Prescription Ecstasy and Other Pipe Dreams

Here's an interesting interview on the status of psychedelic drug research worldwide called Prescription Ecstasy and Other Pipe Dreams. From the article:

"If MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies) has its way, the days of prescription psychedelics may not be too far away. For those who know the history of psychedelic research, this eventuality has been a long time coming. But others — who may only be familiar with the intense emotions and activities around the “War On Drugs” over the past several decades — may be surprised to learn how much progress MAPS has made.

Jag Davies is the Director of Communications for MAPS, a non-profit research and education organization that assists scientists to design, obtain approval for, fund, conduct and report on research into the healing and spiritual potentials of psychedelics and marijuana. He joined Steve Robles, Jeff Diehl and myself on The RU Sirius Show."

The Antioxidant Myth

Interesting article called The Antioxidant Myth. The name pretty much speaks for itself.

ThrowawayyourTV - Full-Length Documentaries

ThrowawayyourTV is hosting this very impressive collection of full-length documentaries. Take advantage.

e To The Pi Times i

Why The Sky Is Dark At Night

Here's an article on why the sky is dark at night.

"If you think the answer to this question is obvious, think again. The best minds of physics have studied this question for over a century, and the current answer may surprise you."

What Happens To Your Body If...

Healthbolt has this short but interesting list of What Happens To Your Body If You Stop Smoking Right Now? Also interesting is the list of What Happens To Your Body If You Drink A Coke Right Now? Hell - I'll even throw in this list of 14 Reasons It’s Particularly Harmful For Women To Smoke.

Drinking Tea Is Better

As a heavy tea-drinker I'm very pleased with this article Drinking Tea Is Better For Health Than Plain Water. And the result of tea hydrating as well as water is quite the mythbuster, no?

The results was published in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition - a peer-reviewed journal that covers all aspects of human nutrition.

Liquid Explosive My ***

I don't know if you know, but the London liquid explosive thing can not be done. Please distrust your media.

Mental Calculation

For the matematically inclined, this article from Wikipedia on Mental Calculations has some good info on how to do calculation in your head. The methods I liked the most are Indirect calculation, Using square numbers, 9 and 3 rules, Approximating square roots and Squaring numbers near X.

This article on calculating the day of the week of a given date is really good. It taught me how to calculate the day of the week of a given date.

Tom Cruise on Psychiatry

Interesting. It turns out to be Tom Cruise who a go at trying to start the discussion on the theoretical grounds in the field of psychiatry. He's quite a bit off on communication skills in this interview clip, but it is worth the watching.

To anyone interested in what this is all about I highly recommend Eliott Valensteins book Blaming The Brain. Excellent critical walk-through of the history of psychiatry.

On the Matematics of the Lottery

I am one of the people who like to compare the chances of winning the lottery to the chances of getting hit by all sorts of things. This article by Mark Dominus makes some pretty good points on the subject that have made me rethink my point of view on the subject.

Rusmidler

If you seek information on drugs, you should visit Erowid - a really impressive collection of informaion. Know this archive. And know Lycaeum - another impressive large of information on the subject of psykoaktive substances.

Ecstasy

De fleste af de ting, du har læst om MDMA (Ecstasy), er baseret på uvidenskabelig og direkte forkert forskning. Denne artikel gennemgår de forskningsresultater, du er blevet fremlagt, i Ekstra Bladets forgange kampagne og lignende. Tænk Parkinson's, 'huller i hjernen', dopamin- og serotoninmangler og billeder af 'din hjerne, og din hjerne efter Ecstasy'.
Rick Doblin, Ph. D, fra MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies), har siden 1986 arbejdet for at genskabe muligheden for MDMA-research, og bringer her et par store myte-busters. Formen er ret videnskabelig, så vær forberedt på at læse langsomt. Til gengæld kan du bagefter fortælle folk, at de tager fejl. Det er herrefedt.

Update:

Sundhedsstyrelsen lavede i 2002 en undersøgelse af indholdet af ecstasypiller. Imponerende initiativ, synes jeg. Citat fra rapportens indledning:

"I sommeren 2000 fokuserede pressen på ecstasy på baggrund af flere dødsfald blandt unge der havde taget ecstasy samt rygter om tilsætning af heroin til ecstasytabletter.
For at styrke den nationale overvågning af ecstasy besluttede Sundhedsstyrelsen og Rigspolitiet at igangsætte et projekt bl.a. med det formål at få viden om hvad ecstasytabletter egentlig indeholder, og hvilke ændringer der sker over tid hvad angår indholdsstoffer og stofkoncentration."