Salvia – full name Salvia Divinorum – is a fairly harmless herb originating from Mexico. It’s a member of the sage family and is a close relative of the Salvia plants seen in many colorful gardens. Why then, you may ask, is Salvia been lined up for a Federal ban? And why is it subject to bans in a handful of States in the US? Well, if used in the right way Salvia has hallucinogenic properties similar to those experienced by users of LSD.

Salvia has never really been a name of many people’s tongues, and given the fact that it is currently legal and that it is a potent hallucinogenic, this may perhaps be a little surprising.

It isn’t just that Salvia isn’t popular with its users – it is! – it’s just that people didn’t really start to appreciate its hallucinogenic properties until late in the 20th century, and while Mazatec Mexicans had used it for decades its first mention in the mainstream media was in a British documentary in 1998.

Since these humble beginnings Salvia’s popularity has rocketed. It just took a little news item like banning the stuff to finally be the catalyst to get it properly into the public domain. Ironic, that.

Picture the scene: you’re on holiday in Phuket, Thailand. You are walking down the centre of the road in Phuket town. You can smell the Thai food drifting from the food stalls and Hawker stalls that literally line the road. Every mall you enter has a food center in it. All this food smells fantastic and is prepared by experienced chefs who love good food. Imagine that a meal costs under $2.

Sound good? This is the reality.

I have been to Phuket twice now and both times I have been utterly mesmerized at the variety and quality of the food available in the restaurants in Phuket. Not only can you get traditional Thai food but there are plenty of restaurants in Phuket dealing with food from other nations. And it’s all great, with very few exceptions.

The key to the restaurants in Phuket is that everyone eats out, because it is so affordable. As the locals demand great quality food at reasonable prices you can, if you go to the right area, piggy back this and get the same food at the same price.

Going to up market restaurants in Phuket is definitely possible but you will pay for the privilege of being in the restaurant rather than for the food itself.

Nokia’s move last year to offer music downloads to its customers was a brave move and one which won it plaudits within the free music community: not only were the unlimited music downloads free, they were also devoid of the fun-wrecking DRM. Hurrah for Nokia.

Hurrah indeed, as the mobile giant announced recently that its “Comes With Music” campaign will include tracks from Sony BMG’s catalogue. The music downloads that we once dreamed about may be here.

This comes at the same time as Sony’s agreement with Peter Gabriel’s We7 online music store (offering (almost) unlimited music downloads, again without DRM) which will allow its users to stream the entire Sony back catalogue.

While it is a step from Sony offering music downloads to the entire industry model changing for good, it is a step in the right direction for what is one of the major opponents to file-sharing and other forms of free music.

What others are saying:
Music downloads will surpass CD sales in four years
We7 gets support from Sony to offer free music downloads

Can you image working together with your husband or wife? Spending all hours of the working day working with him or her on your home based business and then spending the evenings together in the same house too? It might sound like a nightmare to some but it is a dream come true for Matt and Stacy Williams.

They believe that the flexibility they enjoy is essential to help some people to maximize their potential. This is why their home based business employs six part time staff who all work from home. “They all work out of their homes, and they seem to appreciate the flexibility we offer them.” said Stacy. A truly home based business – just not all in the same home!

Matt’s view on sharing their home based business is clear: “I mean, who can you trust as your business partner more than your spouse?”. And while many couples would unfortunately not be able to answer that in the same way that Matt and Stacy can, it is a nice sentiment.

There’s been a load of news coverage lately about the world of free music downloads and, being one of those old folk that is fairly new to the wonders of dem Internet Tubes I thought I’d go and look to try and find out what all the fuss is about. First stop was Google. I wanted an easy to use filesharing program that I didn’t need to spend hours puzzling over and that didn’t require a tech-savvy teenager to give me instructions on how to work it. The first one I came across wasAres Ultimate, which was, apparently very easy to use.

And it was, much to my relief. Getting the Ares Ultimate onto my computer was a breeze: it basically installed itself. Once there I followed the clear and concise on-screen instructions when needed (though to be honest the whole process is intuitive enough not to require detailed instructions) and I was downloading Bing Crosby in no time.

Ares Ultimate made everything simple and it did exactly what it said it was going to do. I read a few reviews afterwards and it seems like I made the right choice as industry pundits are giving Ares Ultimate the thumbs up too. Good to know that an old man can get it right once in a while!

So I was having trouble getting my old music sharing software to work on my computer. I assumed it was me. To my delight my rather more technologically advanced teenage daughter told me that it wasn’t me but Windows Vista; turns out the increased security has done for that side of things. Ho hum.

She went on to mention Ares Vista which was designed with just this kind of situation in mind. Off I went on a merry Google search and soon I was there.

Ares Vista seems to have been made with the people who have suffered the horror of their operating system, firewall or anti-virus software not allowing them to use other filesharing apps. It works with Vista without you having to compromise your security.

There isn’t a lot to dislike about Ares Vista – it’s simple enough and it works very well – but one thing we did notice was that the ‘intelligent’ optimization of bandwidth occasionally causes strange results. Files lower down on my list of priorities were downloaded before the higher ones. This is counter intuitive but not a huge problem.

Ares Vista adopts the Vista look and feel and, I have to say, there is a lot to be said for that. Say what you like about Microsoft, but their Vista operating system looks the business.

What others are saying:
Ares Vista worked for me

The rock band Nine Inch Nails has succumbed to industry pressure somewhat: it is releasing its latest album through its website for free.

Free music downloads downloads from a headline act is nothing new, and British act Radiohead tried this tactic (or at least something very much like it) last year with its album “In Rainbows”. Thom Yorke, lead singer of the band, has mixed views on free music downloads downloads: he recently told The Hollywood Reporter trade paper that his band’s pay-what-you-want offer was a one-time thing. “I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again”.

Free music downloads downloads are out there, it’s just whether the bands choose to embrace that fact or hide from it that will make the difference over the coming years.

Certainly with producers like Sony giving in and offering its back catalogue to free music downloads services like We7 there must be something that is worth taking note of.

There is a new drug on the block and it is making inroads into the markets previously dominated by Marijuana and LSD. The good news? It is entirely legal. The bad? It might not be legal for very long.
Salvia is a plant with hallucinogenic properties hailing from Mexico. Its sale, use and possession is entirely legal in most U.S. States and in Mexico, and the plant is solid in both leaf and extract form on the Internet. Its use induces hallucinations lasting for around one hour. While the effects are said to be stronger than those provided by Marijuana they only last an hour or so.
Pro-Salvia commentators claim that Salvia is a relatively harmless drug and that those wishing to see it banned are making a lot of fuss over a very small problem.
Some states have already banned Salvia or limited its use in some way, and with others likely to follow perhaps now is the time to make the most of Salvia’s legal status.

Read all about it! Read all about it! Apple’s new 3g iPhone will soon be entering the market! While this alone is very exciting news for many Apple fans and potential iPhone buyers, the much more exciting news is that the 3g iPhone may be subsidized by up to $200, bring the price down to a much more manageable $200 or so; the subsidy will of course be in return for customers signing a new two year contract.

Apple AT&T have not officially released news of this subsidy – or indeed many details about the 3g iPhone. The word on the street is that the 3g iPhone will be available around the 1 year anniversary of the first model’s release, so look towards the end of June.

Before this release date Apple plans, according to an insider, to stop shipping the old model of iPhone. This will create a supply lacuna and an explosion of demand when the new iPhone finally arrives.

A new home business will likely need some new equipment. At the very least you will need a desk of some description, a computer and a phone. While it might be tempting to go out and spend as little as possible on each of these items it should be remembered that these purchases are an investment into your home business.

If you are planning on spending a lot of time on the phone with your home business then get a good quality headset – Plantronics are excellent in this area – and consider a wireless version if you think you might benefit from moving around while on the phone.

A good computer will save you and your home business a lot of time a stress; a reliable computer will save you even more. With Windows getting the bashing that it does it might be time to consider one of Apple’s sturdy little machines. The extra initial cost incurred – remember this is an investment in your home business – is well worth the additional piece of mind that comes with an Apple computer.