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Help Fund Research for the Treatment of Major #Depression with #Psilocybin


I’m ecstatic to see that this important research is being undertaken! That it’s crowdfunded is cool, although I lament this method of unfortunately necessary funding. This is potentially groundbreaking research, shouldn’t there be a better way? Until then, this is happening…

A recent but still unpublished study at Johns Hopkins demonstrated rapid, substantial, and sustained (lasting up to six months) antidepressant and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effects of a single dose of psilocybin in psychologically-distressed patients with life-threatening cancer diagnoses.
This is incredibly exciting. What if we could decrease or avoid altogether the known side-effects (and frequency of consumption) of current antidepressant drugs like SSRIs?

Source: Help Tim Ferriss Fund Research for the Treatment of Major Depression | Tim Ferriss’s Fundraiser

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Today in #NOPE: Terrifying ancient crocodile discovered in the Sahara was almost the size of a bus


NOPE NOPE NOPE

This prehistoric crocodile is believed to have measured more than 30 feet long and weighed three tons. The skull alone is more than five feet long. Researchers named the new species the Machimosaurus rex and described their findings this week in the journal Cretaceous Research.

“Massive” is how lead author Federico Fanti of the University of Bologna described the crocodile. “It’s just big. It’s almost the size of a bus.”

Source: Terrifying ancient crocodile discovered in the Sahara was almost the size of a bus – The Washington Post

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“Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are.”


About the author: Redditt Hudson, a former cop, works for the NAACP and chairs the board of the Ethics Project.

“The number of people in uniform who will knowingly and maliciously violate your human rights is huge. At the Ferguson protests, people are chanting, “The whole damn system is guilty as hell.” I agree, and we have a lot of work to do.”

Source: Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are. There’s only one fix. – The Washington Post

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US stops British Muslim family from boarding flight to visit Disneyland | US news | The Guardian

This is infuriating and embarrassing! I can only hope this draws more attention to the opacity and unfairness of our current DHS + No-Fly List.

US Department of Homeland Security officials provided no explanation for why the country refused to allow the family of 11 to board the plane even though they had been granted travel authorization online ahead of their planned 15 December flight.

… the airline told them that they would not be refunded the $13,340 cost of their flights. They were also forced to return everything they bought at the airport’s duty-free shops before being escorted from the airport.

Source: US stops British Muslim family from boarding flight to visit Disneyland | US news | The Guardian

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SpaceX vs Blue Origin – Business Insider

The difference between SpaceX’s rocket landing and Blue Origin’s, TL;DR:

[Blue Origin’s] New Shepard is designed for what is called suborbital spaceflight, where the rocket reaches space but is not high enough or fast enough to place its spacecraft into a complete orbit around the Earth.
Suborbital space is about 62 miles above Earth, which is the maximum heights New Shepard can reach. The International Space Station is 4 times higher than that.

Source: SpaceX vs Blue Origin – Business Insider

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“we actually ask you not to wear the hijab”

Before reading this, I didn’t know much (really anything) about why Muslim women often wear headscarves. The piece provides a fascinating history of how this came to be normal… Did you know hijabs have been legally required in Iran since only 1979?
In any case, much respect to the Muslim Reform Movement for stating their case and taking on this front.

Challenging the hijab

To us, the “hijab” is a symbol of an interpretation of Islam we reject that believes that women are a sexual distraction to men, who are weak, and thus must not be tempted by the sight of our hair. We don’t buy it. This ideology promotes a social attitude that absolves men of sexually harassing women and puts the onus on the victim to protect herself by covering up.

Source: As Muslim women, we actually ask you not to wear the hijab in the name of interfaith solidarity – The Washington Post

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All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization

Wow. Take 5 minutes to scroll through this infographic today. The TL;DR here is “there’s way more derivatives than actual money in the world today”.

The derivatives genie is now well out of the bottle, and these instruments will almost certainly multiply in variety and number until some event makes their toxicity clear. Central banks and governments have so far found no effective way to control, or even monitor, the risks posed by these contracts. In my view, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.
—Warren Buffett

Source: All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization