Interesting Links for 23-03-2018

[andrewducker]

Lara Croft lives dangerously in this amazing, animated Tomb Raider LEGO diorama

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We should absolutely be putting lithium in the drinking water

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Meet SoFi - the soft robot fish

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Council tax burden for poorest households in London six times more than highest earners

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When a black voice actor was asked to sound white for an advert

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The day it finally sinks in that dude "informal" friend networks are the main vehicle by which women are "innocently" and systematically excluded from professional advancement will be a big day for humanity

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Video suggests huge problems with Uber’s driverless car program

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How the chili spread from its South American home and spiced up world cuisine

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Key symptom of old age reversed 'surprisingly easily' (in mice)

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Stopping exercise can increase symptoms of depression

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The “lone hacker” who gave WikiLeaks the stolen Democrat emails was a Russian military intelligence officer

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Attending grammar school may not boost chance of good GCSE grades

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Restricted by YouTube, Gun Enthusiasts Are Taking Their Videos to Pornhub

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This cheap, brief “growth mindset” intervention shifted struggling students onto a more successful trajectory

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Facebook was storing date about users phone calls and texts

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Poland's Economic Experiment, Starring Thomas Piketty

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Why Brexit may mean more public contracts going to foreign companies

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Comments

[lilysea]

We should absolutely be putting lithium in the drinking water

I strongly disagree. A significant cohort in the population is taking prescription lithium (eg for bipolar disorder), adding it to drinking water would place these individuals at high risk of lithium toxicity.

The [therapeutic dose of lithium] and [the dose required to cause lithium toxicity] are ALREADY very similar, adding lithium to drinking water would push a lot of people over the line.

"Chronic toxicity occurs when you slowly take a little too much lithium prescription every day for a while. This is actually quite easy to do, because dehydration, other medicines, and other conditions can easily affect how your body handles lithium. These factors can make the lithium build up to harmful levels in your body.

CHRONIC TOXICITY

There will likely not be any stomach or intestinal symptoms. Symptoms that can occur include:

Increased reflexes
Slurred speech
Uncontrolled shaking (tremors)

In severe cases of chronic toxicity, there may also be nervous system and kidney problems, such as:

Kidney failure
Memory problems
Movement disorders
Problems keeping salts in your body
Psychosis (disturbed thought processes, unpredictable behavior)"

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002667.htm

[andrewducker]

Do they lower the dosage in areas with naturally occurring high lithium levels in the water?

[lilysea]

Not to my knowledge.

Lithium is prescribed at X dose, increased if it does not have the desired effect, decreased if there is lithium toxicity.

Compounding the issue: people taking prescription lithium experience a LOT MORE thirst, and drink A LOT MORE tap water, than people not taking prescription lithium.

I know someone who takes lithium, and I've seen them get lithium toxicity on multiple occasions. It's very serious, and has prematurely aged them - they are in their 70s, but functionally 15 years older than their same-age peers.

[andrewducker]

Not lowering it to deal with natural levels seems appallingly dangerous in that case. I wonder why they don't!

[lilysea]

Honestly? I suspect it's either

a) has never occurred to them and/or

b) an individuals ability to cope with lithium already varies so much due to
- other medications
- kidney function
- liver function
- age
- body weight
that there's no one size fits all dose...

[jjhunter]

Good question - in my experience, you get started on lithium at sub-therapeutic levels and then slowly do small, periodic dose increases until there's a positive effect, with the prescribing doctor keeping an eagle eye out for whether you're one of the small but highly significant minority of people who have very bad side effects and should stop taking it immediately.

Anyway, it's the kind of prescription tuning that works well if any environmental/non-prescription lithium intake is relatively consistent, but it might be a problem if you move from a low lithium level in the drinking water to a high lithium level in the drinking water and were unaware of it.

[lilysea]

Somewhat tangentially, did you see this? The author is a mental health professional.

"Lead poisoning can manifest as psychiatric illness: and this usually goes undiagnosed"
https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1388220.html

"Psychiatrists are failing in their duty to consider lead (and other similar biological causes) as a cause of some mental illnesses"
https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1394433.html

[dewline]

And lead poisoning may have been affecting our global situation for decades, if not longer.

Informal networks

[agoodwinsmith]

The day will never dawn until we stop segregating children by sex or age or ethnicity or any other reason to deal with one group different than the rest, for any purpose whatsoever. Catholic bingo players hang with catholic bingo players; soccer moms hang with soccer moms; sorority girls hang with sorority girls; blah de blah de blah. People who are in the group need to want to include people who are not in the group - which is not how groups operate.

On the other hand, if a female academic only invited female cronies to speak at a conference - you would be able to hear the howling all the way over here.

[armiphlage]

I'm not quite sure - in this context, what is a grammar school?

[andrewducker]

At age 11 you take an exam, and the top X% get to go to grammar schools, while the rest get to go to a rubbish school where nobody feels like they have any potential.

[armiphlage]

WTF? I hope that they cancel that grammar school pilot then, before it can spread.

[andrewducker]

Grammar schools have existed in the UK since the 40s.
There are about 160 of them left.

[armiphlage]

Eek!