-
Stem Burger, The Future of Meat
http://www.rokappa.net/fat-man-eating-hamburger/ The world is growing. People are multiplying. We are all living longer. And we like to eat. How do you satisfy a horde of hungry humans that want to live a long and hearty life? In this day and age we can turn to science to answer that question.
Genetically modified organisms or GMOs are a thing of the past, present, and likely our future. It is so important for people to understand the uses and benefits of being able to mass produce food to satisfy the hungry population. Well, at least to prepare for a future necessity for more food. A new development in the world of food has peaked my interest. The creation of the schmeat, or as I like to call it, the Stem Burger. It is meat grown in vitro, and is really quite a step in the right direction, in fact, in more than one way. For animal right’s activists it definitely is a blessing in disguise.
Related Article: I Believe in GMOs
Enormous swaths of the population can’t bring themselves to become vegan, so it’s logical to support in vitro meat if its goal is to reduce suffering of animals
Says Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). It would be something new, where we no longer harm animals or mass produce them, instead we’d use their cells to grow the foods we need, or clone them rather for our purposes. Playing god only as a necessity some would argue. Yes, yes…
Religious groups are crying out against stem cell research, and it isn’t likely that it will ever be fully supported, but when push comes to shove and there isn’t enough food to feed families, where will we turn? Mind you, these concerns aren’t something that we should fear or even worry about in our current state, but a stem burger could lead to other preparations for the future.
Granted, this Stem Burger actually wasn’t the best burger that participants of a taste test have tasted, however, with work, I am positive that a Stem Burger will become the number one choice for people in the future. Now if the scientific community could only use stem cells for medicinal uses without being criticized and scrutinized…
May that future come swiftly. Cheers!
Related Article: Don’t Fear Anti-GM Hysteria
Research:
Wondergressive: The Ugly Face of Overpopulation
-
Check If You Are Burning Fat on Your Phone
http://www.iop.org/news/13/jul/page_60652.html I want to know if I am burning fat. Is there an app for that? Most likely yes! A new gadget has been revealed that allows you to check if you are burning fat and sends the data to your phone. A group of researchers from Japan’s NTT DOCOMO Research Laboratories have conducted a study and built a prototype gadget that will soon hit the market.
The gadget works similarly to a breathalyzer. You breathe into it and it checks for one specific compound called acetone. This compound has been used to indicate whether a person is burning fat. When fat breaks down in your body during exercise or lack of other energy sources, acetone is produced in the blood. Eventually it gets expelled to the lungs and is exhaled. This device measures the level of acetone in your breath and is fairly compact; It is about 4 inches long and weighs about a quarter of a pound.
Once you exhale, the device calculates the concentration levels of acetone (the more acetone you have the more fat you are burning) and sends it to the smartphone either via Bluetooth or a cable. This is all achieved within ten seconds.
(Burn more fat by not sitting down. Sitting could be lethal)
The study lasted 14 days and used 17 adults of which 11 were men and 6 were women. All of their BMIs were above Japan’s average. The volunteers were split into three groups:
- (Group 1) Carried on normal life, no calorie restrictions, no exercise requirement
- (Group 2) No calorie restrictions, partook in light exercise 30-60 mins a day
- (Group 3) Calorie restricted, partook in light exercise same as group 2
Every day before breakfast, they were required to note down their body weight, fat percentage and breath acetone concentrations. Upon concluding the study, results show that the first two groups were not burning fat in significant amounts. Their acetone level also remained unchanged. The third group, however, experienced a significant increase in acetone concentration as well as the rate of burning fat.
(Start burning fat and lose weight with a seven minute workout!)
Implications
With the world population becoming more and more obese, fat acceptance is becoming the norm, as well as dangerous. The main investigator of the study, Satoshi Hiyama, had this to say:
Because obesity increases the risk of lifestyle-related illnesses, enabling users to monitor the state of fat burning could play a pivotal role in daily diet management. Current standard methods, however, are still not practically suitable for point-of-care instrumentation for diet-conscious people who wish to monitor their own fat metabolism at home or outside.
However if this device allows us to monitor how our dieting affects our fat burning, this might alter the way we think about food and exercise altogether. We may start to alter our diets ourselves more frequently.
The prevailing issue is still the fact that this was conducted with only 17 individuals. A small sample pool such as that could bring down the credibility and accuracy of this gadget. But even if the accuracy and consistency of the device is proven to be solid, the challenges that still remain are the acceptance of the new technology and whether it will achieve its main goal: to alter people’s dieting habits for a permanent improvement.
Sources:
http://www.iop.org/news/13/jul/page_60652.html
https://wondergressive.com/2013/02/09/the-dangers-of-fat-acceptance/
-
All Gods Live in Heaven
http://www.talesbeyondbelief.com/greek-gods/list-of-all-greek-gods.htm I’ve always been interested in getting to the bottom of things. My search now leads me down the path of the gods. Which one came when, which ones are the same but have different names and which ones are just really famous drunks. This week I’ve decided to highlight three of my favorites so far.
But first, before I get down to the lightning bolt slinging and heavenly meddling in human affairs I’d like to discuss the concepts of deism and theism. While both involve the belief in one or many god(s) they are semantically very different. Theism is the belief that one or many god(s) created the universe and are actively involved in its functions. Deists too believe in god(s) but they do so through reason instead of revelation. I wonder if there are adeists as well? A basic difference between the two schools is that one centers around the religion of the gods and the other is centered around the natural evidence of the gods.
Related Article: Failure of Central Planning and the Venezuelan Toilet Paper Shortage
Whichever way you’d like to look at it is fine by me. For the sake of clarity, I’ll be speaking about these figures as though they are real. 100% fact. That way my imagination is free to roam and your scoffs will likely ensue! Today’s list of gods starts with the wonderfully disheveled Eris!
Eris, or the Roman Discorida, is the goddess of chaos. Perhaps the most common account of this famous trickster is the tale of Eris’ golden apple. Basically, Eris wasn’t invited to a party. This is most likely because she had this incredible ability to make mince meat of any social gathering. While the rest of the gods and goddesses were having a ball, Eris inscribed “to the most beautiful” on a golden apple. She then took the apple to the ball and threw it among the denizens. The story goes that this created such a great fuss which went on to cause the epic Trojan war. Madness.
Eris also has an awesome “religious” text dedicated to her circa 1968. The Principia Discordia contains so many elements of chaos that it is likely the textual embodiment of Eris, herself. Definitely worth a read if you are into criticizing any sort of religious institution.
Eris, much to her displeasure, is small potatoes when compared to the great Indra.
According to the Indra entry in the Encyclopedia Mythica:
In Vedic times, Indra was the supreme ruler of the gods. He was the leader of the Devas, the god of war, the god of thunder and storms, the greatest of all warriors, the strongest of all beings. He was the defender of gods and mankind against the forces of evil. He had early aspects of a sun-god, riding in a golden chariot across the heavens, but he is more often known as the god of thunder, wielding the celestial weapon Vajra, the lightening bolt. He also employs the bow, a net, and a hook in battle. He shows aspects of being a creater god, having set order to the cosmos, and since he was the one who brought water to earth, he was a fertility god as well. He also had the power to revive slain warriors who had fallen in battle.
… and I heard through the grapevine that he also hosted the greatest potlucks. Depicted as the human form of the word awesome, Indra basically could do anything. Heck, he set order to the universe. Unfortunately for Indra, his might waned and other gods, such as Shiva, came to rule. In his late age Indra went into retirement but he still is considered the leader of the lessor gods. Perhaps, assuming that all gods live in various neighborhoods of heaven, Indra has met Aiwendil.
Related Article: Kim Jong-il’s Personal Chef Recounts Life in the Hermit Kingdom
Aiwendil a lessor god of modern times comes from the mythology created by Tolkien. Being a lover of beasts and birds, Aiwendil was from the court of Yavanna, the giver of fruits. Aiwendil was one of the lessor gods commissioned to help defeat Sauron. Known in middle earth as Radagast the Brown, Aiwendil is most famous for helping the other gods in his order (such as Olórin and Curumo) destroy Sauron’s ring of power. Which, you know, needed to be done.
Holy all of the gods, batman! This is where I’ll end the nerdiness! Ever since I read Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, I’ve adopted a new policy on deities. Instead of accepting one God or not accepting any gods, I’ve decided that the only course of action is to accept all of the gods. Perhaps this stance is a bit controversial, heretical, or even blasphemous but frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn–mostly because gods do the damning, and I haven’t passed any of my 7LGCs (Seven-lifetime god certifications) … yet.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_the_gods_%28Sumerian_paradise%29
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/i/indra.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
http://www.spiralnature.com/spirituality/discordianism/erisandtheapple.html
-
Biggest Wastes of Money (Part 1): Cigarettes, Fashion, Lottery, New Cars
Wasting Money: http://www.one-quest.com/ We all waste our money on something out there. After all, money in and of itself is useless unless we are spending it. That being said, some of the everyday things people spend their money on are an absolute waste and a downright scam. Over the course of five posts I will go over what I see as the 10 biggest wastes of money (including 10 (dis)honorable mentions) that people spend their hard earned cash on. I am not here to judge anyone in particular, just the human race as a whole that I am happily a part of. How many of these are you guilty of?
Part 2 of this series can be found here: Biggest Wastes of Money (Part 2): Bottled Water, Weddings, Jewelry, Paper Towels
Part 3 of this series can be found here: Biggest Wastes of Money (Part 3): Fast Food, University, Charity, Makeup
Part 4 of this series can be found here: Biggest Wastes of Money (Part 4): Wrapping Paper, Greeting Cards, Vitamins, Cleaning Products
Part 5 of this series can be found here: Biggest Wastes of Money (Part 5): Gadgets, Dining Out, Luxury Hotels, Gyms
Cigarettes
Cigarettes are bad for you, like really bad, like proven to cause cancer and a multitude of other illnesses bad. Despite what you tell yourself, and unlike other substances such as cannabis, there are actually no real benefits to smoking cigarettes. There are however hundreds of reasons to quit.
Related Article: Smoking: A Pre-existing Condition Under Obamacare
http://www.redefiningthefaceofbeauty.com To begin, cigarettes do not just contain tobacco, they contain over 599 additives. These 599 additives turn into 4000 different chemicals through the chemical change of burning the tobacco. 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer. Some of the lovely chemicals that cigarette smokers deeply inhale include: carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanides and ammonia. The initial 599 additives have been approved as safe by the FDA, but they were approved without being burned. The FDA never once approved the 4000 chemicals created through the burning process that are known to be noxious poisons.
Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030. Cigarette smoking account[s] for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.
Translation: Cigarettes are a near guaranteed death sentence, a death sentence that consists of horrible pain and struggling until the very last moment. Oh, and if you don’t die from smoking cigarettes, you are still more likely to get sick. Because they lower the effectiveness of the immune system and other bodily functions, the CDC notes that compared to non-smokers, smokers are more likely to develop:
- coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times
- strokes by 2 to 4 times
- men developing lung cancer by 23 times
- women developing lung cancer by 13 times
- dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times
So if cigarettes are so harmful, why do people start smoking in the first place? The major reasons are:
- Media advertising
- Epigentic predisposition
- Parental influence
- Stress relief
- Self medication
- Appetite suppression
- Rebellion
- Social benefits
- Peer pressure
http://s3.hubimg.com/ Some of these reasons for starting are understandable and may seem like benefits from the get go. For example, stress relief doesn’t sound so bad. The problem is that once the incredibly strong sway of nicotine addiction sets in, which could be within days, cigarettes themselves become a stressor because smokers are antsy, anxious, and stressed without the tool they have become dependent on for solving their stress. Quite the downward spiral. The truth is that any physical benefit from smoking quickly subsides as the body builds a resistance to the nicotine found in tobacco. The positive benefits, such as appetite suppression and mood elevation, quickly fade in place of the same old you, that same old you that you originally tried to alter with a highly potent poison. Keep in mind that nicotine is incredibly potent, with resistance and dependency forming very quickly. To be precise, it is:
- 1000 X more potent than alcohol
- 10-100 X more potent than barbiturates
- 5-10 X more potent than cocaine or morphine
What about social benefits? Isn’t it great to be able to do something with your mouth and fingers to distract from the awkwardness of getting to know other people? The truth is that in this case you are only slightly curing a symptom of a problem with much deeper roots. If you require a biologically destructive tool to be able to comfortably talk to people, then you should put your focus on overcoming this societal fear rather than using an irrational crutch forever and ever.
Related Article: Cannabis Cures Cancer and More: A Thorough History and Review of the Evidence
http://www.upworthy.com It should be obvious that the rest of the list consists of very shallow and poor reasons for choosing to take up such a clearly destructive and incredibly hard-to-break habit. Not to mention, cigarettes are extremely expensive.
Super, super expensive in fact! In 2011 a pack of cigarettes cost between $4.74 (West Virgina) and $11.90 (New York), depending on the state. In 2012 the price range for cigarettes changed to $4.84 (West Virgina) to $12.50 (New York). If you live in New York and smoke a modest 1 pack of cigarettes a day, you’re spending $87.50 a week, which is $4,550 a year. Not surprisingly, a recent study found that cigarettes smokers in New York that made $30,000 a year or less spent a whopping 25% of their income on cigarettes. 25% of their income on something that has no real benefits past the first couple weeks, is incredibly difficult to stop doing, is proven to cause cancer, and shortens your life span by at least 10 years. Go figure.
You might be thinking, ‘Hey, I’m sure some people enjoy smoking until the day they die whether they develop cancer or not.’ The odds are against you friend. 69% of smokers in the United States admit to wanting to quit completely with 52% of smokers trying to quit in 2010. Feel like throwing your health and money away? Grab a pack of cigarettes.
Sadly, even today, despite so much available information, 4,000 kids younger than 18 smoke their first cigarette everyday, and everyday 1000 kids younger than 18 become daily smokers. If you are attempting to quit smoking, there are many ways to change behavior and break habits successfully. Don’t give up on yourself, you’re worth it!
Related Article: A How To: Behavior Changes and Breaking Habits
Designer Clothing and Fashion
projectmotherhoodnyc.com If there was ever an absolute scam, this is it. Billions of people around the world have been brainwashed into believing that brand names equate to better quality and ‘cool factor’. While this may be the case in some instances, it is not the norm.
Whether it be sunglasses, watches, hats, handbags, pants, jackets, shoes, or any other material possession, much of the world is not happy unless they have an item made by their favorite designer. The problem is that designers charge insane amounts of money for products that often cost them about the same amount as it costs Walmart to make their products. The difference is that they claim their name and minimum amount of labor is worth the hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars extra.
The brainwashing goes even further when people insist that they need to buy new clothes each season to keep up with the changing fashion. High end clothing companies and designers would have you believe that you are not cool unless you pay them exorbitant amounts of your hard earned money four times a year to keep up with the ‘in crowd.’ What an ingenious way to suck consumers dry.
Related Article: Income Inequality in America: Red Herrings and Wealth Envy
This form of brainwashing comes largely in the form of advertising, celebrity worship, and companies/independent designers banking on your insecurities. According to David A. Aaker, the vice chairman of Prophet, a brand consulting firm:
The cost of creating those things has nothing to do with the price, it is all about who else is wearing them, who designed them and who is selling them.
http://well-spent.com/2012/01/25/why-clothes-cost-what-they-do/ It’s not about price, it’s about competing with everyone around you. And for what? To look the flashiest? Readers, I have news for you: You are an adult, and if you haven’t figured this out yet, it doesn’t matter what other people think of you. The only time it matters is in a job interview, because a job has the benefit of giving you the ability to support yourself. Your potential boss is not looking at your wardrobe, he is looking at a single outfit. But even in that instance, guess what? Unless you have the Walmart logo on your button down collared shirt, your boss will have NO IDEA how much you spent on your clothing. As long as you look presentable, that is what matters, and it does not take $500, $200, or even a $50 shirt to do that.
http://well-spent.com/2012/01/25/why-clothes-cost-what-they-do/ The mark ups on all clothing are astronomical, but this is especially the case with designer clothing. Did you know that Kohl’s department store has been caught hiking up the price of their products right before a huge sale? It is even possible to pay more for a sale price than you would have for the normal price of the good. There is a reason why all your favorite designers are living in multiple mansions, driving cars that cost more than your life’s net worth, and purchasing their own islands: they tricked you. They have the world at their fingertips, and what do you have? Their sewn together fabric. Woopdie-do.
Related Article: A Note on the Top 1%: Psychopaths or Superhumans?
If you just can’t break the habit of buying designer goods and clothing, all hope is not lost. Head to a resale shop like Plato’s Closet and pick up some designer clothes at a fraction of the price. Sure, the clothes might be used, but after washing them no one will be able to tell the difference. Plato’s Closet has incredibly high standards for their clothing and even the slightest defect will be noticed and that piece of clothing removed from the store. You may be wearing used clothes, but at least you won’t have to work 20 hours of overtime next week to pay back the growing interest on your Macy’s credit card.
*Note: Another great idea is to buy clothes and other art from Etsy.com and support independant, and possibly even local artists/artisans. At least you’ll know that your particular item is one of a kind instead of wearing the same Abercrombie shirt as every other 20-something-debt-up-to-their-nose-fashion-freak.
Dishonorable Mentions:
Playing the Lottery
You actually have a better chance of being killed by a mountain lion or becoming president of the U.S.A than winning the Mega Millions Jackpot or the Megabucks Slot Machine Jackpot. There is a reason winning the lottery is called a pipe dream, and it’s not because pipes help you win.
New Cars
Buying a new car is one of the best ways to cut your money into little pieces and throw it to the wind. The moment you drive your shiny new vehicle off the lot it depreciates in value by up to 40% of the price you just paid only seconds before. So, if you pay $25,000 for a new car, within seconds of the purchase it is worth only $15,000. Yikes! By the end of the third year your 4-wheeled baby is worth about 40% of its original price. If you’re planning on holding onto yo
ur car for longer than 3 years its only going to get worse. The older a car is, the slower it depreciates in value.Don’t forget that it’s impossible to know whether you will get into an accident or not, potentially totaling your car. Remember, you might be the best driver in the world, but what about everyone else?
Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/
http://www.tricountycessation.org/tobaccofacts/Cigarette-Ingredients.html
http://www1.umn.edu/perio/tobacco/nicaddct.html
http://www1.umn.edu/perio/tobacco/nicaddct.html
http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/what-a-pack-of-cigarettes-costs-state-by-state
http://www.theawl.com/2012/06/pack-of-cigarettes-cost
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/nyregion/poor-smokers-in-new-york-state-spend-25-of-income-on-cigarettes-study-says.html?_r=2&=_r=6&
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/fashion/29ROW.html?_r=0
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-11/dismal-odds-winning-lottery-infographic
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/car-buyers-guide/cbg_depreciation.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/vera-wang-house-photos-2011-8?op=1
http://www.bornrich.com/giorgio-armani.html
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/ralph-lauren-40-million-bugatti-wins-top-prize-175719868.html
Related Wondergressive Articles on This Page:
https://wondergressive.com/2013/04/12/smoking-a-pre-existing-condition-under-obamacare/
https://wondergressive.com/2012/08/28/epigenetics-and-altering-your-dna/
https://wondergressive.com/2013/03/16/awareness-and-dealing-with-rejection/
https://wondergressive.com/2013/03/02/behavior-changes-and-breaking-habits/
https://wondergressive.com/2013/03/07/income-inequality-in-america-whats-the-big-deal/
https://wondergressive.com/2013/02/15/a-note-on-the-top-1-psychopaths-or-superhumans/
4000 chemicals, 599 additives cigarettes, addiction, addictions, ammonia, appetite suppresion, armani, awareness, behavior, biggest wastes of money, brainwashing, break habits, cannabis, carbon monoxide, CDC, chemicals, chronic, chronic bronchitis, cigarette additives, cigarette ads, cigarette advertisement, cigarette chemicals, cigarette costs, cigarette death, cigarette industry, cigarette spending, cigarette wiki, cigarettes, clothing industry, consumer, coronary heart disease, cost of pack of cigarettes, david a aker, deaths, designer clothing, designer clothing cost, downward spiral, enjoyable, epigenetics, etsy, etsy.com, evidence, fashion, FDA, Genetics, giorgio armani, heart attack, history, honorable mention, horrible pain, how to change behavior, hydrogen cyanide, immune system, in crowd, income, Income inequality, ingredients of cigarettes, judgement, judging, kohls, lottery numbers, lung cancer, macy, macys, man lung cancer, mark up, media advertising, medicine, mega millions, megabucks, money, mountain lion, new car depreciation, new cars, new cars for sale, New York, nicotine addiction, nitrogen oxide, non-smokers, nordstroms, ObamaCare, original price, peer pressure, platos closet, price, prophet, ralph lauren, reasons to quit smoking, rebellion, rejection, research, sale price, second hand smoke, sick, smokers, smoking cigarettes, social benefits, societal fear, stress, stroke, study, tobacco use, US cigarete use, USA, vera wang, waste of money, wastes of money, West Virginia, win lottery, worst waste of money -
Track Phone First, Ask Questions Later
Track Phone http://blog.privacychoice.org For quite some time it has been apparent that secrets are everywhere. By quite some time, I mean since ages past. From Masons, to Illuminati, to the famous Knights Templar. Many organizations even today keep their secrets: CIA, NSA, etc., etc., etc. The NSA is an organization that takes our information and claims to use it for our safety but in recent news it has been criticized as a cell phone infiltrator. That’s right, though most of you have already heard about this and likely lost interest in it, the fact remains that all of your data are belong to US(A). It is no lie that:
The National Security Agency has provided timely information to U.S. decision makers and military leaders for more than half a century.
and that:
NSA/CSS exists to protect the Nation.
but where do we draw the line? Is it really in our liberty to discuss anything at all without being overlooked or guided? Is there any safe place for our information?
Related Article: Gossip Through the Prism
Apparently nowhere it seems, as a federal appeals court recently ruled that warrants are not needed for tracking cell phones. Yes, this is very serious. Serious because now all of my talks about kittens and dogs will be recorded and every conversation about “how life is going” with my mother will be documented. Joking aside, a lot of people feel threatened by the means of a government, and the display of power that one such government sometimes abuses. What will all this hacking of civilians information yield? Maybe it will help with criminals at large and terrorists that are on the loose. To think, a world where the NSA finds them and the police get them.
Related Article: The Drones Are Coming
In lighter news, NSA chief will soon be at a conference for hackers in Vegas where he will likely speak out about the data mining and collecting that the NSA does. Let him speak, but surely everything he says will be watched and scrutinized. In fact, all we can do is scrutinize and wait to see what the Supreme Court will do and how it will weigh in on the warrant-less tracking. Cheers! But don’t forget, Big Brother is always watching. Or reading, err tracking?
Related Article: Not Another 9-11 Article
Sources:
Youtube: All Your Base Are Belong To US
Warrantless Cellphone Tracking is Upheld
Wondergressive: Gossip Through the Prism
-
MIT Scientists Incept Mice With False Memories
http://tedxboston.org/speaker/ramirez Director Christopher Nolan’s (of Batman and Inception) fame has a distinct fascination for memory, a theme he frequently explores in his films. In 2000’s Memento, protagonist Leonard Shelby suffers from a real (but extremely rare) condition that disallows him from making new memories. He remembers his childhood and his past but exists solely in a short-term memory present tense that fades after a minute or two, only to be erased and replaced again and again. In the film his wife is brutally raped and murdered. Unable to experience the tempering effects of time and psychologically incapable of moving on, he lives with a constant and fevered desire to catch her killer.
He frequently burns possessions of her in an attempt to gain some sense of closure, but these memories he tries to create never stick. He dispiritedly utters one of my favorite lines of the film:
“I can’t remember to forget you.”
http://explosivedonut.com/?p=610 Recently scientists at MIT may have found a way to replace memories or to erase them altogether.
Publishing in Science, a team of researchers claim to have created false memories in mice. The team was able to condition mice to behave fearfully in an environment that was different than the one in which they had actually been exposed to electric shocks. The study, performed by Steve Ramirez, Xu Liu, et. al., could fundamentally alter our understanding of the physical, neuronal aspects of memory function. The team also speculates that this research could be used to literally turn memories on or off, a revolutionary idea that many people likely find liberating and terrifying in equal measure.
To train the mice, the researchers first had to locate a specific memory in their brains. In this Ted Talk, Liu and Ramirez detail how they were able to identify the specific cells responsible for a memory. When a mouse was put into a new environment, its brain would light up with neuronal activity. Liu explains that when these cells are activated, they leave behind a “footprint” that makes it possible to track their activity and put a sort of neuronal bookmark on them. Using a technique called optogenetics, the team was able to install an artificial “switch” that lets them literally turn these brain cells on or off by shooting them with laser pulses.
To summarize the complicated and detailed experiment: Individual mice were put into a new environment, a blue box. The neurons responsible for creating the memory of the blue box were traced and made to activate in response to pulses of light. The mouse was then put into a different new environment, a red box. While in the red box, the researchers administered mild electric shocks to the mouse while activating the cells responsible for remembering the blue box. The mouse was, in effect, being reminded of the blue box while being shocked in the red box. Then, the mouse was put back into the blue box, where it fearfully responded as if that were the environment it was conditioned to fear, despite the fact that the mouse had no historical reason to be afraid of the blue box.
The scientists very literally Incepted a mouse with a false memory that made it afraid of an environment it had no reason to fear.
In addition to being able to turn a memory on, Liu and Ramirez maintain that they can also turn it off, and even believe it will be possible to customize and edit memories in the future. These alterations can be viewed as a controlled version of the way our minds naturally distort our recollections, which is one reason why eyewitness testimony is so fundamentally flawed—our brains are famously prone to misremembering. This groundbreaking technology could change one of the most important aspects of being human: the obviously profound relationship we all have with our past.
The possibility of erasing bad breakups or the sources of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, to creating new versions of our old selves, can be both an invigorating horizon of opportunity as well as the introduction to an Orwellian nightmare, depending on both the individual involved and what memories are being tinkered with.
One of my fundamental beliefs is that every human being fully owns themselves and may do anything to their body they wish, with the important caveat that they alone are responsible for their actions. The idea of a third-party deleting or installing memories is of the utmost abhorrence. However, for better or for worse, I believe that individuals should be allowed to selectively modify their own past as they see fit, despite all the inherent troubles of getting the rest of the world to go along with the story you’ve created. (Imagine having to tell everyone to never bring up an ex before you get your memory of him/her erased…and how that totally wouldn’t work.)
http://www.followingthenerd.com/ftn_news/oliver-retro-reviews-total-recall/ I like to focus on this research as being a way for mankind to better understand memory and the neuronal processes in the brain. However, the idea of erasing or manipulating memories is interesting and does create a fundamental paradox. If I change my own recollections, my perception of the past that created my personality and worldview will have been altered by a person that I no longer fully recognize or accept as truly being “me.” The person who altered their memories would in a very real psychological sense no longer be the person that had the memories changed in the first place.
So who would you truly be? The Before or the After?
On a humorous note that I simply couldn’t pass up, writing about this story has brought up one of my favorite moments from Seinfeld. In the show, Jerry Seinfeld is dating a cop and is nervous about taking a lie detector test. Jerry asks George Costanza, the consummate and ubiquitous teller-of-fibs, for advice. George, absolutely deadpan, gives his counsel:
“It’s not a lie….if you believe it.”
Indeed.
Sources:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6144/387
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23447600
http://tedxboston.org/speaker/ramirez
-
Black Hole Spin Could Be Key in Understanding How Galaxies Expand
Black Hole Spin Scientists at Durham University (UK) have discovered a new way to measure the spin of ginormous black holes. According to the study, this could improve our understanding of how our galaxies are getting bigger; I have always wondered why a lot of the galaxies swirl and grow. A team of astronomers found a black hole that is ten million times the size of our Sun in the center of a spiral galaxy that is about 500 million light years away from Earth. This black hole has been feeding off the materials in the disc of the galaxy which may explain its enormous size.
The data collected allowed the astronomers to measure the distance of the disc from the black hole. Distance depends on how fast the black hole’s spin is, a faster black hole’s spin pulls the disc closer, and by measuring the distance of the disc, they are able to predict the speed of the spin. The scientists agree that this could help in understanding how galaxies grow over a span of billions of years.
(Two New Blue Developments in Our Galaxy)
Almost all galaxies contain black holes. They shoot out extremely hot particles that prevent gases in the galaxy itself from cooling, therefore inhibiting the growth of new stars. The jets of energy that black holes shoot out could be linked to why black holes spin. Unless the matter is close to the black hole, it is difficult to measure spin, since the power of the black hole does not reach to further matter. The odd thing about black holes, according to Professor Chris Done, is that the black hole spin may affect the nature of the whole galaxy.
We know the black hole in the centre of each galaxy is linked to the galaxy as a whole, which is strange because black holes are tiny in relation to the size of a galaxy. This would be like something the size of a large boulder (10m), influencing something the size of the Earth.
When a black hole spins, it drags particles from the accretion disc. The more particles it drags, the faster it is able to spin. Measuring the distance between the two leads to the possibility of measuring a black hole’s spin.
(New Plausible Theory of Black Holes: Gateways to Other Universes)
Sources:
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disc
-
An Argument Against the Critics of Cannabis Use (Part 2)
http://www.cruiselawnews.com/ [no_toc]
*Note: This article is part of a larger report featured on Wondergressive entitled ‘Cannabis Cures Cancer and More: A Through History and Review of the Evidence‘
Copyright © 2013 [Eric Feinberg]. All Rights Reserved.
To read Part 1 of this post please click here.
What the Critics Have to Say About Cannabis(And Why They’re Wrong…)
Critics are quick to point out the consistently noted dangers of cannabis ingestion. These are the same arguments that have been used for decades. They remain aggressively debated without compromise, despite decades of rational evidence suggesting falsity and fallacy. The seemingly valid concerns regarding cannabis use that top the critics’ list are: the gateway drug theory, short-term memory loss, psychosis, decreased intelligence, harm from cannabis smoke, depression, an elevated heart rate, and worries over driving while high. Let’s allow science and logic to save the day, shall we?
Psychosis
An historically major issue concerning cannabis is the worry that it may induce schizophrenic symptoms or intensify various forms of latent schizophrenia. The subjective experience of ingesting cannabis is highly personal and varies greatly among users around the world. Common experiences include:
- Greater enjoyment of food taste and aroma
blogs.sfweekly.com - An enhanced enjoyment of music
- A greater enjoyment of comedy and humor
- Distortions in perception of time and space
- Short-term memory loss
- Improved long-term memory recall
- Creative thinking
- New perspectives
- Increased libido
- Elevated mood
- Heightened sensitivity to external stimuli
- Relaxation
At extremely high doses common experiences include:
- Altered body image
- Auditory/visual illusions
- Hallucinations (extremely rare)
- Mild dissociation of mind and body
- Panic attacks
- Paranoia
While the vast majority of the effects of cannabis are viewed as positive, panic attacks and paranoia are obviously unwanted. Between 20 and 30 percent of recreational users experience intense anxiety and/or panic attacks after smoking cannabis.
Related Article: The Incredibly Diverse Medicinal Properties of Cannabis
While these symptoms usually occur due to thoughts of legal ramification for ingesting cannabis, exaggerated worry over a thought process, or general anxiousness over trying something new, it has been reported that the symptoms can happen spontaneously as well. It is possible and plausible that these symptoms could lead to greater and more persistent symptoms of psychosis. However, there are multiple aspects of the psychosis worry that needs to be discussed.
First, through our increasing knowledge of cannabinoids and the role they play on the endocannabinoid system, researchers have discovered that certain cannabinoids have a marginally stronger effect than others with regards to producing hallucinations delusions, and subjective psychological stress.
While the THC (the most psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis) offers incredible physio/psychological health benefits, it has been linked to being the sole culprit of producing more schizophrenia-like symptoms.
Related Article: The History and Legality of Cannabis Use Around the World
When comparing multiple subjects under the influence of only THC, a mixture of THC and CBD (cannabidiol), and no cannabinoids, researchers found that only THC produced subjectively negative psychological effects. The subjects with no additional cannabinoids in their system and the subjects with the mixture of THC and CBD both experienced a nearly identical psychological effect. The only major difference was that the subjects who had ingested the mixture reported less anhedonia (unable to experience pleasure) then the other two groups. The researchers concluded that if anything, their research highlighted
the importance of distinguishing between different strains of cannabis.
Once we break cannabis down into its component cannabinoids it is easy to see why users describe such incredibly varied experiences. Cannabidiol is extremely effective in treating and preventing symptoms of schizophrenia, as research continues to suggest. Many researchers believe that cannabis legalization will herald a revolution in the treatment of various psychological disorders, including schizophrenia. According to a 2005 double-blind study analyzing the antipsychotic effects of cannabidiol, researchers found that:
cannabidiol treatment was accompanied by a significant increase in serum anandamide levels, which was significantly associated with clinical improvement. The results suggest that inhibition of anandamide deactivation may contribute to the antipsychotic effects of cannabidiol potentially representing a completely new mechanism in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Other studies on the topic affirm that many subjects report
while self treating themselves with cannabis.
Even in the Netherlands, where cannabis use is widespread and often harshly judged internationally, scientists have reported an utter lack of evidence that cannabis use leads to schizophrenia. The report states that:
A group of Dutch scientists say that there is no proof that cannabis induces schizophrenia. These findings will be embarrassing for the Dutch government, which has been bearing down on Marijuana Coffee Shops saying the drug induces schizophrenia.
The truth is that much of the research done thus far has been skewed and largely unscientific. Under proper guidance, and using the correct strains, researchers all around the world agree that cannabis is a wonderfully effective psychotropic medication. Researchers discussed the consistently shown promise and proof of cannabis as an effective psychotropic medication in the British Journal of Psychiatry:
I considered Arseneault et al‘s (2004) search for evidence of the association between cannabis and psychosis as quite skewed. They did not explore the evidence regarding positive, therapeutic or beneficial psychoactive effects of cannabis in mental health in the context of appropriate, rational and clinical usage…Signalling, mostly inhibitory, suggests a role for cannabinoids as therapeutic agents in central nervous system disease where inhibition of neurotransmitter release would be beneficial. Evidence suggests that cannabinoids inhibit the neurotransmitter glutamate, counteract oxidative damage to dopaminergic neurons and may be potent neuroprotective agents (Croxford, 2003)…knowing [cannabis’] potent neuroprotective function, its potential role in psychiatric practice should not be discarded lightly.
http://www.schizophrenia.com The most important thing to remember is that symptoms of schizophrenia generally (nearly always) precede cannabis use. Schizophrenia and general psychosis have far more to do with genetic make up than anything else (refer to the graph).
Research regarding the connection between cannabis and psychosis, especially symptoms of schizophrenia, remains historically lacking and skewed with regards to component cannabinoids in cannabis. Cannabis produces highly varied subjective experiences, and research has revealed that each cannabinoid within cannabis has a markedly different effect on individuals. Multiple recent studies have shown that cannabis, specifically the cannabinoid CBD, is a highly effective agent in treating schizophrenia and other psychological disorders. Most importantly, symptoms of schizophrenia precede cannabis use in the vast majority of cases. There is currently no clear evidence that cannabis is directly responsible for causing psychosis and schizophrenic symptoms in users.
Depression
This is one of the most commonly used arguments against the use of cannabis as a form of medicine or recreation. Like the psychosis argument debunked above, the depression argument is always portrayed in a skewed and exaggerated fashion. The most important thing to remember as we discuss this is that correlation does not imply causation.
forum.grasscity.com It is well known that many already depressed individuals (ranging from mild to incapacitating depression) use cannabis as a form of self-medication. This often takes place after finding no success with taking a whole slew of expensive, addictive, and biologically destructive prescription drugs handed out by the oh so helpful DSM devotees.
Related Article: The Power of Hemp Seeds: Behold Powerful Nutrition
What researchers have found is that the vast majority of people who use cannabis to treat their depression find it to be highly physically/psychologically therapeutic and helpful. All people react differently, just like with any substance. Regardless of subjective experience it is clear at the biological level that cannabis has an anti-depressant effect on the body and mind. With regards to decreased depression associated with cannabis use an additional study incorporated:
Over 4400 adult internet users [who] completed The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and measures of marijuana use. We employed an internet survey in an effort to recruit the most depressed and marijuana involved participants, including those who might prove unwilling to travel to the laboratory or discuss drug use on the phone or in person. We compared those who consumed marijuana daily, once a week or less, or never in their lives. Despite comparable ranges of scores on all depression subscales, those who used once per week or less had less depressed mood, more positive affect, and fewer somatic complaints than non-users. Daily users reported less depressed mood and more positive affect than non-users. The three groups did not differ on interpersonal symptoms.
Cannabis users, whether they ingested the substance less than once a week or every day, reported far less depressive symptoms and far more happiness and satisfaction than non-users. The study goes on to say that:
The media continues to report links between marijuana and depression. In a recent review, Degenhardt, Hall, and Lynskey (2003) identified a modest relationship only among problematic users. Many studies show no link between cannabis and depression despite appropriate statistical power, measurement, and design (Fergusson & Horwood, 1997; Fergusson, Lynskey, & Horwood, 1996; Green & Ritter, 2000; Kouri, Pope, Yurgelun-Todd, & Gruber, 1995; McGee, Williams, Poulton, & Moffitt, 2000; Musty & Kaback, 1995; Rowe, Fleming, Barry, Manwell, & Kropp, 1995). One neglected source of depression among marijuana users may stem from medical use. Separate analyses for medical vs. recreational users demonstrated that medical users reported more depressed mood and more somatic complaints than recreational users, suggesting that medical conditions clearly contribute to depression scores and should be considered in studies of marijuana and depression. The data suggests that adults apparently do not increase their risk for depression by using marijuana.
Just like we discussed in all of the other arguments, the public only sees what the media picks and chooses to show, which is usually negligible data that has been exaggerated and skewed to fit their hype. The previous study also brought up an excellent point that has never been discussed before: are the results of studies concerning cannabis and depression that get aired by main stream media corrupted by reports of depression that originate from medical suffering? The use of cannabis is so wide spread around the world, especially in the US, that it should not be discounted.
Related Article: Cannabis Protects Brain From Damage While Binge Drinking
Besides, just like in the psychosis argument, it is clear that depression generally precedes cannabis-use. Furthermore, studies suggest that:
After adjusting for differences in baseline risk factors of marijuana use and depression, past-year marijuana use does not significantly predict later development of depression.
To reiterate, cannabis exhibits an antidepressant-like behavior in more ways than one, and is often used to treat even incapacitating depression successfully.
Finally, in a longitudinal study completed in 2009 regarding cannabis and suicide,researchers found that:
Although there was a strong association between cannabis use and suicide, this was explained by markers of psychological and behavioural problems. These results suggest that cannabis use is unlikely to have a strong effect on risk of completed suicide, either directly or as a consequence of mental health problems secondary to its use.
The depression argument is false in many of the same ways as the psychosis argument. In the vast majority of cases depressive behavior precedes cannabis use. Additionally, in most cases where cannabis is used to self-treat depression it is found to be successful. Cannabis is a clear biological antidepressant and exhibits incredible therapeutic properties. Depression is highly subjective and everyone experiences it differently. The truth is that in multiple studies both light and heavy cannabis users report far less depressive symptoms than non-users. There is no evidence whatsoever that cannabis use predicts or causes depression. Many depressed people use cannabis and report positive results far more often than people using contemporarily prescribed prescription medication.
Driving While Stoned
(*Note: this report does not advocate driving while under the effects of any substance, including cannabis. The aim of this section is to view the credible findings on how cannabis affects drivers.)
http://www.thcfinder.com The claim that ingesting cannabis somehow affects driving ability makes sense at first glance. Unfortunately all of the reports historically presented by mainstream media have focused on theory and self-report tactics, rather than actual evidence and proof. They continuously focus on potential ratios, theoretical effects, and skewed speculation.
Related Article: Federal Judge Urges Decriminalization of Marijuana
Biologically, it is true that
cannabis impairs driving behavior. However, this impairment is mediated in that subjects under cannabis treatment appear to perceive that they are indeed impaired. Where they can compensate, they do.
Despite biological theories for how cannabis might potentially affect a driver, experiments using driving simulations in the lab find that:
drivers who drank alcohol overestimated their performance quality whereas those who smoked marijuana underestimated it. Perhaps as a consequence, the former invested no special effort for accomplishing the task whereas the latter did, and successfully. This evidence strongly suggests that alcohol encourages risky driving whereas THC encourages greater caution, at least in experiments.
The [findings] contrast with results from many laboratory tests, reviewed by Moskowitz (1985), which show that even low doses of THC impair skills deemed to be important for driving, such as perception, coordination, tracking and vigilance. The present studies also demonstrated that marijuana can have greater effects in laboratory than driving tests. The last study, for example showed a highly significant effect of THC on hand unsteadiness but not on driving in urban traffic.
It is apparent that despite multiple laboratory studies displaying favorable results, real world driving tests are even more positive. When we actually test the effects of cannabis on drivers in the real world, we see very little safety issues, if any at all.
Drivers under the influence of cannabis, unlike alcohol, realize they are under the effects of a substance and successfully compensate for their altered state of mind by driving slower and by giving themselves more space between other vehicles. One of the first actual road tests with cannabis studies drivers in the lab, on the highway, and in congested urban areas. The results affirmed that as far as cannabis’ effect on actual driving performance:
Driving quality as rated by the subjects contrasted with observer ratings. Alcohol impaired driving performance according to the driving instructor but subjects did not perceive it; marijuana did not impair driving performance but the subjects themselves perceived their driving performance as such….Thus there was evidence that subjects in the marijuana group were not only aware of their intoxicated condition but were also attempting to compensate for it…drivers become overconfident after drinking alcohol…and more cautious and self critical after consuming low THC doses by smoking marijuana.
Drivers under the effects of cannabis pay more attention to the road; drive more slowly, and leaving themselves more room between other cars.
Related Article: Portugal Decriminalizes All Drugs; 10 Years Later the Results are Mind Blowing
The truth is that alcohol is a far more serious problem than cannabis when it comes to driving. Studies performed from 1982 to 1998 demonstrate time and time again that alcohol is significantly more dangerous than cannabis on the road. Alcohol use is also far more prevalent in crash statistics.
Blood and/or urine from fatally injured drivers in Washington State were collected and tested for the presence of drugs and alcohol. Drug and/or alcohol use was a factor in 52% of all fatalities. Among single vehicle accidents, alcohol use was a factor in 61% of cases versus 30% for multiple vehicle accidents. Drugs most commonly encountered were marijuana (11%), cocaine (3%), amphetamines (2%), together with a variety of depressant prescription medications.
The study even found that it was far less likely to find alcohol in a person’s system in the presence of cannabis, implying that cannabis use lessened the prevalence of alcohol use on the road:
Trends noted included an association of depressant use with higher blood alcohol levels, while marijuana use was associated with lower blood alcohol levels.
With regards to comparisons between cannabis and illicit substances overall, Accident Analysis & Prevention, a peer-reviewed journal, reported in its July 2004 article titled “Psychoactive Substance Use and the Risk of Motor Vehicle Accidents,” by K.L.L. Movig, et al.:
The objective of this study was to estimate the association between psychoactive drug use and motor vehicle accidents requiring hospitalization.
The risk for road trauma was increased for single use of benzodiazepines and alcohol…High relative risks were estimated for drivers using combinations of drugs and those using a combination of drugs and alcohol. Increased risks, although not statistically significant, were assessed for drivers using amphetamines… No increased risk for road trauma was found for drivers exposed to cannabis.
http://www.tokeofthetown.com With regards to comparisons between cannabis and substance-free drivers:
The largest study ever done linking road accidents with drugs and alcohol has found drivers with cannabis in their blood were no more at risk than those who were drug-free. In fact, the findings by a pharmacology team from the University of Adelaide and Transport SA showed drivers who had smoked marijuana were marginally less likely to have an accident than those who were drug-free. A study spokesman, Dr Jason White, said the difference was not great enough to be statistically significant but could be explained by anecdotal evidence that marijuana smokers were more cautious and drove more slowly because of altered time perception. The study of 2,500 accidents, which matched the blood alcohol levels of injured drivers with details from police reports, found drug-free drivers caused the accidents in 53.5 per cent of cases. Injured drivers with a blood-alcohol concentration of more than 0.05 per cent were culpable in nearly 90 per cent of accidents they were involved in. Drivers with cannabis in their blood were less likely to cause an accident, with a culpability rate of 50.6 per cent. The study has policy implications for those who argue drug detection should be a new focus for road safety. Dr White said the study showed the importance of concentrating efforts on alcohol rather than other drugs.
The BBC and CNN both filmed their own research on the actual effects of cannabis on driving ability. The BBC study focused on a single driver and found that he actually drove better while ‘high’; driving more cautiously and paying more attention to the driving test. The CNN study was a bit more extensive and controlled.
The study, conducted in Washington where recreational cannabis use is legal, focused on 3 volunteers who drove under the effects of different amounts of cannabis. They drove alongside a driving instructor with drug recognition experts (police officers with specific drug recognition training) watching them from outside the vehicle. The volunteers included a heavy daily user, a weekend user, and an occasional user. Even at 7x the legal limit of driving under the influence, 5x the legal limit, and 4x the legal limit respectively, all of the volunteers passed their driving tests, received positive reviews from the driving instructor, and would not have been pulled over by the drug recognition experts.
Related Article: Uruguay to Legalize Marijuana
States with medical marijuana laws are also reporting that since cannabis became legal medically and/or decriminalized, they have witnessed decreases in deaths resulting from car accidents:
A report from the University of Colorado, Montana State University, and the University of Oregon found that on average, states that have legalized Medical cannabis had a decrease in traffic-related fatalities by 8-11%.
It’s just safer to drive under the influence of marijuana than it is drunk….Drunk drivers take more risk, they tend to go faster. They don’t realize how impaired they are. People who are under the influence of marijuana drive slower, they don’t take as many risks.
From a theoretical point of view it makes sense that people would be concerned over potential risks of ‘driving while stoned.’ However, the research speaks for itself. Laboratory and real world test results have confirmed time and time again that cannabis does not have a detrimental effect on driving ability. People under the effects of cannabis, unlike alcohol, realize their altered state of mind and compensate successfully for it. In most instances cannabis users drive more safely; driving slower, paying more attention to the road, and remaining more cautious and vigilant. Cannabis does not pose any serious danger to drivers or anyone else on the road.
atheistfoundation.org.au Cannabis Smoke and Lung Damage
patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com There are endless reports that claim cannabis harms the lungs and bronchial airways, as well as increasing the risk of lung cancer. What you’ll quickly notice though is that the studies these reports are quoting from are completely theoretical studies based on comparisons with cigarette smoke, as opposed to actual findings from research. Additionally, they only focus on one mode of cannabis ingestion, one that destroys many of the medical benefits of cannabis; smoking.
It is true that there are over 50 potentially carcinogenic substances found in cannabis. Additionally, because smoked cannabis is not completely dry and is smoked without a filter, there is roughly 4 times more tar than the amount found in cigarettes. One can see why studies would speculate that cannabis may increase the risk of lung cancer. As usual, when you look at the actual science, the opposite is true.
Related Article: Smoking: A Pre-existing Condition Under Obamacare
First of all, there is currently not a single known case of cancer originating from the ingestion of cannabis. As stated numerous times in this report, there has never been a death that cannabis was directly responsible for.
Endless studies, despite a hypothesis to the contrary, are unable to find an increased risk of cancer due to cannabis use. in fact, as stated previously,
studies indicate that THC has anti-tumorigenic and anti-metastatic effect against lung cancer [and most other forms of cancer].
A study in 2005, the largest ever conducted of its kind, left Donald Tashkin, a pulmonologist at UCLA‘s David Geffin School of Medicine, scratching his head. Tashkin and his research team had hypothesized an association between cannabis and lung cancer, but even after 30 years of observing thousands of subjects they were unable to find a connection between cannabis and lung cancer.
We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use. We expected that we would find that a history of heavy marijuana use – more than 500 to 1,000 uses – would increase the risk of cancer from several years to decades after exposure to marijuana. What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.
kushsmoke.com The heaviest users in Tashkin’s study smoked more than 60 joint-years worth of marijuana, or more than 22,000 joints in their lifetime. Moderately heavy users smoked between 11,000 and 22,000 joints.
That’s an enormous amount of marijuana [however] in no category was there any increased risk, nor was there any suggestion that smoking more led to a higher odds ratio. There was no dose-response, not even a suggestion of a dose response, and in all types of cancer except one, oral cancer, the odds ratios were less than one. This is the largest case-control study ever done, and everyone had to fill out a very extensive questionnaire about marijuana use. Bias can creep into any research, but we controlled for as many confounding factors as we could, and so I believe these results have real meaning.
That being said, Dr. Tashkin wisely notes:
It’s never a good idea to take anything into your lungs, including marijuana smoke.
Smoke does not belong in your lungs, and just as this report does not advocate driving while under the effects of cannabis, it equally does not recommend smoking cannabis. What this report does suggest is using a vaporizer, cooking the cannabis into food, or making a cannabis oil. All of these methods make this entire argument irrelevant as they do not involve any form of smoke.
The media has bombarded the public with seeming ‘proof’ that cannabis leads to lung cancer. The truth is that all of this ‘proof’ has been entirely speculative. Despite cannabis smoke containing carcinogens and up to 4 times more tar than the amount found in cigarettes, long term studies confirm that there is no increased risk of lung cancer from smoking cannabis. On the contrary, the cannabinoids found in THC work to fight against cancer and even protect healthy cells. Most importantly, because cannabis can be ingested in many ways that don’t involve smoke, this entire argument is irrelevant.
*Note: This article is part of a larger report featured on Wondergressive entitled ‘Cannabis Cures Cancer and Everything Else: A Through History and Review‘
Sources:
Psychosis
340.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_cannabis#Psychoactive_effects
341.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/
342.
343.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhedonia
344.
345.
http://www.cannabis-med.org/studies/ww_en_db_study_show.php?s_id=171
346.
http://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/
347.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/12283.php
348.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/36942.php
349.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/185/1/78.1.full
350.
http://socialsciences.people.hawaii.edu/publications_lib/Cannabis%20and%20SPD.pdf
351.
352.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12617697?dopt=Abstract
Depression
353.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/AnxietyWithDepressionResearchReview.pdf
354.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/AnxietyWithDepressionResearchReview.pdf
355.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20012048-10391704.html
356.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/178/2/107.full.pdf
357.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1317988/?tool=pubmed
358.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1317988/?tool=pubmed
359.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15964704
360.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
361.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16968348
362.
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/43/11700.full
363.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/AnxietyWithDepressionResearchReview.pdf
364.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19949196
Driving While Stoned
365.
http://www.bmj.com/press-releases/
366.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21976636
367.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
368.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/driving/02.php
369.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/driving/02.php
370.
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_driving4.shtml
371.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/medline/8.htm
372.
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=000783
373.
http://www.ukcia.org/research/driving/index.php
374.
http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x1926904908/
377.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Colorado
378.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_State_University
379.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oregon
380.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannabis
381.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/12/02/driving-stoned-safer-than-driving-drunk/
Cannabis Smoke and Lung Damage
382.
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Newspublications/News/MRC006135
383.
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/
384.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10613339
385.
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/may/05/opinion/oe-grinspoon5
386.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2277494/
387.
http://www.aacrmeetingabstracts.org
388.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulmonologist
389.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCLA
390.
http://www.cannabis-med.org/english/bulletin/ww_en_db_cannabis_artikel.php?id=219#2
391.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporizer_(cannabis)
2700 ice man, 40-90 purity, 420, 5x legal limit, addiction, addiction potential, addictions foundation of manitoba, addy, adhd, african slaves cannabis, alcohol, alcohol industry, alcohol vs cannabis driving, alternet, altria, ama cannabis, america prison, american colonies, American medical association, amphetamine, anandamide, anatomy, ancient greek and romans cannabis, andrew mellon, anhedonia, anslinger marijuana, anti marijuana, anti oxidant, antiangiogenic, antimetastatic, antiproliferative, antipsychotic effects, apoptotic, arachidonoylglycerol, aspirin, aspirin deaths, asthma cannabis, athiests, Australia, autism, auto immune disease, Bacteria, bacterial infection, barbara walters, BBC, bbc cannabis, bbc driving stoned, beer breweries, begin with alcohol and tobacco, benson & hedges, big brother, bigpharma, binge drinking marijuana, biology, bipolar, blood, blunt, bone loss, bong, bonni goldstein, brain, brain cells, brain damage, brave mykayla, Brazil, breast cancer, breast milk, britan, british journal of psychiatry, bronchitis, bud, budder, Buddhism, buddhist, bush, cachexia, california cannabis, calnorml, cambia, canada, cancer, cancer chemotherapy, cannabidiol, cannabidol, cannabinoid, cannabinol, cannabis, cannabis addiction, cannabis america, cannabis and suicide, cannabis business, cannabis cancer, cannabis cooking, cannabis criminalized, cannabis cure, cannabis cures cancer, cannabis decriminalized, cannabis drug, cannabis economy, cannabis enforcement, cannabis evil, cannabis government, cannabis history, cannabis ireland, cannabis legality, cannabis medicinal properties, cannabis medicine, cannabis oil, cannabis overdose, cannabis rate, cannabis schedule, cannabis smoke, cannabis smoke lung damage, cannabis stoned drivers, cannabis tar, cannabis use, cannabis user, cannabis wikipedia, cannabis world, cannaibs illegal, car, carcinogen, cardio, cardiovascular, carl sagan, cartels, carter, cataflam, cb1, cb2, CCA, cells, center for economic policy and research, central america, cheech and chong, Chemotherapy, chemotherapy side effects, chemotherapy survival, chocolate, christians, chronic, chronic marijuana smoke, clear the smoke, clearing the smoke, clinton, cluster headache, cnn driving stoned, cnn study, Cocaine, colon cancer, colorado, compensate, Congress, congress cannabis, congress garbage, congress idiot, congress stupid, correlation, criminal, criminals, crohns disease, cuasation, cystic fibrosis, czech republic cannabis legal, dale gieringer, dangerous drug, dank weed, David Nutt, DEA, dea death, death from cannabis, deaths from cannabis, decreased intelligence, denver colorado, depression, depression precede cannabis, dermatitis, diabetes, diclofenac, dissociation, dmt, doctors, dr. joycelyn elders, dr. lester grinspoon, dr. robert sterner, drive slower, drivers marijuana compensate, driving performance, driving simulation, driving while stone, drug, drug abuse, drug crime prison statistic, drug recognition, drug recognition expert, drug use, drug war, DSM, DSM IV, DSM V, dui, dupoint, dupont, dutch netherlands cannabis, dyes, dystonia, eating disorder, eating disorders, echinacea, echinacea purpura, economy booming, education, effects cannabis, Eisenhower, empirical, endocannabinoid, environment, epigenetic expression, epigentics, epilepsy, episodic memory, euphoria, evidence, FDA, federal bureau of narcotics, federal cannabis, federal law, federal legalized, federal medical marijuana, fever, fibromyalgia, finding, flax, flu, ford, freedom, fuel the drug war, fuel the economy, fungal infection, fungus, further research, ganja, gastrointestinal, gatwey drug, geffin school of medicine, genetic, germany, glaucoma, glaucoma cannabis, glioma, google, government, government experts, government patent cannabis, granny 420, greater taste, grow shop, hallucination, harrison pope, harry anslinger, harry anslinger tax act, harvard, hash oil, hearst marijuana, heart disease, hemp, hemp declaration of independence, hemp evil, hemp illegal, hemp industries, hemp industry, hemp oil, hemp plant, hemp seed, hepatitis, heroin, herpes, high, hindu, hindus, historical use, history of cannabis, history of hemp, house of representatives, human history, humbolt county, huntingtons disease, hypertension, ice man, ignorance, igor grant, illegal drug, illegal substances, illicit drug, impairs drivers impairment, impossible to overdose, improve memory, incarceration rate, incontinence, infant mortality, Inflammation, inmates, insomnia, institute of medicne, international centre for prison studies, islam, jewish, jews, johnson, joint, Judge, kennedy, kentucky legal hemp, kill people, kings college, la guardia report, la times, laboratory, las vegas, law, lawyers, legal, legal battle, legal limit, legality cannabis, legalized cannabis countries, lester grinspoon, leukemia, libido, lifetime cannabis use, liver fibrosis, london, long term memory, LSD, lung cancer, lung damage, lungs, lynn zimmer, mad cow disease, Mainstream media, malnutrition, marihuana, marijuana, marijuana addiction, marijuana business, marijuana cancer, marijuana cigarette, marijuana decriminalized, marijuana drug, marijuana economy, marijuana government, marijuana history, marijuana medicinal properties, marijuana overdose, marijuana propaganda, marijuana schedule, marijuana tax act, marijuana user, marlboro, maunel guzman, media, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, medical marijuana cancer, medical suffering, medication, medicinal effects, medicinal value, medicine regulated, medieval islamic countries, meditation, melanoma, menopause, metabolic storage, metabolism, meth, methamphetamine, migraine, millions of americans, mittleman, moderation, montana state university, more research, more violence, motion sickness, mrsa, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, muslims, nail patella syndrome, national cannabis prevention and information center, nausea, ncbi, negroe cannabis, neurogenisis, neuroinflammation, neuroprotectant, new york times, New Zealand, next step, nhsda, nicotine, nicotine addiction, nixon, no evidence, non violent crime, norml, north korea, north korea cannabis, north korea marijuana, obama, obama cannabis, obama weed, obesity, ocd, oldest domesticated plant, omega 6 to omega 3, opium, organs, ovarian cancer, over the legal limit, overdose, oxford, pain, pain killer, painkiller, pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis, panic attacks, paranoia, parkinsons disease, partnership for a drug free america, periodontal disease, petition cannabis, petition medical marijuana, phantom limb, pharmaceutical companies, PhD, philip morris, phoenix tears, physical effects, phytocannabinoids, pituitary cancer, players, pneumonia, poison ivy allergy, police shooting, police union, population, population of usa prison, pot, potent cannabis, prakash nagarkatti, prescription medicine, president, prison guard unions, prison industrial complex, prison rate, prisoners, private prison, private prison corporation, pro marijuana, probation, prof david nutt, professor emeritus, proof, propaganda, prostate cancer, Psilocybin, psoriasis, psychedelic, Psychiatry, psychological effects, psychosis, psychotherapy, PTSD, public safety performance project, pubmed, purity, queens college, racism racism cannabis, randolph hearst, ratio, Reagan, reefer madness, relaxation, religious ceremonies, research, resources, restless leg syndrome, rick simpson, rick simpson oil, road trauma, robert melamede, rofecoxib, run from the cure, san diego, schedule 1 drug, schedule substance, schedule substances, schizophrenia, science endocannabinoid, science of cannabis, scientist, scleroderma, sean mcallister, self medicate, self medication, septic shock, seth project, sheriffs office, short term memory, sickle cell disease, side effects, side effects medicine, siezures, skewed, skin cancer, skunk, sleep apnoea, smoke, sober, south america, spain france, spanish, Spinal cord injury, spliff, spokesman, spokesperson, spokeswoman, sponge, starbucks, state law, state rights, states legal marijuana, stephen easton, stoned, stoned driving, strain cannabis, stress, stress tourettes syndrome, studies depression, study, substance free, successful cannabis users, suffering, sugar, Suicide, supervision, survival chances, swiss, synthetic cannabinoid, tashkin, tax act 1937, tax payer, taxes, taxes marijuana, TED, TED antiangiogenic cancer, testimonials, textile, THC, thc extract, the center for epidemiologic, theory, therapeutic, therapy, thyroid cancer, TIME magazine, tissue, toaist, tobacco, tobacco brands, toddler, toxicology, traumatic memories, Truman, UK, UK cannabis legal, United Kingdom, united state of america, university of california, university of colorado, university of new york, university of oregon, uphill battle, uruguay legalized cannabis, us government, us market, us population, USA, uses for cannabis plant, vaporizer, vertebrates endocannabinoid, victimless crime, violence, vioxx, voltaren, volunteers, vomiting, War on Drugs, war on drugs america, Washington, washington colorado marijuana, wasting syndrome, Weed, weed deaths, wegrow, who, wikipedia, withdrawal, wondergressive, wood company, working memory, world health mental survey, world health organization, world laws, xia zhang, YouTube, zipsor - Greater enjoyment of food taste and aroma
-
Costly Climate Changes
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melting-ice-polar-bear.jpg A new study has yielded that with our current rate of pollution, we will have to waste some 60 trillion dollars due to climate change. That cost will not be up front, it is mostly found in money we will likely have to spend to counter all the effects of global warming. Mother Nature sure has expensive tastes. According to some figures posted in the International Weekly Journal of Science: Nature, we are causing some costly damage to our planet, but that should not come as a surprise to us as we are still completely dependent on fossil fuels and wars over oil still exist throughout the world.
Related Article: Ask an Astrobiologist: Global Warming and What to Expect
So what is it exactly? Why is this type of Global Warming a bad thing?
It seems to be that methane, which is stored under the melting ice of the Arctic, will be released as the melting icecaps continue to diminish. Researchers claim that:
A 50-gigatonne (Gt) reservoir of methane, stored in the form of hydrates, exists on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. It is likely to be emitted as the seabed warms, either steadily over 50 years or suddenly.
If all of that methane were to be released, we would most likely see a time where the climate shifts more than 2°C, causing intense weather patterns and wind pattern changes. Maybe you have noticed the recent intense weather patterns? The storms that rage and destroy? The flash floods that are intensifying in your area? The little degree or two extra that the global temperature has been altered by over the years is rapidly messing with our climate, and it is likely that we will only see more drastic results in our lifetimes if this sudden outpour of methane occurs.
Related Article: Climate Changes Too Fast, Evolution Can’t Keep Up
Still, 60 trillion dollars, isn’t that a bit much?
For a time there has been speculation that the coasts would plummet underwater and we would all live in a Waterworld! Oh Kevin Costner, you do tickle my fancy so. But all of that was of the extremist perspective of course. There are however smaller versions of this, for instance the idea that California’s coasts will be completely submerged may be a plausible theory if all of Greenland’s ice melts. NRDC or Natural Resources Defense Council states that:
Greenland holds 10 percent of the total global ice mass. If it melts, sea levels could increase by up to 21 feet.
That 21 feet would likely raise sea levels and ocean levels high enough to take away from our beaches, and leave us with a smaller and less attractive California. Not to mention all the destruction and devastation in such an occurrence. And this is just California. In reality, the big thing to watch is the storms and wind pattern changes. And by watch I mean experience. In 2006 TIME posted that:
Two studies last year found that in the past 35 years the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes worldwide has doubled while the wind speed and duration of all hurricanes has jumped 50%.
That was in 2006. At that rate, we can expect many many more damaging changes and the price to pay for all that is very, very steep. It might be even higher than the predicted 60 trillion. In fact, all of this is happening and the release of methane stored under the icecaps hasn’t begun yet. Tis a dangerous road we walk upon.
Related Article: Germany Sets Example for Global Climate Battle
Leave it to us to mess up mother nature’s plan for Earth. Well, if its bound to happen anyways, might as well buy that Camaro ZL1 that I have always wanted and burn the crap out of some oil! MMM 580 HP…
Research:
Climate Science: Vast Costs of Arctic Change
TIME: Earth at the Tipping Point
Consequences of Global Warming
Wondergressive: Climate Changes Too Fast
-
Why Humans Have the Unique Ability to Learn New Words
Scientists have found a pathway in our brains that is responsible for the acquisition of new words, an ability unmatched by any other species; chimps coming in second place with a limit of no more than a hundred words. This could be exciting news for those who are polyglots or who are learning a new language for either travel, school, or the workplace.
The common notion is that we learn new words through hearing them first and then spitting them back out, in other words, input and output, or recognition and recall. Very little is known about what happens inside the brain itself within the intricate neural mechanisms.
Researchers from King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry have been able to draw out the pathways in the brain which are activated when learning new words. What the researchers found was that a collection of nerve fibers called the arcuate fasciculus connect the auditory and motor regions and is responsible for our ability to articulate new words. Depending on how this region is developed, everybody’s ability to acquire new words and languages will vary.
Related Article: Neocortex: How Human Memory Works and How We Learn
The researchers have also concluded that this pathway does not exist in other species, and that it is unique to humans. Yes, chimps can learn new words, however, their vocabulary is limited to double digits on average. Also, consider how many species you know that are bilingual or trilingual? We are pretty awesome if you take that into consideration. This newfound research could have implications on how new words are taught in language courses across schools and how quickly we can discover language disorders in individuals.
Related Article: Rosetta Stone’s Possible False Claim
The study was composed of twenty-seven volunteers. The individuals’ brain structures were imaged before a word learning task and MRI was used to detect regions of the brain that were most active.
They found a strong relationship between the ability to remember words and the structure of arcuate fasciculus, which connects two brain areas: the territory of Wernicke, related to auditory language decoding, and Broca’s area, which coordinates the movements associated with speech and the language processing.
Participants who had higher success in learning new words had one thing in common: their arcuate fasciculus was more myelinated, which basically means that electrical signals moved more quickly back and forth than they did in other participants. You can think of it as a faster data transfer rate like (or unlike, depending on your provider) your internet.
All this means is that in order for our kids to learn new words and to continue to acquire new language skills, it is important that we speak to them orally rather than through text messages and Skype, unless you’re voice chatting that is.
Sources:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/kcl-sik072213.php
http://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/arcuate-fasciculus
Wonder about your world…
Take the plunge down the rabbit hole of insanity and wonder in this fast-paced, nonstop psychological thriller that will leave you questioning the very nature of reality and beyond. Part thriller, part romance, part existential horror, A Dream of Waking Life delves into lucid dreaming, psychedelics, existential ontology, video games, the nature of love, the nature of reality, and more.
Mendel’s Ladder delivers an adrenaline-fueled journey set on a dystopian future Earth, brimming with high-stakes action, adventure, and mystery. This epic series opener plunges readers into a world filled with diverse cultures, heart-pounding battles, and characters who will captivate your heart and imagination.
“E.S. Fein is raising the bar for quality as it’s a very well-written and thought-provoking book…There are points and themes in the story that could be discussed for eons as people will have their own idea on where it leads. It’s a book I would highly recommend.” – Andy Whitaker, SFCrowsnest
Wondergressive 
