I was thinking today about blotter art and went aGoogling. Blotterart.com sells famous designs and a lot of signed prints by famous heads. They also do custom printing (hint hint). Anyway, as I was poking around at their site, I found this double-sided print of Dancing Condoms. Dancing Condoms was the first blotter art I ever let dissolve under my tongue, and I was happy to find that it's still available.

Nice retrospective. But really, who could say anything bad about Albert?

Doping will always be a scandal in pro sports, but what if some mutant athletes could take steroids without it being detected in a urine test? Turns out that for some people this is exactly the case:

The 55 men in a drug doping study in Sweden were normal and healthy. And all agreed, for the sake of science, to be injected with testosterone and then undergo the standard urine test to screen for doping with the hormone.

The results were unambiguous: the test worked for most of the men, showing that they had taken the drug. But 17 of the men tested negative. Their urine seemed fine, with no excess testosterone even though the men clearly had taken the drug.

It was, researchers say, a striking demonstration of a genetic discovery. Those 17 men can build muscles with testosterone, they respond normally to the hormone, but they are missing both copies of a gene used to convert the testosterone into a form that dissolves in urine. The result is that they may be able to take testosterone with impunity.

Doping with impunity? I like the sound of that.

In case you hadn't seen this one, this one's been buzzing locally: you might someday be denied organ transplants for using marijuana. It's happening in Seattle right now, to a patient who will die without a liver transplant:

With the scarcity of donated organs, transplant committees like the one at the University of Washington Medical Center use tough standards, including whether the candidate has other serious health problems or is likely to drink or do drugs.

And with cases like Garon's, they also have to consider — as a dozen states now have medical marijuana laws — if using dope with a doctor's blessing should be held against a dying patient in need of a transplant.

Amazingly, here is the justification:

"Marijuana, unlike alcohol, has no direct effect on the liver. It is however a concern ... in that it's a potential indicator of an addictive personality," Sade said.

And of course, if we let these people die, they won't turn into addicts. It just makes sense!

Seriously, tough standards are appropriate in these cases, I'm sure, but in states where medical marijuana is legal, this just seems like massive overkill (no pun intended).

Just found this web comic called Overcompensating that mentions DMT elves. Haven't looked into it much yet but seems promising!

A DOSENATION reader has received confirmation of the passing of Dr. Albert Hofmann, from Dr. Rick Doblin:

Peter Gasser, MD, the PI on MAPS' LSD/end-of-life anxiety study, just called me with details. Albert died at home at 9 AM Basel time from a myocardial infarction, quick and relatively painless. Two caretakers were there with him at the time. The only people who were told were people from Burg, the village where he lived, and Peter and others were surprised the word of his death had gotten out so quickly. It's the age of the internet...

Albert had been increasingly thinking of death these last few months. He had stopped leaving his home, where he said he could feel the spirit of Anita, his wife who died December 20, 2007. He didn't come to the World Psychedelic Forum a month ago, but did entertain some visitors at his home. We spoke on the phone the day after the Basel conference and he was happy and fulfilled. He'd seen the renewal of LSD psychotherapy research with his own eyes, as had Anita. I said that I looked forward to discussing the results of the study with him in about a year and a half and he laughed and said he'd try to help the research however he could, either from this side or "the other side".

Now it even more falls on younger generations to transform LSD into a legal medicine and beyond that into a tool for personal growth legally available to all.

There's more to say - and I'm sure many people will be saying it. It will be interesting to read the New York Times obituary...

A poster on reddit today has announced that Albert Hofmann, beloved inventor of the best drug on the planet, passed away yesterday evening:

This isn't in the news yet. I'm from Basel and Hoffmann lived close (in Burg). My friends mother helped to look after him, he died last night (of old age probably, he was 102).

You might not belive one source you don't know and who has no way to back up his claims but it's true. It will probably go public soon.

I'm posting this here as it has been confirmed to me by several sources within the community. Let's all take a moment to bow our heads in silence for the passing of a truly visionary individual. So long Al, thanks for EVERYTHING.

Use it or lose it people...

Memory trainings may improve problem solving skills of brain called fluid intelligence, which was previously thought to be unchangeable.

Fluid intelligence is brain's ability to solve problems. It was previously believed that this ability is not possible to change. However, this new research comes to show that carefully designed brain training tools can improve this ability.

A joint team of US and Swiss researchers designed series of computer games to train working memory. It is believed that working memory is very close to fluid intelligence and it is based on the same brain circuit.

The computer game designed to get to a more difficult level if the player succeeds to meet everyone's intelligence level, but if the player looses, the coming level gets easier not to disappoint the player.

A team of 70 participants was divided into four groups exercising 30 minutes a day for different periods: 8, 12, 17 and 19 days. All participants were tested for fluid intelligence before and after the study. Tests results showed that those who trained more showed significantly more improvement compared to those who trained less. The research suggests that training branches up cells and form more connections between them.

This new research comes to change previously established opinion that fluid intelligence can be improved. It shows that brain, just as like other parts of body, can be trained up. Like people training for sports are having regular and intensive trainings to achieve higher results, those training the brain regularly can boost intelligence.

Salvinorin A is the active component of the crazy YouTube drug Salvia divinorum. Although we know a little about how salvinorin A works, there have not been any rigorous scientific studies with monkeys getting booted up on the stuff under high-energy scanners. Until now...

Hooker and fellow researchers used positron emission tomography, or PET scanning, to watch the distribution of salvinorin A in the brains of anesthetized primates. In this technique, the scientists administer a radioactively labeled form of salvinorin A (at concentrations far below pharmacologically active doses) and use the PET scanner to track its site-specific concentrations in various brain regions.

Within 40 seconds of administration, the researchers found a peak concentration of salvinorin A in the brain – nearly 10 times faster than the rate at which cocaine enters the brain. About 16 minutes later, the drug was essentially gone. This pattern parallels the effects described by human users, who experience an almost immediate high that starts fading away within 5 to 10 minutes.

High concentrations of the drug were localized to the cerebellum and visual cortex, which are parts of the brain responsible for motor function and vision, respectively. Based on their results and published data from human use, the scientists estimate that just 10 micrograms of salvia in the brain is needed to cause psychoactive effects in humans.

Salvia doesn’t cause the typical euphoric state associated with other hallucinogens like LSD, Hooker said. The drug targets a receptor that is known to modulate pain and could be important for therapies as far reaching as mood disorders.

There you have it people. Science at its finest.

I just received news that Albert Hofmann past away this morning.

Sad news for all who made acquaintance of his alchemical magik....

Blessings Albert, may the voyage be sweet!

G