CoyotePants's recent activity
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
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Comment on The body’s immune system responding to a COVID vaccine, and not the vaccine itself, is likely the cause of menstrual cycle changes experienced after vaccination in ~health
CoyotePants LinkThe conclusion of the study was that the vaccine did alter menstrual cycle length, but not permanently: The study participants were women between the ages of 21-45 who were trying to become...- Exemplary
The conclusion of the study was that the vaccine did alter menstrual cycle length, but not permanently:
In this prospective cohort study of North American non-contracepting pregnancy planners, we found a small and temporary increase in cycle length following COVID-19 vaccination, but little difference in cycle regularity, bleed length, heaviness of bleed, or menstrual pain. The first menstrual cycle after each COVID-19 vaccine dose was approximately 1 day longer on average than menstrual cycles before vaccination, but returned to the pre-vaccination length at the second cycle. The prevalence of long cycles (>38 days) was also slightly higher immediately after vaccination, but returned to baseline by the following cycle.
The study participants were women between the ages of 21-45 who were trying to become pregnant without fertility treatment - e.g., not using birth control in any form. The study identified 1,137 women who appeared to be eligible study participants - and then excluded 279 of them who reported irregular periods and 33 of them whose normal cycles were < 24 days or > 38 days, leaving 825 participants whose cycle length was measured for the study. The vaccinated participants used only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, not the J&J vaccine.
The two groups studied - vaccinated and non-vaccinated - weren't assigned at random, participants self-selected whether or not they wanted to be vaccinated. Unsurprisingly, this led to significant variations in the characteristics of the different populations - as the study states, "[p]articipants who were vaccinated during the study period had higher educational attainment and income, and were less likely to have a previous birth compared with those who were unvaccinated [...]."
The study says:
We hypothesized that any potential association would be due to a vaccine-related immune response rather than vaccine components and that associations would be similar across vaccine brands.
.. which, in the linked article, becomes:
The researchers determined that the small alteration they saw in cycle length was not caused by the vaccine itself, but was probably due to the body’s immune response to the vaccine [...]
Which, of course, is essentially the definition of a vaccine, versus a medicine.
I'm wary of a summary of a study that translates "we hypothesized" into "they determined."
I'm glad they did the study - but frustrated that there's a temptation to overgeneralize from "this specific population didn't seem to experience a long-term negative impact on these measures" to "the vaccine didn't alter periods." This is particularly true if the study is used to marginalize or suppress reports from people in other populations who did experience changes apparently caused by vaccination. The study told us nothing about the vaccine's impact on women taking hormonal (or other) birth control, women outside the age range specified, women who weren't trying to conceive, or women who already experienced irregular or less common patterns of menstruation, and women who took the J&J vaccine (given to 19 million people).
The science isn't done - it's just beginning.
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Comment on Vasectomy tips in ~life.men
CoyotePants LinkIt wasn't as difficult/painful as I was led to expect. The doctor did use a scalpel and then some sort of electrical cauterizing device. The procedure itself was < 10 minutes and the whole...It wasn't as difficult/painful as I was led to expect. The doctor did use a scalpel and then some sort of electrical cauterizing device. The procedure itself was < 10 minutes and the whole appointment was approx 1 hour. They gave me a prescription for a couple of opiate pain pills and a lorazepam (anti-anxiety benzodiazipene). I filled the prescription, and then lost the bottles with the pills. Ended up taking a "chill" indica-based 5 mg THC gummy and a couple of Naproxen and that worked.
I bought compression shorts and wore them for 2 days afterwards - don't know if it was really necessary, didn't experience a lot of swelling or pain, but wasn't sorry I was perhaps over-prepared. I didn't have trouble walking around or functioning more or less normally afterwards but I didn't try to do anything especially strenuous or athletic, either. I had some pretty mild aching for a couple of days but it really wasn't a big deal.
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Comment on This feels dumb to ask, but how do you get your news? in ~news
CoyotePants LinkUntil last week, I'd have said Twitter and Reddit (often via Apollo). I think Twitter is entering the death spiral, where the network effect works in a negative direction - when there's lower...Until last week, I'd have said Twitter and Reddit (often via Apollo).
I think Twitter is entering the death spiral, where the network effect works in a negative direction - when there's lower readership/engagement, people are less likely to post interesting things, which leads to lower readership/engagement .. until one day it's all porn/disinformation bots spamming each other 24x7.
I don't like the "new" Reddit site design, and exclusively use old.reddit.com; but I used Apollo on my tablet/phone until Apollo shut down. I think Reddit is in a better posture with respect to management (not that I love their decisions, but they're not as mercurial or impulsive as Musk appears to be) and is less likely to disappear overnight. But I like it a lot less now.
I subscribe to the website versions of the NY Times and my local paper. The Times is flawed and frustrating, but it's the closest thing we have to a national paper, and it's helpful to know what other people are hearing/thinking about. I think the local paper is pretty bad from a quality point of view but it (and a local TV station) are really the only places I learn about what's happening locally.
Honestly, I feel a little lost right now. I'm going to look at resources other people have identified here. I am generally in agreement with the Aaron Schwartz post linked in another comment. I think that the level of impact I can have on national or state-level issues is somewhere between microscopic and zero. I'm not going to spend hours every day digesting information so that once every four years I can vote for the lesser of two evils. I think it's good to have some awareness of things that are happening elsewhere (e.g., there's a war on the Russian/Ukrainian border; Russia almost experienced a coup; France is having turmoil) but it's not important or helpful that I come up with an opinion about those things. My opinion means nothing, and I don't trust most of the information I get (or don't get) to reliably reach a conclusion about most issues. I've had the oft-discussed experience where a subject I understand well is covered in the media, and it's almost always poorly described or explained. And I must imagine the coverage is similarly poor for topics I don't know anything about, I'm just unable to notice.
All of this is sad to me. There have been times in my life when I subscribed to four daily newspapers, and read them (not every article on every page, of course.) I used to think it was very important that I have a moral or intellectual point of view about everything and be able to explain it and argue about it and so forth - but I just don't bother any more, because it means nothing. I don't like what's happening in Ukraine (it's clear that a lot of people are dying or having their homes/businesses destroyed, regardless of arguments about who's in the right) but I can't do anything about it, and my life doesn't improve if I get myself emotionally activated about something I can't directly perceive, experience, or influence.
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Comment on Have you ever thought about suicide? How did you cope? in ~health.mental
CoyotePants LinkI've had major depression with almost daily suicidal ideation for approximately 40 years now. I'm aware that this doesn't work for everyone, but for me ketamine (I've had it prescribed for home...I've had major depression with almost daily suicidal ideation for approximately 40 years now.
I'm aware that this doesn't work for everyone, but for me ketamine (I've had it prescribed for home use nasally and orally, and had IV infusions) is indistinguishable from magic - it makes any interest in, or tendency towards suicide stop - within minutes. I don't understand it, and I can think of arguments why it shouldn't work that way .. but it does work for me. It doesn't completely eliminate depression, but it changes suicidal ideation from "probably where I'll end up, it's just a question of timing" to "never going to happen, not interested."
Also, if a person is experiencing some level of suicidal ideation or has thoughts of suicide, it can be helpful to know that there are different levels or intensities of that experience - from passing thoughts, or vague ideas about it at particularly difficult moments, all the way to feeling what seems like a biological drive to complete suicide similar to the need to satisfy severe thirst or an urgent need to use the restroom. If you're on the not-especially-intense end of the spectrum, don't freak yourself out with thoughts that you might be very close to death and are probably very sick or broken. It's common to have escape fantasies where we're taken away from our boring or painful or meaningless or disappointing lives - for some people that might be running away to join the circus or live in the woods, for other people it's just an end to suffering.
Also, some mental health professionals (especially newer ones, or ones who don't have their own "lived experience") are very skittish about suicide and suicidal ideation, and may overreact or want to refer you to someone else or retreat into bureaucratic processes like "no harm contracts." They're not all like that - you can approach the topic carefully with a new therapist or psychiatrist and see how they react. Some mental health workers are can talk to you about the thoughts/ideas without freaking out and thinking about how to institutionalize you or otherwise make you go away (because you scare them, not because you don't deserve or need treatment.) I have been impressed with the CAMS (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality) model, described at https://cams-care.com/ - I like my current therapist, but if I couldn't see her I think I'd look for someone trained in the CAMS methodology.
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Comment on Have you ever thought about suicide? How did you cope? in ~health.mental
CoyotePants Link ParentSadly, this is not true. The NSPL themselves say that about 2% of calls result in what's termed "active rescue" where police are sent to the location where they believe the call originates -...- Exemplary
nor are there an penalties or consequences for calling
Sadly, this is not true. The NSPL themselves say that about 2% of calls result in what's termed "active rescue" where police are sent to the location where they believe the call originates - without the knowledge or consent of the caller.
This Slate article suggests the rate of "active rescue" may be higher: https://slate.com/technology/2022/04/crisis-lifelines-surveillance-geolocation-algorithms.html
I like the idea of a hotline that could be accessed without fear of consequences, but it's not 988 or 800-273-8255.
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Comment on Building my own email system and/or other privacy-first email solutions? in ~comp
CoyotePants LinkThe two preconfigured/prepackaged choices I'm aware of are Mailcow and iRedMail. I've seen different reports about success, with the main issue being outbound deliverability - which probably...The two preconfigured/prepackaged choices I'm aware of are Mailcow and iRedMail.
I've seen different reports about success, with the main issue being outbound deliverability - which probably depends on the use case. I've used Amazon SES and Mailgun as outbound SMTP providers rather than doing my own outbound SMTP (but with DMARC/DKIM setup) and haven't run into trouble delivering mail, but it's mostly sent to myself (for logging/alerts/etc) with a little bit of one-off transactional/personal stuff - not large-scale delivery in a commercial context. I get the impression that's still better outsourced to third party providers until you're at a scale where it makes sense to have your own servers and your own staff administering them (and maybe not even then).
The US government tried to make strong encryption unavailable in the 1990's and all it did was encourage development to move offshore, out of the reach of US laws. The same thing will happen here - the UK's laws will be ignored or circumvented.
It would, of course, be a good time to learn how Tor works, which email and other service providers are privacy-friendly, and which VPN services with non-UK exit locations might work well for you.