Canada’s Stand On Cannabis Legalization

Times have changed and there are many things that used to be taboo that are now more widely accepted by the public. It is but expected as we can a lot of things have also changed in our environment. The landscape has changed and technology dominates the planet especially if you live in big, progressive cities. Aside from the physical changes, society does not think the same way it did a decade or more back. One thing that has definitely made a 360° turn is not only the use of marijuana but the fact that it is now considered legal in different states in the US and in other countries too. Maybe our hippie parents and grandparents are probably rejoicing right now at the turn of events but it was long coming. Marijuana, in itself, is not bad. There are other varieties that has a bad image because of the natural high it gives but there are other variants of weed that can make a big difference to our health.

Now we know that there are different types of weed. Many people are raving about the good ones known as medical cannabis, which has helped sick people get over their illness and has turned lives around without necessarily leaving them hooked up to the nasty side of marijuana. But like most things that used to be stigmatized before, the journey to social acceptance isn’t always an easy one. It is always a major struggle to change people’s mindset. The only edge of cannabis is that it is overflowing with positive testimonials from users that can attest to the beneficial effects of weed in their lives, especially their health. There are also studies aimed at proving the positive correlation between medical marijuana use and optimal health.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said legalizing marijuana quickly, despite any challenges associated with doing so, was better than allowing the black market to prevail. “Young people have easier access to cannabis now, in Canada, than they do in just about any other countries in the world...the fact is it is bad for the developing brain and we need to make sure that it’s harder for underage Canadians to access marijuana,” he said at an economic conference in 2016. “The other piece of it is there are billions upon billions of dollars flowing into the pockets of organized crime, street gangs and gun-runners, because of the illicit marijuana trade, and if we can get that out of the criminal elements and into a more regulated fashion we will reduce the amount of criminal activity that’s profiting from those, and that has offshoots into so many other criminal activities.”

(Via: http://www.newsweek.com/marijuana-canada-stalled-quebec-724432)

In the US, both medical and recreational marijuana are being legalized in different states all over the country for a variety of reasons but mostly because congress is pushing for it to be legal. Well, not all states are in its favor and there are still many who disapprove of its use. It is the same thing in Canada. For the most part, the government legalizes its sales and use mainly to prohibit it from thriving in the black market. It is an added bonus that the good stuff, medical cannabis, proves to be a good adjunct management to certain medical conditions like chronic and degenerative ones.

The mere fact that the Cannabis Act passed by such a landslide in the House of Commons is huge. Before Canada starts worrying about the fate of Bill C-45 once it goes to the Senate, they should celebrate this victory.

Politicians in the country have been talking about federal cannabis legalization for years. Now, it’s finally getting closer to becoming reality.

If the Cannabis Act passes in Canada and proves to be successful, it would undoubtedly set a precedent. At least in the United States. Even though our current administration isn’t exactly pro-weed, our next administration might be more progressive and rational. After all, when it comes to social and political change, optimism is key.

(Via: https://hightimes.com/news/canada-moves-one-step-closer-marijuana-legalization/)

While it may seem like Canadian legislators are still torn whether or not to give the go signal for marijuana to be legal in Canada or not to the public and the rest of the world, the Canadian House of Commons actually passed the Cannabis Act without any fuss at all. It’s what you’d like to call a landslide vote and is perhaps to the liking of Prime Minister Trudeau who is a known advocate of cannabis. He is a man of his word and there are no gray areas with him. He took a bold stance of going all out in supporting its legalization even that of recreational use. Talk about liberal minds. From there, lawmakers had to identify specifics about its legalization to cover all important aspects like the age of those legally allowed to buy and use cannabis in the different Canadian provinces. It is the first and bold step to changing the public image of weed and we can only expect bigger things to happen to it in the near future, not only in Canada, but in other parts of the world.

The post Canada’s Stand On Cannabis Legalization was first published to HDBizBlog

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Climate Change Is Not A Hoax

By now, most of us know about climate change. It is not as if we just read it from somewhere or heard about a wild prediction perhaps but a reality we all face today. Yet as absurd as it may seem, there are people who think that climate change is a hoax and I am pretty sure you can name one with that type of mindset. There actually is a prominent public official right now who blatantly says what a hoax global warming is and you don’t have to go far to know who he is.

But kidding aside, climate change is a serious issue and we are once again reminded of Mother Nature’s power and wrath with the recent onslaught of Hurricane Harvey and Irma that left certain states in the country badly beaten and people confused as to how to begin their lives. It's had some people rethinking their priorities. No matter how you look at it, you just can’t ignore the correlation between climate change and the intensity of these hurricanes, something the country has not witnessed in years.

The aftermath of climate-change-fueled superstorms like Harvey and Irma is exactly the right time to talk about man-made global warming, contrary to Scott Pruitt’s whining that the discussion is “misplaced.” When the current administration is quickly and relentlessly reversing progress made in fighting climate change, silence is dangerous.

There is a scientific consensus that climate change played a role in intensifying the winds and rainfall associated with Harvey and Irma, worsening their devastation. From disbanding a federal climate advisory committee to rolling back flood-protection rules, the Trump administration is putting us on track for deadlier hurricanes that we’ll be even less prepared to endure.

(Via: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/opinion/trump-science-climate-irma.html)

Just look at the path of their destruction and it will be crystal clear to you how screwed up we have become because of our neglect and abuse of the environment. The problem is that the government is doing so little in addressing many of the environmental issues we are facing as if the mere fact of ignoring them will discredit them and make them go away. Most politicians stay cooped up in their fancy homes far from the dangers of most natural calamities while regular citizens get to suffer everything else, so they are pretty much disconnected from the reality many people live in nowadays.

Whether or not we see more tropical storms (a matter of continuing research by the scientific community), we know that the strongest storms are getting stronger, with roughly eight meters per second increase in wind speed per degree Celsius of warming. And so it is not likely to be a coincidence that almost all of the strongest hurricanes on record (as measured by sustained wind speeds) for the globe, the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere, the Pacific, and now, with Irma, in the open Atlantic, have occurred over the past two years. A stronger storm means not only more damaging winds, but a bigger storm surge as well, adding to the coastal flooding impact of sea level rise.

Furthermore, a warmer ocean surface means more moisture in the atmosphere. A fundamental rule of atmospheric thermodynamics known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation indicates an increase of roughly 7 percent more moisture in the air for each degree Celsius of increase in sea surface temperature (SST).

(Via: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-we-know-about-the-climate-change-hurricane-connection/)

These weather disturbances can be expected in a planet that is constantly getting warmer and with greenhouse gases that are exceptionally getting higher and higher. We don’t literally blame climate change to be the direct cause of, say, Hurricane Harvey or Irma, for instance, because these weather phenomena are bound to happen in a course of the year. However, climate sure has amplified these hurricanes and made them twice, thrice, four times, or even more, stronger than they ought to be if the circumstances were any different. Haven’t we learned enough by now? What we all need to do today is to unite in slowing down the progression of climate change because there is nothing else we can do about it now. We will all suffer if we don't act when we still had the time.

Climate Change Is Not A Hoax was first published on https://hdbizblog.com/blog

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Using Computers In Space

The use of computers is no longer new in our modern world. It is all around us and it basically makes the planet go round and round day in and day out. From your home to your school or office, computers are widely used and essential for tasks to get done. But if you think that computers are just a staple in the land, it is a must for space missions to use state-of-the-art technologies that not only defy gravity but make a lot of impossible things possible.

Space exploration is still a mind-blowing concept until now. Sending people into space and even exploring nearby planets in our solar system is a feat in itself and for years, humans persisted in pushing our technology further so we can reach farther planets and do more extraordinary things in space. In order to do so, high-tech computers are used that are capable of performing a myriad of tasks at once that an ordinary person isn’t capable of doing. Harnessing space technology is our only ticket to understanding the vast realm of space and what lies beyond what our naked eyes can see.

When SpaceX’s next mission launches on August 14, it won’t just be carrying supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has partnered with HP to perform a long-term experiment on how high-end, modern computers will perform in space compared with on Earth.

Space, as you may or may not know, is absolutely murder on electronics. Cosmic rays are sufficiently plentiful that astronauts since the 1960s have reported seeing flashes of light when their eyes are closed, and there have been no flashes within the capsule, shuttle, or space station. It’s believed that this is caused by cosmic rays passing through the retina. The ISS isn’t protected at all by Earth’s atmosphere, and while it still receives substantial protection from Earth’s Van Allen belts, the total radiation exposure that an astronaut on the ISS receives in a week is equivalent to what a human on Earth receives in a year. At one point, the ISS passes through the far edge of the inner Van Allen belt, and the crew receives 30x more radiation than they would otherwise during this interval.

(Via: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/254089-iss-getting-powerful-computer-ever-sent-space)

Yet even if the world has been sending astronauts into space for decades now, we can’t deny that the risk is still there and they can die in an instant if something goes wrong. All the movements of the aircraft are controlled by computers from the moment they leave earth until they return. It’s the same even in manned missions. Computers play a huge role in the management of life support systems in space. Without them, no human being can survive in such harsh environments.

The idea behind the experiment is to use software and a custom-built enclosure to test a regular server computer’s ability to withstand cosmic radiation and solar flares. Normally, computers used in space flight and exploration are “radiation hardened” through expensive hardware, which can take years to develop, test and produce.  

The UK Space Agency’s Libby Jackson, a former space flight controller and director, told Professional Engineering that experiment is interesting because it could, ultimately, bring down the costs associated with computers in space. 

“If this works, it could make the hardware that we need to go into space more accessible and cheaper because if we can just use something that everyone else is using, we don’t have to specially build it.”

(Via: http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/hardening-space-computers-with-software)

Computers are the key to successful space explorations. But a myriad of factors also affects the way these modern contrivances work outside our planet. Humans may be ambitious and come up with all sorts of antics to reach for their dreams but not without the right tools in hand. Space technology needs all the help it can get today especially that modern consumer gadgets are much better and far more advanced than the ones used in space. With this initiative by SpaceX and HP, they’ll be able to advance the use of computers in outer space and find out for real how modern computers and electronics fare when they’re not used on land but on the International Space Station.

Using Computers In Space is courtesy of https://hdbizblog.com/blog

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Trump’s Art-less America

The world would be a boring place if not for the arts. And when we talk about the arts, we are not just referring to paintings or other artworks and art pieces. The arts encompasses other branches that require people to express their creative skills and imagination such as literature, visual arts, and the performing arts. Getting lost in the arts now and then is a great way to de-stress and appreciate the beauty of this world without constantly worrying about more important life issues. We also get to appreciate other people’s talents that we rarely get to see during ordinary days.

In a country like America, people like to appreciate all forms of art. Just look at how lively the entertainment industry is, and we are referring to singers, performers, and artists that brighten up our lives. Even art galleries and museums are frequented by both tourists and local visitors alike, allowing the younger generations to appreciate what real works of art look like. But there is bad news and I am sure you’ve heard of it already - the federal funding for the arts has been reduced - greatly.

If the White House and Republicans in Congress do move forward with shuttering the two federal cultural agencies, it would be bitterly ironic—because those institutions were once radically reshaped to support the very kinds of programs that now face defunding. The NEA and NEH were founded in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society agenda. For that reason alone, they drew the ire of conservatives, but the resistance to art funding first coalesced in the early days of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Republicans advocated the elimination of both agencies, but a special task force that included Reagan’s old Hollywood buddy Charlton Heston convinced the president not to ax their funding. Nevertheless, Reagan appointed chairs like Lynne Cheney, who was intent on ferreting out “anti-Western” scholarship and imposing new “standards-based” requirements to insert into school curricula.

(Via: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/trump-wants-to-slash-americas-arts-budget-his-base-has-the-most-to-lose/)

Many are frustrated now on President Trump’s actions and start to doubt the state of his (mental) health because he is not really doing anything to fulfill his promise of making America great again. He is almost one year in office and he hasn’t really done anything substantial to fulfill that promise aside from his personal vendetta of getting Obamacare repealed and reducing the federal funding of state agencies he personally feels are of no use to him (and eventually getting them abolished too).

This, after all, may be the most arts-hostile president in modern American history. In “The Art of the Deal” he recounts that, as a second grader, he was nearly expelled for literally punching his music teacher in the face — not a glancing swat but a blow that, according to Trump, gave the teacher a black eye. Since his election victory, Trump’s cultural pugilism has many new avenues for expression. He has attacked individual actors, the cast of the Broadway smash “Hamilton,” and, repeatedly, television’s “Saturday Night Live.” Most notably, he has proposed a budget that would eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. Meanwhile his own President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities recently resigned en masse, citing his “hateful rhetoric” in an open letter that stated forcefully “your values are not American values.”  

(Via: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2017/08/31/why-trump-takes-many-swings-arts/R09SlRHBXxpaw6o2TW1rRJ/story.html)

While the president does not see any practical use for the arts, it actually serves a deeper purpose that benefits the entire nation. It sharpens a person’s sense of empathy and encourages us to think outside of the box and have a different perspective on things seeing that we are generally just looking at artistic expressions that have no literal meaning. And don’t start arguing now that we don’t benefit from the performing arts too because we do benefit from them, even for just the entertainment they bring.

But if we let the president get his way, the nation will be reduced to nothing but a black and white landscape devoid of life where all you can hear are his endless rants on Twitter that aren’t just insensitive and biased but annoying too. But then, if you look at it in a different light, just seeing or hearing about him is a comedy act in itself, so, let’s just wait and see how the future unfolds.

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How Disasters Affect Your Mental Health

Life is not a breeze. It’s true that life is beautiful but it sure is not easy. You may be oblivious to the many woes of living in your childhood but you gradually realize how difficult it is to even just survive once you enter your teens and early adulthood. There is no turning back by then and you have to face adulting head on. And most of the time, we are actually able to get our act together. Things start to go downhill, though, once disaster strikes and you are forced out of your comfort zone at short notice.

Aside from requiring medical assistance from possible physical injuries sustained and needing financial aid in the rebuilding of their homes and in the provision of their basic needs, their mental health should not be entirely ignored too even if they do not verbalize their problems or show it to others. Most people think about nothing else but their family’s safety during emergencies and brush aside whatever hesitations they may have. However, they have no choice but to face the music later on and that’s when they realize they are not the same person anymore.

“Allowing people to talk through their conditions can help in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, when many survivors will experience shock and grief,” says Dr Florence Baingana, Mental Health Specialist at WHO Sierra Leone. “Allowing people to express their feelings and helping them to identify their coping mechanisms and coping resources can offer relief, and help prevent more severe conditions from occurring.”

The nurses engage the survivors in groups and in individual sessions with messages of hope and relief. They also conduct physical assessments and refer those with critical needs to existing services and resources where they can continue to receive help, including from the country’s three practicing psychiatrists. However, mental health needs also evolve, and some weeks after the initial shock has passed more severe disorders can often become apparent, Dr. Baingana explains.

(Via: http://reliefweb.int/report/sierra-leone/mental-health-critical-component-disaster-response-and-recovery)

People often show symptoms of distress during and after disasters although not everyone needs medical treatment for it. After all, everyone copes differently but that does not mean they should not receive the medical support they need in case they truly need it. It is doubly more important for these survivors to take care of their mental health because they need it in order to be able to rebuild their lives and pick up from where they left.

Immediately after a natural disaster, it’s normal to experience fear, anxiety, sadness or shock. However, if these symptoms continue for weeks to months following the event, they may indicate a more serious psychological issue.

The disaster mental health problem most commonly studied by psychologists and psychiatrists is post-traumatic stress disorder, which can occur after frightening events that threaten one’s own life and the lives for family and friends.

Following a disaster, people might lose their jobs or be displaced from their homes. This can contribute to depression, particularly as survivors attempt to cope with loss related to the disaster. It’s not easy to lose sentimental possessions or face economic uncertainties. People facing these challenges can feel hopeless or in despair.

(Via: https://theconversation.com/the-mental-health-impact-of-major-disasters-like-harvey-and-irma-83764)

Humans, by nature, are resilient. However, many people are starting to succumb to post-traumatic stress over the years. Perhaps, it is because we are facing stronger and more destructive disasters now that it has made coping twice as more difficult. Even regular days are unusually hot or cold depending on where you live in the globe. It is usually the thought of moving forward after suffering from a traumatic experience that puts a bigger mental strain to survivors especially when the damage is too much for them to bear. And with a disaster as deadly and destructive like Hurricane Harvey or Irma, the government should look into putting more emphasis on taking care of the mental health of the people so they are able to rebuild their lives despite the hardships they faced even without outside help.

How Disasters Affect Your Mental Health See more on: https://hdbizblog.com/blog

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