Humodour

Such doses of nutmeg damage the brain though (or was it the liver?). That's fair enough, but whether or not a drug damages the body/brain is actually not dependent on its strength, rather its method of action and often duration. Salvia uses opioid receptors which makes it a rather unique drug. Salvinorin A (the drug at work in Salvia Divinorum) does not cause any organ damage (i.e. no neurotoxocity), and it doesn't seem to last anywhere near long enough to be liable for changes in gene regulation. Most dissociatives (Salvia is not a psychedelic) actually can cause organ damage, so your suspicion is justified. E.g. ketamine, PCP, dextromethorphan, nitrous oxide/laughing gas. Specifically read about Olney's lesions. Salvia is not like these because it uses an opioid receptor instead of NMDA receptors. Interestingly, shrooms and LSD (psychedelics based on 5-HT receptors) actually prevent Olney's lesions from forming. I don't think the red one is Divinorum - it's been growing in my backyard for years. It grew at my primary school and I used to pick the flowers and suck the ends of them because the nectar tasted like honey. Divinorum looks to have blue/purple flowers.

That's not really true. I've never used it, but it only lasts about 5 to 20 minutes and then the person is essentially normal again, feeling a bit nauseous. I've heard it's interesting but not especially 'fun'. It's become en vogue to ban it in Western countries recently but I really don't see the point. One reporter who tried it said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WruyjJwyf0M So funny.

It's not fully mapped out yet, but it really seems to be the case that people with ADHD have brains that are actually under stimulated. That's why stimulants work: they produce enough dopamine and noradrenaline to get the levels up to normal (which is also why instead of speeding the person up they might just slow them down as they now have enough neurotransmitters to focus as a normal person does). Somebody with ADHD is hyperactive because nothing can hold their attention (stimulate them) for long. Normal people on speed are hyperactive because everything captures their attention (stimulates them). It's an interesting distinction. Another thing is that about 80% of cases of ADHD seem to be genetic. What you suggest is, however, environmental.

You're not reaching me?! It looks like you didn't even read my post!

By the sound of it I should be able to get more like 50 hours or more out of it.

Geez. My average class is 34. 37 is my upper limit. I need to teach where you live! Wow. Is that high-school or university? Those class sizes make sense for university (in fact they're small!) but certainly not high-school (even 20 is too large to effectively reach and cater to every kid IMHO).

Then wouldn't it make sense to tell me what your argument was instead of what it wasn't? From what I can read your argument is most likely that email is "good enough" and that people don't need extra features. Somehow I doubt that holds water. Take a look at the Instant Messenger market. Take a look at the mobile phone market, take a look at the operating system market, the word processor market - people like extra features. Google provided the best start possible for Wave by making it backwards compatible with email by design. Vendors will probably start coding emails as Waves instead without you even knowing it. And when you do, nobody will be forcing you to use those extra features, but they'll be available for those who do want to use them. So I guess I'm betting on two things here: 1) people will want to use it, 2) 'people' generally don't decide protocol formats and standards anyway (did consumers decide on SMTP or POP or IMAP or HTML?); programmers using those protocols do, and programmers love elegance and efficiency (they hate coding the same thing multiple times)... they also love new features. Look at Internet Explorer. It loaded web pages. It didn't do much else, but it did its job. Along came some new browsers that added loads of extra features (some agreed as standard by de facto, some implemented based on new, better standards) and suddenly IE is bleeding market share (people/users) all over the place to these browsers until it finally gets upgraded to start conforming to new standards, protocols and add new features. And the biggest champion of these new standards is web developers and web vendors. Microsoft will resist Google Wave with all its might (MS hates open standards because they can't be controlled nor locked to their products), but Microsoft's might is turning out to be worth less and less these days. Hotmail, MSN, and Exchange will continuously lose market share to new applications that utilise the full power of a free and open universal communications standard until Microsoft gives in and sluggishly starts implementing it to stem the bleeding.

Mes: You'd be feisty too if you had to contend constantly with people claiming ADHD is fake and you're just lazy whenever they find out you have it (Dagon did it in this very thread for example). I still disagree with you, anyway. ADHD is overprescribed but not to the magnitude you imply. For starters, only 1/5th of patients with ADHD (which is itself about 5% of the population) are actually prescribed drugs. Of that 1% that's on stimulants, it's relatively easy for a doctor to tell if their diagnosis was correct or they got it wrong and something else is at play like semi-deafness or laziness: as I said, when you've got ADHD, drugs generally work - when you don't have it, you won't see a lick of improvement and indeed you'll get worse. Even assuming the doctor is unethical enough to try and continue prescribing a case where it isn't actually ADHD, I doubt the parents have the patience to pay for a drug that makes their kid more hyperactive, impulsive and inattentive because it's not meant for him. The claims of ADHD being 'overdiagnosed' are greatly exaggerated. Yes, it's millions. With a genetic prevalence rate of 3% to 10% worldwide that's something like 500 million people with ADHD. In somewhere like America that gives you 15 million people with ADHD and 3 million on medication for it. It's unfortunate that so many people have ADHD, but I see little point fretting about the downfall of modern civilisation because the number is in the millions rather than the some other arbitrary magnitude like thousands. Medication of ADHD didn't start because society was 'boring' and capitalistic - it started in the 60's and 70's when researchers made breakthroughs in understanding ADHD, so I don't see how medication is a manifestation of anything more than a sound neurological understanding of the disorder. My average class size was 20 people. 5% of 20 is 1. I.e. the average class will have a kid with ADHD in it. And then you've got things like clinical depression, sociopathy, autism, deafness, etc. Bemoan the existence of kids with disorders in classes all you want, but they'll exist regardless of whether they're given treatment. At least if they're given treatment their lives can be better. Let's see...

How about I call you silly instead for presuming any disorder with an acronym is fake? Suppose we called it 'Hypodopaminism' instead, would that be all fine and dandy with you? Anyone calling themselves a human being has had, or is currently having one or several of these symptoms. Anyone can distil a description of a disorder into something so general it applies to many things if they really try (go ahead, try it with Asperger's syndrome - there's only one or two diagnostic criteria different to ADHD). You've certainly done that here by referring to a less than one page summary of ADHD traits to reach your conclusion. Unfortunately, I think some doctors do the same, only lending further to the problem. Anybody who prescribes solely a drug as treatment for ADHD should have their medical license revoked. You need at least 2 components: behavioural change (effort by the person), chemical change (methylphenidate, atmoxetine, amphetamines, etc). Drugs will do nothing if the person isn't also actively trying to make the best of their situation. Would you like to know why amphetamine class drugs are prescribed for ADHD? It's actually not because they chose some random illicit drug and decided "let's prescribe this". Indeed, if they were going to do that they'd probably chose some sort of depressant rather than a stimulant. Still, lucky they prescribe a stimulant, because it quite neatly cuts to the core of the matter: normal people become hyperactive on speed (I'm pretty sure you won't argue with me here), people with ADHD slow down. That mere observation alone should be enough to put to rest your doubts that ADHD exists, or that medications work, but I have a feeling you'll continue to scoff and see ADHD as an 'excuse' and call people with it lazy. ADHD as a disorder has existed in medical literature for something like 80 years, and was certainly prescribed during the period you speak of. What a claim! Are you now going to claim clinical depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are mere shams, too? I guess you know more than every psychiatrist alive (and many dead), after all.

When I do that I always forget to look at my hand.

I believe you're incorrect for the simple reason that email can be completely emulated inside Google Wave.

It takes a special kind of abject ignorance to confuse ADHD with laziness these days, given the wealth of neurological research on the topic. Filthy lies, you're a witch! Now I have to turn you into a frog so the secret doesn't get out.

They found the wreckage. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0352999720090603 I'm not flying Quantas anymore (OK so I last flew when I was 4 but) since this plane was the same model as Quantas planes and crashed for likely the same reason two Quantas planes have undergone inexplicable mid-air plummets recently (nobody died, many were injured). Basically it seems as though the 'subconscious autopilot' (always on, not overridable, kicks in by default during certain emergencies) malfunctions sometimes by getting confused into thinking there's an emergency when there's not, going into a dive. If this malfunction happens during an actual emergency (e.g. a lightning strike as in the Brazil-France flight), it basically tears the plane apart. I hope they fix this **** soon, but without knowing the exact details it will be hard. And the exact details are on the black box and flight recorders. And apparently those will be as hard to find and recovery as the Titanic. Even if they do recover them, it may not help much - the two Quantas planes were intact but still gave few clues.

OK, I'm definitely buying this game. I thought it looked potentially **** when they first announced it, but I was completely wrong.

Holy **** this game is so ****ing awesome.

And a substantial number would prefer buying both upholstery and engine. Unix is such a joy to use compared to Windows.

I'd play that.

That's a pretty silly post to make considering that before it I recall only one person complaining about it being an MMO (Visceris, as usual) and everybody else going "wow" and "it's tyte". Edit: Oh, I see, ramza complimented the game while complaining it was an MMO as he'd prefer singleplayer. Well then, that's 1 person and 1 troll - certainly enough to validate your moan!

Jacqui Smith is a moron and he likes her so I'm not fond of him. Aside from that he just seems a bit incompetent and overly politically correct. He's certainly no economist. That, and his party has been in power for, like, 14 years. Certainly long after the time stagnation kicks in. It's just unfortunate that this probably means at least 6 years of the Tories in power. Edit: Blair was cool.

Same. I can really see the potential. And Google has just enough clout to get it adopted as the standard... not that it needs it considering how outdated email is and un-uniform other communication formats are. People will adopt naturally I think. Wait, SVN? Oh wow, I guess it does replace that, too! Not Git though - Wave seems a purely centralised protocol?

It takes a special kind of abject ignorance to confuse ADHD with laziness these days, given the wealth of neurological research on the topic.

You can feel guilty all you want, but that won't do you any good either way. If you've got ADHD then you're feeling guilty about your genetics. If you don't then you're working yourself into an unhealthy state of mind that's quite contrary to the one you're actually aiming for.

The last time I tried something like that, I came home with intricate patterns and designs on my arms, made with simple pen and ink. I know this sounds like I am stubbornly avoiding this possible solution to keep procrastinating, but everything has the potential to distract me. My current job is a 3D special effects artist on an animated short film, I work in a basement with bare walls except for two pieces of concept art. All I have there is a computer and a render farm. Yet sometimes I zone out for long periods of time, sometimes hours of just staring into nothingness. Or at least, if I am thinking about something, I forget about it when I snap out of it. Sounds like you've got ADHD like me. I actually thought this before reading the start of your post (I read your post from the bottom up for some reason). If you fit the criteria, you'd be amazed how well dexamphetamine (the typical adult prescription for ADHD) helps you focus. However, if it truly is a learned behaviour dexamphetamine would do nothing but worsen your lack of concentration. Certainly worth discussing with an ADHD specialist (generally psychiatrists over here).