Dutch ‘drug tourism’ set to go up in smoke
A long-smoldering debate over the Netherlands’ tolerance toward public marijuana use is heating up, with the Dutch government announcing last week that it will start banning tourists from pot-selling “coffee shops” by the end of the year.
“In order to tackle the nuisance and criminality associated with coffee shops and drug trafficking, the open-door policy of coffee shops will end,” the Dutch health and justice ministers wrote in a letter to the country’s parliament on Friday.
While marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, it has been sold for decades in designated cafés and police make no arrests for possession of small amounts.
RELATED: Will Mendocino County become the Napa Valley of pot?
Under the new anti-drug rules, cannabis shops will be restricted to Dutch residents who sign up for a one-year membership, or “dope pass,” London’s Daily Mail reports.
The policy will roll out in the southern provinces of Limburg, Noord Brabant and Zeeland by the end of the year and the rest of the country next year, Reuters adds.
Amsterdam, home to about 220 coffee shops, is already in the process of closing some in its red light district. And some Dutch border towns including Maastricht and Terneuzen have already restricted the sale of marijuana to foreigners.
The new policy must still be approved by the country’s supreme court, and “there will be many challenges in bringing the so-called pass system from a concept into a reality,” says Jon Foster, an American who has owned Amsterdam’s popular Grey Area coffee house since 1994.
But “drug tourism,” which by some estimates draws up to 40% of Amsterdam’s 16 million annual visitors, is already taking a hit.
“For the moment it’s just bad for business, because everybody seems to think the law is already in effect as of this weekend,” says Foster.
Most pot smokers “stay for three to ten days, eat at restaurants, go to museums and entertainment, and buy a little cannabis each day,” he adds. ” Many coffee shops will probably close because of the diminished tourism, but the effect will be much greater as the results of the ban trickle down to the hotel, restaurant, entertainment, and overall tourist industry.”
Fears Grow Over Greece Bank Run as Country Seeks Bail-out
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 09:46
‘Greece’s banks are being hammered by a run on their reserves, leaving the country’s main lenders increasingly reliant on the European Central Bank for funding.
The latest figures from the Bank of Greece paint a grim picture, with foreign lenders and individuals withdrawing funds from Greek banks at an alarming rate. Simon Ward, chief economist at fund manager Henderson, likened the situation to Britain’s Northern Rock, which was eventually nationalised to save it from collapse.’
Read more: Fears Grow Over Greece Bank Run as Country Seeks Bail-out
Goldman Sachs Traded $1.3 Billion in Libyan Funds
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 09:11
‘Goldman Sachs invested more than $1.3 billion (786.1 million pounds) from Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund in currency bets and other trades in 2008 and the investment lost more than 98 percent of its value, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing internal Goldman documents.
When the fund, controlled by Col. Muammar Gaddafi, made huge losses Goldman offered Libya the chance to become one of its biggest shareholders, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.’
Read more: Goldman Sachs Traded $1.3 Billion in Libyan Funds
EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Plan to Seize Control of All Water
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 09:20
‘A full scale attack by EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to take control of all water from any source whatsoever is under way. What these agencies are attempting is an end run around water and land rights. These agencies are constructing regulations and fictional jurisdictional control.
We cannot depend on our courts or the federal government to reign in and control these agencies as they are both privately owned corporations that masquerade as public service agencies. While congress may express their concerns about the police state actions being constructed, they have no authority or power to dictate what these agencies do under private contract law.’
Read more: EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Plan to Seize Control of All Water
Online craze over looming “comet doomsday”
A misreported April Fool’s joke sparked panic on the internet over a comet discovered by a Russian astronomer. Conspiracy theorists believe that the Elenin comet is an alien spaceship and demand that the scientist discloses data hushed up by NASA.
The web uproar focuses on the comet C/2010 X1, which was first discovered on December 10, 2010. Alien enthusiasts believe that it has a cluster of alien-made objects, most likely spacecraft, hiding in its tail. They fear that when the comet gets closer to Earth, the aliens will show themselves, and the first contact is likely to be a disaster. They expect doomsday on September 10.
The panic-sparking claims originate from Argentinean astronomer Sergio Toscano, whose report on the alien theory was cited by a number of Latin American media outlets. The scientist said the data came from the Chinese national space agency.
But the true origin of the story comes from a British newspaper, which published it as an April Fool’s joke. The astronomer may have been misguided by the fact that the Latin American counterpart for April Fool’s Day, Feast of the Holy Innocents, is celebrated on December 28.
Nevertheless, the internet rumor mill was quick to spread the story, which mutated into an alien invasion scare. Some even matched the comet with the infamous Nibiru planet.
“Non-existent” scientist’s misadventure
And the person arguably affected most by the scare is the Russian scientist who discovered the comet in the first place. Leonid Elenin from the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics in Moscow became the first target for the enquiries, demands and threats of all the worried souls.
“It was somewhat funny at first, and I even surfed the internet to see what they say, but now I’m scared to do it. I’m really irritated. I’m really disappointed that this nonsense appeared in the Russian segment of the web,” the astronomer told RIA Novosti news agency.
According to Elenin, conspiracy theorists go as far as claiming that he is a front firm for NASA or other government agencies, who try to put a lid on the information about the alleged upcoming disaster.
“I’ve seen discussions about what Leonid Elenin actually means. ‘Ele’ is ‘extinction level event’ and ‘nin’ is Nibiru in November,” the scientist said.
The astronomer did his best to explain that there is nothing special about the comet he detected, apart from the fact that it was the first comet discovered by a Russian astronomer in two decades.
He believes the hysteria has been fueled by the photo of the comet made by a tracking camera, which resulted in two nearby stars leaving stretched markings.
“There’s the comet flying and there are tracks from the two stars. I read an article claiming those two ‘cylinders’ are the spacecraft,” Elenin explained.
The Elenin comet is to flyby Earth at an estimated distance of 35,000,000 kilometers in mid-October. You would need good binoculars or a telescope to see it harmlessly pass and go away.
GMO Created Foods May Be Used as a Biological Weapon
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 08:27
‘Genetically modified organisms (GMO) which are used to create new food seeds and crops, are being tied to use as a potential biological weapon in creating infertility in places around the world.
A report published on May 28th tied together that the international organization Codex, which is seeking to regulate every food, mineral, and herb in the world used for consumption, does not consider GMO created products as food, and thus they are being placed in a separate sphere of attributes that can be used for alternative functions. Including birth control and creating infertility in a nation or population.’
Read more: GMO Created Foods May Be Used as a Biological Weapon
E. coli Cucumber Scare: Spain Angry at German Claims
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 07:48
‘Spain has expressed anger at links being made between Spanish cucumbers and a deadly E. coli outbreak. The country’s agriculture minister said Germany pointed to Spanish cucumbers “without having reliable data”.
Meanwhile, German officials have voiced doubts about whether the Spanish cucumbers they are investigating carried the deadly E. coli strain. The outbreak has led to 16 deaths – 15 in Germany and a woman who died in Sweden after travelling to Germany.’
Read more: E. coli Cucumber Scare: Spain Angry at German Claims
Land around Fukushima Now Radioactive Dead Zone; Resembles Target Struck by Atomic Bomb
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 07:55
‘It is nothing short of astonishing that the nuclear catastrophe we’ve all been told was “no big deal” has now escalated into the worst nuclear disaster in the history of human civilization. It’s so bad now that soil samples taken from outside the 12-mile exclusion zone (the zone considered safe enough by the Japanese government for schoolchildren to attend school there) are higher than the 1.48 million becquerels a square meter limit that triggered evacuations outside Chernobyl in 1986.
In other words, the radiation level of the soil 12 miles from Fukushima is now higher than the levels considered too dangerous to live in near Chernobyl. This is all coming out in a new research report authored by Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan. That same report also reveals that radiation from Fukushima has spread over 230 square miles.’
Read more: Land around Fukushima Now Radioactive Dead Zone; Resembles Target Struck by Atomic Bomb
Pentagon Declares War On Cyber Enemies
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 08:07
‘The Pentagon has announced that computer intrusions from abroad are to be considered acts of war against the United States and will be answered with conventional military force.
“If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” a military official told The Wall Street Journal. In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S., according to the Journal.
The Pentagon document is 30 pages in its classified version and 12 pages in the unclassified one. It concludes that the Laws of Armed Conflict are applicable in cyberspace as in traditional warfare.’
NATO Airstrike Kills 11 Civilians in Libya
Tuesday, 31 May 2011 06:11
‘NATO warplanes have dropped bombs on a key Libyan town, killing at least eleven civilians and wounding several others, Libyan sources say.
Libya’s state television said on Monday that the airstrike targeted Zlitan, west of the city of Misratah. NATO has conducted hundreds of sorties over Libya since it assumed control of a military campaign to impose a no-fly zone over the country and save civilian lives in late March.’
Believe nothing 