Weekend Thoughts - 8.1.15

Image by Francois de Halleux, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. California's Press Enterprise's editorial board penned an excellent editorial marking the 14th anniversary of Portugal's decision to decriminalize all drug use and possession. The article details the overwhelmingly-positive results of the country's harm reduction model. Portugal is the first nation to undergo an experiment like this. We can only hope that other nations will follow and reap the same benefits that Portugal has: declining rates of drug use, lower numbers of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, a reduction in drug-induced deaths, etc. 

2. On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver spoke out against mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain crimes. He explains why we treat turkeys better than some low-level offenders. In a lot of these cases, the judges want to be able to hand out a softer sentence, but these laws prevent them from doing so. Definitely worth a watch.

3. I enjoyed this positive article from High Existence on how your spiritual growth is shaping human evolution. The general argument of the piece is that the individual actions we make have a significant impact on the overall evolution of the human species. There are some references to Rupert Sheldrake's morphic resonance theory, which has interested me for a long time. I have been really enjoying browsing High Existence the past week or so, which is a new website to me that has a lot of articles about topics that interest me, and would most likely interest the Think Wilder audience.

4. The issue of Performance-Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) in sports and e-sports has been in the news this week, and I was interested to read an article on how research chemicals have made their way into the professional cycling world. Cyclists are purchasing PEDs from Chinese laboratories (similar to the psychoactive research chemical market) that are so new that the drug tests the World Anti-Doping Agency uses won't be able to identify them. It just goes to show that you cannot eliminate drug use—there are always going to be minor structural changes that can be made to the molecules that will produce a similar effect (or completely different effect, if that's what you're into) and won't be testable. This is a totally new application of research chemicals that is innovative and mischievous, and I am fascinated to see what happens next.

5. I never thought I would see something like the editorial arguing for cannabis legalization on the D.A.R.E. website earlier this week. It has been taken down, but here is a snapshot of the original page. The original piece talked about how criminalization has actually made it easier for children to obtain illegal substances (which has been a long-standing argument in the drug policy reform movement) and explains how a system that would actually control the substances is a better option. The tides are definitely turning.

6. Due to the recent passing of the USA Freedom Act, the NSA has agreed to no longer analyze call metadata obtained under the Patriot Act from November 29, 2015 onward. This won't prevent the agency from  continuing its mass surveillance, but it will prevent the NSA from digging through any data obtained before that date, which many critics believe should have never been collected in the first place. 

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.