Final Post

Harper Lee once wrote, “You never really know a man until you understand things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” With the advent of Internet-ready everything, this has never been easier to do. But, nowadays, it’s also easy to make the mistake of crawling into someone’s artificial skin. That is, we forget that this digital realm is a fictitious one–it’s not real!

Perhaps the most prominent institution, certainly the most popular, that has facilitated computer-oriented vicarious living is Facebook. Some people put everything on Facebook–every little detail of their mostly boring lives. Others are very careful with the information they share, omitting certain information that can be considered ‘dangerous’. Still others just haven’t figured this whole Internet thing out, posting endless new-age versions of chain mail claiming that some kid with a disease won’t be saved unless a sufficient number of likes were clicked.

I guess we’re all kind of doing the same things in our seemingly-nuanced ways. But, the reality is that we’re more alike than any of us would dare to admit. We’ll hide behind pieces of glass pretending the real world exists in a realm that none of us can ever actually touch, though. Cat memes, fight videos, terrorist attacks, politician infidelity, celebrity gossip, trivial trends–these have become our daily routine. A digital identity shrouded in superficiality and falsehood.

Test Images

I made these first three:

 

But I have to share this one because it’s just…weird:

And, here’s the GIF I made:

Personal Database

 

 

Exercise 4: Part 2

The effects of cannabis consumption vary greatly from person to person. Body chemistry plays perhaps the largest role in individual responses to cannabinoids being introduced to the endocannabinoid system (ECS). Often those effects are reported similarly among various users. That is, although the most recent updates in the research suggest that the conventional naming system is incorrect (sativa and indica), the effects typically are described as racy, creative, and up for sativa strains and relaxing, bodily, and down for indica strains. Hybrids are crosses of these two that produce effects which dominate one way or the other (sativa or indica) depending again upon the body chemistry of the user.

Since the hippocampus is affected by the cannabinoids acting upon the CB1 receptors, a user’s subjective experiences of recollection and other attributes of memory and cognition will vary greatly. In other words, the personal experience of the “high” feeling will certainly be described differently, or perhaps even claimed as “indescribable without experience”, by different people. The memories, associations, thoughts, and feelings will reflect not only the amount of cannabis ingested and the methods of ingestion, but also each user’s individual life experiences. While the degree to which these effects are experienced is based upon an individual’s unique body chemistry, and while this all admittedly sounds a bit hand-wavy, research does show that there are general properties associated with each cannabinoid.

Figure 1: This chart, from a Powerpoint sent to me by my boss after training, shows some basic properties of just a few of the several dozen cannabinoids present in cannabis.

As mentioned in Part 1, terpenes are compounds found in virtually every plant that grows in nature that are responsible for the range of characteristic aromas and flavors found in plants around the world. The latest research regarding these compounds reveals a broad range of therapeutic effects associated with the most prominent terpenes in the cannabis plant.

It turns out that THC content isn’t the whole story when it comes to the overall “high” feeling. In addition to Cannabinol (CBN) being a mild psychotropic, Terpenes act to modulate the psychotropic effects of THC which means that a relatively lower THC content strain (say, 14%) with a high concentration of a powerful terpene profile, such as Limonene, can actually have a much stronger effect than a relatively higher THC content strain (say, 24%) that has a weak terpene profile and smells like hay or regular grass.

Figure 2: Another chart from the same Powerpoint mentioned above highlighting several terpenes.

In addition to the wide variety of flavors, smells, and effects, cannabis has a huge range of visual distinctions. Some have to do with a slight extension of the final stage of the growing process in a cooler environment, producing a sometimes subtle, sometimes prominent purple, while others have to do with the genetics of the particular strains. Some buds–the dried part that contains the highest concentrations of cannabinoids and is either smoked or processed into oils, concentrates, or edibles–are dense and crumbly while others are fluffy and sticky.

When choosing a strain, a user will often take several, if not all, of these factors into account. It is always important to educate oneself on the possible effects of the different methods of ingestion before buying a product so as to not be dissuaded from the beneficial effects available through other methods by a bad experience that could have been easily avoided. As the industry here in Colorado continues to grow, the dissemination of the latest research of cannabinoids, terpines, and their individual as well as collective effects on the endocannabinoid system is becoming evermore streamlined and easily accessible. And, as a bud tender, my job is to be the intermediary between that research and the customer or patient. The goal is to arrive at a strain or product that benefits the customer or patient most effectively and appropriately according to their needs and constraints.

While it is clear that the cannabis plant has numerous beneficial properties, much more research must continually be conducted so that the general public can learn as quickly as possible about not only the medical and social health benefits but also the economic advantages of this most wonderful plant. The chart below shows that just four months after cannabis legalization, the homicide rate in Denver dropped by over fifty percent!

Table 1: Chart from denvergov.org showing an overall decrease in violent crime and a significant decrease in property crime.

In fact, violent crime across the board saw a reduction while all properties crimes except larceny and arson decreased. Even the Drug Policy Alliance has acknowledged the overall economic and social benefits in a report released detailing it’s findings after a year of legalization:

“Since the first retail marijuana stores opened on January 1st, 2014, the state of Colorado has benefitted from a decrease in crime rates, a decrease in traffic fatalities, an increase in tax revenue and economic output from retail marijuana sales, and an increase in jobs” (p 1).

In conclusion, perhaps three things are necessary to solve the increasing problems of economic downturn, crime, and drug addiction (which is a public health issue, not a crime): 1. Universal healthcare; 2. Federal cannabis legalization; and 3. A redesign and rebuilding of energy and transportation infrastructure.

The first gives ALL people access to the resources that are fundamental to true prevention and rehabilitation. The second replaces 99% of the prescription drugs that, along with heroin, are slowly but surely becoming the leading cause of deaths in America and also has proven to be a huge economic benefit. And the third not only gives people something to do and bolsters the cannabis-infused economy, it builds infrastructure that ensures sustainability, efficiency, and access-abundance for all the world’s people for centuries to come. Cannabis, in one form or another, can and will be related to the application of all three of these solutions.

Exercise 4: Part 1

Preface: Necessary Information

One of the most active components of the human body is the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS exists in mammalian brains and has been shown to be responsible for regulating appetite, sleep, pain, and several other crucial bodily functions. The CB1 and CB2 receptor sites–those to which many of those cannabinoids bind–have extremely low concentrations in the brain stem making it virtually impossible physically to fatally overdose on cannabis.

Cannabis is a plant that naturally contains several dozen cannabinoids which act upon the ECS in many therapeutic ways. As well, cannabis contains a number of terpenes–aromatic molecules that are produced to some degree by every plant on Earth. While delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is not the only cannabinoid that will affect the human body in a psychotropic way, it is certainly the strongest. It is also the combination of the  various cannabinoids with the terpenes that modulate those cannabinoids that is responsible for the numerous beneficial effects of the cannabis plant.

In cannabis, the process of cannabinoid production begins with the combination of olivetolic acid and geranyl pyrophosphate which produces cannabigerolic acid. Cannabigerolic acid then decarboxylates (loses a molecule containing oxygen) into several synthase molecules, THCa-synthase, CBDa-synthase, and CBCa-synathase, which are the precursors that further decarboxylate.  (The ‘a’ in each of these stands for ‘carboxylic acid’.) Cannabichromene (CBC) and Cannabidiol (CBD), working together in an ‘entourage effect’ with THC, have been shown to inhibit tumor growth while CBC has even been shown to reduce tumors in rodents (see video below).

NOTE: THC and CBN are two of the only psychotropic cannabinoids in cannabis, meaning that they are the ones that give us the “high” feeling. THC is not actually present in any appreciable concentrations in the living plant. Only through time (drying and curing) and with the application of heat does the THCa (which, again, is not psychotropic yet has several unique therapeutic effects in and of itself) decarboxylate into THC.

The Experience: Methods of Cannabis Ingestion

Ingesting cannabis in edible form, i.e. candies, chocolates, cookies, etc., affects users and patients in wildly different ways. Whereas some can handle several hundred milligrams spread throughout each day, that amount can cause someone much less experienced with cannabis to become sick, perhaps vomit, and be to a certain degree incapacitated due to that sickness for a day or two. When ingesting cannabis in edible form, it can take up to 2 hours for the full effect of the cannabinoids. However, CBD can be used to counteract the effects of the psychotropic cannabinoid THC.

When smoking the dried flowers of the cannabis plant, known by several thousand different names, the effects are quite different than those associated with edibles. First, effects can be felt within several seconds to a few minutes since THC dissolves almost instantaneously in the blood stream. When inhaling the smoke, the THC dissolves into the bloodstream not just through the mouth but also through the many blood vessels present within the lungs. Generally, the maximum amount of THC that the lungs can absorb in a given hit is absorbed within a few seconds. Another way to extract the THC from flower is by heating it to a temperature just under that of combustion which vaporizes the cannabinoids and releases them to be inhaled.

Concentrates contain, as the name implies, high concentrations of one or more cannabinoid–typically THC–as well as terpenes. From extracted oils that are mixed with other chemical components such as propylene glycol, or in healthier cases coconut oil, and vaporized in a handheld pen, to tinctures that are used as a fast-acting sublingual, to hash, wax, and shatter, which can also be used in vaporizers and pens, ‘dabbed’ with a type of bong called a ‘dab rig’, or even smoked with flower, the high concentrations can, if used excessively (which, of course, is subjective and based upon one’s body chemistry), send the endocannabinoid system into a sort of overload in that a single inhalation can contain as much THC as an entire joint. For comparison, a joint typically contains around one gram of ground flower, concentrated anywhere between 14% and 27% THCa or more, while a dab of wax, for instance, is a small fraction of a gram concentrated anywhere between 50% and 85% THC or more (the wax is produced through a whipping/heating process that decarboxylates the THCa and is also why some wax is actually called butter).

Transdermal patches and topical creams introduce the cannabinoids into the body through absorption through the skin. Placing patches and rubbing creams, ranging from several dozen up to several hundred or more milligrams (here in Colorado, recreational products are capped at 100mg of THC while medical patients are limited only by their doctor’s prescription) on pain areas as well as high blood flow areas (e.g. the wrist) is a safe alternative for those medically incapable of smoke inhalation due to lung, bronchial, or other issues and can be produced with high concentrations of specifically isolated or combined cannabinoids.

Cannabinoids affect different people in different ways based upon body chemistry. However, several characteristics are generally common with the various methods of ingestion. For example, a phenomenon known as cotton mouth is often experienced which is the result of submandibular glands, those responsible for the production of saliva, being located near the CB1 and CB2 receptors. As well, red eyes are the result of the expansion of blood vessels caused by regulation by the ECS. While it does happen throughout the body, this expansion becomes prominent in the eyes due to the white background of the eyeball. Finally, memory can be affected in varying ways because there are CB1 receptor sites–those to which THC bind–located in the hippocampus which is responsible for both short-term and long-term memory encoding and recall in humans.

A final noteworthy result of cannabinoid consumption is the number of success stories over the past few years about the massive reduction and even stopping altogether of epileptic seizures in both children and adults by using high concentrations of CBD. Cannabis oil has been used several times in conjunction with radiation and/or chemotherapy to reduce many of the negative side effects and drastically increase the success of such treatments.

Design Memo

The goal of my webtext is to explain the process of scientific inquiry in a way that is simple and straightforward. Articles written for peer-reviewed journals tend to be dense with information and can be difficult to read and follow if one is unfamiliar with, for instance, the mathematical concepts involved. So, rather than highlight those specific aspects, and avoiding the potential for confusion and clutter, my webtext gives a general overview of the combined topics of Research, Evidence, and Information; Arguments and Knowledge; and Discourse Communities and Expertise.

I wanted to use media that would not only give the reader a sense of ease by maintaining an air of lightheartedness but also convey to them the fundamental importance of scientific inquiry. For example, the introductory sentence is supplemented by a GIF intended, quite frankly, to make the reader laugh. Yet, on the very same page, there is a picture explaining the scientific method. I consider this an interesting balance of elements.

Sometimes when trying to write an explanation of a concept it is discovered that someone has already addressed it in a sufficiently eloquent way. Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most popular science educators of our time and I feel that hearing his reasoning behind the importance of broad scientific research funding and the interdisciplinary connections of discoveries is a nice segue into an overview of what research means, particularly in the field of nuclear physics.

Although an example from a modern scientific article could be utilized, my focus is more on the general processes involved with the scientific method and how they have evolved over the centuries rather than on any particular aspect of the articles themselves. In other words, I feel that inserting a particular excerpt from a modern journal article, or perhaps even juxtaposing one with an old version, and explaining it in detail would have interrupted the ease of flow of the webtext.

Traces

What a remarkable time to be alive!

I’ve been saying this for years–and not just as a meaningless platitude. To me, we truly are living in the most pivotal point in humankind’s history. We have amassed more knowledge about the universe and learned more about ourselves in the past five decades than in all of preceding history combined! All of the knowledge we’ve accumulated along with the resulting exponential progress of technological development mean that we are at a never-before-seen impasse; an unfortunately violent, socially destructive clash between traditionalized, mostly outmoded views and machine automation which has the current capability to feed, clothe, and house everyone on the planet. But, is that really the reason we’re so different from all of those generations of hominids that walked Earth before us? Well, yes! At least that’s a big part of the reason. The more relevant question here is how can a supposedly intelligent species be so willfully stupid?

I know, I know–it’s kind of awkward starting a paragraph with such excitement and vigor and then ending with gleaming misanthropy. But, that’s basically been my online persona for the better part of a decade now. Social media is a fictitious realm and I’ve made it a goal to continuously point that out to others. Quite frankly, I’m an Internet troll during most of my time on apps such as Facebook.

My digital traces are mostly irrelevant. I realized this when it became clear that, while being the most privileged in history, our generation is unfortunately the most proudly inept to have ever walked the planet. Sure, our traces tell stories–but they’re fictional stories about a fictitious realm. And most of the stories are so self-absorbed and narcissistic I find them to be boring and intellectually vacuous at best. Don’t worry; I don’t exempt myself. I’m likely just as self-absorbed and narcissistic as everyone I’m talking about. I grew up in this society, too, and I’m just as susceptible to the same propaganda as everyone else. But, again, this whole online presence thing isn’t what’s real anyway.

You’re real. I’m real. The connections we make in the real world as we hang out with friends and family, go to class and discuss fascinating topics, participate in political debates, and so on–all of those are real. All of the things that we do in this fictitious realm, however, happen only as a result of the controlled movement of things which cannot necessarily be regarded as “real”–electrons. And the more we connect with this realm, the more we disconnect from the meaningful relationships of the real-world; the more we disconnect from anything meaningful at all. We just become data being shifted around by handheld devices that seem to know more about us than we know about ourselves.

Jill Rettberg states, “The data gathered about us by our devices becomes an artifact that is separate from us and can be viewed at a distance. At the same time, it represents us, or a part of our lives” (p 68). We have successfully delegated virtually every aspect of our lives to the use of apps on our smartphones. We live vicariously now through pieces of glass–utterly detached from the beauty and wonder of the physical world. And that would all be fine and dandy if we conducted ourselves as a species worthy of stewardship of this marvelous blue dot. There’s just one little problem–we don’t. In fact, we’re not even close to deserving stewardship!

 

Rhetorical Analysis

This analysis will focus on the article “Search for Quantum Reality” by Stan Gudder. The article was first published April 5, 2013 online and then in the Journal of Philosophical Logic June 2013, Volume 42, Issue 3, pp 525-533. Stan Gudder is the John Evans Professor of Mathematics at the University of Denver. Coupled with the fact that 5 out of the 11 peer-reviewed articles Gudder references are his own, published in both mathematical and physics journals, he is established as an authoritative, credible figure in the particular field discussed in this article.

Several elements are immediately distinguishable in modern articles written for scholarly journals in the realms of mathematics and hard sciences, or even philosophical journals such as this one, that allow leeway for presenting heavily mathematically influenced philosophical work. First, there is a well-organized structure that typically follows the abstract, introduction, body/research conducted, and a general results/conclusions section (which summarizes the material presented in the body). There are several programs used almost exclusively for producing scientific papers, including LaTex and Fortran, that simplify the formatting process for presenting equations and symbols reserved for and understood by whatever social sector the paper’s material is relevant to. While large numbers of equations are prevalent in Gudder’s article, as is the case with practically all modern scientific articles, any main formulas—those that are perhaps the result of a chain of mathematical logic—are numbered in parentheses to the right. This not only draws attention to the most important mathematical conclusions, it helps break up the almost mesmerizing (or perhaps boring) quality of ongoing equations.

Second, while a careful balance is struck between logos, ethos, and pathos, modern scientific papers generally tend to focus on the former two while in some cases only implying the latter. That is, the beliefs and values of the audience are taken for granted as those that would allow for fluid change with presentation of evidence. This evidence is typically presented through graphs, charts, and other illustrations although they are not mandatory and do not appear in every paper. In fact, Gudder’s article has no graphs or charts of any kind which is not very surprising considering this was published in a philosophical journal and not a physics journal. Therefore, logic and reasoning, mostly derived from the mathematical realm, are more heavily relied upon here than ethos and pathos resulting in theorems which provide a series of “If/then” statements—a popular and logical example of cause and effect.

Finally, there often is a short explanation of the motivation for the work presented, as was the case in Gudder’s article. In other words, there are carefully considered anecdotes which are used to reconstruct the path that led to the presented research and conclusions. In terms of research, this particular articles glosses over much of the more tedious mathematical aspects but refers the reader to a references list for further reading. Without this tactic, there would be endless streams of endless articles that constantly have to review and re-present material.

 

 

Project Reflection

I shared my video directly to Facebook. Generally speaking, my Facebook experience is two-fold. First, I use it to catalogue relevant information. Second, my goal on social media is to piss people off; to be a provocateur. This year, I set the bar by declaring that I will be the ‘Troll of the Year’. Therefore, out of my 1,400+ “friends”, only 42 follow me.

The video, since posting it yesterday, has received around 120 views at the time of this writing and only around 4 comments—all highly praiseworthy with one critique of the audio. It’s not quite what I had hoped for but perhaps my original vision for this video will produce a more desirable outcome. Of course, the desired outcome is for the video to go viral. I’ve never made a viral video and it is definitely something I would like to do in the near future. My editing skills are nascent but certainly seem hopeful.

In retrospect, I probably could have extended the narration but I had a vision that I wanted to see through. Despite having to start almost completely over, I’m happy with how the video came out and I can’t wait to produce more in the future. If meaningless, baseless bullshit can get 438,928,879 views, surely I can get a few thousand.

Project Summary

One of my favorite ways to hear someone else’s story is to hear at least some of it from them directly. In a world infected with meaningless 10-second Vines, endless conspiracy videos, and utterly mind-numbing “challenges” that instantaneously go viral, it’s nice to hear an authentic story from the source that is more than an all-out soundbite-style edited, completely out-of-context-quotes-filled, deceitful production. Sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and listen to Alan Watts, or Richard Dawkins, or Neil deGrasse Tyson, or Carl Sagan, or Richard Feynman–or anyone else for that matter–speak about a particular topic for more than 20 seconds without someone cutting them off or having 57 different scenes flash before my eyes in that time.

That being stated, one of my favorite ways to watch someone else’s story is through a well-planned production that takes into account the importance of the role that the video aesthetic plays in conveying their message–a sort of performance. It’s definitely cliche but opening with a quote, building up the music in the background, and having a strings-oriented opening scene with, say, the Sun rising over Earth from the ISS sounded like a great idea; so, I went with it. I actually had an entirely different narrative script for this finished. Then I realized that it wasn’t quite what the assignment called for and I rewrote it featuring the man that has inspired me to work toward feeding, clothing, and housing the entire human population without a price tag: Jacque Fresco. (However, I still may edit the other video and try it out on YouTube. It’s definitely a great bit of writing I churned out. I think what I captured with that narrative is referred to as “the feels” nowadays by the digitally indoctrinated.) Fresco, a multi-disciplinarian turning 100 years old next month, is a master wordsmith and has almost never shied away from any opportunity to present his views. The website features an extensive section called Ask Jacque that is a must-read.

In terms of space, I decided to open with not just any old sunrise–that’s too cliche! Rather, in order to capture the significance of the concerted, global effort required for the social change Jacque advocates, I saw no better way than to begin by highlighting how small we truly are with a backdrop of seemingly infinite blackness and the biggest kind of space: space itself. Since a common theme tends to be, “Well, I’m just one person and the world is so very big…” and so on, why not show how amazingly insignificant this planet is on the grandest scale of all? That’s not a pessimistic or discouraging view, either; it’s simply pointing out the fact that we really can change the world if we set our minds to it.

By utilizing “titles” in iMovie, I was able to overlay the names and credentials of the two gentlemen I featured in the video as well as the song I used. At the end, I decided to put the website for Jacque Fresco’s vision for our future, The Venus Project, traversing media types to encourage viewers to visit the site.

My thought process on the design of this video went something like this: I’ve watched and listened to hundreds of hours of Jacque’s videos and audio recordings (not to mention the thousands of hours watching everything else in my 29 years). There is material available online spanning decades that illustrates the wonderful depth of this man’s perception and understanding of our world. The Venus Project’s latest video was just released last month entitled The Choice is Ours. So, taking all of that into consideration, in my video, I decided to begin with Jacque talking about expectations in an interview from just 4 years ago. The goal with the narrative was to transition from the new, tell the story of the beginning of Jacque’s endeavor in my voice, and end in the middle with an interview in 1974 with Larry King. In other words, I wanted to take a non-traditional route, i.e. one that isn’t the typical beginning-middle-end, and use the music and visuals to stress the importance of the underlying message: realizing that the only real problems we face are human problems that we face together.