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cat-brodsky · 5 years ago

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richard pipen is the worst pre-med student ever: death caps in the secret history

"Judy, what would you do if you had a hundred and three degrees of fever?” “I would go to the fucking doctor,” she said without looking away from the TV.

must i say anything else

This post may contain errors, and anyone is welcome to point them out.

@sadbabywltch gets a thanks for the inspiration

some context

"You studied medicine for a while, didn't you?” [Henry] said.

I knew this to be a prelude to some health-related inquiry. My one year of pre-med had provided scanty knowledge at best...

I’m going to cite some parts of The Secret History, but I cannot copy the entire text of the scene in question. If you haven’t read it, this scene won’t make as much sense.

This post contains extensive discussion of mushroom poisoning as a murder method, so consider yourself warned. This post also contains math and biology, so people allergic to either should turn back.

Richard Pipen knows absolutely nothing about medicine. And I intend to prove that.

on amanita phalloides

Aka, death cap. The most poisonous out of all known mushrooms - half a mushroom (30 grams) is enough to kill a grown human. If Henry had really done extensive research, he should know that - and he said that he has.

“You have no idea how much thought I've put into this. Even to the strain of poison. It's said to make the throat swell, do you know that? Victims are said to be struck dumb, unable to name their poisoner.”

He should also know that the throat swelling is a myth. A.phalloides cause gradual organ failure. Symptoms of poisoning occur twelve hours later, too late to seek treatment, and death generally occurs six to sixteen days after the poisoning.

He should also know that there are less toxic species of Amanita. For instance, Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) is a hallucinogen, and symptoms take only thirty to ninety minutes to appear. Considering that the entire friend group has already been taking drugs regularly, Henry could offer Bunny a lethal dose, ingest a small one, and seek treatment.

There is also Coprinopsis atramentaria - the common ink cap, or tippler’s bane. This mushroom is poisonous, even lethally so, if combined with alcohol. I don’t need to spell the murder method out.

But, of course, Henry is high Intelligence low Wisdom and obsessed with ancient history; if Claudius allegedly died via death caps getting mixed with Caesar’s mushrooms, then it must clearly be the best way to poison someone.

on advanced calculus

“Let's say we know, for instance, that x amount of the drug in question is enough to affect a seventy pound animal and another, slightly larger amount is sufficient to kill it. I've figured out a rough formula, but still we are talking about a very fine distinction. So, knowing this much, how do I go about calculating the rest?”

Quick reminder that Henry killed one dog and poisoned another.

I’m not going to do calculations on A.muscaria or any other method of murder - A.phalloides is what the characters were poring over. I’m going to explain the calculations as simply as I can, and then provide some references for those of you who are interested in biology.

The characters don’t have the internet available, but they have the whole college library, a virtually unlimited amount of money, and a town where everyone takes illegal substances at their disposal. What they need is a pharmacology textbook (to look up the necessary equations), a reference on poisonous mushrooms (to look up death caps), and perhaps a handbook on toxins.

LD50 is what Henry is after - that is, “the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration.” (I hope that the readers can already see that two dogs are not a large enough sample size.) LD50 is conveniently measured in mg/kg. We have the characters’ exact weights: Bunny is 86 kg, Henry is 97.5 kg.

Amatoxins are a group of toxins contained in A.phalloides, and the one that causes symptoms of death cap poisoning. LD50 of amatoxins in humans is estimated to be 0.1 mg/kg. Thus, Bunny would need to ingest 0.1*86 = 8.6 mg amatoxins, perhaps less, preferrably more, to be stone dead. Here I make an assumption that 0.05 mg/kg is not lethal; with Henry’s poor health, it might be. Henry would need to ingest under 0.05*97.5 = 4.87 mg to not be dead.

Oral LD50 for amatoxins in dogs is 0.5 mg/kg. Finding out the amatoxin content should be an easy calculation: X grams divided by 31 kg contains 0.5 mg. We know that X grams minus one gram failed to kill the other dog, so we can assume this is not low-balling the dose.

For the sake of ease, let’s say X = 31 -> 0.5 mg amatoxins in one gram of locally harvested, organic death cap. This looks close to reality. Per Yilmaz et al (2015) a death cap ingested by a patient contained 0.426 mg amatoxins per gram, and you can calculate that yourself.

And now a simple proportion:

0.5 mg (per gram) / N mg (lethal dose) = 1 gram / X grams (of mushroom)

Bunny: 8.6/0.5 = 17.2 grams (ingest more than that)

Henry: 4.87/0.5 = 9.74 grams (ingest less than that)

partway disclaimer

Of course, I wouldn’t stake my life, or anyone’s, on those calculations.

The toxin content of the A.phalloides can vary drastically depending on geographical location, season, maturity, etc. This could be remedied, I guess, by gathering a large amount of them, mixing them and chopping them into paste, then testing some of the mixture to determine LD50 and the amatoxin content.

From the data at hand, the exact content of amatoxins cannot be precisely determined. But, hey, Henry only needs to poison more dogs to find out!

and now for some more science

A.phalloides contains two main groups of toxins: amatoxins and phallotoxins, and also phallolysin. Phallolysin is not toxic if taken orally, so that’s out. Phallotoxins were found to have little contribution to death cap toxicity, perhaps because they are not absorbed through the gut. (Though it’s not certain whether the characters would have this information in 1982.) This leaves us with amatoxins.

Yilmaz et al (2015) describe a patient who recovered after ingesting approximately 0.32 mg/kg amatoxins (but after developing liver failure). This is why I’m assuming 0.05 mg/kg is non-lethal.

LD50 for amatoxins in dogs has been calculated for α-amanitin and methyl-γ-amanitin.

Garcia et al (2015) gives the amount of a-amanitin in different tissues of A.phalloides as follows (mg/gram dry weight): 0.67 to 0.78 in caps, 0.30 to 0.32 in stipes and 0.07 to 0.10 in volvas.

why richard is an idiot sandwich

Look, perhaps I’m misunderstanding what Donna Tartt has written, but Richard comes across as right for the wrong reasons. He’s right in that trying to non-lethally poison yourself with something so deadly as A.phalloides is a monumentally stupid affair. He’s wrong about everything else.

Faced with a simple calculation like the above, how does Richard go about it?

Equations about chemical concentration were never my strong point in chemistry, and they are difficult enough when you are trying to figure a fixed concentration in a suspension of distilled water; but this, dealing as it did with varying concentrations in irregularly shaped objects, was virtually impossible. He had probably used all the elementary algebra he knew in figuring this, and as far as I could follow him he hadn't done a bad job; but this wasn't a problem that could be worked with algebra, if it could be worked at all. Someone with three or four years of college calculus might have been able to come up with something that at least looked more convincing; by tinkering, I was able to narrow his ratio slightly but I had forgotten most of the little calculus I knew and the answer I wound up with, though probably closer than his own, was far from correct.

I didn’t know proportions required three or four years of college calculus. If the mushrooms are irregularly shaped, why not weigh them?

“It's a good try, but just by looking at it I can tell that it's insolvable without chemical tables and a good working knowledge of calculus and chemistry proper. There's no way to figure it otherwise. I mean, chemical concentrations aren't even measured in terms of grams and milligrams but in something called moles.”

There are different kinds of chemical concentration, and molar concentration is just one of them. “Something called moles”? A mole is, simply, an amount of substance that contains 6.02214076×1023 molecules (Avogadro number). This is sixth-grade chemistry. It’s also completely irrelevant here.

It’s a miracle Richard ever got into pre-med.

Henry, paraphrased: Oh, well, if I overdose - which I can totally figure out despite the fact that the symptoms take twelve hours to show when the damage is already done - I can just have some atropine. Atropine will totally counteract amatoxins.

...Never mind, Henry is also an idiot - though, at least, that is highlighted in-story. What does he plan on doing, drinking a whole bunch of atropine without knowing the precise dose he ingested?

“They are exactly opposite in effect. Atropine speeds the nervous system, rapid heartbeat and so forth. Amatoxins slow it down.”

No, they are not. To put it in plain English, amatoxins cause cell death - nothing about nervous system. Atropine basically counters the parasympathetic system, kicks your organism into fight or flight mode.

Do you know what atropine is an antidote to? Muscarine. It’s a compound found in certain mushrooms - such as A.muscaria, though only in trace amounts. Atropine and muscarine both bind to muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. Muscarine is not found in A.phalloides. Confusing amatoxins with muscarine is... I imagine it’s excusable if ancient Persian texts are your most recent source.

Oh, and one more thing while I’m at it.

“The Persians? I didn't know you read Arabic.”

In Persia (modern Iran), they speak Farsi, not Arabic. Oh, Richard. I imagine Henry took pity on him and didn’t correct the poor fool.

conclusion

There are two ways to engage with canon - from an in-story perspective (Watsonian) or an outside perspective (Doylist). I’ll leave you to discover what the third (Forsythian) perspective is.

From an in-story perspective, I am drawing the conclusion that both Richard and Henry are utterly inept at math, biology, medicine, and common sense; heaven only knows what “algebraic equations” they spent a good half hour going over.

From an outside perspective... well, if Tartt wrote all those errors purposefully, then it’s a nice bonus for any reader who knows basic medicine. If she didn’t, then I can fault her for not doing enough research. A middle ground is more likely: I’m certain that the 103F episode was intentional, but the Arabic in Persia wasn’t, since Henry of all people would lambast Richard for this error mercilessly.

half-assed references

Garcia, J et al. Determination of amatoxins and phallotoxins in Amanita phalloides mushrooms from northeastern Portugal by HPLC-DAD-MS. Mycologia, 107(4): 679-687. 2015.

Hooser, S.; Khan, S. Common Toxicologic Issues in Small Animals: An Update, An Issue of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice: Ebook. Elsevier Health Sciences. 2018.

Tu, A.; ed. Handbook of Natural Toxins: Food Poisoning (1st edition). CRC Press.1992.

Wieland, T. Peptides of poisonous Amanita mushrooms. Springer-Verlag.1986.

Yilmaz, I et al. A Case Study: What Doses of Amanita phalloides and Amatoxins Are Lethal to Humans? Wilderness Environ Med. 26(4): 491–496. 2015.

#dark academia #the secret history #henry winter #richard papen #donna tartt #poisonous mushrooms #amanita phalloides #biology #studyblr #book analysis

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elvthron · 5 years ago

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Hallucinogenic Flying Ointment

Making hallucinogenic flying ointment: various recipes. Flying ointment is an herbal hallucinogenic salve applied by witches for the purpose of soul-flight. I aim for this guide to provide a variety of recipes and ingredients to choose from, highlighting both psychoactive and non-psychoactive entheogens. Historically accurate recipes Egyptian The Greek Egyptian magical papyri describes a religious consecrating oil producing visions called kentritis, the most likely ingredients being Verbena officinalis (vervain) and Mandragora officinalis (mandrake). It is also likely that because of the spread of the Mithras cult from Central Asia, and therefore their hallucinogens, that Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) may be a component in the kentritis oil. Grimoire I only found one mention of flying ointment in a grimoire, and it was comprised of multiple unnecessary herbs that had to be handgrown and picked in a complex ceremony. For simplicity's sake, we may consider the only psychoactive herb in it: vervain. In essence, this ointment is comprised of a single entheogen. EDIT: I forgot to mention that most grimoires also use hyssop as a consecrating oil. The Keys of Solomon use in the water and hyssop ceremony both vervain, sage, valerian, and hyssop. Witches' A traditionally described ointment from reputable sources on the history of witchcraft. These sources describe two recipes. Parsley and poplar leaves This recipe contains no psychoactive ingredients, however parsley and poplar are sacred plants in the witchcraft tradition. Unless parsley and poplar are undiscovered hallucinogens ;) 2. Water parsnip, Acorus calamus (sweet flag), cinquefoil, Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Papaver somniferum (opium/poppy) Our modern recipes One could make the authentic recipes described above, but there are many other options other than what the old books say. For example, although the uses of opium and fly agaric as ingredients in flying ointment is rather unsubstantiated, they are used as entheogens in other facets of European occultism (opium as incense in Liber Juratus for example) so it would not be far fetched or unauthentic to include them in your ointment. A typical recipe for us might look like: 2-3 cups of oil A small amount of wax 1 ounce of dried henbane 10 grams belladonna 10 grams mandrake 5 grams opium 4 ounces fly agaric 10 grams vervain Add as much parsley, sweet flag, water parsnip, cinquefoil, and poplar leaves as you want. They aren't poisonous or hallucinogenic so their inclusion is for religious symbolism more than anything. If one is using the ointment for an indigenous American ritual like a mesada (Originating in the Andes mountains, translating as "altar ritual") or velada (Mazatec Mexican origin, translating as "candle ritual") which I would love to outline in a guide later, then it will be fitting to use: 1 ounce datura 1 ounce brugmansia This could also be used for European rituals as datura and brugmansia are in many ways more desirable because of their more hallucinogenic properties rather than sedative/toxic and because of their more consistency in effects. I made my first flying ointment with brugmansia, and it works just fine. It just isn't entirely authentic. How to make it Just know that you will be working with wax, placing it on your dishes, and wax is a gigantic pain in the ass to clean up. So if you make it you got a lot of scrubbing to do. Also, wear gloves when handling the herbage material and keep windows and doors of the room open to prevent fumes from intoxicating you. You might also want to wear one of those paper masks. This is potent stuff, and you don't want to be meeting spirits in your kitchen just yet. Melt the wax in a crock pot (Do not attempt it any other way, slow cooking is the safest. Using a stovetop creates highly volatile oils that can cause a wax fire very quickly). Meanwhile, place foliage and oil in blender. Blend the concoction and pour it into a small pot. Heat the pot on low for an hour. Strain the liquid from the herbs. Pour a small portion of the melted wax into the oil, enough so that it becomes a thick consistency. But be careful: while the wax is melted it looks like liquid so you might underestimate how much wax you put in. Place outside the fridge (because it might cool too quickly, meaning the wax wouldn't dissolve into the oil), and when it is cool, pour the ointment. It will probably be enough to fill two mason jars! (That's about 30 doses). And then you're done! Apply liberally, but work your way up the doses slowly. You can apply more if you aren't feeling it. It's not too strong, you aren't likely to completely leave this world on the witches' ointment. Next I'll teach you guys how to make a witches' brew! Tripping with purpose. EDIT: Some are upset that I have declined to put a warning on this post. Some may even say it's irresponsible. I justify this by saying that the toxicity of nightshades is known everywhere and it is impossible not to encounter the ever-present warning about their safety. I chose not to beat the dead horse. If you cannot do any research beyond what you read in this post, then nightshades aren't for you and you should face the consequences of your own actions. I'm not a babysitter, so I'm not responsible for your own safety and well-being. You are. I think also that the 'dangers' of the Amanita muscaria mushroom are vastly overstated and warning people not to ingest fly agaric because other members of the family are poisonous is a misnomer. There has never been a death from fly agaric. There has never been a death from transdermal nightshade for that matter, if I may be bold enough to say. (COPIED FROM AN OLD FORUM THREAD)

#witch #sabbath #flying ointment #recipe

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lloydsluck · 4 years ago

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Crow’s Feet

Prelude

Ever looked at something that’s so fundamentally flawed, so bad in design, form and function, it’s actually intriguing. Like a botched piece of taxidermy or a first attempt at a short novel. A piece of work that was probably not half-assed but whole-heartedly assed with good intention and it would be insulting to the creator to jokingly ask did you write this story as if you’re the old piece of gum stuck underneath a Grade 8 English Lit student desk? With no light, sense of tense, or spellcheker? The stereotypes and bad similes cause eye rolls so

far back into one’s head it’s like… well it’s hard to think of a comparison here, so count yourself lucky. Not to mention the ADHD diversions, talking about mounting dead animals in one sentence quickly sidestepping to self-awareness of this piece of literature. I digress. When last did you see a questionable piece of art that you found beautiful? So bad, it’s great. So useless and time-wasting, it’s what you’ll think about ironically one day on your deathbed. Because heck… made you look.

The Incision

Mondays. The start of a new week. New opportunities for a new you. A fresh squeeze of hope that things will get better served with a side of “I can change” attitude. And no matter how many Mondays we have, (4 187 to be precise, if you, like the average human being will live to 79), you will wake up to the same old boring Monday, every week, the same way.

Each one with a long dreary stretch and sigh, heavy eyes, telling yourself that you will make the most out of this week. But you won’t. Because laziness is time consuming and you don’t actually have anything else to do, really.

However, on this particular Monday, which was Fick McOwen’s 2226’s Monday, things were different.

Fick woke up with the dreadful sensation of drowning. Sinking deep in a casket of darkness. As he gulped in a breath of thick air, it tasted of rotten cabbage coating the back of his throat. Blind and bewildered, sharp metal sounds scratched close above his head. The sound stung his eardrums and made him cock up his forehead banging it hard against a flat surface.

‘Jeeezus fuck’, he hissed.

With no sense of time and space, his ears were ringing overcharged electric chimes in his head which felt cracked and ready to explode like a reactor in Chernobyl. He took a few minutes to try and calm himself. No good ever came from a panic attack in closed confines with a possible concussion. He finally raised his hands to his chest and did what most drunks do the minute they wake up, pat themselves down and check their underwear.

One week earlier.

If she was just a bit nicer, Jeffrey thought, she may have already had a proper and dignified burial for her husband. Stomping up and down a room that looked like it was decorated for a five-star hotel in Vienna, the newly-widow’s bony figure moved fast from left to right like a rabid old fox prowling a fence. For Jeffrey, her unwanted but needed bodyguard/help/punching bag, she was Hitler’s sphincter. She sparked fear in him and tightened his nerves with her demanding presence. Like a screwdriver twisting and turning into soft wood. A reaction he despised about himself. It ruined many good days. Sunny days and days like today.

Watching her from the corner of the large room, she attempted phone call after phone call, shouting at poor bastards who made the simple mistake of answering their phones that day.

Wanting to disappear he closed his eyes and listened to every passive-aggressive step she took in the room. He liked to tell when she walked on the tiles or the bear rug; it was a fast tac tac tac womp womp womp womp tac tac womp womp…then nothing. He opened his eyes and with a fright found her standing right in front of him, steaming red with anger.

Her greying blonde hair was fastened in a tight pincushion on top of her head. This pulled back her frail white skin that held everything in place. Face to face, he couldn’t help but stare at the permanent makeup she had done on the lower lids of her eyes and on top of her brows. It was starting to fade and as a result, it looked like she put eyeliner on days ago and never washed it off.

Her stare was cold and deadly like an overworked mortician’s. It complemented her daily outfits of thin grey pencil skirts and matching suit jackets. She had her name embroidered on the inside of the neckline since all of her clothing was specially washed and pressed at a local laundromat. One that she owned of course.

Margaret.

That’s what her husband used to call her. Or Margarine, Margie, or Macaroon. She would always remind whoever was listening that she was actually named after Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowden. If you had to look her up, you would see the uncanny similarities between the two women. So much so, that Jeffrey often wondered if they weren’t related. Considering how much of a royal bitch she was.

Nevertheless, he had to call her Mrs. Ergo. And he preferred the kind request from John Ergo, her late husband, since he didn’t think she would have liked the names he had listed for her in his head anyway.

She snapped back up and walked across the room towards the large oak desk that faced the gigantic windows that looked out onto their garden. Their Ergo-Eden. With a deep sigh, he sat up straight and smoothed back his black hair that was styled according to an old Italian mobster he saw in a film when he was 15.

“It’s all in the confidence of smoothing the wax over your hands first and then through your hair.” That’s what the old man said to his fellow pasta slurping, red-wine drinking, two hits a week gang that sat around a checkered table talking about the importance of looking respectable, no matter what the job. And this was what he told himself in the bathroom mirror every morning, (impersonating a very bad Italian accent of course) while he prepared for his day.

Apart from the respectable hairdo, Jeffrey was built like a small bull with a refined jawline. At first glance one would imagine he spends his days lumberjacking in the forest; but instead of plaid shirts, he was forced to wear black on black as per ‘management’s’ request.

He refocused his attention on her and as foul as she was acting that day, somewhere deep inside him, he felt sorry for her and her loss. His face twitched as he clenched his jaw trying to shape compassion on his face, but feared he looked more like a constipated clown trying to keep his cool. He was given cards once with all the different faces and expressions on it. Ironically, the illustrations looked like they were drawn by an autistic robot with no emotion nor artistic talent (it was), but it helped him deal with different people. Lines that came down the forehead with no teeth, meant anger or disappointment. Teeth showing meant they were happy – or about to bite you.

Margaret often made faces Jeffrey couldn’t place on his cards and her teeth always had some lipstick stains on it, which quite frankly, just distracted him altogether.

He watched her go down a list of names and numbers, furiously scratching them out when the call didn’t go as planned. Eyeing the last name and number on the list, she picked up the phone and started dialing.

Fick carefully pulled the skin up the neck and then over the top of the head, trying his very best to keep his hand steady. He wore magnifying goggles that pushed his choppy brown hair up toward the ceiling and enlarged his olive-grey eyes. It looked like the head of a praying mantis was stuck on a lanky man's body who dressed as if he found a discarded box of 80s band shirts and never bothered to wear anything else again.

'There.' He said as he lifted his hands and inspected the bird-like shape that was coming together in front of him.

In the back of the garage-turned-workshop, a small radio was trying to hold itself together while Henry Rollins tore away at its speakers. The music filled the room and gave Fick the ability to concentrate. Nothing else was audible. Not a phone or a thought could break his focus.

And it paid off; the crow started to take a lively shape, fast. All it needed were the eyes and some beak touch-ups and this bad boy was ready for some teenager's window sill.

Fick lived in Long Fountain, a small town where the kids were either into wrestling, the backyard kind, or satanism – also the backyard kind. This meant there were a lot of goth-like metalheads who gave themselves names like Agares and Forneus and hung outside the grocery store to smoke cheap cigarettes they bummed off the shop clerk. They would wear black makeup and dangle fake blood vial necklaces around their necks. Some would even proudly claim that they spray-painted hale satin on the backside of the church announcement board. To top off their rebel-without-a-cause-and-lack-of-basic-grammar-look, these kids would own a taxidermied crow on their windowsills, just for that extra edge.

“It’s a phase” most parents would say, but Fick couldn’t care less. He got fifty bucks out of it, liked the work, and asked no questions.

As a self-employed middle-aged Taxidermist, he could work from home and at his own pace. Something he considered to be more valuable than a performance bonus cheque at the end of a year after slaving away in a badly lit office desk from nine to five, five to seven days a week.

He didn’t necessarily consider himself a hermit, but he did prefer his own company with the exception of a few selected people – very selected and very few. This was a choice he made unapologetically clear to others who wanted to befriend him for no real reason. When presented with this frankness, they would awkwardly laugh it off and insist he’s just a fun and sarcastic guy. He despised those people the most.

Furthermore, Long Fountain was a small enough town for the nosy types to know everyone and their business, while still quiet and sparse enough for others to embrace the privacy of the town’s border. If you had to take a drone shot from high above, the edge of the town looked like it disappeared into the desert like an ocean of drought that spilled into a suburb. Fick could never figure out why they called it Long Fountain though, as there wasn’t even a lake or river anywhere near them. But he liked it there and he appreciated the colourful desert sunsets that could be found if you were at the right place at the right time.

The only other peculiar thing about the town was that there was an abnormally large crow population, which he didn’t mind because it meant more product for him. That, and an abnormal amount of old age homes.

He gripped the tweezer handle between his teeth while he carefully glued the last soft tiny black feathers to the rim of the beak; he tended to hold his breath during these final touches. While the song came to a screeching halt, the ringing of his cell phone surfaced through all the noise and concentration.

‘Fuck!’ He spat out the metal twangs, pulled off the goggles and flipped his phone over to reveal four missed calls from an unknown number in town. He was about to throw the phone over his shoulder onto a once purple–now grey–couch, when the screen lit up again with the same number flashing.

‘Hello’ he answered casually trying to simmer down.

‘Hello, is this Fick McOwen?’ A sweet lady’s voice kindly asked on the other side.

‘Yes, how can I help?’

‘I’m looking for someone who can help me with a,’ she paused for a second, ‘stuffing job?’

‘Well ma’am, I do all kinds of taxidermy. We don’t call it stuffing though, rather mounting,’ he smirked. ‘Anything from crows, bucks, ducks, even your pet poodle.’ He stared at the one-eyed crow that was perched up in front of him.

‘What is your rate?’ She calmly inquired.

‘It depends on the job. Small birds and animals start at thirty bucks, and then it can go up to a couple of thousand for a full deer, buck or elk.’

She went quiet on the line. He could tell she was busy writing something down, possibly a calculation. He hated long silences, it gave him indigestion.

‘What would you like to have mounted?’ He nudged, just to check that she was still there. She remained quiet.

‘Hellooo?’

‘Ten thousand.’

‘Excuse me?’ He quickly asked to confirm that he probably misheard.

‘Ten. Thousand.’ She repeated sternly.

‘Ma’am. What do you want to have done?’ His stomach started to tie knots of doubt, anticipating a job he may not be able to do.

‘I prefer a private meeting to discuss this further.’ Her tone suddenly changed from a sweet old lady to an office crank complaining it’s cold. He hesitated for a second. Feeling his gut whisper all tales of caution to avoid this type of interaction. “If it’s too good to be true…” he would always remind himself.

But…then again...

The ten thousand dollars started to swim through his mind like a beautiful woman in a red bikini, blowing kisses from a crystal blue pool. Caught in the moment, he impulsively replied, ‘Okay.’ She quickly confirmed that her people will be in contact with his people and disconnected before he could even take a breath to say he doesn’t have “people”.

Confused about the call and left with nothing to follow up with, he decided to write it off as another crazy old lady from one of the care homes who got hold of the nurse’s office phone. Eyeing the cotton-eye-crow, he proceeded to hit play on his stereo, threw his mobile on the couch and stuck the tweezers back in his mouth to finish the job.

NEXT CHAPTER COMING SOON

#fiction #short fiction

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tipsycad147 · 6 years ago

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Belladonna, or Deadly Nightshade, as it is often known, is a most popular herb that is used by Witches all over the world. It has been a prominent herb in the use of Magic and Witchcraft for hundreds of years now, maybe even thousands. It has a very rich history in Witchcraft and the Occult. Often known as 'banewort', or the 'Devils Cherry', Belladonna is a most poisonous herb. Because some of the Nightshade berries can grow quite significant in siza and can look a deep purple in colour, almost black, this is where the name of 'Devil's Cherry' comes from. Belladonna is also the herb from which the story of flying Witches came about, it is the 'flying ointment'. Back in the days of Olde, elderly women who were seen as Witches, old herbalist and such, the Belladonna oil was rubbed into their thighs, causing them to hallucinate and believe they were flying on the broomsticks. Brooms, or besoms, were used regularly back in the old times, there were no plastic brushes back then. So this is where that legend comes from. Belladonna has long been associated with Witches, Wise Women, Soothsayers and Cunning Folk. It is a must in any Witches cabinet. There is an abundance of spells and magical workings that Belladonna can be used in, or is the main herbal ingredient for.

In Magic and Witchcraft, Belladonna has many magical uses. It is a Feminine plant by nature. Its element is Water and it is associated with the deities Bellona, Circe and Hecate. Belladonna is associated with the planets Saturn and Pluto. In Magic and spells, it is used to aid in Astral travel, Divination, Prophetic dreaming, Sleep, attracting spirits, to aid in prophetic visions and also in some forms of Dark Magic and Black Magic. Belladonna is a most potent herb and should be handled with extreme care. There has been some reported deaths worldwide from the ingestion of Belladonna, or from some of its small berries. One or two berries is enough to poison a child, it may even be fatal. So seriously, handle with care and use your common sense!!

As you can see from the photo above, I have a few pages in my Book of Shadows explaining how to use Belladonna and what type of magical workings to use it in. It is a prominent herb on the altar of any Witch or Warlock. It is probably one of my most favourite herbs to work with. It is strong, it is powerful and full of Magic. It has been used by Pagans and Witches the world over for many years now. I always keep a few jars of dried Belladonna herbs on my altar, you never know when you may need to use it in a spell, or a prophetic dream sachet, or even in a Hex. As Belladonna is so powerful and enchanting, it can also be used for sinister means, as well as good. If you fancy doing some nice, White Magic using Belladonna, why not make a 'Dream Pouch' for under you pillow, as Belladonna can be used to induce prophetic dreams, visions and sleep. Or if you do intend on performing a curse, or some type of Hex, if someone has annoyed you bad enough, then use Belladonna to wars off evil, dispel any negative thoughts or energies, or to simply return the hardships to them that they have brought to you. But remember.... what you put out, you get back times three. "Ever mind the Rule of Three"

Used in beauty rituals in Italy, back in the ancient times, Belladonna was a prized herb, was used my herbalists and Witches alike. The ancient Romans also prized Belladonna for its cosmetic purposes. In ancient Rome, the old Priests of Bellona, who was the Roman goddess of War, would drink an infusion of Belladonna tea, prior to worshipping and invoking Bellona. It was used in many different beauty rituals, healing rituals and cleansing rituals, all throughout the ancient world. As it was, and still is, used for Astral travel and reaching higher planes of consciousness and intuition, Belladonna has also been known to be used in Shamanic ceremonies. Tribal Shamans have been known to use the Fly Agaric toadstool, to bring on hallucinations, taking them to other planes of consciousness, of reality. Aiding in bringing on visions, having prophetic visions. So, Belladonna has been recorded in ancient history as having been used in the same way, for the same purposes.

Ingesting it to feel the psychoactive effects from it. Basically, getting high and tripping off them. Belladonna, along with most species of Nightshade, are native to Europe, although nowadays you can get anything, anywhere. It can be somewhat pricey to buy and more often than not, to can be quite challenging to grow. So always remember, wear gloves when handling this plant. The most minute bit can be fatal, especially to children and to animals. So if you have either, then set it somewhere out of the way, where only you can get to it. It can be dangerous to harvest on your own.

So I wanted to do a post about Belladonna....showing how it is full of Magic, enchantment and has a very rich history in Witchcraft. Along with Sage, Bay, Lavender and Mugwort, Belladonna is one of my most favourite herbs to work with, learn about and write about in my grimoires. You can never learn enough about these plants. Someone once told me, that right here in South-West Scotland, that certain types of Nigjtshade plants often grow in the countryside, up small country lanes, where no one really goes. I must say though, I have not seen any myself, not yet anyway. Most species of Nightshade plants have big berry-type things on them. Some are small, some are large. Some are green, some are purple and some are near black. But they are extremely toxic. Any type of toxic/poisonous plant is often called 'henbane'.

It has also been known to have been used as an offering at funerals. It is associated with a more darker side of Magic and Witchcraft, so it usually tends to have dark associations and correspondences, such as Saturn, the Dark Lord. Also, it is associated with Hecate, goddess of the Crossroads, the Keeper of the Key, the Queen of the Night, the Dark Mother. Hecate herself is often seen as a more dark goddess, so it is obvious for her to be associated with Belladonna, as a magical herb. As Hecate is the goddess of the Underworld and of the dead, this is why Belladonna was used as a funeral offering for many thousands of years.

Anyway, that is all for now. This is all the information that I feel is relevant when learning about Belladonna. It is mentioned as far back in history as ancient Egypt, which was 5+ thousand years ago, so it has been known to be used by many different cultures, from many different civilisations, all over the world. I also have a book about ancient Druidic lore on plants and herbs, and Belladonna was known to them also, used for many different medicinal purposes and healing purposes. It is a type of herb that will cause hallucinations if ingested, or soaked into the skin. But you do not know how much will be fatal, so avoid doing anything stupid like that at all. Use is sensibly and only for magical purposes, never for medical!!

Have a good day everyone. Blessed Be.

Disclaimer - all photos are my own. Information is all my own. Giphy from Amino giphy. Background photo is my own. Luna Blue December 06

https://aminoapps.com/c/pagans-witches/page/blog/belladonna-the-witches-herb/eYLV_Jb8c3uEJrRNK4lXRMPDBbkEgE05PZ

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abybweisse · 8 years ago

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Mother3/Black Butler prediction/possible scenario: Final confrontation of twins

Posting on May 5, 2017 -- I’ve been saying for quite some time (since December 2015) that the earl and his dead, reanimated twin need to have some final confrontation (even if it’s the only time they’ve really met face-to-face since “that day”), but now I can give you at least one plausible (albeit a bit clichéd) scenario for how it could all go down.

First, here’s what happens in Mother3:

Lucas keeps having run-ins and near-misses with this small (his size) person mysteriously referred to as the Masked Man. And when members of the Pigmask Army see Lucas they mistake him for their commander, this same Masked Man. He finds out that this person also has PSI powers and the ability to pull up needles and fulfill the prophesy to wake the Dark Dragon. The Magypsy, Ionia, first detects that something is seriously “off” about the Masked Man; he seems to be “heartless”. Later, Lucas makes a telepathic connection with this guy and also determines that he’s “heartless”, but he doesn’t know why and cannot identify him (he’s wearing a full helmet). Finally, after King Porky and his private army have been defeated, Lucas has one last confrontation with this Masked Man. It turns out to be his older twin brother, Claus, but he’s not normal. This heartlessness is due to the fact that Claus had died, and his corpse was reanimated by the Pigmask Army into a Fascinating Chimera (based on Dr. Andonuts’ methods) using mechanical parts to keep it moving. It’s basically programmed to mess up Lucas’ progress and to pull up needles before Lucas can do so. Once Lucas realizes that he’s confronting his dead twin, he loses the will to fight; he’s just too sad. Claus makes an attack that K.O.’s Boney, Violet/Kumatora, and Duster. Only Lucas and Claus remain in play. All Lucas can do is defensive moves because he just can’t, in good conscience, attack his own twin. Seemingly out of nowhere, the voice of Hinawa (their dead mother) starts talking to them, specifically to Claus… trying to remind him of who he is. Hinawa tells the boys the story of how they ended up with anagram names, how their parents expected great things of them, how they would often be confused for one another, and how they would be stronger when working together. Claus makes a few more attacks, and the last one is a would-be fatal PK Flash, which reflects off of Lucas’ Courage Badge/Franklin Badge and bounces back at Claus. This makes Claus’ body (and programming) fail. Recall that that badge was handed to Lucas by the grave keeper, Nippolyte, with the message that it was a family heirloom that Flint (the boys’ father) had always “treasured”. [I sometimes like to refer to Harry Potter because it is a similar scenario; Harry is fulfilling a prophesy, and he always uses defensive/disarming spells, while Voldemort loves the forbidden spells, like the should-be fatal avada kedavra. During their last confrontation, Voldemort’s final attack backfires. Harry’s mental trip to that imaginary version of King’s Cross Station and chatting with the dead Dumbledore is also a lot like the Mother series’ use of Magicant…. OK enough HP for now.] Claus momentarily regains some amount of consciousness, just long enough to relent and say he’s sorry for all the trouble he’s caused… and that the last needle goes to Lucas. Then Claus “dies” again, this time in Lucas’ arms. Lucas pulls up the last needle, the Dark Dragon wakes up, a pseudo-apocalypse occurs, then everything seems to be generally ok? Well, the people who were still alive by then were restored to full health (but people who had already died could not be revived).

Now, let’s think about how this is/could be paralleled in Black Butler:

The earl keeps getting weird reactions from people, as if they aren’t sure who he is… or that they are trying to distinguish him from someone else. Madam Red and Lizzie each ask if he’s really “Ciel” when he returns home. Blavat does a broken “you are–!” when the earl first arrives at Sphere Music Hall. Gregory Violet does this twice – once when the earl arrives on a Friday for a Sirius event and again when Violet momentarily comes-to after the earl and Sebastian find him half-dead in Bath. Othello makes the comment that the earl seems familiar, like he’s seen his face before. In ch’s 126 and 127 we are now getting a sense that Lord Sirius might be making deadly house calls… and the earl might get framed for at least some of these attacks. So, instead of Lucas vs Claus/Fascinating Chimera/Masked Man, we have the earl vs real Ciel/Bizarre Doll/Lord Sirius. I’m not sure there is an actual prophesy involved here, but the two boys seem to have been pitted against each other in a competition (a game) of sorts. Instead of trying to wake a Dark Dragon to control it, they might be fighting over control of the Black Butler that the earl already woke up from his slumber (see lyrics to the P5 song, “Phantom? Knight!”). In this case it could also be a matter of stolen birthright. I envision the earl and real Ciel having a face-to-face confrontation, and I foresee the earl being too racked with guilt, terror, and other deep emotions to really attack his older twin. He might have, by then, also made some twin connection with real Ciel (like he might have before in ch108), and can tell real Ciel is indeed soulless, though it's also possible that Grell (parallel to the Magypsy Ionia) has already confirmed by now that real Ciel has no soul. The earl's helpers, Gregory Violet and Edward Midford (possibly with Lizzie), will be knocked out or otherwise made useless; they are the parallels to Violet/Kumatora and Duster (with his weapons/shoes), respectively. Sebastian (who is like the dog, Boney while he’s under contract) will be too busy fighting someone else, probably Undertaker. This scene will start to look like their previous confrontation with Madam Red and Grell; Sebastian will be busy fighting off a reaper… while the earl is too distraught to attack his relative. I can even see Sebastian begging the earl to use his gun, just like he did when Madam Red came at the earl with a knife. But the earl will be frozen, despite whatever he may say to the contrary later… because we all know the earl is quite the liar. Anyway, here’s where we get all clichéd: real Ciel/Lord Sirius makes a would-be fatal attack (with a gun-shot, most-likely), but the earl happens to have those “treasured” mourning lockets either around his neck or sticking out of some breast pocket; a shot that would have killed him gets either implanted into a locket or possibly even bounces back and hits real Ciel. Double points if the locket it hits is the one for Cloudia/Claudia, since that would sort of parallel Hinawa’s ghost-voice during that final confrontation in Mother3. What happens next? Hmm. How about Bizarre Doll Ciel’s “episode” (programming) going “wild”, like Agares’ “episode” did at Weston? Sounds good; either real Ciel loses his functionality (depending on whether and where he got a rebound shot), his “episode” just plain fails, or Undertaker chooses to disable him. Sort of like how Grell “disabled” Madam Red with a chainsaw…. In that case, the earl wins. Crappy victory, but…. And, now the Black Butler wants to dig into the meal he was promised....

Thoughts??

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kristablogs · 5 years ago

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From the death cap to the alcohol inky: seven poisonous mushrooms you definitely don’t want to eat

Victims of death cap mushrooms can experience liver and kidney failure. (Zoonar GMBH/Alamy/)

This story originally featured on Field & Stream.

There is a commonsense rule about wild mushrooms that all outdoorsmen should heed: Avoid them. There are about 10,000 species of fungi out there, of which only a small number will kill you. From that vantage, the odds sound OK. Thing is, with the exception of a few easily identifiable species, it’s hard to tell the lethal from the good. And mushrooms have never been known for being forgiving. Often, as in the case of the aptly named death cap (Amanita phalloides), they look like a hundred other mushrooms, some of which are delicious. But do you really want to roll those dice?

Got a friend who “knows” mushrooms? Great! Just remember that you’re trusting this person with your life and that experts get poisoned, too. Regularly. I wouldn’t roll those dice either.

Here are some mushrooms you definitely want to avoid.

Death cap (above)

The death cap is included in every “most dangerous” list of mushrooms because it accounts for more than half of all known poisonings. Half a small one can kill an adult man. This genus of fungi is native to Europe but is increasingly showing up in North America.

Death caps look like any common small, white mushroom. The poison is amanitin, which is a particularly nasty cocktail of eight other toxins found in amino acids. Famous people who may have died from eating death caps include the Roman emperor Claudis (54 A.D.) and Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in 1740. Unlike some other mushrooms, death caps are equally deadly cooked, raw, frozen, or dried.

What happens if you eat one?

Symptoms occur 6 to 24 hours after eating and include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Typically—and this is the really dangerous part—you might feel alright for awhile after this, which leads to many patients being discharged from hospitals, sometimes with fatal results. The pain comes back, along with jaundice, convulsions, coma, and death. The liver and kidneys—necessary organs to your continued existence—fail. Recovery can take place in one to two weeks, but you never really get over it.

Fly agaric

While a fly agaric mushroom probably won't kill you, it will make you very confused. (Paweł Kubicki on Unsplash/)

This is the one you see in fairytale books with a bright red cap and white spots. The “fly” part derives from the fact that people used to put these in milk as a way to trap and kill flies. This one has ibotenic acid and muscimol, which act on the central nervous system.

What happens if you eat one?

Eat one of these and you may be in for a wild ride that includes delirium, manic behavior, delusions, and convulsions. You may feel drunk and perceive small objects as very large. The symptoms appear in as little as 30 minutes and last up to 4 hours. The only treatment is moral support, since anything else may worsen the reaction. Reassure the victim that the poisoning is merely temporary.

False morel

Morel foragers should pay special attention to the <i>Gyromitra esculenta</i> or false morel. (Alexander Romanov/Alamy/)

This mushroom looks like the human brain, not a morel. And yet it’s commonly mistaken for a morel. It can be fatal if eaten raw but is a particular delicacy in parts of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe when properly cooked. The culprit here is gyromitrin and MMH, which is produced when the mushroom is partially heated. MMH is also used as a propellant for rockets and is not a good thing to ingest.

What happens if you eat one?

Symptoms appear 7 to 10 hours after eating, at which point nausea and vomiting set in, followed by abdominal pain and diarrhea. In severe cases, you die from liver damage.

Autumn skullcap

Confusing an autumn skullcap with an edible mushroom can be a deadly mistake. (Peter Pearsall/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/)

As a rule of thumb, avoid anything with “skullcap” in the name. These grow worldwide, from the Arctic to Australia, on dead wood. They may be confused with some edible mushrooms, such as honey fungus.

What happens if you eat one?

The toxic agent here is the same amanitin found in the death cap. Hold onto your liver.

Alcohol inky

On its own, the alcohol inky isn't harmful. But if you drink alcohol with it, you'll start to feel the effects. (Miriam Heppell/Alamy/)

The alcohol inky—a wonderful name for a mushroom—is a member of the inky cap family, several of which have a great distinction. They’re fine by themselves and absolute living hell if you have booze with them. This is because they contain coprine, an amino acid that interacts with alcohol.

What happens if you eat one?

Strictly speaking, coprine is not poisonous. What it does, however, when taken with alcohol, is exacerbate the worst symptoms of alcohol intoxication. These include flushing of the face and neck, headache, and sometimes nausea. Further, it leaves your body susceptible to alcohol poisoning. In other words, you could eat an alcohol inky cap without booze, be fine, have a drink a few days afterward, and get seriously sick. The reaction starts between 30 minutes to two hours after eating. Your pulse speeds up, you get flushed, have a headache, feel weak and dizzy, then barf. Fortunately, recovery takes place spontaneously a few hours later.

Deadly webcap

The deadly webcap can cause irreversible kidney failure, requiring victims to get a transplant or go on dialysis. (Universal Images Group North America LLC/DeAgostini/Alamy/)

Deadly webcap is a good name for this one, which is native to North America and Europe and is especially fond of subalpine forests in, for example, Mount Rainier National Park.

What happens if you eat one?

If you’re a fan of kidney or liver failure, this is the way to go. It wasn’t known to be dangerous until 1972, when four people in Finland ate it, two of whom experienced “permanent” kidney failure. Seven years later, three people in Scotland mistook it for a chanterelle. Two of them required liver transplants. Nicholas Evans, who wrote The Horse Whisperer, his wife, and two family members were poisoned in 2008 when they mistook deadly webcap for ceps, an edible mushroom. All four victims eventually received kidney transplants, including his wife, who had only eaten three mouthfuls.

Ergot or spurred rye

It's a parasite, so doubly dangerous. (Wildlife GMBH/Alamy/)

This fungus is a parasite that grows on rye and other grasses. People never willingly eat it but rather eat bread made with infected grain. In a 1976 article in Science Magazine, author, LR Caporael theorized that an outbreak of ergotism caused by Claviceps purpurea may have been the cause of the strange behavior that led to the execution of 20 men and women in the 1692 Salem witch trials. Those accused of witchcraft all had similar symptoms, including manic melancholia, psychosis, and delirium. Further, the author notes a weather period at the time that would have been conducive to the production of a lot of ergot on rye grown in the area’s lowlands.

What happens if you eat one?

It doesn’t hurt rye much, but it can do a number on humans, leading to cramps, spasms, diarrhea, hallucinations, and gangrene. Historically, the fungus has been implicated in epidemics that caused thousands of fatalities. In 1951, in a small town in France, people who bought bread from the local bakery developed burning sensations in their limbs, began to hallucinate that they could fly, and one boy even tried to strangle his mother. Although it was never proven, spurred rye is thought to have been the cause.

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scootoaster · 5 years ago

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From the death cap to the alcohol inky: seven poisonous mushrooms you definitely don’t want to eat

Victims of death cap mushrooms can experience liver and kidney failure. (Zoonar GMBH/Alamy/)

This story originally featured on Field & Stream.

Got a friend who “knows” mushrooms? Great! Just remember that you’re trusting this person with your life and that experts get poisoned, too. Regularly. I wouldn’t roll those dice either.

Here are some mushrooms you definitely want to avoid.

Death cap (above)

What happens if you eat one?

Fly agaric

While a fly agaric mushroom probably won't kill you, it will make you very confused. (Paweł Kubicki on Unsplash/)

What happens if you eat one?

False morel

Morel foragers should pay special attention to the <i>Gyromitra esculenta</i> or false morel. (Alexander Romanov/Alamy/)

What happens if you eat one?

Symptoms appear 7 to 10 hours after eating, at which point nausea and vomiting set in, followed by abdominal pain and diarrhea. In severe cases, you die from liver damage.

Autumn skullcap

Confusing an autumn skullcap with an edible mushroom can be a deadly mistake. (Peter Pearsall/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/)

What happens if you eat one?

The toxic agent here is the same amanitin found in the death cap. Hold onto your liver.

Alcohol inky

On its own, the alcohol inky isn't harmful. But if you drink alcohol with it, you'll start to feel the effects. (Miriam Heppell/Alamy/)

What happens if you eat one?

Deadly webcap

The deadly webcap can cause irreversible kidney failure, requiring victims to get a transplant or go on dialysis. (Universal Images Group North America LLC/DeAgostini/Alamy/)

Deadly webcap is a good name for this one, which is native to North America and Europe and is especially fond of subalpine forests in, for example, Mount Rainier National Park.

What happens if you eat one?

Ergot or spurred rye

It's a parasite, so doubly dangerous. (Wildlife GMBH/Alamy/)

What happens if you eat one?

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foodreceipe · 6 years ago

Link

“Bacterial Transfer Associated with Blowing Out Candles on a Birthday Cake.”

Of course, the more cautious (aka germophobic) among us have already thought about it in gruesome detail. One colleague said she scrapes off the top layer of frosting, a habit that suddenly made perfect sense but which I for some reason had never before considered. I had been living in ignorant, saliva-splattered bliss.

Intellectually, I knew it was fine. I’ve consumed countless slices of sheet cake finely misted with spit and suffered no particular consequences—and yet, the thought of eating another now sent visceral disgust through my body.

So I called up Paul Dawson, a professor of food safety at Clemson University and one of the authors of this study, to ask why someone would want to ruin birthday parties.

Dawson said the idea for the study came from his teenage daughter. But he’s also conducted a whole set of studies around common questions in food safety with his undergraduate students, as a way of engaging them in original scientific research. These questions are, often, the same ones your germophobic friend would obsess over, including the validity of the five-second rule as well as with how bacteria spreads with double dipping (a lot), sharing popcorn (very little), and beer pong (do you even need to ask).

To simplify things for the study, Dawson and his students dispensed with an actual cake and frosted a piece of foil atop a cake-shaped styrofoam base. His students stuck candles in, lit them, and blew. Oh actually, they did something before blowing out the candles: They ate pizza. “We also wanted to simulate a birthday party,” says Dawson. “We thought it might help the salivary glands get going.”

Next came the bacteria counting. The team diluted the frosting with sterile water and spread it out on agar plates for bacteria to grow. Each colony that ended up growing on the agar represented one original bacterial cell from the frosting. (Not all bacteria will grow on agar plates, and there are now sophisticated and expensive ways to count bacterial cells more comprehensively, but this is a classic method that gives a baseline for comparison with past studies.)

There was, of course, a lot of bacteria. But what surprised Dawson was how much it seemed to vary from blow to blow. On average, blowing out the candles increased the amount of bacteria on the frosting by 14 times. But in one case, it increased the amount of bacteria by more than 120 times. “Some people blow on the cake and they don’t transfer any bacteria. Whereas you have one or two people who really for whatever reason ... transfer a lot of bacteria.” says Dawson.”

Still, says Dawson, birthday parties should not be ruined. “It’s not a big health concern in my perspective,” he says. “In reality if you did this 100,000 times, then the chance of getting sick would probably be very minimal.” Our mouths are teeming with bacteria, most of them not harmful. If birthday cakes significantly contributed to the spread of deadly diseases, it’d be obvious by now given the ubiquity of the practice. Dawson says he’d probably avoid the cake if the candle-blower were clearly sick, but that’s just common sense.

Since doing this study, he’s heard from people who have thought quite deeply about germ-proofing the birthday candle blowing process though. A patent, for example, exists for a “Sanitary birthday cake cover and candle system,” consisting of a cake holder and cover with holes for candles.

Of course, you also run the risk of appearing ridiculous. Socially acceptable ways of sharing saliva align with existing bonds of trust. Whether it’s blowing out birthday candles or sharing a cup or acts more intimate, such actions usually only evoke disgust when they involve strangers. I can make my peace with a friend blowing out their birthday candles. A drooly, sick stranger, however, oof.

Your Probiotics Aren't Doing Anything (Yet)

youtube

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/07/birthday-candle-bacteria

#health #Birthday Candles #Cake Bacteria

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fantaisie-pastorale · 8 years ago

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‘Magic’ Mushrooms

What are they? Many species of fungi possess psychedelic properties and about a dozen of these grow wild in the UK. The most common is the Liberty Cap – Psilocibe semilanceata, which is commonly referred to as a ‘Magic mushroom’. The original ‘magic mushroom’ is in fact another, not so common hallucinogenic fungi seen in the UK called Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria). This is easily recognisable as a red toadstool with white warts, often depicted in cartoons as the cute red and white spotted variety from ‘Alice In Wonderland’. Medicinal uses None in modern medicine. Although fungi of various sorts have been used as medicines and for ceremonial/spiritual purposes in cultures across the world for thousands of years. As far as can be judged, their use was largely restricted to shamans etc. who may have used hallucinogenic fungi to enter a trance or see visions in order to fulfil a role within their community. Use/abuse of mushrooms Psilocybe mushrooms grow after rain in late summer and autumn in the UK. They are often found on cowpats in cattle grazing areas – which may or may not say something about their ‘magical’ value. Fly Agaric grow in or near woodland. Those who chose to ingest mushrooms eat them fresh – immediately after picking – or preserve them by drying to be eaten later. Some people brew a ‘tea’ made from them or use them in cooking. Mushrooms were popular as an hallucinogenic drug in the ‘hippie’ culture of the late 1960’s and 1970’s. They have retained their popularity partly because they are seen as a ‘natural’ high and also because they cost nothing to obtain. How do they work? The primary active ingredients of Psilocybe mushrooms are psilocybin and psilocin – and to a lesser extent baeocystin and norbaeocystin. These chemicals bear a close resemblance to the neurotransmitter serotonin and the hallucinogenic effect of psilocybe mushrooms is probably caused by their interference with the normal actions of brain seretonin. It’s likely that LSD (which is synthesised from ergot – a fungus that grows on grains) works in a similar fashion. Fly Agaric contains mycoatropine and muscarine, together with two other less poisonous compounds, muscimol and ibotenic acid. These are seriously nasty chemicals that basically irritate the brain and have an hallucinogenic effect. They also induce sweating and can cause delerium and coma. What effect do they have? Psilocybe The effects of Psilocybe mushrooms are similar to a mild LSD ‘trip’, that is, they alter the perception of sight, sounds etc. and change the feelings and thoughts of the user. They take effect after about 30-45 minutes, peaking after about 3 hours, and last for around 4 or 5 hours altogether. At low doses, euphoria, a sense of well being and a feeling of detachment occur, along with some mild distortion of perception. There is less dissociation than occurs with LSD and so less chance of a ‘bad trip’ as the user still has some control over his or her thought processes. Nevertheless, the effect of psilocybe mushrooms is unpredictable and depends on the setting in which they are taken and the mental or emotional state of the user. At high doses visual distortions and vivid hallucinations can take place. Most mushrooms containing psilocybin cause some nausea and other physical symptoms before the mental effects take over. Fly Agaric This hallucinogenic agents in this fungus are more toxic that those found in psilocybe and the intensity of the experience is higher. After the mushroom is eaten, individuals often vomit and may have a severe headache for a short time. The heart rate speeds up and the pupils dilate. The mental effects resemble a state similar to extreme alcoholic intoxication, with the added complication of vivid hallucinations. Bizarre behaviour of users is common, ranging from non-stop talking or shouting to complete unawareness of their surrounding. The duration of the hallucinogenic experience depends on the amount of mushrooms eaten and can range from 7-8 hours to 2 days. The user usually then falls into a deep sleep and on waking will not remember his or her behaviour while ‘high’. The ‘magic’ myth ‘Magic mushrooms’ haven’t got any magic! In fact, their alarming effects are the nasty, brutish – and sometimes not so short – result of disruptive, chemical interference with the body’s nervous system. Consequences of using mushrooms The idea that – because fungi are living things – they provide a ‘natural high’ is crazy. The active constituents of these mushrooms are dangerous chemicals. Opium is a natural substance – it’s highly addictitve. Belladonna (Deadly nightshade) is natural – it can kill. Natural does not mean harmless. Risk to physical health Philocybe Philocybe mushrooms are not poisonous in the sense that they can kill and no lethal dose is known. However, some people react to them with vomiting, nausea and stomach pains. No serious long-term physical damage to health has been reported although it must be noted that no research has been carried out to assess the effects of frequent use. The main risk to health from eating philocybe mushrooms comes from mistaken identity – collecting and eating poisonous varieties of mushrooms instead of the ones possessing the desired hallucinogenic properites. Some of these other fungi can cause death or permanent liver damage within hours of ingestion. Distinguishing hallucinogenic mushrooms from poisonous ones can be very difficult and sometimes almost impossible. Risks to physical safety are likely to result from an individual’s behaviour while under the influence of psilocybin. This may include irresponsible behaviour which could lead to an accident or injury. Fly Agaric Fly Agaric is poisonous as well as being hallucinogenic. Its toxicity is mainly due to the presence of mycoatropine, which causes disorders of mental activity. The content of another poisonous agent, muscarine, is relatively small. Eating them can cause permanent physical damage, or even death. Fly Agaric itself is moderately toxic, but it should be remembered that species from the Amanita genus cause 95 percent of all deaths from mushroom poisoning. Fly Agaric’s closest relatives are Amanita virosa (Destroying Angel) and Amanita phalloides (Death Cap) – the names say it all. So, consuming Fly Agaric can be very dangerous for an individual’s physical safety as so much depends on correct identification of the fungi. If a person is collecting mushrooms to eat for their hallucinogenic properties, one mistake could be their last mistake. Death by Amanita poisoning is reportedly an excruciating way to die. Even more horrifying is that the fatal symptoms only start to appear 2-3 days after eating the mushrooms – and by then it’s too late. Tolerance and Dependence As with LSD, tolerance to the active ingredients in hallucinogenic mushrooms develops quickly and the day following a mushroom ‘trip’ it may take twice the original dose to produce the same effect. There are no significant withdrawal symptoms from hallucinogenic mushrooms and no physical dependence appears to take place. There may be a strong desire to repeat the experience, which could be indicative of some degree of psychological dependence. Legal consequences The possession and use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in their natural form is not illegal in the UK. However, if they are prepared in any way, i.e. dried, crushed, cooked or brewed into tea, they then become a Class A drug. The penalties for possession or supply of a Class A drug are severe. Prepared by Paul Roberts in UK http://www.darvsmith.com/dox/drugtypes.html http://eliterehaballiance.com/drug-types-from-stimulants-to-tranquilizers/

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the-smolartist · 8 years ago

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‘Magic’ Mushrooms

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eliterehaballiance · 8 years ago

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‘Magic’ Mushrooms

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nancygduarteus · 8 years ago

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Blowing Out Birthday Candles Increases Cake Bacteria by 1,400 Percent

I can identify the exact moment when my relationship with birthday cake changed forever, and it was last week, when I read a study titled “Bacterial Transfer Associated with Blowing Out Candles on a Birthday Cake.”

So I called up Paul Dawson, a professor of food safety at Clemson University and one of the authors of this study, to ask why someone would want to ruin birthday parties.

Still, says Dawson, birthday parties should not be ruined “It’s not a big health concern in my perspective,” he says. “In reality if you did this 100,000 times, then the chance of getting sick would probably be very minimal.” Our mouths are teeming with bacteria, most of them not harmful. If birthday cakes significantly contributed to the spread of deadly diseases, it’d be obvious by now given the ubiquity of the practice. Dawson says he’d probably avoid the cake if the candle-blower were clearly sick, but that’s just common sense.

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/07/birthday-candle-bacteria/534987/?utm_source=feed

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ionecoffman · 8 years ago

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Blowing Out Birthday Candles Increases Cake Bacteria by 1,400 Percent

I can identify the exact moment when my relationship with birthday cake changed forever, and it was last week, when I read a study titled, “Bacterial Transfer Associated with Blowing Out Candles on a Birthday Cake.”

So I called up Paul Dawson, a professor of food safety at Clemson University and one of the authors of this study, to ask why someone would want to ruin birthday parties.

Article source here:The Atlantic

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 8 years ago

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Prince of Stride: Alternative 2 – 12 | ACCA 1 | Hand Shakers 1 | Nanbaka 15 | Marginal #4 1

(ep 2)

I don’t think I noticed this last time, but the dropped item is a Stride headset.

“…that won’t affect your future…”

That technique, where the memory becomes “movie footage”…I like it. Plus, Kyosuke was basically half of the reason why I stuck around with this show…haha.

“Fubun ritsu” at least translates directly…

Without context, the dialogue sounds pretty funny, especially because Diane should be (half) British and maybe should’ve picked up on the fact D’s sounds like…well…

The “D for Demon” pun is an English only one. The D in the Japanese is for doge (and not Doge, mind you). Doge is short for dogeza, or putting yourself on the ground and bowing furiously (to regain respect, for example).

Even Kadowaki is into the photoshoot!

Ah…without fanservice, this show would never get off the ground. Judging by how well sports anime fare from having pretty boys, that is.

There seems to be a theme of “letting go” in this, which makes it a perfect character study for One Wish They Never Wanted. Unfortunately, I’ve basically finished the story now…

Note tobu is also the word for “to fly”.

It vaguely bugs me that every time the subs go “Takeru”, the Japanese goes “Fujiwara-kun”.

The dude’s name is Asuma (you can hear it in the Japanese clearly), but the subs said “Yuma”.

I never questioned it, but…why is there laundry in the Stride clubroom?

I dunno about shogi, but apparently “a mistake leads to progress”.

(ep 3)

Andromeda is a maiden in the mythology. So Reiji’s right. Also, he’s voiced by Mamoru Miyano. You can’t go wrong with the dude.

Who in Dante’s Inferno is the flashing light head man?

Yeah, I wonder where the “Mee-chan” comes from too.

LOL, biology joke. Luckily, I understand it.

Sometimes Takeru sounds too deep for a teenager.

(ep 4)

Sometimes the humour can be a bit hard to follow in this show, but the visual quality is second to none!

Riku specifically asks to trade bentos, so the “trade bites” thing is deceiving.

I dunno what the “Japan Deep” is, but I think this is it.

Gelidium jelly. Aka agar…in some cases.

Back to Takeru observing muscles. It doesn’t get overdone, which is a good point of this show.

Basically Nagatsuka is Yamato from Nanbaka…haha.

The English is really good around the “on your mark” bit.

(ep 5)

Apparently you can get a motorcycle licence starting at the age of 16. I’m not good with balancing though, so a bike is hardly appropriate for me.

That shot of Hozumi, with the “Kuga” locker in the back…hmph. Nice foreshadowing/suspense shot.

I can’t quite make out what Ayumu’s saying when the subs go “Bering Sea”, as I don’t know the equivalent in Japanese. However, it most likely isn’t “Bering Sea”.

I don’t know what the equivalent to the “KGB” thing is either…Update: Okay, I know it now. It’s “ka ge be”, at least in its audio version.

(ep 6)

What are the helicopters for?

There was a kaitenzushi that Kuga-senpai passed…(hey wait, what am I saying? Kuga’s not my senpai!)

The English on the subway sign behind Yuri is really good. Why are these fine details in this show so good?!

It’s moments when a character smiles and you smile along with them, that’s why I watch anime.

I think “Yuniko” was a parody of UNIQLO, a Japanese brand. Apparently they’re pretty cheap, and I’ve been able to find it in my home city for a good few years now.

Really? Gainaxing? On Diane? I must’ve wiped that from my memory.

Hozumi, don’t leave Kuga-senpai hanging!

(ep 7)

*nods* Heath, Riku, I know your feels.

I dunno what a Kankokukan is…

I think they mean the Sea of Okhotsk…since that’s close to Japan. At least there was a warning that this would indeed be stupid talk and nothing more. However, the “Stop getting creative with my memories!” means that that gibberish was actually a bunch of locations in Japan, characterised by that weird stuff in the animation. I bet only people who are really acquainted with Japan and its geography would get it…because I don’t.

I dunno what a “Jangara” is. Or what “Jangara ramen” is.

It’s really hard to tell who’s bros with who here. Probably because they have completely different hair colours.

If you watch the Riku and Asuma scene carefully, you can see Ayumu, Hozumi and their Saisei counterparts sliding on the balls in the room behind them.

In the back of the “salt to the enemy” scene, it says shio (in romaji), salt (obviously) and shio (in katakana). On Riku’s bag, it says shio (in kanji).

Myogenesis.

Poor Mr Dan…

Shizuma! That loose hairstyle suits you so well!

Batsu ge-mu, LOL.

That Reiji really seems to like Kobe products recommended by Takeru, huh?

Here’s a little something on the Tamaya and Kagiya bits. Kadowaki-ya is a pun on that.

LOL, that manservice.

(ep 8)

4th wall break…?

Hokkaido is known for being snowy…so yeah, “northness” it is.

Of course, when they say “Lee”, “Chan” and so on, it’s Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The Dragon Awakens belongs to…I dunno, actually.

Is Riku’s hair black when his face is hidden by the magazine (last part of ep with credits)?

(ep 9)

I only just found out, but that fanboy from Saisei, Kaede? He’s voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga, meaning he’s Yuri Katsuki (Yuri!!! on Ice). Kyosuke is voiced by Junichi Suwabe, making him Viktor Nikiforov. Yeah...that happened 3 seasons before Yuri on Ice...

Stick figures…that’s not a very conventional way to save on anime budget, but it’s a way nonetheless.

Gendo pose!

Seriously? Toilet humour? At least it didn’t last for too long.

There’s a box in the hallway that says “Aomori apples” on it.

(ep 10)

Did I just see Kyosuke with no eyes…? No, the aliens got his eyes too! That was so close to a perfect run (pun intended) without those face stealing aliens!

The question about snow is just an equivalent to “something impossible happened”.

“The devil getting sunstroke” was probably due to it being really hot.

Panda bread…the reason why it even exists is because pan da means “It is bread” and panda…is panda.

I know that feel, Riku… I’m only average, I used to not be so average…and that’s the sad part about me.

The rainbow of change…I hope it comes for me too.

(ep 11)

A high touch is a high 5, by the way.

LOL, 5th Symphony. Of course…

LOL, Shizu-man. A cross cultural pun…you don’t see those very often. Update: Apparently, that’s “Oshizu” in the Japanese.

That deadly look in Reiji’s eyes…it’s hard to look away from.

(ep 12)

Hopefully this show helps to motivate me long into the future…!

*yells into the breeze* …Idiots!

Even Hachiko has an EOS decoration, LOL. Hachiko is a dog known for his loyalty, having waited for his master right up until his death. However, his master had died before him.

So whose plan was it to see Honan in the first place (in regards to Galaxy Standard)?

Naked Speed…? What kinda name is that?

So did they…never mind. You know at the end.

Ah, bookends. At least they’re satisfying, even if they’re a little cliched.

The end of summer will last forever…until the winter comes. Heh. Of course I’d see that viewpoint. (Whaddaya mean, I’m too much of an optimist to be a constant whiner? I assume you’ve been through the POSA eps with me so far, and some of them twice.) Anyways, hope to see you again when our decisions once again collide…

Update: The name “Amatsu Ida” was on my mind and I couldn’t figure out why until I realised it’s the same pun as Tenya Iida’s. The POSA staff must’ve thought they were really funny, eh? Also, I thought they all had numbers in their names (Tasuku Senoo, Bantaro Chiyomatsu etc.) but I was wrong about most of them. However, there’s continuity between Shizuma and his bro (they both have the “horse” kanji, Asuma is “playing horse” – playing as in “frolicking” and such – while Shizuma is “quiet horse”) and Tasuku is “task” in katakana.

(ACCA 1)

I’m here because of Natsume Shingo and the stuff he showed on One Punch Man.

Okay, question. How do you spell Jean(?)’s name?

I love how there’s one shot that looks like it’s going to be a mouth to mouth kiss but turns into a secret telling instead.

Fweh? So, the part about the 13 districts suddenly starts to have echoes of the Hunger Games in it, and considering I suddenly decided to implement a Hunger Games parallel/parody into one of my fics one day, I know the exact makeup of such a story.

You can’t really tell Eider’s surprised aside from her open mouth…okay then. Moving on.

There was some very limited animation during that conversation (where Jean learns ACCA won’t be dissolved).

I don’t live in a family of four, so I actually questioned the squabbles over the flan for a second there.

“…or an ACCA chopper.” Speak of the devil, it’s a chopper! *Ahnold voice* Get to za choppaaaaaaaaaa! (Haha.)

What’s up with white uniformed Yurio’s hat? (Assuming Nino is the black haired dude.) Update: Turns out Nino has blue hair, while Knot is the dude with black hair. White uniformed Yurio’s name is Rein.

Pan = bread, apparently in Portuguese as well as Japanese. Also, Rein likes donuts and since he’s the “police” in this area…that sort of seems like a cliché…?

Mauve is the only one I really recognise (aside from Jean), after downloading all the ACCA icons I wanted before I saw this show. Mauve has some really distinctive hair. I recognise Rein from the icons, but not his name…hence the last dot point.

Trembling grey-haired dude’s hand was…actually pretty funny.

I love how Mauve is characterised by indigo hair that moves in the wind. It makes for some very limited yet LOLworthy animation.

Apparently, the café in the east staition (?) has American coffee (albeit lowercase) and blended coffee. Someone managed to stick that in…I’m impressed.

The ED looks arthouse, and I mean that in a good way. So…basically, although this seems to be a weaker showing than SGRS, it looks pretty good and I’m keeping it on for another ep.

(Hand Shakers 1)

Thought it had potential…but then the previews came out, and yet again, I have stumbled across the…problematic anime…of the season.

If there’s one thing I have to question, it’s the giant turtle on one building’s wall. Who thought a giant turtle on a wall was a good idea?

Yeah…if there’s any way to describe me after I see Gainaxing + torture, it’s “losing all attention”. Plus, they didn’t really explain anything yet about this boy who’s (according to the CR synopsis) called Tazuna or his girl Koyori. The CGI is hardly impressive either.

Gainax counter no. 2. Yet again, the scene is hardly impressive by any count. I think they’re trying to go all out with their visual techniques, and they’re achieving nothing.

When the camera specifically rotates around Pres’s mammaries…you know that’s a problem. Problem no. 2 is that I focussed more on a (purple) ad that says “Do Tarot Divinations!” instead of Tazuna. One last chance before I nope out of here, and that’s only because AniList was down earlier today just as I was using it.

Gainaxing no. 3. That’s it – I’m out of here.

(Nanbaka 15)

*groans* After Hand Shakers, I need therapy…ugh. I decided to rewatch a lot of my “worst shows ever” after Hand Shakers, too, which should very well explain my sore throat, feeling of a headache and any other symptoms I may exhibit during this simulcast commentary.

Rin! Rin! Hi! Hi! sounds more nasal. That’s what’s wrong with it.

Shut up…in English? I guess so.

Liquid nitrogen, in English? Hmm. Futamata-sensei’s good...or maybe just whoever was responsible for that.

Ooh…pretty screens…dang you, Hitokoe for being in the pretty screens’ way.

Poor Hitoshi. Doesn’t that hurt?

Where did the splat sound effect come from?

Why do they have to be so direct about…erm, that stuff? Hitoshi wears…those?

You said there were other traps here, eh? *raises eyebrows*

CGI prison bars…? Really? Plus, Hitokoe, you’re already annoying.

Even if parts of this ep were a letdown, Nanbaka is much better than a series of my worst anime…in a row. Ugh. *shivers*

(Marginal #4 1)

Idol anime are hard to access, so I’ve finally got one to cover…maybe.

Minimal CGI…that’s good. No gripes there, then.

Huh. It’s rare to find kanji that are assigned completely different romaji to their usual ones. Tsukuru has its own kanji, but those kanji are for bukatsu or club activities.

I knew it was coming…but L and R? In English, it just sounds uninspired.

Kirihara’s yet another Toshiki Masuda role…haha. Of course.

Marimo? The lil’ fluff moss?

I was confused at first about this “Starclusters” thing, but it turns out it just means the fans. Like Beppu Apes.

Yet another weird name I was prepared for, but got overwhelmed by when it showed up in the show proper. Shy…what a weird name…

I dunno why, but I react more to Lagrange Point’s hair being implausible rather than Marginal’s.

Hah, biology joke. That Atom is such a Masuda character, it’s cute.

Okay – complicated pun time. That kanji (it means “well”, as in the one with the water in it) is one letter I, but the word for “good” in hiragana is two Is but they sound roughly the same.

Of course, the iPun comes from iPhones, but the Taisho era is definitively Japanese.

The I-400 exists…but no one handles things like that at an elite school, right?

Tetranacci exists too, but…you know.

You can tell from their behavious that despite their hair colour, they really are bros, that L and R Nomura.

I think they tried too hard with L…or is it R? Welp, it’s one of them. The gaming twin. Update: It’s R. L’s the green marimo one.

Wow. Swanky room, kid.

Okay, whose idea was it to make Korean barbecue sauce flavoured soda?

Mayuge means eyebrows…

These guys are genre savvy. The specific word I used to describe them were “hideously genre-savvy”, but they hit the sweet spot between “too cliched” and “too much savvy, they ruin the entire genre”.

Wait, who gave the tomato then?

Mai is apparently the name of the group’s manager.

Okay, I’m keeping it on for another episode or so. It’s not completely out of the box, but it’s likeable.

#simulcast commentary #prince of stride alternative #nanbaka #marginal 4 #Hand Shakers #acca 13-ku kansatsu-ka #ACCA #Chesarka watches POSA #Chesarka watches Nanbaka #Chesarka watches ACCA

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