On 7/30/2010 2:56 AM, Stephen wrote:
> On 29/07/2010 9:47 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Others.. would be addicted by something as mild as caffeine.
>
> Caffeine is quite addictive and a lot of people are addicted but it is
> easy to withdraw from.
>
Which makes a huge difference. Mind, one of the things that makes it 
easy to withdraw from **is** the fact that it doesn't have an effect so 
massive that it permanently changes brain chemistry. Maybe we need a 
different definition. Addictive means - you would have some level of 
withdrawal from it. ??? means - You can't ever completely withdraw from 
it at all, and your attempt to do so will be long, painful, and incomplete.

Part of the problem in many of these things is that we end up using the 
same word to describe things that, while they make work similarly, can 
have **drastically** different impacts. Its like someone with MS. I had 
a teacher with that, and up until a few months before it killed him, he 
*seemed* completely normal. There was a friend of the family who had a 
kid with it too, and he was semi-normal, up until about 10-12, then, by 
the time he was 15 or so he was in a wheel chair, barely able to speak, 
etc. Same condition, completely different results. Addiction is like 
that. All addiction works much the same, but *some* forms of it are 
severely debilitating, and leave lasting scares, which someone opting to 
drink soda pop, instead of taking crack, **doesn't have to worry 
about**, even if, in principle, the result uses the same word to 
describe it.

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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