Jordan Pace's List: PHENOMENA

• Canadians make a racket about mysterious 'hum' coming from US side of border

• Published May 01, 2012

  The Wall Street Journal
• WINDSOR, Ontario –  Last month, Bob Dechert, a senior aide to Canada's foreign minister, was dispatched to Detroit with an important diplomatic mission: to stop a highly-annoying noise.
• The so-called Windsor hum, described as a low-frequency rumbling sound, has rattled windows and knocked objects off shelves in this border community just across the Detroit River from the Motor City.
• Locals have said it sounds like a large diesel truck idling, a loud boom box or the bass vocals of Barry White.
• Residents in Windsor, Ontario, have blamed the hum for causing illness, whipping dogs into frenzies, keeping cats housebound and sending goldfish to the surface in backyard ponds. Many have resorted to switching on their furnace fan all season to drown out the noise.
• Canadians find that suspicious -- especially since their research suggests the hum is coming from the Yankees' side -- and accuse US officials of staying silent over the noise.
• Even weirder, Americans cannot seem to hear it.
• "The government of Canada takes this issue seriously," Dechert said after his recent fact-finding trip, which included a visit to a heavily-industrialized area on the American side of the river that some Canadian scientists believe is to blame for the hum.

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• The most dangerous drug in the world: 'Devil's Breath'
• chemical from Colombia can block free will, wipe memory and even kill
• Scopolamine often blown into faces of victims or added to drinks
• Within minutes, victims are like 'zombies' - coherent, but with no free will
• Some victims report emptying bank accounts to robbers or helping them pillage own house
• Drug is made from borrachero tree, which is common in Colombia
• By  Beth Stebner
• 13 May 2012
• A hazardous drug that eliminates free will and can wipe the memory of its victims is currently being dealt on the streets of Colombia.
• The drug is called scopolamine, but is colloquially known as ‘The Devil’s Breath,' and is derived from a particular type of tree common to South America.
• Stories surrounding the drug are the stuff of urban legends, with some telling horror stories of how people were raped, forced to empty their bank accounts, and even coerced into giving up an organ.
• VICE’s Ryan Duffy travelled to the country to find out more about the powerful drug. In two segments, he revealed the shocking culture of another Colombian drug world, interviewing those who deal the drug and those who have fallen victim to it.
• Demencia Black, a drug dealer in the capital of Bogota, said the drug is frightening for the simplicity in which it can be administered.

• He told Vice that Scopolamine can be blown in the face of a passer-by on the street, and within minutes, that person is under the drug’s effect - scopolamine is odourless and tasteless.

  ‘You can guide them wherever you want,’ he explained. ‘It’s like they’re a child.’
• In high doses, it is lethal.
• The drug, he said, turns people into complete zombies and blocks memories from forming. So even after the drug wears off, victims have no recollection as to what happened.

• One victim told Vice that a man approached her on the street asking her for directions. Since it was close by, she helped take the man to his destination, and they drank juice together.

  
  

  'You can guide them wherever you want. It’s like they’re a child.'
  

   

  She took the man to her house and helped him gather all of her belongings, including her boyfriend’s cameras and savings.
• According to the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, the drug - also known as hyoscine - causes the same level of memory loss as diazepam.
• In ancient times, the drug was given to the mistresses of dead Colombian leaders – they were told to enter their master’s grave, where they were buried alive.
• In modern times, the CIA used the drug as part of Cold War interrogations, with the hope of using it like a truth serum.
• However, because of the drug’s chemical makeup, it also induces powerful hallucinations. 
• The tree common around Colombia, and is called the ‘borrachero’ tree – loosely translated as the 'get-you-drunk' tree.
• It is said that Colombian mothers warn their children not to fall asleep under the tree, though the leafy green canopies and large yellow and white flowers seem appealing.
• Experts are baffled as to why Colombia is riddled with scopolamine-related crimes, but wager much of it has to do with the country’s torn drug-culture past, and on-going civil war.
• Comments

• This is more commonly know as Datura or Angels Trumpet... you'd think the reporters would note that, which I consider SLOPPY reporting. These folks attitude is as though it's some hyper-exotic plant that's hard to find. It's not. They are planted and grow in gardens all over the place in California... it's a common "ornamental" shrub. And yes it's psychoactive and can be dangerous even deadly. Frankly I'm surprised our NANNY State hasn't classified it as a Schedule 1 drug plant like Opium Poppies and Marijuana.

   

  - Anton Kushkovi, Belmont, CA, USA, 14/5/2012 03:09

• Here it's called Angels Trumpet..there it's called Devils Breath....

   

  - M.R., Jax, Fl, 14/5/2012 02:33

• Scopolamine in a small dose used to be the active ingredient of popular US sleeping pill Sominex® !

   

  - Neil Bates, Newport News, USA, 14/5/2012 01:24
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