"She saw a sea of green and purple shapes, then a deep-space emptiness with a monolithic presence, similar to the Borg Collective from Star Trek. At one point, a series of Egyptian ships and Russian dolls paraded before her. As she laughed and wept, something popped out at her from the mental kaleidoscope: A small, creamy-white, animated crab." Yes, Carol Vincent had quite magic mushroom trip. But her use of psilocybin wasn't an effort to enhance a party experience or fully experience the Grateful Dead. It was part of a study to see if the active ingredient in mushrooms could help someone want to live. And the results of studies on Vincent and other cancer patients were quite promising. The trip was pleasantly strange, and its impact was remarkably long. From Olga Khazan in The Atlantic: The Life-Changing Magic of Mushrooms. (In retrospect, 2016 should have come with shrooms...)

+ WaPo: Three cancer patients explain how a psychedelic drug eased their fears.

+ From Newshour: Using Ecstasy to treat PTSD: "I felt like my soul snapped back into place."

"So even when much less is used in chocolate, your tongue perceives an almost identical sweetness to before." Nestle has figured out a way to make things sweet with a lot less sugar, by reshaping the structure of crystals. (Now it only takes 60% of a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.)

"The students produced 3.7 grams of pyrimethamine for $20. In the US, the same quantity would cost up to $110,000." Meet the Australian high school students who recreated a life-saving drug to make a point about the high cost of drugs (and send a message to the poster boy for those high costs, Martin Shkreli.)

+ Vox: The true story of America's sky-high prescription drug prices (including stick figures).

"We have no plans to prohibit the speaker from using the room he has rented. Freedom of speech is a First Amendment right and a core value of this university, no matter how odious the views may be." That's Texas A&M President Michael Young explaining why he and his administrators won't try to block a campus visit by white nationalist Richard Spencer. Young is right. And the school seems to be countering the visit in the perfect way: They're having a much bigger pro-unity gathering at the same time.

+ The Guardian: "The right-wing news site Breitbart has declared war on Kellogg's, calling for a boycott of the cereal company's products after they decided to cease advertising on the site." (Maybe Kellogg's should thank Breitbart. They proved it's possible to create a product that's worse for Americans than Frosted Flakes.)

The president-elect is headed to Indiana to celebrate United Technologies decision to keep some of its Mexico-bound jobs in the US. Does the deal have implications beyond being good news for several hundred employees and providing excellent optics for the incoming administration? From Vox: Donald Trump and the Indiana Carrier factory, explained.

"It was midnight when David woke up to find two large men standing over his bed. Without any explanation, they told him to get up, get dressed, and come with them. Still in the confusion of sleep, but also petrified out of his 12-year-old mind, David complied. Plus, the restraint of a large arm meant he couldn't bolt." Vice on the legal industry for kidnapping teens ... with their parents' permission.

+ "Twenty-two states still allow corporal punishment in school: 15 expressly permit it while another seven do not prohibit it." Do you live in one of those states?

The NFL is huge, but the league has been facing the short term pressure of falling ratings and the long term pressures of kids with other interests and parents who are less likely to allow them to play. So the league has hit the youth and parent market with a blitz of promotions, including Fantasy Football contests aimed at kids, animated shows, and a multidimensional effort to get moms to let kids play. From Highline: Inside the NFL's relentless, existential pursuit of your children.

"For better or for worse, kids all over the world tend to be compulsive watchers of unboxing videos. Unable to purchase desirable products, they can--in some small way, through the unboxing videos--indulge in the repetitive viewing of someone else in a state of euphoric consumption." Inc on the roots and enduring allure of unboxing videos.

"Fishing, like all great sports, can sink its hooks in deep. It's as addicting as good drugs, as mesmerizing as good philosophy. It helps to remember that the greatest American novel, Moby Dick, is really just a fishing story in which the fisherman becomes so obsessed he goes mad. (Happens all the time.)" Why Does America Love Bass Fishing (and TV shows about bass fishing...)?

There is a call center for cybercriminals who need a human voice as part of a scam. In Japan, you can get an insurance policy that covers social media backlash. Some retailers use "skinny mirrors" to get you to buy more clothes. These and other interesting tidbits can be found in Tom Whitwell's list of 52 things he learned in 2016

+ Jim Delligatti passed away at the age of 98. He was the fast food franchisee who realized Americans needed a larger sandwich. So he came up with the Big Mac.

+ The All Star game will no longer determine who gets home field advantage in the World Series. (So don't say I never share good news...)