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The Corroboree

Anodyne

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Posts posted by Anodyne


  1. Everything is not enough
    And nothin' is too much to bear
    Where you been is good and gone
    All you keep's the getting there
     
    To live is to fly
    Low and high
    So shake the dust off of your wings
    And the sleep out of your eyes
     
    - Townes van Zandt
     

  2. The one-man redwood-milling tek is very cool too, but aside from all his woodworking stuff I just love this guys attitude:

     

    "No, not easy work. But then on the other hand you either are going to go to work and earn the money to buy the wood, or you do this and you have the wood.. and you skip all of the in-between stuff."

     

     

    • Like 1

  3. Discovered that my aya has a guardian-spider (hiding inside the curled leaf), it seemed like a good omen.

    aya_spider_guardian.thumb.jpg.851a984f3281d37467ef37f86380113b.jpg

     

    Transplanted some auricularia-hosting dead fig branches that came down in a storm a few weeks back into a swampy bit of my yard - they seem to be liking it so far, already fruiting happily in their new home:

    garden_auricularia1.thumb.jpg.94bc8998f87c311564211abfad0a2ba4.jpggarden_auricularia2.thumb.jpg.cbef3172f6227878803adfec2f08025f.jpg

    aya_spider_guardian.thumb.jpg.851a984f3281d37467ef37f86380113b.jpg

    garden_auricularia1.thumb.jpg.94bc8998f87c311564211abfad0a2ba4.jpg

    garden_auricularia2.thumb.jpg.cbef3172f6227878803adfec2f08025f.jpg

    aya_spider_guardian.thumb.jpg.851a984f3281d37467ef37f86380113b.jpg

    garden_auricularia1.thumb.jpg.94bc8998f87c311564211abfad0a2ba4.jpg

    garden_auricularia2.thumb.jpg.cbef3172f6227878803adfec2f08025f.jpg

    • Like 5

  4. Almost done with you, 2018. Thankyou for the last-minute lightning storm, that was pretty damned cool, I did appreciate that, but too little too late. And as for most of the rest of this year, you can fuck right off. At this point if I reckon if I can make it thru the next 91 minutes without winding up in the ER, I'll count that as a win. Good riddance & in with the new!

     

     

     

    The Mountain Goats - 'This Year'

    • Like 1

  5. On 11/11/2018 at 10:22 PM, Responsible Choice said:

    https://hightimes.com/news/dsuvia-the-opioid-10-times-stronger-than-fentanyl-the-fda-just-approved/

    Didn't the British defeat the Chinese by flooding their shores with opium? :huh: 

    So the next question is who then are the pharmaceutical companies through donations to government trying to weaken and control...? The answer rhymes with poo.

     

    Don't get me wrong RC, I'm buying what you're selling re: shady motives behind our drug policies. But I just can't make out how this particular piece goes with that particular conspiracy theory. If you wanted to pick an opioid for crowd-control purposes... sufentanil isn't it. And this specific formulation that's been approved here - "Dsuvia" - is even less so. It's going to be expensive, highly restricted, and may well be the shortest-acting opioid in therapeutic use today. If people in the US want to take something that fits that description, then they can just go buy some of the huge volume of illicit fentanyl that's been raining down on that continent recently... that lasts twice as long, plus you don't need to steal it from army medics or hospitals. And if people decide that sufentanil is the bees knees after all, and there actually *is* a demand for it... then it will just be made by the kilo in a lab in China.

     

    Either way, the FDA decision to approve this drug (a limited-application version of this opioid which has been in use as an anaesthesic since the 80's) isn't really going to make much difference either way that I can see. As far as fentanyl analogues which are currently available in the US, Dsuvia is barely a drop in that ocean. And if people do really want to take this specific one recreationally, I doubt they're going to care whether it's been FDA-approved or not.

     

    And all of this seems to apply even less to Australia in light of this year's codeine restrictions -  gotta say, if they're trying to subdue us with opioids, that seems like a really arse-backwards way to go about it. But I'm all onboard with an Operation Opium Flood government program - perhaps they just need a little help getting started - maybe I should offer to coach them?

    • Like 1

  6. Some memories lay heavy on my mind

    Some days I've cared & some days I'd rather die

    Sometimes I get so thirsty

    That I drink til I'm blind

    I gave up on tomorrow, tonight.

     

    In my dreams there's a needle & a spoon

    A pair of dice, a loaded gun, oh baby, me & you

    And you're sawing on a fiddle

    And I'm wondering which to shoot

    Everything's so complicated now I am coming down

     

    -


  7. Yeah you legally have to register births (so they know if you're sending the kids to school or not), and I think that goes for deaths as well (because if people were just allowed to bury grandma in the backyard without telling anyone, that could lead to some problems...), but I don't think the gubmint care too much about about what happens in between. So long as you don't have any undeclared taxable income, at least. Not really sure how you'd go about erasing your identity though - presumably you're already in the system, not having ID documents doesn't really change that... And it does mean that you can't legally do certain things like drive a car, get on a plane, or leave the country - and may run into hassles if you need medical care, get stopped by cops, etc.

     

    Side note: if anyone does need to get back into the system after a period of living offgrid without ID, gov't departments (Centrelink, Medicare, Dept. of Housing, etc) have supposedly gotten a lot better about this than they used to be. I know a few folks who needed to get ID papers after being "without fixed abode" for awhiles, and it wasn't the complete Kafkaesque nightmare I was expecting it to be. The social worker types were pretty good about it & helped out with stuff like applying for jobs or rental properties which would normally ask for your previous address, work history, etc.

     

     

    • Like 3

  8. Well I know the question was "what's the consensus?" and that has been "not cubensis", but I'm gonna go against the grain /with karode here & say that they are. I spy with my little eye:

    *Gills that are pale because they've dropped all their spores

    *Faint remnants of veil (on the stem) with dark purple spores

    *Blue staining (streaks on stems)

     

    I've seen all these features before, they're well within normal range for cubes (so not even talking weird local mutations or anything) - especially for mature specimens that have caught some heavy rain.

     

    But if you're still not convinced, I'm sure I can find a home for them! 


  9. Some disjointed thoughts...


    Just curious - have you used the glycopyrrolate wipes? Afaict it’s used for this purpose over other antimuscarinics (AM’s) not only because of the blood-brain barrier thing, but also because it’s selective for M3 receptors - the kind involved in peripheral gland stuff. Whereas most (all?) of the naturally-occurring compounds have some central activity & are considered “non-selective” (this isn’t 100% accurate, but they’re at least *less* selective). And leaving aside the central effects, you can also expect peripheral side-effects like dry mouth & eyes. Glycopyyrolate is also significantly less lipophilic than the 2 most common naturally-occurring AM's (atropine & scopolamine) - and so is better suited to topical application, as it's more inclined to stay put & not go sneaking off over membranes to cause mischief elsewhere in the body. Don't be put off by the title, the intro of this paper: Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Glycopyrrolate in the Horse (2012) gives a good rundown of the general history/chemistry of various AM's and how this has informed their applications.

     

    Take the literature about reduced side-effects with different tropane ROAs with a grain of salt: eg. you will read claims that transdermal scopolamine has less central/adverse effects than oral, but a large part of that difference lies in the slow release & therefore lower peak drug levels (ref) - it’s not necessarily to do with the route per se. Also, if you’re aiming for something like the glycopyrrolate wipes, then you actually want local activity without absorption (i.e just the “dermal”, minus the “trans-“), and not many papers make this distinction between topical/transdermal.

     

    If you do make up a topical cream, some stuff to keep in mind:

     

    - make a large batch (so you can standardise a dose properly - atropine & hyoscine are quite heat-stable & should keep a long time if the base itself is stable)
    - make sure it’s homogenous (tropanes are potent, you don’t want any pockets of cream that are 10x as strong)
    - use an aqueous base (you’re aiming for local activity, not transdermal absorption - so no DMSO, no oily salves)
    - alternatively, make up an aqueous solution to apply via wipes/spray: a patent for glycopyrrolate wipes  settled on 10mg (oral dose is 1-4mg/day) dissolved in 1ml of 33% EtOH in water (eg. vodka) for each wipe - so maybe you could use those ratios as a rough starting place? The patent discusses some of the issues with consistent dose/applications via this method & how they addressed them
    - don’t drive (possibility of various CNS effects, also a common side-effect which impairs your eyes' ability to focus)
    - be aware of the half-life & other metabolic issues relating to the active ingredient(s) - half-life can be *long* for some of them (I mean both: some actives & some effects) so that you might get some cumulative effects even with once-daily dosing; and pharmacokinetic variations can be major (not just between individuals, but also individual responses at different times) and involve a lot of factors - not least the many, many drugs that might have significant interactions.
    - many people get mild skin reactions from topical AM’s (esp. with repeat applications) which can also affect absorption (irritated skin has higher bloodflow, lower barrier effect)


    So that's how I'd be starting as far as prep was concerned. But now let's backtrack & consider whether this is actually a good idea. This class of drug is used to treat excessive sweating, that is true. But that use is generally limited to pretty severe cases - e.g. where disease/surgery has impaired their autonomic nervous function (to the point where their hyperhidrosis is causing dehydration or problems regulating body-temp). Another main use is in palliative care for terminally ill folks who aren’t concerned about long-term side-effects and just want to be free of their “death-rattle” & have some dry sheets before they die. And even in these cases, many patients choose to stop taking their meds due to the side-effects.

     

    A potential risk of any kind of regular long-term use is the possibility of  “cholinergic rebound” when you stop. There have been cases where people taking scopolamine for motion-sickness got withdrawal syndromes after only a few days to a week of daily use (includes transdermal use). That side-effect seemed to be only temporary & could be managed by tapering down off the drug, but definitely proceed with caution here. Sweating is pretty important in regulating body temperature, and if your body thinks that system isn’t working properly it might try to compensate. Compensatory hyperhidrosis seems to be a major issue after sympathectomy surgeries (sometimes used as a last-ditch treatment for severe hyperhidrosis) - and while that specific mechanism mightn’t apply here to AM drugs, there might be some equivalent one.

     

    Even in the short-term, your actual intended effect (of reducing sweating) alone can be dangerous - people on AM’s have increased risk of hyperthermia, and need to monitor their body temp manually to make sure they aren't overheating. Especially if hot weather &/or physical exertion are going to be involved, please use extreme caution when experimenting with this. For eg: try treating only some areas of skin, carry a thermometer to monitor your body temp, be sure to continue using other basic cooling methods as well, and make sure you have plenty of water & some method of rapid-cooling (ice-packs, cool creek to jump into, etc) in case of emergency - heatstroke is a miserable experience.

     

    Also be triply-cautious when combining with any psychoactives known to affect temp-regulation... MDMA in particular is a big one there. The researchers who were looking at treating hyperhidrosis in physically-active patients were concerned even about the effects of caffeine!  - and while that might be overkill (for regular ambient temps & activity levels anyway), it does at least give you an idea of the level of awareness & attention to detail you want to have going into an experiment like this. I'd be less worried about a tropane OD, and more concerned that you're taking away a fairly major safety net that we don't often have to think about. Even if you're only removing part of that net, it's still an important function that you probably should try to replace with conscious monitoring (like those poor people that can't feel any pain who need to keep visually checking all their body parts to be sure that their hand isn't resting on a hotplate or something). Not wanting to over-dramatise or exaggerate the risks here - this isn't necessarily a risky thing on its own...it just has lots of ways it could become risky. But if you're mindful of the potential, and proceed patiently & with caution I think most of those could be minimised?

     

    Other options that spring to mind: deodorants based on bentonite clay; washing with witch hazel (or other herbal astringents), &/or vinegar; physical cooling (apparently just drinking a slushie can lower your core temp by ~0.5 C & reduce sweating, for a while at least). Another thing you could try maybe is hyoscine butylbromide (available OTC), which is sometimes used for hyperhidrosis as it’s a form that’s blocked by the BBB.

     

    Or if you want a DIY experimental treatment, how about tap-water iontophoresis - looked more promising & less risky? Here are some refs, the last one has instructions for a DIY apparatus:

    http://Treatment of Palmar Hyperhidrosis with Tap Water Iontophoresis (Kim et al, 2017)
    Long-term efficacy and side effects of tap water iontophoresis of palmoplantar hyperhidrosis--the usefulness of home therapy (Hölzle & Alberti, 1987)
    A Simple User-made Iontophoresis Device for Palmoplantar Hyperhidrosis (Nagar & Sengar, 2016)

     

    And if you find that the iontophoresis isn't effective enough on its own (i.e. just w/plain tap water), it has also been used to facilitate dermal delivery of drugs (eg. glycopyrrolate solution) - so you could always add some brug drops to the water later on for a double-whammy?

     

    And just as a general safety note for handling plant tropanes, (especially any kind of extract/concentrated form) - remember that they are absorbed through the skin & use appropriate caution: don't handle with bare hands, clean up any spills & wash/mop the area afterward, make sure everything is clearly labelled, and so on. For solutions I'd consider adding some kind of coloured dye to make spills more visible (only because invisible spills would worry me more than stained skin). If experimenting with solution/wipes, I'd also wonder about the possibility of any excess/unabsorbed actives getting absorbed by my clothes - not sure if/how they address that with the glyco-wipes? maybe it's not a problem - but I wouldn't be asking anyone else to wash my clothes until I knew the answer.

     

     


     

     

    • Like 3

  10. On 27/05/2018 at 7:25 AM, Alchemica said:

     - has been strange, not being pepped pathologically, forcing me to be reconsidering what the hell I'm doing with life. It's not easy finding that meaning, purpose and contribution when you're not feeling the greatest but I'm trying to make small positive vibrational shifts.

     

     ... finding aiming for the social can amplify things the wrong way at the moment, yet trying to not get extra disconnected.

     

    Damn, I'd been struggling with this exact issue - knowing that I should be socialising, but finding the negatives (mostly from my own anxiety) keep outweighing the positive & so I can't escape the idea that I'm just making things worse for myself long-term, by creating/reinforcing all these negative associations... not sure how to break the cycle.

     

    I'm even aware of the huge body of research into how social isolation impacts mental health, but a little voice inside keeps pointing out the flaws & blind spots of those studies, & insisting that they don't apply to *me*...:rolleyes:

     

    Real health bullshit not helping - when I don't have the energy to even do basic chores, it's too easy to say "oh but of course I should postpone social activities until I'm feeling better" - but when that happens for 3 months straight it kinda starts to feel like an excuse no matter how serious the illness is.

     

    I came here because I remembered you writing about overcoming anxieties to do social stuff & wanted to ask for some tips... sorry to hear you've been struggling too mate - happy the meds are a help for you.

    • Like 3

  11. 12 hours ago, freakazoid said:

    As for eating dogs for a period of time to find out if dogs will avoid you, I think it’s still legal in some parts of China. Granted, it’s a long way to go to find out but in the name of science...

     

    It's legal here in Australia too.

     

    At least, that's what the RSPCA website tells me (no irony)

     

    Some states will even pay you to kill the dogs. You need to hand in the scalps as proof though, so you'll have to choose between the bounty or sewing yourself a dog-scalp patchwork coat for dog-intimidation purposes. Can't have everything I suppose.

     

    • Like 2

  12. 7 hours ago, Crop said:

    Mate you do have to identify your self, but I can;t see why this would be illegal.

    Yeah you're right - I guess that to me the phrase "civil disobedience" implies a certain ... intent to be uncooperative. But crayzman suggested nothing like that, so yes, such a plan would be legal.

     

    Right up until the cops figure out the game after the first few ticketless ppl they try to refuse entry... then at that point all they need to do is shout out "everyone without a ticket get out of the queue/area" and hey presto, "just standing here" becomes "failure to follow a reasonable order given by a police officer in the execution of their duties" (or whatever it is). 

     

    Having a ticket checkpoint at a barrier anywhere before the dog-search area would also foil any queue-mobbing plan. And I guess it depends on venue, but from what I've seen they do seem to like this tactic of corralling people -  I think because it means there's another barrier behind you by the time you see the dogs, so it's really obvious if you try to retreat to avoid a search at that point.

     

    • Like 1

  13. On 13/06/2018 at 8:30 AM, SayN said:

    ... is this form of civil disobedience unlawful?  are you required to identify yourself?

    Answers are "probably yes, in this specific location/situation", and "definitely yes".

     

    You are required to identify yourself to cops who ask in certain circumstances (this being one - more detailed  rundown here ). If you refuse you can be fined ($220 in this situation, but up to $5500 +gaoltime in others) AND detained until they are able to confirm your identity. If you're planning mischief,  be sure to carry valid ID, or have a friend standing by to bring it to wherever you're being held (& then hope you're allowed to call them).

     

    That's in general - and then Olympic Park has its own regulations as well (link above), which would let them give you an additional $1100 fine plus a 6-month ban from the premises for any kind of misbehavior/interference/not-cooperating. At least that's how I read 13d & 13e of those regs - maybe talk to some free legal aid people to confirm that, but I think this specific case might not the best choice for exercising your civil disobedience?

     

    As a little extra bullshit on top of the steaming pile, there are also "no photography" areas of Olympic Park... guess where the police chose to set up their dog operations? So depending on what action you were planning & the police response you expected at that particular event, that might either be irrelevant, or Very Bad. I'd be looking at other locations?

     

    Then again, I assume the police chose this event for their operation with full awareness of the extra powers they have there - so I'd be on the lookout for similar loopholes at any future events they target with this shit.


  14. 14 minutes ago, TheMooseZeus said:

    Would i be right in saying these dogs can't even detect all substances? Surely odourless LSD or food stuff such as mushrooms can be let in. I'm sure certain dangerous substances too. Just seems like the cops don't like molly 

    Well "all substances" is a pretty broad net - it's probably not wildly cost-efficient to train dogs to detect DiPT, say - while for other drugs like some fentanyl analogues a "dose" might be below detection threshold. And assuming that cops train their dogs similarly to how customs train theirs - the dogs are being trained to detect street drugs, not pure compounds - which sometimes means that the compound(s) the dog is sniffing out is a synthetic-byproduct or breakdown product of the actual scheduled drug....

     

    In practice, there are several factors which all encourage police drug dogs to give false-positive indications, so there's a good chance you'll get flagged for searching anyway, regardless of what you smell like. I'm pretty bloody sure that the dogs don't indicate what drug they're supposed to have detected (at least, the human officers have never answered this question when I've asked), so in effect this comes down to a cop leading a dog up to you while 5 of his mates surround you and then say "you've been flagged by the drug dog, do you give us permission to search you ?"

    The "...or would you like to continue this conversation under these stairs where there are no security cameras" bit is usually just left implied, as is the "we know the dog didn't sit down, but six police officers will swear in court that it did - so do you want to try your "scruffy hippy" testimony against that with an overworked free legal-aid lawyer, or do you want to take your shirt off?"

     

    So yes you're correct - while they're understandably cagey about releasing [any more] details of the limitations of their drug dogs - there's a good chance the dogs can't (or just aren't trained to) detect many, many different psychoactive substances. Doesn't mean you won't be searched anyway - so those mushrooms had better look 100% supermarket-ready AND be going into a BYO food venue if you want to try the "food stuff" defence.

    • Like 1

  15. This is some shady, shady shit right here. At first when I heard of this strategy I just assumed it was a festival organiser working a con -  sell 2000 tickets to an 1800-head venue, make sure there's both a "morals clause" & a "no refunds, ref's decision is final" section in the ticket fineprint... and then just get the dog squad (who you have to pay for anyway to get your event permit) to moonlight as your bouncers and thin down the herd...

     

    But no, the organisers are [supposedly] refunding those tickets. So they are paying the cops to kick people out, even when there were no drugs & those people will need to be reimbursed.

     

    As far as all the legal claims... these are private events, right? So can't they pretty much make up whatever rules they like about who gets to attend? I didn't think discrimination law covered stuff like this. I'm curious to know exactly what argument these civil-rights/legal-aid people are using.

     

    The six-month ban from Olympic Park though, that is complete bullshit. I understand now why they wanted to trial their awful new scheme at this event in particular - so they would have all of the Park-specific regs to fall back on wherever their sniffer-dog-powers were insufficient. Because yeah, Aussie cops need more petty bullshit laws to invoke until that "lookin' at me funny" one gets hammered out properly...

     

    SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK AUTHORITY REGULATION 2012 is a captivating read, here's some highlights:

     

    Quote

     

    13 Personal conduct

     

     

    (1) A person must not do any of the following at Sydney Olympic Park:
    (a) use indecent, obscene, insulting or threatening language,

     

     

    (
    B)
    behave in an offensive or indecent manner,

     

     

    © cause serious alarm or affront to a person by disorderly conduct,

     

     

    (d) obstruct a person in the performance of the person's work or duties,

     

     

    (e) fail to comply with a reasonable request or direction given for the purpose of securing good order and management and enjoyment of Sydney Olympic Park, or any part of Sydney Olympic Park, by the Authority, a police officer or an authorised person.

     

     

    Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units.

     

     

    (2) Without limiting subclause (1) (e), it is reasonable for the Authority, a police officer or an authorised person to request a person:
    (a) to open any bag, container or other thing in the person's possession in order that its contents may be inspected, and

     

     

    (
    B)
    to permit any thing in the person's possession, and the contents of any such thing, to be inspected.

     

    Quote

     

    19 Authority may ban persons for specified period

     

     

    (1) The Authority may ban a person from entering any part of Sydney Olympic Park for such period (not exceeding 6 months) as the Authority determines if the person contravenes any provision of this Regulation.

     

     

    (2) A person who has been banned from entering any part of Sydney Olympic Park must not attempt to enter that part during the period of that ban.
    Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.

     

     

    A "penalty unit" is $110, btw. So if you were banned from the Park (because you dared to question why you still being denied entry to the event after the negative strip-search, for instance), you can then be fined $2,200 if you try to come back in at any time during that ban. Six months is apparently also the maximum period they're allowed to ban someone for just looking at a cop funny - for longer bans they actually need you to run out onto the track/field during an event.

     

    So whaddya reckon, did those thirteen drunk-&-disorderlies all get slapped with the max penalties as well? $1,100 fine & a 6-month ban? Or did the people who smelled a bit like [unspecified drugs] get punished worse than the people who were actually intoxicated nuisances?

     

    And if you sometimes have work duties in Olympic Park? Well, I guess you're unemployed now.

     

    • Like 1
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