Stroke of Insight

In this video, neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor gives an captivating recounting of her own stroke when an embolism the popped in her brain, a unique experience for someone who is already a student of the mind. Strangely enough, her story so closely resembles feelings I have had while under the influence of the mushroom psilocybe cubesis that it approaches the uncanny.

The loss of connection with one's own body (incomprehesion of speech, difficulty producing fluid motor movements, loss of sense of self...) as well as the simultaneous oneness with the surrounding universe are all common feelings when tripping on psilocybin. This very much agrees with my belief that we all experience our reality through a series of mental filters, and while we most commonly have a shared set of filters, at times certain events, spiritual experiences, medical conditions, or drugs can rearrange and replace some or most of these filters, resulting in an altered state of consciousness. And it appears the filter set which psychedelic mushrooms introduces to the mind is somehow similar with the set under which Taylor was experiencing reality when stroking.

Link: TED | Talks | Jill Bolte Taylor - My Stroke of Insight (video)

Chicago Lawmakers are Retarded

A city council in Chicago has just put forward a law to ban the sale of plastic bags under 2 inches in height - essentially, dime bags. Like banning the bags is going to have any effect! Think about this: if the substance being transported in the bags is illegal, what's to stop the dealers from getting the bags illicitly as well?

Lt. Kevin Navarro, commanding officer of the Chicago police Department's Narcotics and Gang Unit, said the ordinance will be an "important tool" to go after grocery stores, health food stores and other businesses. The bags are used by the thousands to sell small quantities of drugs at $10 or $20 a bag.

Navarro referred to the plastic bags as "Marketing 101 for the drug dealers." Many of them have symbols, allowing drug users to ask for "Superman" or "Blue Dolphin" instead of the drug itself, he said.

Yeah, um, because drug dealers never heard of CELLOPHANE or any other number of methods of transporting drugs. This is the equivalent of banning pint glasses and bottles in order to "crack down" on alcohol sales. What's next? Is it gonna be illegal to have a rectal cavity?

Also, just to prove how unknowledgable they are on the drug culture, logo'd bags are not used to code-name drugs but the dealers who SELL them. Even if they were right, considering how many other pseudonyms drugs have, I highly doubt it would have made much of a dent in drug sales if suddenly people had to stop ordering "Blue Dolphins" and find some other way to refer to their shit.

Link: City May Ban Small Bags Used for Drugs
Image from mirPod

One pill makes you larger...

...and one pill makes you small. Well, not entirely, but this little gem I dug up in relation to a discussion in my cyborgs class references two other articles: one in which a pill is used to induce autism-like anti-social number-crunching states of consciousness, while the other inhibits the production of an enzyme which is apparently the cause of many of the symptoms of autism.

Granted, both achievements have only been made in the brains of mice, but it's an interesting look into what may be a future with far fewer speed-addicted college students. Well, at least those who are doing addys and rits for the purpose of studying that is...

Link: One Pill Makes You Autistic -- One Pill Changes You Back

Denver Legalizes MJ

Hippie buses, tie-down shirts, and disingenerosity will soon all be flocking their way to home of a basketball team called The Nuggets.