I say, 'my hat is off to him'. He opened my eyes to many many issues concerning the relationship between the man and machine, be it sentient AI or augmentation of the human race, and he even provided comments for both sides of the discussion (say what you want about the ginger harlot, but her late-game quotes prove she's much more than just another televangelist). It's amazing how well-thought and inspiring our game was back in 1998 and it still stands the test of time. Ahh, but I ramble too much. Take care, SMACers! :)
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I'm not going to add to this argument, but I will say this:
Did the guy who took out your gall bladder look like this: :danc:
Because if so, he might be your problem.
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After all, don't we all hate it when sideways-prancing, dastar-clad bananas perform their surgeries on us?
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A redrawing of him with a table in front and a scalpel in hand would be in bad taste, wouldn't it?
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The gall bladder surgeon seemed to do a good job. She got the gall bladder, just the gall bladder was not the only problem.
Their are many who reliably logged information whose accounts were then rejected. Not like 1000 Elvis sightings, but 100 people who saw something unusual occur. This should be treated as evidence that things we don't yet understand can occur. It look thousands of observations of walking owls before it finally because accepted that such phenomenon are valid.
As for CO2 Global Warming activists and other such scientific issues, there is an "orthodoxy" that does not care about scientific fact, just about promoting their viewpoint. If you have studied the matter thoroughly, and I have, I don't see how you can be certain about CO2 based global warming, verses sunspot activity and many more likely theories. The same with the orthodoxy concerning evolution. If you have questions about any aspect of evolution, you are treated as a heretic bringing up a forbidden topic, rather than a person with some honest questions about how such things are evolution between asexual reproduction and bisexual reproduction could scientifically occur. Instead of answering the question with a plausible solution, you are criticized for raising the question. Yes, I am a skeptic for being critical of the orthodoxy. One would not need to impose "orthodoxy" in science if the science were valid and the questions were satisfactorily answered.
Educators were hand wringing in recent years that polls were showing that few and few students "believed in" evolution after their science classes. That tells me that the students can perceive the gaps in the arguments, and are less willing to believe the science "on faith". Do you personally have a theory for how organisms who are reproducing by asexual fission evolve to being reproducing bisexually, simultaneously evolving a compatible male and female? If you have such a theory, this would be the first time my question was answered, instead of just being told, don't ask the question.
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They aren't very bright biologists, then, or not very good teachers. Evolution is a function of natural trial and error when there are genetic changes, usually due to replication errors during reproduction. Sexual reproduction has a number of advantages, and not least that merging genomes every generation actually significantly increases the rate of variations and mutations. Yes, in the long run, a higher number of birth defects is good for your species chances to become something better.
-Probably all stuff you already know, or you wouldn't have hit on such an astute question. Thing is, a bacteria splitting to reproduce still has replication errors - just at a much lower rate. The fact that a generation last part of a day to our 25 years or so compensates a great deal for the evolutionary disadvantage, but the difference in replication error/mutation is by an order of magnitude or two, not that different than the respective number of generations in 25 years.
And bacteria and other asexuals do have an observably much slower rate of evolution; I believe there are bacteria around of species several billion years old. I think the big loser for sexual reproduction/evolution is the Coelacanth, a holdover from 350 million years ago.
How bisexual reproduction arose is a much more complex issue, and not nearly as well understood. I'd have to do some googling and reading to make sure I was getting details right - not really my area of interest, biology.
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... Yes, in the long run, a higher number of birth defects is good for your species chances to become something better. ...
Until it becomes too high, and your species goes extinct.
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Life is a gamble and getting born is 100% fatal. There are some compensations for that that come with the deal.
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The theory of how sexual reproduction arose which makes sense to me is:
Bacteria can (and do, examples include passing genes for resistance to an antibiotic across species) pass genetic information between each other, particularly in the form of plasmids (separate loops of DNA).
An extreme version of this came to be beneficial to speed up adaptation; if you're virtually the same as every other bacterium you're not going anywhere long term. If you can flip a genetic coin by mixing and matching all your genes and have even a very slim chance of coming out with a notable advantage, the payoff is huge since you now out-compete everyone else around.
The extreme version of sharing plasmids consisted (roughly) of merging the cells, then redividing with the genetic material mixed up. Not initially a way to reproduce quickly, asexual will always be faster at that, but a way to adapt faster. Recombining bits which already somewhat work (otherwise the microbe you're geneswapping with would be dead) is a lot better than just increasing the chance of mutations by being less careful copying your DNA.
And from there you've got the basics of sexual reproduction. Two cells merge into one, resulting offspring have some attributes of each merging cells. There's of course a huge amount of optimization, but gradual tweaks and local hill climbing is what evolution does best, and it did take some time. BU already explained what I think about why sexual outcompeted asexual reproduction in most macroscopic species, though in some you can see asexual reproduction still persists.
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Okay; that's pretty much my understanding of it, yes. ;b;
There have been recent discoveries that interspecies gene-passing is more common than previously suspected, though I don't remember details - but I think it's definitely relevant to how a regular gene-swap within a species could evolve, that being a lot more promising source for useful random DNA inserts than another species, and therefore selected for...
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An Objectivist faction... I'll have to think on this one, and it wouldn't be fair for just me to create it- I'd need to collaborate with others on the idea's and possibly yourself (If you are able) to properly form it as a full fledged faction.
I have a theory on how different sexes evolved: But please note I am no scientist and my scientific knowledge is not all encompassing, I just have a bit of knowledge.
My theory of evolution and how the different genders arose, I think the occurrence of different sexes in an organism was originally a freak mutation. I think that somewhere along the line there was bacteria that, under certain chemical conditions changed so rapidly from one another came to the point where the bacteria split into two distinct forms that could exchange genetic material. Why they exchange genetic material I am guessing is some sort of chemical condition that made the cells much more permeable for genetic material/DNA to be exchanged much easier, and from this sort of freak mutation arose the two genders, evolving into different plants and animals.
That's my theory on it, whether or not it has evidence supporting it I do not know: but it seems a logical explanation to me.
I am not necessarily attached to the common ancestry theory personally, but I don't know how else sexual life forms would evolve otherwise as I am not aware of other theories on it that seem adequate.
Edit: at the moment at least.
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If you have read or heard of Ann Rynd who wrote Atlas Shrugged, you get the jist of objectivism. There are also other movements such as Satanism which comes close to the philosophy. However, those are just parody movements for folks who want to dress in black and pretend to be oppressed. Objectivism is much more mainstream, though it was more popular a few decades back.
In essence, it would be a very rational faction.Research and creativity would be revered.. but only theirs. It is almost like a fundamentalism without the penalties. They would have little tolerance for drones, though. If you are not a talent, why aren't you? In fact, why are you reproducing more dumb people to leech off those doing things?? It is a philosophy without empathy. Borderline sociopathic at the worst. Elitist intellectualism at the best.
I agree, Jarlwolf, I need to think on that, too.
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Yeah. I don't like objectivism as an ideal personally, I find many of its followers (present company of Earthmicheal excluded, he's shown he's actually rational and cordial, something many objectivists are ironically not.) are ignorant and often cynical, self proclaimed intellectuals who figure themselves the need to express their self righteous opinons and denounce others, all the while maintaining support for horrible systems like Laissez Faire Capitalism. And I don't just say Laissez Faire Capitalism is horrible because of my personal ideal being Communitarian Socialism/Communism, I say it because I have personally lived through a Laissez Faire system and it was the most nightmarish society I had ever lived in. Crime was so high people weren't safe on the streets, businessmen who were trying to legitimately grow their markets, the very focus of praise for Capitalists, were gunned down by thugs hired by their competitors and unbridled capitalism showed its true nature. People suffered in poverty and I barely survived, it was only because of community and my friends that I did. I lost good friends and had to literally fight to survive, sometimes having to fend off violent types during the nightmare of the 90's Laissez Faire system in my country, and no one in their right mind would support it: Those who do have not seen the whole effects of it and the ugly truth of that reckless system.
Mind I am aware of the incompetence of government programs as well, I lived the vast majority of my life in one of the biggest Socialist regimes on the planet; Earthmicheal, as far as I know has as well in his own country. But I'd rather incompetency and a government that at least HAS those services then a system that literally lacks any care or support for its citizens, that's just abominable.
My rant and personal opinions out of the way now...
An objectivist faction is a good idea though: It is an ideal embodied quite a bit in modern civilization, especially on the internet by many people. Though here is the issue:
Sigma already has an industrialized, Objectivist faction: Apollo industries.
Plus for this faction to really have importance for the one who'd enjoy it the most, I want to base it on Earthmicheal himself.
And for me to base it off of Earthmicheal, while I do know and respect the man well enough, I have not spoken in deep conversation with him and don't know him as well as I should. And in order to get his preferences I must research the matter (him) before making arrogant decisions without getting to know him proper. I also doubt he's just a straight on "Objectivist," he's a bit more sophisticated then that I presume. So for this faction to work, two things must happen beforehand.
1. Research on Earthmicheal and discussion with him and others is needed to properly form the faction idea/ideals and all of the necessary parts of the faction.
2. Assembly of imagery and other things that fit Earthmicheals tastes and the theme of the faction. After all, this is a faction for him as a gift of goodwill and his health, so I'd rather make something he likes then risk something and then it turns out he is disappointed with it.
Once those two steps are done, I can proceed with the faction.
Edit: Removed some glitched/ repeat crap: my computer kept toying with me on this post.
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Their are many who reliably logged information whose accounts were then rejected. Not like 1000 Elvis sightings, but 100 people who saw something unusual occur. This should be treated as evidence that things we don't yet understand can occur. It look thousands of observations of walking owls before it finally because accepted that such phenomenon are valid.
Look, I really respect people’s faith in such things and I don’t expect them to change their worldviews just because some Kirov guy calls BS. But it should also work the other way round, in that you can’t really expect me or scientists to believe/delve deeper into something because hundreds of people claim to have seen this, especially when, wouldn’t you know it, such a phenomenon defies any further study or research.
Of course we are allowed to dismiss hundreds of first-hand accounts. Just look at the Internet. Give me any name, I mean literally any thing you can think of – just take a dictionary, throw it at your ceiling fan, pick up 5 pieces and tell me what they say – and I’ll find you 1 thousand people who will swear they’ve seen it with their own eyes, and if you doubt them, they’ll shower you with several GBs’ worth of trashing about how you’re sheeple, live in the Matrix, “look but don’t see” etc.
But don’t take my word for it. Below is a link to “Real Super Powers” forum, which gathers people, you guessed it, who honestly-and-I’m-not-making-this-up believe they can read your mind or control the weather.
http://www.realsuperpowers.com/ (http://www.realsuperpowers.com/)
Courtesy of somethingawful.com, which finds tonnes of such gems. If you have too much time at your clinic, you’ll probably enjoy this:
http://www.somethingawful.com/weekend-web/ (http://www.somethingawful.com/weekend-web/)
So to sum up, sorry for being that obnoxious youtube “pics or it didn’t happen” brat, but I don’t think I’m left with any choice. :)
(disclaimer: I'm not trying to put your beliefs and some random Internet psychos in the same drawer. I'm just saying I don't see where we can draw the line for "reliable".)
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Educators were hand wringing in recent years that polls were showing that few and few students "believed in" evolution after their science classes. That tells me that the students can perceive the gaps in the arguments, and are less willing to believe the science "on faith". Do you personally have a theory for how organisms who are reproducing by asexual fission evolve to being reproducing bisexually, simultaneously evolving a compatible male and female? If you have such a theory, this would be the first time my question was answered, instead of just being told, don't ask the question.
Yes, I agree with BU that those friends or educators apparently didn’t have too much knowledge about evolution but weren’t too eager to admit it. Fortunately, this says absolutely nothing about evolution itself.
When it comes to the evolution of sex, I’m afraid I don’t have “my own personal theory” and I strongly encourage you not to develop your own by yourself or hearsay. Science is not a collection of reasonably sounding ‘methinkses’ and the choice you have is usually either to examine results of some study or do your own research.
I’ve read some about it, but without bio-chem background it didn’t really stick to my head. What I can do is recommend a course at coursera.org which I attended, “Introduction to Genetics and Evolution”:
https://www.coursera.org/course/geneticsevolution (https://www.coursera.org/course/geneticsevolution)
The course is great, the lecturer is fantastic and his recommended readings, “Introduction to Genetics” (a content-heavy volume, I barely skimmed it) and aptly-titled “Why Evolution Is True” (short and good read) should shed a lot of light on these issues. If not, you can just post your questions and doubts and I’m sure the staff of the Department of Biology at the Duke University will be happy to oblige you with answers.
If it’s still not enough, grab your microscope and some Petri dishes. There still exist species which are asexual but can also resort to sexual reproduction as we speak, oblivious to the fact that it is controversial. If they can do it both ways, surely one way could develop into the other. Likewise (with regard to the common ancestor), there is a half-animal, half-plant creature swimming merrily at your nearest pond. You may have even gulped the guy by accident.
I believe that most doubts about the theory of evolution (debunked in throngs in the latter book) come from the fact that our brains are not hard-wired to understand what “3.5 billion years” really means. It’s just a number, probably registered in our brains as “long time ago”, even before our grandpas were born. However, for a living creature, that 3.5 billion years is near infinity. Evolution can actually work quite fast, but is still too slow for us to experience a creation of an entirely new species in our lifetime. Yet, computer simulations indicate that if we reduced all life on Earth to single single-cell species, it would repopulate the planet to its current state within 200 million years, which is either a very short or a mind-bogglingly huge span of time, depending if you ask an astronomer or your regular Joe.
Imagine you gently tap your fingers on the wall of that treasury at Fort Knox. After 3.5 billion years, your tapping alone, erosion notwithstanding, would probably tear it down to pieces and turn those pieces into sand. But right now, what we all see is simply the tapping.
Yes, I am aware there is a growing, bipartisan distrust to sciences in the US. However, I’m afraid I can’t express any optimism about it. But well, what can you do. Sleep tight, America. You’ve done a great job, anyway. Here’s a great article I had the pleasure to translate:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=antiscience-beliefs-jeopardize-us-democracy (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=antiscience-beliefs-jeopardize-us-democracy)
I’m sorry I’ve written so much, intended to post even more. Normally I don’t get involved into such discussions online, but thought maybe I can entertain you a bit for your stay at the hospital. ;)
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Kirov, you should post your science articles to our science news forums -if it won't get you in trouble-. Please.
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Kirov, you should post your science articles to our science news forums -if it won't get you in trouble-. Please.
I know there is a section for it, but it was a reference to what I wrote, so I'd have to link to our news forum and then to the article itself. Should I do that?
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Well, you can see that the usual format is there, but if all you can do is a link, I'd still like to see it. You're one of us and we're proud of you - and science is science.
Or am I misunderstanding?
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So you wanted to add the link to archives apart from posting it here?
Nothing to be proud of, I posted the article as it may interest the Americans here. Makes you almost wish for a little conspiracy between politics and science... :)
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Archives? I still don't think I'm following your meaning.
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;lol I wanted to ask if you want me not to insert links to such articles in my posts. And restrict such linking only to the news section. But I think this is not what you meant.
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I am always scrupulous about back-linking any article I copy/paste; otherwise, I would flatly be stealing someone's hard work and undermining their commercial purpose in posting the article. Likewise, I would rather you gave your employer the SEO and possibility of traffic and with a backlink accompanying the quoted article, for ethical reasons. However, links alone? Who clicks on anyone else's links? Link wherever for whatever reason, provided NSFW is properly labeled.
;lol indeed.
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This conversation is moving waaaaaaaay far from the topic. I think we should move it and live only the main topic for EM to report when he is filling better.
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It went OT on the first page.
I've thought about that very thing - my take is that it does no harm to let this thread wander all over the universe if EM likes, because we love him, and right here in the Mcave with his MPcronies is most convenient for him while he's laid up.
Of course, t, I will defer to your judgment in your forum if you feel strongly.
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I managed to endure an attack at home for the first time today. It was a close thing, due to the nausea. But I managed to take and keep down a couple of critical pills just as the nausea as starting to hit. This enabled me to endure the attack without having to go to the hospital for IV medications. It was still most uncomfortable, but I appreciated not having to go back to the hospital.
This gives me hope that if I am sensitive to the onset of nausea, I might be able to repeat my success.
Insurance still does not want to cover the capsule endoscopy, which is the nearly the only meaningful test left to be done. So I asked my HR people to either force the insurance company to cover the test, or be prepared for a short term disability claim. Hopefully, that will get some action.
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Take care there, Earthmichael, and let us know if you need anything, be it a chit-chat or anything else. :) We're thinking about you! I hope the insurance guys will do what they're supposed to do.
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And not what they are expected to do. Greedy bastards.
May the finance be with you.
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Good luck EM.
OK, as long as EM doesnt complain converstion stays here.
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Had a good call from my Health Insurance Advocate this morning, and she said she would move things forward on the capsule endoscopy, so hopefully she will be able to come through for me. I will keep you posted.
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Hold on, Man!
I can't find words to comfort you so I try a song:
Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4#)
Capsule endoscopy?!? I had to google it to confirm it was really what I thought. :o
Hey, THAT is sci-fi
Sometimes I feel like the future has passed me by. Just like last January. I hadn't taken a long flight since 1986 and a friend and I were going to Miami. "11 hours in a plane, I'm gonna die!" but he told me I would have the movies. In 1986, in the old DC-10, you had some screen coming down in front of the passengers and projecting a movie. "Blah!" I said. And once in the plane I discovered that I had my own personal multimedia computer with movies, series episodes, documentaries, music... :o :o :o F***ing incredible!!!
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We are living in the future. I love it!
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We can hope that this treatment/diagnosis will be successful.
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Had a good call from my Health Insurance Advocate this morning, and she said she would move things forward on the capsule endoscopy, so hopefully she will be able to come through for me. I will keep you posted.
Hold on,
I hope you final get diagnosis
Good luck!
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We invented the capsule endoscopy here in Israel! (like so many other things you wouldnt beleave a small country can invent...)
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Krav maga is Israel biggest invention, :)
if not the greatest, then certainly the most famous
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We invented the capsule endoscopy here in Israel! (like so many other things you wouldnt beleave a small country can invent...)
Oh, we would. :) Israel tops the chart of national R&D spending as the percentage of GDP (4,38%). For the US it is 2,77%. So tell the boys they do a good job. ;b;
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אלוהים יברך את ישראל
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אלוהים יברך את ישראל
You spake also Hebrew? I've seen you know writing English,Hebrew,Spanish, and I think also French. Some other I forgot :)
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אלוהים יברך את ישראל
You spake also Hebrew? I've seen you know writing English,Hebrew,Spanish, and I think also French. Some other I forgot :)
אני חושב שזה תרגום של גוגל
יכול להיות שאני טועה
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זה נכון. אני יודע אנגלית בלבד.
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זה נכון. אני יודע אנגלית בלבד.
:D
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t_ras también ha reído de mi Google Translate español, violando así una política que defendía, y no debe haber necesitado pedir. :P
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Walt Disney was right, there is no escape.
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From Witch Mountain? Wasn't he long dead by then?
Wait- Escape From Witch Mountain wasn't made yet when he died, so that does make sense.
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It seems Google translates much better to Hebrew. I probably can open now a Hebrew forum :D
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Sir, if you think there's promise that it might turn into something and you're willing to take on more responsibility, I will create one right now.
I always run the translations back through the other way to try to see if the meaning comes through at all, and usually post it in English, too, for an extra meaning/embarrassment protection...
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Well, using google translate we can turn this one into hebrew ;)
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I thought you had to convince a rabbi...
Hmm. Anyone of the faith besides you and Yitzi?
I should lure cog back for balance... ;)
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I thought I would give a quick update, even though I do not have much to report.
I did the capsule endoscopy at my own expense on Tuesday (since insurance was adamant about not covering the test), since it was the only meaningful test left to do. Unfortunately, the results have no come in yet. I expected them Friday, and set up a doctor appointment with the top GI doctor at Texas Medical based on this, but he did not have the results Friday either, so that visit was mostly a waste.
I have not had an attack in 8 days now. This is the longest I have gone since my gall bladder removal, which was followed by 8 days of no attack.
I hope to get the results Tuesday for my test, and hopefully will have more to report.
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Well, this sounds like good news. At least for a start. Hopefully the attacks won't come back anymore. ;b; Let us know about the results! :)
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The capsule endoscopy test failed. The capsule failed to leave the stomach during the 8 hour monitoring duration of the test. (I think they should have just monitored longer, maybe 24 hours.) This does give some information, in that my stomach is not emptying in the manner it should.
A retest is scheduled for Tuesday. Insurance still probably won't pay. This time, the doctor is going to place the camera capsule directly in the top of my small intestine, through my throat (GAG), so that we will be sure to get pictures of the small intestines, which is the purpose of the test.
I had an episode Thursday. I think it was correlated with me trying to wean myself (with doctor supervision) from my two Finnigram patches (which give a constant supply of narcotics, which seems to forestall the episodes. Problem is, I cannot drive and cannot work and cannot even think that well with this level of narcotic in my system. Of course, I made up for it by taking dilodid at the start of my episode, which delivers a very strong pain medication. The trick is catching the episode soon enough that the nausea does not make you puke up the dilodid. I caught on pretty fast, took a maximum dose of anti-nausea pills and suppositories, and managed to keep the dilodid pills down. So at least I did not have to go to the emergency room this time, because if I can't get control of the nausea and pain, I have to go to the emergency room to get strong IV doses of anti-nausea meds and IV doses of dilodid.
I will let you know when I get results from the redo of the capsule. It appears to take several days for the results to be made available, so I won't expect to know anything until Friday or later.
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Hang in there Earthmichael... We know your a tough sod that can chew up and spit out any confrontation he gets.
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I hope that you get well Earthmichael. It appears as though they have made a little bit of progress by figuring out something is wrong with your stomach. :(
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Best of luck, Earthmichael.
As for the rest of us, I put forward the council motion to assemble a better trained probe team to increase Em's changes of succes...
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I appreciate the kind words of support!
I had another attack Sunday. Unlike the Thursday attack, I could not get the nausea under control and had to spend the day at the Emergency Room getting the nausea and pain under control, and being bored out of my skull. Only difference I see is Thursday before the attack, I had not had anything to eat, while on Sunday, I had a small serving of grapefruit. Since a disproportional number of my attacks hit about 9 AM, I think I am going to start skipping breakfast and see if that helps. (I know, most important meal of the day, blah, blah, blah, but I have bigger concerns.)
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Hope your doc can figure this out. If not, put him to work at a borehole & get a new one. To relieve boredom, imagine sending insurance administrators to the punishment sphere. Do you eat the same thing for breakfast, or does it vary?
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A punishment sphere would be too civil for these villainous scum. Send them to the cyborg factory to meet Ace and his "special enhancement"!
EM, hope you'll uncover the root cause of what is plaguing you and get back to being your healthy self.
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A punishment sphere would be too civil for these villainous scum. Send them to the cyborg factory to meet Ace and his "special enhancement"!
No, introduce them to ;domai;, and let him decide what to do.
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Just a quick update.
I was diagnosed with a long technical name which means my stomach and digestive system is operating too slowly.
I have been given a regimen of drugs to take 30 minutes before meals to try to prevent attacks.
Unfortunately, even after starting these drugs, I have had two attacks in the last two week, and had to be hospitalized in each case for a couple of days to get the nausea under control.
I think I can see some correlations for the attacks. In the first case, I had a meal with some ground beef (hamburger helper type of thing), and though the grease was poured off of the ground beef, I think it was still too greasy, and I think the grease factor set it off.
In the second case, my daughter was visiting from out of town and we had a big dinner and I think I just ate too much. My doctor tells me now to stop eating the moment I feel satisfied, and to plan to each up to 6 small meals a day to recover some of the 40 pounds I have lost since the attacks started in early July.
I bought a Vitamix blender, and am fixing many of my meals as smoothies to ease digestion. That seems to be working so far; I have not had an attack after a smoothie meal. Any day that nausea stays at bay is a good one, and it has been four days since I got out of the hospital from the last attack. So I am hopeful that the current drugs, small meals and smoothies, and low fat will keep me out of the hospital. Your thoughts and prayers are very welcome!
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EM is not in good shape right now. I'm sending him my best wishes for him to heal quick. I'll surly miss him untill he's back.
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His oct 8th post seemed to indicate a positive direction being taken. Im sorry to hear it got worse
I got a taste of how infuriating the doctors and medical people can be recently when a close relative was injured on old rusted equipment and then even infected and when she went in the first time, was told to just go home and wash it ::) Now on antibiotics and stuff to fix it, and keeps getting brushed aside and not taken seriously. If they would just go the distance and really fix the problem when it comes it the first time it would save alot of headache
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Does anyone have another way to try to contact EM? We're all pretty concerned, given the givens...
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I dont think he is in condition to be contacted right now. But Ill be enquiring his thoughter (who has been posting for him) as time passes.
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Has anyone heard anything? I'm EXTREMELY concerned...
There's nothing on his Facebook page, so I messaged him.
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I am sort of back for now. I am checking my email, and was thinking about checking the forum.
My health is poor, so I am on disability from work right now. I will try to answer specific inquiries if you have them.
I am not up to starting another game right now, and am sorry if I let some games I had going lapse. I always hate it when it happens to me, and hope I did not let too many people down.
Thanks for thinking and praying for me. I will try to resume any game that anyone brings to my attention, but will not be starting any new games for now.
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:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
:danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc: :danc:
This is news worthy a fifty-Lal post. I mean, I'm sorry you're still sick, but I was worried that you were dead. I hope you're at least able to follow the forum and comment a little. It's great to have you back.
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Monty Python-Bring out your dead! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs#)
Sorry, couldn't resist. :D Glad you're still around, Earthmichael. ;b; Hope you get better.
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Keep kickin', EM. :)
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awesome :-)
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It's not because we don't post here that we don't think about you.
Get well soon!
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