Prop 19: Down, But Not Burnt Out–Advocates See Hope for the Future

California’s Prop 19 may have failed, but advocates say 2010 was a turning point in the fight for marijuana-law reform. Here’s what’s next for the pro-pot movement

On Tuesday, despite last-ditch advertising efforts and a generous donation, the California initiative to legalize pot squeaked to a stop—garnering just 46 percent of the vote. The measure would have allowed for personal possession of up to an ounce of pot, small-scale cultivation, and the ability for local governments to tax the sale of the drug. Yet despite Prop 19’s failure, the first-of-its-kind measure received the highest level of support to date for a statewide legalization initiative. Advocates say victory or failure, this election will go down in history as a turning point in the fight for pot reform—and one that changed the national discourse for good. “Prop 19's loss was incidental compared to its monumentally positive role in elevating and legitimizing the national debate," Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, tells NEWSWEEK. “This thing has transformed the dialogue about marijuana, here and around the world.”

Studies suggest it’s time to kick the multivitamin habit because it could cause some harm…say what?

Don’t you just love it? After all these years of stuffing down daily supplements (some the size of horse pills) just to be on the safe side scientists say we’ve been wasting our time! I don’t want to think about how much money I’ve spent on those little helpers over the years. It appears I might as well have wadded my money up into little balls, soaked them in gasoline, and then lit each one on fire. At least that would have been entertaining.

Moving on…

Daily supplements don't help prevent disease and may actually cause some harm

Excerpt:

“But today, a tsunami of scientific data has resulted in a reversal in thinking among many experts in the health and nutrition community, including Miriam Nelson, PhD, director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity at Tufts University. "The multivitamin as insurance policy is an old wives' tale, and we need to debunk it," she says.”

Mid term election circus over–time to take down the damn signs!

The first order of the day…take down all the eye-polluting campaign signs that have sprouted up on people’s lawns and everywhere else you look.

It looks like Meg Whitman wasn’t able to BUY the governorship of California and Prop 19 failed to make history. It’s time to bow to Aqua Budda in Kentucky as Rand Paul won. No one was interested in having an ex-witch so Christine O’Donnell lost to Democrat Chris Coons in Delaware.

In Nevada, Reid defeated one of the Tea Party's most competitive candidates, Sharron Angle. We won’t get the final tally for weeks, but it looks like Tea Party candidate Joe Miller lost to write-in candidate Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Those associating with the Tea Party voted overwhelmingly Republican this year, backing GOP candidates over Democrats by a margin of 87 percent to 11 percent.

Local Election Results

FROM THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA THIS MORNING:

 New Congress faces tough economic choices -

In bruising Calif. race, Democrat Brown takes statehouse

'Hurricane' ends Democrats' control of House

Alaska Senate race is one big mystery

National overview

Election Day Voting Oddities, Irregularities Across the Nation

 Election Day 2010 ushers in a variety of problems with balloting

From Delaware to California, Election Day 2010 ushered in a variety of voting problems and irregularities.

In Los Angeles, about two dozen California residents received Spanish-language robocalls and mailers instructing them to vote a day after Election Day, a polling watchdog group said Tuesday.

Election Protection said the Hispanic voters in central and southern parts of the city received the reminders telling them to vote on Wednesday, Nov. 3.

U.S. Justice Department officials were investigating the complaints, the group's Los Angeles hotline director Kathay Feng said.

Election Protection said it has received more than 11,000 requests for assistance nationwide, with more than 2,500 of them coming from California voters.

In Delaware, the Christine O'Donnell campaign was asked to "cease and desist" from rallying so loudly outside Kent County polling places that voters inside could hear them, The News Journal of Wilmington reported. The noisy rallies were a technical violation of the election code, State Election Commissioner Elaine Manlove told the paper.

O’Donnell campaign spokesman, Doug Sachtleben told the News Journal the campaign was glad “supporters are passionate and that when told to be a little quieter they gladly did so.”

Manlove said she received a complaint this morning about advance teams for the Republican U.S. Senate candidate arriving at polling places just before the candidate. The group stood beyond the 50-foot line of the polling place but were clapping and talking loud enough to have committed the violation, the paper reported.

Manlove reached an O’Donnell staffer from Delaware Republican headquarters and asked them to stop and was assured ralliers would, the News Journal said.

Incidents were reported at a couple of polling places in Kent County, but Manlove said she didn't know the exact locations, the paper said.

READ MORE HERE

A humanoid robot will travel to the international space station this week on the final flight of the shuttle Discovery

Almost 200 people from 15 countries have visited the international space station, but until now all the crew have been human. This week the station will get its first humanoid robot.

“Robonaut 2 (nicknamed, inevitably, R2) will ride on the final flight of space shuttle Discovery this week and spend the next decade helping astronauts on the space station with scientific research and mundane chores.

The $2.5m (£1.6m) robot, made from aluminium and nickel-plated carbon fibre, stands almost a metre tall and weighs 136kg (300lb). Among more than 40 sensors used to detect its surroundings are four visible-light cameras in its golden head sitting in place of eyes, and a fifth in its mouth to measure infrared light and help with depth perception. R2's 38 computer processors fill up the stomach area, firing commands to its highly dexterous arms and fingers.”

After this election: say hello to gridlock ... and goodbye to recovery

I think what bothers me the most, beside the negative campaigning during these mid term elections, is that no matter what happens…the American people are going to be the losers.

There won’t be change with the election of new faces. We’ll have a firmly entrenched partisan Congress and House that will be unable to pass a single law to help the economy.

I feel for those poor souls who think these elections will change anything. Now, we have to prepare for a new nasty campaign for president in 2012. The presidential campaign will basically start tomorrow. The next two years we’re going to be battered with lies as the country sinks further into political polarization.

 Post-election inaction in D.C. probably won't bode well for the economy

“A standoff between the Obama administration and emboldened Republicans will probably block any new help for an economy squeezed by slow growth and high unemployment. Congress might also create paralyzing uncertainty for investors and businesses by fighting over taxes, deficits, health care and financial regulation.

"We expect massive gridlock and little cooperation," writes Brian Gardner, Washington analyst for the financial firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.”

I always suspected that you have to be crazy to run for office

Well, not crazy, but there are certain types of personalities who may be more likely to seek office.

Excerpt: “What we do know about these people, says Dietz president of the forensic consulting firm Park Dietz & Associates, Inc., is that they may often play two general qualities: extroversion and narcissism.”

Excerpt:

“Narcissistic traits are more problematic, of course. These can include a grandiose sense of self-importance, a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited power, and believing he or she is “special.”

Narcissistic people may require excessive admiration, and possess senses of entitlement, envy, and arrogance. They also tend to exploit others and lack empathy. Narcissism may be more prevalent among pols than in the general population, Dietz says, but, he adds, it’s at least as prevalent among news anchors, Hollywood stars, and top trial lawyers as well. “It’s hard to stay humble at the top,” he says.

“Narcissism helps drive achievement and is also fed by uninterrupted success.” Politicians who are exposed for corruption may have their own problems, possibly antisocial traits such as deceptiveness, failure to plan ahead, recklessness, irresponsibility, and lack of remorse, says Dietz. “Most of the politicians who are exposed for corruption have prominent narcissistic and/or antisocial traits.”

A tribute to the beauty of Paper Art surviving in a digital age

 

Helen Musselwhite: Romany Caravan 

 

 

 

 

Indian Tree

 

Lost At E Minor

Paper Drummer

See MORE EXAMPLES HERE

Balloon filled with ground coffee makes ideal robotic gripper

 Graduate student John Amend, left, and associate professor Hod Lipson with the universal robotic gripper. Watch the gripper in action. Robert Barker/University Photography

The human hand is an amazing machine that can pick up, move and place objects easily, but for a robot, this "gripping" mechanism is a vexing challenge. Opting for simple elegance, researchers from Cornell, the University of Chicago and iRobot Corp. have created a versatile gripper using everyday ground coffee and a latex party balloon, bypassing traditional designs based on the human hand and fingers.

Study: Alcohol more dangerous than heroin, cocaine

It’s not news that marijuana was made illegal for racists reasons. Therefore it should come as no surprise there’s no credible reason to outlaw pot. This study points out what we’ve known all along…marijuana is less harmful than booze, heroin, crack cocaine, and crystal meth.

'What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science'

“Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamines, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects and harm to others, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.”

As It Stands: Once upon a Halloween there was this haunted house

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 10/31/2010 01:13:36 AM PDT

The days of young children roaming neighborhoods (without parental escorts) in search of high candy yields on Halloween are long gone. They're just memories.

When I was a kid in the fifties, we didn't worry about apples spiked with razor blades or candies laced with LSD, crack, or cyanide. Or being kidnapped. Without bodyguards, we roamed the autumn night with other small skeletons and monsters seeking free candy.

I recall Halloween in 1959, when a group of us set out to make a mega-haul of goodies. We carried brown shopping bags and each vowed to fill at least two of them before the night's end.

It meant traveling beyond last year's borders, but we were determined. Our little group included Gunther, the class clown. He was twice our size, stuttered constantly and let us boss him around.

Our group consisted of two pirates (I was one of them), a cowboy, an Indian chief and a railroad conductor (Gunther). We all agreed to pass up our regular pranks, like letting the air out of old man Switzer's Ford pickup tires, so we'd have more time to collect candy.

We were all supposed to be home by 10 o'clock. Boys will be boys, and we decided to stay out until midnight, and damn the consequences. Our efforts paid off, and our second bags were nearly full by 11:30. The first bags were stashed safely in the cowboy's backyard shed.

Then we saw the haunted house. We were in an unfamiliar neighborhood but instantly recognized it from the rumors at school. A monstrous old oak tree stood in the front yard and its gnarly limbs seemed to twist and writhe with lives of their own.

A full harvest moon cast an eerie glow on the mansion from a bygone era. Shadows slunk along the porch and one of the shutters beat a mournful dirge in the wind. We were terrified, just looking at it.

Gunther broke the spell, “Tititi...immmmm...eee to g..go ho...omme!” he stuttered in his terror. But no. The rest of us were of one mind. We would enter that huge old Victorian or die trying.

Good old Gunther was selected to lead the way. It took a lot of name-calling and physical threats to get him to agree, but he finally did. We picked our way through the knee-high grass and weeds and carefully padded up the rickety steps of the front porch. The front door was locked.

Gunther saw this as a sign and suggested we give it up. We weren't having any of that. There was a broken window on the side of the house. Our other pirate located it while answering the call of nature.

 It took all of us to boost Gunther high enough to get through the window. He disappeared inside with a loud crash and a scream of absolute horror! We stood riveted beneath the window, goose bumps crawling up and down our bodies. Then his screams abruptly stopped.

We went back to the front porch and milled around trying to decide what to do. None of us was eager to beat down the front door and look for him. Our Indian chief informed us it was almost the witching hour of midnight.

We finally rallied our courage and forced the front door open and went inside. There was no sign of Gunther. “Who's going to tell his mom?” the cowboy wondered. It was clearly time to leave.

When we got to the cowboy's yard, we discovered our first bags of candy were gone. Our carefully stashed bags brimming with sweets had mysteriously disappeared. We went to bed that night wondering what happened to Gunther and who stole the candy?

Interestingly enough, when we went to school on Monday, Gunther surfaced. He didn't seem any the worse for wear. Even more interesting was his new-found sly smile!

As It Stands, have a happy, creepy, and safe Halloween tonight!