Lady Demands Government Explain Rainbows

"We as a nation have got to ask ourselves what the hell is going on."

I mean, rainbows are pretty perplexing, I know, but I don't think it's a consipiracy...

This really didn't need an explanation, it's just plain funny...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Funny British Journalist Lady Experiments With Weed for 30 Days

Almost like a British Super Size Me, Nicky Taylor will smoke pot for 30 days to determine its effects on her while she investigates the medical, legal, and social ramifications of legalizing marijuana. Get ready, she's a giggler...

The clip below is particularly funny as we watch her try her first joint since college in an Amsterdam coffee shop - she is aptly warned to take a "few puffs" and wait ten minutes before she takes anymore. In a distinctly British way she calmly describes her feeling of utter panic after smoking not two or three, but 25 puffs before it sets in. You feel for her a bit, but it's pretty funny.

Vaughn from Mind Hacks posts all 6 YouTube links and focuses on the difference between the two main active ingredients - THC and cannabidiol. Cannabidiol with THC makes people giddy and calm, while THC alone tends to make people agitated and paranoid (as Nicky shows us quite clearly). Since researchers say cannabis has anti-depressant effects, I'm sure our science-fiction pharmaceutical industry will finally find a way to circumvent the law and make pot pills a reality.

Anyway, the program is a good combination of entertaining and informative...

Life and Radiohead

From one of the Radiohead Video contest winners for the song, Reckoner.

I don't know the literal interpretation of the video, but it looks like life proliferating on earth and then out into the cosmos. I may be projecting here, but it shares an idea I've always had about life in general - on this planet we evolved from unicellular organisms into human beings with civilizations that will inevitably burn the place down. But life will find its way around somewhere else in the universe - just takes a while before it develops the self-awareness we have. Makes me wonder how many times it has already happened in the history of the universe...

Beautifully and tastefully done. Radiohead are at the forefront on how to share and create art.

SSRI's For Life?

Yikes, came across this today on Furious Seasons - from Paxil Progress, this patient is told by his doctor that he'll have to remain on Paxil for the rest of his life.

"'[Y]ou may just be one of those people that have to stay on Paxil the remainder of your life. It is like insulin for diabetics. Many people take SSRIs for their whole life. Plus, because of the length that you have been on Paxil, you may never be able to get off it.'"

No big deal, right?

Mel Brooks on Psychoanalysis in 1977

I've just caught a few scenes from Mel Brooks movie, High Anxiety, described by my cable service as:

"A doctor with vertigo heads the institute for the Very Very Nervous." Classic Mel Brooks (apart from when he wasn't doing The Producers as a musical, then a movie, then a musical again, then a movie again...).

Mel Brooks is Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, and I almost wish he was my pyschiatrist:

Dr. Thorndyke: Dr. Montague, I'm curious, what exactly is the rate of patient recovery here at the institute?

Dr. Montague: Rate of patient recovery? I'll have that for you in a minute (pulls a calculator from his coat pocket, hits some buttons)...once in a blue moon.

What's amazing is that all the cliches of the psychiatry community is just as applicable 30 years later.

The Luck and Misfortune of Indoctrination

There are times when I see documentaries like HBO's, Hard as Nails that I think how fortunate I was to grow up in a household with no religion. I was, and am free to form my own opinions, to explore the nature of my environment as I choose. Sure, I had my fair share of political indoctrinations, but never religious ones.

Choice and will are amazingly powerful ideas, phenomenon that seem unique to human beings - though it seems the people that utilize their freedom of choice and will are the most susceptible to more extreme forms of madness and sadness.

It's then that I feel unfortunate (or maybe just scared) to be an atheist. That as Dan Gilbert attests (see TED lecture below), too many choices can cause misery. One is constantly weighing the what-if scenarios until whatever choice is made can never be perceived as the right one. More on that later...

Given my frustration and anger over the practice of religious indoctrination, like the atheist biologist, PZ Myers, and his vitriolic minions, I figured I'd find comfort in reading his blog. He practically lead the fight to smear Ben Stein's awful "documentary," Expelled, which peddles the virtues and breakthroughs of intelligent design, and defends itself against the evil tyranny of evolution proponents.

But sadly, after reading PZ's blog a while, and even commenting on a few posts, followed by being summarily ravaged by his readers for my views (and I'm an atheist), I found that instead of finding allies in this group, I found an angry mob that I couldn't relate to at all. Many of the people that find the time to comment on his blog appear to have become what they speak out against - dogmatic, pack-like, group thinkers. Their ideas are grossly simple and obnoxious - religious people are stupid, and atheists are enlightened. On top of that I find PZ to be a goading, narcissist, blowhard.

He actually commands his regular readers to vote on internet polls to skew the answers to silly religious questions. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea, and it appeals to the anarchist atheist in me, but it's the blind faith of his atheist congregation who adhere to his commandments like zombies that I find disconcerting. Of course, I'm not saying he's responsible for the comments of his readers, but he certainly seems to enjoy whipping his fanbase into a frenzy. It's reminiscent of the space monkeys in Fight Club. Though it might be part of a good cause on the surface, it breeds the same kind of indoctrination religion does.

On the flip side, the good fortune of indoctrination through religion is a confidence in life, a track. A feeling that there is a guide and/or reason, which removes the fear to take steps forward - one needn't worry, it's Meant To Be. Many of the theists I know are confident, intelligent people - their religious views relatively quiet. I only know the specifics of their beliefs because I tend to press the issue. And as I listen to their responses, I find myself envying their life as they seem to enjoy the quiet comfort that everything is in its right place. As opposed to more militant atheists (and I used to be one), I see no point in attacking people for their religious beliefs. Nine times out of ten, it just tends to polarize the issue.

We're born to believe. We're bred not just to listen to our parents, but to follow their rules with the fear of death. "If you cross that street without mommy, you'll get hit by that car." You better damn well listen. We are born with our temperaments, but otherwise, we're a sponge for the habits of our parents and culture. This ability ensures our survival - for most species, to question is to die.

But as we're learning, our biology doesn't correspond to our environment anymore. Many humans don't live in constant survival mode as opposed to the rest of the animals (excluding the ones we've domesticated). Civilization allows us to be freer to pursue other endeavors. Despite having all this extra time, the ability or inclination to question our personal indoctrinations is still fairly rare. Yes, it's still beneficial for a child to be obedient, but the side effect is that every child receives the superfluous religious and political beliefs of their parents, which carves patterns into their pliable but ultimately stubborn brains. It's pretty difficult to unlearn the wrong lessons of our parents while maintaining the good ones. Indoctrination is a double edge sword.

Blind, stupid, or some kind of neurological condition?

Check out this horse, look at those teeth!



I mean, really, how can you miss the picture that badly?