Stoned To Death

✦ Inflatable Sex Doll & Adult Toy Manufacturing in Ningbo

February 13th, this reporter visited an inflatable sex doll factory in Ningbo. This factory began producing plastic blow up dolls 3 years ago. Today, it has 13 varieties/models, with an average selling price of 100 yuan RMB. Last year, this factory sold a total of over 50,000 inflatable dolls, with 15% of them being exported to Japan, Korea, and Turkey. Photo [above] is of February 13th, where a worker is organizing a batch of unfinished blow up dolls.

✦ How the Surging Popularity of ‘Himalayan Viagra’ Is Causing Murder and Violence in Nepal

Yarsagumba is the result of a bizarre parasitic relationship between fungus and insect. Spores of the Cordyceps mushroom invade and consume the larvae of the Himalayan bat moth, which live underground at altitudes of 10,000 to 16,000 feet for as long as five years, feeding on roots before they commence their metamorphosis into moths. After the fungal spores have killed and mummified the larvae, they send up a spindly brown stem, a tiny knob-headed mushroom – and then they are very likely to be picked. There have been many attempts to farm yarsagumba, but none has ever succeeded. The only way the precious fungus can grow is by the fortuitous concurrence of spore and larva in alpine atmospheric conditions – and brave collectors must be willing to risk their lives to collect it.

✦ ‘Better a dictator than gay’: Belarus leader

The mercurial Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko lashed out Sunday at recent sanctions imposed by Europe over his rights record by saying he would rather be branded a dictator than be gay. Lukashenko said in impromptu remarks at a mass ski event that the foreign ministers of Poland and Germany, who had spearheaded the diplomatic offensive against his government, were outsiders who deserved public scorn. “One lives in Warsaw and the other in Berlin,” Lukashenko said in apparent reference to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. “As for the second one who was screaming about a dictatorship… Having heard that, I thought to myself: better to be a dictator than gay.” Lukashenko last year said he had once told Westerwelle, who is openly gay, during a meeting that “he must lead a normal life”. He later apologised for his remarks but added that he “did not like gays.”

✦ George Washington McNugget Buyer Won’t Pay $8,100 After All

The winner of an eBay auction for the McDonald’s McNugget shaped like George Washington has apparently decided $8,100 is no bargain after all. Rebekah Speight told the Sioux City Journal the winning buyer of her eBay auction was “very sorry” to have backed out of the deal. The Dakota City, Neb. resident said she planned to offer her patriotic piece of chicken to the auction’s second-highest bidder for $8,000, though she expected that deal would fall through too. The bidder lives overseas and Speight told the Journal she couldn’t guarantee her McNugget would stay frozen during its journey.

✦ Invisible Children Funded By Antigay, Creationist Christian Right

Why does it matter, if Invisible Children was funded by controversial donors? Two reasons – one, we can assume those donors thought IC aligned with their agenda – which is antagonistic to LGBT rights. Two, it fits an emerging pattern in which Invisible Children appears selectively concerned about crimes committed by Joseph Kony but indifferent to crimes, perhaps on a bigger scale, committed by their provisional partner, the government of Uganda – whose president shot his way into power using child soldiers, before Joseph Kony began using child soldiers. Like Kony, the government of Uganda was also indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005, for human rights abuses and looting in the DRC Congo (PDF file of ICC ruling against Uganda). Like Kony, the Ugandan army preys upon civilians and is currently accused, by Western human rights groups, with raping and looting in the DRC Congo, where it is hunting for Kony.

✦ America’s first slave owner was a black man.

When Anthony was released he was legally recognized as a “free Negro” and ran a successful farm. In 1651 he held 250 acres and five black indentured servants. In 1654, it was time for Anthony to release John Casor, a black indentured servant. Instead Anthony told Casor he was extending his time. Casor left and became employed by the free white man Robert Parker. Anthony Johnson sued Robert Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654. In 1655, the court ruled that Anthony Johnson could hold John Casor indefinitely. The court gave judicial sanction for blacks to own slave of their own race. Thus Casor became the first permanent slave and Johnson the first slave owner. Whites still could not legally hold a black servant as an indefinite slave until 1670. In that year, the colonial assembly passed legislation permitting free whites, blacks, and Indians the right to own blacks as slaves.

✦ Feds: Cocaine mule, 87, a key link in Mexico-Detroit drug trade

The indictment provides new details on an unusual drug case involving an octogenarian alleged drug mule and a powerful international narcotics ring. “Shedding light on this conspiracy makes it quite clear that the Mexican drug cartels are open for business right here in our backyard,” U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Robert Corso said. The lead defendant is an 87-year-old mutton-chopped man from Michigan City, Ind., who made a colorful appearance in federal court last fall. That man, Leo Sharp, told The News he was forced at gunpoint to deliver cocaine across the country. The indictment, unsealed Thursday, alleges otherwise. He’s worked as a drug mule since 2009 and is responsible for delivering about 670 kilograms of cocaine to Michigan — or almost 1,500 pounds, according to court records.

✦ How Corporations Corrupt Science at the Public’s Expense

Corrupting the Science. Corporations suppress research, intimidate scientists, manipulate study designs, ghostwrite scientific articles, and selectively publish results that suit their interests. Shaping Public Perception. Private interests downplay evidence, exaggerate uncertainty, vilify scientists, hide behind front groups, and feed the media slanted news stories. Restricting Agency Effectiveness. Companies attack the science behind agency policy, hinder the regulatory process, corrupt advisory panels, exploit the “revolving door” between corporate and government employment, censor scientists, and withhold information from the public. Influencing Congress. By spending billions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions, corporate interests gain undue access to members of Congress, encouraging them to challenge scientific consensus, delay action on critical problems, and shape the use of science in policy making.

✦ Outbreak of kidney failure in Wyoming linked to “Spice”

Three young people have been hospitalized with kidney failure and a dozen others sickened in Casper, Wyoming, in an outbreak linked to a batch of the designer drug Spice, authorities said on Friday. State medical officials said the cause of the outbreak was under investigation but reported that Casper residents who have sought medical treatment for vomiting and back pain had recently smoked or ingested a chemical-laced herbal product packaged as “blueberry spice.”

✦ ‘Lollipipe’ crackpipe-like candy taken off store shelf

According to Sgt. Paul Kolonich, the product is called Lollipipe. He said it is more likely to be misused to smoke marijuana, but not crack cocaine. The pipes contain a plastic toke tube, an airtight pouch and a cigar band for no-stick handling. They are promoted for legal substances only and are reusable. Police said the station owner is active in the community and is a good business neighbor. Because the product is not illegal and no police report was made, the name of the business is not being made public. Kolonich said the owner willingly removed the candy pipes from shelves. He said the owner told him he did not carefully inspect the product and did not realize what they were. The pipes come in strawberry, green apple, watermelon, peach, blueberry, blue raspberry, grape and cherry. Kolonich said they were on sale for $5.99. “They are only illegal if they are used with marijuana,” he said.

✦ Banker kills himself with caffeine pills overdose

A bank worker killed himself by taking a massive overdose of caffeine pills, an inquest ruled yesterday. Tests on Edward Fisher’s body showed he had 120 times more caffeine in his body than an average coffee or tea drinker. The Barclays support analyst, 24 – who days earlier told his mum he had stopped taking medication to treat psychiatric problems – killed himself after a family meal, the inquest heard. He was taken to Macclesfield Hospital in Cheshire but died the following day last August. A pathologist’s report said the level of caffeine found in the blood of coffee and tea drinkers was around 3mg per litre of blood but Edward’s was 367mg.

✦ Phony Postal Inspector Busted For Swiping Pot Shipments

On the hunt for illegal narcotics being shipped via Express Mail, a Michigan man allegedly repeatedly entered a sorting facility, claimed to be a postal inspector, and walked out with dozens of parcels, many of which contained marijuana, investigators charge. According to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Calvin Coolidge Wiggins, 31, said, “You got me” when questioned Saturday morning by federal agents who had arrested him outside the Priority Mail Center in Romulus. Wiggins is pictured at right. Wiggins, an investigator reported, admitted that he “previously had been involved in mailing Marijuana via USPS Express Mail and was tired of having the parcels seized.” So he allegedly sought to seize the parcels of other drug traffickers.

✦ Ron Paul wins first caucus, mainstream media calls it for Romney

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul won his first caucus over the weekend, but the mainstream media by-and-large reported Mitt Romney the victor instead. Voters in the US Virgin Islands hit the polls on Saturday to nominate an opponent for Barack Obama, and although Texas Congressman Ron Paul garnered more popular votes than any of his rivals, mainstream media outlets were quick to call the contest in favor of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. While more votes were cast for Ron Paul, Romney walked away with the most delegates this weekend. For The Associated Press and others, that was enough to call the contest in favor of the conservative founder of Bain Capital.

✦ 90 students in Iraq stoned to death for having ‘Emo hair and tight clothes’

Youngsters in Iraq are being stoned to death for having haircuts and wearing clothes that emulate the ‘emo’ style popular among western teenagers. At least 14 youths have been killed in the capital Baghdad in the past three weeks in what appears to be a campaign by Shia militants. Militants in Shia neighbourhoods, where the stonings have taken place, circulated lists yesterday naming more youths targeted to be killed if they do not change the way they dress. The killings have taken place since Iraq’s interior ministry drew attention to the ‘emo’ subculture last month, labelling it ‘Satanism’ and ordering the community police force to stamp it out. Fans of the ‘emo’ trend – short for emotional – wear tight jeans and have distinctive long, black or spiky haircuts.

✦ Fukushima residents report various illnesses [Video]

A debate is raging in Japan over the extent of the radiation contamination in the wake of last year’s nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

✦ Cocktail of Popular Drugs May Cloud Brain

Many people are unaware that dozens of painkillers, antihistamines and psychiatric medications — from drugstore staples to popular antidepressants — can adversely affect brain function, mostly in the elderly. Regular use of multiple medications that have this effect has been linked to cognitive impairment and memory loss. Called anticholinergics, the drugs block the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, sometimes as a direct action, but often as a side effect. Acetylcholine is a chemical messenger with a range of functions in the body, memory production and cognitive function among them.

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