http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2014.00361/abstract

Long-term marijuana use starting before 17 years of age leads to cognitive impairment and increased risk of psychotic disorders.

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug among adolescents and young adults. Unique cognitive, emotional, and social changes occur during this critical period of development from childhood into adulthood. The adolescent brain is in a state of transition and differs from the adult brain with respect to both anatomy (e.g., neuronal connections and morphology) and neurochemistry (e.g., dopamine, GABA, and glutamate). These changes are thought to support the emergence of adult cerebral processes and behaviors. The endocannabinoid system plays an important role in development by acting on synaptic plasticity, neuronal cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Delta-9-tetrahydrocanabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive component in marijuana, acts as a partial agonist of the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R). Thus, over-activation of the endocannabinoid system by chronic exposure to CB1R agonists (e.g., THC, CP-55,940, and WIN55,212-2) during adolescence can dramatically alter brain maturation and cause long-lasting neurobiological changes that ultimately affect the function and behavior of the adult brain. Indeed, emerging evidence from both human and animal studies demonstrates that early-onset marijuana use has long-lasting consequences on cognition; moreover, in humans, this use is associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of developing a psychotic disorder. Here, we review the relationship between cannabinoid exposure during adolescence and the increased risk of neuropsychiatric disorders, focusing on both clinical and animal studies.

Full text available in the link.

Hmm.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/kamala-harris-to-run-for-boxer-seat-114204.html

SAN FRANCISCO — California Attorney General Kamala Harris will launch her campaign for retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat Tuesday morning, a source close to Harris told POLITICO.
Her announcement will come one day after Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, an ambitious figure seen as her chief rival, announced that he would not be running for Senate, positioning himself instead to run for governor in 2018. “I know that my head and my heart, my young family’s future, and our unfinished work all remain firmly in the State of California — not Washington D.C,” he said.
Story Continued Below
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villiaraogosa, meanwhile, has said he is “seriously considering” entering the campaign. Tom Steyer, a hedge fund billionaire and environmentalist, is also seen as interested.
Boxer announced last week she wouldn’t seek reelection to the seat she has held since 1992.

So glad to see some new people. CA politics is so tiring.

O-H,  bitches.

TV/Movies: http://trakt.tv/users/madmax808
Music: http://www.last.fm/user/MadMax808

How did I finish in first in the East by entirely forgetting that I signed up?

I promised myself I'd go for a run this morning, but it's been raining for the last two days.

Fuck you. I went anyways. It felt great.

Discuss small victories.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/women-squirting-during-sex-may-actually-be-peeing

When aroused, some women may experience squirting, or a rather noticeable discharge of fluid. What it is exactly and where it comes from has been hotly debated: female ejaculation or adult bedwetting? Researchers are now saying that squirting is essentially involuntary urination.

Female ejaculate is technically the small amount of milky white fluid that’s expressed when climaxing, New Scientist explains. Squirting, on the other hand, results in a much larger gush of a clear fluid, which comes from the urethra, the duct where urine is conveyed from the bladder. The findings, which combine biochemical analyses with pelvic ultrasounds, were published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine on Christmas Eve.

A French team led by Samuel Salama from Hopital Privé de Parly II recruited seven healthy women—who’ve reported recurrent and massive fluid emission (enough to fill a cup) during sexual stimulation—to undergo “provoked sexual arousal.” The team conducted pelvic ultrasound scans after urination and during sexual excitation just before and after the squirting event.

All of the women had empty bladders before sexual excitation, however, urine collected just before squirting showed that the bladder was filling up. Urine sampled after squirting revealed that the bladder had been emptied again, revealing the origin of the squirted liquid.

The researchers also analyzed chemical concentrations in the urine samples (before arousal and after squirting) as well as the squirting sample itself. These included urea, uric acid, creatinine (a byproduct of muscle metabolism), and prostatic-specific antigen (PSA). The latter is a protein that’s produced in men’s prostate glands and in the “female prostate” called the Skene glands; PSA is found in “true” female ejaculate. Urea, uric acid, and creatinine concentrations were comparable in all of the urine and squirt samples. However, PSA, which was not detected before sexual simulation in six of the women’s urine samples, were present in urine collected after squirting and in the squirt sample in five of the women.

Squirting, they found, is essentially the involuntary emission of urine during sexual activity—though there’s also a small contribution of prostatic secretions as well. Salama’s team is now working on a protocol to test whether the kidneys work faster to produce urine during sexual stimulation than at other times, New Scientist explains. And if so, why.

Latest research seems to conclude yes, it is.

Interesting. I always thought they were different things.

There used to be a site that would tell you your b.net stats. Does it still exist? I can't remember...

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/rode-500-miles-self-driving-car-saw-future-boring/?mbid=social_fb

I was a few hours outside of Los Angeles, tooling down I-5 at the wheel of a sleek Audi A7 on a gorgeous day when a little girl in an SUV smiled and waved. I waved back.

With both hands.

This immediately freaked her out, and she started jumping up and down. All I could do was laugh, knowing my vigorous wave was in no way a safety hazard. In fact, I hadn’t touched the steering wheel in more than an hour.

What that little girl didn’t know, despite the stickers on the car, was that I was piloting Audi’s latest autonomous vehicle, a prototype designed specifically to handle the monotony of highway driving. The, er, driving was not nearly so difficult as the preparation—an arduous task that required a day of training in Arizona, a ream of paperwork and a little bureaucratic wrangling that resulted in the great state of California issuing me a license to operate an autonomous vehicle.

Awesome

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/4820310813.html

For some reason, 2005ish Cayennes are really cheap used

http://www.pe.com/articles/sheriff-757551-woman-department.html

Rescuers are searching the mountains near Big Bear Lake for a missing Irvine woman whose snow-covered car was found near a trailhead Sunday morning.
Lisa Ann Cimbaluk, 35, was last seen at her Irvine home the morning of Dec. 29. She did not tell her family where she was going but "there are no signs of foul play," said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Irvine Police Department.
Her family reported her missing Dec. 30.
Sheriff's deputies spotted Cimbaluk's vehicle early Sunday, Jan. 4, parked at the Woodland Trailhead in Fawnskin, a small community north of Big Bear Lake, covered in snow.
"Deputies and volunteers searched the area yesterday for the missing woman and are very concerned due to the overnight temperatures in the area," said Jodi Miller, a San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman.
The National Weather Service recorded overnight temperatures dipping as low as 1 degree Fahrenheit in the Big Bear area since Cimbaluk disappeared.

I only met her a few times, but she is the daughter of one of my mom's coworkers; a few years older than me. From what I know about her, she has struggled with depression and other mental issues for many years, and has always had a bleak outlook on life. She doesn't own a cell phone, and didn't tell her parents where she was going. She's a sheltered Irvine kid with no wilderness skills, so unless she's been holed up in a cabin up there, I doubt she's still alive.

It wouldn't surprise me much if she went up there without the intention of coming back.

The world is a strange place.

Fiddler on the Roof is one of my favorite musicals.

What about you? Do you even like musicals?

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/04/parrot-rnb6-android-auto-apple-carplay/



So glad my Audi has a double-DIN spot for a headunit.

I toss a little splash of creamer in the bottom of my mug, then top it off with regular coffee. My office always has decaf and vanilla-nut-something, but they aren't as good.

No, you're a fat fuck. "Big boned" isn't a thing.