We may be living in the dumbest timeline, but at least I’ve found some smart news briefs for you:
- Bronze Age humans in Southeast Asia got high on psychoactive betel nuts at least 4,000 years ago, new research shows.
- If you’re interested in the topic of drug use in ancient times, be sure to check out Paul Devereux’s The Long Trip: A prehistory of psychedelia.
- Peacock feathers are stunning. They can also emit laser beams. (Archived page link)
- ‘You sold a lie’: How do you spot a cult?
- The story behind the 1980 UFO sightings at Rendlesham Forest.
- Cottingley Fairies photos fetch £2,600 at auction.
- “Sound transmission isn’t necessary”: Visual microphone can decode microscopic movements to hear without listening.
- Related, from back in 2016: All-hearing eye – researchers can reconstruct audio from objects’ micro-movements captured only on video.
- Peter Thiel’s Palantir is extending its reach even further into government. (Archived page link)
- Conspiracy theorist with ties to far-right extremists confirmed as Trump’s counterterrorism chief.
- Video of the Day: Wild video captures alien-like creatures thriving in the deepest ocean ecosystem.
Quote of the Day
Psychoactive, medicinal, and ceremonial plants are often dismissed as drugs, but they represent millennia of cultural knowledge, spiritual practice, and community identity.
