Review

Herbal Spice Smoking in fact does share a lot of commonalities with its science fiction cousin. Both are spices to get high. Certain relatives of spice smoke (marijuana) are in high demand by the people but unattainable because of draconian legal measures. Spice herbal incense (Spice Legal Drug) is made from a blend of highly purified and valuable substances, many of which are indeed psychoactive just like the spice of Frank Herbert's creation. And many who have tried herbal spice would say that it does indeed increase your overall life satisfaction and happiness. But there the parallels between herbal spice blend smoking and science fiction end, because the real spice is a smoking alternative that is available for anyone who wants to buy some. The spice of Dune, on the other hand, required underground mining and fighting giant worms (yuck!). Good thing Mr. Herbert is not in charge of spice herbal alternatives to smoking. Although you might have to endure some seedy-looking smoke shops and leering eyes of the owners, you can rest assured that no giant worms will suddenly careen out the ground attempting to eat you on your way to purchase spice smoke. In fact, you don't even have to leave the house to buy some herbal spice. You can sit right here at your computer, order it online with your credit card (you must be 18 or over), and it will arrive in your mailbox in 3-5 business days. Spice smoking sites will help you decide which herbal spice vendor is right for you, or you can even read a few reviews and decide for yourself. You can choose from any of the hundreds of varieties herbal spice, including flavors like blueberry, strawberry, and mango. Or you can try one of the extracts or solid smoke varieties. See, we told you that the real thing was even better than the sci-fi version! Some history Smoking spice herbal smokes is just the latest evolutionary step in a smoking history that includes every major culture and era of human history. Although there are no records, it's likely that even the ancient caveman was smoking something on his day off, in between chasing woolly mammoths and trying not to get killed by other tribesman. Ancient Egypt shows plenty of evidence of smoking using hookah pipes, and that may very well have been something that was not tobacco, but rather more cannabis-like in nature. About the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the first cash crop of tobacco was being successfully raised and sold in Virginia. It wasn't long after that that tobacco smoking had infiltrated every country and culture had adopted smoking as part of its rituals and traditions, often in spite of the attempts to extinguish it on the part of authorities. Not until the advent of Nazi Germany several hundred years later and the rise of Adolf Hitler would authorities be successful at turning the tide of public opinion against the practice of smoking. But tobacco wasn't only thing being smoked back then. The opium dens in places like New York and London were well publicized in novels and newspapers. Spread mostly by Chinese immigrants, the practice of smoking opium became very popular among artsy neighborhoods. Although these venues decreased rapidly in popularity after World War I, they showed the attraction that smoking held for many people. Nor was opium the only thing people were putting in their pipes and smoking. Cannabis has been intricately involved with the spiritual life and meditation of seekers for a long time, and in almost every civilization as well: Chinese, African, European, Indian, and probably even Native American. All of these societies featured shamans (or their equivalent) whose job it was to shepherd the person experiencing the effects of the drug. Then suddenly in the 1930's, there swept across the U.S. a wave of Prohibition, and cannabis was banished.

Researchers are beginning to understand the ingredients contained in research chemicals, but often, this research lags months or years behind the manufacture of drugs out on the street. By the time researchers understand what is in these drugs, the manufacturers have changed the drug formulation and/or the dosage in the drugs. As a result, people who take research chemicals are flying blind, unsure of what is in the drugs they take, and unsure of how those chemicals will react within their bodies. These human guinea pigs may tell researchers a significant amount about how the drug works, and what it can do, but researchers often can’t return the favor and inform their patients about how the drugs work. Even if researchers know what the drugs contain, they may still not quite know how the ingredients work and what they are meant to do in the human body. Since so little is known about research chemicals, and the formulations in each product can shift and change, it’s almost impossible to predict the drug’s:     Addictive potential     Health hazards     Safe dosage level     Long-term impact     Overdose level It’s worth repeating that people who take these drugs do so at their own risk, walking blindly into the situation without the experience of science behind them. It’s not something most people would do, if they understood the risks. However, most people simply have no idea that these drugs are dangerous. In an article in the journal Current Clinical Pharmacology, researchers suggest that it’s easier to read about user experiences of these drugs, and that peer-reviewed studies on this drug are very hard to find. As a result, people looking for trusted information about research chemicals may only find first-person accounts of what the drug is like to take, and this may not be the sort of information people can use in order to make informed decisions about their drug use. Legal Status Since these drugs are powerful, and incredibly dangerous, it would be reasonable to expect that all countries would move to ban these drugs as quickly as possible. According to an article published by the English newspaper The Guardian, Britain has made these drugs illegal and many other countries have followed suit. However, there are many other countries in which research chemicals are still considered legal. These countries often have very specific laws in which drugs must be identified by chemical name and active ingredient before they can be deemed illegal. To skirt these laws, manufacturers simply twist one molecule or change one tiny ingredient. With a slight modification like this, the drug is legal once more. Many drug manufacturers in the United States are using this tactic in order to stay in business. Some research chemical manufacturers use tricky marketing techniques in order to skirt the laws. Instead of stamping dosages and drug names on the items they sell, they use these words on their drugs:     For professional use only.     Not for human consumption.     For research purposes.     Laboratory-grade ingredients for research. These terms may help some producers skirt the laws, as they may be able to claim that they did not intend for their buyers to take the drugs they sold. By placing the blame on the buyers, for doing something the sellers never asked them to do, these manufacturers may also be able to skirt the laws in their countries. Buying Research Chemicals The U.S. Department of Justice reports that these drugs are often made in clandestine laboratories, and they’re often sold on the Internet. It’s remarkably easy, in fact, to run a search for “research chemicals” online and find hundreds of manufacturers willing to ship drugs in discreet boxes that would elude detection by nosy roommates, vigilant parents or law enforcement officials. Some dealers buy the drugs in bulk and sell them on the street, but since it’s so easy for people to find them online, it seems like this is the route most users take.

If you follow Python blogs you’ll have seen more than one review of Tarek Ziadé’s book, Expert Python Programming. As a result of these reviews I’d decided that, although the book looked interesting, I wouldn’t be investing in a copy for myself; but when the publishers contacted me directly with the offer of a free review copy, I accepted. You may wonder: Why the need for a book on expert Python programming? Doesn’t Python value simplicity and transparency above all else? (Language lawyers and golfers, look elsewhere!) Why any book on Python, when the online documentation is so well put together? Yes, that’s what I thought too, but the fact is, Python has steadily expanded over a series of point releases. The standard tutorial omits important new(-ish) features such as decorators and properties, and its treatment of generators and special methods is light. Although the language reference covers these topics, it’s no user guide. Expert Python Programming starts well, picking up where the Python tutorial leaves off. It soon becomes evident Tarek Ziadé is indeed an expert Python programmer. He walks through some nice real-world examples. He presents guidelines and advanced idioms few Pythonistas would dispute. He points to tools, modules and articles hosted on and away from python.org with accuracy. Unfortunately the details let the book down. Graphics are poor quality. Some screen shots are barely readable. Here’s a broken code sample — it’s not the only one. (While I’m nit-picking, I wish books didn’t resort to comments for call-out text, and I’d prefer an example which doesn’t shadow a built-in function). I’m less bothered by the grammatical errors and typos. Tarek Ziadé writes clearly and engagingly. The book is easy to read. That said, I won’t let him get away with this pronouncement on Test-Driven Development (TDD).     [TDD] is widely used in the Python community, and probably more so in communities that work with statically typed languages. This may be due to the fact that developers think that most tests are done by the compiler, which checks many things when it produces a binary. Further in, the book covers more general software engineering discipline, with chapters on packaging and distribution, version control, project tracking, documentation, optimisation etc. As ever, Tarek Ziadé provides some welcome pointers to Python best practices, but I see little point in (e.g.) supplying sample Trac configuration file listings — it would be better to direct readers to up to date online documentation. Once you get beyond the core language, Python becomes a sizable topic. It must have been hard to decide what belongs in a book for expert Python programmers, and what to leave out. I do think there should have been more about Python 3.0. I would also suggest coverage of embedding and extending — of interfacing with other languages. In summary, then, I enjoyed Expert Python Programming and learned a few things from it. I don’t think I’ll return to it often, but it has provided some useful pointers. With careful editing and design it could have been much better.

When we talk about eCommerce website development, one word that will strike first in your mind would be Magento. We all know that Magento has geared up the eCommerce web development in the past few years. While Magento website development is at its peak, many of the developers and online store owners often complaining that Magento is “SLOW”. There is no denying that Magento team is always ready to help online store owners and hosting service providers improve the performance of their Magento shopping cart application. Are you one of those online store owners suffering from slow speed issues, here is the solution. We all know about tons of features offered by the Magento. In this article, we’ll try to uncover some of the possible ways you can improve the performance of your Magento eCommerce website from the admin panel itself. While most of the performance management tips need someone having deep knowledge of coding and other aspects of Magento, here we’re going to see some easiest way through which you can easily optimize your Magento website development venture through the admin panel itself. - Turn Off logging mechanism Most of the developers are unaware about the fact that extended mechanisms for logging within Magento is active by default. Once it is set by default, setting it off may heavily break the havoc across the thousands of Magento websites or extensions. Therefore, it is better you turn it off at the very beginning by going to the configuration tab where you will have to go to the Advanced tab to disable the default logging. - Enable compilation It is one of the advanced features introduced in Magento 1.4.XX and the above versions. It is now turned on by default and ready for production. It complies files and scopes into more easily and accessible HTML blocks. This feature will help online store owners to improve the performance by 25% to 50% on the go. - Mix JavaScript and CSS file You can easily file combine feature in Magento version 1.4 and above. It is important to note that this feature is beta in some of the versions, which makes it impossible for the developers or store owners to compress or minify the files. However, it easily helps you improve the performance of your online store. Also, shows drastic improvement in the browser rendering time. - Turn on Magento Flat Catalog Magento is using an EAV database module, which means each and every product or category has information spread out through lots of tablets. Whenever a request made to access any product or category, a huge query is fired to gather pieces of information and create a product object. It will drastically affect the performance of your online venture. To overcome this issue, you can use the flat catalog, which will help you improve the performance of your eCommerce website. - Don’t use the layered navigation if you don’t require it at all There is no denying that layered navigation is a great feature for the online stores having a huge catalog. It makes it easy for the users to find the right product by reducing the product attributes willing to buy. However, it heavily affects the performance of your online store. Therefore, try to avoid using layered navigation if it is not required for your online store.