Newsweek did a good piece on the progress my friend Rick Doblin is making at MAPS with their efforts to conduct honest research into the use of MDMA (”ecstasy”) in psychotherapy. The research is being conducted in South Carolina currently - and soon, just up the road in Belmont, at McLean Hospital.

I credit Newsweek and its editors with being brave enough to run this piece (and an even lengthier - but less honest - version in their international edition). But, I also think it’s a shame that it still is very much the exception, rather than the rule, to see rational news coverage on this issue. (Newsweek’s international editors still couldn’t resist the deceptive subhead “Some doctors want to see if ecstasy, a dangerous illicit drug, can help cancer patients and trauma victims” and doing some other inaccurate editorializing about the drug).

Let’s hope Rick is right and we’re seeing an opening of the culture.

There’s a scan of the US article with images here, courtesy of MAPS.

I am stunned that sweet Kahlen Rondot didn’t win America’s Next Top Model as I had predicted, but I need to look on the bright side. Perhaps some aspiring model in Broken Arrow, OK is now in need of a good photographer. *Sigh*. Well, if you ask me, Naima winning was a case of them choosing racial diversity over talent and marketability. Oh well - it’s way more a reflection on the judges than on her. Kahlen, darling: call me. Let’s make some pictures.

Like the wonderful sport she is, Deanna let me shoot her in the funky red loveseat this weekend. I was going to whisk her off to NYC just for the heck of it, but I feel like absolute shit. Honest to goodness flu, I think. Friday night was the worst night of sleep I’ve had in years. Clickie: http://tinyurl.com/bcagn

Also, thanks to Chris at the Apple Store @ the Cambridgeside Galleria, my new Powerbook was located. For as-yet-unknown reasons, UPS delivered it to CVS at the Galleria mall about 1/2 mile from my office (where it was actually shipped to. CVS denied having it for a full day. Only Chris seemed to be able to get it out of them. Anyway, I’ll post more about the Powerbook later - my quick analysis is that it is an elegant, beautiful device with a great OS. The machine seems a bit shy on horsepower, however, which I am (for now) blaming on drive speed.

I keep forgetting to blog about UPN’s show, Americas Next Top Model, which is one of my guity pleasures. Well, here goes.

The one who clearly should win is Kahlen Rondot. I picked this little angel immediately out of the group of 20 - I mean, just watching her catwalk strut was a love-at-first sight deal for me. There’s a running joke around the office that I might change my no-marriage policy in light of Kahlen’s existence.

But even removing the blinders of my personal crush - from an industry perspective, she has demonstrated more range, beauty, dedication, energy, and industry knowledge than any of them. Not a dumb girl, either. But this is reality television, and stupid things can happen. Although the judges are industry pros and need to hand the winner off to sponsors Ford Models and Cover Girl, so…

I see Naima as second. She works hard and has a great personality. A possible winner based merely on the chance that the judges decide the fashion industry doesn’t need another blond-haired, light-eyed baby doll prancing down the runway. [Post-finale EDIT: In fact, Nigel Barker said exactly this about Kahlen during their final deliberations] But aside from that consideration, Naima is a distant second.

There are only a couple others left:

I think Keenya is going to self-destruct, because she shows no signs of stopping with the face-stuffing. My guess is she’ll be sent off next, possibly with a Taco Bell gift card. One more plate of pancakes and the art director’s PowerMac is going to run out of RAM.

Brittany is a sweet, pretty girl, but she just doesn’t have the poise and grace of a fashion model. She’ll be much more at home doing motorbike and beer calendars or something. Or just Spring Break videos. I can’t imagine her as winner.

Ok folks - finally got the courage to take the wraps off my latest art project. Light on content thus far, but I’m working on that. If you’re on dial-up, don’t even bother (Flash, audio, etc.)

Special shout-out to my buddy and real-deal fashion photographer Chung Lee, who hooked me up on this and who has been much more helpful in my photography pursuit than I probably deserve.

How does this work, exactly? So, he downloads his credit report, then stores it on his Mirra server?

Aren’t there more than enough stock photos in the world to avoid this? I realize I’m the 1-in-1000 customer who’d notice this, but I see it with many different companies. Guys, hire a photographer or just get exclusive rights to an image. Come on, you can pay your lawyers fifteen grand a month - so why not crack out a few extra bucks and make sure you’re the only one using the art?

Trippy pic from my SF trip.