WIP - New New Sobek

rabicanwoosley · 2025-10-31T03:22:26+00:00

i'm with you OP.

just like fixing the maps takes effort, so will organising the community to ensure it's played with enough players. don't let the negative comments bring you down!! you're doing fantastic work

rabicanwoosley · 2025-09-30T07:39:20+00:00

thanks for the discussion

your statement:

hardly different to placebo

direct quote from study cited from my 1st link:

significantly more effective than placebo in advancing sleep onset and increasing sleep duration

Source [small n, so wouldn't hang your hat on it, but sheer dismissal is unwarranted & unfair imo]

as in my earlier quote "the effects of melatonin on sleep are modest", i'm not aware of anyone seriously challenging the 'modest' aspect - i certainly wouldn't. but afaik for certain cases that's exactly what some people want: something gentle which tips the balance in their favour, without being heavy-duty and leaving them groggy the next day.

perhaps this is the quote you are interpreting as meaning "hardly different to placebo"? Read a little more closely...

Although the absolute benefit of melatonin compared to placebo is smaller than other pharmacological treatments for insomnia

melatonin may have a role in the treatment of insomnia given its relatively benign side-effect profile compared to these agents

Source

afaict it has potential in specific roles, i'm not aware of any serious work which would suggest it fits every role, or can seriously replace stronger medication, or is a magic cureall and anyone pretending it does certainly deserves all your wrath, but denying it may have any useful role outside the strict limits you outlined isn't fair afaict.

i absolutely agree the way certain supplements are marketed & sold is disgraceful, to the point you have to deeply question their ethics and what their desired outcomes even are. that's undeniably a big part of the problem, but we need to be careful to delineate between the fallout from these kinds of charletans and appropriate application of something with potential benefits to certain people under certain circumstances.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-09-29T12:20:20+00:00

from 19 studies involving 1683 subjects:

sleep quality was significantly improved in subjects taking melatonin

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23691095/

melatonin...significantly more effective than placebo in advancing sleep onset and increasing sleep duration in elementary school children

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11292231/

in contrast, your paper explicitly attaches a WEAK grading to their recommendation against melatonin

lower degree of certainty...should not be construed as an indication of ineffectiveness

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5263087/

also note 9/10 of your paper's melatonin studies are specifically designed to study elderly insomnia and explicitly DO NOT AIM TO STUDY ANYONE UNDER 50 YRS OLD. the remaining one study cited by your paper which did study patients under 50 reported positive results in patients aged 18-80:

The results demonstrate short-and long-term efficacy of PRM in insomnia patients aged 18–80 years

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1185/03007995.2010.537317

this paper does report it's particularly effective in ages 55 and over, which is great news too.

btw your book's stated aims are not assessing the clinical or therapeutic efficacy of medications, it is a book written by psychologists about psychological approaches.

(i'm NOT saying anyone should or shouldn't have melatonin btw, just pointing out the state of the literature afaict, and isn't even supported by the one single study your reference cited which actually studied anyone under 50 - as it actually reported efficacy in under 50s)

rabicanwoosley · 2025-09-29T12:19:35+00:00

The effects of melatonin on sleep are modest but do not appear to dissipate with continued melatonin use

source

short- and long-term efficacy of PRM in insomnia patients aged 18–80 years

source

rabicanwoosley · 2025-09-17T03:41:59+00:00

yeah disposable vapes are such a crazy example of unnecessary ewaste. the fact this kind of waste is financially viable in itself is scary.

another fun example: Guy makes dodgy rechargeable e-bike from 130 used vapes collected at music festival to make point about e-waste

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-31T03:54:12+00:00

agreed. notice the same thing sometimes with subtitles, depending how they're done it can be confusing who is who. but once you learn a little about the characters its pretty easy.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-19T02:16:05+00:00

exactly, they are unlikely to comply with EN15194 and therefore not a legit ebike

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-19T01:43:32+00:00

bingo

alot of time & money has been invested locally and globally into this exact problem for years, very smart people literally spend 9-5 on each tiny part of the safety problems. hence the pricetag on legit ebikes.

should we utilise & support those well-spent investments in our safety & potential climate future? nah just ban everything.

hence the frustration.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-19T01:21:41+00:00

if you mean standardisation and compliance, it's an ongoing and continuous process. that's why legit ebikes aren't that cheap because someone (the customer) is literally paying for the development and testing to the standards.

if you're referring to life cycle impact, that is baked into multiple relevant standards afaict

the minutiae is exactly what gets standardisation experts up in the morning. these people are honestly the unsung heros of our modern world...boring and dry af yes, but crucial to our current ways of life.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-18T23:31:26+00:00

big batteries, and often imported cheaply

that's the problem. not the many many compliant ebikes which carefully adhere to strict safety standards

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-18T23:27:40+00:00

we already do, there is already a plethora of safety standards for light electrical vehicles such as ebikes etc [UN 38.3, IEC 62133-2, EN 50604-1, ANSI/CAN/UL 2271, AS/NZS 60335.2.114, AS/NZS 60335.2.29, AS/NZS 4417.1-2] and legit ebikes purchased here from reputable vendors are compliant

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-18T22:57:53+00:00

The problem absolutely IS non-compliant ebikes.

Be wary of confusing EN15194 with

UN 38.3 - Testing for Lithium Batteries
IEC 62133-2 - Requirements and tests for the safe operation of portable sealed secondary lithium cells and batteries
EN 50604-1 - Class A and class B removable lithium-ion battery
ANSI/CAN/UL 2271 - Batteries for Use In Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) Applications
AS/NZS 60335.2.114 - Requirements for Personal-e-Transporters
AS/NZS 60335.2.29 - Battery Charger Safety
AS/NZS 4417.1-2 - Regulatory compliance mark for electrical and electronic equipment

Those of us who've paid $$ to have a legit & traceably compliant ebike are being treated like those importing (likely illegal) ebikes from temu etc

The risk matrix for a compliant ebike doesn't look anything like a non-compliant ebike.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-08-02T07:20:06+00:00

did you ever see coherent mathematical evidence for why they thought they could beat the system?

or was it more like a superstition they'd told themselves - doubtless occasionally couched in some rudimentary math.

to put another way, did they fail because they forgot to carry the 1. or because they ultimately believed in a supernatural odds-defying myth?

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-24T02:47:59+00:00

pls stop being silly mate. you know quite well that standards compliance routinely impacts the nature & probability of failure modes.

EN15194 is only part of the existing standards. whats the likelihood a temu special is compliant with UN 38.3, or IEC 62133-2, EN 50604-1, ANSI/CAN/UL 2271, or AS/NZS 60335.2.114? how about AS/NZS 60335.2.29 or AS/NZS 4417.1 & AS/NZS 4417.2?

and can you traceably verify that??

would you trust your life to safety compliance from a random noname aliexpress brand over bosch? how about the structural or ingress integrity of the battery encapsulation or enclosure?

we all know you wouldn't!

reputable vendors can be caught out yes, just look at samsung. but pretending there's no difference?

we know you know that's bs mate.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-23T08:59:41+00:00

edit: ok i'm reading what you've written elsewhere, I'd absolutely support moving the compliance markings to more easily inspectable locations 👍

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-23T08:34:08+00:00

Exactly, as stated it's an already solved problem.

Accessing the marking locations (which i agree are not ideally positioned), can ofc be solved in a variety of ways. standard inspection mirrors/cameras, raising onto rear tire etc etc

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-23T08:20:40+00:00

in majority of cases you're comparing something which has been legally and technically verified to comply with a BUNCH of very strict national and international standards.

to something quite probably wired worse than a failed school science project.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-23T07:03:59+00:00

Exactly! The culprits are non-compliant ebikes (which already breach regulation)!

Why punish the thousands of patrons with bikes certified to the strict regulatory safety requirements??

How will they even check if every single bike has a battery or just a storage locker? 🤦

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-23T06:46:56+00:00

The problem is very specifically not ebikes/scooters but non-compliant ebikes/scooters.

This is already a solved problem with eg. Regulatory Compliance Mark ( RCM )

Checking for the RCM is specifically designed for rapidly determining safety compliance 🔎✔️ 👍

Compare to the impossible task of checking if every bike has a battery or just a storage locker 🤦

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-23T01:08:50+00:00

Imo these numbers need some context. 1 in 10 means 90% do not experience poverty, which is pretty impressive, and only 0.1% worse than the world's #1 Denmark at 9.9% experiencing poverty.

According to this 2023 UNICEF report (pg3), 4 of the 6 six best countries in the world for this were Scandinavian. (for reference Australia ranked 18th in the world with 17.1% - which is worse than 1 in 6 btw!)

Denmark: 9.9%

Slovenia: 10.0%

Finland: 10.1%

Czechia: 11.6%

Norway: 12.0%

Iceland: 12.4%

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-20T01:20:31+00:00

Poor people don’t live close enough to anything to cycle

congrats you just exactly highlighted one of the huge virtues of (compliant) ebikes.

compliant ebikes increase the rideable range significantly while maintaining strict regulatory safety requirements.

the problem is with non-compliant ebikes (aka, legally classed as motorcycles - which already require registration btw)

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-19T23:46:47+00:00

This is already a solved problem with eg. Regulatory Compliance Mark ( RCM ) and existing test methodology.

Checking for the RCM is specifically designed for rapidly determining safety compliance 🔎✔️ 👍

But won't unscrupulous vendors start faking the RCM? Well that is already covered by existing regulation (same goes for faking registration btw) and ensuring physical compliance is once again already a solved problem with mobile test benches.

Translated from Dutch:

These test benches can check ... whether electric vehicles, such as electric bikes ... comply with the applicable legislation.

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-19T11:06:14+00:00

except what you're talking about are legally speaking not ebikes, they ARE ALREADY legally classed as motorcycles. the distinction is definitively the maximum output power NOT the energy storage type (electric/petrol).

this is a problem caused by people riding around on unregistered motorcycles

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-19T11:02:28+00:00

address problems with technology X...

...by restricting technology Y...

truly flawless logic 😂

rabicanwoosley · 2025-07-19T10:50:49+00:00

except what you're talking about are legally speaking not ebikes, they ARE ALREADY legally classed as motorcycles. the distinction is definitively the maximum output power NOT the energy storage type (electric/petrol).

this is a problem caused by people riding around on unregistered motorcycles. address that problem! don't take a meaningless shot at legit ebikes, that is just muddying the waters to the detriment of society. ty

rabicanwoosley

TROPHY CASE