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Tuesday, May 07, 2002
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F.B.I. in Texas Search for Man in Pipe Bombings. The F.B.I. issued a bulletin today for a 22-year-old man sought in connection with a wave of pipe bombs, police in Texas said. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: National
Jeez, one way or another it seems as if at least half of these ultra-right wing, cousin humping, mouth breathing, booger eating whacko morons are either from Texas or eventually end up here. What, is there a “This is Texas, All Goobers Welcome,” sign at the border?
Cheers,
Dusty
7:02:30 PM 
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A Forbidding Landscape That's Eden for Peyote. The brush land from Mirando City, Tex., to the Rio Grande is the only place in the U.S. where peyote grows in the wild. By Ross E. Milloy. [New York Times: National]
My hallucinogen days are likely gone forever, but I’d stopped doing peyote – at least commercially sold peyote – long ago due to the damage unregulated harvesting was causing. Anglo hippies and drug dealers were literally ripping the fragile plants out of the ground.
It takes up to 20 years for a single peyote button to grow big enough to harvest. If you rip out an entire plant, there is no way for that plant to reproduce. If you ever have the chance, the correct way to harvest peyote is to cut off the top of the button, leaving a portion still attached to the ground. The remaining portion will grow into one or more new buttons.
BTW, if you really want the best peyote, Northern Mexico is the spot. I’ve seen peyote buttons there bigger than my fist. In fact, a peyote tourist industry has sprung up around Real de Catorce, a remote canyon area in North-central Mexico. You can even rent a cabin and a shaman to guide your trip. Pick carefully. As with many touristy things, a lot of it is bullshit. The best shamans won’t be clamoring for your business.
Also, watch out for the Judicial, the Mexican federal police, who go under cover as shamans. Peyote is illegal in Mexico and they will bust you, or at very least extort a bunch of cash from you. Though one of the finest peyote experiences I ever had was as the guest of a high ranking federale at his cabin in Real de Catorce, the uninitiated should exercise extreme caution, both with the drug and the circumstances.
Cheers,
Dusty
6:59:53 PM
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McDonald's 'to offer web access'. On BBC SciTech [News Is Free: Popular Items]
Give me a Big Mac with Wi-Fi on the side. At first glance, this seems like a fairly logical progression. But wouldn’t you think a *fast food* restaurant would have a vested interest in getting people in and out quickly? It’s not like Mickey D’s is selling coffee at $4 a pop to day long surfers.
Cheers,
Dusty
6:18:12 PM
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Worldwide weather watchers wanted. Your home computer could soon be helping work out how global climate will change over the next 50 years. [BBC News: sci/tech]
Now that I’ve finally gotten my certificate for completing 5000 SETI@home work units, maybe it’s time to check out a new distributed computing project. This one looks as good as any.
Cheers,
Dusty
5:53:13 AM
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Groucho Marx. "I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER." [Quotes of the Day]
Had to put this up in the interests of accuracy. Admit it, how may of you knew the real quote?
Cheers,
Dusty
5:46:31 AM
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Pain or Brain Redux
Wow, I sure wasn’t expecting the flood of responses to my drug addled screed of a few days back (http://radio.weblogs.com/0105714/2002/05/02.html#a283). This silly story produced more feedback than everything else combined. OK, I’ll try to answer the most common questions.
As to my current cadre of drugs, here, listed more or less from strong to weak:
Percocet - Schedule 2 triple copy DEA monitored narcotic - (oxycodone, 5/325) - Pain drug of last resort.
Pain relief rating: 7.5, Fun rating: 7
Dosage: 1 or 2 as needed every 4 to 6 hours for knee pain.
Vicodin ES - Schedule 3 Narcotic - (hydrocodone, 7.5/750) For occasional breakthrough pain.
Pain relief rating 6, Fun rating 2
Dosage: 1 or 2 as needed every 4 to 6 hours for knee pain.
Lortab – Schedule 3 Narcotic - (hydrocodone, 7.5/500) A little less acetamenophine, but still a full dose of hydrocodone.
Pain relief rating 6, Fun rating 2
Dosage: 1 or 2 as needed every 4 to 6 hours for knee pain.
Vicodin RS (hydrocodone, 5/500) – Schedule 3 narcotic - Same shit, smaller dose.
Pain relief rating 5, Fun rating 2
Dosage: 1 or 2 every 4 to 6 hours for knee pain.
Ultram (MCNEI 50mg) – non narcotic analgesic.
Pain relief rating: 4, Fun rating 0
Dosage: 1 every 8 to 12 hours for knee pain.
Soma (carisoprodol 350 mg) – non narcotic muscle relaxant
Pain relief rating: 8, Fun rating 5
Dosage: 1 every 4 hours for neck and shoulder pain.
Dalmane (flurazepam 30mg) – narcotic sleeping aid
Effectiveness: 6, Fun rating 6
Vioxx 25 mg – gene block osteoarthritis treatment
Dosage: 1 per day
Effectiveness: 7, Fun rating 0
In addition, I self medicate with a gram or so of top quality KGB every per and I average 2 alcoholic beverages per day.
I also have injectable local anesthetics I can shoot into my knee as needed: Lidocaine for short term deadening and Marcaine for 18-24 hrs of total numbness. Needless to say, it’s dangerous to kill all sensation. There’s no way to know if an injury has been exacerbated or to recognize new trauma. So I use the locals *very* rarely.
It’s quite the well stocked personal apothecary, but the reason I keep it so well stocked is so I can as few drugs as possible to achieve livable results. I follow a gradient scale of drug use, except for the pot, which remains pretty constant.
The first level is Vioxx. I take it every day as a preventive measure. And it works pretty well for me. For more serious aches and pain, I’ll take an Ultram. I usually take a Soma or 2 per day, not the 4 to 6 called for, but that’s for my neck/shoulder, not my knee.
If I’m still sore, or if the pain is more than just general stiff and sore twangs to be expected in an old fart, I’ll move up to one of the Vicodins. Usually I’ll start with half of an ES. If, after a half hour or so, that isn’t cutting it, I’ll take more, but as little as possible at any given time.
I’m always looking for the minimum effective dose. It varies, depending on the condition of my knees, but once I hit a workable plateau I can use the same dose for at least a few days. Vicodin ain’t much fun, but neither is being stuck in bed.
Every once in a while, less and less as time goes by, following the pain relief gradient just doesn’t cut it. For those occasional times when the pain prevents me from sleeping, I’ve got the Percocet. And the Dalmane.
A cocktail of Soma, Percocet and Dalmane guarantees me a minimum of 8 solid hours of uninterrupted, pain free sleep. It also guarantees me a head filled with Vaseline the next morning, but every once in a while the long dreamless void is worth the short term stupor.
Cheers,
Dusty
5:39:00 AM
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5:35:00 AM
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Access to Free Online Music Is Seen as a Boost to Sales. Disputing the position of the record companies, a new report has found that people who use file-sharing networks to obtain music over the Internet are likely to increase their spending on music. [New York Times: Technology]
This is but the latest in a series of Jupiter polls suggesting music file trading actually has a net positive effect on CD sales. I’m not buying it.
All of these studies have a glaring flaw. They depend on users to answer honestly, not quantifiable data. Hello? These are the same users who are downloading every damn MP3 they can find and to hell with copyrights. What the hell do you think they’re going to say?
Cheers,
Dusty
3:41:07 AM
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U.S. Rejects All Support for New Court on Atrocities. Bush administration officials said on Monday that the new International Criminal Court should expect no cooperation from the U.S. By Neil A. Lewis. [New York Times: Politics]
You know, I really admire Bush’s stance against rogue countries that refuse to recognize the overwhelming coalition of nations supporting human rights and fighting crimes against humanity. It’s just a damn shame we’re one of those rogue countries.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:47:15 AM
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Enron Forced Up California Energy Prices, Documents Show. Electricity traders at Enron drove up electricity prices during the California power crisis, possibly contributing to severe power shortages in the state. By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Jeff Gerth. [New York Times: Politics]
Gosh, you mean Bush’s great pals at Enron might have illegally manipulated prices to boost their profits? Sorry, it’s getting hard to work up the requisite righteous indignation over the continual bungles of the thieves in the White House. They’re crooks, plain and simple. Let’s throw the thieving assholes out.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:44:56 AM
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Dean Kamen: Nefarious skinner of knees. The Segway has claimed its first victim:
The hype said it was impossible to fall off of a Segway. It was only a matter of time until a skinned knee made national news. I still want one.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:42:26 AM
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US expands 'axis of evil'. The US adds three new countries - Cuba, Libya and Syria - to its "axis of evil", claiming they aim to develop weapons of mass destruction. [BBC News: world]
Well, hey, ‘Axis of Evil I’ went over so well, why not try a sequel? Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with these idiots? Cuba? What, they’ll cut off our supply of bootleg cigars? Sheesh, what a bunch of maroons the Bushies really are.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:40:34 AM
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Jerry Garcia's guitars up for auction. After a long strange trip, two guitars once owned by the late Grateful Dead lead singer are put up for auction. [CNET News.com]
The stories from inside the Dead family on this issue would make your teeth itch. The bottom line is when big bucks are involved, progressive hippy ethos take a hit. I’m not going to get into Dead family internal politics here, but suffice it to say there was enough mud slung to sully all.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:38:31 AM
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New Details Emerge From the Einstein Files. Einstein's F.B.I. file now is open and a book coming out this month reveals much about the bureau's efforts to spy on him and his secretary. By Dennis Overbye. [New York Times: Science]
It’s pretty damn funny to think of the idiots at Hoover’s FBI trying to make a case against arguably the smartest man to live in the 20th century. The breadth and depth of their stupidity still stuns, even 40 years later.
I found out a while back that I have an FBI file. When I was a kid in the ‘60s, my mom was active in anti-war and civil rights circles. Well, at least she was active in those circles inhabited by affluent white people.
Her affiliations were with groups like SCLC and Operation Push, not the SDS or the Black Panthers. Nonetheless, turns out the FBI, along with the infamous Chicago APD Red Squad, kept a file on her.
In ’71 I joined her to march for The Moratorium (against the Viet Nam war) in downtown Chicago. At some point a reporter for the Tribune asked me why I was there, thinking I was just another cute kid in tow with his suburban liberal guilt mom.
The guy was obviously surprised when I started rattling off statistics and commentary on current events and past history. As a result I ended up in a side bar on the front page of the Trib.
That was enough for the FBI to open a file on me. I got a copy of it through FOI a few years back. Even then, huge sections were blacked out.
The fact is the FBI was a bunch of stupid, evil motherfuckers and now they’ll spare no effort in blocking the release of materials that prove it. But one quick read through the Einstein file provides irrefutable evidence of a deeply entrenched paranoia and stupidity of truly epic proportions.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:32:30 AM
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Vivendi treads choppy waters online. The media conglomerate sends mixed signals about its long-term Web strategy and raises persistent questions about the health of the online media business. [CNET News.com]
These assholes sure have a lot of nerve. After all but killing Net music, now they’re leaving the carcass to rot. If you want to know why the Net music revolution hasn’t happened, look closely at the actions of the major labels.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:08:49 AM
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Code Red still threatens Net. Researchers worry that computers infected by the Code Red worm, which continues to slowly spread, could be used as a ready army for a cyberattack. [CNET News.com]
Oh, fer chrissakes, what the hell is the major malfunction out there? If you’re running any ISS product – or any Windows product at all, download and install the damn patches, already. They’re free and they work.
It’d be nice if everyone made sure they had a good AV program kept up to date, too. Heck, why not a firewall, too? Zone Alarm is cheap and easy.
Folks, it’s the lamest of the lame to be spreading Code Red or Nimda at this point. Don’t get caught having to send out apologies later. Take responsibility for your system now.
Cheers,
Dusty
2:04:30 AM
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Stargazers watch via the web. Astronomers and schoolchildren could soon be watching the sky via a network of telescopes controlled via the internet. [BBC News: sci/tech]
This looks very cool. Watch for eStar updates here in the near future.
Cheers,
Dusty
1:55:33 AM
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The Peril and Profit in Bagging Big Antlers Behind High Fences. The proliferation of ranches across rural Texas that cater to deer hunters has raised a host of ethical, economic and environmental questions. By Jim Yardley. [New York Times: Science]
I’ve lived in Texas about a dozen years, now, and there’s one thing that’s hard to miss. Texans like shooting stuff. All sorts of stuff. But to call these canned hunts sport is asinine.
I also lived in Northern Michigan, were lots of people hunt. But they’d laugh their asses off at the wimpy bullshit Texans call hunting. In fact, many of the techniques common in Texas are outlawed elsewhere. Like baiting deer with corn. I mean come on, how much of a pussy do you have to be to hide in a blind by feeder with a high powered rifle? Pathetic.
Cheers,
Dusty
1:54:05 AM
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Odds Are Stacked When Science Tries to Debate Pseudoscience. Opponents of the scientific method try very hard to appear in debates with scientists. Merely being on the same stage represents a victory. By Lawrence M. Krauss. [New York Times: Science]
The general stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me. What the fuck is the big trick in separating the results of independently verifiable, repeatable observation from belief?
Creation “science,” UFOlogy, purple flying ponies sprinkling magic pixie dust – I don’t much care in what ridiculous notion a person cares to believe. Just don’t try to teach it as science, fer chrissakes. It's absolutely insane that such idiocies should share mindspace with real science.
Cheers,
Dusty
1:48:23 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Dusty Rhodes.
Last update: 6/28/2002; 10:30:45 PM.
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