Archive for June, 2008

If you’ve ever mistyped a word into a search engine, but managed to find your way to your desired location nonetheless, then you will appreciate that the publishers at the Official Ares website get a variety of interesting and often amusing permutations on the spelling of their name.

It is interesting to try and ‘reverse engineer’ some of the misspelling that take people write. Are they misspellings, or is it more of a case of conditioning due to location or culture

Spellings like Arez – often Hispanic sounding but, perhaps surprisingly, predominantly from French speaking areas (including Canada). The visitors typing Aris and Aeres are more evenly distributed geographically and this might suggest genuine misspellings.

Aries, Aires, and Areas are all ‘real’ English words and it’s entirely possible that people have typed these hoping to find something other than Official Ares site. It’s also possible that people are so used to typing words like this that their fingers just run away with them.

When you see a typo like Aers, which is quite obviously, even to my untrained eye, a common misspelling where the central two letters are swapped, you’ve got to think that, in this case, there is the possibility that this is a genuine mistake rather than any conditioning.

A lawmaker from Massachusetts, Vinny deMacedo, first heard of Salvia only recently. Once he saw (through the wonders of YouTube) the effects of the drug, he decided to introduce a bill to ban Salvia in the Bay State. Whether the worst bit about all this is that Vinny deMacedo has an impressionable mind or whether it’s that he decides on which bills to push from an evening watching YouTube (which is, of course, factual documentary at its best) is open to debate. We just think it’s the giveaway sign of another clueless politician jumping on the ‘Ban Salvia’ bandwagon.

Vinny D went on to impart some words of wisdom:

Certainly, if you were driving a car (on Salvia) that would be a bad thing

Personally I drive cars on the road, but I think I understand what he’s trying to get at. It still doesn’t make much sense, though: if I were trying to drive while under the influence of alcohol then that would be a bad thing too. It doesn’t mean that people are clamouring across the country to ban alcohol. If I drive while I’m asleep then that’s a bad thing too. You get the point. Banning the use of Salvia while driving seems completely sensible, and I would applaud any such law. Banning something because it can potentially be dangerous in the wrong hands is just ridiculous. Guns, anyone?

The first arrest for the possession of Salvia occurred last month. Police in North Dakota (where Salvia was made illegal last August) arrested a man who had, by his own admission, an interest in spiritual searching. The gentleman faces up to five years in year for his indiscretion. While I would have to do some searching, I’m confident that I can pull up examples of where child molesters were treated more leniently.

The recent outbursts of opinion from people over the dangers of Salvia are unwarranted and alarmist. It all smacks of a 1982 ‘Big Brother’ situation where lawmakers are deciding what is best for us. If we don’t agree with them then it’s off to the Big House we go. What a shame.

A recent trip to Patong was interesting in many ways. Not only was it an absolutely fantastic holiday – and one which I would really love to repeat – but there was something very interesting happening with locals of the opposite sex. Trying to understand Patong girls, it seems, is something that Western travelers have been attempting for years now without much sex. My girlfriend and I did a spot of ‘people watching’ while we visited the island and it was very interesting to see the visitors trying to have their way with the Patong girls. What the men usually didn’t realize was that trying understand Patong girls was a mission impossible, and the only ones that would ‘have their way’ was the girls themselves.

When trying to understand Patong girls, I have to ask what is it about these ladies that so enchants the Western man? I guess it’s the apparent interest from the girl in that man that makes her alluring and within reach. One must remember when trying to understand Patong girls that ‘I love you’ and ‘you are a handsome man’ are phrases dolled out with frightening regularity. It is entirely possible that the same words pass those lips until one Western man falls foul of the trap. The end result? Marriage.

Growing concern about Salvia means not only that parents are increasingly having ‘heart to heart’ talks with their children, but also that some states are going out of their way to ban it. The states are having to take this along step because, as we know, Salvia is entirely legal under federal US drug law.

The US DEA has started down the long road in making Salvia a controlled substance under US Federal law; it is now listed as a “drug of concern” on internal lists.

There are apparently around 3,500 video clips of teens smoking Salvia on YouTube; this exposure in the media popular media has been driving up popularity. The increased press interest in the hallucinogen has also meant an increase in sales from the legal Internet vendors like SalviaDragon.com. Some vendors, reports suggest, have been holding what are essentially ‘closing down’ sales in an attempt to dump their stock before trade is outlawed.

Despite the alleged panic by vendors (in fact invented largely by alarmist popular media) , Salvia definitely remains for sale over the Internet, in smoke shops and even in gas station shops. This availability of course is only in the States that still allow the hallucinogen: only 8 have managed to ban or restrict its sale or use to date.

Parents, lawmakers and politicians are asking why Salvia has not yet been banned. A better question to ask may be why the sudden furore? Salvia has been around for many years and has been perfectly accepted until recently. There is no medical proof that it has any adverse effects and, in fact, some medical researchers are of the opinion that it might actually help research into degenerative illnesses like Alzheimer’s’. Does this sound like a heinous drug that should be banned? Of course not. Does it sound like something that politicians can get some easy points for if they convince parents of its evils? Of course it does.

Salvia is a nasty smelling substance – of that there can be little doubt. The Salvia I bought over the Internet came through the post, and as I’m in one of the states that still allows the use of the drug it is all completely legal.

The first step in smoking Salvia is in getting the stuff out of the vial in which it arrived; this was no mean feat. After getting the lid off I poured a small sample into a pipe. Once in the pipe I lit the black Salvia crumbs and, in my first comparable experience, starting smoking Salvia.

I took the smoke in and held it for as long as I could. I exhaled. Then waited. I didn’t have to wait for long, since smoking Salvia is one of the quickest ways to get it into your system.

About 10 minutes after I started smoking Salvia I was back to normal, but I’d taken a trip through hallucinogenic lane. This really is a weird experience, but one which I’m sure I will be repeating (not because I have a particular affinity to smoking Salvia but because I’ve got loads of the stuff to use up!).

If you’re looking for a psychedelic experience then try smoking Salvia. Nothing else compares.

Apple’s recent attempts to convince developers to charge more for the apps that they try to distribute through the app store seems to have fallen on deaf ears: a recent poll suggests that over 71% of apps developed for distribution through the app store will be available completely for free.

Further bad news for Apple from the same survey includes the conclusion drawn analyst Gene Munster (of Piper Jaffray) that the average cost of those apps for which a charge will be made will only be $2.29. This is a far cry from the $10 per app that Apple mentioned in the keynote speech and which, clearly, it was hoping for.

The reason for Apple’s urgency with regards to the price charged in the app store is fairly obvious: their revenue model revolves purely on a cut of 30% of the revenue made from those apps sold. Even the marketing boys at Apple realize that 30% of nothing is still nothing. In return Apple provide the infrastructure of the app store and provide the means to distribute to the paying customer.

So a slight loss may be on the cards if Apple forges ahead with the concept of the app store as it is. This should not worry Apple too much and even Munster doubts that the free apps will hurt the overall benefit.

The Apple iPhone games is perhaps one of the most exciting little gadgets conceived. While the concept of a mini computer is not new (the Treo and Blackberry, among others, blazed this particular trail) what it does off is the ultimate sexiness in gadgets.
And Apple are soon to release the new model of its iPhone games, if rumors and market conditions are to be believed. A key catalyst to this rumor is the complete lack of iPhone games availability in the online shop, and a definite paucity in brick and mortar establishments that would usually carry the device.
While this might seem like a huge error on Apple’s part it most definitely is not. For a start Apple don’t make this kind of error, and secondly it is easy to see the rationale behind the move: choke supply to increase demand before the new iPhone games release. When it comes people would be fighting in the streets (Apple would no doubt love that coverage).

I’m someone who really loves to party in the evening and when I go away on vacation I love to really let my hair down. I’m a clubbing girl who loves to dance and have fun.

I’ve just returned from Phuket and what can I say? Fantastic place. What I really loved about it, apart from the wonderful beaches and the perfect food (the food was too good: now I have to diet!), was the great variety in the Phuket nightlife. One hour you can be stood in a Thai-style club dancing with the locals around a small table, listening to a great band playing fun music and doing covers of classic favorites; next minute you can be listening to popular commercial hits in a bar with cheap drinks and great holiday makers; but the end of the night you might be on a sweaty dance floor listening to Jude Jules (honestly!) lay down some hardcore clubbing tracks. This is Phuket nightlife

How’s that for variety? I spent a week sampling the Phuket nightlife and I can’t say that I regretted one bit of it. It’s certainly not as bustling as Bangkok or somewhere similar but, in all honestly, that’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of a rest (but not too much, mind!). Besides there’s definitely enough to the Phuket nightlife to keep anyone (even me) busy.

I absolutely loved Phuket. Not only were the beaches and pools really fantastic, the people great and the atmosphere chilled, I also ate. A lot.

Eating too much in restaurants in Phuket is an easy trap to fall into when prices are less than $2 for a fantastic meal. But it’s not quantity that counts, it’s quality, and restaurants in Phuket have that too.

I was walking down the main street in Phuket town and look at the lines of food stalls open on either side of the road. I was fairly confident that each and everyone one of them would serve delicious food. I wanted to try them all but that wouldn’t done my waistline much good at all.

One evening I though I would ‘graduate’ from the street restaurants in Phuket to the slight more up market resort hotels. I tried one and, to be honest, wasn’t impressed. Though the food was still excellent it wasn’t any better than what I could get out on the Hawker stalls on the street. With restaurants in Phuket you pay more to get into the establishment, not for the food that you eat there.

The seafood restaurants in Phuket were truly awe inspiring. Never have I seen such big, juicy, fresh King prawns; the oysters too really were something else. My mouth is watering just thinking about it all!

Hallucinogenic drugs have played an important part in the history of many civilizations. Far from the bad reputation they suffer from today, hallucinogenics were used by people hoping to get in touch with their spiritual side. Shamans, healers and religious followers have all used hallucinogenics – natural or man-made – to help in their quest.

It is with this origin in mind that we consider lowly Salvia Divinorum. Salvia has been recognized for its hallucinogenic properties for many hundreds of years, with American Indians regularly chewing the leaves to help with their spirituality.

More commonly known as Diviner’s Sage, Salvia Divinorum is related to the mint and sage families as is known to have been used by the Mazatec shamans in Mexico.

Buying Salvia today is still, in most countries and most American states, entirely legal. Salvia can be smoked or chewed. Reputable sellers can be found online at sites like salviadragon.com.