less than jake vs. better than ezra
Russia resumes arms sales to Iran, plus help with its nuclear power plant. At the end of the article it mentions that Iran mostly used Russian arms from previous sales in its war with Iraq - and of course, the U.S. was selling arms to Saddam at that point.
Hallucinogens as psychotherapy. Psilocybin can alleviate OCD, LSD has reduced fear of death and peyote has helped stave off alcoholism. There are many more studies in the works, though of course it'll take forever to implement these substances in any sort of therapeutic program, with our nation's backward attitude vis à vis psychoactive chemicals.
Q & A with Thomas Pringle, the guy who runs mad-cow.org:
Q. What should Americans who have lived abroad, especially in England, do about possible exposure to mad cow disease?
A. I tell them that they should not worry all that much but should monitor developments. There are 60 million people living in Britain who are massively exposed and who ate many more hamburgers. We need to wait and see how big the problem gets in England.
Q. When people ask you what you eat, what do you say?
A. I read a fair number of autopsy reports and see what this disease can do. So I'm much more conscious of what I eat. I wouldn't touch a lambchop given the levels of scrapie here in the Willamette Valley. I would not eat oxtail soup or a T-bone steak. I occasionally eat fish and chicken. But canned tuna fish weirdly can have bovine casings, so I don't eat that. French wine is sometimes clarified with bovine blood, and I probably unwittingly drank some of that at some point. I avoid English cheeses. Basically all my food is locally produced. I'm not interested in food that I don't know where it came from.
I just hope they get a blood test developed soon so I can take it and stop fretting.
