ggreenwald As the Obama DOJ will undoubtedly argue, whatever happened to this person is a state secret that no court can review: http://is.gd/fPvdG less than 10 seconds ago via web

♪♫ Tricky - Murder Weapon

Drug users are turning to legal highs - report

Young adults are turning to so-called legal highs as they seek alternatives to other drugs, according to experts.

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse report warned the drugs had emerged as an alternative to the "low quality" of other substances.

Over the past years, the number seeking help for cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin use all fell.

But this was largely down to large reductions in the under 25 age group, as the number of over 40s actually increased.

The NTA believes this reflects the fact the "Trainspotting" generation who got hooked in the 1980s are now ageing and increasingly developing problems linked to their sustained drug use.

Treatment

The findings also chime with British Crime Survey figures which show overall drugs use has been steadily falling in recent years.

Less than 1% of the population use the most harmful drugs - crack cocaine and heroin.

The NTA figures showed that over the past year the number of people needing treatment for cocaine fell by 15% to 7,304, for crack cocaine by 17% to 3,686 and for crack and heroin together by 16% to 21,341.

This is almost entirely due to large falls in the under 25s seeking treatment as the over 40s have been rising in recent years.

For example, the number of over 40s being treated for crack cocaine or heroin use has risen by a third over the last four years.

The report, compiled with the help of Glasgow University, warned there was some anecdotal evidence of a move towards synthetic compounds known as legal highs, such as mephedrone, among younger age groups.

However, the NTA said it had yet to see many people wanting treatment for these, although it warned that could happen in time.

Peter Kelsey, of Lifeline Redcar and Cleveland, which helps drug users, said: "People hear the word legal and they think safe. Yet it's anything but.

"We're seeing a big rise in people coming to use because of legal highs, which we think may be down to the poor quality and price of coke and the legal aspect."

The government has already responded to the use of so-called legal highs.

Mephedrone - also known as Meow, Bubbles and M-Cat - was banned and made a class B drug in April.

The Home Office has also announced plans for year-long bans that could be introduced quickly if new drugs take off.

NTA chief executive Paul Hayes said the agency now had to "refocus" the treatment system in response to these trends.

@'BBC'

Just FUCK OFF Hicks...

Hicks set to fight Liverpool sale to NESV in High Court 

 However:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4746910/LFC%20company%20articles.pdf

"Appointment and Retirement of Directors

81. (a) Each director appointed to the office of chairman of the board of directors of the Company may appoint any person as director of the Company and may remove and director (other than George N. Gillett Jnr and/or Thomas O Hicks). Any appointment or removal shall be made in writing and signed by the then current chairman."

The Current chairman being Martin Broughton.

The timing of this deal being made known is also important as 10 days are required to change the structure of the board so if Hicks found a way to do so he'd still run out of time before the RBS loan repayment deadline kicked in. The deal was made known 9 days before that deadline.

This was followed by a comment from a Guardian writer:

That 81a) is exactly the paragraph in Liverpool's articles of association which Broughton is relying on. They were changed on May 28, which has to be done with the approval of 75% of a company's shareholders, which means for them to be valid, Hicks and Gillett had to approve them.

Broughton insisted on that as a condition of taking over - that only he has the right to change directors. That meant he, Purslow and Ayre would always have a majority on the board.

He is also saying, confirmed by RBS yesterday, that Hicks and Gillette signed undertakings with the bank to commit to a sale and not do anything to frustrate "best endeavours" to find a buyer.

Broughton will say in court that he and the board clearly made "best endeavours" because they had a team at Barclays Capital working full time on it, and everybody in the world has known Liverpool is for sale. Throughout the whole search, this US consortium and the other, unnamed Asian one, were the only solid ones which came through, with proof of funds and a genuine commitment to buy.

Despite the brief and not very clear statement from Hicks' US-based spokesman yesterday, it is not at all clear what he is going to argue against that. Possibly claiming that he never approved the articles of association change - even though they require the approval of shareholders. Perhaps that he never actually gave those undertakings to the bank, or that Broughton's efforts do not add up to "best endeavours."

None of which is exactly where he promised Liverpool would be when he and Gillett walked on to the Anfield turf in February 2007 after buying the club with their borrowed money, promising - in their own official offer document:

"To strive to ensure the club is in the best position possible to achieve sustained on pitch success and long term stability. To do everything in their power to uphold the chierished traditions and contrinue to enhance the reputation of the club."

HERE

Future of Music 2010: Copyright czar outlines file-sharing agenda at odds with how many Americans consume music

Why Are We Underusing A Cure For Drug Overdose?

Girlz With Guitarz # 6 ('ooer-missus!')

REpost: Why I don't go out much...(still!)

GREAT NEWS FOLKS

...speaking to a philosophy student earlier who brought up Peter Singer. "Vegetarian?" I asked, yes she said. Wear leather shoes I asked "Only second hand" she replied!

THE COW DOESN'T GET KILLED TWICE!

Kurt Albert RIP

Kurt Albert in lederhosen, holding a stein of beer while dangling from a precipice!!!

Obituary

♪♫ Die Antwoord - Evil Boy

Girlz With Gunz # 130

DAVE STEVENS

via goldenagecomicbookstories

FOR MONA!

Giovanni Bortolani - Fake Too Fake

via

Backyard astronomer discovers supernova

The signs of the major celestial event, a colossal detonation, flashed across the universe for millions of years before reaching the first person on earth to become aware of it: a man in a shed in Dublin.

The achievement of an amateur star-watcher in spotting a supernova, one of the most dramatic events of the heavens, has been hailed as "the biggest thing ever discovered in Irish astronomy". A supernova is a cataclysmic explosion during which a star self-destructs with such force it destroys nearby suns and planets. They are spotted reasonably frequently from Earth, but this is the first ever identified from Ireland. Dave Grennan, a 39-year-old software developer who is a committed watcher of the skies, devotes many hours to astronomy.

He said it was "mind-boggling" to be the first person to witness something which happened in the time of the dinosaurs. "We are watching an event as it is unfolding, yet that event happened nearly 300 million years ago," he said. The time-lag is on a scale almost as difficult to comprehend as Ireland's astronomical debt. The far-away star has been designated "2010ik" after its supernova status was confirmed this week by international astronomy bodies.

Mr Grennan said: "I was going to wrap things up and go to bed, and then I thought, 'Dave, you don't make discoveries in bed – at least not those sort of discoveries'." He said his wife, Carol, was "more excited about this discovery than I was", adding with a certain inevitability: "She was over the moon." A former chairman of Astronomy Ireland, Mr Grennan made his discovery while poring over photographs he had taken of a galaxy called UGC 112 from his compact but well-equipped backyard observatory. The signs were tiny but his long experience helped him spot them – he has been interested in astronomy since he was a boy.

He has examined thousands of galaxies over the past decade, and in recent years has also identified two asteroids. "I find myself wondering if there were some poor souls living on planets surrounding the star when it exploded," he said. "We'll never know."

David Moore, chairman of Astronomy Ireland, said it was an unusual supernova which would interest scientists worldwide. "We could not find words to explain it, I've been waiting for this to happen for decades," he said.

The star will be visible through powerful telescopes for up to three months.

David McKittrick @'The Independent'

October 16th: International day of Action against Agribusiness and Monsanto

On the occasion of the meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, and to mark World Food Day on October 16, 2010, La Via Campesina calls for actions around the world to denounce the role of agribusinesses such as Monsanto and their destruction and corporatization of biodiversity and life.

Even though the UN declared 2010 the International year of Biodiversity, the CBD is meeting at a time of unprecedented biodiversity destruction. As well as animals, insects and birds, the world is also seeing the disappearance of thousands of plant varieties as agribusiness destroys, contaminates and privatizes the World Heritage stored inside the seeds and plants nurtured by generations of farmers over thousands of years of agriculture on Earth. Since 1900, approximately 90% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost from farmer's fields. Biodiversity is also endangered by land-grabbing and the displacement of communities who are actually protecting biodiversity.

Agribusiness corporations are attempting to monopolize seeds through the use of hybrid seeds, patents and laws that make farmers' seeds illegal. Intellectual property rights systems that are upheld or enforced by institutions such as WTO or TRIPS are putting nature into private hands. Monsanto has become a true giant – the company owns almost a quarter of the patented seed market worldwide, and keeps taking over seeds companies particularly in Europe. The top ten biggest companies control almost 70% of the world's seeds. The company is now entering the “aid business”, selling its seeds in Africa with the Bill Gates Foundation through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)”.

Not only do the TNCs sell seeds, they also provide toxic chemicals with devastating effects. Huge monocultures treated with cocktails of agrochemicals will further destroy the world's biodiversity as well as peasant communities. In the world of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and others, there is no space for biodiversity, just uniformity, biotechnology and profit.

Within the decision making spaces on climate change, agribusiness promotes aggressively technologies that destroy biodiversity such as transgenic trees plantations or GM seeds, solutions which are fasly presented as better adapted to the new climate.

La Via Campesina knows that the future of our planet depends on our ability to protect, nurture and promote agro biodiversity. We, peasant men and women propose to develop the richness and diversity of our farms, plant varieties, cultures and traditions. Seeds are part of the World Heritage and should remain into public and community-based use, not private ownership.

It is the model of peasant agriculture in its diversity that will allow us to adapt to the demographic and climatic changes which are already upon us.

As we confront the agribusinesses in our fields through promoting our alternatives, we refuse to recognize their “rights” as owners of the planet's biodiversity and we will also confront them through political actions in the coming weeks, at the FAO, the CBD and the UN Climate Talks (UNFCCC).

We call for Actions worldwide around October 16th to protect biodiversity and confront transnational corporations such as Monsanto.

HERE