http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-...line-news_rss20
'The Milanese are partial to a line or two of cocaine. The same goes for many drug users in London, although they dabble in heroin more than their Italian counterparts. Both cities like ecstasy at the weekends and cannabis pretty much every day. Welcome to the results from a new branch of public health: sewage epidemiology.
The Italian scientists behind the idea first attracted attention in 2005, when they detected the residues of se
Haves
Note - I've just moved, so some of this stuff I have less available than usual, and it might take me longer to get my act together than I'd like.
Seeds:
M.G. Heavenly Blue - have plenty of these
Hemia salicifolia (and who doesn't?) Shitloads!
The rest I only have a small amount of each:
Delosperma bosseranum
Salvia splendens
Withania somniferum
L.williamsii
T. spach cuts - about 48cm tip and 40cm (I think) center cuts, some scarring and sunburn.
Other stuff I'll have for tra
I was thinking about the ions that migrate towards electrodes in solution. Two thoughts occur to me:
1. Will wiring a plant up with the anode on the aerial parts and the cathode in the soil cause an increased amount of negative ions to migrate out of the soil and into (and up) the plant? (Or the other way around if I have this arse-backwards, I haven't done any physics/electronics for years). If this is the case, then the direction of the current would be an important factor and should produce
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/01/2233186.htm
'Instead, they say, the drink's reputation is down to nothing more exotic than its high alcohol content.
German researcher Dr Dirk Lachenmeier of the Chemisches und Veterinaruntersuchungsamt Karlsruhe and colleagues publish their study online in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Absinthe has been dubbed 'the green fairy' or 'the green muse' and was once widely used by 19th century Parisian bohemians, many of whom believed
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1381...allucinate.html
'Hospital intensive care is a traumatic experience, especially for a child. It can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults, but nothing has been known about it in children.
"No-one asks the children," says Gillian Colville, at St George's Hospital in London.
Now Colville and colleagues have asked the children, and they have found that any long-term stress in children may result more from the drugs the children were giv
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=invent...trip&sc=rss
'Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, died yesterday at the age of 102, just 10 days after the 55th anniversary of his notorious bicycle trip while tripping on "acid". Hofmann, who suffered a heart attack at home in Basel, Switzerland, was the first person to synthesize lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, and the first human known to experience its mind-bending effects.
The drug was the 25th he created from the
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health...line-news_rss20
'BILLIONS of people the world over drink alcohol to overcome shyness and animate their social lives - as people have done for millennia. For most drinkers, alcohol is associated above all with relaxation and conviviality, and people forget about its darker side. Yet doctors, governments and healthcare agencies are becoming so concerned about the effects of alcohol abuse that in January the executive board of the World Health Organizat
http://science-community.sciam.com/blog-en...Habit/580000713
'If you use cocaine and need a reason to quit—or one to avoid starting in the first place—think conservation. The national parks of Guatemala and other countries have become the preferred haven of drug traffickers who usurp protected areas and burn the forest to serve their own purposes and the demands of their customers, according to Roan McNab, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) country director for Guatemala.
"They systematically
http://www.clientcopia.com/quotes.php?id=3207
‘In my previous life as a fed agent I was often asked to assist with some “undercover” sting operations all over the Northeast US. One of the most memorable was a op in northern Maine. I was to play the brother-in-law of our source who’s co-worker had recently asked him if he knew of any good dealers of crack.
Long story short they brought me in to sell him crack. We met the “Client” as planned and you should have seen this kids eyes when I pulled
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=new-dr...mage&sc=rss
'A new drug may protect healthy tissue during cancer-killing radiation treatments or other exposures. Molecular geneticist Andrei Gudkov and colleagues report in Science this week that they protected mice from the cell-damaging effects of radiation by injecting them with a compound that helps cells resist apoptosis, or self-destruction.
Previous studies have found that cancerous cells use nuclear factor kappa-betaa transcription fact
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=can-th...d-to&sc=rss
'Scientists for the first time have identified long-term changes in mice brains that may shed light on why addicts get hooked on drugs—in this case methamphetamines—and have such a tough time kicking the habit. The findings, reported in the journal Neuron, could set the stage for new ways to block cravings—and help addicts dry out.
Researchers, using fluorescent tracer dye, discovered that mice given methamphetamines for 10 days (rou
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/04/...ruise_camp.html
‘Tom Cruise isn’t getting any giggles from a new strain of medical marijuana being marketed as “Tom Cruise Purple.”
Word is that the actor’s lawyers are taking a serious look at the strong brand of bud after we brought it to their attention.
One of Cruise’s friends found it “outrageous” that licensed cannabis clubs in Northern California are selling vials of pot featuring a picture of Cruise laughing hysterically. [..]
Staffers at
I have been very busy in the garden, but this leaves me no time to post here. I have been sowing seed and grafting. I also made a new shelter/greenhouse for my cacti. Pics soon.
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/08..._drug-evolution
'Why do people abuse drugs? It’s not only a question worried parents ask their wayward, substance-dabbling teenagers. It’s also a deeper question asked by biologists.
In general, nature has designed all creatures as exquisite machines for their own protection and propagation. Yet we’re easily and often drawn into self-destruction by nothing more than lifeless chemical lures. This weakness seems such a ja
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=monito...de-7&sc=rss
'This week's The Monitor: What's in a name (why we aren't changing ours), hobbit or human, the Vatican's seven social sins, and drugs in our water, should we be worried?'
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnough...oddlyEnoughNews
'An American in Costa Rica was caught smuggling nearly a pound of cocaine (0.4 kg) in his stomach after he went into convulsions on a plane bound for Miami, police said on Friday.
The 22-year-old man swallowed dozens of capsules stuffed with the drug before boarding a plane on Thursday in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose.
Police said he started to vomit and convulse before the plane took off and was rushed to a hospital where he wa
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=08...;show_article=1
‘High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.
Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.
“As far Moses on Mount Si
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb...medicalresearch
‘Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class, according to a major review released today.
The study examined all available data on the drugs, including results from clinical trials that the manufacturers chose not to publish at the time. The trials compared the effect on patients taking the drugs with those given a placebo or sugar pill.
When a
About nine months on, I took this photo because I thought I'd get around to removing a few of these pups to get them rooted before the dormant season. The additions are an E. peruvianus (thanks Stramonium!) to the immediate left of the ELM (TBM) and another E. peruvianus at the right end of the front row (which will go in the ground at a mates place). The scopulicola has copped a bit of black rot, the ELM (TBM) had a little and one of the Eileen pups has a bit. Appropriate measures have been