"South Africans Smoke Vulture Brains To Bring Lottery Luck"

(There's a punch line for a cartoon in here somewhere, I think ...along the lines of the old bit that runs:
A: What's that?
B: My lucky rabbit's foot
A: Well, it wasn't lucky for him, now, was it?
- So, I picture this cartoon, concerning this here news story...There's two vultures, looking disgruntled, sitting on a fence...the one vulture says to the other "Man, if I could see the winning lottery numbers, I could buy fresh meat...I wouldn't have to be sitting around here just waiting for something to die !")
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Or anyway I didn't.
Now here is the news story.
This is from The Telegraph, or telegraph.co.uk, of December 27, 2009, I did not see a name given for the writer.
South Africans smoke vulture brains to bring lottery luck



So, what I wonder is "does it work?"...Not in the sense of actually getting correct lottery numbers, but, where the muti-selling expert guy says it gives you a vision...that does sound like there might be an actual dose of something in there...particularly coming from the whole knowledge of pharmacologically-active and psychoactive plants , among the traditional healers...If he says the vulture brain gives you a vision, he's probably got some plants on the shelf, that definitely would cause visions in a user, to compare it to.
It reminds me of news accounts about the rapid disappearance of vultures in India...Eventually/evidently it was determined that the vultures were in trouble because of a cheap antibiotic, that farmers were now feeding to their cows...The vultures, being at the top of that food chain, eating lots of meat, were soaking up big piles of this substance, or more than their (kidneys, I think it was, vultures with weak kidneys) previously-adequate metabolic processes could handle.
So maybe the reason these South African vulture brains could give users a buzz is that, being high in the food chain, they are concentrating some substance in their brains?
But smoking it does seem a little weird ...Other things being equal, you would think it would be better to eat some molecule, than to burn it up, hmm...

[edit on 28-12-2009 by nine-eyed-eel]

reply to post by nine-eyed-eel


Like the old saying.

"be very careful what you wish for".

i live by that and south africans, like indians should understand that by now.

People never learn. This positive thinking is more complicated than just thinking something, or taking your drugs or eating some lambs foot or what have you.

Just be careful what you wish for.

Interesting that you mention india with africa, both cultures are fairly the same. Everyone wishing for things, and the country has nothing really to offer people.

When will people learn.



[edit on 12/28/2009 by andy1033]

Those would be called buzzards way down here in the dirty South.

The only logical thing one could get out of smoking buzzard brains and mud would be parasites and Lord knows what else.

I will find a test subject and experiment. These crack heads around here will smoke anything.

Now I'm off to shoot buzzards.

Sickness of thinking in Africa never ceases....supposedly if a man rapes a virgin baby he will be cured of AIDS.

www.usafricaonline.com...

reply to post by andy1033


You know, at first I thought that it might be a new substance, like the new antibiotic that just about smacked the Indian vultures, that might be causing the vision/buzz...so then it might be toxic to us humans, and the light poisoning would be intoxicating, so to speak, and the humans wouldn't know that this was the consequence of some agricultural-chemical-or-whatever that they were just now using...But thinking about it more, I bet they have been smoking vulture brains for awhile, I'm leaning towards thinking the effect might easily predate modern agricultural/industrial chemicals...I mean, if the vulture brains didn't formerly give you a buzz, 100 years ago, before human chemical inventiveness splashed stuff around...you wouldn't keep on smoking the vulture brain every ten years or so, "Nope..still nothing" until all of a sudden "Hey, they're good now!", just after that friendly cropduster guy sprayed DDT in your water supply...you know what I mean ...Smoking vulture brains would have to work the first time I did it, people wouldn't go on smoking them for years, over time, for no reason, right?...so that makes me think it's an old effect, so not from a new chemical...Speculation on top of speculation, of course...

reply to post by nine-eyed-eel


I dunno if I'm going to buy this one. It sounds like another one of those jenkem things, y'know, "let's make up some crazy crap about Africans, all the white people we sell this to will buy it!"

reply to post by nine-eyed-eel


The question that always nags me in relation to these nutty things is who was the first mad bastard to do it to begin with?

What on earth possessed the first plonker to rub sharks liver into his arse to ease his hemorrhoids ? Or some madman to go and fight a rhino in the belief that grinding its' horn and consuming it will do some juju or another ?

Humans appear to be pretty messed up or inspired by some jester in the sky.

reply to post by nine-eyed-eel


India and africa have very similar views to life.

On topic, people for the most part just want anything to help them get rich.

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
reply to post by nine-eyed-eel

 

I dunno if I'm going to buy this one. It sounds like another one of those jenkem things, y'know, "let's make up some crazy crap about Africans, all the white people we sell this to will buy it!"

Well in favor of your theory is the fact I saw no author's name.

If it is a hoax, I am not the one who's hoaxing it, nope nope.

I'm local American, I don't have a properly comprehensive sense of the corporate-personalities of the UK newspapers...but, I do think the Telegraph is okay respectable, and I don't think they habitually make a point of slandering the different-looking former colonials, I would say they prefer to avoid doing that.
But things do happen.

If it is a hoax, that would be interesting, too...Kids in Florida read of the hoax, and, believing it must be true, smoke some of the local buzzards... Boy turns up babbling in the emergency room, with feathers on his lips...That would be a lawsuit against the hoaxing newspaper, for sure...

Tearful mother makes the rounds of the morning shows, "He has never been the same since."

(And then the sitcom, it almost writes itself...teenage daughter yells at her mom "I'm buzzing hard - Smoking buzzard!" ...Mom says " First toad-licking, and now this! - Tell me, is there any disgusting animal that you won't take into your body??" Then the front doorbell rings, and Mom standing by the door, opens it and, seeing her daughter's evil little boyfriend, answers herself "...Obviously not.")





[edit on 28-12-2009 by nine-eyed-eel]

reply to post by dizziedame


I'm down south as well and apparently there are differences between vultures and buzzards...now a turkey buzzard seems similar to a vulture.

Either way, let me know what you find out with your experiment!!

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
reply to post by nine-eyed-eel

 

I dunno if I'm going to buy this one. It sounds like another one of those jenkem things, y'know, "let's make up some crazy crap about Africans, all the white people we sell this to will buy it!"

What sort of ignorance is that ????

Doing a quick google search revealed alot of stories about the OP's subject.
Are they true I don't know but to claim this stuff is made up just to make the ( White Man ) buy it smacks of just pure ignorance.

News link

News link 2

People in this world have some crazy idea's of what will help in life, some go to witch doctors, some go to mediums / spiritualists some turn to drugs etc. These people all have one thing in common, They are desperate to make a better life for themselves, other people pick up on there desperate situation, con artists if you like make a fortune out these desperate people.

The traditional healer here sells people hope by saying that smoking vulture brains will help you see lotto numbers.
What these people fail to realise is why is the healer not smoking the vulture brains and seeing all the lotto numbers.It's because he/she knows it a scam. All the people see is a quick fix to better their lives. The only person getting rich in the healer.
It is this sort of ignorance of these people that stops them helping themselves up in life.

[edit on 30-12-2009 by colec156]

reply to post by moocowman


I have often wondered that too. Who where the first and why would they even think such things, lol.

Why do we keep sending aid to this continent? Isnt it obvious enough yet that nature wants then to wipe themselves out?

Between the child raping to cure aids, the president announcing a shower will cure aids, the constant genocide over huge patches of dirt, huffing fermented feces to pass the time and now smoking vulture brains to win the lottery?

Lost cause. Anymore money wasted on that continent should be in the form of a giant fence to prevent the sickness from escaping.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
Why do we keep sending aid to this continent? Isnt it obvious enough yet that nature wants then to wipe themselves out?
.

We send money that keeps the dictators in control of the masses.
1st world nations still manipulate Africa and plunder her for all her assets on the cheap.

Africa can still be a very powerful rich continent of nations but that won't bode well for the current world order of 1st world nations. Hence they are kept poor.

Take Somalia, they are no effective government so what do other nations do, that's Right dump toxic waste on the cheap off the coast.

Why does the UN not help out in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe has nothing to offer anymore.




[edit on 30-12-2009 by colec156]

Here is another recent article on the vulture-brain-smoking-for-precognition-concept...there is some overlap with the previously-linked piece, but, some new information too...written by David Smith, the link is to The Guardian/guardian.co.uk of December 30, 2009.

Vultures face extinction as gamblers seek visions of the future


The poisoning bit makes me wonder what poisons are used, i.e. whether that could account for a visionary buzz...like people smoking formaldehyde...They probably wouldn't poison the carcass with PCP or anything big like that, nuh-uh, but still...

The things that come out of Africa.. I swear...

Honestly, what do you say to this?