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Agamemnon

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Posts posted by Agamemnon

  2. Posted

    Just noticed Nymphaea ampla ‘juice’ dehydrated 10X crystals available on SAB. Just wondering if you would drop the whole sachet in a bottle of red for optimum efficiency? Can anybody with prior experience shed some light? :rolleyes:

  4. Posted

    I was in my Home Hardware store today and bought some Rootex rooting powder for propogating some cuttings. The woman at the counter said "have you tried honey?" Not sure if this was a pick up line (but hopeful, she was a real looker!), I said 'pardon?' She went on to explain that honey and vegemite are just as good if not better than commercial powders and gel for root propogation. I'm going to do a control experiment to find out, but I was just wondering if anybody else had heard of these 'alternative' sources?

  6. Posted

    Hey Jono, make sure you get the series "The league of gentlemen" All the key players in litlle britain starred in it, and it was the precursor of Little Britain, but in many ways much, much, much, more bizarre....'are you a local?' was a oft repeated phrase and one you wont forget without laughing once you see the series! :rolleyes:

  7. Posted

    From ABC online news http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/29/2018191.htm

    Interesting to read the feedback after the article. God help the women and kids when alcohol takes it's grip in the indigenous communities to replace peaceful kava! :BANGHEAD2:

    Kava's grip on NT communities must be loosened

    By Alan Clough

    Posted 9 hours 38 minutes ago

    Kava has long been a challenge for policy.

    Kava has long been a challenge for policy. (AFP: Torsten Blackwood)

    Kava, the mood-altering drink prepared from crushed roots of the pepper plant (Piper methysticum Forst. f.), widely used in south Pacific countries on ceremonial occasions and in secular drinking, was brought to Arnhem Land Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory early in 1982, with the support of missionaries who themselves came from Pacific island countries.

    Kava drinking was rapidly adopted in most coastal and island communities across the NT's Top End (Figure 1).

    I have observed and studied the health and social effects of kava use in these communities for almost 20 years (since 1988), including nine years when I lived and worked in these communities followed by more than 10 years of systematic research into health effects of substance misuse generally in the region.

    Kava has long been a challenge for policy. Service providers and regulatory authorities quickly became unsettled after its introduction by emerging community dysfunction, concerns for health effects of 'excessive' use without traditional social controls, and economic hardships brought about by a vigorous informal, and later illegal, trade in kava.

    There have been two legislative attempts by the NT Government to control its supply and consumption; the first attempt in 1990, and the second in 1998 which culminated in the NT's regulatory regime which has now been nullified (from June 26 2007) by Commonwealth action to tightly restrict the importation of kava into Australia as a whole.

    Along with colleagues, including Aboriginal health workers, senior clinicians and fellow researchers, I recently published my concern in the Medical Journal of Australia that the NT's second attempt to control kava had also not succeeded to limit its availability. Under the NT's Kava Management Act, one wholesaler was licensed to supply kava to six licensed retailers in Arnhem Land communities.

    'Kava Management Plans' in 'Kava Licence Areas' under the Act, permitted these retailers to supply from 600-800g per week of kava powder to each purchaser, more than double known harmful consumption levels (240-440g per week), a level identified from several years of systematic research and observation in kava-using communities.

    Health effects

    Kava's well-documented health effects in Arnhem Land include seizures and extreme weight loss in heavy users (up to 20 per cent body mass) similar to that seen in anorexia nervosa. Extreme weight loss, evident during the 1980s, has re-emerged in the region's kava users.

    Elevated total- and LDL-cholesterol levels add to unresolved concerns that heavy kava use may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and sudden cardiac deaths. Potential immunosuppressive effects are suggested by relative lymphocytopaenia in heavy users and by increased risks for serious infections such as melioidosis and pneumonia.

    Elevated liver enzymes in kava users must be monitored closely because of fatal hepatotoxicity documented in a number of countries around the world, including Australia, in users of manufactured kava products available as natural therapies. Evidence of similar liver injury in some Pacific island kava users has also emerged.

    Given the scarcity of substance misuse treatment services in Arnhem Land, with no treatments for kava misuse, tight supply control provides the only practical measure to reduce kava-related harms to individuals and communities.

    Financial burden

    As well as health harms for individual users, kava is the psychoactive substance with greatest financial impact on communities and individuals in Arnhem Land (Figure 2).

    Quantities of illegal kava and its impact are difficult to estimate. Total licensed plus illegal kava supplied in 2005, around 34 tonnes, was worth approximately $5.6 million (Figure 3).

    Since kava has been made available again in all Arnhem Land communities where it has ever been used by the NT's licensing system combined with the illegal trade, its overall annual financial burden may be at least $740 per capita, equivalent to 12 per cent of these impoverished communities' total cash resources.

    High prices

    Prices paid by users of licensed kava in Arnhem Land are five times its retail price in Fiji markets.

    Licensed kava supplied by the wholesaler increased from three tonnes supplied in 2002 (worth $0.4 million retail), to eight tonnes in 2003 (worth $1.1 million), to 20 tonnes in 2004 (worth $2.8 million). Approximately 26 tonnes were supplied in 2005 worth $3.6 million (Figure 3), around one-third of all kava imported into Australia in that year.

    This rapid increase in licensed kava mirrors the increase seen during 1985-1989, reaching 24 tonnes in 1989, just before the first attempt to regulate it.

    The recent trend in licensed kava up to 2005 suggests that unprecedented quantities were supplied in 2006, higher than known problematic levels (28-36 tonnes per year) seen in the mid-1990s when kava was uncontrolled.

    Two retail licences issued since 2005 probably further increased kava's availability, however up-to-date information about this has not been disseminated.

    The six Arnhem Land communities with licensed kava retailers comprise around 3,300 people; approximately 43 per cent of 7,600 people in communities where kava has ever been used. The remaining larger communities with a history of kava use have consistently refused a kava licence.

    Illegal re-selling

    A new kind of illegal kava trade was created by the licensing system itself.

    Observation and surveillance indicate that kava sold in all licensed communities was being transported to the nearby unlicensed communities.

    In these communities community leaders have steadfastly refused to have a kava licence but the kava brought from other licensed areas was being re-sold illegally in these communities and at grossly inflated prices.

    Kava was also still available from other illegal sources; possibly as much as eight tonnes per year, an additional financial burden of around $2 million, given known 'black market' prices (Figure 2).

    This kava was being transported into the NT illegally from southern and eastern states where, until the Commonwealth action on June 26, it was possible to import large quantities of kava with few requirements to account for its end use.

    Controlling kava coming into Australia should also eliminate this long-standing, troublesome component of illegal kava dealing in Arnhem Land.

    Kava will be under much tighter control at the national level.

    Along with the recent much tighter controls on supply of other illicit substances in these remote Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land, the opportunity should be vigorously pursued to address the core underlying issues of substance abuse in these communities, especially to ensure constructive engagement of Indigenous youth in community life, employment, training and economic activity.

    Alan Clough is Associate Professor at the School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Science and School of Indigenous Australian Studies at James Cook University.

    Notes

    Figure 1

    Figure 2

    Figure 3

    Further reading:

    * Northern Territory of Australia. Kava. Darwin: Northern Territory Department of Justice, Racing, Gaming and Licensing Division;2007. Available at: http://www.nt.gov.au/justice/licensing/sta...tatistics.shtml (accessed August, 2007).

    * Clough AR. Enough! or too much. What is 'excessive' kava use in Arnhem Land? Drug Alcohol Rev 2003; 22: 45-53.

    * Clough AR, Jacups SP, Wang Z, et al. Health effects of kava use in an eastern Arnhem Land community. Intern Med J 2003; 33: 336-340.

    * Currie BJ, Fisher DA, Howard DM, et al. Endemic melioidosis in tropical northern Australia: a 10-year prospective study and review of the literature. Clin Infect Dis 2000; 31: 981-986.

    * Currie BJ, Clough AR. Kava hepatoxicity with Western herbal products: does it occur with traditional kava use? Med J Aust 2003;178:421-422.

    Comments (5)

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    Jon:

    29 Aug 2007 5:04:18pm

    It concerns me that so called 'experts' who may have researched kava consumption amongst Aborigines fail to realise that they lose weight because they do not eat (simple). It may be because they do not feel like it after drinking kava, but nothing in kava makes you just lose weight (Jenny Craig) It is a 'financial burden' because they 'choose' to buy kava, alcohol, grass, tobacco and gamble it away. The kava is highly priced because it is NOT regulated well enough. Always be aware that the indigenous people determined to get kava as an alternative to 'alcohol' which has and continues to have a devastating effect in indigenous communities. They 'experts'do not tell us anything new except saying that 'constructive engagement' of indigenous youth in community life is needed. We all know that..now that kava is banned, tell us how it is done!!

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    Susan:

    29 Aug 2007 4:14:01pm

    We have a strong Pacific Island contingent in our family who to my knowledge have used Karva responsibly for years maintaining their health, their families and their culture on a regular basis particularly with the male side of their community. Someone else has misused it and now their cultural practices are being undermined. I can understand supervision amongst some communities but amongst those who are responsible it should not just be a blanket ban. It costs too much to travel to Figi and bring back one kilo. Give them a break.

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    Linda Visman:

    29 Aug 2007 3:01:26pm

    Anyone who reads this rational and objective report must agree that the problem of kava use in Top End communities is a real problem. That the federal government has moved to ban imports of kava is a necessary first step. Banning substances is fine - but there must be a real effort, by the Commonwealth, to follow up black market sources, which always appear when something is banned.

    However, as with problems of alcohol and other substance abuse in the wider indigenous - and general Australian - population, the root causes must be addressed before there can be any hope of overcoming this problem. Lack of interest, lack of motivation, health and social ills result from social, economic and spiritual dysfunction, from a sense of the futility of life.

    How is all that going to be dealt with?

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    Gordon:

    29 Aug 2007 2:37:26pm

    Kava ban is having a major impact on the way of life of people from Pacific Island living in Australia. Kava is a very important cultural/religion/social drink for the people of the Pacific Islands and a ban is not fair for these people who have nothing to do with the misuse in other communities.

    On the basis that you did not ban Alcohol for all Australian, why then you have ban Kava?

    Thats allow the importation of Kava, may be with limitation that it is not taken into Aboriginal communities where it has been misused.

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    Jethro:

    29 Aug 2007 1:32:13pm

    It reminds me of a time when bible basher's wanted to get rid the evil of drinking. So what did they propose? Use heroin instead. This is what happens when well meaning people with little formal education and alot of "morals" happen to get a little power within a dysfunctional community. Maybe the government should regulate the missionaries.

  8. Posted

    prohibition = disaster! please vote this evil Federal government out!

    From the Northern Territory newspaper :

    Kava ban leads to crime rise

    TARA RAVENS

    25Aug07

    CRIME, gambling and a black market trade in alcohol and marijuana are on the rise following the Federal Government's ban on the intoxicating drink kava, remote Northern Territory councils say.

    First introduced to communities in the 1980s, kava was outlawed as part of the Government's intervention to combat child sexual abuse.

    With supplies now drying up, Yirrkala Community Council co-ordinator Adrian Rota said crime had increased in the dry Arnhem Land community.

    "The last three weeks we've had little sleep," Mr Rota said.

    "People who have drunk kava in the past are drinking alcohol, and it's having a very different affect on them.

    "There are also people sniffing petrol. It has just gone silly and the weekends are the worst."

    Mr Rota said the community, which ran out of drink three weeks ago, had had increased call-outs to police, who were unable to cope.

    We've had a good deal more problems with alcohol-related incidents. It should have been co-ordinated better," he said.

    "It's no good saying you're gearing up for it. Gearing up? What's that when the problem is right now."

    Susannah Kuzio, chief executive of the alcohol-free Ramingining Community Council in Arnhem Land, said kava users - who commonly experience euphoria and a sense of well-being that makes them placid and lazy - were finding alternatives for their money and time.

    "The thing we have really noticed more of is gambling," she said.

    "They used to sit around and drink kava and now they are playing cards."

    Ms Kuzio said she "would choose kava any day" over alcohol or pot.

    "I have never seen spirits (bottles of whisky) in this community in the last 12 months," she said.

    "I have seen people drinking that I have never seen drink. Kava would be their first choice but now they are finding strong alcohol."

    NT Licensing Minister Chris Burns said the Government had taken steps to restrict the flow of alcohol and drugs into remote regions, but Aboriginal communities had to be vigilant as well.

    "We have stepped forward in a major way and we are looking forward to communities doing likewise."

  10. Posted · Edited by Agamemnon

    Five Star is different from the klin kava kava powder. I have made it very fine, maybe too fine, and requires more patients to prepare. To make it easier, first use a coarse strainer, maybe like a midgee screen or something half as coarse as fly screen for the first strain. When doing the fine strain use only small portions at a time. After squeezing the final strain, feel the mucas(fibres) if they are still oily masticate it through the fine sieve again in the solution already prepared.

    Be patient when masticating.

    Small portions at a time.

    If anyone is finding it too difficult, please return it and it will be replace with the Klin kava powder.

    Thanks for that John. I have only got 200grams of this special hand chosen finest grade kava powder. Is the amount to use the same as your normal powder? How would you rate it in terms of potency next to your instant product? (which, by the way is a very rich complex, strong and yet sophisticated brew, oh my! :rolleyes: )

  12. Posted

    Ahh, the immutable law of supply and demand.

    HHH price for a kilo of kava is now $250! At those rates you would break even paying for a cheap return flight to Fiji and pick up two kilos yourself!! Come to think of it what a great idea...Fresh strong kava and a great holiday...yes! :drool2: :drool2:

  15. Posted

    Allowing people to still bring in kava as long as you fetch it overseas is like banning coffee imports but if you fly to africa personally you can bring back two kilos...how much does that end up costing per gram???!!

    Im sure there are fiji/Vanuatu/Australia associations here in OZ who could lobby the government to allow personal import (via post) of up to 2 kilos per shipment. This allows checking of the person (not one of those targeted awful indigenous potential child abusers) would not be wothwhile selling to indigenous persons (sly grog running much easier with no paperwork or waiting).

    It would only take a few TV news grabs of a couple of expat peaceful looking fijian families bemoaning their cultural right to access their kava for maybe the government to do some minor tweaking to this draconian legislation. Then we could apply for the 2kg permit to import and source it from klin kava vanuatu...just a thought...

  16. Posted

    Received my klin kava yesterday and have just sampled it around 4.30pm saturday. After one glass, very noticeable kava effects. Also even though its an overcast dim afternoon Im reaching for the sunglasses cos my eyes are very sensitive to light. Second glass really makes things come on. This is some of the best kava I have ever tried. Will report on the instant kava tomorrow, because I just couldnt do that right now! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

  17. Posted

    Well, if the worst comes to worst, and you have to shut down all advertising, at least this community now has your contact details and can spread the good word. I have just ordered kava from you and if it is better than my regular supplier (which I'm sure it will be) then your my supplier from here on in!

    Given the massive social damage that alcohol causes and its blatent advertising, this is so hypocritical of the Government who's agency!AQIS must implement nonsensical laws :devil: :devil: :devil:

  19. Posted

    I came across this very different site called cinema Obscura http://www.cinema-obscura.com which as the name implies,has rare avant-garde, off the wall movies from the 1950s to 1990s.

    At the moment Im using their torrent file to download a movie called "The acid eaters" produced in 1968 - here is a review of the film

    http://www.somethingweird.com/cart.php?tar...category_id=248

    Some other titles are "Alice in Acidland" 1968

    http://www.somethingweird.com/cart.php?tar...ice+in+acidland

    and "The psychedelic priest"

    http://www.somethingweird.com/cart.php?tar...+shades+of+grey

    These movies are sometimes bizzare, sometimes poorly acted but always entertaining! Good for a "trip" back to the 1960s :wink: :wink:

  20. Posted

    Ive bought 3 desktops and one laptop from Dell, and they have all run extremely well and reliably.

    Had a graphics card that burnt out on a desk top and the dell technician travelled two hours drive into the country next day to replace it. You see the BIG advantage with Dell is their comprehensive 3 year warranty on every part of your PC. They have 1300 assistance too, but sometimes the the Bangalore telephone operator is a bit hard to understand. :blink:

    Another option with dell is to purchase your laptop from their "Dell outlet" store

    http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/default.as...=dfo&~ck=bt

    These are units that have been ordered and preconfigured by customers but never paid for, for whatever reason. Still factory sealed, new in the box, but much cheaper. Only come with 1 year warranty though. they list them with the amount of RAM, CPU type etc, and the stock is changing all the time. Worth a look.

  21. Posted

    Yeah 6 to 12 months loss of licence is possible. Not sure if you may cop a criminal record too.

    It's just not worth the risk of drink driving for the penalties and the possible mayhem you might cause other road users. Hope it doesn't go too bad for you! :blink:

  22. Posted · Edited by Agamemnon

    I find a decent piece of fresh peeled hoodia really improves the mood and if followed by kava, really enhances and compliments each other. Can work in the garden all day and stay focussed yet relaxed, energised and at the same time receptive, sensitive and aware. Hard to explain but definitely a good place to be!

  25. Posted

    From a BBC world article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from...ent/6530453.stm

    Yemen's khat habit soaks up water

    By Alex Kirby

    BBC News, Sanaa

    Some blame khat for stifling Yemeni development

    Sitting high up in the rocky mountains of northern Yemen, the country's capital Sanaa is finding that its dwindling water supply may not be able to sustain the ancient settlement.

    I had almost walked right past the low doorway in the souk before I realised.

    Then I stopped, peered into the gloom, and spotted it - a camel, sporting leather blinkers the size of small searchlights, circling the chamber, a wooden arm linking it to a central stone pillar which rotated as the animal tramped stolidly on.

    It was a simple mill for producing sesame oil - and it would hardly have looked out of place at the time of Christ.

    If you want local colour, then go to Sanaa. The entire old city is a Unesco World Heritage Site, complete with tall stuccoed houses whose perforated walls use the winds for natural ventilation.

    In a country where almost half the people live on less than two dollars a day, you find your fun where you can

    There is the small square which covers the site of the 6th-Century Christian cathedral, though nothing now remains of its ebony and ivory pulpit or its crosses of silver and gold.

    In the narrow lanes of the market you are pressed to buy a bag of dull golden crystals and your senses succumb to the smell of burning incense. To the Romans, Yemen was, after all, Arabia Felix, the home of frankincense and myrrh. They still make novel souvenirs.

    Venture further, beyond the Old City's 30-foot-high (9-metre-high) clay walls, and there are plenty more reminders that Sanaa is one of a kind. There is the Military Museum, an eclectic assembly of old weapons (including a camel-mounted cannon), old motor cars, and relics of the British colony in Aden.

    A chillingly topical touch is an illustration from the 1950s of an execution, the bloodied scimitar still in the swordsman's hand as the convict expires. Perhaps that explains why the museum is run by part of the interior ministry - the moral guidance department.

    Sanaa is at least 2,500 years old. It claims to be the world's oldest inhabited city, though Damascus disputes that. But it is living on borrowed time.

    For once climate change is not the presumed culprit. It is not natural causes at all - it is human behaviour.

    However you do the sums, they just do not add up. There are nearly 20 million Yemenis - and the population doubles every 17 ye

    The country imports most of its food, largely because it has too little water to feed itself. Yemenis have about one-fiftieth as much water per head as the world average.

    And, to confound confusion, insupportably large amounts of water go on a non-essential crop - khat.

    Khat in today's Yemen is what smoking was in Britain a generation ago. Everywhere you go you find men with cheeks bulging bizarrely as they get their fix. It is a shrub whose leaves, when you chew them, can induce mild euphoria, excitement, hallucinations and even constipation.

    It is increasingly popular in Yemen. While a few years ago men would spend a couple of hours a day on their habit, many now chew happily away for seven or eight hours.

    Within the last five years or so khat use has become much more accepted among women. One young professional woman told me she chewed it perhaps once every three months, as a way of socialising.

    More often, she said, would be too much. She blames the drug for what she says is Yemenis' failure to better themselves.

    Moralising apart, khat is having a baleful effect on Yemen. Of the country's scarce water, 40% goes on irrigating khat - and khat cultivation is increasing by 10% to 15% a year.

    You cannot blame the farmers. As one says, growing khat earns him 20 times as much as growing potatoes.

    You probably should not blame the chewers either. In a country where almost half the people live on less than US$2 (£1) a day, you find your fun where you can.

    Relocation plans

    The minister for water and the environment, Dr Abdulrahman al-Eryani, is an agricultural engineer - and he is a worried man.

    There are concerns about khat's effect on Yemeni society

    "The Sanaa basin is using water 10 times faster than Nature is replenishing it," he told me.

    "And before long there won't even be enough to drink. I am not an optimist. I think many of the city's people will simply have to move away.

    "The solution I am proposing is a very clear policy - a voluntary one - of reallocating people from here down to the Red Sea coast. We could use renewable energy there to desalinate sea water. And it would be cheaper than trying to provide enough water to Sanaa.

    "This is not the first time that Yemenis have had to move to avoid disaster. It's happened many times in the last few thousand years, when Nature allowed the population to increase rapidly. This time, though, there are political frontiers in the way of an exodus."

    The minister, himself a chewer, thinks weaning Yemenis off khat will be like breaking the tobacco habit.

    "In time it won't be cool to chew," he says. "But time is what we don't have."

    One of the ancient Arabic names of Sanaa translates as The Protected City. It looks as though the protection is running out.

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