Ferguson: Admin. asked for too little in the banking bill, nothing is preventing another banking crisis.Ferguson: Admin. asked for too little in the banking bill, nothing is preventing... more
Sacked government drugs adviser Prof David Nutt has called for a Royal Commission to investigate whether cannabis should be decriminalised.
Prof Nutt told the BBC the possibility of allowing Dutch-style cannabis cafes should be "explored".
But his call comes as another academic is due to publish a study highlighting the possible links between the drug and schizophrenia.
"The more you smoke, the higher the risk," Prof Robin Murray told the BBC.
Prof Nutt told Radio 4's The Report that a Royal Commission on decriminalising the use of cannabis was a "sensible" idea and it could have "big health benefits."
I've just got my fingers crossed that one day, soon hopefully, we wont be such a backwards country.
Well, that will kill the plasma market in California, but as more laptops and LCD tv's are now becoming available with LED backlights, one should ask which plasma manufacturer pissed off the CA Legislature... :)
With the lower power draw of LED TV's, CA's law is a bit like making it illegal for tomorrow to not have a sunrise, too...
Enjoy, CA.... next, they'll make sure you don't watch TV for too many hours per day. Who decides "how many is too many"? Why, the CA Legislature, of course!
Isn't it great to be "taken care of," so well, or as farmers say, "serviced" ?Well, that will kill the plasma market in California, but as more laptops and LCD tv's... more
Whose side are the two major Italian parties, the PDL (Berlusconi's party) and the PD (Democratic party)? On the side of police officers and judges who risk their lives every day to fight the Mafia or on the side of mobsters? The doubt is more than legitimate given the number of politicians of these parties, local and otherwise, who ended up involved in several Mafia investigations. Dell'Utri and Cosentino are obviously the best known at this time regarding the PDL. http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/whatpoliticiansdo/mafiapolitica181109.htmlWhose side are the two major Italian parties, the PDL (Berlusconi's party) and the PD... more
This was all a planned setup. The laws were changed to allow a planned financial crash that made a few very wealthy.This was all a planned setup. The laws were changed to allow a planned financial crash... more
If tonight the Tg1 (italian state-owned main evening tv news program) opened its evening edition with the save the premier law, calling it so. If it said that the law to shorten the statute of limitation for all but the most serious crimes and those of immigrants is unconstitutional, racist and in fact an amnesty for bribers, polluters, crooks and many others such criminals? If the Tg1 would speak for the first time in its history of all the trials in which Berlusconi stands accused? http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/journalism/tguno131109.htmlIf tonight the Tg1 (italian state-owned main evening tv news program) opened its... more
There are many, many laws having nothing to do with government, that are useful to know because they tell you something about how the universe works. There are Newton’s laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, Boyle’s law, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, among dozens more. Most of these laws have been known for a long time, but it wasn’t until a mere nineteen years ago that Godwin’s Law was written.
If you’ve ever been involved in a discussion on Usenet, or have been following politics in the past decade or so, you’ve probably encountered Godwin’s Law. While Godwin’s Law is, alas, as true today as it was then, it seems unfortunate that there aren’t more widely-accepted axioms to help us geeks define the characteristics of our world.
To that end, then, here are ten geeky laws (axioms) that should exist, but don’t… at least, they didn’t until now:
1. Munroe’s Law: A person in a geeky argument who can quote xkcd to support his position automatically wins the argument. This law supersedes Godwin, so that even if the quote is about Hitler, the quoter still wins.
2. Lucas’s Law: There is no movie so beloved that a “special edition,” prequel or sequel cannot trample and forever stain its memory.
3. Tolkien and Rowling’s Law: No reasonably faithful movie adaptation of a book will ever be quite as good as the book it adapts. Thus great movie adaptations can only be made out of truly amazing books.
4. Somers and McCarthy’s Law: There is no dangerous unscientific theory so preposterous that no celebrity will espouse and advocate it.
5. Jobs’s Law: No matter how well last year’s cool tech gadget still works, it will seem utterly inadequate the moment the new version comes out.
6. Savage and Hyneman’s Law: Blowing stuff up is fun. Blowing stuff up in the name of science is AWESOME.
7. Starbuck’s and Peet’s Law: C8H10N4O2, better known as caffeine, is the most wonderful chemical compound known to humankind. If the field of Chemistry had never identified or produced a single other useful compound, caffeine alone would be justification enough for its existence.
8. Wilbur’s Law: Bacon makes everything better.
9. Comic Book Guy’s Law: There is no detail of a movie too brief or inconsequential to become the subject of an hours-long diatribe.
10. The Unified Geek Theory: At present, the President of the United States, the wealthiest person in the United States, and the most trusted newscaster in the United States are all geeks. At the same time, movies based on comic book characters are routinely taking in hundreds of millions of dollars. The only reasonable conclusion is: We’ve won!There are many, many laws having nothing to do with government, that are useful to... more
Lion + Tiger = LIGER! Freckles was rescued from a failed backyard sanctuary in mississippi Dec 2008. 16 year old Freckles is one of the oldest Ligers around but she is one of the most recent arrivals to Big Cat Rescue. At the time of her rescue we could see a big hole in her jowl, and feared that it would lead to her demise, but she was in such bad shape that we just couldn't risk knocking her out to get a better look. Being a cranky old cat, she wasn't about to let us get a good look any other way either. She was given antibiotics in case it was just an injury, but now that she has become more calm in her new setting we can see that the problem stems from several broken teeth. Caged cats will often break off their teeth trying to chew their way out of their prison cells and when she was left behind to die in Mississippi she probably did just that.
The dental work was completed on Freckles without any problems and she as made a full recovery. Let's hope that the dental as taken away her pain and she will have no more problems in the future.Lion + Tiger = LIGER! Freckles was rescued from a failed backyard sanctuary in... more
SAN ANGELO, Texas — The first jury trial in more than a decade in the sleepy West Texas town of Eldorado involves an alleged polygamist and an accusation of sexual assault of an underage bride, a far cry from the occasional drunken driving cases that normally occupy the Schleicher County court system.
Attorneys on Monday will begin culling the largest jury pool ever called in Eldorado to try to find 14 people in a county of 2,800 who can set aside what they have heard about a polygamist sect whose alleged marriages involving underage girls triggered a police raid that swept more than 400 children into state custody last year.
Raymond Jessop, 38, will become the first man from the Yearning For Zion Ranch to go on trial here. He is charged with sexual assault of a child — an underage girl he allegedly married first — and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He is also charged with bigamy for allegedly marrying a second underage girl, but will be tried on that charge separately.
In all, 12 sect men have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to bigamy and sexual assault at the ranch, where women and girls wear braids and pastel prairie dresses. They have all denied wrongdoing.
The cases began after a woman in Colorado allegedly called a Texas domestic abuse hot line in March 2008 and pretended to be a teenage girl with a much-older husband who raped and beat her. State authorities swooped in, taking 439 children away from their sheltered lives and hundreds of boxes of documents and family photos to build their case. The Texas Rangers have acknowledged the hot line information was false, but the caller has never been charged.SAN ANGELO, Texas — The first jury trial in more than a decade in the sleepy West... more
New Crack Cocaine Bill Leaves Thousands Behind Bars
New America Media, Commentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Posted: Oct 21, 2009
Editor's Note: During the 1980s crack epidemic, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., then a House member, voted to impose harsh sentencing for crack cocaine. Now he says he “made a mistake 20 years ago,” and is introducing legislation to remove the disparity between crack and powdered cocaine possession. But the fact that his bill does not make the sentencing change retroactive -- Durbin has said he hopes to leave that debate to the Sentencing Commission – means that his Fairness in Sentencing Act 2009 is anything but fair, writes commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson.
WASHINGTON — Illinois Senator Dick Durbin’s Fairness in Sentencing Act 2009 is anything but fair to the thousands of inmates serving time for drug crimes in federal prisons. The Durbin bill, and the companion bill the House Judiciary Committee passed in July, will scrap the blatant racially biased sentencing for first time crack cocaine possession. The law currently requires that judges slap a minimum mandatory sentence of five years on anyone caught with crack cocaine. More than 80 percent of those sentenced for crack use are poor, ill-educated blacks. Those caught with the same amount of powdered cocaine, mostly whites, often middle-class and suburban, get probation and referrals to drug diversion programs.
READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT NEW AMERICA MEDIA
WWW.NEWAMERICAMEDIA.ORGNew Crack Cocaine Bill Leaves Thousands Behind Bars
New America Media, Commentary,... more
Opponents to equality violated all of NPRs terms of use according to a cease and disist order sent by NPR to the Yes on 1 campaign in Maine.
“NPR did not license use of this story or its content, and would certainly not have licensed or permitted it if we had been asked,” Rehm said in a statement. “NPR is a highly respected news organization and does not allow its content to be used by political or advocacy groups. Such use is harmful to the integrity and independence of NPR. NPR does allow – even encourage -- personal, non-commercial use of our content, so long as it is not modified, and not used in a manner that suggests NPR promotes or endorses a cause, idea, Web site, product or service. The use made by Stand for Marriage Maine violated all of these terms.”
Content was used in Stand for Marriage Maine's latest television commercial which began airing October 16. The ad is no longer available online or on television.Opponents to equality violated all of NPRs terms of use according to a cease and... more
Today in Rome the greatest italian anti-racist demonstration up to now led 200,000 people to the streets, from Piazza della Repubblica to the stage in Piazza Bocca della Verità. A demonstration to say no to the Security decree that criminalizes immigrants, no to rejections of refugees, illegal under any rule of international law, not to the Centers for Identification and Expulsion where innocent people can be kept in jail for up to six months.Today in Rome the greatest italian anti-racist demonstration up to now led 200,000... more
This 7-yr-old girl is now an orphan because a truck veered into the shoulder her parents were riding tandem and killed them both. The driver is out walking free and was never ticketed or charged.
This happened near my hometown of San Antonio and although it's breaking hearts amongst locals, I wanted this situation to be known on a larger scale because I know it's not just a San Antonio or Texas issue. Cyclists are being treated no better than deer even in cities with a bike-friendly attitude. If you are a Texan, please to go to biketexas.org and sign the BikeTexas Safe Passing petition. If you are not, please do all that you can within your own community to ensure the cyclists and pedestrians have rights out there on the road and have a better chance of getting home safely.This 7-yr-old girl is now an orphan because a truck veered into the shoulder her... more
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling out his wife, Maria Shriver, for apparently violating a state law he signed — holding her cell phone while driving.
Let me see if I get this straight....
Arnold (smoking an illegal substance) is pointing out his wife for breaking a law he signed.
The hypocrit word just keeps coming up over and over again when it comes to this Austrian clown.
Whose crime is worst:
Arnie smokes a joint. Worse case scenario, he eats too much of Lou Ferrigno's birthday cake, and has to work out an extra hour to take it off his hips.
Maria talks on her cell phone. Worse case scenario, she doesn't see the little kid, riding his bike into the street. Uh, dead kid.
Maybe Arnie might try taking that Escalade in to have a speaker phone for Maria installed. Then, she can be a responsible driver, and he can say he's doing all he can to make sure his own wife obeys the laws he signs into effect!Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling out his wife, Maria Shriver, for apparently... more
A few excerpts:
"The Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with a plan to disclose the identities of all inert ingredients in pesticides including those that are potentially hazardous. This increased transparency will assist consumers and users of pesticides in making informed decisions and will better protect public health and the environment."
"EPA believes one way of discouraging the use of the more hazardous inert ingredients in pesticide formulations is by making their identities public."
On one hand I say we are moving forward, on the other making public these ingredients will not stop the destruction on our Nature or diminish their toxicity.
I have learned that campaigns or regulations like this one only help a bit in the beginning but in the long term things go back the way they were before.
One example is the tobacco industry.
How many warnings are there on the packaging of cigarettes?
A lot.
It seems the more they scare you with: "tobacco kills you or "causes cancer", the more this industry keeps on growing or at least does not lose profits.
One explanation I can come up with is from a psychological point of view, I call it the:
NUMB EFFECT, which repeats the same information over and over again untill it passes unnoticed.
We need to ban these substances from the planet and start embracing organic and natural methods instead.
How stupid can the state be? Here's an example: a Michigan mom watches her neighbors' kids for an hour a day and is charged with running an unlicensed day care.How stupid can the state be? Here's an example: a Michigan mom watches her neighbors'... more
Meet the women who made it their mission to run the 5K Adidas Challenge in London’s Hyde Park to put the case for Open Borders and an end to all immigration controls. As one young runner says “why should anyone be bound by the piece of land on which they happened to be born?” Runners raised over £2000 for the charity WORLDwrite’s Ghanaian partners who have been refused the right to visit the UK, earn money and send it home. Sponsorship is still needed for this vital cause, to make a donation, please visit www.justgiving.com/runforthelightMeet the women who made it their mission to run the 5K Adidas Challenge in London’s... more
