Chewang Norphel, 76, has "built" 12 new glaciers already and is racing to create five more before he dies. By then he hopes he will have trained enough new "icemen" to continue his work and save the world's "third icecap" from being transformed into rivers. 
If there is a border that bass will not cross, Bill laswell doesn’t know it. Since his breakout moment on Herbie Hancock’s 1983 mega-hit “Rockit,” the New York visionary has lent his production, remix, and conception skills to nearly 1,000 albums across a dizzying array of labels and categories. More than any other icon in the short history of the electric bass, Laswell has developed a subgenre all his own: bass-heavy musical cross-pollinations on the cutting edge of turntable, ambient, dub, world music, and drum-n-bass innovations.
Here is the Grateful Dead with 'Dark Star>Jam>
Formed in Orlando, FL in the summer of 2007, Strangers Family Band--a five-piece consisting of members in their early twenties--gained recognition and a following from their intense live shows and unique take on psychedelia. The experience transports the listener from ominous vaudevillian progressions ('Beware The Autumn People') to ukulele strummed pop a'la Sgt. Pepper ('No One Sees Her') to North Indian raga-influenced drone ('Strange Transmission') like an uninterrupted stream of consciousness. A full sensory experience is characteristic of their live performances, which include cascading oil and water projections and the frequent accompaniment of a horn section. The influence of Ashbury-Haight's acid rock, NYC's Factory heyday, and the British psych explosion are evident in their sound. These comparisons do not hold the band down to the limitations of throw-back 'retrodelia' however; instead, the band expounds upon the influence of its predecessors, establishing themselves as new, modern innovators rather than mere revisionists. Comparisons to Syd Barrett, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Doors, and the Beatles have been made as reference points. They have also been compared to The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Black Angels, and The Entrance Band.
The UK's chief drugs adviser has been sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, after criticising government policies.Professor David Nutt, head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B from C.
He accused ministers of devaluing and distorting evidence and said drugs classification was being politicised.
The home secretary said he had "lost confidence" in his advice and asked him to step down.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is the UK's official drugs advisory body.
Following his sacking, Prof Nutt told the BBC he stood by his claim that cannabis should not be a Class B drug, based on its effects.
He described his sacking as a "serious challenge to the value of science in relation to the government".
And he denied that he had been trying to undermine the government's policies on drugs.
"I am disappointed because, to be honest, all I was trying to do was help. I wasn't challenging the government," said the former adviser.
"We can help them. We can give them very good advice, and it would be much more simpler if they took that advice rather than getting tangled up in other sorts of messages which frankly really do confuse the public."
Prof Nutt said he was not prepared to "mislead" the public about the effects of drugs in order to convey a moral "message" on the government's behalf.
Earlier this week Prof Nutt used a lecture at King's College, London, to attack what he called the "artificial" separation of alcohol and tobacco from illegal drugs.
The professor said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness.
Phil Willis MP, chairman of the science and technology select committee, said he would write to the home secretary to ask for clarification as to why Prof David Nutt had been sacked "at a time when independent scientific advice to government is essential".
"It is disturbing if an independent scientist should be removed for reporting sound scientific advice," he said.
Public concern over the links between high-strength cannabis, known as skunk, and mental illness led the government to reclassify cannabis to Class B last year.
In the past, Prof Nutt has also claimed that taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse.
In a letter, the home secretary wrote: "I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy and have therefore lost confidence in your ability to advise me as chair of the ACMD.
"I would therefore ask you to step down from the Council with immediate effect."
In his reply, Prof Nutt said he was "disappointed" by the sentiments expressed by Mr Johnson.
He added: "Whilst I accept that there is a distinction between scientific advice and government policy there is clearly a degree of overlap.
"If scientists are not allowed to engage in the debate at this interface then you devalue their contribution to policy making and undermine a major source of carefully considered and evidence-based advice."
'Disgraceful' decision
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said the sacking had been "an inevitable decision" after Prof Nutt's "latest ill-judged contribution to the debate".
But Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the decision to sack the adviser had been "disgraceful".
"What is the point of having independent scientific advice if as soon as you get some advice that you don't like, you sack the person who has given it to you?" he said.
Mr Huhne said if the government did not want to take expert scientific advice, it might as well have "a committee of tabloid newspaper editors to advise on drugs policy".
Similarly, Claudia Rubin from Release - a national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law - said the expert should not have been penalised.
Cannabis reclassification
"It's a real shame and a real indictment of the government's refusal to take any proper advice on this subject," she said.
And Prof Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at Oxford University and former chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said the government could not expect experts who serve on its independent committees not to voice their concern if the advice they give is rejected.
"I worry that the dismissal of Prof Nutt will discourage academic and clinical experts from offering their knowledge and time to help the government in the future," he said.
Possession of Class B drugs carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail while possession of Class C drugs carries a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.
In 2004, then Home Secretary David Blunkett had approved the reclassification of cannabis from Class B - which it had been since 1971 - to Class C.
But in 2008, Jacqui Smith announced that she would reverse the 2004 decision and put cannabis back into category B.
The decision was taken despite official advisers recommending against the change.
Ministers said they wanted to make the move as a precautionary measure.
The internet regulator has approved plans to allow non-Latin-script web addresses, in a move that is set to transform the online world.The board of Icann voted at its annual meeting in Seoul to allow domain names in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.
More than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts.
It is being described as the biggest change to the way the internet works since it was created 40 years ago.
“Do I have the right to refuse this search?” This is a question I heard many times during my law enforcement career. Often my answer was no. But occasionally it would be “yes,” followed by an admonition to have a good day. For the last half of my career, I would have documented each interaction, whether or not it involved an arrest. I would have written down the nature and length of the interaction, the gender, race, and age of the person, and the outcome of the contact (arrest, citation, etc.). I carry the baggage of this history with me as I’ve traveled over the last eight years, mindlessly placing my luggage on the conveyer belt and removing my shoes for TSA inspection.Recently, something changed.
Excellent article written by Deirdre Walker. She retired recently as the Assistant Chief of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Police. She spent 24 years as a police officer.
(Thanx Lochie!)
The Government’s chief drug adviser has suggested that Ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than both alcohol and cigarettes. David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, attacked the decision to make cannabis a Class B drug. He accused the former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who reclassified the drug, of “distorting and devaluing” scientific research.
Professor Nutt said smoking cannabis created only a “relatively small risk” of psychotic illness, adding that all drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, should be ranked by a “harm” index.
He said that alcohol came fifth behind cocaine, heroin, barbiturates and methadone, while tobacco should rank ninth, ahead of cannabis, LSD and Ecstasy. His views are published today as a briefing paper for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London.
"To base punishment on the weight of the carrier medium makes about as much sense as basing punishment on the weight of the defendant."
Something that amazed me earlier today was that if you are caught with 100 doses of LSD in liquid form in the US you would probably get a year sentence. However if the same 100 doses were in blotter form you would get a 2 to 3 year sentence, if they were on sugar cubes you would get 15 years because they include the "carrier medium" for LSD in calculating the drug's weight for sentencing purposes!
Meanwhile this editorial in The Washington Post talks about the disparity in sentencing between cocaine and crack in the US...
