IotD'd in December 2006. http://cellar.org/iotd.php?threadid=12625

We beat the LA Times, America's worst newspaper, by over 3 years.

Sorry about that, I just saw it and thought it was interesting.

Looks like Ziggy

Sunken Town Re-Emerges After 25 Years


(Feb. 26) -- Intentionally flooded in 1985 to make way for a reservoir, the former Venezuelan town of Potosi has suddenly made a haunting reappearance thanks to a historic drought brought on by the El Nino weather pattern.

S Korea child 'starves as parents raise virtual baby'
 

Very sad...

Brigadoon?

This being from the daily mail, I have my doubts. Can anyone confirm?

Read the whole thing, and count how many truly WRONG things you can find...

:lol2:


He must use a bloody CRANE then!

WTF?


There's more at the link. I don't CARE whether its true. :lol:

Gee, something else New Jersey has to be proud of.
Fucking hoo-ray.

They did a story/interview with her on the local news last night. I had to laugh at the woman that did the story. Back in the studio, talking about it with the anchor, she was tripping all over herself trying to be tactful and non-judgemental, on the air.

Something along the lines of "and yes, this big fat tub of disgusting goo (not that there's anything wrong with that) hopes to reach her goal of bigger and fatter tub of disgusting goo."

Someone shoot her, please.

Russian Firm to Bid on Air Force Tanker Program

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...s_Most_Popular

I doubt they will make the cut.

KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) - A burglar who spent about five hours on a store's computer after breaking into the business gave police all the clues they needed to track him down. Investigators said the 17-year-old logged into his MySpace account while at Bella Office Furniture and that made it easy for them to find him. He also spent time looking at pornography and trying to sell stolen items, all while using the business' computer.

He was arrested Tuesday and charged with first degree burglary. Kennewick Police said he helped officers recover a cell phone stolen in the break-in.

Band Instructor Arrested for Sexual Exploitation
 

More

Damn, he looks familiar. :haha:

Uh, I call BS. There are not "belly" men.

Some days you just run into many different and interesting stories.

There is the new humanoid skeleton found, then there was the giant sea roach and THEN there is the study on condoms. I never realized there was such science going into preventing condom failure. One way to reduce condom failure is so study men's anatomy.

Oh yes. This is the weird news of the day. People are actually getting paid to study this but what is weirder is men line up to take part in a study? Do they knock on a door and say,"excuse me, I'm part of a study...blah blah...May we take a measurement?"

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/0...by-state-city/

http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Penis-size

ha! I just came here to post this! Methinks the ladies do protest too much. I guess they wanted to bury him in his homeland and not pay the huge cost to fly a dead body.

Either that or they were going to say he died on the plane and try to sue the airline :P

I suspect your suggestion is more likely :)

It's obvious, surely? They were trying to get him on board as carrion baggage.

ouch. I think that joke probably broke at least three by-laws.

I guess the only thing one could ask is, "What the hell were they thinking?"

ouch ouch ouch

Heheheee. I read that as "broke at least three in-laws."

certainly made mine crack up. And now I'm taking her to the plane, but hoping to deliver her still breathing

Muslim woman strangled by her burkha in freak go-kart accident
Link

Isn't having fun illegal for Muslim women?
And Muslims in general?

I would assume so, as 'She was strangled in a second and parallel parked the vehicle' would be a little difficult.

I ain't gonna ride at Bob's farm no more
No, I aint gonna ride at Bob's farm no more
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray to Allah
I got a head wrapped in a burka
With a piece all flapping back
It's a shame the way it gets caught in the wheels
I ain't gonna ride at Bob's farm no more.

Allah's justice is swift and sure.

I'm not sorry about ur Isadora Duncan impression

No scarves, dahling.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8e-Uw6yhgH.../edna+mode.jpg

Britain Has Lost It's Mind
 

At least the ones running the prisons have.
This has been going on for five years in England and Scotland, even at young offenders' institutions. :rolleyes:

link

Well, that's nice. At least the Brits don't have to step over the bodies of all those o'ded junkies. I wonder if the program is limited to those who had an addiction before being arrested or if anyone can sign up to get a whole new addiction?

Methadone is so easy to get here that its ridiculous. I had an aquaitance a little while back who was taking massive doses of the stuff obtained quite legally thru her doctor. The catch was that she had never been a heroin addict - she just lied about it because she wanted to have a legal way of staying high on a pharma pure subtance.

IMO we might as well legalize heroin and forget about the methadone program. :eyebrow:

heroin's a damn sight safer.

I know methadone is supposed to be safer, but after spending some time with a woman on massive amounts of the stuff, I have my doubts. When she drove under the influence of methadone (which meant every time she got in the car), she was a terrifying driver. She finally totaled her car, but fortunately no was injured in the accident. I could go on... and on.

I have read studies which conclude that most of heroin's bad effects come from the fact that it is illegal. So you get inconsistent dosages and/or heroin that was cut with lethal substances. Clean needles are hard to obtain legally, too.

Legalize the stuff, the price goes down, you know what your getting every time, so there's less chance of o.d.s, make clean needles legal, and the government could put up an excise tax on it and use that money to set up treatment centers.

Just saying.

Cookbook Pulped Over 'Ground Black People'
 

Methadone isn't consideres to be 'safer' I don't think. If anything it seems to be well established that it is more dangerous unless taken in a highly controlled manner. It just doesn't give the 'high' that heroin does and is politically more palatable than giving pure heroin to addicts.

methadone is much easier to overdose on and far more deadly in the case of such an overdose. It's also more addictive ( iirc)

Do you think that the availability of opium in China during the 1830's was good for them, as a nation and/or as individuals?

No. Absolutely not. But the current war on drugs in the U.S. is like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Its just not happening. One of the most powerful drugs around - alcohol - is legal. Might as well legalize the rest and sell them from State operated stores. That would take much of the power away from drug lords and we could use taxes generated from sales to treat addicts instead of throwing them into over-crowed prisons, the way we do now. I realize my stand won't be shared by a lot of folks. Its just MHO.

I share your stand. It only makes sense.

It will never happen though, too many bible thumpers and do-gooders who just refuse to get it.

Too many politicians on the take.

Do you think the percentage of people who have a casual relationship with alcohol would correlate to opiates? I don't.
I'm all for alcohol being legal. Also cigarettes, caffeine and pot. I think opiates are a whole other can of worms. I don't think tax funded treatment centers would even begin to address the problems it would cause.
Just think about where the pharma co's would go with this idea... jfc...

What I think is that the number of addicts would be about the same if drugs are legalized. I know where I could go right now to score meth or opiates if I wanted. And this is a small town. The police have got to know, too. When they do bother to bust a dealer, a new one just steps in. It all seems futile to me.

And about 10% of people who use alcohol become alcoholics. That's a big toll in human suffering, yet our society accepts it.

As for weed, the laws against that are just pathetic. Definately should just legalize pot. Its one of the more benign drugs around. :cool:

.

More a case of 'incredible but true' rather than weird news, but I offer it here for your perusal:

Essentially, he is suing them for not spotting that he was/is stupid.

Daily Telegraph

Because the difference between that happening here and now and 1830's China is what?

So you do think there are more/less benign drugs, but think that alcohol and heroin are on equal footing here?

@ Sam: i totally agree. The Uk didn;t really have much of a drug 'problem' until it outlawed certain drugs. Several of our top police peeps have suggested that the biggest danger from heroin comes from its illegality and have further suggested that it would be better legalised.

We lose waaaaay more people to alcohol and tobacco related illness than we do all other drugs put together. The deaths that do occur from drugs are predominantly due to the impurity of streetsold substances. It's ridiculous that alcohol and cigarettes are legal and other 'drugs' aren't.

Dana do you have any stats on people who can't hold down a job because of their nicotine addiction?

Do you think candy bars should be taxed to fund diabetes treatment centers?

I know plenty of people who can't hold down jobs because of alchohol addiction.

I watched my father die a hideous, painful, lingering death due to smoking.

I have played with heroin a couple of times; Cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy and lsd rather more extensively; cannabis, tobacco and alcohol are regular staples.

The only drug i have never been able to step away from is tobacco.

I saw a programme a few years ago looking at a history of drug use and drug legislation in britain. One of the things that surprised me was the fact that lots of heroin addicts prior to its being made illegal were able to hold down jobs just fine.

Oh and just to step away from statistical arguments and whether or not one drug is more dangerous than another: the purpose of drugs legislation is supposedly to prevent drug use. It doesn't. it just makes drug use less safe and less controlled. Much as prohibition of alcohol didn;t stop people drinking, it just increased the likelihood people would be drinking dangerous moonshine and gave the Mob a new commodity to play with.

Also, from a purely ethical standpoint: what i do in the comfort of my own home is my business. What i put into my body is my business. Give me the warnings. But then let me make my choice. And the 'cost' argument when it comes to healthcare is totally off the wall when you look at the cost of alcohol and tobacco related illness. They outstrip anything that is spent, or would be spent on helping people with health problems related to other drugs. By far the biggest cost to society associated with drugs, is the cost of policing, trying, and imprisoning addicts and dealers.


[eta] it always amazes me that the country that purports to want small government that keeps out of your personal life, also wants that government to regulate what you put into your mouths and veins. It doesn't get more personal than that. It is not the state's job to decide what I eat, smoke or inject.

And now i am starting to feel really wound up. Nothing personal jinx, but this is one of those subjects that has me climbing the walls and throwing things about in anger :P So... I am off to bed before I burst a blood vessel.

Just as quite a few clinical alcoholics can and do hold down jobs. Some can't. They have a disease and need medical treatment. The questions are; are opiates more addictive/more destructive than alcohol, which is legal. Would it be more harmful if made legal and more available than it is now*.

I saw a program about China in the 1830's a while back. It made me rethink the whole everything should be legal and it'll work out great idea I was thinking before.
I'm still listening for a good argument though, I just don't think personal anecdote carries much weight. I've quit every drug I've tried/used. Doesn't mean I don't believe that addiction exists.

:right:

I have a friend who used heroin and smoked cigs. He held down a job, pissed away most of his money but managed to keep just above water. He finally cleaned up and said it was a walk in the park to kick Heroin in comparison to quitting cigarettes.

I think Malcolm Gladwell talks about why cigarettes are so much more addictive than H.

Wm. Burroughs has a chapter in Naked Lunch where he discusses why the war on drugs will always fail and he advocates for making it legal at the cost of probably losing a generation to people going wild until the novelty wears off and then people decide if it is something they are interested in after seeing the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving
hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry
fix,

I thought quitting cigs (twice) was a walk in the park compared to pot.

Not if what you do on in the comfort of your own home affects what you do on company time. What i f you are a doctor on call and you're high as shit when "the call" comes?

Comparing a psychological addiction to a physical one is difficult. Substances that are physically addicting can be easier to beat once the substance is gone. However the psychological addiction never leaves. Beating it depends moreso on a persons desire to quit and determination.

I didn't realize one could quit pot...

It's easier if you're pregnant, so that leaves you out. :p:

Seriously. My anger wasn't at you. But the topic we were discussing was making me angry. Which is why I tried to soften my post with a ':P'

This is one of those subjects which I find deeply upsetting and angering. Having seen people's lives wrecked not just by drugs, but by the way society deals (or fails to) with drugs and drug use. Sometimes I'm better off stepping away from the argument before I become completely incoherent with frustration and rage. Partly at the subject and partly at my inability to articulate why I am angry. These days I actively avoid documentaries about drugs and drug use because I just end up incandescent and upset; regardless of whether they're pro or anti legalisation. The entire subject is a red rag for me, much like the subject of asylum.

You put forward good points. I don't have the answers. But I 'know' that the current method of dealing with this problem is failing and harming those who do use drugs without in any way reducing drug use more generally. It is that system I am angry with, not you. But I find myself unable to be reasonable on the subject sometimes and, frankly, you deserve better than me ranting as an answer to your points *smiles*

Since I am in a more reasonable frame of mind, I'll post a piece from 2002:

This was from Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, speaking at a conference in Wales on how we deal with drugs and calling for a different approach:

I'd say that articulates my opinion somewhat.

I don't think heroin is 'safe'. I don;t think opiates are 'safe. But I also don't believe the current laws are in any way effective in stopping people using heroin. They simply make the social and personal cost of doing so much, much higher.

I second pretty much everything Dana has said (and said quite well, I thought).

In response to Classic:
This applies just as much to alcohol.
It is part of a doctor's duty, if they are on call, to stay capable of responding. So it is not connected to the "privacy of my own home" argument.

On that topic, this is a well-explored problem with the liberty principle. Suppose we consider the liberty principle as: you can do what you like to yourself, provided that you don't harm others.

The obvious problem is that no person is an island, and virtually everything everyone does affects others. Recall that woman who wanted to reach 1,000 lbs? Well, the *main* harm falls on her: she'll die early. But there will be many other effects: her child will receive less parenting from her than otherwise, she will be less economically productive and contribute less socially, and incur extra health care costs.

So the liberty principle needs to be reformulated. In social philosophy, that debate is still underway.
In the meantime (and as part of the debate) what we can do is look at lots of examples that we generally agree on.
People are allowed to be obese or very underweight; even deliberately so. People are allowed to go skydiving (1 in 4,000 chance of chute failure), fishing (kills about 50 Australians per year) or do boxing (causes brain damage). We're allowed to drink and smoke, binge on cheese and chocolate, and sit on our increasingly increasing posteriors and guzzle mass-media.

In all of these cases there is harm to the individual and some cost to society. Most are in some sense addictive.
Yet an individual is "allowed" to make decisions about doing these things.
Can anyone tell me a good reason why recreational drugs should be treated differently?