I've started a youtube channel where a Puppet works on cars

[dgym]

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to share my new youtube channel. It's about a puppet who works on cars (An Elan being one of them).

It's a very odd idea i had several years ago and have finally had the time to start creating.
- inspired by the Muppets and lots of old puppet hosts of kids shows i watched when i was young. I'm not entirely sure what direction it will end up heading in but if you have a moment please give it a look and even better subscribe to my channel if you think it might amuse you!
hopefully the show might give you a laugh and will at the very least have a lot of Lotus content as Erik (the puppet) fumbles his way through repairs.
OH and in case you were worried, no Lotus will be harmed in the making of this show, there are genuine restorations going on behind the tomfoolery.
thanks for reading
-Jim and Erik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A05MvE2uSPM&t=440s

[2cams70]

Definitely the kind of off beat stuff that tickles my fancy. I fully understand that some of us aren’t that good looking on camera and using a muppet as a body double is pure genius. I can certainly see that you have good connections with the Hollywood elite insofar as film production and special effects are concerned. Next time however please take the moral high ground over price and don’t use a desperate Harvey Weinstein. If there is one way to engage the interest of the youth of today in classic cars this is certainly it. Suggest add a disclaimer about under 5’s though whom you are obviously targeting that they need adult supervision. I’m looking forward to a part where the controls and seating are suitable modified so the muppet can take control and go for a drive. One final point - can you please let me know where you get your drugs from so I can go get some for myself? They are very effective.

[dgym]

Definitely the kind of off beat stuff that tickles my fancy. I fully understand that some of us aren’t that good looking on camera and using a muppet as a body double is pure genius. I can certainly see that you have good connections with the Hollywood elite insofar as film production and special effects are concerned. Next time however please take the moral high ground over price and don’t use a desperate Harvey Weinstein. If there is one way to engage the interest of the youth of today in classic cars this is certainly it. Suggest add a disclaimer about under 5’s though whom you are obviously targeting that they need adult supervision. I’m looking forward to a part where the controls and seating are suitable modified so the muppet can take control and go for a drive. One final point - can you please let me know where you get your drugs from so I can go get some for myself? They are very effective.

haha thanks for your kind words, there is a button you can click on youtube when uploading "is this for children?" I ticked no.

I am in the process of figuring out how he can go for a drive. I hope the cops don't catch him.

and no drugs used, just losing my mind as i age!

[h20hamelan]

'I took magic mushrooms at 64 and the fog I've lived under my whole life lifted'
After successful clinical trials of psilocybin for treating depression, there are now calls for its wider use
The English language just doesn’t have the words to describe Steve Shorney’s first experience with psilocybin. “It was revelatory,” he remembers of that occasion three years ago. “There were times when I felt like I was in a kaleidoscope… the unreality, the colours, the sound, is so much bigger and brighter and more extreme than anything you can imagine.”

Shorney, 64, had been living with depression since his 20s, trying medication, running and meditation to lift what had become a decades-long fog. When he heard a radio interview on the subject of psilocybin – the active compound in magic mushrooms – being used to treat depression in clinical trials, he signed up, was accepted, and experienced “the most rewarding day of my life”.

Since the two doses he received in pill form as part of the 2019 study, he has taken no psilocybin (nor antidepressants, which he’d tried for more than a decade), and has begun “a new way of living”. Things are lighter now, he is happier and more grateful, and able to feel emotions that had lain unearthed for the majority of his adult life.

Following the largest clinical trial on the subject to date last week, which found that the psychedelic compound can alleviate depression in almost a third of patients, psilocybin is again being touted as a key part of the future of treatment for the condition.

A single 25mg dose followed by therapy sessions designed to identify both causes and solutions of the condition was enough to kick-start rapid remission among those with severe depression, for whom at least two forms of prior treatment had not worked. The trial, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that a fifth of its 233 participants who received the most potent form of psilocybin (1mg and 10mg doses were also administered) reported continued benefits for up to 12 weeks.

While extensive studies have charted the link between psychedelics and depression, “the[se] results are much more robust than what has come before,” explains Prof Andrew McIntosh, head of biological psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh. It is “the strongest evidence so far to suggest that further, larger and longer randomised trials of psychedelics are justified”. Though optimistic about the treatment’s future, those in the field warn that “there are no panaceas in a complex condition like depression,” and that further testing in clinical settings is required before being rolled out on a wider scale.

With awareness comes opportunity

Psilocybin breaks down into a substance called psilocin once inside the body, stimulating the serotonin system responsible for wellbeing and mood “in an unusual way”, says Dr James Rucker, one of the paper’s co-authors, who describes it as “very different to traditional antidepressants”. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are typically prescribed to people with depression and broadly increase the amount of serotonin in the brain, with the desired effect being improved mood.

Psilocybin works differently, making neural connections between the parts of the brain more flexible, ultimately functioning as a kind of “reset”. “It seems to stir up the mind,” Rucker explains, “so as well as having a direct drug effect, you seem to get the emergence of things that may be buried; problems that may be leading to you feeling anxious or depressed. With that awareness comes an opportunity. If you know what the problem is, then you can start to make plans to address it.”

Combining the substance with therapy is crucial, researchers believe, to its long-term success. What is more challenging is establishing who the Class-A drug works on, and what dose would prove most effective. “We make the mistake of thinking that depression is one thing, and it isn’t,” Rucker says. “It’s a whole lot of different things. And depending on what your particular thing is, you’re going to respond better or worse to different treatments. So you need treatments that target different things, and this drug targets the brain in a different way… That’s why it may be better for some people, but it also might be why it’s not so go

One in six people in the UK have depression, which 8.3 million currently treat with antidepressants (a five per cent rise compared with 2021). The condition costs the NHS £24bn per year – yet 40 per cent are treatment-resistant, making the promise of this latest research greater still.

It builds on the results of previous trials, such as one published in January, which found that psilocybin disrupted the brain’s depression-thinking circuits; another released the following month showed that the anti-depressant effect of the compound, along with psychotherapy, lasted up to a year. Results from the Imperial College trial Shorney was on, published in 2021, showed that two 25mg doses taken three weeks apart, combined with talking therapy, were as effective as escitalopram, an antidepressant for those with moderate to severe depression.

Further research

Such findings are driving further research into psychedelics as a treatment for other mental health issues. At the Maudsley Hospital in London, there are plans for psilocybin therapy to be offered to those with post-traumatic stress disorder. In May, they commenced the first ever study of the compound in adults with autism, to explore its effects on serotonin pathways and two months later, a trial analysing psilocybin’s effects on adults with anorexia began.

McIntosh warns that “we don’t know for sure if these drugs are as or more effective than antidepressants. So we also need to test them against conventional therapies in large clinical trials before they can be rolled out to people more generally.” This recent research also produced side effects such as headaches, dizziness and nausea in 77 per cent of participants which, with “trips” lasting around six hours, can prove an unpleasant experience.

Though psychedelics were used extensively in mental-health treatment in the mid-20th century, their being outlawed in the 1960s means that clinical trials are currently the only way to legally take psilocybin in the UK (and can be incredibly difficult to join; Shorney’s had a four per cent applicant success rate). That has left others seeking alternative routes, including “psychedelic retreats” in countries where the compound is legal.

Henry Whitfield, a London-based psychotherapist, runs such retreats in the Netherlands, where around 35mg of psilocybin is taken twice in four days, ground into tea with lemon and ginger. He points to research that has found 50 per cent of people being treated for depression relapse within six months, making his goal to “try to really explore how to mix modern therapies with the psychedelic experience in order to get longer lasting results”.

Adam Waites*, an A&E doctor, attended one last month, describing its results as “one of the most fascinating and profound learning experiences during near[ly] 40 years of medical study and practice”. The 62-year-old has “lived under the cloud of depression for as long as my memory serves me”, and, after two days under the influence of psilocybin, “I have had no symptoms of depression… I find joy where I could previously see but not feel it.”

It’s all the more significant this year for Waites who, “despite a lifelong battle with chronic treatment-resistant depression and significant anxiety”, had always been able to perform his professional duties without issue. That was until February, when he was placed on medical leave due to the severity of his symptoms. He has not worked in A&E since.

Waites wishes to remain anonymous due to the legal implications of taking the drug, and the fact it remains “contentious as a treatment among the hardcore scientific community. We just don’t really understand how it works – but it most certainly can,” he says. He likens the emotional sensation to being in love, which is “experienced, but hard to define. This process is not dissimilar.” The shift has been so seismic as to convince him that it is “inhumane to withhold this therapy, when done responsibly and safely, from the huge numbers of suffering humans who might benefit”.

That may soon change. Rucker thinks that, once licencing trials begin in the next year, psychedelic therapy could be available in the UK “in three to five years” – news that makes Shorney “cautiously optimistic”, he says. “Psilocybin has potential but the science needs to be proven first, and we have a long way to go.”

[h20hamelan]

1. It was invented in a vinegar factory

Curt Mast came up with Jäger’s original recipe in 1935, but it was 20 years before that he took over his Father’s vinegar factory in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. Mast stopped producing the acidic stuff to focus entirely on manufacturing spirits, eventually creating the concoction we know and love today.

2. ... and they still use the same, extraordinarily complicated recipe

The mixture of 56 (!) herbs, including citrus peel, licorice, and ginseng, has never changed in the whole 79 years. In fact, the exact ingredients are a company secret.
Jager factory
fotocommunity/W.Patrick
3. It's still made in Wolfenbüttel

Jägermeister’s production outgrew the old vinegar factory back in 1958. There are now three bottling plants in total, and just recently the company built a new ultra-modern head office.

4. Wolfenbüttel is quite the tourist attraction thanks to them... there's even a Jägermeister hotel

For a town of only about 50,000 people, Wolfenbüttel gets a lot of traffic all thanks to the Jägermeister fame. Visitors come to tour the factory and headquarters, and yes, there’s even a Jägermeister Guesthouse.

5. It takes over a year to make

Before it reaches the bottle, Jägermeister goes through quite a lengthy process. The ingredients are filtered and stored in oak barrels for 365 days. Then there’s a series of 383 quality checks, including another round of filtering with sugar, caramel, alcohol, and water.
Jagermeister
Flickr/Garret Nuzzo-Jones
6. The Germans call it "liver glue"

While many of us know Jägermeister by way of the nightclub shot glass, it was actually invented as a digestif. In Germany, it’s still popular for an after-dinner sip, that’s why it’s lovingly known as “leberkleister”.

7. Jägermeister heals! (Disclaimer: not medically proven.)

Like many herbal liqueurs, Jägermeister was originally used medicinally, and even today people swear by its healing properties for easing flu symptoms from cough to sore throats.

8. No, it doesn’t contain deer or elk blood

Contrary to urban legend, vital fluids are not among the 56 ingredients.
Bottle
Flickr/Pete
Hardee's Has 2 New Huge Breakfast Biscuit Sandwiches and a New Cheeseburger
9. The bottle was invented by breaking a lot of glass

Curt Mast “perfected” Jägermeister’s famous green bottle by dropping bottles one after the other onto his kitchen floor. The one that exists today proved to be the most reliable.

10. It's a summer drink

Or at least, that's the inherent implication of Jägermeister Spice; a “winter edition” of the herbal liquor made with the same 56 ingredients, but with an emphasis on cinnamon and vanilla and a lower alcohol level.
Jager logo
Flickr/Todd Kravos
11. The logo has a badass story

It’s inspired by a pair of patron saints -- hunters who converted to Christianity after seeing the vision of a crucifix appearing between a stag’s antlers -- the first of which was a Roman general who then, apparently had his newfound faith tested to the limit. His wife was kidnapped, his wealth stole, his servants died, and his children were taken away by a wolf and a lion -- but he held firm, and totally got them all back! Except the servants.

12. Germans use it in their insect traps

Wasps and flies love Jägermeister too!

13. It’s awesome to cook with

Believe it or not, Jägermeister makes flavorful chicken wing sauce, marinade, and even fudgy brownies. For a little inspiration, check out Chef Chris Santos' five-course, Jäger-infused dinner.
Jager Balloon
Flickr/La Marga
14. Jägermeister is more popular than ever in the last 10 years

Jägermeister’s sales have seriously spiked in this decade. It’s sold in 80 countries, with 80% of sales coming from outside Germany, but Jäg’s especially popular in the US where sales have quadrupled in recent years.

15. It's the world's best-selling liqueur brand

Yet, they only have 530 employees!
jagerbomb glass
Thrillist
16. This glass was made specifically for it...

... and a certain bovine-themed, wing-giving energy drink.

[hamm61]

So thats where Lizz Truss went

[2cams70]

Sorry to hijack but I must say the conversations around this particular topic have been very insightful. They certainly explain a lot about the background to a lot of the other discussions about other topics that happen on this forum from time. Thanks for sharing.

[dgym]

I have no idea what the discussion is even about now

[2cams70]

[quote="dgym"]I have no idea what the discussion is even about now[/quote

You’re not the only one! Seriously though - keep it going. I’m looking forward to how it all progresses. It’s certainly not boring that’s for sure!

[pharriso]

Sorry to hijack but I must say the conversations around this particular topic have been very insightful. They certainly explain a lot about the background to a lot of the other discussions about other topics that happen on this forum from time. Thanks for sharing.

Agreed!