The US government has released 2,800 previously classified files related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy in November 1963. As readers, historians and journalists comb through the thousands of pages of documents, here is what we have found - Read more
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One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice, when she’s 10 feet tall
Despite her status as an early proponent of LSD, Alice didn’t really have an answer for why it did what it did when she was ten feet tall or just small either. And while the doormouse’s “feed your head” recommendation certainly identified the part of the body that would get the benefit, it didn’t explain why the men on the chessboard got up either. Fortunately, the loosening of the laws and taboos that have long restricted research in lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) are being lifted and scientists are finally able to explore the drug’s effects and potential benefits using human testing. A new study has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and it appears scientists have identified which part of the head is being fed. Pay attention, Alice!
“Using cutting-edge neuroimaging methods we investigated directed connectivity between cortico–striato–thalamo-cortical (CSTC) regions after administration of LSD together with the specific role of the serotonin 2A receptor.”
Recent studies have suggested that LSD somehow affects the ability of the thalamus to act as a bouncer at the doorway to the posterior cingulate cortex – limiting the number of stimuli that can enter so brain’s capacity doesn’t become overloaded. It was theorized the LSD somehow distracts the bouncer, allowing too many dancers, drinkers and other stimuli into the brain, causing LSD’s hallucinations, feelings of bliss and ego dissolution.
“The world around us is not the world we perceive because the thalamus filters out what it considers to be irrelevant information. We don’t necessarily perceive all there is because that would be an overload of information.”
Katrin Preller, a researcher on the project at the University Hospital for Psychiatry in Zurich, led the study. Twenty-five healthy volunteers were given LSD and some were unknowingly given ketanserin, a drug that blocks serotonin receptors, thus blocking the chemical that is believed to help regulate mood and social behavior among other things and is believed to play a part in the effects of LSD. In addition to the brain scans, the volunteers were given a questionnaire specifically designed to identify when a person is tripping.
What did the brain scans and questionnaires show?
“Our results confirm major predictions proposed in the CSTC model and provide evidence that LSD alters effective connectivity within CSTC pathways that have been implicated in the gating of sensory and sensorimotor information to the cortex. In particular, LSD increased effective connectivity from the thalamus to the posterior cingulate cortex in a way that depended on serotonin 2A receptor activation, and decreased effective connectivity from the ventral striatum to the thalamus independently of serotonin 2A receptor activation.”
In doormouse terms, LSD not only incapacitates the posterior cingulate cortex doorman, but throws the door wide open and perhaps even makes it bigger, thus letting in more partying stimuli than the brain can handle. Fortunately, many of the effects are pleasant and, as Steve Jobs liked to point out, long-lasting and potentially life-changing. For the medical field, it means its original purpose – a psychiatric drug to treat a variety of mental disorders – may finally be realized, says Preller.
“We are getting nearer to understanding the complexity of what happens with LSD in the brain and that is particularly important if we are to develop new medicines.”
Thanks, Katrin! You too, Alice. And don’t forget Grace. And the dormouse.
Paul Seaburn (CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE MORE)
A possible “missing link” has been discovered in orbit around the Sun close to Pluto. While it would be a lot cooler if this was the ‘half-ape, half-man’ kind of missing link found floating frozen in space and proving ancient astronaut speculation to be true, this curious object is more of the ‘half-planetoid, half-asteroid which may prove planetary formation theories true’ type of missing link. The Japanese astronomers who discovered this mysterious space object believe it could help further explain how planets in our Solar System formed, and in the process shed light on the origins of Earth as we know it.
The object was discovered by astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) who spent 60 hours with small 11-inch telescopes observing 2,000 different stars looking for any objects which might pass in front of them. That old-school space sleuthing paid off, because the astronomers found evidence of a tiny body known as a planetesimal orbiting the Sun close to Pluto. Planetesimals are protoplanets, small planet-like objects around 1 kilometer in diameter. Given enough time, these objects’ gravity can attract enough matter to become full-fledged planets. The full study of this new planetesimal has been published in Nature Astronomy.
“This is a real victory for little projects. Our team had less than 0.3 percent of the budget of large international projects. We didn’t even have enough money to build a second dome to protect our second telescope! Yet we still managed to make a discovery that is impossible for the big projects,” astronomer Ko Arimatsu said in a NAOJ press release. Geez, somebody get these guys some funding.
The object is estimated to be around 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) in diameter and orbits the sun in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is becoming one of the most-studied areas of our Solar System. This belt of asteroids and objects like this new planetesimal is thought to contain answers to some of the as yet unsolved mysteries of our cosmic neighborhood. How could this tiny planetesimal be related to the long-suspected Planet 9, if such a planet exists at all?
Whether or not this discovery turns out to be Earth-shattering astronomical news, it shows that a bunch of dudes with retail-level telescopes on their roof can still discovery new objects within our Solar System. How cool is that?
Brett Tingley (CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE MORE)
In a 1900 book, History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil, written by Dr. Paul Carus, we get to see what some of our ancient ancestors had to say about the unholy offspring that a coupling between an Incubus and a man, or a Succubus and a woman could create. And if you’re not aware of the incubus-succubus issue, read on. Carus recorded: “The theory of incubi and succubi is presented in all its indecency on the authority of St. Thomas Aquinas, who in his commentary on Job (Chap. 40) interprets Behemoth (a large animal, probably the elephant) as the Devil, and derives from the mention of the animal’’s sexual strength (verse 16) the theory that evil demons can have intercourse with human beings. Satan is supposed to serve first as a succubus (or female devil) to men, and then as an incubus (or male devil) to women; and St. Thomas declares that children begotten in this way ought to be regarded as the children of the men whom Satan served as succubus. They would, however, the more cunning than normal children on account of the demoniacal influence to which they were exposed in their pre-natal condition. Matthæus Paris mentions that within six months one such incubus-baby developed all its teeth and attained the size of a boy of seven years, while his mother became consumptive and died.”
There was a strong belief that something decidedly non-human was behind the offspring of these terrifying, late night couplings. As for St. Thomas Aquinas, to whom Carus referred, he was highly knowledgeable on this matter. He said of assaults on the sleeping and the unwary, and of the nature of the children that resulted: “Still, if some are occasionally begotten from demons, it is not from the seed of such demons, nor from their assumed bodies, but from the seed of men, taken for the purpose; as when the demon assumes first the form of a woman, and afterwards of a man; just so they take the seed of other things for other generating purposes.”
One of the biggest problems when it comes to the incubus and the succubus is the matter of their physical appearance. Or, more correctly, their multiple appearances. People who have experienced such things have described encounters with the so-called “Gray” extraterrestrials of UFO/”alien abduction” lore. Others have claimed rape by demons. More than a few have found themselves under the sway of the closest thing one could imagine to a real-life, shape-shifting, werewolf. Many have experienced horrifying visitations from a phenomenon called the “Old Hag.” It’s a creature that surfaces all around the world, but which is most curiously prevalent, for reasons that remain unknown, among the people of Newfoundland, Canada. As its name suggests, this breed of creature manifests as a white-or-black-haired, withered and wailing, ancient crone. A welcome visitor, she is not.
The prevailing, skeptical view on encounters with an incubus or a succubus is that they are provoked by something called Hypnagogia, better known as “Sleep Paralysis.” It is an age-old phenomenon that was finally given a name in the 19th century, by a French physician, Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury. Essentially, sleep paralysis is a physical state that is somewhere between being awake and being asleep. At that hazy moment, when transition from one distinct state to another is occurring – and, more importantly, if and when that transition is violently interrupted – both body and mind act in decidedly strange fashion.
Sleep Paralysis plunges a person into a dream-like condition in which they, literally, cannot move. For all intents and purposes they are physically paralyzed, and that includes their vocal chords, too: the person is unable to shout, or scream, for help. They also, typically, detect a deeply malevolent presence in the room in which they are sleeping – or, on other occasions, experiencers will describe predatory forms slowly, and in creeping fashion, approaching the room. It’s an experience that can be accompanied by strange and menacing voices, incomprehensible words screamed or whispered at the terrified soul in rapid-fire time, and the sense of something dangerous looming over the affected person, as they struggle to both wake up and move. When they finally manage to do so, the dark atmosphere and attendant malevolent entity are gone, as in practically immediately.
Those skeptical of the idea that Sleep Paralysis has external origins would likely say that the large number of Old Hag encounters that originate in Newfoundland are caused by cultural conditioning, and subconscious knowledge of how the experience should play out. Of only one thing can we be certain: when Hypnagogia occurs, an absolute multitude of supernatural forms appear out of the ether and subject us to violent, sexual encounters.
It’s easy to understand why Hypnagogia is perceived as being the cause of attacks of the incubus and succubus variety. But, there are important questions that needs answering. Sleep Paralysis is an undeniable, real phenomenon; there is no doubt about that. But, is it a product of the internal intricacies of the mind, the dream state, and the subconscious? Maybe not. It might actually be provoked by an external, supernatural source; one that can invade our dream states and manipulate them accordingly.
Nick Redfern (CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE MORE)
“At present, we have no idea of the origin “
This is not what you want to hear from the people who run the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project. Yet that was the message issued on January 25th by the astronomers running the ATLAS-HKO telescopes at the top of the Haleakalā volcano on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. (If your job is to look for asteroids that could kill you, it’s at least nice to know you’ll die in Hawaii.) They were watching a Near Earth Object that was about as near as you can get – 600 km (370 miles) above Earth’s surface at the perigee of its highly elliptical orbit whose apogee is 1.4 times the distance to the Moon. If they don’t know what it is and it’s orbiting the Earth, then it must the …
Black Knight Satellite!
Wouldn’t that be a great story to take our minds off of the rest of our problems? Unfortunately, A10bMLz (they had to give it a name so they could record it in the log and get paid) is not the alleged extraterrestrial satellite which has been orbiting the planet for at least 13,000 years and was supposedly detected by Nikola Tesla. However, it’s definitely a mysterious object that most people outside of the space field have probably never heard of before … an Empty Trash Bag Object (ETBO). A what?
“This suggests that it is what is known as an “empty trash bag object”: A piece of light material (probably metallic foil), left over from a rocket launch. It is not clear yet when A10bMLz has been launched.”
That observation comes from the Northolt Branch Observatories of London, which was tasked with identifying the 1 km (2.2 lb.) A10bMLz using Project Pluto astronomical software. (See a video on their Facebook page.) As one would expect, the name comes from the fact that the object behaves like a trash bag being blown about by the wind. The difference is that this ETBO Is at least 370 miles up – the highest observance of one of these rare objects.
The “trash bag” part makes it sound pretty safe. Are we in any danger from this ETBO? Well, its behavior is unpredictable and there’s no past history to use in a model.
“As with an empty trash bag blowing down the street, it may zig and zag in unpredictable ways. The nominal orbit, though, suggests that this object had a much higher perigee; it dropped to within a few hundred kilometers on this most recent perigee. I do not see any recent lunar flybys, and would not speculate on when it might hit the earth or moon or leave the earth-moon system.”
So, we’re not in any danger and neither is the Moon. Unfortunately, A10bMLz is far less intriguing that the Black Knight Satellite … unless this whole Empty Trash Bag Object is just a ruse to cover-up an accidental observation of it. Or is it an outer-space ploy by environmentalists to finally put an end to the wasteful usage of plastic bags?
At least the ETBOs are empty.
For now, it’s a good example of the ever-increasing variety of space junk in orbit that is endangering the ever-increasing number of private space flights being planned. Which will come first … the accident or the Space Junk and Empty Trash Bag Objects Collection Mission?
Paul Seaburn (CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE MORE)
Mold can look like the stuff of nightmares, especially if it’s a never-before-seen type of black mold eating a cathedral. It’s creepy, but that’s precisely what’s happening to a cathedral in Portugal. The eight-century-old Sé Velha de Coimbra (Old Cathedral of Coimbra) is the only surviving Romanesque cathedral in Portugal and it’s being slowly devoured by a type of black mold that scientists say has never been seen before.
The mold is part of a newly identified family of microcolonial black fungi (MCBF) called Aeminiaceae. Scientists at the University of Coimbra in Portugal scraped samples of the mold off the limestone sculptures in the Santa Maria chapel of the cathedral. After genetic analysis, researchers at the determined that the mold was something they had never seen before. Their findings were published in the journal MycoKeys. While this strain of black mold is a completely new species, the damage mold can do to old stone architecture is well understood. According to the study:
“Microcolonial black fungi are considered one of the main culprits for the phenomenon of stone biodeterioration, being responsible for severe aesthetic, biochemical and biophysical alterations.”
Not to mention the overwhelming sense of dread when you walk into a medieval cathedral and see a statue of a saint covered in black mold. That’ll make you believe in evil as a tangible force pretty quickly.
Newly discovered mold. Credit: João Trovão, et al., (CC-BY-4.0)
The paper continues to describe why these types of mold are so hard to deal with:
They exhibit several physiological adaptations allowing their tolerance to various stress factors, including extreme temperatures, high solar and ultraviolet radiation, osmotic changes, and severe drought.
Despite the supernatural or prophetic implications you’d be forgiven for seeing in this mysterious mold, researchers think it’s been part of the cathedral since it was built, transported to Coimbra on the limestone from which the Sé Velha de Coimbra was constructed, between the 12th and 13th century AD. Due to it’s slow-growing nature, it hasn’t begun to present a problem until now.
The Old Cathedral of Coimbra
The limestone was quarried from from Ançã and Portunhos and was used in the construction of many catholic statues in Portugal as well as in the Royal Hospital in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Now that this new strain of fungus has been identified, it’s entirely possible that it might be growing on these other sculptures as well. As of now, scientists believe hypothesize that the Aeminiaceae is endemic to the Iberian peninsula.
Another way to put it would be this thing is a centuries-old monster, growing larger and larger throughout the ages, relentlessly devouring religious iconography. This is why flamethrowers were invented, right?
Sequoyah Kennedy (CLICK HERE TO READ AND SEE MORE)
Who is wiser: Mister Spock or Master Yoda?
That sounds like a game Dr. Sheldon Cooper would think up on “The Big Bang Theory” (with the obvious (to him) conclusion that he himself would be ranked higher than both) but the question is actually part of a scientific study to determine the personality characteristics of the wisest of the wise. Which of these beloved sci-fi characters did the researchers deem to be the wisest? What would the winner think of science spending money on such a study?
The methodology is logical. Continue.
“With our new study, we wanted to test how the presence and balance of multiple emotions at the same time influence one’s ability for wise reasoning.”
Study co-authors Igor Grossmann, professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo, Harrison Oaks, a PhD candidate in psychology at the school, and Henri C. Santos, a recent graduate, chose to study the relationship between wisdom and emotion – specifically, the traditional theory that controlling intense emotions leads to wiser reasoning versus the new theory that emotions provide insights into life experiences which lead to wiser reasoning. Their results were published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. And the winner is …
Not so fast. The bookies are still counting the bets.
Patience, young Jedi.
It turns out this was not a frivolous celebrity study but a serious attempt to help science through a recent rough patch where it’s meeting resistance – if not downright hostilities – at the highest levels of politics, business and public opinion. Dr. Grossmann found himself constantly being asked by fellow scientists if part of the problem might be that the seeming lack of emotions in the field was causing people to question whether their conclusions came from truly wise reasoning. Initially, Grossmann scoffed at the questions. However, he agreed to lead what eventually became a four-year study.
“We present a series of observational, diary, and experimental studies (N = 3,678 participants) addressing these possibilities, examining how wisdom-related characteristics of reasoning—epistemic humility, recognition of a world in flux, self-transcendence, recognition of diverse perspectives on an issue, and search for integration of diverse perspectives/compromise—relate to emotional intensity and to emodiversity (i.e., emotional richness and evenness) in a given situation.”
With well over 3,000 wise participants, this was indeed a serious study. In one test, participants were asked to discuss a traumatic or life-changing event. In another, they reflected on major geopolitical conflicts and revealed what emotions they caused and how intense these feelings were. The team studied the language the participants used, looking for signs of philosophical-over-scientific reasoning, such as intellectual humility and recognition of changes. They agreed that the tests were subjective, which could explain why they made the test pool so large. And the conclusions?
“It seems that wise reasoning does not align with uniform emotional down-regulation, as portrayed by Dr. Spock. Rather, wise reasoning accompanies one’s ability to recognize and balance a wide range of emotions, as portrayed by Yoda.”
Sorry, Mister Spock. Master Yoda is the true wise one, at least according to this study. What would Dr. Sheldon Cooper think?
“Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Rock is levitated by Yoda. Yoda shows it to Spock. Spock covers it with paper. Paper disproves Spock’s logic. Spock logically concedes to Yoda and sheds a tear. Crying inspires new movie replacing Zachary Quinto with Tom Hanks. Yoda advises producers that this is not a wise move.”
No, they didn’t ask me either.
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