A case series of three patients with complex medical histories experienced improved postoperative pain relief when intravenous magnesium sulfate was given together with ketamine. Both drugs block NMDA receptors, which are involved in pain signaling. The report describes difficulties in managing pain after surgery in these patients and notes the beneficial effect of adding magnesium to ketamine. The authors call for more research to determine which patients benefit most and what doses work best.
Victor Pelevin's novel Generation P captures the zeitgeist of 1990s Russia and a generation searching for a new identity after the Soviet collapse. This analysis focuses on the overlooked role of the entheogenic fungus mukhomor. The novel uses mukhomor-induced hallucinations to ironize imperial narratives that sought to restore a mythical, authentic Russian past. It suggests that an authentically Russian future requires abandoning the very notion of Russianness, grounded in the genetic origin of mukhomor in the Russian hinterland, which enables a vision of the world devoid of symbolic order and all identities.