Science: Health: Aid
How The Other Fifth Struggle   (+6, -1)  [vote for, against]
Disability education for the normal

A scheme by which schools who educate children in the 8 - 11 year range are provided with specialised "disability" devices.

There's a wheelchair; a pair of vision-limiting goggles; special hearing aids that reduce and distort sound; a "false" hand; and an "oxygen" mask that only limits breathing a bit, but requires the wearer to carry a cylinder round all the time.

Every Monday, there is a random draw; one or two of the kids will be required to experience a disability for the entire school week. They will be reliant on their friends (if any) to assist them, and may be excluded from some activities.

This should instill an appreciation of the difficulties experienced by those of a genuine disability, and discourage "mean" behavior towards this week's 'victim(s)', because next week it might be them in the wheelchair...
-- 8th of 7, May 11 2017

Alcohol and vitamins https://www.intecho...holic-liver-disease
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 14 2017]

Crisis Inducer http://hitchhikers....wiki/Crisis_Inducer
[hippo, May 15 2017]

Teen pregnancy simulation in school http://apps.npr.org...and-journal-prompts
For the next ~2 weeks, you will care for and protect an egg baby and keep a journal where you can reflect on the impact of teenage pregnancy on your and your family’s lives. [farble, May 16 2017]

New research shows role-playing disability promotes distress, discomfort and disinterest https://www.science...04/170411151019.htm
[JesusHChrist, May 16 2017]

While at Ford, we did this as engineers for a vehicle design accessibility program. Weighted suits with restricted motion, blurry yellow goggles, cotton in the ears, etc.

I'm not certain how you'd model mental health issues. Perhaps some weird trippy drugs?
-- RayfordSteele, May 11 2017


//Perhaps some weird trippy drugs?//

Actually, I think modern pharmacology is more than capable of that. Amphetamines for anxiety, serotonin antagonist for depression. Selective vitamin B depletion for schizophrenia.
-- bs0u0155, May 11 2017


//instill an appreciation of the difficulties experienced by those of a genuine disability// What in the name of coition has gotten into you, Borgboy?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 11 2017


//What in the name of coition has gotten into you, Borgboy?//

I think the borg are fed up of the likes of Kirk and Picard cutting them up as they trundle around the universe in their big square mobility scooter.
-- Loris, May 11 2017


I think it's likelier that [8th] has been kidnapped. Two questions for his captors:

(1) What have you done with him and
(2) How long can you keep him?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 11 2017


(1) Nothing he didn't deserve.
(2) How much are you willing to pay us to do so?
-- RayfordSteele, May 11 2017


I think I am in like with this idea.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 11 2017


//in like with// is my new favorite phrase.
-- Voice, May 11 2017


A cheaper method would be:

Put class on bus or ship. Go to the nearest 1/5th settlement. Kick everyone out.

Any class that makes it back alive gets to continue their studies. Partly returned classes are sent back to get the stragglers or the bodies. Or left as settlers.
-- popbottle, May 11 2017


I agree, as far as back-monkeys go... nicotine is at least a baboon.
I'd like to think that it's more of a habit thing, like after a meal, or on a break, but the few times I've travelled without packing smokes had me buying cigarettes in other countries which tasted like what-the-hell-am-I-doing?... but I smoked'm anyway.

Vile habit, but like most medicinal property plants, very open to abuse.
The natives here made Aspirin from willow trees and used tobacco for many things but prominently as a topical anesthetic for toothache. If you hold a mouthful of tobacco smoke for a few seconds without inhaling then a couple of pulls on a pipe numbs mouth pain.

That's neither here nor there though, the damn things should never have been touted as safe, endorsed by doctors, and foisted on our military boys for profit once their fightin days were done.

...almost like big business controls legislation or something screwed up like that.
Who friggin knows?

More power to you [bigsleep].
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 11 2017


Somehow I think this will not discourage the mean kids from being mean.
-- pashute, May 12 2017


>Amphetamines for anxiety, serotonin antagonist for depression. Selective vitamin B depletion for schizophrenia.

Coffee for insomnia, chocolate for euphoria, beer for intoxication, coca cola for stupidity...
-- pashute, May 12 2017


//Who friggin knows?// Lots of people know, [2fries]. There's just a conspiracy amongst the Illuminati to keep you in the dark.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 12 2017


//Are the disabled kids exempt//

They could be mentors.

Hi max.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 12 2017


um... is taking a daily dose multivitamin three times a day for two weeks really a good idea? or am I reading that wrong?

Like holy polar bear liver Batman!
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 12 2017


// How do we decide who gets to "learn appreciation"? //

Just like everything else in your society - a biased and highly unfair selection process based on social background, religion, ethnicity, skin colour, accent, height, weight and random violent beatings.

.
-- 8th of 7, May 13 2017


You make very good points [limpnotes]

- //it supposes a surplus of empathy (in the mentor), while the idea itself supposes lack as the root of the problem. Both cannot be true.//

True. I wonder though if it would be more about breaking down barriers.
A week is a long time for a kid. You spend an entire week with someone else outside of your little click and you are going to learn about each other even if one or the other is less than empathic.

//What of the kid who goes home to heroin addicted parents everyday?//

Yep... or mental and emotional beatings. Can't humanely simulate those disabilities, and they are disabilities aren't they?, just invisible ones. It's kind of hard to give a shit about school when you live in fear. It's like the least of your concerns.

That's a tough one.
Not to be intentionally demonstrated for sure... recognised and stopped certainly, but not demonstrated.

//How do we decide who gets to "learn appreciation"?//

Good question.

[bigsleep] // RDA's are typically very conservative and are 'Recommended' for average people. It probably doesn't include alcoholics or smokers. Just getting rid of crap from your lungs and liver takes a great toll in energy and nutrition. //

Interesting. I have read that liver disease in alcoholics is caused mainly because alcohol becomes a majority of their daily caloric intake and that the liver needs to turn this alcohol into sugar to process it and that if dietary changes do not occur then the liver does just fine.

Of course I can not find that study anymore, here is a link to the closest thing I can find. [link]

When I start to feel drag-assed for a few days I pop a multi vitamin and that feeling goes away for a while. Usually every few weeks or so.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 14 2017


most people are already mentally/emotianlly financially, genetically, racially or situationallly handicapped in some way.
-- bob, May 14 2017


Well, then, this scheme can hardly make things any worse, can it ?
-- 8th of 7, May 14 2017


//Are the disabled kids exempt from this treatment?//

Why should they be?
-- nomocrow, May 14 2017


Can you bang your head on a brick wall until your ears bleed ? It's essentially the same thing.
-- 8th of 7, May 15 2017


This reminds me of the fake injuries and Crisis Inducer that Lintilla in HHGTTG would use in order to run faster - on the grounds that if you have to struggle with a broken leg while escaping from an unnamed peril you'll be faster than with no peril and no broken leg.
-- hippo, May 15 2017


I never thought of it this way before, but I guess teen pregnancy could be considered a temporary disability. Maybe temporary until the kid moves out of the house.
-- farble, May 16 2017


// temporary disability //

... but self-inflicted. Doesn't count.
-- 8th of 7, May 16 2017


Not necessarily self-inflicted. A student is randomly chosen, dragged into a closet and given an egg to carry around.
-- farble, May 16 2017


No, you fool. It's "Alien: Convenience". It's about the difficulties faced by future travellers in dealing with lavatories designed for non-humans.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 16 2017


No shit, Sherlock ....
-- 8th of 7, May 16 2017


" A cheaper method would be:

Put class on bus or ship. Go to the nearest 1/5th settlement. Kick everyone out.

Any class that makes it back alive gets to continue their studies. Partly returned classes are sent back to get the stragglers or the bodies. Or left as settlers. — popbottle, May 11 2017 "

Back in the previous century, '80 or so, my girlfriend's college had an assignment where they blindfolded you, drove you to a rural community and dropped you off. The assignment was to make friends and find a place to spend the night, then get somebody to let you use a phone to call for pickup.

Probably couldn't get that one past the insurance folks today ...
-- normzone, May 16 2017


Reminds me of part of Richard Feynman's fraternity hazing, where they abandoned the pledges in the middle of nowhere and told them to find their way back, described on page 16 of the PDF I have of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, and the first time the word "lines" is mentioned in the book, for anybody who has a different electronic edition. For those without any electronic copy and without a physical copy with the same page numbering, or who find it easier to just read something that's already on this page rather than having to go open a book, I will include the relevant passage below:

// When I became a pledge they had various ways of hazing. One of the things they did was to take us, blindfolded, far out into the countryside in the dead of winter and leave us by a frozen lake about a hundred feet apart. We were in the middle of absolutely nowhere—no houses, no nothing—and we were supposed to find our way back to the fraternity. We were a little bit scared, because we were young, and we didn't say much—except for one guy, whose name was Maurice Meyer: you couldn't stop him from joking around, making dumb puns, and having this happy-go-lucky attitude of "Ha, ha, there's nothing to worry about. Isn't this fun!"

We were getting mad at Maurice. He was always walking a little bit behind and laughing at the whole situation, while the rest of us didn't know how we were ever going to get out of this.

We came to an intersection not far from the lake-- there were still no houses or anything--and the rest of us were discussing whether we should go this way or that way, when Maurice caught up to us and said, "Go this way."

"What the hell do you know, Maurice?" we said, frustrated. "You're always making these jokes. Why should we go this way?"

"Simple: Look at the telephone lines. Where there's more wires, it's going toward the central station."

This guy, who looked like he wasn't paying attention to anything, had come up with a terrific idea! We walked straight into town without making an error. //
-- notexactly, May 17 2017


Does this mean that some poor child has to waddle around insulting people; wearing tiny hands and an orange head, being Trump for an entire week? Sounds a bit extreme to me.
-- xenzag, May 17 2017


Betcha Hillary would jump at the chance.
-- 8th of 7, May 18 2017


// 3 x multivitamin tablets every day Take a B and C vitamin hangover cure 2 times a week Take a vitamin D and calcium supplement 2 times a week. //

There's absorption issues with a whole lot of micronutrients. Take that vitamin D for example. Ca2+ and Vitamin D depend on magnesium for absorption. So they're probably just coming straight out the other end. Particularly because of the 2-3 fold increase in Mg2+ excretion induced by alcohol.

// I have read that liver disease in alcoholics is caused mainly because alcohol becomes a majority of their daily caloric intake.. //

It's a major problem when alcoholics essentially stop eating. You need a certain intake of, at least, essential amino acids and fatty acids or the body starts to keep going, but the body has big reserves, and starts taking them from the muscles and other tissues.

//and that the liver needs to turn this alcohol into sugar to process it...//

The liver makes an awful lot of acetate not sugar, the liver can't really (well, a bit) make glucose from alcohol or fat, only protein, so back to muscle for that. Acetate is not so bad, many tissues can use this as fuel just fine, the heart for example and because it easily crosses the blood-brain barrier the brain can supplement its energy with acetate. When alcoholics STOP drinking there can be a problem with energy supply in the brain, vitamin B depletion, a fall in blood acetate concentration, and a fall in blood glucose caused by a dysfunctional liver that has very little protein to work with all conspire to cause a bioenergetic crisis in the brain. Then there's a bunch of mineral depletion that physicians don't spot, because they test the blood, and the blood's super tightly regulated. All the potassium and magnesium is inside cells.

// and that if dietary changes do not occur then the liver does just fine.//

Well, if there's food, the liver has a different problem, a whole load of acetate (acetylCoA, NADH) to deal with, the whole system kind of gets backed up with reducing equivalents, so the liver polymerizes acetate and makes fat. Some in the now fatty liver, some it pushes into the blood with its cholesterol chaperones. A neat little solution to the problem. Except it can't make essential fats, so the whole fatty acid delivery system needed to maintain all the membranes and so on is gummed up with a huge excess of fatty acids the liver CAN make, they dilute out the essential fats and hang around not being used much.

Same problem with carbohydrate energy glut, all ends up as acetyl-CoA then fat that doesn't get used. Solvable with the dnp fat farm of course.
-- bs0u0155, May 19 2017


You should get a job doing this stuff professionally, [bs].
-- 8th of 7, May 21 2017


Very informative. Thanks eh.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 21 2017



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