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“Ari” here, welcoming you back to This Week Online.
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WHAT HAPPENED
24/02 – 03/03
- New Fear Unlocked: fungi, bacteriapocalypse
- Of course Australia’s lagging on ketamine therapy
- Elon Musk must be stopped
- “Weren’t we supposed to have moved on from this?”
- With fear in my heart and love on my mind I’m STILL hunting Melbourne’s best date spot
- Reviewing MDMA trial music
- the sealed section has become ungovernable
NEW FEAR UNLOCKED: FUNGI, BACTERIAPOCALYPSE
The CSIRO has warned of a “post-antibiotic” future. Listen to me: when the spores start coming for us, kill me. I’m done. I’m already done just thinking about it.
Antimicrobial resistance is when microorganisms, like bacteria and fungi, mutate in order to protect themselves against the drugs that were designed to target them, ie. antibiotics. The CSIRO report found growing resistance among common bugs that had the ability to render some critical modern medicines ineffective, indicating a “looming global health crisis”.
Previous research from the United Nations warned drug-resistant microbes could lead to 10 million deaths a year, globally, by 2050. Of course, global heating is exacerbating the crisis.
So here it is. Fungi are our close relatives, and bacteria invented the universe. So as far as we’re concerned, fungi and bacteria are God. Which means when they reclaim the Earth from us and send us back to whence we came, it will be the reckoning. For our failed stewardship of this planet, we will need to answer to FUNGI. How about that???
[ here ]
OF COURSE AUSTRALIA’S LAGGING ON KETAMINE THERAPY
Ketamine has proven itself to be an effective treatment for depression, especially for people with treatment-resistant depression. The first studies on its efficacy came out in 2000, so, as professor Chris Davey, principal investigator on Orygen’s Study of Ketamine for Youth with Depression (SKY-D), told VICE, “We’re a bit slow on the uptake in Australia”.
“There are plenty of clinics in the US and Europe,” said Davey. “It’s not that new or that radical. I think time has come to offer it in a controlled and considered way, and to make it more available to people.”
In Australia, the cost of ketamine treatment is wholly out of pocket. The TGA approved another formulation of ketamine, esketamine, for use in treating depression in 2021, but it has been repeatedly rejected for listing on the PBS. As it stands, treatments can cost anywhere from $800 to $1300 a week. It just isn’t viable for the people who likely need it most.
[ here ]
REVIEWING MDMA TRIAL MUSIC
Ever wondered what happens in an MDMA therapy trial? No? Okay. Well, you’re put in a dark room, given eye shades, headphones, a playlist, and a therapist who walks you through your trauma for eight hours. EIGHT HOURS. And what are you listening to for those eight hours? The hospitals actually use playlists publicly available on Spotify. So Julie Fenwick hit shuffle and reviewed the first five that came up. As it turns out, MDMA therapists are quite fond of film scores.
[ here ]
“WEREN’T WE SUPPOSED TO HAVE MOVED ON FROM THIS?”
Appetite suppressants are apparently back, indicating culturally we’re hardly far from the rued days of domestic amphetamine abuse and its dual benefit of suppressing that appetite and supplying enough energy to get all that housework done.
Although it’s been approved and prescribed since 2017, the Hollywood buy-in of Ozempic has taken it from medicine to status symbol. The “diabetes miracle drug” mimics a naturally occurring hormone, GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide one), to manage hunger and slow stomach emptying.
Ozempic and its cousins, Wegovy and Mounjaro, are tweaking our relationship to food, appetites, and life itself. Everyone in New York and LA are skinny. Not even the fact you have to inject it seems to have quelled the demand. But weren’t we supposed to have moved on from all of this?
[ here ]
WITH FEAR IN MY HEART AND LOVE ON MY MIND I’M STILL HUNTING MELBOURNE’S BEST DATE SPOT
This, here, is a terrible quest with no foreseeable end in sight. Next stop on the fraught odyssey to find Melbourne’s best date spot was Poodle Fitzroy. And you know what, it was pretty fabulous.
Read on to find out how a moist chocolate cake mended a long-lost broken part of me – the root of my tragic intolerance for sweet treats.
[ here ]
ELON MUSK MUST BE STOPPED
Elon Musk is apparently building a “based” AI to compete with ChapGPT’s “woke” AI.
This is exactly what the world needs. From one of the richest men in the world. This is what we need.
Musk has begun reaching out to AI researchers in recent weeks, compelled by his dissatisfaction with the “woke” offerings of current AI. If you’re wondering what that even means, you are not alone. Cited in Dazed are his recent tweets, where he has highlighted, for example, ChatGPT’s “concerning” bias against right-wing figures such as Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump. Yeah. Okey.
[ here ]
+the sealed section has become ungovernable
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