Weekend Thoughts - 8.12.17

Image by Pedro Travassos, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Although the general consensus in the tech community supports the idea that autonomous vehicles will eventually largely replace human-operated ones, so far humans are still able to see the world better than self-driving cars. As of right now, autonomous vehicles are probably better than inexperienced, tired, drunk, visually-impaired, or elderly human drivers, but they're no match for competent and experienced drivers. A big factor in that equation is the current state of these cars' sensors, which are still quite limited. However, self-driving cars already have human-operated vehicles beat in scenarios like driving in the dark or in situations that test reaction time. Ultimately though, autonomous vehicles are coming and in my opinion they will be a significant improvement over the typical unreliable human driver.

2. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the digital rights watchdog group, has submitted a court filing arguing that federal agents at international airports should be required to obtain a warrant before demanding access to citizens' technological devices. Warrantless border searches are currently allowed under an exception to the Fourth Amendment, and they have more than doubled under the reign of Donald Trump. EFF has argued that that since devices like laptops and cell phones store highly personal information, "agents should be required to show they have probable cause to believe that the device contains evidence of a violation of the immigration or customs laws", and that border agents should not be able to examine a device's contents until after a judge has issues a warrant. In addition, the US Customs and Border Protection Agency restricted border searches to only locally-stored data back in July, but the EFF asserts that distinguishing between local data and cloud-based data isn't straightforward, and that data stored in the cloud can "appear as a seamless part of the digital device when presented at the border". For the record, I'm firmly on the side of the EFF here—I don't believe border agents have legitimate reasons to pry into our digital devices en masse, but I would support their right to do so if a judge granted search warrants on a case-by-case basis.

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

Weekend Thoughts - 3.11.17

Image by Andrea Kirkby, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Possibly the biggest news this week (as far as Think Wilder readers would be concerned) was WikiLeaks' publication of CIA hacking secrets, titled "Vault 7". The release contains 8,761 documents and represents "the majority of [the CIA] hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized 'zero day' exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation," according to WikiLeaks. Among the most interesting to U.S. citizens are vulnerabilities found in the iOS, Android, and Windows operating systems, methods to compromise end-to-end encrypted chat applications, and the ability to turn Samsung smart TVs into listening devices. From my understanding, most of these exploits require the CIA to have physical access to a device, not that the encryptions themselves were broken. It's worth taking a look to familiarize yourself with how the agency has been carrying out its operations so far, and what its capabilities are when it comes to spying on people using technological means.

2. The situation at the U.S. border has gotten more complex over the past several weeks. A new development in that story occurred this week when Border Patrol started increasing their demands for passwords and searching private electronic devices. And it turns out that they're legally allowed to do so. When traveling inside the U.S. border, the TSA is not allowed to confiscate devices or ask for passwords, because citizens are protected by the Fourth and Fifth amendments. But since Border Patrol is not technically located inside of the border, those protections do not necessarily apply. For now, Border Patrol is operating inside of a grey area, unimpeded by our rights against unreasonable searches and self-incrimination. If you're interested in protecting yourself as much as possible when traveling abroad-and-back, I suggest taking a look at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Pocket Guide To Protecting Your Data".

3. In interesting nutrition-related news, new research shows that there was no such thing as a "typical Neanderthal diet"—some Neanderthals ate meat, and others were strict vegetarians. This development throws some shade on the so-called "Paleo Diet", which may be more accurately represented as a "no-carb diet", because the true Paleo Diet consisted of whatever was available in one's environment. Essentially, the findings represent a more adaptive type of being:

"Those that occupied southern regions with relatively warm climates, consumed different types of foods, including meat and vegetables," says Luca Fiorenza from Monash University (not involved with the study). "But Neanderthals that lived in very harsh conditions, such as northern Europe, were forced to rely on the limited sources available—meat."

It's nice to know that the scientific findings back up the conviction that I always held, which was that our ancestors just ate whatever was around so that they could continue surviving—not that they were strict carnivores or strict vegans.

4. I'm a huge fan of the Instant Pot, which is a combination slow-cooker, pressure cooker, rice cooker, and more. I use it nearly every day to batch cook recipes, and find the device easy to use, easy to clean, and a massive time-saver. The BBC wrote a feature story on the success of the Instant Pot and how it developed a cult following that is worth a read. And if you're interested in purchasing one, I definitely advise it! I might suggest waiting until this year's Amazon Prime Day (if you are an Amazon Prime customer) because they were sold at a nice discount during last year's Prime Day event.

5. As a regular book reader, I especially enjoyed this article showing 10 reasons why reading is important. The various benefits include sharpening your mind, lowering stress levels, increasing your vocabulary, enhancing your imagination, and boosting your sleep—among many others! So if you needed any reasons to increase your reading time, look no further!

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

This Year in Psychedelics - 2015

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy New Year's Eve! 2015 has been yet another interesting year to follow psychedelic news—both the factual representations and wildly inaccurate media "reports" have brought a lot to the table. This article will present the major themes and trends that were found in the latter half of the year, beginning on the June 5th, which corresponds with this year's first This Week in Psychedelics article.

First, I want to provide a bit of background on what it took to get here. I have been an avid Reality Sandwich reader since 2007, and I looked forward to each new edition of Neşe Devenot's This Week in Psychedelics column. Every week, she posted links to news articles from the mass media that referenced psychedelics and other similar psychoactive substances.

Each week's collection of links attempted to be as unbiased as possible, demonstrating how various forms of mass media represent psychedelic culture and psychoactive substance use. This always included articles that shed psychedelics in a positive light as well as articles that demonized their use (including many articles that are factually incorrect and/or misguided representations of psychedelics).

Devenot gave up "This Week in Psychedelics" more than two years ago to pursue what has proved to be an extremely successful career in academia. This year I was able to successfully bring the column back—first on Think Wilder, and then on Reality Sandwich as well. The following is my analysis of this year's coverage of psychedelics and similar psychoactive substances.

Cannabis

Cannabis was in the news a lot this year, with articles being published on topics including drug policies, newly-discovered medical applications, cannabis scientific research, the fledging cannabis industry, a slew of hilarious poorly-executed drug delivery attempts, and more.

To begin, there were pro-cannabis drug policy movements at the state level across the United States of America, as well as on the international stage in countries like Italy, Australia, Mexico, Iran, and Colombia. Canada legalized cannabis oils and edibles, and its new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has proudly announced plans to completely legalize the plant.

Stories about cannabis oils and their affinity for helping young children with a variety of needs were aplenty. The medical uses for cannabis expanded even further, with focuses on cannabis benefits for ailments such as epilepsy, colon and kidney cancers, low sex drives, broken bones, social anxieties, celiac disease, insomnia, schizophrenia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Cannabis was also found to help with weight loss, pain management, and drug addiction treatment. Cannabis research included studies on cannabis-involved driving and an upcoming study that will look into cannabis for assisting military veterans that have PTSD.

In the area of cannabis-related crime, London police were astonished to find a cannabis "forest" as big as a soccer field. Cannabis dealers missed the mark at least three times this year, including the time that $10,000 of cannabis fell out of the sky onto a family's home, when 50 pounds of pot were accidentally mailed to the incorrect address, and when a man found cannabis stashed in an Arizona Iced Tea can that he purchased at Walmart. The FBI released data showing that there is a cannabis-related arrest every 45 seconds in the U.S.

Candidates involved with the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election have had to confront the cannabis issue several times, and this will most likely continue into next year as the election cycle continues. The cannabis industry was covered thoroughly, with topics including how women are finding success in the industry, cannabis-themed vacation resorts, and tons of cannabis expos. Cannabis churches began popping up to encourage and celebrate the spiritual use of (and argue for the religious right to use) cannabis. Hemp began to once again make its way as a popular building material. Russia threatened to block Wikipedia over a specific cannabis article. And finally, Australia's pitiful anti-cannabis "stoner sloth" campaign backfired terribly and was ridiculed on social media.

LSD

The main story about LSD throughout the year involved the concept of microdosing, which is not exclusive to LSD but usually involves one of the classic psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and mescaline-containing cacti). The media seemingly could not get enough of headlines comparing tiny doses of LSD to cups of coffee, and the topic was covered in a generally-favorable manner.

A man died after being left hogtied for an hour by police following a Widespread Panic show, and there have been conflicting evidence found by various autopsies performed as to whether he died from LSD toxicity (which would literally be the first occurrence of a lethal LSD dose) or from rough treatment by the police officers. In fact, LSD was blamed for several fatal "overdoses" this year, although those deaths would likely be more accurately attributed to psychoactive research chemicals like 25i-NBOMe.

Scientific studies showed that LSD can enhance the emotional response to music. Other studies looking at  the potential efficacy of LSD that are currently ongoing focus on the treatment of depression, cluster headaches, and smoking cessation.

This year also birthed the creation and performance of LSD: The Opera, and a fascinating history of the connection between the CIA and LSD.

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

Compared to cannabis and LSD, there wasn't as much media coverage of psilocybin mushrooms (or "magic mushrooms" in general) this year, but two highlights include Russia banning Reddit over a single 'shroom thread and a lot of articles detailing the connection between amanita muscaria mushrooms and the origins of Christmas, including one I published last week.

Current research studies are looking into the application of psilocybin to treat depression, general anxieties, cluster headaches, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), smoking cessation, end-of-life anxiety in terminal cancer patients, schizophrenia, and the effect of psilocybin on longterm meditators.

MDMA/Ecstasy

MDMA and ecstasy experienced a bit of both sides this year, with a lot of negative media coverage focused on things like overdoses and deaths as well as positive reports concerning the findings of ongoing MDMA scientific research studies.

There were many articles covering MDMA-related overdoses and deaths, although it is not certain that MDMA was the actual substance involved in every one of these articles. The media tends to over-report deaths that might possibly be related to MDMA, which are actually few and far between, while ignoring the deaths and other issues caused by alcohol. Due to these incidents, there were many efforts made by authorities to ban raves entirely, which is a bit odd because that seems a bit like throwing the baby out with the bath water. There were also warning about ecstasy tablets being "too pure", which sounds confusing at first but ultimately makes sense within the full context. Although drug users would most likely appreciate receiving extremely-pure drugs, if they are accustomed to taking a large dose because all they have been acquiring in the past is not actually the drug they thought it to be, then when they receive the real thing and take the same dose, it can be too large and cause several issues. As happens every year, parents were warned in October that their children may be given ecstasy tablets disguised as candy, an assertion that doesn't make any sense, as drug dealers sell drugs to make profit, not to give away for free to children.

Regarding MDMA-related scientific studies, the DEA approved a study that will look at treating anxiety with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, and ongoing studies include MDMA's potential role in helping people on the autism spectrum and sufferers of PTSD. There was definitely more negative coverage of MDMA than positive coverage, but the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is well on its way to legitimizing MDMA in the eyes of the FDA due to its it's decades-long dedication to psychedelic research, and is still on target to legalize MDMA to be used for psychotherapeutic use by 2021.

Ayahuasca/DMT

A Hebrew professor set forth an argument that Moses was under the influence of DMT when he saw the "burning bush". There have been claims of a legal ayahuasca church in the U.S., but the church's actual legal standing has been called into question.

Sadly, as has been the case for the past few years, ayahuasca was involved in the death of at least two people this year. One man died in Peru as a result of a tobacco purge ceremony, but ayahuasca was mentioned in the story because he was also in Peru to experience the medicine. And another man was stabbed to death by a fellow ayahuasca ceremony participant in a rare display of ayahuasca-related violence.

Ongoing scientific studies regarding ayahuasca include the treatment of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. A study also found that ayahuasca drinkers regularly have improved mental health.

Iboga/Ibogaine

Iboga and ibogaine were mainly presented as detox treatments for opiate and methamphetamine addictions, which has been found to be extremely successful for many. There was also a powerful account of how iboga helped a schizophrenic drug addict reclaim his life.

Salvia Divinorum

Aside from being announced as another potential plant useful for treating substance abuse and addictions, salvia divinorum didn't show up much in the media at all this year.

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

There was quite a bit of media coverage earlier in the year a scourge of the synthetic cannabinoid blend called "spice" (also known as "K2") in the northeast, but that story has mostly died off as of late. There has been a lot of negative coverage of the compound 25i-NBOMe (also known as "N-Bomb") and there was an interview with the man who originally synthesized it. "Legal highs" have been making their way into jails and prisons by being soaked into letters and pages of books. And a homeopathy conference ended terribly after attendees erupted in panic after being dosed with 2C-E.

Dissociatives

Protesters in the United Kingdom staged a demonstration against the Psychoactive Substances bill by inhaling nitrous oxide in front of the Parliament building. Basically every PCP story was framed in a negative light and played up an illegal act performed by someone high on the substance.

Ketamine had a lot of favorable coverage due to studies showing that it is helpful in treating depression. And due to the increased media coverage, governments around the world began considering placing ketamine under a stricter class of illegal drugs, which has worried veterinarians, pharmacists and medical health professionals because that may prevent them from being able to access the drug, even for legitimate medical reasons. Finally, a lot of time was spent arguing about whether or not a man fed ketamine to a seagull, even though he denied having done so.

Opiates/Opioids

Heroin use is in America is way up and so are overdoses—in fact, heroin usage has been widely described as an “epidemic”. Since it is mainly affecting white and middle class folks, this year's victims of heroin addiction have been mostly pitied, rather than lambasted as in years past. Still, the heroin issue has thrust the horrors of the drug war into even more people's faces, and it may prove to have a positive effect on drug policies overall.

Fentanyl found in heroin has led to an increase in overdoses, and research is showing that legal prescription drugs are leading people to become addicted to heroin and in many cases, die from overdose. The overdose drug naloxone has been in the media spotlight—information about it has spread fairly rapidly, and the FDA approved a nasal spray version for easier application.

Kratom/Kava/Khat

There has been a series of back-and-forth debates on the issues of safety and efficacy with regard to these plants, and kava in particular has been focused on recently with research into the effects of driving under the influence of the plant. Other than those topics the majority of coverage on these plants has been related to seizures by law enforcement.

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

Psychedelics have made their way into mainstream entertainment, being talked discussed in songs written by musicians like A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, and Miley Cyrus. Many celebrities and other well-known people came out of the psychedelic closet, admitting to past usage of psychedelics. These include John Cusack, musician Brian Wilson, Lindsay Lohan, the late neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah, radio personality Robin Quivers, CNN reporter Lisa Ling, musician Vanessa Carlton, former Apple employee Daniel Kottke, and Star Wars animator Phil Tippet. Many others have come out publicly against the drug war, including a strong assertion from David Nutt about why banning psychedelics has been the greatest censorship of medicine in human history.

Ross Ulbricht, the alleged founder of the Silk Road, was convicted and received two life sentences plus an additional 40 years. I encourage everyone to check out the website Free Ross Ulbricht, which has plenty of information about how his trial was mishandled and how he may have even been framed by the U.S. government. Even though the Silk Road is no longer in operation, purchasing illegal substances on the dark web continues to be in fashion and shows no sign of slowing down.

The DEA had an incredibly rough year in 2015. Current DEA Chief Chuck Rosenberg claimed that cannabis is "probably" not as bad as heroin and later corrected himself by admitting that it in fact is definitely not as bad as heroin. Later, he called medical marijuana a "joke", leading medical marijuana patients around the country to officially call for his resignation. DEA agents at JFK airport stole $44,000 from a legitimate nail salon owner who hadn't committed any crimes whatsoever. The two primary agents involved with the Silk Road investigation have been accused of stealing more than $700,000 in Bitcoin from the dark web site. Amtrak passengers have been routinely harassed by DEA agents. The DEA was sued by Human Rights Watch and Electronic Frontier Foundation over the illegal bulk collection of America’s telephone records and lost the case. The U.S. Senate voted to force the DEA to butt out of medical marijuana states. The DEA spent undisclosed millions of dollars the past ten years on cell phone tracking and has refused to release the acquisition documents. Agents were caught soliciting Colombian prostitutes that were supplied by the drug cartels that they are supposedly fighting. And finally, the daughter of a DEA head was busted for selling illegal drugs. So yeah, how long are we going to keep these bozos around, exactly?

Harm reduction has made headlines this year, with an emphasis on the need for drug users to test their substances before consuming them. NASA released a bunch of cool psychedelic images and videos from space. Google took it one step further and developed its "Deep Dream" code, which mimics the visual perception of a machine and resulted in some mind-blowing psychedelic videos. Oddly enough, the sale of Janis Joplin's "psychedelic Porsche" showed up in the news time and time again.  Buddhism and psychedelics showed up quite a bit. It seemed to me that there was a moment in the year where there was almost nothing but positive articles about psychedelics, mostly in regard to the current state and findings of psychedelic research studies. The New Yorker published a fantastic interview with Earth and Fire, the creators of the drug education website Erowid. Perhaps most strikingly, Richard Branson leaked the news that the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was expected to publish documents advising for the reversal of the drug war, and then it never did, allegedly because it received pressure from a country heavily involved in the drug war.

All in all, it has been quite a year! I am greatly looking forward to bringing you more news related to psychedelics and psychoactive substances in 2016. I hope that you will join me. Until next time, keep thinking wilder!

Weekend Thoughts - 6.20.15

Image by Hugh Manon, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Reset.me has a video of a woman giving birth in nature (NSFW). I had seen this video before, and thought it would be good to share here. Fair warning: this is a live birth, which includes nudity and all the other things you would assume would come with birthing a newborn human baby. To me, this demonstrates that it is possible (and potentially a better experience) to give birth outside of the hospital. If you're interested in natural childbirth, I would also suggest watching the documentary The Business of Being Born.

2. Hopes & Fears has a piece about what it is like to be a pro-cannabis lobbyist working to legitimize cannabis in the eyes of the law.

3. This article from The Onion about a new music festival that offers no music, and only a field for doing drugs, had me cracking a smile this week.

4. On the topic of music festivals, the BBC reported that Leicestershire police in the United Kingdom used face-scanning software to identify 90,000 festival attendees at the 2015 Download Festival. The police claim that they were looking for known criminals that may have been in the crowd. This is simultaneously technologically-impressive and worrisome to me. On one hand, it's pretty nifty that this feat is possible nowadays, and I could definitely see how it could be used for good. On the other hand, this just increases the feeling of being perpetually watched everywhere we go.

5. Privacy-focused search engine Duck Duck Go has seen a 600% increase in web traffic since Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA two years ago. That correlates with when I first began using the search engine a few years ago. Based on my positive experience thus far, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Apple Macs and iOS devices offer the service as a selection for default search engine, so you can easily give it a try on your own devices if you so choose.

6. Autonomous (also known as "self-driving") cars have been in the news recently, and an article on Science Daily explores an interesting dilemma: "Will your self-driving car be programmed to kill you if it means saving more strangers?" The article includes an intriguing debate that discusses the meaning behind the terms utilitarianism and deontology. Definitely worth a read and some thought.

7. The sad tale of a quiet farm kid in North Dakota that went missing and was found two months later drowned in a river—shot in the head and wearing a rock-filled backpack. He was apparently murdered for being a confidential informant for the local police. The college he was attending knew that police were busting its students and using them to inform on more powerful drug dealers. Stories like this are very frustrating and upsetting to me, but it's worth sharing it with people who may be unaware of the shady dealings of our police forces.

8. A war photographer that has 10 years of experience in the Iraq War spent a few days capturing some amazing shots of the world's largest paintball game. His pictures are great, and his explanation of the event and comparison to actual combat is worth a read.

9. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great roundup analysis of major technology companies' willingness to and followthrough of protecting customer data from governments that is worth a look.

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.