reality

[Isaiah Mpski]

Does anyone know where to get the fungus that produces LSD.
Is the fungus legal to possess?

[nanouk]

"Ergot is caused by the fungus Claviceps purpurea, which affects rye, wheat and other cereal grasses. When first infected, the flowering head of a grain will spew out sweet, yellow-colored mucus, called "honey dew," which contains fungal spores that can spread the disease. Eventually, the fungus invades the developing kernels of grain, taking them over with a network of filaments that turn the grains into purplish-black sclerotia. Sclerotia can be mistaken for large, discolored grains of rye. Within them are potent chemicals, ergot alkaloids, including lysergic acid (from which LSD is made) and ergotamine (now used to treat migraine headaches). The alkaloids affect the central nervous system and cause the contraction of smooth muscle — the muscles that make up the walls of veins and arteries, as well as the internal organs.

Toxicologists now know that eating ergot-contaminated food can lead to a convulsive disorder characterized by violent muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions, hallucinations, crawling sensations on the skin, and a host of other symptoms — all of which, Linnda Caporael (student of the effects and chemical in the '70's) noted, are present in the records of the Salem witchcraft trials. Ergot thrives in warm, damp, rainy springs and summers. When Caporael examined the diaries of Salem residents, she found that those exact conditions had been present in 1691. Nearly all of the accusers lived in the western section of Salem village, a region of swampy meadows that would have been prime breeding ground for the fungus. At that time, rye was the staple grain of Salem. The rye crop consumed in the winter of 1691-1692 — when the first usual symptoms began to be reported — could easily have been contaminated by large quantities of ergot. The summer of 1692, however, was dry, which could explain the abrupt end of the 'bewitchments.' These and other clues built up into a circumstantial case against ergot that Caporael found impossible to ignore."

easy to cultivate, particularly nowadays, as in the late 1600's...

you knew that anyway, didn't you, Master Juan? ;)

Love and Respect,

~N~

[Isaiah Mpski]

It's been raining here now for about a week so I guess the conditions are set for something with my crop of rye.
Where are you now Nanouk,and what are you doing?
Conditions on the farm,in terms of productivity look great.Peas,beans,corn,curcubits,squah,tomatoes all look great.
Making progress on putting a pump in our glacial well so we can water everything when it gets hot here in Ok(which it always does).
Also about to get our fishing harvest back in order.
Our boat got swamped in a storm and some idiot cut all our lines but we are slowly but surely getting everything back in order.
Hope things are well with you and yours.Sincerely,Juan Sol.

[craazyman]

interesting nanouk. makes me wonder if I should return to the materialist camp like the prodigal son, begging forgiveness for my doubts. maybe consciousness is truly nothing more than an epiphenomenon of whatever molecules are floating through the brain.

well, isaiah, i've been here in the dog shit capital of the world for two straight weeks now. longest stretch in a year and a half. they replaced the old bus stops. now splashing metal high tech looking, like little office bu8ildings with clean glass. they look expensive. took a solitary night walk down second avenue last night on a warm summer evening--second ave. is a real memory lane for me--now a gauntlet of ghosts and faces and scenes long gone and restaurants and sawdust-floored irish bars that are no longer there. the yogurt shops and ice cream parlors now get the long lines. happy sober people in shorts and crisp shirts, and fat young women with thick butts like well-fed sorority girls, in well-mannered lines 20-30 deep. and inside the servers wear funny hats and aprons and sing together with big bright smiles. everyone seems slightly enchanted, or fighting off some hideous psychic force. in the old days it was the sad-faced and rowdies in line to get into the bars, everyone smoking marlboro lights. it must be the anti-depressants and/or the money, or both.

I still think JST will pop when the earnings numbers come out this year. it's dead in the water until then. Yes HSOA is now at 7 and I sold like a moron at 5.14 thinking I was Mr. Trader when it fell to 4.50. I should have known better, but panic is as panic does. LOL.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Great description of the Big Apple CM.
Me,I went to LA the other day on a lark.Wanted to check out a program I saw about the homeless.
Skid Row is all it is advertized to be.Fifty square blocks of the insanity of trying to live in the capitalistic world without the right tools.All of them rotting,physically and spiritually slowing swirling in a great cruel insane vortex to only Gott knows where and God doesn't intend for people to exist like that.

I thought after seeing that,that my moral life would somehow be changed and I would be a better person,partner,and worker.
And then I found myself sleeping with a girl who approached me at the airport me with the line,
"Aren't you somebody famous?"LOL.
Turned out she was a Scientolgist.


Thats right Nanouk.Red-hair,braided down to his butt,freckle faced and built so solidly he could have excelled at any sport he wanted too.And all he wanted to do was guard Quanum Parker.
Terrible what a drug addiction can do to people.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Musta been the sunglasses CM.
Can you believe that ass-hole Greenspam.Says about three days ago that the China bubble is about to bust and causes the market over there to lose 4 % and then two days later they find the largest gas field in history.Enough gas to supply China for 60 YEARS.
Talk about putting your foot in your mouth and getting paid back with synchronicity.

[nanouk]

Musta been the sunglasses CM.
Can you believe that ass-hole Greenspam.Says about three days ago that the China bubble is about to bust and causes the market over there to lose 4 % and then two days later they find the largest gas field in history.Enough gas to supply China for 60 YEARS.
Talk about putting your foot in your mouth and getting paid back with synchronicity.

"Mouahahah!!!"

Waste not, want not....

Methane is a wonderful being, is it not?

~n~

[Isaiah Mpski]

And not only that Nanouk but today the Chinese government sentenced to death an offical who had been convicted of taking bribes.You better not be a white collar criminal in China.
Maybe that's why Greenspam is so down on them.
You are right Nanouk.Methane is a relative clean form of energy and as such is valuable in our war on global poisoning.
If the world-and I believe in a biglobal world right now,meaning we ought to put our energys into cleaning up the social and moral mess we have over here in the "new world"- could learn to get along with each other rather than learn better ways of killing each other-along with China and Russia,we could create Heaven on earth.
That's what John the Baptist meant when he said,
"...the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

It's time for the Hebrews to get out of Israel.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Yes methane is a very clean burning fuel in our war on global warming.
Also today the Chinese government sentenced to death an offical who had been convicted of taking bribes,some of them associated with the pet food poisoning.
They are rough on white collar crime over there.
Maybe that's why Greenspam doesn't think their society will continue to prosper.
It's time for the Hebrews to get out of Israel and for us to clean up our own social messes we find ourselves in.
Sorry I had to repeat some of my points.My first response didn't show up on my computor.The scientolgists must be at work again.
Oh well all good things come in twos,so it is said.

[craazyman]

Yeah G-span is a real tripper. Anyone who goes for the Ayn Rand nonsense even as a young man is suspect in my book from the start. And I would certainly bore what's left of the board with a critique of his Fed Chairmanship, but one of his last moves was to put everyone in the adjustable rate mortgages, oh, about 500 basis points ago. LOL!

Then he makes a speech last month saying that the "growing wealth inequality in America" is the biggest present danger to our system. Well, hmmm. Did ya' ever think that maybe YOUR CENTRAL BANKING CREDIT BUBBLE POLICY might have had something to do with that???!!!!

Anway, this stuff will go over too many heads, or under too many radars.

He's probably a nice man and I certainly have nothing against him personally, but I think most lifelong economists just drink the coolaid. Nothing like never working a day in your life outside a library to warp your view of reality.

Speaking of not working. It occurred to me that Mitt Romney is a dead ringer (in a way) for Jethro Bodine of the old Hillbillies. I can see him out in his back yard aiming for the varmints crawling along down by the fence.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Along with his seven wives.Lol.Lucky guy?

It's GreenSPAM isn't it CM?

In a serious vein can't anyone else see that if Israel..."like in the time of Moses.. would abandon their claim(and according to the myths involved unscrupulously obtained) to Palestine and migrate as predicted in the Dead Sea Scrolls to a land across the sea then we could bring our battle hardened army home and invade from Mexico to the tip of the south pole(making Mexico the 51st state along the way) on the pretense of conducting a war on drugs.
After all Israel is no larger than the state of Rhode Island and as an industrious and hard working they are in general they would be a welcome change on this half of the globe.
I think I'll change my name to Moses.

Looks like everybody cept Sidecross has abandoned us CM.Really wish we could all get together on the farm and hash out the world problems for a few days.Gets kinda lonely here in Indian Territory.Maybe it's a post holiday depression of sorts.Maybe a good hurricane would cheer me up?
Garden is really doing well despite several continous days of rain.
Hope things are going well for all you Bothers.
SueBee keeps threatening to come by but I think(now don't tell her I told you this CM as she is seemingly a bit shy) but I think she kinda likes your style of writing.
I guess I'm just a romantic at heart.
You know any of you guys traveling down I-40 to Burning Man are welcome to drop in for a visit.

If Willow is tuning in.Willow,I too am on the wagon again but I ain't promising anything when I get to Mexico.
Oh how I miss my daily ration of wine.
And Nanouk,it is always good to se your posts.I consider you one of the "more" intelligent members of this group.I do miss all the others who aren't posting.
Thanks for posting CM.Glad to see JST moving up.Just wish SHI would also.

[suebee]

hey isaiah, st anthony's fire is nothing to f. with. it causes blood vessel constriction, gangrene and DEATH. get your lsd from a test tube, por favor. or else pick some psilocybe or lophophora williamsii. after asking permission of course. :p

[Isaiah Mpski]

Do you know how to sat that in Spainish SueBee?As far as I know Mexico is the only place to find it.
No LSD for me thank you.

[willoweyes]

went to a pig roast today, in honor of our democratic candidate running against Ralph ":The Emperor in Star Wars" Hall.

our candidate is Glenn Melancon, a spotless pure decent guy. who does like a beer and loves his hot little red-headed cajun wife, and got into politics after he saw the writing on the wall left in the wash of Katrina.

Doris kearns Goodwin was giving a talk about Lincoln yesterday, on OETA. Hearing of Lincoln's honor, and humor, and steadfast brave spirit, one had to be struck by the de-volution of our political creatures lately

got to get glen elected. come help us, little bee.

and you too craazy.

and anybody else out there who has an itch to get up off their big caboose and do something.

[craazyman]

went out to Bull Run battlefield yesterday, about 30 miles west of Washington, DC. This is the site of the first major battle of the Civil War in 1861, the first Battle of Manassas. As a historical site run by the National Park service, the countryside there is well preserved and hasn't changed much, in fact, from those days, with wide, low hills smooth with blowing tall grass and rung by heavy patches of woods, the blue line of mountains on the horizon from the hilltops.

It is hard to believe all that happened here. It seems like it happened somewhere else, and then that place transformed itself in a womb of time and produced the here and now. Not with any linear connection, but like a transmutation.

There was a confederate outpost on the hill at the end of street where I grew up and where family still lives. And common people would line up at the White House to petition Lincoln for presidential favors, which he would often grant out of sympathy.

He forsaw his own death in a dream that proved to be harrowingly prophetic. He suspended the writ of habeus corpus and instituted a draft, and pardoned draft dogers and awol cases. He was called a gorilla and war criminal by his critics, who heaped more invective on him than on any president before or since. He was accused of abetting Confederate spies through his wife's Kentucky family and he admitted that he hardly led the nation, but followed events that ran always ahead of him. Had he not found Ulysees Grant, who knows what would have happened. There is a photo of him in the final days of the war that shows him emaciated, gaunt and almost frightened looking, shrinking back into his skin. Quite a contrast from the Lincoln of 5 years before.

And yet who can deny that he was a genius and possibly, at some weird level, a saint, put on earth by some special providence to perform a task and when that task had been accomplished, he was brought back, as if he had been on loan the whole time. There is a story that his body was dug up decades after his death, and he had not decomposed.

If he were alive today, I wonder what he would make of things. He would be too wise to be amazed at the idiocy of contemporary politics, he dealt with idiots in his day too, but I wonder if he would feel disgust or just sorrow and grief.

[Isaiah Mpski]

He'd send all the idiots to Africa and take over Cuba.:D
Now you talk about making a case about who else prob has nukes.
If you think a few werne't left behind than you are unintellectual.
They could well be in Ven. as well.