Pala

Apropos - - check out this great comic at XKCD.

Hmm, interesting. I never get flu shots just in case I do get the flu! Which is to say, I'd feel like shit suspecting that I wouldn't be sick if I hadn't gone out of my way to get a shot. As for preventative behaviour: I don't do much beyond treating sick people like they've got the plague. Which doesn't sound very nice, but well, yeah.

FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine#Treatment_for_opiate_addiction Can't speak to its efficacy personally, but reading up on it, it seem that the anti-addictive efect is both due psychology (comparable perhaps to other existentially affirming psychoactives), and also by affecting the way your brain handles reward, changing the behaviour of the parts of your brain that are involvedin addictive-rewards (ref).

Following on from - http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24069 - I just wanted to post a poll about how people feel about GM. Sorry if there aren't more questions. And I appreciate that I've almost certainly not included a full range of answers for each. If someone wants to ask more questions, just make another one! I'm particularly interested in the last question.

See full story @ http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100330/full/news.2010.160.html Although most people seriously overestimate the implications of current gene-patent laws, there is certainly reason to be concerns with aspects of it. Myriad Genetics is an example of a company which actively prevents universities (and others) from researching "their" genes unless the latter pay a fee to do so, and furthermore, charges $3000 for use of the BRCA genes in cancer diagnosis! It's clear that Myriad should be rewarded for identifying a diagnostic tool - this encourages more companies to do so - the question is, is it appropriate to allow them to do so in this manner? I'd say no, but without a clear alternative to offer.

Well, to be honest. Yeah, I would. I've no reason to prefer it, but also no reason to treat it as pariah. I'd go for whatever was cheaper. As a rule, I would be far more concerned with the use of artificial products in food, and their use in the prodcution of food, than I would by the use of GM tech.

So the main issue is safety. Right? As in concern about unknown, or under-investigated, possibilities of toxicity (using that term broadly). And then, coming off that, the problem is that the GM-status of a product is not shown on packaging. Would I be right that some of you would be OK with commerical GM agriculture if it were better tested and labeled? For the record: I have absolutely no conflict-of-interest in this. At worst, consider me misinformed.

I first want to state that hiding the identity of a GM product, and/or not having proper regulation, are not things that I support. However if I may be the devil's advocate in this instanced (don't bite!): Could people give me a feel for what it is they don't like about the use of GM in agriculture. Short answers are preferred. A sort of informal survey if you will.

Interesting, relevant link: http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/11/ganzfeld_hallucinati.html It seems like the lack of light (or sound) is not important as much as the lack of patterns is.

Hi. There's a great paper out, which I've attached for anyone interested: 2010_Dreaming and the brain.pdf. It's a bit technical but very readable with some effort. Insofar as "why is this of interest": dreaming is akin to psychoactives as it provides an altered sense of consciousness, so interest in one should translate to interest in the other.

It might be helpful to dissolve in a larger quanitity of alcohol than you'd intend and then, once you've dissolved etc., evarporating a portion of the ethanol. The difficulties of course would be determining the alcohol contnet (post-evaporation). Additionally are all the actives of interest hydrophillic? I'm not sure what to do if they're not. Maybe some sort of natural emulsifier (I'm thinking egg whites)... Anyway: Luck.

Hey. Some advice: I've recently moved places. With regards searching for a place: I didn't find gumtree to be useful, but instead looked through the melb uni website and the melb uni union noticeboard. Most of the places advertised there are closer to the city, so not sure how useful for you. Otherwise check if there are any educational facilities closer to where you're looking (eg. uni's, tafe's) and see if they have sort of housing database / advertising scheme. Luck.

Oxy: Thanks for the info. I asked the pharmacist and was told the same about Zofran, viz. it's expensive. The prochlorperazine (Stemetil) is quite good, but have not been needing it as much. I still feel sick after I take the G. but it's not lasting all day like it was last week, and the Stemetil is helping when necessary. I'm not sure what was happening last week, but whatever it was crossing my fingers it was a one-off. I've been taking the G. for a month, and yes, with food. At different times I seem to have a different response, haven't been able to tie it down to amount of food taken with, or time of day, but then haven't really been strictly testing it out. It's an absolutely brilliant drug, and even in the short time I've been taking it blood tests indicate positive trends in the various counts. Pala

Thanks guys. In retrospect it's even possible (or even likely considering T's reaction to it) that Maxolon was only making matters worse. I got a script for Stemetil, and so far things are going well. Pala.

Hey guys, I'm looking for some help. Backstory: I've been nauseated on/off since sunday. The GP says it's prolly due to meds i'm taking (Gleevec). The specialist (who prescribed the Gleevec) was away until today. The GP gave me maxolon (Wiki) 10mg x4/day, which didn't do much, then gave me in addition zofran (Wiki) 4mg x2/day which didn't do much better, then finally same drug (zofran) 8mg x2/day. That seemed to work best, although still not perfect. He never gives me repeats, telling me that I need to go see the specialist to work s/t long term out. Zofran scripts only come in 4 tablet sizes (or so they tell me), i.e. two days worth. I spoke with the specialist today on the phone and said he would leave a script for me for Zofran (4tabs x 8mg) plus dexamethasone (wiki) which i've never had. Is there some reason they won't give me Zofran for long term? It doesn't have an abuse potention, and i haven't found it (via web) to be implicated in any liver-toxicity etc. One site (link) listed prochlorperazine (Stemetil) and domperidone (Motilium) as OTC anti-nausea drugs (in Aust.). Anyone know anything about these, their efficacy etc? If I go to a brand new GP would I be able to get more Zofran (without being deceptive)? On a positive note, I've found ginger-tea to be quite good. Better than the maxolon, (tho not as potent as the zofran). This last week as been more than a bit uncomfortable, and am looking for some security in terms of drug/condition management. All advice, etc., would be appreciated, Pala