Shakespeare a Pot Smoker? [Insert Witty Weed Shakespeare Pun Here]

“To toke or not to toke?” “Doobie or not doobie?” “Is this a reefer which I see before me?”

Let’s cut to the chase: William Shakespeare may have smoked pot.

Ten years ago, South African palentologist Francis Thackeray analyzed some pipe fragments found in Shakespeare’s garden and found trace amounts of cocaine and cannabis. Though the pipe pieces are nothing but circumstantial evidence(they were in his garden and that’s all we know), the chemical findings basically hold up. Cannabis was cultivated in Britain during Shakespeare’s lifetime, and coca leaves had been imported to Europe by the Spanish from the West Indes.

Thackeray then decided to find literary evidence that Shakespeare enjoyed recreational drugs, citing the phrases “noted weed” and “compounds strange” from Sonnet 76. This is an incredible reach. Weed didn’t become slang for marijuana until the early twentieth century; it’s likely that Shakespeare was using “weed” to mean “garments” or “style” (more here). The “compounds” are verbal, not herbal, ones. A sonnet that starts “Why is my verse so barren of new pride” isn’t about drugs. It’s about finding new words to express love.

With his physical evidence circumstantial and his literary evidence circumspect, Thackeray’s turned to the body of the Bard himself for answers. He recently applied for permission from the Church of England to examine Shakespeare’s body. Thackeray told Fox News that he plans to use “laser-surface scanning” to determine gender, cause of death, and whether or not marijuana played a role in Shakespeare’s writing process.

It’s a long shot, though. The Church of England has spent centuries honoring the inscription on Shakespeare’s grave in Stratford-upon-Avon:

"Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare,/ To digg the dust encloased heare;/ Bleste be the man that spares thes stones,/ And curst be he that moves my bones."

To get his answers, Thackeray needs the Church to follow Shakespeare’s lead: just light a pipe and relaaaax, man.

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Sunday Reading: RUMOR - Large Hadron Collider Finds God Particle (Whatever That Is)

The Large Hadron Collider occupies a unique place in popular culture. Most of us have heard about CERN’s massive scientific endeavor in some capacity, yet few of us actually know how it works, why it works, or what it’s even supposed to be doing. All any layman knew when they were turning on the Giant Machine With A Crazy Name was what they’d heard on NPR: this thing could cause a black hole!

Then it broke. Then they turned it back on. Still no black hole. But now there’s something more exciting. Rumors!

The Telegraph is reporting that the LHC may have found the Higgs boson, or “God Particle.” According to the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs is an as-yet-unconfirmed particle that gives mass to atomic building blocks. (If you’d like a headache, you can read more about the Higgs boson on Wikipedia.) The LHC primary objective is to confirm the existence of the Higgs (and other neat new things for scientists to debate over) by smashing particles together or something and oh god my head’s starting to hurt.

Of course, this discovery of the Higgs may be a false alarm. Manchester University physicist Brian Cox said on Twitter, “The Higgs rumours are from an internal, unchecked ATLAS document. Very bad science to leak it.”

I love that this part of science can have rumors and leaks. What if the LHC straight-up finds God? Will anyone tell us? Will there be a cover up? It’s the stuff of science-fiction.

You can read more about the LHC and this microcosm of sci-fi nonfiction here and here. You can even follow CERN on Twitter.

[source: Telegraph]

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Bad at Science: Particles, Teleportation and Aliens!

I’m beginning to love science. I used to loathe it. I had a biology class that was way above my head in high school and I decided from then on that science was for people other than or smarter than me. How foolish! I still don’t get very much of what’s going on in the scientific community, but I’ve begun watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage on Netflix (it’s on instant, why aren’t you watching it right now!?) and I’m hooked. I’ve got the companion book, I picked up an illustrated version of A Brief History of Time and I’m ready to learn.

It has me thinking that I’ve been hating on science all my life for no good reason. If a teacher in my high school would have just popped an episode of Cosmos on in ninth grade, who knows what my life would be like now. I’m trying to understand the scientific world, and I know we’ve got smarter people doing it better on this site, but for now you’re stuck with me. And two big (or, interesting at least) science stories popped earlier this week, and I’m going to try and explain them with no knowledge of the scientific mechanics behind them. Sound good?

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This is the Dawning of the Age of ... Capricorn???

Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer

Have you ever read your horoscope in hopes of gaining some supernatural preparation for what the future holds? Or have you ever looked at a breakdown of your astrological sign, latching on to all the vague tidbits that accurately represent your personality type (or rather the personality type you wish you had), and conveniently ignoring the ones that aren't so insightful? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you might have already heard that the astrological sign you always used to define yourself could be wrong.

Last Monday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported a claim made by astronomer Parke Kunkle that, thanks to a gravitational shift, the Earth is no longer aligned with the zodiac signs the way it used to be. That means that on your next birthday the sun (or moon or whatever) might not be "in" the same constellation it was in on the day you were born. The news took a few days to go viral over the Tweeters, and the Diggits, and the FaceUnions, and it's been a few more days until my scheduled post where I can tell you all about it.

Many astrology buffs have reacted with feelings ranging from annoyance to rage at finding out that their favorite pseudo-science has suddenly proved unreliable. And I can't say I blame them. I didn't read my horoscope before the big change, and I don't plan to now. But do I have to start identifying myself with a whole new portion of the population? And what's with this crazy 13th sign, Ophiuchus? And Scorpio only lasts a week now!? There's plenty to read about after the jump.

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2010 Year in Review - A Few More Random Musings from the Internet

In honor of 2010, and of course in deference to the excellent job my fellow Charge Shot!!! writers did summing up the year (and decade) I wanted to throw out a few random stories that have stuck with me over the last year. Fair Warning: These are frivolous and probably won't offer anything useful in your daily life, other than the visceral enjoyment of reading about them (not to mention the pleasure of reading my expert and enlightening analysis...).

Firstly, a recent Pew Internet research report asked why the rich are so good at the internet. Check it out. At the very least, memorizing a few of the stats might be good for a cocktail party or something.

This next bit is something that I file under the "completely random and not relevant at all" description, nevertheless I write about it...There is something about this product that has stuck in my mind. Something about the simplicity, genius and even strangeness that has caused part of me to fixate on the idea.  Really, I can't believe that nobody has thought of making this meltable (and re-meltable) wax tableware before.

Lastly, check out http://www.faceblind.org/. Other than my psych 101 class freshman year of college, I don't think I had ever heard mention of the not un-common condition - wherein a person has distinct difficulty remembering faces - discussed in daily life (I'm surprised I actually remembered it from college,  I guess I went to class that day). Over the last several months, I've read three articles and heard at least two radio segments about it (somebody's PR council is doing their job!).

The above link will take you to a site that presents all kinds of information about the condition in addition to a free web based test (which takes about 30 minutes) that will determine where you are on the face blind spectrum.  I took it...as it happens I'm just plain-old average (so boring).  

Well, I think that's it from my coffer of stories from 2010.  Now on to 2011! Happy New Year readers, I wish all good fortune in the coming year!

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News Roundup...Untold Tales from the Tech World

As far as news roundups go, this one may leave something to be desired (I know, insulting my own post is probably not a great idea in the very first line...or any line for that matter). Most of the time, news roundups focus on current stories (hence the term news) that describe pertinent items. The following stories are not normal news feed fodder, nonetheless they are amongst the most interesting and captivating stories I've read in a long time, particularly when considering their general silliness and unfortunate insignificance.

A Series of Tubes
Basically, researchers in Britain are looking for funding for a project to mimic food distribution systems after the internet. 

Although this is an interesting idea indeed, it wasn't the good intentioned and fascinating topic of the story that originally caught my eye.  It was actually the wording of the headline, "The Food Infastructure Is A Series of Tubes."  Long before I started writing for Charge Shot!!!, our venerable authors and editors of  were referring to the internet, somewhat jokingly, as "a series of tubes."

After delving beyond the quirky and coincidental headline, I found the actual article interesting (it's definetely worth a read).  I started to ask myself, what else can we take from the internet and apply to our phisical lives? Any thoughts, readers?

Clock-ed on the Head
It turns out that, according to some very smart physicists, super accurate clocks have proven that our heads age faster than our feet (to be clear, the difference in aging is very minute).   Although I could never claim to understand the science behind this story, it made me chuckle - and then it kind of made my head spin. 

LEGO My Computer
There is little to say about this other than, "watch this video, it's awesome!"  It's awesome if you're a tech/computer nerd, and it's awesome if you just like lego toys. It's awesome if you don't care about technology or legos at all. 


The Antikythera Mechanism in Lego from Small Mammal on Vimeo.

Seeing that I don't really understand the science behind the Greek computer in the above video, I couldn't even begin to offer any kind of guidance or commentary on how the technician re-created it, or how it will be applied to new products. Even after watching the video several times and trying to read some articles about it, the only thing I really know for sure is that it's one of the most captivating and coolest things I've ever seen.

It turns out that the guy who made the computer in the video works for apple.  Gee, I wonder if they can rebuild my old Macintosh IIsi out of legos... Continue...