3 ms·
Caution aside, speculatively this could mean that the serious issue of PFAS contamination in American water supplies made the pandemic worse than it would have
by tristor 4y ago
Caution aside, speculatively this could mean that the serious issue of PFAS contamination in American water supplies made the pandemic worse than it would have been otherwise. Obviously, even if the effect size is relatively large, this would be smaller than more obvious and direct contributors, but it's not nothing at population scale. It's really disconcerting to me that we spent decades using chemicals in everyday household products that are extremely unsafe in a myriad of ways, without even a warning, and we've effectively semi-permanently poisoned all of the major city water supplies in the US.
- alex_duf 4y agoWe seem to have the same attitude with all technologies. Be it a social network, a new type of AI, chemicals, fossil fuels or anything else really. First we release the product because we can make money, then problems appear as adoption ramps up. I find it wonderful we're still around to be honest. Now balancing progress with safety is something we're going to be debating for a few more centuries because no company can afford a thirty year study on a product to understand its long term effects on a population before production. So we're all the experiment.
- korroziya 4y agoFossil fuels provide us with cheap energy and the drawback (C02 emmissions) can be dealt with via carbon sequestration. Social media is alcohol for narcissists. It provides very little utility or value, and the drawbacks (depression, FOMO, etc) far outweigh any "benefit". Don't compare apples and oranges.
- neuronic 4y agoAh yes, the famous carbon sequestration technologies we are efficiently applying all over the world right now which have entirely prevented any effects of climate change. Amazing job everyone! /s
- prottog 4y agoLiterally billions of lives have been lifted out of poverty due to fossil fuels providing cheap energy. As long as we continue to have an abundance of energy, the effects of climate change will be successfully mitigated. People love to harp on fossil fuels but don't seem to want to admit that without it, everyone on the planet would still be suffering pre-industrial living standards and there would be vastly fewer of us.
- korroziya 4y agoI love how as soon as a technology appears which will allow us to keep using a cheap, dense, portable, reliable form of energy, the left-wing zealots come out of the woodwork to bitch and moan because it goes against their narrative and special interests.
- ericd 4y agoIf you study sequestration at all, you’ll find that it’s not going to be a silver bullet. It’ll be a small contributor, but reduction to zero is going to have to do most of the heavy lifting.
- brigandish 4y agoThat seems self contradictory as you're telling us this via a social network. If there really is very little utility or value that would suggest your comment to be of the same nature, which should then prompt a question as to why you posted it. Ironically, narcissism could explain that, but the alternative explanation is that there is value there, we just need to be more careful with it than we have been.
- korroziya 4y ago>That seems self contradictory as you're telling us this via a social network HN does not equal TikTok. You don't have an actual argument, you're just buttmad because you don't like the fact that I'm correct.
- brigandish 4y agoI'm going to correct myself and go with narcissism as the reason for your comments, which, again ironically, gives them some value.
- korroziya 4y agoFuck you too buddy.
- alex_duf 4y agoBoth were produced because there was money to be made, both have at least some negative effect on society. Granted, the scale of the problems are different, and the axis onto which they act is also different. But I stand by my comparison.
- goalieca 4y agoEveryone wanted a pill to take but the proven answers to reducing adverse outcomes is to reduce air pollution, lose weight, do everything you can to get your heart into shape by sleeping well, eating well, reducing stress, and exercising.
- brodouevencode 4y ago*wants
- terminal_d 4y ago"The best nootropic is getting up in the morning and getting sunlight. Then you sleep at a reasonable hour and wake up fully rested."
- arcticbull 4y agoDiet and exercise do not produce sustained long term weight loss for basically anyone. They fail anywhere from 80-99% of the time. That part is unfortunately bad advice. The only thing that’s been shown to do that is fasting, surgery or GLP-1 drugs.
- jagraff 4y agoIs fasting not a type of diet?
- arcticbull 4y agoDiet generally implies caloric restriction whereas fasting is complete abstention. There are significant biological differences - for instance, when you restrict calories your metabolism slows down as much as 15-25% over the first three weeks (hence the plateau many dieters experience). Fasting on the other hand raises your metabolic rate up to ~15% for the first 5 days of a water fast. Further, production of HGH is inhibited by consuming any food and while fasting it can increase 3-12X. Autophagy is inhibited by the consumption of any protein (via mTOR). If you want to treat fasting as the special case diet where input=0, I certainly understand that. However, the physiological processes of caloric restriction are quite different than total abstention.
- mschuster91 4y ago> Caution aside, speculatively this could mean that the serious issue of PFAS contamination in American water supplies made the pandemic worse than it would have been otherwise. There's no evidence to support that link - what is provable though is the fierce opposition of the GQP, the far-right and conspiracy preachers to mask mandates and even stuff as basic as vaccines.
- tristor 4y agoThe article, cautiously, provides some of that evidence. Anything that suppresses the capabilities of the immune system can be deductively reasoned to make pandemics worse. If you read what I wrote though, you'd realize I'm acknowledging very clearly that other factors played a larger part, without trying to make this a pointlessly political conversation. So, please don't do that, it does not improve the discourse on HN.