Members of the earth’s earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth.

[From Sumerians Look On In Confusion As God Creates World | The Onion - America's Finest News Source]

According to San Francisco General Hospital, 90-percent of all patients who’ve tested positive for cocaine use have also tested positive for the animal deworming drug levamisole.

U.S. health officials first warned of the drug in September and the CDC just reported that 69-percent of all cocaine seized in the U.S. is tainted with it. While cocaine is often cut with other drugs to both increase its weight and potency, officials don’t know why levamisole is being used.

The drug can cause agranulocytosis, which significantly reduces the number of white blood cells in the body causing fever, swollen glands, and painful sores around the mouth and anus. And women seem to be more affected by levamisole than men are.

“If 90 percent of cocaine users in San Francisco are positive for levamisole and are being exposed to this compound, then why aren’t 90 percent of them in the emergency room with these side effects?” asks Kara Lynch, associate chief of the chemistry and toxicology lab at S.F. General.

Oddly enough, San Francisco patients are experiencing a condition that others are not: their skin is turning black! Dr. Jonathan Graf, an assistant professor at S.F. General says their skin appears to be “sloughing” off. He feels that there are other cases of this happening but that people just aren’t going to see doctors about it.

It’s worth noting that the drug levamisole was found in DJ AM’s body along with cocaine, OxyContin, Hydrocodone, Vicodin, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Benadryl. The entertainer died of an overdose three months ago.

[From 90-Percent of SF Cocaine Cut with Animal Deworming Medication - SFist]

Voters in California will likely decide this November whether or not to legalize marijuana, after legalization activists handed in far more than the necessary number of petition signatures to get the measure onto the ballot.

Organizers of the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 filed some 700,000 petition signatures with county clerks around the state. The amount of signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot is about 433,000, reports the San Francisco Chronicle, so the measure is all but certain to be on the ballot in November.

If California voters approve, it will be the most comprehensive reform of marijuana laws ever undertaken in the United States. While some states, such as Oregon, have relatively lax penalties for possession, no state has attempted to regulate and tax the herb before.

The measure’s chances are good: A poll taken last April found that 56 percent of Californians want to see the herb legalized and taxed.

According to the L.A. Times, the measure would make it legal for anyone over 21 to own an ounce or less of pot, and to grow pot for personal use in a space no larger than 25 square feet. It would also give cities the right to license marijuana growers and sellers, and to collect taxes on the crop.

[From Pot legalization almost certainly headed for California ballot | Raw Story]

Carl Sagan on Pot
This account was written in 1969 for publication in “Marihuana Reconsidered (1971)”. Sagan was in his mid-thirties at that time. He continued to use cannabis for the rest of his life.

[From Carl Sagan on Pot]

It often seems like every week there is news of someone setting, or breaking, the Guinness World Record for some dubious achievement on which you never even believed people would have thought it fit to bestow commendation. (This week’s example being the man who broke the yo-yo world record, though in his defense that at least required some technical skill.)

And so, in honor of the Guinness World Records’ tireless support of novelty achievements, we’ve rounded up 13 of the strangest, and occasionally pointless, records (so many to choose from!) for your amusement. Think we’ve unfairly neglected something truly superfluous? Let us know.

[From The Strangest Guinness World Records (PHOTOS)]

How is being gang-raped by colleagues a legitimate “distinct risk” of working for a defense contractor?

I’m sure you’ve heard the story of Jamie Leigh Jones, the Halliburton/KBR employee who was drugged, gang-raped, and abused by her coworkers while in Iraq, and then locked in a shipping container and threatened by the company in an attempt to zip her mouth shut. KBR’s rape-permissive environment left the men so confident that they wouldn’t be punished, one didn’t even bother leaving and was still in Jones’ room when she awoke, mutilated and violated.

[From Halliburton/KBR Attacks Employee Gang-Raped On Their Watch | Women's Rights | Change.org]

Just because we’re eating a little lighter this month, doesn’t mean we don’t have the craving for a fat, tasty burger. This meatless version is flavorful enough, you don’t even miss your usual source of proteins. A quick and tasty, homemade option for sure!

[From Recipe: Beef-Free Bean Burger | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn]

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants with species that have long been used for fiber (hemp), for medicinal purposes, and as a recreational drug. Industrial hemp products are made from cannabis plants selected to produce an abundance of fiber and minimal levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, a psychoactive molecule that produces the “high” associated with marijuana. For more than half of the history of the United States cannabis was used primarily for industrial purposes, and at times was even required by law to be grown out of “strategic necessity”. Domestic production continued until after the Civil War, while marijuana remained a common ingredient in medicines up to the 20th century. Following immigration caused by the Mexican Revolution, recreational use of marijuana became widespread, resulting in political pressure to enact a federal ban of cannabis. While the attitude of the general public towards marijuana has changed throughout the history of the nation, today cannabis remains classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and possession is punishable by up to one year in jail and a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first conviction.

Prior to prohibition, U.S. politicians known for growing cannabis include some of the nation’s Founding Fathers and Presidents. Politicians that have admitted to recreational use following prohibition include mayors, Governors, members of the House of Representatives, Senators, and Presidents.

[From List of United States politicians who admit to cannabis use - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

The Republicans’ shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US.

Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

[From BBC News - Why do people often vote against their own interests?]