Day: October 14, 2018

May I Introduce “Mojave”

I have great news!

It is the beginning of the weekend and as usual I will post on just about anything but the silliness we call the news.

First, we have some cooler weather and I will plant some veggies this weekend…radishes, carrots and bunching onions…..after all those months of 95+ weather this is lovely…..and well needed.

I have been devastated with the loss of my best friend Jaz back in June…..my better half saw what shape I was in and decided that I needed a friend….and off we went to the Humane Society….I walked around and got trapped by a sand colored puppy.

I have been adopted by a lovely young lady by the name of Mojave……we call her “Mo”….she chose me out of a room full of others….she is 5 months old and just a bag of mischief.

She has found her perch….the day bed that looks out into the outside world……her new domain.

Is that the postman?

This is her with all the SCOTUS mash-up…..I agree all that crap about some drunkard is all too tiring…..

BTW, that toy in the photo has been shredded already….

Mo is a retriever mix…..she has more energy than she needs and her and I have become fast friends….although as an old fart I tire more easily than her.

Mo is a joy to train she is very alert and eager to get to business…..she has no problem letting me know that outside is a must….if you know what I mean……

I seem to be better in the exercise department now that I have a friend to walk with…….she is saving me from myself.

I’ve spent $30 on toys and a piece of plastic will send her into a running fit…she makes her own fun…..LOL

Have a good Sunday….we will…see you guys Monday Morn bright and early……chuq

Those Were The Days

I admit it….I was a acid rock fan….those were the days….Bennies, Dex, Yellow Jackets, Acid, Weed, ‘shrooms, etc…..

But recent scientific research has shown that some of the magic drugs of my youth can be beneficial in treating PTSD……

Those magic mushrooms that grow liberally in cow dung could indeed have properties that could help those suffering from PTSD……

Want to quit smoking or alleviate depression? In a few years you might be taking the psychedelic “magic” in magic mushrooms—if the FDA ever agrees, the New York Times reports. Researchers from John Hopkins University suggest the FDA should reclassify psilocybin—the psychedelic drug in hallucinogenic mushrooms—to a Schedule IV drug, meaning it can serve a medical use and isn’t likely to trigger addiction or abuse. It would be like sleeping pills, but not a simple prescription: “We believe that the conditions should be tightly controlled and that when taken for a clinical reason, it should be administered in a health care setting” under professional guidance, study co-author Matthew Johnson tells Fortune.

Published in Neuropharmacology, the study looks at psilocybin data going back to the 1940s. “In the 1960s, they were on the cutting edge of neuroscience research and understanding how the brain worked,” says Johnson. “But then it got out of the lab.” Research stopped partly because the hippie counterculture embraced mind-altering drugs like mushrooms and LSD, but a recent cultural shift has seen professionals adopt “microdosing” to increase productivity, and consumers—particularly women—use psychedelics to alleviate anxiety and depression. And while psilocybin poses some health risks, Johnson says in a press release it’s safer than other surveyed drugs. But don’t hold your breath: FDA approval could take more than five years.

Another drug of choice in those days was the sugar cubed “ACID”…LSD…..and yes they are finding it useful in moderation……go figure (we could have told them that but no one would listen)….

“Microdosing” on psychedelic substances like LSD—ingesting just enough to heighten cognitive faculties, enhance creativity, improve concentration and alleviate depression—is currently back in vogue among people not normally associated with anything remotely ‘countercultural’ in the USA.

The term psychedelic was coined in 1958 by British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond and is derived from the Greek words psyche (“soul, mind”) and delein(“to manifest”), hence “soul-manifesting,” the implication being that psychedelics can access the soul and develop unused potentials in the human mind. It’s a contention that’s gaining increased acceptance in mainstream universities.

https://theantimedia.com/political-significance-lsd/

Fascinating stuff, eh?

Some related reading……

https://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/martharosenberg/why-are-suicides-climbing-military-lets-look-drugs-being-prescribed

https://lobotero.com/2016/05/06/the-war-on-drugs-failed-so-why-isnt-it-over/

For your musical enjoyment…..

Archeology For A Sunday

Weekends and I choose stuff that is not a big headline generator….since I like history and archeology I want to share some of the stuff that has come to light recently….

We are discovering that the Maya were a lot more widespread than first believed….these fascinating people are coming into better understanding…..

Maya civilization was no mere collection of city states using slash-and-burn farming—that we learned earlier this year. Now archaeologists are looking deeper into an airborne survey that revealed a formidable civilization double the size of medieval England at its peak 1,200 years ago, Ars Technica reports. The survey, which used LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) to peek beneath the jungle foliage, revealed some 61,000 buildings, draining canals, fortresses, and roads across roughly 828 square miles. What archaeologists are saying about those details in Science:

  • Population: About 7 million to 11 million people populated the central Maya Lowlands—an area including some of Belize, Guatemala, and Yucatan—between 650 and 800 CE, the Late Classic Period. How did researchers crunch that number? By counting the structures per square mile and estimating how many were houses. Big cities like Tikal likely had hundreds of people per square mile, per Discovery.
  • Farming: A huge agricultural effort was needed to keep all those mouths fed, LiveScience notes. Imagine a complex grid of channels providing flood control and irrigation, with grids up to six feet wide and 20 inches deep, some stretching over half a mile. Still, densely populated cities like Naachtun and Tikal had to import food from other Maya kingdoms to survive.
  • Causeways: In earlier Maya times, from 1000 to 250 BCE, cities were linked by elevated roads or causeways up to 65 feet wide and up to 13 miles in length—but they fell into disuse when so-called Preclassic cities were abandoned. Yet their faded ghost outlines are visible on the LIDAR.
  • Fortresses: Mayans built more of them than expected in the Late Classic Period, and sophisticated ones, too. One has walls over 25 feet high and an Olympic-pool-size reservoir: “In other words, this place was ready for a siege,” says Ithaca College archaeologist Tom Garrison. “That is not really the type of conflict that we think about for the ancient Maya.”
  • Overall: “Seen as a whole, terraces and irrigation channels, reservoirs, fortifications, and causeways reveal an astonishing amount of land modification done by the Maya over their entire landscape on a scale previously unimaginable,” a Tulane researcher says in a statement.

The iconic sphinx has been a lonely monument to the early Egyptians and today it is not as lonely as it was in the past…..

Egypt says archaeologists have discovered a statue of a lion’s body and a human head in the southern city of Aswan. Per the AP, the Antiquities Ministry says the sphinx made of sandstone was found in the Temple of Kom Ombo during work to protect the site from groundwater. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, says the statue probably dates back to the Ptolemaic time. The Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt for some 300 years—from around 320BC to about 30BC. Egypt hopes such discoveries will spur tourism, partially driven by antiquities sightseeing, which was hit hard by political turmoil following the 2011 uprising. (Another recent discovery in Egypt predates this one’s origins by thousands of years.)

Since I can remember some archeologists have wanted to proven the Exodus and so far nothing….but a new site has been found and the attempt to prove continues…..

Ancient ruins found in the Israeli wilderness could solve the biblical mystery of the Exodus, archaeologists claim.

According to the Bible, Moses liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and led them through the wilderness of Sinai, before they crossed the River Jordan into the promised land of Canaan.

Yet no historical basis for the legend exists, and experts generally agree the Israelites were in fact native to Canaan – an ancient region covering modern day Israel.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6210313/Do-ruins-prove-Biblical-story-Exodus.html

Personally, I think that the Israelites were just an off-shoot of the Canaanites and were in the region always since it is proven that the Egyptians have been proven to have not employed slaves…..but that is just me…..

Any thoughts?