November 5, 2013

Art Bell Leaves SiriusXM

Art Bell, the radio icon that joined the SiriusXM line-up on September 16th is leaving the air after just a month and a half. While passionate satellite radio fans may not want to hear it, his reasons for leaving boiled down to three main things:

SiriusXM’s web player is notoriously unreliable, causing a loss of subscribers and a degraded listening experience for those who remain listening online.

For a “caller driven” show, the caller pool for art’s show is just too small.

International listeners have no legitimate way to hear the show.

This is not the first time that we have heard issues relating to the Internet platform offered up by SiriusXM. There have been a host of issues from the functionality to being booted off, to having longer shows reset from the beginning after an hour and a half, making it almost impossible to listen to a 2 hour show on demand.

When signed by SiriusXM, Bell had only glowing things to say:

“SiriusXM is the perfect fit for me and my new show Art Bell’s Dark Matter,” said Art Bell. “Though invisible, dark matter accounts for gravitational forces observed in the universe—expect these forces to be at work in the uncensored, unrestricted creative arena of satellite radio, a medium with truly extraterrestrial reach.”

It would appear that after just a short period of time, second thoughts emerged.


http://siriusbuzz.com/art-bell-leaves-siriusxm.php

He will continue his show on the web

November 5, 2013

Can you crowd fund a manhunt for Joseph Kony?

Can you crowd-fund the hunt for a war criminal on the run deep in Africa's jungles? A Canadian adventurer with experiences in Afghanistan and Somalia wants to do just that: raise funds and take a small band of former soldiers to find Joseph Kony.

Robert Young Pelton, whose plan has already drawn criticism from a pair of Africa experts, is the latest to join a line of private individuals and aid groups who are trying to corner the alleged mass murderer and members of his Lord's Resistance Army. Kony remains elusive despite the deployment by President Barack Obama in late 2011 of 100 U.S. special forces to aid the hunt — which is mostly carried out by Ugandan troops — and the efforts by myriad private groups.

Among those efforts:

— Invisible Children, an American aid group, created a web video seen by more than 100 million people last year that made Kony a family dinner topic and "introduce new audiences to the conflict, and inspire global action."

— The Bridgeway Foundation, a Houston-based charity, hired a private company two years ago that specializes in military and law enforcement training to teach child hostage rescue techniques to the Ugandan troops tracking Kony. With support from the deep-pocketed Howard G. Buffett Foundation, Bridgeway pays an aviation company to fly a Cessna Caravan airplane and a Bell helicopter that are used to extract LRA defectors, transport injured people and broadcast anti-Kony messages from loudspeakers.

— Invisible Children and Resolve, another aid group, operate a website called the LRA Crisis Tracker that collects information on LRA attacks — often radioed in by villagers — in Central Africa Republic, Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. The site allows U.S. military officials or aid workers to see where the LRA is concentrating its attacks.

The U.S. State Department said non-governmental groups and foundations "have played a critical role in bringing the LRA's atrocities to the world's attention and continue to play an important role ... to end those atrocities."

http://www.wral.com/can-you-crowd-fund-a-manhunt-for-joseph-kony-/13077045/

November 4, 2013

Cannabis political news for 11/4/2013

National
Tapping Medical Marijuana’s Potential
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/tapping-medical-marijuanas-potential/

Market For Legal Marijuana Could Be Worth $10 Billion By 2018
http://sfist.com/2013/11/04/market_for_legal_marijuana_could_be.php

How pot tax compares with other 'sin' taxes
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/04/marijuana-tax-colorado/3344129/

Michigan
Election 2013: Marijuana advocates predict success for 'legalization' proposals in 3 Michigan cities
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/11/marijuana_advocates_hope_to_se.html

Colorado
Tomorrow Voters Decide on Marijuana Taxes, Minimum Wage Hikes, and More
http://business.time.com/2013/11/04/tomorrow-voters-decide-on-marijuana-taxes-minimum-wage-hikes-and-more/

Oregon
Marijuana initiative gets another big out-of-state donor: a social do-gooder sex marketeer
http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/11/marijuana_initiative_gets_anot.html

Porn, Condom King Donates $50K to Marijuana Measure
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-30885-porn_condom_king_donates_$50k_to_marijuana_measure.html

Mass
Medical marijuana process rolls toward Phase 2
http://www.telegram.com/article/20131104/NEWS/311049921/1246

Floriduh
What Would Medical Marijuana Cost The State? Financial Estimators Unsure
http://news.wfsu.org/post/what-would-medical-marijuana-cost-state-financial-estimators-unsure

Florida's fight over medical marijuana heats up
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/national/article/262034/44/Floridas-fight-over-medical-marijuana-heats-up

Florida Candidate for Governor Nan Rich Supports Medical Marijuana Proposal
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/26143/florida-candidate-governor-nan-rich-supports-medical-marijuana-proposal/

Senate, House Leaders Join AG To Block Medical Marijuana Admendment
http://www.northescambia.com/2013/11/senate-house-leaders-join-ag-to-block-medical-marijuana-admendment

Wisconsin
Companion Bill to Wisconsin’s Medical Marijuana Proposal Introduced in Assembly
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/26157/companion-bill-wisconsins-medical-marijuana-proposal-introduced-assembly/

Pennsylvania
First Republican Co-Sponosors Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Bill
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/26138/first-republican-co-sponosors-pennsylvania-medical-marijuana-bill/

Missouri
Missouri Drug Cop Accepts Challenge to Debate Show-Me Cannabis on Marijuana Prohibition
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2013/11/missouri_drug_cop_accepts_chal.php

Miscellaneous
Hashish: An explosive, sometimes deadly, means to higher highs
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20131103/NEWS01/311030105/Hashish-An-explosive-sometimes-deadly-means-higher-highs

Blue Dream: Marijuana Strain Review
http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2013/11/03/blue-dream-marijuana-strain-review/

November 4, 2013

Marijuana tax windfall from Proposition AA unclear for Colorado cities

In Northglenn, there's been discussion of marijuana taxes paying for a senior exercise center or traffic-safety improvements around schools.

In Denver, officials expect pot tax money to fund regulation of marijuana stores or educational campaigns. And in Glendale, the talk has been that there isn't anything to talk about yet.

"It's too ambiguous at this point for anyone to depend on," said Chuck Line, Glendale's deputy city manager.

As voters this week decide whether to place substantial excise and sales taxes on recreational marijuana, cities around the state are taking different approaches to planning for how they would spend their share of the money if the measure passes.

Proposition AA would impose a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale transfers of recreational marijuana and another 10 percent statewide sales tax at the retail level. The excise tax money would go toward school construction, as specified in the constitutional amendment passed last year that legalized recreational marijuana sales.

Local governments that allow pot sales will get a 15 percent cut of the statewide sales tax money.

http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_24447584/marijuana-tax-windfall-from-proposition-aa-unclear-colorado

November 4, 2013

Fewer men are paying for sex, survey suggests

Could the oldest profession be losing its customers?

Fewer men say they have ever paid for sex — or been paid for it — than a few decades ago, according to a nationally representative survey. But scholars and activists are divided over whether men are really turning away from prostitution, or just becoming less likely to admit to it.

In a string of surveys between 1991 and 1996, nearly 17% of men said they had ever paid for or received payment for sex; that fell to 13.2% between 2006 and 2012. Last year, that number hit the lowest point since the question was first asked — 9.1% — though statisticians caution the unusually small number could be a fluke.

The survey drew no distinction between buying and selling sex, but men are widely assumed to be customers far more often than they are sellers.

The numbers seem to be shifting with the generations: Older men are much more likely to say they have bought or sold sex at some point in their lives. Younger men, in turn, have been less likely to report doing so than men of the same ages a few decades ago.

The numbers come from the General Social Survey, a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago meant to track changes in American society.

The sweeping survey, funded principally by the National Science Foundation, has questioned more than 57,000 Americans since 1972. Nearly 11,000 men have answered the question about paying or being paid for sex since it was first asked in 1991.

Experts say there are trends that could be turning more men away from prostitution, including new technology and looser sexual mores.

If fewer men are paying for sex, "it's because they don't have to," said Christine Milrod, an independent researcher and sex therapist based in Los Angeles. "They can have sex for free."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-paying-for-sex-20131102,0,796675.story#axzz2jh1mitT3

November 4, 2013

Early onset of puberty in girls linked to obesity

Girls are starting puberty at younger ages - a full year earlier than previously reported in some cases - and the main factor associated with early breast development is obesity, according to a new long-term study released Monday.

Researchers in the Bay Area, New York and Cincinnati have been following the sexual maturation of more than 1,200 girls - a third of whom were recruited from Kaiser medical centers in San Francisco, Oakland and San Rafael - since 2004. At the start of the study, the girls were between 6 and 8 years old.

Breast development at younger ages is a concern among physicians and parents because early menstruation, which can accompany it, has been linked to higher risk of breast cancer. Additional research has also found other potentially detrimental health, environmental and social impacts of precocious adolescence. Health experts say obesity is the biggest factor in the early onset of puberty, but the next step is to understand the factors that lead to obesity.

"It may not just be as simple as calories in and calories out," said Janice Barlow, executive director of Zero Breast Cancer, a San Rafael group devoted to breast cancer prevention that Kaiser brought in to help with the study. "There may be other factors in environment that may be fueling the obesity epidemic."

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Early-onset-of-puberty-in-girls-linked-to-obesity-4952063.php

Soon we'll be talking about menopause in the 40's. Whatever is causing this phenomena is not good for us humans.

November 4, 2013

Micro-apartment developments on rise in S.F.

Kayla Smith, 35, has been out of college for years, but she's returned to dorm-style living in an apartment the size of a one-car garage in a brand-new building in San Francisco's Tenderloin.

"It's the price you pay for living in San Francisco," she said. She winnowed her possessions to the bare minimum when she moved into the 279-square-foot space in September, paying $1,850 a month for the convenience of living blocks from work amid the emerging Mid-Market area.

Urban planners and San Francisco leaders say smaller units help tackle the city's housing shortage and rising rental costs.

"We need to think outside the box in providing housing for our population," said San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who sponsored legislation last year to allow "micro-apartments" of 220 square feet including bathroom, kitchen and closet. The city agreed that 375 micro-units could be built as a test; 120 are now in the pipeline in the Mid-Market area.

Meanwhile, plenty of the new apartment buildings are 400 square feet or less - not technically micro but still pretty darn small. By comparison, most studios have been 500 to 600 square feet.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Micro-apartment-developments-on-rise-in-S-F-4951775.php

November 4, 2013

East Libya movement launches government, challenges Tripoli

Source: Reuters

Leaders of an autonomy movement in Libya's oil-rich east unilaterally declared a regional government on Sunday, in a challenge to the weak central government as new violence erupted in the restive region.

The announcement is a symbolic blow to efforts by the Tripoli government to reopen eastern oil ports and fields blocked since summer by militias and tribes demanding a greater share of power and oil wealth.

It has no practical implications but is sure to worsen ties between the east and Tripoli which has rejected the self-rule notion. Officials were not immediately available for comment.

Lawlessness has blighted large areas of the OPEC producer since the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. The government has been unable to rein in militia groups, armed tribes and radical Islamists.

This is especially true for eastern Libya, known as Cyrenaica, where tribes, activists and militias have been pushing for a federal system sharing power with the west and southern Fezzan.

Leaders of the movement met in the small town of Ajdabiya, close to the oil port of Brega, to launch an autonomous government, supporters said. They named themselves the Barqa, or Cyrenaica, government.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/03/us-libya-security-idUSBRE9A20EX20131103

November 4, 2013

Syria blames polio outbreak on foreign jihadists

A Syrian government minister said Sunday that foreign fighters who have come to the country to wage jihad are responsible for the outbreak of polio in the rebel-controlled north.

Last week, the United Nations health agency confirmed 10 polio cases in northeast Syria, the first confirmed outbreak of the disease in the country in 14 years, raising a risk of it spreading across the region. The confirmed cases are among babies and toddlers, all under 2, who were "under-immunized," according to the World Health Organization. The agency is awaiting lab results on another 12 cases showing polio symptoms.

Minister of Social Affairs Kindah al-Shammat told The Associated Press on Sunday that jihadis from Pakistan were to blame.

"The virus originates in Pakistan and has been brought to Syria by the jihadists who come from Pakistan" the minister said. She offered no evidence and did not elaborate on the claim. Pakistan is one of three countries where polio remains endemic.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57610592/syria-blames-polio-outbreak-on-foreign-jihadists/

November 3, 2013

North Dakota - Trading tradition for oil

It’s another reminder of the massive transformation unfolding in North Dakota. Thousands of workers — and $30 billion of investment — have arrived and oil production records are rewritten monthly.

North Dakota now trails only Texas in oil production with more than 911,000 barrels a day getting sucked from its shale. And its population, after largely shrinking for decades, is suddenly growing faster than any other state.

All the frenzy has thrust quiet, tiny dots on the map such as Keene, N.D., into cataclysmic change — forever altering the stark landscape and the lives of families whose ancestors settled here generations ago. Many lay buried behind a Lutheran church on the hill, along with webs of new hydraulic fractured wells snaking below its cemetery out back — earning the church hefty royalty checks from oil companies.

“They don’t hit dry holes around here anymore,” says Gilstad, the dean at the branding and North Dakota’s 1956 bareback bronc-riding champ. “We’re right in the middle of it here.”

Families are cashing in. There are new pickups and Caribbean cruises, but residents lying in bed at night can also hear the roar of natural gas flares and the constant pounding of trucks out on Hwy. 23.

“Ranchers like to piss and moan about the truck traffic and such out here, but they don’t tell you how much their checks are worth,” Jeff Hepper, Abby’s dad, says during a break from lassoing and branding. “There are good parts and bad, and things have changed, but damn few would make the choice to go back to the way things were 10 years ago.”

http://www.startribune.com/local/230296131.html