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eccles

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Posts posted by eccles

  1. Posted

    Hi there!!

    I'm so *so* sorry about all this! Tomtom got it absolutely spot on - the culprit was the internet worm that was using google to randomly find sites that use the phpBB software to exploit (it was actually a PHP security hole, but this forum software had a specific exploit written for it).

    The site was in fact taken down by alpha.net.au - or rather, a redirect was put in so that it was inacessible, and I was called by them about it - he said it was for my own good so I wouldn't lose all my hard work - and he said I should just upgrade to the latest version of the software or apply the patches, and then I could put it back up again. Unfortunately it took some time. I had done it days and days ago, but there were several security checks I had to make to ensure the new version wouldn't be compromised.

    Thanyou all for your support and concern - and to Chemakazi for his active role in keeping the site going.

    :)

  2. Posted

    oh P.S. basically I have to wait perhaps another day for the re-registration to go through... then I have to update the nameservers on the registrars site (so that other DNS servers can find it) and that will take a day or two to propogate...

    I'm so sorry for the amount of time it's been down for! but what with all the things that have been happening in my life lately (including moving!) I just haven't really had the time I'd like to spend on the site.

    I'd also like to add more features etc if there are any suggestions.

    I could also do a little fundraising by producing CD's of free software? ie open source type stuff... there is a fantastic web browser called Mozilla FireFox (www.mozilla.org) available both for windows and linux... as well as a free office suite (www.openoffice.org)... and linux distros perhaps... things that are really useful but that I could get a couple of dollars for making copies of. The particular licensing of the software totally allows it as well which would mean it is totally legal. (the license is the GPL - www.gnu.org)

  3. Posted

    wow thanks for all the support guys :)

    Something like that would be fantastic actually. Esp since I have just moved into my own place and things are very tight atm (haven't even paid my uni fees yet! were due on the 4th of feb :P )...

    But if I put a Paypal 'donate' button on the site, it would be really good because anyone who *doesn't* already have a paypal account, if they just sign up and put me as their referrer I automatically get $5 from paypal! which would mean that people didn't want to actually make a donation could still make that contribution without it costing them.

    What about t-shirts? I reckon they could be more viable than a calendar, although I was shown a nude calander that was made by the postgrad students in the school of chemistry to raise funds... (they took all the pics themselves, of themselves - some are awesome, esp the one that had them all standing on, next to etc giant chem equiptment on a bench. it looked SO real. like they really were mini people on a lab bench :)

    But yeah - he told me that they cost $10 each and were selling them for $15... so you really would need to sell all of them to make any money back. that could be a little risky...

    but what about t-shirts? I am sure that some good designs could be come up with... if people were interested in buying them... ?

  4. Posted

    Hi Guys!!! (I really should come here more often!... hell I should visit my own forums more often too hehe)

    I just discovered that my domain expired on the 12th of march.

    After registering it I very sensibly changed my contact email address to '[email protected]' *grin* which I haven't checked in months and months, but if it HAD... I wouldn't have got the expiry notice because the domain in that email address would have ceased to exist.

    I just purchased another 5 years. (*ouch* so poor atm)...

    so sorry about that. it should be up and running again in another day or two...

    until then - enjoy SAB twice as much *grin*

  10. Posted

    um... in things like opals and other gems, you DO get it like that... but that is due to the presence of transition elements and co-ordination bonding... (I think!).

    In organic molecules it is due to the degree of freedom of electrons, and the way that increases and decreases is with the level of conjugation and aromaticity.

  11. Posted

    RE the Harmaline base Torsten, does that only flouresce under UV light? (like the harman base)?

    So the salt is coloured then... different salts could well be different coloured.

    And depending on the waters of crystallisation you get different coloured crystals. now that didn't even occur to me.

    Is harmalol an alkaloid?

    And what is the deal with the glycoside you mentioned? (ie hamalol lactate).

    Which ones of these are active Torsten?

    and which would be present in an alkaloid extract?

    I imagine only Harmine and perhaps Harman salts, yes?

    so any crystalline product (assuming you are isolating the salt in the extraction and not the base) will be yellow?

    That seems to be confirmed by what people have said... but it doesn't answer the question of where the deep red colour might come from, unless it is the crystalline harmalol base... and yet it is not red in solution.

    Hehehe again I wish I had the stamina to actually try researching this... maybe some other time.

  13. Posted

    I know lots of people report seeing mantis' or maintoid like creatures/aliens on mushrooms and DMT... but here is one on San Pedro

    PICF0027.JPG

    It is approx 4" long (the mantis, not the cactus)

    This is just one of a whole heap that I took... Wish I got pic in the pose it was originally in...

    I also made a little video... and it kept attacking the camera!

    [ 27. February 2003, 12:11: Message edited by: eccles ]

  17. Posted

    oh - Wazron - because of the hydrophilic nature of 5-HT (due to the two hydroxyl groups on the indole ring) there would be either very VERY poor passage through the blood-brain barrier, or else none at all.

    tryptophan on the other hand does not have these hydroxyl groups, but perhaps, since it is ionised at physiological pH (as all amino acids are) might also find it hard to pass through. However I think it does get through somehow!

    5-HTP on the other hand wouldn't get through nearly as well.

    Of course it probably does still make it through... psilocin does after all,and that has a hydroxy group on the indole ring... (but only one)

    Sorry to speculate but I could probably find out if you really wanted me to.

    (hehe well actually I *definitely* could find out... the book is about 3 feet away and I can't be bothered opening it...)

    :)

  18. Posted

    hehe probably mercury poisoning

    but seriously - I have encountered sources that say the exact opposite to what I thought was generally held to be true - that 5-HTP is totally useless as it does *not* result in elevated 5-HT levels in the brain, whereas tryptophan does.

    I thought that the tryptophan hydroxylase catalysed conversion of trp into 5-HTP was the rate limiting step, but apparently it is the

    L-aromatic amino acid decarboxylase step...

    Which would mean that DOPA should be useless as a precursor for dopamine... but it isn't... (as long as you take it with the appropriate enzyme inhibitor)... perhaps I should just get off my arse and do some reading... (unless I got this last bit wrong)

    I reckon it'd be really interesting to look into designing some really groovy enzyme-mimicking organometallic catalysts to use in synthesis...

    MMmmmm :) then it really would just be like cooking...

    take one cup of D-lysergic acid amide monohydrate, make a well in centre, pour in half a cup of diethylamine and a pinch of enzyme and stir well.

    Mmmmmm ambient conditions... :)

  20. Posted

    oh shit!!

    which bits Torsten?

    please don't make me wade back through the whole thing... I can't recall anything I said that was actually factually untrue, so you may have to point it out.

    Except the part that Darklight has already pointed out RE Mulga... and that is only because on my board he has more or less confined himself to criticising you for 'censorship' (after he was removed from your forums)... so you can see his logic. Failing that... I am going to need a hand - since I wouldn't have said it had I not thought it was true

  21. Posted

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA :):):)

    oooooh I love it...

    can we stick this entire thread in the dictionary next to "bathos" ?? :)

    thanks spunwhirllin for your interjection that has made us see just how ridiculous we have been sounding...

    I am sick of apologising for the things I say... I fuck up. I fuck up a lot. I *am* a hypocrite. and I'd like to extend the hand of friendship (which holds a peace pipe) to Darklight and Torsten. I am sick of having to defend my own inconsistencies and my moral crusade flights of fancy... perhaps you should all just remember that I *am* essentially an idiot :)

    I hate fights. they upset me a lot.

  22. Posted

    oh, and I guess I have to address this...

    >I have no wish to rake over old wounds actually

    So your mention of the recent shitfight over at EA is directed exactly where then? And your attempt at reigniting a concluded debate here between another member and myself is to what purpose? Do you have a use-by date on your posts? Perhaps it should be in your sig file

     

    The difference is that I had believed the situation Torsten brought up to have been well and truly resolved, also the one between you and myself. That cat-fight between you and mulga was never resolved - the thread was simply deleted.

    That is the difference as I see it. Perhaps I should have said old HEALED wounds - but I thought that healing was implicit in old. Well it is actually - that's what the phrase means - sorry if you had not heard it before.

    The issue between you, torsten, mulga and various adherents thereto is still a well and truly open wound. With nothing constructive coming from either side - just pus, blood and more pus. Although to mulgas credit he doesn't actually show complete and utter surprise that the other side has something against him - and treat their statements as unfounded slander.

  23. Posted

    I honestly don't have the energy for this.

    Reading your post made me feel very penitent for my attitude, as it underlined that you are a truely good person, with pure motives, however after that there was a lot of personal abuse and innuendo that I was not sure what to make of.

    However I will follow my initial instinct and apologise for my post. (and for the record I posted it after only having read up to the end of your long post on intellectual property). I was shocked at the time, and didn't think it sent out a very good message. I don't apologise for finding your attitude offensive, but I do apologise for reigniting the flame once it had died down. And also for the hypocrisy inherent in my post.

    Nevertheless the fact remains that this board is replete with requests for help and tips for propogating plants and plant material, and you are the first person to have ever bitten someones head off because of vested commercial interests in keeping such cultivation information secret.

    As for all of your statements that suggest this somehow has something to do with the fact that I am the admin of another forum, I don't exactly understand what you mean by it all. Why should that prevent me from being allowed to express my opinions as a member of this one, without being accused of some kind of superiority complex? Everyone else has their own opinion, why can't I?I have never allowed personal abuse to rein on my board. You may not have noticed, but around 98% of the accusations/innuendo mulga levels at torsten is actually 100% rooted in reality and is factual. Should I censor someone for expressing their opinion when it is based in fact? It was only when you and he got into that shit fight that things got out of hand. Principly because it didn't seem that there was resolution on the horizon - which I had previously hoped for.

    Either way, this is all getting too complex, and the abuse and arguments you and Torsten are dragging up too far removed from the topic of this thread for me to even believe what I am hearing. If you both hate me so much just come out and tell me and I will resign from this forum.

  24. Posted

    Does LSD affect memory?

    I'd worry more about alcohol personally. And pot too I guess... When you stop smoking pot (and drinking?) it takes about 6 months to regain some things (including vocabulary).

    (I am not implying that you do either of these things on a regular basis though)

  25. Posted

    Torsten:

    Eccles, I am glad you know that you're the last person who should comment on the issue of overreaction. I distinctly remember being accused and abused by a couple of people, including yourself over an inference into a statement I never made. Remember the issue about "ethnobotany author quality" at EA forums?

    Well, no I don't actually, I am going to have to look it up now... all I really remember is something vague about you saying that anyone who can't speak German shouldn't be commenting on the quality of the books currently being authored... just a sec.

    ahhh! I found it at last [my god you have an incredible memory... no wonder you and mulga are still having this ridiculous 'war' - if your memory for grievences and grudge bearing capacity can last this long!]

    What annoyed me in that particular thread was that whereas I was saying that it was up to us, the learners to develop our skills to the point that we can navigate through shit work (and yes torsten it *does* occur in every other field of science and the arts) all you seemed to want to do was to criticise the majority of the work available, on the basis that it is shit... all it looked like was ego posturing: "I am better than the rest of you and that's why none of you can see how shit all those books really are". and I found that somewhat insulting, despite the fact that I realise you certainly do know far more than most people who may have been reading it (and I definitely fall into that group too).

    You yourself admitted to sticking the boot in even though you admitted to simply being dragged along by the rants of (as you called them) 'sycophants'. I remember spending several hours of fielding your e-mails with one apology after another

    Because one apology never seems to satisfy you...

    yet you never publically apologised and you never actually edited the aggressive, inaccurate and insulting comments you made

    The reason I emailed you was because I knew that you would probably get the wrong end of the stick with what I was saying. Everyone else who posted on that thread was essentially saying the same thing - it was only you who went out and contradicted us - and then only to try to prove that it was because of your superiority to us.

    (even though you had promised all of the above).

    I seem to remember you telling me not to bother.

    In fact, I have noticed that you never apologise publically to me, only privately.

    Torsten, I was disagreeing with you in a *public* forum, in a *public* discussion. I disliked the way you were saying (implying that everyone except you is stupid) and I still do. I apologised to you privately for the tone, but not the content, because I realised that the tone of my posts could give you the impression that I wanted to start a fight with you personally, which I didn't. I have no problem maintaining a disagreement with someone, even publically, whilst having no problem with them as a person. If someone came onto your board and started insulting the intelligence of the users would you not step in and publically denounce their statements? But if you knew that in private that was just that persons way of expressing themselves and that they had never actually meant to insult anyone, would you not also email them and make sure they knew why you were doing it? I had a broader loyalty when I posted the messages I did, and it was my public loyalty to the users of the board. I was discharging my duties as administrator.

    Just for the record, for everyone to see what I didn't apologise publically about, here is the complete thread:

    http://www.ethnobotany-australia.net/phpBB...p?t=80&start=15

    and here is the 'insulting' part of my post (unedited):

    "this should be clear, surely? what exactly are you trying to prove?

    that we should all pack it in because nothing is better than imperfection? or is this just some personal crusade to let us all know that you are not like everyone else, and don't make mistakes?

    Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I can't really see any other explanation for your incredible apparent lack of compromise in a very difficult area. "

    I felt it was a very fair and moderate way to disagree with someone who was making posts that basically said that it is virtually impossible to get any good books in australia, because most of those published (that get here) are rubbish and contain lots of innacuracies. I felt that that was being unnessecarily discouraging (though it may well have been true), and the fact that you seemed to be discouraging everyone else from reading books that you had obviously read youself annoyed me too. How did you get to learn so much then if not by reading? and where is someone to start when people with your high profile tell them not to bother, all the books are crap?

    You will also note that the last paragraph *was* a public apology about the tone of my post. However somehow I knew that would not satisfy Torsten, who was bound to see it as a personal attack.

    While I accepted your apologies, they seems so much less sincere in light of making no such comment or edit in public.

    Lets have a competition to see which user here can guess which part of my post should have been edited? Because I sure as hell can't see anything wrong with it. Anyone reading that would read it and not see someone with a vendetta against torsten, but see someone having a momentary disagreement with him, which is what it was. Am I allowed to disagree? I apologised in the thread for the tone, and I tried to make it clear in private that it was not meant to be taken personally. If everyone else did even that much every time they criticised someones position/statement, then our email boxes would all be constantly clogged with emails from people who are concerned not to have offended us everytime we say something they didn't like.

    However, I publically apologise for the way I wrote that post. I could not go without criticising a statement that implicitly says that no-one should bother reading any of the available books on ethnobotany. It would have been irresponsible on my part. Just as it would have been irresponsible on your part not to have let everyone know the general quality of the work. Personally I thought that when you put our posts together they balanced out rather well... and people would have had some idea of the middle path.

    As far as your encouter with darklight goes,

    hehe well actually I'm amazed you managed to take this long to get to it, given that's what this thread is about... unless someone made some comments about how unfair I am somewhere earlier in this thread?

    maybe you should retrieve it and have a read, cos it was quite obviously your usual sunday/monday coming-down paranoid aggressive overreaction

    I have no wish to rake over old wounds actually, and I am surprised at your prediliction for doing so. I find it quite insulting that you describe something like that as 'my usual'... If anything it was just an early morning thing... when my brain is still on autopilot However, I hope you are not implying by 'come-down' that it was the result of a drug induced neurochemical imbalance? I very rarely take drugs, and I'll have you know that all my neurochemical imbalances are my 100% natural state thanks very much

    - kinda quite similar to darklight's post above.

    Agreed, however

    Or maybe that's not the instance you're talking about... not sure how selective your memory is.

    That was the instance I was referring too... I can't recall any others off the top of my head but I am sure they exist. As a matter of fact on that particular occasion I think Darklight was in the same state as me, and we probably both quite enjoyed using each other as emotional punching bags for a while... but as we came to our senses we soon tired of it. (sorry if I am wrong there Darklight)

    You're a hypocrite.

    well they don't come any blunter than that do they :) As this is your opinion I will not attempt to defend myself. You are welcome to believe that. I assume everyone else will draw their own conclusions.

    BTW, none of this excuses what darklight did here and I would have been happier with a more thorough apology.

    well it actually quite upset me to see how a very new member was being treated for a crime that was no more than being ignorant. Now if we had an expert in all fields on here I assume all newbie questions would get answered by explosive rants about intellectual property. It also annoyed me that Darklight could seemingly get out of the mess by essentially saying "oh well, I'm a bitch what can you do" and laughing the whole thing off. Sure you or I could accept that, but this person was totally new to the board, and saying to them that if they knew her better they'd understand becomes particularly futile when you realise that *most* people when confronted by an attack like that after asking a simple question on a board that should be populated by a group of open, good natured people is *not* conducive to having them stick around to actually *get* to know her better.

    I publically apologise for the length of that sentence.

    But hey, I remember that some people used to criticise me for being too involved in the politics and running of this forum....

    Torsten, no-one criticises you as much as you think they do. I think you are far too sensitive. You are doing a fantastic job. An incredibly and pioneering job. There is simply no reason to be as insecure about things as you seem to be sometimes.

    I have nothing to apologise for.

    Not now that you have publically stated that you'd have preferred her apology to be more thorough, no.

    Mods make mistakes too.

    Agreed. In fact a mod on my board made the mistake of deleting a thread in which you were personally and also by innuendo attacked by mulga (an attack that was further fuelled by Darklight funnily enough heheh maybe we need to get her one of those cow bells (hehe j/k DL )

    before I backed it up :)

    Darklight is not a mod in this forum anyway and it is up to adrian to work out the consequences of this issue.

    I can't see how that is relevant. She is still a mod, and should be setting an example. Flaming a brand new board member is NOT very mod-like behaviour...

    For you to make demands of apologies is once again hypocritical.

    I am not demanding them for myself, I can take that kind of thing (in fact if it had been me it wouldn't have mattered nearly so much). I just feel that it is necessary if you don't want people to get the wrong impression of this board. Australian hospitality indeed.

    Where are my promised apologies?? And you are not only a mod, but an administrator of a forum.

    what promised apologies Torsten? We have come to blows less times than could be considered 'bugger all'. The times I have criticised you my statements would have been considered moderate by everyone but yourself, and hence you are the only one that needs to be apologised to. I am not on some vendetta against you. I like you, and I like what you are doing and you know that damn well. I just don't see why we must go through the charade of public ego massaging - it just seems so unnessesary. If I feel I need to say something in public then I will say it. But lets put it to the vote. Who thinks that the thread that Torsten chose to use as an example of my hipocracy looks like it is screaming out to be apologised for? I am not an unfair person. I do not conspire against people. I do not use words incincerely, yet I do sometimes use them hurridly. Given your dissatisfaction with anything I say in private you must feel that it is the public perception of you that might suffer if people criticise you. I think that that is doing an injustice to just how much respect and admiration you actually command. people do not suddenly stop liking someone on the strength of one post, or one persons comments on one aspect of something they say. We are all more mature than that. It takes more than this to damage people Torsten, and you have to realise that.

    I think it is clear that we are all human and that we all snap or have irrational thoughts at times. (Some women moreso than others, eh DL )

    It's biochemical and often we can't help it. But we still have to take responsiblity for it.

    well put.

    So apologies are a nice thing. But an apology that needs to be demanded isn't worth much. Apologies need to be volunteered.

    does this mean that my spontaneous, private apologised are worth much more than demanded public ones? If so you should not be critisising, but praising me for taking the initiative to make sure I didn't hurt your feelings with that post (and the occasional other one). I have even apologised for other peoples posts about you and asked if you'd like me to do anything about them.

    Seems to me that DL and spunwhirllin have it pretty well worked out and I don't think selfrighteous & hypocritical commentary will achieve anything at this stage other than maybe publicising your own grievances.

    What grievences? If you are referring to the fact that after that recent shitfight between Darklight and Mulga on my board, after which you emailed me to tell me you would no longer be posting there, then you are wrong. As I said in my reply, I would be sorry to lose you but if that was your decision then so be it. I actually mean the things I say Torsten. I do not carry around grudges and attack people for them later.

    If you are referring to anything else that you have aggrieved me over then please tell me so I can put your fears to rest. I have no grievences.

    Human behaviour and human relationships are complex. The world is not out to get you Torsten. How many times to I need to state that I have nothing against you? you cannot just assume that the second someone says something that might possibly maybe be an attack that they have suddenly done a full about-turn on their attitude towards you. It just doesn't work like that.

    On the contrary, this post of yours is quite full of personal attacks on me - and I had believed us to be friends. Perhaps you have been walking around assuming that I am only feining friendship for some reason? no - life is to short to associate with people you do not like. It is also too short to pretend to be what you are not.

    I have no grievences. I have no negative feelings towards you Torsten (despite this post, which must be the result of a short-term hormonal imbalance - that or he *is* carrying around some unexpressed grievances), I have no negative feelings towards you Darklight. I like both of you as people.

    I do have a problem however with the lack of hospitality that was shown to a new member of this board by one of the boards moderators. I do have a problem with an unprovoked attack that did nothing for the credibility of this board or of the people running it in the eyes of anyone who would happen to read it. If any moderator had responded like that I would have posted the same thing - you just don't go around making people feel unwelcome like that, nor throwing about personal criticism and making them feel unwelcome. If it had been another member but not a mod, I would also have criticised it, though in far less strong terms. I probably would have just told them to chill.

    Why is it Torsten that you can't seem to see the higher dynamics at work here? That if, in this virtual environment, someone is a 'mod' then they should behave like one? Yes they can be excused for not behaving one, yes they can be excused for being unreasonable or unjust. Yes they can be excused for having a bad day. But how can they be excused for being a bitch if their excuse is 'I am a bitch, deal with it?' Sometimes that is just not appropriate.

    If this had not been a brand new member, I might even add a member who is from overseas, then it just wouldn't have mattered, and yes we all would have accepted it as Darklight being darklight, and also airing some very real and reasonable grievances. However when you read the original post it is abundantly clear that what she read into it was just not there. She, a moderator on this board, treated a new member from overseas as a common theif, when all they really wanted was to help save an endangered plant. That is what she should have apologised for. Not as Darklight, but as a moderator and as an example to everyone. And I don't think it was right for everyone to just accept it when she said 'oh silly me what a bitch I've been' [paraphrase]. Unless of course you want this board to gain a reputation for being a place where you can get your head bitten off for daring to ask us for help. Or even for Australians in general to get that reputation. And if you were going to stand by and let people think that about your board and our country, then I sure as hell wasn't.

    Thankyou for listening.

     

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