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"The day Jimi Hendrix died, I can still remember it like it was yesterday. It was a beautiful day in suburban Long Island. I was 14 years old, I was on the Carle Place High School football team, and I was standing outside the gym, all suited up and ready to go onto the field for practice. Everything was right in the world.
"Suddenly one of my teammates came up to me - he had just been home for lunch so he saw the news on TV - and he said, 'Hey Joe, you know that guy you like so much, Jimi Hendrix? I heard he just died.'
"I'm pretty sure I was about the only kid in school who knew who Jimi Hendrix even was. Through my older siblings, I was getting turned on to all the great music that was happening at the time, and I really loved Hendrix. So this kid, my teammate, thought I should know.
"The minute he told me, my whole life flashed before my eyes. I don't think this kid expected the impact it would have on me. It was such a blow. I was devastated, shattered, in a fog of emotion. Without so much as taking another step towards the field, I turned around, went back into the gym and I told my coach, 'Jimi Hendrix just died, and I'm quitting the team to become a guitar player.'
"I was anticipating an argument - the coach was a former marine and a pretty tough guy - but he just stared at me. Maybe I looked so crazy or despondent, I don't know, but he simply said, 'Well, all right. Go right ahead.'
"Telling the coach was one thing. Later that evening, I had to tell my parents. We were a large family of seven. Dinner was progressing normally, the usual conversations, until I said basically the same thing I had told my coach: 'Jimi Hendrix died today and I'm going to devote my life to playing the electric guitar.' There was a long moment of awkward silence, as you might expect, which was followed by a lot of lively discussion.
"My family was sort of used to me saying crazy things, but this time I think everybody knew I meant it; that I had actually decided on a course for my life, so much so that my older sister, Carol, who had just started teaching art in school, said that she would donate her first paycheck towards getting me an electric guitar so I could begin my new life as a musician."
"It's funny: I had already toyed around with the drums, but it was pretty clear to me that I was a terrible drummer. Same with piano - we had a piano in the house and I banged on that a bit, but there was no magic; whatever it took to be a great pianist, I didn't have it.
"But when I heard that Jimi Hendrix died, it was a defining moment for me. Something told me that I had to try to pay tribute to him somehow, and the only way to do that was by becoming a guitar player, a great guitar player, and for some reason, I knew I could do it.
"I wound up getting that guitar with my sister's first paycheck. It was a white Hagstrom 3 with black detail. I didn't know anything about guitars at the time; I didn't know what a Fender Stratocaster was. To me, the Hagstrom looked like a Jimi Hendrix guitar. It was $120 and I was absolutely thrilled to have it.
"Once I got it home, of course, I immediately realized the horror that playing the guitar was not going to be easy. Back then, there were no instructional DVDs, no tapes, no YouTube, none of the things that exist today to make learning the guitar easier. The only music books were these Mel Bay things that were very confusing. It was discouraging. For a while, the path I had chosen didn't seem so rosey.
"All I had was myself, my Hagstrom, a reel-to-reel tape recorder that I used as my first amp, and that was it. Every bit of progress I made on the guitar was through sheer determination.
"You would think that my parents would have tried to stop me, but they seemed to realize that my dedication to the guitar was unstoppable. And it all came from Hendrix. I even had a ritual: I would go into my room, light a candle to get into my 'Jimi Hendrix vibe' and I would practice and practice and practice. Before long, I grew to love the work. I loved that playing the guitar wasn't easy. It was pain, but it was my pain. And then it became joy. My joy.
"Here's something weird though: I loved Jimi's music so much that I would never perform it for people. Throughout my teens and playing in various bands, I refused to play Hendrix songs. I know that sounds strange, but Jimi's music was so special to me that it was like works of art that shouldn't be touched or altered. I didn't want to defile his magic in any way."
"It wasn't until years later, when I went to Japan - I was around 20 years old or so - that I joined up with a Japanese Hendrix tribute band. I saw them playing in a club one night, and I thought they were pretty good, but something wasn't quite right. They just weren't 'getting it.'
"So I ended up talking to them - there was something of a language barrier, but we got past it - and I took out my guitar and I showed them some stuff and they took me on. That was the first time I ever played songs like Little Wing live. It was so liberating! Maybe I had to go all the way around the world to discover that I could play Jimi's music without ruining it. It's crazy how things like that happen.
"I've picked apart Jimi's music and analyzed it so much over the years, and there's still things he did that astound and mystify me. When I watch footage of him playing at the Fillmore East, when he's playing Machine Gun, I'm blown away by his musical choices. And that's the thing: it wasn't about his gear, his guitar, it wasn't about what mic he was singing into it, it wasn't about anything but his own brilliance.
"I'm pretty sure you could have handed him any guitar and any amp and he would've blown the roof off the place no matter what. His impulses, his intuition, what he did one second to the next, how he moved his hands, knowing to play this note after that note…it was deep.
"If I had to pick an album that truly sums up Jimi Hendrix, to me it's Electric Ladyland. It's a double-album, but it's like lots of little albums in one package. Take Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - it's ridiculous how fantastic that song is. If anybody wants to play the guitar, they want to play guitar like Jimi on that track. Talk about a performance that is so together. The tone, the intonation, the phrasing...it's spine-tingling.
"And then you have 1983...(A Merman I Should Turn To Be), I mean, what's that? He sounds like three guitar players on that song! Electric Ladyland has everything: great pop songs, wild experimentation and just out-and-out throwin' the guitar down like no one else. He really nailed it on that one.
"You know, at the end of the day, a guitar is just wire and wood, but when you can create sounds like Jimi Hendrix did out of those simple components, that's a remarkable achievement, and it's one worth remembering - and celebrating."
Joe Satriani is a multiple Grammy-nominated guitarist and songwriter, as well as a member of the band Chickenfoot.


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Information Possibly Outdated
The information presented on this page was originally released on June 29, 2020. It may not be outdated, but please search our site for more current information. If you plan to quote or reference this information in a publication, please check with the Extension specialist or author before proceeding.
Extension programs teach tomato growing
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Knowing that many Mississippians share a love for home-grown tomatoes, two Mississippi State University Extension Service agents designed programs just for them.
Crayton Coleman, Extension agent in Noxubee County, has 45 members in a 4-H Virtual Garden Club this summer. 4-H is the Extension development program for young people ages 5 to 18 that creates supportive environments for culturally diverse young people and adults to reach their fullest potential.
"In our virtual garden club, members are growing their very own 4-H container garden," Coleman said. "Our 4-H'ers planted two varieties of tomatoes, along with squash or cucumber and okra from seed in their 4-H Container Garden."
The project's goal was to help Noxubee County 4-H'ers learn where their food comes from by growing it themselves. Those who signed up for the project received a large container, soil, plants, fertilizer and seed. Coleman provided step-by-step instructions to guide them through the process of growing their own garden.
"This is a good project for families to spend time socializing and working together. 4-H'ers are at home as a result of COVID-19, and parents are searching for creative and productive activities for their children to get involved in," Coleman said. "Research has shown that children are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if they grow the produce themselves."
To track progress, 4-H'ers send photos of their growing plants to the Noxubee County Extension office, and these are posted on the office's Facebook page. Coleman also responds to questions and gives growing and harvest tips to the young gardeners.
"We also have a little friendly competition going on to see who can grow the biggest tomato," Coleman said. "This has been a very rewarding project for our 4-H'ers and their families during these challenging times."
By late June, the local farmers market manager saw the 4-H'ers' photos online and offered to buy their produce.
"I thought this would be a great way for them to learn about the entrepreneurial part of being a farmer," Coleman said.
Jim McAdory, Extension agent in Winston County, is also hosting a biggest tomato contest in cooperation with a local farm supply store.
"My reason for doing that is, since tomatoes are so popular, it will generate some interest in the public learning better growing practices of tomatoes and other vegetables," McAdory said. "The Extension office is an excellent source of information, and this contest will direct attention to the services we offer."
McAdory also uses social media to highlight his own container garden, giving updates and educational tips on what to do at home and how to improve home gardens.
"By using the humble tomato, my hope is to develop lasting relationships with county gardeners and add to the Extension family of clients," he said. "Tomatoes make a good training tool because everybody and their momma grows them and are passionate about them. If you can teach someone about growing tomatoes, you can teach them about everything gardening."
For more information on growing tomatoes and other garden vegetables, visit http://extension.msstate.edu/publications and search for the desired plant.

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Traditional Aboriginal Arnhem Land Music Discography Search
Other Links:
This website is dedicated to the Aboriginal peoples of Arnhem Land whose musical and artistic genius are world-renowned. While the focus of this website is traditional music from Arnhem Land, some items on the fringe of the territory as it is commonly defined are included. The database contains notes and song information from the majority of all commercially released albums and films featuring traditional Arnhem Land music. Additions and corrections to the database are welcomed. Please e-mail comments to: email@example.com
CAUTION: Users of this website are warned that there may be words and descriptions (including the names, voices, and images of Aboriginal people who are now deceased) which may be culturally sensitive and which might not normally be used in certain public or community contexts. Terms and descriptions which reflect the author's attitude or that of the period in which the item was written may be considered inappropriate or offensive today in some circumstances. Please be careful to avoid causing distress to traditional people who may be offended or hurt by viewing these pages by forewarning them of their content.
Many thanks to Guan Lim, Peter Lister, and Ed Drury whose friendship, knowledge and passion have inspired me to create this website. Special thanks to Peter Lister for his donating his research to Manikay.Com in "Didjeridu and Traditional Music of the Top End." Thanks to Randy Graves who fleshed out the information in the Films category. I also wish to recognise the pioneering recording of this rich and vibrant music by A.P. Elkin, LaMont West, T Jones, Lester & Betty Hiatt, Sandra Le Brun Holmes and Alice Moyle - without their efforts (at times under extreme technical conditions), those of us so passionate about this music would never have had the opportunity to enjoy it in its intended context, and in such variety. But most of all I am forever grateful to the Aboriginal musicians themselves for their willing and enthusiastic performances and for allowing it to be recorded so that we may enjoy it and hopefully better understand and appreciate their rich culture.


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jQuery plugin: Autocomplete
Note (2010-06-23): This plugin is deprecated and not developed anymore. Its successor is part of jQuery UI, and this migration guide explains how to get from this plugin to the new one. This page will remain as it is for reference, but won't be updated anymore.
If you're still using the plugin and can't upgrade to jQuery UI autocomplete: Someone else is maintaining a GitHub repository with the plugin, including some fixes.
There's also an update to the original version of the standalone plugin in a Google Code project.
Autocomplete an input field to enable users quickly finding and selecting some value, leveraging searching and filtering.
By giving an autocompleted field focus or entering something into it, the plugin starts searching for matching entries and displays a list of values to choose from. By entering more characters, the user can filter down the list to better matches.
This can be used to enter previous selected values, eg. for tags, to complete an address, eg. enter a city name and get the zip code, or maybe enter email addresses from an addressbook.
Current version: 1.1 (Deprecated, see note above)
Compressed filesize: 8.001 bytes
License: MIT/GPL
Tested in: Firefox 3, IE 6 & 7, Opera 9, Safari 3
- Please post questions to the official Using jQuery Plugins Forum, tagging your question with (at least) "autocomplete". Keep your question short and succinct and provide code when possible; a testpage makes it much more likely that you get an useful answer in no time.
- Please post bug reports and other contributions (enhancements, features) to the plugins.jQuery.com bug tracker (requires login/registration)


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Lindisfarne Gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels are an illustrated Latin edition of the Gospels. The manuscript was produced on Lindisfarne in Northumbria (northern England) in the late 7th century or early 8th century, and is generally regarded as the finest example of the kingdom's unique style of religious art, a style that combined Anglo-Saxon and Celtic themes.
Background and History
The Lindisfarne Gospels are presumed to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 and died in 721. Current scholarship indicates a date around 715, and it is believed they were produced in honour of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. The Gospels are richly illustrated in the insular style, and were originally encased in a fine leather binding covered with jewels and metals made by Billfrith the Anchorite in the 8th century. During the Viking raids on Lindisfarne, however, this cover was lost, and a replacement made in 1852.
The text is written in insular script and along with the illumination is very much reminiscent of the Book of Kells, an earlier Gospels book in the same tradition probably made on Iona. The monastery at Lindisfarne had been founded by monks from Iona, and so it is understandable that these two treasures of the ancient British church should be so similar.
In the 10th century an Old English translation of the Gospels was made, a word-for-word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by Aldred, Provost of Chester-le-Street. This is one of the first translations of the Gospels into the English language.
The Gospels were acquired in the early 17th century by Sir Robert Cotton from Robert Bowyer, Clerk of the Parliaments. Cotton's library came to the British Museum in the 18th century, and from there to the British Library in London. There exists a campaign in Northumbria to have the Gospels brought back to their place of origin.
External links
- The Anglican Diocese of Durham's page on the Gospels
- British Library's Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition—includes animated "Turning the Pages" tour with audio narration.
- British Library Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts entry


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What is Dental Insurance?Dental insurance is designed to pay a portion of the costs associated with dental care. Generally dental offices have a fee schedule, or a list of prices for the dental services or procedures they offer.
Typical Types of Dental InsuranceIndemnity Dental Insurance Plan:
This plan may be helpful when you want to stay with your dentist and he/she does not participate in a dental network. By the very nature of this plan the insurance company generally pays the dentist a percentage of your services according to the policy you purchased. In addition you will want to review the co-payment requirements, waiting periods, stated deductible, annual limitations, graduated percentage scales based on the type of procedure and/or length of time you have owned the policy prior to starting your dental work. Dental Health Managed Organization (DHMO): When a dentist signs a contract with a dental insurance company that provider agrees to accept an insurance fee schedule and give their customers a reduced cost for services as an In-Network Provider. Many DHMO insurance plans have little or no waiting periods, no annual maximum benefit limitations, while covering major dental work near the start of the policy period. This plan is sometimes purchased to help defray the high cost of the dental procedures. Some dental insurance plans offer free semi-annual preventative treatment. Fillings, crowns, implants and dentures may have various limitations. Participating Provider Network (PPO): Depending on your specific plan, the PPO works similar to a DHMO while using an In-Network facility. However, it allows you to use an Out-of-Network or Non-Participating Provider. Any difference of fees will become the financial responsibility of the patient unless otherwise specified in your dental policy. As noted, some dental insurance plans may have an annual maximum benefit limit. Thus, once the annual maximum benefit is exhausted any additional treatments may become the patient's responsibility. Each year that annual maximum is reissued. The reissued date may vary as a calendar year, company fiscal year, or date of enrollment based on your specific plan. Contact us to learn more about the right dental insurance for you. |
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In an interview with All Things Considered, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to rule out coordination with Iran and Iranian-backed forces in Iraq. Dempsey also told NPR that one option in Iraq might involve U.S. air assets going after "high-value" individuals within the main Sunni insurgent group.
"One of the things we need to find out is whether Iran is embedded in and advising and supporting the Iraqi security forces," Dempsey said. "It is really about understanding facts on the ground before we make a decision on how to address them."
"We will look at Iran with a cold eye on where and when we may need to operate in the same space and toward what is potentially the same goal of countering" the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
"But I can state with some assurance that their goals in Iraq are not going to be completely aligned with ours, and we're very clear about that," he told NPR's Melissa Block.
"I'm not predicting that it's entirely impossible that we would at any point act collaboratively with Iran," he said. "But there's a long way to go between here and there, in my judgment."
Dempsey's remarks were more nuanced than an earlier statement from the White House that seemed to rule out any possibility of coordination with Iran, which has long backed Shiite militias inside Iraq.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on June 16, press secretary Josh Earnest said: "Any conversation with the Iranian regime will not include military coordination."
Dempsey said the primary goal of the U.S. assessment team sent to Iraq was to determine if the Iraqi security forces "can be a credible partner moving forward," and whether Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is willing to form a government of national unity.
He said the assessment team needs to "get a look under the hood" of the Iraqi security forces to determine if they "remain committed to national unity, [what is] the sectarian makeup ... and the morale of the force, as well as understanding what capabilities, weapon systems, ammunition, etc., they have."
Dempsey nonetheless expressed concern that the new insurgency in Iraq doesn't become "an issue between Sunni and Shia, with [the United States] taking one side or the other."
He said two joint operation centers were being established with U.S. help — one in northern Iraq and one in Baghdad. "I think we've got this thing sized about right, with the right authorities and protections and the inherent right of self-defense in order to accomplish the task."
He told NPR that an "additional option" that he's prepared for President Obama to consider is the possibility of using U.S. assets against "high-value individuals who are the leadership" of ISIS.
"It includes potentially the protection of, in particular, critical infrastructure," he said.
"And then there is the issue of blunting attacks by massed" ISIS forces, he said.
"We're flying a great deal [of] manned and unmanned ... intelligence and reconnaissance assets, and we're building a picture so that if the decision were made to support the Iraqi security forces as they confront [ISIS], we could do so."
Asked what he expects to happen next in Iraq, Dempsey said: "I believe that the [Iraqi security forces] will stiffen around Baghdad," followed by "a period of somewhat stalemate."
He said there would "undoubtedly" be suicide attacks in Baghdad.
"Then ... with Iraq, if it chooses to establish this national unity government," he said, "we will be deliberating on how to push back [ISIS] and take steps to lead to its eventual defeat."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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This film is rated NC-17. No one under 17 will be admitted.
Successful and handsome New Yorker Brandon (Michael Fassbender) seems to live an ordinary life, but he hides a terrible secret behind his mask of normalcy: Brandon is a sex addict. His constant need for gratification numbs him to just about everything else. But, when Sissy (Carey Mulligan), Brandon's needy sister, unexpectedly blows into town, crashes at his apartment and invades his privacy, Brandon is finally forced to confront his addiction head-on.
UK | Canada | USA, 2011, 101 minutes, Rated NC-17, Directed by Steve McQueen
Upcoming Special Programs


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Artworks2008Untitled Astrological Piss Painting
Untitled Astrological Piss Painting
Oxidised urine on copper-prepared canvas
107 x 153 cms
A blue-green circular splash on a bronze coloured background, caused by oxidised urine on copper prepared canvas. Based on Andy Warhol's Oxidiation Paintings.
These elegiac works steal much from previous paintings by Otto Muhl, Hermann Nietsche and other 70's actionists, as well as the great recycler and thief of imagery Warhol, who in the early 1980's made a series of oxidization works created by his assistant's urination. The copper ground and cobalt fractals of these works brings echoes of Klimt and the decorative precursors of the actionists, but this is simultaneously counteracted by the transgressive process of their production: bodily waste, the ultimate form of disposable human rubbish used to make marks on canvas. This series of works first came out of a performance at Riflemaker gallery in London during the exhibition 'Me as Him' 1997 where camouflage fright wig screenprints of the artists as Warhol were on display. During the evening visitors were invited to urinate on a collection of pre-prepared canvases in an extrovertly collaborative exercise. The signature of mark making, in random spurts, rushes and pools, makes a corrosive recycling of ideas.


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Dolphin on Android has had a bit of a checkered history since its inception. Users loved the idea of being able to take their favorite GameCube and Wii games on the go, but expectations and reality have never quite aligned. When Dolphin was first uploaded to the Play Store, developers tried to make it absolutely clear games wouldn't be playable, even going as far as calling it "Dolphin Emulator Alpha". Unfortunately, despite many warnings, many people got their hopes up the moment they saw Dolphin was on the appstore and were ready to play their favorite games, even if their device wasn't. While not everyone had false pretenses as to what should be possible, a lot of users blamed Dolphin for being poorly optimized rather than understanding that it wasn't even meant to run full speed yet.
The endless stream of poor ratings and angry comments eventually reached a breaking point and Dolphin was removed from the Play store mid 2016. That didn't mean development on Dolphin on Android had ceased, though. Instead, builds were provided on our download page, safely tucked away from the majority of users who may not understand the current state of the app.
Suddenly, earlier this month, the Official Dolphin Android app returned to the Google Play Store* complete with all the latest and greatest improvements featured in the Progress Reports!
After a 2 years break, Dolphin for Android is back on the Play Store! From now on, our beta versions will be updated there every month (synced with our monthly Progress Reports).
— Dolphin Emulator (@Dolphin_Emu) August 3, 2018
Give it a try at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dolphinemu.dolphinemu
(No, your potato phone still won't run games at 60FPS.)
- Unfortunately, Dolphin has not returned to the Android T.V. Store because Dolphin does not support 32-bit devices, and the review process seems incapable of understanding that Dolphin does not attempt to target 32-bit devices. If you're on an Android T.V. device that does support Dolphin, you won't be able to find it in the store until these nonsensical requirements are removed. With 32-bit devices slowly being obsoleted by 64-bit devices, is it really so strange to have a performance hungry app only target 64-bit devices? Worse yet, the reviewer seemed completely unaware of what the error message meant when they tried to run our 64-bit app on a 32-bit device. If a reviewer can't tell what an error message means, how can you expect a user to figure it out?
A Quick Rundown Through the History of Dolphin on Android¶
The original release of Dolphin on the Google Play Store in 2013 had very modest expectations. All a user needed was an ARMv7 processor and they were ready to go! That meant almost every Android device back in 2013 could at least run Dolphin to some degree. As explained by Sonicadvance1 at the time, just because it would run doesn't mean it was the experience everyone wanted.
If you're expecting reasonable speeds out of this, you are sorely mistaken. This will run slow on every single Android device, no matter if it is the most powerful one in the world.
Even on a strong device, performance was measured in seconds per frame.
While the original release of Dolphin on Android ran on most devices, major improvements to the app greatly cut down the number of compatible devices. The biggest of which was the requirement of OpenGL ES 3.0 to run the new OpenGL backend. On the few devices that did support GLES3, lightweight games could now run at a blistering 5 - 10% speed!
Dolphin on Android's JIT and GLES3 backend were optimized and matured over time. By 2014, we saw our first ever fullspeed title! But that was merely WarioWare, Inc, one of the least demanding commercial titles available to Dolphin. Unfortunately, the then-current core of Dolphin on Android was pushed as far as it could go and the improvements slowed to a stop. ARMv7, as a 32-bit only architecture, was simply too limited for Dolphin to ever obtain fullspeed in 99% of Dolphin's catalog. Just like why we removed our 32-bit x86 JIT, ARMv7's 32-bit nature required all manner of crazy workarounds and prevented countless optimisations. It just couldn't be improved any further. ARMv7 was a deadend, and would soon be removed.
Only with the introduction of the 64-bit AArch64 architecture and Dolphin's AArch64 JIT would we see Dolphin on Android finally shine. The device at the forefront of development would be the NVIDIA Shield.
The NVIDIA Shield (launched as the NVIDIA Shield Android TV) was the first Android device that could actually run Dolphin to a reasonable degree. Games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Animal Crossing could run full-speed or close to full-speed a majority of the time. With Dolphin on Android finally reaching the potential that Sonicadvance1 imagined when he first started working on the port way back in 2010, the reviews were in - users hated Dolphin on Android. The rating tanked and it seemed like almost no one was having a good time.
This happened for a multitude of reasons ranging from user mindset, shifting ideals in newer hardware, and Dolphin's heightened requirements. The meteoric rise of single core IPC (Instructions Per Clock) within new ARM devices suddenly flattened in 2014. This led users upgrading their phones over the next year or two to get angry when they saw marginal performance improvements on their shiny new phone or tablet. On the other hand, gaming on Android was starting to shift into games that looked as good as or better than GameCube/Wii games. There were even ports of same-generation titles like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas furthering the perception that GameCube games should run just fine to the casual user. On top of all of that, most users were stuck on 32-bit devices/userspaces and were upset that they couldn't run Dolphin whatsoever. In order to stop the bleeding, the Dolphin app was removed from the app store with no plans for it to return. So what exactly has changed?
Running Dolphin on Android in 2018¶
Fast Forward to August 2018 and the Android landscape is a whole new world! AArch64 is now standard, most high-end phones have GLES3 drivers, and the NVIDIA Shield is the best selling Android T.V. device! ...Well not everything has changed. Overall though, the state that Android and ARM devices are in now is far more favorable to Dolphin than it was when the app was removed from the store. The requirements that were once absolutely ridiculous in 2016 are now only a little crazy.
Unlike in 2016, you no longer have to hunt around just to find a phone that can run Dolphin. If you buy a high-end, modern Android phone, odds are it will probably run Dolphin on Android to some degree. Most new Mali and Adreno chipsets at least attempt to support GLES3 and some even manage to support Vulkan to a good enough degree to run Dolphin. The problem is that their drivers are incredibly spotty, with regressions and fixes varying from release to release.
In terms of performance, as of this article, the Adreno devices are much faster and now even have working Buffer Storage. It took a while to get to this point but we're just happy it's finally working. Some Adreno drivers also work with Vulkan... after stenzek added a hack to work-around their broken Depth32 clears. Whether Vulkan works or not highly depends on which driver version is available on your device.
Assuming the drivers work and games boot, you'll be greeted with the full-fledged Dolphin package. The core emulation experience very closely mirrors the featureset you'd get out of Dolphin's PC version. One of the main differences you'll notice when booting Dolphin on Android is that it runs a completely different GUI than the desktop version. Even more, there are two unique Android GUIs - one for T.V. devices and one for touch devices.
While these GUIs do lack some of the polish and options present within the desktop GUI, they are much easier to use and can even be navigated with controllers. Speaking of controllers, Dolphin on Android supports fully customizable touchscreen controls for those looking to casually game while on the go without having to lug around a controller. Most standard controllers can also be configured for those who can't stomach the idea of trying to use a touchscreen to game. And, for a more authentic experience, Dolphin on Android also supports Native GameCube controllers via Nintendo's GC Wii U adapters and Real Wii Remotes via the Mayflash DolphinBar.
The main problem becomes that games that are demanding on the PC version are also demanding on the Android version. Unlike the PC version where you can throw an insanely powerful computer at the problem, that option doesn't quite exist yet for Android. Another thing to remember is that AArch64 devices rely on Dolphin's AArch64 JIT. While it has seen a lot of work, this JIT still has fewer instructions implemented compared to JIT64. This is mostly noticeable in games that require full MMU emulation.
Android graphics drivers have improved tremendously over the past couple of years - the fact Dolphin renders mostly correct is a testament to that. Unfortunately, they're still not perfect and have a ways to go before everything is perfect. Many features, like Ubershaders, EFB Access From CPU, Store EFB Copies to RAM, Bounding Box along many enhancements and other features may or may not work. In the case of EFB Access From CPU and the latest Adreno drivers, the feature only works on Vulkan - not OpenGL! Games that rely heavily on these features are likely to be broken or run extremely slow, so no Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on your phone quite yet. Again, your results will greatly vary based on the drivers available to your device. Hopefully all of this information will be useless soon enough once driver manufacturers fix the remaining bugs.
Performance and Testing¶
How Settings Relate to Performance¶
The results above actually give us a very clear picture of where the bottlenecks are on various devices. Users that had been playing The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and other Store EFB Copies to RAM games on their phones were a little upset when Dolphin's INI system finally made its way over to Android. The SD835 cannot seem to handle the feature in any capacity without the performance tanking to unreasonable amounts. EFB Access from CPU alone fairs slightly better, with the framerate only tanking when the effect is on screen.
The Shield, featuring full NVIDIA drivers and a Tegra X1 graphics chip, does not even flinch at the prospect of these features because it is bottlenecked elsewhere on its aging hardware. What really causes the Shield issues is high polygon scenes, whereas the SD835 dipped a little bit less when viewing the whole of Outset Island.
That's not to say the Shield isn't impressive for an older device. Despite its aging a57 cores, it's able to keep up with devices several years newer thanks to the NVIDIA graphics drivers and larger power budget. If you want all the bells and whistles while emulating Wind Waker, it can outperform just about any other device. On the other hand, when you disable features like Store EFB Copies to RAM and EFB Access from CPU, the differences in drivers become less noticeable and the more powerful devices of today can pull ahead.
If you're using the latest dev builds, you can customize your experience per-game by long-pressing the title in the gamelist. This gives you access to set your own presets for every single game. If you're on a device like the NVIDIA Shield, you can leave Store EFB Copies to RAM without worrying, but on a phone it can be heavily beneficial for your framerate to disable it. Please make sure you're using the latest version available in the Play Store or build 5.0-8540 and newer.
Multi Game Performance Test¶
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a single game. Different titles will provide different challenges for Dolphin and some will be more demanding than others. Using the One Plus 5 (SD835), here are some performance results when playing a GameCube, Wii, and WiiWare title.
NOTES: The maximum framerate was heavily tied to where in the town the player is standing and where they're looking. The nighttime shot was from across the river looking across the whole town with the streetlamps turned on.
NOTES: This was played with two foxes both as AI with a two minute fight and average framerate was recorded. Some stages of the background animation were more demanding than others.
NOTES: Now it may seem silly to want to play Mega Man 9 on a phone, but, after dealing with a bunch of 3D games it's actually a nice counter. There are some dips when the screen gets super busy but the game is more than playable. In order to maintain a good framerate, had to force lock the phone into max processor clock.
Performance Pitfalls and Other Issues¶
As shown above, it's definitely possible to play some GameCube/Wii games full speed on Android hardware that exists today. The problem is that the combination of Android and mobile devices isn't exactly the best environment to be trying to get maximum performance. Some phones have aggressive governors that can't adjust to Dolphin's workload and can't be overridden without root access to the device. Considering the dangers involved with unlocking and rooting a device we do not recommend you root your devices to improve Dolphin's performance. Results will vary per device - the SD835 is present both in the Pixel 2 XL and One Plus 5, but the throttling issues were non-existent on a stock Pixel 2 XL. On the other hand, take a glance at the difference the performance governor on the One Plus 5 makes.
This may make you think that the Pixel 2 XL is the outright superior device because of the performance governor, but it's still not that simple! The Pixel 1, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL have a newer line of Adreno drivers. Though they've supposedly added features like Dual Source Blending for Vulkan to make Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Resident Evil 4, and other games render correctly, they've also managed to cause this.
Hopefully a new driver revision will resolve these issues. For now, please be extremely careful if you're factoring in Dolphin when buying an Android device.
Dolphin on Android Moving Forward¶
While there was a lot of excitement over Dolphin's return to the Play Store, it also unveiled a lot of shortcomings. The emulation side of things had improved greatly, but a lot of minor issues made it hard for general users to get the most out of Dolphin. Over the past three weeks, tons of issues and enhancements have been made to Dolphin on Android to make the experience better.
- As of 5.0-8569 the controls will no longer be clumped into the corner. There will now be a default touch layout available right from the start.
- As mentioned earlier, the Android interface for editing game specific settings was fixed in 5.0-8540.
- For users who use gaming mode to disable capacitive buttons, an exit emulation option was added to the dropdown menu in 5.0-8542
- A bunch of issues involving Wii Remotes crashing and not being configurable were fixed in 5.0-8529, 5.0-8512 and 5.0-8500
- Make it require two presses of the back button to end emulation in 5.0-8559. This is to help prevent users from accidentally closing their game with an errant touchscreen press, especially when the onscreen navigation bar is enabled.
- As shown earlier in the article, support for automatically retrieving game covers for the Android GUI from GameTDB.com was added in 5.0-8571. A secondary fix for how they were displayed was merged in 5.0-8578
We feel that these changes and many others are important enough that users should be getting them right now. By the time this article launches, a new beta build will be available early in the Play Store with all of the above features already available. Overall, Dolphin on Android is the full Dolphin experience once you get into games. While there are definitely some missing optimizations here and there within the AArch64 JIT along with some limitations in GLES 3, compatibility should be mostly the same outside of driver issues. The main difference comes from trying to run Dolphin on a low power device versus computers oftentimes designed for gaming. Special thanks must be given to recent efforts by mahdihijazi, zackhow, JosJuice and Ebola16 over the course of the summer, Dolphin on Android has been able to see this revolution. It also must be mentioned that the auto-updating Play Store version was hooked into our auto-update infrastructure by delroth. Enjoy!


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Working With Mills
Fabrics, trims, and raw materials are the foundation of our mission to build the best product and cause no unnecessary harm. For that reason, Patagonia travels the globe building relationships with the right suppliers – companies that make high-quality materials while reducing their environmental and social impact. Together, we then work to create the technical, environmental and aesthetic innovations that define Patagonia products.
Our search for the best materials starts with our material development team. It is their job to research, develop and approve materials and suppliers by evaluating performance in four key areas: quality, traceability, environmental health and safety, and social responsibility.
Our definition of quality demands that every material we use be durable and functionally fit for its intended use. It requires that our materials resist degradation from wearing and washing, be easy to care for, and are grown or manufactured with care for people and the planet. It insists that every garment is beautiful.
Developers send potential material options to the Patagonia quality testing lab. The lab analyzes and evaluates the material against a set of minimum requirements relevant for its intended use. To ensure the highest quality, lab analysts rely on industry standards, as well as equipment and test methods that we spent years developing. Our fabric laboratory may test as many as 70 material options in order to approve one fabric that meets or exceeds our minimum performance requirements.
We are dedicated to transparency throughout the supply chain. Information about the origin of our materials helps us control quality and assess environmental and social impact.
It is for this reason that we require our suppliers to complete a sourcing questionnaire and map their own supply chains. For every one of our fabrics or trims, we require a profile sheet, a supply chain tracking sheet and all relevant third-party certificates. See our certification requirements for organic cotton.
Chemical and Environmental Impacts Program
Material supply chains are significant contributors to Patagonia's footprint. Large amounts of water, energy and chemicals are needed to make materials for our products, so supplier operations must be managed in ways that safeguard the environment, factory workers and consumers. Patagonia developed our Chemical and Environmental Impacts Program for the purpose of managing chemicals and environmental impacts in our global supply chain. The program covers all areas of environmental management systems, chemicals management, waste management, water use and emissions, energy use, greenhouse gasses and other air emissions. It requires compliance with local laws for manufacturing site operations, as well as compliance with the strictest international consumer products legislation. It also helps us recognize suppliers who apply best practices as environmentally responsible supply chain partners.
Patagonia's Chemical and Environmental Impacts Program utilizes the latest industry-wide tools including both the Facility Environmental Module and Chemicals Management Module of the Higg Index, leveraging the work we have invested in collaborative groups such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Outdoor Industry Association's Chemicals Management Working Group.
Our Chemical and Environmental Impacts Program builds upon the work we have done with bluesign® technologies since 2000. In 2007, Patagonia became the first brand to officially join the network of bluesign® System Partners, which now boasts over 300 manufacturers, brands, and chemical suppliers. We are proud that many of these companies are in Patagonia's supply chain, and that they share our commitment to continuous improvement of environmental performance by conserving resources and minimizing chemical impacts.
Social Responsibility
Our Raw Materials Social Responsibility Program is one of the biggest and most important corporate responsibility initiatives we've launched since the mid-1990s. That was when we first began to monitor our garment factories for social compliance and helped form the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a nonprofit labor advocacy organization.
The Raw Materials Social Responsibility Program requires that all of our fabric and trims suppliers audit their factories for key social responsibility indicators, such as hiring practices, employee grievance mechanisms, recycling policies and other social and environmental efforts.
The steps for mills to comply with the program are similar to those for the factories that make our finished products.


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How many would do what they did again if given the choice? How many wanted to do it in the first place?I think honeymoons should be questioned as well. So much pressure! And you're exiling yourself in a strange place, away from everyone you know, wondering whether you chose a resort with the ideal romantic scenery and obsequious staff. Personally, I love normal life, really seeing and experiencing the details of it, and the cool thing about being married should be that you are sharing it with the one you love.
Personally, the last thing I want to have to think about on such a day is whether the DJ showed up or not. I would opt for my fiancee, the minimum witnesses required by law and the officiator. (I have no kids, but, if I did, I would add them - especially if they could function as the witnesses.)
Then I would go on an extended honeymoon in a warm location.
Six months or later, I would have a party for the masses to thank them for the well wishes. Hopefully, it could double as a housewarming party.
I love my family, but the focus on the day should be on two becoming one — not on making some nameless relative happy about who they are seated next to on the occasion.
As for that wedding, we're talking about a second marriage for both of us, and we're pretty old. I don't think I could put on a good enough show to justify forcing a lot of people to travel, dress up, and celebrate or give the impression of celebrating, and I don't see the fun in putting myself in the position of wondering whether I need to fret about whether I can. Some people who read my blog (or watch me on Bloggingheads) might think I'm a glutton for attention, but why do you think I've found such satisfaction in on-line expression? Putting classroom teaching to the side, I'm no exhibitionist. I live a very private and unusually secluded life here in my remote outpost in Madison, Wisconsin.


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The fun part of writing these profiles is finding out new, weird stuff. Sometimes (as with Epipremnum aureum), there's just no new stuff to be found, which is boring, and sometimes very unpromising-looking or obscure plants will turn out to be far stranger than my wildest hopes, as with Araucaria bidwillii. So I never know.
Cissus quadrangularis, though, takes the prize for the most surprising plant so far.
You wouldn't think, to look at it, that it was related to . . . you know, Earth plants. But not only is it from this planet, it's got familiar, planty-looking family. Stuff you'd know and recognize, like for example grapes (Vitis vinifera, V. labrusca) and Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), which are also members of the Vitaceae. More related still, the genus Cissus is also the genus of a few common houseplants, like grape ivy (C. rhombifolia), oakleaf ivy (C. rhombifolia 'Ellen Danica'), kangaroo ivy (C. antarctica), and begonia vine (C. discolor). The family resemblance is not obvious to the naked eye. Or the casually dressed eye, for that matter.
The plant is native to . . . somewhere. Different websites list different origins, usually one or the other of these options: "Asia and Africa" or "Ceylon and India." I'm inclined to believe the latter more, because it's more specific, but there was one site that mentioned the plant's presence in Africa, a site that talked about the plant being, possibly, toxic to livestock in Sudan. (Unfortunately, that's literally all the page had to say about the plant, Sudan, or livestock, so it's kind of a dead end, information-wise.) It's always possible that the plant is native to Ceylon/India and was introduced to Africa at some point later.
If you google Cissus quadrangularis, what you get are mostly bodybuilding sites, nutritional supplement sites, and the occasional medical site.1 Not what you'd expect from a houseplant, I know. What's even more unexpected is, C. quadrangularis is apparently the answer to every physical ailment that might affect you. Broken bones? Take C. quadrangularis. Hemorrhoids? C. quadrangularis. Open sores? How about some C. quadrangularis. And so on and so forth, through: obesity, tennis elbow, weight loss, asthma, high cholesterol, irregular or difficult menstruation, diabetes (implied), depression (implied), insomnia (implied), osteoporosis, low libido (implied), and ulcers.
Now, most of the sites couldn't care less about osteoporosis, asthma, and high cholesterol, because most of the sites are about bodybuilding. Apparently, it's common for bodybuilders to tear and snap tendons,2 and then when you've snapped a tendon, you can't use that particular muscle anymore for a while, while it heals, which if you're a bodybuilder is apparently terrifying, since if you can't work it out, it'll shrink and all the other bodybuilders will laugh at you. And, as we all know, there's nothing worse than being laughed at by a bunch of bodybuilders. So there's a demand for anything that promises to heal tendons faster.
Cissus quadrangularis is basically the answer to the sidelined bodybuilder's prayer, because not only is its extract supposed to heal tendons and broken bones faster, it's also supposed to reduce pain and inflammation and act like an anabolic steroid. So basically you're looking at a product that will: fix the stuff you broke, reduce the amount of pain you feel from breaking whatever it was, and help you regrow the muscle back at a faster-than-natural pace once everything's healed. You can see why they'd be interested.
As far as it goes, I think I might believe this, or at least I don't rule it out. I'm not a biochemist, but my degree is in chemistry, and I know enough about biochemistry that some of the claims and purported mechanisms at least don't sound like obvious gibberish. I'm prepared to accept that it might actually do something like heal bone and build muscle and all that. Healing of broken bones is apparently something it's been used for since ancient India, even.3 But of course, there's no FDA regulation of "nutritional supplements," which means that if you go to the store and buy a bottle of powdered whatever, the manufacturer is not obligated to list possible side effects on the bottle, no impartial government agency has proven that the supplement in the bottle does anything, there may or may not be scientific evidence showing that the product in question is even safe for human use, and I'm not positive that the bottle has to contain the product it claims to contain (or at least I don't know who would be in charge of verifying this, aside from the manufacturer itself). Persons reading this from outside the U.S. might have a little bit more government regulation and protection (or a bit less), but that still wouldn't make it safe and effective. So use at your own risk.
As for the rest of the claims, weight loss and hemorrhoids and all that, well, if it sounds too good to be true. . . .
But it's not just the answer to all your bone, muscle, and joint problems, it's also a houseplant. (Also a floor polish, dessert topping, and powerful rust remover!4)
As houseplants go, it's a pretty easy one. Granted, I've only had mine for three months, but it's a fast grower, it's not complained about its conditions yet or gotten any bugs, and it seems to be pretty okay with whatever care I give it or don't give it. So far, so good.
Despite it being easy to grow, it doesn't actually seem to be grown indoors all that often, which I can't easily explain. I mean, no, it's not the most gorgeous plant in the world. It's a little weird-looking. But, you know, Cissus quadrangularis is certainly no weirder to look at than Hatiora salicornioides or Schlumbergera truncata cvv., and people grow them all the time.
I had trouble finding any hard information about indoor care at all, so I'm going almost entirely on my own experience with the plant for the care directions. I welcome input from anybody else who might have tried this plant.
LIGHT: Mine is in a position probably best described as filtered sun. It seems to be okay there, though it's hard to know for sure with this kind of plant: if the stem segments start getting longer, does that mean it's happy or that it's reaching for light? Or both?
WATER: I treat mine more or less like a succulent that likes to be a little wet (roughly the same watering territory occupied by Pedilanthus tithymaloides or Pachypodium lamerei in the summer).
TEMPERATURE: Almost no data on this. I ran into two sites that said that the plant will die if it's exposed to freezing temperatures, and one site that said it's okay outdoors in zones 11 & 12 only. I didn't know there was a zone 12.5 So I don't know. I figure it should be okay to stay above 50ºF / 10ºC. Possibly colder than that.
HUMIDITY: Can't really see humidity being an issue for a plant that's this succulent.
PESTS: Haven't had any personally, and didn't find anything about them on-line, so I have no idea. Cissus spp. in general tend to be prone to spider mites and mealybugs (just like almost everything else).
GROOMING: It's possible that there is some, but I'm not sure what it would be. My plant does occasionally drop a leaf. I can't tell if this is something the plant would be doing anyway, or if it's an indication that it's unhappy over something.
FEEDING: No information on this either, so I'll say, feed like any other relatively fast-growing succulent.
PROPAGATION: I haven't tried it myself yet, but every site with any information on it at all says that these are very easily propagated just by snapping off a piece and burying a node in soil. In some cases that's the only real information that's included.
In the end, I think the people marketing Cissus quadrangularis supplements are promising much more than the product can possibly deliver. I'm cynical about "natural" and "herbal" products anyway, mostly for the reasons outlined above, that they don't have to go through any objective testing in order to be sold. But this doesn't mean that all such products are crap -- it just means that you, as the consumer, can't tell the difference between crap and medicine, you can't prepare yourself for any drug interactions or side effects, you don't know how much active ingredient you're getting, and it's not like these things are generally cheap6 or covered by insurance.
It's still interesting that this is a quote-unquote nutritional supplement that can be grown in the home. [shrug] If it turns out to be a useful one, then maybe more people will grow it, someday. Though that's probably enough right there to guarantee that nobody's ever going to check it out in any kind of rigorous scientific way. No money to be made in researching a plant that people will grow at home for their own use, right? Am I being too cynical?7
Photo credits: all mine.
Sudanese livestock
Pain reliever
Possible anabolic / androgenic (ref 1) (ref 2)
Hemorrhoids, asthma, ulcers, etc. ref 1 (WARNING: includes description of mouse torture which is couched in clinical language but still comprehensible enough to be unsettling), ref 2, ref 3, ref 4.
1 (Those readers who got to this page via a google search may mentally edit this to, "bodybuilding sites, nutritional supplement sites, the occasional medical site, and PATSP.")
2 Which might be a "doctor, it hurts when I do this" moment (for those unfamiliar with the joke: guy goes to the doctor, says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this," and the doctor ponders for a minute and then tells the patient not to do that, then. Not the funniest joke. My delivery wasn't great either. But that's the joke I'm referring to.), but apparently a little tendon snappage is a small price to pay for having grotesquely large . . . everythings. I understand working out. Don't do it (basically no energy or time left once you factor in work, and I was never a big fan of exercise to begin with, because of how it's all boring and repetitive and hot/sweaty), but I understand it. Bodybuilding, though, I don't even understand, except insofar as it might be an anorexia-like body image issue, which apparently for some people it is. Whatever the activity, I think I'd be motivated to stop doing it once I'd snapped a few tendons, but this is apparently one of many, many reasons why I am not a bodybuilder, my author picture notwithstanding.
3 Not that that means that it works. Ancient people also thought that the sun, which revolved around the earth, was routinely eaten by dragons; and that hares grew a new anus every year, so a four-year-old rabbit would have four anuses (I am totally serious: check out p. 138 of Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, by John Boswell. They also thought that weasels got pregnant through the mouth.); that malaria was spread through bad smells; and that virgin-slaughtering was just as important to agriculture as sowing seed. Ancient peoples were fucked up. Not good noticers.
4 "Dessert topping" is an exaggeration, but it actually can apparently be eaten as a vegetable. I was unable to find any description of how it tastes. I'm guessing probably not very good. I also want to note for the record that I am not willing to bet your life on the plant being edible, especially in light of the possible toxic-to-livestock thing mentioned previously, and I do not advise trying to eat this plant without first finding out how much you can safely eat, how to prepare it, etc. The only site I could locate that talked about preparation of the plant for consumption advises one to swallow without chewing, to minimize oral irritation, which doesn't sound promising.
5 According to the USDA map, there's not a Zone 12. So either it was a typo, or the site I was looking at (which of course I can't find again) was using a zone map other than the current USDA map, or the USDA has added a zone 12 since the map I looked at was produced. "Zone 12" would be a good blog title, by the way, if there's not actually a zone 12. Be especially appropriate for an indoor gardener.
(Alas, both http://zone12.blogspot.com/ and http://zonetwelve.blogspot.com/ are taken. The former has been collecting dust since February 2005, only ever had one post, and that post was only four words long : "Golly, my first blog." The latter is even older (October 2004), and has a longish rant about [sub]urban sprawl in Maine (the author is against it), and ends with the promise of "More soon!" However, http://zone12A.blogspot.com/ and http://zonetwelveA.blogspot.com/ are open, for the time being.)
6 Except, perhaps, relatively speaking. Prescription medication is even more not-cheap.
7 Or maybe not cynical enough? Exactly how lazy are people, anyway?
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Infomercial Pitchman (Cissus quadrangularis)
30 comments:
- Lance said...
I like this - I'll have to look for one. Of course I always like odd and unusual plants. It will go well with my collection of oddities.
I think the idea of rubbing anything that resembles a cactus/succulent on any hemorrhoids seems like a very bad idea. But I guess I'm just not that into pain. Same reason I don't do bodybuilding. That and how unattractive I find the bulging mass it creates in them, and worse - the veins. - August 27, 2008 at 9:48 AM
- mr_subjunctive said...
I had the general impression that one doesn't apply the Cissus directly, that just eating the extract would take care of the problem on its own.
Though direct application does seem more logical, if not comfortable. - August 27, 2008 at 10:09 AM
- Lance said...
I don't think either application sounds appealing if you have to swallow without chewing to avoid discomfort just to eat it.
- August 27, 2008 at 10:20 AM
- mr_subjunctive said...
I suppose not.
Good potential for advertisements, I just realized:
"Cissus. Apply directly to bunghole." - August 27, 2008 at 10:47 AM
- Lance said...
Hum, I think I should refrain from continuing my thoughts in public with that.
- August 27, 2008 at 12:43 PM
- Tracy said...
HA, HA, HA, omg that was so much fun to read. It had me intrigued right from the start....lol. I have't enjoyed a laugh like this for a long time.....you made my day.
lancetx- lol, yes the veins.....ewww
mr.s-lol, hehe, still laughing over the four anus thing.....lmao
loved it!! - August 28, 2008 at 6:34 PM
I personally use the powdered herb in 1Fast400 brand canisters. At only about 1-2grams a day, my wrist fractured has QUICKLY healed and the pain is gone. Further, there's more crackle/pop noises from my wrists or knees! My rotator cuff is also not hurting when I throw a baseball. I order this stuff regularly!
- December 3, 2008 at 8:52 PM
Hi, I use the Cissus for the tendinitis, and all that we bodybuilders have, and it works!!! I'm a girl bodybuilder and I use it instead of corticosteroids to help the healing process in sport injuries. ;)
Is a shame is not more info about this funny plant! - December 9, 2008 at 6:23 PM
hi i used cissus quandragularis raw directly for the first time but irritated my oral track.but it is not poisonous it kills parasites in our body,it increases digestion.
I am a fan of plants and ayurveda and i am in search of very rare plant cissus triangularis - January 22, 2009 at 12:49 AM
- Paul D. said...
Great post I just found one of these plants at the farmer's market in Lawrence. Looks like a fun plant, but then my wife accuses me of adopting all sorts of strange plants.
I plead guilty. - September 5, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Obesity is generally linked to complications in lipid metabolism and oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of a proprietary extract of Cissus quadrangularis (CQR-300) to that of a proprietary formulation containing CQR-300 (CORE) on weight, blood lipids, and oxidative stress in overweight and obese people.
The first part of the study investigated the in vitro antioxidant properties of CQR-300 and CORE using 3 different methods, while the second part of the study was a double-blind placebo controlled design, involving initially 168 overweight and obese persons (38.7% males; 61.3% females; ages 19–54), of whom 153 completed the study. All participants received two daily doses of CQR-300, CORE, or placebo and were encouraged to maintain their normal levels of physical activity. Anthropometric measurements and blood sampling were done at the beginning and end of the study period.
CQR-300 as well as CORE exhibited antioxidant properties in vitro. They also acted as in vivo antioxidants, bringing about significant (p < 0.001) reductions in plasma TBARS and carbonyls. Both CQR-300 and CORE also brought about significant reductions in weight, body fat, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting blood glucose levels over the respective study periods. These changes were accompanied by a significant increase in HDL-cholesterol levels, plasma 5-HT, and creatinine.
CQR-300 (300 mg daily) and CORE (1028 mg daily) brought about significant reductions in weight and blood glucose levels, while decreasing serum lipids thus improving cardiovascular risk factors. The increase in plasma 5-HT and creatinine for both groups hypothesizes a mechanism of controlling appetite and promoting the increase of lean muscle mass by Cissus quadrangularis, thereby supporting the clinical data for weight loss and improving cardiovascular health. - September 22, 2009 at 11:08 AM
Hello! I have been trying to find a source to purchase Cissus quadrangularis plants, and I haven't been able to find anything yet. Does anyone have any suggestions for how or where to obtain this plant?? Thanks :)
- November 24, 2009 at 11:04 AM
- mr_subjunctive said...
I really don't know. I found mine in a consignment store in Iowa City, IA. You might check glasshouseworks.com, or the houseplant exchange forums on Garden Web (but be sure you're on the exchanges page: people get way cranky if you post trade requests on the regular page). I've started some cuttings here, but although I think they've rooted, none of them have any new growth yet, and it's too close to winter to be mailing any stuff out anyway. Keep looking. One will turn up eventually.
- November 24, 2009 at 12:16 PM
- Sita said...
Hi , I stumbled on your blog searching about Asperagus sps.About Cissus.
We use it in chutneys [very ethnic kind of food not found in Hotels/restaurants.]and in making Appalams/Pappads.So it is edible and non poisonous.As for the oral irritation,yes,it does that but only the mature stalks ,especially when raw.It has to be peeled and fried[sauteed?]in a little oil.
Just wanted to share. - December 10, 2009 at 2:20 AM
- Jenn said...
I just found this plant, unidentified, at the Desert Botanical Garden's fall sale. I'm a sucker for the weird, so I picked it up ($3.00 mystery plant? sold!)
Took another look at it once I got it home and thought, hmmmm. That leaf looks like a cissus. (I seem to be becoming a cissus collector, I'm up to four varieties)
So I look up cissus, find a site that's talking bodybuilding supplement that gives the full botanical name, click a link and find you.
I SUSPECT that I had read this post - I'm pretty sure I've scoured your archives. So I'm feeling a bit less clever on the 'this looks like a cissus leaf' business.
But I'm really glad that you're so diverse in your plant interests.
Thanks for a great write-up (two years ago) on my brand new plant! - October 17, 2010 at 4:19 PM
- Unknown said...
This plant grows in northern part of Sri Lanka and Southern Part of India, mostly in dry soil. It has lots of medicinal values.
I helped my mother as a child to make chips (appalam) with it. I really miss the taste. When the juice comes in contact with your skin it may cause irritation. It has losts of medicinal values. For further information
IT is written in Tamil Language. - October 28, 2010 at 9:43 AM
in regards to cissus q not being listed as a pharmacuetical product by the fda or whatever body- dont forget that these administerative bodies are usually benifiting from large donations from pharmacuetical companies- who will do whatever is in the sphere of ifluence to discredit promising new natural products and stop them from entering the market to compete with their own less efective more expensive products- its just not in pharmacuetical companies interests for humans to be healthy.
just look at how easily the american congress is bought out by pharmacuetical companies - i am way more sceptical of registered products than i am of treatments like colloidal silver- neem oil - cissus q - marijuana etc. - July 7, 2011 at 7:15 PM
- mr_subjunctive said...
Okay, but that doesn't change that "the manufacturer is not obligated to list possible side effects on the bottle, no impartial government agency has proven that the supplement in the bottle does anything, there may or may not be scientific evidence showing that the product in question is even safe for human use, and I'm not positive that the bottle has to contain the product it claims to contain (or at least I don't know who would be in charge of verifying this, aside from the manufacturer itself)." As it is, last I knew, anybody can put anything in a bottle and make all kinds of claims for it, and as long as it's being sold as a herbal supplement, it never has to work. It could even make stuff worse, or contain a different plant entirely. As thoroughly imperfect as the pharmaceutical industry is -- and it's not like I'm arguing that it's wonderful -- there is still some regulation as far as what the products can contain, and how much, and there needs to be some evidence from somewhere[1] that the product does something to fix some medical condition.
If you want to be skeptical of FDA-approved products, that is your right as a human being and consumer, but I don't agree with you that natural/herbal is automatically better, safer, or more effective.
[1] Often, the "somewhere" is the manufacturer itself, but this is not really different in kind or degree from "natural" supplement makers claiming all kinds of benefits for their products. - July 7, 2011 at 8:38 PM
- Unknown said...
I am from south India, I am aware of this plant, and it is used in tamarind pickle in Rayalaseema region in Andra Pradesh. There is a place called Putture where this plant is widely used for healing fractures by externally applying the paste of cissus plant. I am looking for this plant can any one can give me the details where I can get this plant?
- September 10, 2011 at 12:24 PM
- Padmini Raghavan said...
To the Unknown from Sounth India:
I saw plenty of the stuff growing wild on some open land adjacent to the Poondi reservoir.
Since you are from South India, this is one site close to Chennai, where I saw Cissus quadrangularis practically covering the bushes by the roadside.
Hope you enjoy the chutney and appalams.
Trekpadirag. - October 5, 2011 at 11:08 AM
Bodybuilders would take anything if they thought it would make them bigger and more "buff" ....
- January 15, 2012 at 7:27 AM
Thanks for this useful information about Cissus quadrangularis. I purchased it a few weeks ago and delivered yesterday. It grows in cacti soil. Bad thing is, as you wrote, that there are not many opportunities to get useful advice how to care for the plant. I am not a bodybuilder, just a guy who loves to live with (sometimes extraordinary) plants. I´ll see how my cissus will grow and behave...
Have a nice time :) - March 9, 2013 at 2:15 PM
I bought my plant here:
It´s a german nursery but delivers to other countries, too - March 14, 2013 at 1:16 AM
or purchase here:
http://www.thecactusking.com/plants/african-succulents/cissus-quadrangularis - March 14, 2013 at 1:27 AM
Found it for sale today (9/7/13) at this link:
- September 7, 2013 at 11:09 AM
My Cissus, bought February this year, now has grown approx. 30 cm in 3 months. In the beginning (April to June) there was no visible growth. But then it proved to be Superman under right conditions.
One day one of the two new shoots broke off as I opened the window. I did not want to throw it away and let the wound dry off for 5 days. Then I put the shoot into a glass of water but I didn´t expect any positive results. Succulents tend to rot when standing in water. But the shoot surprised me and a healthy root growed.
So the propagation is quite easy and succeeds even in water.
Or was that success only possible with the help of three charming Non-succulent Coleus and one Bryophyllum tubiflora in the same glass!? ;) - September 11, 2013 at 12:49 AM
To the author, amazing that you don't believe in natural supplements. Most pharmaceuticals until about 1980 were formulated from natuarally occuring plants and herbs. Furthermore you haven't used the product so why would you comment on it? Opinions are useless without foundations. Finally, while there should be more studies on supplements, I do not need the FDA, which fails on so many levels, to regulate supplements.
- January 7, 2014 at 10:28 AM
- mr_subjunctive said...
Even if herbs do work, all the time, for everything they say they're good for, buying them at the store won't necessarily do anything for you:
[Canadian researchers] found that many [herbal supplements] were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice.
Just to get that out of the way.
If herbal supplement manufacturers want to be taken seriously from a medical standpoint, then they should prove to the FDA that their products 1) work and 2) reliably contain what they say they contain. As long as they've got the "this product was not evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to treat, cure, or diagnose any disease" disclaimer on the packaging, they're telling me that they have no confidence in their product, and consequently neither do I.
As for the rest of your comment:
"Most pharmaceuticals until about 1980 were formulated from natuarally occuring plants and herbs" sounds really wrong to me. If you've got a source to cite, link to it, but:
Antibiotics, a huge class of drugs which are very frequently prescribed, are usually semisynthetic (with chemical modifications to make them more stable on the shelf, or able to be taken orally, or whatever). Even if semisynthetic counted, the starting compounds still wouldn't support your claim: most are made by molds (penicillin) or bacteria (erythromycin, streptomycin, bacitracin, gentamycin, tetracylines, etc.), not by plants. A few are also entirely synthetic (sulfa drugs).
Aspirin is also semisynthetic: salicylate is natural and plant-derived, but irritates stomachs, so it's acetylated to produce aspirin, which is the actual drug we take. Opiates are sometimes natural (morphine) and sometimes semisynthetic (codeine).
Other painkillers like acetaminophen, naproxen, and ibuprofen are wholly synthetic.
Estrogens (birth control pills, hormone supplements) are usually semisynthetic, and initially the drug industry used plant material as a base, but it'd be a stretch to call those herbal, since 1) there was often a lot of chemical modification first; nobody was taking the plants directly, and 2) the same compounds are found naturally in humans and lots of other animals besides; it was just cheaper to get them from plants.
The benzodiazepines (Valium, Librium, etc.) were big in the 70s and are wholly synthetic. Barbiturates (sodium thiopental, amobarbital) are entirely synthetic.
The first antidepressants (isoniazid, iproniazid, imipramine and other tricyclics, MAOIs in general) were wholly synthetic.
Antihistamines (chlorpheniramine, diphenhydramine) have, as far as I'm aware, always been wholly synthetic.
Lithium, for manic depression, is natural, but it's mineral, not vegetable.
The antipsychotics (e.g. clozapine, haloperidol) are wholly man-made. Beta-blockers (for anxiety, e.g. propanolol) are man-made.
The earliest chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin, arsphenamine, mustard gas derivatives, methotrexate, fluorouracil) were mostly man-made, though I'll grant you vincristine/vinblastine as an exception. Paclitaxel is also natural, but was approved after 1980 so it doesn't fit your claim.
The general and local anaesthetics I checked out (diethyl ether, divinyl ether, benzocaine, novocaine, lidocaine) were all synthetic, save for nitrous oxide, which is natural but not plant-derived.
So which herbally-derived drugs of the 50s, 60s, and 70s you're talking about?
As far as why I'm commenting on a product I haven't used, well, I'm commenting on a plant. That I have grown. That the plant also happens to be used as a herbal supplement is interesting, so I commented on it. - January 7, 2014 at 1:14 PM
- Abhimanyu Veer said...
That is a very logical rebuttal, Mr Subjunctive. Kudos...
- November 7, 2014 at 9:22 AM
- Kelly said...
Hi, Thanks for all the interesting information!
I bought this plant, Cissus quadrangularis, at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona 2 years ago. It grows outside all year in Phoenix. It doesn't like the cold and I bring it in or cover it when it is in the 30's. It loves the hot summers as long as it is in the shade, and begins growing more leaves and tendrils and draping on nearby plants. I got it because the college horticulturist said it was good for osteoporosis. Yes, the joints easily root. I've given it to many friends.
So a couple weeks ago I decided to take a bite of the leaf--it's supposed to be healing. I had an immediate hot, itchy feeling in my mouth and down my throat--on fire, and I could hardly breathe. Lasted for a couple hours... So I searched online immediately and found that it has to be eaten with tamarind according to one site I can't find now.
I have not found anyone else online with this severe reaction. The friend that ate the leaf with me had the same but more mild reaction. I drank a lot of water and waited for it to go away.
"The juice of the plant is sometimes used as a tonic and the entire plant can be made into a poultice to treat bone fractures externally.
I've actually tasted this curious succulent and can report it is crisp with a peanuty flavor, not at all unpleasant. I've sliced small rounds of a four-inch segment and have eaten it raw. There's a bit of a light peppery aftertaste. After no ill effects, I tried a few in a salad. I have since sauteed it in a stir fry mix." from:
- September 29, 2016 at 6:45 PM


text:
These beautifully illustrated colouring sets are jam-packed with activities, coloured markers and stickers. All designed to keep tigers happy on the go.
Each set includes:
- 36x colouring-in pages
- 5x sheets of full-colour stickers
- 10x quality markers
- Handy storage box
Our packaging for this creative activity set has been specially designed with storage compartments to keep stationery and artwork safe, making it perfect for portable, no-mess and no-fuss play.
Suitable ages 3+


text:
IDPs struggle to survive after escaping fighting in northern Mali
IDPs struggle to survive after escaping fighting in northern Mali
BAMAKO, Mali, December 12 (UNHCR) - Hidjaba is struggling to take care of her family - like nearly 200,000 other Malians who have fled the north of their country to escape the fighting that erupted between various armed groups and government forces last January.
"I am ready to do anything to be able to buy food for my children," said the 45-year-old, who gets up at 6 a.m. to cook food that is both for her children to eat and to sell on the streets. "Sometimes they go to school in the morning with an empty stomach as I don't have enough money to buy millet to cook."
Hidjaba's family are among some 47,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who have found refuge in Bamako. In total, 198,600 people have fled their homes and many of them have sought shelter in the capital and the areas of Segou, Kayes, Koulikoro, Sikasso and Mopti.
Their needs for money, food and shelter are huge. UNHCR has been providing non-food assistance for thousands of families in Mopti city, which hosts an estimated 40,000 internally displaced people (IDPs). However, so far UNHCR has received only US$71.5 million of the US$123.5 million it requested for this year to assist IDPs in Mali, as well as tens of thousands of Malian refugees in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania.
"Donors are in general more reluctant to allocate funding to try to help populations who are dispersed in urban settings - and hence are more difficult to track and assist than in camps," said Marie-Antoinette Okimba, UNHCR representative in Mali. "Still, these people need urgent assistance. We need more funding to provide adequate assistance and recruit qualified staff to be able to assist families in desperate situations."
Hidjaba and her seven children fled Gao last May, after the city fell to a Tuareg rebel movement, which was a month after it had been taken by the Ansar Dine Islamist rebel group. Her husband, a driver, was killed in an ambush while joining a self-defence group.
The loss of the main family earner and the insecurity caused Hidjaba and her children to flee to the capital, where many IDPs rent houses or stay with relatives. Hidjaba initially stayed with a friend, but is now renting a house without electricity or running water for about US$40 a month. Neighbours try to help and sometimes pay her to wash clothes.
Government charities and aid agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) regularly distribute food to vulnerable IDPs in the capital but there is no systematic scheme to ensure they get regular meals. However, additional assistance programmes for Bamako are being discussed.
A recent survey by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Malian Commission on Population Movement - which includes UNHCR, other international and local aid agencies as well as the government - found 58 per cent of displaced people in Bamako originated from the Timbuktu region, while a further 38 per cent came from the Gao region.
Since January, civilians have had to endure multiple waves of violence, with intense fighting as various groups successively took over the main cities in the north. Some civilians endured chaos and pillaging, some left in anticipation of fighting, others stayed hoping a unified Mali could survive.
Displacement is fluid and complex, with people who fled going back and forth to the north to check on their houses, fields or relatives. Many heads of families cannot afford to bring their wives and children to Bamako. Other families send children to stay with relatives in Bamako and continue their education.
Civilians continue to leave northern Mali because of new attacks. IDPs told UNHCR teams that rumours of an imminent intervention by a regional military force to restore government control of the north was another reason to flee.
For 53-year-old Mustapha the trigger to leave the Gao region was a visit by gunmen from Ansar Dine in August. They entered the imam's home and ordered him to join their movement. "I refused and they kidnapped me," he said. They threatened to kill him before leaving Mustapha on the edge of town. The following day he fled with his family to Bamako.
"The imam is the first person people listen to in a village or in a city. But I refused to transmit their ideology and to join them," he said. Once in Bamako, Mustapha, his two wives and eight children stayed for 40 days with a cousin until he took separate rooms.
"The displaced cannot stay forever at their families and at the same time they have reduced financial means to rent places," said Mamane, a Bamako resident who is hosting 18 IDPs. "I couldn't just let them go in the streets."
By Helene Caux in Bamako, Mali


text:
With the initial release of Plasma 5.0 behind us I also started to look more in the direction of Wayland again. Now I'm kind of in full flow on Wayland work and kwin_wayland is progressing nicely. Yes, KWin 5.1 will introduce a new binary called kwin_wayland to complement the kwin_x11 binary which got introduced in KWin 5.0.
Now I do not want to list all the changes as you can hardly express them all in a blog post, but I can point to my Akademy talk. I will provide a small overview of the current state, what is new in KWin 5.0, what will be new in KWin 5.1 and where the journey is going.
Of course there is lots of work going on and help is always appreciated. We started to use a public available task tracker on todo.kde.org. Also I have to say that there are still quite some open tasks for kdecoration2. Please help as I cannot split myself and it would be super important to release KWin 5.1 with kdecoration2.


text:
On Saturday morning, we rose early to start the day. I did sneak off for a few hours to meet up with some new shooting friends at the local indoor range. That was a blast (pun intended.) After a couple hours at home, Colleen and I were off to volunteer at the Bingo Hall in support of our son's high school. That made for another long evening. This is the second time we've helped at this activity, and I must say, it's a whole new world for me. Those people are serious about their Bingo! (And it's a successful, and much needed, fund raiser for the school.) The only downside of the evening is the frequent venture into the smoking section of the bingo hall. It's more intense than any smoky bar from days past.
I did have time for a pint of New Belgium Snow Day with some leftover pizza as a late-night treat before heading to bed. I had found a forgotten case of this winter delight in the basement this week and it was just the thing with which to unwind.
Sunday morning we arose bright and early for Mass. Okay, perhaps not so much bright, but early. Our son was due home mid-morning so we went to an early Mass in order to be available to pick him up. While driving him home we experienced the second batch of smoke-drenched clothes this weekend. I must say the camp smoke is much more pleasant than the cigarette-based version we had the previous night!
After a quick trip to the grocery store I settled down for some relaxing
Home from the range, I cracked open a Bell's Pale Ale and threw some steaks on the grill. Both the steaks and the beer where products of the grocery store run mentioned above.
We probably couldn't have packed anymore into the weekend. Two events for good causes, two range trips, some good beers and good food made for two fun days. That's what weekends are all about!
Ah, Monday. Time to start planning for next weekend.