#it was 30 degrees today and i found a new spin instructor that i like and there's a new hot barista at my coffee place

[berlinini]

a year ago I was flying from London to Milan to spend Easter with friends eating pizza and gelato 🥺 not to be that girl but take me baaaaaack

[thejessitaylor]

The night I should have died

   The night I should have died 

On a Saturday afternoon in 2004, while traveling down the 405 freeway in Long Beach, California, I saw a sign on the side of the road that said, “Experience the miracle of flying, demonstration flight $49”.  So I pulled in and asked to fly. Within a matter of minutes Boden and I were airborne flying over the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. I was hooked. I knew from this moment forward, aviation would be part of my life. 

There was something so freeing being in the air above the ground, sailing from place to place, and falling in love with life all over again. It was amazing leaving southern California in the morning, flying fishing the Owens River, and being home before dinner. Life now has a fourth dimension that most only dream of having. 

To become a certificated pilot or private pilot, the Federal Aviation Administration has a set of standards you must train for to meet and accomplish. Standards that include takeoffs, landings, steep turns, and short field takeoffs just to name a few. One of the most difficult skills to perfect is instrument flying skills, meaning, flying by reference to instruments only. A normal flight for most pilots is done by reference to the ground and the outside world by cross-referencing with the instruments inside the airplane. During instrument flying, all of your attention is solely on 6 different instruments. Instrument flying can be the difference of life and death to most pilots. 

This is a story of how I almost lost my life during flight training. It is very difficult to even think about these events to this day. Each moment of this flight is forever stamped in my brain and I often recall these memories during stressful moments in the air and on the ground. In fact, this one flight shaped my life, my flying, and how I handle stressful moments today.

One evening my flight instructor and I met at the airport as the sun began to set to complete part of the night time flight requirement for my private pilot certificate. As normal, we briefed the flight and what was expected of me and my skills. At this point I had around 30 hours accumulated mostly by practicing takeoff and landings, and cross country flying. The objective of this flight was to fly for about an hour and a half, practice instruments flying, and then come back to Long Beach for some takeoffs and landings. 

After a quick preflight and fuel up, we taxied out for takeoff on runway 25 in Long Beach. We headed southwest towards the practice area down the Los Angeles River channel over the Long Beach harbor. Night flying has always been one of my favorite times to fly, seeing all of those beautiful lights scattered across the ground. And watching cars moving about their night time activities.  From here life was simple and not complicated. It was peaceful from up above it all, looking down at life on the ground. 

As we made our turn to the West out over the ocean my flight instructor asked me to put on a view limiting device that made it so I could only see inside the airplane, forcing me to fly by reference to instruments only. Once the device was on, my instructor asked me to start a climb to 6,500 feet at 1,200 feet per minute. Once we got to 6,500 feet, my instructor looked down at the Los Angeles basin and saw the marine layer coming in far faster than forecast. So he said, we needed to head back to the airport, but he needed time to set up an instrument approach back into Long Beach. 

My flight instructor began setting up for an approach back into Long Beach. He instructed me to fly heading 180 degrees, descend to 4,500 feet, slow to minimum controllable airspeed with full flaps. So I completed the task at about 45 knots. He then instructed to go into slow flight and make one 360 degree turn back to a heading of 180, and do a power off stall recover and lets go back to the airport. Once I established slow flight, my instructor began looking down to load the approach into the GPS. As I completed the turn, I began to stall the airplane and at the same time I rolled through my wake turbulence which is the disturbed wind I left behind in the previous turn causing the airplane to roll left. I turned right and put in left rudder, which caused the airplane to go into a cross controlled stall and immediately into a spin. 

The nose of the airplane dropped into the darkness of the night over the ocean. My instructor yelled, “Recover, recover, recover”. I tried to find the direction of the turn while pulling the power off and gaining control of the airplane, but since it was night and in a spin, the recovery was almost impossible. My instructor yelled again, “My controls”. Looking at the altitude we passed through 2,700 feet and falling fast into the darkness of the ocean. We then went into the clouds sealing our fate. 

As we spun towards the water I knew that this was probably the last moments of my life. In those moments I began thinking about the news story to follow, my parents and family finding out I had died, and what life was going to be like for them without me. I thought about the heartbreak and sadness of friends and my family having to identify my body if one could even be found. In all my life I would have never imagined dying in an airplane. Something that for so many years I had feared. In fact, it wasn’t even until my 21st birthday that I took my first commercial flight. 

The world was spinning around me as if I didn’t even exist, and in the blink of any eye I would be dead. And in a matter of years I’d forgotten by time, never having truly lived or completing the long list of things I needed to accomplish in my life. This was the end, and I was completely conscious during the entire thing. With the airspeed over 140 knots and the altitude nearing 1,000 feet as quickly as we enter the spin our wings began to roll level the altitude began to stabilize, and we dropped below the clouds as the lights of the Long BeachHarbor glowed across the windshield. 

My instructor had recovered the airplane. 

How? To this day neither of us know exactly how, but we just know it did. We then made our way back to the airport and not a word was said. We parked the airplane, and I took off for home. That night I spent in cold sweats and restlessness thinking about the entire flight. If I fell asleep flashbacks of the spin woke me up in a gasp of nightmare. So I laid in bed trying not to go to sleep so that I didn’t have to live the event again. 

The next morning I called my instructor and told him I was done training. It was fun while it lasted, but I just wasn’t meant to fly and would never lose my fear.  He asked me where I was and said, “Come to the airport. Let's talk”. 

Walking through the hanger smelling the fuel, the oil, the new leather in the airplanes caused a pit to grown in my stomach and my memory began flashing through last nights flight. My instructor stood at the opening of the hanger holding a parachute standing next to one of the aerobatic airplanes. He said, “Jess, meet Boden he is one of our senior aerobatic instructors and wants you to go up and get some pain training.”  

Tears began to fill my eyes as anger filled my body. Why in the hell would he want me to go flying after last night? Trying not to be rude I followed Boden into the classroom to begin briefing our flight. Before he started, he looked at me and said, “ What happened last night was scary. I’m sure you thought you were going to die but that’s not the end of the story. You lived, and now its time to learn to conquer that fear of flying and get back in the air to what you know you love.” 

He was right, getting back up in the airplane was the best thing I could have done. To this day I’m certain that if I hadn’t gone flying the next day, I would have never flown again. 

A few years after that I received a phone call from my private pilot instructor who told me that Boden had died in a plane crash. After the final NTSB report was published, I found out that he died performing the same maneuver I fear. The spin. 

I’ve attached the full report of the fatal crash, one that could have been mine. Each day I am more thankful than ever for my life and the ability to do something I love so much. As every pilots knows many have died before us attempting to get where we are today. Never take one day for granted. 

  NTSB Identification: LAX05LA283

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On August 31, 2005, approximately 1250 Pacific daylight time, an Avions Robin R.2160 airplane, N216RN, impacted the ocean following a loss of control and subsequent flight crew bailout near Avalon, California. The airplane is presumed destroyed. The certified flight instructor was fatally injured and the pilot-rated student sustained minor injuries. The airplane was operated by California Flight Center of Long Beach, California, as an instructional flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. The flight departed Long Beach Airport at 1221, and was destined for Avalon Airport on Catalina Island. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was not filed. 

According to personnel associated with the operator, Long Beach Flight Standards District Office, and Los Angeles County Life Guard personnel, the flight departed Long Beach and headed toward Catalina Island. The flight entered an aerobatic box over the San Pedro Channel and performed some aerobatic maneuvers. During a telephone interview with the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC), the surviving student indicated that the instructor performed a hammerhead stall, followed by a loop. At some point in the maneuver, the airplane entered a spin. The spin's rotation increased and became violent. The instructor attempted to recover, to no avail. Around 2,500 feet, the instructor informed the surviving pilot that they "must get out of this airplane" and jettisoned the canopy. The student unbuckled his 5-point harness and exited the airplane. The student noticed the airplane, with the vertical and horizontal stabilizers still attached brush by him very fast in a nose low pitch attitude. He then deployed his parachute and noticed the airplane in the water along with the instructor's parachute. 

The student impacted the water and began clearing himself from the parachute. He then inflated his life preserver and began calling for the instructor pilot, but received no response. The student estimated he was in the water for approximately 1.5 hours before the crew of a privately owned and operated yacht picked him up. They called ahead to the lifeguard unit, who in turn met the yacht. A US Coast Guard flight and marine unit was dispatched to the accident area and found the instructor pilot in the water. His parachute was out of the storage sack but his life vest was not inflated. 

The student submitted a written statement regarding the event. It indicated that once they entered the aerobatic box and cleared the area, he performed a series of 3 loops under the instructor's guidance, followed by 2 flick-rolls. The student described all of these maneuvers as "successful." Then, under the instructor's guidance, the student performed a series of 2 spins, both of which were to the left. 

The student then relinquished control of the airplane to the instructor and reached into the checklist pouch and removed his handheld camera to film the next series of maneuvers. The instructor proceeded to perform a hammerhead maneuver followed by what the student believed was a loop and then a spin. The student stopped filming when he suddenly realized that they were "violently spinning towards the water." The student believed he counted 7 or 8 spins to the right, but wasn't positive about the direction. He realized they were spinning too much and that they were rapidly losing altitude. The instructor told the student to remove his feet from the rudder pedals. The student added that he believed he was resting his feet on the pedals, but not pressing on them. He removed his feet from the pedals and brought his knees up to his chest. 

The instructor continued with his attempt to stop the spin, but then the propeller eventually slowed and came to a complete stop. The student looked at the instructor, who in turn, looked at the student and "calmly said, 'Let's get out of here.'" The instructor then jettisoned the canopy and air rushed into the cockpit. The student twisted his quick-release mechanism and jumped out of the airplane. He mentioned again that he felt the vertical stabilizer rush past him. The student estimated that their altitude at that point was no more than 1,000 feet above the ocean.

Once clear from the airplane, the student pulled his parachute's ripcord and looked up to see the parachute open. When he looked down, he observed the airplane impact the water to his left. To his right, he saw the instructor's parachute opened and floating on the surface of the water. The student added that as he drifted up from the airplane, he did not see the instructor drift up and never saw him with his parachute open floating down to the surface of the water.

Review of radar data provided by the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control facility revealed that the airplane was at the following positions during its last 9 radar returns:

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

Flight Instructor

The flight instructor held an instructor certificate for single-engine airplanes. He was an airline transport pilot with a multi-engine airplane rating, and a commercial pilot with a single-engine airplane rating. He was also type-rated in Learjet 60 airplanes. He was issued a first-class medical certificate on July 21, 2005, without any limitations or restrictions. 

A review of his logbook revealed he accumulated a total of 2,309 hours of flight time. He logged about 776 hours in multi-engine airplanes, and 1,524 hours in single-engine airplanes. The flight school where he was employed estimated that he accumulated at least 250 hours in the accident airplane make and model. His logbook revealed that in the last 30 days he logged 95 total flight hours, of which 17 were in the same make and model as the accident airplane.

The instructor pilot was in the right seat during the flight.

Student

The student had a private pilot license with a single-engine airplane rating. His last medical certificate was obtained in September 1999. According to him, he logged about 310 hours of total flight time.

The student was in the left seat during the flight.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

The Avions Robin R.2160 is an all-metal, two-seat airplane, built in France. The airplane is equipped with a 160 horsepower Lycoming O-320-A2D engine. Though it is certificated as an acrobatic airplane in France, in the US it receives an experimental certification.

A review of the approved flight manual (AFM) revealed that when the wing flaps are retracted, intentional spins are approved; however, no baggage should be carried. The AFM indicates that the loss of altitude per 1 turn spin is about 250 feet. Spins in the Avions Robin should be "entered from a power-off full stall with slight nose up attitude." The spin recovery technique listed in the manual indicates that the pilot should:

- Apply and maintain full opposite rudder

- Maintain stick back until rotation stops (stick back position accelerates the recovery).

- Ailerons neutral

- As rotation stops neutralize the rudder and smoothly recover from the dive. After 3 spin turns, recovery is performed in 3/4 of a turn. 

A note following the spin recovery procedure indicates that "only one action is important: Keep the rudder fully in the opposite direction!" The AFM also indicates that in spins lasting longer than three turns, the engine may stop. For 4 turn spins (or more) recovery takes 1.5 turns. 

Review of the aircraft's maintenance records revealed that the last annual inspection completed on the airframe/engine took place on December 22, 2004, at an airframe total time of 7,359.1 hours. On August 18, 2005, the airplane/engine underwent a 100-hour inspection at an airframe total time of 7,555.01 hours, and an engine total-time-since-major-overhaul of 1,025.1 hours. As of the morning of the accident, the airplane had accumulated 7,562.1 hours.

WRECKAGE & IMPACT INFORMATION

The airplane and engine were not recovered following the accident due to the depth of the water at the point of impact and the inability to locate the wreckage. Small pieces of debris were recovered and examined, but they were of little pertinence. 

The flight instructor's parachute was recovered and examined by an FAA inspector. According to his statement, he received the parachute after it had been placed in a plastic evidence bag and recovered from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. The canopy and suspension lines had been cut by recovery personnel near their attachment point to the harness. The parachute appeared to be a "normal" deployment. The pilot chute was attached to the parachute and was fully deployed. The ripcord was not in the cord housing, but was present and appeared to be in good condition. Due to the suspension lines being cut by recovery personnel, a determination of entanglement could not be made. There were no rubber bands present in the harness, pack, or on the suspension lines. The inspector noted that the parachute had been inspected and repacked 16 days prior to the accident, on August 15, 2005. 

PATHOLOGICAL INFORMATION

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office conducted an autopsy on the flight instructor. According to the autopsy report, there was a "deep laceration of the right upper chest extending to the right shoulder". The cause of death was due to multiple blunt traumatic injuries. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The wreckage has not been recovered as of this report's writing.

[buddaimond]

Yahoo Movies exclusive interview with Robert Pattinson by Kevin Polowy

How familiar were you with the source material for Lost City of Z? Had you read David Grann’s book?

Yeah, James gave me the book when it was a totally different script. Or I may have read it long before there was even a script at all. I think at the time he was thinking about me to play Percy’s son. Because I must’ve only been about 21. And then I just kind of stayed with it as time went on, and it went through all these different casts. [Laughs]

It sounds like the script changed a lot through the years. What were the biggest changes made over time?

When I first read it, it was a straight action movie, like Indiana Jones. It was this rip-roaring adventure movie, and not this kind of epic, elegant saga that takes place over 30 years.

Costin is a much more minor character in the book. What did you build off of to shape him?

Well, I always thought with Percy’s character it would be a good idea to have a foil. I always interpreted Percy’s character as this man determined to fix the reputation that he thinks he’s deserved, and which his father has ruined for him. … He keeps going back to the jungle again and again and again, just to fix this insecurity. So I liked the idea of Costin being this character who basically had a total disregard for the English aristocracy or any kind of social climbing whatsoever. So he didn’t really want to bring anything back from the jungle, anyway. The entire point for him was just to go because he had nothing to live for in England.

How much information was out there about the real guy? Any sense of his military career?

Well, Costin in reality was a refrigerator salesman. There was an advert in the Times of London saying, “Adventurers Wanted.” That’s actually how he got the job. [Laughs] He was one of the only people who applied for it. But he was in the army — he was a physical fitness instructor. But really, I liked the craziness of just applying to be an adventurer.

You rock some pretty rad facial hair in this movie. Did that look grow on you — pun intended — or did you not care for it?

By the end, I was definitely over it. But at least when you’re shooting a movie with your face covered, there’s very little makeup to be done. It was definitely a “Get out of bed and that’s it” situation. That helped in the middle of the jungle.

You’ve played lead roles, you’ve taken supporting parts — this is more of a supporting role in an ensemble. Do you have a preference these days?

There are certain directors I just really want to work with, and you bring what you can to a part. But in some ways it’s kind of nice [to play a supporting role]. It is a little bit liberating because you don’t have to concentrate on the narrative thrust of the story. You’re just purely thinking about character and just embellishing it a little bit. But with this, I would’ve played any part in it, pretty much.

Costin has some great lines in this movie. I think one of my favorites is when you say to Hunnam, “We’re too British for this jungle.” Did you guys feel out of your element filming in the jungles of Colombia?

No, I really loved it. I guess in some ways, it was kind of hard. But it’s just incredible, going to work every day in a little boat, going up river in the middle of virgin jungle in Colombia. It was very, very close to being on vacation, to be honest. [Laughs]

But the type of vacation where you couldn’t eat anything?

Well, yeah. There’s a certain degree of harshness, and we were trying to lose as much as weight as possible in a really short period of time. So I guess there’s that element to it. But there’s a reason those guys wanted to keep going back as well. It’s amazing.

Do you consider yourself pretty adventurous? Could your relate to that thirst for exploration?

Yeah, definitely. I do sometimes find myself gravitating toward a job just because it’s shooting out in the middle of nowhere. If I’m shooting in a city, generally it can become a repetitive scenario. If you have anyone taking pictures on their phones, it just constantly reminds you of the reality of your life. And I find it becomes a little more difficult. Whereas if you’re out in the jungle and everyone is on the same page as you, you just sort of believe in character a little bit more.

What is your own personal Amazonian adventure? What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career so far?

I don’t know: I’ve done things which I thought were going to be really risky, which ended up not being risky at all. I generally try to keep finding ways to push the envelope as much as I can, and whenever I get the opportunity to do it, I generally try to take it. But I don’t really worry about taking risks, to be honest.

What’s something you thought was risky that ended up not being so?

I did this movie years ago called Bel Ami, which was at the height of all the Twilight stuff. It was this Guy de Maupassant novel about a guy who seduces women specifically to screw them out of their money and ruin their lives. I thought that was a relatively subversive choice to make at the time. [Laughs] And no one really seemed to think the same thing.

What is your relationship with your Twilight fan base these days? Has the madness that surrounded your life calmed down at all?

It’s definitely calmed down in terms of my everyday life, but mainly because I spend more time in London, which is totally different. And I’m doing more parts that just sort of interest me, while in a lot of ways taking a little bit of a step back just to learn and get better. I guess I’ve never really acknowledged what the fan base is, or even if I have one. [Laughs]

Oh, you have one.

But, yeah, I’m always pretty curious about what people say afterward, and who turns up, who likes the movie. It’s always kind of random. But I love it when someone who you just really wouldn’t expect says, “Oh, I liked you in this.”

What films have been most unexpected?

It’s always just really strange. I’ve done a bunch of movies which I thought might’ve been impossible to be seen. There was this film Little Ashes, where I played Salvador Dalí, from years and years ago, and just the other day I was walking down the street and somebody came up and said, “Oh, that’s my favorite film!” You kind of forget that people even watch your films. [Laughs]

What do you think of all the universe building that is going on in Hollywood right now and the possibility that they could reboot Twilight and expand its world? Could you ever see yourself playing Edward Cullen again?

Really, they’re expanding it? So I’ll get my own spin-off? [Laughs]

Potentially! It could be called Edward: Homecoming.

Yeah, exactly.

But would you ever dip back in if the opportunity presented itself?

I mean, I’m always kind of curious. Anything where there’s a mass audience — or seemingly an audience for it — I always like the idea of subverting people’s expectations. So there could be some radical way of doing it, which could be quite fun. It’s always difficult when there’s no source material. But, yeah, I’m always curious.

What type of role haven’t you been offered yet that you’re eager for?

I sort of, to a fault, rely a little bit too much on being inspired by things that land on my doorstep. I literally just did this movie called Good Time, which I think is a really interesting role. But I would’ve never, ever predicted that I would’ve liked it. [Pattinson plays a New York bank robber running from the police.] I think that he’s basically the embodiment of an angry commenter on the Internet.

That sounds great.

Well, if you watch the movie you’ll probably be like, “Huh? What are you talking about?” But one of my favorite things to do — this is quite embarrassing — but you know how when you look on Amazon and you see a product that’s got a consumer review that is so scathing, on like an electric toothbrush or something? Like, literally buying this toothbrush has ruined this person’s life. I always click on that person’s buying history, or their other reviews, and I’ll just read them for days and days. And I’m really amused. These people just have to vent this kind of furious anger on product reviews. I’ve always found that sort of character really interesting. [Laughs]

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/lost-city-z-star-robert-pattinson-epic-beard-embarrassing-amazon-habit-hed-ever-return-twilight-world-163024056.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw

“The Lost City of Z”, opens today April 14 2017 in NY and LA, with a wider release on Friday, April 21.

[newsbiteswithjennysok]

Aug 2, 2019

1. Brody Jenner has split with Kaitlyn Carter one year after their Bali wedding. As if the split between the 35-year-old son of Caitlyn Jenner and 30-year-old blogger was not already surprising enough, TMZ reported on Friday that the two never actually made their marriage official.

The publication reports that the relationship between the couple is over and that Kaitlynn has already moved out of their home together.

The publication reports that they have confirmed that Kaitlynn and Brody never followed up to get a marriage license in the US so their union was never officially legal.

According to TMZ, the blonde beauty wanted two things from the brother of Brandon Jenner: a baby and a legal marriage.

However Brody did not want to do either and they split as a result. Their ceremony in Indonesia took place on June 2, 2018.

2. Mark Ronson is teaming up with SoulCycle to give warriors a spin of a lifetime as part of the company’s first-ever “Music Month.”

Ronson has been tapped [back] to join Sound by SoulCycle in New York City on Aug. 27, 2019, at Webster Hall. The 43-year-old Ronson will DJ the class in partnership with SiriusXM, who will rebroadcast the event afterward so “as many fans and riders as possible” can join in on the one-night experience.

The “Uptown Funk” musician’s love of SoulCycle has been well-documented, as he’s frequently tweeted about classes in which he’s ridden.

“Shout out to Paige, the Soul Cycle [sic] instructor, who closed this morning’s class with Gypsy into Joanne piano version,” he once wrote.

The beloved spin studio is also teaming up with MTV in honor of its upcoming VMAs later this month and will be offering VMA-themed rides in New York City and LA.

3. Honey Boo Boo pretended to prepare and inhale a line of cocaine on her Instagram Live on Thursday, despite her mother Mama June struggling with drug addiction.

Honey Boo Boo, whose real name is Alana Thompson, went live on Instagram to answer questions submitted by fans. At one point while someone sitting off-camera — believed to be her older sister Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon — asked her questions, Alana, 13, lost her patience.

“Tell me what’s f–king next right now!” she yelled. In the video obtained by TMZ, Alana picked up a plastic knife, motioned that she was lining up cocaine and pretended to inhale it.

“Alana, quit f–king doing … don’t even f–king mimic that on f–king live!” Lauryn, 19, yelled. “Acting like a f–king idiot on live, that’s why you don’t go live on your f–king Instagram.”

Alana has been living with Lauryn since their mother and her boyfriend, Geno Doak, were arrested earlier this year for crack possession. In fact, Alana has been vocal about her mother’s recovery; she was visibly distraught in a recent attempt at an intervention on “Mama June: From Not to Hot.

4. New York prosecutors have accused a Bronx pastor of raiding an HIV/AIDS charity fund to pay for his own vacation and luxury lifestyle.

Rev. Reginald Williams, 67, stole more than $631,000 from the Addicts Rehabilitation Center Fund and the Addicts Rehabilitation Center Foundation, two non-profits aimed at aiding HIV+ drug addicts which he helped found.

A Manhattan court arranged Williams along with two accomplices on grand larceny charges on July 31.

According to prosecutors, Williams used the charity funds to pay off credit card bills and write cashiers checks for himself and his wife. He also laundered money through real estate ventures and a consulting firm by investing money and accepting massive kickbacks. Williams also expensed vacations and dinners to the charity fund multiple times to the tune of almost $300,000.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said Williams and his accomplices, “shamelessly stole from publicly funded organizations dedicated to helping vulnerable New Yorkers.”

“Even while their organizations struggled financially, failing to meet contractual obligations and even furloughing employees without pay,” Vance said, “these defendants continued to drain the coffers for their personal gain.”

Lawyers for Williams said he had raised $14 million for the Rehabilitation Center Foundation, and was entitled to use those funds as he accepted no salary for his work.

Williams has served as pastor for the aptly-named Charity Baptist Church of Christ in the Bronx for more than 25 years.

5. A fourth consecutive title. A chance at etching his name alongside the greatest of all time. Another $300,000.

All are within reach for Mat Fraser as the 2019 CrossFit Games near, but none of those cross his mind when he’s deadlifting loaded barbells and cranking out handstand push-ups six hours a day, six days a week.

The current reigning Fittest Man on Earth instead focuses on ensuring there are no weaknesses in his workouts, no ways for his competitors to catch up.

“Every day of my training is thinking, ‘All right, what am I awful at?’ and working on it,” the 29-year-old told USA TODAY Sports on a recent Monday, the only day of the week he devotes solely to rest and recuperation.

It's no secret other elite athletes around the world are trying to chase down the reigning champ, but the odds of anyone catching him are slim.

“The only word to describe it exactly is dominant. He’s made very few mistakes. He’s worked on anything that was somewhat of a weakness, and he’s made it very obvious that he’s the guy to beat right now," six-time Games athlete Josh Bridges of San Diego said.

"There isn’t a guy that I’m like, ‘This guy might beat him. This guy has a chance.’ Looking at the field, it’s like everyone else is playing for second right now. That’s the only way to describe it. It’s kind of like the Tiger Woods era where he was winning every single Major.”

Yet Fraser's drive to climb ropes, push weighted sleds and muscle his 5-7, 195-pound frame up on the still rings doesn’t come from the pursuit of tying the athlete he has been compared to since finishing just behind Froning at his first Games in 2014. The motivation is the same as it was when Fraser took to CrossFit in 2012: a love for working hard in the gym and an awareness of what the alternative would be.

“I’ve worked the nine-to-five desk job. I’ve read over contracts, all that stuff. I think it was great having that experience because it makes me grateful for the opportunity that I’m in. I’m not looking at it as, ‘Ugh, I have to go to the gym today.’ It’s like, ‘Nope. I know what the other option is, so this is great!’”

Fraser earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont in 2014 but hasn’t had time to put it to use yet. These days, his life consists of “a whole lot of eat, sleep and work out.”

[keeganmsod156]

KRATOM: THE DISAGREEABLE PLANT LIFE THAT WILL ASSIST OPIOID ADDICTS-- ON THE OCCASION THAT THE DEA DOES NOT BAN IT

The young lady up in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. It is a little community, affluent and charmingly New England. Heroin was very offered there, and excellent.

She stopped going to school, stopped doing much of anything besides scoring drugs, doing drugs, stealing things, selling stuff, scoring more drugs, doing more drugs. "This was the beginning of the New England heroin epidemic," she states.

That experience was mirrored around the nation. In 2014, overdoses from heroin or prescription opioids eliminated 30,000 individuals-- four times as numerous than in 1999. Today, 3,900 new people begin using prescription opioids for non-medical functions every day. Practically 600 start taking heroin. The yearly health and social costs of the prescription opioid crisis in America? $55 billion.

Campellone kicked her practice at 19-- with rehab, suboxone, and a great deal of willpower-- and vacated west, to the San Francisco Bay Area. She began operating at a natural treatment store in Berkeley. Her co-workers and bosses introduced her to a plethora of plant-based products, among them a tart-tasting leaf called kratom. It offers a slight, euphoric high. Like the sensation that remains when you spin around in circles after the dizziness subsides. It was likewise a decent painkiller, so she 'd take it when she was hurt, or on her menstruation.

And, on two celebrations, she utilized it to assist with the withdrawal https://www.drugs.com/illicit/kratom.html signs following heroin relapses. "Nothing truly feels excellent when you're withdrawing from heroin, so no matter what you're taking, you're still in discomfort and it's quite agonizing," states Campellone. However kratom assisted some.

Campellone never needs a prescription to get kratom. And when she does not take it, she doesn't crave it like she yearned for heroin. She was shocked when, on August 30, the DEA revealed that it was pursuing an emergency situation scheduling of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the active alkaloids in kratom.

The DEA Takes an Exception to Kratom

Biologically, kratom acts enough like an opioid that DEA considers it a threat to public safety. The agency prepared to use a regulative system called emergency scheduling to position it in the exact same limiting classification as cannabis, heroin, and lsd . This classification, Schedule I, is scheduled for what the DEA thinks about the most unsafe drugs-- those with no redeeming medical worth, and a high potential for abuse.

Prior to they completed the scheduling, something unexpected took place. An advocacy group called the American Kratom Association (yes, AKA) raised $400,000 from its impassioned membership-- outstanding for a nonprofit that usually raises $80,000 a year-- to spend for lawyers and lobbyists , who got Congress on their side.

On September 30, agents both liberal and conservative -- from Orrin Hatch to Bernie Sanders-- penned a letter to the DEA. "Given the long reported history of kratom use, combined with the public's sentiment that it is a safe alternative to prescription opioids, our company believe utilizing the regular review process would attend to a much-needed discussion amongst all stakeholders," they wrote.

It worked. The DEA lifted the notice of emergency situation scheduling, and opened a public comment period up until December 1. When was the last time the DEA withdrawed anything? "This is uncommon," says Gantt Galloway, a Bay Area pharmacologist focusing on treatments for addictive drugs. When the DEA responded to public protest like this, Galloway might not remember another circumstances.

Since this writing, those comments number almost 11,000. They are from: individuals who use kratom to ease persistent pain or endometriosis or gout; individuals who use kratom to treat depression or wean off opioids or alcohol; individuals who said it saved their life. "It doesn't enable you to leave your issues," states Susan Ash, founder of the AKA, who utilized kratom to deal with pain and escape an addiction to prescription opioids. "It instead has you face them full on because it doesn't numb your brain at all, and it doesn't make you feel stoned like medical marijuana does. And yet it's effective on numerous things, like pain and anxiety and depression."

And definitely not sufficient to back up all the life-changing claims proclaimed in public comments, and by the numerous kratom users we talked to. And must the DEA follow through on its guarantee to set up kratom, these individuals will become wrongdoers over night.

For Ash, that's completely undesirable. "I desire the future to appear like this is your next coffee," she states. "I 'd like it to be offered in Starbucks. I'm not even kidding."

An Herb Wades Into an Opioid Crisis

Kratom is not an opioid-- really, it is in the coffee family-- however its active molecules bind to the same neuronal receptors as opioids like heroin, codeine, oxycodone, and morphine . Usually, those drugs offer users a sensation of bliss and dull their discomfort-- that's why David *, a former boarding school instructor, started using prescription opioids to treat his pain from ski injuries.

When David eventually dedicated himself to rehab, his physicians weaned him off heroin using suboxone, a combination of 2 drugs-- buprenorphine, a partial opioid that satiates the body's chemical thirst, and naltrexone, which obstructs any euphoric opioid sensations. However suboxone can offer users symptoms of withdrawal, not to point out a dulled sense of truth. And users like David can still discover ways to abuse it. "Dependence on that was different from heroin, and it became easier to take more suboxone to a higher high, or offering it to score heroin again," he says.

Since this writing, though, David has been clean for 18 months-- success that he attributes to kratom. Since it binds to the same receptors as opioids, kratom users report similar euphoric and pain-killing impacts, but they're muted. After other 12 step recuperating addicts presented David to the plant, it assisted him reconstruct his life-- he did ultimately lose that boarding school mentor task-- and handle the physical pain that got him hooked on opioids to begin with.

Because it mirrors opioids in other ways, the concern is that kratom is likewise addictive. David and several other users we spoke with stated kratom is routine forming, to some degree, though one study in Southeast Asia found that for people using it to kick an opioid dependency, the reliance is far less most likely to disrupt their lives. "When I take kratom, that addictive part of me kicks in and it ends up being regular," states Jeffrey *, another former opioid addict.

There is no doubt, however, that kratom is less harmful than opioids-- even take-home synthetics like suboxone. They do it through respiratory depression-- they slow your breath until you stop breathing totally when opioids kill. Kratom's chemical structure does not appear to produce the same effects. "The 2 primary alkaloids in 7-hydroxy, mitragynine and kratom , appear to have a low ceiling for breathing anxiety," says pharmacologist Jack Henningfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who with the consulting firm Pinney Associates has actually advised the AKA on kratom scheduling. "And that's why if you look hard, it's very tough to discover deaths attributable purely to kratom."

Notification he said " simply." In its initial notification of emergency situation scheduling for kratom, the DEA did connect the drug to 15 deaths between 2014 and 2016. But that accounting overlooks that all however among those people had other compounds in their systems. Folks using kratom to wean themselves off opioids might still be taking those opioids.

And some deaths could be credited to contamination: Because kratom isn't strictly controlled, bad actors can and do lace the plant with actual opioids, like the very effective artificial opioid fentanyl. "You can just envision, 'Oh you got discomfort? Well, we've got https://americanaddictioncenters.org/kratom/does-it-get-you-high a special kratom product,'" Henningfield states. "Maybe it has fentanyl in it. That's frightening." Plainly, the plant requires some type of policy. The concern is whether the DEA's scheduling is the right kind.

Regulatory Wranglings

The FDA could assist prevent contamination-related deaths by strictly managing kratom as a supplement, instead of the DEA scheduling it as a drug. "FDA has a lot of authority to really assist consumers know that what they're buying is exactly what is identified, and have at least some level of assurance," Henningfield states. "It's not near the drug requirement, but it's far better than something that's illicitly marketed."

"The decision to permanently set up any drug is not a DEA unilateral choice," says Steve Bell, a DEA spokesperson. The FDA authorized the drug in 2002, and the Department of Health and Human Services suggested that the DEA put it in Schedule III, which the DEA accepted.

If the DEA locations kratom here, nobody can touch the stuff. And scientists will have a harder time discovering how kratom works, and supporting, or refuting, the claims users make with tough data. (Consider cannabis, also a Schedule I drug.

All that research costs loan. Which is kratom's dilemma: The DEA wishes to schedule the drug due to the fact that they believe it might present a risk to public health, but the only method to validate (or refute) the DEA's worries is with more research study-- which will be next to impossible ought to the DEA follow through on its guarantee to schedule.

Among the couple of researchers studying kratom is the University of Florida's Oliver Grundmann, who is finishing up an online survey of nearly 10,000 users. And the information (preliminary, though Grundmann plans to publish a paper in the coming months) reveals a various profile of kratom users than you 'd anticipate from an "illicit" leisure drug.

" The age range is more tailored toward an older population," states Grundmann, "which is most likely to experience work associated injuries or chronic or acute discomfort from another medical condition." Over half of users are in between the ages of 31 and 50. Eighty-two percent finished at least some college. Almost 30 percent of participants pull in a household earnings of over $75,000 a year. Not the party drug demographic. And the general public comments on the DEA's scheduling notice reflect that population. A lot of those folks are utilizing kratom to either wean themselves off prescription opioids or use the drug alone to deal with discomfort.

Still, that's self-medication utilizing a product that might be polluted. "The industry requires to come together," says Susan Ash of the AKA.

Grundmann says he understands the DEA's inspiration. "They do not desire to have another drug out there that might potentially add to the currently ravaging opioid epidemic that some neighborhoods are experiencing," he says. "But on the other side, we likewise have to think about that the 4 to 5 million approximated users of kratom might face a health crisis of their own if kratom becomes set up.".

Anecdotes and Evidence.

Ariana Campellone takes her kratom with coconut milk and protein powder. She mixes, diluting with water to take the swellings out of the mixture. "Coffee provides me a noticeable spike and high, and can feel when I'm coming down," she says.

The DEA's public remark duration closes tomorrow. The firm says it will think about those comments along with the FDA's medical and clinical evaluation prior to continuing to schedule. The FDA did not react in time to comment on this story.

However, if the DEA follows through on its previous intent to schedule, Campellone states she'll still continue to use kratom. "Just like individuals have continued to utilize marijuana where it's illegal," she states. In useful terms, it indicates getting ahold of kratom would most likely get more pricey and personally risky . Those expenses, those risks-- those inconveniences-- may not deserve it to some kratom users. And then the not-so-small neighborhood of recovering opioid addicts lose something readily available, and perhaps quite great.

[beckettmoba468-blog]

KRATOM: THE INTENSE TREE WHICH MIGHT HELP OPIOID JUNKIES-- In Case THE DEA DOESN'T BAN IT

The girl up in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. It is a little community, upscale and charmingly New England. Heroin was very available there, and very great.

She stopped going to school, stopped doing much of anything besides scoring drugs, doing drugs, taking things, offering things, scoring more drugs, doing more drugs. "This was the start of the New England heroin epidemic," she states.

That experience was mirrored around the nation. In 2014, overdoses from heroin or prescription opioids eliminated 30,000 people-- 4 times as many than in 1999. Today, 3,900 brand-new people begin utilizing prescription opioids for non-medical purposes every day. Almost 600 start taking heroin. The yearly health and social expenses of the prescription opioid crisis in America? $55 billion.

Campellone kicked her routine at 19-- with rehabilitation, suboxone, and a great deal of determination-- and left west, to the San Francisco Bay Area. She started working at a natural treatment shop in Berkeley. Her employers and co-workers introduced her to a wide variety of plant-based items, among them a tart-tasting leaf called kratom. It gives a minor, blissful high. Like the feeling that stays when you spin around in circles after the dizziness disappears. It was also a decent painkiller, so she 'd take it when she was harmed, or on her menstruation.

And, on two celebrations, she used it to assist with the withdrawal signs following heroin regressions. "Nothing actually feels excellent when you're withdrawing from heroin, so no matter what you're taking, you're still in pain and it's quite agonizing," says Campellone. Kratom assisted some.

Campellone never needs a prescription to get kratom. And when she does not take it, she does not crave it like she yearned for heroin. She was surprised when, on August 30, the DEA revealed that it was pursuing an emergency scheduling of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the active alkaloids in kratom.

The DEA Takes an Exception to Kratom

Biologically, kratom acts enough like an opioid that DEA considers it a hazard to public safety. The agency prepared to use a regulatory system called emergency situation scheduling to place it in the very same restrictive category as marijuana, lsd, and heroin . This classification, Schedule I, is scheduled for what the DEA thinks about the most hazardous drugs-- those with no redeeming medical value, and a high potential for abuse.

Prior to they finalized the scheduling, something surprising occurred. An advocacy group called the American Kratom Association (yes, AKA) raised $400,000 from its impassioned membership-- remarkable for a nonprofit that generally raises $80,000 a year-- to spend for lobbyists and lawyers , who got Congress on their side.

On September 30, agents both liberal and conservative -- from Orrin Hatch to Bernie Sanders-- penned a letter to the DEA. "Given the long reported history of kratom use, coupled with the general public's belief that it is a safe alternative to prescription opioids, our company believe using the regular review process would offer a much-needed discussion among all stakeholders," they wrote.

The DEA raised the notification of emergency situation scheduling, and opened a public remark period till December 1. Galloway could not recall another circumstances when the DEA responded to public protest like this.

They are from: people who use kratom to alleviate chronic pain or endometriosis or gout; people who utilize kratom to deal with depression or wean off opioids or alcohol; individuals who stated it conserved their life. "It does not permit you to escape your issues," states Susan Ash, founder of the AKA, who utilized kratom to deal with pain and leave an dependency to prescription opioids.

And definitely not adequate to back up https://www.drugs.com/illicit/kratom.html all the life-altering claims extolled in public comments, and by the many kratom users we spoke with. And must the DEA follow through on its guarantee to set up kratom, these people will end up being bad guys overnight.

For Ash, that's entirely undesirable. "I desire the future to look like this is your next coffee," she states.

An Herb Wades Into an Opioid Crisis

Kratom is not an opioid-- really, it remains in the coffee family-- but its active molecules bind to the same neuronal receptors as opioids like heroin, codeine, oxycodone, and morphine . Typically, those drugs offer users a feeling of euphoria and dull their pain-- that's why David *, a previous boarding school instructor, started using prescription opioids to treat his discomfort from ski injuries. He became addicted, when his prescriptions ran out, he changed to heroin. "I ended up being a high functioning user," he states. "My addiction was never detected at my place of work, although I do think my habits became more unpredictable."

When David ultimately devoted himself to rehab, his doctors weaned him off heroin using suboxone, a combination of 2 drugs-- buprenorphine, a partial opioid that satiates the body's chemical thirst, and naltrexone, which blocks any euphoric opioid sensations. But suboxone can give users symptoms of withdrawal, not to discuss a dulled sense of reality. And users like David can still find ways to abuse it. "Dependence on that was different from heroin, and it ended up being easier to take more suboxone to a higher high, or offering it to score heroin once again," he states.

As of this writing, though, David has been tidy for 18 months-- success that he credits to kratom. Since it binds to the same receptors as opioids, kratom users report similar blissful and pain-killing effects, but they're silenced. After other 12 step recuperating addicts presented David to the plant, it helped him rebuild his life-- he did ultimately lose that boarding school teaching task-- and handle the physical pain that got him hooked on opioids to start with.

Since it mirrors opioids in other methods, the issue is that kratom is also addicting. David and a number of other users we spoke with said kratom is practice forming, to some degree, though one study in Southeast Asia found that for people using it to kick an opioid dependency, the dependence is far less most likely to disrupt their lives. "When I take kratom, that addicting part of me kicks in and it becomes regular," says Jeffrey *, another previous opioid addict.

There is no doubt, nevertheless, that kratom is less damaging than opioids-- even take-home synthetics like suboxone. "The 2 main alkaloids in kratom, 7-hydroxy and mitragynine , appear to have a low ceiling for breathing depression," says pharmacologist Jack Henningfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who with the consulting company Pinney Associates has actually encouraged the AKA on kratom scheduling.

Notice he stated "purely." In its preliminary notice of emergency scheduling for kratom, the DEA did connect the drug to 15 deaths between 2014 and 2016. That accounting disregards the reality that all however one of those individuals had other substances in their systems. Folks utilizing kratom to wean themselves off opioids may still be taking those opioids.

And some deaths might be associated to contamination: Because kratom isn't really strictly regulated, bad actors can and do lace the plant with real opioids, like the extremely effective synthetic opioid fentanyl. Well, we've got a unique kratom item,'" Henningfield says. The concern is whether the DEA's scheduling is the right kind.

Regulative Wranglings

The FDA might help avoid contamination-related deaths by strictly regulating kratom as a supplement, rather than the DEA scheduling it as a drug. "FDA has a lot of authority to really help consumers know that what they're buying is exactly what is labeled, and have at least some level of assurance," Henningfield states. "It's not near to the drug requirement, but it's better than something that's illegally marketed."

"The choice to completely schedule any drug is not a DEA unilateral decision," states Steve Bell, a DEA representative. The FDA approved the drug in 2002, and the Department of Health and Human Services suggested that the DEA put it in Schedule III, which the DEA accepted.

Schedule I, though, is an totally various rodeo. No one can touch the things if the DEA locations kratom here. Current users, must they continue to utilize, will be forced to even sketchier sources. And researchers will have a more difficult time discovering how kratom works, and supporting, or refuting, the claims users make with tough information. (Consider marijuana, likewise a Schedule I drug. Science has a dearth of data on it since getting licenses to study the drug is an exercise in bureaucratic insanity.).

All that research https://www.wired.com/2016/11/kratom-bitter-plant-help-opioid-addicts-dea-doesnt-ban study costs cash. Which is kratom's catch-22: The DEA wishes to set up the drug due to the fact that they believe it might posture a danger to public health, but the only method to confirm (or refute) the DEA's concerns is with more research-- which will be beside difficult ought to the DEA follow through on its pledge to schedule.

Among the few researchers studying kratom is the University of Florida's Oliver Grundmann, who is finishing up an online study of almost 10,000 users. And the information (preliminary, though Grundmann prepares to release a paper in the coming months) exposes a different profile of kratom users than you 'd anticipate from an " illegal" recreational drug.

" The age variety is more geared toward an older population," states Grundmann, "which is most likely to experience work related injuries or acute or persistent pain from another medical condition." Over half of users are in between the ages of 31 and 50. Eighty-two percent completed at least some college. Nearly 30 percent of participants pull in a household income of over $75,000 a year. Not the party drug group. And the public talk about the DEA's scheduling notice show that population. A number of those folks are using kratom to either wean themselves off prescription opioids or use the drug alone to deal with discomfort.

Still, that's self-medication utilizing a product that might be polluted. "The market requires to come together," states Susan Ash of the AKA. "There's no way the FDA is going to feel comfy not seeing this as a set up illegal drug without a dedication from the market that there will be correct measures put in location." Better labeling, for instance, would be a start.

Grundmann states he understands the DEA's motivation. "They do not wish to have another drug out there that could possibly contribute to the already devastating opioid epidemic that some neighborhoods are experiencing," he says. "But on the other side, we also have to think about that the 4 to 5 million estimated users of kratom may face a health crisis of their own if kratom becomes scheduled.".

Anecdotes and Evidence.

Ariana Campellone takes her kratom with coconut milk and protein powder. She mixes, watering down with water to take the swellings out of the mix. By itself, the stuff tastes awful. Like oversteeped tea, or a mouthful of peat. She thinks the comparison to coffee is a bit overstated. "Coffee gives me a visible spike and high, and can feel when I'm coming down," she says.

The DEA's public comment duration closes tomorrow. The firm says it will think about those remarks alongside the FDA's medical and scientific examination before proceeding to schedule. The FDA did not react in time to talk about this story.

If the DEA follows through on its previous intent to schedule, Campellone says she'll still continue to use kratom. Those costs, those threats-- those inconveniences-- may not be worth it to some kratom users.

[howgrowtaller]

A constant of martial arts has always been new styles popping up all the time. For as long as there have been organized fighting systems there have been people putting there own unique spin on them. Every martial art was of course created by someone and often they had rather short time in the arts. Take, for example, an upstart 22 year old who studied martial arts for only 6 years before creating his own art and later took the rank of 12th Dan, he called his art Judo. However, it seems that in perhaps the first time in history the creation of new martial arts is widely shunned. It isn't really that hard to understand why; today it seems that people want to study for only a couple years and then create a new art declaring themselves 10th degree grandmasters. This happens all the time. In fact, I recently watched part of a taped martial arts seminar where high ranking martial artists were encouraged to come and share their knowledge and I saw a few even have the words "Grandmaster" printed on the back of their uniform. There is a push-back in the martial arts against people creating new martial arts and if you really boil it down I think it is an argument for quality. There are a lot of actual masters out there that you could spend the rest of your life learning from and still find they have more to teach. In the rush to put out new styles people often don't uncover the depth of knowledge already available in the martial arts. If you ask a lot of long time martial art instructors if they think it is OK to create your own art most will say "no." They will say that you should find great instructors and study what is already out there because there are lifetimes worth of information already in the arts. I certainly agree with this logic but I don't agree with it not being "OK" to create a new art. For me it is a matter of time spent in study. When I was kid I found that I didn't really care for people my own age. Kids my own age seemed reckless and, well... stupid. After observing people for a few years I came up with the theory that anyone under age 20 was, more or less, stupid. People in their 20's I believed to be naive and it wasn't until a person turned 30 that I thought they had spent enough time on the Earth to begin to really get things down. I still hold this belief to a large degree. Growing up almost all my friends were over 40. It was those people that I thought I could really learn from. When it came time to learn martial arts I looked at it the same way. I was lucky to find a great and very knowledge instructor who had been in the arts for over 40 years. He introduced me to people who had 35 to 50 years in the martial arts and I took the time to learn all I could from their wealth of information. One thing I noticed from these men is that they didn't look so much as a person's rank as they did time in the arts. I found that "old timers" considered anyone with less than 20 years of active study in the martial arts to be a beginner. I knew some 6th degrees with less than 20 years in and it seemed weird to think of them as beginners. Their reasoning is that it took about 20 years to learn the basics, get your technique down, get a higher rank, spend some time teaching, promote a few people to upper black belt, get some experience with other styles and points of view, and see some fads come and go to really get a grasp on how things worked. I took their word for it then but now that I have 25 years in I think that they're right. After 25 years when I see someone put on a black belt after only 3 or 4 years of study and think that they are an "expert" or that they're ready to teach I have to laugh. I want to tousle their hair and say, "go get 'em slugger" as I send them in to teach a couple colored belts they're new techniques. In this world where everyone wants something right now, no one seems to have an patience, and most people only study the arts for a couple of years, I find that as I look for my peers I look at rank less and less and instead look for people who have been in it as long or longer than me Looking at it this way new arts are inevitable. For someone who has been in the arts for 6 or 7 years and has maybe a 1st or 2nd degree in one or two styles they probably have the ability to rearrange the techniques they have been taught to look like a new art but they don't have the depth of understanding for it to actually be a new art. But what about after 15 years of serious study? After 15 years of study they surely have their own spin that they put on their material. They've taken their instructor's teachings and adjusted them to their personal body type and ability and added a few things that they picked up along the way from fellow martial artists. What about after 25 or 30 years of serious study? What about after 40? After that amount of time you have two kinds of people: those that have devoted the entire time to only one or two arts and have put their own spin on their instructors teachings and have created their own unique version of their art, and you have people who have studied several arts over the course of that time. If you look at the way someone who has spent that amount of time studying numerous arts trains during their private workouts you will find a new martial art unique to their personal experiences, abilities, and tastes. My principal instructor, who I learned with from beginning at age 8, just called what he taught me "Kenpo." It wasn't until I was much older and started asking specific questions that I learned that what he was teaching me wasn't one art but a mixture of everything he had learned over the 40 years of studying the martial arts. He told me that "this" was from Okinawan Karate which he had studied as a teenager, and "that" was from the Dragon or Cobra styles he had learned while in Taiwan, "that thing there" was from "Iron Palm," and "this other thing here" was from a style called "Choy Li Ho Fut Hung" that he learned from this master out in California that had a fondness for Hawaiian shirts. He called what he did Kenpo because after 40 years when he looked at the breadth of knowledge he had some of it was from the Japanese/Okinawan systems and some of it was from the Chinese systems. He didn't call himself Grandmaster or have a fancy title but he did teach a martial art that was uniquely his own. So yes, I think it is just fine to create an art but I don't think that that should be your goal because if it is then it is probably simply self-serving. Instead I think you should study the martial arts in earnest and after 30 years or so you will have built a new art out of your experience and it will have happened by itself out of the simple wanting to learn more and get better each and every day.

[keeganmsod156]

KRATOM: THE UNPALATABLE PLANT LIFE THAT COULD AID OPIOID NUTS-- IN THE EVENT THAT THE DEA DOESN'T BAN IT

The girl up in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. It is a small neighborhood, wealthy and charmingly New England. Heroin https://americanaddictioncenters.org/kratom/does-it-get-you-high was extremely offered there, and excellent.

She stopped going to school, stopped doing much of anything besides scoring drugs, doing drugs, stealing stuff, offering things, scoring more drugs, doing more drugs. "This was the beginning of the New England heroin epidemic," she says.

That experience was mirrored around the country. In 2014, overdoses from heroin or prescription opioids killed 30,000 people-- 4 times as lots of than in 1999. Today, 3,900 new individuals begin using prescription opioids for non-medical functions every day. Practically 600 start taking heroin. The yearly health and social costs of the prescription opioid crisis in America? $55 billion.

Campellone kicked her practice at 19-- with rehabilitation, suboxone, and a great deal of willpower-- and moved out west, to the San Francisco Bay Area. She started working at a natural remedy shop in Berkeley. Her managers and co-workers introduced her to a huge selection of plant-based items, amongst them a tart-tasting leaf called kratom. It gives a small, blissful high. Like the feeling that remains when you spin around in circles after the lightheadedness disappears. It was likewise a decent painkiller, so she 'd take it when she was harmed, or on her menstruation.

And, on 2 events, she used it to assist with the withdrawal symptoms following heroin relapses. "Nothing actually feels good when you're withdrawing from heroin, so no matter what you're taking, you're still in discomfort and it's quite agonizing," says Campellone. Kratom assisted some.

Campellone never needs a prescription to get kratom. Nor does she need to visit a dealer. She purchases it from an organic solution shop-- about $20 for a 4-ounce packet, which lasts about a week. When she takes too much, she gets a stomach ache. And when she does not take it, she does not crave it like she yearned for heroin. Primarily she doesn't consider it; it just sits in her cabinet. So, she was shocked when, on August 30, the DEA revealed that it was pursuing an emergency scheduling of mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the active alkaloids in kratom. Campellone was one of perhaps 4 or 5 million Americans who were being told, for maybe the very first time, that this leaf positioned an "imminent danger to public security."

The DEA Takes an Exception to Kratom

Biologically, kratom acts enough like an opioid that DEA considers it a threat to public security. The company planned to use a regulatory system called emergency scheduling to place it in the very same restrictive classification as cannabis, lsd, and heroin . This classification, Schedule I, is scheduled for what the DEA considers the most dangerous drugs-- those without any redeeming medical worth, and a high capacity for abuse.

Prior to they settled the scheduling, something surprising occurred. An advocacy group called the American Kratom Association (yes, AKA) raised $400,000 from its impassioned subscription-- excellent for a not-for-profit that normally raises $80,000 a year-- to pay for lobbyists and lawyers , who got Congress on their side.

On September 30, agents both liberal and conservative -- from Orrin Hatch to Bernie Sanders-- penned a letter to the DEA. "Given the long reported history of kratom usage, paired with the general public's belief that it is a safe alternative to prescription opioids, we believe utilizing the routine review process would provide for a much-needed discussion amongst all stakeholders," they wrote.

It worked. The DEA lifted the notice of emergency situation scheduling, and opened a public remark duration until December 1. When was the last time the DEA backed off anything? "This is unusual," states Gantt Galloway, a Bay Area pharmacologist specializing in treatments for addicting drugs. When the DEA responded to public outcry like this, Galloway might not remember another instance.

Since this writing, those remarks number nearly 11,000. They are from: individuals who utilize kratom to ease chronic pain or endometriosis or gout; individuals who use kratom to treat depression or wean off opioids or alcohol; individuals who said it saved their life. "It does not permit you to leave your problems," states Susan Ash, founder of the AKA, who used kratom to deal with pain and leave an addiction to prescription opioids. "It instead https://www.drugs.com/illicit/kratom.html has you face them complete on because it does not numb your brain at all, and it doesn't make you feel stoned like medical marijuana does. But it's reliable on so many things, like discomfort and anxiety and anxiety."

And definitely not enough to back up all the life-altering claims proclaimed in public comments, and by the lots of kratom users we talked to. And needs to the DEA follow through on its pledge to set up kratom, these individuals will end up being wrongdoers over night.

For Ash, that's completely undesirable. "I desire the future to look like this is your next coffee," she says.

An Herb Wades Into an Opioid Crisis

Kratom is not an opioid-- in fact, it is in the coffee family-- but its active particles bind to the exact same neuronal receptors as opioids like heroin, morphine, oxycodone, and codeine . Typically, those drugs offer users a sensation of euphoria and dull their pain-- that's why David *, a former boarding school instructor, started using prescription opioids to treat his discomfort from ski injuries. He became addicted, when his prescriptions went out, he changed to heroin. "I ended up being a high functioning user," he says. "My dependency was never found at my location of employment, although I do believe my habits became more irregular."

When David eventually devoted himself to rehab, his medical professionals weaned him off heroin using suboxone, a combination of two drugs-- buprenorphine, a partial opioid that quenches the body's chemical thirst, and naltrexone, which blocks any euphoric opioid feelings. Suboxone can give users symptoms of withdrawal, not to mention a dulled sense of truth. And users like David can still find ways to abuse it. "Dependence on that was different from heroin, and it ended up being much easier to take more suboxone to a greater high, or offering it to score heroin again," he says.

As of this writing, however, David has actually been tidy for 18 months-- success that he credits to kratom. Given that it binds to the very same receptors as opioids, kratom users report comparable euphoric and pain-killing effects, however they're silenced. After other 12 step recovering addicts introduced David to the plant, it helped him restore his life-- he did ultimately lose that boarding school mentor job-- and handle the physical pain that got him hooked on opioids to start with.

Given that it mirrors opioids in other methods, the issue is that kratom is also addicting. However once again, the real science is sparse. David and a number of other users we talked to said kratom is routine forming, to some degree, though one study in Southeast Asia found that for people utilizing it to kick an opioid dependency, the dependence is far less likely to disrupt their lives. "When I take kratom, that addictive part of me begins and it ends up being regular," states Jeffrey *, another former opioid addict. "It doesn't toss my life out of control, but it bugs me when individuals state things like, 'it's not more addictive than coffee.' I believe that hinders us making inroads with the regulators."

There is no doubt, nevertheless, that kratom is less hazardous than opioids-- even take-home synthetics like suboxone. "The 2 primary alkaloids in 7-hydroxy, mitragynine and kratom , appear to have a low ceiling for respiratory depression," says pharmacologist Jack Henningfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who with the consulting firm Pinney Associates has actually encouraged the AKA on kratom scheduling.

In its preliminary notification of emergency situation scheduling for kratom, the DEA did link the drug to 15 deaths in between 2014 and 2016. Folks using kratom to wean themselves off opioids might still be taking those opioids.

And some deaths might be attributed to contamination: Because kratom isn't strictly regulated, bad actors can and do lace the plant with actual opioids, like the incredibly powerful artificial opioid fentanyl. Well, we've got a special kratom product,'" Henningfield says. The question is whether the DEA's scheduling is the right kind.

Regulative Wranglings

The FDA might help prevent contamination-related deaths by strictly regulating kratom as a supplement, instead of the DEA scheduling it as a drug. "FDA has a great deal of authority to in fact assist consumers understand that exactly what they're purchasing is what is labeled, and have at least some level of guarantee," Henningfield says. "It's not near to the drug standard, but it's far better than something that's illegally marketed."

"The decision to permanently schedule any drug is not a DEA unilateral decision," states Steve Bell, a DEA spokesperson. The FDA approved the drug in 2002, and the Department of Health and Human Services suggested that the DEA put it in Schedule III, which the DEA accepted.

If the DEA locations kratom here, no one can touch the stuff. And researchers will have a more difficult time finding out how kratom works, and supporting, or refuting, the claims users make with difficult data. (Consider marijuana, also a Schedule I drug.

All that research study costs loan. Which is kratom's catch-22: The DEA wishes to schedule the drug due to the fact that they think it might posture a risk to public health, however the only method to verify (or refute) the DEA's worries is with more research study-- which will be beside difficult needs to the DEA follow through on its guarantee to schedule.

Among the few scientists studying kratom is the University of Florida's Oliver Grundmann, who is finishing up an online survey of almost 10,000 users. And the data (preliminary, though Grundmann plans to publish a paper in the coming months) exposes a different profile of kratom users than you 'd get out of an " illegal" recreational drug.

" The age range is more geared towards an older population," states Grundmann, "which is most likely to experience work related injuries or severe or chronic discomfort from another medical condition." Over half of users are between the ages of 31 and 50. Eighty-two percent completed at least some college. Almost 30 percent of participants pull in a household income of over $75,000 a year. Not the party drug market. And the public discuss the DEA's scheduling notification reflect that population. A number of those folks are using kratom to either wean themselves off prescription opioids or use the drug alone to treat discomfort.

Still, that's self-medication utilizing a item that might be contaminated. "The industry requires to come together," says Susan Ash of the AKA.

Grundmann says he understands the DEA's motivation. "They do not wish to have another drug out there that could possibly add to the currently devastating opioid epidemic that some communities are experiencing," he says. "But on the other side, we likewise require to think about that the 4 to 5 million estimated users of kratom may deal with a health crisis of their own if kratom becomes scheduled.".

Anecdotes and Evidence.

Ariana Campellone takes her kratom with coconut milk and protein powder. She blends, watering down with water to take the swellings out of the mixture. By itself, the stuff tastes awful. Like oversteeped tea, or a mouthful of peat. She believes the comparison to coffee is a bit overstated. "Coffee gives me a noticeable spike and high, and can feel when I'm boiling down," she states.

The DEA's public remark period closes tomorrow. The agency states it will consider those comments together with the FDA's scientific and medical evaluation prior to proceeding to schedule. The FDA did not react in time to comment on this story.

If the DEA follows through on its previous intent to schedule, Campellone says she'll still continue to use kratom. Those expenses, those risks-- those hassles-- may not be worth it to some kratom users.