Genetic testing shows a few mutations, one problem is that my liver basically has no receptors for removal of excess cholesterol. Statins will work to increase that number in most folks, but for me it only makes a small difference. So another med works to stop reabsorption in my digestive tract, so more is removed via that path. Still not enough, so the shot works as an antibody of sorts, which does the final trick to get things to a normal level.

Testing was done an everything seemed ok on the tests in terms of blockages, but I *DO* have cholesterol deposits on my knuckles, knees, etc. So it does build up.

Oddly the way this was discovered was going in for an eye exam, and the doc noticed a heavy cholesterol ring around my iris, that is what started the whole process moving forward.

I'm a (relatively) healthy individual that went in a few years back for my first cholesterol test (yeah, I should have done it ages ago), since I was well into my 40s. I figured I eat healthy, I exercise a lot, I was in great shape!

My fasting lipid panel was ~600, with the lions share being LDL. Turns out I have multiple mutations and FH was probably going to kill me sooner, rather than later.

They ran me through the treadmill tests, which I passed with flying colors (yay all that exercise), so I wasn't going to stroke out in the next month or so.

So now I'm on a regimen of rosuvastatin, ezetimibe, and injections of evolocumab, all of that to get my cholesterol to healthy levels, when I was already sticking to a mostly plant diet, no red meat, etc. My body just has zero capacity to even deal with the cholesterol it naturally produces, so it will remain sky-high unless I am constantly taking meds AND eating healthy.

So something like this would be AMAZING, even if it just meant I could stop giving myself shots, because I could actually GO somewhere on vacation and not have to bring refrigerated meds along with.

Plus, they might screw up and give me the ability to see in the dark.
 

Does anyone else find it INORDINATELY CREEPY that a bioscience company is tied in with a pseudo-religious occult language?

You can't fool me, that is just Otho from Beetlejuice.

"What fresh hell has this software engineer gotten themselves into? Leave your best answers in the comments. What are the lesser-known roles of the IT department? "

Software engineers should NOT be sysadmins. Full stop.

Sigh, and I posted without realizing I wasn't logged in. Dementia is coming on fast.

Used to be the TRS-80 go-to guy in highschool, owned a Tandy 1000HX (It was a giant leap from my TI-99/4A, but the TI still works), that developed random floppy read/write errors, I solved it by gluing pennies to the read head of the drive, eventually it would go south, and I would glue another penny on, then one day, I sheared the head off when I put a disk in, because the spring had suddenly decided to stop holding those pennies up.

DeathGuild/Thunderdome worked a shift at Arctica this year (and previous years).

Basically it worked like this:

1) Some of us are in the truck and are lining up bags of ice at the edge of the trailer (single bags, block ice, bags of 3, and full bags of 6)
2) Customer approaches counter with dedicated cashier, announces what they need
3) Dedicated Ice runner moves TEN FEET OR LESS to the trailer, grabs the ice and brings it to the front
(Note for #3, the customer is still usually paying/receiving change by the time the ice is in front of them)
4) Customer leaves, wash, rinse, repeat.

That walk ALL the way back to the truck takes seconds, and the ice is there, right at the edge, and still being cooled to a degree by the trailer chillers, it takes them 15-20 seconds TOPS to get that ice. Each register also has a dedicated trailer (unless one is pulled for replacement with a new, full trailer). So what you are really saving is MAYBE 15 seconds or so per transaction, and then you have ice sitting out in 100+ degree heat.

Don't forget if we want to put out the ice people need, we would need to have every possible combo of ice sitting out there, so if we get a run on single bags, those full bags and blocks would just sit there simmering until someone comes along that wants them. I think a bigger speed up for the lines would for people to have their money ready, and not dick around in their drug addled state when we ask them what they want.

And here I thought the whole gamergate thing was the new gaslighting.

Not quite the same, but this sounds somewhat like the old iPad smart-cover bypass trick from a couple years ago.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2011/oct/26/ipad-lock-bypass-ios5-cover

Settle down, Francis.

I'm curious how this will affect businesses that are currently using postini. Since google is moving postini functionality into google apps, does this mean a business will now have to sign up for google apps to continue using any postini features?

It seems that google has been fairly quiet about exactly what the postini shutdown means for business, and I've only found vague talk of how a business is supposed to transition to google to continue the service. Especially businesses that do not use gmail, but use their own mail servers.

Now if only the birth rate would drop world wide. Sigh, pipe dreams.