(CNN) -- The U.S. should stop arresting responsible marijuana users, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound, of the substance.

Rep. Barney Frank's bill would radically curb federal penalties for personal marijuana use.

Current laws targeting marijuana users place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, punish ill Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance and unfairly affect African-Americans, said Frank, flanked by legislators and representatives from advocacy groups.

"The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said on Capitol Hill. "I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."

The Massachusetts Democrat and his supporters emphasized that only the use -- and not the abuse -- of marijuana would be decriminalized if the resolution resulted in legislation.

Labels: decriminalize, marijuana

2. University of Mississippi, University, Miss.

3. Penn State University, University Park, Pa.

4. West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.

5. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

6. Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Va.

7. University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

8. University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

9. University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.

10. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.

" (AP)

Madison, what happened to you ?

?If the government increases the price of fuel any more, my business will collapse totally,? said the boat captain, Sinar, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

From Mexico to India to China, governments fearful of inflation and street protests are heavily subsidizing energy prices, particularly for diesel fuel. But the subsidies ? estimated at $40 billion this year in China alone ? are also removing much of the incentive to conserve fuel.

The oil company BP, known for thorough statistical analysis of energy markets, estimates that countries with subsidies accounted for 96 percent of the world?s increase in oil use last year ? growth that has helped drive prices to record levels." (NY Times)

Or we can simply attribute them to growing prosperity of developing economies and their crazy appetite for energy.

and " Sinar, who like many Indonesians uses only one name" - WTF, you journalist people tell me whether you have a line in your element of style guidance to always write "xxxx, who like many Indonesians uses only one name". There are 17 million Google hits on that sentence because it shows up every time someone from Indonesia was quoted in an article.

Seventeen blasts within an hour hit residential areas, crowded markets, a train station and a bus in Gujarat state's commercial capital, they added." (BBC)

Fuck.

5:08 p.m: The huge amount of people hoping to gain entry to the Fan Mile is causing big hold-ups. It is currently taking around half an hour to gain entry to the area." (spiegel)

The magazine has a live ticker following the countdown the a speech by "The One" in Berlin, Germany.

It strips me of all confidence in writing for the magazine. No exaggeration. i've got a review to write this morning and i really don't feel like doing it, for fear that some nuance is going to be removed from the final line, the pay-off, and i'm going to have another weekend ruined for me.

I've been writing for The Times for 15 years and i have never asked this before - i have never asked it of anyone i have written for - but I must insist, from now on, that i am sent a proof of every review i do, in pdf format, so i can check it for fuck-ups. and i must be sent it in good time in case changes are needed. It is the only way i can carry on in the job.

And, just out of interest, I'd like whoever made that change to email me and tell me why. Tell me the exact reasoning which led you to remove that word from my copy." (Guardian)

But all that was overshadowed last night as for the first time in history Miss Kosovo took her place amongst the 81 finalists of the Miss Universe pageant watched by a television audience of 1 billion. Now that?s international legitimacy if ever there was! Sandwiched between Miss Korea and Miss Malaysia, Zana Krasniqi was a 5?7? green-eyed beauty whose star really shone through.

Miss Kosovo was an instant crowd favorite, and the judges agreed ? putting her through to the Top 10 finalists ? a fantastic feat for a first-time participating country and visibly nervous contestant. If further proof was required that Kosovo had indeed come out from behind Serbia?s shadow, Miss Kosovo easily trounced all her cross-Balkan rivals including Miss Serbia. " (Century Foundation)

- Slow News Day -

The bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday.

As high as they are, though, the bills still aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges." (CNN)

The aide, a senior Downing Street adviser who was with the prime minister on a trip to China earlier this year, had his BlackBerry phone stolen after being picked up by a Chinese woman who had approached him in a Shanghai hotel disco.

The aide agreed to return to his hotel with the woman. He reported the BlackBerry missing the next morning.

The aide, whose identity is known to The Sunday Times, immediately reported the theft to the prime minister?s Special Branch protection team and was informally reprimanded." (Timesonline)

Imagine no garbage cans. Imagine recycling everything that comes through your door. It's not a pipe dream. With a new generation of zero-waste approaches, cities are building systems where everything you buy is designed to be recycled, composted, or disassembled and reused. Instead of being thrown away, materials flow again and again through closed loops. This process saves huge amounts of resources and energy, reduces toxics and creates jobs. So next time you're taking out the trash, imagine what the world would look like without it. Imagine no garbage cans.

Imagine no warning labels. Imagine bringing nothing into your home that isn't safe for you, your children or your pets. It's not a pipe dream. With ideas like non-toxic production and green chemistry we could eliminate the use of chemicals now feared to cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive problems, and remove them from our homes and ecosystems. Scientists have already developed safe non-toxic alternatives for hundreds of once questionable products, from kitchen cleaners to baby toys. So the next time you go to the market, imagine not needing to read the fine print. Imagine no warning labels.

On Thursday, Merrill Lynch announced a loss of $4.8 billion, surprising even the most pessimistic analysts. The loss was largely caused by another $9.7 billion in write-downs in mortgage investments. Merrill was forced to raise capital by selling assets like its 20 percent stake in Bloomberg, the financial data service mostly owned by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York.

Also on Thursday, JPMorgan Chase said its quarterly income fell 53 percent from the second quarter last year." (NY Times)

Is this the bottom? The banks have been performing writedowns for the past 9 months now. It has to end somehow.

"Members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other 'suspicious characters,' with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this list, with little hope of escape," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress needs to fix it, the Terrorist Screening Center needs to fix it, or the next president needs to fix it, but it has to be done soon."" (ACLU)

They just removed "Nelson Mandela" a short while ago from the terrorist watch list.

"Federal regulators seized IndyMac Bancorp on Friday evening, marking one of the largest bank failures in American history.

The bank, once part of the Countrywide Financial Corporation, is the first major bank to shut its doors since the mortgage crisis erupted more than a year ago. (IndyMac is not related to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the big mortgage finance companies that alarmed the stock market this week.)"

(NY Times)

Dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday." (MSNBC)

Labels: nomadlife press corps

Labels: cool, HoboHookah, malaysia, nomadlife press corps

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday." (Guardian)

At the other end of the scale, Canada is the best place to move to if you want to be a climate change survivor in the decades ahead (although Britain is also a good place to be as a warming atmosphere takes hold).

The best-to-worst rankings are revealed in the first-ever climate change vulnerability index, produced by Maplecroft, a British consultancy which specialises in the mapping of risk. Its study, The Climate Change Risk Report, looks in great detail at global warming risks in 168 countries.

Independent

1. El Bulli, Roses, Catalonia, Spain (Best in Europe)
2. The Fat Duck, Bray-on-Thames, UK
3. Pierre Gagnaire, Paris, France
4. Mugaritz, San Sebasti�n, Spain (Chef's Choice)
5. The French Laundry, California, USA (Best in the Americas)
6. per se, New York, USA
7. Bras, Laguiole, France
8. Arzak, San Sebasti�n, Spain
9. Tetsuya's, Sydney, Australia (Best in Australasia)
10. Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark
11. L'Astrance, Paris, France
12. Gambero Rosso, San Vincenzo, Italy
13. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London, UK
14. L'Atelier de Jo�l Robuchon, Paris, France
15. Restaurant Le Louis XV, Monaco
16. St John, London, UK (Highest Climber)
17. Jean-Georges, New York, USA
18. Alain Ducasse au Plaza Ath�n�e, Paris, France
19. Hakkasan, London, UK
20. Le Bernardin, New York, USA
21. *Alinea, Chicago, USA" (wikipedia)

?I gave myself 50 worms, and I felt it,? he recounted. ?I had stomach pains and diarrhea. But with 10 worms, we?ve ascertained a dose that does not cause symptoms. The patients are happy. They?ve kept their worms, and I get an e-mail a day from people all over the world who want to be infected.?" (NY Times)