Monthly Archive for December, 2003

White House Covers Tracks by Removing Information

Published
by
billycuts
on December 18, 2003
in Big Brother and Military
. 0 Comments

In a high-tech cover-up, the Washington Post this morning reports the White
House is actively scrubbing government websites clean of any of its own
previous statements that have now proven to be untrue. Specifically, on
April 23, 2003, the president sent his top international aid official on
national television to reassure the public that the cost of war and
reconstruction in Iraq would be modest. USAID Director Andrew Natsios,
echoing other Administration officials, told Nightline that, “In terms of
the American taxpayers contribution, [$1.7 billion] is it for the US. The
American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have no plans for any
further-on funding for this.”

The president has requested more than $166 billion in funding for the war
and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. But instead of
admitting that he misled the nation about the cost of war, the president has
allowed the State Department “to purge the comments by Natsios from the
State Department’s Web site. The transcript, and links to it, have
vanished.” (The link where the transcript existed until it caused
embarrassment was www.usaid.gov/iraq/nightline_042403_t.html).

Synthesis and Pharmacological Characterization of a Series of Geometrically Constrained 5-HT(2A/2C) Receptor Ligands.

Published
by
billycuts
on December 15, 2003
in Entheogens/Psychedelics
. 0 Comments

Chambers JJ, Parrish JC, Jensen NH, Kurrasch-Orbaugh DM, Marona-Lewicka D, Nichols DE.

J Med Chem. 2003 Jul 31;46(16):3526-35

In studies of the SAR of phenethylamine-type serotonin 5-HT(2A) receptor agonists, substituted conformationally constrained tetrahydronaphthofurans were designed to investigate the optimal conformation of the 2-aminoethyl moiety. These compounds were tested using in vitro assays for affinity at 5-HT(1A), 5-HT(2A), and 5-HT(2C) receptors. The benzofuran-containing analogues, 6a and 6b, had significantly higher affinity for the 5-HT receptors tested than did the benzodihydrofuran-containing compounds, 4a, 4b, 5a, and 5b. The most potent compound (8-bromo-6-methoxy-4,5-dihydro-3H-naphtho[1,8-bc]furan-5-yl)aminomethane, 6b, had K(i) values for displacement of [(125)I]-DOI from 5-HT(2A) and 5-HT(2C) cloned rat receptors of 2.6 and 1.1 nM, respectively. Despite their high affinity, the compounds of this naphthofuran series lacked high intrinsic activity at the 5-HT(2A) receptor as measured using the phosphoinositide hydrolysis assay. The most potent compound in vitro, 6b, was tested in the two-lever drug discrimination assay in rats trained to discriminate LSD from saline, and failed to substitute, a result typical for compounds with low intrinsic activity. Thus, although conformational constraint has led to high-affinity 5-HT(2A) ligands with partial agonist activity, all of the spatial and steric properties of the ligand necessary for full receptor activation have not yet been identified.

Ahhhhh School is Hurting My Head

Published
by
billycuts
on December 11, 2003
in Personal
. 1 Comment

So, I’m writing this 10 page paper for my cultural anthropology class. I have until Frasier hall closes on Friday night to finish it, yet I’m only a few pages through. I’ll be up most of tonight working on it for sure. In the meantime, instead of me posting articles I like, I recommend you readers follow these links and be amazed:

Robert Hunter and Terrence McKenna discuss DMT through Letters to Each Other – 2 of my favorite people, one the lyricist for the Grateful Dead, the other a famed psychonaut!

EU States to Ban 2C-I, 2C-T-7, 2C-T-2, and TMA-2 within 3 Months – Well, It’s happened. The EU is banning this group of 2C analogues. Makes me sad…

Mr. Picassohead – Draw picasso like pictures with eaze. Very cool!

ISketch – Win, Lose, or Draw type game. Extremely dope!

Secrets of an Acid Head

Published
by
billycuts
on December 10, 2003
in Entheogens/Psychedelics
. 1 Comment

New Scientist vol 170 issue 2296 – 30 June 2001, page 26

At the end of this article there is a graphic of the computer generated form constants, enjoy!

Tripping on hallucinogenic drugs reveals more about our inner selves than the hippies ever bargained for, says Dana Mackenzie

IN A DORM ROOM dimly lit by a lava lamp, a freshman awaits the beginning of his first LSD trip. Slowly, the walls come alive and begin to dance with colour. And then he sees whirling spirals of stars that disappear into the distance. A network of cobwebs that grows across the room. An infinite subway tube, surrounded by fluorescent lights…

Peyote On the Brain

Published
by
billycuts
on December 10, 2003
in Entheogens/Psychedelics
. 0 Comments

Is the Secret to Alcoholism and Other Addictions Locked Up in the
Hallucinogenic Drugs?

Even with several tablespoons of peyote in me, by 3 in the morning I’m
fading. For almost six hours I have been sitting in a tepee in the Navajo
Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the United States, with 20 Navajo
men, women, and children. They belong to the Native American Church, which
has 250,000 members nationwide. Everyone except the four children has eaten
the ground-up tops, or buttons, of peyote, Lophophora williamsii. U.S. law
classifies the squat cactus and its primary active ingredient, mescaline, as
Schedule 1 substances, illegal to sell, possess, or ingest. The law exempts
members of the Native American Church, who revere peyote as a sacred
medicine.

A barrelchested man wearing a checked shirt and cowboy boots stands over the
cedarwood fire and murmurs a prayer in Dine, the Navajo language. As this
roadman, or leader of the service, sprinkles sage on the coals, my eyelids
close. I smell the sage and hear it hiss, and I see the roiling geometric
patterns, called form constants, generated by compounds such as mescaline.
Then the balding white man on my right nudges me and tells me to keep my
eyes open. The Navajo might be offended, he whispers, if they think I have
fallen asleep. Later, he shakes his head when I lean on an elbow to relieve
the ache in my back. Too casual, he says.

Another Try At Legalizing Marijuana

Published
by
billycuts
on December 10, 2003
in Cannabis
. 2 Comments

by Guy W. Farmer, (Source:Nevada Appeal)

Nevada———-
Even though Nevada voters handed them a decisive defeat last year, the drug legalizers are at it again. Masquerading as “Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement,” the potheads lost big-time in November 2002, when Nevadans voted against Question 9 – a marijuana legalization measure – by a 61 to 39 percent margin.

But now, they’re back again with a costly television spot advocating drug legalization in our state. The ad is sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which spent $2 million on Question 9 last year. Using a split screen, the ubiquitous new spot shows a group of sad-looking Nevada teenagers on one side wearing T-shirts reading 67 percent ( the percentage who have allegedly tried marijuana ) and a group of smiling Dutch teenagers on the other wearing 28 percent T-shirts.

McGill pays study subjects $500 to take cocaine

Published
by
billycuts
on December 10, 2003
in Other Drugs
. 0 Comments

MONTREAL – The federal and provincial governments have contributed close to $700,000 for a series of studies at McGill University in which a psychiatry professor is offering people $500 to use cocaine.

Marco Leyton placed ads in student and community newspapers, and chose 10 men who are all in their 20s and are regular cocaine users.

Leyton said they are given a mirror, a razor blade, a straw and a bag of pharmaceutical-grade cocaine to snort on four different occasions.

Each time they visit, the men are given a different protein shake, which he believes may reduce certain cravings for the drug.

“Can we diminish the euphoria induced by the drug?” asked Leyton. “If so, that would be a very promising direction for treatments to be developed.”

Once they’ve drunk the shakes, subjects are asked to fill out a questionnaire to monitor their cravings.

Leyton doesn’t believe his study will turn people into cocaine addicts.

“Previous studies done by other investigators in the U.S. indicate that when they follow up these individuals, if anything their drug use actually goes down the following year,” he said.

The study was approved by the ethics board at the McGill University Health Centre.

Leyton received Customs clearance to ship the drug from Scotland to Montreal.

Written by CBC News Online staff

Site Updates

Published
by
billycuts
on December 9, 2003
in Site News
. 0 Comments

Added a message board system to the site. Go head on over and register and post something on the board. No one’s regged yet, but I suspect that will change in the near future.

Also, added an About page, Downloads, and a gallery. Go check them out and post on the forum with what you think.

Court Says Church Can Use Hallucinogenic Tea

Published
by
billycuts
on December 9, 2003
in Entheogens/Psychedelics
. 0 Comments

DENVER – A New Mexico church was handed a small victory Thursday when a federal appeals court ruled its use of hallucinogenic tea was likely to be protected under freedom of religion laws.

The ruling, issued by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, upheld a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Attorney General, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other government agencies that sought to prohibit the tea’s use.

The appeals court agreed with the U.S. District Court in New Mexico that the Brazil-based O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal church had “demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success” of winning an exemption for sacramental use of the tea, which contains a drug barred by the Controlled Substances Act.

Jeffrey Bronfman, president of the church, sued the Justice Department after 30 gallons of hoasca tea were seized by U.S. Customs agents from his office in Santa Fe, N.M. No one was arrested in the 1999 raid.

Fun! With Random Senseless Vandalism (1985)

Published
by
billycuts
on December 9, 2003
in Classic Textfiles
. 2 Comments

Well, I’ve decided to start putting textfiles up that I really appreciated back in the days of BBS’. So, we’re starting with this one from 1985 by Count Nibble.

Fun! with Random Senseless Vandalism by /\/oo\/\ Count Nibble /\/oo\/\

August 2nd 1985
A “Nibble’s Own” Textfile—(C) 1985 by Count Nibble—Spread it around!

“We’re just the Wrecking Crew / Poor boys with nothing to do!” – The Adolescents “History is made at night—character is what you are in the dark.” – Lord John Whorfin

Hot summer nights are the same no matter where you live . . . there’s nothing
like a warm July evening to inspire a bunch of sex-starved adolescents to acts
of Random Senseless Vandalism (RSV). Unfortunately, this time of year also
tends to drain one’s mind of all ideas that one might have for such
activities. Fear not! Contained herein are myriad suggestions of how to
spend a few early-morning hours enjoying yourself and annoying others. Call
your frhends together and try a few out.

Supreme Court allows Rosa Parks to sue OutKast

Published
by
billycuts
on December 8, 2003
in Music
. 0 Comments

WASHINGTON (AP)—The Supreme Court refused Monday to intervene in a lawsuit over the hit song “Rosa Parks” by the Grammy-winning musical group OutKast.

The action, taken without comment from the justices, means the 90-year-old civil rights figure can go ahead with her lawsuit against the band.

The 1998 song is about the entertainment industry and its lyrics do not refer to Parks by name. The chorus of the song goes, “Ah-ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus.”

Parks claimed that OutKast violated her publicity and trademark rights and defamed her. She lost her first round in federal court, but a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, reinstated part of the lawsuit earlier this year.

The case will now return to a lower federal court judge.

Man fishing in bay finds torso

Published
by
billycuts
on December 8, 2003
in Cool News
. 0 Comments

HOUSTON, Texas (AP)—A man fishing in Galveston Bay found a torso inside a suitcase floating in the water shortly before he spotted a plastic bag that contained a head, authorities said.

The body parts were discovered Sunday, about a mile from where another headless torso was discovered two years ago in a widely publicized case involving New York real estate heir Robert Durst, authorities said. Durst was tried for murder and was acquitted of the charge last month.

Officials believe the body found Sunday may be that of a missing person, said Galveston County sheriff’s detective Ray Tuttoilmondo.

“It is the torso of either a white or Hispanic male, about 30 to 40 years old,” he said.

Galveston County Commissioner Eddie Janek, who lives nearby, said it was deja vu as he watched police retrieve the body, which was wrapped in a plastic bag. He also witnessed officials remove the body of 71-year-old Morris Black from Galveston Bay in 2001.

Presidential Candidate Says Federal Law Should Treat Pot Like Alcohol

Published
by
billycuts
on December 6, 2003
in Cannabis
. 2 Comments

December 4, 2004 – Washington, DC, USA

Kucinich Promises To End Marijuana Arrests; Establish “Guidelines Similar To Those Already In Place For Alcohol”

Washington, DC: If elected, Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) would end federal criminal prohibitions on the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, and establish national guidelines to regulate it like alcohol, according to a recent position paper posted on the “Kucinich for President” website.

Traffic stop leads to chase

Published
by
billycuts
on December 6, 2003
in Bullshit
. 1 Comment

A vehicle chase west of Salina Thursday night led to the arrest of a Salina man who was found, with the help of search dogs, hiding under a 55-gallon barrel. The chase was triggered when Saline County Sheriff’s officers, acting on an anonymous tip from Ottawa County about erratic driving, pulled over a vehicle on Interstate Highway 70. The driver, when asked to get out of that vehicle, instead sped off. Capt. Al Augustine said the driver exited the highway at Halstead Road and drove north, eventually driving through a fence and into a field north of Girard Road, where the car became high-centered. The driver fled on foot. Augustine said the arrest was made after about 40 minutes of searching. He identified the suspect as William Russell Avise, 19. Augustine said the owner of the 1995 Toyota Corolla that was pursued, Nick Metro, also of Salina, was a passenger during the chase. He was not held.

Welcome to the New Site

Published
by
billycuts
on December 3, 2003
in Site News
. 0 Comments

Well, after a long wait of trying different content management systems, and even trying to create one myself, I’ve come decided upon using Movable Type as my site’s backend.

It seems to be working fairly nicely. I just need to design my templates to match the design I want. Seems like I’ll be doing quite a bit of reading!

The main reason I chose MT is because it seems so very easy to use. As I am mainly just going to be posting shit pertaining to myself and my research, it seems only fit that I make a blog type site. And thus here we are.