Higher Perspective

In 2008, 59% of Alaskans voted for John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, over Barack Obama, the Democrat. In 2012, 55% of the state’s voters voted for Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, over Barack Obama, the Democrat. In 2014, 52% of Alaska voters voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Why do these numbers matter? Because it shows that blue states, like Colorado, Oregon and Washington, aren’t the only states where marijuana can be legalized. And that energy is on its way to deep south and deep red Georgia.

The leading bill is expected to be filed in the General Assembly and would allow Georgians to use cannabis oil to reduce seizures that accompany epilepsy and some other illnesses. But another state senator is taking a much broader approach to the matter...

As it turns out, honey is a lot more useful than a tea or oatmeal sweetener. It has a trove of healthy values other than being eaten for better health. Here are some of the more unusual, lesser known uses for honey.

1. Treating wounds. Only non-life threatening wounds, of course. If you have bumps, scrapes, scratches or bruises, applying a bit of honey to the area will help soothe the pain and heal faster.
2. Hangover remedy. The high fructose content of honey allows your body to process alcohol faster. If you’re having a real rager of an evening, take a spoonful of honey before bed and again in the morning. Don’t remember to hydrate!
3. Treat red parasite infections. This is one I definitely didn’t know! a 1:1:1 mix of water, vinegar and honey might not taste great, but it helps get rid of mild red parasite infections.
4. Cleansing the skin. Honey is a natural exfoliate. Wash your face with honey and rinse with lukewarm water. Warning: this face wash might be tough if you have facial hair. Did I learn this from experience? We’ll go with maybe.

In the 1960s, the Espanola Galapagos tortoise was in pretty tough shape. There were only 15 individuals remaining – 12 females and 3 males. But fortunately, that was the animal’s low point. 50 years of dedicated conservation effort has brought the population of the tortoise up to 1,000 individuals! More importantly, their recovery is stable, and it looks to be on its way up.

In 1973, the Galapagos Islands National Park Service started a captive breeding and reintroduction program for the giant tortoises. Through this program, they have been able to breed and release 1500 of the captivity raised tortoises back onto the island of Espanola. Unfortunately, the non-native goat populations on the island had to be culled.

Now this is one jobs plan I can get on board with! Are you reading, Congress? Of course you aren’t.

India’s Rural Development Ministry has recognized two problems: youth unemployment and bad air quality. But they’ve decided to kill two birds with one stone – to plant 2 billion trees and hire up to 300,000 of the nation’s youth to do it.

“The length of National Highways in the country is one lakh kilometer [about 62,137 miles]. I have asked officials to come out with a plan to plant 200 crore [2 billion] trees along these stretches which in turn would create jobs for the unemployed on the one hand and protect the environment on the other,” said Shipping and Rural Development Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari.

These are exciting times we’re living in. On Thursday morning, NASA’s Orion spacecraft will launch and perform an unmanned test flight for machinery that they plan to use to bring human beings to asteroids before transporting them to mars. The project dates are set in stone.

It was announced today that Orion will bring four astronauts at a time to asteroids between Earth and Mars by the year 2025, and the first humans will likely reach the red planet within the subsequent decade. This will be the furthest human beings have traveled from the Earth.

This spacecraft launching tomorrow will be unmanned, but the cabin will be filled with more than 1200 sensors to collect information about conditions in the cabin, from radiation to heat, as well as test different systems well in flight.

Tensions in the United States have been high since last week’s grand jury decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown. President Obama weighed in on Monday, proposing new funding meant to help improve relations between the police and the communities they serve, and to address the “simmering distrust” between the two groups.

President Obama has requested $263 million in funding for police to be equipped with body cameras and additional training in the wake of Michael Brown’s death. This program, which requires congressional approval, would offer $75 million a year for three years to match state funding for the cameras, which would pay for 50,000 of the devices.

Typically, when we’re done using eggs in my household, we chuck them into the compost. But it turns out, egg shells are really good for you for a variety of reasons! They’re high in calcium, which helps important functions in the body like creating bone mass and preventing osteoporosis. Calcium also normalizes the function of the nerves and muscles in your body, your heartbeat, and helps encourage sleep.

For as important as calcium is to our bodies, we do a lot to deplete ourselves of this vital nutrient. Drinking coffee, alcohol, or carbonated beverages can drain calcium. Pregnant women and women in menopause, and older men who suffer digestive disorders are the most prone to calcium deficiencies.

There’s one thing each of us have in common, and that is that we all die eventually. During our final days, barring that our deaths aren’t sudden or accidental, a great deal of care goes into taking care of the person making the next big leap in life. And psilocybin, or “magic” mushrooms could play a part.

I know I know, it sounds like the fixins for a pretty rough trip, being near death and all. But as it turns out, people experience it as a very liberating experience and helps the user feel alive again, especially if they’ve been ill for a length of time.

“All of our subjects expressed a lot of gratitude that this opportunity was open to them,” says Dr. Charles Grob of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Near death, many of his patients had lost their sense of meaning and purpose. And this helped...

New research published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in September discussed findings that shocked me. Their research concluded that THC could be a potential treatment option for Alzheimer’s disease via a variety of pathways and uses.

Some one in 3 seniors will die from Alzheimer’s or another type of dementia. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, afflicts 5 million Americans, and costs $203 billion in 2013.

Researchers treated Alzheimer’s research cells with THC and then looked for amyloid-β at 6, 24 and 48 hour intervals. Amyloid-β is a protein linked to Alzheimer’s symptoms. There was strong evidence to show that THC effectively lowered amyloid-β’s presence.

Levitation is thought of as an act of magic. Magicians have used the idea of levitation as their prime act in many shows around the world but most of the time the act has been nothing but a trick of the eye. In most people’s opinions, levitation cannot really be accomplished. However, now it seems that it is quite real, and it can be done without magic. Science shows us how.

The experiment

The act of levitating objects is simple in procedure, but it is necessary to understand the role of physics in the idea. An experiment conducted by Harvard physicist Subir Sachdev shows how levitation can indeed be done with the implementation of three basic tools: magnets, liquid nitrogen and a superconductor.