Archive for February, 2009

In a brave move, the Drug Policy Alliance – DPA – have publicly come out against the banning of Salvia.

The catalyst for this public move appears to be the attempt by Maryland legislators to make the drug illegal, and to impose a maximum sentence of 20 years to anyone found selling it. That is 20 years for selling a drug that is, as far as we know, entirely safe; 20 years for selling a drug that is actually entirely legal on a Federal level.

Politicians are getting many of their cues in this area from the media. In particular in makes this writer laugh when he sees quotations such as this:

“It’s nothing short of disturbing,” said Sen. Richard Colburn (R- Wicomico), the bill’s sponsor. “Watch it for yourselves. See how they lose all coordination, experience emotional swings, dizziness and nausea. Now, imagine that person is your child or grandchild.”

So now it appears that experimenting, losing control a little bit, is a bad things. Alcohol, anyone? If someone doesn’t want to experience these things then they don’t have to try Salvia. One thing the ban definitely does do is to give salvia a kudos that it never had before. Now people will want to try it just to see what all the fuss is about.

But of course a ban is more than just that. A ban is, for many, affirmation that the state does not trust the people to make up their own minds. It is affirmation that we are not being treated as the sensible adults that we are. Still more than this it confirms the suspicions many people have that our politicians are tragically out of touch with the real world.

Banning Salvia is going to achieve nothing at all. All it does is make the politicians appear to be doing something positive. If they actually went out and did do something positive, then we would be impressed. This is pseudo-politics at its worst.

Nebraska is the latest State to join the growing number who are voting to ban salvia divinorum and its active psychotropic molecule Salvinorin A. Legislative Bill 123 was passed with a unanimous 44-0 vote last Friday, to the glee of Attorney General Jon Bruning.

Bruning had valiantly tried to have Salvia banned last session but it died in committee; the bill was recently resurrected by Senator Russ Karpisek of Wilber.

Here’s where it all gets a bit silly again: the supposed ‘reasons’ behind banning Salvia. Jon Bruning told us that: Salvia “was an extremely dangerous drug and public safety demanded it be banned. What utter rubbish. I would be interested to see where he got the idea from that it is ‘extremely dangerous’, especially when a number of eminent scientists had said quite explicitly that it is not.

Bruning went on: “I think it is important that Salvia not be allowed to be used by members of the public”. What? Why do politicians assume that because they’ve been fed some nonsense by the media and by their fellow politicians they know best? Utter crap.

It is this over-protectionist mentality that drives people out of the societal norms: when people can’t stick to the rules any more they just go wild. Overbearing – and completely arbitrary – laws like this are most of the reason why that happens.

I am all for democracy, but when it is forced upon us by legislators who have not been made aware of the realities of the situation, it does make me wonder where this country is headed.

Fortunately for us, Salvia remains legal on a Federal level. But for how long? A growing number of statesmen are making it their sworn duty to ban the innocent plant, so a move to take it national must only be a matter of time. Enjoy it while you can.

The acai berry – everybody’s talking about it. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the large amount of acai berry products that are being sold in stores and online, but one brand hoping to remove a lot of the confusion is Acai Zone, which offers a range of acai supplements you won’t find anywhere else.

A year ago, hardly anybody had heard of the acai berry. But now, thanks to talkshow stars such as Oprah and Rachel Ray discussing the benefits of an acai diet on national television, brands such as Acai Zone can access a huge market of people looking for acai products.

While you can buy some acai supplements over the counter at health-food stores, the highest quality products are only available to buy online. Pure Acai Products is the company that raised the bar by teaming up with Apex-Nutra to develop a new range of Acai Zone products.

Acai Zone’s innovative products come in three forms. Acai Maxx will help boost your energy and lift your mood. Acai Ultra Slim works wonders if you’re hoping to lose weight. Meanwhile, anyone keen to turn back the years and stay young and healthy should opt for Acai Rejuvenate.

You can’t buy acai berries in stores – not unless you live in Brazil. This is because the fruit spoils so fast, so there’s no chance of exporting it in its raw form. Thanks to brands such as Acai Zone, you no longer need to worry about how you will get your acai fix.

The Acai Zone products you can buy come in beverage form. Alternatively, there are powders and capsules available, so there really is no excuse not to check these products out and see what they can do for you. Acai won’t change your life, but it could come mighty close.

On Web sites touting the mind-blowing powers of salvia divinorum, come-ons to buy the hallucinogenic herb are accompanied by warnings: “Time is running out! … stock up while you still can.”
That’s because salvia is being targeted by lawmakers concerned that the inexpensive and easy-to-obtain plant could become the next marijuana. Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia, and 16 others, including Florida, are considering a ban or have previously.
“As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one,” said Florida state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, who has introduced a bill to make possession of salvia a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Some say legislators are overreacting to a minor problem, but no one disputes that the plant impairs judgment and the ability to drive.
Native to Mexico and still grown there, salvia divinorum is generally smoked but can also be chewed or made into a tea and drunk.

Today, I’ll revisit the scenario, but this time from the perspective of policy makers.

Consider, if you will, the role of the Australian government in P2P file sharing.

According to the data available from Whirlpool, 57.7% of Australians share files using P2P.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the possibility of the content industry owning shares in the broadband networks and that if they did – then P2P was merely another distribution channel.

Telstra claims they have 5,507,000 subscribers of Australia’s 7,228,000 internet users.

Therefore it follows that Telstra is the Carriage Service Provider (CSP) that enables the highest level of P2P file sharing.

The Australian government originally owned the majority of Telstra’s shares and has been selling off chunks since 1997.

The Fermi gamma-ray space telescope was developed by NASA in collaboration with the US Department of Energy and partners including academic institutions in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.  The US space agency’s Fermi telescope has detected a massive explosion in space which scientists say is the biggest gamma-ray burst ever detected, a report published Thursday in Science Express said.The spectacular blast, which occurred in September in the Carina constellation, produced energies ranging from 3,000 to more than five billion times that of visible light, astrophysicists said.It’s thought that something involved in spinning up and collapsing into that blackhole in the center is what drives these jets. No one really has figured that out. The jets rip through the star and the supernova follows after the jets.Studying gamma-ray bursts allows scientists to “sample an individual star at a distance where we can’t even see galaxies clearly,” Reddy said.

If you have ever experienced problems with your digestion, then perhaps acai berry could help?

Weight loss is the major benefit that most people expect when they start including acai berry in their diet. What these people don’t realise is that there is so much more to be gained from this wondrous little berry. Just a quick look at the multitude of advantages it can give you will make your head spin.

Amongst the many benefits provided by acai berry, it contains enzymes and other essential nutrients that all help your body to be more efficient during the digestion of your food. An efficient digestion means that your metabolism can work more efficiently, and problems like indigestion, heartburn and acid reflux will all be nipped in the bud. Acai berry also contains a goodly amount of fibre which helps your system get rid of toxins and unwanted waste on a more regular basis.

I actually really like the way I feel when I use acai berry supplements on a regular basis. Whether this is because of the antioxidants, the fibre, or some other magical property that the acai berry enjoys, I just don’t know. What I do know is that I feel wonderful and I do not intend to stop using it.

Earth is located in prime real estate.  Our solar system, is in a part of the Milky Way that many scientists call the galactic habitable zone.   This zone is about 28,000 light years from the center of the galaxy and contains just the right concentrations of the chemical elements needed to support life.  Farther out, those elements are too scarce; farther in, the neighborhood is too dangerous because of the greater abundance of potentially lethal radiation and other factors.

Salvia Divinorum is a strange thing. Its popularity has exploded in the past few years and record numbers of people are flocking to online and brick and mortar stores to try and buy as much of it as possible. The explosion in popularity has not gone unnoticed, and politicians and lawmakers are trying their hardest to make it illegal to buy, sell, possess or use Salvia.

With all this attention on the little plant, it is perhaps rather surprising that there is so little in the way of modern history.

One of the first modern researchers to take an interest in the history of Salvia was one Jean B Johnson. Johnson had seen the use of Salvia first hand on a trip to watch some Mazatec Indians. these natives made tea from the plant and settled back in the hopes of trying to see the future. Johnson was intrigued by what appeared to be prophetic visions of the tribesmen.

Johnson did not know what the plant was, and referred to it from there as the ‘magic plant’. Quite a fitting name, I’m sure you will agree!

Chemists Wasson, Hoffman (the father of LSD) and Weitlaner (Johnson’s father-in-law) went on a similar field trip with the intention of bringing back some Salvia for testing. In 1962, the first live plant was sent back to Harvard where Carl Epling – a sage expert – was able to analyse what appeared then to be a new species.

Only a few research papers and reports have been published on the plant since, and it is with excitement that scientists still try to discover more about this rather elusive species. The more they find the more interested they become; the reason for it to be continually under the scientific radar until very recently remains a mystery.

In the Greek mythology Ares is the god of war.  Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera and half-sister of Athena, also a deity of war.  Ares is an ancient abstract noun meaning : throng of battle, war.  The reading of his character remains ambiguous, in a late 6th-century funerary inscription from Attica: “Stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos/ Whom raging Ares destroyed one day, fighting in the foremost ranks”.