According to a brief story from New Scientist:, researchers at US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: in Bethesda, Maryland, figured out how just triggering the memories of cocaine use can set off cravings in former addicts. It’s all about that magic word “dopamine” again…
SBS Less Tabloid on Meth?
Back in March I complained about current affairs program Four Corners’ tabloid screeching about methamphetamine, and published follow-up comments. This week SBS has a go. Will it be less tabloid?
Winter Solstice Name Day 25
“Oh, no mate, I wasn’t Stilgherrian until after that was taken. For my student card, so that’d be… March, maybe February. Stilgherrian wasn’t until Winter Solstice…”
25 years ago today!
Daggy photo, eh? Am I scared or was I trying for cool and moody, somehow? Scared, I reckon. I was too nerdy to even know how to look moody, let alone actually achieve a significant level of floppy-haired angst. Now Stephen… now he pulls that off so well. But then he lives in Melbourne, it’s “of the place”.
Sydney doesn’t have the sandstone Victorian for a fully grey, Londonesque, Londonangstridden pout, 30% eye shadow and 70% the precisely-edited slow-motion curl of a designer black trench coat. Not with any genuine sense of ennui, anyway.
al-Zarqawi Who?
Small-c christian Father Bob Maguire puts the assassination of al-Zarqawi in context.
Great Techno, and Check My Patch
The Solstice begins with a chance pleasure. Extraordinarily fine community broadcaster FBi has just put online the audio and video of “Blackness of the Sea”, a cruisey tune from Deepchild who, as they accurately put it, is “one of Australia’s most respected producers of leftfield dance music”.
Download. Listen. Enjoy. You’ll also see my local patch, because the video was shot in Newtown in Sydney, same postcode as me here in Enmore. I can spot about 50% of the locations so far.
Two Favourite Satires
OK, it’s been ages since I posted something, so to remind everyone that I still exist, here’s two of my current favourite satires.
Panexa: Wonder Drug
Thanks to New Scientist magazine for news of this “important new wonder-drug”:
PANEXA is a prescription drug that should only be taken by patients experiencing one of the following disorders: metabolism, binocular vision, digestion (solid and liquid), circulation, menstruation, cognition, osculation, extremes of emotion.
Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO)
The Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division (DMRD) of Newark, Delaware warns us of “the controversy surrounding this dangerous chemical”.
DHMO is a constituent of many known toxic substances, diseases and disease-causing agents, environmental hazards and can even be lethal to humans in quantities as small as a thimbleful…
Despite the known dangers of DHMO, it continues to be used daily by industry, government, and even in private homes across the U.S. and worldwide.