You may have noticed…


No, I have not turned this page into a “scraper site” like so many other blogs out there.  I wouldn’t do that to you guys.  No, Curt Schilling and Quan Tranh are not blogging for this site now.  As a bit of a feature for my readers out there (both of you) and because my available time for writing has been somewhat diminished with the release of Wrath of the Lich King, I have set up the site to share with you articles of interest that I find in the course of my day to fill in the gaps between the original content that I provide.

I will keep providing original content, but I wanted to make sure that you have reason to check in on the site every day, and not just the 3 or 4 times/week when I have something new to write.

-Grim

Aspirin vs. Marijuana


Shared by Data Vortex

Marijuana has been used for over 5,000 years.
No one has ever overdosed on marijuana.
Aspirin has been used for 108 years.
Approximately 500 people die every year by taking aspirin

Written by nunya

This is a repost with a few edits…

When Bayer introduced aspirin in 1899, cannabis was America’s number one painkiller. Until marijuana prohibition began in 1937, the US Pharmacopoeia listed cannabis as the primary medicine for over 100 diseases. Cannabis was such an effective analgesic that the American Medical Association (AMA) argued against prohibition on behalf of medical progress. Since the herb is extremely potent and essentially non-toxic, the AMA considered it a potential wonder drug.

Instead, the invention of aspirin gave birth to the modern pharmaceutical industry and Americans switched away from cannabis in the name of “progress.” But was it really progress? There can be no doubt that aspirin has a long history as the drug of choice for the self-treatment of migraines, arthritis, and other chronic pain. It is cheap and effective. But is it as safe as cannabis?

History:

Marijuana has been used for over 5,000 years.
No one has ever overdosed on marijuana.
Aspirin has been used for 108 years.
Approximately 500 people die every year by taking aspirin
The Law:

Marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug, meaning the US government believes it is extremely dangerous, highly addictive, and of no medical value.
Aspirin is available for pennies and can be purchased by children at any drug, grocery, or convenience store. Often they are just handed out free by people with no medical education.
Marijuana side effects and dangers:

The dangers of marijuana include possible respiratory problems caused by the deposition of burnt plant material on the lungs. This danger can be eliminated with alternate forms of consumption such as eating or vaporizing the medicine.
For two to four hours, marijuana causes short-term memory loss, a slight reduction in reaction time, and a reduction in cognitive ability. (It makes you stupid for a little while.)These conditions DO NOT persist after the herb wears off.

Hunger
Paranoia
Depression
Laughter
Introspection
Creative Impulse
Euphoria
Tiredness
Forgetfulness
Aspirin side effects and dangers:

When taken with alcohol, aspirin can cause stomach bleeding.
Reye Syndrome in children: fat begins to develop around the liver and other organs of the child, eventually putting severe pressure on the brain. Death is common within a few days.
People with hemophilia can die.
People with hyperthyroidism suffer elevated T4 levels.
Stomach problems include dyspepsia, heartburn, upset stomach, stomach ulcers with gross bleeding, and internal bleeding leading to anemia.
Dizziness, ringing in the ears, hearing loss, vertigo, vision disturbances, and headaches.
Heavy sweating
Irreversible liver damage
Inflamation and gradual destruction of the kidneys
Nausea and vomiting
Abdominal pain
Lethargy
Hyperthermia
Dyspepsia: a gnawing or burning stomach pain accompanied by bloating, heartburn, nausea, vomiting and burping.
Tachypnea: Abnormally fast breathing
Respiratory Alkalosis: a condition where the amount of carbon dioxide found in the blood drops to a level below normal range brought on by abnormally fast breathing.
Cerebral Edema: Water accumulates on the brain. Symptoms include headaches, decreased level of consciousness, loss of eyesight, hallucinations, psychotic behavior, memory loss and coma. If left untreated, it can lead to death.
Hallucinations, confusion, and seizure.
Prolonged bleeding after operations or post-trauma for up to 10 days after last aspirin.
Aspirin can interact with some other drugs, such as diabetes medication. Aspirin changes the way the body handles these drugs and can lead to a drug overdose and death.
If you think that cannabis is actually safer than aspirin, you are not alone. In October 2000, Dr. Leslie Iversen of the Oxford University Department of Pharmacology said the same thing.

In her book, ‘The Science of Marijuana,’ Dr. Iversen presents the scientific evidence that cannabis is, by-and-large, a safe drug. Dr. Iversen found cannabis had “an impressive record” when compared to tobacco, alcohol, or even aspirin.

“Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug,” she said. “Even such apparently innocuous medicines as aspirin and related steroidal anti-inflammatory compunds are not safe.”

So if safety is your concern, cannabis is clearly a much better choice than aspirin. If you eat it or vaporize it, it just might be the safest painkiller the world has ever known.

References: 1 2

McColo Briefly Returns, Hands Off Botnet Control


Shared by Data Vortex

Fuck it. Shoot them.

A week ago we discussed the takedown of McColo (and the morality of that action). McColo was reportedly the source of anywhere from 50% to 75% of the world’s spam. On Saturday the malware network briefly returned to life in order to hand over command and control channels to a Russian network. “The rogue network provider regained connectivity for about 12 hours on Saturday by making use of a backup arrangement it had with Swedish internet service provider TeliaSonera. During that time, McColo was observed pushing as much as 15MB of data per second to servers located in Russia, according to… Trend Micro. The brief resurrection allowed miscreants who rely on McColo to update a portion of the massive botnets they use to push spam and malware. Researchers from FireEye saw PCs infected by the Rustock botnet being updated so they’d report to a new server located at abilena.podolsk-mo.ru for instructions. That means the sharp drop in spam levels reported immediately after McColo’s demise isn’t likely to last.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hero On Trial


In Bartow County an innocent man is about to face a murder charge due to the stupidity of the Deputy District Attorney Mickey Thacker.

Prosecutors say motorcyclist Antonio Hall drove at a dangerous and excessive speed as he tried to evade the state troopers who were chasing him.

But prosecutors also say that didn’t give Bartow County recreation supervisor Jeff Brooks the right to steer his county truck into Hall’s path, causing the collision that killed Hall.

“He is not a law enforcement officer,” prosecutor Mickey Thacker told the court.  “There was no need for him to be involved in this pursuit.”

Mr. Brooks just did a great service to the taxpayers of the State of Georgia by helping the Georgia State Patrol stop a fleeing felon (fleeing itself is a felony).  So instead of giving Mr. Brooks a community service award, he’s instead up on murder charges.  Personally I think Mickey Thacker is an asshat who is an enemy of the tax payer.  He wants to give felons a break and put useful citizens in jail. Thank God there aren’t any terrorists in Bartow County.  He would probably want to let them have a free ride too.  We need less felons breathing our air and Mr. Brooks has done the world a service by reducing the carbon footprint of what is now a non-entity.  If you want justice, Mr. Thacker, your effort is better spent building a time machine to go back and prevent Mr. Hall’s death than attempting to do harm to useful members of society.

Congratulations you win our stupid lawyer of the week award.

Here is his contact information if you want to drop off your comments to him directly or to his boss.

BARTOW COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
135 W Cherokee Ave
Suite 368
Cartersville, Georgia 30120
Phone (770) 387-5080
Fax (770) 387-5085

Congrats you little #@!$!


Congratulations to Dustin Pedroia, the 2008 American League MVP.

I met Petey 3 years ago while on rehab in Pawtucket and I can assure you the guy you see in Boston is the same red ass ‘kick your teeth in no matter how big you are, or how hard you throw’ guy he was there.

he respects the game, his teammates and he plays the game hard, he plays the game right and there isn’t a pitcher on the planet that he thinks can get him out.

I’d relate a ton of stories but there isn’t one I can tell that doesn’t contain multiple four letter expletives about himself, or the guy that got him out (on the rare occasion that would happen).

He earned this and we’re proud as hell to call him a teammate and a friend.

      

I KEEL you!


funny-dog-pictures-with-captions-i-kill-you

I KEEL you!

but b4 dat, i will take ur soal.

picture: dunno source, via our loldog builder. lol caption:

» Recaption This

   Tagged: angry, costume, dog, i, kill, loldog, viking, what breed, yellow, you   

Limit Company Size and Encourage Short Selling


Shared by Data Vortex

Or the next time Warren Buffett labels something like derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction,” he could instead tell us which companies to bet against. This will force these companies to change their behavior more than any government regulation ever can.

Ratigan_dylan_240x250_2

Dylan Ratigan has established himself as a top financial anchor and reporter through his work on CNBC shows such as “On the Money” and “Closing Bell” as well as during his tenure at Bloomberg News, where he served as a Global Managing Editor and host of its “Morning Call” program. He is the anchor and co-creator of CNBC’s “Fast Money”and the co-anchor of “The Call” and the 3 p.m. hour of the “Closing Bell.”

By Dylan Ratigan

Warren Buffett recently urged us all to follow his lead in buying American stocks during this fear-driven down market, invoking his common sense wisdom of being greedy when others are fearful and being fearful when others are greedy.

While I appreciate and agree with Buffett that it may be a good time to invest in this great country’s long-term future, I also think there is a lot the Warren Buffetts of the world can do right now to help ensure a prosperous future.

First, we need to take a realistic view of how we got into the current financial calamity.

Instead of creating a society that harnesses the powerful force of capitalism to benefit us all, which resulted in the development of light bulbs, automobiles and computers, we have created a system in which the spirit of innovation has been hijacked to find better ways to cheat society for personal gain.

We have to face the reality that regulators alone can never keep ahead of the cheaters. An unfortunate aspect of human nature is that some people will always try (and succeed) at “gaming” the system, no matter how prescient and attentive our regulators.

I believe the solution to the current and historical problems with capitalism is to enact two pieces of regulation.

First, we must never again allow any company to become “too big to fail.” Companies, by their very nature, take risk. Because of the competitive nature of capitalism, there is no amount of regulation, transparency or prudence that can successfully prevent companies from occasionally failing. This is especially true of banks, which will always be tempted to increase profits by pushing the risk envelope and will always find ways to do so.

Just as traditional commercial bank regulators have the authority to curb an excessively risky bank, we need to enforce a limit on the size of non-bank financial entities. This measure could help stop the inevitable failures that cause the systemic failures for which we are all now paying.

Second, and the most pertinent to Mr. Buffett, is that we need to promote, not stamp out, short-selling. It is only through the use of the skeptical force of short selling that those who would seek to inflate their company’s value by hiding or manipulating information will be forced to provide transparency that regulations could never mandate.

The wonderful thing about a stronger system of upward and downward pressure is that it forces companies to be more accountable. And if there is anything lacking these days, it is accountability among managements.

So instead of an activist like Carl Icahn trying to take over the board of a company, he could simply raise a “short” fund to target companies that have loaded their boards with cronies and yes-men.

Or the next time Warren Buffett labels something like derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction,” he could instead tell us which companies to bet against. This will force these companies to change their behavior more than any government regulation ever can.

There is a reason why CEOs who helped get us into this mess regularly blame short sellers for their failures.

It is because short selling forces CEOs to either disclose what they are doing or suffer consequences for their secrecy. But rather than admit to 40-1 leverage, they loudly stigmatize those who would dare to bet against their companies.

Unfortunately, merely choosing “not to buy a stock” is not enough to force this kind of necessary transparency, for there is always a “greater fool” down the road to buy it. We need to actively punish these companies and managers in our role as profit-minded investors.

In simplest terms, choosing not to buy a stock because you don’t like the company is like refusing to be friends with a drunk. But shorting a stock is like sending a drunk into rehab. Many of these companies, drunk with money and neglectful of risk, should have been sent to rehab a long time ago.

Obviously, we can never again allow the system to become so vulnerable to inevitable future corporate failures. But just as obviously, we can also no longer trust government alone to catch the cheaters and liars that have bastardized American capitalism.

Let’s apply the human nature that creates these problems to expose and punish them financially. We must no longer pay heed to disgraced CEOs who falsely claim that their downfall was caused by “those evil short sellers.”

Let’s face it - sober people do not mistakenly end up in rehab because it is so easy to prove that they are sober. But when we discover they are regularly drunk at lunch, that’s where we can send them.

I can think of no one better than Warren Buffett to be that kind of friend to both our country’s companies and its citizens.

Intimidation Fail


fail owned pwned pictures

Submitted by Karl W

      

Updated with new content



We have relaunched the Azeroth Advisor with newer, fresher content!

The launch of Wrath of the Lich King is our first opportunity to service level 70s with content relevant information, the original reason for the Azeroth Advisor way back when. This new content, classes, skills, instances, all of that, is now part of the AA and makes it more useful than ever for WoW players, regardless of your level!

      

More Unsolicited Advice for Obama


Bruce Schneier for director of TSA.

Pass it on.