Pot

Middle Fingered

. . Printable List of Monsanto Owned “Food” Producers

In light of the recent public anger over the Monsanto Protection Act, here’s a simple, printable list of companies that use Monsanto products. By avoiding products made by companies on this list, you can help ensure your money isn’t going to Monsanto and also watch out for the health of your family and yourself

Study: Bondage Aficionados Are Better-Adjusted Than Most

According to new research from the Netherlands, the psychological profile of people who participate in these types of erotic games “is characterized by a set of balanced, autonomous, and beneficial personality characteristics.” Compared to those who engage in more mainstream sexual behavior, such aficionados report “a higher level of subjective well-being.” “We conclude that (these activities) may be thought of as a recreational leisure, rather than the expression of psychopathological processes,” psychologist Andreas Wismeijer of Nyenrode Business University writes in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

. . Anatomy of a Logo: Star Wars

The film, Star Wars, premiered on May 25, 1977. Today, on its 36th anniversary, I’m examining the evolution of the film’s logo.

. . Google-owned Motorola reveals stomach acid-powered tablet that turns your body into a password

Regina Dugan, former director of the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) and current head of Google-owned Motorola’s research division, introduced a prototype “vitamin authentication” tablet which turns your entire body into a walking authentication token. “We got to do a lot of epic shit when I was at DARPA,” Dugan said. Indeed, DARPA has been involved in everything from weaponized hallucinations to tiny spy computers to military human enhancements to automated drone-borne targeting and tracking systems to linking rat brains over the internet and much more. Forget traditional usernames and passwords, this technology unveiled at D11 uses a tiny stomach acid-powered tablet to produce an 18-bit signal which can be detected by outside devices and used for authentication.

. . Ex-cop’s odd underwear incident results in jail

A 20-year San Antonio Police Department veteran was ordered Wednesday to serve six months in jail for a bizarre incident last year in which he was found wandering the streets near his wrecked city vehicle, disoriented and without pants. Sgt. Joseph Earl Myers, 53, who resigned almost immediately after the incident, had no explanation for the odd occurrence as state District Judge Melisa Skinner pressed him for answers that have so far eluded authorities. “I made some bad decisions,” Myers said while apologizing, conceding he’d mixed alcohol with the prescription sleep drug Ambien the night before. The former narcotics officer added that he has no idea how cocaine was found in his system, although he doesn’t dispute it was. He’d never used illegal substances before, he said. “I don’t know where I was. I was irrational. I was disoriented,” he told authorities. “I don’t remember leaving the house. I don’t remember taking cocaine.” Thanks Jasmine

. . Police: Ann Marie Haines poisons burritos, feeds them to husband, daughter

A Lehigh County woman is behind bars for allegedly poisoning burritos and feeding them to her family. Ann Marie Haines cooked up the meal Tuesday night inside her home on Yorkshire Drive in Lower Macungie Township because her husband and daughter didn’t invite her to go along on a car shopping trip, police said. Investigators said Haines crushed up some sort of medication and put it into the burritos, which she then fed to her husband and daughter. They reportedly felt dizzy and tired and had to be taken to the hospital to be checked out.

. . Bloomberg: Medical marijuana a ‘hoax’

In a discussion of efforts to legalize it across the country, Bloomberg said, “There’s no medical. This is one of the great hoaxes of all time.” He went on to make another eyebrow raising statement about how legalizing marijuana will cause other problems. “Drug dealers have families to feed,” Bloomberg said. “If they can’t sell marijuana, they’ll sell something else.” Bloomberg says that “something else” will be worse than pot. “The push to legalize this is just wrongheaded,” Bloomberg added.

. . The most embarrassing graph in American drug policy

An enormous law enforcement effort seeks to raise prices at every point in the supply chain from farmers to end-users: Eradicating coca crops in source countries, hindering access to chemicals required for drug production, interdicting smuggling routes internationally and within our borders, street-level police actions against local dealers. That’s why this may be the most embarrassing graph in the history of drug control policy. (I’m grateful to Peter Reuter, Jonathan Caulkins, and Sarah Chandler for their willingness to share this figure from their work.) Law enforcement strategies have utterly failed to even maintain street prices of the key illicit substances. Street drug prices in the below figure fell by roughly a factor of five between 1980 and 2008. Meanwhile the number of drug offenders locked up in our jails and prisons went from fewer than 42,000 in 1980 to a peak of 562,000 in 2007.

. . The Latest Cannabis Discoveries That the Federal Government Doesn’t Want You to Know About

Frequent cannabis smokers possess no greater lung cancer risk than do either occasional pot smokers or non-smokers Subjects who regularly inhale cannabis smoke do not possess an increased risk of lung cancer compared to those who either consume it occasionally or not at all, according to data presented in April at the annual meeting of the American Academy for Cancer Research. Investigators from the University of California, Los Angeles analyzed data from six case-control studies, conducted between 1999 and 2012, involving over 5,000 subjects (2,159 cases and 2,985 controls) from around the world. They reported, “Our pooled results showed no significant association between the intensity, duration, or cumulative consumption of cannabis smoke and the risk of lung cancer overall or in never smokers.”

. . 44 percent of drinkers can’t taste difference between cheap and top-shelf vodka: Post survey

More than two dozen New Jersey bars caught pouring cheap hooch into top-shelf bottles got away with cheating customers likely because 44 percent of tipplers can’t even taste the difference, a Post survey has found. We enlisted eager volunteers to sample a shot of the $35-a-bottle French-made Grey Goose vodka and a shot of upstate Syracuse’s $8-a-bottle grain vodka Alexis to see whether they could pick the “better” booze. The results were sobering — 22 of the 50 tasters preferred the low-end elixir.

. . ‘Smoking’ alcohol is a highly dangerous trend among the calorie-conscious: experts

In an effort to gain a greater buzz for fewer calories, some young drinkers are inhaling their liquor – either pouring it over dry ice or ‘freebasing’ it and sucking up the vapors. Either way, going around the stomach and liver is incredibly risky, doctors say.

. . Iraqi farmer:” Im addicted to eating scorpions ” Farmer eats Live Scorpions! [Video]

. . Crystal Meth Origins Link Back to Nazi Germany and World War II

It was in Germany, though, that the drug first became popular. When the then-Berlin-based drug maker Temmler Werke launched its methamphetamine compound onto the market in 1938, high-ranking army physiologist Otto Ranke saw in it a true miracle drug that could keep tired pilots alert and an entire army euphoric. It was the ideal war drug. In September 1939, Ranke tested the drug on university students, who were suddenly capable of impressive productivity despite being short on sleep. From that point on, the Wehrmacht, Germany’s World War II army, distributed millions of the tablets to soldiers on the front, who soon dubbed the stimulant “Panzerschokolade” (“tank chocolate”). British newspapers reported that German soldiers were using a “miracle pill.” But for many soldiers, the miracle became a nightmare.

. . Fan gets herpes from Rihanna-endorsed MAC lipstick

According to a suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court and reported on by New York Daily News, Greenidge says she was persuaded to try the lipstick at a pop-up shop outside of Barclay’s Arena where the concert was held. “(MAC) didn’t use a fresh or new lipstick tube, but rather one that had been used for other patrons,” the Daily News quotes the suit as charging. Two weeks later, Greenidge says she developed a cold sore. A doctor later alledgedly diagnosed her as having herpes, a condition Greenidge says cost her two weeks of work as a waitress and, according to the suit, “mental anguish and emotional distress” that can only be relieved by an unspecified sum.

. . Arsenic being intentionally added to conventional chicken

The old saying, “You are what you eat,” poses troubling implications for public health in light of a new study on chicken meat, which found that most of it contains dangerously high levels of toxic arsenic. And the worst part is that industrial chicken producers are directly responsible for causing this, as they intentionally add arsenic-based pharmaceutical drugs to chicken feed in order to bulk them up quickly and improve the color of their meat, which in turn poisons you and your family. You can thank researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in Maryland for exposing this little-known fact in a recent paper published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. As it turns out, virtually all commercial chicken, including certified organic and “antibiotic-free” varieties, contain some level of inorganic arsenic. But it is the conventional chicken fed arsenic-based drugs that have the highest levels.

. . FBI Ran Pedophile Ring to Nab Pedophiles

As late as last year, the FBI ran a child pornography operation in an attempt to nab its customers. The service ran for two weeks “while attempting to identify more than 5,000 customers, according to a Seattle FBI agent’s statements to the court.” Court records indicate the site continued to distribute child pornography online while under FBI control; the Seattle-based special agent, a specialist in online crimes against children, detailed the investigation earlier this month in a statement to the court.

. . New App Claims To Cure Homosexuality In 60 Days

This week the company expanded its reach by releasing a free app for iOS and Android that covers the same ground, including a course to “cure” homosexuality. Gay rights organizations are beginning to cry foul, noting that the American Psychiatric Association, among other mental health sources, have denounced “gay-curing” courses as psychologically damaging.

. . ‘Atari Dump’ Will Be Excavated, After Nearly 30 Years

The New Mexico landfill or “Atari Dump” where the game console maker buried its mistakes — the biggest being the game E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial — will be dug up by game developer Fuel Industries, which hopes to make a documentary about the project. Also known as the “Atari Graveyard” or the “E.T. Dump”, the desert landfill is the spot where Atari decided to permanently off-load tons of games that were sitting unsold in a warehouse in El Paso, Texas, in 1983. So they went to a dump in Alamogordo, N.M. This week the city council voted to allow Fuel to excavate. “That September, according to newspaper accounts, 14 trucks backed up to the dump and dropped their loads,” the blog Western Digs reports. “Company spokespeople told the local press that the waste was mostly broken and returned merchandise — consoles, boxes, and cartidges.”

. . How to Fight Revenge Porn

But one legal argument has somehow failed to make a major appearance in revenge-porn cases: confidentiality. Broadly speaking, to confide is “to give to the care or protection of another,” and it is often the defining trait of explicit media shared between romantic partners. Simply put, explicit images and videos are unlikely to be created or shared with an intimate without some expectation or implication of confidence. This reality has been acknowledged but underutilized in the dominant narrative on non-consensual pornography. In contrast to new rights that would be created by proposed “anti-revenge porn” laws, confidentiality is already a well-established legal concept. It is older than all of the privacy torts and statutes in America.

. . Schools scanned students’ irises without permission

“It seems like they are mostly focused on this program, like the program was the problem. It’s not, it’s the invasion of my family’s Constitutional right to privacy that is the problem, as well as the school allowing a private company access to my child without my consent or permission,” one concerned parent wrote in a Facebook post that has since been shared hundreds of times. “This is stolen information, and we cannot retrieve it.”

. . Latest Kinect sensors allow games to feed off your fear

The latest game spawned from the Alien film franchise is being made by Creative Assembly, a game studio in Horsham, UK. It is likely to be one of the first games to explore the potential of Microsoft’s next-generation Kinect sensors for the Xbox One games console. Announced at the same time as the unveiling of the Xbox One last week, the new Kinect is a huge improvement on its predecessor (see “New wave”). It will have HD colour and infrared cameras that can see if your eyes are open or closed in the dark. It will be able to detect your pulse from fluctuations in skin tone and, by measuring how light reflects off your face, it will know when you start to sweat. This will allow the new Kinect to bring emotional gaming to your living room. Games can use the biological data to orchestrate your experience by adjusting the difficulty or intensity in real time, depending on how excited the system thinks you currently are.

. . “Absolutely Every One” – 15 Out of 15 – Bluefin Tuna Tested In California Waters Contaminated with Fukushima Radiation

The fish that will be arriving around now, and in the coming months, to California waters may be carrying considerably more radioactivity and if so they may possibly be a public health hazard. Japanese and U.S. officials – of course – are pretending that the amount of radiation found in the bluefin is safe. But the overwhelming scientific consensus is that there is no safe level of radiation … and radiation consumed and taken into the body is much more dangerous than background radiation.

File under SeMeN SPeRmS Links 'o Death, Sex

Conjured by o~ SeMeN SPeRmS ~o on June 2, 2013

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So This Is Love!

. . Iron in Egyptian relics came from space: The 5,000-year-old iron bead might not look like much, but it hides a spectacular past: researchers have found that an ancient Egyptian trinket is made from a meteorite. The result, published on 20 May in Meteoritics & Planetary Science1, explains how ancient Egyptians obtained iron millennia before the earliest evidence of iron smelting in the region, solving an enduring mystery. It also hints that they regarded meteorites highly as they began to develop their religion. “The sky was very important to the ancient Egyptians,” says Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, UK, and a co-author of the paper. “Something that falls from the sky is going to be considered as a gift from the gods.”; .; .
Is Success Killing the Porn Industry?: According to one estimate, there are nearly 25 million porn sites worldwide and they make up 12 percent of all websites. Sebastian Anthony, writing for ExtremeTech, reports that Xvideos is the biggest porn site on the web, receiving 4.4 billion page views and 350 million unique visits per month. He claims porn accounts for 30 percent of all web traffic. Based on Google data, the other four of the top five porn sites, and their monthly page views (pvs) are: PornHub, 2.5 billion pvs; YouPorn, 2.1 billion pvs; Tube8, 970 million pvs; and LiveJasmin, 710 million pvs. In comparison, Wikipedia gets about 8 billion pvs.
. . Ex-Microsoft manager plans to create first U.S. marijuana brand: A former Microsoft executive plans to create the first U.S. national marijuana brand, with cannabis he hopes to eventually import legally from Mexico, and said he was kicking off his business by acquiring medical pot dispensaries in three U.S. states. Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, said he envisions his Seattle-based enterprise becoming the leader in both recreational and medical cannabis – much like Starbucks is the dominant name in coffee, he said.
. . Netizen outrage after Chinese tourist defaces Egyptian temple: Parents of a 15-year-old Chinese tourist have apologized after the teenager defaced a stone sculpture in an ancient Egyptian temple with graffiti. The act drew ire in both Egypt and China — generating a massive online backlash amongst China’s unforgiving netizens. The vandal carved ‘Ding Jinhao was here’ in Chinese in the 3,500 year old Luxor Temple.
. . JCPenney Has an L.A. Billboard for a Tea Kettle — and It Looks Like Adolf Hitler: If you thought JCPenney was having problems at the top — or if pressure cookers were posing problems for the tea-kettle industry — look no further than 405 freeway near Culver City in Southern California, where an innocent stainless steel pot is drawing comparisons to perhaps the least innocent person of all time, spigot salute and all. Enter your own “calling the kettle Fuhrer” reference here.
. . First Human-Engineered ‘Meat Burger’ To Be Consumed In London: Starting with a very particular cell extracted from dead cows necks at a local slaughterhouse, a select team of scientists are now close to serving up the world’s first human-engineered, cultured meat burger. That’s right. A whopping 5 ounce burger will be freshly made from lab grown bits of cultured meat and muscle tissue. The burger, the first of its kind, will be served to curious diner’s somewhere in London in the coming weeks.
. . Coffee vs. beer: which drink makes you more creative?: The best time to have a beer (or two) would be when you’re searching for an initial idea. Because alcohol helps decrease your working memory (making you feel relaxed and less worried about what’s going on around you), you’ll have more brain power dedicated to making deeper connections. Neuroscientists have studied the “eureka moment” and found that in order to produce moments of insight, you need to feel relaxed so front brain thinking (obvious connections) can move to the back of the brain (where unique, lateral connections are made) and activate the anterior superior temporal gyrus, a small spot above your right ear responsible for moments of insight: Researchers found that about 5 seconds before you have a ‘eureka moment’ there is a large increase in alpha waves that activates the anterior superior temporal gyrus. These alpha waves are associated with relaxation, which explains why you often get ideas while you’re going for a walk, in the shower, or on the toilet.
. . German railways deploys surveillance drones against graffiti gangs: The drones, which fly at an altitude of 150 yards, will be used at graffiti ‘hotspots’ such as the big German cities of Berlin, Leipzig, Cologne and Hamburg, a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn confirmed. The use of drones against vandals is the latest indication of the growing civilian market for unmanned aerial reconnaissance. Over 400 new drone systems are being developed by firms based in Europe, according to an EU report published last September. The drones used by Deutsche Bahn cost 60,000 euros each and are manufactured by German firm Microdrones, which also markets the machines for landscape photography, analysing traffic accidents and monitoring crops.
. . The Unfiltered History of Rolling Papers: After tobacco was introduced to Spain from the New World in the 1500s, a tobacco trade developed in Europe in the 1600s. The aristocrats smoked Tommy Chong-size cigars, rolled in palm and tobacco leaves. When they were done smoking these enormous stogies, they would toss the butts on the ground, where peasants would pick them up, take them apart, and reroll what was left in small scraps of newspaper. “There was probably green smoke and sparks coming off of them,” Kesselman says of these early rolling papers. “It wouldn’t have been like they were smoking a new New York Times. They were smoking paper that had lead and cadmium and God only knows what in that ink, which would have been running all over their hands.”
. . The End of the Lower East Side’s Last Great Rehearsal Space: Much of Manhattan is a secret city, and few secrets are better than this: Below venerable dive Max Fish, behind grated steel doors that often vibrate with noise, is an old brick-walled basement room, pipes snaking overhead, a sweet smell of subterranean sweat mixed with old beer and cigarettes hanging in the air. Contained within: musical detritus built up over a generation—assorted amps, drum kits, microphone cables, and one stand-alone toilet shrouded by a Mickey Mouse bedsheet. This is the last great music rehearsal space on the Lower East Side. It will soon cease to exist.
. . THE WORST ROOM: A BLOG ABOUT TRYING TO FIND AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN NEW YORK CITY
. . SoulOS – The Soul Operating System: To re-connect young people with the teachings of the Catholic church, we developed ‘Soul OS’, a new operating system that encourages people to ‘upgrade their souls’ with Pope John Paul II’s inspirational quotes.
. . How to Convince People WiFi Is Making Them Sick: There’s no known scientific reason why a wireless signal might cause physical harm. And studies have found that even people who claim to be sensitive to electromagnetic fields can’t actually sense them. Their symptoms are more likely due to nocebo, the evil twin of the placebo effect. The power of our expectation can cause real physical illness. In clinical drug trials, for example, subjects who take sugar pills report side effects ranging from an upset stomach to sexual dysfunction.
. . Interview: Artist William Stout talks about bootlegs and ‘Beatlesongs’: “A guy tapped on my shoulder. ‘You wanna do bootleg record covers?’ ‘Sure!’ ‘Selma and Las Palmas, this Friday night, eight o’clock. Be there.’ He paused. ‘Alone.’ I agreed. “The intersection of Selma and Las Palmas at that time was one of the seedier Hollywood neighborhoods. Promptly at eight an old black 40’s coupe with smoked windows pulled up to the corner and stopped. The passenger window opened a crack. A paper sheet came out of it. I took the sheet and read it. It said ‘Winter Tour’ and had a list of Rolling Stones songs. A voice inside the car said, ‘Next Friday, same time.’ The window rolled up. Then the window rolled back down a tiny bit. ‘Alone.’
. . Let’s Fight Big Pharma’s Crusade to Turn Eccentricity Into Illness: Nature takes the long view, mankind the short. Nature picks diversity; we pick standardization. We are homogenizing our crops and homogenizing our people. And Big Pharma seems intent on pursuing a parallel attempt to create its own brand of human monoculture.
. . Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food: This health directive needs to be revised. If we want to get maximum health benefits from fruits and vegetables, we must choose the right varieties. Studies published within the past 15 years show that much of our produce is relatively low in phytonutrients, which are the compounds with the potential to reduce the risk of four of our modern scourges: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia. The loss of these beneficial nutrients did not begin 50 or 100 years ago, as many assume. Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago and became farmers.

File under Culture, Graffiti, Music, Photography, SeMeN SPeRmS Links 'o Death, Sex

Conjured by o~ SeMeN SPeRmS ~o on May 31, 2013

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Head Ache

. . 400 Pinball Machines and Counting at the Texas Pinball Festival (Video)

Yes, folks. Step right up. It’s the 2013 Texas Pinball Festival, except… Whoops! You missed it. But don’t despair, because Tim Lord was there with his camcorder to interview organizer Paul McKinney and to point his lens lovingly at pinball machines new and old, complete with whistles and bells, oh my! It was a riotous time, with players of all ages. Pinball machines were played, bought, and sold. There were plenty of exhibitors, including some with shiny-new machines. The most interesting of these may have been Multimorphic, which is making “the world’s first modular, multi-game, pinball platform.” In other words, one machine that can become many games, sort of like a video game console.

Riding the Rails . American Experience

At the height of the Great Depression, more than a quarter million teenagers were living on the road in America, many criss-crossing the country by illegally hopping freight trains. This film tells the story of ten of these teenage hobos — from the reasons they left home to what they experienced — all within the context of depression-era America.

. . Deadly New Bird Flu Virus in China Possibly Linked to Dead Pigs

“Once influenza adapts to pig cells, it is often possible for the virus to take human-transmissible form. That’s precisely what happened in 2009 with the H1N1 swine flu, which spread around the world in a massive, but thankfully not terribly virulent, pandemic.” “As far as any scientists know, the H7N9 forms of flu have never previously managed to infect human beings, or any mammals–it is a class of the virus found exclusively in birds. It is therefore extremely worrying to find two people killed and one barely surviving due to H7N9 infection.”

. . Non-Invasive Mind Control Lets Humans Wag a Rat’s Tail

Let me tell you a mind-bending story about mind control. This is a sci-fi idea that’s quickly becoming a reality as scientists better understand that grey matter between our ears, and this year has been one for breakthroughs. The latest comes from Boston where a Harvard Medical School research team has whipped up a way for a human brain to control a rat’s brain. This so-called brain-to-brain interface enables a human subject to move a rat’s tail without getting wires plugged into her head. That doesn’t mean it’s a simple process. The process starts with a strobe light, of all things. The strobe stimulates the human subject’s brain which then puts out brainwave signals that are picked up by an EEG. The EEG data is then translated into an ultrasonic frequency that’s blasted into the rat’s head. Equipment aside, it’s akin to a kind of telepathy, as it’s fairly non-invasive.

. . Is An Alien Message Embedded In Our Genetic Code?

The answer to whether or not we are alone in the universe could be right under our nose, or, more literally, inside every cell in our body. Could our genes have an intelligently designed “manufacturer’s stamp” inside them, written eons ago elsewhere in our galaxy? Such a “designer label” would be an indelible stamp of a master extraterrestrial civilization that preceded us by many millions or billions of years. As their ultimate legacy, they recast the Milky Way in their own biological image. Vladimir I. shCherbak of al-Farabi Kazakh National University of Kazakhstan, and Maxim A. Makukov of the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, hypothesize that an intelligent signal embedded in our genetic code would be a mathematical and semantic message that cannot be accounted for by Darwinian evolution. They call it “biological SETI.” What’s more, they argue that the scheme has much greater longevity and chance of detecting E.T. than a transient extraterrestrial radio transmission.

. . ‘Racist Cake’ Cutting Sparks Outrage

Swedish minister of culture is under fire for her participation in the event.

. . Instagram anti-police pic sharing tied to Montreal arrest

The image, which she photographed about a week ago after spotting it on a brick wall in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood, shows the police commander with a bullet hole in his forehead. His name is also written beside the image. The graffiti has since been removed. Lafrenière is the head of the service’s communications division and frequently appeared in the media during the student protests. Pawluck said she finds the whole situation a bit ridiculous. “I think the person behind the artwork should be in my place … all I did was take a photo,” she said.

. . Tot, 3, ate mother’s LSD sugar

The girl, from Coombabah on the Gold Coast, was rushed to hospital suffering hallucinations, anxiety and convulsions in November, 2011. She initially told her mother she was feeling “big and small” but later at the hospital police overheard the girl begging for help to stop the burning sensation and save her from dying. Court documents revealed the child was heard saying “Mummy, I’m hot. I’m on fire. Help me, mummy” and “I’m going to die”.

. . Videos show Orleans jail inmates with a loaded gun and taking drugs, and one roaming Bourbon Street

Inmates at the now-shuttered House of Detention in Orleans Parish didn’t have to forgo all of their vices, according to videotapes aired during a federal court hearing Tuesday over a proposed consent decree to govern jail reforms in the parish. One inmate is seen shooting up heroin, while others freely snort drugs behind bars and chat on cell phones. Another inmate releases bullets from a long-barreled handgun onto the ground inside the jail, behind bars. In another video, an Orleans Parish jail inmate went out on the town in the French Quarter, chatting up cops and cruising down Bourbon Street. How he got there remains uncertain.

. . Poll: Majority now say pot smoking should be legal

A majority of Americans now support legalizing marijuana use — the first time public support has crossed the 50 percent threshold, according to new polling from the Pew Research Center. Pew found that 52 percent of Americans said marijuana use should be legal, compared to just 45 percent who said it should be illegal. The level of support has jumped 11 percentage points in the last three years. Support is even higher among younger American adults, with nearly two-thirds of Millennials — those born since 1980 — supporting legalization. The findings cheered marijuana advocates, who said politicians need to follow voters’ lead. “Not too long ago, it was widely accepted in political circles that elected officials who wanted to get re-elected needed to act ‘tough’ on drugs and go out of their way to support the continued criminalization of marijuana. The opposite is quickly becoming true,” said Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority.

. . City Recruits Minority Lifeguards Even if They Can’t Swim

In a staggering case of affirmative action gone wild, officials in a major U.S. city are actually recruiting minorities to be lifeguards at public pools even if they’re not good swimmers. It’s all in the name of diversity. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s a real-life story out of Phoenix, the capitol of Arizona and the nation’s sixth-largest city. It has more than 1.4 million residents and, among its official mottos is “value and respect” of diversity. This means “more than gender and race,” according to the city’s official website. It also encompasses “uniqueness and individuality” and embracing differences. “We put this belief into action to provide effective services to our diverse community.”

. . Bears In Russia Are Addicted To Jet Fuel, Sniff It To Get High And Pass Out

The containers were left in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve and the nearby creatures picked on their strong smell of kerosene and gasoline. The animals love this smell so much that they have begun deeply inhaling the fumes for minutes at a time before digging shallow holes for themselves to lie in once they’ve achieved their desired state.

. . Cat Marnell: Glimpse from the $550,000 book proposal of drug-addict beauty editor

Excerpts from Cat Marnell’s $500,000 book deal have been revealed, and the tell-all memoir, How to Murder Your Life, seems to be an in-depth confessional of her life as a drug addict. The former xoJane.com beauty editor has been in and out of rehab for her addiction to prescription drugs, and was fired from the web site in September last year – telling the New York Post she’d rather ‘smoke angel dust with her friends’ than hold down a full-time job. Now, the 29-year-old, who was also a former beauty editor at Lucky magazine, has released the no holds barred re-cap of her drug-fueled and ‘glamorous’ life in New York.

File under Culture, Graffiti, SeMeN SPeRmS BLArRrG, SeMeN SPeRmS Links 'o Death

Conjured by o~ SeMeN SPeRmS ~o on April 9, 2013

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Non-Traditional Threats

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The Dark Side of Ayahuasca: Devotees talk about ayahuasca’s cathartic and life-changing power, but there is a dark side to the tourism boom as well. With money rolling in and lodges popping up across Peru’s sprawling Amazon, a new breed of shaman has emerged – and not all of them can be trusted with the powerful drug. Deaths like Nolan’s are uncommon, but reports of molestation, rape, and negligence at the hands of predatory and inept shamans are not. In the past few years alone, a young German woman was allegedly raped and beaten by two men who had administered ayahuasca to her, two French citizens died while staying at ayahuasca lodges, and stories persist about unwanted sexual advances and people losing their marbles after being given overly potent doses.; .; .
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food: What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive. I talked to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, from scientists to marketers to C.E.O.’s. Some were willing whistle-blowers, while others spoke reluctantly when presented with some of the thousands of pages of secret memos that I obtained from inside the food industry’s operations. What follows is a series of small case studies of a handful of characters whose work then, and perspective now, sheds light on how the foods are created and sold to people who, while not powerless, are extremely vulnerable to the intensity of these companies’ industrial formulations and selling campaigns.
. . Human Bones Found in Altar Bought on eBay: Police said they were pursuing a trespasser when they spotted bones atop the outdoor altar. Steer horns and other animal bones were visible, along with the human bones, candles and incense. “The religious aspect of the case is not our focus–it’s the bones,” said Pasadena Police Lt. Ed Calatayud. Human skulls indeed are listed for sale on eBay. On Monday, for example, one described as suitable for dental study was listed at $710. Jose said his sister practices Palo Mayombe, an offshoot of Santeria.
. . Md. OB/GYN commits suicide after allegations of recording patients: For about 25 years, he worked as an OB/GYN at a medical center affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Now, Johns Hopkins and Baltimore police say Dr. Nikita Levy illegally photographed his patients, and possibly others, without their knowledge. Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says, “One of the cameras that we can confirm is a pen camera. And there are other types that we don’t want to get into – again given the sensitive, sensitivity of the investigation. There were multiple cameras. I really can’t get into a number.”
. . Federal law: Every living American can be arrested right now for felony possession of drugs made in their own brains: You, like everyone else who is alive and breathing, can be arrested right now by the U.S. federal government, charged with felony possession, then proven “guilty” of that possession because you do possess a Schedule I substance in your own brain. What substance is that? Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, sometimes called the “spirit molecule” because of its ability to allow humans to transcend states of consciousness. U.S. federal code, defines Schedule I drugs as: “Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation, which contains any quantity of the following hallucinogenic substances:” (1) 3,4-methylenedioxy amphetamine. (2) 5-methoxy-3,4-methylenedioxy amphetamine. (3) 3,4,5-trimethoxy amphetamine. (4) Bufotenine. (5) Diethyltryptamine. (6) Dimethyltryptamine. (DMT) (7) 4-methyl-2,5-diamethoxyamphetamine. (8) Ibogaine. (9) Lysergic acid diethylamide. (10) Marihuana. (11) Mescaline. (12) Peyote. (13) N-ethyl-3-piperidyl…
. . The Miami Beach cop and the meth dealers: a tawdry tale: The Miami Beach patrolman yearned for the ultimate score, his friends told investigators: to engineer an epic drug deal, one that would make him rich and allow him to leave law enforcement behind. They called it the “Coke Dream.” That dream is dead now, as may be Navarro’s police career. He was suspended last September without pay after being charged with racketeering and fraud in connection with a scheme to use phony paperwork to acquire luxury cars. But that might be just the beginning of Navarro’s troubles. Although for now he hasn’t been charged with anything else, the investigation into his actions has produced reams of damning documents detailing bungled trips to the Bahamas to buy kilos of coke, the rip-off of a suspected marijuana grow house, drunken brawls, a botched attempt to collect a drug debt and — perhaps most strikingly — his penchant for lending his police car, uniforms and other gear to meth-dealer pals.
. . New ‘alcohol busting’ drug that sobers you up in seconds being developed: Party animals could soon be able to sober up in an instant just by popping a pill. Researchers have developed a cocktail of alcohol metabolizing enzymes that speedily reduces blood alcohol levels in drunk mice. The treatment, which has been compared to having ‘millions of liver cells inside your stomach,’ could have far-reaching implications for drinkers.
. . Q&A: What Really Goes on In Drug Rehabs: So there were 8 hours a day of group or watching videos or lectures— and that has been found to be among the least effective treatments for alcohol problems. I really didn’t expect that much seat time. I visited outpatient treatment as well and some of those have no individual [sessions] at all or it is ‘as needed’ and even less than in the residential treatment. One of the things I found myself thinking as I was sitting in those programs was, ‘Whoever came up with a model where you take addicts and they are sitting for three hours or more three times a week or longer in group based treatment, talking about the program?’ That’s an awfully long time to just sit on your butt. I would ask, ‘Is there any evidence that this is effective?’ and no one could answer where it came from.
. . Study finds ‘Internet addicts’ can suffer similar withdrawal symptoms to substance mis-users: Scientists at Swansea and Milan Universities have found that young people who use the Internet for excessively-long periods can suffer similar withdrawal symptoms to substance mis-users. In a study of Internet users, published online in the international journal PLOS ONE, Professor Phil Reed of Swansea University’s Psychology Department and Dr Lisa A Osborne of the University’s College of Medicine and Professor Roberto Truzoli and Michela Romano of the Università degli Studi in Milan, reported the results of the first study into the immediate negative psychological impacts of Internet use. Their research found that those who engage in long periods of use reported increased negative moods after they stopped surfing the net, possibly triggering them to re-engage in net use to remove these unpleasant feelings.
. . Chinese Plan to Kill Drug Dealer With Drone Highlights Military Advances: China considered using a drone strike in a mountainous region of Southeast Asia to kill a Myanmar drug lord wanted in the murders of 13 Chinese sailors, but decided instead to capture him alive, according to an influential state-run newspaper.
. . 87 Percent of Snapper , 84 Percent of Canned “White” Tuna is Mislabeled, Study Says: Trust salmon, maybe red snapper, but not canned tuna. These are the lessons a nervous seafood eater could glean from a new study by the marine-life advocacy group Oceana. A whopping 87 percent of red snapper and 84 percent of canned “white” tuna tested was found to be mislabeled, the study found.
. . British men arrested for possession of cannabis in Dubai could face death penalty after being ‘beaten up and given electric shocks by police’: He said: ‘I remember that the police put a towel on my face so I could not see. They kept telling me I was going to die. I was so scared. ‘Once I had been knocked to the ground, the police picked me up and put me on the bed. They pulled down my trousers, spread my legs and started to electrocute my testicles. It was unbelievably painful. I was so scared. ‘Then they took off the towel and I could see there was a gun pointed at my head. I started to believe I was going to die in that room.’ Further torture took place in the desert, it was claimed, where the men were initially taken.
. . Dangerous Heroin Houses Cropping Up In Quiet Tri-State Suburbs: you would have no way of knowing, but drug dealers have moved in and are running multimillion-dollar heroin operations in some of the area’s upscale neighborhoods. You, yourself, could be living right next to the new heroin house. “You never know what might be next door to you,” New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
. . UK TV Star Ben Fogle reveals how his wine was spiked with LSD: He said last night: “I was acting like a madman. I thought I was doomed. I thought I was going to die. “I picked my daughter up and she felt incredibly light, like a grain of rice. I suddenly had this compulsion to jump through a window. “My wife ran out and got my friends who had to restrain me.” He even began impersonating Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks routine. He was rushed to hospital and doctors said his drink was almost certainly spiked with LSD. Ben reported it to police.
. . The Science of Pornography Addiction (SFW) [Video]: It’s the number one topic for internet searches, but do we ever consider how pornography can have lasting neuroplastic effects? Discover the hard science behind the ‘porn epidemic’ – the internet’s drug of choice.
. . Chinese Cyberwarfare, Explained: On Monday, an American cybersecurity firm called Mandiant released a report accusing the Chinese government of systematically hacking into American computer networks and targeting state secrets, weapons programs, businesses, and even the nation’s gas pipelines. The New York Times vetted the story and concluded that a growing body of evidence “leaves little doubt” that these attacks are originating from a secret Chinese army base. Adam Segal, senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (an organization that, in the past, has also been targeted by hackers that appeared to be China-based), tells Mother Jones that this “raises the pressure on the increasing drum beat on the US to do something.” So just how freaked out do you need to be?
. . “No More Hesitation” – Homeland Security and Police Dept. Request Targets For Shooting Practice To Help Desensitize Law Enforcement To Shooting Average Americans…: The bill, called the Internet Posting Removal Act, is sponsored by Illinois state Sen. Ira Silverstein. It states that a “web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate.” The Democratic lawmaker’s bill, which does not ask for or clarify requirements from entities requesting the comment removal, would take effect 90 days after becoming law. Pseudonymous and anonymous comments have long been a critical part of U.S. public discourse, though, and the bill may be on shaky legal ground.
. . Illinois state senator pushes anti-anonymity bill: The bill, called the Internet Posting Removal Act, is sponsored by Illinois state Sen. Ira Silverstein. It states that a “web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate.” The Democratic lawmaker’s bill, which does not ask for or clarify requirements from entities requesting the comment removal, would take effect 90 days after becoming law. Pseudonymous and anonymous comments have long been a critical part of U.S. public discourse, though, and the bill may be on shaky legal ground.
. . California Bill Could Outlaw Driving for up to a Week After Smoking Pot: If you smoke marijuana in California, there’s a chance you may have to wait a week or more before you can drive legally. A bill introduced last week by state Senator Lou Correa, a Democrat from Anaheim, would make it illegal to get behind the wheel if your blood contains “any detectable amount” of cannabis—a drug which, unlike alcohol, can persist in the blood of its users for a week or more after the psychoactive effects have worn off. “This bill would effectively outlaw EVERY driver who has within recent hours or days used marijuana,” California NORML director Dale Gieringer told the East Bay Express. Strict traffic laws are fast becoming the new front of the war on drugs. Ten states already impose zero tolerance requirements on pot smokers who get behind the wheel. Another four, including Washington, where pot is now legal, set a blood limit for THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, at a level low enough to convict some drivers who aren’t actually stoned.
. . Forced ‘infidelity check’ not rape: Swedish court: A Swedish court has ruled that a 28-year-old man who ripped off his girlfriend’s trousers and underwear to perform an “infidelity check” is not guilty of rape or any other sex crimes. The man had previously been convicted of rape by a lower court after he tore off his girlfriend’s clothes and forced his fingers into her genitals on suspicion that she had been unfaithful, legal trade publication Dagens Juridik reported. The lower court had also convicted the man of several other charges related to repeated assaults and threats directed against girlfriend in a relationship that had been marked by jealousy and suspicion. But upon reviewing the case, the Svea Court of Appeal threw out the rape conviction, arguing that the man’s actions weren’t sexual in nature. Both the man and his girlfriend testified that the act was an attempt to ascertain whether or not the woman had engaged in sexual activity with another man.
. . Whole Foods’ Chicken Ad Featuring Obama Outrages Neighbors: A Whole Foods supermarket in New York has removed a sign that used a drawing of President Barack Obama to advertise a sale on chicken after complaints that the ad was offensive. The sign outside the supermarket on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, featuring an apparent caricature of Obama advertising an upcoming sale on whole organic chickens, outraged neighbor Woody Henderson. “There are certain things that have been used to put down black people — watermelon, fried chicken,” he said.
. . Woman undressed in front of Black History Month elementary school assembly: But that’s when things quickly went in the wrong direction “Suddenly she stepped to the front of the group threw off her coat and stripped from the waist up,” said Lesko. Within seconds staff at the academy rushed the stage and the district says they ushered Meaders to the side and shielded her from the students while they waited for police. Looking back – Lesko says she wasn’t acting out of the ordinary before deciding she needed to shed some layers of clothing. “No behavior that anyone encountered during the assembly and she spent the time talking to the principal having perfectly normal conversation.” She was charged with seven counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child and one count of Public Lewdness.
. . Leading Geneticist: Human Intelligence is Slowly Declining: Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber? Despite our advancements over the last tens or even hundreds of years, some ‘experts’ believe that humans are losing cognitive capabilities and becoming more emotionally unstable. One Stanford University researcher and geneticist, Dr. Gerald Crabtree, believes that our intellectual decline as a race has much to do with adverse genetic mutations. But human intelligence is suffering for other reasons as well.
. . Social media disaster for Burger King: Twitter feed says chain sold to McDonald’s: Even by the standards of social media fiascos, this one’s a doozy. On Monday, Burger King’s official Twitter feed announced the chain had been sold to its rival and began posting pro-McDonald’s messages and tales of employee drug use. The strange Twitter activity took place after hackers apparently took control of Burger King’s account and replaced its name and image with the McDonald’s logo. Here is a screenshot of what followers of @burgerking saw on Monday: