Image by Airik Lopez, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.
Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:
1. Summer has officially arrived here in the northern hemisphere, and that means it is time for many of us to attend our favorite thing in the whole wide world—music festivals. I was really intrigued by this profile of Cameron Bowman, also known as "The Festival Lawyer", on VICE Thump. Bowman offers some great advice for festival-goers on his Tumblr blog. The advice is spot-on and definitely worth a read if you're like me and would like to stay out of trouble at your next music festival.
2. A well-researched article written by Kim Williams, MD, the president of the American College of Cardiology, that describes the outstanding benefits to heart health that a vegan diet can provide. Although these findings are probably not surprising to someone familiar with veganism, it is nice to see a credentialed doctor is backing up these claims. I will note that it is possible to be a vegjunktarian, or someone who eats vegan junk food, which obviously is not a healthy variation of the vegan diet, and not something that I would recommend.
3. Owl Farm, the Aspen, Colorado home that author Hunter S. Thompson lived in for 35 years, is going to be a museum. I am a huge HST fan, having read many of his books, and I am ecstatic about the possibility of visiting his former home in the future!
4. Reset.me published an interesting article about a naturally-occurring cancer-fighting vitamin that is found in apricot seeds. Vitamin B-17 has been banned by the FDA but has been shown to assist in the fight against cancer, which may indicate that a cover-up is happening. The theory is that since the vitamin is naturally-occurring, it is thereby not patentable, which obviously means the pharmaceutical industry cannot make a profit. This was completely new to me and is definitely worth a read.
5. In time for Grateful Dead's Fare The Well tour, Casey Hardison has teamed up with MAPS to create a petition asking President Obama to grant clemency to Deadheads and other nonviolent drug offenders in prison. If you have a moment, please take a look and consider signing your name.
6. Reason brought us five public service announcements concerning drugs that tried to scare the shit out of us that didn't work. And for good measure, they followed up with five more.
7. The Marijuana Policy Project has put together a resource guide that grades 2016 U.S. presidential candidates on their stances about cannabis law reform.
That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.