Monthly Archives: September 2021

DNA of a female hunter-gatherer, buried 7,000 years ago in Indonesia, reveals population history of SE Asia – The Indian Express

Posted: September 12, 2021 at 9:02 am

A team of archaeological geneticists has reconstructed the genome of a female hunter-gatherer from the Indonesian archipelago, which sheds significant light on the population history of southeast Asia.

This study reports the first-known human genome from Leang Panninge in Wallacea, an oceanic island in the middle of the continental shelves of Sahul and Sunda.

Although anatomically modern humans are posited to have crossed over to Australia from Asia as early as 65,000 years ago, the oldest dated Homo sapiens remains come from only 13,000 years ago. One of the reasons is the tropical climate, which decomposes natural tissues quite quickly and is therefore not very conducive to the preservation of any remains. Previously, only two ancient human genomes, one from Laos and another from Malaysia, had been sequenced from southeast Asia.

Hunting gathering is a lifestyle that is associated with the Palaeolithic (3 million years ago to 10,000 years ago) in the archaeological record. This lifestyle was largely replaced by the adoption of agriculture and domestication of animals and plants, widely known as the Neolithic Revolution (10,000 to 8000 years ago). However, some hunter-gatherer groups have managed to survive to the present day and have been the subject of many anthropological inquiries.

Reconstruction of genetic history

The present study employed molecular markers with different modes of inheritance to examine the genetic history of the individual from Leang Panninge.

While nuclear DNA (nrDNA) is biparentally inherited i.e. approximately half coming from the mother and half from the father, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) shows uniparental inheritance i.e. it is inherited exclusively from the mother. Studies targeting more molecular markers than one enables a better reconstruction of the genetic history of a population.

The DNA was sequenced from the petrous bone, a small bone in the ear region of the skull. The petrous, in recent years, has been targeted extensively for ancient DNA for its remarkable preservation of genetic material.

Since there is a paucity of a wide number of ancient individuals, any ancient DNA study has to be compared with the known genetic history of present-day populations in the region, which, in this case, were southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and other Oceanian islands.

Who was her ancestor?

Genetic analyses reveal that the individual shares significant genetic ancestry with the present-day populations of Oceania Australia, Papua New Guinea and other island groups.

Selina Carlhoff, the lead author of the study, clarified in an email: In direct comparisons, we show that these Near Oceanian groups are more closely related to each other than to Leang Panningewhich would place Leang Panninge outside of that clade.

The populations of Oceania and Eurasia are supposed to have diverged 58,000 years ago, and the Papuan and Australian people around 37,000 years ago, which is also when the Leang Panninge individual had branched off.

While this was going on, populations from these areas had seen multiple introductions of genetic material from the Denisovans (Denisovans are an extinct species of early hominins that ranged across Asia during the Palaeolithic).

Researchers identified another genetic ancestral lineage in the ancient genome of the individual that seems more closely related to deep Asian lineages.

Considering the Leang Panninge individual as an admixture between a Near Oceanian- and a deep East Asian-related lineage may also explain the reduced amount of Denisovan-related ancestry compared to present-day Papuan groups, Carlhoff added.

Given the dearth of pre-Neolithic genomes from the region, it is difficult to underpin the exact source of admixtures. It could be that this individual carries some ancestry from the first Homo sapiens inhabitants of Sulawesi around 50,000 years ago, or that a Southeast Asian group related to the present-day Andamanese people had contributed some genetic material.

The author is a freelance science communicator. (mail[at]ritvikc[dot]com)

Originally posted here:
DNA of a female hunter-gatherer, buried 7,000 years ago in Indonesia, reveals population history of SE Asia - The Indian Express

Posted in DNA | Comments Off

Newly discovered Napoleon hat with DNA previews in Hong Kong – Reuters

Posted: at 9:02 am

HONG KONG, Sept 6 (Reuters) - A newly discovered hat with DNA evidence proving it belonged to the legendary European statesman and general Napoleon Bonaparte was previewed by auction house Bonhams in Hong Kong on Monday.

Described by Bonhams as the "first hat to bear the Emperor's DNA", it is on display in Hong Kong before it moves to Paris and then London, where it will be auctioned on Oct. 27.

The hat, one of the iconic bicornes often seen in depictions of Napoleon on the battlefield, had been bought by its present owner at a small German auction house that did not know at the time it had belonged to the emperor.

"It was purely a chance encounter," said Simon Cottle, managing director for Bonhams Europe.

The buyer became intrigued when he realised it had inscriptions and other characteristics suggesting it could have belonged to Napoleon, Cottle said, adding that an initial investigation suggested it matched the dimensions and age of Napoleon's bicornes.

A detail of the bicorne winter campaign hat which belonged to late French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is seen ahead of an auction at Bonhams in Hong Kong, China, September 3, 2021. Picture taken September 3, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The hat was then tested extensively using various methods, including electronic microscopy.

"Five hairs were discovered when the contents of the hat were examined very closely," Cottle said. "And two of those hairs were then followed up, and they carried the marker of Napoleon."

The story behind this hat is very different from other Napoleonic bicornes that have been offered on the market, according to Cottle. He said most of them had been handed down by noble families connected to the emperor, or soldiers who picked them up on the battleground.

The estimated price for the hat - between 100,000 pounds ($138,550) and 150,000 pounds - was cautious, Cottle said, as the hat was only recently proven to have belonged to the emperor.

Other Napoleonic hats, with more history in the auction circuit, have fetched as much as $2.5 million dollars.

($1 = 0.7218 pounds)

Writing by Farah Master. Editing by Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read the original:
Newly discovered Napoleon hat with DNA previews in Hong Kong - Reuters

Posted in DNA | Comments Off

Three Irish siblings reunited after more than 50 years thanks to DNA tests – IrishCentral

Posted: at 9:02 am

An astonishing story of three siblings abandoned as infants and who discovered each other in adulthood through DNA tests is revealed this week.

Helen Ward and David McBride were reunited last year on a television program when both were in their 50s.

Now, amazingly, they have just discovered another brother, John, also in his 50s, and television viewers will see the three emotionally reunited next week when ITV screens a new program, Long Lost Family: What Happens Next.

Without birth records or known parents, they grew up in adopted families.

Last years program, Long Lost Family, revealed that infant David was found in a red tartan duffel bag in the driveway of a house in Belfast in 1962.

Six years later, in 1968, Helen was found, also in a red tartan duffel bag, in a phone box near a hospital in Dundalk, Co. Louth. She was wearing a little hand-made dress and a bottle placed next to her was still warm.

Next weeks program, to be screened on Tuesday, September 14, will reveal details behind how the third sibling, John, was re-united after his daughter Donna noticed striking physical resemblances to her father in Helen and David when she watched the first show.

Journalist Paul Murphy found John swaddled in a blue blanket inside a holdall in Drogheda in a telephone kiosk in May, 1965.

Despite a story filed by Paul appearing on the front page of the Evening Press, the parents were never discovered.

Forty-eight years later Paul and John became friends through a phone call to the Drogheda Independent where the reporter was employed.

Paul, who features in next weeks program, told the Irish Independent, He rang the paper looking for a contact for me and the next morning he was standing in the local hotel waiting for me. I brought him up to the place where he had been found. The phone box was long gone, but it was an emotional journey for him.

He told me he was adopted, that he had two wonderful adoptive parents, and that his life was a good one.

As John meets Helen and David for the first time in next weeks program, he says, Just to actually look into their eyes and just see is there a similar person looking back at you? At least someone else will have something in common with me.

Details of the birth parents reveal a love affair of almost 40 years between an unmarried Kerry woman living in Dublin and a married musician with 14 children.

Both have died the father in 1993 aged 82 and the mother in 2017 aged 90.

Love Irish history? Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group.

Posted in DNA | Comments Off

For Staten Island, 9/11 Terror is Ingrained in Our DNA – THE CITY

Posted: at 9:02 am

While the physical damage of the World Trade Center attacks was concentrated in Lower Manhattan, much of the emotional fallout of the over 2,600 deaths reverberated miles away in the neighborhoods where the victims had lived.

Some parts of the city felt that pain particularly acutely. On Staten Island, 274 residents were killed, including 72 people who resided within two adjacent ZIP codes, 10312 and 10314.

The island has long been known as a blue-collar borough, home to first responders and office workers who enjoyed a quick commute to Lower Manhattan by the ferry.

For Staten Island, 9/11 is a visceral part of our historical record, said City Councilmember Joe Borelli, who was a 19-year-old Marist College student on Sept. 11, 2001.

In the 20 years since, dozens of streets have been named for those who died in the terror attacks. Borelli hears the names of the lost mentioned all the time.

I cant tell you how many birthday parties I go to where someone says, their grandfather or their uncle should be here, he said.

Its just a part of who we are now. Its ingrained in our DNA.

For many borough residents, the ongoing theme since that day has been the ways their community stepped up.

In the worst of times, we are the best of people, said Dennis McKeon, who helped form the WTC Outreach Committee at St. Clares Church, which lost 29 members.

Volunteers first helped with immediate needs, like getting the medical examiners office phone number and connecting people with the Red Cross. They also arranged weekly meetings where families could simply grieve with one another.

We put people into a situation where they knew they could say anything they wanted to say because they were with other people going through the same thing, said McKeon, who ended up leading the group based at the Great Kills church.

Within a few months, the church group became a nonprofit organization called Where To Turn, which focuses on all types of disaster-relief and community service. The name stemmed from what McKeon heard from those families at the first meeting.

When the family members came to the first meeting they said they came because they didnt know where to turn, said McKeon, 64.

He still is available for calls from families, and arranges bus transportation to Lower Manhattan on the anniversary of 9/11. As the years have gone on, that initial pace has diminished, he said. In 2002, he chartered 16 buses, but now its just one.

McKeon said hell keep helping the 9/11 families as long as they need him.

Staten Islanders are always available, all you need to provide them with an opportunity and they show up, he said.

Along a triangle of land bounded by Hylan Boulevard and Fingerboard Road is a memorial known as Angels Circle, where the faces of hundreds of victims of the terror attacks are on display.

Its been a 20-year project for Wendy Pellegrino, who was glued to her television in Grasmere in the hours following the attacks.

I remember watching the triage being set up with the doctors and everybody waiting for them to recover people and bodies, and nobody was brought back, she said.

Oh my God, she thought. Everybodys gone.

That night, unable to sleep, she grabbed some candles and made a sign that said God Bless Our Heroes, and laid it all out on the empty piece of land across the street from her house.

The next day, she found someone had placed a photo of Michael Cammaratta on a popsicle stick and stuck it in the grass. Cammaratta, just 22 years old, was the youngest firefighter to die on 9/11.

The memorial grew from there as she added photos of Staten Island residents and others who died. One mother requested her son face the street so she could see him every morning as she drove to the Verrazano Bridge.

They just needed to see them, Pellegrino, now 72, said.

They went to work, they never came back, they couldnt find them, and for some reason I felt they needed a place to find their loved ones.

Pellegrino moved to New Jersey a decade ago but still maintains the greenspace, which she adopted from the Parks Department and now has images of hundreds of 9/11 victims amid angel statues and candles.

Its the sense of community on Staten Island that keeps her coming back, she said. She decorates the memorial for holidays. People come to celebrate loved ones birthdays or place new ornaments or statues nearby.

We made a promise 20 years ago that we would never forget, she said.

That promise has been important for those on Staten Island who lost loved ones, like Carol Olsen, whose youngest son Jeffrey, a firefighter, died in the attacks and is in Pellegrinos memorial. He was 31.

In the days and weeks after Sept. 11, Olsen, 81, said she mostly stayed at home, keeping busy with all of the things that needed to be done, she said.

She learned of a group organized by the FDNY for the parents of those who died.

It was a comfort to speak openly with other people going through similar mourning, she said, even though she mostly dealt with her emotions alone.

Grief is private, she said. Grief is when youre driving and you would scream because no one would hear you.

She still found comfort in the small moments, like when the husband of her closest friend, a firefighter who also worked a side job for a butcher, would stop by after his deliveries to check on her.

The bell would ring, and hes standing on the porch and hed say, you OK, Ca?, she said.

And that meant the world.

Twenty years later, those small moments still matter, she said. And the neighbors are just as important now as they were in the months after 9/11. Olsen flies the Flag of Heroes from her house every anniversary, and so does a neighbor, who is like family to her.

My neighbors never lose sight that it is 9/11, we are who we are, she said. That never gets ignored.

More:
For Staten Island, 9/11 Terror is Ingrained in Our DNA - THE CITY

Posted in DNA | Comments Off

Jarvis Brookfield on his psychedelic paintings, dream-like states and what it means to be human – Creative Boom

Posted: at 9:01 am

His latest series, titled Inaquien, is based on a made-up word meaning "inner acquaintance". It's inspired by Jarvis's personal experiences induced by entheogens substances known to alter our perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behaviour, and often used in spiritual development. You know, mushrooms, cacti, plants that sort of thing.

In this case, Jarvis experiments to ask life's most profound questions: why are we here? Is any of this real? And why is it possible to experience different states of mind other than being awake or asleep? These are heavy questions for anyone to fathom. But it's undoubtedly enjoyable seeing Jarvis's attempts to make sense of it all, putting brush to canvas and letting his imagination run free. We spoke to Jarvis about his practice, spirituality and dreams, and how he hopes to inspire a sense of awe and wonder.

Thank you very much! At present, I feel that it's centred around creating imagined worlds that I hope for people to lose themselves within, even if only for a moment. They're luminous and colourful. Fluid, psychedelic, dimensional, and communicate a sense of vitality and abundance. Some people have said of how they feel spiritual, and others have pointed out a sense of fluidity and aliveness in it, too.

Haha! Yes, I am. Every morning from an early age, whenever she got the chance, my mum would share her detailed and curious dreams with us. I always enjoyed them more than any story in a book and cherished listening to them. I still get to hear a few from her here and there when we chat on the phone or when I get to see her.

But I think that listening to and enjoying them so much early on impressed me with curiosity for the inner worlds. I've always had a vivid dream life, too, and experienced a lot of sleep paralysis growing up, followed by several lucid dreams. But my first encounter with a psychedelic experience in Amsterdam baffled me. I remember switching off the lights of my hotel room, closing my eyes and watching a vast, bright, glistening, and golden light in what felt like a Ferris wheel turn and tumble in front of me. Since then, I have had several experiences which have shown me that there is far more to life than I could have ever imagined.

I'm talking about my psychedelic experiences. The images and places that my mind has been taken to and shown is utterly confounding but not an uncommon remark to the millions of other people who have ventured into the inner worlds. But alongside the visions. Voices during those experiences have whispered to me and offered suggestions, that after taking on board and integrating, changed my life for the better.

Yes, I dream about painting sometimes. Sometimes I'm working on one, and in others, I have been in the painting, surrounded by it. I've also seen some glorious paintings that have since dwindled in my memory that I wish I could paint! And I can't say for certain that it does or doesn't come from my dreams, but if it does, then it comes indirectly as I've never been compelled after a dream to paint what happened in it.

I remember seeing a vast, bright, glistening, and golden light in what felt like a Ferris wheel...Since then, I've had several experiences which have shown me that there is far more to life than I could have ever imagined.

Listening to Terence Mckenna's lengthy talks on YouTube (God bless whoever recorded them), he is such a captivating orator. Reading and contemplation also satiate my hunger. I regularly spend time in meditation and remember, which I couple with journaling and questioning. But I'm currently reading Brian Muraresku's 'The Immortality Key The Secret History of the Religion With No Name' it's a fascinating book that is unearthing how psychedelics played a role in the origins of Western civilization and perhaps religion.

It's a little mixture of the two. For most of the paintings in this body of work, I was looking into sacred spacesespecially mosques such as those in Uzbekistan and Iran. And what I fell in love with was the sensation of how the colours interacted with each other because of the intricate patterns. So, I used many of these colours as the basic templates for my colour palettes and adjusted them slightly. But as I started laying them down on the canvas', they started to change and evolve as if the painting had its own plan.

No, not really. I never knew what an artist was. And the perception I had of what an artist might be was whatever I had heard about Davinci. I remember that was the only artist's name which I knew, and even so, I don't think that I was aware that he created paintings. So the idea of being an artist as something to pursue full-time only came into my sphere of thought around 3-4 years ago.

One of the first books that I obsessed over at around 4/5 years old was a visual encyclopaedia by the publisher DK. I poured through constantly, and that book inspired a sense of joy for the inner world of objects because the pictures within it were of all the things of this world but broken down. It had ships, telephones, buildings, animals, the human body, and so much more. And today, as I'm creating work, this imagining of the internal dynamics or structure of the forms that I create in my work is always at the forefront of my thinking. But a lot of my early inspirations, such as Spiderman, Motocross bikes, Grand theft auto, football shoes and all of the other things, don't directly inform my work today.

Yes, it helped a lot. Being creative has always been a sort of escape for me in life, and over those initial 6 12 months after the first lockdown when the media rammed up the fear-mongering, I unwittingly doubled down on my creative time and created a lot of work. Most of which wasn't necessarily finished works, but what became most important for me during that time was the process because I began seeing its lessons, which teaches you a great deal about being present, calm, and relinquishing your expectations and attachment to outcomes. They're lessons that I'm continuously learning, but they acted as gentle reminders of what's important and kept me grounded during the lockdown.

Inaquien by Jarvis Brookfield will be his first solo show, launching on 17 September at LCB Depot in Leicester. Discover more at jarvisbrookfield.com or follow him on Instagram.

See the original post here:

Jarvis Brookfield on his psychedelic paintings, dream-like states and what it means to be human - Creative Boom

Posted in Entheogens | Comments Off

Oregon Psilocybin Panel Teams Up With Harvard To Research Psychedelic History And Impacts Of Reform – Marijuana Moment

Posted: at 9:01 am

An Oregon state panel charged with advising on the implementation of a legal psilocybin therapy program has cleared a team of researchers to produce a comprehensive report on the science, history and culture of the psychedelic as regulators prepare to license facilities to administer it.

Members of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board released an initial report in July that reviewed hundreds of studies into psilocybin, as required under the states historic, voter-approved 2020 medical legalization initiative. But they were pressed for time and will now be working with a recently established psychedelic research center at Harvard Law School to more thoroughly cover the subject.

Part of the intent of the new expanded research project is to help inform legislative efforts outside of Oregon where psychedelics reform is being considered.

Given increasing interest in psychedelics legislation, Oregon will likely be the first of several states to contemplate regulating psilocybin services, Mason Marks, who serves on theOregon advisory board for psilocybin, told Marijuana Moment.

To the extent that the [Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications]Report can help inform their decision making, it should be made available for that purpose, Marks, who is also the director of Harvardsfirst-of-its-kind psychedelics policy center, said. Hopefully, it can provide a bit of a roadmap for fruitful collaboration between states and the federal government.

The initial report that Oregons review panel submitted did conclude that psilocybin holds significant medical value for a number of mental health conditions. The substance is shown to be efficacious in reducing depression and anxiety, including in life-threatening conditions, members found.

But this forthcoming second reviewwhich the board approved late last month and will take up to six months to completewill cover much more ground. For example, experts will look at how psilocybin prohibition has affected marginalized communities and how Oregons reform law could impact those individuals.

Any recommendations included in the report will still need approval by the full board before being submitted to regulators at the Oregon Health Authority for consideration.

Potential sources of data include historical information on the Indigenous use of psilocybin, anthropology literature, religious scholarship, bioethics literature, medical and psychological literature from the mid-twentieth century, narrative descriptions of psilocybin use, public health data, legislative materials, and legal scholarship, a research proposal states. The project will review and analyze existing research only.

Marks told Marijuana Moment that its important to include the views and practices of Indigenous communities because their technologies are the foundation of the psychedelics industry.

Some cultures have used psychedelics including psilocybin for hundreds or thousands of years. In many respects, they are the authorities in this space, and we should acknowledge and respect their expertise, he said. There is often a tendency to take from marginalized communities or adopt policies without concern for how they are affected.

Marginalized communities should also be included because the U.S. war on drugs has had a devastating impact on them. Decades of punitive drug enforcement policies have disproportionately impacted communities of color, torn families apart, and destroyed many lives through violence and incarceration. Meanwhile, prohibition has deprived people with mental health conditions, another marginalized community, of the potential benefits of psilocybin. Its status as a Schedule I controlled substances inhibited research for half a century.

Other topics that the report will cover include how psilocybin affects communities, how cultural attitudes toward the psychedelic have changed over time, what community-based rituals have been established around psilocybin, how the entheogen could impact addiction and overdose rates and how other jurisdictions have reformed laws governing psilocybin.

The ELSI Report picks up where the Rapid Evidence Review left off. Without the time constraints of the first report, it can take a broader, more inclusive approach, Marks said. Some sources of particular importance may include academic literature from the fields of anthropology, law, public health, psychology, religion, and sociology.

Oregon Gov. Kate Browns (D) office announced the appointment of17 members of the psilocybin advisory boardin March. The panel is meant to help facilitate the implementation of the historic reform initiative.

The developments in Oregon come as lawmakers and advocates across the U.S. continue to pursue psychedelics reform.

Michigan senators on Thursday introduced a bill to legalize the possession, cultivation and delivery of an array of plant- and fungus-derived psychedelics like psilocybin and mescaline.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan City Councilapproved entheogenic decriminalization last yearand in July, local lawmakers passed a resolution to officially designate September asEntheogenic Plants and Fungi Awareness Month.

Efforts are also underway in Grand Rapids to enact a policy change for the psychedelic substances.

A California senator advanced a bill to legalize the possession of psychedelics through the Senate and two Assembly committees, buthe recently put the effort on pauseuntil next year to generate additional buy-in.

Activists in California are also hoping to place an initiative before voters in 2022 tolegalize the possession and sale of psilocybin. Anda legislative analysis of the proposal that was released last week found that it would reduce costs associated with enforcing laws against the substance.

OaklandandSanta Cruzhave already enacted psychedelics decriminalization.

Meanwhile, Denver activists who successfully led a 2019 campaign to make the citythe first in the U.S. to decriminalize psilocybin possessionhave their eyes set on broader reform, with plans in the works to end the criminalization of noncommercial gifting and communal use of the psychedelic.

Massachusetts cities that have enacted the policy change are:Northampton,SomervilleandCambridge. In July, state lawmakers heard testimony about a bill to create a task force charged withstudying the implications of legalizing psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca.

The governor of Connecticut recently signed legislation recently that includes language requiring the state to carry outa study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms.

Texas also recently enacted a bill to require the statestudy the medical benefits of psychedelics for military veterans.

A New York lawmaker introduced a bill in June that would require the state to establish an institute to similarlyresearch the medical value of psychedelics.

In Oakland, the first city where a city council voted to broadly deprioritize criminalization of entheogenic substances, lawmakersapproved a follow-up resolutionin December that calls for the policy change to be adopted statewide and for local jurisdictions to be allowed to permit healing ceremonies where people could use psychedelics.

After Ann Arbor legislators passed a decriminalization resolution last year, a county prosecutor announcedthat his office will not be pursuing chargesover possessing entheogenic plants and fungiregardless of the amount at issue.

The Aspen, Colorado City Councildiscussed the therapeutic potential of psychedelicslike psilocybin and proposals to decriminalize such substances at a meeting in May. But members said, as it stands, enacting a reform would be more better handled at the state level while entheogens remain strictly federally controlled.

Seattle lawmakers also recently sent a letter to members of a local task force focused on the opioid overdose epidemic, imploring the group toinvestigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like ayahuasca and ibogaine in curbing addiction. In response, the task force issued a recommendation forthe widespread decriminalization of all drugs. The group said psychedelics in particular could represent a promising treatment to address substance abuse disorders and mental health issues.

Meanwhile, Portland, Oregon activists are mountinga push to have local lawmakers pass a resolutiondecriminalizing the cultivation, gifting and ceremonial use of a wide range of psychedelics.

In a setback for advocates, the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted against a proposal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) thatwould have removed a spending bill riderthat advocates say has restricted federal funds for research into Schedule I drugs, including psychedelics such as psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine. However, it picked up considerably more votes this round thanwhen the congresswoman first introduced itin 2019.

Report provisions of separate, House-passed spending legislation also touch on the need toexpand cannabis and psychedelics research. The panel urged the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA) to support expanded marijuana studies, for example. It further says that federal health agencies shouldpursue research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelicsfor military veterans suffering from a host of mental health conditions.

When it comes to broader drug policy reform, Oregon voters also approved an initiative in November todecriminalize possession of all drugs. This year, the Maine House of Representativespassed a drug decriminalization bill, but it laterdied in the Senate.

In May, lawmakers in Congress filed thefirst-ever legislation to federally decriminalize possessionof illicit substances.

Read the advisory boards proposal on the broader psilocybin report below:

Psilocybin research proposa by Marijuana Moment

Bidens Drug Czar Wants To Make It Easier To Research Marijuana, Psychedelics And Other Schedule I Substances

Image courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.

National Hemp Association Asks Congress To Budget $1 Billion To Support Industry Innovation – Marijuana Moment

Posted: at 9:01 am

A bill to legalize the possession of psychedelics in California has been put on pause until next year, but the Senate sponsor says the move is part of the complicated legislative process to get reform enactedand hes confident it will ultimately prevail.

Sen. Scott Wiener (D) submitted in a video message to a psychedelics policy forum led by the Chacruna Institute on Wednesday and discussed the challenges of passing such novel legislation. He said that it took significant compromise both internally and externally to get the bill through the Senate and two Assembly committees before he ultimately decided to temporarily pull it last month to build broader support for passage next year.

The senator also reiterated that he feels psychedelics reform is just one part of the mission. And he shares that perspective with David Bronner, another panelist at the forum who is the CEO of the soap company Dr. Bronners and has contributed financially to a number of drug policy reform efforts.

In the big picture, we need to end the war on drugsfor all drugsand we should not be criminalizing possession and use of drugs, Wiener said. Drugs are a health issue, drugs are many things, theyre not a criminal issue.

We need to stop packing our prisons full of people who are using drugs, who maybe have an addiction and so forth, he added. We need to take a health focusand I believe that we will get to the point in California where we achieve full drug decriminalization just like Oregon did during the 2020 election.

Bronner said that hes expecting statewide measures to decriminalize all drugs in 2024 in at least three additional states: California, Colorado and Washington State.

And so in the interim, the activist funder said he can accept certain revisions to the California psychedelics legislation, such as possession limits that were recently added, even if advocates dont ultimately agree with them.

I think its totally accomplishable to raise or eliminate these cut-offs [for psychedelics possession] in another decrim ballot measure, and Ill be pushing hard on that, Bronner said.

Wiener, meanwhile, said that it may take us some time to get there on broader decriminalization, but hes confident that the states move to legalize marijuana could be followed up with psychedelics reform as his bill calls forand, from there, they can work on comprehensively ending drug prohibition.

This legislation has gone frankly further than I thought it would go, he said. We need more time to build support in the Assembly, but I was not sure that we would make it this far in our first try. Sometimes it takes multiple tries, so Im really proud of our coalition and of all the supporters. The legislative process is a complicated one, and sometimes you have to have give-and-take take so that not everyone might be in full agreement, as with any coalition.

While advocates broadly support ending psychedelics criminalization, the community did splinter on certain provisions as the senators legislation advanced. There were disagreements about the right policy for peyote because of sustainability concerns; there were disputes about possession limits that were added to the bill; there were concerns about the impact of legalizing the possession of ketamine.

The senator said that theyve tried to have an open door and be inclusive, and we will continue to do so moving forward.

I think that we still have a very strong piece of legislationand we are committed to passing it in 2022, Wiener said. I look forward to working with this amazing community.

The sponsor has spent significant energy building support for the reform proposal as it has moved through the legislature, including by holding a recent rallywith military veterans, law enforcement and health officials.

SB 519 would remove criminal penalties for possessing numerous psychedelicsincluding psilocybin mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, LSD and MDMAfor adults 21 and older.

As a result of changes approved by one committee, the bill currently includes language laying out the limits for what is an allowable personal possession amount for each substance. That led Decriminalize Nature (DN), a group thats worked to enact psychedelics reform across the country, to call for the tabling of the legislation.

This pause on the bill until 2022 is likely welcome news for DN to that end, as members now have more time to make the case for eliminating the possession limitation provision, or reaching some kind of compromise.

Other advocates, however, say they were taking a practical position on the revision, accepting the possession limits in the interest of advancing the reform through a legislature that may otherwise defeat the bill if it contained no such restrictions.

In the Public Safety Committee, Wiener supported an amendment from the panel thatremoved ketamine from the list of psychedelicsincluded in the reform. Thats in addition to a series of technical revisions that were made to the legislation.

Under the measure, the state Department of Public Health would be required to establish a working group to study and make recommendations regarding possible regulatory systems that California could adopt to promote safe and equitable access to certain substances in permitted legal contexts. Those recommendations would be due by January 1, 2024.

For psilocybin specifically, the legislation would repeal provisions in California statute that prohibit the cultivation or transportation of any spores or mycelium capable of producing mushrooms or other material that contain the psychoactive ingredient.

Thebilloriginally included record sealing and resentencing provisions for people previously convicted of psychedelics possession offenses, but that language was removed in its last committee stop prior to the Senate floor vote as part of an amendment from the sponsor.

Marijuana Moment is already tracking more than 1,200 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they dont miss any developments.Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.

Wiener said the reasoning behind that deletion was that the policy ended up generating a huge price tag based on a fiscal analysis, but it could be addressed in separate legislation if the main bill passes.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Psychedelic and Entheogen Academic Council (PEAC) in June, the senator said advancing the legislation would befirst step toward decriminalizing all currently illicit drugs.He reiterated that point on Monday, stating that this bill is one step in the direction of ending the failed war on drugs.

While the bill is being described by lawmakers and advocates as simple decriminalization, the official legislative analysis of the proposal states that it makes possession and facilitated or supported use of specified hallucinogenics legal.

If the bill does ultimately pass through the legislature next year, it still remains unclear whether Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) would sign itthough the governor has long been an outspoken critic of the war on drugs.

Members of the psychedelics panel on Wednesday said in response to a question from Marijuana Moment that the governors office has not been involved in negotiations over the specifics of the bill, and they plan to engage in outreach with the administration later in the legislative process.

Previously, Wiener backed a prior ketamine-related amendment in an effort to build support for the legislation.

There are disagreements within the psychedelic world on it, the senator said at a meeting with activists in June. My view as you keep things in until you have to make a give, and thats one that we could potentially give on. You dont want to spontaneously give on things without getting some ability to move the bill forward as a result.

Mescaline, a psychoactive compound derived from peyote and other cacti, is another controversial psychedelic.

It was specifically excluded from the bills reform provisions in peyote-derived form, but the possession of the compound would be allowed if it comes from other plants such as the Bolivian Torch Cactus, San Pedro Cactus, or Peruvian Torch Cactus.

That decision on the peyote exclusion was informed by native groups who havestrongly pushed back against decriminalizing the cactifor conservationist reasons and because of its sacred value for their communities.

Meanwhile, California psychedelics activists recentlyfiled a petition for the 2022 ballot to make the state the first in the nation to legalize psilocybin mushrooms for any use. And a fiscal analysis of the proposal found that it would save the state millions in enforcement costs and also generate state and local tax revenue.

The psychedelics effort in the California legislature, whichWiener first previewed back in November, comes as activists are stepping up the push to enact psychedelics reform locally in cities in the state and across the country.

Michigan senators introduced a bill last week to legalize the possession, cultivation and deliveryof an array of plant- and fungus-derived psychedelics like psilocybin and mescaline.

Efforts are also underway in Grand Rapids to enact a policy change for the psychedelic substances.

In California, OaklandandSanta Cruzhave already enacted psychedelics decriminalization.

The governor of Connecticut recently signed legislation recently that includes language requiring the state to carry outa study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms.

Texas also recently enacted a bill to require the statestudy the medical benefits of psychedelics for military veterans.

A New York lawmaker introduced a bill in June that would require the state to establish an institute to similarlyresearch the medical value of psychedelics.

Seattle lawmakers also recently sent a letter to members of a local task force focused on the opioid overdose epidemic, imploring the group toinvestigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelicslike ayahuasca and ibogaine in curbing addiction. In response, the task force issued a recommendation forthe widespread decriminalization of all drugs. The group said psychedelics in particular could represent a promising treatment to address substance abuse disorders and mental health issues.

Meanwhile, Portland, Oregon activists are mountinga push to have local lawmakers pass a resolutiondecriminalizing the cultivation, gifting and ceremonial use of a wide range of psychedelics.

In May, lawmakers in Congress filed thefirst-ever legislation to federally decriminalize possessionof illicit substances.

Rhode Island Lawmakers Rally Behind Marijuana Equity Agenda As Legalization Talks Continue For Special Session

Read the original:

National Hemp Association Asks Congress To Budget $1 Billion To Support Industry Innovation - Marijuana Moment

Posted in Entheogens | Comments Off

The #1 Best Supplement For Women, Says Dietitian | Eat This Not That – Eat This, Not That

Posted: at 9:00 am

Calcium! Zinc! Collagen, oh my! As women age, they are often told to take a myriad of supplements to keep their bones, skin, and hair in tip-top shape, but not all supplements are necessary, and some even do a better job at keeping you healthy than others.

While you should consult a doctor before making any major changes to your supplement routine, there is one supplement that's best for women, at least according to Lyssie Lakatos, RDN, CDN, CFT & Tammy Lakatos, RDN, CDN, CFT, The Nutrition Twins, founders of 21-Day Body Reboot, and members of the Eat This, Not That! Medical Expert Board.

The winner is magnesium, which Lyssie and Tammy note is even more critical than calcium, even though it's difficult to go more than an hour without seeing a calcium supplement commercial.

"Most women are told to get calcium and they focus on that and take supplements. However, when it comes to stress, this can backfire if you don't have enough magnesium," the duo explains. "During periods of stress, calcium moves into the cell as part of the fight or flight response and if there's not enough magnesium to push it back out of the cell, you can't promote relaxation." This, in turn, means that frequent stress (stemming from pollution, daily life, and emotional experiences) continues to take its toll physically and emotionally.

"Magnesium is one of the best supplements women can take. Our bodies need magnesium for more than 300 essential biochemical reactions including producing energy, helping muscles to relax and nervous system regulation, but most of us don't get enough magnesium from dietary sources alone," the pair states. "Given that magnesium plays an important role in factors that have a large impact for women such as bone and heart health, promoting relaxation, reducing anxiety and depression and PMS symptoms as well as preventing migraines, magnesium supplementation can be especially beneficial for women."

Not surprisingly, there's an extensive body of research that shows magnesium supplements can benefit women in more ways than one. For example, a 2008 study found that they can be used to prevent or treat migraines, since neurotransmitters are affected and blood vessels constrict and lead to a migraine when women are low in magnesium.

Additional research has shown magnesium supplements to be especially helpful during PMS, a time when tension in the body is at an all-time high. According to a study that appeared in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, magnesium can boost a woman's mood and reduce other PMS symptoms, such as water retention.

And that's not all. There's a whole other body of research that indicates that not having enough magnesium in your diet can lead to adverse health effects. In fact, not only are low levels of magnesium linked to anxiety and depression, but a magnesium deficiency has also been shown to cause stress, which in turn can have an even larger negative impact on one's overall health.

In fact, The Nutrition Twins point out that magnesium's impact on stress can actually be part of a troubling cycle because, in addition to low magnesium levels being linked to stress, stress can increase magnesium loss, causing a deficiency.

RELATED:Stressed Out? A New Study Says to Do This Exercise for 20 Minutes

In short, magnesium can address a wide variety of health issues that women may face as they age. "When you consider that an estimated 8 million American women have osteoporosis and half of the women over 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis; heart disease is the leading cause of death in women; migraines affect 28 million women in the US and can be debilitating; more than 31 million American women are affected by PMS and experience bloating, moodiness and breast tenderness that negatively affects quality of life during that time of the month; and women are nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with anxiety, there is enormous potential for magnesium supplements to benefit women," The Nutrition Twins share.

When it comes to picking a magnesium supplement, Lyssie and Tammy are fans of Life Extension's Extended-Release Magnesium because of how it is absorbed in the body. "Absorption is critical when it comes to magnesium supplements and this supplement is formulated with magnesium oxide for extended-release and magnesium citrate for immediate absorption to provide more consistent results," the duo explains. "It's also non-GMO verified."

The sisters point out that Life Extension is a brand that they trust, which is crucial since supplements are typically not regulated. "Life Extension has been making high-quality supplements for over 40 years. They pride themselves on transparency and quality, and their magnesium, like all their products, contains a Certificate of Analysis that allows you to confirm its quality and accuracy," Lyssie and Tammy point out. "It's also manufactured in an NSF International-registered GMP facility for safety."

For more healthy eating news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Spend your engery on things that matter – Coshocton Tribune

Posted: at 9:00 am

Emily Marrison| Guest Columnist

I keep a small, blue booklet within arms reach of my desk. I have found it to be a valuable tool and inspiration in the work that I do. It was published in February 1922, yet has timeless wisdom.

T.J. Talbert of the Kansas State Agricultural College Division of College Extension penned The Extension Workers Code as a guide to excel in educational outreach efforts. Much of the advice is useful for anyone regardless of your calling in life.

This spring I was especially struck by the section titled Do the Things Which Will Count. Depending on our personalities we can be inclined to get sucked into things that waste precious time. Im not just talking about lazy habits like watching too much television or letting time evaporate while you are on the internet. We know those are time wasters, right?

Im also talking about the good things that still arent the best things. Talbert puts it this way, It is a great art to know what to leave undone, to know how to weed out the less important things, and to spend ones energies in doing the things which will count. He goes on to say, Once we have formulated a plan… we must stick to it regardless of our tendency to be sidetracked by other pressing duties and obligations. Otherwise, all our good resolution and work begun will amount to little or nothing.

I had adjusted quickly to working from home during 2020 and the beginning of 2021. At first it was strange to be less busy, but it was also incredibly freeing. As many workers have returned to in-person work in businesses and offices over the past few months, Ive heard more comments about feeling busy again.

In a quest to squelch this slow creep of the return to busyness, Ive also been reading a more modern bulletin from an Extension colleague in this century. Tim Tanner developed a time management curriculum for Extension professionals. He is an avid reader and researcher and found that American employees are at their best when they possess high levels of personal well-being. He also found that ancient and modern religious scholars have long noted that an orderly approach to daily life creates greater human joy.

Studies show time and time again that we humans are not created to be efficient multitaskers. MIT neuroscientistEarl Millersaysour brains focus on one thing at a time. When we attempt to multitask, we are actually switching back and forth very quickly between tasks and missing out on key observances.

The last thing we need is to climb back onto the hamster wheel many of us had escaped from. Here are three things I am doing to discipline myself to do the things which will count:

Today Ill leave you with this quote from William Carey. My husband keeps this quote near his planning calendar. For doers who like to stay busy, these are wise words to consider. Im not afraid of failure; Im afraid of succeeding at things that dont matter.

Emily Marrison is an OSU Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Educator and may be reached at 740-622-2265.

Excerpt from:

Spend your engery on things that matter - Coshocton Tribune

Posted in Life Extension | Comments Off

Elon Musk Makes Fun of Jeff Bezos Over Anti-Aging Startup; How Does This Immortality Tech Work? – Science Times

Posted: at 9:00 am

Elon Musk recently criticized Jeff Bezos on Twitter for allegedly investing in a business that reverses aging.

Musk replied to a tweetfrom Say Cheese's Twitter account, which claimed that Bezos had invested in the business. Musk has previously made social media digs at his billionaire space race opponent.

"And if it doesn't work, he's gonna sue death!" Musk tweeted.

The feud between the world's two richest men has been simmering for months, Futurismsaid. Business Insidermentioned that their not-so-subtle rivalry has erupted into Twitter spats and name-calling throughout the years. However, things only appear to be getting worse. This is the first time Musk has mocked Bezos for acts unrelated to space exploration.

According to MIT Tech Review, the Amazon founder is allegedly one of the investors funding Altos Labs. The firm is working on biological reprogramming technologies to basically extend human life.

MIT Tech Review said Altos Labs intends to open institutes in Japan, Cambridge, and California. It's also looking for university scientists and paying them salaries as high as $1 million to focus on how to reverse the aging process in cells.

(Photo: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he arrives to visit the construction site of the future US electric car giant Tesla, on September 03, 2020, in Gruenheide near Berlin. - Tesla builds a compound at the site in Gruenheide in Brandenburg for its first European "Gigafactory" near Berlin.

Musk's newest remark comes around a week after he digs at Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and space exploration company Blue Origin, for how he spends his time now that he resigned as the CEO of the e-commerce giant.

"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job," Musk tweeted.

ALSO READ: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Says NASA Made The Wrong Decision For Choosing Elon Musk's SpaceX

Amazon's effort to sabotage SpaceX's second-generation Starlink satellite program was the subject of Musk's remark.

Altos Labs is a new anti-aging research firm based in Silicon Valley.

Science Times, citing MIT Technology Review, said the new business is already recruiting several academic scientists to join. The firm allegedly offered the employees large salaries and the promise of complete freedom in their research on aging and its reversal.

Biological reprogramming, which, according to "The Evolving Biology of Cell Reprogramming," is the act of 'instructing cells' or introducing elements that induce cells to revert to an earlier embryonic stage. Reversing the whole aging process is the core technique that Altos Labs seeks to harness.

Calico Labs, a life extension tech firm founded by Google co-founder Larry Page in 2013, is one company researching biological reprogramming. However, none of them has been known to have received the same level of support as Altos Labs.

Investing in anti-aging research is nothing new for Jeff Bezos, Republic Worldsaid. In 2018, the Amazon founder also invested in a similar firm. Unity Technologies, a biotech firm focused on developing anti-aging medicines, has hired the former CEO.

RELATED ARTICLE: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin vs. Elon Musk's SpaceX: Who Won the Space Race?

Check out more news and information on Elon Muskand Jeff Bezosin Science Times.

See more here:

Elon Musk Makes Fun of Jeff Bezos Over Anti-Aging Startup; How Does This Immortality Tech Work? - Science Times

Posted in Life Extension | Comments Off

Monthly Archives: September 2021

DNA of a female hunter-gatherer, buried 7,000 years ago in Indonesia, reveals population history of SE Asia – The Indian Express

Newly discovered Napoleon hat with DNA previews in Hong Kong – Reuters

Three Irish siblings reunited after more than 50 years thanks to DNA tests – IrishCentral

For Staten Island, 9/11 Terror is Ingrained in Our DNA – THE CITY

Jarvis Brookfield on his psychedelic paintings, dream-like states and what it means to be human – Creative Boom

Oregon Psilocybin Panel Teams Up With Harvard To Research Psychedelic History And Impacts Of Reform – Marijuana Moment

National Hemp Association Asks Congress To Budget $1 Billion To Support Industry Innovation – Marijuana Moment

The #1 Best Supplement For Women, Says Dietitian | Eat This Not That – Eat This, Not That

Spend your engery on things that matter – Coshocton Tribune

Elon Musk Makes Fun of Jeff Bezos Over Anti-Aging Startup; How Does This Immortality Tech Work? – Science Times

The Prometheus League

Breaking News and Updates

Prometheism

Forbidden Fruit

The Evolutionary Perspective

Transtopia Menu

Library Updates

Library Books

Future Euvolution

Lucid Dreams from Childhood

Genetic Revolution

Speciation + Self-Directed Evolution