CEO Killer Fueled by This Drug?!, China Destroying Congo with Gold Mining, AI Used to Frustrate Phone Scammers...and It's Beautiful. (The Five for 12/10/24)
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter, but don’t always make the front page.
Let’s dive into the news.
[one]
At this point, you’ve probably seen the rumors that the United Healthcare CEO killer, Luigi Mangione, suffered from chronic backpain, which has now been confirmed by his former roommate at a posh startup coworking space in Hawaii.
So when, um, I first interviewed him before he moved in, I remember he said he had a back issue and he was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii.
So he's always focused on trying. Um, when he first came, he went on a surf lesson with other members and unfortunately, just as basic surf lesson, he was in bed for about a week. Um, we had to get a different bed from that was more firm and I know it was really traumatic and difficult. You know, when you're in the early twenties and you can't, you know, do some basic things, it can be really, really difficult.
Whether to heal his back pain or just through personal interest, Luigi got REALLY into researching psychedelic drugs, according to his Goodreads page, which a lot of people grabbed screenshots of before it was set to private.
There is some promising research in this area, which was recently reported on by BigThink:
Psychedelics show promise in treating chronic pain in ways that resemble their power to treat depression and other mental illnesses: They shake up the brain’s well-trodden neural pathways.
Cichon, whose team studies ketamine and psilocybin for chronic pain, says this is why psychedelics could be a promising tool. “Maybe this is sort of the sledgehammer or tool that the brain needs to be shaken up so it can land back down into a normal state.”
So far, LSD and psilocybin have shown potential therapeutic value in treating cancer-related pain, phantom limb pain, cluster headaches, and migraines. The idea of treating pain with psychedelics is nothing new. According to Kooijman and Willegers, who published a 2023 review on the topic, a Japanese study from 1967 noted “a significant and sustained reduction in phantom limb sensation in seven out of eight patients [treated with LSD], as well as pain relief in five of six patients.”
However, more recently there has been an uptick in research, especially within innovative studies combining psychedelic therapy with other established treatments. For instance, in 2018 Ramachandran et al. highlighted the chronic pain relief that can come from combining psilocybin with mirror visual-feedback (MVF), where a subject’s intact limb is placed next to a mirror so that the visual input of its reflection overrides the sensory loop of the phantom pain from the missing limb. This treatment was found to be more effective than psilocybin therapy alone, resulting in pain relief that persisted for several weeks. It’s thought that the activation of the 5-HT2A receptor “might make the brain more receptive to MVF by enhancing communication between the visual and somatosensory cortex,” Kooijiman and Willegers write, leading to long-lasting pain relief.
However, multiple social media accounts have also pointed out…using these drugs can also make you go insane,.
And in an extreme minority of cases, there is a strong correlation between psychadelic use and committing horrific murders, including:
Charles Manson and the Manson Family
Used LSD to manipulate followers.
Orchestrated the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and others.
Rod Ferrell (Vampire Cult Leader)
Experimented with LSD.
Led a group involved in the brutal murder of two people in Florida in 1996.
Richard Chase ("The Vampire of Sacramento")
Reported history of LSD and marijuana use.
Committed a series of gruesome murders in the 1970s, linked to severe schizophrenia.
Jim Gordon (Drummer and Murderer)
Used LSD and other substances during the 1960s and 1970s.
Murdered his mother in 1983 while experiencing schizophrenia.
James Huberty (San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre)
Experimented with LSD prior to his 1984 mass shooting.
Killed 21 people in a McDonald's restaurant, driven by paranoia and delusions.
Now, Chase and Huberty were diagnosed with schizophrenia, but rather than dismiss them as examples, we should see the diagnosis as a possible byproduct of drug use…as even large doses of marijuana in teens can kick off schizophrenia, according to the National Institute of Health.
It’s impossible to prove a negative, so we can’t say FOR SURE the psychedelics led to Luigi becoming a murderer…but the circumstantial evidence is striking.
[two]
The Asaad regime no longer rules Syria as a dictatorship…and nobody else rules the country either.
The nation is now split amongst various rebel factions, who may have a very hard time reaching a consensus, according to the BBC:
The fall of the Assad regime was brought about by the sudden and unexpected advance by HTS rebels but, although the group controls Syria's main cities, it does not govern the whole country.
Syria has for years been controlled by a patchwork of rebel groups including HTS in Idlib and Kurdish-led groups in the country's north east, some of which have also taken territory in recent days and weeks.
None of the rebel groups will mourn the falling of the Assad regime, but finding a consensus over how to run the country could still prove difficult and in the north of the country there have been clashes between competing factions.
In other words, the Syrian Civil War ended when Asaad’s forces fell and the Dictator fled to Russia…but a new Syrian Civil War may be starting before our eyes.
[three]
A Chinese gold mining operation is destroying precious resources in the Congo for people and wildlife alike.
Nestled in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, the Chinese-run gold mine is rapidly encroaching on an area that many say it shouldn’t be operating in at all - the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, an endangered World Heritage site.
The original boundaries of the reserve were established three decades ago, by Congo’s government and encompassed the area where the Chinese company now mines. But over the years under opaque circumstances, the boundaries shrunk, allowing the company to operate inside the plush forest.
The reserve was already on the endangered list, amid threats of conflict and wildlife trafficking. Now the rapid expansion of the Chinese mines threatens to further degrade the forest and the communities living within. Residents and wildlife experts say the mining’s polluting the rivers and soil, decimating trees and swelling the population, increasing poaching, with little accountability.
“It is alarming that a semi-industrial mining operation is being given free rein in what’s supposed to be a protected World Heritage Site, that was already on the danger list,” said Joe Eisen, executive director, of Rainforest Foundation UK.
It’s possible the mining operation could wipe out the Okapi, aka “Forest Giraffe” completely.
According to sources shared with the AP, all mining in the reserve is supposed to be shut down…but it’s not happening.
[four]
One of the points of the Elon Musk/Vivek Ramaswamy DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) tasks force has already pointed out is that (mostly) empty federal office buildings cost the federal government $15 billion per year to maintain…while a majority of the employees work remotely.
One of the department heads that signed off on Federal Social Security Employees working remotely until 2029 after spending several days drinking with the people he was supposed to be negotiation with…then quit his job.
Martin O’Malley, the Biden administration’s Social Security Commissioner, partied with union members in Florida days before signing a contract preventing managers from reducing telework compared to the COVID era, The Daily Wire has learned.
The American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents 27,500 employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA), held its Caucus Conference in Fort Lauderdale from November 12-15. The conference is where government employees plot how to extract as much as possible from management. But O’Malley, the top manager, was in attendance, drinking and singing songs with attendees, who praised him, according to materials obtained by The Daily Wire.
On November 27, O’Malley signed the agreement with the union locking in telework through 2029. Two days later, he resigned from the agency in order to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That means the former Maryland governor signed a contract that he would not have to live under, but other managers would. The giveaway to the union could give him cache with party activists that could help him secure the DNC gig.
It’s worth pointing out, none of this is illegal.
EXTREMELY shady and unethical, but not illegal.
[five]
A British cell phone company has created an AI program to waste the time of phone scammers (the video above is worth a watch).
NPR reports:
"Hello, scammers. I'm your worst nightmare," Daisy says by way of introduction to would-be ne'er-do-wells.
In the video introduction, featuring former Love Island contestant and scam victim Amy Hart, scammers are heard feeling much of the same frustrations they put their victims through as Daisy breezily yammers on about her kitten, Fluffy, and her inability to follow the scammers' instructions.
"I think your profession is bothering people, right?" one defeated scammer tells Daisy after being given the runaround.
"It's nearly been an hour! For the love of [bleep]," another yells in frustration.
But for Daisy, time couldn't be less of a concern.
"While they're busy talking to me, they can't be scamming you. And let's face it, dear, I've got all the time in the world," she says.
O2, the company behind the scam-baiting granny, said the AI technology can keep scammers on the phone for 40 minutes at a time. Daisy was trained with the help of YouTuber and software engineer Jim Browning, who has made an online career exposing scammers to his community of 4.4 million subscribers.
Slow. Clap.
Until the next one,
-sth