Swiss approve pioneering legal heroin program - Associated Press via Yahoo! News (30 Nov 2008)Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved Sunday a move to make permanent the country's pioneering program to give addicts government-authorized heroin.At the same time, voters rejected a proposal to decriminalize marijuana.
Sixty-eight percent of the 2,264,968 voters casting ballots approved making the heroin program permanent. It has been credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts since it began in 1994.
Some 63.2 percent of voters voted against the marijuana initiative.
[...]
Olivier Borer, 35, a musician from the northern town of Solothurn, said he welcomed the outcome in part because state action was required to help heroin addicts, but he said legalizing marijuana was a bad idea."I think it's very important to help these people, but not to facilitate the using of drugs," Borer said. "You can just see in the Netherlands how it's going. People just go there to smoke."
30 November 2008
Harm reduction
You know, you really can't blame them for not wanting to attract the drug tourists:
Declare yourself
Malin and Goetz, a Manhattan "apothecary and lab" that produces customized cosmetics, invites you (in their front window display) to choose your skin type:
The complete list of choices: (obscured somewhat by glare and shadow at the top)
The complete list of choices: (obscured somewhat by glare and shadow at the top)
- democrat
- republican
- independent
- royalist
- straight
- gay
- confused
- maverick
- protagonist
- old
- young
- bon vivant
- curmudgeon
- dog lover
- cat lover
- moose lover
- urban
- sub-urban
- rural
- joe plumber
- joseph ex-banker
- none of the above
- all of the above
Random access memory lane
I've really been enjoying the new Gmail Themes feature.
Here's a theme called Terminal that looks like a blast from the past.
I can remember some BBSes that didn't look too dissimilar to this in the 1980s, and were it not on a very wide screen, it would look a lot like an old-school VT-100 or IBM 3270 display:
(That's my spam folder, so as to protect the privacy of my correspondents.)
Here's a theme called Terminal that looks like a blast from the past.
I can remember some BBSes that didn't look too dissimilar to this in the 1980s, and were it not on a very wide screen, it would look a lot like an old-school VT-100 or IBM 3270 display:
(That's my spam folder, so as to protect the privacy of my correspondents.)
Alice Cooperstown
The next time I'm in Phoenix, I'm definitely heading for Alice Cooperstown - a sports bar, performance space and restaurant with a glam/horror-rock attitude.
Related: 36 hours in Phoenix (NY Times, 30 Nov 2008)
Related: 36 hours in Phoenix (NY Times, 30 Nov 2008)
That's what I pay him for
One man's military-industrial complex:
In the spring of 2007 a tiny military contractor with a slender track record went shopping for a precious Beltway commodity.
The company, Defense Solutions, sought the services of a retired general with national stature, someone who could open doors at the highest levels of government and help it win a huge prize: the right to supply Iraq with thousands of armored vehicles.
Access like this does not come cheap, but it was an opportunity potentially worth billions in sales, and Defense Solutions soon found its man. The company signed Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star army general and military analyst for NBC News, to a consulting contract starting June 15, 2007.
Four days later the general swung into action. He sent a personal note and 15-page briefing packet to David Petraeus, the commanding general in Iraq, strongly recommending Defense Solutions and its offer to supply Iraq with 5,000 armored vehicles from Eastern Europe. "No other proposal is quicker, less costly, or more certain to succeed," he said.
Thus, within days of hiring McCaffrey, the Defense Solutions sales pitch was in the hands of the American commander with the greatest influence over Iraq's expanding military.
"That's what I pay him for," Timothy Ringgold, chief executive of Defense Solutions, said in an interview.
One man's military-industrial complex (International Herald Tribune, 30 November 2008)
White Trash in hard times
Time to check in again on the White Trash Portfolio.
To refresh your memory, the components of the White Trash Portfolio were as follows:
And White Trash? Down 29.9%.
In less than two years, there have been a lot of changes to the WTP.
Kraft Foods, which we didn't originally hold, was spun off from Altria Group (aka Philip Morris.)
Anheuser-Busch sold themselves to InBev.
Ford and GM look like they will need an emergency infusion of billions and billions of dollars just to make it through the next few months.
The three stocks that are consistently doing well through the downturn and keeping things from being worse than they might be: Anheuser-Busch, McDonalds, and Wal-Mart.
To refresh your memory, the components of the White Trash Portfolio were as follows:
- BFB - Brown-Forman Corp. Cl B
- BUD - Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.
- CHB - Champion Enterprises Inc.
- F - Ford Motor Co.
- GM - General Motors Corp.
- IGT - International Game Technology
- KO - Coca-Cola Co.
- MCD - McDonald's Corp.
- MO - Altria Group Inc.
- WMT - Wal-Mart Stores Inc
- DIA, which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is down 28.7%.
- SPY, which tracks the S&P 500, is down 36.9%.
- VTI, which tracks the performance of the broad US stock market as a whole, is down 38.2%.
- IYC, which tracks the Dow Jones Consumer Cyclical index, is down 41.7%.
And White Trash? Down 29.9%.
In less than two years, there have been a lot of changes to the WTP.
Kraft Foods, which we didn't originally hold, was spun off from Altria Group (aka Philip Morris.)
Anheuser-Busch sold themselves to InBev.
Ford and GM look like they will need an emergency infusion of billions and billions of dollars just to make it through the next few months.
The three stocks that are consistently doing well through the downturn and keeping things from being worse than they might be: Anheuser-Busch, McDonalds, and Wal-Mart.
29 November 2008
It's a sin to kill a songbird
Why do they go after Mumbai? There’s something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness.Suketu Mehta, "What They Hate about Mumbai", New York Times, 29 November 2008Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction. From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it. I once asked a Muslim man living in a shack without indoor plumbing what kept him in the city. “Mumbai is a golden songbird,” he said. It flies quick and sly, and you’ll have to work hard to catch it, but if you do, a fabulous fortune will open up for you. The executives who congregated in the Taj Mahal hotel were chasing this golden songbird. The terrorists want to kill the songbird.
Just as cinema is a mass dream of the audience, Mumbai is a mass dream of the peoples of South Asia. Bollywood movies are the most popular form of entertainment across the subcontinent. Through them, every Pakistani and Bangladeshi is familiar with the wedding-cake architecture of the Taj and the arc of the Gateway of India, symbols of the city that gives the industry its name. It is no wonder that one of the first things the Taliban did upon entering Kabul was to shut down the Bollywood video rental stores. The Taliban also banned, wouldn’t you know it, the keeping of songbirds.
28 November 2008
Grey Friday
We've got kin in town for Thanksgiving, and were out in the streets and shops of Manhattan today, on Black Friday.
We were in SoHo, TriBeCa, and the Financial District. None of us had any difficulty moving on the sidewalk, and the stores weren't too packed to move around in.
That is incredibly odd... and really bad news... on what's usually the busiest (and, for retailers, most lucrative) shopping day of the year.
Meanwhile, mobs are ripping doors off the hinges at Wal-Mart and trampling people to death.
I think the economic action has definitely shifted down-market.
We were in SoHo, TriBeCa, and the Financial District. None of us had any difficulty moving on the sidewalk, and the stores weren't too packed to move around in.
That is incredibly odd... and really bad news... on what's usually the busiest (and, for retailers, most lucrative) shopping day of the year.
Meanwhile, mobs are ripping doors off the hinges at Wal-Mart and trampling people to death.
I think the economic action has definitely shifted down-market.
There's a metaphor in here somewhere; you won't have to look too hard for it
Wal-Mart Employee Trampled To Death By Customers (New York Times, 28 November 2008)A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after being trampled by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning, turning the annual rite of post-Thanksgiving bargain hunting into a frenzy.
The 34-year-old employee, who was not identified, was knocked down by a crowd that broke down the doors of the Wal-Mart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y., and surged into the store. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 6 a.m.
The police said that three other shoppers were injured and a 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to the hospital for observation.
One shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, said she was standing near the back of the crowd at around 5 a.m. on Friday when people started pulling the doors from their hinges and rushing into the store. She said several people were knocked to the ground, and parents had to grab their children by the hands to keep them from being caught in the crush.“
"They were falling all over each other,” she said. “It was terrible.”
27 November 2008
Pakistan will find itself in a nutcracker
I hope they're wrong, but I think they're right:
We will begin by assuming that the attackers are Islamist militant groups operating in India, possibly with some level of outside support from Pakistan. We can also see quite clearly that this was a carefully planned, well-executed attack.
Given this, the Indian government has two choices. First, it can simply say that the perpetrators are a domestic group. In that case, it will be held accountable for a failure of enormous proportions in security and law enforcement. It will be charged with being unable to protect the public. On the other hand, it can link the attack to an outside power: Pakistan. In that case it can hold a nation-state responsible for the attack, and can use the crisis atmosphere to strengthen the government’s internal position by invoking nationalism. Politically this is a much preferable outcome for the Indian government, and so it is the most likely course of action. This is not to say that there are no outside powers involved — simply that, regardless of the ground truth, the Indian government will claim there were.
That, in turn, will plunge India and Pakistan into the worst crisis they have had since 2002. If the Pakistanis are understood to be responsible for the attack, then the Indians must hold them responsible, and that means they will have to take action in retaliation — otherwise, the Indian government’s domestic credibility will plunge. The shape of the crisis, then, will consist of demands that the Pakistanis take immediate steps to suppress Islamist radicals across the board, but particularly in Kashmir. New Delhi will demand that this action be immediate and public. This demand will come parallel to U.S. demands for the same actions, and threats by incoming U.S. President Barack Obama to force greater cooperation from Pakistan.
If that happens, Pakistan will find itself in a nutcracker. On the one side, the Indians will be threatening action — deliberately vague but menacing — along with the Americans. This will be even more intense if it turns out, as currently seems likely, that Americans and Europeans were being held hostage (or worse) in the two hotels that were attacked. If the attacks are traced to Pakistan, American demands will escalate well in advance of inauguration day.
Red Alert: Possible geopolitical consequences of the Mumbai Attacks -- Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (stratfor.com)
Also, monkeys might fly out of my butt
Bruce Schneier is not impressed with recent warnings about attacks on the NYC transit system:
I have no specific details, but I want to warn everybody today that fiery rain might fall from the sky. Terrorists may have discussed this sort of tactic, and while there is no evidence yet that it's in the process of being carried out, I want to be extra-cautious this holiday season. Ho ho ho.Related: "Feds warn of terror plotting against NYC subways" (Associated Press, 26 Nov 2008)
Wikipedia for breaking news
The footnotes and references are a treasure trove.
November 20o8 Mumbai attack (Wikipedia)
Hat tip: Sepia Mutiny, where I also found this Google Map showing all of the different attack locations.
November 20o8 Mumbai attack (Wikipedia)
Hat tip: Sepia Mutiny, where I also found this Google Map showing all of the different attack locations.
For my next trick, I'll attempt to cancel a cell phone account in under thirty minutes
The next time I had to cancel a wireless account, and was asked my reason, I informed the rep that I was headed to prison. The unstoppable rep actually asked me what I was going in for. "Arson" I shot back, matter-of-factly. In the ensuing silence, I began to gleefully suspect I'd nailed it and found a shortcut through the torture. I fully expected to hear the magic words "Sir, I've cancelled your account; if you ever desire to reestablish service with our company, please don't hesitate to contact us". But I was wrong. After the awkward silence, the rep cleared his throat and offered me one thousand free minutes if I'd obligate myself for another year. And so on.Hell Circle Du Jour: Cancelling Wireless Accounts (Jim Leff's Slog)
Today, among the many things I am thankful for: Having attained middle age and a 20+ year career in the IT industry, I now have the wherewithal and insider knowledge necessary to arrange my affairs so that, for the most part, I am dealing with the reasonably clueful and competent when I have to call for technical support or customer service.
This is how: previously-experienced or anticipated quality of support/service is a primary criterion for me when making purchase decisions. If I am making a technology or service purchase where I've got meaningful, acceptable alternatives, "who will suck and who won't when something breaks" is the hurdle most companies will never get over.
With some providers, though - power utilities, landline phone companies, cell phone companies - your choices are either nonexistent or so few and consistently poor as to be essentially no choice at all.
And customer service experiences with these organizations are usually awful.
Like when you try to cancel a cell phone account.
26 November 2008
The horror, in depth and up to the minute
As the latest terrorist atrocity unfolds in Mumbai, some suggested sources for news coverage.
Indian media:
Non-Indian media:
In the blogosphere, start with Metroblogging in Mumbai.
Also, be sure to take a look at Mumbai coverage on Twitter via Tweetgrid.
Hat tip for Metroblogging and Twitter tips: Carrie (who is picking them up from Metafilter.)
Indian media:
Non-Indian media:
In the blogosphere, start with Metroblogging in Mumbai.
Also, be sure to take a look at Mumbai coverage on Twitter via Tweetgrid.
Hat tip for Metroblogging and Twitter tips: Carrie (who is picking them up from Metafilter.)
25 November 2008
Fall Valour-IT fundraiser is underway
25 November update: Bumped as a reminder; please give generously if you can. - bc
Related:
Please donate to Project Valour-IT during the Thanksgiving fundraiser; click the link below or in the sidebar.Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, helps provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptop computers and other technology to support Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries. Technology supplied includes:
- Voice-controlled Laptops - Operated by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, they allow the wounded to maintain connections with the rest of the world during recovery.
- Wii Video Game Systems - Whole-body game systems increase motivation and speed recovery when used under the guidance of physical therapists in therapy sessions.
- Personal GPS - Handheld GPS devices build self-confidence and independence by compensating for short-term memory loss and organizational challenges related to TBI and severe PTSD.
Related:
24 November 2008
Poultry-fu
North Carolina authorities say a shopper clubbed an alleged carjacker with a frozen turkey as he tried to steal a woman's car in a grocery store parking lot Sunday.Police say 30-year-old Fred Louis Ervin of Raleigh stole money from a gas station before running across the street to a Harris Teeter store in a town just south of Raleigh. Garner police say he began beating Irene Moorman Bailey while stealing her car.
Other shoppers came to her rescue, including one who hit Ervin with the turkey. Police did not release the person's name.
Despite serious head injuries, Ervin got away in Bailey's car and hit several other cars as he fled. But police arrested him a short time later.
Associated Press: NC carjacking suspect clubbed with frozen turkey
22 November 2008
The cluetrain left the station some time ago
There are many ways to measure how screwed Republicans are after the last election.
You can look at the avalanche of swing states that broke big for Barack. You can look at the demographic shifts that left McCain-Palin with decisive wins only among voters over age 60 and towns with populations under 50,000. Or you can look at my emergency telegram from John McCain.
For the uninitiated—and that would be anyone under 60—telegrams were the instant-message of the horse and buggy era, the Internet boom of the 1850s.
Telegrams don’t exist any more. Western Union sent its last telegram without much fanfare in 2006, after modern technology (beginning with the telephone) left it nothing more than a sentimental novelty.
But nostalgia is apparently alive and well at the RNC. They’ve been sending these same fundraising letters since at least the 1970s, when a portion of the population could still equate “telegram” with “urgent.”
Technology Gap - John Avlon @ The Daily Beast
Pricelessly (and tellingly) a source interviewed for this article goes on to describe McCain's election strategy as "...trying to scare the Abe Simpson vote."
And: on Meetup.com, McCain was not only comprehensively outdone by Obama, but in sheer numbers, by Bob Barr!
If you participate in enough graft, the interests cancel each other out
Influential psychiatrist Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin is a former director of NIMH, co-authored the standard modern medical textbook on bipolar disorder and had a very popular radio show ("The Infinite Mind") on National Public Radio, among other things.
Depressingly, he also "earned at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers" without disclosing this income--or the potential conflict of interest that it represents--to his listeners, his syndicators, or NPR:
Lovely. If you're on the take from enough different sources, that makes it all right... and hey, everybody's doing it!
Depressingly, he also "earned at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers" without disclosing this income--or the potential conflict of interest that it represents--to his listeners, his syndicators, or NPR:
He's hardly alone in the research community, where influential academic researchers can earn sneaker endorsement-sized secondary incomes for lending their imprimatur to the pill, powder or potion du jour:Dr. Goodwin’s weekly radio programs have often touched on subjects important to the commercial interests of the companies for which he consults. In a program broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, he warned that children with bipolar disorder who were left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view.“But as we’ll be hearing today,” Dr. Goodwin told his audience, “modern treatments — mood stabilizers in particular — have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.”That same day, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin $2,500 to give a promotional lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. In all, GlaxoSmithKline paid him more than $329,000 that year for promoting Lamictal, records given to Congressional investigators show.
Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties (New York Times, 21 November 2008)In October, [Senator Charles] Grassley [of Iowa] revealed that Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff of Emory University, an influential psychiatric researcher, earned more than $2.8 million in consulting arrangements with drugmakers from 2000 to 2007, failed to report at least $1.2 million of that income to his university and violated federal research rules. As a result, the National Institutes of Health suspended a $9.3 million research grant to Emory, and Dr. Nemeroff gave up his chairmanship of Emory’s psychiatry department.In June, the senator revealed that Dr. Joseph Biederman of Harvard, whose work has fueled an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children, had earned at least $1.6 million from drugmakers from 2000 to 2007, and failed to report most of this income to Harvard.
[...]
“More than 10 years ago, when he and I got involved in this effort, it didn’t occur to me that my doing what every other expert in the field does might be considered a conflict of interest,” Dr. Goodwin said.
He defended the views he expressed in many of his radio programs and said that, because he consulted for so many drugmakers at once, he had no particular bias.
“These companies compete with each other and cancel each other out,” he said.
Lovely. If you're on the take from enough different sources, that makes it all right... and hey, everybody's doing it!
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