Jump to content
The Corroboree

occidentalis

Members2
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    2,606

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by occidentalis

  1. Posted

    I've done it before but it is not easy to get a clean culture from a supermarket mushroom.

    Mycelium transports food and contaminants around its structure. If the outside is contaminated with bacteria it can be through the entire structure of the mushroom no matter how deep inside the mushroom you take the tissue sample from.

    Chemotactic dispersal of bacteria

    If you intend to start with a supermarket specimen go for one that is pre-packaged and as fresh as possible.

    One way to clean up a contaminated culture can be to pre-soak the tissue specimen in a solution of non iodised salt for about an hour at a dilution rate of 1 teaspoon salt to 600 ml water

     

    Cool, thanks for that. Hadn't heard of that before. However as I read the article it doesn't seem to mean that bacteria actually enter the fungal cells, simply swim along the outside. And although I don't know the porosity of a mushroom, the hyphae in the mushroom are much more densely packed and I doubt that a bacterium could fit through... I would say that if you are getting contamination from the inside tissue of fresh mushrooms then it is more likely that you are transporting contaminants from the surface of the shroom as you are cutting into it.

    Cool idea about the salt, may also use hydrogen peroxide?

  2. Posted

    Where do you catch a bus to columbia from? I didn't think it was safe to go over the border into columbia. Or rather, i thought that was one of the more risky things you could do in south america.

    The only way to get to Colombia from Peru apart from by air is to get a boat from Iquitos downriver to Leticia.

    Otherwise you have to go through Ecuador.

    Colombia is mostly very safe these days and is definitely back on the tourist trail. There are still some places that you definitely don't go to but the main highways from Ecuador to Bogota are very safe. Nearly everyone I met on my trip who had been there said it was the highlight. I'm really disappointed I couldn't get there...

    I've said it before but I'll just say it again - the border of Peru and Ecuador is extremely dodgy, particularly at the westernmost crossing ( I think it's called Haquilas. It's known as the dodgiest border crossing in SA because of the fact that a large no-man's land exists between the two countries where a flourishing black market economy has built a sprawling market. This is where much of the coca and cocaine that is produced in bolivia and peru get smuggled into ecuador to get to colombia. There are lots of stories of travellers getting mugged, blackmailed, or otherwise fucked over.

    There are two crossings further east which are less used but are much safer. I crossed north by the westernmost one and had a very hairy experience (robbed of $300 by taxi drivers) and came back by the one further east, this was much faster and much safer. I strongly recommend avoiding that western one.

  4. Posted · Edited by occidentalis

    Someone I know had a HOT-7 experience in a country where legal.

    They were accidentally overdosed (estimated they took around 50mg, usual dose around 25) and it was in an unsuitable environment - not an example of responsible drug use

    However it was definitely an interesting experience and they would like to try it again with a slightly lower dose and in a more friendly setting.

    They have a mostly finished report to submit to erowid, keep an eye out for it.

  7. Posted

    I don't agree

    In my mind ayahuasca must include B. caapi - but I don't think it matters where it comes from.

    One of my main reasons for criticising Teotz's list is that it blends fact with opinion. This is one of the matters of opinion.

  8. Posted

    I'm quite aware that Agenda 21 is a global agreement run by the UN and that Australia has signed on to it, because I studied it in the sustainable development unit I did in first year uni. It has already made it's way here in many forms, and the end of the world is not upon us. That's because it isn't any kind of conspiracy. Actually I think it was one of the last naive and innocent attempts to genuinely move towards sustainability, before the word was subsumed into the corporate discourse and spat out as another commodity to be sold.

    My comment was regarding the Liveable Communities Act which is clearly US, not Australia.

  9. Posted

    Magicdirt is right that it is very easy to get contaminants via LC, but I don't think he's quite right about the supermarket shrooms. If you work under good clean conditions you should easily be able to excise some sterile tissue from the inside of a thick specimen.

  10. Posted

    erm... the idea of Agenda 21 is to reduce environmental impacts... the idea of the Livable Communities Act is to increase the density of inner urban areas and reduce urban sprawl

    It will have no effect on camping.

    aside from that, that's the US, not Australia

    How about keep the right wing conspiracy bullshit contained in threads focused on that, and leave the rest of us to intelligent discussion?

  11. Posted

    you say, indicators make facial expressions unnecessary in traffic conditions?

    no, you are wrong, what about 4 cars comming to an intersection at excactly the same time?

    all have to give way to right, and it (way of right to go) goes in an instant circle, and can only be sorted by hand movment and facial expression.

     

    4 cars arriving at the same time to an intersection and one of the drivers is wearing a burqa?

    Planthelper, I've been driving for over 10 years now and I have to say I have never experienced that. Of course it could happen, but if that's the best you can do for the potential dangers of burqa wearing then you have a long way to go to convince me, I'm afraid.

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    Sorry, it is a word... kinda. It's just that it seems like a word invented by people marketing a health product. And I don't really know what a botanical is. I've always just assumed a plant or plant material, but considering you also say 'herbs and plants', unless a botanical is something else then it just comes across as you using that word because you like it.

  13. Posted · Edited by occidentalis

    contradiction right there... as far as i know bragmansia spp are not native to the Amazon basin..

    & er.. who owns the rights to the use of the words 'ayahuasca & yage'? i don't get it...

     

    Brugmansia are common in the upper Amazon in the same areas that Banisteriopsis caapi is found.

    Teo, some good info. But your style makes me cringe. You really don't need to say things like

    "Ayahuasca/Yage" ONLY contains botanicals, herbs and plants which are native to the Amazon River Basin.

    How about you just let people come to their own conclusions about what "Ayahuasca/Yage" (a side note - if you are going to list two names, may as well list all 200 or so) is or isn't?

    also, 'botanicals'?

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    this might make me sound lame, but i always looked up to him because he possessed a lot of qualities that i valued and felt i lacked. he was funny, never took shit too seriously and was always up for having a good time.

     

    Doesn't sound lame at all - I think a lot of us more serious types felt that way about him :)

  17. Posted

    Unless there is a clear risk to public safety, I don't think anyone should be required or prevented from wearing whatever they want.

    That means men who force their wives to wear the burqa would be committing a crime, and it also means women who choose to wear the burqa should be allowed to.

    Planthelper - that's what indicator lights are for.

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    hey eluna

    yes and no

    from the drug perspective, definitely not if you intend to consume them. and importing cuttings that do not have roots on them may be enough proof (probably not IMO, but others disagree... and it has never been tested in court so it's guesswork really)

    from the quarantine perspective, if the cuttings are clean, free of disease, insects, and any soil or other dirt, and they are labelled with a correct species name that is on the DAFWA whitelist, then you won't have any problems. From this point of view unrooted cuttings will be far easier to get in because roots would probably have soil on them. Ah the contradictions...

    but after saying all that - why bother? heaps of good genotypes in WA already.

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    Your maths is a bit out as far as I can tell - it will be $1800 for the first 4 years (right? cost of the bike itself). The next battery will cover you for the following 4 which means it will cost $3000 (not 4000) over 8 years (not 4). If I've understood you correctly. Which makes $7.25 per week... not including the cost of the power itself - although that wouldn't be much.

    But apart from that I think you're right, petrol will definitely win out on power/cost ratio every time

    Battery only really has any competitiveness when it comes to greenness - but on that parameter it wins hands down.

    I reckon over the next 5 years or so as electric and hybrid cars become more available the prices of batteries will fall greatly.

    I recommend getting a 50cc scooter, or else just an ordinary pedal powered pushbike :).

  22. Posted

    One of the best things about private trackers is that they usually emphasise the importance of quality and people will offer a variety of rips in different compression levels including lossless formats. They usually have very strict rules about the quality of the rips that can be uploaded.

    obviously this doesn't address the issue of piracy removing profits from the industry, but if it is quality you are concerned about you are usually better off downloading from a private tracker than you are from itunes, which only recently started offering lossless files for some albums.

  23. Posted

    Of course like any ethnobotanist I had my eye out for cactus while I was at the ruins of Chavin - and there weren't actually all that many around. That was definitely the biggest.

    The side not shown in the photo had lots of chopped off bits so I reckon it has been visited often :)

    I was looking for seeds,

×