By way of Reality Sandwich and reader JY we learn of this video from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist who suffered a massive stroke and then studied the malfunctions of her own brain as it went kablooey. People don't like to believe our sense of subject self, our "consciousness", is actually the byproduct of a very small number of neural complexes constantly keeping reality ordered for us, but when communication between these complexes becomes decoupled due to injury, degradation, or intervention, what we sense as the self and reality becomes entirely unraveled. Sound familiar ego-deathers?

This was forwarded to me from a friend. I take no responsibility for what you are about to watch.

Or... there goes my European Vacation.

The Dutch cabinet has proposed a bill to ban the sale of hallucinogenic or so-called "magic mushrooms".

A majority of MPs is expected to back the proposal, which comes after a number of accidents, mostly involving tourists.

The health ministry said the number of incidents linked with the use of magic mushrooms had almost doubled in the last four years, mainly in Amsterdam.

But owners of the shops that sell them say the ban is unnecessary.

...

Compromise proposal

The ban on the cultivation and use of the mushrooms means most of Smart Shops will have to close.

The shop owners argue that users will now buy dried mushrooms, which are already illegal.

The Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, has proposed as a compromise, a three-day cooling-off period between getting the information on magic mushrooms in the Smart Shops and actually buying them.

Under the suggested scheme, if an informed tourist decides to go ahead with a mushroom trip, he can pick up his pack of paddos in the Smart Shop, three days later.

I rarely ever see news about DMT labs getting busted, so I found the following local news report to be of interest. Looks mostly like a college kid prone to a little experimentation, as opposed to some kind of major operation:

Authorities told 24 Hour News 8 the suspect admitted to them that he bought some of the substances on the Internet, including a form of a tree bark. While using a homemade lab, the college student said he made the bark into a paste, put it on marijuana and smoked it, giving him an enhanced hallucinogenic experience.

Of course, comments like this crack me up just a little:

Because DMT labs are extremely volatile, the Oshtemo Fire Department was standing by as HAZMAT crews dealt with the lab.

Which just brings to mind the image of HAZMAT crews trying to contain an outbreak of jeweled, self-dribbling basketballs that might come exploding from the kid's apartment. Aaaanyway...

Ouch:

A party reveller who took LSD-laced Maltesers scalped himself before falling from a tree and snapping his spine .

Christopher Marlow has been left paralysed from the chest down after the devastating fall at a friend's party.

He had earlier ripped the skin and hair from his head in a bid to "free demons" after taking the hallucinogenic chocolates.

Mr Marlow was discovered writhing in pain at the bottom of the tree, having broken four ribs and lumbar vertebrae in his spine.

The 25-year-old is likely to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

The young man did his best to deflect blame away from the party host who supplied him with the LSD-infused goodie, although the judge in the case made sure to layer on as much guilt as he could, telling her:

"It is a particular consequence of your supply that a young man, who is clearly anxious not to place any blame on you, is now paralysed and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

"He may not blame you, but there is no getting away from the fact that this was in large part your doing."

So there! At any rate, let that be a lesson to all of you: if you're stuck with demons inside you, freeing them by peeling your scalp off is going to be more trouble than it's worth.

Some things are just good, like ice cream, grandaddy purple, or exploding cars. So what happens when you take two good things and mix em up? Even more good. So without further ado, here's two of my favorite men on the face of the planet doing a duet, the first few seconds of video are behind someone's hand or something like that so be slightly patient.

We've been getting many requests for reposts of expired links for the mixes from Waldemar, DoseNation's resident DJ, so we've created an archive where these MP3s can be found for easy download, streaming, podcasting, or whatever. Thank you for your listenings. Enjoy!

Dedicated to Freebass Society & Disco Productions (New Orleans) rulers of the Loew's State Palace Theatre on Canal St. where I raved MANY a night!

A 200-minute mix that goes from downtempo to classic techno, contemporary drumtrax techno, house remixes of classic electro, tribal, dnb, classic dnb, happy hardcore, back to downtempo, then classic trance, classic house, classic breaks, electro house. Whew!

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1.) Tenacious D - 'Cave Intro' (rare demo)
2.) Tenacious D - 'Jesus Ranch' (rare demo)
3.) Tower of Power - 'What is Hip?' (T.O.P.R.M.X.)
4.) Art of Noise - 'Metaforce'
5.) Art of Noise - 'Diversions 3'
6.) Art of Noise - 'Closest'
7.) Westbam - 'Mayday Anthem'
8.) Oliver Lieb - 'Schleudertrauma'
9.) Dave the Drummer - 'Hotwire' (original mix)
10.) Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force - 'Looking for the Perfect Beat' (Brutal Bill extended mix)
11.) Daz Saund & Ben Tisdall - 'Juggernaut'
12.) L.A. Style - 'James Brown is Dead' (original mix without rap)
13.) Tribal Raid - 'The Reworks' (Jorge Watts vs. Tokyo 3 remix)
14.) Rocker's Revenge - 'Battle Cry'
15.) Arthur Baker - 'Breaker's Revenge' (Dub mix-vocal)
16.) Ice-T & Chris 'The Glove' Taylor - 'Reckless'
17.) Pirates of Tribal - 'Deeper Inside (Blackside)'
18.) Tribal Tech - 'Kurieh' (original mix)
19.) Pirates of Tribal - 'Celebrate the Life (Whiteside)'
20.) Plastikman - 'Smak'
21.) The Joint - 'The Joint'
22.) Amazon 2 - 'Booyaa'
23.) The Dream Team - 'Yeah Man' (VIP remix)
24.) Shy FX - 'Original Nuttah' (Aphrodite remix)
25.) Kubiks + Lomax - 'Off the Grid'
26.) DJ Marky + Bungle - 'No Time 2 Love'
27.) Bill Hicks - 'Psilocybin'
28.) DJ Brisk - 'Airhead' (DJ Ham S.E. remix)
29.) Alk-E-D - 'Selecta' (Ham & D remix)
30.) DJ Force & The Evolution - 'Perfect Dreams' (Bangin' S.E. remix)
31.) Jonny L - 'Ooh I Like It (Original Sin)'
32.) Source - 'It's a Kind of Magic'
33.) Gary Wright - 'Dreamweaver' (Supreme Beings of Leisure remix)
34.) Leftfield - 'Song of Life'
35.) Gipsy - 'I Trance You'
36.) Liquid City - 'Givin' My All' (Chanson De La Gintane)
37.) Pascal's Bongo Massive Vol. 3 - 'Pascal's Jam'
38.) Head Trip - 'Rock Da Acid'
39.) New Scene - 'Out of Control'
40.) Art of Noise - 'Moments In Love (Beaten)' [Benaco cover]
41.) My Favorite - 'Homeless Club Kids' (Future Bible Heroes remix)
42.) My Favorite - 'Homeless Club Kids' (Alexander Peris remix)
43.) My Favorite - 'Homeless Club Kids' (Double Agent remix - outro)

One of our agents in the field visited Yemen recently, and offered this report back to his compatriots in the homeland:

While I was in Sana'a, I did what pretty much every traveler is expected to do: I had a qat-chewing session with the locals.

The Yemenis ball their qat into a golf-ball-sized wad in their mouths, and keep it there for hours, refreshing it as they go. This is unlike the common African technique of chewing and swallowing the small, green leaves. A good-sized ball will cause your cheek (left for men, right for women) to bulge, and the only aftereffect I noticed was soreness from having my cheek stretched out for that long.

Qat is illegal in the US (in fact, they won't even offer visas to Yemenis who have chewed it within the last 3 years), but really, the effect isn't what's damaging. The active ingredient, cathinone, is only present in the leaf for 3 days, and its effects were extremely mild. Like caffeine, without the jitters. To give you some analogous experience, take 5mg of some generic amphetamine and chew on some clover.

Unfortunately, the real problem is the damage it does to the land and economy of Yemen. The UN estimated that almost 1600 working hours per person per year are lost to qat chewing. (My session lasted 8 hours; most chewers leave work at lunch to score some at the qat markets, and just don't come back to work.) Some 80% of men and 40% of women (plus 15% of kids 12 and under) chew qat, and many spend as much as half their income (which averages less than $1/day) acquiring it. It also uses 2/3 of the country's irrigation, and 90% of new well water is used to grow it.

When asked about why purported stimulant (caffeine-like) effects would cause a slowdown in work, his response:

It's a combination of things. First, you're at 7000ft, in the desert, where the high temperature is between 90 and 110, so going outside again isn't particularly appetizing. They also have this cool living room-like place called a mafraj, which is on the 3rd floor or higher, with fitted cushions all around the outside, so they can sit and chat with one another while they chew. It's a very social drug. Also, qat is a long, slow buildup, and causes lots of people to be relaxed. I didn't feel particularly lazy, but some people apparently do feel mentally stimulated, while not being particularly interested in moving other parts of their body. (Chewers claim that qat makes them better in bed, though that is notably disputed by their lovers.)

Some chewers, particularly taxi drivers, will chew while working, but most just disappear for 3 hours or more each day.

[T]he place where I chewed was a business where the boss had actually scored for the workers. It was a fairly common social activity for them. And they joked that their wives don't trust them anymore when they say they're staying late at work. ;)

In a turn of events that is thoroughly timely and incredibly relevant to the struggles of today, Yoko Ono is apparently suing someone for control of documentary footage of John Lennon being, uh, John Lennon:

FOOTAGE of John Lennon smoking marijuana, writing songs and discussing putting the drug LSD in then US president Richard Nixon's tea is the focus of a court case starting in Boston next week.

The case pits Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, against Massachusetts-based World Wide Video, which claims ownership of nine hours of raw footage of the former Beatle and Ono, which was filmed just weeks before the band broke up in 1970.

Naturally this footage is going to SHOCK THE ENTIRE WORLD if it gets out, so of course Ono is on a rampage to prevent screening it. After all, no one EVER suspected Lennon of smoking marijuana, for heaven's sake. And slipping LSD into Nixon's tea? WHAT WOULD THE CHILDREN THINK? We all know that would be a waste of good LSD, which clearly means Lennon was out of his mind. (He was probably saving the acid to spike McCartney's tea.)