Got akes and pains? “Ake” instead of “ache” was one of many early attempts to tidy up English spelling. Just learned from author Gabe Henry, talking about his new book Enough is Enuf on the podcast You’re Wrong About (Nov 11). https://t.co/DUuvHgA0T6 https://t.co/H01Qs8K53Q

This screenshot went wild on social media a while back. That is some 🧑🏻‍🍳😘 irony! Nature took down the paywall on this (ancient) article—no doubt because of the flood of traffic! Just a bit more about this, and tips on how to get full text papers: https://t.co/1FcK6CGRhl

Say hello to a different way of printing denim. Our Cool Transfer Printing tech lets us create vibrant, on-trend prints with less water. Next-gen denim is here. Ready to experience the future of fashion? Click the link to learn more about this innovative process.

I phrased that poorly. What I meant: NOT that the moon is continuously close throughout the month. But it remains relatively close for several days before/after being full at perigee ("supermoon") … AND it will do that yet again next month, for the third month in a row.

This cool image by Şenol Şanlı: https://t.co/Vl88kjFKtc As showcased by APOD: https://t.co/GY2ykNY133 APOD unavailable at its https://t.co/6aygF90VIM since the shutdown…but you can still get it from mirror sites, still posting. All the mirror URLs: https://t.co/2kgIzR4VZ1

I used a tripod, but this camera freakishly doesn't actually seem to need it, the stabilization is so good. A handheld shot was basically indistinguishable. Panasonic Lumix DC-FZ80D, ISO 80, 2400mm, ƒ5.9, 1/250s.

Today’s moon! Still closer than usual for another month. A recent Astro Photo of the Day shows how much bigger it seems—even halved! This is why I’ve been taking lots of moon photos. And the new camera of course.

That's a 4-minute read (and there's audio for members). TL;DR: Isn't it good to relieve suffering? Yes! Are they really different? They are, but they have a VERY close working relationship. So what? Conflating them is bad for care!

Pain and suffering: are they different things? Is treating one as good as treating the other? I took a ride on this short train of thought recently. In a new post, I take that train to several more stops: https://t.co/d3hTWVC3KK

That was in 2015. I’d gotten addicted accidentally (no joke), and my recklessly aggressive withdrawal was a traumatic nightmare. That medical disaster is one of the strongest possible explanations for what went wrong with my health 10 years ago. New post: https://t.co/YU0pl8hVzV

What’s the worst health mistake you ever made? The worst thing you’ve ever done to your own body? 🙋🏻‍♂️ Benzo addiction and rapid withdrawal!

… in the BRAINS … after an injury faaar away in the HIP, to their sciatic nerves. And the mapping showed a shift in activity over a month from the motor cortex to the hypothalamus, which sheds some light on how pain becomes chronic.

So microglia are the immune cells of the central nervous system, and they shape-change depending on their activity. When provoked by injury, infection, or stress, they get amoeboid, thickened, and mobile. This study mapped where these changes happened in the BRAINS of rats …

Another useless & impractical 😜 but fascinating basic pain science study… Peripheral nerve injury affects the immune cells of the brain, with activity moving around as the pain goes chronic. (1st take, no commentary on cromulence.)

If you keep getting stung, do you get used to it? This is called “habituation” in the world of pain science. Or does it just keep getting worse? “Sensitization.” “It depends,” but on what? Short post about a new study: https://t.co/enzbYLpr7S

Also used a 10s shutter delay to give it plenty of time to stop jiggling after the last touch. I took 100s of moon photos before realizing this—but now that I’ve seen it, I can't un-see it. 😜 At 60×, that thing is DANCING for several seconds before settling down.

Best moon shot yet! This learning curve is nuts. New camera gets close to this quality handheld & full auto, which is amazing, but falls short of what I really want. So this is on a tripod + full manual, my first time controlling all the exposure variables! A thrill to get this.

Yep: “most.” (But a shout out to people with exercise intolerance due to #chronicillness, which also often involves #chronicpain.)

Anything nice or uplifting will “help” #chronicpain, like good music, or puppy boops, or seeing a Nazi get punched. But that's about reducing SUFFERING, not pain. At best, there might be some modest modulation of pain intensity…nothing we would mistake for real treatment.

This one goes to dork-factor 9. If you’re not interested in the details, there's a plain English intro and conclusion. But the details are the POINT. If you followed because you want to learn how to think about the science of pain, this is what you signed up for. 🙂

Zapping back muscles back to life: restorative neurostimulation? A surgically implanted gadget…and a new study says it works! Suck it, skeptics! 🙄 Today I’m going to really tear that new study apart—a particularly GOOD example of a BAD clinical trial. https://t.co/UfFsE5Ql4e