Category: Other

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?]

A VIDEO released last week shows how a routine traffic stop by local police for a dragging muffler last November turned into a nightmare for Melvin Jones III.

Jones, an African American and resident of Springfield, Mass., was pulled over on November 27–and ended up in the hospital with severe injuries to his face, after he was beaten by Jeffrey Asher, a white police officer with a history of brutality against African Americans.

The video, which was posted online, was only just released after being quietly held “in the hands of law enforcement and city officials for several weeks,” according to Masslive.com/The Republican newspaper.

[From Savage police brutality revealed | SocialistWorker.org]

Future humans won’t have to wait to travel to Pandora for the chance to mine unobtanium, because Neptune and Uranus may have diamond icebergs floating atop liquid diamond seas closer to home. The surprise finding comes from the first detailed measurements of the melting point of diamond, Discovery News reports.

[From Neptune and Uranus May Have Oceans of Liquid Diamond | Popular Science]

You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation.

[From A Letter to Rush Limbaugh :: rogerebert.com :: Opinion]

A US company has launched a new punctuation mark which is intended to express sarcasm in written form.

They claim the sarcasm mark, or SarcMark – an open circle with a dot in the centre – is needed for sarcasm to work on the web, or in print.

After being downloaded (for $1.99) it can be installed on computers and mobile phones – allowing people to use it in text messages or emails.

A spokesperson said that using the SarcMark means never again waste a good sarcastic line on someone who doesn’t get it and could make some websites make a lot more sense.

We think it’s a wonderful idea. <–See, we could have added one just there.
The spokesperson added: “With the spoken word, we use our tone, inflection and volume to question, exclaim and convey our feelings.

“The written word has question marks and exclamation points to document those thoughts, but sarcasm has nothing.

“In today’s world with increasing commentary, debate and rhetoric, what better time could there be than now, to ensure that no sarcastic message, comment or opinion is left behind.

“When you see the newest punctuation mark for sarcasm, you’ll know the writer of that sentence doesn’t literally mean what they’re writing; they’re being sarcastic.”

[From SarcMark: Sarcasm punctuation is a great idea – Odd News | newslite.tv]

Bolivia’s new constitution recognizes coca as a “cultural heritage, a natural and renewable resource of biodiversity in Bolivia and a factor of social cohesion.”

[From » Bolivian Government To Produce “Coca Colla” — It’s The Real Thing From Coca Leaves Foolocracy: Government by fools, silliness and unintelligent people]

The Mast Humidifier by Shin Okada is a stunning example of simple, functional design. The Mast is crafted out of Japanese cypress, known for its lemon-scented straight grain and resistance to rotting. Thin slices of cypress absorb water from the device’s base and diffuse moisture and a natural non-intrusive aroma into the air.

[From (Pic) Natural Humidifier Works Without Power – PSFK]

Are you angry about Wall Street’s reckless excesses? Are you disappointed with President Obama’s limp approach to reform? You can change this, acting individually and collectively. Withdraw your deposit and savings accounts from the large banks that brought the system to ruin and were subsequently rescued with billions in government bailouts. Put your money instead in smaller, safer banks or credit unions closer to home–the thousands of community institutions that do not harvest their profits from greed and recklessness.

[From Move Your Money]

Say you walk in to your favorite pizza joint, only to find president George H.W. Bush surrounded by Secret Service agents, waiting for his slice of cheese. What do you do? Naturally, you go back to your car, get your camera and start cussing him out about the his murderous, Zionist, New World Order. I mean, duh, it’s a no-brainer.

[From Dorsey Shaw: George Bush Heckled In A Pizza Restaurant (VIDEO) – Really – Air America]

Televangelist Pat Robertson said Wednesday that earthquake-ravaged Haiti has been “cursed” by a “pact to the devil.”

[From Pat Robertson: Haiti ‘Cursed’ By ‘Pact To The Devil’ (VIDEO)]

[From USA LIFE EXPECTANCY]

My fav. In the studio next week for a second round with Ariel Pink and Shits and Giggles. Looking forward to it.

What, are lemmings retarded? Yes, mass suicide sounds like a wonderful evolutionary trait to have built into your species to ensure its survival. Lemmings do no such thing, except occasionally when they’re drunk at bachelor parties. This great misconception was perpetrated by none other than Disney, who, in all their evil, decided their early nature film “White Wilderness” would be much more awesome if it showed a bunch of rodents flinging themselves off cliffs. They were correct, of course, but that doesn’t make this “phenomenon” any less B.S.

[From Paul’s Ponderings – The Ten Biggest Misconceptions We Learn In School]

Nature is Sexy

[From Nature is Sexy | Amusing Planet]

Too-big-to-fail banks are profiting from bailout dollars and government guarantees, and growing bigger. Tell us which community bank you use, and why.

Last week, over a pre-Christmas dinner, the two of us, along with political strategist Alexis McGill, filmmaker/author Eugene Jarecki, and Nick Penniman of the HuffPost Investigative Fund, began talking about the huge, growing chasm between the fortunes of Wall Street banks and Main Street banks, and started discussing what concrete steps individuals could take to help create a better financial system. Before long, the conversation turned practical, and with some help from friends in the world of bank analysis, a video and website were produced devoted to a simple idea: Move Your Money.

[From Arianna Huffington: Move Your Money: A New Year’s Resolution]

Microsoft has admitted that the code used to create its Chinese microblogging service, MSN Juku, was copied.

In a blog post that initially got rumors swirling, the Taiwan microblogging site Plurk, a startup,alleged that it was “ripped off” by Microsoft, whose own microblogging site Juku looked “eerily similar” to Plurk’s.

Microsoft suspended MSN Juku to investigate the plagiarism allegations, and subsequently released a statement announcing that the Chinese vendor Microsoft hired to create MSN Juku had indeed used stolen code to build the site.

[From Microsoft Admits Using STOLEN Code To Build MSN Juku, China Site]

Annise Parker has an unbeatable lead over Gene Locke in Houston’s hotly contested mayoral election, meaning she will become the city’s first openly gay mayor.

The Harris County elections Web site says 53.62 percent of voters who turned out Saturday chose Parker.

Her rival, former city attorney Gene Locke, was pitching to become the city’s second black mayor.

The election battle leading up to Saturday’s balloting was marked by fierce campaigning and anti-gay rhetoric. Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or issue of her sexual orientation. If she wins, Houston will become the largest U.S. city to ever have an openly gay mayor.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund put out a press release calling this “a watershed moment in American politics.” Full press release below:

[From Annise Parker: Openly Gay Mayor Elected In Houston, Texas]