Hacker News: dillydogg

New comment by dillydogg in "Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?"

dillydogg — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 01:58:16 +0000

I liked the story as told here in Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabricatio...

New comment by dillydogg in "Fuck the cloud (2009)"

dillydogg — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:45:25 +0000

Keep hoping!

New comment by dillydogg in "Fuck the cloud (2009)"

dillydogg — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 23:40:47 +0000

Can you more accurately translate this to English for us?

New comment by dillydogg in "Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events"

dillydogg — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 01:36:06 +0000

What I would suggest as a pathologist who deals with diagnosing these: the incidence of differences of sexual development is somewhere between 1 in 1000 - 4500 births. So this policy will not unlikely diagnose someone with a DSD who didn't know.

New comment by dillydogg in "Universal vaccine against respiratory infections and allergens"

dillydogg — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:54:57 +0000

These are pretty common, physiologic structures associated with infections. They can be just a handful of cells on a slide or be quite large, and I don't know what they found in these infections. I didn't read the original paper. The ectopic lymphoid structures go away after the infection resolves. It seems that the immune system has ways to set up mini lymph node architecture right by the site of infections, which is very sensible. The same process is going on in a more organized way in the draining lymph node in parallel. Research into these was really hot in the 2010s, but people don't seem to be as into them anymore (but my research has also transitioned to innate immunity from adaptive, so it's likely that I'm no longer in that universe).

In general, it doesn't surprise me that when you prime the innate immune system, the adaptive immune system works well. The problem is that pathogens have an incredible suite of tools ready to evade these mechanisms. The doses of the pathogens are typically insanely high too, which I do not think model natural infections well. Anyways, this is intriguing, so I'll take a look at the original paper one of these days. Vaccine research generally is so boring. It's like, we vaccinated, and it worked, or didn't, no mechanism.

New comment by dillydogg in "MacBook Air with M5"

dillydogg — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:22:43 +0000

I have noticed something similar. With the computer science undergrads and grad students I work with, Air is much more common than with the premeds and med students, many of whom have MBPs (who I am presuming do not need that much power).

New comment by dillydogg in "On being sane in insane places (1973) [pdf]"

dillydogg — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 02:27:01 +0000

I thought about defining it up front but decided to move it to the second paragraph.

I would say it's worth talking to a doctor about how you feel. There are many things that can help. If you are in the USA, if is likely that they will use the PHQ-9 form, so consider looking at that questionaire to see how it aligns with your mood. medcalc is a common site that many of the residents at my institution use for these questionaires and other various scoring systems.

New comment by dillydogg in "On being sane in insane places (1973) [pdf]"

dillydogg — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 19:51:24 +0000

I was taught that it was more a memory device for recognizing major depressive disorder as a state of sadness and low energy. The treatment, I presume was still SSRIs first line.

New comment by dillydogg in "On being sane in insane places (1973) [pdf]"

dillydogg — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:35:47 +0000

It's true. You wouldn't believe how many people I've SIGECAPS'd during my medical training. I didn't realize this article was the beginning of this approach, but it certainly helped get care to people who previously wouldn't have received it. Though I'm sure there are also many who may require intervention that aren't captured by a SIGECAPS exam. The double edged sword of the checklist manifesto, though I overall think it has been beneficial.

SIGECAPS is an acronym taught in US medicine for the diagnosis of major depressive disorder: Sleep disturbance, Interest loss, Guilt, Energy loss, Concentration loss, Appetite changes, Psychomotor agitation, Suicidality. And must have Depressed mood or Anhedonia (inability to enjoy things previously enjoyable).

The history of the SIG E CAPS acronym is also interesting, I've heard it was short for SIG (old shorthand for "to be prescribed") Energy CAPsules.

New comment by dillydogg in "Drug trio found to block tumour resistance in pancreatic cancer in mouse models"

dillydogg — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:28:51 +0000

That's interesting because rodents and apes share a more recent common ancestor (75Mya) than dogs and apes (85 Mya).

New comment by dillydogg in "If you tax them, will they leave?"

dillydogg — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 22:49:56 +0000

It is a good point. It depends on how regressive is defined. There are many competing arguments here, but two I am aware of are

1. Regressive deals with % of income spent.

2. Regressive deals with an ideal state where those with more excess income contribute more than those with less.

In both of these, I suppose sales tax is regressive if it applies to all items, but only 2 is regressive with sophisticated rebates and untaxed categories.

New comment by dillydogg in "If you tax them, will they leave?"

dillydogg — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 21:09:29 +0000

It's funny, because sales tax is considered among the most regressive form of taxation we employ from my understanding, which is supported by my econ friends. But I'm certainly not an economist.

New comment by dillydogg in "France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc."

dillydogg — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 01:42:41 +0000

I suspect if what has transpired doesn't make them concerned, they will only be emboldened.

New comment by dillydogg in "France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc."

dillydogg — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:47:28 +0000

For those who haven't looked at the results, I find them more depressing:

>What emotion best describes how you feel about Donald Trump’s presidency so far?

Of Republicans:

40% Satisfaction

24% Enthusiasm/pride

6% Hope

5% Relief

They are loving this.

New comment by dillydogg in "Doctors in Brazil using tilapia fish skin to treat burn victims (2017)"

dillydogg — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:28:53 +0000

I think one of the most interesting techniques for burn victims is using placentas. I haven't seen it too much in my current hospital system, but have seen it talked about at medical association conferences and think it's pretty exciting.

Here is a gift link for an article about them in the New York Times from about a year ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/well/placenta-donations-b...

New comment by dillydogg in "The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe"

dillydogg — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:45:53 +0000

We finally have processors in our pockets that can calculate the pretty lights and colors, so make them calculate, people!

New comment by dillydogg in "Eat Real Food"

dillydogg — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 15:08:24 +0000

I totally agree on all three accounts: unprocessed foods are great, organic wheats are good, and the concerning focus on abundance of red meat. I think we are going through a fad of "we need to gobble down as much protein as we can". I agree it's reasonable we need more, and especially older adults at risk of falling. I am concerned that there are so many junior residents that I work with that are throwing back protein shakes because they are "optimizing their macros". So many of these protein powders have added sugar and are contaminated with heavy metals! I will commend the guidelines for supporting lentils, beans and other pulses.

New comment by dillydogg in "Eat Real Food"

dillydogg — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 22:27:18 +0000

I really don't see how this is so different than what nutritionists have said for years. This reads as if the guans before was to drink soda and eat fat free candy all day. The three sentence dietary guidance still holds:

1. Eat food 2. Not too much 3. Mostly plants

Though the government's position seems to be at odds with #3. I would encourage more beans and greens, personally.

New comment by dillydogg in "Quality of drinking water varies significantly by airline"

dillydogg — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 04:35:40 +0000

The implication of antibacterial soap is that it contains antibiotics, which leads to resistance in bacterial populations. Non-antibacterial soap is a misnomer, it is plenty effective against bacteria, but kills the bacteria mechanically.

New comment by dillydogg in "Joan Didion and Kurt Vonnegut had something to say. We have it on tape"

dillydogg — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 17:22:20 +0000

I think "Hocus Pocus" is his best, followed by "Cat's Cradle". But how lucky are we to have so many good ones to pick from?