teslabox

The use of synthetic emulsifiers in the modern food supply is one of at least four 'health elephants in the room'. While the others get a token amount of coverage, the problem of synthetic emulsifiers is the one that I've noticed the least amount of discussion of.

I went to a low-end gluten free restaurant/store and noticed the Costco heavy whipping cream in their cooler. A lot of small businesses seem to outsource aspects of their enterprise to Costco. The tragedy of Costco's conventional heavy whipping cream is that it has a trifecta of synthetic emulsifiers.

Do any of you make an effort to avoid consumption of synthetic emulsifiers?

My latest 'free' computer motherboard has an i7-6700K, with integrated graphics. I tried to run Resolve 20 but it complained about my not having a real GPU. I ended up getting an Intel Arc B580 for around $300, which I thought was a better value than getting a used GPU off eBay.

Going to look at this version, as I haven't gone through the tutorials yet, so the assistants would be quite helpful.

It's important to build on solid foundations, rather than on faulty assumptions. My experience is the standard medical approach to lung problems is basically wrong.

There was a submission ~6 years ago about using ethanol to sanitize people's lungs as a treatment for COVID-19. One of the comments shared a college story about how they were coerced into treating their sniffles with a spoon and vodka: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22745834

In early 2020 I started advocating using the classic herbal treatment for lung problems: apple brandy inhaled from a charred oak keg. The theory is simply that the ethanol is an antiseptic, and the apple and oak flavoring compounds stimulate the lungs to repair themselves.

I found a manufacturer and started selling little 3L kegs. My first customer asked, "can I try it?" I warned that the ethanol burns before you get used to it. I was impressed that he was able to fill his lungs with apple brandy fumes without coughing the first time. After a moment of held breath he darted off. When he came back 1 or 2 minutes later he said, "I'll take one".

He was a big guy. His problem was getting winded between his car and the store. That he could walk for one or two minutes on lungs filled with apple brandy fumes, when he couldn't normally walk without getting winded while breathing normally, was incredible.

2 hours later he called back. The husband of the woman he'd been the driver for that day was ~70 year old husband and coughing himself to death with a case of the COPD. He'd quit smoking ~20 years before, but his lungs never recovered.

Both of these men's lung conditions rapidly improved after they started inhaling apple brandy fumes. After he started huffing on apple brandy 4x/day, the COPD fellow's coughs went away, and his skin went from 'gray' to 'pink'. The other fellow caught the COVID-19 in June or July that year. I heard his lung capacity score was fantastic, the virus was just hitting his kidneys. He survived his hospitalization.

The modern tool that facilitates the inhalation of apple brandy is a nebulizer.

Different story: in 2021/2022 I was emailed by a woman who'd found my youtube video. In 2023 she came out to Arizona to visit, then to stay permanently. She always assumed that her lung problems were related to the asbestos she'd inhaled on 9/11. But since she's started using the apple brandy barrel, she's only had to use her inhaler once in the past 3 years: when she got a lung full of hairspray in the gym's bathroom.

As the submission in the link above indicated at the start of COVID-19, treatment with inhaled ethanol is a reasonable initial treatment for respiratory problems.

John Gatto's books and talks are all very insightful. His old website had the full text of The Underground History of American Education for free.

Archive.org crawled the site: https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/johntaylorgatto.... (check the versions from maybe 10 years ago...)

IIRC he had a stroke, and finally passed away. Now https://JohnTaylorGatto.com redirects to his youtube channel.

My understanding is the bleeding risk associated with aspirin can be addressed by taking Vitamin K.

I was looking at used video cards to use with Davinci Resolve, then I noticed that Intel's latest GPU was a good value. Last week I bought an Intel Arc B580 card.

What's the problem with Apple's .mov files and DaVinci? I just ran into this last night.

Handbrake has too many options, so I'll definitely try out your utility.

Years ago I read a comment here sharing how they'd taken to wearing amber glasses when walking at night, so they could be protected against the excessively-blue LED streetlights in their neighborhood. I bought amber safety glasses. They magically took the shock out of the bad headlights, but I also noticed that I wasn't seeing pedestrians until it was too late.

My local sunglass shop had some yellow fit-over safety glasses. I found they cut out enough of the blue from the bad headlights to take the shock out of the experience of driving at night. https://cocoons.com/shop/safety/lightguard-medium-fitovers-l...

Harbor Freight's $2 yellow safety glasses are almost as good. I intend to stock up the next time I notice they're on sale for $1: https://www.harborfreight.com/yellow-lens-safety-glasses-668...

4 years ago I asked HN why the automotive industry wasn't using safe LEDs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405

The activists at /r/fuckyourheadlights figured out that the weaponized headlights put a little dim spot at the center of their headlight beams, exactly where the regulators measure the light intensity.

2nd picture clearly shows the dim spot: https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/1hefn86...

Summary of research: https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/18lrf3d...

Halogen bulbs do dim out as they age. The most common problem with modern headlights is the plastic covers get oxidized (cloudy) due to sun exposure. The cloudyness blocks some of the light from the bulbs, and scatters the rest.

https://www.theautodoc.net/blog/why-do-headlights-become-clo...

The other problem is that some bulbs are just not very good - the filaments aren't properly positioned, or they don't have a good spectral output.

3M has a kit for polishing the haze off headlights with a drill, and for restoring the UV protection layer [0]. Dan Stern [1] told me it's really better to just get a new OEM headlight.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/3M-39008-Headlight-Restoration-System...

[1] https://www.danielsternlighting.com/

Human eyes are hypersensitive to blue-white light, but the old lighting science found that orange-yellow light is best for humans in a low-light environment.

I saw a car with terrible headlights, so I started a recording to see if there was flicker (which sometimes indicates that they're aftermarket). The light turned green, the car pulled forward & leveled out, and the headlights became less blinding. It was just a regular Hyundai SUV:

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/1mshs0v...

My theory is the manufacturers' marketing departments went to the engineers and said "we can't sell cars with safe headlights anymore, please make the next model's headlights seem brighter than they actually are."

Blue-white headlights are actually much less functional for human vision than yellow/amber headlights, so the engineers had to use the regulatory loophole to exponentially increase the output of their marketing-imposed blue-white lights.

I think if you look for "New Zealand artisanal turpentine" you could find a supplier for rosin. For example: https://www.ribbonrose.co.nz/product/65514/langridge-distill...

I’m not sure what you mean. This submission had fallen to the second page, without any substantial comments.

Are the HN comments cautioning about Tylenol now invalid because President Trump shared the same sentiments?

Defending Tylenol seems like an odd hill to plant your flag on.

According to the article:

  “There are other rosins made from paper mills, where they grind pulp and extract 
  it with sulphuric acid. That rosin, you don’t want to use for potatoes,” 
  explains Baker [...]

Diamond G Forest Products is an artisanal turpentine / rosin producer (also mentioned in the article): https://diamondgforestproducts.com/

> there's no reason to punish the vastly outnumbering population who can follow directions and take it safely.

If you take two pills of extra strength Tylenol (2x500mg) every six hours as directed by the instructions, you’ve reached the threshold for liver injury.

Around 50,000 people a year (U.S.) visit the ER for having poisoned themselves with acetaminophen. A lot of people harm themselves without realizing it. I warned a friend about her Tylenol habit, which helped her connect “dizziness” to the Tylenol she’d just taken.

There is no row over Tylenol: there are comments on HN going back for at least 13 years how this drug would probably not be approved if an application was submitted today.

I've joked that if you're an old person trapped in a nursing home, one strategy to get yourself out of there is by cheeking a bunch of tylenol until you have enough, then taking them all at once. 4000mg/day starts to damage the liver. 10,000 mg can lead to liver failure. A pharmacist told me that Tylenol-induced liver failure is not a very pleasant way to die.

There are 2016/2017 tweets by @Tylenol about how the drug shouldn't be used during pregnancy: https://x.com/tylenol/status/839196906702127106 https://x.com/tylenol/status/773897927420841985

This thread was started by someone who commented on how Eric Engstrom (the co-creator of DirectX) accidentally euthanized himself with Tylenol: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25424258

FDA: Acetaminophen one of the most dangerous drugs on the market, March 26, 2023: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35309904

"[...] we can get away with things that we wouldn't be able to get away with nowadays. There's a lot of stuff that's like this; for instance, paracetamol/Tylenol would probably not be approved if it was introduced now because it's really easy to accidentally overdose on." August 6, 2012: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4347943

When I was helping my dad with various windows 10 problems, he was constantly touching the screen in exasperation. These touches only created more problems.

I deactivated his touchscreen. He’s never complained about his screen not responding like it used to.

I still see him touching the screens, but it doesn’t respond anymore.

The switch to high-blue light sources is a tragedy.

Soy becomes edible when it's fermented into soysauce. Soybeans that aren't fermented are potent sources of phytoestrogens, which are plant chemicals that cause our tissues to swell sort of like estrogen.

Birds are better able to consume soy because they have faster metabolisms than humans. Pigs that are bred for food are able to consume soy because pig farmers don't care about the long-term health of their animals.

Most of the soybeans grown in the US are roundup-ready, so they're contaminated with glyphosate.

Iirc the mild poisons in nightshades trigger the learned helplessness response in people who are on the jagged edge of sobriety.

I think I remember where I read this - check your protonmail address.

Nightshades are problematic for stressed and old people because the plants have mild poisons. Old people and addicts tend to not be able to handle the poisons in tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and chilis.

But for people that are nightshade-tolerant potatoes are an excellent food crop.

IIRC, someone was annoyed that do-gooders wanted to remove potatoes from the food stamp programs, because the potato is actually an almost-complete food. This has morphed into The Potato Diet, which calls for eating potatoes and only potatoes for a short period of time.

  From the start of October through November in 2010, 
  Voigt consumed only spuds, a few basic seasonings 
  and small amounts of oil for cooking. His endeavor 
  drew attention from NBC’s Today Show, CBS News, Fox, 
  NPR and the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
  
  Voigt documented his journey through a blog 
  ( 20potatoesaday.com ). Tired of potatoes 
  getting a bad rap as being nothing but fattening 
  starch and carbs, he wanted to make a statement 
  that proved potatoes were very nutritious.

- https://spudman.com/article/all-potato-diet-eight-years-late...

At least he gave credit to HN, so the diaspora could find the source. The article is interesting. I think more needs to be said about how our eyes perceive color w.r.t. led lighting.

I agree that there are lots of useless things in cars, but the tire pressure sensors on my base trim 2013 Honda recently saved me a big headache.

I recently pulled out of a business and the "low tire pressure light" turned on right away. "Hmm?" My next stop was 1/4 mile away, and it still felt okay. At the next parking lot I checked all the tires with my gauge and found one was 10psi low. On closer inspection the nail was right on top. Sure enough I'd picked up a little nail. It was a slow leak, and I wouldn't have heard the hiss. If not for the sensor I might not have noticed I'd gotten a flat until I got on the freeway.

PSA: Check your spare's air pressure. Mine was supposed to be 60psi. It had 40psi, which was good enough to get me to the tire store. I checked the spare when I got home - the tire repair crew had bumped it up to 55psi.

My dad was leaving on a trip recently. Because 'spare tire psi' was on my mind I checked his spare - it was only 25psi.

Apparently the low light performance of the full-frame Sonys is a combination of IBIS (mechanical in-body image stabilization) and Back-Side Illuminated (BSI) sensors. The Sony A6600 (APC) has IBIS, the A6700 adds BSI. Other camera manufacturers also offer BSI sensors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-illuminated_sensor

Saccharin was the first artificial sweetener, discovered in 1879. It was popular in the early 20th century, and is available today as Sweet'n'Low or "the pink packet" (generics). The chemical has an advocacy group: https://saccharin.org/ - the latest news is that Canadians can now use saccharin too (2016). Walmart and Amazon have boxes of bulk sweet'n'low for baking/etc.

~4 weeks ago I reposted a submission about Aspartame: Aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation (sciencedirect.com) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43313574

My comment tried to put saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium and sucralose into context. Aspartame is not heat stable, so it's often combined with acesulfame-K. The diet soda industry standardized on aspartame in the 1980's because saccharin has a metallic aftertaste. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43313575

I think saccharin is probably the safest of all the artificial sweeteners. Stevia and monk fruit extracts (herbal sweeteners) are probably okay too, as long as you're not allergic to them.

If you want to try saccharin-sweetened beverages, I've noticed that zero sugar tonic waters at my local grocery store (brand name and generic) use saccharin.

Aspartame (1965) was approved by the US FDA in 1974/1981. This is commonly paired with acesulfame-K (1967) to provide sweetness in low-calorie drinks and sodas.

Saccharin (1879) was the first artificial sweetener, followed by cylcamate (1937). Low calorie sodas (Tab, etc) using these sweeteners were introduced in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 1980’s diet sodas sweetened with the combination of aspartame and acesulfame-K reached the market.

This is at about the time the obesity epidemic took off. Correlation != causation. I think it’s interesting that the introduction and increased consumption of diet drinks paced the increase in America’s waistlines. U.S. adult obesity rates went from 15% to 30.5% to 41.9% (1980/2000/2020). U.S. childhood obesity went from 5.5% to 13.9% to 19.7% in the same period.

Others have made a case that aspartame, acesulfame-K and sucralose (discovered in 1976, US approval 1998) play a role in the etiology (causation) of the obesity epidemic: people who want to lose a few pounds switched their beverage consumption to artificially sweetened low-calorie drinks. The insulin released by the sweet taste of aspartame lowers people’s blood sugar level, thereby amplifying their hunger. This causes the diet-soda drinker to consume more total calories than if they’d had a HFCS-sweetened beverage.

There are certainly more important contributing factors to “the obesity epidemic”, but I think this is an example of simplistic science: it's technically accurate that low calorie sweeteners have fewer calories than sugar, but they are not that helpful for weight loss. I'd wager it'd be better to consume an 8oz can of HFCS soda than 12oz of 'diet' soda.

Do any of you have any n=1 stories of success or failure using artificial sweeteners? How about herbal sweeteners? If you regularly consume diet sodas, do you combine your diet drink with calories, or is most of your aspartame consumption on an empty stomach?

About four years ago I went to the Costco optometrist for a contact lens prescription. The O.D. said I was at the age where people start needing reading glasses, but I passed on those. It was the strongest prescription I'd ever had. After the appointment I put the contacts in the case and wore my weak glasses for the rest of the week. The day before the check appointment I put them back on my eyes - everything was crystal clear, but I couldn't read my phone.

The check appointment was with the practice's other O.D. I said the prescription would've been great for sniper shooting, but I just needed something to read the computer monitor. "You want an intermediate-range prescription." It was better, but still too strong. I used the curvature measurement to order my own prescription from one of the online contact stores. Three years later I upped my prescription by a quarter diopter.

Contact pro-tip: I use my contacts for 1.5 to 2x the rated time. Daily contacts can't be used for more than a day. 2 week contacts are good for at least 3 weeks. I've found my monthly contacts are good for at least 6 weeks. I've started using the hydrogen peroxide contact solutions: https://clearcaresolution.myalcon.com/

> even though your prescription is "correct"?

Most people have a range of prescriptions that they find acceptable. Some people's visual mechanism only 'likes' a specific prescription that might not correct them to 20/20. Developmental Optometry is a sub-specialty of optometry that considers more than acuity. This is a overview: https://www.theottoolbox.com/behavioral-optometrist-developm...

My contacts correct to 20/40 or 20/50, which are good enough for most tasks.

I've gotten back to the hotel, and I take back this comment. The hotel wifi does not seem to actually route the ipv6 address it assigns.

I bought this laptop at an electronics recycler. It came with a verizon SIM card, with service that's still working. So this ipv6 address is from Verizon, not the hotel.