Doctors consider using street drugs to ease suffering of dying patients Recent studies at Harvard, U.C.L.A. and my alma mater John Hopkins have now made it plain that doctors should—as soon as proper safeguards can be put in place—be free to offer illicit drugs to patients who are terminally ill, in order to ease their emotional suffering and potentially offer them new perspectives—fueled by drug-induced insights—into issues like their own mortality. At Harvard, Dr. John Halpern (as reported in the New York Times) tested MDMA (the street drug Ecstasy) to determine if it would ease the anxieties in two patients with terminal cancer. At U.C.L.A. and Hopkins, Drs. Charles Grob and Roland Griffiths used psilocybin (the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms) to help cancer patients past their paralyzing, debilitating fears. The results are reportedly consistently good. The truth is that the likelihood of creating an MDMA or psilocybin addict out of a terminal cancer patient is exactly zero. Dr. Dr.
Food Nutrition Facts - Healthy Living Tips at WomansDay.com - Womans Day - StumbleUpon Every child has heard the healthy-eating mantra "You are what you eat." But there may be a closer resemblance between good-for-you grub and your body than you thought. We found 10 foods that mirror the body parts they provide nutrients for—for example, brain-boosting walnuts actually look like a brain. Coincidence? Maybe. 1. Slice a carrot in half crosswise and it's easy to see that the veggie resembles an eye—look closely and you'll even notice a pattern of radiating lines that mimic the pupil and iris. 2. The folds and wrinkles of a walnut bring to mind another human organ: the brain. 3. Long, lean stalks of celery look just like bones—and they're good for them, too. 4. The lightbulb shape of an avocado looks like a uterus, and it supports reproductive health as well. 5. Studies have offered evidence that clams, which bear a resemblance to testicles, are actually good for the male sex organs. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
10 Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented With Drugs Same here. We evolved along with, and because of, our diet. There weren't any classifications of "illegal drugs" back then, and these things flourish in all sorts of conditions in the wild - it's hard not to imagine at least occasional consumption. Considering mankind's predilection to experimenting with consciousness, along with the unique effects of these substances (including euphoria), it was probably more than occasional. I just love the idea of psychoactive botanicals spurring hominid consciousness to a higher quantum state — the booster shot needed to make that leap forward in intelligence. SExpand Exactly! Speaking of dendrites, it amazes me how closely underground mycelial mats (a sample of one on the right) resemble the brain's neural network (and, too - on the left - an image of "dark" matter).
10 Open Education Resources You May Not Know About (But Should) | MindShift - StumbleUpon This week, the OCW Consortium is holding its annual meeting, celebrating 10 years of OpenCourseWare. The movement to make university-level content freely and openly available online began a decade ago, when the faculty at MIT agreed to put the materials from all 2,000 of the university’s courses on the Web. With that gesture, MIT OpenCourseWare helped launch an important educational movement, one that MIT President Susan Hockfield described in her opening remarks at yesterday’s meeting as both the child of technology and of a far more ancient academic tradition: “the tradition of the global intellectual commons.” We have looked here before at how OCW has shaped education in the last ten years, but in many ways much of the content that has been posted online remains very much “Web 1.0.” But as open educational resources and OCW increase in popularity and usage, there are a number of new resources out there that do offer just that.
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. 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. But it isn't just in Latin America that the winds of change are blowing when it comes to drugs policy. As a domestic policy, a harsh enforcement approach has done little to control drug use, but has done a lot to lock up a growing portion of the U.S. population. As a result, the United States is spending about $40 billion per year on the war on drugs -- with three quarters of that expenditure on apprehending and punishing dealers and users.
argot .com : dictionary of street drug ( cannabis, marijuana, heroin, cocaine, et al. ) slang - StumbleUpon 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. In “Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know,” policy analysts Mark Kleiman, Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken argue that imprisoning low-ranking street-corner dealers is pointless: A $200 transaction can cost society $100,000 for a three-year sentence. Dealers, a.k.a.
Color Psychology & Infoplease.com - StumbleUpon by David Johnson Like death and taxes, there is no escaping color. It is ubiquitous. Yet what does it all mean? Why are people more relaxed in green rooms? Colors often have different meanings in various cultures. Black Black is the color of authority and power. White Brides wear white to symbolize innocence and purity. Red The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. The most romantic color, pink, is more tranquilizing. Blue The color of the sky and the ocean, blue is one of the most popular colors. Green Currently the most popular decorating color, green symbolizes nature. Yellow Cheerful sunny yellow is an attention getter. Purple The color of royalty, purple connotes luxury, wealth, and sophistication. Brown Solid, reliable brown is the color of earth and is abundant in nature. Colors of the Flag In the U.S. flag, white stands for purity and innocence. Food for Thought While blue is one of the most popular colors it is one of the least appetizing.
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... How To Build A Fireball You Can Hold&Video - StumbleUpon 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]
- StumbleUpon Eating 10 hot dogs in 6 minutes and belching the national anthem may impress your friends, but neither of those feats will do much for your body—at least not much good. Instead, why not train yourself to do something that may actually pay off? We're not talking bench presses and interval training (though those do help). Just study this list, and the next time your friends challenge you to an ice cream eating contest, chow down: You know how to thaw a brain freeze—and 17 other tricks that'll make everyone think you're the next David Blaine. Do Them Right: To mazimize your workout, good form is a must. Cure a Tickling Throat When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Experience Supersonic Hearing If you're stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. Overcome Your Most Primal Urge Need to pee? Feel No Pain German researchers have discovered that coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. Clear Your Stuffed Nose Read Minds
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. From the Hindu Upanishads to Aristotle's On Dreams, people have been puzzling out the mysteries of lucid dreaming for centuries. 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. You bet. $100 Reward: Remee SPACE EXPLORATION Limited Edition!
Chris Hedges: Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System - Chris Hedges Columns -Truthdig - StumbleUpon Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System Posted on Apr 11, 2011 By Chris Hedges A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. Passing bubble tests celebrates and rewards a peculiar form of analytical intelligence. “Imagine,” said a public school teacher in New York City, who asked that I not use his name, “going to work each day knowing a great deal of what you are doing is fraudulent, knowing in no way are you preparing your students for life in an ever more brutal world, knowing that if you don’t continue along your scripted test prep course and indeed get better at it you will be out of a job. Teachers, under assault from every direction, are fleeing the profession. Previous item: The End of Shutdowns