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I've written about this on the blog before, but it came up again recently and I wanted to re-post with more information. The topic is cocaine addiction versus other drug addictions. It is widely known that cocaine is highly addictive, more so than many other drugs, and crack cocaine is even worse. What's interesting is a particular study that involved rats in a laboratory. The rats were trained to self-administer a drug, and they were allowed to do so under unlimited-access conditions, meaning they could get a drug hit at any point in time, 24 hours a day. They never ran out of money, they never had to go to work, etc. They had none of the responsibilities or practical obstacles that people face in life. Laboratory rats were given unlimited access to intravenous cocaine hydrochloride or heroin hydrochloride. Animals self-administering cocaine quickly developed a pattern of episodic drug intake, with periods of excessive cocaine self-administration alternating with brief periods of abstinence. So that's kind of interesting, the rats sort of went nuts with cocaine, only taking brief breaks. But with heroin, their usage patterns were pretty constant, only gradually increasing over a period of weeks. But here's where it gets really interesting: The general health of the animals became markedly different: those self-administering heroin maintained grooming behavior, pretesting body weight, and a good state of general health; rats self-administering cocaine tended to cease grooming behavior, lose up to 47% of their pretesting body weight, and to show a pronounced deterioration in general health. Read the full results here: http://wings.buffalo.edu/aru/ARUreport06.htm |
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After a 5-4 vote in Kelo v. City of New London, the United States Supreme Court ruled that local governments may now seize peoples' homes and businesses, whether the people consent or not, so that their land can be used for private economic development. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, one of the 4 justices who sided with citizens and home owners (and thus, ruled against the rights of governments, big business and wealthy land developers), wrote, "Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded. This is really, really bad for homeowners and small-business owners in the United States, and further empowers the wealthy class, who arguably have too much power already. So be prepared to say goodbye to your home, and welcome more Target and Home Depot stores instead. That's what you wanted, right? To have your home knocked down in exchange for another huge retail store... isn't that the American Dream? This case was brought by 15 homeowners of a working-class neighborhood in New London, Connecticut fighting to keep private property that they have owned for many years (one of them is an 80+ year old woman who has lived in the same house for her entire life). The city government of New London wanted to take their homes, destroy the buildings, and use the land to build a hotel, health club and office building. According to the Fifth Amendment, governments are allowed to take private property if the land is for "public use", but that used to mean something like laying new railway trarcks, building a new school or public park, not building a privately owned hotel or health club, or another Home Depot. Before this ruling, any big business has been able to (and often does) use their financial and political power to influence city and state governments to act in the interests of that business, not in the interests of the citizens or tax payers. This kind of thing already happens all the time, all across the country. City and state governments are constantly falling over themselves to offer incentives and special deals to big companies if they would please, please, please just open a huge office building or factory in their city. The eternal claim is that big companies will bring jobs and boost the local economy. But who funds these big business deals? The taxpayers. And now, citizens won't just watch the government hand over their tax dollars, now they'll watch the government kick them off of their own property, then turn around and use their own tax dollars to fund (both directly and indirectly, through perks and incentives) the very businesses that displaced them. Case in point: Dell Computer is currently being sued for using fear tactics and unfair bargaining to win $240,000,000 (!) in tax credits from North Carolina, and another $37,000,000 in local subsidies from the city of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County (both in North Carolina). The bottom line is that the local and state governments in North Carolina are falling over themselves to lure Dell to build a new manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem. The governments are going to throw nearly 300 MILLION DOLLARS at Dell, and run through a laundry list of city improvements, new roads, and other local changes (the local government will pick up the tab on that, but it shouldn't be more than 10 or 15 million...). Read about it yourself here: "North Carolina residents sue Dell to keep their $270m", or go here for the full details of the Dell/North Carolina agreement, complete with full terms and conditions. After this ruling, the local government can now seize and destroy the private homes owned by local citizens, so that instead of Dell showing up and taking more than a quarter of a BILLION dollars from your local and state economies, they might take your house, too (and your neighbor's), so they can build a factory that will allow them to make even more money than they already have. And don't go looking to the government or the courts for assistance -- it's the government and courts that made things the way they are, so you can bet your ass they're not gonna do a damn thing to help you. That's just super, isn't it? Here's a good article providing background information for Kelo v. City of New London: "House not for sale", an article at The New York Times: "Justices Uphold Taking Property for Development", an article at CNN: "High court OKs personal property seizures", and another at CNN Money: "Eminent domain: A big-box bonanza?". |
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I've been following this for a while, and I'm glad to see that Austin skaters will soon enjoy a 12,000 sqft. public skatepark, free for all to use. The skatepark is being built in Mabel Davis park (click here for a map). Here's a nice write-up in the Daily Texan: City will build skatepark - The Daily Texan - Top Stories, highlights below. After six years of pushing for a city skatepark, the skateboarding community will finally have their haven. The City Council approved the construction of Austin's first public skatepark at the May 19 council meeting. Construction begins this month and should be completed by the end of the summer. |
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While I did not invent it (a friend's child did while mispronouncing "pink flamingo"), I proudly take credit for submitting it to the Urban Dictionary to preserve and spread its usage throughout the world. And when I say "it", I mean "flanking the mango". |
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Netcraft: Lax Security Cited in Massive Credit Card Data Theft Inadequate security at credit card processor CardSystems Solutions Inc. is being blamed for a break-in that has exposed more than 40 million credit card accounts to potential theft. The company says the system compromise was discovered May 22, after a MasterCard inquiry into a wave of fradulent transactions. Oh joy, a credit card processing company had an insecure Windows machine running Microsoft's IIS webserver, it got owned by some haxor who stole credit card data for 40+ million accounts that belong to regular ol' people who didn't do anything wrong. That's just effing super. |
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This guy bought a copy of the latest Star Wars movie from a street vendor somewhere in China, and posted the hilarious subtitles. episode iii, the backstroke of the west includes screenshots of several excellent mistranslations, including my favorite, "I should really feeds you all dog". |
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An interesting read with two scientists about what they feel are glaring holes in the science of Star Wars, full article here: The "Star Wars" Worlds: More Science Than Fiction?. Everyone knows the Star Wars galaxy is located "far, far away." But how realistic are the alien worlds described in the science fiction saga? |
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In a flurry earlier tonight, I coined a new term tonight: nipple chip. Definition: to eat ravenously Example: Man, I was so hungry at lunch that I nipple chipped half a pizza! Origin: This hot new phrase came to be when I intended to write, "I wolfed down a bunch of food", while chatting over IM with my wife. But when I thought "wolfed", my brain connected that with "wolf" (pretty straightforward), which pointed to the scene in Life of Brian when the guys were at the colosseum discussing whether Stan could have babies (not so straightforward). Specifically, there was a vendor walking around in the background selling wolf nipple chips, so my brain switched "wolf" with "nipple chips", and that's what came out. And there you have it, the origin of a beautiful new phrase. Random comment: I find it intriguing how this whole process took about 0.2 seconds from start to finish in my brain, yet it takes a ton of explanation to describe to somebody else. |
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An Israeli inventor has created an apparatus that allows a diver to breath underwater without the use of a bulky air tank strapped to their back. It mimics the way fish breath underwater, which will allow a diver to remain below the surface for longer periods of time and eliminate the need to refill and carry huge scuba tanks. Full article here "Like a fish - Revolutionary Underwater Breathing System". Snippets here: An Israeli Inventor has developed a breathing apparatus that will allow breathing underwater without the assistance of oxygen tanks. This new invention will use the relatively small amounts of air that already exist in water to supply oxygen to both scuba divers and submarines. The invention has already captured the interest of most major diving manufacturers as well as the Israeli Navy. |
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A friend of mine is getting a new business off the ground, and I wanted to post it for others to see. It's a neat idea that others might really enjoy, the kind of thing that everyone wants to do but never has the time to follow through. Her business is called Timeless Memory Productions, and it specializes in recording the life stories of loved ones and publishing them in a leather-bound book. A lot of people who are interested in genealogy have to work hard to reconstruct the stories of the past through the few clues they have. Timeless Memory Productions is different in the sense that they construct a biography of the person while they’re still alive, and in their own words. Books typically include about one hundred pages of stories and memories with restored photographs spread throughout. At the end of each book, there is a special tribute section where friends and family can write in fond memories of the person. Finally, there’s a photograph gallery containing an additional fifty photos, digitally restored. If you are interested or if you know of someone who would be interested in something like this, you can check out the website at www.timelessmemoryproductions.com. |
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An awesome definition of automatic transmission from the urban dictionary: You can spot cars with automatic transmissions as you drive on any road. The drivers step on the brakes for random cosmic events. If they see a fuzz, they step on the brakes. If they see a car pull up to a side street, they step on the brakes. If they come to an intersection, they step on the brakes. If they see a crow, they step on the brakes. |
