Rizla

"Is the American Media Finally Waking Up to the Truth about Israel's Assault on Gaza? There are more signs Israeli assaults on Gaza are solidifying a perception that Israeli leadership has lost its moorings." Unfortunately, there are two medias in this country -- the mainstream and the non-mainstream. All the usual outlets are peddling the usual propaganda about all sorts of things, including this. Sad to say, AFP is not AP. However, on the 'net and FB and non-mainstream media, this issues is being more talked about than ever, thank God(dess).

"Heroin poppies".... ugh. Cringe. Still, this is about as good as you can expect from the MSM in the USA. Now the author could take the next step... of "drying up" other markets?

Good article in the Guardian today. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/03/alexander-shulgin They were the most fearless couple I've ever met. Approachable, funny, fun-loving, curious... I remember Ann bumming a smoke off me at Entheobotany in SF in '97 (?), we started chatting like we'd known each other for years. God bless you both, Ann and Sasha. A lot of people are sending love to you at this moment, pulling out copies of those wonderful monumental books that changed so many people for the better... and not just chemists!

I haven't found Myrica psychoactive in half an ounce in 5 gallons, but it seems to be a preservative, like hops. In Sweden you can get Pors liquer from the Systembolaget and quite a few brew their own. Ledlum may be more psychoactive but it's rare enough where I live that I'm not wasting any to test the theory. I've smoked Amanita skins too. A good way to experiment. Definitely psychoactive, definitely goes through phases. Not the greatest Berzerker medicine! But they _must_ have tried it, it's fairly ubiquitous in the Stockholm area and not difficult to find.

Great post and info! Cypripedium pubescens, "Yellow Lady's Slipper Orchid", was a well-known sedative to the Eclectic physicians in the USA in the 1800's to early 1900's, but was so over-havested it's now an endangered species, and certainly too rare to be used casually unless you grew it! Richo Cech, in "Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs" put it this way "too slow growing, too pretty, too rare"... Also: "The signal attribute is that it promotes a feeling of tranquility by calming nervous irritability. Resulting sleep is without twitches, worries, bad dreams. Surely there are common herbs (Valerian, Skullcap, etc.) that give similar results, but to say their activity is identical would be incorrect." p/s I love Orchids

I'm always a bit wary with Buhner's recipes. I wonder if he's actually made them. He rarely says, "it came out like this", or "it tastes like this", which are things I find impossible to do with my own beer, make a comment about it. He doesn't live far from here and I have friends who know him. I'd like to ask him about that. Thanks for the tip about A. vulgaris. In fermenter now: (5 gal. US) Juniper branches, boiled in water one hour. (several handfuls) 6.6 lbs Amber Malt Extract 1 cup honey (always killer with Myrica gale beers) 7g Myrica gale <1g Ledlum palustre .5 oz hops cardamon seeds (last five minutes) I've made it before and it should be good... would love to hear how your beers turned out!

OT -- Does anyone have experience with Ultra Low Dose Naltraxone therapy? Jonathan Ott wrote an article in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs about his experiments with microgram doses of Naltraxone with his daily codeine use, the combination eliminating (supposedly) his withdrawl symptoms when he stopped. I'm curious why I so rarely hear about this, it seems like a huge discovery. Would love to hear some corroboration.

MP and Mutant -- great pics! I don't have a digital camera around here but my turkmen mandrake survived transplanting. They seem pretty tough once they're a few years old and have a substantial root. When do they normally flower?

Lovely looking root liquor up there mindperformer. Interested in those exotic asian rhodiola species. That R.kirilowii is gorgeous.

Ledlum in small amounts is great in beer, particularly with Myrica gale. You can pick them togeher easily within 20 minutes of Stockholm in the woods (lots of killer Kantarelle mushrooms for dinner too). Does henbane grow in Scandanavia, or any similar nightshades? Great topic.

That was great prose in that old text, great thread. Anybody growing M. tucomanica? I've had a plant for some 4 years now. It's just coming back to life in the northern hemisphere fall, after going dormant like it always does. I need to put it in the ground; it's well past time. Fairly bulletproof in the Sonoran desert, for sure.

I've never tried A. vulgaris. A. afra was interesting, but a bit of a wash -- the taste was better steeped in vodka than in beer. I'm growing yarrow at the moment and will experiment with it soon. A. absinthium I haven't tried yet either. There's tons of great info on non hop ales out there. I like Bogbean (Menyanthes) a lot as a bittering/preservative/hops "surrogate", works great instead of hops, but it's not around my local area and I pay rather a lot to get it from Canada. It's common in Sweden and Canada, circumpolar I think. I have a friend in Sweden who sends me spicy-as-hell fresh Myrica gale and Ledlum palustre, which when fresh, are great in beers. I always throw Myrica into my ales 'cause I love the taste. I have an article from Economic Botany around which says Myrica has disinfectant properties similar to hops, and I'm sure it does, but when used in good condition it's one of the best beer/ale flavors ever. And ledlum grows near it, I only put maybe 2g of Ledlum in, as opposed to 6-8+g Myrica, per 19 liters. I'd love to hear how your Mugwood recipes go, it's such a common and prolific yet also oft-sacred plant... Stephen Buhner's book (1998) lists a recipe with 2 oz Mugwort per 4 gallons, but I haven't tried this. The trick is to get the preservative/bitter quality, but not too much of it. Once you have bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt, you can have a field day trying all kinds of herbs at various boiling times. I often use small amounts of hops, <14g/19L, as a basic preservative, and experiment with other spices on top of that. Check out the "Gotlandsdricke" thread on SAB a while ago, as you will see, I'm very interested in this stuff, thanks for the post! We need more brewers around here, it's ethnobotany too!

Hi Mutant, it's around on youtube if you look for it (need a link? I'll PM if you want). Thanks for catalysing the topic and thanks to everyone for all the great posts. This thread exemplifies why I love this place. Tolerance amid disagreement? They can co-exist. Thank you all.

Why do people have to put people like Jones and Icke up as either Saviors of Humanity, or nefarious CIA-controlled stooges? They are, first and foremost, entertainers. Not to say that evil forces don't exist/control lots of showbiz. I'm glad Alex Jones at least got some right-wingers pissed-off about the Gulf Spill in the USA. He does little bits of good. I agree that he fires people up to little consequence each day, with little positive energy. Then again, Rush Limbaugh does that, almost everyone does that on the radio these days. Sad. Phil Schneider? Are you joking? He was literally none of the things he claimed to be...do an internet search. I have his lectures on a cassette, they're great for comedy in the right company. His ideas about miles of trams to hundreds of "DUMBS" ("deep underground millitary bases") and battling off "those stinking aliens" with his trusty Walther PPK are, ipso facto, absurd. Cooper was a drunk, and a great drinking companion, according to friends of mine who knew him. But he flip-flopped on aliens/no aliens a few times, and was more, again, a brilliant entertainer than anyone I'd base my Weltanschauung around. What ever happened to individualistic, critical thought?

I think that "Hawaiian Baby Woodrose" is actually native to India. And Christian Rätsch and Claudia Mueller-Ebeling, in their superb book "Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalaya" recorded some shamanic use of the plant which might, or might not, be ancient, in Nepal. At least one of the Newari shamans they talked to knew about it... Proving ancient use is probably impossible, emphasis on "proving". It may well have been used.