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Comment Re:Conversion diseases are so frustrating... (Score 2) 146

I myself have migraines. Lots of people do and everyone's migraine is different and has different triggers. As an anecdote: I had daily migraines for a few months while at med school. I even blamed the anatomy teacher, because they would begin during said class. Then someone fixed the vending machine, which had been giving away Fanta at 1/10th the price and I quit drinking it before class. The migraines remitted to their usual frequency of once or twice a month and I could unleash one by drinking a Fanta (not a Coke or Sprite). I've known of no other person with such a trigger.
As for your question, most of the time CD diagnosis is straighforward but tests are made to ensure it is not a rare manifestation of a life-threatening illness. Sometimes, it's not as simple as it seems. I've seen deep focal epilepsies which go undetected by EEG after EEG but cause bizarre symptoms. Or paraneoplasic syndromes that show up as dementia in which the tumor isn't detected until after a year or so.
In your case, migraines are in fact very sensitive to sleep disorders, still I'm very surprised a doctor would keep you in for 5 whole nights just because your sleep disorder was not diagnosed in the first full-night polysomnography. We usually draw the line there.

Comment Re:Conversion diseases are so frustrating... (Score 2) 146

It's a side effect I've heard from many people. I don't know why it happens, but I believe them. I don't even know if the sensation is produced in the peripheral nerves or in the brain. Like when you hit your elbow and feel an electric shock in your outermost fingers: the hit stimulates the ulnar nerve and that signal is interpreted in your brain as a weird feeling in the area the aforementioned nerve controls. No imaging method nor an EMG/ENG/EEG will show anything because it's a tiny chemical malfunction that happens somewhere, like a miscalibration. Most withdrawal symptoms (even from alcohol) come from such miscalibrations because the brain adapts to the new chemical balance induced by the drug.

Comment Conversion diseases are so frustrating... (Score 5, Interesting) 146

I'm a neurologist and I deal everyday with people that are obviously suffering a conversive disease. This does not mean that they are feigning or malingering, It's just that somehow their brains malfunction and generate bizarre symptoms. In most cases the disease has no anatomical and physiological integrity (i.e. it crosses boundaries that it should not, or a certain part that should also be affected works fine).
It's frustrating because the patient and everyone around her (mostly happens to females) is pretty convinced of an impending illnes and they request test after test, sometimes even threatening to sue. Of course nothing is found ... or worse: a harmless congenital defect can be found, which will produce more anxiety.

Comment Re:Business only! (Score 1) 732

I bought a Samsung 300E. i5, 6gb ram, Nvidia graphics, 750 gb HD. 15" matte display. Light, cheap, durable battery.
Downside is that the Fn keys work only with the maufacturer's "utility". If I remove it, the only thing I can do via keyboard is change the volume. No screen brightness control, no touchpad turn-off, no fan control, no WiFi on/off. And for each of those it takes a LOT to obey because when pressed they load the whole "utility".

Comment Re:mac (Score 1) 732

When it came to buying a netbook, I went for the dual-core (Atom 570) and upgraded the 1gb RAM to 2gb (It was tricky because it wouldn't accept any $20 ram module, and the manufacturer wanted more thatn $100 to upgrade. Thankfully I had a friendly store nearby that let me try many brands till I found the right $20 one).

I have compared it to many "normal" netbooks and it's much quicker for most tasks. The only thing I would have wished for was an ION chipset for a better video experience (it's still low to rearrange windows when connected to an external monitor), but it would have raised the price to notebook levels.

Comment Re:Hope they are realistic (Score 1) 102

As a matter of fact, I'm a grandson of italians, french, danes and spaniards raised in Peru and living in Spain for many years now. I know what I'm talking about.
It's good not to resort to violence. What's wrong is the current inability of europeans to do so even at the cost of their own lives. The rest of the world is not as byzantine as modern Europe, and we know what happened to Constantinople.

Comment Re:Hope they are realistic (Score 0, Redundant) 102

I think the current pussyness of Europe has to do with the fact most of its alpha males have been killed in WW1, WW2 and the random civil wars (and the remaining brave men went to America at a time it was not a 10 hour flight). I feel ashamed for all the people that stare in awe whenever I show my swiss army knife in public.

Comment Re:Computer researchers are too much like computer (Score 2) 106

I think it's because of two things:

In the earlier days of the internet, a lot of sites wouldn't accept passwords longer than eight characters or with spaces in them. I think because of the way they were saved. What's worse is that some sites would accept the password at registration, but filter it when signing in; thus locking out the user forever.

And nowadays there's too many sites that ask such nonsense as "Must be longer than 6, shorter than 10, have 3 numbers, one capital letter". My phone company asks for 4 numbers and then 6 letters. I guess they get lots of reset password calls. I make one each 6 months or so.

Comment Re:A No Brainer (Score 1) 500

I live in Guadalajara, Spain (the original one). It's got about 90 thousand inhabitants, most of which work in Madrid (about 60 km away).
The hospital, where I work at, is 7 min away from here by car. Should I take the bus, the trip lasts 30 min, to which I must add an average 15 min between buses at peak times. Now, that's 45 min against 7, twice a day.
If I go to Madrid, it takes about an hour if by train or if by car. But by car I bypass the 30-40' of busing to the train station and also the time limits (I must get back before 10 pm or I may not find any buses at the station in Guadalajara).

Now, if that appears difficult: Try doing it with a child and a toddler in a stroller.

Not to mention going from one city to another and finding there's only one bus to go in the morning and one to get back in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the politicians will always have their official AUDIs with a driver.

Comment Double standard (Score 1) 202

A big company or even a ghost company can blow up your proyect because it looks like the application of a concept they patented but never developed. On the other hand, China is allowed to mass produce copies of western products and never face the consequences.

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