Coffee For Hangovers

Morning Coffee

Coffee For Hangovers

On a side note. I would also like to publicly announce that I love Starbucks and the hangover coupling abilities the side effects of its products tend to have on me and my hangovers.

Warning!

This may not work for everyone and caffeine isn't a good idea for everyone if you're a child or senior, this advice is largely for young adults with hangovers who are in no way negatively affected by their caffeine intake any more than their alcohol in take.

Use at your own risk.

Also: My favorite Starbucks drinks are Caramel Mocha Frappuccino and Black Coffee.

Thankfully, Starbucks is located nearly everywhere in coastal and major cities nowadays and a hangover can always be couple with a cold shower and hot coffee, ad hoc if your friends are cool and coffee trucks are around.

Coffee Bean, Coffee Trucks, and coffee from cafe's are cool too.

Cheers!

Hangovers are Ridiculous

HungovHangovers

Hangovers are Ridiculous

Let me explain. 

Hangovers aren't ridiculous because they hurt, they sour your morning and seem to sap your energy for the rest of your day.

Hangovers are ridiculous because they won't go away.

Have you ever had a hangover that lasted two whole days? Well I have.

Hangovers aren't bad so much in that you can't stand them and they make your morning/day that much worse. Hangovers don't truly get bad until they start to mess up your WEEK,

When they start to mess up your week, THEN you may want to consider contacting AA. 

Honestly, Being an alcoholic is difficult. Most young people my age who are in college tend to be one. 

Oozing sweat at the gym that reeks of Bacardi.

Stinking like liquor in the morning with your family looking at you like a f*** up.

Your mates having to bask in one another's smell causing the entire hallway to notice the growing mist of alcohol in the air. 

You can't make this shit up.

"But hey," we always say, "it could be worse."

We all promise to never drink so much again, but for those of us who've already resigned ourselves to the fact that we will be drinking again and have stopped making up excuses, just compensate for it dude.

American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., et al. v. Aereo, Inc

American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., et al. v. Aereo, Inc

The Supreme Court is faced with a dilemma the likes of which has never before been forced upon it. The nine justices are faced with a decision that appoints ownership the of the broadcast frequencies that television and broadcasting companies utilize in order to communicate with television sets. 

Courthouse

In the wake of this decision will be the appointing of a supreme authority, or system, that indicates the sole proprietor(s) of said frequencies used to broadcast things such as television. 

Aereo Inc. invented a device that allowed internet users to stream content on television to their mobile phones, tablets, and PC's via a physical antenna that allows local channels and cloud DVR services.

The settlement of this dispute with Aereo Inc. pits the major broadcasting companies against a small time corporation, Aereo Inc. Ownership of the broadcast frequencies will from this point forward be a hot button Supreme Court issue.

The importance of this decision is in its ramifications for American companies wishing to invent devices and utilize services which denote the use of broadcast frequencies as part of their products.

Sweet Tooth

Chocolate Easter Eggs Inside Chocolate Easter Eggs

Sweet Tooth

Things have been so fattening of late. With Easter and chocolate bunnies and chocolate and more chocolate, I have difficulty NOT stuffing my face FULL of such cocoa encrusted delicacies. Being so frivolous indubitably means that workout's will be in order. Dinosaur's gotta do crunches too.

I, being so lazy after having eaten all this chocolate, decided to do the next worst thing which was bring in the bread. I love bread, breaded goods, chocolate, chocolate-y goods, and chocolate-y-breaded goods.

Not like I haven't sampled salads, daily, for quite some time and that i'm not quite the herbivore myself, simply that I gotta bust my sweet tooth before the surgery, y'know?

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez was born on the 6th of March, 1927. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as "Gabo" throughout Latin America. 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was responsible for the novels, "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "The Autumn of the Patriarch", and "Love in the Time of Cholera" as well as many others. 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

As a growing man, Gabriel Garcia Marquez decided to pursue Law but eventually left in order to pursue Journalism. 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was built notoriety for himself largely by building notoriety for the literary genre known as "magic realism" and oftentimes set his story in the fictional village of "Macondo" and Garcia Marquez often explored the theme of Solitude. 

Gabriel's use of magical elements in otherwise realistic situations built a genre that people could truly feel a strong yearning and desire for as escape is always a large desire for readers. Gabriel Garcia Marquez became a Nobel Prize Winner in 1972 for his work, "100 Years of Solitude."

Yesterday, at the age of 87, Gabriel passed away due to Pneumonia in Mexico City.

At this, the Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos mentioned: "One Hundred Years of Solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time".

The Federal Government, Drug War, and DEA

The Federal Government, Drug War, and DEA

The Federal Government's drug war, or "War on Drugs", was initially launched by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1914 under the United States Treasury after the passing of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act. 

Prohibition didn't come until 1920. With the Federal Government's approval the drug war was waged on the tax-payer's dime. Support was largely drummed up by anti-Bolshevist and anti-Communist sentiment following the first and second world wars. 

Later the Federal Government decided that the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was not enough and merged it alongside the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) in order to make the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

The Federal Government, under Nixon, established the DEA due to the growing availability of Narcotics during and after the Vietnam War.

United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Nixon feared the spread of Communism and feared the narcotics being pushed from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and other Communist nations would end up causing the American public to become sedate and unresponsive to the looming threat of Communism. 

Hastily, Nixon drew up several plans to fight the drug war and ended up creating the DEA.

"The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States. Not only is the DEA the lead agency for domestic enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act, sharing concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), it also has sole responsibility for coordinating and pursuing U.S. drug investigations abroad."

- Wikipedia, "Drug Enforcement Administration."

And so, the drug war was launched into its modern phase which exists to this day.

Marijuana's (or THC's) Effect on the Brain

Marijuana's (or THC's) Effect on the Brain

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have conducted a study using 20 casual, recreational marijuana users between the ages of 18 and 25 and 20 non-users between the ages of 18 and 25. Of those that used Marijuana which contains THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol, at least once per week, brain changes were found in the brain in the regions pertaining to working memory used in the learning and execution of mathematics, and emotions. 

Basal Ganglia, Hippocampus, and Cerebellum

In the old days, Marijuana was a drug that had a much lower amount of THC. This amount of THC made differences between users and non-users much less pronounced however due to the ""seven-fold increase" in THC", says Dr. Hans Breiter, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Northwestern University, there has been a much more pronounced effect and intuitively different set of characteristics and abnormalities separating modern marijuana users from those of the 60's and 70's. 

In the study Breiter examines how the Amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens, the area of the brain responsible for long term memory and emotion, increased their amounts of gray matter which indicates an abnormal growth of neurons in those regions likely caused the THC found in Marijuana.

The study also concluded that those whose marijuana use was highest had significantly larger gray matter and thus neuron growth than those marijuana users who used marijuana less, in the Amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens. 

Breiter goes on to illustrate the major findings of the study but also illustrating that although this study did not prove an absolute, 100 %, direct, cause-and-effect link between brain changes found in the brains of marijuana users and marijuana itself later stating, ""We think that abnormal neuronal growth is evidence that the brain is forming new pathways that could encourage future use of the drug," she said. "We do know there are clinically observable behavioral differences in people who smoke marijuana heavily -- for example, they have a hard time motivating themselves to accomplish goals. Maybe some of these brain changes can relate to some of the behavioral changes that have been observed clinically."

The conclusions one can draw about the effect of THC, or marijuana, from this study is that marijuana use seems to to be causing brain changes in ways which are harmful to casual, recreational users but which are worthwhile trade-offs for medical patients with debilitating or terminal illnesses. That aside, there also seems to be evidence to suggest that marijuana is carving pathways in the brain likely to predispose the marijuana users to using marijuana again and placing them in situations where they are likely repeat use.

It's not to big of a gap between the statement that marijuana users are carving pathways into their brains designed to keep them in situations where use of the plant is near guaranteed, to saying that they have a dependency problem or addiction. 

Brain changes from marijuana use illustrate that emotion and memory centers are drastically effected and thus a user is less likely to keep track of, or care about, changes in their marijuana use. 

As for specifically what Breiter is saying about marijuana use is that THC seems to be the major culprit here and Marijuana users just happen to be the specimens with the highest amount of it in their brains....but there's no connection.

Do the math, know what you're doing.

Marijuana

Marijuana

Weeds

This week I decided to discuss Marijuana

Now, I myself know that in pretty much every lower and middle class neighborhood in the United states lies a pot dealer. States with weed legalized do not count but medical marijuana states and pretty much every region in every developed country has a weed dealer.

From personal experience I can tell you that one cannot see coming nor imagine that sheer fold of events that can transpire due to unregulated and/or illegal markets left unchecked but I, fortunately, am still alive to tell you how explosive things are.

Would you be surprised if, right now, you could walk outside and see weed dealers offloading buckets of marijuana into homes right across the street from your own?

Would you be surprised if, right now, you could walk outside and see weed dealers in a standoff with each other at gun point waiting for someone to make a sudden move?

Would you be surprised if people younger than you, who you'd known your entire life or for many years who lived common middle class existences who were good kids, good people, and always happy, were actually weed dealers and oftentimes full blown hard-drug dealers?

Well, you'd be a dumb ass if you were surprised.

Shit is out there en-masse and the longer the industry and consumption of said marijuana remains illegal the longer it will remain connected to cartels, harder drugs, guns, and the mad men that carry them.

Federally Legalize weed and have people who WON'T murder you over a couple hundred bucks in charge of the drug.

Ukrainian Civil War Underway

Ukrainian Civil War Underway

According to CNN :
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/15/world/europe/ukraine-crisis/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

The Pro-Russian forces have been encircled by the Ukrainian regime of President Oleksandr Turchynov.

Again, the Pro-Russian forces in the Donetsk region have been encircled by Ukrainian military forces in an attempt to siege the Pro-Russian forces in the city of Slaviansk.

The mayor of Slaviansk announced, "If they try to move in, we will have to stop them."

The mayor was referring to the Batallion of 350 Ukrainian troops encircling the city as we speak.

More later in the day.

Man Carrying Burning Tire From Flames

Ukrainian Crisis / Civil War

Ukrainian Crisis / Civil War

The escalating Ukrainian Crisis is nothing if not a Civil War.

Firstly, the oil pipelines running from Russia to Europe are of paramount importance to not only the EU and the RF but also to the business interests of both organizations. To attack or attempt to seize the oil pipeline in anyway, the Pro-Russian Ukrainian forces would be jeopardizing the supply lines of the EU and the political stability of the entire Caucasus as well as the EU. 

Crimean Protest

There's not much to laugh about and there's certainly some scenes unfolding there I wouldn't want in a school play however, the fact of the matter is that this article will 100% NOT cover everything happening in Ukraine, including the statistical chance of an invading superpower stepping in,

Secondly, the current political and military situation in Ukraine's eastern regions including Crimea is unstable. Anything can happen as any invading superpower could conquer the region and militarily siege the supply lines, cutting them off, or siphon the oil for themselves.

In order to achieve stability in the region the Ukrainian and Russian governments must back down and let democracy continue but Crimea should allow the U.N. and the Red Cross in to aid the in wounded and act as peacekeepers to ensure violence does not continue. At the rate that the Crimean crisis is escalating it is only a matter of time before a full-scale Civil War erupts.

Many believe a civil war has already begun with pro-Russian soldiers seizing police stations, government offices, and key strategic buildings to safeguard their territorial gains.  Crimea, with pro-Russian soldiers, Russian soldiers, and the entirety of Russia's military mobilized on the bored of Ukraine in what seems like the classic pincer movement of an invading superpower, where a civil war even be out of the question as a full-scale international powder keg may erupt at a feather's drop.

As to whether or not there is a civil war ongoing, it certainly SEEMS that way.

Now would be the perfect time for an invading superpower to seize Ukraine or Crimea, when at its weakest. Although, it would be globally unpopular to seize Crimea amongst all the political and democratic instability.

Thirdly, Pro-Russian Soldiers are attacking police stations and sieging them in order to seize the arsenal of weapons within alongside armor and other tactical weapons and gear in order to upgrade their weapons and armor from the lower caliber outfits they have and to arm those volunteers willing to enlist with them.

Blood is being spilled and massacres are taking place at these flash points throughout eastern Ukraine and the U.N. needs to step in in order to end the violence where it is most intense or else there will be a full-scale civil war.

Crimean Crisis

Pro-Russian forces are arming and fortifying their numbers more so each day and it is only a matter of time before they have a full standing army.

If the U.N. acts NOW they can do something.

If the RUSSIANS act now, they can stop the violence.

If the UKRAINIANS act now they can stop the violence.

Whoever steps in can end this all RIGHT NOW, even AN INVADING SUPERPOWER.