Various states have been trying to follow California's lead and make marijuana for medical purposes legal. Marijuana can relieve pain, decrease nausea, and help sleep in ways that do not cause any addiction or negative side effects. Recent findings have also shown that marijuana can have the potential to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The only drawback is that the illegal status of marijuana makes it difficult to fund the research, and instead it is unfairly grouped with dangerous drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine even though they share no common characteristics.

 
With the perils of global capitalism, there is an increased need for a decentralized community economics. Here is an example of how cooperation can be a more sustainable model of economic activity than the demand to compete and subsume everything under the profit motive.

 
Burning Man is a yearly event that began in the early 1990's but has roots in the classical age. As expansive empires brought many diverse people and cultures together, there were great gaps in social equality. Mystery cults formed that converted various preexisting tribal fertility festivals into ceremonies that were more like celebrations of death and rebirth. This united people together as equals in a way that is being reproduced every year on the playa.

 
The Matrix trilogy attempted to explain the various possibilities of a simulated reality used to control humans. Here is an interesting interpretation of exactly what was required for a successful simulation. Where the first type of simulation failed because it was too perfect, the second failed because it tried to follow actual history completely and was too deterministic. The divergence between human will and the action that would follow caused a breaking up of causality, and the simulation would fail. In order to deal with those who would resist the determinism, the simulation would actually allow individuals to be freed from the machines. In other words, the rebellion portrayed in the films was actually a method of containment by the machines to prevent a major disruption of the overall simulation.

 
Germany has just recently begun producing zeppelins again. Here is a new design for a dirigible that can be a great advancement in its form from the very late 1800's, and hopefully can bring this type of transportation into the 21st century.