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I took a shower this morning. I really needed one - I was getting pretty ripe.

Rather more significant is that I was waiting for the light rail, which was to come in eight minutes. I used that time to practice my guitar, also for a few minutes while waiting to transfer to a bus.

When I got to the homeless day center in Vancouver, a friend said that I was looking really good. I don't think it was just the shower but my entire demeanor. I go there to practice on their upright piano, but the last few times I went there, practicing just seemed like too much trouble. Not today - I practiced and I enjoyed it.

My next step is to wash my clothes and O do my clothes need washing. I'm not so bad now that I've showered but with the right wind conditions I can smell my own clothes. I have the choice to wash in the mornings in return for thirty minutes of "barter points" - typically sweeping the Portland day center floor - or in the afternoon for $1.50. It's my plan to sing on the street tomorrow, to raise the $1.50 for the laundry, also a couple bucks for coffee.

Today I feel - at long last - that my antidepressant is working to full effect.

So, looks like the 16.02 site upgrade is mostly going to be a features upgrade rather than a bugfix upgrade, though there's some of that as well. There's one thing going in that there's an outside chance may annoy some people though: the new mobile layout. To be very clear on this, the mobile layout will be served to anyone with a horizontal screen (not browser window) resolution of 800 pixels or less. The only way you'll see it on your desktop is if you're still running 800x600 or lower resolution, in which case you really should get with the whole 21st century technology thing.

We're going to be doing the site upgrade the first weekend of February but if you want to give it a look early head over to https://dev.soylentnews.org/ and have a look around. Bear in mind we ain't foisting beta code on you lot with this, we're foisting pre-alpha code that took all of maybe half an hour to do up on you. This is not what the finished product will look like, it's just something to make life easier on mobile users while we write up something that doesn't suck. If it sucks too hard and you all bitch that you want the old layout back though, it's a matter of minutes to fix and revert until we have something worth calling a proper mobile interface.

Let me know what you think here.

My case manager and one other mental health clinic staff member came to Portland to conduct a Housing Assessment for me. Mostly I signed forms to authorize that my psychiatric history be disclosed to the people that actually provide the housing.

It's not HUD Section 8, rather it is a branch of the same agency as funds my clinic.

I'm on the "PACT Team". I don't recall the acronym's proper title but I'm given to understand that everyone on the PACT Team is Extra Special. Most of the others I've met were pretty loopy. I've declined the housing in the past because I wanted that limited resource to go to them, as I felt the others needed it more than I.

I have the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge, see. My troop in Moscow, Idaho went camping once per month without any regard whatsoever for the weather. That was a little hard to take when I first moved there from California, but eventually I grew to enjoy camping in the snow.

Even so, I've been homeless for almost three years. I haven't been on the streets this whole time but when I was in a place, I was definitely a houseguest, not a resident. I figure I've given enough people my spot that I deserve a place myself.

Ironically I may be flushed for cash soon. It's not a sure thing in that it's consulting, it's not employment. If my code does not meet their written specification, then I don't get paid - I don't work through agencies.

It's not going to be easy work, but then if the job were easy, the client wouldn't need a consultant.

I was for a while stricken with terror over the difficulty of the work required. But many times I've told myself that I've done far, far more difficult work in the past.

When I was at Apple in '96 we had a "phase of the moon bug" that QA could not reproduce. The fourth time it was encountered, the bug was assigned directly to me rather than to QA. That is, I had no regression.

One week later, through Apple Developer Tech Support I advised Microsoft of the exact byte offset in Word 6's binary where their bug lay.

The old Mac OS - not really "Classic" but most people call it that, it was System 7.5.2 - didn't really have a proper concept of processes. When you called ExitToShell you could not count on certain resources being freed. Word 6 had a timer that reset itself each time it was fired. Under certain conditions, the timer was still firing after Word 6's binary was overwritten by some other data.

If I could isolate that problem then my present work should be a cakewalk.

We're not expecting my actual work to start until next week as their windows people had some problem they needed to work around. They expect I'll need to apply the same fix on OS X.

But back to housing...

They told me that six slots were opening soon, and that I was at the head of the line. I still have to wait, I don't think it will be long but those slots aren't actually open yet, also my application has to go through their process.

But both case managers were completely convinced I'm qualified.

I don't know what I do to deserve the TLC they give me, but I've had to insist that I pick up my prescriptions myself, at a regular pharmacy, rather than having them hand-delivered. I've also insisted on getting to the clinic on public transit, rather than being chauffered, despite that a long walk is required.

We've settled for them giving me a monthly bus pass. If I don't have to spend my busker tips on bus fare, then I can blow it at Starbucks while I look for work.

Finally, my depression is quite definitely getting better. Yesterday I shaved with a fresh blade. You might not think that's such a big deal but a very common symptom of my kind of mental illness is that one develops a "disheveled appearance".

I've spent a lot of time pondering my bearded, long-haired colleagues, realizing that I would look just like them soon, maybe I wouldn't be so welcome in some of the businesses I frequent. Maybe I wouldn't be able to pick up chicks. It's much harder to shave off a full beard than it is to shave off stubble.

I have a real trendy goatee though - have a look at my CNN interview on YouTube, the difference is that my hair is grey now. The goatee is a little longer than I prefer, and my hair is growing unkempt. It doesn't help to comb it, so tomorrow - if I can get myself there - I'm going to get them trimmed at the "Homeless Connect" event in Vancouver.

It's not that I'm not Aqualung, I just don't look like him.

This topic has, perhaps, been discussed ad infinitum, ad nauseam. But I won't let that stop me. :)

I do understand that online forums aren't going to bastions of quality argument and rhetoric, especially given the temptation to go all GIFT when folks can be anonymous (or even pseudonymous). I've been guilty of that myself, from time to time.

One of the positives I've seen with Soylent (as compared with other places) is that, as a group, we tend to reward (via positive moderation) those who provide cogent, clear arguments and back them up with data to support those arguments.

AFAICT, there are a variety of motivations for submitting stories and posting comments:
An interest in discussing the topic;
An opportunity to promote their personal political bent/beliefs;
An opportunity to say things one wouldn't say in a meat-space conversation;
An opportunity to share one's sense of humor (such as it might be);
An excuse to troll (in the classical sense);
and many other motivations as well.

My focus is on the first two motivations I list. Making rational, fact-based arguments to support (or elucidate) a point of view often makes for interesting discussions which can illuminate a topic and create a positive environment for exploring a particular subject.

What's more, I suspect that expanding the pool of those who express arguments clearly and cogently could reduce the level of personal attacks and nastiness, at least among those who actually wish to engage with others.

One of the issues I've noticed with those engaged in this sort of discussion are arguments which rely upon faulty data, irrational arguments, unclear prose and poor rhetorical style.

Often, moderation causes the best arguments to rise to the top, which can elevate the discussion considerably. However, that can minimize the voices of those with useful and/or interesting things to say simply because they lack the skills to express those things effectively.

I wonder if a section on the site which contains articles, book references, discussions and other resources can help those with poor logic, writing and/or rhetorical skills to up their game?

It seems to me that while we likely wouldn't create any new Pulitzer Prize winners, we may be able to encourage those with a sincere desire to engage others in more cogent, coherent fashion.

I'm all for freewheeling discussion and am certainly not above poking fun at just about anything. At the same time, I believe it might enhance the level of discourse here by helping people to be better writers.

Am I just pissing in the wind here, or does any of this make sense to the rest of you Soylentils?

But the standard to which I hold myself is much the same as when I enrolled at Caltech to study Astronomy. While my life's course is much different than I originally intended, I still aim to leave something of value behind when I'm gone.

For the last fifteen years, that thing of value has been my writing - essays like Living with Schizoaffective Disorder.

While I expect I could make money from my writing, I do not yet attempt to do so, so at least for now I'm a coder. In some ways it appeals to me but in other ways I want nothing to do with it. I feel very strongly that the software industry is a Den of Iniquity. Coders - especially young coders - are often quite naive; those with the money take advantage of us.

By contrast I am recently able to realize there are many people in software who are genuinely good people. The clients I will start working for next week are that way. Their product is something that is genuinely useful to their customers. They treat me really well.

Among the reasons I have grown to dislike software is today's prevalence of Javascript. It's not exactly a bad language, however it is often used in reckless ways, with the result that many websites work poorly. That is, javascript isn't bad, javascript coders are.

I prefer C++, Python and Assembly Code.

When you consider my mental illness, compare it to that of my friend "Annellie". That's not her real name. She was twenty-nine years old when we met at Washington's Western State Hospital. She is a lovely young woman, always cheerful and full of happy things to say.

All the time she either wears a rain hat or holds a newspaper above her head because she has the delusion that a chemical rain is falling from the sky. She was especially terrified when we were out in the exercise yard.

"Look up in the sky. Can you see that it's sunny? Do you feel the sun's warmth on your face?"

"Oh yes, it's very nice!"

But when she turns away she can sense the chemical rain again.

I've been taking the antidepressant imipramine for a month now. It has worked well in the past, and in many ways I feel it's working now. However I am finding that the things that once interested me, no longer do. I can't motivate myself to do anything productive. Instead I just hit the Reload button in my web browser.

When I reload a page only to discover no new content has appeared, I feel totally useless.

I've experienced this before; the experience passed after some time, even without medication. So at times I tell myself just be patient this will go away.

My depression is not the "Goodbye Cruel World" sort. I've experienced that before as well, and have attempted several times. These days I feel silly about that - I demolished a perfectly good car because I lost all hope, but then a few months later that hope had returned, but with the exception that I was riding public transport.

In reality there are many things I could do to enjoy my time.

Yesterday I contemplated this problem then walked about five miles round trip to fetch my prescriptions, also to hang out in a day center for the mentally ill. It was a good experience. I felt really weary when I finally got back to my camp and lay down in my sleeping bag, but it was a good sort of weariness.

I often write Walls Of Text then publish them online. Lately I cannot even do that I have nothing to write about, and when I attempt to write a new Wall Of Text it falls flat.

I know this will pass too, I am heavily into writing.

Millions of Americans may be drinking water that is contaminated with dangerous doses of lead. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows it; state governments know it; local utilities know it. The only people who usually don’t know it are those who are actually drinking the toxic water.

The problem stems from a common practice in which water utilities replace sections of deteriorating lead service lines rather than the entire lines, commonly known as partial pipe replacements. It is a course of action that can do more harm than good.

“It’s scary and the magnitude of this problem is huge,” said Dr. Jeffrey K. Griffiths, a Tufts University professor of medicine and public health, who recently chaired an expert panel advising the EPA on the problem. “I didn’t realize how extensive the lead exposure still remained. … EPA is really deeply concerned about this …. This was not something they expected.”

There's also a relevant quote to an issue I was concerned about in the Flint story, namely, how does a household have lead concentration levels far above that measured elsewhere in the city?

When water leaves a treatment plant, it is usually lead-free. From the plant, water flows into large pipes, called mains, which are usually made of cast-iron or concrete and run under streets. From the main, water flows through a smaller pipe called a service line, which carries it to the customer’s tap. That service line is where contamination can begin. Lead service lines are found in many states, but are especially common in older neighborhoods in the Midwest and Northeast. Most water systems stopped installing them in the first half of the last century. And there is generally less lead in water now than in years past.

But, if the service line is made of lead, as are between 3.3 and 6.4 million, according to a recent report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, fragments of corroded lead can chip off and be swept into tap water. Additional lead can also get in as the water runs across lead-soldered joints or comes into contact with brass or bronze fixtures. Until recently, such hardware was allowed to be advertised as “lead-free,” even if it contained up to 8 percent lead. A federal law reducing the acceptable amount of lead in these plumbing fixtures to .25 percent will take effect in 2014, although Vermont and California have already adopted such rules.

Partial pipe replacements can physically shake loose lead fragments that have built up and laid dormant inside the pipe, pushing them into the homeowners’ water, and spiking the lead levels, even where they previously were not high. In addition, the type of partial replacement that joins old lead pipes to new copper ones, using brass fittings, “spurs galvanic corrosion that can dramatically increase the amount of lead released into drinking water supplies,” according to research from Washington University. Similar findings have been published by researchers at the Virginia Tech and elsewhere.

In other words, if a lead fragment from upstream pipe chipped off, it could create elevated lead levels in a single home for a period of time without affecting neighboring homes.

Now, despite all this, I'm still not sold on the claim that elevated lead exposure is due solely to the actions of Governor Snyder and his appointed subordinate in Flint. There are other mechanisms and ways to screw up that can cause elevated lead levels.

The Flint story mentioned the Walters family who had their water tested with concentrations reaching 400 ppb (parts per billion) at one point. That could be due to mechanisms that had nothing to do with changing the water supply (though making the water supply more acidic probably would have made the problem somewhat worse).

The Guardian reports that the Royal Bank of Scotland has advised its clients to:

“Sell everything except high quality bonds. This is about return of capital, not return on capital. In a crowded hall, exit doors are small.”

There is a warning that the current situation is strongly reminiscent of 2008 just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

In another report, there are more prophecies of doom.

What's going on?

Today was a beautiful sunny day here in Portland. Cold, but clear.

I earned $14.50 in tips just by singing for twenty minutes.

I only know twenty minutes worth of songs. I always sing the same songs, I'm growing rather weary of them:

The Star Spangled Banner
America the Beautiful
My Country 'Tis of Thee
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Oh Clementine
You Are My Sunshine
House of the Rising Sun
Somewhere Over the Rainbow

It's hard to find songs that work well for me, singing both solo and a capella. But there are such songs I just got to find them.

I only sang for twenty minutes today because that's all the money I required for what I want to do today and tomorrow. But most people work full-time, why shouldn't I, by singing?

A room in Portland is about $600.

Next time I sing I'm going to keep singing until I have some money that I can just save.

Dear Editors,
How do I submit this story ??

From the eat-shit-has-a-new-meaning dept.

In a randomized, controlled clinical trial starting this year, researchers will test out such a fecal formula for the treatment of obesity. They’ll also try to glean critical details about the human microbiome and its role in our health and metabolism. The trial, led by Elaine Yu, an assistant professor and clinical researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, will involve taking fecal samples from lean, healthy donors then freeze-drying the stool, putting a gram or two into capsules, and giving them to 20 obese patients.

Such poop-packed pills, which are designed to replace a person’s intestinal microbes with those from a donor via their feces, have proven effective at treating tenacious gut infections. This has led researchers to ponder whether the transplants could remedy other health problems, including obesity and metabolic disorders. A few animal studies and some anecdotal data in humans suggests the answer is yes—and Yu hopes to get a final answer with the upcoming trial.

A few years ago, researchers took the gut microbes from a set of twins—one lean, one obese—and transplanted them into two sets of microbe-free mice. Even though all the mice were on the same diet, the rodents that received the obese twin’s microbes became chubby. The mice that got the lean twin’s mix stayed slim, suggesting that the microbes were calling the shots when it came to the animals’ weight.

In line with those results, another study on lean and obese twins’ microbes suggested that obesity is linked to having altered mixes and lower diversity of gut microbes.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/01/freeze-dried-poop-pills-being-tested-for-obesity-treatment/