Does this picture have racist connotations, is it an example of subtle racism or is there simply nothing wrong with it? It is an advertisement for the new Intel “Core 2 Duo” processor, which is supposed to be faster and better than anything else on the market……..“40% more performance with improved energy efficiency” and “delivers unparalleled multi-tasking capabilities”. The powerful new chip is exemplified by the “cloned athlete ready to go” at a moment’s notice, only waiting for the command to start running. The symbolism is in fact quite appealing and conjures up images of athletic strength, speed and ability. The new chip is ready and willing to take on the competition …..and win!! Great ad and compelling imagery…….Right !?!
Not so fast………..The athlete is black, in a kneeling position, with his head down while the “commander” is white and apparently in control, ready to give the orders. Is there a deeper meaning behind this depiction, attempting to perpetuate old stereotypes of a bygone era? Does the mere mention of a possible racist connection before viewing the picture, color the perception of the beholder? In other words if there was no mention of racism would this picture be OK? Some may see nothing wrong in this ad while others would be ready to protest to Intel about their insensitivity to matters of race. What do you think?
Often our perception of the world and the things around us are influenced by how other people perceive things. We often take our cues on how to think, behave and react from observing the actions and attitudes of our peers, the people we look up to, and the so-called experts. We tend to try to see things the way they do. That is why it is so important when using advertising to promote a product, that the wrong or unintended impression is not portrayed. It would be interesting to take a poll of you, the readers of this article.
Did the words here in any way influence your perception of this ad? or did you hold to your original impression, regardless of what was written?
Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, two 13-year-old boys ran down the hallway of Patton Middle School after lunch, slapping as many girl’s butts as they could get their hands on along the way. A teacher’s aid caught them and sent them to the office. The vice principal, Steve Tillery, and a police officer, Marshall Roache, stationed at the school, questioned the boys and some of the girls involved in the incident. Apparently convinced that a crime had been committed, the officer read the boys their Miranda rights and hauled them off in handcuffs to juvenile jail, where they spent the next five days. Now, Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, face the prospect of 10 years in juvenile detention and a lifetime on the sex offender registry. Read the Original Charges here. The charges against both Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison were later amended and the felony charges against Cory were dropped.
Bradley Berry, the McMinnville district attorney, said his office “aggressively” pursues sex crimes that involve children. “These cases are devastating to children,” he said. “They are life-altering cases.”
“The disproportionality of the charges is absurd,” said Phillip Esplin, a forensic psychologist who has researched child sex abuse for the National Institutes of Health.
“My question is, why this would constitute a sexual offense, as opposed to something inappropriate that should have been dealt with within the school — not within the criminal justice system.”
To Rhonda Pope, mother of Christian Richter, 13, a girl named in the court papers as one of the victims, the charges are justified.
“Slapping somebody on the butt is sexual harassment, and it is a crime,” she said. “Considering what was going on and that my daughter was offended, it is a crime. And it’s not OK.”
Insisting that the charges are an overreaction, Mashburn’s attorney, Mark Lawrence, has worked to bring as much public attention as possible to the story. Lawrence, himself a former Yamhill County prosecutor, and his client briefly appeared on commentator Bill O’Reilly’s cable TV show.
“I look at this from a prosecutor’s perspective and a defense attorney’s perspective, and believe this is truly insane. I do not condone this behavior — it was inappropriate. But it is not criminal.”
Marshall Roache, the police officer, after conducting a follow up interview with many of the girls was told that it was “slap butt day” and many of them were involved in the same behavior including one girl who described it as “a handshake we do.” Two of the alleged victims said they had swatted boys’ buttocks themselves. No one claimed to be offended by the horseplay. At this point the two boys were still locked up.
The next day the juvenile court held a hearing on whether the boys should be released. The courtroom was packed with Patton students and families of both boys — many were crying. The boys were there, too, in shackles and jail outfits. Two of the alleged victims spontaneously offered to testify on behalf of the boys. Under oath, they told the judge they were friends and did not feel threatened by them. The two girls also testified they felt compelled, during the initial interviews with Tillery and Roache, to say things that weren’t true. Read a copy of the court transcript here.
“Well, when the (vice) principal asked me stuff, I kind of felt pressured to answer stuff that I was uncomfortable, and that it hurt, but it really didn’t,” the girl said, explaining that she didn’t think anything sexual went on.
The boys were released. But the judge ordered them out of school, required constant parental supervision and barred them from contacting friends. Any deviation, he said, would result in more time in juvenile jail. The boys and their parents were interviewed about the experience. Watch the Video Clip Here
The only “victims” in this entire incident were the two boys and their families. Because of their horseplay, two boys have been thrown in jail for days, enduring what must have been a nightmare for both of them. Now their parents are suffering under the expense of having to hire lawyers to defend their children. Both boys are under house arrest and are not able to return to school. They are facing some very serious charges that could land them in jail for a very long time. And in addition they may have to register as sex offenders and be included in that registry for the rest of their lives. All this over an incident in which no one claims to be a victim and no one is afraid of these two 13-year-olds, who were just having some fun with their friends during the lunch break at school. When will some sanity return to the “adults” who try to make young sexual predators out of boys just having fun??? Can someone tell them to BUTT out and let kids be kids!!!
Marijuana is by far the most popular illegal drug in the world. According to the 2007 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, it is grown in at least 172 countries. It has various names, including but not limited to: Cannabis, grass, weed, pot, ditch, dope, hemp, ganja, dagga, dimba, and chira. Worldwide consumption of all illegal drugs is estimated at 200 million people, marijuana accounts for 160 million. In other words marijuana accounts for 80% of all illegal drug use worldwide. The possession, use, or sale of psychoactive cannabis products became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century. Since then, some countries have intensified the enforcement of marijuana prohibition while others have reduced the priority of enforcement, almost to the point of legalization, as is the case in the Netherlands. The production of marijuana for drug use remains illegal throughout most of the world.
Who Uses It?
If all the pot smokers lived in one country, that country would be the seventh largest country in the world.
Just under 4% of the global population uses marijuana however there are some countries where the percentage is much higher:
Micronesia and Papua New Guinea (29%)
Ghana (21.5%)
Zambia (17.7%)
Canada (16.8%)
Australia/New Zealand (13.4%)
US (12.6%)
If broken down by region, the countries with the highest percentage of users are:
Africa: Ghana - 21.5%
Asia/Middle East: Israel - 8.5%
Europe: Cyprus - 14.1%
Americas/Caribbean: Canada - 16.8%
Oceania: Papua New Guinea - 29.5%
Who Produces It?
Global production of marijuana also dwarfs other illegal drugs:
Marijuana - 42,000 metric tons
Opium - 6,610 metric tons
Cocaine - 984 metric tons
Amphetamines - 480 metric tons
Marijuana is the most pervasive drug in the world. Most countries produce for local consumption and export to neighboring countries. Although most European countries grow their own supplies, it is the only region that relies on importation, mostly from Africa and Asia. Global production by region:
The Americas (46%)
Africa (26%)
Asia (23%)
Europe (5%)
Oceania (1%)
In general, production of marijuana is declining in North America and Africa, due in part to eradication efforts in those regions, and increasing in Asia, Europe and South/Central America.
Trends
The use of marijuana has been declining in North America (including Canada and Mexico). In the US consumption has decreased from a 1979 high of 16.6% to 10.4% in 2005. The same situation is true for Oceania (including Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea). In Australia there has been a 37% decline between 1998 and 2004.
On the other hand in South America there has been an increase in demand, with Brazil leading the surge, from 1% in 2001 to 2.5% in 2005. In Africa, 17 countries reported an increase in use, 4 reported a decline and 4 reported no change. In both Europe and Asia there were mixed results.
Some Issues
Illegalization of Marijuana
Throughout history marijuana has played an integral part in various societies on multiple levels; culturally, religiously and for medicinal purposes. Starting in the early 1900s, in the US, marijuana gradually became an illegal substance. After 1937, with the passage of the federal Marijuana Tax Act, marijuana use became illegal nationwide.
What may be of surprise is that racism played an important role in the “illegalization” of marijuana. Around 1915 the Rocky mountain and Southwestern states (Montana, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado) experienced an influx of Mexican laborers who had migrated north looking for work. They were generally employed as field hands, working in beet fields and picking cotton. They also brought with them marijuana which was unknown to white people at that time. A Texan politician, from the senate floor, used the following logic to propose one of the first state laws making marijuana illegal:
“All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff (referring to marijuana) is what makes them crazy.” Or, as the proponent of Montana’s first marijuana law said, (and imagine this on the floor of the state legislature) and I quote, “Give one of these Mexican beet field workers a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette and he thinks he is in the bullring at Barcelona.”
It wasn’t hostility to the drug, it was hostility to the newly arrived Mexican community that used it that prompted the first anti-marijuana laws. A few years later states in the Northeast (New York, Connecticut etc) looked at what had happened in Texas and Montana and also decided it was time to ban marijuana. These states, however, did not have significant numbers of Mexican laborers and marijuana was an unknown drug. They used a different but equally twisted logic to make marijuana illegal:
The New York Times in an editorial in 1919 said, “No one here in New York uses this drug marijuana. We have only just heard about it from down in the Southwest,” and here comes the substitution. “But,” said the New York Times, “we had better prohibit its use before it gets here. Otherwise” — here’s the substitution concept — “all the heroin and hard narcotics addicts cut off from their drug by the Harrison Act and all the alcohol drinkers cut off from their drug by 1919 alcohol Prohibition will substitute this new and unknown drug marijuana for the drugs they used to use.”
They feared that drug addicts and alcoholics would switch to marijuana, so to prevent that they made marijuana, this “new and unknown drug”, illegal. By the time the federal Marijuana Tax Act was made law in 1937, there were some 27 states that had already made marijuana illegal. For more on the history of marijuana in the US click here.
Medical and Religious use
The partnership of Cannabis and man has existed now probably for ten thousand years — since the discovery of agriculture in the Old World. One of our old cultivars, Cannabis has been a five-purpose plant: as a source of hempen fibers; for its oil; for its akenes or “seeds,” consumed by man for food; for its narcotic properties; and therapeutically to treat a wide spectrum of ills in folk medicine and in modern pharmacopoeias.
Ancient cultures of India, Persia, Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome used marijuana for medicinal purposes starting as far back as 1,600 BC. The use of marijuana as an intoxicant has been documented in India as far back as 1,000 BC and spread throughout Asia and the Middle East and thoroughly permeated Islamic culture within a few centuries. Because alcohol was prohibited to the followers of Mohammed, cannabis (marijuana) was accepted as a substitute.
The Rastafarians in Jamaica and the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church view ganga (marijuana) as a religious sacrament. Its use became a reactionary device to the society and an index of an authentic form of freedom from the establishment. It would therefore be right to assume that as a protest against society, ganja smoking was the first instrument of protest engaged in by the movement to show its freedom from the laws of “Babylon (society).” But ganja has other sides to it; its use produces psycho-spiritual effects and has socio-religious functions especially for people under stress. It produces visions, heightens unity and communal feelings, dispels gloom and fear, and brings tranquility to the mind of the dispossessed. So, ganja gradually became a dominant symbol among the cultists and has remained so to this day. One of the most popular reggae artists, Bob Marley, a Rastafarian, was a major voice for the cultural/spiritual use of marijuana. In the following interview he explains the Rastafarian religion and the part marijuana plays:
The following video is filmed in a marijuana field in Jamaica. It shows the environment in which the plant is grown on the island.
Recently in the USthere has been much discussion surrounding the medicinal properties of marijuana. In twelve (12) states including California, Oregon, Nevada, Maine and New Mexico marijuana use is legal for approved medical conditions. Thirty-five (35) states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation recognizing marijuana’s medicinal value. This has caused a strain between the federal government and these states. The federal government considers all marijuana use as illegal, regardless of what it is used for. However medical experiments have proven that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana can be effective in the treatment of lung cancer. Marijuana is also “moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting.” according to the Institute of Medicine.
The medical marijuana journal/newspaper O’Shaughnessy, spring 2004, lists the following conditions for which the California physicians found marijuana use to be effective: (1) AIDS wasting syndrome, (2) arthritis, osteo- and rheumatoid, (3) asthma (while not burning cannabis), (4) Crohn’s disease/inflammatory bowel disease, (5) depression, (6) mental illness–schizophrenia (pro and con articles have been reported), (7) degenerative neural diseases, (8) eating disorders/anorexia, (9) epilepsy/seizures, (10) glaucoma, (11) intractable breathlessness, (12) migraine, (13) multiple sclerosis, (14) nausea and vomiting, (15) obstetric problems (dysmenorrheal, morning sickness, uterine bleeding, and antimiscarriage), (16) pain, of all types, (17) phantom limb pain, (18) tumors ( blockade of a carcinogenesis enzyme), and (19) withdrawal symptoms of alcoholism, morphinism, cocaine addiction, chloral hydrate addiction, etc. (and probably tobacco addiction).
Marijuana Abuse
Many people smoke marijuana for reasons other than health or religion. In fact most people use it for experimental or recreational purposes:
In 2005, 14.6 million Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed, which is similar to the rate in 2004. About 6,000 people a day in 2005 used marijuana for the first time–2.1 million Americans. Of these, 59.1 percent were under age 18. As a percentage of those who had not used marijuana prior to the past year, youth marijuana initiation declined significantly, from 5.8 percent in 2004 to 5.2 percent in 2005.
The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). The membranes of certain nerve cells in the brain contain protein receptors that bind to THC. Once securely in place, THC kicks off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the high that users experience when they smoke marijuana. There have been many studies done on the effects of marijuana on the brain, the heart, the lungs and learning and social behavior:
The Brain: THC connects to specific sites called cannabinoid receptors on nerve cells and influences the activity of those cells. Many cannabinoid receptors are found in the parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thought, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement. The short-term effects of marijuana can include problems with memory and learning; distorted perception; difficulty in thinking and problem solving; loss of coordination; and increased heart rate.
The Heart: One study has indicated that an abuser’s risk of heart attack more than quadruples in the first hour after smoking marijuana. The researchers suggest that such an effect might occur from marijuana’s effects on blood pressure and heart rate and reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.
The Lungs: Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers do, such as daily cough and phlegm production, more frequent acute chest illness, a heightened risk of lung infections, and a greater tendency to obstructed airways. Marijuana abuse also has the potential to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because it contains irritants and carcinogens. Marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which increases the lungs’ exposure to carcinogenic smoke. These facts suggest that, puff for puff, smoking marijuana may be more harmful to the lungs than smoking tobacco.
Learning and Social Behavior: Depression, anxiety, and personality disturbances have been associated with chronic marijuana use. Marijuana compromises the ability to learn and remember information, the more a person uses marijuana the more he or she is likely to fall behind in accumulating intellectual, job, or social skills. Moreover, research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on memory and learning can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off. As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a reduced intellectual level all of the time. In a study, heavy marijuana abusers reported that the drug impaired several important measures of life achievement including cognitive abilities, career status, social life, and physical and mental health.
The latest treatment data indicate that marijuana was the primary drug of abuse in about 15 percent (289,532) of all admissions to treatment facilities in the United States. Marijuana admissions were primarily male (75 percent), White (55 percent), and young (40 percent were in the 15–19 age range). Those in treatment for primary marijuana abuse had begun use at an early age; 56 percent had abused it by age 14 and 92 percent had abused it by 18.
Legalization??
With all the available data on the costs to individuals and society, there is still an argument for the legalization of marijuana. The following is taken from an article promoting the legalization of the drug using cost/benefit analysis to justify its conclusion. To see the entire article click here.
A society outlaws a behavior or a substance when the value in prohibition outweighs the cost of enforcing this ban.
The United States of America has unequivocally reached a point where the costs of criminalizing marijuana are greatly outweighed by the potential benefits of making the drug a controlled and regulated substance. The exorbitantly high costs to law enforcement (and therefore to taxpayers) as well as the benefits to public health that would accompany regulation both point to one undeniable fact: the public good would be served by the legalization of the possession of marijuana.
The most pressing reason for decriminalization of marijuana is the drain on government funds wrought by prohibition. In 2003, marijuana related arrests reached another all-time high of 755,186; 88 percent of these arrests were for possession, not the manufacture or distribution, of marijuana. The cost in imprisonment of these offenders amounts to $1.2 billion each year. The average prison sentence for cultivation of large numbers of marijuana plants (100 or more) is a minimum of five years, longer than the average sentence for manslaughter or grand theft auto. The total costs, including law enforcement, judicial proceedings and imprisonment is estimated to be between 5 and 15 billion dollars annually. That total amounts to roughly $10 billion dollars that could have been used to build new schools, to open homeless shelters or veterans hospitals, to preserve the environment or even to fund anti-drug programs in schools. When state and national budget deficits are reaching all time highs, the costs of prosecuting individuals for possession of marijuana is an unjustifiable waste of taxpayer’s money.
Currently, the market for marijuana exposes users to health hazards. Illegally sold marijuana often contains dangerous adulterants, contaminants and impurities such as herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, which are hazardous to smokers. Legalization of marijuana would subject the production and sale of the drug to government inspection and regulation (a cost that would be offset by the taxing of marijuana sales) that would reduce the current dangers in smoking.
Unadulterated marijuana actually has relatively mild health effects when compared with other legal and illicit drugs. The National Academy of Sciences found “no conclusive link between marijuana and cancer, including cancers normally associated with tobacco.”
Although marijuana contains four times the amount of tar of a cigarette of equal weight, because it is not tightly packed, the smokable substance in one marijuana cigarette is about half that of a normal cigarette. Marijuana is less addictive (only nine percent of users become dependent) than alcohol (15 percent), tobacco (32 percent), cocaine (17 percent) or heroin (23 percent).
The Academy further declared the “gateway drug” theory, the idea that marijuana often leads to use of harder drugs, to be invalid when they stated that there is “no evidence that marijuana serves as a stepping stone on the basis of its particular physiological effect.”
Prohibition of marijuana is clearly a burden the American people no longer need to carry. Spending billions of dollars to prosecute individuals for using a drug with adverse health effects similar to, and in some cases milder than, those caused by other, legal drugs does not make sense. It is time the national government puts an end to the double standard, and makes marijuana a regulated substance for the good of those who use it, and for the benefit of those who do not.
United States Laws
Currently in the US, there are no uniform laws that states abide by. Some states like Arizona and Idaho have strict laws that involve incarceration for first time convictions and there are others like New York and Mississippi that have decriminalized the penalties for first time offenders. Federal laws are stricter than most state laws and possession of marijuana is punishable by up to one year in jail and a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first conviction, regardless of the amount involved.
You can check out the laws in various states regarding marijuana use by clicking here:
Click below for more information on marijuana-related subjects:
Sen. Hillary Clinton shows that she will not be easily dealt with or ignored. In a letter dated May 22, 2007 and addressed to the Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates, Sen. Clinton asked if there were contingency plans for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and if so, could he share with the appropriate congressional committees what those plans were.
She received a reply, not from the Secretary of Defense, but from the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Eric Edelman, which she claims not only did not respond to her inquiries but his comments were “outrageous and dangerous” in insinuating that congressional oversight emboldens the enemy.
In a second letter, again addressed to the Secretary of Defense, she renewed her request for a response to her original letter and demanded to know if the views expressed by the Under Secretary of Defense in his letter were the same views held by the Secretary of Defense. Below are excerpts from the three letters involved. For the entire contents of all three letters click here
Sen. Clinton’s first letter addressed to Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense:
Given the express will of the Congress to implement a phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq and the importance of proper contingency planning to achieve that goal, I write to request that you provide the appropriate oversight committees in Congress - including the Senate Armed Services Committee - with briefings on what current contingency plans exist for the future withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Alternatively, if no such plans exist, please provide an explanation for the decision not to engage in such planning………………..
The response written by Eric Edelman, Under Secretary of Defense:
“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia…………..
I assure you, however, that as with other plans, we are always evaluating and planning for possible contingencies. As you know, it is long-standing departmental policy that operational plans, including contingency plans, are not released outside of the department.”
Sen. Clinton’s response to Edelman letter, again addressed to Robert Gates:
I am in receipt of a letter from Eric Edelman, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, who wrote that he was responding on your behalf. Under Secretary Edelman’s response did not address the issues raised in my letter and instead made spurious arguments to avoid addressing contingency planning for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
Rather than offer to brief the congressional oversight committees on this critical issue, Under Secretary Edelman - writing on your behalf - instead claims that congressional oversight emboldens our enemies. Under Secretary Edelman has his priorities backwards. Open and honest debate and congressional oversight strengthens our nation and supports our military. His suggestion to the contrary is outrageous and dangerous…………
Redeploying out of Iraq will be difficult and requires careful planning. I continue to call on the Bush Administration to immediately provide a redeployment strategy that will keep our brave men and women safe as they leave Iraq - instead of adhering to a political strategy to attack those who rightfully question their competence and preparedness after years of mistakes and misjudgments……………….
I renew my request for a briefing, classified if necessary, on current plans for the future withdrawal of US forces from Iraq or an explanation for the decision not to engage in such planning…….Finally, I request that you describe whether Under Secretary Elelman’s letter accurately characterizes your views as Secretary of Defense.
In this commentary, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC provides his perspective on the entire episode:
This one is just for fun. There are two music videos going around. One is I Got a Crush on Obama by the Obama Girl. The other one is Hott 4 Hill by Taryn Southern. I thought it would be fun to put both of them together and have a vote on which one is the best. Tell me what you think in the comments section.
“Hott 4 Hill” by Taryn Southern
“I Got a Crush on Obama” by the Obama Girl
No matter what your political affiliation is, I think it is safe to say that the Democrats are having much more fun with their candidates (so far!!) than the Republicans. Maybe someone should come up with a “Rudy Video” or a “McCain Parody!!” on second thought…….Maybe Not!
Anyway let me know what you think. Exercise your constitutional right to………….VOTE!!
Police said Eva Daley, 30, knew her son and the others planned to kill Jose Cano when she drove them to the park June 26. She is now back in jail at the Century Regional Detention Facility Center in Lynwood after a brief court appearance where she pleaded not guilty to murder in front of Judge Mark Kim. Her bail has been set at $1 million. Her next court appearance will be on Aug. 22. If convicted, Daley faces 35 years to life in prison for committing murder as part of gang activity.
According to reportsEva Daley drove her 14 year-old son and six of his friends aged 14-17 yrs-old, to 14th Street Park, Long Beach to kill 13 year-old Jose Cano in retaliation for a previous dispute. Milagros Mendoza, 14, a friend of Cano, was with him, his brother and a group of friends when they were attacked by another group of boys who ran out of an alley and came up behind Cano:
“They ran over, chasing him, and he tried to jump a fence, and he couldn’t,” she said. At that point, the boys descended on him, beating him with their fists, she said.
Cano managed to get away and started walking across the street, gripping his chest, Mendoza said. When he reached the edge of the park, she said, “he fell to the ground and all the guys ran back to the alley.”
Cano’s brother ran to help him while Mendoza called 911. But when an ambulance failed to appear after half an hour, a family friend drove the teenager to the hospital where he was pronounced dead after arriving at St. Mary Medical Center’s emergency room.
It appears as if Cano was a gang member, even though his family denies it. Both the police and prosecutors have identified him as such. He was sent to the Los Angeles County Probation Camp system and was enrolled in a school through the probation department. Whether or not Cano was a gang member should not matter his family insists:
“(Daley) took her kid to kill (Cano),” she said. “More than 15 people attacked him and stabbed him over and over … and she took them there to do it.”
Eva Daleyis being held at the Century Regional Detention Facility Center in Lynwood while her son, and the other six youths, are all being held without bail at various Los Angeles County Juvenile Detention Centers, according to the DA’s office.
Chris Benoit killed his wife and son and then committed suicide over a three day period (June 22-24, 2007). Found in the house were 10 empty beer cans, an empty bottle of wine and prescription anabolic steroids. Benoit had been to see his personal physician (Dr. Phil Astin) the very day authorities think that he killed his wife. Dr. Astin had admitted he gave Benoit testosterone prescriptions in the past, but decline to say if he gave him any prescriptions on the day of his last visit. All this fueled suspicions that Benoit may have been under the influence steroids when he killed his family and then himself.
Chris Benoit - Tested positive for Testosterone, Xanax (an anti anxiety drug) and hydrocodone (a pain killer)
Nancy Benoit - Tested positive for Xanax, hydrocodone, hydromorphone (a pain killer) and had a blood-alcohol level of .184 (enough to be legally drunk).
Daniel Benoit - Tested positive for Xanax
While he tested negative for anabolic steroids, the level of testosterone found in Chris Benoit’s body was extremely high, more than 10 times the normal. The Testosterone-Epitestosterone levels came in at an alarming ratio of 59:1. The average human has a T/E ratio of 1:1, although it can be slightly higher than this. A ratio of 4:1 raises suspicions and higher than 10:1 would be an automatic test failure. For more on T/E ratio click here
“This level of testosterone indicates that he had been using testosterone some time prior to the day that he died,” Dr. Kris Sperry, chief medical examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said.
Chris Benoit had been tested just two months prior for drug use by the WWE which issued the following statement:
“WWE understands that the toxicology reports for Chris Benoit indicate that he tested positive for testosterone and negative for anabolic steroids. On Mr. Benoit’s last drug test in April 2007 administered by Aegis Labs, he tested negative for anabolic steroids and for testosterone,” the statement read in part. “Given the toxicology report of GBI released today, it would appear that Mr. Benoit took testosterone sometime [between] his April 2007 test and the time he died.”
“This level of usage is fairly common with someone who has chronic pain. It’s therapeutic usage … there was no evidence of the laundry list of anabolic steroids out there,” he said. “All I can rely on is scientific data, and what that information says is that no one really knows [if steroid usage led to the murders]. It’s an unanswerable question.”
Nancy Benoit had pain killers and alcohol in her system but the strangest finding was that Daniel Benoit, 7 yrs-old, had tested positive for Xanax. This finding led the authorities to believe that the boy was sedated before being killed by his father.
“I would not say these findings do not [provide any answers],” GBI chief medical investigator Chris Sperry told reporters. “These results give answers as far as being able to say that Daniel Benoit was sedated at the time he was murdered — that’s an unusual finding. Other than that, they don’t reveal anything at all.”
Griffin County District Attorney Scott Ballard added that while the toxicology results are just another “aspect” of the investigation surrounding the Benoit case, and that — despite what most within the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department believe to be true — the case is still open.
“Fayette County is still investigating, but everything leads us to believe that this was a murder-suicide,” Ballard said. “Each investigation has many aspects to it, and this is just one of those aspects.”
Bipedalism(Standing or moving on two appendages) is one of the defining characteristics of being human. But bipedal motion is not an exclusively human activity. Certain birds like the ostrich, which can attain speeds of 65 km/hr, and the penguin use bipedal motion effectively. Other bipedal animals include kangaroos,gibbons and giant pangolins.
Bipedalism seems to be an adaptive reaction to the environment. There have been many theories as to why humans evolved as bipeds.
Postural feeding hypothesis - Humans learned upright posturing for picking fruits or keeping the head above water while searching for water plants.
Provisioning model - Food gathering. Using bipedal motion was an efficient way of of transporting food. It was also useful for carrying the young as well as holding tools and weapons.
Thermo-regulatory model - Dr. Peter Wheeler, a professor of evolutionary biology, proposes that bipedalism raises the amount of body surface area higher above the ground which results in a reduction in heat gain and helps heat dissipation. In other words, standing up keeps you cooler.
Turn-over pulse hypothesis - About 2.5 million years ago climate change caused drier conditions which severely depleted the forests causing humans to cross greater distances in search of food. Bipedalism made their journey easier by freeing up their hands to carry food and weapons.
A more recent theory has been proposed - Because it’s just plain easier!! or in scientific jargon “energetically less costly.” In an experiment to prove this hypothesis researchers trained five chimpanzees to walk on a treadmill while wearing masks that allowed measurement of their oxygen consumption. The chimps were measured both while walking upright and while moving on their legs and knuckles. They performed the same tests on humans in order to compare the difference in the amount of energy necessary to move around. The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
It turns out that humans walking on two legs use only one-quarter of the energy that chimpanzees use while knuckle-walking on four limbs. And the chimps, on average, use as much energy using two legs as they did when they used all four limbs. One of the chimps used less energy on two legs, one used about the same and the others used more, said David Raichlen, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona.
“What we were surprised at was the variation,” he said in a telephone interview. “That was pretty exciting, because when you talk about how evolution works, variation is the bottom line, without variation there is no evolution.”
If an individual can save energy moving around and hunting and spend more of it on reproduction, “that’s how you end up getting new species,” he said.
Walking on two legs freed our arms, opening the door to manipulating the world, Raichlen said. “We think about the evolution of bipedalism as one of first events that led hominids down the path to being human.”
On the lighter side and just to have a little fun, check out these two video clips below of how adaptive dogs can be:
Dr. Phil Astin was Chris Benoit’s long time friend and personal physician. He also prescribed testosterone for Benoit, who came to see him on the very day it is believed that he killed his wife. Now Dr. Phil is fighting federal charges that he improperly prescribing painkillers and other drugs to two patients other than Benoit in 2004 and 2005 identified only by the initials O.G. and M.J. They are believed to be Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio) and Mark Jindrak. Other wrestlers named in the search warrant include Lawrence Pfohl (Lex Luger), Marcus “Buff” Bagwell, Robert Howard (Bob Holly). He was released on $125,000 bond, but is restricted to his home except in limited circumstances.
Federal agents have expanded their investigation to include former patients and other patients of his who have died. They have now announced that they plan to file more charges against Dr. Astin after further review of documents and computer records seized by federal drug agents. An affidavit by a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent that was part of a warrant to search Dr. Phil Astin’s west Georgia office for a third time said investigators on Tuesday seized 68 boxes of documents, including patient records and billing statements. The records “will be relevant and material to this ongoing investigation,” the affidavit said, without elaborating. A sheriff’s official previously said that Astin also is being investigated in the February 2006 death of another wrestler, Michael Durham.
Astin’s lawyer, Manny Arora, said he wasn’t aware of the latest search of Astin’s office, but wasn’t surprised by it either:
“It’s their job to look through everything,” Arora said. “I want them to look through everything, so if there is an acquittal in this case there will be no more doubt about anything that Dr. Astin’s done.”
Authorities found anabolic steroids in Benoit’s home. Some experts believe steroids can cause paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as “roid rage.” Another court affidavit said Astin prescribed a 10-month supply of anabolic steroids to Benoit every three to four weeks between May 2006 and May 2007.
Toxicology tests have been conducted on Benoit’s body to determine if steroids or other drugs were present. Blood-alcohol tests also were conducted on his body, and chemical tests were conducted on the bodies of the wife and son. Some of the tests have been completed, but authorities are keeping the results secret until all the tests are complete.
Here are four sex-related stories that deserve mention. They run the gambit from serious to funny and embarrassing. Just goes to show how many different ways sex can be entertaining…….
Abdul Reda Al-Shawany was sentenced for raping a woman whom he found reading the bible. The court was told that Al-Shawany visited the woman, an acquaintance, at Sydney’s Villawood Detention Centre with another man. The woman had been reading the Bible and Al-Shawany noted her contact with Christians. The men told her they were “infidel people” and if she went with them, her killing “would be halal” - meaning her killer would go to heaven.
In September 2002, Al-Shawany lured the woman to a unit at Warwick Farm, claiming to have news about her family in Iraq. She was hit on the head and had her hijab tied around her face before Al-Shawany raped her twice in what Judge Brian Knox described as a degrading, humiliating and brutal attack.
The woman who was a refugee from Iraq said that even when she was jailed by dictator Saddam Hussein, she never feared for her life the way she did after the rape. “It is better if I’m dead,” she told the court. She said her husband had refused to speak to her for months because of the shame she brought on the family. “I feel like a piece of dirt,” she wrote. “I came to Australia for freedom and Abdul Reda took my freedom away.”
Judge Knox said while sentencing Al-Shawany:
“What he did was an attempt to enforce his religious or cultural views on his former countrywoman,” Judge Knox said. “Such behaviour is completely intolerable and totally unacceptable in this community.” He sentenced Al-Shawany to a maximum seven-and-a-half years in jail.
When I was young my mother would always say make sure you have on clean underwear, you never know what might happen. However mom would never in a million years think this could happen!!
A woman was the victim of a hit and run. She was struck from behind by a motorcycle. She fell to the ground breaking her left arm. The impact also knocked her unconscious. Witnesses who saw the accident called the police. A small crowd around the lady had formed quickly. When the paramedics arrived they noticed that she had an iPod with two sets of wires. One running to her ears and the other running down her shorts. When they investigated they found that the wire running down her shorts was attached to a vibrator! According to one eyewitness: “This was a serious accident but when they pulled that vibrator hooked to her iPod out of her shorts you could see everyone’s faces turn red. “She was lucky she was still knocked out for the ride to the hospital. I don’t think I could have survived the embarrassment”.
Daniel Peter Blair was a man determined to continue to masturbate……no matter what happened. He went to visit his friend Kylie Louise Wilson, while at her house he took some amphetamines before having a shower. Whilst in the bathroom, Mr Blair, 32, began pleasuring himself, before moving to Wilson’s bedroom, where he rolled around naked on her bed and continued his lewd conduct. He returned to the bathroom for more and was busted by Wilson, who was attempting to bath her three-and-a-half year-old daughter. After he ignored her repeated requests to stop, Kylie Wilson went to the kitchen, found a knife and returned to stab Mr. Blair twice in the shoulder.
Crown prosecutors said Mr Blair paused only to put on his shorts and flee outside to wait for police to arrive, but was again overcome by the urge. “Despite his injury, it seems (Mr Blair) continued to masturbate while in the garage,” the prosecutor said. Police took him to hospital where he received treatment for the minor stab wounds.
Senior Judge Gilbert Trafford Walker accepted the Crown’s submission that Wilson had been subjected to “grossly offensive conduct … which in a moral sense amounts to extreme provocation.” He sentenced her to nine months’ jail but ordered that she be immediately released on parole.
It is a well known fact that Porn Stars don’t use their real names. So it was no surprise that when Lara Madden 25, decided to go into “the business” she used a stage name, something she thought would be alluring and distinctive. The name she chose and used in about a dozen x-rated movies was Syvette Wimberly. That is what got her into trouble. It turns out that not only is the name Syvette Wimberly not unique, but it belongs to a real person who used to be Lara’s classmate at Kingwood High School.
The real Syvette Wimberly is now suing Lara Madden for invasion of privacy and emotional distress, claiming that her name was stolen.
“Really on a weekly, if not daily basis, my client has had to deal with odd phone calls, former classmates that didn’t know her that well sending her e-mails about whether she’s now in the adult film industry and just a general lack of safety for her,” attorney Caj D. Boatwright said.
Wimberly is also suing Vivid Entertainment, the porn distributor that produced Madden’s videos. She’s asking for monetary damages and an injunction to stop Madden from using her name. Legal analyst Brian Wice said that’s an appeal likely to win sympathy from a jury if the case goes to trial.
“It’s not like they pulled the name “Jane Doe” or “Barbara Smith” out of thin air. They pulled a name that’s fairly peculiar to one woman in Harris County, Texas, and that’s the kind of coincidence or lack of coincidence that’s going to get somebody’s attention” Wice said.
this picture have racist connotations, is it an example of subtle racism or is there simply nothing wrong with it? It is an advertisement for the new Intel “Core 2 Duo” processor, which is supposed to be faster and better than anything else on the market……..“40% more performance with improved energy efficiency” and “delivers unparalleled multi-tasking capabilities”. The powerful new chip is exemplified by the “cloned athlete ready to go” at a moment’s notice, only waiting for the command to start running. The symbolism is in fact quite appealing and conjures up images of athletic strength, speed and ability. The new chip is ready and willing to take on the competition …..and win!! Great ad and compelling imagery…….Right !?! 
