Tag Archives: National

Obama Urges Marijuana Legalization While American Support at an All-time High

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obama-weedNEW YORK (MainStreet) — Admitting that he “smoked pot as a kid,” in an interview with the New Yorker magazine published this weekend, President Barack Obama urged the legalization of marijuana.

“I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Obama said. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

With recreational retail sales of marijuana already allowed in Colorado – and soon in Washington state – public favor for legalization is growing.

In October, a Gallup survey reported a majority of Americans (58%) favored legalization of grass, while more than one-third (38%) admitted having tried it.

“With Americans’ support for legalization quadrupling since 1969, and localities on the East Coast such as Portland, Maine, considering a symbolic referendum to legalize marijuana, it is clear that interest in this drug and these issues will remain elevated in the foreseeable future,” the Gallup report said.

Read more at Rolladailynews.com

See Also: Obama: Pot is not more dangerous than alcohol (Boston.com)

Enticement, harassment charges dropped against foreign military officers

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Two foreign military officers who were training at Fort Leonard Wood and charged in October of last year with enticement of a child and harassment had their charges dropped, Pulaski County Prosecuting attorney Kevin Hillman said Friday.

WAYNESVILLE, Mo.—Two foreign military officers who were training at Fort Leonard Wood and charged in October of last year with enticement of a child and harassment had their charges dropped, Pulaski County Prosecuting attorney Kevin Hillman said Friday.

“The victim’s family and I discussed the situation, and they did not want her to go through the further traumatization of two trials,” Hillman said.

The two foreign officers charged were Mohammed Mahmoud Omar Mefleh, of Jordan, and Antoine Chela, of Lebanon.

Hillman said the pair had the charges dropped as part of an agreement which required them to remain in jail for 90 days and pay for their incarceration costs, which were over $3,000 each.

“Right after the charges were dropped, the men were taken by Fort Leonard Wood officials and have to leave the country within 10 days. I expect them to be gone by Monday,” Hillman said.

“They can have no contact with minors and will not be allowed back in the country. The Department of Homeland Security will be tracking and monitoring the men until they leave the country.”

Read more at TheRollaDailyNews.com

See Also:
1. Grand Jury indicts two foreign military officers for attempted child abduction
2. Foreign military officers plead not guilty in attempted child abduction case
3. Two men arrested for attempted child abduction

Is mainstream media keeping you from the “real” story?

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alg-conan-reaction-jpgBenghazi. NSA spying. IRS targeting. Fast and Furious. Now Bridgegate.

For years “conspiracy theorists” have warned that the media has been pumping out stories in an effort to draw your attention away from other stories that we should be paying attention to?

Could that be true?

Late night investigator Conan O’Brien takes a look at several unrehearsed and unscripted news reports on a story that might have escaped your attention.

Kindergarten teacher accused of removing female student’s shirt

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1-16-14-THOMAS-WALTER-WASHBURN-T045180_030000MESA, Ariz. — A Mesa kindergarten teacher was arrested Wednesday and booked for 25 counts of indecent exposure and one count of child abuse stemming from an incident in his classroom.

Thomas Washburn, 54, teaches kindergarten at Adams Elementary School in Mesa where the incident occurred on Wednesday.

The victim, a 6-year-old female, was in class with 24 classmates.

Washburn was reportedly upset and shouting in the class causing the victim to hide her face in the top of her shirt.

The victim’s mother described her daughter as “developmentally delayed” due to being born prematurely.

Read more and see video at AZFamily

Comedians Tend to Have Psychotic Personality Traits

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Creative types tend to be a little crazy, right? Psychologists have now found that comedians actually demonstrate a lot of the same characteristics as people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

As one of the researchers on the study, Gordon Claridge, told the Guardian,

“The creative elements needed to produce humour are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis – both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.”

Study participants included more than 500 comedians, 350 actors (a career considered creative but not necessarily funny), and 800 non-creative types, as a control. They came from the U.K., Australia, and the U.S.

Each participant filled out a survey [doc] asking about various feelings and experiences he or she had had. The questions were designed to identify psychotic traits in people who don’t have mental illness: traits such as anti-social behavior, belief in telepathy, and difficulty in organizing one’s thoughts.

Read more at Discover

Female Sea Snails No Longer Growing Penises Thanks to Ban on Toxic Chemical

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whelksShips in the 1960s were often coated in a chemical called TBT to prevent sea critters like snails from clinging to the hull. After researchers found that the toxic chemical caused female sea snails to grow penises (alongside equally frightening effects in other species) the stuff was banned in 2008. Now, six years later, things are starting to look up for the snails.
Fed Up With Fouling

Ship builders have long struggled with the problem of fouling, whereby mollusks and barnacles hitch onto a hull, causing boat damage and creating drag that drives up fuel costs. Starting in the 1960s, a chemical called tributyltin (TBT) was painted on ships to keep them free from aquatic hitchhikers. It was toxic and therefore did the trick, as described in a 2002 report [pdf] from the International Maritime Organization:

As a biocide in anti-fouling paint, it proved extremely effective at keeping smooth and clean the hulls of ships and boats. And when it was introduced into anti-fouling paints, it was considered less harmful than biocides used in anti-fouling systems at the time: such as DDT and arsenic.

But as the chemical began to leach off the ships and accumulate in marine environments, especially around shipping ports, scientists started seeing negative effects on aquatic plants and animals.

Shellfish and sea snail populations were hit especially hard. Female whelks, for example, started growing penises and vas deferens (the tubes that directs sperm from the testes). This left the snails sterile—a condition called “imposex.” In Australia in 2004, for example, between 43 and 100 percent of snails studied were found to be imposex.

Read more at Discover

The Professor is gone.

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220px-Russell_Johnson_Black_Saddle_1960Russell Johnson, best known for his role as the Professor on Gilligan’s Island died today at his home in Washington. He died of natural causes with his wife and daughter at his side. He was 89.

Johnson began his career in 1950 as a sailor in the Fireside Theater production of A Man Without A Country. He had the role of Chopper in The Adventures of Superman in 1953 and appeared in various westerns and science fiction movies. He played Fletcher Christian in the You Are There presentation of Mr. Christian Seizes the Bounty.

He is best known for his role as high school science teacher Roy Hinckley which ran for three years but is popular in syndication today. The Memorable Entertainment network runs two episodes a night. The professor had to come up with various fixes to the equipment and create equipment for various applications. Ironically, he appeared in the popular MacGyver television series in 1986, but we’re not sure if he had to come up with any explosive devices from two bobby-pins and a can of hair spray.

According to a FOX News report, Johnson once quipped that the only thing he couldn’t figure out is how to fix the leaky boat so they could return to civilization.

Co-star Dawn Welles posted on her Facebook page:

My 2 favorite people are now gone. The Professor past away this morning. My heart is broken.

and

Russell was a true gentleman, a good father, a great friend, and “the rest”.
I love him and shall miss him. My heart goes out to Connie and his daughter Kim. I love you.

Dawn Welles and Tina Louise are the only surviving members of a group of misfit castaways marooned after a failed “three hour tour” which seems to show no sign of stopping in syndication. Probably the best tribute an actor can receive.

N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers

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By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKERJAN. 14, 2014

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks.

While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.

The technology, which the agency has used since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target.
Related Coverage

The radio frequency technology has helped solve one of the biggest problems facing American intelligence agencies for years: getting into computers that adversaries, and some American partners, have tried to make impervious to spying or cyberattack. In most cases, the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user.

The N.S.A. calls its efforts more an act of “active defense” against foreign cyberattacks than a tool to go on the offensive. But when Chinese attackers place similar software on the computer systems of American companies or government agencies, American officials have protested, often at the presidential level.

Read more at The New York Times
Related: Obama to Place Some Restraints on Surveillance

Jackson: Gun owner unarmed, unwelcome in Maryland

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tbo.comHUDSON – John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm.

He’d rather he didn’t feel the need, “but things aren’t like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I’m constantly going to the bank.

“I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I’m standing on. But I’m not looking for any trouble.”

Filippidis keeps his gun — a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic, barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case — in one of two places, always: in the right-hand pocket of his jeans, or in the safe at home.

“There are kids in the house,” Filippidis says, “and I don’t think they’d ever bother with it, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

He’s not looking for any trouble, after all.

Read more at The Tampa Tribune

Maine becomes second state to require GMO labels

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Monsanto has threatened to sue other states over labeling legislation; in 2012, the threat of legal action effectively halted a GMO measure that had been advancing through the Vermont legislature.

Top_Stories_Maine-009dc_image_982wMaine will become the second state to require labels on food that contains genetically modified ingredients under new legislation signed by Gov. Paul LePage (R) this week — but only after other states follow suit.

LePage signed the legislation, initially introduced by a Republican state representative, over the objections of agriculture giants who produce many of the raw ingredients that go into everyday foods.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 70 percent of the food products sold in supermarkets contain genetically modified ingredients, the Portland Press-Herald reported.

Read more at Washington Post