CRITICAL THINKING: “Team USA Athletes are Cupping Themselves at the Rio Olympics for No Good Reason” ☮

CuppingIf you’ve watched the Olympics, you may have noticed a few big-name athletes — including swimmer Michael Phelps and gymnast Alex Naddour — with large circular welts on their bodies. It’s the result of a process called “cupping,” in which you put suction cups on parts of your body to make the blood flow faster. Or so they think.

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ENVIRONMENTALISM – ECOLOGY: “Suzanne Simard: How Trees Talk to Each Other” / TEDSummit / June 2016 ☮

“A forest is much more than what you see,” says ecologist Suzanne Simard. Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery — trees talk, often and over vast distances. Learn more about the harmonious yet complicated social lives of trees and prepare to see the natural world with new eyes.

CRITICAL THINKING: “John Cleese on Stupidity: The Dunning-Kruger Effect”

John CleeseDunning-Kruger Effect

CRITICAL THINKING: “When Biology Meets Cosmology” / Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Richard Dawkins ☮

Neil deGrasse Tyson welcomes ethologist, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins at Hayden Planetarium – Sep 2015.

POLICING FOR PROFIT: “Why Red Light Cameras are a Scam” / Vox ☮

Redlight camera tickets aren’t just a nuisance to drivers, they also cost cities millions.

Many drivers are familiar with receiving the dreaded automated traffic enforcement photo for running a red light. While red light cameras have been reported to reduce broadside crashes, it has been shown these cameras increase rear-end collisions as well. In addition, numerous tickets aren’t going to people running straight through red lights, but drivers failing to make a complete stop while turning on red. Safety is touted as the biggest concern but there are better long term solutions than municipalities installing red light cameras. Building more roundabouts and lengthening yellow lights are just two of several cheaper alternatives to red light cameras.

CANNABIS: “Legal Weed Hurting Profits for Big Pharma Opioid Dealers” / The Young Turks / Cenk Uygur, and Ana Kasparian ☮

New data shows that legal marijuana is hurting the profits of corporate opioid dealers, aka Big Pharma. Look for them to double their efforts and their legalized bribes to congress to keep pot illegal nationally. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

“Research published Wednesday found that states that legalized medical marijuana — which is sometimes recommended for symptoms like chronic pain, anxiety or depression — saw declines in the number of Medicare prescriptions for drugs used to treat those conditions and a dip in spending by Medicare Part D, which covers the cost on prescription medications.

Because the prescriptions for drugs like opioid painkillers and antidepressants — and associated Medicare spending on those drugs — fell in states where marijuana could feasibly be used as a replacement, the researchers said it appears likely legalization led to a drop in prescriptions. That point, they said, is strengthened because prescriptions didn’t drop for medicines such as blood-thinners, for which marijuana isn’t an alternative.

The study, which appears in Health Affairs, examined data from Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013. It is the first study to examine whether legalization of marijuana changes doctors’ clinical practice and whether it could curb public health costs.”

SCIENCE – ASTRONOMY: “Welcome to Jupiter!” / The Big Picture RT / Thom Hartmann ☮

Dr. Leroy Chiao PhD, Former NASA Astronaut & International Space Station Commander joins Thom. Earlier today – at 3:18 Greenwich Mean Time – NASAs “Juno” spacecraft successfully reached Jupiter and entered the gas giants orbit. Scott Bolton – principle investigator for the Juno mission described his relief when orbit was achieved – telling The Guardian that “There’s a mixture of tension and anxiety because this is such a critical manoeuvre … The rocket motor has to burn at the right time, in the right direction, for just the right amount of time.” It took the spaceship 5 years to make the 1.8 billion mile trip from Earth to Jupiter and The Juno probe is equipped with 29 sensors and 9 instruments that will study the planet for the next 20 months. The probe will be making a map of the planet before its instruments finally fail and the probe falls to Jupiter’s surface.

SCIENCE – ASTRONOMY: “Journey to Jupiter: NASA’s Juno Probe Enters Jupiter’s Orbit” / RT America / Marina Portnaya, and Simone Del Rosario ☮

After a five-year journey, NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft has successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit. The craft has already sent back some stunning photos of our solar system’s largest planet.

CANNABIS: “Being Stoned May Save You From Alzheimer’s?” / The Big Picture RT / Thom Hartman☮

For people dealing facing serious memory loss – people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease – marijuana may be just what the doctor ordered.