Magic Mushroom Milkshake Island Out in a dirty surfer bar in Bali earlier this year, a guy called Big D—an ex-convict with a huge, South Carolina-themed tattoo—told my friends and I about Gili Trawangan, a tiny, idyllic island where magic mushroom milkshakes are sold on the side of the road like it's no big deal. Aware of the fact that ex-cons in dirty Balinese bars usually have the best party hook-ups, it seemed wise to take a day trip to Trawangan. The island is an early morning, two hour boat ride from mainland Bali. We could have taken the 20 minute flight to Lombok, the neighboring island, and gotten a water taxi from there, but a similar plane flying the same journey had crashed a week earlier and we're all mega pussies. Our boat was called the Rizky Bone, which, coincidentally, is what I was going to call the nu-metal band I started with a rockabilly kid when I was 12. After about 30 seconds of being there, you start to realize that mushrooms are pretty much inescapable.
Study: Intelligence, cognition unaffected by heavy marijuana use By William J. Cromie Gazette Staff The new study of cognitive changes caused by heavy marijuana use has found no lasting effects 28 days after quitting. Following a month of abstinence, men and women who smoked pot at least 5,000 times in their lives performed just as well on psychological tests as people who used pot sparingly or not at all, according to a report in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry. That's the good news. "If there's one thing I've learned from studying marijuana for more than a decade, it's that proponents and opponents of the drug will put opposite spins on these findings," says Harrison Pope, a Harvard professor of psychiatry and leader of the research. "As a scientist, I'm struck by how passionately people hold opinions in both directions no matter what the evidence says. Withdrawal produces impairment All took batteries of intelligence, attention, learning and memory tests on days 0, 1, 7, and 28 after quitting the drug. Unsatisfied lives
U-M team recovers ancient whale in Egyptian desert Completed excavation of the skeleton of 18-meter long whale Basilosaurus isis in the Western Desert of Egypt as exhibited last week by University of Michigan and Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency paleontologists. Photo: Philip GingerichUniversity of Michigan paleontologist Philip D. Gingerich and colleagues at the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) announced April 10 the successful excavation of an unusually complete and well-preserved skeleton of the 40 million-year-old fossil whale Basilosaurus isis. The new skeleton is 18 meters (50 feet) long and was found in Wadi Hitan in the Western Sahara of Egypt. The new skeleton of Basilosaurus will be shipped to Michigan for preparation and preservation, Gingerich said, via email. The fossil whales of Wadi Hitan were first mapped in the 1980s and 1990s during expeditions led by Gingerich, a professor at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and Department of Geological Sciences. Source (text and images) : University of Michigan