Recently, there have been a few nasty developments in the world of legal highs. I was contacted by this week by GMTV and Radio 5 Live, asking for an interview about the 'new' legal high Ivory Wave causing a stir. Unfortunately, I couldn't give any interviews for various boring reasons and could only give a bit of advice over the phone/email, so I thought I'd write a post about it now I've got the time. Also, The UK's old friend JWH-018 seems to be causing some trouble over the pond, having been linked a couple of deaths in Indiana. Finally, our government have made some more noise about the 'problem' of legal highs which makes no difference for a good year or so and will only make matters worse when they manage to cobble some new legislation together eventually.

The latest buzz out of the automotive world is from Calgary's Motive Industries, which announced it would introduce an electric car whose bio-composite body is made from hemp.
Oh my -- looks like some engineers out there are taking a note from
Cheech and Chong:

The prototype of the four-passenger, zero-emission vehicle, known as the Kestrel, is to be unveiled at an electric mobility trade show in Vancouver in September and would be the first of its kind in Canada, the company said.

Its body is built from hemp grown in Vegreville, Alta., outside Edmonton, and processed into an impact-resistant bio-composite material produced by the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures program, the company said.

No tailgating.

[Thanks Joshua!]

I have a vision for an experience that meshes the newest of consciousness technology, with the oldest wisdom from shamanism and mystery schools, and that seeks a harmonic tuning of the body, mind, and spirit. I propose integrating the Random Event Generator, the Heart Rate Variance Monitor, and the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset into an interactive ceremonial setting, which drastically increases the feedback one receives from the environment, in terms of the coherence and focus of their hearts and minds. I believe that the more we can cultivate an awareness of the effects of our thoughts, intentions and emotions in the seemingly outside, physical world, the more we will realize that world to be an expression of our deepest aspirations for freedom, through the power of direct, unmediated creativity of our minds.

To truly engage the creative power of the universe, we must first go deep into the source of creation within ourselves, through an inner shamanic journey. Modalities such as Holotropic Breathwork, shamanic drumming, sound healing, binaural beats, and brainwave entrainment with audiovisual synthesizers can be very effective at this. The idea is allow the brain to consciously experience the place of deep formlessness (a Theta or Delta state) that one ordinarily will only encounter in deep dreamless sleep or beyond death, and then, after renewal from contact with the source, to come back to spacetime and ground those realizations of inner power and peace in the physical world.

Originally published in 2010 'The Pharmacology of LSD: A Critical Review' by Annelie Hintzen and Torsten Passie is an invaluable source of information. A joint publication between The Beckley Foundation Press and the Oxford University Press, it is the first comprehensive review into the pharmacological effects of LSD and comes at a critical time in the re-emergence of research into psychedelic substances.

The GfxHax drink shield is an Arduino shield that converts an arduino into an Open Source Breathalyzer. It come complete with a light bar to show the intoxiciation levels. There is a series of 11 lights down one side of the shield that go from green to yellow and ultimately to red. There are also player ready lights. Why are there player ready lights? Well, this is because the shield is not just a standard Breathalyzer but can be used as a party game. With the GfxHax drinkShield you also get a GPL game that lets you play with your friends and keep highscores!

[Via Make.]

Originally published in 2004 'The Naked Truth About Drugs' by Daniel E. Williams is a retrospective look at the socio-historical place of drugs in U.S. history. Interspersed within the narrative, Daniel entwines episodes from his own life, including his experiences of a variety of drugs and, as a drug user, his place within society during some of the pivotal eras in drug culture's history.

Whilst Daniel does touch upon some of the ancient history of drug consumption, in order to put into focus the extent to which humans have had a long tradition of dosing themselves, he largely focuses on the late 19th and 20th centuries in regard to his home nation -- the U.S.A.. He explores, in a very clear minded and methodical fashion, the historical contexts for the introduction of certain drugs, the social utility that was found for them and the way in which successive governments have created and manipulated them through law.