Just a plant - part 2

Is marijuana dangerous?

Trying to answer topic question - "Is marijuana dangerous?" - we should look at basic Cannabis chemistry.
Marijuana contains large number of chemical compounds and nearly all of them are used in medicine today.
We can divide them into:
* Cannabinoids
* Terpenoid essential oils
* flavonoids and phytosterols

Cannabinoids
Here we have very large number of compounds, but the most known are:
* THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), with boiling point at 157*C, known mainly for its euphoric effect.
It's used in medicine as very effective painkiller (analgesic), to reduce inflammation (antiinflammatory), to slow down aging and prevent from cancer (antioxidant), to stop/prevent vomitting and nausea (antiemetic). It's euphoric effect has some potential in psychotherapy (e.g. in treating depression).
There is some research trying to link THC and schizophrenia. Results are not clear, but chronic and heavy marijuana ("Skunk" strain) use by already schizophrenia-vulnerable people, shows some potential to trigger schizophrenia. Newest studies show no link between number of marijuana users and patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in UK (read more). Other studies show that THC can help in fighting schizophrenia (read more).

* CBD (cannabidiol), boiling point: 160-180*C.
It's has anxiolytic properties witch means that it can suppress panic and feelings like fear. Like THC it has analgesic, antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties. CBD is antipsychotic - it is used to treat psychosis (like schizophrenia), severe bipolar disorder and many others. It can also stop spasm (antispasmodic; e.g. used in pain relief while child-birthing) and muscle relaxation.

* CBN (Cannabinol), boiling point: 185*C.
It has oxidation properties. CBN has antibiotic effects - it kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria. It has sedative effect on human brain (pleasant feeling, like after one beer).

* CBC (cannabichromene), boiling point: 220*C.
CBC has antiinflammatory and antibiotic properties. It is also anti-fungal.

* delta-8-THC (delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol), boiling point: 175-178*C.
It is less psychoactive than delta-9-THC and is more stable antiemetic.

* THCV (tetrahydrocannabivarin), boiling point is nearly 220*C.
Like THC it is euphoriant and analgesic agent.
It's interesting that THCV blocks some effects of THC. THCV appears only in some of the Cannabis subspecies, mostly in strains from South Africa, Nigeria, Nepal.


Terpenoid essential oils:
* beta-myrcene, boiling point: 166-168*C.
It has analgesic, antiinflammatory, antibiotic properties. It is also antimutagenic, witch means, it reduces the rate of spontaneous mutations (or action of a mutagen).

* beta-caryophyllene, boiling point: 119*C.
It has antiinflammatory properties and also protects stomach from harmful chemicals (cytoprotective). It is also anti-malarial.

* d-limonene, boiling point: 177*C / 350.6 degree Fahrenheit
It is Immune System potentiator and has antidepressant and antimutagenic properties.

* others

Flavonoid and phytosterol components are: apigenin, quercetin, cannflavin A, beta-sitosterol and others. They have also many medical properties (way to many to write them here!).

Toxicity of Cannabis (not smoked!) is measured by toxicity of THC. Studies show that LD50 (dose killing half of the research subjects) of orally taken THC is 1270 mg/kg for male rats and 730 mg/kg for female rats and 42 mg/kg for inhalation. There were estimations, that LD50 dose for humans is 680 kg smoked in 15 minutes - and that is mission impossible ;)
There were 0 registered deaths from Cannabis. There were 0 registered lung cancers from smoking only Cannabis.

In a past few years, pharmaceutical companies have made some drugs from marijuana. Marinol is one of them - it is based on synthetic THC. After some studies it has become clear that in most cases taking synthetic THC has lower effects compared to using natural marijuana. So, not so long ago, company in Netherlands has produced drug "Bedrocan", witch is "just" all-natural, drayed flower of high quality, standardized Cannabis plant. It is available in 3 versions (for different health issues - there are different THC to CBD ratios). More on official website.

Today, we just start to rediscover Cannabis potential, because it has been erased from our heads by prohibition and some other unfair moves from pharmaceutical lobby (but also from paper production related tree-cutters). We forget about history of medical marijuana, so it's time for update:
First known usage of Cannabis in history was 2700 BC in China. It was prescribed for beri-beri, constipation, gout, malaria, rheumatism, absent-mindedness and for relief from menstruation pains. Analysis on recently found ancient Cannabis is here.
Some time later, in 1860 the Committee on Cannabis Indica of the Ohio State Medical Society reports that Cannabis successfully treated neuralgic pain, dysmenorrhea, uterine hemorrhage, hysteria, delirium tremens, mania, palsy, whooping cough, infantile convulsions, asthma, gonorrhea, nervous rheumatism, chronic bronchitis, muscular spasms, tetanus, epilepsy and stimulate appetite. In fact, Cannabis is the most potent, natural appetite stimulator on Earth (effect known as "munchies" or "pacman").
In 1893 India Hemp Commission reports that Cannabis can be used as an analgesic, a restorer of energy, a hemostat, an ecbolic, and an anti-diarrhetic. Report shows that Cannabis can also help treating hay fever, cholera, dysentery, gonorrhea, diabetes, impotence, urinary incontinence, testicular swelling, granulation of open sores, and chronic ulcers and can prevent insomnia, relief of anxiety, protect against cholera and is good as an aid to concentration.
In 1941 Cannabis was officially removed from the U.S. Pharmacopoeia. From this point it has no official medical value to the "civilized" world.
There are some new discoveries on subject. Some research shows that "Cannabis inhibits cue-induced heroin seeking and normalizes discrete mesolimbic neuronal disturbances" (read more).
Recently, we see some changes in this sick politic and some places decriminalized or legalized marijuana. For example, in Canada you can go to doctor and he chooses the best, witch should mean the most powerful and safest, medicine for you, it can be marijuana. Then you get your Medical Marijuana license and you are ready to go. The best source for Cannabis are medical marijuana dispensaries. You can buy there the best quality buds (flowers), extracts, cakes, drops, pills, oils, creams and other products of Cannabis. Sometimes you can buy there seeds or clones from "mother" plants and grow your own plant. Clones are easier in maintenance and give buds faster than growing from seed. You can be 100% sure about properties of your clone, because it is 100% copy of its "mother". You can make new clones from your clone.
Today in many countries and in 13 US states, official medicine recognize Cannabis as treatment or help for: Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Chronic Pain, diabetes mellitus, dystonia, fibromyalgia, gastrointestinal disorders, gliomas, Hepatitis C, HIV, hypertension, incontinence, methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA), multiple sclerosis (MS), osteoporosis, pruritus, rheumatoid arthritis, sleep apnea, Tourette's syndrome.
New studies on medical Cannabis potential and harms linked to it are available on Internet here.
Read more here and here.

Now a little break for video on Cannabis and Multiple-Sclerosis:




And another example:



But when we talk about using Cannabis plant, we can't ignore medical side of the Cannabis seeds. They are no psychoactive, but have other amazing attributes.
Cannabis seeds, called hemp seeds, are the highest of any plant in essential fatty acids (responsible for Immune System response). They also contains some other useful stuff like amino acids.
You can eat them as any other seed or nut (e.g. add some to sandwich). They have nice taste. But if you don't like eating seeds, there are pills with hemp seed oil, and hemp seed oil itself.
There are also available skin related medications and skin-care and nail-care cosmetics from hemp seeds.
You can't get high on Cannabis seeds so they (and all goods made from them) are legal in Poland.
For more info about seeds topic look here.

There is some newsflash about using hemp seeds:


Now, when we know some info about Cannabis itself, lets see how we can consume it in the most effective and safest way.
In case of taking Cannabis flowers, in countries when medicine respect Cannabis, doctors inform people about harms related to smoking. They advice them to use vaporizers or to take it orally (e.g. baked in cakes or dissolved in beverage).
Vaporisation is called "smoking without combustion" because active compounds are extracted from plant material by hot air (180-230*C), without burning. It is the best alternative to smoking. It delivers equal or higher level of cannabinoids than smoking but unlike smoking do not emit harmful, carcinogenic substances (results of combustion while smoking). It should be noted that users can distinguish and tell the subtle difference between effects from smoked and vaporised Cannabis. Vaporised marijuana starts working (like when smoked) after nearly 10 seconds.

Video on using Volcano vaporizer:


When talking about eating Cannabis we should know what compounds from Cannabis we need. This will determine possible ways of ingestion. THC dissolve in fat and alcohol, it do not dissolve in water.
When we don't need psychoactive THC, we can make Cannabis tea.
When THC is needed we can dissolve Cannabis in milk and drink it with honey, coffee or anything else :) We can also dissolve it in butter add some garlic and make delicious Garlic-CannaButter. All these ways of oral ingestion have one common issue - they start working slow - first effects appear after 30-60 minutes. All of them has one common plus - effects stay for longer time than inhalation, it's about 4-8 hours (varies from strain and quantity taken). Slow start issue can be reduced by dissolving Cannabis in alcohol like vodka (more % is better) and drinking it (mixing with other drinks isn't forbidden, but alcohol itself is harmful).

Cooking with Cannabis video:


How to make a Cannabis tincture video:


Smoking is most popular way of ingesting marijuana today. It is fast, gives unique feeling and medical effects come very fast - nearly after 10 seconds. Big minus related to this method is creation of harmful and carcinogenic tars and combustion by-products. Nevertheless, there were no record of cancer induced by smoking marijuana. Some research linked this fact to anti-carcinogenic effects of Cannabis - probably THC starts "programmed death" of cells witch potentially will be transformed into cancer. This is normal, natural occurring mechanism, witch ends lives of nearly all our old-enough cells.
When using Cannabis flowers (leafs and stems are also ok), shelled hemp seeds or hemp seed oil to treat skin disease, we can melt them into hand cream. Such cream can be put directly on sick places. For example, cream from flowers can be used to healing injuries or killing rheumatic pains.

Some info about marijuana and killing/causing cancer:


Great (and long) documentary about medical use of Cannabis, available free at YouTube.


For the end, I have question for you: do think legalizing Cannabis for medical use is good idea? How about recreational use?

Presentation drafts

Presentation drafts are obligatory.
No draft, no points for the presentation.

Extra points

Go to http://uwb2ms.blogspot.com/
and comment two presentations.

Just a plant - part 1

In my presentation I would like to talk about Cannabis plant. You can be surprised by this choice, but in USA, UK and in some other countries this is hot topic right now. This year, in march, Barack Obama answered for most popular questions from these suggested by people in the Internet... and did you know, that question from the top of this list was "Would legalizing marijuana improve the economy and job creation?". See for yourself (btw. look on faces of some people standing behind Mr. President ;)



As you can see, Obama acts like he really want to ignore that question but finally he "Just say NO!". I don't like his answer, especially when I remember his past speeches:



and



Good commentary on this is provided on The Young Turks show:



Fortunately, nowadays Obama say that federal low enforcements (especially DEA) should not target legally working medical marijuana pharmacies and patients using marijuana. That is radical change against Bush policy. Under Bush administration, DEA raided a lot of legal medical marijuana stores, confiscate all medicine and arrest people. Unfortunately, reality isn't changing as fast as may would like to - this unexplainable bust happens just week after Obama suggestion of easing up. Watch it here:



For the end I recommend you this discussion on CNBC:



And if you like Santana...



More on medical use and health, economic and political issues associated with Cannabis (and history of it's prohibition) coming soon...

Digital music

My last post was about portable players, but this time I would like to say few words about music format.
As we know most popular format of digital music is mp3. It's understanding, because one mp3 file size is not too big, and quality of sound is at acceptable level. But mp3s isn't one and only format. 

Not very much known, but much better than mp3 is OGG. We can get this format in easy way. We need only CD record to rip music by some program, for example - foobar2k. OGG weight more than mp3s, but sound quality is much better and bitrate is higher. Almost every new portable player has OGG support. If we want same sound quality in digital files as on CD, we can simply rip to loseless format FLAC. This format is perfect for those, who want the best sound quality. Unfortunately, one song in FLAC size is even 50mb. If you want to have music in that format on our portable player, you must read carefully technical specs, because in these days not every player can play FLAC.

Obviously music formats is not only mp3, OGG or FLAC. There's much more of them, but today these are in use most. Digital formats were CDs, sometimes vinyls, casettes, everyone had "walkman". There were for important music only. Next "discmans", even with mp3 support. 
Now almost everyone has mp3 player. We can rip music from CDs, but also we can buy songs on Internet, e.g. in iTunes Store or just download from an artist site (legally of course ;) like album "In Rainbows" by Radiohead in 2007, when people can download it and pay how much they like or none). So, what is the future off recording music? Sandisk thinks, that the future is in digital formats and microSD cards. Why? Because they made player with microSD slot and 0mb internal memory - Sansa SlotRadio. They think, that this cards will replace CDs in few years. 

Vinyls is still in use, so what will be with CDs? What will be next? Will they invent something better and more popular than mp3/OGG/Flac?

Portable Sound Players

Nowadays, everyone wants to have music with them, and no one is surprised now seeing portable players, because almost everyone has it.

Players have two primary categories:  hard-drive-based and flash-based.

Main merit of HDD-based player is big capacity. They're usually build about 1,8 inch hard drives, so players have even 160Gb space. Frequently, their price is similar to flash players with smaller capacity (for example, iPod nano 16Gb - 169$, iPod Classic 160Gb - 235$). HDD-based players unfortunately have demerits. Above all we must be carefull, because we can easily damage hard disk, for example - while we running. These players is also bigger, just because they have greater battery. In the other hand, players can hold even about 30,000 songs! Often they have much more functions too, like picture viewer or movie player.

Flash-based players don't have moving parts, so you can safely play some sports. They're mostly cheaper than HDD-based and battery can hold more energy (even 60 hours of still playing). We can define many types of portable players.

First type is small players for music only so-called DAP (Digital Audio Player). They have small display (or none). DAPs haven't many functions, basically music players. They're perfect for playing sports, running or something.

Next category are players, who have bigger screen (about 2,5 inches). They're also build for music, but we can play some movie, but often it's not comfortable. This size is quite universal, they're not too big, so you can easily put them in pocket.

Third - players with display around 3,5 inches so-called PMP (Portable Media Player). Here music is important in the same way as movies or photos. PMPs have many functions and big size screens, so they are perfect for traveling to, for example watch some movie or play a game. Now, almost each PMP has touch screen. It ensure a lot of aplications, for example, we can use fingers to paint or type something.

There is one more primary type of players - it's also PMP with display size above 3,5". It's also called MID (Mobile Internet Device), because many of them have Wi-Fi function, so you can find a hotspot and surf on the internet for free. Some of these devices have also GPS module or TV receiver. Also, most of them have operating system. Unfortunately, we must remember, that many functions comes in pair with large price.

For good player you must buy good earphones. I think, that the best combination is warm-sound (more down frequency – bass etc.) player with cold-sound (more high frequency – e.g. percussion) earphones. These features is complementary to each other and generate real good synergy set.

I choose flash-based small iPod Nano 1st generation. It's really tiny and sound pretty well. My headphones is not quite portable, but I'm very satisfied of them – Panasonic HTX7.

So what is your combination of portable sound system and what is your opinion about that?

Portable ear/headphones.

Everyone have some experience with music. We usually listen to the music in our houses using cd/mp3 player or computer as source and big speakers in output. Usually, but not always. If we want to go outside, we must buy a pair of portable ear/headphones. I wrote quick review of some types of them.

Tiny, cheap, easy-use – that words describe open earphones so-called “buds”. They're very popular just because they're very portable and low-cost. Sound and isolation are not very good, but price, comfort and portability is like no other.

Next earphones is a big step forward. They're earphones, that fit into ear canal (in package you get several pairs of ear tips in different sizes) and block noise quite well. In “canal” earphones you don't need to play music loudly, because you are listening only your music, not noise around you. They're sound very well and price is not too big.

In Ear Monitors (IEM) – these are the best earphones for professional musicians, or people, who need to listen in most perfect quality. They have armature drivers, that assure great sound stage, instruments separation and audiophile sound.

Custom molded earphones are also IEM, but only one person can use them. You must make a custom molds of your ears to make that, but sound isolation is awesome. Professional on-stage musicians are wearing “customs” (or people, who have hefty wallet ;)).

Okay, that's all about buds, iems etc.. Now it's time for small review of greater brothers of earbuds - portable headphones.

Headphones have bigger dynamic drivers. There are earbuds for 200$ and headphones for 5$, but mostly, over-the-ear or ear-padded headphones are just better than smaller earphones. It's a lot to discuss about sound of them, but I like to write something about two primary types of portable headphones.

First - it's closed headphones. They're mainly constructed for blocking noise around us. These headphones are not always comfortable just because of their build (they're bigger and heavier than open headphones), but the way of playing low frequency ("bass") is quite awesome. They are perfect for walk on the streets or to train or bus.

Second - it's open headphones. In audiophiles opinion, they're much better than closed headphones. They have less effective noise isolation than in-ear or full-size models and less powerful bass, but they are more comfortable, sound is more balanced, dulcet.

So, if you want to go outside and listen to the music, leave your big headphones at home and get some more comfortable and portable alternative.

What is your opinion about that? What are Your experiences with ear/headphones?

Vinyl Records - Part 3

Hello again. This is the last part of my presentation series on vinyl records. This one is the shortest one of the whole bunch ;)

The last thing I’d like to talk about is the “hardcore” aspect of vinyl collecting, namely finding vinyl oddities/very rare albums and releases which never made it to the digital-era music market… If you're not too interested in such peculiarities then you can safely skip reading this part. I don't want to bore you people on purpose ;).

What kind of rarities are we talking about? Here are some examples that I’m aware of:

a) Album releases with different covers

Example: the original LP of the “In Through The Out Door” album by Led Zeppelin is said to have been released with 6 different cover designs. One of them is a photo of a guy in a dressed in white sitting in a bar (that’s the design that appears on most today’s CD releases of this album). There’s also a cover design showing also the guy in the bar, but it’s shown from a different perspective, having the guy in the white suit in front of you. I’ve also seen a design that looks like the album’s wrapped up in cheap and plain packing paper with the album title printed on it like it’s been stamped (I’ve also seen this cover design on the recent “mini vinyl” CD releases). Click here for a website that showcases all the mentioned cover designs.

There’s also a story about a Jimi Hendrix Experience album, namely “Electric Ladyland”. It’s said that it had 2 cover designs and that the first edition of the LP cover featured Jimi with a lot of naked women. Shortly after, this design has been misteriously replaced by a “less intimidating” one (it’s totally different than the original, it shows Jimi’s head during a live performance). Also, not every country accepted the first design, so their first edition had the second design.

b) Album releases with errors made by the printing company/record manufacturer

Some collectors have managed to find some LP’s with “glitches”. For example: side B being the same as side A, less tracks on the record than stated on the album cover/label and vice versa, etc.

There’s also the story of the Rolling Stones album “Aftermath”. When it was released under the Decca music label, there was a printing glitch. One of the most famous songs which came from that album, “Paint It Black” was written “Paint It, Black” on the cover (not in the track listing on the back, but on the front side, under the album title there’s written in a smaller font: “Including Paint It, Black”) and on the record’s label. Later in an interview when asked about this small colon issue, band-member Keith Richards said “That’s not ours. Ask Decca about it. It’s their fault.”

c) Promodiscs and bootlegs

Promodiscs are vinyl records issued especially for record shops and music reporters in order to showcase the album. They are always marked that they’re for promotional causes only and that they’re not for sale, but sometimes you can find such records on sale today.

A promodisc notice on the back of the record's cover

Bootlegs are illegal pressings. These are either pirated copies of original albums or material unreleased by the music artist’s label. One of the most common practice with bootleg releases was to smuggle a tape recorder to a band’s concert, record the music from the audience and then release it to the market, mostly in small quantities.

There’s also a lot of music that has never been (and maybe never will be) released on a digital medium, especially in jazz and classical music.

These aren’t the only examples of vinyl rarities. I’ve got 2 albums in my personal collection which are pretty rare. Let me tell you about them and why are they so significant:

1. Black Sabbath – “Black Sabbath” (NEMS edition)

This is a 1976 re-edition of the first Black Sabbath album by the NEMS music label. The original one was released in 1970 by Warner Brothers. Here’s the review of this particular edition taken from allmusic.com:

“British record label NEMS, which contributed both the Live at Last and Greatest Hits albums to Black Sabbath’s catalog, also issued their own versions of some of the band’s classic Warner Bros. releases in the late ’70s. Aside from the recurring misspelling of Ozzy Osbourne’s name (”Ossie”) in the liner notes of the NEMS releases, there are some interesting differences between the Warner Bros. versions and the re-releases. Most significantly different is the first album, Black Sabbath, which, in NEMS’ pressing, bears a completely different track listing than the better-known version, and the song “Wicked World” is replaced by a Crow cover called “Evil Woman.” Diehards should watch the used vinyl bins for this oddity.”

I managed to snatch this album from an Internet auction for less than 10 złoty! Other "vinyl hunters" probably didn’t know of the significance of this record or thought that it was another re-re-release of insignificant value. Their loss ;)

2. Deep Purple – “Shades of Deep Purple” (Tetragrammaton edition)

Many people think that Deep Purple started off with EMI. Problem is that they didn’t. Their first album, titled “Shades of Deep Purple”, has been recorded and released by a small American record label called Tetragrammaton. The debut was a success and pretty soon EMI came a’ knockin’ to Deep Purple with a contract offer. The band took the deal and EMI bought the rights to the first album. Funny thing is though, that until the 2000 CD remaster release, every release of “Shades of Deep Purple” under EMI was made not from the original master tapes, but from a dubbed copy vinyl disc, which was pretty inferior quality-wise. Apparently, Tetragrammaton has kept the original studio tapes until just recently. Thanks to that, one can say that the original first edition LP is the best sounding one.

Anyway, apart from the story above, it is the very first edition of the LP, so it’s pretty rare nowadays.

Final advice: always try and look for some information on a particular release before discarding it, even when it doesn’t look too promising. Many collectors found real vinyl treasures by sticking to this method.

That’s all on this subject for now. I hope you found my presentation interesting. Happy commenting ;) (constructive criticism is also welcome).

Vinyl Records - Part 2

It's high time for the next part of my presentation series. Today I’ll concentrate on the aspects of buying a vinyl record…

1. Why buy a vinyl record?

I guess I should answer this question in the first part of my presentation.

The obvious purpose for wanting to own a record is listening to it. In my opinion it's quite a different experience then listening to music from your iPod (or other portable music player) or even a CD. There's also the case of music material that never got (and possibly never will be) released on another medium than a vinyl record.

Vinyl records are lately gaining on popularity again. Sales of new vinyl records are steadily going up, while sales of CDs are still declining, although it is, of course, the major music medium today. Turntables and records also get more coverage in the mass-media. I'm talking about movies, music videos, serials, you name it ;). One could call this resurgence of vinyl a new trend for music lovers and also, for some people, a way of underlining a rather posh lifestyle.

One could consider them as an investment of sorts. Vinyl records aren't very expensive today (the average price for an old popular record in very good condition is around 20 złotys), but one thing that you can bet on is that they won't get cheaper ;). So you can consider it like buying art or jewelery.

They can also be used for decorative purposes. Either hang it up on the wall,

...make a clock out of one,
(the author of this photo took a Daliesque approach to it)

...use it as a painting canvas...

...or perhaps make a stylish fruit bowl ;).

2. Where to buy a vinyl record?

Check around your local record shops, pawn shops, thrift shops, flea markets, etc.

You can also search around the Internet. There’s tons of vinyl sellers on eBay or our Polish allegro, for example. Some of them are mass-sellers who simply scout out for records locally and put them out on a net auction. The other type of eBay vinyl seller you may encounter is a collector who got lazy or bored with the stuff or those who “inherited” a record collection somehow and try to make a profit out of it (collectors are the best sellers if you want to have some guarantee that the album you buy is in a good shape).

3. Record grading systems

Records and their covers are often graded by sellers in order to describe their general shape.

There doesn’t exist any standardized grading system, but record sellers tend to use the same or often similar scheme than others, so record grading systems in general are very similar.

As a general rule, the grade of the record is listed first, followed by the grade of the cover or record sleeve (if no cover is available).

Here’s an example record grading system from the “Record Collector Rare Price Guide 2006″ magazine:

MINT(M): The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition. Records advertised as Sealed or Unplayed should be Mint.

EXCELLENT(EX): The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and/or creasing.

VERY GOOD(VG): The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable.

GOOD(G): The record has been played so much that the sound quality has noticeably deteriorated, perhaps with some distortion and mild scratches. The cover and contents suffer from folding, scuffing of edges, spine splits, discoloration, etc.

FAIR(F): The record is still just playable but has not been cared for properly and displays considerable surface noise; it may even jump.
The cover and contents will be torn, stained and/or defaced.

POOR(P): The record will not play properly due to scratches, bad surface noise, etc. The cover and contents will be badly damaged or partly missing.

BAD(B): The record is unplayable or might even be broken, and is only of use as a collection-filler.

There are also some other grade considerations (although they aren’t as popular as the ones listed above):

NEAR MINT(NM): A nearly perfect record. Many dealers won’t give a grade higher than this implying (perhaps correctly) that no record is ever truly perfect. It’s considered as an “in between” grade for M and EX.

STILL SEALED(SS): A never-opened record. Still in it’s original manufacture seal. Take caution with this rating, because some record dealers reseal records and then claim that they’re of SS status.

Some collectors/sellers also use a + or – notation next to the grades in order to widen the grading scale even more. For example: a VG+ grade means that the record is somewhere between the VG and EX ratings.

Online buyer's tip: If you find a seller that has a lot of albums that you’re interested in and it’s the first time you’re buying something from him, DON’T buy more than one or 2 albums. Nevermind if the seller has thousands of positive feedback from previous buyers, you need to check him out yourself. I’m saying this because some people grade their records in a more consequent way (that’s good) and some in a easy-going type way (i.e. the seller grades a “poor” or “fair” disc as a “very good” disc). So to sum things up, my advice is that you need to check the seller out if he’s a good and reliable one before buying a load of albums of off him.

Online buyer's tip 2: If possible, try not to take the risk of buying records from people who, for example don’t own a turntable (they can’t possibly grade them properly), although many established and esteemed record sellers tend to grade their records visually, so be prepared for that.

4. Drillholes and cut-corners

A single's label with a drillhole in it

You can sometimes find records which have a drillhole made right thru the record’s label (which is the small paper part of a record's side, located in the center) or one of the record cover’s corners. You can also find records in such a state that one of the cover’s corners has a single scissor-cut on it or it’s been simply cut off. Record store owners often did that to records that they sold on a discount offer.

People who sell vinyl records online in most cases inform the potential buyer about this while describing the state of the record and cover. Sometimes they describe it with some code-like shortcuts (like CC for Cut Corner).

A record cover and sleeve with a cut corner

Such records are in most cases of lesser value than records without “discount modifications”.

5. The record’s edition

It’s up to you if you want to buy new vinyl pressings or used ones.

If you don’t like the whole idea of “vinyl hunting” then it may be a better resolve to just look for new releases.

Modern pressings or re-releases of vinyl tend to be worse than the originals, because often the record companies cut the vinyl master disc using not the original master tapes, but a digitally remastered tape which the company used to issue a new remastered CD release, which often can be inferior (or just "different") than the original album.

Another option is to search for a company who specializes in releasing new vinyl record pressings using the original master tapes of an album (for example: Simply Vinyl).

If we’re talking about buying used vinyl, then it may be helpful to determine if our record is a 1st edition or a re-release or if it came from the original label.

For most cases, you simply need to check the label of the record and it’s catalog number. The catalog number can usually be found somewhere on the cover of the record or on the record label. Then you can compare it to the listings at allmusic.com (preferred way) or Discogs.com. Both websites can be used as a supplement to each other. Googling for information is also (as always) a good idea ;)

Sometimes you can easily determine if the record is not a 1st edition. Some record labels (Atlantic Records for instance) often added something like “-2″ or “B” next to the original 1st edition catalog number to specify that it’s a 2nd edition or later re-release.

Some later editions are recognized by changes to the label on the record or the record cover in comparison to the original release.

6. Mono/Stereo/Quadro

Some records (particularly those released in the 50’s and early 60’s) have been released first as a mono recording and shortly after that re-released as a stereo record. Some also record labels had simultaneously released a mono and stereo version record. Today, the mono editions are rarer, because after that most records were only stereo.

Quadrophonic records are a completely different matter and I won't go much into detail over them here. I'd need another article for this particular topic. Let's just say that surround sound wasn't invented at the same time as DVD movies came about ;).

7. Origin of manufacture

This isn’t a well discussed topic in the record collector’s world. In my humble opinion, the sound quality of a record (this includes also CDs, which is kind of a mind-boggler, because that's a digital medium) depends on the factor of where was the record manufactured.

So now you ask: so where are the music medium’s made better than elsewhere ? From my experience, things look kinda like this today (order from best to worst sound quality):

1. Japan
2. USA, Canada
3. UK, France
4. Germany, Italy, Holland ,Spain, Sweden, India

I only listed western countries (except Japan and India), because I simply haven’t ever heard, for example: a CD from China, a LP from Cuba (although I’ve heard opinions that they were cut quite well) or a cassette from Egypt. I could guess and estimate, but then it wouldn’t justify the “from my experience” sentence.

If I wouldn’t have to compose the above list from today’s perspective, I’d also add Russia, Hungary, Poland and almost all other old “east block” countries and I’d file them under the number 5. Back in the socialistic days, the manufacturers made very cheapo-cheapo quality LP’s in comparison to other countries. Lay low the fact that it was supposedly hard even to get a hold of a Polish LP in Poland! My parents often told me that group excursions to Hungary for the sake of obtaining LPs (Hungarians didn’t have such problems as in Poland in this matter) weren’t uncommon.

That’s all for now. The next and last part will be about very rare and often odd vinyl releases.

Vinyl Records - Part 1

Hello group!

Today I'd like to introduce you to the world of collecting vinyl records. This will be a multi-part presentation series, similar to the one about "The Brain" from 2 weeks ago. I'll try to spike your minds with some interest in vinyl records (or at least a bit of wisdom about them) .

In this here first part I'd like to cover the basic knowledge regarding this music medium.

You all probably know what a vinyl record is, but just to recap:

A vinyl record is a music storage medium, recorded on big round vinyl discs, which can then be played back on a turntable. A record has usually 2 sides and on each side there's a single groove that goes spirally from the beginning till the end of the side, which spans music tracks.

When playing, a turntable's stylus (also called a needle) is set onto the groove while the turntable's platter is spinning at a constant speed. The stylus picks-up the recorded audio signal from the record and sends it along the turntables arm, out of the turntable and into some kind of amplification equipment, so the music can be heard.

The question for today’s part is: “What kinds of vinyl records are there anyway?”

For starters, let’s classify the numerous instances and parameters of vinyl records:

1. Speed – there are 16,33,45 and 78 RPM (Rotation Per Minute) records

These are the speeds at which a record must be played on your turntable in order to properly listen to the recorded music. 16 and 78 RPM discs are very rare these days as (for the most part) they were made back in the days when vinyl was a ‘yet to be standarized’ format (up to the early 1950’s). 16 RPM is the rarest of the bunch (used usually just for recording speeches), while 78 RPM has a cult status of it’s own as even some modern DJ turntables have the capability of playing these records.

The most popular formats are 33 and 45 RPM discs.

2. Record size – 7,10 or 12 inches

As vinyl records are round, we denote their size through their diameter.

7 and 10 inch discs are the sizes most commonly used by the so called “single-play recordings” (SP for short), more commonly known as “singles”.

12 inch discs is the most common size for “long-play recordings” (LP for short).

What does LP and SP mean in practice? Read on.

3. Music time

This is the classification scheme that ties both the record’s size and playing speed. Why? Because the amount of music included on a vinyl disc strictly depends on those 2 factors. It’s quite a simple principle: the smaller the size and the higher the RPM speed, the faster the turntable’s needle will ride on the disc’s groove and the faster it will come to the end of the side.

The vague name of “long-play recording” simply means that you can play a recording for a “long time” (it became a pretty relative term in comparison to tape and CD time capabilities). LPs can cover up to about 25 minutes of music per side and as vinyl records are double-sided, an LP disc's music coverage can amount up to 50 minutes of music, although from my experience most LPs were released with up to 40-45 minutes of music. All LPs are 33 RPM speed records and have the size of 12 inches.

‘Single-play recordings’ on the other hand can’t be classified as easily as LPs are. SP means that a record can be played a “single time”, meaning that it mostly includes just one track/song for each side.

The most popular size format for SPs is the 7 inch one and most 7 inch records are of 45 RPM speed (although one can sometimes find 33 RPM singles too). These can amount up to approx. 6 minutes of music per side.

There are also 12 inch SPs, which are often called “Maxi singles”. These are mostly used in the case of songs (or a pair of tracks) which exceed the 6 minute limitation of 7 inch records. The play time here can amount up to approx. 12 minutes per side.

The 10 inch is the least-popular size for SPs. It can be considered as a bridge between the play time capabilities of 7 and 12 inch SPs.

4. Record material types

Most vinyl records have a black color, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the only form available.

4.1. Record companies sometimes release a limited batch of so called ‘”color vinyl” records.
These records can be purple, yellow, white, blue, grey, red, etc., a combination of colors or even transparent or fluorescent!

A yellow color vinyl record played on a turntable

Sound-wise, there should be no difference between color and regular vinyl recordings, although some people say that color vinyl is worse, because it’s often more prone to physical damage.

Nowadays, many music groups release their works on color vinyl and in most cases it’s not just a “limited series” anymore.

4.2. There are also vinyl records in the form of so called “picture discs”.

Picture discs simply include a picture or some form of art on it’s sides instead of the regular black color and because of that, such records often have a transparent cover (instead of a regular one) or are simply sold in a transparent record sleeve, without a cover. Most picture discs were very rare and limited releases, but they’re becoming increasingly popular nowadays.

Picture disc album released by Metallica

This concludes today’s part of my presentation series. I hope it wasn't too boring.

The next one will cover tips on buying vinyl records.

Extra points

Recommend a film/book/play/show you have seen/read recently. Give a link to it.
Even if you have seen something and you have not too good opinion of it, present it here please:)

Developing everything but ourselves

Since centuries, no, thousand of years humankind is developing themselves. It's being made by improving our life to be less difficult and more comfortable. We put our mind onto technology, electricity, various fuel usage but we still forget about something... or someone.

The thing I'd like to take under attention is self development. We're developing so much and we tend to forget about improving our personal, social or business life. By that I mean doing what I love, realizing our needs, making our dreams come true. Being spontanious, doing crazy things which we always wanted to do or didn't want but it would be fun to do it.

Have you taken a trip just like that? You sit in an armchair and see the beauty of nature, sea, ocean, mountains, lakes and think - 'It would be so much fun to go there now.' Just go. A few minutes online to find the right train, pack up little bag, take some money and go.

Yea, little things. During the next few days I'll be presenting some notes about developing ourselves, how can we take more from life and give back, finding new ideas in everyday life.

To start off let me introduce you Apple's CEO Speech, which was presented at Stanford University to the graduates - Class of 2005.



What's your opinion? Great, sad, lame?
Also, please let me know what subjects would interest you the most. I'll do my best to prepare them ASAP.