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Reverberation #244 1. Leon Russell - Smashed 2. Mose Allison - It Didn’t Turn Out That Way 3. Mose Allison - What’s With You 4. The High Numbers - Young Man Blues 5. The Yardbirds - I’m Not Talking 6. Mose Allison - Baby Please Don’t Go 7. Mose Allison - Your Mind Is On Vacation 8. Georgie Fame - Parchman Farm 9. Mose Allison - Rollin’ Stone 10. Mose Allison - Don’t Forget To Smile 11. Mose Allison - Everybody Crying Mercy

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Planet Funk

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What it is is what it is

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trip out west this summer

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Just some damn good funky ass shiit

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A couple of weeks ago climbing in Muir Valley, KY

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Keegan-Michael Key, Marc Maron and Bobby Lee join host Ari Shaffir to tell their most unbelievable true stories on the series premiere of This Is Not Happening, tonight at 12:30a/11:30c.

Click here for a clip.

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Study Reveals Lack of Data on Opioid Drugs

A National Institutes of Health white paper that was released today finds little to no evidence for the effectiveness of opioid drugs in the treatment of long-term chronic pain, despite the explosive recent growth in the use of the drugs.

The paper, which constitutes the final report of a seven-member panel convened by the NIH last September, finds that many of the studies used to justify the prescription of these drugs were either poorly conducted or of an insufficient duration.

That makes prolific use of these drugs surprising, says Dr. David Steffens, chair of the psychiatry department at UConn Health and one of the authors of the study. When it comes to long-term pain, he says, “there’s no research-based evidence that these medicines are helpful.”

Yet despite this, prescriptions for opioid drugs (also known as opiate drugs; the two terms are technically distinct, but most physicians use them interchangeably) have more than tripled in the past 20 years, with more than 219 million prescriptions written in 2011, according to the study.

At the same time, the abuse of these drugs has also skyrocketed, leading some to refer to prescription drug abuse as an epidemic. More than 16,000 people died from prescription opioid overdoses in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and drug overdose now causes more deaths than motor vehicle accidents for people ages 25-64.

This level of opioid use and abuse is unprecedented in the world: the United States, with just 4.6 percent of the world’s population, consumes 80 percent of the world’s opioid drugs. That, says Steffens, makes this “a peculiarly American problem.”

Steffens, like the other members of the panel, was surprised by many of these findings, since he is not an expert in opioid drugs, in drug abuse, or in pain management. The members of the panel were experienced clinicians with expertise in other areas; Steffens’ specialty is geriatric psychiatry. “The NIH intentionally invited people from other fields of medicine,” he says, “in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest, and to get a fresh perspective on the issue.”

Over two days, the panel listened to evidence presented by an outside agency, which had conducted an exhaustive search of all the available studies about the use of opioid drugs. The panel’s draft report was made available for public comment late last fall. The final report is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Steffens notes that one of the great challenges in grappling with this issue is the fact that opioid drugs clearly are an effective treatment for some people dealing with pain, but it is hard to predict where trouble will crop up. Part of the problem, he points out, is the need for better communication about best practices to physicians who are prescribing these drugs.

“There are certain syndromes, like fibromyalgia, where opioids are less likely to be effective and patients are more likely get into trouble with abuse,” says Steffens.

Another issue both for patients and for society at large is that pills from the pharmacy don’t always end up in the hands they were prescribed for. The process of medicine being sold or given away (known as diversion) has long been identified as a key driver in the rise of prescription drug abuse.

Says Steffens, “I wish that doctors treating people for sports or workplace injuries would be cautious with the amount of pills they dispense.”

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Colorado snowboard trip

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It’s been deep. Our guide @sharkboysharkboy puts his 180 to good use to stay above the snow. Hokkaido Japan.

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Capturing Climbing History on the Dawn Wall with @coreyrichproductions

For more photos from the Dawn Wall free climb, follow photographer Corey Rich (@coreyrichproductions) and climbers Tommy Caldwell (@tommycaldwell) and Kevin Jorgeson (@kjorgeson) on Instagram.

“It’s very rare in life that you get to witness people really pushing it to the limit, and to have a front seat,” says adventure photographer Corey Rich (@coreyrichproductions). For the past three weeks, he’s been hanging thousands of feet over the floor of California’s Yosemite Valley, documenting pro climbers Tommy Caldwell (@tommycaldwell) and Kevin Jorgeson (@kjorgeson) as they’ve made their way up the granite face of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall. Using ropes only for safety, the pair made history this week by charting and completing a route that is widely considered the most difficult climb ever attempted.

Tommy has been attempting the climb for the past six years, and Kevin joined him in 2009. Corey began documenting the quest up the Dawn Wall when the project first began, and over time they’ve all become close friends. “There’s something special about photographing the people you really care about and traveling and surfing and suffering and sitting on planes, trains, and automobiles together for weeks on end,” Corey explains. “It makes you close, and there’s overlap in our lifestyles and passions. That’s pretty unique.”

Even though the feat is complete, Corey stresses that the spirit of adventure extends beyond the face of the cliff. “I think if people take one thing away from this, it’s find adventure in your life,” he says. “It’s about unknown outcome, taking calculated risks and trying to make something beautiful out of that. Enjoy that experience, enjoy the ride.”