wow they're the k3wl kids, and she's a HOTTIE, i'm gonna smoke Opium too!

Question, how do you describe a wound full of pus? Many a medical student has written in the chart, "on the patient's leg was a pussy wound."

From the American Civil war, and before, bullet wounds to the extremities were treated with amputation. The goal was to create a "clean" wound that didn't contain pieces of dirt and fabric, which almost always led to suppuration and gangrene. Prior to the days of anesthesia, the unfortunates were given laudanum, a mixture of alcohol and opium. Still, Paracelsus described an essential characteristic of an 18th century surgeon as "absolute pitilessness"

Those were rough days. The smell of suppuration has not been abolished, unfortunately. Anaerobic bacteria will singe your nose hair. The modern remedy is a dash of peppermint oil on the surgical mask. It's remarkably potent and an overdose will cause your eyes to water for the next 10 minutes.

It seems a lot of you need a lesson in Etymology (the study of word origins, for you anti-intellectual types).

The word "Assassin" comes from the Arabic word "Hashashin," meaning "Hash Eater." That word comes from a group of warriors who would eat copious amounts of Hashish before sneaking into enemy encampments under the dead of night, and systematically killing every single enemy soldier in their sleep.

The high that eating such large amounts of hash provided them with a deadly calmness required for killing their enemies in such a stealthy manner.

I highly doubt that the soldiers in this video are smoking anything other than weed. Maybe it's laced with opium or heroine, but I doubt it. Opium is a depressant, it slows down the reflexes, and makes it hard to do anything other than sleep off your high. Cannabanoids don't work on the nervous system the same way.

Under the Taliban's strict Islamic law, consuming any mind-altering substance is a mortal sin and capital offense. That's why we let them control Afghanistan for so long before overthrowing them - they essentially halted the Afghani Opium and Hashish export. Now that they're not in control, Opium and Hash exported from Afghanistan has started to make a comeback. Not surprising, considering how easy it is to grow Poppies and Cannabis, and how much more you can sell it for compared to food staples or textile fiber.

Oh yeah. And it probably is opium. Where did this video come from anyway?

That's probably not marijuana but hashish or opium.

My wife also did work there in 2007. A lot of the Hmong people moved out of Vietnam and into Thailand in search of a better life, and ended up dealing in opium. The King of Thailand (who has a huge amount of respect from the Thai people) requested that they give up growing opiates and trade their crafts instead. Amazingly they did, and you can now find many Hmong tribe villages trading their crafts and goods in Thailand.

*video edited for NSFW

religious people are easier to control (marx: opium for the masses) and our political masters need every bit of control now that the ship is slowly going down (crisis of modern capitalism). debating religion skews and diverts focus from the real issues (just look at all the comments about this topic) so i won't even try cause i find it silly anyway - we should never let religion be institutionalised but should be up to each and every individual to deal with and figure out for him/herself. it's the most intimate matter there is imho and should never be taught to anyone
the real issues? well, we're all slaves for one. nobody is talking about it cause it's being packaged in this free trade capitalist envelope that says: you're payed work force, not slaves, everyone is free to seize the oportunities that the system provides, everybody is equal, etc.
sure, on the expense of others. and you're that "others". the system is designed to the needs of the few (in relative terms) people who are at the tip of the pyramid, exempt from "natural" laws, while the majority lives in a fantasy of free will and choice. there is no real choice unless you like living in a cardboard box or move to some far of hippie commune in india. nobody is even debating the option of some new, better system - like market capitalism is here to stay for ever. it's easier to imagine the end of the world than a significant change in the established system (parafrasing slavoj zizek here)
so what do we need to make something, anything, change? we need a catastrophy. shock therapy. clash of the civilisations, natural disaster, nuclear war, whatever... i still hope that this won't be the case but right now it's hard to imagine any other event that would stir things up (maybe a visit from our alien friends out there? alf, i miss you . we are at the breaking point or close to it, i think. meaning either we change our mentality and give up on some old, primitive notions (like religion e.g.) or we die as a race.

Dag, I'd have to recommend that you see 3:10 to Yuma as well. It's not what you might think of as a typical western (much depth, complexity, and intricate characters) and very worth seeing, but much different than this'n.

You pegged it, Choggie. Yeah, I did see I think the first one or two episodes in that Duvall mini-series and really enjoyed it, though it was a while back and I don't remember its cinematography striking me as much, not to say it wasn't as stunning as you mentioned. While there were mentions of opium and talk about other things happening during the era, the focus of the movie was on James, Ford, and their kin folk.

Thanks Qruel. Very glad to know this is encouraging more people to see it. Anyone who misses out on it is truly missing out.

looks like some high art western cinema....has anyone seen the Duvall mini series "Broken Trail"?-reminded me of the same stunning, cinematographic feat you describe here....I love a well-photographed picture-Did they show the opium addicts after the civil war like it really was....frikkin' epidemic??

I'm sure its VS user 'Choggie' that submitted a history channel doco on 'opium, morphine, and heroin'. Basically the same thing but much more detailed. Can't find the link now, I'll keep looking though.

First off, here they are as they are currently ranked, with their average number of votes per video:

1 Rock & Roll: 16.6737
2 Did that Just Happen?: 29.3763
3 Sports Sift: 21.7181
4 Matt Groening: 34.6338
5 Arts: 19.4969
6 A Bit of Parody: 23.5148
7 Obscure: 15.2030
8 Cinema: 18.8780
9 All About Science: 29.3227
10 HorrorShow: 16.2270
11 Domestic Policy & Foreign Affairs: 20.7457
12 Ball Flexin': 19.1796
13 Spanning Time: 17.4850
14 It's Raining Cats & Dogs: 28.9157
15 Sci-Fi Fandom: 22.1428
16 British Humor: 21.1465
17 Video (game) Sift: 21.6372
18 From Asia With Love: 22.4375
19 Religion... It's the Opium of the People: 22.7340
20 Nick's Nacks: 22.2526
21 Evolution in Action: 32.8437
22 Late Night: 29.1475
23 FemmeSift: 18.1975
24 Commercial Sift: 20.5070
25 Mind Blowing Documentaries: 15.9213
26 Kid Sift: 18.2676
27 80's High School Reunion: 16.1282
28 Islamica: 14.3103
29 The Clouds & Beyond: 19.0952
30 Hip Hop Culture: 16.0422
31 That's Terrible!: 19.3454
32 Good Eats: 20.8695
33 Stand Up Comedy: 24.0789
34 Bravo!: 15.7647
35 Humanitarian Sift: 17.4418
36 Army, Navy, Air Force: 20.75
37 Canadian World Domination: 19.5161
38 1st Tube: 15.7222
39 Grindhouse Cinema: 17.6538
40 How To...: 15.6428
41 221b Baker St: 14.4166


And here's how they line up when they are ranked by those averages:

1 Matt Groening: 34.6338
2 Evolution in Action: 32.8437
3 Did that Just Happen?: 29.3763
4 All About Science: 29.3227
5 Late Night: 29.1475
6 It's Raining Cats & Dogs: 28.9157
7 Stand Up Comedy: 24.0789
8 A Bit of Parody: 23.5148
9 Religion... It's the Opium of the People: 22.734
10 From Asia With Love: 22.4375
11 Nick's Nacks: 22.2526
12 Sci-Fi Fandom: 22.1428
13 Sports Sift: 21.7181
14 Video (game) Sift: 21.6372
15 British Humor: 21.1465
16 Good Eats: 20.8695
17 Army, Navy, Air Force: 20.75
18 Domestic Policy & Foreign Affairs: 20.7457
19 Commercial Sift: 20.507
20 Canadian World Domination: 19.5161
21 Arts: 19.4969
22 That's Terrible!: 19.3454
23 Ball Flexin': 19.1796
24 The Clouds & Beyond: 19.0952
25 Cinema: 18.878
26 Kid Sift: 18.2676
27 FemmeSift: 18.1975
28 Grindhouse Cinema: 17.6538
29 Spanning Time: 17.485
30 Humanitarian Sift: 17.4418
31 Rock & Roll: 16.6737
32 HorrorShow: 16.227
33 80's High School Reunion: 16.1282
34 Hip Hop Culture: 16.0422
35 Mind Blowing Documentaries: 15.9213
36 Bravo!: 15.7647
37 1st Tube: 15.7222
38 How To...: 15.6428
39 Obscure: 15.203
40 221b Baker St: 14.4166
41 Islamica: 14.3103

Interesting, non?

Yaaaay! Aleister Crowley on the Sift! He happens to be one of my very favorite historical miscreants! Great Sift Gwaan!

For anyone who's looking for a good (er... interesting) read, I suggest his novel 'Moonchild', a drug-induced frolick through the occult whose characters are thinly veiled representations of himself and his 'mortal' enemies, S.L.Macgregor Mathers, William Butler Yates, E.A. Waite, and more... for anyone with an itnerest in turn of the century occult or the Golden Dawn you will not be displeased!... however, be prepared to wade through a lot of esoteric nonsense and opium-pipe prose, it's worth it though, by the end, you will have a thorough admiration for the ego that claimed to have begun WWI as a means of sweeping the earth clean before 'ushering in a new era of Crowleyanity'!

BlueGW, are you providing a solution to this problem?

No.

Are you blowing alot of steam?

Yes.

Iran is mostly young people now, there is a huge clash between the old generation and the new westernized generation that is fizzing over to the streets. It's not about Islam or anything like that, it's about power and control. Religion is the opium of the masses remember, thinking these people do this mostly out of religious enforcement shows a distinct lack of understanding of the changing climate in the Middle East.

Bitch and whine about it as much as you want, you don't really give a shit what happens there...

I love the idea of a bb within each collective. Think of the great discussions/arguments in "All About Science" or "Religion ... It's the Opium of the People", (et al) that would take place if a persistent (read: won't expire off of top 15 list), centralized discussion forum existed for each collective. Collective owners could also easily post guidelines for submissions, welcome new members, etc. If VS continues to grow and has 30000 (or more ) members in a couple years down the road, the collectives could become a strong, attractive feature here. Smaller, more familiar communities within a larger VS city. I sorta imagine usenet with friends and videos. I don't know what effect that would have on each videos' comments section, though. Maybe each video submitted in a collective could generate it's own thread on the collective bb or something. Again, just thinking out loud. I reserve the right to think up and post stupid shit.

I agree with benjee and PM on channels (and most everything else she wrote). Keep 'em. I don't think there are enough, actually (science? religion? philosophy?...)

I would like to be a member of your Religion ... It's the Opium of the People collective.