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xanthopanon FDA to Ban Juul, Flavored E-Cigarettes If Industry Doesn't Change

Last I checked, nicotine isn't carcinogenic. It's the tobacco that kills you. Or, at least, there isn't enough research yet to say that nicotine alone is harmful enough.

So I may be playing devil's advocate here, but isn't this a net improvement over the last few decades? Kids getting hooked on something that's significantly less deadly? It's not ideal, sure, but it's better than a slew of cancer epidemics.

What is the FDA trying to achieve?

xanthopanon 'Mindful people' feel less pain

Maybe only tangentially related, but Michael Pollan's recent book about psychedelics "How To Change Your Mind" goes in-depth on this. There's something about being able to quiet the "default mode network" that lends the mind to transcendental/creative thought. The same effect can be achieved through meditation or breathwork.

xanthopanon What Came First: The Village or the Temple? Or, the Mystery of Göbekli Tepe

i'd bet that proto-beer and proto-bread appeared around the same time, and techniques were developed over generations to calibrate different recipes until they resembled what we might recognize as "beer" and "bread" today.

xanthopanon Crying in H Mart

> America in 1950 had orders of magnitudes less diagnosed depression than America in 2018

America in 1950 also had orders of magnitude less access to medical professionals for proper diagnosis.

And,

- The theory was still fairly nascent. "Major depressive disorder" wasn't termed until the 70s.

- Depression and anxiety were much more stigmatized back then. Men were told to "man up".

- Husbands could medicate/institutionalize their wives just because they were "hysterical".

I'd say we had a long way to go back then, and we still have a long way to go.

xanthopanon I'm Wil Wheaton. I Live with Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed

> In most other contexts we encounter, stuffing an adjective in there means "NOT".

I think that's less a comment on grammar and more about how there's a tendency to name stuff that is similar to other stuff, yet markedly different, in oxymoronic ways. For example:

"virtual reality", "business ethics", "educational television", "military intelligence", "magic realism"

xanthopanon Ask HN: What are you reading?

Recently finished The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte and How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. I would have been embarrassed to have been caught reading the latter given the subject matter, despite how influential he's been on how I think about food, but it was a real insightful treat.

Currently reading The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South and Safe Area Goražde, a comic book about the Bosnian War.

Also reading Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy in between books, but that's a book I'll never really finish.

xanthopanon Ask HN: What's your hobby?

* Trail Running

* Yoga

* Cooking

* Gardening

* Photography

* Reading

I've found that a lot of my hobbies are inextricably related to one another in some way, like a strange loop :)

xanthopanon Bankruptcy Booms Among Older Americans

there aren't riots over the state of elder care because the elderly can't riot

xanthopanon Is Vertical Farming Really the Future of Agriculture?

1. OTOH, it also means there's now a need for manual pollination.

xanthopanon Ask HN: What are the best hacks to fight depression?

I can attest to this. I've struggled with anxiety/depression/insomnia/adhd for years, and over the past couple years I've learned that careful attention to exercise, diet, and sleep are the most reliable ways I can ensure a healthy baseline.

I used to run a couple miles in the morning and evenings, on streets, until I injured my leg. So I switched to hiking after my leg recovered. Short 2-3 mile hikes turned into 12 mile stretches, which turned into short trail runs, and now I'm running 5-6 miles of trails 2x a week and 12+ mile runs/hikes on weekends (I'm secretly training for an ultra). I'd always thought I'd hate running, because it was too strenuous or something, but I haven't looked back. Maybe I'm just literally running away from my problems, but, it's far more rewarding in any case.

xanthopanon Show HN: Recursive Recipes – directions to make food from scratch

feed and water are very expensive, as is the calf

xanthopanon Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030

> they started falling apart within weeks

isn't that kind of the point?

xanthopanon This is not a place of honor

From my understanding, the reason it hasn't been opened yet is to preserve whatever's inside, not so much out of fear for mercury poisoning. For instance, the terracotta army was actually painted before it was excavated [1], but the paint curled and flaked off within minutes of opening the mausoleum, leaving us with a sea of drab stone statues. I think they're just waiting until they have the tech to properly preserve the interior.

[1] http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-09/09/content_112783...

xanthopanon Why Are We Fighting the Crypto Wars Again?

As far as international rights go, but what happens if this is in conflict with federal law?

xanthopanon Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years

I'm sure Lord Howe lost much more than just one species of tree lobster.