Was hoping for the sports.............

 

via the daily timewaster

Having fun with statistics: but there is some question about causation vs. correlation....

  Post-legalization [of marijuana], incomes in legalizing states grew by about 3%, home prices went up by 6%, and populations rose by about 2%. 

-as culled from this Marginal Revolution post

Physician, heal yourself.................

 Unless doctors start treating whole people, AI will displace them, and no one will know the difference.

-Steven Goldsmith, from The Profession Formerly Known as Medicine post

300%......................................?

 . . . ultimately, all of us are at least 300% more effective if we focus on doing one task at a time.  Multiple, independent studies show this to be true.  Still don't believe me?  Just search online "multitasking is a myth" and read to your heart's content.  One study even tested a group of people that considered themselves "good" at multitasking.  The reality was that test subjects were about as effective at accomplishing simple tasks as members of the control group who were high on marijuana. 

-Mark Dolfini, The Time-Wealthy Investor 2.0

In (faint) praise of hippies..................

...........................Some of my best friends were hippies.  I wasn't much of one, although I did own a fabulous pair of rainbow bells.................

Some readers have asked me to elaborate on my perspective on youth culture now vs. the 1960s. To me, campus culture today seems idiotic. I think that the hippie culture of my youth also was idiotic, but it was not as aggressive. If you weren’t a hippie, the hippies didn’t try to shut you up or get you fired.

-Arnold S. Kling, as  he opens this blog post

Here's something you don't read everyday....

Maybe Portugal can show us a different approach to the problem. 

This is worse than awful...............

……….An insider's take on Richard Nixon's 1971 "War on Drugs":


“You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”


-full post is here.  Read the whole thing

...“narrow therapeutic window"...............

In case your inquiring mind wants to know important stuff about fentanyl, this post might be a good place to start.


via

Market forces.....................................?

It is tempting to wonder if, in the future, today’s crisis will be seen as generated from the same kind of trauma, this time in reverse.  If industrialization caused an opium epidemic, deindustrialization is no small part of what’s fueling our opioid surge. It’s telling that the drug has not taken off as intensely among all Americans — especially not among the engaged, multiethnic, urban-dwelling, financially successful inhabitants of the coasts. The poppy has instead found a home in those places left behind — towns and small cities that owed their success to a particular industry, whose civic life was built around a factory or a mine. Unlike in Europe, where cities and towns existed long before industrialization, much of America’s heartland has no remaining preindustrial history, given the destruction of Native American societies. The gutting of that industrial backbone — especially as globalization intensified in a country where market forces are least restrained — has been not just an economic fact but a cultural, even spiritual devastation. The pain was exacerbated by the Great Recession and has barely receded in the years since. And to meet that pain, America’s uniquely market-driven health-care system was more than ready.

-Andrew Sullivan, as culled from this essay

thanks Michael

The good old days.................?

By 1870, opium was more available in the United States than tobacco was in 1970. It was as if the shift toward modernity and a wholly different kind of life for humanity necessitated for most working people some kind of relief — some way of getting out of the train while it was still moving.

-Andrew Sullivan, as taken from this essay

Thought nicotine might have made the list....

"The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary."

-Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Talking superclusters..............

Astronomers now believe that superclusters (galaxies with 1,000 to 10,000 TRILLION stars) lurk on the other side of the Milky Way (the galaxy we call home) from us.  We are just now finding them as we are just now figuring out how to see through our galaxy.   These newly discovered superclusters have been hiding behind this:

Just for context, a supercluster may contain "hundreds or thousands" of galaxies.  Reminds me of my favorite part of Animal House:



And do we still think WE are the central focus of the Universe?


thanks

As with most addictions..................

.......................this one has been painful.

"We are addicted to the war on drugs."

-backstory here

You gotta love..............................................

....................the Law of Unintended Consequences.  "And then what?"

Quite the list........................

Fairly certain the law of unintended consequences would trump and chaos would reign, but it that's your thing and you are grounded in the 1960s, you might want to check out this list of demands.  Just one sample:

8. A society which works toward and actively promotes the concept of “full unemployment.” A society in which people are free from the drudgery of work. Adoption of the concept “Let the Machines do it.”

The war on "illegal" drugs.......................................

...................A war worth ending?  Probably.  It hasn't been much of a success so far.  Now,  if only they could figure out a way to collect taxes on them.

The magic of............................

..............................................................Mr. Market.

y

“The economics of the cannabis industry show us that with 

healthy competition in the market, prices drop, quality rises, 

violence diminishes, and peaceful transactions increase. 

Maybe we should just surrender in the "War on Drugs" and 

declare victory.  Back story here.

Wishing you a very merry Unbirthday......

Alice In Wonderland..............................The Unbirthday Song



MARCH HARE: A very merry unbirthday to me
MAD HATTER: To who?
MARCH HARE:  To me
MAD HATTER:  Oh you!
MARCH HARE:  A very merry unbirthday to you
MAD HATTER:  Who me?
MARCH HARE:   Yes, you!
MAD HATTER:  Oh, me!
MARCH HARE:  Let's all congratulate us with another cup of tea.  A very merry unbirthday to you!
.........
MAD HATTER:  Now, statistics prove, prove that you've one birthday
MARCH HARE:  Imagine, just one birthday every year
MAD HATTER:  Ah, but there are three hundred and sixty four unbirthdays!
MARCH HARE:   Precisely why we're gathered here to cheer
BOTH:  A very merry unbirthday to you, to you
ALICE:  To me?
MAD HATTER:  To you!
BOTH:  A very merry unbirthday
ALICE:   For me?
MARCH HARE:  For you!
MAD HATTER:  Now blow the candle out my dear.  And make your wish come true
BOTH:  A merry merry unbirthday to you!

Ok...............that means................

photo via

Wonder how this worked out....................?

via