Weekend Thoughts - 4.25.15

Image by Elizabeth Haslam, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday, y'all! I didn't collect too many links this week before I left for an out-of-town wedding, but I scheduled this edition of Weekend Thoughts to automatically publish at the usual Saturday morning time. Without any further ado, let's get to thinking.

1. The New York Times brings us Simple Rules for Healthy Eating by Aaron E. Carroll. It's a good review of healthy eating practices. Not too much detail here, but who couldn't use a refresher?!

2. The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu reports that the FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades. Hsu breaks it down quite well in his lede: 

"The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000."

3. Monsanto Knew of Glyphosate/Cancer Link 35 Years Ago via Global Research. Yet another article showing that the corporation Monsanto is not the most ethical corporation around.

I hope you enjoyed this week's links and I look forward to bringing you more of the same next weekend! Until then, keep thinking wilder!

Weekend Thoughts - 4.18.15

Image by Mutiara Karina, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday, y'all! I have a great selection of links this week to share, so let's get started.

1. Cops have killed way more Americans in America than terrorists have via Boing Boing.
Were you aware that US police have killed at least 5,600 people since the year 2000? The actual figure is likely much higher because citizens killed by police are not consistently reported, but either way the tally is many more than the amount of people who have died from terrorist attacks.

2. US Govt Agency Admits That Marijuana Extracts Can Kill Cancer Cells via Reset.me.
Although the United States Government classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance with a high risk for abuse and no medical benefits, the National Institute of Drug Abuse published the following paragraph on its website this week:

"Recent animal studies have shown that marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others. Evidence from one cell culture study suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors. Research in mice showed that treatment with purified extracts of [tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)], when used with radiation, increased the cancer-killing effects of the radiation."

This should come as no surprise to someone familiar with the medical benefits of cannabis, but it highlights one aspect of the government's utter hypocrisy regarding the plant.

3. Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of American's Telephone Records via Electronic Frontier Foundation.
It's good to see that there will at least be a fight regarding the DEA's illegal domestic spying tactics that the organization used for the past few decades. I'm not all that optimistic that justice will be served in this case, but I support the effort to punish the DEA for its illegal activity.

4. DEA: Bad Boys Sexing Up Colombian Prostitutes Supplied by Drug Cartels via Ladybud.
This certainly hasn't been a good week for the DEA's public image. In addition to the unveiling of a longstanding illegal surveillance practice, it turns out that DEA Special Agents have allegedly been having sex parties with Colombian prostitutes that were hired by drug cartels. The agents were also allegedly given money, gifts, and weapons by the cartel members. And the response from DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart? None of the misbehaving agents were fired, and seven of them were simply punished with suspensions ranging between one to 10 days.

5. White America's Silence on Police Brutality is Consent via Gawker.
This article discusses white America's perception that the nation's police are doing a good job despite the disparities between how various races of people are treated. The situation may change for the better once more influential white folks step up and speak up in favor of reforming how we handle policing in this country, but until then we will most likely see racist policing continue.

6. Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's time for a medical marijuana revolution via CNN. It's always nice to see such a reputable and powerful voice as Dr. Gupta's recommending that we legalize medical cannabis right now. His article explains the reasons behind his declaration and discusses his new documentary called Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution. I'm excited to see him coming out so firmly in favor of medical cannabis and am inspired by his courage.

That's all for this week. I realize that the links were heavy on cannabis, police, and the DEA, and I hope to bring more variety to Weekend Thoughts next week. Have a good rest of your weekend and I hope you'll return next Saturday.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.11.15

Image by Larry, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! I have a lot of links for you to enjoy this weekend, so let's get started.

1. Rare and Unseen Color Photographs of America’s Hippie Communes from the 1970s—via The Vintage News. This is a nice collection of unseen photographs of American hippie communes from the 1970s. The people in these communes look so free-spirited and quirky. Although there are a lot of well-known issues with communes, this does make me wish I could live off the grid for the rest of my life.

2. Psychoactive Plants in the Bible—via Philosopher's Page. I found this account of psychoactive plants found in the Bible to be fascinating. It's quite obvious that there were consciousness-altering plants that inspired the stories in the Bible, and this article gives a good overview of what the plants were, how they were used, and the psychoactive effects they generated.

3. 7 Things You Should Know About Matcha—via Health.com. Matcha is a special form of green tea that was used traditionally in Japanese meditation practices. I find it to be quite enjoyable and this article is a good introduction to this type of tea.

4. Is the Internet Killing Middle-Class Jobs?—via The Week. "The robopocalypse for workers may be inevitable. In this vision of the future, super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit — perhaps providing "Made by Man" artisanal goods — while the rest will live off a government-provided income. Silicon-based superintelligence and robots will dramatically alter labor markets — to name but one example, the most common job in most U.S. states probably will no longer be truck driver. But what about right now? If you're unemployed or working part-time instead of full-time, or haven't seen a raise in years, should you blame technology?"

5. Obama Steps Up Commutations, Feeding Drug War Prisoners’ Hopes—via Forbes. This is a step in the right direction, but there are still a lot of people in prison for non-violent "crimes". Hopefully the commutations will continue, with more prisoners of the drug war being released.

6. Vegan Diet Best for Planet—via The Hill. "The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a federally appointed panel of nutritionists created in 1983, decided for the first time this year to factor in environmental sustainability in its recommendations." Naturally, the meat and dairy industries are pissed off about this information being incorporated into dietary recommendations, but that doesn't take away from the truth that a vegan diet is best for environmental sustainability.

7. U.S. Directs Agents to Cover Up Program Used to Investigate Americans—via Reuters. This shouldn't be surprising at all, but the Drug Enforcement Administration was collecting data on Americans long before the National Security Agency. Now on top of that, the U.S. government wants information regarding the DEA's domestic spying covered up and kept away from American citizens.

8. American Cops Just Killed More People in March than the UK Did in the Entire 20th Century—via The Free Thought Project. There is something incredibly wrong with the way that policing is done in our country. This is a mind-blowing headline, and the article backs up the claim with statistics.

Enjoy the reads for this weekend and I'll see you next week!

How Meditation Has Helped Me

Image by Kah Wal Sin, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

I was first introduced to meditation by my mother, who has maintained a 15-minute a day meditation habit for almost forty years. Her brother, my namesake, encouraged her to begin a meditation practice to reduce stress and increase focus. She learned the transcendental meditation technique and has noticed a range of positive effects from her practice.

When I was younger, meditation seemed to be a waste of time. Why sit for extended periods of time not doing anything? It wasn't until college that I became interested in meditation. I'm not sure exactly what led me to it, although I imagine it was a combination of my personal experiences and books I was reading at the time.

I don't recall the first several times that I attempted to meditate, but I do remember inspiring friends and family to meditate with me occasionally. My main sources of information at that time about meditation stemmed from podcasts, books, and YouTube videos.

Pretty soon after I began, I had developed a consistent meditation practice of at least 10 minutes per day. Every once and a while I would meditate for 30 minutes to an hour. Back then I liked to light incense and listen to ambient or relaxing music (Brian Eno, Sigur Rós, STS9, Indian ragas, etc.) during my practice. 

My meditation practice deepened further post-college, when I delved into books specifically about meditation and mindfulness. I recall reading Meditation for Dummies, which was actually very helpful for me and introduced many concepts that I still use today. I learned about various meditation techniques such as counting the breath, mantras, visualization, and compassion meditations. Each technique has a different focus and yields a different result.

I realized that after several years of a daily meditation practice, I felt calmer, more focused, more patient, and happier from day to day. It became one of the major focal points in my life, and I coupled that with a foray into yoga as well. 

A few years ago my meditation practice dropped off a bit. I was still meditating a couple times a week, but it was no longer a daily practice. Reflecting on that period of time, I understand why it is common to hear that it is better to meditate 10 minutes each day than 70 minutes one day of the week. The benefits of meditation come from a regular practice, not the aggregate time that is put in each week or month. I wasn't seeing the same benefits that I had while sticking to my daily meditation practice. My patience decreased, I became less-focused, I became more anxious, and I my average level of happiness took a dive.

I made a re-commitment to meditation this past New Years Eve, and have been meditating every day since then, even if it is only two minutes per day. Most days I meditate for 10 minutes, but the important thing to me is that I have reestablished the daily practice once again. Even after only four months, I have noticed a definite improvement in my well-being.

I usually count my breaths or recite mantras during my meditations, but lately I have been experimenting with several iPhone apps for meditation. During the most consistent period of my meditation practice, I spent a couple years with the Insight Timer app on my iPad, but eventually stopped using it. I have been using Samsara for nearly a year now, which is a simple timing app that invites a bell to sound at the beginning and end of a meditation session, with an optional interval bell as well. I really enjoy using Samsara because of its simple features and intuitive user interface. Within the past few weeks I have been experimenting with the guided meditation apps Calm and Headspace, which include guided meditations for different situations or goals. These two apps require a paid subscription, and I haven't decided which one I prefer or if I will continue to use them at all after the free trial periods end.

I will continue this discussion about meditation in future posts, with advice on why and how to get started with your own meditation practice, what to do when difficult material enters your mind, posts featuring various meditation techniques, meditation book reviews, and many more posts I haven't thought of yet. I am by no means an advanced meditator, but I believe firmly in the power of a daily meditation practice to transform your life for the better. I hope you enjoyed my story and will consider trying to meditate soon—I promise that if you make it a daily habit you will notice positive changes in your well-being and the way you interact with others. Namaste.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.4.15

Image by Christian Weidinger, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! I have been doing some spring cleaning around the house and purging unnecessary possessions, to make the atmosphere at home calmer and less cluttered. The weather is looking brighter and warmer, which is exciting and uplifting. There will be less links this weekend, as I am still determining the best way to collect them throughout the week. Below are my recommended articles from the past week:

1. Feeling Intense Emotions Doesn’t Make You Crazy — But That’s Not What Big Pharma Wants You to Think — via reset.me. An excellent interview with Julie Holland, author of the new book Moody Bitches, about the pharmaceutical industry's treatment of women, the slick advertising techniques used to market drugs, and how experiencing strong emotions is not a signifier of an underlying health issue.

2. Inquiry of Silk Road Website Spurred Agents' Own Illegal Acts, Officials Say — via New York Times. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Secret Service have resigned after being formally charged with money laundering and wire fraud. Rather than turning in $1.6 million of Bitcoins gathered from the investigation of online marketplace Silk Road, these agents have been accused of transferring them into their personal bank accounts.

3. Verizon Wireless Customers Can Now Opt Out of 'Supercookies' — via New York Times. The article's lede: "Verizon Wireless customers now have the ability to completely opt out of the phone carrier's controversial ad-targeting program that tagged users with undeletable tracking codes, which critics called 'supercookies.'" If you would like to opt out yourself, you can do so on Verizon's website.

4. Psychedelic Drugs 'Safe as Riding a Bike or Playing Soccer' — via Newsweek. A report on a letter published recently in the Lancet Psychiatry Journal, that argues that drug policies must respect the rights of individuals who choose to use psychedelics as a spiritual, personal development, or cultural activity. It is encouraging to see positive coverage on psychedelics making it to publications like Newsweek.

That's all for this weekend. Enjoy the articles and I will share more next weekend!