Northerner

Well we live with the direct legacy of not having to deal with rabies nor anthrax because of Pasteur. Sure killing every single fly, bat and dog on earth would have been more practical, but hey science is just this crazy wild experiment that ignores all evidence and just does what it will. Live attenuated vaccines including those for diphtheria, plague, tuberculosis, yellow fever, rotavirus, measles, mumps, rubella, and more are based on Pasteur's research. The hundreds of millions of people who haven't died nor been crippled by those previously endemic diseases refute any last minute doubts the old boy had before he fell off the perch. In fact the only reason many of these diseases aren't extinct now and we don't need to vaccinate for them at all is because some people for whatever reason refuse treatment. Previously the primary poor reasoning was religion, but commonly it's just naive and ego-central echo chambers now. 300 million people died from smallpox last century, now it's extinct because of effective vaccine strategy and none of us vaccinate against it any longer. Spot the conspiracy. I'm not going to be quick to shoot myself with the latest batch of corona-vaccine, if it ever arrives. Probably spend some time mulling over ridiculous antivax armchair biology for a while, wait to see if it is really effective, then do it.

The reason people here take it so blindly here is we've got it so good. If there was significant hardship civil unrest would develop and it would be much harder to pull off. Not that it wouldn't still happen though, look at the US. For all the screaming about rights and stuff in the US it turns out they really get shafted at every turn. Straight up bribery in the form of "lobbying" holds the whole country in thrall, but at least they can shoot each other with guns and stuff, get the longest prison sentences in the 1st world with the worst incarceration rates. Ya know, because that's what free people do. But they laugh at us while crying constantly over their corrupt medical, corrupt schooling, corrupt policing, corrupt politics, corrupt infrastructure... ironic really. Sure Australia is overreacting to some extent with the policing of covid, but we do that with everything. It's going to take a generational change to phase out these sort of laws before they become truly Draconian. I think it's important to maintain perspective before engaging outrage. Better trade with Europe is the key to our emancipation from the war shackles of the US and the financial shackles of China. The party that gets this right will lead the emancipation of our young nation. I'm unsure how to wean people people off the corporate duopoly that is our political system, but more and more people are becoming aware of it especially the younger generations. As the old voting base dies off new ideas will come the fore. I smell the winds of change, the calm before the storm if you will. Rational people don't see the advantage of oppressing people in a wealthy nation. Oppressed people are not as productive and you can't tax them as much. Bad business really. I'm sure pollies with their personal businesses taking it to the knees can't wait for this whole thing to be over. They want people to spend, spend, spend.

It looks like some sort of slime mould. It doesn't appear to be spread everywhere, hopefully just isolated to that area you photographed up close. Putting salt on moulds can stunt them and give the myc a chance to outcompete them. It looks a lot better seeing the whole tub rather than seeing just that one small section.

Nah man. It's fucked. You can grow it out anyway if you like, but it's not a winner. Might get a small flush. You could make an outside patch with the spawn. The cube will win the fight out there in a semi shaded position if you're warm enough. Might still be a bit wintery at the moment. Bury it 10-15cm thick with a 1cm casing sprinkled with grass seed if you have it. Cover it in plastic for a couple of weeks, uncover and water lightly. Will fruit 2 weeks later.

It may not be cobweb, but it's not healthy mycelium either. Some sort of nasty.

Probably closer to the US methinks. https://ibb.co/CHh4sMj

The test of how this disease interacts with people will be the crowded places with little infrastructure or medical facilities. It is going to rip through India, Brazil, South Africa and similar countries. It's been slower to set in because not so many people are flying around in planes all the time. But there's ghetto cities in these places that have no sanitation or established medical system that have a million people crowded into 5 square kilometres. When we see what happens to them the worst will be known. They are really the petri dishes for the rest of us and maybe even our best hope of finding a cure. I watched an interesting vlog the other day by this Russian guy who went and filmed in Wuhan and Shanghai. The streets are locked down, seriously. They are not messing around at all. No doubt have every hacker trying to steal everyone else's data and every researcher creating their own to try to find the golden egg, a cure or vaccine. It's potentially the most valuable single piece of undiscovered intellectual property, that doesn't yet exist, that ever existed.

The fatalities of covid are insignificant until many people have it and we run out of we run out of hospital beds. That's really the issue. We only have 66,000 hospital beds in Australia and they aren't sat there empty waiting for covid patients, there's not so many free. The US population is huge on their RIGHTS!, won't be told what to do, and so now the population infection is around 2%. That would translate into 500,000 cases and ~25,000 dead if it were in Australia had we been behaving like them just for the last few months, not an entire year. Over a year of behaving like Americans we could have >75,000 dead. That's not an insignificant amount of people, incomparable to the flu. It's just going to get worse for the US now and being able to control it is going to get harder and harder. The genie is out of the bottle and there's no stuffing it back in. The reason it's not everywhere here and we don't know dead people is that we are controlling it well, it's not because it's not a threat. Lock downs are to prevent pandemic outbreaks. Sure we could just let everyone run wild and free and see a quarter million die in the next couple of years. But when you picture that pile of bodies, actually envision it, would you be the person responsible for making that mountain of meat government policy?

Hi Pepper, good to see a new NQ member about. Welcome.

Sky doesn't seem to have fallen in the ACT despite the horror predictions of the prohibitionists. I never would have guessed.

There's so many synthetic opioids about these days, many extremely potent. It's just not safe to buy heroin anymore. Not that heroin was ever really that safe, but the risk factor has gone through the roof. The massive body count in the US is testament to that. I'm a fan of harmala alkaloids, I think they have huge potential for healing and personal development. Knowing the risks and contraindications is important though. I've never had any issues mixing them with any psychedelic, but individual chemistry varies wildly and changes as we age. This thread has given me pause.

Once again that's scientific articles, not case studies. Ive never read a single case where anyone has experienced SS from psychedelic and maoi combinations. Scientists claim all sorts of shit, particularly about illegal drugs, but much of it is speculation, potential possibilities. Just like people can potentially die from allergic reaction to MDMA. Sure it's happened before. I know of 2 cases, one in Australia and one in the UK. But how many tonnes of MDMA gets consumed annually globally do you reckon? I reckon it's lot. Scientists will warn about sudden death from MDMA use now, write all sorts of stuff about it. More chance of dying suddenly from peanuts though. Significantly more. The only reason I'd be cautious about mixing mescaline is alkaloids do not occur alone. I've had an experience mixing it with LSD and alcohol where I seriously thought I was physically in trouble. Weak heart rate, faintness, low blood pressure, bad mojo. Knowing how MAOIs can also affect the heart gives me reason to stop and think about this combo. It's not the risk of SS that would make me stop and think. I duked this one out years ago with other people, when I still believed the scientific literature on the topic. But experience and complete lack of evidence shows that these musings by so called academics are speculation rather than evidence based assertions.

I've not read a single case report of LSD causing serotonin syndrome. Psilocybin mimics serotonin and binds to the receptors, it definitely cannot cause SS, just like DMT cannot. Look to amphetamines, cocaine, MDMA and other serotonin agonists for case studies of actual SS. If you read the unsafe guidelines they will even mention strong cheese, beer, wine and preserved meats as contraindicated. Lab possibilities do not add up to real world outcomes though. I'd not considered mescaline before, I wouldn't mix that. I should be careful about making blanket statements. I'm super glad Acacia is alright though. This sort of interaction is one of my nightmare scenarios.

AFAIK there are no psychedelics that will trigger serotonin syndrome, with or without an MAOI. In fact it's an excellent combination in moderation.

Yeah careful man. Glad to hear you pulled though. You were in a very dangerous situation there for a while. Fuck opiates. They are life destroyers. Stick with psychedelics and their allies.

It does depend on the site code though. The site is quite old and may not have any easy provision for applying https encryption. There was some work done to add a store here a couple of years ago... but that kinda halted. If that was ever to go forward encryption would be mandatory.

It can be done for free with "Let's Encrypt". It's a simple task that most web admins should be able to implement in less than an hour.

Smoking is really quite bad for you. Half of people who smoke die because of it. At the same time time I think it is their right to do whatever the hell they like with their own body. It's like the whole suicide being illegal thing. Total nonsense.

Nannup has been a well known spot for decades, I was picking there in there in the 90's and the police were hanging around trying to grab dickheads. It's not a new thing.

And the ABC are bitching about getting defunded... lol Good to see my tax dollars at work.

It's been pushed forward to Jan 1st next year after all the uproar this week. People are gonna start pushing it hard to get legalised now.

I've used diazepam for many years when and as needed. I've even taken it every day for a month before. No addiction. Not even a hint. Alcohol on the other hand has almost taken my life several times and has no doubt shortened it. The addiction to it was chronic and took me the best part of a decade to overcome. I've had doctors try and diagnose me with all sorts of stuff and have even sneakily given me SSRI's, without warning me what they are, for other non-related psychological conditions. But still I keep refusing these psych drugs they are trying to foist on everyone. I say no to the drugs. The key to a healthy mind is opened with a healthy body. The two are more intrinsically linked than many doctors like to admit. Exercise is a more effective for heart health than any medication, that was told to me by a cardiologist. Gut health is intrinsically linked to a healthy psyche, that was told to me be another specialist. Weed and alcohol are not not good while prescription meds are good... none of them are good. There is no drug that effects your mind and chemistry that is without consequence. These days I abstain from everything but classic psychedelics, but that does not make them fine. I make a physical and psychological sacrifice when I take them. It is a trade off that carries risks and benefits. Because I am who I am I consider the risks worth it, but you can be pretty darn sure your average MD isn't going to prescribe you LSD to overcome dysphoria. They're going to pick SSRI's or SNRI's. They like to pick those for everything. Sore back, sore tummy, sore head, sinus pain, addictions, depression, anxiety, insomnia... you name it. Those two classes are the go to for modern doctors. Easy cure all fixes, just write em up. When they don't work just write up a different one. Failing that they write up dopamine effecting anti-psychotics. It's cut and paste easy doctoring that avoids dealing with the patients actual issues. I'm not saying that for a group of people these pharmaceutical drugs aren't extremely effective and life saving, but for the majority of patients they are completely unnecessary, ineffective and commonly counter-productive to solving the patients health issues. When they do the whole "just say no to drugs" thing at schools they fail to mention the dangers of prescription drugs when taken as prescribed. It's a blind spot that much of society would rather pretend does not exist. They even took the paper out of prescription meds these days, so people are no longer provided with full information about the drug they are taking when they get it. They have to go out and hunt that info down. Disgusting abuse of power that put that into law. I can only see pharmaceutical companies benefiting from their patients remaining ignorant about the drugs they are taking, not the other way around.

https://www.basedrop.com.au/ $12 a litre here for bases, dropper bottles are $1-$2 at any pharmacy. I fully support you selling botantics and microscopy and stuff like that mate. But all DIY vapers should know the above.

I'm not sure this place really needs a lot of moderation anymore, its mostly a fairly small group of people and many people only checking in weekly or monthly, some annually. I miss the cactus freaks a bit, many seem to have wandered off. Even back a few years ago when I joined there was a lot more going on... in some ways we are gifted to have such an intimate little group all focused on our plants and their uses. I'm pleased to check in here and read a lot, even if I don't comment so much. Besides, no one wants to see my ugly mug.

It's rare af mate. Try ordering seeds from NZ. https://nzseeds.co.nz/ Might get a love letter from customs, might get through though. It's not scheduled so you should be okay as long as they are properly packaged.