Ibogaine is a plant-based psychedelic substance used ritually by indigenous peoples in South America and West Africa. In the 1950s, researchers began studying the compound for use to treat drug addiction. Back then, William S. Burroughs and other Beats reported success using it to kick heroin, and there are currently multiple ibogaine clinics around the world. Now, chemists report that they've engineered a non-hallucinogenic relative of ibogaine that's shown to counter addiction and alleviate depression in rodents. From Science:

Two psychoactive compounds that combat depression and addiction in some people—LSD and ketamine—seem to help the neurons in this part of the brain communicate better by promoting the growth of dendritic spines, small protrusions from neurons that help neurons talk to each other.

In an attempt to find a nonhallucinogen that would do the same thing, researchers led by David Olson, a chemical neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis, started with ibogaine. The team synthesized 20 different chemical analogs of the hallucinogen, retaining a central ring-shaped portion that proved to be involved with some of the desired effects, but losing other fragments that proved toxic and hallucinogenic. The most promising result was a compound called tabernanthalog (TBG).

TBG promoted dendritic spine growth in both cells and rodents. The compound appeared safe in cell cultures and zebrafish and sharply reduced both alcohol- and heroin-seeking behavior in mice and rats. A single injection of the compound protected against relapse of heroin use for up to 14 days. TBG also doesn't appear to stimulate the brain's reward centers, as do drugs such as cocaine, indicating it may not cause dependency, the team reports today in Nature.

_{image: "shredded bark of Tabernanthe iboga" by Kgjerstad (CC BY-SA 3.0)}

In the middle of the night this week, smugglers tossed more than two dozen packages over the fence at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Jackson, Mississippi. The big score was apparently 7 pounds of barbecued chicken wings which, one might imagine, could be an attractive upsell to customers of the weed that was also delivered. According to authorities, the smugglers stuffed the goods into footballs that "easily cleared" the 18-foot-high fence. From WLBT:

Among the contraband seized, officials found:

4 pounds of marijuana
20 pounds of tobacco and rolling papers
38 cellphones, chargers and Blue Tooth earbuds
An assortment of cigars
Over-the-counter cold medications
10 cans of snuff
Several packs of cigarettes and lighters
1 scale
1 head scarf
7 pounds of barbequed chicken wings.

If you sold Nintendo products in the early 1990s, you likely were audience to this delightful customer service training video. And yes, that's Dr. Phlox (aka John Billingsley) in the taped eyeglasses.

"In many cases, customers simply failed to follow the simple directions packaged with their product."

Times change, but people don't.

Also worth noting, someone thinking a Game Boy is broken when actually the contrast knob is just turned all the way down still results in great eBay and garage sale deals for vintage gaming geeks.

Artist and designer Michael Lexier created this curious object, "Two Puzzles," in which the image of one puzzle's cuts is printed on the other, and vice-versa.

"They look like two of the exact same puzzles, but are in fact different," Lexier writes on Instagram. "One is the image of the nine-piece puzzle foil-stamped on to the 16-piece die-cut puzzle and the other is the image of the 16-piece puzzle foil-stamped on to the nine piece die-cut puzzle."

An edition of 100, each puzzle is 4 x 5.5 inches.

If you're still confused, this image may help:

Micah Lexier
"Two Puzzles — the image of one puzzle printed on another and vice-versa"
👯 pic.twitter.com/S9rjO7xkJ5

— kelli anderson (@kellianderson) December 8, 2020

(via Kottke)

Jazz Cats is a live kitten cam in which the meows are changed into saxophone sounds. The software behind the sound is Imitone, pitch-to-MIDI software that translates the notes that you (or the cats) sing into the sound of any digital instrument. When Jazz Cats isn't live, the YouTube stream plays prior sessions. Dig it.

(via Waxy)

The totality of stuff made by humans and currently in-use, from forks to cars to buildings, is likely to now outweigh all of the plants, animals, bacteria, and other living things on Earth. According to researcher from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science published in the journal Nature, "In the year 2020 (±6), the anthropogenic mass, which has recently doubled roughly every 20 years, will surpass all global living biomass." From Scientific American:

The implications of these findings, published on Wednesday in Nature, are staggering. The world's plastics alone now weigh twice as much as the planet's marine and terrestrial animals. Buildings and infrastructure outweigh trees and shrubs. "We cannot hide behind the feeling that we're just a small species, one out of many," says study co-author Ron Milo, who researches plant and environmental sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. These numbers should be a wake-up call, he adds. They tell us "something about the responsibility that we have, given that we have become a dominant force," Milo says […]

The researchers chose to focus only on living biomass and anthropogenic objects that are in use—not waste. With waste, anthropogenic mass began outweighing biomass in 2013, plus or minus five years. And the crossover point is slightly later if water weight is included in the biomass calculations. The wet weight of the biomass on Earth is currently 2.2 trillion metric tons, and humans are on track to outproduce that figure in 2031 (including waste) or 2037 (without it).

About half of the world's current human-made mass is concrete, with aggregates such as gravel making up much of the rest. Bricks, asphalt, metals, plastic and other materials make up about 19 percent of the total.

"Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Life on Earth" (Scientific American)

"Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass" (Nature)

_{image: Morio (CC BY-SA 3.0)}

A women's soccer game between China's Fuzhou University and Jimei University was cancelled on Saturday because players on both times apparently had dyed hair, verboten according to game regulations. From CNN:

The issue kicked off a frantic dash from coaching staff to secure black hair dye from nearby salons.

However, one player from Fuzhou University was ordered to leave the game after the opposition team reported that her hair was still "not black enough," Global Times reported[…]

"One of the rules regulates that hair dye is not allowed among players," a member of staff from Fuzhou University's PE department told Dazhong News, Global Times reported. "In practice, simple or partial dyeing is acceptable, but 'weird' colors are not allowed."The Campus Football Alliance said on Weibo that the league organizers' rules state that athletes will be disqualified if they "dye their hair, grow long hair (for boys), wear strange hairstyles, or wear any accessories." […]

"The players are primarily considered role models for society due to the influential role they can play with their elevated profiles," [said Wild East Football website founder Cameron Wilson]. "It's understandable that a country wants its football team to have a positive impact on the general population, but unfortunately the definition of what is positive in China seems very narrow."

_{image: Alex Neman (CC BY-SA 4.0)}

The International Olympic Committee announced on Monday that breakdancing will be an official event at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. From The Guardian:

It made its Olympic debut at the 2018 Summer Youth Games in Buenos Aires. The IOC has confirmed it will be staged at a prestigious downtown venue, joining sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball at Place de la Concorde.

The news was greeted with delight by the British breakdancer Karam Singh. "It's going to be great for breaking as it gives us more recognition as a sport," he said. "And for the Olympics, it will attract young people who may not follow some of the traditional sports."

While many involved in breaking were happy, some expressed concerns that the sport – which is influenced by a variety of sources such as gymnastics, tap dance, capoeira and kung fu – may lose its authenticity by becoming part of the Olympic movement.

A segment from the BBC's "Inside the Bat Cave" documentary that uses night-vision, ultrasonic detectors, and X-ray imagery to reveal the secret lives of bats and their flight dynamics. Forward to 1:52 for the X-ray footage.

(via Laughing Squid)

The above leaked photo reportedly came from a 2018 document prepared by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), the US defense department's group that investigates UFOs. From The Debrief:

The Debrief learned of the existence of the photograph from a defense official who has been verified as being in a position to have access to the UAPTF intelligence reports. Additionally, the same two officials with the DoD, and one from the U.S. Intelligence community with whom we previously spoke, confirmed that the leaked image is the same photo provided in a 2018 intelligence position report issued by the UAPTF.

The photo itself is said to be considered "Unclassified and For Official Use Only," however, because the image and accompanying report were shared on a secure Intelligence Community network, the officials we spoke with would only acknowledge it under strict conditions of anonymity. Prior to any agreement, The Debrief did verify these sources were in fact in positions within the U.S. Intelligence Community and under the authority of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence[…]

According to officials The Debrief spoke with, the photo appears to be the same as one referenced in our previous reporting, described as an "unidentified silver 'cube-shaped' object" encountered by military pilots as it hovered motionlessly over the ocean. It appears evident that the image was captured by the backseat weapons systems operator of what appears to be an F/A-18 fighter jet.

(via DIGG)

Harold Budd, the minimalist and avant-garde musician who helped pioneer the genre of ambient music, has died. He was 87. Budd's solo compositions and collaborations with Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and the Cocteau Twins inspired a generation of electronic and experimental musicians. From The Guardian:

Born in 1936 to a poor family in Los Angeles, Budd's first musical love was jazz – "black culture that freed me from the stigmata of going nowhere in a hopeless culture", he later said – and after being drafted into the US army he played as a drummer in a regimental band alongside the saxophonist Albert Ayler, who would also go on to become an icon of avant-garde American music.

After leaving the army, Budd studied music at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1966, when he was already married with children. He composed minimalist drone works in this period partly influenced by John Cage and Morton Feldman as well as abstract expressionist painters such as Mark Rothko; one piece in this period, Lirio, is simply notated: "Under a blue light, roll very lightly on a large gong for a long duration." He continued composing alongside teaching but suddenly became disenchanted and quit composition in 1970, having "minimalized myself out of existence".

In 1972, he "resurfaced", in his words, working on a body of music that would eventually become the 1978 album The Pavilion of Dreams, produced by Brian Eno and featuring calmly beautiful compositions with piano and choral vocals. Budd described it as "the birth of myself as a serious artist" in a 2014 interview with the Guardian, saying Eno had given him "absolute bravery to go in any direction".

The pair composed together on 1980's Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, which continued the "ambient" series that Eno had started with the landmark album Music for Airports, and 1984's The Pearl, with Eno producing further Budd works thereafter. Budd became associated with the term "ambient" but frequently rejected it: "Being called something – anything – annoys the hell out of me," he said in 2014.

RIP Harold Budd pic.twitter.com/s19rn7DrTm

— Brian Eno News (@dark_shark) December 8, 2020

HAROLD BUDD FOREVER

RIP TO A LEGEND

Photo by Barry J Holmes pic.twitter.com/radMQ9tcfv

— Light In The Attic (@lightintheattic) December 8, 2020

_{top image: crop of original photo by Masao Nakagami (CC BY-SA 2.0)}

New York Magazine devoted its annual "Reasons to Love New York" issue as a tribute to 500 of the iconic, singular, "essential," and decidedly NYC businesses that have shuttered as a result of the pandemic: "The bars where we came together for after-work drinks, the boxing gym where everybody thinks they're in an action movie, the gallery that trusted you to build a cloud, the coffee shop where you were left alone to read, the restaurant with the full bar where you'd find yourself trying to eat after an all-night bender, the place that was so of its moment that it became a relic and then (deservedly) an icon. All gone. And sadly, probably, more to come before the city returns to its purpose: a place of gathering." Here are a few of those "Reasons We've Loved New York," ordered by when the businesses opened:

Lord & Taylor [Read Wendy Goodman's tribute ➽]
Department Store, Lower East Side, first opened 1826

The Paris Café
Bar, South Street Seaport, 1873

Danish Athletic Club
Restaurant, Bay Ridge, 1892

Empire Coffee & Tea
Coffee Shop, Hell's Kitchen, 1908

Mynd Spa & Salon
Salon, Midtown East, 1910

John Jovino Gun Shop
Retailer, Little Italy, 1911

Gem Spa
Corner Store, East Village, ca. 1921

Chumley's
Restaurant, Greenwich Village, 1922

The Roosevelt
Hotel, Midtown East, 1924

Omni Berkshire Place
Hotel, Midtown East, 1926

Riverdale Fur Shop
Retailer, Kingsbridge, 1926

Nat Sherman Townhouse
Tobacco Shop Midtown, 1930

Colandrea New Corner
Restaurant, Dyker Heights, 1936

The Monkey Bar
Bar, Midtown, 1936

Copacabana [Read DJ Alejandro Bouza's tribute ➽]
Nightclub, Times Square, 1940

"Reasons We've Loved New York A send-off to the many places, big and small, that closed in 2020." (New York)

_{image: Lamberto Zannotti (CC BY-SA 3.0)}

New Age music curator and record label Sounds of the Dawn preserved this 1990 VHS tape for all to enjoy in eternity. "The Petrified Forest: A Picture Poem," featuring music by Deuter and photography by Steven Michael Valdez, was also available on CDV and DVD.

(via r/ObscureMedia)

Previously on BB: "New Age music is fantastic (seriously!)"

The Literary Review has cancelled its Bad Sex in Fiction Award for 2020 because "the public had been subjected to too many bad things this year to justify exposing it to bad sex as well," according to the organizers. From The Guardian:

The prize was set up in 1993 by Auberon Waugh, with the intention of "gently dissuading authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels". Last year it was jointly won by Didier Decoin for The Office of Gardens and Ponds, which included the passage: "Miyuki felt as though she was manipulating a small monkey that was curling up its paws", and John Harvey for Pax, in which the characters "embraced as if with violent holding they could weld the two of them one"[…]

But the judges warned authors not to take the cancellation as a "licence to write bad sex".

"With lockdown regulations giving rise to all manner of novel sexual practices, the judges anticipate a rash of entries next year," said a spokesperson. "Authors are reminded that cybersex and other forms of home entertainment fall within the purview of this award. Scenes set in fields, parks or back yards, or indoors with the windows open and fewer than six people present will not be exempt from scrutiny."

After nearly twenty years as executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Paige Kimble, has resigned from her role. No reason has been announced. Sadly, there was no Bee during Kimble's final year due to COVID-19. From the Associated Press:

Like many others with prominent roles in staging the bee, Kimble is a former speller. She won the bee in 1981. A year earlier, she finished second to Jacques Bailly, who is now the bee's longtime pronouncer.

Kimble began working for Scripps in 1991, shortly after graduating from college, and became executive director in 1998. During her tenure, the national exposure on ESPN and the quirky charisma of the young spellers, who can compete through the eighth grade, have led to increased popularity for the competition[…]

Last year's bee ended in an unprecedented eight-way tie after Scripps ran out of words difficult enough to challenge the elite spellers remaining on stage. Some observers argued that the bee had failed in its mission, but Kimble characterized the result as a triumph.

This marvelous image of a sunspot was captured by the world's largest solar observatory, the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on the island of Maui, Hawai'i. From the National Solar Observatory, the organization that built and operates the telescope:

"The sunspot image achieves a spatial resolution about 2.5 times higher than ever previously achieved, showing magnetic structures as small as 20 kilometers on the surface of the sun," said [National Solar Observatory associate director Thomas] Rimmele.

The image reveals striking details of the sunspot's structure as seen at the Sun's surface. The streaky appearance of hot and cool gas spidering out from the darker center is the result of sculpting by a convergence of intense magnetic fields and hot gasses boiling up from below.

The concentration of magnetic fields in this dark region suppresses heat within the Sun from reaching the surface. Although the dark area of the sunspot is cooler than the surrounding area of the Sun, it is still extremely hot with a temperature of more than 7,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

This sunspot image, measuring about 10,000 miles across, is just a tiny part of the Sun. However, the sunspot is large enough that Earth could comfortably fit inside.

Inouye Solar Telescope Releases First Image of a Sunspot (NSO.edu)