Cannabis History

US Drug Enforcement Administration Museum in Arlington, Virginia, states that the oldest written references to cannabis date back to 2727 B.C., when the Chinese  supposedly discovered the substance and used it medicinally. Ancient Taiwanese were using hemp fibers to decorate pottery about 10,000 years ago, according to "The Archaeology of Ancient China." The plant itself was in use in both Europe and Asia more than 10,000 years ago and grew naturally across both continents.

According to a recent study, the world's first-known pot dealers were the nomads of the Eastern European Steppe. The Yamnaya, traders from what is now Russia and Ukraine, may have traded cannabis throughout Europe and East Asia about 5,000 years ago.

Archaeological records show a spike in cannabis use in East Asia around 5,000 years ago, at the time when the nomadic Yamnaya established a trade route across the steppes. Yamnaya sites show signs of cannabis burning, suggesting they may have brought the habit of smoking marijuana with them as they moved about.

The difference between hemp and pot is a single genetic switch. Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan announced that they discovered the genetic alteration that allows psychoactive cannabis plants (cannabis sativa) to give users a high, compared to industrial hemp plants, which do not.

Industrial hemp plants are the same species as marijuana plants, but they do not produce a substance called tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA). This is the precursor to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in pot. Hemp plants fail to produce this substance because they lack a gene that makes an enzyme to produce THCA. Hemp is rich in non-psychoactive CBDA, while marijuana produces THC.

In the US, before the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, cannabis was a common ingredient in medicinal tinctures, and sellers were not required to mention it on their labels. During the 1920s and 1930s, Mexican immigration to the United States spiked as a result of the Mexican Revolution. People moving from Mexico brought along the custom of using marijuana for recreation, and the drug became linked with public fears of the newcomers.

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Incidentally, it is not possible to overdose on marijuana like you can on heroin or cocaine. 

Account Killer

There is a web site that lets you get out of many web sites and remove your name quickly to diminish your web presence it is called accountkiller. Quick and easy instructions to close out online accounts. LINK

Happy Friday

Happiness shapes the heart, smiles light it up.
Light up your day, especially on a Happy Friday! 

September Odd Holidays

Here are a few, just in case you need another reason to celebrate.
National One Hit Wonder Day - September 25
Johnny Appleseed Day - September 26 (1774)
National Pancake Day - September 26
Crush A Can Day - September 27
Gone-ta-pott Day - September 28
Ask a Stupid Question Day--September 28
Confucius Day - September 29
National Mud Pack Day - September 30

Salty Tip

Before frying, put a pinch of salt in the pan. It should keep the oil from spattering so much.

Ig Nobel Awards 2017

The Ig Nobel awards are given for achievements that first make people laugh then make them think. On September 14, 2017 at the 27th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre, the following prizes were awarded.

• Physics, Using fluid dynamics to probe the question "Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?"
• Peace, Demonstrating that regular playing of a didgeridoo is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea (sic) and snoring.
• Economics, Experiments to see how contact with a live crocodile affects a person's willingness to gamble.
• Anatomy, medical research study "Why Do Old Men Have Big Ears?"
• Biology, Discovery of a female penis, and a male vagina, in a cave insect.
• Fluid Dynamics, Studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks backwards while carrying a cup of coffee.
• Nutrition, First scientific report of human blood in the diet of the hairy-legged vampire bat.
• Medicine, Using advanced brain-scanning technology to measure the extent to which some people are disgusted by cheese.

Camel Camel Camel

Came across this interesting site. It tracks prices for all things Amazon. You can create Amazon price watches and get alerts via email and Twitter when prices drop. View the price history of Amazon products. Seems practical if you are planning a large purchase, but waiting for a price drop. LINK

Wordology, Ultracrepidarian

One who gives opinions on something beyond his or her knowledge. Someone who does not know what they are talking about. No comments please.

Gravity in Space

Contrary to common opinion, gravity is everywhere, even in space. Anything with mass creates gravity. The effect of gravity decreases as distance increases. At extreme distances, the gravity exerted on a particular object might be almost zero, but is never completely absent.

At the orbit of the International Space Station, Earth's gravitational pull is about 90% of what it is at Earth's surface.

Astronauts on spaceships in outer space are affected by gravity in the same way that their spaceships are. They are both orbiting Earth, which means they are falling sideways (in orbit) at the same time they are falling toward Earth.


On Earth, astronauts feel the force of gravity as weight, because the ground prevents them from falling. In outer space there is no ground to push against astronauts. As they orbit and fall toward Earth at the same rate as their spaceship, astronauts feel weightless, as if there were no gravity.

Burger and Booze Home Delivery

Saw an ad that shows Friday's is starting home delivery of booze along with food. It claims to be first to home deliver this combination and is rolling out in Dallas and Houston, Texas, then nationwide next year. The liquor and mix come separate and you need to mix it yourself. It will be interesting to see how this will work with so many unique local liquor laws around the country.

Happy Friday

You cannot learn a deep appreciation of happiness if you do not dive in.

Dive in all the way to appreciate a Happy Friday!

Wordology, Rasceta

The creases on the inside of wrist.

What's in a Name, 7Up

7 Up is a brand of lemon-lime flavored, non-caffeinated soft drink. The rights to the brand are held by Dr Pepper Snapple Group in the United States, and PepsiCo in the rest of the world. Creative marketing during prohibition moved the product to underground speakeasies. Like other products such as ginger ale and tonic, 7 UP quickly became a popular mixer for alcoholic drinks. After prohibition was repealed, it was still marketed as a mixer. By the late 1940s, 7 UP had become the third best-selling soft drink in the world.

Westinghouse bought 7 Up in 1969 and sold it in 1978 to Philip Morris, which then during 1986 sold it to a group led by Hicks & Haas. 7 Up merged with Dr Pepper in 1988. Cadbury Schweppes bought the combined company in 1995. The Dr Pepper Snapple Group was spun off from Cadbury Schweppes in 2008.

7 Up was created by Charles Grigg, who came up with the formula for a lemon-lime soft drink in 1929. The product, originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug. "Bib-label" referred to the use of paper labels that were placed on the plain bottles.

The US Food and Drug Administration banned the use of lithium in beer and soft drinks in 1948, and 7-Up was reformulated two years later. Its name was later shortened to "7 Up Lithiated Lemon Soda" before being further shortened to just "7 Up" during 1936.


The actual origin of the 7Up name is unclear, as is the origin or meaning of the red dot. It contains no sugar, preservatives, caffeine or coloring.

Banana Facts

The wonderful banana probably first grew in Southeast Asia, and did not make a big impact elsewhere until the early Islamic period when it was brought from India to the Middle East, and on to Africa. The banana turned up in Europe before that, but only as an exotic rarity. In ancient Rome, it had to make do with borrowing the name of the fig (a notion which lived on in the early French term for ‘banana’, figue du paradis).

Spanish and Portuguese colonists took the banana with them across the Atlantic from Africa to the Americas, and along with it they brought its African name, banana, apparently a word from one of the languages of the Congo area (it has been speculated that it derives ultimately from Arabic banana ‘finger, toe’, an origin which would be echoed in the English term hand for a bunch of bananas, and serves as a reminder that many varieties of banana are quite small, not like the large sizes imported into Britain).

Since the end of the nineteenth century Bananaland has been used by Australians as a colloquial and not completely complimentary name for Queensland, a state where the banana is a key crop. Even less complimentary is banana republic, a term coined in the 1930s for small volatile states of the South American tropics (from their economic dependence on the export of bananas).