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Albert Hofmann Turns 100

C20 H25 N30

Albert Hofmann is not Matt Hoffman’s father. He’s not into BMX racing, but rather another 3-letter acronym, LSD. Albert Hofman is the creator of LSD, and today, he turned 100 years old.


Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,
And she’s gone.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds.
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies,
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers,
That grow so incredibly high.
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore,
Waiting to take you away.
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,
And you’re gone.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Picture yourself on a train in a station,
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle,
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes.

While a young Swiss chemist, he discovered LSD in 1938 while studying fungi at what is now known as Novartis Pharmaceuticals. (In an obviously PC direct move, Novartis declined to comment on Hofmann or LSD.)

What’s great about this guy – other than the medicinal value of his 1938 discovery – is that he still researches, still speaks, and still tries to get U.S. and other countries laws changed in order for LSD to be legalized once again, as it was before 1966.

Even more impressive than being 100 years young today (and a very happy birthday to him), he’s still married to his wife of 70 years. Seventy years, my god.

While I don’t doubt that any drug can be abused in a recreational environment, I do believe that all illegal drugs (especially ecstacy and LSD) do have legitimate medicinal value, either for PTSD or Schitzophrenia. While in college, I did spend time with many people who were on LSD while I drank a few beers. Every single time they were perfectly happy, perfectly content, and completely non-violent. Only one time did I ever witness a “bad trip” that someone had. (A girl from my dorm in 1994 had ran outside in the middle of the night, started screaming that she was being raped. Naturally, we all ran out to find her outside by herself, fighting off invisible rapists. Needless to say, she was taken away in a straight jacket, and I hope she learned to take a break from LSD for a while.)

Click on this CNN article for more information on Mr. Hofmann, and his current plans.

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Iran Rips Up Nuclear Deal with the West

Mr Ahmadinejad claims Iran's nuclear programme is ‘peaceful’

It’s not often when I comment about the political scene in the world, but I figure today is a good day. Today, Iran has decided that it is resuming nuclear fuel enrichment, which could be used to make nuclear weapons. Understandibly, along with Iran’s extensive missle program, a “nuclear Iran” is not something the West (specifically Europe and the United States, much less Israel) would even tolerate.

Let’s detail a little bit why today, Iran made a stunningly important political move:

First and foremost, this is the perfect time to provoke the US into another large disaster. The U.S., still reeling from natural disasters from the Fall of 2005 & current political scandles, is a bit weak at the moment. The Iranians are not stupid – they beat Iraq in the 1980s even when the United States was giving Iraq weapons and support, including WMDs. The Iranians can see that public support the U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are dwindling. Public support for future operations in the Middle East will be next to impossible to garnish public support for, much less win.

The EU is in now way prepared to fight Iran without U.S. help, and Iran knows this.

Israel, with the current lack of leadership given Sharon’s recent illness, is in a weakened state. Iran sees this, and is taking advantage.

Now, North Korea has decided that unless the U.S. lifts the current economic sanctions against the country, there is no point in addressing their nuke issues with the U.S.

Indeed, an interesting day, and the coming days will be even more interesting, as we’ll see how the U.S. and the EU handle Iran’s latest incident.

Hopefully, Israel won’t premptively strike Iran’s reactors, like they did in Iraq in the early 1980’s.

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Coworker Nicknames

We had nicknames for everyone back in the college days. Of couse, this was college, so it was common for people to have nicknames. These nicknames were usually either a shortened or otherwise goof on their unpronouncable ethinc name, or perhaps a take on something they did once where the name just “fit”. We had some decent ones, usually derived after a few pints of beer.

Of course, we had some doozys; Apatz, Zer, B-Dog, Dank, Crackhouse, and so on. There was one guy in particular that had a bunch of nicknames that started off simple and honest, and eventually turned into something very different. His name was Dan Schultz. In the beginning, we called him “Schlutz”, because that was indeed his last name. After a while and some beer, it became “Schlitz”. After that, and undoubtedly more beer, “Schlitz” became “Schlootzy” or some variant of that. One day, arguably after more pints then a human should consume, me and my friend Zuti decided that his new name was “Shit Face”. Not because we didn’t like Dan, not at all. We loved the kid, but we laughed our asses off because the names had gotten progressively worse and less and less like his real name, that “Shit Face” was the absolute antithesis of “Schlutz”, and that’s why it was funny.

At my day job, I try and have fun because if you can’t laugh, then all is lost. There’s a certain degree of fun you need to have at work; it can’t be all work. So, a bunch of us collectively have names for some coworkers. Not everyone, but some who are friends and some people who are not friends but whos nicknames scream right out at you. 🙂 And they are…

The Riddler
The Riddler’s Assistant
The Pumpologist
Little Riddler
Future
Mr. Magoo
The Nutty Professor
The Dragon
Snowflake
Pig Face
Gumby
Montell
Father & Son

The best part about all these names is when I offer to order and pickup lunch for everyone. I get to fax the order to the restuarant, and I put nicknames instead of their real name next to each entree, so the people at the restaurant get a good kick out of writing “The Riddler” on a container of chicken parmesian. 🙂

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Quentin Does it Again

Hostel, by Quentin Terrantino

This weekend I got around to seeing Hostel, by Quentin Terrantino. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but I will say that it was a great movie. Filmed almost entirely in Europe, the scenery is as authentic as it is beautiful, and the “cultural divide” between the American viewing audience and the European style is really interesting.

Quentin did it again – produced a movie that kept me greatly entertained, and showed off some damn good scenery. And, some hot girls. 🙂

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The Evolving Google Rumours

Google Founders Larry Page & Sergey Brin

Google facinates me. Their corporate culture and way of doing business is unique, the freedoms employees are given at work are unqiue, and the products that Google develops are the most unique and useful found anywhere on the Net.

A few months back, I wrote a little bit about Google’s evolution, and how they might continue to evolve. At time, Google Desktop 2 & Google Talk were new. Picasa, Google Maps, Google Earth and Picasa had been released earlier.

Today has been another day of speculation for just what Google will do next.

In the past few months, Google has experimented with free Wi-Fi near their Californa HQ. Google has also buying back dark fiber all around the country. Many people are speculating that these moves will make Google an Internet Service Provider (ISP), offering free (advertisment-based) wireless internet nationally.

There has been talk of a free Office system – Google Office – that would target and compete with the Microsoft Office suite of programs. Google & Sun Microsystems are collaborating to try and bring Sun’s StarOffice to Google users.

Today’s newest rumour is that of a small, cheap, Google-OS based PC called “Google Cubes”, which will be sold through Wal-Mart to bring affordable PC boxes to the end user. The computer would not run on a Microsoft platform, thus driving down the cost of the PC by hundreds of dollars.

How much is true? No one but Larry & Sergey. What is true is that Google is a company that is not standing still at all, waiting for consumers to demand more out of a company for products & services. No no, quite the contrary here. Google is often beating the consumer to the punch, delivering a service or product before the consumer even realizes a need for it. The end user is the winning party here, with a dozzen or so (or more) free services from Google that truly shape the Internet we use today. No other company comes to my mind right now that works like this, and that’s a good thing.

For a look at what the Internet started off as (like back when you had to explain to people what the Internet was), take a look at this video clip. This is a 7 min video clip about “Internet”, circa early 1980s.

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The Farting Preacher

The Farting Preacher

I’m not the biggest religious guy around, I tell people I’m a non-practicing Catholic. Non-practicing because I don’t actively celebrate my faith with the community and as I get older, I tend to believe less and less of the whole package. I was brought up Catholic, but as I got older, my viewpoints changed and so did my beliefs. So, there I am. A non-practicing Catholic. Anyway, that’s not the point of this thread. The point of this thread is the “farting preacher”. 🙂

Did you ever get up early on a Sunday and watch those rediculous evangelists preaching about God? These are the guys that touch peoples foreheads up on stage, and boom, you’re cured of your debilitating disease, or your money problems or gone, or whatever. Nice stuff to think and say to someone (positive reinforcement), but the problem is thousands of people believe these guys, and believe they have a direct connection to God.

Well, just when you thought it couldn’t get any more rediculous, someone took these shows and made a masterpeice out of them. Click on the link below, and you’ll be brought to one of my favorite Farting Preacher eposides.

Farting Preacher #4

For all of the other mini video clips of the “Farting Preacher”, click here on this Google Video search link.

I’m sure I’ll get some hate mail or whatever on this, or may be someone will tell me God will strike me dead. Well, I believe God has a sense of humour about things, so right now, she’s laughing. 😉

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Welcome 2006AD

A couple embraces in Times Square, New York City shortly after clocks rang in 2006

First and foremost, a happy and healthy new year to everyone in the U.S. and around the world. My friend Jon from college is in Australia right now, and he was first (of the people I knew) to usher in the new year about 12 hours before me. Gotta love those Australians…great beer, nice cars (Holden), and amazing country both politcally and geographically.

I was never a big celebrator of the New Year, and by that I mean I was never one to go out partying like it’s 1999. However, it is a time to refresh and regroup, to look at the past and celebrate achievements & obstacles overcome, and to remember friendships and good family, finally then to focus on the next year’s goals.

I was watching ABC’s show from Times Square in NYC, formally hosted by the infamous Dick Clark, star of The Pyramid and many other shows. He had a stroke last year, and this year was his return to hosting (well he co-hosted this year) the New Year’s Eve show. Sadly, one can easily see the damage from the stroke he had, but he was quite brave to get out there. It’s encouraging to see people who push through obstacles like that.

I did the whole NYC/Times Square thing once, being I live less then a 50-minute train ride from midtown Manhattan. Security was never as high as it is now, probably one reason I decline to go in there anymore. Even though I might enjoy a good strip search, something about a guy doing it with an itchy finger on an M-16 makes it slightly unsettling. 😉

I often like to think about the big picture. Life, our place in the universe and what it all means. Here we all are, 6 billion of us, celebrating our relative concept of Time, welcoming in a new “year”. Kind of funny when you think about it, as our concept of Time is a human thing, something for our brains to interpret.

What exactly is time? Ever get that feeling a specific day or week was going slow or fast, and other people agreed with you as they felt the same thing? If time is constant, those feelings shouldn’t even exist. 😉

Ah well, something to think about. Have a great new year!