Wine and wisdom. Very few great works of philosophy are also great works of art. However, Plato's Symposium is both. It is a vivid invocation of the Athenian polis and its leading characters, including Alcibiades, Aristophanes and Socrates. And it is without compare as a philosophical treatment of sexual desire - a topic that philosophers down the ages have largely avoided, with only Schopenhauer and Sartre venturing the kind of comprehensive account of it that we find in Plato. Ostensibly, the work is merely a report of a drinking party, in which the characters stumble, in their cups, over ideas and emotions that lie hidden in their daily lives. In that lies its artfulness. Try publishing that in Cosmopolitan or Tatler, and see what laughs you'll get. We should recognise, however, that wine leads us to such surprising conclusions only when swallowed in the right way, and it is another great virtue of Plato's masterpiece that it tells us how to do it.
Thinking Through Drinking: Wine, Beer and Philosophy. Binge Drinking Among Women Is Both Dangerous And Overlooked : Shots - Health News. Hide captionA picture from the photo story "Keg Stand Queens," which explores the gender dynamics of undergraduate binge drinking. Amanda Berg/The Alexia Foundation for NPR A picture from the photo story "Keg Stand Queens," which explores the gender dynamics of undergraduate binge drinking. Binge drinking is something many people want to shrug off. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it's a public health problem that deserves more attention. You might be tempted to think binge drinking is mainly an issue for men, but that's not the case. So the CDC is putting the spotlight on women's binge drinking, which it says is both dangerous and overlooked.
About 13 percent of U.S. women go on drinking binges each month, says the CDC, citing survey data collected in 2011. Consuming four or more drinks in a single session is considered a binge for women, in case you were wondering. All told, the CDC figures 14 million women in the U.S. binge drink. Dr. The U.S. Potopia. Could Shutdown Haunt Burwell? By Ben Jacobs Larry Downing/Reuters Obama’s nominee to succeed Kathleen Sebelius played a key role in closing Washington’s monuments—a... The Conservative Case for Legalizing Pot. Obama's War on Pot | Politics News.
The Narco State - By Charles Kenny. America's longest running war -- the one against drugs -- came in for abuse this weekend at the Summit of the Americas. The abuse is deserved. Forty years of increasingly violent efforts to stamp out the drug trade haven't worked. And the blood and treasure lost is on a scale with America's more conventional wars. On the upside, we know that an approach based around treating drugs as a public health issue reaps benefits to both users and the rest of us.
President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala opened the rhetorical offensive against the drug war last week when he wrote that "decades of big arrests and the seizure of tons of drugs" have not stopped "booming" production and consumption. Molina argued that "global drug policy today is based on a false premise: that the global drug markets can be eradicated. " But it isn't just in Latin America that the winds of change are blowing when it comes to drugs policy.
Again, the global evidence that legalization would increase use is sparse. Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs? Consider current policy concerning the only addictive intoxicant currently available as a consumer good — alcohol. America’s alcohol industry, which is as dependent on the 20 percent of heavy drinkers as they are on alcohol, markets its products aggressively and effectively. Because marketing can drive consumption, America’s distillers, brewers and vintners spend $6 billion on advertising and promoting their products. Americans’ experience with marketing’s power inclines them to favor prohibition and enforcement over legalization and marketing of drugs.
But this choice has consequences: More Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses or drug-related probation and parole violations than for property crimes. And although America spends five times more jailing drug dealers than it did 30 years ago, the prices of cocaine and heroin are 80 to 90 percent lower than 30 years ago. Dealers, a.k.a. Marijuana probably provides less than 25 percent of the cartels’ revenue.
Georgewill@washpost.com. The Colbert Report - America's Pot-astrophe. The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punish. Hide captionNew York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller had been a champion of drug rehabilitation, job training and housing. Then, he did a dramatic about-face and backed strict sentences for low-level criminals. Central Press/Getty Images New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller had been a champion of drug rehabilitation, job training and housing. The United States puts more people behind bars than any other country, five times as many per capita compared with Britain or Spain. It wasn't always like this.
Those tough-on-crime policies became the new normal across the country. 'Life Sentence, No Parole' In a little town in northern New York called Ray Brook, an old hospital and a complex for athletes who competed in the Winter Olympics in nearby Lake Placid now house inmates. They're part of a massive infrastructure that sprang up in America over the past 40 years, a prison network that now houses more than 2 million people. Rewind to the 1970s. But the political mood was hardening. Getting Tough Catches On. Decades On, Stiff Drug Sentence Leaves A Life 'Dismantled' Hide captionNow 59, George Prendes works as a telemarketer in New York and struggles to make the rent on his small Bronx apartment. Natasha Haverty Now 59, George Prendes works as a telemarketer in New York and struggles to make the rent on his small Bronx apartment.
There are roughly half a million people behind bars for nonviolent drug crimes in America. But no one really knows how many people have been sentenced to long prison bids since the laws known as Rockefeller drug laws first passed 40 years ago. What's clear is that tough sentencing laws, even for low-level drug dealers and addicts, shaped a generation of young men, especially black and Hispanic men. Men like George Prendes, now 59. "It's just the drudgery," Prendes says of his life today. His wife, Yvonne, says prison carved a hole in the middle of Prendes' life.
"His experience damaged a part of him, you know? 'Everyone Was Doing Cocaine' "Everyone was doing cocaine. Courtesy of Yvonne Prendes 'A Big Chunk Of My Life' Evaluating Drug Decriminalization in Portugal 12 Years Later. Before he got involved in the global war on drugs, João Goulão was a family physician with his own practice in Faro, on Portugal's Algarve coast. Arriving in his small office in Lisbon, the 58-year-old tosses his jacket aside, leaving his shirt collar crooked. He looks a little tired from the many trips he's taken lately -- the world wants to know exactly how the experiment in Portugal is going.
Goulão is no longer able to accept all the invitations he receives. He adds his latest piece of mail to the mountain of papers on his desk. From this office, where the air conditioning stopped working this morning, Goulão keeps watch over one of the world's largest experiments in drug policy. One gram of heroin, two grams of cocaine, 25 grams of marijuana leaves or five grams of hashish: These are the drug quantities one can legally purchase and possess in Portugal, carrying them through the streets of Lisbon in a pants pocket, say, without fear of repercussion.
Pinto Coelho is a doctor too. Study: Intelligence, cognition unaffected by heavy marijuana use. By William J. Cromie Gazette Staff The new study of cognitive changes caused by heavy marijuana use has found no lasting effects 28 days after quitting. Following a month of abstinence, men and women who smoked pot at least 5,000 times in their lives performed just as well on psychological tests as people who used pot sparingly or not at all, according to a report in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry. That's the good news. The bad news, not included in the study, is that most heavy users admit that pot has had a negative effect on their physical and mental health as well their functioning on the job and socially. "If there's one thing I've learned from studying marijuana for more than a decade, it's that proponents and opponents of the drug will put opposite spins on these findings," says Harrison Pope, a Harvard professor of psychiatry and leader of the research.
Withdrawal produces impairment Unsatisfied lives "It's a chicken and egg situation," Pope admits. Requiem for a Dream. Addict To Activist: How Elton John Found His 'Cure' Hide captionSir Elton John speaks at an Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit in 2010. The organization, which John founded in 1992, provides grants to support HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs. Evan Agostini/AP Sir Elton John is constantly remembering his life as a drug addict, whether he wants to or not.
"I still dream, twice a week at least, that I've taken cocaine and I have it up my nose," John tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. "And it's very vivid and it's very upsetting, but at least it's a wake-up call. " In his new memoir, Love Is the Cure, the singer-songwriter explains how he stopped using cocaine — and abusing drugs and alcohol — after he came to know Ryan White. White was an Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. "It got me to realize how out of whack my life was, because I was just in and out of a drug-fueled haze in the '80s.
Interview Highlights "I was so ignorant about drugs and so naive. On what drugs did for him, and where they led him. Painkiller Paradox: Feds Struggle To Control Drugs That Help And Harm : Shots - Health News. Hide captionMichael Israel (shown here, left, with his father, Avi, in 2006) killed himself after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers. Avi Israel Michael Israel (shown here, left, with his father, Avi, in 2006) killed himself after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers. A few years ago, a doctor started prescribing Michael Israel painkillers for bad cramps in his gut. Israel had been struggling with Crohn's disease, a chronic digestive disorder, since he was a teenager. "So he was prescribed, you know, Lortab, or Vicodin or whatever.
You know, they would flip-flop it from one to another," says Avi Israel, Michael's father. Then one day, Michael confessed that something was wrong. "Michael came over to my bedroom one night and said, 'Pops, I have a problem with the pills,' " says Israel. Michael admitted that he was taking more pills than he was supposed to. Israel ran to the door and heard his son cock the gun. "I kicked the door open. Michael was just 20 years old. Notes. To Fight Addiction, FDA Advisers Endorse Limits On Vicodin : Shots - Health News. Aldous Huxley interview-1958 (FULL) The Doors of Perception. The Doors of Perception is a short book by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1954, detailing his experiences when taking mescaline.
The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon, and takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision".[1] He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion.
Background[edit] Mescaline (Peyote and San Pedro Cactus)[edit] Mescaline is the principal agent of the psychedelic cactus peyote and San Pedro cactus, which has been used in Native American religious ceremonies for thousands of years.[2] A German pharmacologist, Arthur Heffter, isolated the alkaloids in the peyote cactus in 1891. Peyote as entheogen drug[edit] Research by Humphry Osmond[edit] Huxley's experience with mescaline[edit] Synopsis[edit] Wake Up and Dream. In today's short, a man confronts a bully, and frees himself from a recurring nightmare that's terrorized him for more than 20 years. Matt Kielty introduces us to Steve Volk, a city reporter in Philadelphia who--for decades--was plagued by a recurring nightmare. It popped up whenever Steve was going through a stressful time, and it always played out exactly the same way.
But no matter how self-aware Steve was about his most current set of anxieties, and no matter how hard he tried to rationalize and explain away the dream...he couldn't make it stop. Then one year, Steve started working on a book about topics at the edge of science, and along the way he stumbled into lucid dreaming. Read more: Fringe-ology, by Steve Volk Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen LaBerge. Remee - The REM enhancing Lucid Dreaming Mask by Bitbanger Labs. Like Bitbanger Labs on Facebook Remee has been selected as a finalist for the William McShane Fund, by Buckyballs & Brookstone!
If you think Remee deserves to be available at Brookstone, vote here! Yes, really! For nearly as long as recorded human history, the idea of consciously recognizing and controlling our dreams has been around. To us, this is kind of a shame, sort of like being unaware of the existence of books or music. This is an easy one. There's a lot more to Lucid Dreaming than simply acknowledging that it's real and crossing your fingers. Boom. Here's some great info for people new to the concept: WNYC's Radiolab - We've been listening to Radiolab for ages, so we thought it was great when they recently released a short about someone using lucid dreaming to overcome a recurring nightmare. /r/LucidDreaming - Reddit's active, knowledgeable, helpful Lucid Dreaming community. 25,000 dreamers strong and growing!
You bet. . $5 Reward: Remee wooden coin, laser cut by us in Brooklyn. Nicotine Changes Cause Vivid Dreams. New Maps of Hyperspace. Orfeo: A Dialog between Robert Hunter and Terence McKenna. This is Part OnePart TwoPart ThreePart FourPart Five (current) Terence, in reading your books I was struck with how closely your DMT experiments paralleled my own. I wasn't surprised by the confirmation, as you might guess.
I considered myself a serious DMT explorer between 1967-69. I stopped only because I was told to, in no uncertain terms, by the Boss of that place. Robert Hunter Greetings Bob-- I was interested in what you had to say about being an explorer of the DMT world until the management told you to stay away. I enjoy the idea of a slow moving dialog, I hope this can continue. Best, T Terence, I suppose the "facts" of DMT might as well be written in cunieform on our breastbones for all the good it does to know about it, as opposed to "dwelling in the know of it.
" My personal take on the "secret" of DMT: it was long, hard work making this world real. My take could be way off base but anything more Gnostic is off-putting. We need a few verbs and prepositions to explain ourselves. Machine Elves 101, or Why Terence McKenna Matters. Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin' says Prof David Nutt. Mind-altering drugs research call from Prof David Nutt. The CIA's 5 Most Mind Blowing Experiments With LSD.
Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again. Doctors consider using street drugs to ease suffering of dying patients. Harvard LSD Research Draws National Attention. Stand Up Comedy... On Acid! Is This Your Brain On God? Hallucinations with Oliver Sacks | World Science Festival Webcast. The Fresh Air Interview: Author Daniel Okrent, Prohibition Life: Politics Loopholes And Bathtub Gin. 10 Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented With Drugs. "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever | Wired Magazine.