Groove Salad is another of my favorite internet radio stations. There was just a station announcement asking people to sign up for monthly donations online. They stated matter-of-factly that the signup lets you choose monthly donations of $1.00, $2.99, $4.20, and $7.99.

Broadcasting through our top-secret carrier pigeon relay team, we get news of our embedded correspondent's first day at the Black Rock Arts Festival, also known as Burning Man:

5:07 PM: I rolled into Burning Man late this afternoon and was surprised to see how much had already been set up. The camps were still very much under construction, but Center Camp was fully functional and the local radio station was playing a crazy mash-up of Bob Marley's 'Buffalo Soldier' and some trance music slowed-down and tweaked to sound like retarded dub. Two nude bicyclists pass by and wave as I am getting out of my car. I like this place already!

6:15 PM: While setting up my tent two young girls wearing nothing but cowboy hats and g-strings walk up to me and ask (in unison) "Do you want oral pleasure?" I am stunned, but reply, "Sure!" To my dismay all they do is hand me a little mint with the Burning Man logo on it and giggle. "Come to Oral Pleasure camp on Thursday night for our big Oral Pleasuring party," says one. I can't help but stare at their perfect young breasts, I think I may have actually drooled. God I am repressed. "Okay," I say lamely. "Where is it?" "You'll find it!" They giggle as they walk away. Fuck, I haven't even set up my tent and I've already been had like a noob. I may not be ready for all this just yet.

9:20 PM: After the sun went down all the party lights came on the music got noticeably louder and more techno-y sounding. I wander around from camp to camp watching people mostly stick to their own groups, putting the finishing touches on their sound systems, domes, crash spaces, theme camps, and whatever. I find a trance camp with a DJ spinning some ripping Goa breakbeat stuff and dance for a while. Someone passes me a Gatorade bottle with a "G" on the cap and tells me to drink "Just one cap full!" I pour myself a cap full and take a sip. It tastes like Gatorade mixed with piss, so I'm guessing it's GHB (Or could it actually be piss? Would someone actually do that!?). Throwing caution to the wind I drink it. Two hours later I am still dancing my ass off, except now I can actually defy gravity. Growing tired, dehydrated, and disoriented I return to my tent and collapse on the floor. Despite my best efforts everything is covered in dust. I am exhausted from traveling all day and close my eyes and try to sleep against the "thump thump" beat reverberating across the playa. I silently wish I had some oral pleasure. Sigh.

Talk about movies inspired by drugs! Although much of this movie is silly, aimless, over the top, and missing the teeth of Hunter's original work, there is one scene that just knocked me out of my seat when I first saw it. That's right, the hotel check-in scene, when the pattern on the carpet begins to slither and crawl up the wall. Damn! Hollywood has never come closer to accurately detailing this particular aspect of an LSD trip, and here it is for your pleasure!

Everyone knows the biggest problem with the pain drugs is that the best ones tend to be addictive; highly addictive with painful physical withdrawals. In the ongoing race to build a better painkiller, scientists have tested mice with modified 5-HT neurons to see how this would affect pain control and addiction. The summary of the results are as follows:

"These findings demonstrate that opiates exert their analgesic effects through a serotonin mechanism but that serotonin is not responsible for the negative, addictive side effects associated with those pain-killing drugs," Chen says. "That was unexpected because serotonin has been known to interact with other neurotransmitters like dopamine or to modulate the levels of these neurotransmitters in the forebrain, which is important for reward-seeking behaviors." Chen says the finding raises the possibility that serotonergic neurons or opiate receptors on those neurons could be potential targets for opiate drugs that might suppress pain without risk of tolerance and drug addiction.

Although the mice in this study were genetically unique, if these findings can be corroborated this means we may see a whole new class of selective opiate agonists being developed to target specific subtypes associated with serotonin modulation. While I doubt the pharma people will ever develop a drug that targets one specific opiate receptor subtype while completely missing the others, you can sure bet millions (if not billions) of dollars will be spent chasing this dream. Of course, if all of this separating pain control from addiction is true, it also means that the opposite would be true: There is a theoretical drug out there that has absolutely no psychoactive or analgesic properties whatsoever, but is more addictive than heroin. Yikes!

You know modern attitudes towards drug use are changing when mainstream media sources like MSNBC.com are offering real-world advice on how to talk to your kids about pot. And no, this is not a "Just Say No" piece of propaganda drivel, it actually makes sense. Here are just two of the seven tips offered in this quick article:

4. Don’t forbid. Drawing a hard line and overstating risks breaks the bond of confidence. “Kids will dismiss what they hear from parents when they know or sense they’re being steered wrong,” says Marsha Rosenbaum, who runs the drug-awareness project Safety First.

5. Try to delay their experimentation. In addition to the brain-scan argument, Earleywine suggests a message along the lines of, “I need you to wait just as you do to drive a car or operate a chain saw.”

Although this list of tips stops just short of showing kids how to roll a proper joint or impress their friends with the hot-knife technique, at least it's a start!

It's sometimes hard not to be cynical about the problem today's youth face in fighting drugs -- it's a tough minefield they have to wade through. But now there's a new weapon in the war on 'cheese' heroin: Soccer! Really, I can't make this up.

A youth soccer league created this summer to stem the popularity of a dangerous heroin mix known as "cheese" has grown to include 112 teams, the league's director said.

The Tex-Mex Soccer Children's League, which involves more than 1,800 children and parents, most of them Hispanic, represents how a sports program can be used as an effective tool to fight against the drug, director Andres Vidales said.

"The primary focus is the eradication of this drug," Vidales said Sunday during a rally that brought players and their parents to the parking lot of Thomas Jefferson High School.

Okay, maybe I am missing something here. Sure, soccer will keeps kids hot and sweaty and in shape, and all that running around after balls will keep them out of neighborhood traps where 'cheese' is sold, but do these guys really think soccer will "eradicate" heroin? Well, let's think about it rationally. The world's biggest opium supplier is Afghanistan, and their most popular recreational sport is... (wait for it) Soccer! There you have it, conclusive proof that soccer eradicates heroin!

Using a VR program to fool the brain's perception of self, scientists have been able to induce OBEs, or out-of-body-experiences, quite easily. From the New York Times:

Usually [the brain's] sensory streams, which include vision, touch, balance and the sense of where one’s body is positioned in space, work together seamlessly, Prof. Botvinick said. But when the information coming from the sensory sources does not match up, when they are thrown out of synchrony, the sense of being embodied as a whole comes apart.

The brain, which abhors ambiguity, then forces a decision that can, as the new experiments show, involve the sense of being in a different body.

This article goes into some detail about how the brain's sensory cohesion can be fooled by simple tricks, and how loss of cohesion can lead to all sorts of paranormal perceptions. Check it out brain scientists!

Custom wallpaper with designs that morph around room features? Count me in! Now you can feel like you are tripping all the time...

Thanks Ewa!

On another forum where such things are discussed, a total stranger who may have been a friend of a friend but who most certainly was not me, was asked "do you mind sharing one of the many spiritual insights you have had, using verbalization?" The following was the response:

A long, long, long time ago (in a galaxy far far away?) I used to have an ongoing messianic N20 delusion thing. The very first time I ever did a N20 hit (which was the first time I had ever experienced any chemically altered mental state of any kind, never having been interested in alcohol when I was younger) I went way out, and when I came back, I found myself screaming "No! No! No!" and everyone was gathered around with a sort of ineffectual whatthefuckness about them. After I had time to reflect on the experience I was enthralled with the idea of figuring out what was out there that meant so much to me, as I did not feel like I had entirely brought back the meaning I had touched on that touched me so. And this drove further experimentation for quite a while.

There were a number of versions of revelation active at various stages in time, but one was that I had been destined for some kind of saving the world, but I had failed some kind of test. I found myself questing after another chance, or
something; eventually things became rather muddled and self-resurgent- involuted-compulsive. There are plenty of stories that came out of that!

Now, with the benefit of real wisdom from others, I realize that my messianic delusion, and probably everyone else's too, is simply a distorted glimpse, filtered through the haze of our original-sin, judgment-day cultural baggage, of my own sacredness. I am powerful, beautiful, precious; my me is worth being, worth taking care of, and worth doing well. And the same is true for you, and everyone.

It's funny to see it so simple now, remembering how mysterious and cosmic it once seemed. It's a little sad to look back and remember all the unnecessary struggle and torment I put myself through trying to figure it ALL out; there are many things I remember with the same feeling of compassion I get when I see someone else suffering. I feel usually quite distant from the person that was so absorbed in that quest. Sometimes the veil lifts, or perhaps it's a connection that momentarily pellucidates, and I re-experience an old moment. That is a precious pain, and I cherish it, but I'm glad it's not always accessible. In any case, it was all worth it for the certainty and stolidity I have now.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

There will be a Celebration of Peter’s Life on Sunday, August 26 from 1 to 3 pm at the Attic which is located at 931 Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz.
-- Lynn Francis--

James' post links to a page with the old date, Saturday.