Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Al Gore's New Climate Movie

All the science, plus more entertainment.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure what to think about global warming, but I think we are transforming the environment in a way that decreases our fitness.

As for drugs, this seems like a favorite topic for neophobics. They always claim that the latest drug is extremely dangerous in everyway possible. Recently it's been the "bath salts" that will turn you into a cannibal.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Actually, I'm on that one. Synthetic marijuana, K-2, bath salts, beans - these things really are horrible in ways we have not seen before. There is some similarity to PCP in strangeness, similarity to inhalants in their quickness.

I see it live, across the table when we are doing initial evals. Bad stuff.

james said...

Strange. I wonder why the new brews are so much more dangerous. Did we develop some tolerance to chemicals from ordinary plants, but not so much to brand new ones?

Says here amphetamines don't occur naturally, though ephedra does, so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Two factors: There is a destruction factor which becomes self-limiting. PCP isn't used so much because even experienced drug users found the danger too high. Some die, the others move on to different drugs. Cocaine is dangerous, but it's like driving. The amount of death per mile is low. Users have many repetitions and find themselves still alive. So the new drugs will tend to be more dangerous. Even among people with terrible judgement, there is a fun versus fear factor.

But there is also a sophistication level of the chemists that increases the danger. Distillation created more danger than simple fermentation; breeders can increase the THC in marijuana. (Similar manipulation of nicotine was part of the lawsuit against tobacco companies.) With the new synthetics, there is a knowledge of reuptake at particular receptors that can be jockeyed to make a high last longer. In fact, some stuff can persist for weeks. Other body systems don't like the strain. It used to be only the liver and the kidneys, maybe the heart temporarily. Now the organ exposure continues of hours or days, with cumulative brain damage.