American Madness

I LOVE this story:

Towards the end of May, a drug dog at Narita Airport (Tokyo) failed to detect 142 grams (about 5 ounces) of pot in the side pocket of a passenger’s luggage. While this must be troubling for the Japanese officials, what is a bit more troubling is how they knew that the pot was in the bag in the first place.

Apparently, a quick-thinking customs official had the bright idea to break a couple of regulations and plant the pot in a unsuspecting passenger’s luggage in order to test the dog and improve its at-work performance. The dog, unfortunately, failed his at-work test and missed the drugs completely, though I have a feeling the dog isn’t going to get in too much trouble for this one, especially since the story continues. (more…)

Should we bring back the asylums of yesteryear?

Is the promise of modern medication exceeding its actual effectiveness?

These are questions that come to mind having read yesterday’s Freakonomics Quorum post by Stephen Dubner.

The column, How Much Progress Have Psychology and Psychiatry Really Made? is definitely worth reading in its entirety.

There is one section I would like to discuss and that has to do with a woman whose son was bipolar and who committed suicide when he stopped taking his medications. The writer says:

“Four years ago I lost a beloved son to suicide due to bipolar disorder. As devastating as this is, I do believe that the treatment he received increased his quality of life and chances for survival. His doctors and therapists were compassionate and concerned, working very hard to assess and adjust his treatments, and I came to respect the complexity of his condition and what they were trying to do on his behalf.

Is it possible he was in some ways a guinea pig in terms of the various medications he took? Perhaps, but I believe they were our only hope of giving him a chance in light of the seriousness of his condition and his previous suicide attempt. When he did complete suicide, we discovered that he had stopped taking his medications, so I don’t blame the medications, but the lack of them.”

Now as horrible as it may seem, I feel compelled to take issue with this lady. The problem which caused her son’s suicide was the fact that he stopped taking his medication. We have recently had a spate of mass murders in America committed by psychiatrically disturbed individuals who were mainstreamed in society because they were on medication. The problem that resulted in the killings has often been that the patient stopped taking the medication. (more…)

We all knew Bob Denver (Gilligan) was a stoner. Denver was arrested in 1998 for receiving some marijuana sent to him in a package through the mail. Originally he claimed that Dawn Wells (a.k.a. Mary-Ann) had sent it to him. He later recanted this statement and said that a crazy fan must have been the culprit. It looked like the real story would never come to light when Denver died in 2005.

That is until some news yesterday brought this story back to mind. Dawn Wells was arrested back in October (I am not sure why Associated Press picked this up yesterday*) for driving under the influence AND possession of marijuana.

Looks like the story of Mary Ann mailing Gilligan some pot might not be too far off. Wells “was sentenced Feb. 29 to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving.” Apparently a friend testified that he had borrowed the car and left the drugs in there himself. Yeah, likely story.

*Possibly because Sherwood Schwartz just got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week

Too often folks who inject lots of drugs are written off completely. Sharing needles is a massive problems that leads to all sorts of diseases being passed including AIDS. This brings us to Exchange Supplies:

Exchange Supplies is a social enterprise set up by drug workers to supply drug services and needle exchanges with quality products, publications, and conferences and to provide employment and training opportunities for drug users.
We are at the forefront of the harm reduction response to illicit drug use, and are committed to preventing blood-borne virus transmission, drug related deaths, and improving the health of drug users.

(more…)

Today on American Madness we are going to have a bit of a theme- the military and their new ideas for Super Soldiers (with of course some variations on the theme).

First we will start with a bit from The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to their site DARPA is “the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense (DoD). It manages and directs selected basic and applied research and development projects for DoD, and pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.”

Few can argue that it would be a bad thing to have soldiers who are stronger, faster and harder to kill (well as long as they are on your side), and that is the line of research Michael Callahan, a program manager at DARPA, proposed at their bi-annual conference. According to Wired the research would focus on studying animals that live and thrive in hostile environments or have exceptional endurance and by learning what we can from them applying it to the human model for advanced military training and development.

Callahan also hopes to focus on pathogens, currently we only have defense against “7 of 44 dangerous pathogens” he hopes to up that number by studying pathogen evolution and predicting mutations and the evolutionary cycle of the pathogens so as to develop vaccines prior to the evolved pathogen becoming a threat.

It all sounds really interesting, the idea of studying pathogen evolution actually sounds similar to the curent method for developing flu vaccines. Each year the flu virus evolves, to have vaccines ready in time for flu season, doctors research and guess how the virus will evolve, based on the most likely course of mutation and evolution they develop various vaccinations against the flu which they then incubate in poultry eggs. Once flue season is upon us the researchers can check which strain has become dominant and release the correct vaccination to the general public. Interesting concept, except there is still a bit of guess work involved. One wrong guess and you end up with a year without full strength vaccinations.

Major thanks to Peter Shankman at PR Differently for passing this along.

Apparently a group of interns operating at one of New York’s finest summer employers (an investment bank, a law firm, advertising, marketing…who can say?) were charged with putting together a detailed list of happy hours.

This list is by no means comprehensive and our crack team of pattern recognition experts is hard at work trying to figure out what the listed bars have in common.

As always, send in your suggestions for additions.

If the authors want to come forward and embarras their firms (who is paying these billable hours anyway?), please feel free to contact us via comment, carrier pigeon or subpeona.

The American Madness Happy Hour Spreadsheet

(From the same people who brought you NYC Rooftop Bars: The List.

UPDATE
I hadn’t thought to check the spreadsheet’s properties, but it does appear that an employee of Disney was at some point responsible for creating (or perhaps just forwarding) this wonderful list. Thanks to Eater for the enlightenment and the plug.

And for the love of food…
As long as all you Eater fans are trundling through the briar patch, you might check out some of our stories in Food & Drink:

• Perry Street Fans and their Salty Ways
• Get Your Drink On
• Tasty Treats On The Move
• Recipe Quicky: Pineapple Hot Sauce

etc. etc.

Am I a bad person that the entire content of this press release makes me giggle a bit?

Apparently Memorex produces some compressed air that kids are using for huffing. To curb this problem they are introducing an additive to the product to make it less pleasant to inhale. It seems that 2.1 million idiot teens (12-17) have tried huffing. This honestly doesn’t seem like the biggest problem to me, in fact maybe it is a good thing, thinning out the pack a bit, if you will.

Okay now here is what I don’t get- If a kid is buying an air canister to get high, aren’t they just going to buy a different brand now? And if this is a serious concern of parents that they are buying the Memorex brand now to prevent huffing, shouldn’t they maybe having a talk with their kids instead?

Now I am wondering if the joy I get from blowing all that dust off my keyboard isn’t from having a nice clean area but rather a contact high. Next time I am inclined to clean my keyboard will I find myself gagging instead?

I am still laughing at this one so I don’t even know where to start. So, apparently a police officer in Michigan stole some confiscated marijuana, baked some brownies and then freaked out and called 911.

Besides the news woman actually cracking up on air, the best line in the video is “And I think we’re dead. Time is going by really really really really slow.”

Check out the video here

On a more serious note: Why the fuck was the officer allowed to resign with no charges brought against him? Not only was he in possession of drugs, as well as using drugs, he also is a thief who stole police evidence. Seriously, time to bust this guy. Well, that or legalize it.

On a lighter note, I think my job has killed me because time here seems to be moving really really really really slow.

Did I mention one of the anchors actually snorts?

(Thanks for the tip Taina)

So, I am a bit of a sucker for Education/School News and Social injustice. I tend to get outraged when I feel someone has been wronged. Having said that I have found a great topic to get outraged about:

Apparently at Columbia University a professor told her students what sections of the semester’s books to study for the exam. I would call this a review session. The students then went ahead and made guides to the test based on this review session. Administrators at Columbia, on the other hand, are calling it a cheat sheet. The students are now being accused of cheating and told they either need to retake a new final or they will be graded on other work they have submitted this semester. They claim they are not punishing the students here.

This is a pretty high level of bullshit, even for the world of academia. If I take good notes and pay attention through out the year to what the professor says in class, is that cheating as well?

When I read these things I get outraged and tend to get a bit flustered. Rather then ranting and raving incoherantly here instead I will post an article about it from the NY Post cutely titled “Ivy Leak: Prof Helps Columbia Cheaters” as well as a blog posting about it from Gothamist that is a bit more eloquent then the Post and also has the letter sent to the English Department by Administrators “Oops, I told My Students What Would Be On The Exam.”

I bank on a Law & Order episodes based on this one.
(Left Photo- the real Jaime Escalante; Right Photo- Edward James Olmos & Lou Diamond Phillips from Stand & Deliver)

Ever since I first read about it I have been a fan of the White House meeting between President Nixon and Elvis.
Here is the quick rundown:

On Dec. 21st, 1970 Elvis was on an American Airlines flight and felt it would be a good idea to write to President Nixon, telling him he wants to meet him, give him a gift and become an agent in the war on drugs (could I even make this up?).

Nixon and his people decide the meeting would be a good idea and accept.

At the meeting Elvis shows up in full Elvis regalia (sunglasses, large belt and what appears to be a velvet suit) gives Nixon a WWII Colt .45 revolver and some family photos. In return Nixon gives him a badge to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (so he can be an agnet at large… He didn’t want an official title) presumably so he can battle against The Drug Culture, Hippie Element, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. who see Elvis as their friend and not part of “the Establishment.”

Well, there are tons of web sites devoted to this meeting but a great one is up by the Nation Archives called When Nixon Met Elvis.
Definitely worth checking out