The Burgundy Zine

a burgundy zine

We’re Calling Off The Burgundy Zine #18: Imagination Recaptured

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

After giving it much heavy thought, we have decided not to move forward with releasing “The Burgundy Zine #18: Imagination Recaptured” on July 28.

At this time, I, burgundy bug, will be stepping down from my position as the editor, writer, graphic designer, social media manager, outreach specialist, and webmaster of The Burgundy Zine. This decision comes at the hands of both professional and personal matters.

Any content that was paid for in advance will still be published on our blog, and the site will remain intact for those who wish to view or visit the platform.

Continue Reading

How Entheogenic Plants & Fungi Affect Memory

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

A major area of psychedelic research is its potential clinical applications in psychiatry. In particular, a major area of study has concentrated on the potential therapeutic effects of shrooms, acid, and MDMA for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Memory plays a central role in the psychedelic experience,” begins a 2020 Psychopharmacology review. “The ability for psychedelics to provoke vivid memories has been considered important to their clinical efficacy.”

Throughout their review, the researchers found that psychedelics enhance autobiographical memory recall, which has therapeutic potential for overcoming traumatic experiences. However, psychedelics also have a dose-dependent effect of impairing memory task performance.

Continue Reading

Thought-to-Text Interfaces are Just Around the Corner

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

While mind-reading interfaces that convert thoughts to text sound like a dystopian sci-fi plot that could go horribly wrong disturbingly fast, the reality may not be so far away — or as fallible, either.

When you first hear “thought to text,” your knee-jerk response might be, “Uhh, no way. What if I have an intrusive thought that I don’t really mean to send? Or an impulse to text someone I know I shouldn’t?” But the most recent brain-computer face interface studies don’t rely on decoding your internal monologue or raw thoughts.

Rather, researchers have programmed a brain-computer interface that decodes “attempted handwriting movements” from motor cortex activity. This technology allows people who have been paralyzed for years to imagine handwriting and translate that into texting at speeds of 90 characters per minute with 94.1 percent accuracy, which is comparable to average smartphone typing speeds.

Furthermore, that accuracy climbs to 99 percent with general-purpose autocorrect.

Continue Reading

Health Diary Digital PDF Planner — Now Available on ETSY!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Editor burgundy bug has just released her Health Diary PDF planner templates on Etsy! The health diary comes in three different versions: a flattened PDF, fillable PDF, and DELUXE BUNDLE.

Along with both the flattened and fillable PDF templates, the deluxe bundle includes 22 free digital stickers to decorate your planners with. Burgundy Bug is also running a 25 percent off sale on all of her physical prints and stickers to celebrate the release of her Health Diary PDF.

Continue Reading

Vegetables Aren’t Real

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

By now, we’ve all heard the age-old argument about whether tomatoes are a fruit or a vegetable. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled tomatoes were a vegetable for “tax purposes” in 1893, a botanist would tell you that vegetables aren’t real and that tomatoes are actually a berry.

While we’re at it, cucumbers, peppers, avocados, pumpkins, pomegranates, watermelons, oranges, lemons, limes, grapes, and bananas are all berries, too. Strawberries and raspberries, however, are not. They’re “accessory fruits.”

Continue Reading

NeuroCOVID: NIH Launches Database to Track Neurological Symptoms of COVID-19

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

A fever. Cough. Fatigue. Sore throat. New loss of taste or smell. By now, we’ve all learned to stay on guard and watch for the common symptoms of COVID-19.

Although COVID-19 is regarded as a respiratory disease, it can have a wide range of effects throughout your body: including effects on your brain.

In light of this, the National Institutes of Health recently announced the launch of “NeuroCOVID,” a database designed to track neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19.

Continue Reading
Continue Reading

An Abbreviated History of Neuroscience

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Ah, neuroscience, the study of the squishy, slimy, three-pound computer that rests between our ears. Although the brain is the most complex organ in the body (or as a Trends in Cognitive Sciences Journal review aptly put it, “one of the most complex multicellular structures in biology”), neuroscience itself is only a mere 55 years old.

That’s right — the study of the brain, this omnipotent, protein and fat blob of soft tissue, is probably much younger than your grandparents.

Continue Reading

Why Did Some Dinosaurs Have Cancer?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Cancer, one of the leading causes of death worldwide, appears to have afflicted the ferocious beasts the roamed the Earth with our prehistoric ancestors.

Earlier this month, research published in The Lancet Oncology Journal diagnosed a dinosaur with bone cancer. And this isn’t the first time researchers have made such a diagnosis based on dinosaur fossils.

Continue Reading

Think With Your Gut

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Our bodies are essentially an apartment complex for 100 trillion micro bacteria that have found a home within our intestines.

Before you start writing up an eviction notice, it’s worth noting just how much we – and every other organism with a digestive system – depend on gut microbiota.

Recent research shows gut microbiota influence our mood, behavior, and neurodevelopment. While it may seem these microscopic critters run our lives, the gut microbiome is largely influenced by environmental factors including diet, stress, geography, and age, among others.

Instead of accusing your gut microbiota of being bad tenants, ask yourself: “Have I been a good landlord? What are they trying to tell me?”

Learn to think with your gut, not against it.

Continue Reading

African Violets: A Horticulturist’s Mutant Paradise

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

With showy blossoms ranging from blue to burgundy and white to green, it’s no wonder African violets (Saintpaulia Ionantha) are among the most popular houseplants across the world.

When gazing upon these vibrant, vivacious “violets” with their pinwheel stripes or “fantasy speckles,” one can’t help but wonder, “How the hell did we get here?”

The answer lies in almost a century of hybridization, accented and accelerated by a few decades of chemical mutagens and radiation, according to a 2017 Folia Horticulturae review.

Continue Reading

Mycelium: Man’s Unexpected Best Friend

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Red speckles and poofy, majestical shapes that appear to be pulled straight from a fairy tale are most likely at the forefront of your mind when you think of mushrooms – or, perhaps, some colorful, swirly-whirly imagery and “hippie babble” come to mind.

But there’s far more to mushrooms than meets the eye. Mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi that forms during the hyphae growth stage of mushrooms, has piqued the interests of researchers around the globe.

In recent years, scientists have put mycelium under the microscope due to its physical strength and pharmacological properties. This has opened the floodgates for mycelia to serve as a natural construction compound for building houses or creating new medicines.

Continue Reading

Is Greenland Okay?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Last year saw record-breaking ice melt events in Greenland, with the largest island on Earth yielding a net ice loss of over 300gt, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center.

To put this into perspective, a gigatonne is 1,000,000,000 metric tons, and a metric ton is equal to 1.10231 US tons. 300gt is roughly 330.7 billion US tons. Here, try out the conversion for yourself. We’ll wait.

However, last year was only the seventh-worst year for ice melt in Greenland. Data from the NSIDC shows 2012 had the highest ice melt, but melt had significantly decreased by 2013 – that isn’t to say conditions weren’t a cause for concern, but they had “chilled out” in comparison to 2012.

So, is there a chance 2020 might spare a little mercy towards Greenland? Well…

Continue Reading

Can You Stomach It? The Mysterious Relationship Between Psychedelics and Gut Health

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

By now, it’s no secret the brain and gut are in constant communication – and yet, there’s still an air of mystery shrowding the gut-brain axis.

So far, we know serotonin is central to gut-brain signaling. In fact, 90 percent of serotonin is synthesized in the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, according to a 2016 Nutrients journal review.

Psychedelics, including psilocybin (a.k.a ‘shrooms’), LSD (a.k.a. ‘acid’), and DMT are serotonergic drugs that bind to the 5-HT2A receptor, says a 2018 World Psychiatric article. This is central to triggering the “psychedelic experience.”

Although research on psychedelics in mood, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders has been and currently is being heavily investigated, with a particular focus on serotonin, the impact of psychedelics on gut health remains largely untapped and under-researched.

Now that’s a head trip.

Continue Reading

Love Thy Doctor: Recent Statistics Say Otherwise

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Do you love your doctor, the health care specialist who you’re supposed to entrust with your life and wellbeing?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. A recent Vanguard Communications study shows that doctors are 72 percent more likely to receive a one-star review than lawyers.

Yet, most of the online-complaints against doctors aren’t about the physicians themselves, rather, the practice they work in. But the blame still tends to fall on the doctor.

Continue Reading

Human Hibernation: The Future of Healing and Space Travel

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

What do arctic ground squirrels and black bears have in common? They’re both among the many animals that hibernate.

Except, hibernation isn’t just a long nap through the cold, dreary winter months. It’s a highly-regulated form of energy conservation that impacts how the brain and body function, says Kelly Drew, a University of Alaska professor and CEO of Be Cool Pharmaceutics.

So, what can we learn from hibernation and what might happen if we humans were to give it a try?

Continue Reading

The Default Mode Network: The Center of You

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Take your hands off the keyboard, relax, and take a deep breath. Try your best to do absolutely nothing for a moment. Where did your mind go?

Assuming you were able to achieve a resting state, your brain’s default mode network kicked on.

There’s still much to be researched about the DMN, however, the data currently available has lead researchers to believe the DMN may be at the center of our ego.

Continue Reading

Moonshrooms: How Fungi Could Shape Life on Mars

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

NASA recently announced they’re exploring new, green ways to sustain human life in outer space through the help of our beloved fungal friends: mushrooms, or rather, their mycelia.

Continue Reading

How Plants Think: The Controversy of Consciousness

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Unencumbered by words and semantics, plants express themselves through their luscious leaves and abundant blooms, which are the result of carefully calculated survival tactics that almost seem “thought out.”

These physical characteristics can tell human observers a lot about how the plant is doing; whether it needs more water or sunlight, warmth or humidity, and so forth – but, plants don’t have eyes like we do. They don’t have brains like ours, yet research shows they possess intelligence.

How far does that intelligence go? Do plants “think?”

Continue Reading

How Dogs Think, Feel, and Communicate

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

“BARK! BARK! BARK!” Neurons fire to one in another in the face of a feline, fire hydrant, mailman, or dog treat. “BAAAAAAARK,” neurons fire again as the owner walks out the door and leaves the canine behind for an eight-hour shift.

Dogs have been “man’s best friend” for thousands of years, reports a study published in Nature Communications – but, is man dog’s best friend? How do they regard human relationships? What do dogs think and feel? How do they communicate?

Continue Reading
Continue Reading

Tune-In Tuesdays #113: Rascal Whack on Creating Maliveni

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Rascal Whack is a heavy rock band hailing from Athens, Greece who share a passion for creating music that caters to the local grunge rock and “Greek stoner” music scene.

Following the release of their latest album, “Maliveni,” we spoke to Rascal Whack band members Spiros Ladas and Stathis Skaloubakas via email to learn more about their history as a band and their album.

Continue Reading

Tune-In Tuesdays #112: Luna Blue on Heavens Gates and their Hot, Summer ’21 Line-Up

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

In gearing up for their hot, summer 2021 line-up of releasing a new album and touring through the United Kingdom, the Brighton-based alt-indie band Luna Blue released their latest, emotive single, “Heavens Gates.”

Recently, we spoke with the band via email to get a behind-the-scenes peek of the recording process behind “Heavens Gates.” We also briefly touched upon their upcoming album and their tour in August.

Continue Reading
Continue Reading
Continue Reading
Continue Reading

Tune-In Tuesdays #110: Breakup Films on “Just Whenever” & Their Upcoming EP

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Captivating listeners with their dreamy, nostalgic sound, the Tel Aviv-based indie-pop band Breakup Films is coming in HOT this summer with their latest, anti-pop anthem single, “Just Whenever.”

Recently, we spoke to Ron Herscovici, Hai Barbi, and Shelly Reizis of Breakup Films to learn more about “Just Whenever.” We also discussed their personal connections with music and their upcoming EP, “My Head is Always Somewhere Else.”

Continue Reading

Weekly Newsletter #100: Happy 100th Newsletter

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

WHEW, we’re entering triple digits now, are we? Well, in any case, thank you for sticking along with the ride — whether you’ve been here the whole time, reading along since Weekly Newsletter #1, or whether this is your first time reading The Burgundy Zine. We appreciate you, bug buddies.

Continue Reading

The Second Summer Wave is Out NOW! Enjoy 10 New Art Prints Every Saturday from Burgundy Bug

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Editor burgundy bug is making a SPLASH this season with her summer waves collection! Bug is releasing 10 NEW PRINTS in her Etsy Shop, “Bugs Boops,” every Saturday this June. The size of the prints in the Summer Wave II collection range from 5×5 inches to 8×10 inches, and the prices range from $5 to $25 (USD)!

As a special thank you for being part of our community, you can enjoy 10 percent off your order using the promo code “BDZN10” In addition to your purchase, every order includes a handful of mystery goodies, too.

Continue Reading
Continue Reading