I guess that makes you the nerd, lol. And obviously, you need to gain a little more "knowledge" about the medical qualities of cannabis, as you proved here, you don't know much about that, "electrical knowledge" red herrings aside

"you seem to want to drag it back into the dark ages."

Well if you mean my research into the ancient world use of cannabis, sure! But then, your own work has had little reach outside these forums, lmao.
Thats what all this academic support is all about

Prof Carl Ruck
http://www.forbiddenfruitpublishing.com/SexDrugs/CarlRuck
Prof. Tom Roberts
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/20392
"I have read parts of his co-authored books Green Gold the Tree of Life, Marijuana in Magic & Religion and Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible. Having spent a large fraction of my professional work compiling information the entheogens (item k above), I am solidly impressed with the scholarship on Mr. Bennett’s two books., He and his co-authors present the religious and spiritual use of cannabis in what must have been the result of painstaking detailed research in archeology, anthropology, theology, and other contributory disciplines to religious studies."
Prof. Scott Littleton
http://www.forbiddenfruitpublishing.com/Soma/Book
I have read Mr. Bennett’s several books on this subject and am in general agreement with what he states, especially about the extent to which the Vedic hallucinogen Soma was probably made from cannabis. Indeed, his research has changed my own thinking about this ancient conundrum (heretofore, the majority of scholars have suggested that Soma was prepared from psychotropic mushrooms).
As Chris Bennett amply demonstrates in this seminal book, the ritual use of cannabis has a very long history. It extends from Vedic India in the second millennium, B.C.E., where the hallucinogen in question was known as Soma, classical Greece, ancient Israel where it appears as keneh bosem, and the steppes of Central Asia, where, according to Herodotus in Book IV of his History, the ancient Scythians ritually inhaled the fumes given off by burning cannabis leaves. Indeed, the plant has consistently occupied a central position in shamanic cults almost everywhere. In more recent times, and especially in the twentieth century, users of cannabis for spiritual purposes have unfortunately been persecuted, in the United States and elsewhere, by authorities enforcing laws against its possession. A good example can be seen in the ongoing attempts to suppress its use in the Rastafarian religion. In short, I heartily recommend Bennett’s book to anyone seeking a better understanding of this well-nigh universal, albeit all too often misunderstood hallucinogen and its crucial role in the history of human spirituality.
C. Scott Littleton, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus
Occidental College

....and more where that came from!

A article I wrote about the role of cannabis in the ancient world was also recently published alongside all sorts of PhDs and MDs in this new cannabis compendium

http://store.innertraditions.com/Product.jmdx?action=displayDetail&id=3785&searchString=978-1-59477-368-6&textTypeIdDisplay=693&displayHandleGroup=PRODUCT_HANDLE%2C_ONIX_PRODUCT_&selectedTextTypeKeynames=04

so what do you two fellows have to show for your own incredible academic integrity, outside of these forums? references please.....

Well, I do prefer to be called a "geek" more so than "nerd" ... but it's ok, i'm cool with it. At least I understand the difference between "facts" and "knowledge". Considering that i've never taken any electrical or electronic classes I think I do ok in that area but it's mostly just a hobby. Computer programing and IT work is my main bread and butter ... but I do work part time at a Cannabis College because I like it there.

I suppose if your still looking for my point. The main reason I got into this discussion is because I thought you might have some insight into how to qualify and quantify "healing power". Obviously that was a stupid idea ... but i rarely make the same mistake twice.

a cannabis college, cool, where at? what do you teach?
and i would quantify "healing power" by known "medical effectiveness" which was pretty well laid out already, but you missed
knowledge of facts, facts of knowledge, yes that must be hard for you....
So they must not have a course on medical marijuana at that college eh? Oh well you could always read some books on it.

I just wanted to hear your side of that chris. Someone had brought it to my attention.

***

So, how much are your books. Obviously the only way to actually dig through this would be to read the damn thing, or at least take a look. Do you have any papers freely available that you could link me to?

***

As for my own academics. I'm in my third undergraduate year studying physics. I've tutored high school over the past couple years and conducted research the past few summers. A lot of the research was mostly grunt work but I did manage to determine the sources of a large measurement deviation which had been causing problems for a while.

That's the best I got.

The School is Med Grow Cannabis College I tried doing a little bit of teaching but my public speaking skills really suck ... I'm one of those geeks that typically hides in the basement. My official job title there is "Squirrel Master" ... long story perhaps some other time. I mainly help out with LABs, grade homework, put together lesson plans and powerpoint presentations ... plus whatever else they need me to do from cleaning to goofer to installing duct work in the grow room. Anyway, if you go to Med Grow and ask for "GitcheGumee" or the "Squirrel Master" then you can meet me in person.



Hmmmm ... well I could see "medical effectiveness" being a "qualifier" but I'm not sure how to "quantify" that. Quantities require numbers ... a scale if you will. I realize that trying actually measure "healing power" is no easy task. It is much more difficult than trying to measure the power of light intensity ... and measuring the power of light is no easy task ... there is at least 3 or 4 different scales (PAR, Lumen, candela, etc) that are used to measure light.



I suppose the simplest way I can explain it is ... Facts are just little bits of information. By properly analyzing a set of facts one can come to deeper understanding or gain knowledge. Well, i'm not sure if that explains it or not.



Well, we have a doctor a MD that comes in and teaches that class. I have no problem getting computer programming work with out a college degree ... but if i start practicing medicine with out a degree they will throw me in jail for sure

With all the earlier academia, pseudo insults and nerd talk ... I was starting to wonder if you were going to try and give me a wedgie

Re"I suppose the simplest way I can explain it is ... Facts are just little bits of information. By properly analyzing a set of facts one can come to deeper understanding or gain knowledge. Well, i'm not sure if that explains it or not."

well, to me it kind of seems like you are picking nitts, or nitt picking, one or the other.

Re"I was starting to wonder if you were going to try and give me a wedgie"

....no I am recovering wedgie victim myself, not a giver at all,still working through that trauma myself, lol, but with the smarmy attitude you have had here, I can kind of see why you are still worried about it. How about we both try to be a little less dickish?

Be a little less dickish? Well I would say that's the best idea I've heard all week. I'm in!

"So, how much are your books. Obviously the only way to actually dig through this would be to read the damn thing, or at least take a look. Do you have any papers freely available that you could link me to?"

The first, Green Gold the Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic and Religion, (1995) is pretty pricey, but you can look inside it for free online at this Amazon link
http://www.amazon.com/Green-Gold-Tree-Life-Marijuana/dp/0962987220
The second one, Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible, (2001) you can get from me for cheaper than anywhere else online, $45, reviews and news stories on right side of link page, but its about a lot more than just pot
http://www.forbiddenfruitpublishing.com/SexDrugs/Book
The new one, Cannabis and the Soma Solution is really cheap on Amazon and some other sites right now, and this has the most up to date information
http://www.forbiddenfruitpublishing.com/Soma/Book
http://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Soma-Solution-Chris-Bennett/dp/0984185801

I have tried to get my head around physics, read a few books, Like Tao of Physics, Dancing Wui Li Masters, A Short History of Time, but it seems just as I start to grasp bits of it, they dissapear fro my mind, lol. The only thing I've ever really written on physics myself is this comparison of ancient Gnostic material with the Big Bang theory, from my book on the Bible. Unfortunately, the formatting will be lost on my quote indentations, when I cut and paste it here, so it may be tricky differentiating my words from the source material. From Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible:

As much as the Judaic priestly elite, and the later Roman Catholic church were interested in repressing thought and synchronism, the Gnostics were into expanding them. This often led into areas of varied and extreme speculations , but some of the surviving Gnostic fragments, give indications of the profound insights that these early psychonauts were able to come to through mysticism, which as we shall show later, often involved the use of entheogens. Rather than the simplistic tribal cosmological explanation of creation offered by their Hebrew predecessors, at some point certain Gnostic groups took on cosmological speculations that are uncannily paralleled by the findings of modern physicists and cosmologists. The fragmented writings of the Gnostic teacher, Basilides, who taught around 120-130 A.D., found in the early Church father Hippolytus' refutations of Gnostic teachings , give us a taste of the radical Gnosis which was already popular by this early time . Referring to the pre existent state before the Universal Seed took form and gave birth, and sounding like a physicist trying to describe the pre-omega state before the Big Bang, Basilides explained the Gnostic creation cosmology;

There was when naught was; nay, even that "naught" was not aught of things that are.... But... conjecture and mental quibbling apart, there was absolutely not even the One... And when I use the term "was", I do not mean to say that it was [that is to say, in any state of being]; but merely to give some suggestion of what I wish to indicate, I use the expression "there was absolutely naught". For that "naught" is not simply so-called the ineffable; it is beyond that

Hippolytus,(Died 235 A.D.), summarized Basilides’ explanation of non-being, which transcends all being, and its eventual will to create the Seed of Universality, or Mother Source, of the created Universe.

Naught was, neither matter, nor substance, nor voidness of substance, nor simplicity, nor impossibility-of-composition, nor inconceptibilty, nor imperceptibility, neither man, nor angel, nor god... neither anything at all for which man has ever found a name, nor any operation which falls within the range either of his perception or conception. Such, or rather far more removed from the power of man's comprehension, was the state of non-being, when [if we can speak of "when" in a state of beyond time and space] the Deity beyond being without thinking, or feeling, or determining, or choosing, or being compelled, or desiring, willed to create universality.

Returning to the words of the Gnostic master Basilides, Hippolytus recorded:

When I use the term "will", I do so merely to suggest the idea of an operation transcending all volition, thought or sensible action. And this universality also was not [our] dimensional and differentiable universe, which subsequently came into existence and was separated [from other universes], but the Seed of all universes.

This universal Seed contained everything in itself, potentially, in some such fashion as the grain of mustard seed contains the whole simultaneously in the minutest point--roots, stem, branches, leaves, and the innumerable germs that come from the seed of the plant, and which in their turn produces still other and other plants in manifold series.

Thus the Divinity beyond being created universality beyond being from elements beyond being, positing and causing to subsist a single something... containing in itself the entire all-seed-potency of the Universe.(Basilides 120-130 A.D.)

Writing in 1900, G.R.S. Mead, from whose work we got the above excerpts, summarized:
"From such a 'Seed', which is everywhere and nowhere, and which treasures in its bosom everything that was or is or is to be, all things must come into manifestation in their 'proper natures and cycles' and times, at the will of the Deity beyond all"(Mead 1900). Basilides is unclear as to what brings this about, and refers to an indefinable "supplementary development";

For of what sort of emanation is there need, or of what sort of matter must we make supposition, in order that God should make the universe, like as a spider weaves its web [from itself], or mortal man takes brass or timber or other matter out of which to make something? But 'He spake and it was', and this is what is the meaning of the saying of Moses, 'Let there be light, and there was light'. Whence then, was the light? from naught. For it is not written whence, but only from the voice of the Speaker of the word. And he who spake the word, was not, and that which was, was not. For the Seed of the universe, the word that was spoken, "Let there be light", was from the state beyond being. And this was what was spoken in the Gospel, "it was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world". Man both deriveth his principles from that Seed and is also enlightened by it.(Basilides 120-130 A.D.)

I am known for being a technically anal ... my job requires that I can tell the difference between a null and a blank space ... computers can be so damn nitt picky at times.

I suppose my sarcasm doesn't come through as well I would like on the forum sometimes. Oh well .. to me it's all good ... keeps life from becoming to boring.