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Curious Times No. 200
July 10, 2003I'M WAITING FOR A STUDY OF THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF THE MUNCHIES
In case you missed the news because you were too stoned to pay attention to the news last week, the most recent study of the long-term effects of marijuana use has found that smoking pot has almost no long-term impact on the brain functions of adults. Researchers at the University of California in San Diego analyzed data from 15 previously published, controlled studies into the effects of recreational cannabis use, and found that pot has only a marginal harmful effect on learning and memory, and no effect at all on other functions, including reaction time, attention, language, reasoning ability, and perceptual and motor skills. "The findings were kind of a surprise. One might have expected to see more impairment of higher mental function," said Dr. Igor Grant, pointing out that most other illegal drugs, and even alcohol, can cause permanent brain damage. (Reuters Health)ALIENS CONTROL THE PLANET (I THINK)
What happens when academic eggheads try to legitimize alien conspiracies theories by writing painfully dry research papers? Titles like this: Responding to Extraterrestrial Infiltration of Clandestine Organizations Embedded in Military, Intelligence and Government Departments. I really wanted to read this article, because the title loosely translates as "Aliens Run The Secret Government," but I couldn't get passed the stuffy writing. Cure your insomnia at http://www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper-4.htmREALLY CHEAP DRUNKS
A study by two psychologists at Victoria University in New Zealand found that test subjects who thought they were drinking alcohol began acting drunk even though they had only received tonic water. The experiment split 148 students into two groups, and fed all of the students several glasses of tonic water. However, one of the groups was told that they were drinking vodka, and that group was found to be more suggestible, had worse recall, and made significantly poorer witnesses than the "sober" students. After being told the true nature of the experiment, the "drunk" students insisted that they felt drunk, which would explain why they had been giggling and flirting with the researchers throughout the experiment. (BBC)AND THE MORAL IS SHUT UP AND DON'T TAKE NOTES DURING SEX
A couple of strange divorce cases were reported in Europe last week. The first, in Finland, happened after a man making love to his mistress in his car accidentally caused his cell phone to call home. When his wife answered, she heard the two going at it and recognized the voice of her husband's mistress as one of her best friends. She promptly went to the woman's apartment and smashed her in the face before chasing her husband with an ax. Meanwhile, a Romanian man ended up in divorce court after his wife found his diary, in which he was keeping a log of every sexual experience he had ever had. The diary included almost 10,000 entries, but only about 3,000 of those were with his wife. (Yahoo News) (Ananova)WHEN WILL THE KARMA POLICE STOP THESE PEOPLE
A group of Londoners have formed a loose alliance of people who head out into the streets carrying out random acts of kindness on strangers. The "Karma Army" is the brainchild of Danny Wallace, 27, who recruited the first group with an ad in the paper which read simply "Join Me." The group now boasts over 3,000 members who head out every Friday to do simple good deeds for people. "You just kind of walk up to them, do something nice for them like hand them a pot plant, and then walk off. And that's it," explains Wallace, who adds "I'm thinking of taking the cult to America - the home of the cult." (BBC)A LICENSE TO PRINT MONEY
London's Evening Standard newspaper has confirmed my suspicion that computer printer inkjet cartridges are a huge money-sucking ripoff. They report that printer ink is now more expensive than vintage champagne, ringing in at about US$2.80 per milliliter, compared with 38 cents per milliliter of 1985 Dom Perignon. They also advise that printer warning lights come on long before cartridges are actually empty, and claim that you can almost double the life of your ink jet cartridge by ignoring the warning light. (thisislondon.comTRADE YA TEN MARRIED ASSES FOR SOME RAIN
The city of Madras, India, suffering from intense droughts, turned to an ancient ritual in order to appease the rain gods last week. As the summer sun continued to scorch the city, five pairs of donkeys were married in a public wedding by religious scholar R.K. Bhagavathiraj. "Our scriptures have instances of donkeys being married to get rain," he claims, " I am confident that after this ritual, Lord Varuna (the rain god) will bless Chennai (Madras) with copious rain." We'll see... (Sidney Morning Herald)SPEAKING IN TONGUES
A 23-year-old Russian woman is being studied by linguists after she started speaking foreign languages in her high school about ten years ago. She claims that she started spontaneously speaking different languages one day during math class, and was just as surprised as anyone with her new found talent. Researchers studying her unique powers say that she can speak 120 different languages, including arcane and rarely used languages such as 16th century English, Chinese, Persian and Mongolian. She claims her gift comes from her memories of past lives. (PredictionMagazine.co.uk)CHEAP LAUGH OF THE WEEK
Bored? Go to Google, do a search on "Weapons of Mass Destruction," and click on the "I am feeling lucky" button. Then, carefully read the error page which comes up.
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