Weekend Thoughts - 10.29.16

Image by neonow, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Although this is several days late due to my being out of town, Happy Belated Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up a couple links for you to think about:

1. It turns out that AT&T created a product for spying on all of its customers and made millions selling it to warrantless cops. The secret "Hempisphere" product is a database of calls and call-records on all of AT&T's customers that is able to track their location, movements, and interactions. The data was sold to American police forces on the condition that the program's existence was never revealed. Regular readers of Think Wilder may remember a post from August 2015 that shed light on the fact that AT&T helped the NSA spy on Internet traffic and was the most enthusiastic and top surveillance provider for the agency. It looks like not much has changed on AT&T's side...

2. Scientists have made progress in the development of male birth control that is capable of rendering sperm temporarily incapable of swimming. At this point, scientists have tested bovine and human sperm, and live animal tests are expected to begin within three years. However, there has been a backlash in the online male community, with worries about side effects from the medication being cited by many dudes on social media. As this article asserts, women have been dealing with birth control side effects for decades, without much controversy from men. Still, it seems that a form of male birth control may be closer than we think, for better or for worse.

That's all for last week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until later this week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 8.22.15

Image by Minoru Nitta, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. A great reminder to stay positive, an article titled "Negative Thinking: The Number One Cause Of Chronic Depression And How To Overcome It" points out that negative thoughts attract more negativity. The piece makes a point about proof of the results of positive thinking, claiming that "Proof is not the result of what is true. Proof is the result of what you believe." Chronic negative thinking can be a real problem, and my main advice is to remember to smile!

2. Vice published an article on the need for a regulatory organization in the recreational drug market. Rather than the outright banning of all psychoactive substances other than the exempted few, which causes a host of public health and safety issues as well as criminalizing a group of otherwise law-abiding citizens, why don't we focus on ensuring the safety, purity, and efficacy of these new psychoactives?

3. Mrs. Homegrown at Root Simple wrote a piece on the value of trees that is worth reading. To summarize her points briefly: trees increase property values, cool the environment, absorb rain and share it with other plants, assist with cleaning water, absorb and store carbon, improve air quality, create food and habitat for animals, and heal the soul. Give her article a read for more detail, and while you're at it, check out the rest of the blog—I've been reading it for at least five years now and have enjoyed it immensely.

4. I found this take on the "Thanks, Obama" meme to be pretty spot-on. It's interesting that the meme can be used in a sincere way as well as a sarcastic one. Obama's presidential career has certainly proved to be an compelling one to follow.

5. There is finally some scientific evidence showing that e-cigarettes are about 95% less harmful than smoking tobacco. I think it's beyond clear to anyone who has tried both vaporizing and smoking that the vapor is easier on the throat and lungs than smoke. It's nice to see some scientific research being done in this arena, because for what feels like the longest time there hasn't been much research to speak of. Vaping is almost all around better than smoking—it tastes better, it smells better (and the smell dissipates extremely quickly), it's easier on your body, it can be less expensive, and it can actively aid in smoking cessation. The one thing I can think of that smokers may miss is the huge clouds of smoke that you can get from smoking, although many vaporizers produce full clouds of vapor instead. If you're a smoker, and you haven't tried vaping, I highly suggest you give it a try.

6. In the aftermath of Jeb Bush's recent statement supporting giving the NSA broader powers to spy even harder on Americans, a news story broke at The New York Times explaining how AT&T helped the NSA spy on Internet traffic on a vast scale and was in fact the most enthusiastic and top surveillance provider for the agency. For many decades, the United States government has relied on eager cooperation from AT&T to spy on immense quantities of Internet traffic. Now if only we could get the same amount of transparency from the other side of the equation—looking into our own government—that they are forcing on us...

7. Local (Durham, NC) vegan chef Kathy Hester featured a post on her blog Healthy Slow Cooking that centers around building a vegan pantry with dried beans. As an amateur vegan chef and bean-lover myself, I enjoyed her piece—especially the links to articles debating whether or not to presoak dried beans before cooking, the must-have beans to stock your shelves with, and the more uncommon beans to sample for a fun treat. There are also several recipes to try out, although I can't vouch for them personally as I haven't attempted to make any of them yet. I had the great fortune of meeting Kathy at last year's inaugural Triangle VegFest in Raleigh, NC and found her to be an engaging speaker with a warm personality and a wealth of knowledge about vegan cuisine. Her specialty is slow cooking, so give her blog a read if that piques your interest!

8. And speaking of Triangle VegFest, the 2nd annual event will be held in Raleigh, NC's Moore Square on October 17th from noon to 5PM. The event is free to enter and features tasty plant-based foods, exhibitors and vendors, and a lineup of fantastic informational speakers (including a favorite of mine, Chef AJ—a knowledgeable and extremely inspirational plant-based chef and culinary instructor). I hope to see you in the Square for some veggie-related fun and learning!

9. A writer tested out the Polyphasic sleep practice for a week and found it to be similar to taking LSD. The topic of Polyphasic sleep holds a sort of fascination for me although I haven't given it a try yet. It is the practice of breaking sleep into several segments spread throughout the day rather than one long segment of sleep overnight. I found this account to be entertaining and enlightening, with some great tips for going to sleep—even for regular sleepers!

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 6.6.15

Image by Holger Ejleby, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all. Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. A great article from iRunFar that focuses on the health benefits and overall importance of ensuring that runners get sufficient sleep each night. Sleep is something that I really need to focus on, myself. This article was a great reminder that it is extremely important.

2. A fairly thorough guide for referring to transgender people, which is timely due to Caitlyn Jenner's announcement of her gender transition that was published this week. This certainly isn't one of my most knowledgeable topics, but I've been interested with the language that is used in the trans community for a few years after listening to several episodes on the C-Realm Podcast that cover this topic.

3. Although I'm getting to this one a week late, the United States Justice Department has indicted 14 FIFA soccer officials with accusations of rampant corruption. It really makes you wonder if the matches themselves are fixed, as well...

4. Jay Michaelson at The Daily Beast published a fairly decent piece titled "Can Ecstasy Replace Xanax?" that discusses the potential for using MDMA as a replacement for common pharmaceuticals used to treat health issues ranging from PTSD to social anxiety. A good overview for someone unfamiliar with the topic, although I was surprised that it didn't mention the hard work that MAPS has been doing with regard to MDMA research.

5. An internal investigation has reported that undercover investigators were able so smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through TSA checkpoints 95% of the time. That means the organization is only catching 5% of truly dangerous items at the security gate. My opinion? Shut them down. They're not effective at their jobs, so why should we still be dealing with them?

6. A somewhat provocatively-titled article on The Atlantic, "Why Pot Smokers Are Skinnier" examines the results from research at the University of Nebraska that analyzed participants' fasting insulin and glucose levels, insulin resistance, cholesterol levels, and waist circumference. The results show that current cannabis users sported significantly smaller waist circumference than participants who had never used cannabis and had higher levels of HDL, also known as "good cholesterol". Although it's not exactly clear how this happens, the findings suggest that cannabis may improve insulin control and regulating body weight, which may explain why cannabis users have a lower incidence of diabetes.

7. From Re/code, AT&T Says Subsidized Phones, 2-Year Contracts Going Away. From the article: "Like unlimited data plans, the two-year contract and the subsidized cellphone are on the endangered species list." If this signals an overall trend in the mobile phone industry, we may be paying much higher prices up-front for our devices, but less money in the long run.

8. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published an article detailing its opinion about the passing of the USA Freedom Act that is worth a read.

9. An interesting bit of research on disinfo about how plants know when they are being eaten. As a member of the vegan community, one of the things that frustrates me is when fellow vegans get on their high horses about how morally superior eating plants is over an omnivorous diet. I'm glad that research is being done to determine how much harm we are causing to the plants that we consume. My personal take is that all life must consume other forms of living (or dead) matter to survive, and while it is nice to be in a camp that strives to minimize the harm that we are causing to other life forms, I find it foolish to think that eating a vegan diet is completely harmless.

10. I also really enjoyed this article from disinfo about how pseudoscience and conspiracy theories are not victimless crimes against science. It served as a good reminder for myself to judge the sources of my information. There is an explanation of the efficacy of the scientific method, and I really enjoyed this quote: "Science might not be perfect but it is the best tool mankind has developed to understand itself and the world around us."

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.