Matt Lamkin , - Scientific American
Stephan: With the legalization of marijuana, an increasing reality psychoactive medicine is re-emerging after being blocked by Reagan during our political drug hysteria. Here is the state of play in this trend, and the challenge it presents to the existing legal structure.
Credit: Getty
In March, the Food and Drug Administration approved esketamine, a drug that produces psychedelic effects, to treat depression—the first psychedelic ever to clear that bar. Meanwhile the FDA has granted “breakthrough therapy” status—a designation that enables fast-tracked research—to study MDMA (also called “ecstasy”) as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin as a treatment for major depression.
While these and other psychedelic drugs show promise as treatments for specific illnesses, FDA approval means doctors could also prescribe them for other, “off-label” purposes—including enhancing the quality of life of people who do not suffer from any disorder. Hence if MDMA gains approval as a treatment for PTSD, psychiatrists could prescribe the drug for very different purposes. Indeed, before the federal government banned MDMA, therapists reported striking success in using MDMA to improve the quality of intimate relationships. Recent research bolsters these claims, finding that the drug enhances emotional empathy, increases feelings of closeness, and promotes thoughtfulness and contemplativeness.
Similarly, while psilocybin has shown potential as a treatment for depression and anxiety, physicians could also prescribe […]
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Fred Lambert, Editor in Chief - electrek
Stephan: In the countries that make wellbeing their first social priority, the transition out of the carbon era is proceeding apace and painlessly in a wide range of ways. This story illustrates one aspect of this trend. I see all this as good news, both for the countries in which it is happening and for the earth itself. But, as I read these stories I always wonder: what happened to America?
Fresco Motors, Norway-based EV startup, has unveiled an intriguing new electric sedan with unbelievable specs and features.
Credit: Fresco Motors
Fresco Motors, Norway-based EV startup, has unveiled an intriguing new electric sedan with unbelievable specs and features.
Norway is without a doubt the world leader in electric vehicle adoption, but despite the market buying more EVs per capita than any other country in the world, Norway is not producing its own electric car.
Fresco Motors wants to change that.
The startup came out of stealth mode this week by unveiling its first car: The Reverie.
It’s an all-electric sedan with a radical design that is somehow reminiscent of both the original Tesla Model S prototype (without the nosecone) and a Chrysler 300 (look at the window/door proportions):
The size of the Fresco Reverie is somwhere between a Tesla Model S and Model 3, two of the most popular electric vehicles in Norway.
Here are the dimensions of the Reverie:
- Length: 4807 mm
- Width: 2226 mm
- Height: 1401 mm
- Wheelbase: 2746 mm
The company only unveiled a few computer-generated images and clearly […]
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Saturday, August 3rd, 2019
Stephan A. Schwartz, Editor - Schwartzreport
Stephan: It happened with almost no comment on the major cable news networks, or in the major papers. It doesn't seem to have registered with most Americans; indeed, I suspect only a tiny minority even know it happened. But, to someone like me who spent years studying and participating in military geopolitical issues, it was an earthquake. Your world, my world, everyone's world is less safe today than it was a few days ago.
Ambassador Jack F. Matlock, former Special Assistant to the President for the Soviet Union during the Reagan Administration and the last US ambassador to the Soviet Union explained how the Cold War ended, and a new epoch of peace emerged.
"From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, three great convulsions shook the international system. The end of the Cold War was just one of them, and it occurred because of the cooperation between the leaders of the Western alliance with Gorbachev, Matlock continued. Reagan and Gorbachev were the two central players in this, and the absence of one or both would have dramatically changed the process. The end of Communist rule in the Soviet Union was a much different matter from the end of the Cold War. Maybe it would not have happened without the end of the Cold War."
Now, Trump and the zombies around him have reversed it all. We are now in a new arms race and just as humanity faces climate change, a new nuclear arms race is beginning. Since nobody is paying much attention to what is happening I have decided to devote today's SR to that issue.
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Saturday, August 3rd, 2019
Stephan: Just as he has destroyed the carefully crafted network of international relations which has kept another world war at bay, and the world economy stable, so Trump has now withdrawn the U.S. from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan signed the INF Treaty in 1987 Credit: Agence France-Presse
The US has formally withdrawn from a key nuclear treaty with Russia, raising fears of a new arms race.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.
It banned missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km (310-3,400 miles).
But earlier this year the US and Nato accused Russia of violating the pact by deploying a new type of cruise missile, which Moscow has denied.
The Americans said they had evidence that Russia had deployed a number of 9M729 missiles – known to Nato as SSC-8. This accusation was then put to Washington’s Nato allies, which all backed the US claim.
“Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Friday.
“With the full support of our Nato allies, the United States has determined Russia to be in material breach of the treaty, and has subsequently suspended our obligations under the treaty,” […]
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Saturday, August 3rd, 2019
Thibaut Marchand, - Agence France-Presse (France)
Stephan: A new arms race begins. If you own part of the American military-industrial corporate complex it promises to produce oodles of money.
Russia’s new 9M729 missile. Credit: Reuters
MOSCOW – Moscow is set to deploy new weapons as Russia and the US officially pull out of the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty on Friday, analysts say, raising the spectre of another arms race.
Washington and Moscow have long accused each other of violating the 1987 treaty and both sides have been planning the mutual withdrawal for many months.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended participation in the agreement, which limits the use of medium-range missiles, in March after Donald Trump’s White House said it was ditching the deal.
As well as alleged Russian violations, Washington says the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty ties its hands while giving other countries — mainly China — free rein.
“Now that the treaty is over, we will see the development and deployment of new weapons,” military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told AFP, adding: “Russia is already ready”.
Putin first discussed the new weapons late last year in front of high-ranking officers and he gave further details in February — just as the US launched the procedure to ditch the INF deal.
In addition to the creation of […]
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