One pro-marijuana group is calling on the government to allow marijuana in smoking lounges at airports across the country.

Cigarette smoking at Denver International Airport and other airports across the country is restricted to smoking lounges.

Members of the Denver-based organization Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) will ask the government Tuesday to allow pot in airport smoking lounges.

The group says in a press release that the idea will address the growing number of in-flight problems involving drunk and disorderly passengers. Members claim marijuana is a better alternative to alcohol to help more fliers relax and deal with the anxiety of air travel.

Amen brother.

Spheramine is a novel cell-based therapy with promise for the treatment of moderate to advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Spheramine consists of human retinal pigment epithelial (hRPE) cells attached to a Microcarrier Support Matrix (MSM) for enhanced hRPE cell survival. These cells are found in the inner layer of the retina and produce levodopa. Spheramine is administered in the brain where the levodopa created by hRPE cells is presumably converted into dopamine, the neurotransmitter that is decreased in PD due to a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons. Spheramine has been granted Fast Track and Orphan Drug status by the FDA.

Looks like they're investigating it for use in an artificial gland implant. Hmm... Do I smell an Erowid Spheramine Vault in the near future?

Both books could be classified as science fiction for children. The plot of "Summer with Agatha" by Renata Opala (1989) seems to be set in the future, it begins in a top-modern city at the Baltic seashore, Ustronie. The main characters - Agatha, Wojtek and Richard, three friends, around 12 years old - are kidnapped by Leonidas the mad scientist, who requires their help in creating a better, fully mechanized future. When they are diving to collect algae for Leonidas' eternal youth machine, an accident happens and they regain consciousness in a strange underwater world. It's Chi-o Chiauauaua, a land under the false bottom of Sargasso Sea. They learn to know the inhabitants, including people who also got there accidentally and decided to stay, which can be made possible by exchanging their blood with blue plasma. Only one person can't ever go back - a little American girl who has grown and can't have her blood transfused back because it would be too little. Moved by her drama, Leonidas becomes a better man and decides to stay and try to help her. Agatha, Wojtek and Richard return to the surface - they are told beforehand that they will forget what happened in Chi-o Chiauauaua. Actually the memories don't disappear in 100% - when the children see a Polish yacht, Wojtek, not knowing why, greets the crew with a Chi-an sign.

In "Great, Greater and the Greatest" by Jerzy Broszkiewicz (1960) the main characters, Ika and Pea-Nose - a girl and a boy of about 10 years of age - are set to a series of three adventures in which they have to prove their courage. Everything starts when they find an old car, recently bought by a neighbor, in their yard and discover they can communicate with it. In the half-fantastic world of this novel machines also communicate with each other and so the children are help their radio and the car find a kidnapped boy. The machines are impressed and so, some time later, the kids travel with a little plane that can pilot itself to Sahara, to find a missing airplane and its pilots who went to seek help. Yet later, when they are traveling with friends of their families, the car finds them and asks them if they would participate in the greatest adventure - to leave Earth and travel to a distant planet. In the planetary system of Vega they have to show that not all Terrestrials are cruel, that they can also show great courage when having to help an alien.

The sounds are recordings from some kind of system for monitoring the solar magnetic field, which is very cool. The video, on the other hand, is totally a CG artists's conception of magnetic fields. So it's pretty, but it's not really science....

A prescription painkiller sold under such names as Darvon and Darvocet is too risky to stay on the market, a consumer advocacy group argued Thursday in suing the Food and Drug Administration.

Public Citizen petitioned the FDA two years ago seeking a ban on the drug, calling it no more effective than safer painkillers and citing the accidental deaths of more than 2,000 people since 1981.

Thursday, Public Citizen filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington arguing that FDA has violated the law by not ruling on its petition within the required six months.

At issue is a narcotic known chemically as propoxyphene, sold by numerous generic manufacturers as well as under the brand names Darvon and Darvocet.

It is considered a relatively weak painkiller. Public Citizen's Dr. Sidney Wolfe cited a recent review of research studies that found ibuprofen worked better for most kinds of pain.

Yet propoxyphene is addictive, and even when used properly it can cause slowed heartbeat and other serious cardiac side effects, the lawsuit says. In addition, Wolfe said it has been deemed inappropriate for the elderly because of other side effects, include sedation and confusion, that increase risk of falls and fractures.

British health authorities ordered the drug phased out there in 2005, saying at the time that it was associated with a few hundred accidental deaths and suicides a year.

The first subject was treated in Peter Gasser, MD's LSD/end-of-life anxiety study in Switzerland on May 13th. This marks the beginning of what will become the first LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in over 36 years. While we're sad that Albert Hofmann didn't live to actually see the first administration of LSD in this study, we're glad he knew the study was fully approved and that the initial subject was going to be enrolled in the study soon. This subject's second and final experimental session will take place on June 27. Dr. Gasser will be writing about the details of this initial research in his report for the upcoming Summer MAPS Bulletin.

And for those of you who don't want to go to CNN to see the stupid video, here is a different stupid video on marijuana that is at least more fun...