10 Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented With Drugs

More random facts {Part 2} Posted on February 10, 2012 in Humor If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Facebook or Twitter . Thanks for visiting! LEGENDARY SURFERS: "Lords of Acid" [Excerpt of "LORDS OF ACID, How the Brotherhood of Eternal Love Became OC’s Hippie Mafia," By NICK SCHOU, Orange County Weekly, July 7, 2005 ] Thumper knew it was time to run away from home when he saw his dad’s car in the driveway. He was walking home from Laguna Beach’s Thurston Middle School, heading up the hill to his house, reflecting on the fact that, months after the Summer of Love, his mom and dad weren’t quite finished beating the hell out of each other. His dad was vice president of a major perfume manufacturer, rich, and angry.

The Narco State - By Charles Kenny America's longest running war -- the one against drugs -- came in for abuse this weekend at the Summit of the Americas. The abuse is deserved. Forty years of increasingly violent efforts to stamp out the drug trade haven't worked. And the blood and treasure lost is on a scale with America's more conventional wars. On the upside, we know that an approach based around treating drugs as a public health issue reaps benefits to both users and the rest of us. President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala opened the rhetorical offensive against the drug war last week when he wrote that "decades of big arrests and the seizure of tons of drugs" have not stopped "booming" production and consumption.

Entheology By David Ian Miller Alex Grey paints souls. His work shows human bodies — rendered with medical-illustration precision — wrapped in layers of sacred energy. Whether you believe Grey's work depicts the reality of divine auras or a particularly vibrant artistic license doesn't much matter. His paintings have an uncanny effect on viewers, making them sense — or at least consider the possibility of — the subtle energies that surround us and how these personal force fields might change depending on our intention, actions and moods. They are modern-day religious icons and mandalas for 21st century Westerners.

The World's First Hippies and Their Marijuana Sauna One of my favorite ancient historians is the entertaining and garrulous old Greek Herodotus (b. 484 BC), called the "father of history" by some and the "father of lies" by others. Herodotus was famous for reporting what he heard, which was often fantastic. His book centered on the conflict of Greece and Persia, and in so doing, he took the time to explain the customs and geography of the non-Greek world, from the oldest (Egypt) to the youngest (the Scythian nomads). Throughout, his attitude is exemplified by a comment he makes on Persian customs. After describing the Magi's Zoroastrian custom of killing evil animals (those created by the devil Ahriman such as ants, snakes, cats, and so on, unlike cows, dogs, and other good animals created by the good god Ahura Mazda), he says, "Well, it is an ancient custom, so let them keep it" (p. 58).

How Famous Companies Got Their Names Ever wondered about how famous brands got their names from? Here are a couple of explanations. Via Fitz Hugh Ludlow hypertext library Welcome to the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Hypertext Library, concentrating primarily on the life and works of Fitz Hugh Ludlow and on pre-prohibition (pre-1937) cannabis use in the United States, with a few other related topics thrown in for good measure. Among the hypertext documents you can browse through at this library are: A Biography of Fitz Hugh Ludlow by Dave Gross.The Apocalypse of Hasheesh -- An essay published anonymously by Fitz Hugh Ludlow that formed the basis for his later book.The Hasheesh Eater -- the book by Ludlow, first published in 1857.What Shall They Do to Be Saved? Excerpts from "An Essay on Hasheesh" by Victor Robinson, from the Medical Review of Reviews (1912)."On the Haschisch or Cannabis Indica" by John Bell, M.D. From The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal April 1857."

Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs? Consider current policy concerning the only addictive intoxicant currently available as a consumer good — alcohol. America’s alcohol industry, which is as dependent on the 20 percent of heavy drinkers as they are on alcohol, markets its products aggressively and effectively. Because marketing can drive consumption, America’s distillers, brewers and vintners spend $6 billion on advertising and promoting their products. Americans’ experience with marketing’s power inclines them to favor prohibition and enforcement over legalization and marketing of drugs. But this choice has consequences: More Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses or drug-related probation and parole violations than for property crimes. And although America spends five times more jailing drug dealers than it did 30 years ago, the prices of cocaine and heroin are 80 to 90 percent lower than 30 years ago.

Psychedelia Psychedelia is a name given to the subculture of people who use psychedelic drugs, and a style of psychedelic artwork and psychedelic music derived from the experience of altered consciousness that uses highly distorted and surreal visuals, sound effects and reverberation, and bright colors and full spectrums and animation (including cartoons) to evoke and convey to a viewer or listener the artist's experience while using such drugs. The term "psychedelic" is derived from the Ancient Greek words psuchē (ψυχή - psyche, "mind") and dēlōsē (δήλωση - "manifest"), translating to "mind-manifesting". Psychedelic states may be elicited by various techniques, such as meditation, sensory stimulation[1] or deprivation, and most commonly by the use of psychedelic substances.

The Atlantean Conspiracy - 45 Jesus, Santa, Mithra and the Magic Mushroom "Have you ever wondered why on Christmas we cut down/carry evergreen trees inside our houses, decorate them with fancy ornaments, and place presents underneath them? So, why do people bring Pine trees into their houses at the Winter Solstice, placing brightly colored (Red and White) packages under their boughs, as gifts to show their love for each other and as representations of the love of God and the gift of his Sons life? It is because, underneath the Pine bough is the exact location where one would find this ‘Most Sacred’ Substance, the Amanita muscaria, in the wild.” –James Arthur, “Mushrooms and Mankind” (8)

6 Real People With Mind-Blowing Mutant Superpowers If the insane, explosive popularity if superhero movies is any indication, we are fascinated by people who are insanely better than us at any given thing. Probably because, in real life, we're all such a bunch of incompetent boobs that we've been enslaved by blue paint, flashing lights and crying French babies. But it turns out, superpowers are real. And not just the secret ones that everyone has, or even the ones everyone thinks they have -- this Cracked Classic is about a group of people that, in a sane world, would already have multi-colored leather jumpsuits, delightfully mismatched personality traits and a skyscraper shaped like whatever they decide to call themselves. We've all dreamed of having superpowers at some point (today), but the majority of us have to accept the sobering reality that preternatural abilities simply aren't possible. For instance ...

Carl A. P. Ruck Carl A. P. Ruck (born December 8, 1935, Bridgeport, Connecticut), is a professor in the Classical Studies department at Boston University. He received his B.A. at Yale University, his M.A. at the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. at Harvard University. Potopia Could Shutdown Haunt Burwell? by Ben Jacobs Larry Downing/Reuters Obama’s nominee to succeed Kathleen Sebelius played a key role in closing Washington’s monuments—a...