All posts tagged: trips

Eyes wide shut: Why psychedelic trips intensify with eyes closed

Eyes wide shut: Why psychedelic trips intensify with eyes closed

Published by skeptic

You’ve likely heard the phrase “set and setting” when it comes to psychedelics: The quality of a trip depends on the mindset you have and the environment you’re in when you kick off a trip. But while it’s a common claim, there hasn’t been much research on the effects of set and setting on the psychedelic experience.  To bridge that gap, a recent study systematically examined these kinds of effects, including those that result from keeping your eyes open or closed during an LSD experience. The results found that participants who kept their eyes closed tended to experience “stronger” trips, as evidenced by self-reported data and increased correlations with brain entropy, which refers to the heightened complexity and randomness in brain activity.  On a broader note, this study was the first quantitative analysis to find that the effect of setting in psychedelic experience can be directly gathered from physiological measurements. Another key finding? Visual stimuli, like watching videos, seem to distract the brain from an otherwise rich experience facilitated by closing one’s eyes.  Visuals or …

Former Atlanta chief financial officer pleads guilty to stealing money from city for trips and guns

Former Atlanta chief financial officer pleads guilty to stealing money from city for trips and guns

Published by skeptic

ATLANTA (AP) — The former chief financial officer for Atlanta pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing money from the city for personal travel and guns and trying to cheat the federal government on his income taxes. Jim Beard, 60, pleaded guilty to one count of federal program theft and one count of tax obstruction in federal court in Atlanta. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones is scheduled to sentence Beard on July 12. Beard could face as many as 13 years in prison but is likely to be sentenced to substantially less under federal guidelines. Beard served as the city’s chief financial officer under Mayor Kasim Reed, managing Atlanta’s financial resources from 2011 to 2018. Beard is the 10th person to be convicted in an anti-corruption probe into Reed’s administration. Most of the others were convicted on charges of giving or taking bribes for city contracts. Reed himself has never been charged. During his time in office, Beard used city money to pay for personal trips and to illegally buy two machine guns for himself, he …

Hush Trips: Benefits And Risks Of This Type Of Travel

Hush Trips: Benefits And Risks Of This Type Of Travel

Published by Sam

After the onset of the pandemic, many office workers learned something: Being present in one physical workplace is not essential for every job. Even as offices reopened, countless employees continued to work from home ― or from somewhere else. Not only did this change the way people work, but it also changed the way they travel. Enter the “hush trip.” But what exactly is a hush trip, and how does it work? Below, experts break down the benefits and downsides of this approach to travel. What is a ‘hush trip’? “A ‘hush trip’ is where employees work remotely from a location other than their usual one, without informing their employers,” said travel blogger Sean Lau. It’s a temporary setup in which employees might simply work from a beach house an hour away from home for a few days ― or they might travel to a different time zone or even internationally. “Since they can just log on and handle their job duties from anywhere, the mindset is why even bring it up to your employer …

Rwanda trips by UK ministers and officials have already cost over £400,000 | Immigration and asylum

Rwanda trips by UK ministers and officials have already cost over £400,000 | Immigration and asylum

Published by skeptic

Sending ministers and officials to Rwanda has cost the government more than £400,000 before a single deportation flight has taken off, figures show. Ministers have spent a total of £413,541 on travel in the two years since the policy to send asylum seekers to Kigali started to be developed. The total, calculated by the Labour party, is based on government transparency releases. It includes trips by senior government officials and a succession of ministers and home secretaries including James Cleverly, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel. This week it emerged that Cleverly spent £165,561 on chartering a private jet for a one-day trip to sign a new treaty with Rwanda in December. The cost of the flight was published in a transparency document on Thursday. The shadow immigration minister, Stephen Kinnock, said: “Having clearly decided that committing £600m of taxpayers’ money to the Rwandan government for just 300 refugees wasn’t insulting enough, it now emerges that three home secretaries have blown hundreds of thousands of pounds on their various publicity stunts in Rwanda. This government’s enthusiasm …

25 Cheap Spring Break Trips That Are Really Fun

25 Cheap Spring Break Trips That Are Really Fun

Published by skeptic

The Catskill Mountains offer both relaxation and adventure for those enjoying their spring break. Try hiking, foraging, and trekking through the Windham and Catskill Mountains, or biking through trails and nearby tours. Additional nearby activities include horseback riding, zip-lining, fishing, tubing, and making a splash at local swimming holes. One nice place to stay is Eastwind Hotel & Bar, a cool boutique hotel that was originally a bunk house for hunters, fly fishermen, and other outdoor enthusiasts dating back to the 1920s. Hungry? Get in the car and check out Woodnotes Grille, which focuses its menu on handcrafted cocktails and ingredients sourced from the local Hudson Valley area. 11. Baltimore, Maryland From Union Collective, a former warehouse turned into a workspace for Baltimore creators/a destination for the locally-minded consumer, to many others, visitors to Baltimore can find authentic experiences and support the local community around every corner. Travelers can dine at one of many eateries by Baltimorean Chef Spike Gjerde (a James Beard Award winner), including Woodberry Kitchen,  and Bird in Hand. Other Charm City hot spots include Gunther & Co. for globally-inspired …

Kirsten Dunst trips on the red carpet at 2024 Oscars in head-turning moment with husband Jesse Plemons

Kirsten Dunst trips on the red carpet at 2024 Oscars in head-turning moment with husband Jesse Plemons

Published by skeptic

Kirsten Dunst had a dramatic moment of her own on Sunday when she took a spill on the red carpet of the Academy Awards.  In a video captured by Variety, Kirsten tripped and fell into a giant, golden Oscar statue. Kirsten, 41, stumbled in her square-neck Gucci gown which she’d teamed with heels.  © GettyKirsten laughed off the moment with husband Jesse She laughed off the moment as she smiled and hugged Jesse, 35, who seemed to find the situation rather amusing.  “I walked right into an Oscar!” she was heard saying before posing for more photos with a big smile on her face.  Kirsten Dunst bumps into Oscar on the red carpet She wasn’t the only who tripped up at the star-studded event as YouTuber Liza Koshy fell to the ground on the red carpet too. The star of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts actress  – who originally found fame on the internet – lost her footing and fell over in her towering eight-inch platforms.  Just as Kirsten did, Liza handled the spill with laughter …

Riding the Daffodil Line around England’s ‘golden triangle’ | Public transport trips

Riding the Daffodil Line around England’s ‘golden triangle’ | Public transport trips

Published by skeptic

When Clare Stone’s local bus service was abruptly axed in 2022, she “got quite cross” and co-founded protest group Buses4Us. In the early 20th century, daytrippers used to come by train to see the displays of wild daffodils that carpet the forests and meadows of the so-called “golden triangle” on the Gloucestershire–Herefordshire border. The railway (now long gone) became known as the Daffodil Line. Clare’s group channelled the spirit of the early Victorian investors who had raised the funds to build the railway: “They wanted the railway so they decided to get on and do it themselves,” she tells me. Buses4Us raised money from councils, businesses and individuals and in April 2023 launched a bus called the Daffodil Line (AKA bus 232 or simply “the Daff”). Dymock and around The original railway also transported harvested wild daffodils to cities such as Birmingham. Now visitors can use the bus to see the flowers still growing along its rural route, which winds between the Herefordshire towns of Ledbury and Ross-on-Wye. Each spring, local villages organise walks, teas …

Best road trips in California

Best road trips in California

Published by skeptic

Hiring an electric car across California is the obvious tip, but look for hotels with EV points to avoid wasting daylight hours charging. California’s roads are long and often winding, and depending on the season you’re never too far away from wintry or wet conditions — especially at high elevation beauty spots. Eating seasonally is easy too. California’s weather is comparable to the Mediterranean, and it’s these conditions that make it a favourable farm-to-table destination. Cities like Sacramento and Berkeley have long been flying the flag for fresh, seasonal produce, with locally grown almonds, pistachios, mandarins and tomatoes abundant on menus year-round, reducing food mileage. So with that in mind, here’s four alternative California road trips that incorporate those sustainable practices. Source link

Emmanuel Macron wants more frequent trips out of the media spotlight

Emmanuel Macron wants more frequent trips out of the media spotlight

Published by skeptic

French President Emmanuel Macron greets police officers as he arrives to attend a visit to the Bordeaux police station, in Bordeaux, France, on February 9, 2024. POOL / VIA REUTERS No one had been warned. When President Emmanuel Macron’s convoy pulled up at around 3:30 pm on February 6 in front of the virtually empty bar in Roulans, in eastern France, the crowd was stunned. Accompanied by a dozen security officers, the president, who had been having lunch two hours earlier at the Elysée Palace with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, stopped for a coffee in the small village. “It’s the surprise of the day, of the year and even of the century!” said the bar’s manager to the local press afterward. Neither the prefect, nor the mayor, nor even the district’s Renaissance (Macron’s party) MP, Eric Alauzet, were notified. When the first photos of the president leaning against the bar were posted on Facebook, alerting the L’Est Républicain correspondent, Macron had already left the establishment. In this cat-and-mouse game with journalists, the president is well …

Snow, Ice Disrupt Trips Home for Millions Ahead of Chinese New Year

Snow, Ice Disrupt Trips Home for Millions Ahead of Chinese New Year

Published by skeptic

BEIJING (Reuters) -Freezing rain, snow and ice have snarled traffic in central, eastern and southern China as millions of people travel home ahead of the Spring Festival holiday in the blistering cold that has swept through parts of the country over the past week. Southern Hunan and Hubei provinces bore the brunt of the severe weather, which deteriorated over the weekend, slowing highway traffic to a crawl, cancelling hundreds of trains and delaying flights. The disruptions coincide with the biggest mass travel migration in the world as people across the country flock home to see their families for the Chinese New Year holiday, which officially begins on Saturday. Over the past few days, videos across Chinese social media showed images of people stranded on trains and trapped in cars on snowy highways in several cities, including Jingzhou in the south of Hubei. One driver was trapped in a car for three days, media outlet Yicai reported, and passengers heading for Wuhan, to the east of Jingzhou, were stuck on a train for hours after power …