2,700-year-old marijuana found in tomb

OTTAWA - Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.

Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

"This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible," Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.

"It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied."

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man's high social standing.

Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer.

The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis.

Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said.

The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers.

The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.

"It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years."

Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis.

"I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue," he said, referring to his latest paper.

The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.




Montreal Escorts

Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko puts a new face on the role of Bond Girl

Smart, sexy and strong, Olga Kurylenko is a lot like her Quantum of Solace character
Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko puts a new face on the role of Bond Girl, and what a face it is! Her Quantum of Solace character Camille is nobody’s plaything, not even OO7’s.

Whoever decided women should be called “the weaker sex” never met Olga Kurylenko.

The Ukrainian-born beauty is smart, outspoken and very determined — just the characteristics that also define the newest Bond Girl.

As Camille in Quantum of Solace, Kurylenko gets to play a different sort of femme fatale. She isn’t anybody’s plaything, and the biggest passion she shares with James Bond is their mutual lust for revenge. The secret agent meets his match.

“She’s not just hanging out with him. She doesn’t need Bond to exist,” says Kurylenko of her Quantum of Solace character. “She’s got her own story, her own agenda and her own life.”

That agenda is to avenge the killings of her family.

Quantum Of Solace opens Friday, which also happens to be Kurylenko’s 29th birthday. During a recent promotional stop, she talked about how hard she worked to get the role of Camille. And, no, she had no reservations about being a Bond Girl.


“If I didn’t want the job, I wouldn’t have gone through the casting process,” she says. “If I don’t want to do something, believe me, I’m not going to do it. I worked so hard to get this. A lot of people wanted the part.”

She was told she’d landed the role on Christmas Eve. “And when they told me I got the role, I was like, ‘Yes!’ ”

Kurylenko was raised by her mother and grandmother in Berdyansk, and they were quite poor. Hers is a true rags-to-riches story, although it certainly doesn’t involve intellectual poverty in any way. Kurylenko’s mother was a teacher and her grandmother a doctor, and the former model becomes animated when speaking about them.

“A teacher and a doctor — the two most important professions in the world,” she says. “They were educated and very intelligent, and that’s all good, but when you cannot eat ...” She shrugs. She explains that her grandmother is dead now, and pauses for a second to regain her composure.

Kurylenko was 13 when she and her mother took a trip to Moscow, where an agent who saw her step off the subway immediately approached her with modelling work. By age 17 she was living and working in Paris. At 18 she was a major success story, appearing on such magazine covers as Glamour, Elle and Marie Claire. She was also the face of various cosmetic and fashion lines.


Kurylenko studied acting while earning a living as a model. Her feature-film debut came in 2005 with L’Annulaire. She won roles in Paris, je t’aime, Le Serpent and Hitman (which was her first English-speaking role), and she has roles in Max Payne — in theatres now — and the upcoming Tyranny. Scripts come to her in French and English.

Since her appearance is so extraordinary, Kurylenko is more or less accustomed to being mistaken for just another pretty face. That doesn’t mean she likes it.

The actress, who speaks four languages, says she sometimes thinks intelligence might be wasted in this day and age.

“The world is quite superficial, all about looks and appearance, and nobody cares about what’s on the inside,” she laments.

Speaking of her own physical appearance, she says, with a touch of melancholy, “This is just an envelope. The people who are close to me know who I am. If others want to be negative, they will.”

Asked if she’s worried about the downside of the celebrity that is bound to come with a Bond Girl role, Kurylenko says, “I just want to keep working. Maybe it will be different when the movie is released, but for now I’m back in Paris and I don’t think anybody recognizes me.”


She drops her chin, letting her hair cover most of her face, to show how she can be incognito in a second.

“For now, it’s totally cool. Of course, if you dress up all covered in sparkles and big high heels and everything,” she says, laughing, “yes, you will attract attention!”

In the future, Kurylenko says she hopes to be offered deeper roles.

“Different movies are made for different reasons. Some are to show the truth, or to give a lesson, and to make people think and learn, and those are the movies I want to watch — and the ones I want to be in.”



But she doesn’t just read scripts, she says — she also reads a lot of biographies of famous people, “because their paths are always so interesting. I love those things.

“The one thing all these people seem to believe, and maybe it’s naive of me to believe it, is that if you put out positive energy, it all comes back to you. They make me dream that miracles really do happen.”

Kurylenko a new kind of Bond Girl

:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b7ra3AsJUxONwsCEpfDhZW3A0I9jeaVijmhc3JTzc2rKTAhJ9igFoP0-UdwW4XVwnMvbEdCisnFGlaS_LxFNLVv7XvVcQfhahSTDbR0T7Oydq38s6Z9vSkizKHv-csOsZqYYhDHlmew/s1600-h/Olga%2520Kurylenko.jpg">




Smart, sexy and strong, Olga Kurylenko is a lot like her Quantum of Solace character

Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko puts a new face on the role of Bond Girl, and what a face it is! Her Quantum of Solace character Camille is nobody’s plaything, not even OO7’s.

Whoever decided women should be called “the weaker sex” never met Olga Kurylenko.

The Ukrainian-born beauty is smart, outspoken and very determined — just the characteristics that also define the newest Bond Girl.




“If I didn’t want the job, I wouldn’t have gone through the casting process,” she says. “If I don’t want to do something, believe me, I’m not going to do it. I worked so hard to get this. A lot of people wanted the part.”

She was told she’d landed the role on Christmas Eve. “And when they told me I got the role, I was like, ‘Yes!’ ”

Kurylenko was raised by her mother and grandmother in Berdyansk, and they were quite poor. Hers is a true rags-to-riches story, although it certainly doesn’t involve intellectual poverty in any way. Kurylenko’s mother was a teacher and her grandmother a doctor, and the former model becomes animated when speaking about them.

“A teacher and a doctor — the two most important professions in the world,” she says. “They were educated and very intelligent, and that’s all good, but when you cannot eat ...” She shrugs. She explains that her grandmother is dead now, and pauses for a second to regain her composure.

Kurylenko was 13 when she and her mother took a trip to Moscow, where an agent who saw her step off the subway immediately approached her with modelling work. By age 17 she was living and working in Paris. At 18 she was a major success story, appearing on such magazine covers as Glamour, Elle and Marie Claire. She was also the face of various cosmetic and fashion lines.

Kurylenko studied acting while earning a living as a model. Her feature-film debut came in 2005 with L’Annulaire. She won roles in Paris, je t’aime, Le Serpent and Hitman (which was her first English-speaking role), and she has roles in Max Payne — in theatres now — and the upcoming Tyranny. Scripts come to her in French and English.

Since her appearance is so extraordinary, Kurylenko is more or less accustomed to being mistaken for just another pretty face. That doesn’t mean she likes it.

The actress, who speaks four languages, says she sometimes thinks intelligence might be wasted in this day and age.

“The world is quite superficial, all about looks and appearance, and nobody cares about what’s on the inside,” she laments.

Speaking of her own physical appearance, she says, with a touch of melancholy, “This is just an envelope. The people who are close to me know who I am. If others want to be negative, they will.”

Asked if she’s worried about the downside of the celebrity that is bound to come with a Bond Girl role, Kurylenko says, “I just want to keep working. Maybe it will be different when the movie is released, but for now I’m back in Paris and I don’t think anybody recognizes me.”

She drops her chin, letting her hair cover most of her face, to show how she can be incognito in a second.

“For now, it’s totally cool. Of course, if you dress up all covered in sparkles and big high heels and everything,” she says, laughing, “yes, you will attract attention!”

In the future, Kurylenko says she hopes to be offered deeper roles.

“Different movies are made for different reasons. Some are to show the truth, or to give a lesson, and to make people think and learn, and those are the movies I want to watch — and the ones I want to be in.”

But she doesn’t just read scripts, she says — she also reads a lot of biographies of famous people, “because their paths are always so interesting. I love those things.

“The one thing all these people seem to believe, and maybe it’s naive of me to believe it, is that if you put out positive energy, it all comes back to you. They make me dream that miracles really do happen.”
Montreal Escorts

Obama makes history with win over McCain

Overcoming their nation's torturous racial history, American voters overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States, turning to the inspiring young senator as their best hope to revive a country weary from economic turmoil and war.
Obama tore up the U.S. political map as he defeated John McCain, the veteran Republican senator who had struggled in vain to distance himself from George W. Bush's unpopular presidency. Obama captured states once seen as Republican strongholds, including Florida, Indiana and Virginia, while defending all traditionally Democratic states.

The election of Obama, the son of black Kenyan man and a white Kansan woman, is a remarkable turning point for a nation that denied the vote to many African Americans just decades ago.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," Obama said at a victory rally before more than 100,000 supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.

After almost two years of campaigning on a theme of hope and change, Obama told the crowd, "Change has come to America."

His supporters cheered, screamed and waved flags, welcoming his election in a delirious victory celebration in his hometown. Many, including civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, had tears in their eyes.

In cities around the country, drivers honked horns through the night. In New York City's Harlem neighborhood, the roar of thousands of people gathered in a plaza near the legendary Apollo Theater could be heard blocks away.

In Washington, hundreds of residents spilled into the streets near the White House, carrying balloons, banging on drums and chanting "Bush is gone!" Along U Street, once known as America's Black Broadway for its thriving black-owned shops and theaters, men stood on car roofs, waving American flags and Obama posters.

Obama's victory marked the rise of a new generation in American leadership, after 16 years of presidents who came of age during the Vietnam War era. Obama. 47, was still a child when most U.S. troops came home.

It also amounted to Americans' final, symbolic rejection of Bush's presidency. Bush's popularity soared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then collapsed with his administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina four years later, the errors leading up to and during the Iraq war and the chaos in the financial system.

When he takes office Jan. 20 as the 44th U.S. president, Obama will inherit the Iraq war and another in Afghanistan, as well as the economic turmoil. It is perhaps the most trying environment for any new U.S. president since the Great Depression.

But he will do so with many allies in Congress as his Democratic Party expanded its majorities in both chambers.

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said: "Tonight the American people have called for a new direction. They have called for change in America."

Obama scored a decisive win the in the electoral vote, the state-by-state tally that determines the winner. Needing 270 votes to claim the presidency, Obama had 349 to McCain's 147, with three states still too close to call. By comparison, Bush won the White House twice, and never tallied more than 286 electoral votes.

The largely symbolic popular vote was much closer: Obama had 51.7 percent to 47 percent with 84 percent of all precincts tallied.

Voter turnout, still being counted, was expected to shatter records. The race was the most riveting in memory, and certainly the longest and most expensive. Obama and McCain had been on the campaign train for almost two years.

McCain called his former rival to concede defeat _ and mark the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House.

"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."

Bush added his congratulations from the White House and promised a smooth transition. "What an awesome night for you," he told Obama shortly after the race was decided.

An Obama presidency offers the prospect of a new style and tone in American foreign policy.

Obama has said he will try to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months and has called for a new opening to U.S. adversaries, such as Iran and Cuba. He has urged the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and favors cap-and-trade systems to reduce global warming.

Internationally, Obama is hugely popular _ a sharp contrast to Bush. Part of his appeal is his personal story that highlights American multiculturalism: Besides his Kenyan father, he has a half-sister who is the daughter of an Indonesian.

In his campaign, Obama mined a deep vein of national discontent, promising Americans hope and change throughout a nearly flawless 21-month campaign for the White House.

He first soared into the national spotlight with his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when he was making his first run for the Senate and polishing his message of unity in a country that was mired in partisan anger.

In a grueling primary battle, he managed to raise more money and out-maneuver the candidate once seen as the inevitable nominee, former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

After Obama's victory Tuesday, Clinton called her former rival to promise her full support.

"In quiet, solitary acts of citizenship, American voters gave voice to their hopes and their values, voted for change, and refused to be invisible any longer," she said in a statement.

Throughout his campaign, Obama had to overcome relentless false rumors about his religion, his ethnicity and his patriotism. Some pointed to his middle name of Hussein to claim that Obama, a Christian, was Muslim _ which would disqualify him in the eyes of many Americans.

In his race against McCain, Obama was steady and focused, keeping attention on the economy _ voters' biggest concern _ and linking McCain to Bush.

McCain, 72, was a tough rival for Obama. He is widely admired for the 5 1/2 years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. His reputation as a maverick gave Republicans hopes of winning over independents and moderate Democrats.

But McCain had an uphill fight. He tried without success a series of tactics: depicting Obama as too inexperienced, highlighting his association with a 1960s-era radical and casting him as an advocate of high taxes and socialism.

McCain also tried to shake up the race by naming Alaska's young conservative governor, Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential running mate. The choice energized much of the Republican base, but her lack of experience and poor performance in interviews worried many voters.

Obama picked a seasoned Senate veteran, Joseph Biden of Delaware, as his running mate. Biden won a seventh Senate term on Tuesday, but will relinquish it for the vice presidency.