A buddy of mine from LA sent me this note this morning:

So my son and I are on our way to Pep Boys to get a horn for my car. My son didn't want to go, but agreed to go if he didn't have to wear shoes and could stay in the car. While stopped at a red light, I notice Steve-O and friends filming some skateboard tricks. I elbow my son and say, "Dude! It's Steve-O, go get his autograph!" Chandler (who's in love with the Jackass movies, his favorite being when Steve-O gets his butt pierced), bolts out of our parked car and jets across the street in his bare feet. 'STEVE-O!!" he screams, running right up and giving him this big hug as if he's a cousin that he hadn't seen in a while. "Can I have your autograph?!" he asks. "Sure! But let me show you this trick first."

Unbeknownst to me and Chan, Steve-O is sobering up and he's intensely grumpy. Like old man-get off my lawn, grumpy. Because he's unable to do the trick right away he almost snaps his board in half from anger. But Chandler and he begin talking and playing it up for the camera. Steve-O's friend (behind the camera is the internationally-know skater by the name of Ryan Simonetti) Ryan, and he begin having a great time with Chandler and they're all laughing like crazy. So I park the car.

Next thing I know, there's Chandler and Steve-O skating down Hollywood Blvd and busting each other (as well as Steve-O's entourage) up with laughter. After several "wall grinds" Steve-O takes off his shoes, sets them onto the skateboard and rolls them over to Chandler. "Put on some shoes and show me some tricks Chandler!" he says. Then Steve-O comes up to me, "Dude, is that your kid? Y'know I was pretty upset and then he came along and completely sparkled up my day. He's a great kid! That's why I gave him my shoes and that board."

Boy I sure love this town! And God, I love that kid!

A sober Steve-O, out of the nut house? Does this mean he'll spend more time skating and less time stapling his ass-cheeks together? Probably not...

Download Now

1.) DJ Cheb i Sabbah - 'Kese Kese'
2.) Maria Muldaur - 'Midnight At The Oasis' (Cuica remix)
3.) Beck - 'Missing'
4.) Deee-Lite - 'Picnic In The Summertime'
5.) Deee-Lite - 'Apple Juice Kissing'
6.) Sublime - 'What I Got'
7.) R.L. Burnside feat. Lyrics Born - 'Goin' Down South'
8.) S.S.W.L. (Smokin Suckaz Wit Logic) - 'Herbalife'
9.) Amon Tobin - 'Bridge'
10.) Supreme Beings of Leisure - 'Never The Same'
11.) Nightmares on Wax - 'Les Nuits'
12.) Adam F - 'F Jams' (Cool Down mix)
13.) Fresh - 'When The Sun Goes Down' (Commix remix)
14.) DJ Roots - 'Sorriso De Flor'
15.) The Ye Ye Girls - 'I Was A Ye Ye Girl' (Badfellas remix)
16.) Truss - 'Von Neumann'
17.) Dead PA - 'Burn The Fucker Down'
18.) Kubiks & David Carbone - 'Let It Roll'
19.) XRS & DJ Marky - 'Going Deaf'
20.) D. Kay & DJ Lee - 'Take Some Time'
21.) Art of Noise - 'The Holy Egoism Of Genius'
22.) Xmuzik - 'I'll Beat Cha Up'
23.) Team America World Police - 'Freedom Isn't Free'
24.) The O'Jays - 'Paradise'
25.) The Flaming Lips - 'Buggin'
26.) Tony Valor Sounds Orchestra - 'Ma-Mo-Ah'
27.) Dan Hartman - 'Instant Replay'
28.) Michael Jackson - 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'
29.) Earth, Wind & Fire and Fatboy Slim - 'September/The Joker'
30.) Tayo & Acid Rockers - 'Shorty The Pimp' (Trouble Soup remix)
31.) War - 'Galaxy 2000' (Plump DJs remix)
32.) Ed Solo & Skool of Thought - 'When I Was A Yout'
33.) Reefa - 'You Can't Stop The Groove'
34.) Thievery Corporation feat. David Byrne - 'The Heart's A Lonely Hunter'
35.) Royksopp - 'Remind Me'
36.) Lamb - 'What Sound' (Tom Middleton cosmo mix)
37.) Zero 7 - 'Warm Sound'
38.) Extortion Labs - 'Destination Moon'
39.) Arovane - 'Cry Osaka Cry'
40.) Slide Five feat. Aiko - 'Streamline'
41.) Eric B. & Rakim - 'What's On Your Mind'
42.) DJ Harry - 'Galactic'
43.) Frou Frou - 'Breathe In'
44.) Eric Clapton - 'Change The World'
45.) The Beatles - 'Because' (acapella)
46.) ...'till next year...

Those wacky kids from WIRED have been smoking/insufflating/injecting the wacky again. Here they describe one of the "scientific" ways that scientists study the fun side of the pharmacopaeia:

To better understand addiction, and how to treat it, scientists need to get a better look at the human brain as it is under the influence of weed. Unfortunately, smoking weed inside the narrow chamber of a functional MRI is not easy. To prevent smoke damage and allow their research subjects to puff without moving around too much, Blaise Frederick and his team at Harvard built what amounts to a giant bong.

Harvard Builds Giant Bong... Hey, wait, is this the Drudge Report???

In response to the psychedelic 7-Up commercial posted a few weeks ago, I now give you a Peter Max original: Trippy movie treats from the '70s!

No, honest. Straight from the BBC:

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.

A vital barrier between the brain and the main blood supply of rabbits fed a fat-rich diet was protected in those given a caffeine supplement.

UK experts said it was the "best evidence yet" of coffee's benefits.

...

"Caffeine appears to block several of the disruptive effects of cholesterol that make the blood-brain barrier leaky," said Dr Jonathan Geiger, who led the study.

Thanks Mike!

You know that rush you get after snorting a line of Cocaine? That's due to a fine mist of dopamine molecules purging from their synaptic terminals all at once; a little trick that amphetamines are famous for. Now what happens if you could deliver more dopamine per rush? That's exactly what mad scientists are trying to do with DAT enhancers, drugs that help manufacture the transport proteins needed to handle the surplus dopamine output seen in amphetamine stimulation.

To investigate the consequence of high DAT levels, the researchers developed transgenic mice with three-fold higher levels of DAT compared with unmodified animals. The authors discovered that [amphetamine] was more powerful in animals with more DAT. The dopamine-enhanced animals were more sensitive to the effects of amphetamines, becoming hyperactive and more rewarded by the drug, according to the authors.

Yes, making recreational drug use more rewarding is exactly where I want my tax money going. Extrapolating this out to absurd levels, imagine cutting your speed with industrial DAT enhancers imported from China, and then being able to go three days without sleep on a single hit of meth. What would you call that? Turbo-meth? No, that's already taken. Stupid media.

Here's an unusal op-ed on Saliva divinorum that presents an informed, rational perspective -- and it got printed somewhere! For anyone who has to listen to scare-gibberish about Salvia, here's a good counter-punch:

ATOD coordinator Collin Frazier's article on the psychoactive herb Salvia divinorum is a perfect illustration of the media hype surrounding this plant.

Since Minnesota State Rep. Joe Atkins is currently pushing for legislation that would make it a criminal offense to use or posses S. divinorum, I wanted to bring to light some of the misconceptions about salvia.

Frazier begins his article by pointing out that salvinorin, the active ingredient in salvia, is an opioid. Since both heroin and the prescription painkiller oxycodone (which, though often demonized by the media, has helped cancer patients and other chronic pain sufferers all over the world manage their debilitating pain) are also "made out of opioids," it seems reasonable to believe that opioids are all dangerous, addictive drugs, right?

As it turns out, that's not the case. While salvinorin does activate opioid receptors in the brain, it's important to draw a distinction between the mu-opioid receptor (activated by narcotics like heroin) and the kappa(1)-opioid receptor (activated by salvinorin).

Drugs that work on the mu-opioid receptor cause sedation, pain-relief, and euphoria, but drugs that work on the kappa(1)-opioid receptor generally cause hallucinogenic, but often unpleasant (or even dysphoric) effects.

Since it's clear that salvia and narcotics are not even remotely similar, it's absurd and misleading to lump the two into the same category.

As S. divinorum is perfectly legal in most states, Frazier goes on to correctly point out that the legal status of a drug is not a good indicator of how dangerous it is. However, he draws the unwarranted conclusion that salvia is, in fact, dangerous.

But there are no reports of anyone overdosing or suffering toxic effects as a result of salvia use (there are a handful of reports of people being admitted to the emergency room after allegedly smoking the plant, but the cases are very rare, and the subjects almost invariably have a prior history of substance abuse or other psychiatric problems).

As far as the long-term effects go, a case study submitted by psychiatrists at the University of Michigan Hospital ominously concluded "salvia use may be associated with undocumented long-term effects such as dŽjˆ vu".

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Slate recently ran a pair of alcohol-related stories that are worth noting. First up, on the consuming end, they provide what they call "a beginner's guide to cognac," although it's hard to imagine a tidbit like this actually appealing to a beginner:

Hennessy recently introduced a new cognac, called Beauté du Siècle, whose specs are as over-the-top as its name: Only 100 bottles are being produced, the bottles are all made of Baccarat crystal, each one comes in an ornate mirrored chest apparently fashioned by a team of 10 artists, and the cognac is hand-delivered to buyers by members of the Hennessy board. The cost? $235,000 per bottle.

Still, it's nice to see cognac coming back into focus, particularly in the form of cocktails - both the classic recipes and delicious new inventions:

One of the all-time classic mixed drinks, the sidecar, supposedly invented in Paris during World War I, is composed of cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice; it is now coming back into fashion, and the mixology phenomenon has also given rise to some new cognac-based drinks. The cognac region recently played host to an International Cognac Summit, during which a group of eminent mixologists invented a drink called "the summit," composed of cognac, lemonade, lime zest, cucumber peel, and fresh ginger.

Meanwhile, on the flip side, Slate also provides a nice "history of the hangover". I personally never experience hangovers, which is why I have become such a professional alcoholic, but others feel the pain a little more sharply:

Edmund Wilson said he once inflicted a hangover on T.S. Eliot. "I gave him bootleg gin," Wilson told a friend about an evening he spent with the poet. "He is so shy that you have to drink with him to talk to him—and we both got into bad condition. The next morning he had an awful hangover and said his joints creaked, and I felt as if I had wantonly broken some rare and exquisite vase. I have felt guilty about it ever since."

The delightful sci-fi blog io9 points us in the direction of a great Onion A.V. Club round-up of great fictional drugs, including such lovely hits as this one:

15. Gleemonex, Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy

Billed as making you "feel like it's 72 degrees in your head all the time," Gleemonex is the controversial creation of Dr. Chris Cooper (Kevin McDonald), who has made it his lifelong mission to find a one-stop cure for depression. On the surface, it sounds like a dream: In Cooper's words, his pill "reaches into your brain 'chemically,' then it locates your happiest memory 'chemically,' then it locks onto that emotion and freezes it 'chemically,' and then it keeps your happy happy." But in spite of its initial (albeit enduring) euphoria and the way it seemingly changes lives for the better—Bruce McCullouch's "Grivo" ditches his dour grunge music for award-winning songs about pie; Scott Thompson's "Wally" finally comes out to his family—eventually Gleemonex users become little more than smiling shells, endlessly replaying their happiest memories while trapped in permanent comas. But no one ever said happiness came without a price.

Other hits on the list include our old friend jenkem, as well as some "usual suspects" like melange from Dune. All in all, it's a diverting read.