hyrix

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Tobacco plant can produce five psychedelics, including psilocybin and DMT phys.org

46 hyrix 5 months ago 11 comments

Comment · 5 months ago

Pairs well with https://phys.org/news/2026-04-tobacco-psychedelics-psilocybi... !

Harvard faculty vote to cap number of A's thecrimson.com

2 hyrix 5 months ago 1 comments

Comment · 5 months ago

There's a significant difference in the risk and mechanisms of transmission between these two viruses. The modern effective reproductive number for HIV is less than 1, about 30-50% lower than ebola in similar subsaharan countries [1][2]. You can get ebola from contact with an infected person's sweat during the active phase [3]. You can get it from their semen years after they have apparently recovered [4]. We don't have treatments that work in this longer term. The drugs that we do have are used during the active infection period to reduce the probability of death during the crisis. Folks are working on reducing the longer term infectiousness but it's a ways off yet [5]. We also don't have pre- or post-exposure prophylactic treatments for the medical workers who are at the highest risk of infection or the family members--the most common transmission mechanisms for ebola are home caregiving and contact with traditional burial practices. In this context of containing an active outbreak, quarantine is mostly helpful in reducing pressure on the medical system for a short term.

Compare this with HIV, which can be rendered untransmittable with modern treatments, which is primarily a sexually transmitted disease, which has pre- and post-exposure treatments. It's simply not very efficient/effective to exile millions of people with a lifelong latent infection and little risk of transmission.

The instinct towards ostracism of those who are perceived as unclean is some pretty primordial lizard brain shit which was a great rule of thumb two thousand years ago, along with wearing garments made of only one kind of material. It's actually actively harmful to the process of stopping infection. It leads to fear, distrust, and reduced reporting, hindering the medical system's ability to reach the people who most need to be reached, and encouraging the spread of superstition and suspicion of pre- and post-exposure treatments. In both diseases, the actual infection risk is modest compared to an airborne virus like COVID.

[1] https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/Abstract/2022/03000/Estimatin...

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34189844/

[3] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4252165/

[4] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7875361/

[5] https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/73/10/1849/6168541?logi...

Comment · 9 months ago

These chemicals are derived from plants where even pedants would classify them as poisons.

The genus name Boophone is from the Greek bous = ox, and phontes= killer of, a clear warning that eating the plant can be fatal to livestock.

Comment · 1 year ago

Just a couple of bros, traveling the countryside in each other's company. History is full of such roommates.

Just the other day we were thinking about how recent generations have gotten more conservative: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45734620

The author proposes that it may reflect the incredible stability we've enjoyed in recent decades, which rewards more conservative "life planning":

> Our super-safe environments may fundamentally shift our psychology. When you’re born into a land of milk and honey, it makes sense to adopt what ecologists refer to as a “slow life history strategy”—instead of driving drunk and having unprotected sex, you go to Pilates and worry about your 401(k). People who are playing life on slow mode care a lot more about whether their lives end, and they care a lot more about whether their lives get ruined. Everything’s gotta last: your joints, your skin, and most importantly, your reputation. That makes it way less enticing to screw around, lest you screw up the rest of your time on Earth.