Spravato (Esketamine) Nasal Spray for Treatment of Depression

Two announcements have shown up this month.

The first announcement is the FDA approval for the use of Spravato (esketamine), a nasal spray for treatment of depression.

The second announcement came this week.  This one is the VA approval of Spravato (esketamine) to be used by VA providers for treating veterans with depression.

For people with depression that are not experiencing improvements with traditional antidepressant medications, this provides an opportunity to try a new medication that can be added to the usual depression treatment through anti-depressants.

Because of the newness of the medication, there are still some restrictions to how the medication is given and a required period of observation after the medication is administered.

For those of us with depression, we have one more tool in our toolbox.

Clipart stolen from Clipartmax.

Science of SciFi

Currently reading a book about the science behind scifi.  It’s a great book and I’ll give it a good write up once I finish it.

Anyway, while reading a chapter on search for extraterrestrials, I got curious about the history of radio and tv signals and how far they’ve made it so far.  A Google search led me to two websites with really amazing information.

The first was a link on the Planetary Society’s webpage, which demonstrated with a map of the Milky Way how far Earth signals have made it into space.  Emphasis on the Milky Way there because even within our own galaxy, signals haven’t gone very far.

The second was a website called ETTV.  ETTV is Extraterrestrial Television.  Using today’s date as a starting point, it maps out radio signals from Earth and demonstrates with examples what tv programs would reach some of the planets in our galaxy that are  projected to support life.

The book is fantastic and started out as a library book that I felt was a must own for anyone interested in scifi writing.  I rushed out to buy my own and am working my way through it.

Clipart stolen from Clipartmax.

Them by Ben Sasse

I finished reading Ben Sasse‘s book Them: Why We Hate Each Other – And How to Heal this past Thursday.  I picked up this book because one of my research interests is the process of othering or creating The Other.

The author, Ben Sasse, is  the newwest Senator from NEbraska, having just been elected in 2014.  Sasse frames his argument for how we’ve gotten to the current state of othering within an s discussion of loneliness as a central condition and a need for tribes to surround ourselves.  He points out one of the biggest problems resulting in othering is a result is the current state of politics.

The book discusses this concept of politics with the introduction one of my favorite new words:  polititainment. Sasse uses this term to describe how the talking heads on tv, particularly on Fox News and MSNBC, create a false political dichotomy of extreme rights and extreme lefts that cannot work together and/or meet in the middle, which exists solely for personal profit and fame of the talking heads.

Part of his solution offering is to look at things in a new way.  On the surface, this is a good offering.  However, as his initial discussion involves the issue of loneliness, the discussion deviation into the area of discussing how people need to adapt to a new and changing sharing economy and the reduction of personal ownership appears to create more potential for othering and separating people rather than bringing them together.

Sasse ends his discussion of his particular concept of othering by offering up a pair of definitions to differentiate between politics and civics.  He defines politics as being “about the use of power” and civics as being “about who we are as a people” (245).

Dream Theater (Mike Portnoy) – Shattered Fortress (Twelve Step Suite)

Mike Portnoy wrote this as a series of pieces over five albums.  This was his way of honoring the 12 Steps.

1. “The Glass Prison”
(0:08 – 13:56)
2. “This Dying Soul”
(13:57 – 25:19)
3. “The Root Of All Evil”
(25:20 – 32:26)
4. “Repentance”
(32:27 – 43:09)
5. “The Shattered Fortress”
(43:10 – 55:59)

Out There by Michael Wall

Another book I finished last week was Michael Wall‘s Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel (For the Cosmically Curious).

Dr Wall’s book gives a glimpse of the search for extraterrestrial life.  Beginning with the Drake Equation and possible chemical compositions of extraterrestrial life, Wall explores what life might look like in the universe.

The book explores what alien life might be like, how it might communicate with us, world reactions and responses, and current and possible future techniques to search for life.

Dr Wall also explores the possibility of our colonization of other planets, our exploration of interstellar space, time travel, and evolutionary implications of our leaving our home planet.

Whether you’re just curious about alien life and existing theories of life, or if you’re looking to create an alien life form in a story you’re working on, this book is a must read.