You Know NYC Has A Serious Drug Problem When…

The City has invested in a widespread marketing campaign, not imploring people not to use drugs, period; but to advertise that people should do drugs “safely.”

Last week, I got on a train that was wallpapered with advertisements in English and Spanish, bearing the NYC logo, that told people: “Every 6 hours a New Yorker dies from an overdose. Carry naloxone. Save a life.” “Avoid Mixing drugs.” “Avoid using alone. If you do, have someone check on you.” “Using cocaine tonight?…Safety Tips: Use with others. Carry naloxone/narcan.”

These ads clearly don’t scream a no tolerance drug-use message, or even a don’t do drugs directive. The ads seem more like an advertisement for naloxone, and permissive illegal drug use.

Can you imagine being a young child reading these befuddling messages on your daily commute? I, like many other NYC born and raised children, enhanced my reading skills daily by reading aloud posted advertisements to my parents during commutes. Can you imagine what kind of messages these ads are implanting in young minds and psyches? SMH!

According to NYC’s website the marketing campaign has a $730,000 price tag. The website also states: “The campaign will run citywide on subways, bus shelters, billboards, LinkNYC kiosks, online in local businesses and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.”

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What Is Weathering? Is It An Argument For Reparations In Realtime?

The January 2019 edition of National Geographic states that “weathering” is “a concept developed by University of Michigan professor of public health Arline Geronimus that suggests the health of African Americans deteriorates earlier than that of whites because of the cumulative effects of racism and bias.”

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Why Are People Buying Bear Bile?

According to the January 2019 issue of National Geographic, “A robust market for bear bile exists. In Asia bears are farmed for their bile, kept alive in small cages, with catheters inserted to drain their fluids.” The bears’ bile is purportedly so coveted because there are those who believe that, “chemicals that protect a bear’s organs from atrophying during hibernation could also sustain human organs…[some] researchers believe there are many more secrets to be revealed from bear bile, which is produced by the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and secreted as hormones into the bloodstream. They are taking aim at a range of therapies, including treatments for muscular dystrophy and bedridden patients who can lose half of their muscle mass in three weeks.”

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Under Surveillance: Face-Scanning Technology

SurveillanceThe February 2018 National Geographic features an article entitled, “The New Big Brother.” This article, which is subtitled, “In our surveillance society, satellites, cameras, and phones are tracking us more than we eve imagined,” details the capabilities of face-scanning technology.

The article reveals that CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras contain face-scanning technology, and has the capability to track individuals based on their face, gait, and clothing.

The face-scanning technology is so advanced that faces can be recognized by it regardless of poor lighting, distortions due to facial expressions or odd angles, heavy makeup, or disguises. Current face-scanning technology also allows for skin-texture analysis, which can map and analyze facial spots, pores, and wrinkles. This analysis is so advanced and efficient that it can tell the difference between identical twins.

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The Perilous Aftermath Of Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings TimeOn Sunday, many people across the country turned their clocks an hour forward for Daylight Savings Time.

Daylight Savings Time, originally implemented in Germany during World War II as a means to save energy, is currently observed in the United States, except for in Hawaii and Arizona. Reportedly, for the reasons stated below, Massachusetts and Florida have begun lobbying to abandon compliance with Daylight Savings Time.

Researchers have noticed that on the day after people have “sprung ahead” in order to comply with Daylight Savings Times, a spike in heart attacks occur. According to Business Insider, “On the Monday after [the] springtime switch, hospitals report a 24% spike in heart attack visits around the country.” [NOTE: This trend has an opposite effect when people turn their clocks back an hour. Fall Daylight Savings Time coincides with a 21% drop in heart attacks.]

Lack of sleep is said to be the cause of the spike in heart attacks. According to Business Insider, “Researchers estimate we’ll all deprive ourselves of an extra 40 minutes of sleep” due to the “spring-ahead” Daylight Savings Time.

Altering our sleep patterns, even this seemingly miniscule amount of time, can have seriously detrimental health consequences. Therefore, be sure to compensate for the shift in time. Try to go to sleep an hour earlier, or wake up an hour later, until your body adjusts to the shift in time. Consistently giving your body the proper amount of rest is extremely important.

Also, take into consideration that in addition to the heart-attack spike, the sleep deprivation caused by springtime Daylight Savings also reportedly causes an increase of serious accidents, on and off the road.

Be safe and be healthy.

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How Big Is America’s Opioid Problem?

According to the September 2017 edition of National Geographic magazine:
• In the United States, every 25 minutes, a baby is born addicted to opioids.
• In 2015, there were 33,000 deaths due to opioid overdose. A 16% rise from the year before.

According to a recent New York Daily News article:
• In 2016, in America, opioids killed more people than car accidents, guns, or breast cancer.
• In 2016, “in total, 22 states and Washington D.C. had overdose opioid deaths higher than the national average of 19.8 fatalities per 100,000 people.”
• Since 2013, synthetic opioids “have killed an average 88% more people each year.”

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Is Knowledge Really Power?

“Knowledge, general in nature and unorganized, is not power; it is only potential power- the material out of which real power may be developed. Any modern library contains an unorganized record of all the knowledge of value to which the present stage of civilization is heir, but this knowledge is not power because it is not organized…

Power grows out of organized knowledge, but, mind you, it ‘grows out of it’ through application and use!

A man may become a walking encyclopedia of knowledge without possessing any power of value. This knowledge becomes power only to the extent that it is organized, classified and put into action. Some of the best educated men the world has known has possessed much less general knowledge than some who have been known as fools, the difference between the two being that the former put what knowledge they possessed into use while the later made no such application. ” -Napoleon Hill

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Scientific Fun Fact: Sound, Heat, and Light

“The human ear can detect only the sound which is produced through from 32,000 to 38,000 vibrations per second.

As the rate of vibrations per second increases above that which we call sound, they begin to manifest themselves in the form of heat. Heat begins with about 1,500,000 vibrations per second.

Still higher up the scale, vibrations begin to register in the form of light. 3,000,000 vibrations per second create violet light. Above this number vibration sheds ultra-violet rays (which are invisible to the naked eye) and other invisible radiations.” -Napoleon Hill

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