Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
‘Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.
Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half.’
Read more: Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
US Ship Fired Without Warning, Surviving Indian Fishermen Say
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
‘The Indian fishermen who survived a deadly attack by a US Navy ship in the Persian Gulf say they received no warnings before a .50-caliber gun opened fire on their boat.
The incident occurred on Monday off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. “We had no warning at all from the ship, we were speeding up to try and go around them and then suddenly we got fired at,” 28-year-old Muthu Muniraj told Reuters from a hospital in Dubai on Tuesday.’
Read more: US Ship Fired Without Warning, Surviving Indian Fishermen Say
How Antibiotics Destroy Your Immune System
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
‘Your immune system is constantly on a seek-and-destroy mission status – on the lookout for foreign invaders, naturally occurring cell defects and mutant cells. The immune system has a vast capacity to remember bad guys and deploy tactics that worked in the past to annihilate the enemy. Some of the fastest growing cells in the human body are immune cells.
Over 80 percent of the body’s immunity is built in the intestinal tract by the friendly bacteria balance that resides there. The intestinal flora starts building in an infant while in the womb but doesn’t really take off until after eight days of age. Starting with the colostrum milk, the gut begins to populate with more bacteria while the infant’s immune system starts an inventory of good and bad cells in the body. This inventory is a life-long process and the immune system never forgets an invader.’
FDA Caught Spying on E-mails of its Own Scientists in Huge Surveillance Operation
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
‘If you need any measure of just how statist and paranoid our Leviathan government has become, look no further than recent revelations that one of its own agencies has been caught spying on some of its own employees, just because they had differences of opinion regarding its operation.
The New York Times said previously undisclosed documents revealed recently indicate the Food and Drug Administration had conducted a “wide-ranging surveillance operation” against a group of disgruntled FDA scientists who had privately sent thousands of emails to Congress, attorneys, labor officials, journalists and, on occasion, even President Obama.’
Read more: FDA Caught Spying on E-mails of its Own Scientists in Huge Surveillance Operation
More Than 100,000 Demand End to Nuclear Power in Japan
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
‘Demonstrator’s crowded into Yoyogi Park on Monday, Japan’s national day and the hottest day of the year, in the largest anti-nuclear rally since the Fukushima disaster 16 months ago.
Noda has come under increasing pressure amid growing public distrust of nuclear power after last year’s Fukushima disaster raised concerns about the safety of atomic power. Last month, Noda ordered the reactivation of the reactors three and four at Oi power plant in western Japan after securing support from the mayor of Oi and the governor of Fukui prefecture, where Oi is located.’
Read more: More Than 100,000 Demand End to Nuclear Power in Japan
US Navy ship fires on boat in Gulf
July 16, 2012
A US ship has fired on a boat off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), US officials say.
The USNS Rappahannock fired on a vessel after it ignored warnings and rapidly approached the ship, the US Navy says.
There is no confirmation of casualties although a UAE official said an Indian fisherman had been killed and three more wounded.
The US has increased its presence in the Gulf after Iran renewed threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement, the US Navy in Bahrain said that a security team on board the refuelling ship fired on a small motor boat after it disregarded warnings and “rapidly approached” the US ship off the coast of Jebel Ali, near Dubai, UAE.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18862480
Hubble sees the needle galaxy, edge-on and up close
Image credit: ESA/NASA
This image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals an exquisitely detailed view of part of the disc of the spiral galaxy NGC 4565. This bright galaxy is one of the most famous examples of an edge-on spiral galaxy, oriented perpendicularly to our line of sight so that we see right into its luminous disc. NGC 4565 has been nicknamed the Needle Galaxy because, when seen in full, it appears as a very narrow streak of light on the sky.
The edgewise view into the Needle Galaxy shown here looks very similar to the view we have from our Solar System into the core of the Milky Way. In both cases ribbons of dust block some of the light coming from the galactic disc. To the lower right, the dust stands in even starker contrast against the copious yellow light from the star-filled central regions. NGC 4565’s core is off camera to the lower right.
Read more : http://phys.org/news/2012-07-hubble-needle-galaxy-edge-on.html
Facebook Banking on a Cashless Society
Monday, 16 July 2012
‘As if the current methods of evaporating privacy and pushing a world toward the Cashless Society were not moving fast enough, Facebook is now developing and beta testing an app that would allow users to “pay their utility bills, balance their checkbooks, and transfer money at the same time they upload vacation photos to the site for friends to see.”
Essentially, the new application which is currently in beta phase with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, allows for interactions regarding banking and financial services over alleged secure and private connections.’
Soldiers, put down your guns
Monday, 16 July 2012 08:27
Par:AnoIA: Anonymous Launches WikiLeaks-esque Site for Data Dumps
By Quinn Norton July 13, 2012
Frustrated by the lack of impact from Anonymous’ otherwise famous hacks and data dumps, and the slow pace of material coming out of WikiLeaks, participants in the Anonymous collective have launched a WikiLeaks-like site called Par:AnoIA (Potentially Alarming Research: Anonymous Intelligence Agency).
Paranoia, which debuted in March, is a new publishing platform built by Anonymous to host Anonymous data leaks that’s trying to find a solution to a problem that plagues news sites, government transparency advocates, and large-website owners everywhere: how to organize more data than any human could possibly read.
The site marks a departure from the groups’ previous modus operandi, where it would publicly drop the documents, make them available in a torrent — usually as a zip file, and then move on. By contrast, the goal of Paranoia is to curate and present content to a hopefully interested public.
Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/paranoia-anonymous/
Believe nothing 