117151
submission
maekelae writes:
" A baffling device which resembles a satellite or Unidentified Flying Object (U.F.O) has landed in a rural area close to Buulo-Burde town, 220km north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu, eyewitnesses told Shabelle radio on Monday. " Read more at http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/8920
117001
submission
ZOO writes:
Chuang Chuang the panda has been spending his days in front of a big screen television watching panda porn.
Authorities at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand hope the images will encourage him to mate with his partner, Lin Hui, and serve as an instructional lesson in how to do it right.
114869
submission
GBC writes:
The Lancet [lancet.com — free registration required] has published an article about a rational system for drug classification in the UK.
The article claims that "In the UK, the total burden of drug misuse, in terms of health, social, and crime-related costs, has been estimated to be between £10 billion and £16 billion per year."
It proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm they do, rather than "A", "B", and "C" divisions in the UK Misuse of Drugs Act. The three main factors that determine the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse are: physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug; tendency of the drug to induce dependence and addiction; and effect of drug use on families, communities, and society. Each of these factors is further broken down into three sections.
Based on assessments from independent experts and specialist addiction psychiatrists, drugs were then ranked according to these nine parameters. Alcohol and tobacco are considered alongside other drugs in the rankings.
Of the twenty substances examined, alcohol was ranked fifth most harmful (behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methodone) and tobacco came in ninth (behind ketamine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine).
4-MTA, LSD and Ecstasy (all considered "Class A" drugs under the Act) all ranked lower than alcohol and tobacco. From the article: "Overall there was a surprisingly poor correlation between drugs' class according to the Misuse of Drugs Act and harm score."
As someone who supports an end to the "War on Drugs", it would be nice if this article leads to a more rational examination of drug policy both here in the UK and abroad; I am not holding my breath though.
101988
submission
Lauderdalian writes:
Controversy is brewing on the Greek island of Karpathos, where the mayor is suing a critic over satirical poems and critical statements posted to a US web server. What's more, he's suing the man and his wife for €1 million. From the article: "This raises obvious questions of jurisdiction: regardless of what Greek law says, the comments appear to be protected under American free speech laws. Did posting them to an American server mean that US law should cover them, or does the fact that some were posted from Karpathos give the Greek legal system jurisdiction over them? And if Felix did not even write the majority of the comments in question, can he be held responsible for hosting them?" The Pirate Bay tried to buy Sealand for the same reason this guy is hosting his server in Florida, but the days of avoiding problems at home by renting web space overseas may be coming to an end.
101734
submission
ryrw writes:
I'm planning to spend a year backpacking around the world and the hardest question I have to answer is: What technology do I take with me? Aside from the obvious (digital camera, ipod, et. al.) what technological devices would you you take? Specifically, I wonder if I should bring my nice and shiny MacBook Pro. I can think of lots of uses for it (offloading pix, updating blog, email, etc.), but I'm worried it will be lost or stolen along the way. Does anyone have experience with travel while toting technology?
95654
story
MattSparkes writes
"Many images you see in a magazine are Photoshopped, and it's getting less and less likely that what you see at the cinema is any more genuine. In the film 'Blood Diamond', tears were added to Jennifer Connolly's face after a scene was shot. According to The Times, digital effects artists can even change actors' expressions. 'Opening or closing eyes; making a limp more convincing; removing breathing signs; eradicating blinking eyelids from a lingering gaze; or splicing together different takes of an unsuccessful love scene to produce one in which both parties look like they are enjoying themselves.' The article mentions the moral qualms digital effects people have over performing these manipulations, and the steps actors are taking to protect their digital assets."
95614
story
passthecrackpipe writes
"The Australian Government is planning on making the incandescent light bulb a thing of the past. In three years time, standard light bulbs will no longer be available for sale in the shops in Australia (expect a roaring grey market) and everybody will be forced to switch to more energy efficient Fluorescent bulbs. In this move to try and curb emissions, the incandescent bulb — which converts the majority of used energy to heat rather then light — will be phased out. Environmental groups have given this plan a lukewarm reception. They feel Australia should sign on to the Kyoto protocol first. A similar plan was created together with Phillips, one of the worlds largest lighting manufacturers."
