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Topics - Mr. Psychologist
2
« on: May 19, 2017, 07:52:03 PM »
Question for the americanos here
If you like PB+J, the question I have for you is - What flavour jelly do you prefer with it?
3
« on: May 03, 2017, 08:22:05 PM »
Anyone else on here have trouble with this?
It's not so bad lately, but I still can't quite stop and it's really starting to drive me up the wall.
I've been biting at them since I was like, 10 or something idk and when I was in high school they were a right mess. Like full on bloody mess, it was like eczema tier. They've healed up fairly well, although I'm pretty sure I fucked the nerves in my fingertips from doing it but at least it's kinda just confined to my thumbs now.
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated for fairly obvious reasons.
or go ew gross and close the thread, it's all good
4
« on: April 04, 2017, 07:38:41 PM »
I'm afraid I have some bad news for you all. Sandtrap has passed away, two nights ago. He asked me to make this thread when the time came, unfortunately he knew he was on the out so he was preparing for it. He's given me this to post alongside the thread, have a read if you wish. He was a good man, I'm gonna miss him. Got some words to say to you sep7agon. If Psyche is posting this it means I'm dead.
I said my goodbyes before. To the people I talk to I'm sorry if I didn't tell you it was gonna be like this. Didn't want to do that to you again. We should treat this like it always was. I was living on time I didn't have. It had to end sometime.
So these are my last. I want these words to count. Some days when I was out in the woods cutting firewood, or making the long drive home on a moonlight evening and I had nothing else to think about, I thought of you guys.
I thought about your problems. Thought about what was worrying you. Even if you and I never spoke much, if you ever posted about an issue in your life I want you to know that I read it. I tried to put myself in your shoes and understand. This is about you.
Some of you live decent lives. You've got things working for you. You have my sincerest wish that your life continues as such for as long as it can. But I know there's a number of you where this isn't the case.
I know nothing I can say that can truly fix what's wrong in your life. I can give what I think enabled me to make it this far in my own life. You're not dumb. You already know that life will deal you some unfair hands. I think what's awful is that some of you are dealing the unfair hands to yourselves. Whatever one applies to you, what I'll say is something you might want to consider if you haven't.
It's going to sound cliche. Except events outside your control, everything you do and everything you are is your choice. You and me know it's not so simple. There's one thing standing in your way. Difficulty.
I don't have to tell you what that feels like since you already know. I can't tell you how to live your life or what's right for you. But I can tell you to fight your problems. Set aside your morals, your beliefs and your outlooks. Set aside your pride. Set aside your feelings or pain. You have time for those when the job at hand is done.
If you know you have a problem in your way you have to face it. You have a job to do. I get it. Some days you're going to ask why. Some days you're not going to be able to face it head on. Happens to everybody. Take a breather.
But don't let it stop you. Beat it. Try your hardest every time. Outdo yourself. That's how you keep up a momentum which takes you forwards and upwards. You need that in your life.
Life moves without you when you stop. You slide down a slope. Doors of opportunity close. If you're lucky, you can open them up again by climbing back up.
Time's not on your side. Sometimes you miss those doors for good. I don't want that happening to you. I don't want you to live a medicore life and reach an age full of regrets that you made through your choices.
I don't want you to live stupidly. I don't want you to drown in despair. Your life matters. It matters to somebody else and it should matter to you. One of my hopes was seeing you guys progress with age. I wanted to hear your stories. Hear about your victories. Even your bad days.
Remember that it's your choice. How you live your life and how you deal with your problems. Your choices affect everybody, even after you're gone. It's my honest hope that one day, maybe you'll be feeling down and played out, and you might remember what I wrote here.
Life and people will try to make things difficult for you. I won't condemn you if you don't want to live up to facing what it throws at you. Believe me. Every one of those hills you climb over will help you even if you don't see it.
If life wasn't worth living, or it wasn't worth living happy, or worth trying to make others happy, I wouldn't have gone through what I did. If the struggle amounted to nothing I wouldn't have gone through any of this to begin with. I chose to go through with this. Tried my best along the way. This is the end it got me.
Small moments to see amazing things from my family. To know that I had a hand in building that. I got to spend time with you folks. And even still, after all this time, learn and see new things from you people that caught my curiousity, made me laugh, made me think, and made my time enjoyable.
I hope what you make for yourself is something worthwhile. Keep fighting. Stay in the race. Remember to take care of yourself and know that even if it was small, I care about you, no matter how far away you are, no matter who you are. I care about what happens to you. I want your life to be a good one.
5
« on: March 11, 2017, 12:07:16 PM »
I was doing the rounds on youtube watching gordon ramsay scream at some poor souls and there was a video on caviar, kinda interesting but a bit 'ew' the way they farmed it. Scrolling down I found this little exchange between two very vocal characters discussing what caviar is and what it tastes like. Give it a read although I'd say it's NSFW given the type of language they use to describe one another.
6
« on: February 08, 2017, 11:00:15 AM »
I imagine most of you have at some point or another, but have any of you had a lot of stress whilst trying to study? Either recently or a few years ago.
This last month has driven me up the wall, to put it mildly. The workload isn't the issue, thankfully. It's just the other pressures that are starting to make me crack.
Studying from home is a great convenience, but it's a double-edged sword for a lot of things. The biggest one that triggers the fuck out of me is distractions. Family, Pets, Deliveries and Phonecalls all the god damned time. Maybe it's that my patience for them has tanked, or this last month has been fucking insanity.
I could easily go off on one about my useless faggot siblings doing jackshit around the house, but I'd rather keep this brief.
I'm getting close to the point of quitting my job to move to my grandparents house to get away from the distractions while I finish my degree.
Do any of you have advice, suggestions or anything that might help to do with this?
I am open to shooting the lot of them btw, but since this is >england it'd have to be with a nerf gun.
7
« on: January 28, 2017, 08:59:47 PM »
may i have some oats?
8
« on: January 28, 2017, 08:27:50 AM »
Trouble is, I don't want one made out of that ghastly fabric material OR one made out of shitty hologram plastic.
Stuff makes my skin crawl whenever I touch it.
The last mat I had was fine, it was a brite-mat made out of cardboard so I got another one but the design on it sends the mouse spazzing all over the damn place in certain areas.
So
Anyone know of a good mousemat brand/type that has a nice flat texture to it? Like, no noise if you scratch it (the best I can describe it).
9
« on: January 28, 2017, 07:59:19 AM »
T4R
Communist seems much more harsh. Under all the countries that used the term communist, an estimated 40 million under perished under the rule of Stalin. Millions more also died under the Chinese, Korean, and Cambodian Communist governments.
Far less people have died under fascist governments, fact.
It also brings about why we look at Nazi Germany so harshly yet never discuss the far greater atrocities committed by Stalin, but I presume because of the influence of George Soros over the public and government
10
« on: December 23, 2016, 05:35:22 AM »
 Pretty stunning picture from the funeral for the ambassador. Looks like there's gonna be plenty of roast turkey this christmas.
11
« on: December 16, 2016, 08:00:10 PM »
He's doing the 100 floor dungeon, can he save and quit and continue tomorrow or is he gonna have to yolo all night on this thing?
12
« on: November 30, 2016, 11:24:27 AM »
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/man-holland-netherlands-dutch-euthanised-alcohol-addiction-alcoholic-netherlands-a7446256.htmlA man in the Netherlands has been allowed to die because he could no longer carry on living as an alcoholic.
Mark Langedijk chose the day of his death and was telling jokes, drinking beer and eating ham sandwiches with his family hours before he passed away.
He was killed by lethal injection at his parents’ home on 14 July, according to an account of the ordeal written by his brother and published in the magazine Linda.
The Netherlands introduced a euthanasia law 16 years ago, which is available to people in “unbearable suffering” with no prospect of improvement.
Marcel Langedijk wrote his brother had a “happy childhood” and was loved by both his parents, and only found out he had an addiction eight years ago.
“I was particularly angry at Mark,” he said. “At first we did what most people do; help. My parents especially have done everything humanly possible to save Mark.”
His parents continued to believe in a “happy ending” despite eight years of help and 21 stints in rehab.
Eventually, Mr Langedijk told his family he wanted to die, but the family originally took the news with “a grain of salt”.
But his brother had no second thoughts. His application for euthanasia was approved by a doctor from the Support and Consultation on Euthanasia in the Netherlands.
On the day of his death, he “laughed, drank, smoked, ate ham and cheese sandwiches and soup with meatballs” until his doctor arrived at his parents’ home at 3.15pm.
His doctor explained the procedure, before telling Mr Landedijk to get into bed and to stay calm.
At this point, they all “started crying, my parents, everyone actually, even Mark”.
“We cried, told each other that we loved each other, that it would be all right, that we would care for each other, that we would see each other again, we held each other,” he said. “If it was not so terrible, it would have been nice.
“Mark's eyes turned away, he sighed deeply. His last. Dr Marijke injected the third syringe. His face changed, lost color. My little brother was dead.”
More than 5,500 people ended their life using Holland’s euthanasia laws last year. One of those who died was a sex abuse victim who suffered severe anorexia, chronic depression and hallucinations.
Fiona Bruce, a Conservative MP, told the Daily Mail news of Mr Landedijk's death was "deeply concerning and yet another reason why assisted suicide and euthanasia must never be introduced into the UK".
“What someone suffering from alcoholism needs is support and treatment to get better from their addiction – which can be provided – not to be euthanised," she added.
“It is once again a troubling sign of how legalised euthanasia undermines in other countries the treatment and help the most vulnerable should receive.”
Responding to Mrs Bruce, Marcel Langedijk told the Independent: "You can close your eyes to it and keep telling yourself everyone is curable but the fact remains, not everyone is.
"My brother suffered from depression and anxiety and tried to 'cure' it with alcohol. He's from a normal family, he did not want this to happen. He did not take an easy way out. Just a humane one.
"If that's troubling for Mrs Bruce that's a pity. I am just glad my brother did not have to jump in front of a train or live a few more years in agony before dying of his abuse.
"Alcoholism and depression are illnesses, just like cancer. People who suffer from it need a humane way out.
"It's not like we go around killing people in Holland. It took my brother a year and a half and many struggles to get it done." What do you make of this? I can kind of sympathise with the argument that when a person has been unable to be treated for a significant period of time for something like this, the option shouldn't be denied to them. The thing his brother said stood out I am just glad my brother did not have to jump in front of a train or live a few more years in agony before dying of his abuse. Is it more humane to allow someone to die properly, rather than trying to treat them until a bloody end? Or is it wrong to give up on trying to help someone to get better? Then you also have fairly unethical treatment options, with a pretty good rate of success, as performed by certain russian doctors. I can't remember his name but the procedure is the injection of an implant that causes uncontrollable nausea and vomiting when there is alcohol in the blood (I *think* it's derived from rubber tree extract). So you essentially force a person to stop drinking through classical conditioning. It's not a mainstream treatment because of the risk of strokes, cardiac arrest and a couple of other undesirable possibilities - but for last resort alcoholic patients, should something like that be attempted before euthanasia is available?
13
« on: November 20, 2016, 10:47:32 AM »
t4r I've uploaded some pictures that I took in iceland, I'm not gonna do them all because >200 is way too much time for me to spend but hey ho. Hafnarfjordur
Some pictures from the town that we stayed in, pretty nice place but you can tell it's an active shipping port. The Golden Circle
We went on a guided tour of some of the best places to visit, waterfalls and geysirs etc. Took a whole lot of photos that day so here are some. Parliamentary fields This was the place that the original settlers turned up to discuss matters with one another, it was bloody cold and right out in the middle of nowhere so proper viking democracy tbh.  The standing stone that they used for the meeting place  The view was really something, just miles and miles of flat tundra at the foot of the mountain we were on. I think a glacier carved it's way through this place a long time ago but holy shit it's something to behold. Cooled magma i think, with a dusting of snow.  First bit of ice i saw in iceland lol  This was taken on the way up to the parliamentary fields  Game of Thrones land I can't remember the name of the place because it was a bit... long and runic... but it's where they film a lot of shit for game of thrones. Icelandic flag  Mount Yuuuuge  Some twat with his phone taking a picture of the view  Mount Tiufjethjaiher (Pronounced 10 feet higher)  View from the road  This place looked really nice, the wind was stronk though so the house came out a tad blurry at the edge  Viking Horses  Some pretty shit from the foot of the mountain Gullfjall (something like that, meant golden waterfall) Geysirheim We went to a volcanic area after the waterfall, if you've ever been to one you'll know the smell. wew. It looked very pretty though. I've gotta find a way to upload the waterfall video and the geysir one because it's something special but another day perhaps.    And a few general pictures from the country and Reykjavik The first settler  View from the hotel room  Cold as shit  A stretchyneckfloatydoggo, quite a rare sight  Snow cabbage  MJOLK FOR STRONK BABBY VIKING  That's all for now but i might upload the rest another day or later or something Disclaimer: I may have made up some of the names of places because icelandic is absurdly hard to read
14
« on: November 19, 2016, 01:11:32 PM »
I took a bunch of pics and i'll post some of the best ones itt a bit later but yeah, ama me anything
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« on: October 15, 2016, 02:10:23 PM »
Apologies if I've made this thread before but it came to mind again today so here we go Visual Snow  Do any of you have a 'thing' with your vision which slightly resembles this gif? I can best describe it as being a blizzard of tiny pinpoint lights of all sorts of colours flickering across everything I see, they don't obscure anything I look at but they are noticeable if I pay attention to them. Thankfully I don't have it particularly badly (I think) going by some of the other accounts, but it's a bit of a pain in the arse and a bit of a mystery as to what causes it. http://eyeonvision.org/visual-snow.htmlVisual snow (VS) is the persisting visual symptom of seeing snow or television-like static across their visual field. The snow and static tends to be worse in the dark, but can be seen in all lighting conditions.
VS should not be confused with normal entoptic phenomena or vitreous floaters. While these two conditions also cause you to see spots and floating objects, this is not the same as VS.
There is no known cause for visual snow. Through documented case studies illegal and legal drug usage can sometimes lead to VS, but little is known on the specific causes. A few connections between HPPD, auto-immune disease, and lyme disease have been found. However, far more cases of visual snow have no connection at all to another condition.
Although the vision is affected, very few people have had irregular eye test results. Most come back within normal range, leading doctors to believe that patients may be making their symptoms up. CT scans and MRIs also tend to come back normal, again stumping doctors. It is more likely to be an undetectable chemical imbalance in the brain.
The term visual snow is rather limiting for the condition as there are numerous symptoms that patients experience above and beyond visual snow. Many people also see after images, vitreous floaters, entopic phenomenon, glare, halos, starbursts, trails, palinopsia, double vision, odd colors and shapes. Many sufferers also have non-visual symptoms such as fatigue, tinnitus or depersonalization and derealisation.
There currently is no established treatment for visual snow. Many patients have tried migraine medication with little to no success. Other have tried herbs, cleansing, acupuncture, and chiropractors, again with little to no success.
It is important for you to realize that this is a 24/7 condition for these sufferers. The symptoms do not ever go away. Even with their eyes closed they see the static, afterimages and other disturbing visual images. With the help of a handful of caring doctors, the Eye on Vision Foundation strives to raise funds for research into finding a treatment. I check up on this site from time to time because as far as I know they are some of the only people actually researching it and they've published a study fairly recently which was a nice visual assault of neurological language. The thing that piqued my interest with it this time was that they've found a possible correlation with tinnitus, which is something I do have (mildly) and I've had for as long as I can remember (same as the visual snow). Posting this thread because it's interesting to me and I'm wondering if any of you have something similar and in the remote possibility that someone here does - do you also have mild tinnitus?
16
« on: October 10, 2016, 09:29:48 AM »
Today is WMHD which is all about raising awareness and the like, I'd say most of you are aware of mental health at this point so a better understanding of it might be a better thing to shoot for.
So post any and all questions about mental health issues in here and I'll see what I can do to explain them.
The usual disclaimers apply of course.
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« on: September 26, 2016, 04:25:41 PM »
 Only a few weeks until Battlefield 1 releases now, even less if you buy into EA's stupid EA Access scheme to play 10 whole hours of the game before launch (lol). EA being EA aside, the game is looking like something special. Where else can you remove kebab as the glorious british empire? e.e I'll put BF1 videos and news in here but this isn't some megathread type of deal, this is actually an anti-megathread to prevent one being made in the first place. I'll also be putting the BF1 server details in here when it goes live and we rent one out. This video goes over the details of a new gamemode and the names/themes of the maps in the game.
18
« on: September 12, 2016, 05:00:43 AM »
A man is trying to solve famines in a desert region by growing a cactus-wheat hybrid, unfortunately being GMOs these whactuses grow out of control and kill 30,000 people before being stopped by a firebombing campaign that results in the loss of another 10,000 lives.
So by trying to save the lives of a hundred thousand, he inadvertently killed 40,000 with his good intentions.
At the time of creation the man had no conceivable way of knowing that the whactuses would go on to slaughter starvin marvins wholesale and he thought that he was going to help a great many people.
Should the man be forgiven or punished for his actions, which directly harmed nobody but indirectly killed tens of thousands?
19
« on: August 30, 2016, 05:09:19 AM »
Prime is now having free same-day delivery if you order stuff in the morning
The future is now
20
« on: August 27, 2016, 12:19:39 PM »
Fair warning, the link and contents are not for the faint hearted. It's not ayy lmao gorey xddddd or muh childrens but it's just flat out disturbing reading to see the kind of shit that goes on and more depressingly how long it has been going on for unabated. A little while back Chally (I think, maybe door or mordo) posted a memey thread here about cultural relativity and it linked this screenshot extract from a paper on aboriginal 'killer mothers' and it was pretty unpleasant reading to say the least. Being bored after work today prompted me to look for the source and I almost wish I hadn't, but it did bring up interesting points mixed in with the pages and pages of atrocities that are a part of indigenous life (In certain places, mostly Oceania from the looks of it, but Africa isn't exactly clean either). http://psychohistory.com/books/the-origins-of-war-in-child-abuse/chapter-7-child-abuse-homicide-and-raids-in-tribes/To give a short summary without the colourful descriptions of the abuse itself, the author suggests that part of the reason for the failure to transition beyond subsistence living is in part due to a failure (understatement) to form any sort of meaningful bonds within these tribes. Mothers abuse and murder their children, traumatising surviving siblings in the process who then go on to (shock horror) develop severe mental issues which are then replicated onto the next generation in a pretty much perfect example of abusive vampirism (transmitting abuse from one generation to the next by repeating the patterns of abuse they experienced). This leaves the tribe as a whole unable to rally behind a leader or chief as such, due to the rampant schizoid disorders induced in the tribal population (paranoid, delusional, psychotic, violent). The general idea being that these tribes remain trapped in this sort of living hell where abuse is the norm to receive and perpetrate and because of the isolation and small initial populations it has become endemic. They haven't been able to progress far in the technology tree (Guns, Germs and Steel points aside) because these tribes are essentially just going through a groundhog day of horrors for the last 750,000 years. If anyone feels like reading it, it's fairly long and utterly despicable but it's not just some memer slagging off tree dwellers for the sake of it. It's well cited and seems pretty considered. So yeah, bit of a change of pace from the usual Brexit -> Trump -> Economics -> Russia -> Islam cycle of serious Any thoughts on the paper? Bonus question for consideration; making the assumption that the things described in this paper are accurate, do you think that it is right or wrong for a more developed culture to intervene in things to stop this cycle from repeating itself? (Preferably in a better manner than blackbird hunting and reservations)
21
« on: August 19, 2016, 01:05:38 PM »
Simple thread to gauge how interested in BF1 people are, the release is two months away now and the open beta is coming out on the 30th/31st so I'm curious to see how many septagooks will be playing it (particularly on the xbone).
This post was sponsored by EA Ronku ayy lmao gib moni pls
22
« on: July 27, 2016, 02:38:14 PM »
Sep7agon's Ark: Survival Evolved Server!
Current Tribe Psy
LC
Ender
Byrne
Yutaka
Gatsby
Tyger Quick Q&A What is Ark? A game where you hunt, tame and ride dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts. You also beat up your friends, make them kill themselves by eating poop and occasionally try to sacrifice them to the fire god. What is it on? PC and Xbone, PS4 has a version in the works but I don't think it will be releasing on that anytime soon. We don't have crossplay at the moment but it has been announced. Why does it look like dogshit on the xbone free trial? Because it's a terrible way to demonstrate it, slicing off a tiny 5gb portion of a 35gb game sacrificing frames and textures to show off mechanics isn't a great sales pitch tbh. That being said it is an early access title and it's rough around the edges, but it's a great game and I've had more than my money's worth of fun on it so far. The xbone version is almost at content parity but lags behind for optimisation at the moment, it is getting better with each monthly patch though. How much is it goyim? £27.99 or $35.00 on the Xbone
The Server Details The server will be going live as soon as possible, but estimated day will be sunday the 31st. The server will be using the official mod 'Primitive Plus' which is due to release tomorrow, this adds a plethora of content to the game in a more authentic manner than the vanilla one in my opinion. The vanilla game has electrical machines, fabricators, assault rifles and high-tech gear which I don't think really fits the game's feel, primitive plus is a content patch originating as a mod that adds a game setting that replaces the high-tech shite with a more indepth mid-tier tech game. It's about on par with medieval technology, but it's not a medieval overhaul mod (if that makes sense). Game trailer for the upcoming Primitive Plus official mod that the server will be utilising
Details on how to access the server will be added as soon as I can provide them, but given that it is not set up yet I can't very well give you the access information.
Game Settings for those of you who wish to know (Subject to change) The server will use default game settings apart from the following specified modifiers Resource Modifiers + Harvest rates - 2x (You gain twice as much resource from harvesting as vanilla, this isn't actually a huge amount so don't worry about it being game breaking) + Respawn rates - 3x (Painfully slow in vanilla) World Modifiers Night time speed - 1.5x Day time speed - 0.5x (more daylight hours basically) XP modifiers - Kill XP - 4x (So that bringing down a dangerous dino is actually rewarding instead of lol here's three beans my child) Taming modifiers Tame speed - 3x (Unless you like sitting around for hours feeding berries to an unconscious blob of dino, going fast is advised) K.O requirement - 1.1x (uncertain, gotta test this but I want to make knocking out a dino slightly less grindy than vanilla but so that it still provides a challenge)
We have a discord for the ark server, PM me or post ITT for an invite, it will be used to alert people when the server is going online and to plan uptime/downtime etc. XBL party chat will be used for actual gameplay.
I'll post screenshots and video clips of our progress and achievements in-game ITT and I encourage anyone playing on the server to do the same. xboxdvr.com is a pretty convenient way to do so but sadly you can't embed it afaik.
Ark Server discord channel https://discord.gg/Rn2Byk4
23
« on: July 22, 2016, 02:52:57 PM »
Reason I'm asking is that in a few weeks time, I'll be setting up a dedicated server for it on the xbone to play with friends on and I'm wondering if anyone here would like to play on it.
The exact map/settings and the like are to be determined but yeh, any interest?
24
« on: July 21, 2016, 03:02:44 AM »
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-36842732A mural in Melbourne apparently proclaiming "the death" of Taylor Swift has been painted over.
The popstar's likeness was painted in a famous graffiti-covered laneway alongside the name "Taylor Smith".
It appeared earlier this week amid the Bad Blood singer's escalating feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
The mock memorial now has a cartoon face scrawled over it and the words "In loving memory of Harambe", the gorilla shot dead by zookeepers in the US. #memesoutforharambe
25
« on: July 17, 2016, 03:00:20 PM »
In celebration of World Emoji Day, this thread is designated for your emoji ridden posting. At the end of world emoji day the thread will be locked. http://worldemojiday.com/Have fun you god damned degenerates.
26
« on: July 03, 2016, 08:13:47 PM »
 If you can correctly identify this man, you will win a free digital chicken dinner
27
« on: July 01, 2016, 07:46:44 PM »
I'm facing a lovely choice this month with what I do for the next year at university and I could do with any suggestions or thoughts you guys may have.
Short summary for those who might not already know
I'm doing a pseudoscience degree (psychology) through the UK's online/distance university, partly because it's cheaper by a significant margin (plus very low living costs and being able to work whilst studying) and partly because when I was going to start a degree I was a pretty unwell creature.
A typical psychology degree takes 3 years, this one is projected at four years because of the way they set up the introductory year (broken into a waste of 9 months and a psychology 101 for 9 months) as two. So I'm already gonna be a year behind the average but that's fine by me.
This next year though, rather than being able to do the core module (50% of the credits) and a good options module (the other 50%) I have core and three shit-tier options.
Core
-Psychology 103
Options
-Social Psychology 102: electric boogaloo (The wasted Y1 was social psychology 101, I don't want half of Y4 to be wasted)
-Sport Psychology (Completely irrelevant to my career plans)
-Ethical and Methodological issues in research with young children (literally kill me now)
The one I want to do as an option is Forensic Psychology, but that's not available for another year.
So my choices boil down to
A) Do Psych 103 and Social 102, get it all over and done with and graduate this time next year
Which just involves 9 months of heavy course-load (fine) and utterly painful pseudoscience (not fine) but then that's it all done and I have a psychology degree.
B) Do Psych 103 and defer the options module for a Year 5 to hopefully do Forensic Psychology
This means I've got an easier next two years course-load wise, I can get more relevant work experience while I study too. The downside of course is that it's another two years at university, I'm already looking at another 6 years minimum before I'm done with higher education ontop of the 5 I've already done so adding another year to that timescale sucks shit through a straw.
So, any thoughts chaps?
Note: I am of course going to be discussing this with the student advisory team for my uni, but it's a friday night when they sent the response so I've gotta wait until monday and it's bothering me an awful lot.
28
« on: June 23, 2016, 12:17:14 PM »
I know 15 minutes is a long time for people so I'll tl;dw it but if you are interested in the gaming market/digital games as a whole you should probably give this a look. tl;dw G2A is making a lot of money off of credit card fraud via the resellers and it's hurting online retailers/devs/publishers. Most of you won't give a shit about the big three screaming like it's anudda shoah, but the bit that matters for normal folks is that the keys on G2A seem to be getting ganked more and more often by publishers (as they are stolen keys) so if you use it frequently, you might want to be a little more careful about purchases there.
29
« on: June 07, 2016, 05:12:10 PM »
Fallout 3 was good, Skyrim still sets a funky-ass benchmark fo' modern games, n' Fallout 4 looks ta be packed wit a obscene amount of content. I be gettin pretty sick of these mopey threadz poppin' off bout how tha fuck shitty Fallout 3 was supposed ta be, how tha fuck borin Skyrim is (hint: if you bugged out up in Skyrim, you a funky-ass borin fuckin thug n' there be a no fixin that), n' how tha fuck supposedly shitty Fallout 4 will be.
Da irony is dat most of these playas now frontin Skyrim is shallow can look fondly at they 200+ minutez of adventurin up in a still-true technical benchmark wit genre-definin mechanics. It aint nuthin but just silly. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Skyrim is, without debate, a ridiculously detailed, expansive, content-filled n' organic game. Therez a reason dat da most thugged-out shitty partz of tha game is tha scripted rap pieces, n' thatz cuz tha game straight-up succeedz at bein open-world n' playa-driven. I aint talkin' bout chicken n' gravy biatch. I aint even shizzle what tha fuck tha "depth of a puddle" is referrin to. Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Surely it aint poppin' off bout tha lore available up in tha game, or tha hundredz of straight-up optionizzle locations, hundredz of quests followed by procedurally generated quests, or tha thorough craftin system, biatch? Of course, tha game aint a cold-ass lil character-driven vidya novella a la Witcher yo, but tha series never fronts ta be such. It aint nuthin but a giant fuckin ghetto wit tonz of shiznit ta do n' tonz of lore ta uncover, n' it kicks ass at dat shit.
Fo real.
30
« on: June 06, 2016, 12:21:49 PM »
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36439260Article Embed CRISPR - get to know this acronym. It's good to know the name of something that could change your future.
Pronounced "crisper", it is a biological system for altering DNA. Known as gene editing, this technology has the potential to change the lives of everyone and everything on the planet.
A bold statement but that is the considered view of many of the world's leading geneticists and biochemists I've spoken to in recent months when working on my latest Panorama - Medicine's Big Breakthrough: Editing Your Genes.
CRISPR was co-discovered in 2012 by molecular biologist Professor Jennifer Doudna whose team at Berkeley, University of California was studying how bacteria defend themselves against viral infection.
Prof Doudna and her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier are now among the world's most influential scientists. The natural system they discovered can be used by biologists to make precise changes to any DNA.
She told me: "Since we published our work four years ago laboratories around the world have adopted this technology for applications in animals, plants, humans, fungi, other bacteria: essentially any kind of organism they are studying."
Human transplant organs grown in pigs
The promise of gene editing
When a bacterium comes under attack it produces a piece of genetic material that matches the genetic sequence of the invading virus.
This piece of material in tandem with a key protein called Cas9 can then lock on to the DNA of the virus, break it and disable it.
Scientists are now able to deploy the same process to insert, delete or repair DNA.
It is so sensitive that they can use it to explore the billions of chemical combinations that make up code of the DNA in a cell, and to make a single key change.
Crucially, it is fast and cheap, and so is accelerating all kinds of research, from the creation of genetically-modified animal models of human disease to the search for the DNA mutations that trigger illness or confer protection.
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Media captionProfessor Jennifer Doudna: "Once one understands the sequence of DNA in a cell it's possible to rewrite it."
So how and when might we begin to see treatments from CRISPR? Given that the technology is just a few years old it is not surprising that trials have yet to begin in patients, but several are in the planning stage.
The Boston biotech firm Editas Medicine is hoping to have a gene-editing treatment ready for clinical testing in 2017 to treat Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA10), a rare retinal disease that causes blindness. The gene mutation causes the gradual loss of photoreceptor cells in the eye.
Cancer target
There are several recently-formed biotech firms which are hoping to take CRISPR technology into the clinic.
They are working on the theory that CRISPR might be used to boost the function of the body's T cells so that the immune system is better at recognising and killing cancer. Disorders of the blood and immune system are other potential targets.
One cloud hanging over all this effort is a big patent fight over CRISPR. On one side are Prof Doudna's team, on the other a group based in Boston, Massachusetts.
The patent row is unlikely to prevent academic researchers from using CRISPR, but it could have a profound impact on who reaps the financial returns of this emerging technology.
Two earlier forms of gene editing have already made it into the clinic.
Last year a technique known as TALENs was used to help reverse cancer in a patient at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.
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Media captionLayla's mother, Lisa: "There's always got to be a first... we begged them to try something"
Layla Richards had an aggressive form of leukaemia, and all previous treatments had failed. She remains the first and only person to date whose life has been saved by gene editing.
The world's first gene-editing trials took place in California, involving a different technique, ZFNs. Around 80 patients with HIV had immune cells in their blood removed.
Scientists then deleted a gene called CCR5 which HIV uses to gain entry to cells. The treatment is based on a rare, gene mutation which gives some people a natural immunity to the disease.
Image caption Matt Chappell had his immune cells gene edited
One of the volunteers was Matt Chappell, 52, who has lived with HIV most of his adult life and witnessed the devastating impact that HIV/Aids has had on the gay community in San Francisco.
Matt has been off all antiretroviral medication for two years since having his immune cells gene edited.
These were small trials so caution is needed before reading too much into the results, but they are nonetheless extremely promising.
The HIV treatment was created by Sangamo Biosciences of Richmond, California, which has the exclusive licence for ZFN technology.
The company is about to begin patient trials in the serious blood-clotting disorder haemophilia and is also working on a treatment for beta thalassemia.
The most controversial aspect of gene editing concerns the potential to introduce changes to the germline - DNA alterations that would pass down the generations.
In theory it might be possible to correct the DNA of embryos carrying the gene for Huntington's disease or cystic fibrosis.
But it might also be used to add in genetic enhancements, leading to designer babies.
Human embryos
No scientist is suggesting - yet - that gene-edited human embryos should be born. But several teams in China have done some basic research and the UK is the first country to formally approve gene editing in human embryos, for research only.
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Media captionThe HEFA is the first body in the world to sanction embryo gene editing, as Fergus Walsh reports
This will be done at the Francis Crick Institute in London. When it opens in a few months it will be the biggest biomedical laboratory in Europe and will be a centre for gene editing.
A team led by Kathy Niakan - recently named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people - will use CRISPR to edit out key genes from the embryo, to try to identify the genetic faults which lead many women to repeatedly miscarry. The embryos will be allowed to develop for just a few days.
She told me: "What I'm hoping is that it provides us with a really crucial insight into early human development.
"I think it could help in identifying ways in which we could improve IVF to identify those embryos that are likely to continue to develop and thrive and, and give rise to healthy babies."
Ethical concerns
But this research rings ethical alarms bells for Marcy Darnovsky of San Francisco's Center for Genetics and Society.
She believes human embryo editing research may not be adequately controlled, leaving it open to a lab somewhere to create the first gene-edited babies.
"You could find wealthy parents buying the latest offspring upgrades for their children. We could see the emergence of genetic haves and have nots, leading to even greater inequality than we already live with."
Some of the key scientists in this field have concerns about the potential misuse of a technology that could be used for eugenics, to create genetic discrimination.
Prof Doudna told me of a nightmare she had where she was led into a dark room where a man was seated with his back to her.
She said: "When he turned I realised with horror that it was Hitler and I was being expected to discuss this technology with him and he eagerly wanting to use it."
She says that that while it is very hard to regulate the use of CRISPR technology, it is important to find a consensus about how people should proceed.
"I never want to over-promise but I feel diseases will be cured and we want to enable clinicians and scientists to bring that to a reality." But the bit that annoyed me was this But this research rings ethical alarms bells for Marcy Darnovsky of San Francisco's Center for Genetics and Society.
She believes human embryo editing research may not be adequately controlled, leaving it open to a lab somewhere to create the first gene-edited babies.
"You could find wealthy parents buying the latest offspring upgrades for their children. We could see the emergence of genetic haves and have nots, leading to even greater inequality than we already live with."
Some of the key scientists in this field have concerns about the potential misuse of a technology that could be used for eugenics, to create genetic discrimination.
Prof Doudna told me of a nightmare she had where she was led into a dark room where a man was seated with his back to her.
She said: "When he turned I realised with horror that it was Hitler and I was being expected to discuss this technology with him and he eagerly wanting to use it."
She says that that while it is very hard to regulate the use of CRISPR technology, it is important to find a consensus about how people should proceed. God forbid people create stronger, healthier, disease-resistant children if they can afford it. You know when only rich people could have cars? Yeah. Look outside nowadays. CRISPR isn't all that expensive either (relatively), so bollocks to their socialist whining. The bit that really annoyed me though was the echoberg howling about how this might bring on anudda shoah. We already practice eugenics when parents abort downs children or those with CF, but using this to alter the child to be healthy instead of just playing scrambled eggs in the womb is apparently (((((((((((unethical))))))))))). Thoughts on professional whingers ethicists or on CRISPR?
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