An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

Ecstasy History Early ecstasy MDMA was patented in 1913 (patent #274.350) by the German chemical company Merck supposedly to be sold as a diet pill (the patent does not mention any intended use), the company decided against marketing the drug and had nothing more to do with it. An urban legend has the US army testing MDMA in 1953 as a possible truth serum, but there is no real evidence supporting this. The man responsible for the modern research of MDMA is Alexander Shulgin, who after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with a PhD in Biochemistry landed a job as a research chemist with Dow Chemicals. Among his many achievements for Dow Chemicals was one profitable insecticide and several controversial patents for what were to become popular street drugs. Shulgin continued his legal research of new compounds after leaving Dow, specializing in the phenethylamines family of drugs. A hearing was held to decide what permanent measures should be taken against the drug. Be Drug Free.

Creek Watch iPhone App Goes Social Editor’s note: The following article is a guest post by Conservation Biologist Erick Burres. He leads the state of California’s Citizen Monitoring Program: the Clean Water Team. Water is one of our most precious resources -- vital for our survival. Protecting and improving water quality are extremely important issues for all societies. 1. 2. 3. … all based on location and the photograph. Here's a video on how it works : Citizen Science Over the years, water quality concern has prompted a rise in citizen science of monitoring streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans. In California, as in other regions, citizen water quality monitors have been collecting water quality data for more than a decade, saving government agencies many tens of millions of dollars in monitoring costs and providing water quality data that would otherwise not get collected. The Creek Watch App is useful in promoting all of these efforts. Water quality depends on all of us.

Free Anthropology Year in Review and Teaching Update Quick update on some themes from Teaching Anthropology, including a review of the AAA Teaching Materials Exchange and a great reflective post on Thinking About Course Readings, Fall 2012. Also a great resource free through 31 August–all of the 2011 Anthropology Year in Review articles from American Anthropologist. Resources for teaching medical anthropology, Eugene Raikhel Gathers the best resources from Somatosphere for teaching medical anthropology, along with a number of health and social science teaching resources from other sites. Back to the Classroom?, Beverly A. Chiarulli It looks like this will be a great way to share teaching ideas and can be an especially important resource for “new” teachers and anyone trying to design a new course. Messy Data, Ordered Questions, Mark W. Complexity in Biological Anthropology in 2011: Species, Reproduction, and Sociality, Kristi L. Engaged Anthropology in 2011: A View from the Antipodes in a Turbulent Era, Hans A.

Go Gonzo Journal | Education | Truthful Reporting Through Subjective Journalism | Go Gonzo Journal Journalism is a profession that is in constant change. So much that scholars, and even journalists themselves, often disagree on what journalism is and what it is not. For decades objective journalism, as a style, has been considered the only true form of journalism. A style that claims to guarantee balanced, factual, fair and accurate reporting. If a news report is not labelled objective, it is often not considered to be proper, professional journalism — especially subjective journalism such as activist journalism. In this essay I will argue that subjective reporting can often be more truthful than what is considered objective reporting by examining citizen journalism, new journalism and gonzo journalism, and analysing objective journalism’s shortcoming compared to subjective journalism. Since the early days of journalism, the task of a journalist has always been to document and make available what they witnessed, what the public not often themselves were witness to. Blaagaard, B.

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character - Paul Tough “Drop the flashcards—grit, character, and curiosity matter even more than cognitive skills. A persuasive wake-up call.”—People Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators, who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. “Illuminates the extremes of American childhood: for rich kids, a safety net drawn so tight it’s a harness; for poor kids, almost nothing to break their fall.” “I learned so much reading this book and I came away full of hope about how we can make life better for all kinds of kids.”

TheDEA.org: The History of MDMA Christmas Eve, 1912: The pharmaceutical company Merck files for a patent on MDMA ('ecstasy') as a precursor to a drug that they hoped would be effective in controlling bleeding. Their patent application is granted two years later (1914.) In spite of persistent rumors, there is no evidence that they were aware it was psychoactive or intended to market it as a product. 1927: Merck researchers perform some animal experiments, noting that the substance had some similarities (in structure and effects) to adrenaline. 1953-1954: The US Army conducts animal experiments with MDMA and a number of structurally related drugs. What they hoped to discover is unclear, but the research was labeled as sensitive and not declassified until 1969. "I feel absolutely clean inside, and there is nothing but pure euphoria. Today, most of the psychedelic drugs that have been prohibited in America were born in Shulgin's basement laboratory, and his work continues to inspire the invention of even more new drugs.

The water data hub is LIVE! I've been looking for a centralized source of water data for over a year, a place where I could go to find data on any kind of water question. Although that quest led me to IBNET -- a fantastic resource on water utility data in many countries -- I was unable to find a good centralized index of water data. Even more depressing, I was unable to get any interest or support out of organizations (USGS, World Bank, OECD, et al.) whose missions might imply support for just such an idea. So, I decided to set up my own water data hub (WDH) -- a central location that links to water data, no matter where it is, who owns it, or what dimension of water it describes. Last November, I asked for help on this project, and Ian Wren (from San Francisco) joined me. It's thanks to Ian's hard work (weekends and evenings!) So, please go there and add data sources. Oh, and don't forget that anyone can add a link to the hub. Note by my wording that the WDH does not host, own or control data. Future developments:

What is Anthropology? - The Ultimate Answer! What is Anthropology: What It Means to be Human Anthropology is a search for what it means to be human, a documentation of human life and possibility. Anthropologists ask the big questions about human life. As Rick Salutin writes in August 2013, The hour of anthropology may have struck: “I keep encountering anthropologists who help more in understanding how the world works today than other experts do, even in their own fields.” Anthropology is the study of humanity and its origins: “a scholarly discipline that aims to describe in the broadest possible sense what it means to be human” (Lavenda & Schultz, Anthropology , 2012:5; see four-field Introduction to Anthropology). What is Anthropology? Anthropology is growing! Anthropology boasts a rich and varied collection of vibrant Anthropology Blogs. Anthropology, Science, Holism Anthropology includes human evolution, primatology, biological aspects of human beings, archaeology, sociocultural approaches, and language. , 88). . Stay connected

Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America. The results and interpretation of three years of research into inequality are presented in this book. Chapters cover these topics: (1) from equal opportunity to equal results; (2) inequality in the schools--access to schools and colleges, expenditure differences between schools and individuals, access to privileged school mates, and access to fast classes and college curriculums; (3) inequality in cognitive skills--the nature and extent of cognitive inequality, the heredity/environment controversy, schooling and cognitive inequality; (4) a note on noncognitive traits; (5) inequality in educational attainment--the effects of economic background, race, and family background, academic aptitude and academic credentials, and the effects of school quality, high school resources, segregation, and curriculum placement; (6) inequality in occupational status; (7) income inequality; (8) inequality in job satisfaction; and (9) what can be done.

Why Is Everyone Freaking Out About MDMA? Some MDMA (Photo via) MDMA has caused something of a stir here in the US recently. Ever since Miley bragged about "dancing with molly," like one of those tedious nerds who brags about ripping bongs for breakfast, columnists have had a field day analyzing why we've all fallen in love with MDMA. As you might expect, not everyone has taken a deep breath, put things into perspective, and reacted in a calm, rational manner. Crusty old deans and decrepit politicians fretting about whatever drugs the youth are into is no surprise, but I was a little concerned at the attitude of a drug dealer we’ll call "Tommy" I met in a Boston bar and his thoughts on what he’s selling. "I wouldn’t take it because I have no idea what’s in there. Image of Pretty Lights, one of the acts that UMass Amherst canceled, by Alex Hertel. Drug policy experts say the overdoses are tied to the MDMA being cut with synthetic drugs and sold as the real thing. So why is there an increased demand? So where does that leave us?

Black gold versus blue water “There is a huge fight coming,” says Jonathan Mudimeli, chairperson of the Mudimeli Royal Council. “Our community will be surrounded by a mine and no one is talking to us.” Mudimeli, with a delegation that includes the chief of the Mudimelis, is in Polokwane at the department of mineral resources in Limpopo. They’re here to challenge Coal of Africa’s new mine north of Makhado, near Tshipise. “What will we do when they start mining?” Coal of Africa’s mining project has started a water war in the water scarce Soutpansberg. The director of the Federation for a Sustainable Development, Dr Koos Pretorius, describes the Soutpansberg as having rainfall equivalent to the Kalahari. But the Soutpansberg also has some of the best quality coal in the country, which is needed to produce steel for Coal’s client ArcelorMittal. The problem is water. “We have heard about this coal dust,” says a worried Mudimeli, whose village is right in the middle of the proposed Makhado mine. The meeting ends.

“Multispecies Ethnography": a special issue of Cultural Anthropology Just when you thought it was safe to engage in human exceptionalism…. Cultural Anthropology comes along with a special issue on “Multispecies Ethnography.” In their introduction– which surveys a range of literatures and conceptual turns which have preceded and laid the groundwork for this “species turn” – S. Eben Kirksey and Stefan Helmreich write: “A new genre of writing and mode of research has arrived on the anthropological stage: multispecies ethnography. With the turn of the 21st century, Homo sapiens reappeared on the disciplinary stage, along with animal others and familiars. However, in attempting to distinguish the logic underlying this “turn” or “move” from those which have come before it, Kirksey and Helmreich quote Eduardo Kohn: If we take otherness to be the privileged vantage from which we defamiliarize our “nature,” we risk making our forays into the nonhuman a search for ever-stranger positions from which to carry out this project. S. [view academic citations] AMA citation: