In my last post, I stated that I wouldn’t watch anything on National Geographic for a long time. Well, I watched this show, Paranatural, long before writing that post. The episode Blood Rain and Star Jelly was a little different from the shows I normally watch, but I figured I’d give it a shot. It was about supposed biological material coming from space. I am not a science fiction fan and outer space is one of the few things that does not draw my interest and that I do not really understand or care about. However, this topic seemed just interesting enough to warrant my attention. I still have a bad taste in my mouth about Nat Geo, as even this show was more fantastical than informative.
Apparently, about 100 metric tons of cosmic debris falls on earth each day. I can’t help but think of the lyric from the Frank Zappa song, “Look here brother, Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?” Anyway……it is kind of freaky to think of unknown matter being drawn to our planet and settling here. I’m sure the chemists know what all of this stuff is, so I leave it to them. Most of this debris we can’t see because it is dust. Anything larger burns in the atmosphere, etc. But, there have been reports of galactic castoffs over the years that are visible and may possibly be biological material.
There have been several stories of gelatinous masses that have fallen from the sky around since the 12th century, which has come to be known as star jelly. The first modern account was in Philadelphia on September 26, 1950. Two policemen in South Philly saw a UFO land in a field and later saw a 6 foot “blob” on the ground. The material quickly disintegrated but has stayed with us forever as the inspiration for the movie “The Blob”.
Most narratives are similar; the star jelly disintegrates before it can be studied. However, in 1994 a gelatinous rain fell over the Pacific Northwest that literally covered yards and branches with slimy goo. Unfortunately, many people became ill after this. However, a sample was able to be delivered to a lab intact. There was bacteria found in the material. The sample did mysteriously disappear from the lab after this was publicized, but not until vital analysis had already been done. Guess what? The blob consisted of a man made matrix.
The other type of material reported to come from “space” is red rain. No, not the red rain of the Peter Gabriel song symbolizing helplessness and weakness, but literal blood red rain coming down from the sky. Like star jelly, red rain has been reported for many centuries, since the 10th century. But from July to September 2001, periodic blood red rainfalls came alongside normal rain in Kerala, India. What caused this?
The explanations include clay dust from and industrial plant, algae, and, of course, alien life. A lab in India discovered red structures shaped like red blood cells that appear to have cell walls like plants, instead of the membranes found around human cells. What‘s more, though they do not have DNA, they replicate in temperatures up to 600°F. The hypothesis is that they are simple extraterrestrial life just like what landed on earth many years ago, eventually populating the earth through panspermia.
To me, how life originated is one of those things we can never know the answer to, like the existence of God. Believe whatever you want about the creation of life, nothing can ever prove what happened billions of years ago. However, it is possible that future space exploration may yield biological material. Are these tiny cells plotting to devour us like the infamous blob? Are intelligent aliens dumping this material on earth? I doubt it.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Shame on You Nat Geo!!!!!
National Geographic has always been a staple for documentaries for me because of my deep love for learning about different cultures around the world. When I saw that Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers was airing, I was excited. I “knew” that National Geographic would not make this beautiful, disappearing culture seem like a freak act in a circus. However, I was disgusted that they seemed to focus more on the narrators adventures than on educating about the culture of the Shuar, which may very well completely disappear in the near future. It seems National Geographic, the very publishers that started my passion, have sold out by choosing to present the information from a western point of view with added shock value. SICK.
Nearly everyone has heard of shrunken heads; but not many know what they are or the symbolism behind them. Many do not believe they can possibly be real human heads and are instead made from monkey skin. Those that do believe they are real seem to have a bizarre fascination with them. The hunt has been on for the headshrinkers for decades. Finally, it looks as if they have been found. ……… again.
In the 1960’s, Polish explorer Edmundo Bielawski and his team were exploring and documenting the northwest Amazon rainforest. After three years, they got lost and learned all too intimately about malaria. The were forced to ditch much of their equipment and reels of film. Fortunately, some of his footage has survived and has a fascinating tale to tell. This legendary tale begins with a murder in the Amazon basin and ends on the mantle of a collector of curiosities. The only known film evidence of a head shrinking ceremony is on these old reels. Is this real or just a fabrication; a show put on by natives for tourist?
This is what Piers Gibbon set out to discover when he and the Nat Geo team headed to the Amazon. Who is Mr. Gibbon, first of all? Usually documentaries have narrators or speakers that are involved in the field they discuss. Come on National Geographic! This man is not an anthropologist! It is so clear by his sick fascination with how the heads are made and if they are still being made today. He could give a hoot about the people behind this mystery. He’s a professional TV, radio, and conference presenter. Give me a break!
Piers travels through the western Amazon with the help of some local guides and asks around about shrunken heads. He makes sure to show the footage to everyone he comes across. He seems to want everyone to be as appalled by the head shrinking ceremony as he is. Appalled and disgusted is not how any National Geographic presenter should act. He discovers that a group called the Shuar of Ecuador are the ones that may know about the film, as they are the Amazon headshrinkers. He seeks out the Shuar and proceeds to make a big presentation out of showing the film to them. He even expects them to be shocked by the video. Why would they be? Unlike our culture, theirs isn’t one to be embarrassed of. Just because he is an ignoramus doesn’t mean that everyone else needs to feed into his crap.
I believe that a good half of the show was focused on explaining head shrinking ceremonies. It was done in a way that was meant to shock and sicken viewers. When giving tidbits of information about the meaning of the ceremony, it is with a decidedly biased view, something one should never witness from National Geographic.
He came across a priest that tells him that the Catholic church worked very hard to end head shrinking by relating the old testament to native beliefs. The priest was very proud to say that the Shuar no longer practice head shrinking and practice an integrated form of Christianity. You can have no idea how nauseous this makes me. Missionaries have destroyed so many cultures around the world and are very proud of it. Of course people will never actually convert, they create an integrated religion. How can ‘god-loving’ people be so proud to beat another people into religious and cultural submission? What is even sicker is that this information was painted in a positive light by the show!!! OK Nat Geo, since when are you siding with the Pope and devaluing the mosaic of culture on this planet?
I don’t know that I’ll watch anything on National Geographic anytime soon unless I look into them online first. I assumed that the foundation for which every young anthropologist dreams to do as project for would produce a show about a virtually unknown culture in an unbiased and celebratory way. Well I know what happens when we assume. I have been taken for a fool and this jackass Gibbons has become rich from it. This documentary did teach a very important lesson about how closed minded and bigoted most of us truly are.
Not much valid information is available on the Shuar online that is not published by sources that are either questionable or missionary in origin. But, if you would like to read something simple without going to the ethnological studies, read this Shuar Information from the University of Wisconsin. Have an open mind and heart, something National Geographic seems to have lost.
Nearly everyone has heard of shrunken heads; but not many know what they are or the symbolism behind them. Many do not believe they can possibly be real human heads and are instead made from monkey skin. Those that do believe they are real seem to have a bizarre fascination with them. The hunt has been on for the headshrinkers for decades. Finally, it looks as if they have been found. ……… again.
In the 1960’s, Polish explorer Edmundo Bielawski and his team were exploring and documenting the northwest Amazon rainforest. After three years, they got lost and learned all too intimately about malaria. The were forced to ditch much of their equipment and reels of film. Fortunately, some of his footage has survived and has a fascinating tale to tell. This legendary tale begins with a murder in the Amazon basin and ends on the mantle of a collector of curiosities. The only known film evidence of a head shrinking ceremony is on these old reels. Is this real or just a fabrication; a show put on by natives for tourist?
This is what Piers Gibbon set out to discover when he and the Nat Geo team headed to the Amazon. Who is Mr. Gibbon, first of all? Usually documentaries have narrators or speakers that are involved in the field they discuss. Come on National Geographic! This man is not an anthropologist! It is so clear by his sick fascination with how the heads are made and if they are still being made today. He could give a hoot about the people behind this mystery. He’s a professional TV, radio, and conference presenter. Give me a break!
Piers travels through the western Amazon with the help of some local guides and asks around about shrunken heads. He makes sure to show the footage to everyone he comes across. He seems to want everyone to be as appalled by the head shrinking ceremony as he is. Appalled and disgusted is not how any National Geographic presenter should act. He discovers that a group called the Shuar of Ecuador are the ones that may know about the film, as they are the Amazon headshrinkers. He seeks out the Shuar and proceeds to make a big presentation out of showing the film to them. He even expects them to be shocked by the video. Why would they be? Unlike our culture, theirs isn’t one to be embarrassed of. Just because he is an ignoramus doesn’t mean that everyone else needs to feed into his crap.
I believe that a good half of the show was focused on explaining head shrinking ceremonies. It was done in a way that was meant to shock and sicken viewers. When giving tidbits of information about the meaning of the ceremony, it is with a decidedly biased view, something one should never witness from National Geographic.
He came across a priest that tells him that the Catholic church worked very hard to end head shrinking by relating the old testament to native beliefs. The priest was very proud to say that the Shuar no longer practice head shrinking and practice an integrated form of Christianity. You can have no idea how nauseous this makes me. Missionaries have destroyed so many cultures around the world and are very proud of it. Of course people will never actually convert, they create an integrated religion. How can ‘god-loving’ people be so proud to beat another people into religious and cultural submission? What is even sicker is that this information was painted in a positive light by the show!!! OK Nat Geo, since when are you siding with the Pope and devaluing the mosaic of culture on this planet?
I don’t know that I’ll watch anything on National Geographic anytime soon unless I look into them online first. I assumed that the foundation for which every young anthropologist dreams to do as project for would produce a show about a virtually unknown culture in an unbiased and celebratory way. Well I know what happens when we assume. I have been taken for a fool and this jackass Gibbons has become rich from it. This documentary did teach a very important lesson about how closed minded and bigoted most of us truly are.
Not much valid information is available on the Shuar online that is not published by sources that are either questionable or missionary in origin. But, if you would like to read something simple without going to the ethnological studies, read this Shuar Information from the University of Wisconsin. Have an open mind and heart, something National Geographic seems to have lost.
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Scariest Drug in the World: POT!
My posts are not usually this long, but I am truly outraged! I watched the most enraging piece of trash on the Documentary Channel called “Messing with Heads”. This show was tagged as a documentary and formatted like a documentary. However, by definition a documentary portrays reality and is non-fiction. The Nazi film Triumph of the Will was clearly the inspiration for this 2-hour long Australian propagandist film about marijuana.
Not only did I study psychology, but I also used to have affection for pot in my early 20s. I was acquainted with many stoners as well as hard drug users and addicts. I am not a dumb person. I am an observer and a sponge. From this and my knowledge of basic brain biology and psychology, I am intelligent enough to know that this show was attempting to convince that the exception to the rule is in fact the norm.
I was watching in utter disbelief. Even my husband, who has always been sickeningly straight edge, was getting angry watching it with me. Why? Because unless you live in complete isolation from the world and get all of your information from sources like Fox News, you know that pot does not normally have this affect on people. Anyway, let us begin the tearing apart of this ludicrous waste of air space.
Show Background
The show profiles a few Australian youths that have been hospitalized for addiction to marijuana and psychosis caused by it. The goal of the film was to show that marijuana is far from harmless and in fact is just as bad as or worse than “hard” drugs. We always heard about pot being a “gateway” drug. Well, forget that! Psychosis and heavy lifelong addiction is apparently caused directly by marijuana. We had better tell all the ex hippies that are now sober and working in the corporate world that they are in fact psychotics in the throes of heavy addiction.
They indicate that pot smoking today is much different than it was in the 60s. The point was made that because of hydroponics and other factors, there is more THC in today's weed than in the past. I’m not arguing this point because breeding pot is serious business today and this may very well be true. But there always is just a shred of truth in propaganda isn’t there? They state that in the 60s everyone shared joints and today everyone smokes from a bong, so the amount of THC ingested is also greatly increased due to this.
Is Australia that different from America? Did my friends parents that were at Woodstock lie about those hookah parties? From how often I see kids buying rolling paper and single cigars from the store, I think joint and blunt smoking is still as popular as it was back in the 60’s and the 90‘s when I was in college. Bongs cost money and must be maintained. If you do not want to buy one, more effort goes into making one than just rolling a joint or packing a pipe. Maybe Australian kids are all rich and can afford to buy “accessories”. In any event, scientific studies have shown that the best way to smoke marijuana is through a bong or hookah because harmful chemicals in both the plant and those mixed in by dealers are filtered through the water.
According to the show, one out of five Australian youths smoke weed and of those, 10% are addicted and use every day. Then they said that half of all Australians have smoked it by the age of 16. So which is it? One-fifth or one-half? Many of these kids are regular users by age 14. I’m sorry, but even in a drug-scourged country like the US, we do not have many regular drug users that are under 14 outside of poverty-stricken areas. These kids were clearly middle class based on their clothing, even skin tone, cleanliness, and mannerisms. Oh, and all of them had facial piercings. Simply not good candidates for kids that are going to have so little adult supervision that they can smoke weed all day long without anyone noticing or caring.
Marijuana Induced Psychosis
They stated that extended use is causing severe paranoia and schizophrenia, which is literally filling up their psychiatric wards. I found that research has shown that in young people that are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia, heavy marijuana use can cause similar damage to the brain as schizophrenia. No similar effects have been found in people without family or personal history of similar mental illness. So, if their psych wards are filled from pot smoking kids going psychotic, they must have a lot of genetically predisposed people down under!
That was the rational part. Now let's talk about the completely crazy propagandist part. The profiles.
The first girl was a heavy user. She got clean and after 2 years started having delusions and the compulsion to jump out windows. To quote them, she “got” schizophrenia. She spent 15 months in the hospital and relapsed 7 times during her stay. Now she is better and has lived a completely normal life for four years. Besides looking androgynous, she looks perfectly normal. She talks perfectly normal. She is pretty much cured.
First of all, where were these so called doctors trained? You do not “get” schizophrenia, you develop it. People with schizophrenia do not relapse, like a person with cancer. The disease is always there, just in varying degrees. Schizophrenic episodes can be cyclical or triggered by a plethora of things.
I have known a few schizophrenics in my life as I stated in a previous post. It can take years to get medication right in a schizophrenic patient. It takes a minimum of two weeks for the drugs to even normalize in the body and start to do their job. Moreover, symptoms do not magically disappear. It takes several weeks to months for the correct medications to remove the symptoms. In addition, schizophrenia never goes away. There is no cure.
Even when the right medication cocktail has been found, the person still isn’t “right”; they are just functional. Why? Because antipsychotics have side effects that cause behaviors and ticks that are sometimes almost as bad as schizophrenia itself. In short, medicated schizophrenics appear in both manner and appearance, medicated. Neither this girl, nor ANY of the people profiled in this show appeared medicated. Nevertheless, they were all perfectly ok and living wonderful lives now that the evil demon weed was out of their lives. Interesting.
Marijuana Induced Mania
The high school boy they profiled was much more entertaining, not only for his claims but how serious and dramatic it was portrayed. He smoked pot up to 20 times per day and detailed that he smoked at 8 am, 8:30 am, and again at 9. He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. When using pot he had very bad “manic” episodes where he wanted to play loud music, drive fast, and yell. He came from a dysfunctional background and blocked everything out instead of talking about it. He has discovered that the key to being psychosis free is healthy eating, no stress, and exercise.
Oh, let's dig into this. First, how are these kids going about smoking pot? Smoking weed is not a quick fix drug like heroin. You do not “do pot” every half hour. Smoking something, even heroin or crack, is not done every half hour. It takes longer than shooting up or sniffing something up your nose. I've known a few people that were literally perpetually stoned. They did not smoke every half hour nor did they smoke anywhere near 20 times per day.
He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. His parents actually were completely unaware that he smoked marijuana at all! What kind of water do they have in Australia that masks the smell of pot? I’m sorry, but if your kid is doing pretty much anything 20 times a day, you know about it.
Let's talk about this manic episode. Pot relaxes you. The sativa strains give you an energy buzz, but nothing like a manic episode. You just get chatty and don't want to sit around. I decided to do some research on this and discovered that in those who are bipolar, marijuana can trigger a manic episode. I searched quite extensively and none of the information I found stated that marijuana will cause a manic episode in anyone that is not bipolar. Marijuana does not cause bipolar disorder; the disease must already exist for THC to have this effect. On that note, his story seems to go right along with that information. I particularly loved how his key to being psychosis free is exactly what psychiatrists tell their bipolar patients. Now that he doesn’t smoke anymore, he just has “tiny manic episodes”. I’m sorry, there is no such thing.
Marijuana Addiction
This kid also talked about the horrible withdrawal symptoms he had when he stopped using. What were they? He got angry and depressed. Sorry. Look up the definition of withdrawal. It involves physical symptoms, not just being a little cranky. So let’s talk about the addictiveness of marijuana.
There are two ways that a drug can be “addictive”. The first is by causing physical dependence. When the amount of certain foreign chemicals introduced to the human body ceases or lessens, the body deals with this abstinence by producing various physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms. This happens with alcohol, heroin, caffeine, innumerable prescription medications, and even aspirin. It does NOT occur with THC, the drug in marijuana. No matter if you inject THC in your veins or smoke a blunt in the Walmart parking lot every night, your body will NEVER have withdrawal symptoms from THC if you stop smoking. However, you may withdraw from the drugs the pot is laced with, such as meth or heroin.
The second and more powerful way to be “addicted” is related to the pleasure and reward neurotransmitters of the brain. If we experience a reward, this reinforces to us that what we are doing is good and should do it again. When addictive drugs are taken, the brain is flooded with one or more of the neurotransmitters that are part of the brain’s reward system, primarily dopamine. Depending on the drug, the brain either says, “Oh, I don’t need to make my own anymore”, or “Oh I don’t need this much, I’m shutting down the receptors.” The more of a drug that is taken and the longer the period of time, the more of this effect is seen. This causes the person to need to use drugs in order to get that reward. Guess what? THC does not activate any of the neurotransmitters associated with addiction.
THC is a cannabinoid chemical that activates the neurotransmitter anandamide, a natural cannabinoid. These affect short-term memory, coordination, learning, and problem solving. Since THC mimics anandamide, irregular signals are sent to the brain, making someone act stoned. If you know any frequent pot smokers, you should be able to see the correlation to these four areas that cannabinoids regulate. I hope we can all agree that while we can be addicted to pleasure, we cannot be addicted to remembering, walking in a straight line, or figuring out a complicated issue.
You might be thinking, “But marijuana causes euphoria.” No, it doesn’t. Euphoria is caused by dopamine and similar chemicals, which are not activated by marijuana. Pot alters your perception of the world. Some people like this, some don’t. Of those who like it, the feeling is not always euphoria. For those that do feel euphoria, the release of dopamine is caused by the thrill of altered perception, not by the drug itself. With a drug like cocaine, whether or not you “like” how it made you feel, chemical euphoria occurred in the brain.
With that being said, literally anything can be addictive. People release the neurotransmitters of addiction every time they do something that makes them feel a rush (either good or bad), like winning a board game, shopping, sex, or getting hurt. If any of these actions are done enough, it can become an addiction. Gambling and self-mutilation are very good example of this and are both actually more likely to cause addiction because winning and pain always trigger these chemicals into action.
Yes, smoking pot regularly is bad. However, so are a myriad of other substances that are legal and not demonized. You can die of liver failure if you take too much Tylenol! You can't even overdose on marijuana. I think that parents need to pay attention to their kids. Watch their behavior. Pay attention to signs of emotional problems and mental illness. Don’t blame all of your country’s problems on pot.
Note: After writing this, I noticed another blogger wrote on this over a year ago and shared my same opinion. I'm happy to know I'm not the only one out there...... I also have to thank my niece Courtney for making double sure my psychology info was still as I remembered it from over a decade ago. :-) Thanks!
Not only did I study psychology, but I also used to have affection for pot in my early 20s. I was acquainted with many stoners as well as hard drug users and addicts. I am not a dumb person. I am an observer and a sponge. From this and my knowledge of basic brain biology and psychology, I am intelligent enough to know that this show was attempting to convince that the exception to the rule is in fact the norm.
I was watching in utter disbelief. Even my husband, who has always been sickeningly straight edge, was getting angry watching it with me. Why? Because unless you live in complete isolation from the world and get all of your information from sources like Fox News, you know that pot does not normally have this affect on people. Anyway, let us begin the tearing apart of this ludicrous waste of air space.
Show Background
The show profiles a few Australian youths that have been hospitalized for addiction to marijuana and psychosis caused by it. The goal of the film was to show that marijuana is far from harmless and in fact is just as bad as or worse than “hard” drugs. We always heard about pot being a “gateway” drug. Well, forget that! Psychosis and heavy lifelong addiction is apparently caused directly by marijuana. We had better tell all the ex hippies that are now sober and working in the corporate world that they are in fact psychotics in the throes of heavy addiction.
They indicate that pot smoking today is much different than it was in the 60s. The point was made that because of hydroponics and other factors, there is more THC in today's weed than in the past. I’m not arguing this point because breeding pot is serious business today and this may very well be true. But there always is just a shred of truth in propaganda isn’t there? They state that in the 60s everyone shared joints and today everyone smokes from a bong, so the amount of THC ingested is also greatly increased due to this.
Is Australia that different from America? Did my friends parents that were at Woodstock lie about those hookah parties? From how often I see kids buying rolling paper and single cigars from the store, I think joint and blunt smoking is still as popular as it was back in the 60’s and the 90‘s when I was in college. Bongs cost money and must be maintained. If you do not want to buy one, more effort goes into making one than just rolling a joint or packing a pipe. Maybe Australian kids are all rich and can afford to buy “accessories”. In any event, scientific studies have shown that the best way to smoke marijuana is through a bong or hookah because harmful chemicals in both the plant and those mixed in by dealers are filtered through the water.
According to the show, one out of five Australian youths smoke weed and of those, 10% are addicted and use every day. Then they said that half of all Australians have smoked it by the age of 16. So which is it? One-fifth or one-half? Many of these kids are regular users by age 14. I’m sorry, but even in a drug-scourged country like the US, we do not have many regular drug users that are under 14 outside of poverty-stricken areas. These kids were clearly middle class based on their clothing, even skin tone, cleanliness, and mannerisms. Oh, and all of them had facial piercings. Simply not good candidates for kids that are going to have so little adult supervision that they can smoke weed all day long without anyone noticing or caring.
Marijuana Induced Psychosis
They stated that extended use is causing severe paranoia and schizophrenia, which is literally filling up their psychiatric wards. I found that research has shown that in young people that are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia, heavy marijuana use can cause similar damage to the brain as schizophrenia. No similar effects have been found in people without family or personal history of similar mental illness. So, if their psych wards are filled from pot smoking kids going psychotic, they must have a lot of genetically predisposed people down under!
That was the rational part. Now let's talk about the completely crazy propagandist part. The profiles.
The first girl was a heavy user. She got clean and after 2 years started having delusions and the compulsion to jump out windows. To quote them, she “got” schizophrenia. She spent 15 months in the hospital and relapsed 7 times during her stay. Now she is better and has lived a completely normal life for four years. Besides looking androgynous, she looks perfectly normal. She talks perfectly normal. She is pretty much cured.
First of all, where were these so called doctors trained? You do not “get” schizophrenia, you develop it. People with schizophrenia do not relapse, like a person with cancer. The disease is always there, just in varying degrees. Schizophrenic episodes can be cyclical or triggered by a plethora of things.
I have known a few schizophrenics in my life as I stated in a previous post. It can take years to get medication right in a schizophrenic patient. It takes a minimum of two weeks for the drugs to even normalize in the body and start to do their job. Moreover, symptoms do not magically disappear. It takes several weeks to months for the correct medications to remove the symptoms. In addition, schizophrenia never goes away. There is no cure.
Even when the right medication cocktail has been found, the person still isn’t “right”; they are just functional. Why? Because antipsychotics have side effects that cause behaviors and ticks that are sometimes almost as bad as schizophrenia itself. In short, medicated schizophrenics appear in both manner and appearance, medicated. Neither this girl, nor ANY of the people profiled in this show appeared medicated. Nevertheless, they were all perfectly ok and living wonderful lives now that the evil demon weed was out of their lives. Interesting.
Marijuana Induced Mania
The high school boy they profiled was much more entertaining, not only for his claims but how serious and dramatic it was portrayed. He smoked pot up to 20 times per day and detailed that he smoked at 8 am, 8:30 am, and again at 9. He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. When using pot he had very bad “manic” episodes where he wanted to play loud music, drive fast, and yell. He came from a dysfunctional background and blocked everything out instead of talking about it. He has discovered that the key to being psychosis free is healthy eating, no stress, and exercise.
Oh, let's dig into this. First, how are these kids going about smoking pot? Smoking weed is not a quick fix drug like heroin. You do not “do pot” every half hour. Smoking something, even heroin or crack, is not done every half hour. It takes longer than shooting up or sniffing something up your nose. I've known a few people that were literally perpetually stoned. They did not smoke every half hour nor did they smoke anywhere near 20 times per day.
He smoked in the shower so his parents couldn’t smell it. His parents actually were completely unaware that he smoked marijuana at all! What kind of water do they have in Australia that masks the smell of pot? I’m sorry, but if your kid is doing pretty much anything 20 times a day, you know about it.
Let's talk about this manic episode. Pot relaxes you. The sativa strains give you an energy buzz, but nothing like a manic episode. You just get chatty and don't want to sit around. I decided to do some research on this and discovered that in those who are bipolar, marijuana can trigger a manic episode. I searched quite extensively and none of the information I found stated that marijuana will cause a manic episode in anyone that is not bipolar. Marijuana does not cause bipolar disorder; the disease must already exist for THC to have this effect. On that note, his story seems to go right along with that information. I particularly loved how his key to being psychosis free is exactly what psychiatrists tell their bipolar patients. Now that he doesn’t smoke anymore, he just has “tiny manic episodes”. I’m sorry, there is no such thing.
Marijuana Addiction
This kid also talked about the horrible withdrawal symptoms he had when he stopped using. What were they? He got angry and depressed. Sorry. Look up the definition of withdrawal. It involves physical symptoms, not just being a little cranky. So let’s talk about the addictiveness of marijuana.
There are two ways that a drug can be “addictive”. The first is by causing physical dependence. When the amount of certain foreign chemicals introduced to the human body ceases or lessens, the body deals with this abstinence by producing various physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms. This happens with alcohol, heroin, caffeine, innumerable prescription medications, and even aspirin. It does NOT occur with THC, the drug in marijuana. No matter if you inject THC in your veins or smoke a blunt in the Walmart parking lot every night, your body will NEVER have withdrawal symptoms from THC if you stop smoking. However, you may withdraw from the drugs the pot is laced with, such as meth or heroin.
The second and more powerful way to be “addicted” is related to the pleasure and reward neurotransmitters of the brain. If we experience a reward, this reinforces to us that what we are doing is good and should do it again. When addictive drugs are taken, the brain is flooded with one or more of the neurotransmitters that are part of the brain’s reward system, primarily dopamine. Depending on the drug, the brain either says, “Oh, I don’t need to make my own anymore”, or “Oh I don’t need this much, I’m shutting down the receptors.” The more of a drug that is taken and the longer the period of time, the more of this effect is seen. This causes the person to need to use drugs in order to get that reward. Guess what? THC does not activate any of the neurotransmitters associated with addiction.
THC is a cannabinoid chemical that activates the neurotransmitter anandamide, a natural cannabinoid. These affect short-term memory, coordination, learning, and problem solving. Since THC mimics anandamide, irregular signals are sent to the brain, making someone act stoned. If you know any frequent pot smokers, you should be able to see the correlation to these four areas that cannabinoids regulate. I hope we can all agree that while we can be addicted to pleasure, we cannot be addicted to remembering, walking in a straight line, or figuring out a complicated issue.
You might be thinking, “But marijuana causes euphoria.” No, it doesn’t. Euphoria is caused by dopamine and similar chemicals, which are not activated by marijuana. Pot alters your perception of the world. Some people like this, some don’t. Of those who like it, the feeling is not always euphoria. For those that do feel euphoria, the release of dopamine is caused by the thrill of altered perception, not by the drug itself. With a drug like cocaine, whether or not you “like” how it made you feel, chemical euphoria occurred in the brain.
With that being said, literally anything can be addictive. People release the neurotransmitters of addiction every time they do something that makes them feel a rush (either good or bad), like winning a board game, shopping, sex, or getting hurt. If any of these actions are done enough, it can become an addiction. Gambling and self-mutilation are very good example of this and are both actually more likely to cause addiction because winning and pain always trigger these chemicals into action.
Yes, smoking pot regularly is bad. However, so are a myriad of other substances that are legal and not demonized. You can die of liver failure if you take too much Tylenol! You can't even overdose on marijuana. I think that parents need to pay attention to their kids. Watch their behavior. Pay attention to signs of emotional problems and mental illness. Don’t blame all of your country’s problems on pot.
Note: After writing this, I noticed another blogger wrote on this over a year ago and shared my same opinion. I'm happy to know I'm not the only one out there...... I also have to thank my niece Courtney for making double sure my psychology info was still as I remembered it from over a decade ago. :-) Thanks!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sorry for the Pause
Several weeks ago I lost the “blog book”, where all of the notes are stored for the shows I’ve watched. I have 2 other books with notes from shows watched years ago. One was defiled by my daughter. Meaning? All the pages with my notes were torn out and the remaining pages filled with little girl type things. The other is just pages and pages of random notes with no shows indicated except for one, “Saddam and the Third Reich”. Oh boy. No way am I writing about that. That 3 hour documentary totally blew my mind and made me so mad at all of my previous history teachers and the US media that I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to write about it.
To keep the blog going, I could have just started a fourth notebook. But I’m committed to this one, as it’s cover is a beautiful mandala. I am so unorganized as it is, I felt it best not to add another book to the mix. Lo and behold, the blog book has been found. After tearing the house apart for days, I spied it sitting innocently and alone on the backseat of my car. It would have been nice to find it while I had a break from work. However, I will try to plug ahead this week. Topics coming up: The “dangers” of marijuana, Amazon headhunters, biological material from space, and capitalism and the current economic crisis. So, fun stuff. Stay tuned.
To keep the blog going, I could have just started a fourth notebook. But I’m committed to this one, as it’s cover is a beautiful mandala. I am so unorganized as it is, I felt it best not to add another book to the mix. Lo and behold, the blog book has been found. After tearing the house apart for days, I spied it sitting innocently and alone on the backseat of my car. It would have been nice to find it while I had a break from work. However, I will try to plug ahead this week. Topics coming up: The “dangers” of marijuana, Amazon headhunters, biological material from space, and capitalism and the current economic crisis. So, fun stuff. Stay tuned.
Friday, July 30, 2010
The Unseen Environmental Hazard
Up until this point, I have consciously avoided any documentaries regarding anything in China. Anyone who knows me personally is aware of what a sore spot China is for me. Nevertheless, I feel that this episode of Vanguard called Pollution to Protest was about an issue that many people might be completely unaware of, e-waste. We all know that you don't just throw computers, cell phones and the like in the trash. We take special care to make sure they are disposed of properly. But, what happens to that material after it leaves our hands? Ask China.
One of the biggest electronics dismantling operations takes place in the Guangdong province of China. In these towns, especially Guiyu, known as the E-waste capitol of the world; people work dawn to dusk taking apart devices with whatever tool is available. Everyone from children to the elderly wakes up to piles of used junk and starts work immediately, working an average of 14 hours for about $12 a day. Many of the workers are migrant workers from other parts of China (and areas that technically are not China but the government has claimed them).
We picture factories where people carefully take apart our once beloved electronics. Get that idea out of your head, and FAST! There are no factories. There are literally huge piles of equipment along the streets and inside people's homes. If that isn't bad enough, after being dismantled the pieces are just thrown in piles of similar parts outside. The metal parts of devices are boiled down in huge cauldrons to extract the heavy metals within.
Over 50 million tons of e-waste is produced each year. These piles of e-junk are sent away for safe processing because they contain lead, cadmium, and mercury, as well as other harmful materials. We are safe from our own waste, but the people taking apart these electronics are at risk for dangerous toxicity disease from a multitude of materials. Children are reported to have 25% higher blood lead levels.
Of course though the largest recipient, China cannot do all of this "safe disposal" by themselves. E-waste is also shipped to Nigeria and India and is processed under similar conditions, though not in such gross quantities. I'm not aware of the environmental situation in Nigeria besides the cyanide that goes into the water supply there from diamond mining. However, I am acutely aware that both China and India are focusing on economic growth and are ignoring the environment. This is where I use the stapler to keep from going on a rant about China.
In any event, not much is being done about this. On our end, there are a few things we can do. Buy from companies that produce "green" electronics. Don't replace electronics unless you need to (don't be a capitalist whore is what I mean by this). Return your electronics for refurbishment to the company rather than sending them to an e-waste disposal center. Lastly, pray that these countries get a big kick in the ass.
E-waste hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals.(This Week)(electronic waste, polybrominated diphenyl ethers): An article from: Science News
One of the biggest electronics dismantling operations takes place in the Guangdong province of China. In these towns, especially Guiyu, known as the E-waste capitol of the world; people work dawn to dusk taking apart devices with whatever tool is available. Everyone from children to the elderly wakes up to piles of used junk and starts work immediately, working an average of 14 hours for about $12 a day. Many of the workers are migrant workers from other parts of China (and areas that technically are not China but the government has claimed them).
We picture factories where people carefully take apart our once beloved electronics. Get that idea out of your head, and FAST! There are no factories. There are literally huge piles of equipment along the streets and inside people's homes. If that isn't bad enough, after being dismantled the pieces are just thrown in piles of similar parts outside. The metal parts of devices are boiled down in huge cauldrons to extract the heavy metals within.
Over 50 million tons of e-waste is produced each year. These piles of e-junk are sent away for safe processing because they contain lead, cadmium, and mercury, as well as other harmful materials. We are safe from our own waste, but the people taking apart these electronics are at risk for dangerous toxicity disease from a multitude of materials. Children are reported to have 25% higher blood lead levels.
Of course though the largest recipient, China cannot do all of this "safe disposal" by themselves. E-waste is also shipped to Nigeria and India and is processed under similar conditions, though not in such gross quantities. I'm not aware of the environmental situation in Nigeria besides the cyanide that goes into the water supply there from diamond mining. However, I am acutely aware that both China and India are focusing on economic growth and are ignoring the environment. This is where I use the stapler to keep from going on a rant about China.
In any event, not much is being done about this. On our end, there are a few things we can do. Buy from companies that produce "green" electronics. Don't replace electronics unless you need to (don't be a capitalist whore is what I mean by this). Return your electronics for refurbishment to the company rather than sending them to an e-waste disposal center. Lastly, pray that these countries get a big kick in the ass.
E-waste hazards: Chinese gear recyclers absorb toxic chemicals.(This Week)(electronic waste, polybrominated diphenyl ethers): An article from: Science News
Monday, July 26, 2010
Toilets for Everyone
The episode of Vanguard on Current about the World Toilet Crisis was one of the most relevant and informative documentaries that I have seen in a while. This is an issue I knew about, but definitely did not realize the scale. Half, yes half of the worlds population does not have a toilet to use. Just imagine, 2.6 billion people are shitting in the open.
Obviously tribal peoples do not use toilets. Anyone that knows anything about conditions in third world and developing counties would realize that bathrooms aren’t commonplace within residential areas. This is a normal expectation and it really isn’t gross to me. This is because I know that since prehistoric times man has known to have both burial and bathroom pits away from homes and sources of food and water. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, that knowledge was swept under the rug by both the individual, his community, and his government.
The first part of the show focused on India, where 55% of the population (600 million people) lives without toilets. More people in India have cell phones and TVs than toilets. Not entirely surprising. Even though the countries economy is growing fast, sanitation has not even begun to run the race, let alone catch up. It seemingly is not a priority for the Indian government.
The Yamuna River was profiled, which is the largest tributary of the Ganges. The water in the river near New Delhi is black and bubbles with methane gas. Along the banks, you cant walk more than a few feet without finding a pile of human feces swarming with flies.
New Delhi gets its water supply from this “holy” waterway. Inhabitants of the banks of the river near New Delhi have no access to tap water. Guess what that means? They use the black sewage filled river water to cook, drink, bathe, and wash their clothes. Oh yes. In the city itself there is insufficient sewage treatment. The canals along the street that raw sewage run through also hold the inlets for fresh water. So you must put your water container in sewage to get clean water. That is about as nasty as it gets. No wonder 1,000 children in this area die every day of diarrhea, a result of water borne illness.
Apparently, upriver there is a dam that keeps water from flowing to the city. Above the dam, the river is beautiful and stocked with wildlife. The only new liquid that the Yamuna River gets near New Delhi is toxic waste and sewage. When a plague hits New Delhi, don’t be surprised.
Contrast this with the town of Haryana, India where 60% of residents have a toilet. The local government gives each family a $47 grant to install a toilet. There is even a campaign called “no toilet, no bride” where mothers will not even consider a boy to marry her daughter unless there is a toilet in the house. This is giving dignity to women who and reducing disease greatly.
The next stop on this shit train was Indonesia. This was a completely different situation. Where in India, lack of money and a badly run government are the culprits in the sanitation crisis, education is the root cause in Indonesia. It isn’t that Indonesians don’t have access to clean water, they don’t seem to realize that its not good to defecate in your water supply.
The strategy of Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organization is to go from town to town educating locals about the dangers of open toileting near or in their water supply. They aim to make one town at a time open defecation free, by locally marketing toilet benefits and making the locals sign agreements. Each inhabitant that installs a toilet gets notoriety in the town, helping to spread the word. As each village does this, the idea spreads to the next. In the last year, 3% have turned to toilets. This may not seem like a lot until you consider the population.
Another interesting idea is creating many jobs for the community, fecal recycling. The contents of septic tanks go through a multi-stage transformation into fertilizer. This fertilizer is valued because it is certified organic, making produce grown with it more valuable. The next time you eat organic produce from Indonesia, consider that!
This is a serious problem that affects all of us. Even though we may live in a society where virtually everyone has a toilet, this does not mean we cannot be affected by this problem. All local environmental problems are the world’s problems due to international trade and travel. If you would like to help with this devastating health problem, you can contact the World Toilet Organization or Water.org.
Obviously tribal peoples do not use toilets. Anyone that knows anything about conditions in third world and developing counties would realize that bathrooms aren’t commonplace within residential areas. This is a normal expectation and it really isn’t gross to me. This is because I know that since prehistoric times man has known to have both burial and bathroom pits away from homes and sources of food and water. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, that knowledge was swept under the rug by both the individual, his community, and his government.
The first part of the show focused on India, where 55% of the population (600 million people) lives without toilets. More people in India have cell phones and TVs than toilets. Not entirely surprising. Even though the countries economy is growing fast, sanitation has not even begun to run the race, let alone catch up. It seemingly is not a priority for the Indian government.
The Yamuna River was profiled, which is the largest tributary of the Ganges. The water in the river near New Delhi is black and bubbles with methane gas. Along the banks, you cant walk more than a few feet without finding a pile of human feces swarming with flies.
New Delhi gets its water supply from this “holy” waterway. Inhabitants of the banks of the river near New Delhi have no access to tap water. Guess what that means? They use the black sewage filled river water to cook, drink, bathe, and wash their clothes. Oh yes. In the city itself there is insufficient sewage treatment. The canals along the street that raw sewage run through also hold the inlets for fresh water. So you must put your water container in sewage to get clean water. That is about as nasty as it gets. No wonder 1,000 children in this area die every day of diarrhea, a result of water borne illness.
Apparently, upriver there is a dam that keeps water from flowing to the city. Above the dam, the river is beautiful and stocked with wildlife. The only new liquid that the Yamuna River gets near New Delhi is toxic waste and sewage. When a plague hits New Delhi, don’t be surprised.
Contrast this with the town of Haryana, India where 60% of residents have a toilet. The local government gives each family a $47 grant to install a toilet. There is even a campaign called “no toilet, no bride” where mothers will not even consider a boy to marry her daughter unless there is a toilet in the house. This is giving dignity to women who and reducing disease greatly.
The next stop on this shit train was Indonesia. This was a completely different situation. Where in India, lack of money and a badly run government are the culprits in the sanitation crisis, education is the root cause in Indonesia. It isn’t that Indonesians don’t have access to clean water, they don’t seem to realize that its not good to defecate in your water supply.
The strategy of Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organization is to go from town to town educating locals about the dangers of open toileting near or in their water supply. They aim to make one town at a time open defecation free, by locally marketing toilet benefits and making the locals sign agreements. Each inhabitant that installs a toilet gets notoriety in the town, helping to spread the word. As each village does this, the idea spreads to the next. In the last year, 3% have turned to toilets. This may not seem like a lot until you consider the population.
Another interesting idea is creating many jobs for the community, fecal recycling. The contents of septic tanks go through a multi-stage transformation into fertilizer. This fertilizer is valued because it is certified organic, making produce grown with it more valuable. The next time you eat organic produce from Indonesia, consider that!
This is a serious problem that affects all of us. Even though we may live in a society where virtually everyone has a toilet, this does not mean we cannot be affected by this problem. All local environmental problems are the world’s problems due to international trade and travel. If you would like to help with this devastating health problem, you can contact the World Toilet Organization or Water.org.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Comfort in Likeness
On Link TV, I watched a documentary about Iraqi refugees in Lebanon called Iraq in Lebanon. With all of the turmoil in the Middle East, Lebanon has become a sanctuary for those from conflict zones such as Iraq and Palestine. Starting in 2006, Iraqis began flooding into the country in unprecedented numbers. In 2008, about 50,000 Iraqis, mostly Shiite Muslims and Christians illegally entered Lebanon, a country that does not border Iraq. This is a situation I know virtually nothing about. So, it is hard to have much of an opinion on it.
Unfortunately, Lebanon's policy on refugees is not very accommodating. Formally, refugees are tolerated only long enough to be resettled in another country through the UN or repatriated to Iraq. This means that there is no such thing as asylum or refugee status in Lebanon. Still, thousands flee here.
The UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) offers resettlement to refugees in Lebanon to other countries (mostly the US, Canada, and Australia) or repatriation to Iraq. The process takes several months and the refugess receive no protection or any type of UN or government assistance in the meantime. They cannot sign leases or get jobs. If they can get an apartment, they are charged double or triple the rate. If someone does illegally hire them, they must be on constant lookout for police. Days and nights are filled with fear as they pray that police will not find them.
When illegals are caught in Lebanon, they are not deported. They are put in prison for several months. These prisons are not like the cushy jails Americans take for granted. Up to 10 people are put in a 6 square foot cell with no toilet. From how these refugees described the fabulous accommodations, it reminded me of the descriptions of Revolutionary war prison ships, where three times as many soldiers died than in combat.
Ziyad, a Shiite Iraqi profiled on the show, begged to be deported to Iraq in order to get out of this hell hole. Upon arriving in Iraq, he got his passport and legally went to Syria. Did he stay there? No. He crossed the border illegally to return to Lebanon. I thought to myself, "Why, if he can LEGALLY go to Syria, would he ILLEGALLY go back to Lebanon?" This was quite curious and I decided to research this issue. Here is what I was able to find out.
Syria, which shares a large border with Iraq, has a contract with the UN to accept refugees. Syria offers protection to refugees as well as financial assistance, health care, and education. Though not allowed to seek formal employment, they can work and not fear arrest. Syrians in general are accepting of the refugees. Interestingly enough, the Iraqi refugee population in Syria is one of the largest refugee populations in the world. Thousands of Iraqis arrive in Syria every month. Sounds great, right?
Prior to 2007, most Iraqis that entered Syria were allowed to stay. Unfortunately, in 2007, stricter visa requirements were enacted for Iraqis as well as the shortening of the period for residence permits. In the most recent two years, Iraqis have been deported and jailed. The restrictions are not so tight that it would prevent so many Iraqis that are risking their life in Lebanon from seeking shelter there. There is another reason. Religion.
Syria happens to be about 70% Sunni Muslim, 13% Shiite Muslim, and 10% Christian. In Lebanon, 40% of the population is Christian and there are an equal amount (28% each) Sunnis and Shiites. In fact, Lebanon has the largest Christian Community in the Middle East. Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East where a Christian can comfortably make a life for them self. Undoubtedly, Shiite Muslims also have fewer problems there.
So, it comes down to society. Though Syria offers the necessities of life, Lebanon offers community. In these stressful times, Iraqis would rather risk their lives and jail to get help from people like them rather than trust an accepting government with their lives. You really can't blame them.
Unfortunately, Lebanon's policy on refugees is not very accommodating. Formally, refugees are tolerated only long enough to be resettled in another country through the UN or repatriated to Iraq. This means that there is no such thing as asylum or refugee status in Lebanon. Still, thousands flee here.
The UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) offers resettlement to refugees in Lebanon to other countries (mostly the US, Canada, and Australia) or repatriation to Iraq. The process takes several months and the refugess receive no protection or any type of UN or government assistance in the meantime. They cannot sign leases or get jobs. If they can get an apartment, they are charged double or triple the rate. If someone does illegally hire them, they must be on constant lookout for police. Days and nights are filled with fear as they pray that police will not find them.
When illegals are caught in Lebanon, they are not deported. They are put in prison for several months. These prisons are not like the cushy jails Americans take for granted. Up to 10 people are put in a 6 square foot cell with no toilet. From how these refugees described the fabulous accommodations, it reminded me of the descriptions of Revolutionary war prison ships, where three times as many soldiers died than in combat.
Ziyad, a Shiite Iraqi profiled on the show, begged to be deported to Iraq in order to get out of this hell hole. Upon arriving in Iraq, he got his passport and legally went to Syria. Did he stay there? No. He crossed the border illegally to return to Lebanon. I thought to myself, "Why, if he can LEGALLY go to Syria, would he ILLEGALLY go back to Lebanon?" This was quite curious and I decided to research this issue. Here is what I was able to find out.
Syria, which shares a large border with Iraq, has a contract with the UN to accept refugees. Syria offers protection to refugees as well as financial assistance, health care, and education. Though not allowed to seek formal employment, they can work and not fear arrest. Syrians in general are accepting of the refugees. Interestingly enough, the Iraqi refugee population in Syria is one of the largest refugee populations in the world. Thousands of Iraqis arrive in Syria every month. Sounds great, right?
Prior to 2007, most Iraqis that entered Syria were allowed to stay. Unfortunately, in 2007, stricter visa requirements were enacted for Iraqis as well as the shortening of the period for residence permits. In the most recent two years, Iraqis have been deported and jailed. The restrictions are not so tight that it would prevent so many Iraqis that are risking their life in Lebanon from seeking shelter there. There is another reason. Religion.
Syria happens to be about 70% Sunni Muslim, 13% Shiite Muslim, and 10% Christian. In Lebanon, 40% of the population is Christian and there are an equal amount (28% each) Sunnis and Shiites. In fact, Lebanon has the largest Christian Community in the Middle East. Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East where a Christian can comfortably make a life for them self. Undoubtedly, Shiite Muslims also have fewer problems there.
So, it comes down to society. Though Syria offers the necessities of life, Lebanon offers community. In these stressful times, Iraqis would rather risk their lives and jail to get help from people like them rather than trust an accepting government with their lives. You really can't blame them.
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