June 2009
63 posts
FDA panel recommends smaller doses of painkillers
Government experts say the maximum daily dose listed on Tylenol and
dozens of other painkillers should be reduced to help curb deadly
overdoses.
The Food and Drug Administration’s panel voted 21-16 to lower the
current maximum dose of nonprescription acetaminophen, which is 4
grams, or eight pills per day. Taking more than that can cause
potentially fatal liver damage.
Federal...
A Matter of Honor
Quote of the Day: “Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong” - Thomas Jefferson
Subject: A Matter of Honor
The overwhelming majority of Americans agree that
Congress should read the bills they pass. Our mission is to tell them
about DownsizeDC.org’s Read the Bills Act (RTBA). If we overwhelm Congress with demands to pass RTBA, Congress will have no choice but to follow our orders....
UN Backs Drug Decriminalization In World Drug...
In an about face, the United Nations on Wednesday lavishly praised
drug decriminalization in its annual report on the state of global drug
policy. In previous years, the UN drug czar had expressed skepticism
about Portugal’s decriminalization, which removed criminal penalties in
2001 for personal drug possession and emphasized treatment over
incarceration. The UN had suggested the policy was...
'Stoned' wallabies make crop circles
Wallabies snacking in legally grown opium poppy fields are getting
“high as a kite” and hopping around in circles, trampling the crops,
officials in Tasmania say.
Lara Giddings, the
Attorney-General of the Australian state, told a budget hearing that
she had read about the kangaroo-like marsupials’ antics in a report
about the island’s large poppy industry. “We...
Mad Hatters Driven Insane by Tea
PUBLIC APPEARANCES: On Thursday,
July 2, and Saturday, July 4, Downsize DC President, Jim Babka, will be
speaking at Tea Parties in Ohio. Details below the signature.
Quote of the Day: “First they
ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want
to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.” - Mahatma Gandhi
Subj: Helping the Mad Hatters Understand the Tea...
Space 'Hotel,' for Business or Pleasure, Takes...
Imagine yourself, sometime in the next decade, with a fantastic idea for a new business that requires manufacturing in the weightlessness of space. Or maybe, having made your fortune on Earth, you’d simply like to vacation in a very high place.
The Russians charge upward of $50 million for a short trip to the International Space Station. NASA
can’t help you at all. But...
ICANN Names Security Expert As CEO
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers named Rod Beckstrom, former director of the U.S. National
Cybersecurity Center, as chief executive of the non-profit overseer of domain names and Internet protocol addresses.
ICANN announced Beckstrom’s selection Friday at the end of the
organization’s 35th annual international meeting in Sydney, Australia.
In addition to his...
US to reverse Afghan opium strategy
The
United States is to dramatically overhaul its anti-drug strategy in
Afghanistan, phasing out its opium poppy eradication programme, the US
envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan has said.
Richard Holbrooke said on Saturday that poppy eradication - for
years a cornerstone of US and UN drug trafficking efforts in the
country - was not working and was only...
Howard Stern sound clip / parody of Led...
U.S. Has Sent 40 Tons of Munitions to Aid Somali...
The U.S. government has provided about 40 tons of weapons and
ammunition to shore up the besieged government of Somalia in the past
six weeks and has sent funding to train Somali soldiers, a senior State
Department official said yesterday, in the most complete accounting to
date of the new American efforts in the strife-torn country.
The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of...
When you want something, talk into the right ear
Ewen Callaway, reporter
Next time you want something, direct your request to your target’s right ear.
In experiments performed at disco, a team of Italian researchers and
their female accomplice tried just that approach. Her mission: to bum a
smoke:
“If she spoke into your right ear, you would be twice as likely to
give her a cigarette than if she asked by your left...
Great Australian Firewall to censor online games
The Great Australian Firewall will try blocking websites that host
or sell video games not suitable for children under the age of 15.
A spokesman for Senator for Victoria Stephen Conroy told The Age
on Thursday that the government’s internet censorship regime will
extend to downloadable and web-based games that don’t meet Australia’s
MA15+ rating standard.
Because...
Good offense is good defense
Quote of the Day: “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” – P.J. O’Rourke
Subject: Good offense is good defense
When we tell Congress not to pass their planned
health care legislation we’re playing good defense, but when we ask
Congress to pass legislation that would help restore free market health
care, we’re playing...
Real ID, Pass Act, Audit the Fed
Quote of the Day: “Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order.” — John V. Lindsay
Subject: REAL ID, the PASS Act, and Audit the Fed
The people of Iran are risking their lives, and
in some cases losing them, in a bid to gain their freedom. We need not
risk so much to restore and retain our freedom, but for that to remain
true we must vigorously use our...
Bill Hicks / Ding Dong (1993)
Ah the Bush legacy....
The State of the English Language Online
Taken from http://chris.pirillo.com/the-state-of-the-english-language-online/ Someone by the name of Mr. Martinez sent me this email the other
day. The message struck me as unique, given that it was rather well
written (and I’m quite used to receiving incoherent blather). He
believes that the English language is headed towards a meltdown…
The Internet has given me endless opportunities...
An un-reconstruction of American history
In America; the deification of the State began with the deification of Abe Lincoln. That led to the deification of the Presidency in general, and of the State in general. Ever since; American foreign and domestic policy has been a moral crusade. The war on drugs, the war in the Middle East, etc. are moral crusades, not practical problems. Therefore; I blame both the war on drugs and the war in the...
Health care victory may be easier than you think
Quote of the Day: “Of course, no
one knows what the bill would really cost in operation. But the
history of social insurance and welfare programs is sky-rocketing
expense well beyond original projections. Go back and look at the
initial cost estimates for Medicare and Social Security, and you will
run from the room simultaneously laughing and crying.” — Doug Bandow
Subject:...
Time to slaughter the National Animal...
Media Announcement: DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka will appear on the Liberty Roundtable Tuesday morning. See the details on our blog.
Quote of the Day: “Increasingly,
we are seeing consumers join forces with farmers in letting the USDA
know that NAIS is not a solution for animal health, food safety or food
security.” - Judith McGeary
SUBJECT: Time to slaughter NAIS
The...
Obama Taps 5th RIAA Lawyer to Justice Dept.
President Barack Obama is tapping another RIAA attorney into the Justice Department.
Monday’s naming of Ian Gershengorn,
to become the department’s deputy assistant attorney of the Civil
Division, comes more than a week after nearly two-dozen public interest
groups, trade pacts and library coalitions urged the new president to
quit filling his administration with lawyers plucked from the...
Bar encourages verbal abuse
A Spanish bar is encouraging clients to insult its staff - and offering free drinks for original or hilarious abuse.
“When you come in after work, you can say swear at them and call them bastard or imbecile,” said client Antonio Ossa.
He
told state news agency EFE the promotion by the Casa Pocho bar, in the
southern town of Cullera near Valencia, seemed like a good idea to...
Panasonic Remote Lays Limp When Not In Use
This conceptual gel remote from Panasonic lays limp when not in use, pulsating with a soft light. But when its sensors detect a hand coming, it stiffens, ready for action!
Constructed of a soft, flesh-like gel, the remote appears
cold when off. Once turned on, however, it seems to come to life. A
soft light emanates somewhere from within as the center of the device
begins to slowly rise and...
Complexity, Simplified
Quote of the Day: “You will be assimilated.” — The Borg (from Star Trek)
Subject: The complex health care issue made simple
If politicians can complicate an issue then they
know our minds will freeze, our attention will wander, and we’ll let
them do whatever they want. The health care issue is a classic example.
There are tax issues involved, state and...
Satellite Repairman Service
Someone make some art related to the title of this post. I’m too sleepy to come up with more. Set in the year three thousand, it’s a story about a satellite repairman with a depressingly mundane life who finds out he must survey hundreds of thousands of old dishes orbiting the earth to make way for newer ones. Starring Chevy Chase. Comedy. What’s there to add?
Federal Reserve To Be Given Sweeping New Powers -...
The privately owned and run Federal Reserve is to be
handed sweeping new powers under Obama administration proposals in a
deal that will please bankers who lobbied for more Fed “oversight” of
their activities.
The new rules would see the Fed given the authority to
“regulate” any company whose activity it believes could threaten the
economy and the markets.
“The final plan due to be released on...
Lawsuit against US on IP trade agreement dropped...
Opposition to a sweeping trade agreement being negotiated in secret between the United States and at least eleven other countries, plus the European Union, is being voluntarily curtailed after an apparently successful effort by Obama administration officials to prevent parties in a lawsuit against US trade representatives from obtaining any information about that agreement.
It’s the...
Obama facing some doubts among Americans
He remains personally popular, but President Barack Obama is starting to see signs that some of his economic policies are causing doubts among many Americans.
Two polls published on Thursday illustrate the political risk Obama
faces as he turns his attention toward an overhaul of the U.S.
healthcare system, an issue so contentious that previous attempts have
failed to address high cost and...
9/11 'hero dog' is cloned five times
The winner of the Golden Clone Giveaway - a competition to find the world’s most “cloneworthy” dog - has been presented with his cloned puppies. Trust,
Valor, Prodigy, Solace and Deja Vu are clones of Trakr, a German
shepherd that with his handler was one of the first to arrive and begin
searching for survivors on September 12, 2001 at the site of the World
Trade Center. Trakr...
There must be more to the bill
Quotes of the Day: “The
Democrats’ failure to pass a troop funding bill that will actually get
our armed forces the money they need is nothing less than a disgrace.”
— House Minority Leader John Boehner, June, 2008
“It’s going to be an interesting fall as
Republicans try to explain their vote against legislation that they’ve
described as funding for our...
Solar System's "Bouncing" Linked To Mass...
A new
computer model of our solar system’s movement relative to the Milky Way
indicates that it “bounces” up and down through the plane of the
galaxy; a cycle that scientists say is a “beautiful match” with the
mass extinction events that occur periodically on Earth. Writing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
the scientists at the Cardiff...
Emerging economies want greater say
The world’s biggest emerging markets have called for a bigger say in the global financial system at their first summit.
The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) called for a
“more diversified” currency system, but backed away from Russian calls
for a new “supra-national” currency to replace the dollar.
...
China tops US as most-wired nation
The ongoing Meltdown may be causing most sectors of the tech economy to wither, wilt, and shrivel, but one industry is going gangbusters: broadband.
According to a report (PDF) released Tuesday by the packet-networking spec curators and marketing boosters at the Broadband Forum, broadband’s global reach increased by 16.6 million lines in the first quarter of 2009.
And the pace is...
Good News about Audit the Fed
Quote of the Day: “We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest — which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves.” — Thomas Jefferson
Subject: Good news about the...
Velocity Proves You Have Power
Quote of the Day: “Those who
predict price inflation believe that the money multiplier will turn
upward again. They just don’t know when. Those who predict price
deflation believe that the money multiplier will not turn upward
again… I am in the inflationist camp. But until I see a sustained
reversal of the money multiplier, I will continue to predict relatively
stable consumer...
Howard Stern - Richard Echo Phone Call
Livejournal a private
I was just going over some old accounts and realized I had numerous journals set for public viewing. A lot of stuff I was very open with saying publicly back then. So I just spent about an hour going over every old Livejournal entry and removing its Public tags. Unfortunately the free account doesn’t allow en masse editing of security settings and there’s no way I’m paying $5 to...
Police seize mushroom chocolate bars - 3 arrested,...
Police recovered more than 35 pounds of hallucinogenic mushroom chocolate bars and a felony amount of marijuana Wednesday evening that would have been heading to the Bonnaroo music festival today.
“Mushrooms are similar to LSD in the fact that they cause people to hallucinate, and like LSD a person can die the first time they use these poisonous mushrooms, especially in the condition that...
Iran rivals dispute poll victory
Both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, and Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main election rival have claimed victory in the country’s election.
The conflicting claims came just hours after polls officially closed on Friday.
“The speculative frenzy is building up,” Teymoor Nabili, Al Jazeera’s correspondent, reporting from Tehran, said.
Mousavi called a news conference...
Digging Really Deep Holes
Quote of the Day: “One time in
the House of Representatives told me a story about a proposition that a
teacher put to a boy. He said, ‘Johnny, a cat fell in a well 100 feet
deep. Suppose that cat climbed up 1 foot and then fell back 2 feet. How
long would it take the cat to get out of the well?’ Johnny worked
assiduously with his slate and slate pencil for quite a while, and...
German lad hit by 30,000 mph meteorite
A 14-year-old German lad survived a close encounter with a meteorite
when a pea-sized piece of rock which had entered Earth’s atmosphere at
30,000 mph left him with nothing more than a “nasty” three-inch gash on
his hand.
According to the Telegraph, Gerrit Blank was on his way to
school in Essen when a bright light in the sky heralded the arrival of
the red-hot space rock. It...
Dread Zeppelin: The Army's New Surveillance Blimp
Since the airship glory days of the early part of the century, blimps have certainly lost some of their cachet, relegated to hovering over sporting events and not much else. However, the Army is about to test launch an unmanned hybrid airship to be used for surveillance missions in Afghanistan.
The Long Endurance Multi-INT Vehicle, or LEMV, is an impressive combination of endurance, carrying...
Trillions of Reasons to Audit the Fed
Quote of the Day: “We are in
danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper,
representing not gold nor silver; no sir, representing nothing but
broken promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors
and a ruined people.” — Daniel Webster (1782-1852), US Senator Source: speech in the Senate, 1833
Subject: Trillions of reasons to audit the Federal...
America: A bank-owned state
In my last column I introduced the idea that America’s handling of
the financial crisis, and in particular the way it has refused to deal
with the banks, is more in keeping with how an “emerging” economy might
behave and act.
So this week, I will say that America has become a bank-owned state,
allowing its banking oligarchs to suffocate the economy so they can
survive at any...
Congress thinks reading the bills is a joke
MEDIA NOTICE: TONIGHT (June
9) at 8:35 Eastern (5:35 Pacific) DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka
will appear on the Weissbach Show, 570 KVI Seattle. Topics will include
Downsize DC, the Read the Bills Act, and health care. You can
listen online at http://www.kvi.com.
Quote of the Day: “I have come
to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace. That two
become a law firm;...
Another Counterfeiting Update
Quote of the Day: “By a
continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly
and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis
of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the
hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it
in a manner which not...
Chinese firm unveils long-distance e-car
A Chinese company has developed a battery-powered electric vehicle capable of travelling 250 miles on a single charge.
The Zhong Tai — which translates roughly as ‘Peace and Safety for
the People’ – is branded by firm New Power, but the vehicle’s actually
a Zotye 2008 aka the Daihatsu Terios – albeit with a petrol drive train
replaced by leccy running gear – manufactured by a...
Texas cop uses Taser on 72-year-old great...
By Carlos Miller A Travis County Constable used his Taser gun on a 72-year-old great grandmother after she refused to sign a speeding ticket.
The cop claims he was forced to defend himself because Kathryn Winkfein “got violent” in her refusal to sign the ticket.
The cop said she also used profanity, making him fear for his life.
Winkfein told an Austin news crew in the above video that...