Happy Newtonmas

Today is the celebration of the berth of sir Issac Newton.  and it can be done so with a decorated tree and the giving of presents.  Or the dropping of apples.  traditions regarding this holiday haven't relay been cemented.  For me the important thing is the celebrating 

Happy Newtonmas!

Fest de musik

On Sunday the fifth I went to a festival in Bethlehem Pennsylvania called musikfest.  I went to see Philadelphia Funk Authority.  It was great.  I saw them a few months ago at Mayfair.  This band is really good.  I have it on good authority that they schedule vary few rehearsals together.  Before they played I was lucky enough to be at the before party for hosted by George Hrab.  He and his friends were vary welcoming, they are some of the smartest most skeptical people in the aria.  What a refreshing change for me.  It is great to find a group that can say wait amount where is this information coming from? what is it biased on? how valid is it? I have found my tribe. 

The past year has been a life changer for me, I now have a new goal and a new set of standards and principles for myself.  With this I can be 'part of ' instead of 'solo' it makes me happy.  There was no mountain to high and no valley to low. 

Prison Poem #7

Where are you Carl Sagan, they say you are no more but then where you ever?
Why don't you answer me Carl Sagan are you to preoccupied with something else right now?
I watch you Carl Sagan and I fallow the tune of your song.
The universe is everywhere even in your cashmere turtle neck.
Nothing will stop you Carl Sagan not even the Ghost oh so Holy.
Love is many a splendid thing and you know this Carl Sagan.
you know this all to well.  Down in the depths of heaven we travel Carl Sagan.  We are like explorers of a new frontier.  Not a thought for discretion have I.  In your investigation Carl Sagan did you ever find something and regret it? Did you ever keep some truths to your self?
Where are you Carl Sagan, I need to know!

How far is the next atom over?

To quote the skeptic down the street; "how far is far?" if you try to calculate the distance to anything you have to make certain assumptions. You have to assume the space in between is the same kind of space at each point. And that's just the beginning. So how far is it to the nearest star? 4.2421 light years. How far is the nearest pharmacy? This is a little harder for me to answer. How far is it to enlightenment? This is impossible for me to answer. Here's the thing: our knowledge of the first question's answer has changed the most. Our answer to the second question has been the most relative. Our answer to the last question has, in my opinion, always lacked something. Sometimes it lacks a bases in reality sometimes it lacks a bases in thought. So how close am I to the person next to me? How far are we to our neighbor? How far are you to the ones near you? And how close are you to yourself? How close are you to the ones you love? How close are you to happiness? It's not the answer that's important but the question to be considered.

In limbo

Iv been off the trail for a while and it's been a nice change but the trail calls and the sublime calm that is there draws me back. I hope all of you who are reading this hike at least one day if not more to know the other side of life. Money has been short and I hope sombody pushis my donate butten. Try to force a smile it may brghten your day.

The Neuropsychopharmacological History of LSD

     There is an eight page paper by Dr. Erika Dyck on the pre-war studies of d-lysergic acid diethylamide starts out pretty slow.  The beginning is very straightforward stating “The therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs have recently resurfaced as a topic of debate in neuropsychopharmacology.”  After a very brief mention of recent studies in hallucinogenic drugs, such as the drug referred to as ecstasy helping Parkinson’s, and PTSD, the historical overview commences. 
      As is described “[LSD] first appeared in the scientific literature in 1943.”  The study of the drug became very popular in the medical community for its “potential contributions to psychiatric research.”  Until the early 1960’s attention was strong.   It faded but not before over 500 articles in 15 languages on the subject ware published in scientific journals.  In 1962 Timothy Leary was fired for his “indiscriminant promotion” of the substance.  The story was big news, so much so that this can be marked as the turning point for the public viewpoint on LSD.  It all finally changed in 1966 as everyday news focused on the dangers of LSD and the masses were swayed into agreeing with negative associations.  The same year Federal governments in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, France, and the UK banned the use of LSD.  Despite this there were still proponents for using LSD in a medical environment. 
      The first sample synthesized was in 1938 but it was five years till the drug was discovered.    The chemist Albert Hofmann did this by accidentally coming in physical contact with his creation and had the first recorded “trip.”  The drug was studied, then published, and then embraced over the next few years.  The decade 1950 was good for advancements in psychiatry.  LSD experimentation coincided with the radical renovation of psychopharmacology, producing two Nobel Prizes.  Article after article was published on different experiments involving LSD. 
      In 1952 two scientists; Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer, started “collaborating over their mutual research interests in biochemical experimentation.”  Their experimentation found that drugs like LSD could induce schizophrenic like symptoms.  This was followed with the deduction that mental illness is biochemical.  In other words; “a theory that explained mental illness as the manifestation of metabolic functions. This assertion pointed to the possibility that mental illness was inherently a biological entity.”  Both men took psychotropic drugs and reported on their effects so as to placate the populace.  “LSD seemed to produce a “model psychosis,” which provided a new method for studying symptoms of mental illness.”  Later that year Hoffer and Osmond looked for funding to develop this theory but doctors in Ottawa and Ontario did not provide. 
      In 1953 Osmond realized he could use LSD to help in the treatment of alcoholism.  Using LSD to force the patent to simulate the complete and utter despair of their situation he may find sobriety.  The first trial found two alcoholics, one male, one female, and subjected them to an intensive drug therapy combination.  After six months the subjects were completely cured of there alcoholism.  There was a two year flow up and both subjects were still sober.  The second trial included 24 patients and after three years the results were; half unchanged, quarter improved, and one quarter much improved.  The third study used a method close to the scientific method.  Three groups; one with group therapy, the next with LSD, and the last had individual therapy.  The LSD pool of subjects had a success rate of 65.5%, much larger then the others. 
      In these studies the doctors were mostly successful in curing the patient’s alcoholism.  This shows just one example of positive uses of lysergic acid diethylamide and how people see it can, with further study, be more positive.  The trouble with this drug is the stigma behind it.  There is this idea that all illegal substances are bad.  The only problem is that no good would come with out the research into drugs like fungus derivatives or methamphetamines.  With out certain antibiotics or ADHD medication the medical community would be set back.  So if no advancements are made than no cures are found.  Even LSD has its good side. 
      This good side is the one that is not known to use completely, but that is because of the negative stigma that plagues the drug and others like it.  “LSD is bad.  It can make you go insane.  It will make you see what’s not there.”  These fears are not completely based in falsehoods but there is no real reason that with the proper research this drug could be a very helpful medication in the future.  There is no real rationalization, in fact, for the idea that LSD is a hard core psychotropic.  The idea that something so powerful is shunned away like bad odor is simply wrong.  Not even the mass murdering atom-bomb was discarded, it was developed into energy.  LSD has such potential which seems to be squandered for the simple idea that it is to scary. 

Life is like...

I got a text from an ex-girlfriend this morning. It was at about 4:00 am it said something like 'are you alive'? And so started, before the sun and lasting for about two hours, a talk. It was interesting because we got onto this strange tangent of fate and causality. The topic was so interesting I am still thinking about it now 14 hours later.
There is this conflict in me regarding fate. Since I do know a thing or two about science this is where my reasoning comes from. But my conclusions are all fate based.
Fate; the idea that all events past and future are predetermined, makes vary much sense to my reasoning as well as my beliefs. The summary goes like this; if one can see all the atoms in all of existence then one can determine where they will go. So if one knows where every atom is going to be at one time then they know where every atom is at all times. This thereby brakes down on the quantum level but it might be possible to predict all forms of matter all that is needed is to be able to observe them in all their existence, not being limited to three dimensions for one. So the possibility of the original theory still being valid holds.
On the other hand my feeling about this idea only holds water in the past or the future. As far as decisions I make in the present are concerned all I can say with confidence is there is a probability of action not A certainty no matter how much is understood. So if there are an infinite number of parallel universes then which one are we in. Whoops jumped a thought. All possible outcomes to any event not only can happen to a certain probability but they do happen it's only us that experience one of the possible outcomes. So back to it. Which one are we in!?