I like to get an understanding of the different angles they take to "news". I actually detest them so I guess it's a bit of keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
I used to visit /. regularly too, a long while ago however it got more and more toxic/argumentative. I find more than half the reason I like these styles of tech sites is to read the (constructive) comments and /. seems to have lost its moderation teeth.
Thank you very much for your story too. I'm actively locked in a functional alcoholic state and have been on-and-off for almost three decades. I find I can do a month sober but then I just get back on it afterwards.
I've tried weed of various types and in nearly every form factor but have been unable to shake the potency of it (makes me super paranoid and that's not a manageable side effect for me).
However, when I do have it, it's impossible for me to drink so it's hard to look past it's effectiveness in trying to treat the root issue, alcoholism.
My question to you is, what's a small dose for you and how are you vaping it?
Thanks again, I am going back on the wagon today so this thread has been particular interesting.
Marijuana may be the solution for you but I highly recommend checking out The Sinclair Method. There is an awesome book [1] about it and also a great Reddit community [2] for support.
Long story short, your brain is addicted to the endorphin rush that results after consuming alcohol. You can abstain for a period of time but due to the alcohol deprivation effect your urges to drink alcohol only increase as you abstain for longer periods of time (hence the AA mantra "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.") The Sinclair Method gets around this by attacking your brains relationship with the alcohol endorphin rush. Long story short, you take an opioid antagonist (endorphin blocker) before you drink, typically Naltrexone or Nalmefene, which slowly trains your brain to no longer associate alcohol with pleasure. Check out the book for more information.
I was a heavy drinker and alcohol was destroying my life and after 4 months of TSM, I was drinking at a safe level and now one year later I am completely sober. I could continue to drink if I wanted to, with Naltrexone, but at this point I am ready to start a new life without alcohol and leave that all in the past. I believe 40% of TSM users choose to abstain completely and the other 60% choose to drink socially in moderation. It is up to you, which highlights the power of this system. Having complete control over my drinking after being out of control for years is nothing short of a miracle.
(You may also run into systems where you take Naltrexone on days that you don't consume alcohol. This is something different, and it may work for you, but my experience is with TSM which requires you only take Naltrexone before drinking)
Thanks for your information! I've tried so many different meds over the years and I honestly can't recall my reaction to Naltrexone but I know I've tried it and think it didn't jive with my SSRI medication.
Thanks so much though, I'm going back to the GP tomorrow so I'll read up on the links you provided and see if the GP can give me another run at it (or at least remind me why I didn't stick to it last time!)
I have two vaporizers. A Pax3 handheld vape and an Arizer desktop tower vape.
I am currently vaping Oakland store-bought "shake" weed which says it is 12.79% THC, so its on the low potency side. I use a pure sativa so it does not make me feel sluggish (an "indica" will provide "couch-lock" which is an all body effect that makes you want to sit down and not move - so I avoid those). Be warned that sativa is the type that can cause high anxiety. It varies by strain, and you can look up reviews of different strains on leafly.com or weedmaps.com
Both vape devices I own have a "bowl" for filling with ground flower. I tend to replace the bowl in each approximately once every three days right now with low potency flower. The dosage of drug falls off exponentially with the freshness of the bowl so the first hit on a newly packed bowl will be MUCH stronger than the last hit of the old bowl - something to be very careful with as you can get yourself trying to take a big draw off an old bowl, then you replace it, and suddenly if you're not careful to re-adjust your dosage it will be too much. So be careful there.
I basically have a small dose when I wake up with my morning coffee, then puff on my handheld vape during the day being careful to regulate so that I can still write software (and puffing a bit more if I have an hour of mechanical robot assembly to work on or something mindless). And then I have a bit more than those lower doses in the evening after I've gotten home and settled in.
I have roommates that vape using weed-concentrate on a torch-heated quartz crystal which is why I say my dose is small. I go through way less product than them. Because potency builds over time, even my conservative hits are probably larger than what you would want.
I highly recommend the vape for long term use. But a pipe or whatever you have on hand is fine to try for now. If you want to experiment with marijuana without having too much, here is what I would recommend:
Get some low potency hybrid (mixed indica sativa) weed. Look up reviews of the strain on leafly.com or weedmaps.com and make sure it is not one that will trigger paranoia.
Then, take the TEENYIEST amount you can imagine (the size of a pea or less), and smoke it. Then have no more the rest of the night. It is not necessary to combust the entire sample. Just take one hit. You will feel it, but I believe one small hit of low potency marijuana will not cause the anxiety effects I have known.
I suspect that would be okay for you. You may want to have a friend or loved one around to monitor you, although marijuana is relatively safe.
It is worth it to quit alcohol. In my original story I did not mention that I continued to drink recreationally for a long time, but marijuana did help me break my binge drinking. However for 2020 I decided to quit drinking for at least one year. That started in March 2020 and it has been 10 months without alcohol. I am VERY happy for it. I feel so much better. I do not want alcohol and I am not planning to try it when one year is up.
You can do this. My email is in my profile if you'd like to follow up with me in a month or two. I am curious if this helps you.
But only where there would appear to be a benefit.
Fusion power generation will almost certainly operate like fission, in that it will need steam turbines, generators, elaborate cooling systems, and water treatment plants for the turbines and cooling.
The operation and maintenance on these alone is higher than that for wind or solar--never mind the operation of the reactor itself. The capital costs just for these modules are almost certainly higher too.
The project risk as seen by investors (delay, cancellation for social or undiscovered geotechnical reasons) is higher too.
So: generating electricity is not a use for fusion.
Fusion may have uses in scientific discovery. But a putative fusion power plant would operate well inside the limits of our knowledge, for reliability and safety reasons, so it would be no help there.
