Portugal: 10 Years of Decriminalized Drugs

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Here’s a good Boston Globe report on the first decade of Portugal’s bold experiment with drug decriminalization and increased treatment. Ten years ago, Portugal — whose drug problem had been spiraling out of control — decided to treat drug addiction as a public health matter, not as a criminal matter. They decriminalized possession of drugs, and increased treatment available to addicts, and experienced an immediate, dramatic and sustained drop in negative effects from drug use — though the use of some drugs went up…

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Ben & Jerry’s Factory to Convert Ice Cream Waste into Energy

Ben & Jerry's BIOPAQ AFR from Paques - 3D artist impression

Green Energy Never Seemed Sweeter.

Unilever is taking a Ben & Jerry’s factory in the Netherlands a green step forward: constructing a bio-digester that will convert the waste products from ice cream production and provide for 40 percent of the factory’s green energy requirements.

Made by Paques and expected to be operational a little later this year, the BIOPAQ®AFR is not like bio-digesters of old.

Paques describes:

After a successful test period, Unilever has opted for a new type of bio-digester from Paques, the BIOPAQ®AFR, in which natural micro-organisms (in this case more than 24 billiard (24•1015) little bugs!) ‘eat’ waste products and convert them into biogas. In this system, wastewater is purified by converting waste products from ice cream production such as milk, cream, proteins, syrups and pieces of fruit into biogas.

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Alcohol Placebos Can Impair Memory

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Even as you look at this picture you are getting forgetful.

It’s common knowledge that drinking alcohol can impair your memory but what about simply suggesting that you’ve drunk alcohol?

Turns out, alcohol placebos can also impair your memory and judgment…

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Bank in India Launches Branch Without Locks

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Shani Shingnapur, the world famous temple town in Maharashtra where houses have neither doors nor locks, now befittingly has its first commercial bank branch with no locks on its front door. The public sector UCO Bank is the first to throw open the doors of commercial banking to this unique town of 3,000 people. Bowing to local religious sentiments, the bank last week decided to open the branch without a lock on its front door…

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Time Running Out For Many Bird Species in Turkey

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The White-Headed Duck is among many threatened fowl.

Dozens of starlings in the Karacabey district of Turkey’s Bursa province were among the victims of a recent spate of mass animal deaths around the world that initially provoked much international alarm. But though scientists have emphasized such incidents are not a sign of broader dangers, plenty of real threats face many of the hundreds of bird species in Turkey…

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The Plight of Female Drug Addicts in Afghanistan

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Addiction strikes many women in Afghanistan.

Photographer Rafaela Persson has lived in Afghanistan since 2008, and spends time getting to know her subjects.

I had an idea to photograph female drug addicts. Afghanistan is the world’s biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived. According to a study made by U.N. Drugs and Crimes Office in 2010, the rate of drug addiction in Afghanistan is twice the global average; Afghans have become the leading consumers of their own opium.  Approximately one million Afghans, or eight percent of the war-shattered country’s total population is suffering from drug addiction, a 75 percent increase since 2005. What is even more alarming is that studies show that 50 percent of Afghanistan’s opium-using parents give the drug to their own children…

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Man Arrested for Tunneling Into GameStop to Steal Games

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Taking the Video Game Pirate Thing to a new Level!

There are many sides of the to-pirate-or-not-to-pirate debate.  From those who think that pirating is wrong on principle, to those who think that pirating a game is a universal right, to those who love to pay money for all of their games but don’t think twice about ripping a copy of StarCraft for a friend, and more.

But there’s one thing that they can all agree on.  It’s hard to think of a dumber way to pirate games than to trying to tunnel into a retail store.

But nevertheless, 33 year old Steven Archer was arrested this Thursday in Tennessee for breaking into a vacant building and using it as a base to tunnel into his local GameStop next door….

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Calcium Supplements Linked to Heart Attacks: Feed Your Bones Instead

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Calcium supplements have been linked to increased heart attack risk.

A study published in the British Medical Journal via Natural Awakenings found thatcalcium supplements can increase your risk of a heart attack by as much as 31 percent. The new research looked at 11 studies on 11,921 individuals. It’s scary stuff for those at risk of heart disease and osteoporosis, both of which plague the U.S. But it’s also more proof that the best way to feed your body the nutrients it needs isn’t through supplementation, but through your diet. How can you feed your bones? Well you may be surprised at the foods with the highest percentages of calcium…

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Treadmill Allows You to Take a Virtual Run Anywhere on Google Earth

During CES last week, Panasonic connected a Nordic Track treadmill to the Internet, and the result is a stationary run using Google Maps that feels real.

A Panasonic Viera Connect HDTV displays Google Maps and communicates inclinations of hills and valleys to the treadmill. The machine is smart enough to incline itself at the appropriate times, matching those hills every step of the way…

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34,000-Year-Old Organisms Found Buried Alive!

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Salt, is that you?

It’s a tale that has all the trappings of a cult 1960s sci-fi movie: Scientists bring back ancient salt crystals, dug up from deep below Death Valley for climate research. The sparkling crystals are carefully packed away until, years later, a young, unknown researcher takes a second look at the 34,000-year-old crystals and discovers, trapped inside, something strange. Something … alive…

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Genetically Modified Crops That Glow Green When Stressed

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Genetically altered Arabdopsis Thaliana plant, with green fluorescent protein (GFP) inserted near the on/off
switches for anoxia and drought genes. Cells expressing those genes glow green under a blue light (as shown).

A group of University of Tennessee plant scientists has genetically modified tobacco plants so that the plants will give off a phosphorescent green “glow” when plant immune systems are under stress – as might be caused by plant pathogens, drought, insects, etc. (The stress-indicating fluorescent proteins can be detected by scientific instruments only, as pictured above.) To implement this on a commercial basis, it is hypothesized, farmers would scatter the day-glow plants amidst a far greater number of normal plants, each GM plant serving as an attack sentinel for the surrounding a crop zone…

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By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

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