Slashdot Mirror

[citation needed]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/stretching-before-exercise-is-useless-738097.html

“The basic science and clinical evidence today suggests that stretching before exercise is more likely to cause injury than to prevent it.”
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-241-287--7001-0,00.html

Several authors have suggested that stretching has a beneficial effect on injury prevention. In contrast, clinical evidence suggesting that stretching before exercise does not prevent injuries has also been reported.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15233597

“stretching before exercise is more likely to cause injury than to prevent it.”
http://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Program-Results/dp/0071597174/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329369249&sr=8-1 p. 218-9, emphasis in original

Possibly this study or a similar one.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/stretching-before-exercise-is-useless-738097.html

And meanwhile, these seeds are about as healthy as dioxin.

Citation, please.

The plants are engineered to produce an insecticide that kills insects, and it's escaping from the fields...

Lets say an ecosystem needs insects: Having 85% of all the streams around a genetically modified crop being polluted with insecticide masquerading as food might be an issue... In fact, it would be equivalent to sprinkling the countryside with some level of dioxin.

I'd say that pesticides escaping and even proliferating on their own is a generally bad idea. You can disagree with me, but then morons also exist.

No, I did my own research.

As to the retarded question of whether or not I'm retarded: you've never met me, so you have no idea and don't for one fucking minute try and convince anybody that you do - it makes you look stupid and brands you the liar that you are. My last WAIS-III composite, assessed four years ago, was 223. Make what you will of that.

So your ethical code is OK with breaking the legal code whenever you feel like it ? I could see the point when talking about individuals and civil disobedience but anyone who thinks it's OK for corporations to ignore the law should have their head examined. It's enough that corporations as an entity are psychopathic and that some actively recruit psychopaths, let's not give them a license to break the law too.

Instead, the plant actually withstood the quake and, what's more, actually shut itself down automatically during the quake. What happened next is what screws TEPCO (rightfully so)

Hmmm, actually it is not true .
The meltdown of at least one of the core was caused by the earthquake.
In a country like Japan, were magnitude 7 earthquake happens on a 6 months basis, the Japanese safety at the site was absolutely inadequate. And TEPCO new it.

. Temperature is broadly (and significantly) speaking linearly related to C02 emissions . The flucuations of temperature because the climate is a complicated system within that context are irrelevant Climate sensitivity is NOT going to save you, it's mentioned because accurate predictions for the near future require it be incorporated.

It's not a " throw carbon into the atmosphere and suffer no further consequences for free" card.

BTW: http://co2now.org/

Furthermore, the oceans appear to be losing their ability to absorb C02:

http://www.watthead.org/2007/05/warnings-from-warming-world-new-study.html

Re: your earlier assertion that of a "few inches" of ocean rise From the IPCC report, it is in fact .59 meters, a lot more than a few inches. What's more: ::

Contraction of the Greenland Ice Sheet is projected to continue to contribute to sea level rise after 2100.

Current models suggest that ice mass losses increase with temperature more rapidly than gains due to precipitation and that the surface mass balance becomes negative at a global average warming (relative to pre-industrial values) in excess of 1.9ÂC to 4.6ÂC.

If a negative surface mass balance were sustained for millennia, that would lead to virtually complete elimination of the Greenland Ice Sheet and a resulting contribution to sea level rise of about 7 m.

The corresponding future temperatures in Greenland are comparable to those inferred for the last interglacial period 125,000 years ago, when palaeoclimatic information suggests reductions of polar land ice extent and 4 to 6 m of sea level rise

did pfizer go away after poisoning hundreds

didn't happen as in the case of Pfizer

For both of you.

If that were the case you wouldn't expect the highest rate of MS in the world to be in Seattle

MS was recently linked to vitamin D deficiency.

Hmm interesting. I wonder if there are large number of vegans in Seattle?

There are a large number of clouds in Seattle. Sunlight is a primary source of vitamin D.

You got there before me, as I'd originally intended saying this to the OP.

I live in Scotland, which has the highest prevalence of MS in the world, and it was in the news here recently that our general lack of daylight (*) may be one possible cause for this.

I don't know how Seattle compares to Scotland in general, but I did know that it's further north and generally not as blessed as California is when it comes to sunshine.

(*) Although people do forget that the shorter days in more northerly locations is balanced by the fact that in *summer* they're conversely longer. Then again, you also have to consider that (i) the sun is going to be lower in the sky in general- and hence weaker- the further north you go, and (ii) that the generally greater levels of cloud (from poor weather) robs you of significant amounts of daylight.

Yep, and he got it -- it's the Snausage that keeps on giving -- he's made more money since leaving office than any other Prime Minister:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/7948653/Tony-Blair-and-the-millions-he-keeps-out-of-the-public-eye.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8787053/Tony-Blairs-Byzantine-world-of-advisers-and-lucrative-deals.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blairs-company-paid-just-315000-tax-on-income-of-more-than-12m-6287001.html

I'd be interested to know, too. Press coverage at the time says Bel Mooney (married to Jonathan Dimbleby) was dead against it (and it is hideous, though I only visited here once before it was built).

I've no real information about who was for it at the time. But if traffic was coming down what is now the Gloucester Road through Swainswick, then boy, oh boy, that would have been ugly.

Before you call bullshit, you should, oh I don't know, have any fucking idea what you are talking about. Note that I said conservatives, there are a significant # of Japanese politicians and a decent amount of the populace that want nuclear weapons, and by keeping nuclear power alive they essentially always have a path open to do so. Which was my point. So yeah, you're the one full of shit.

The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet's Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

...

Computer experts believe the new search engine will be an evolutionary leap in the development of the internet.

Result of the second hit on a Google search for "Revolutionary software invention"

I find it interesting that this media blitz comes at the same time as a lax in the rules on ETOPS saftey rules: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airlines-cleared-to-use-santas-shortcut-6281263.html

Maybe not all, but they do inform pilots who are flying across the poles -- the Earth's magnetic field deflects some space weather, but ends up concentrating the stuff at the poles (which is why the Northern/Southern Lights are strongest near the poles)

The result is that many pilots won't fly those routes, instead taking other routes which often require an extra stop for refueling, or reducing the amount of luggage (to be brought later).

So if you're planning on a trip that's to the other hemisphere, odds are, you're looking at delays and/or lost baggage.

Commercial pilots have little leeway over the routes they fly, so your statement that pilots avoid flying polar routes doesn't seem based on valid information. A better reason why polar routes aren't flown is because FAA rules require that planes never be further than a certain distance (referred to as ETOPS XXX, where XXX is the number of minutes flight time) from an airport where they can land in an emergency. Until Santa Claus opens up North Pole Field for international arrivals and departures, there just aren't many places in the Great White North where you can land a fully loaded jumbo jet year round.

However, the rules are changing. Just in time for Christmas, Santa's shortcut was green-lighted (though, should be red-lighted in Rudolf's honor).

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airlines-cleared-to-use-santas-shortcut-6281263.html

Why I would go to Dubai again? Because I can get 2 days complete entertainment and be treated like a king for the cost of a short cab fare in any major American city.

The cost is actually a little bit higher

In 2010 China produced 130,000 tons of neodymium. The next largest producer was India with 2700 tons and then Brazil 550 tons.

Source, USGS report: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/rare_earths/mcs-2011-raree.pdf

China produces 97% of rare-earths and is using significant export restrictions to create artificial scarcity to drive up the price and gain political power: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/concern-as-china-clamps-down-on-rare-earth-exports-1855387.html

Rare-earths (which are not particularly rare) must be extracted from, e.g., Bastnäsite by leeching with acid (e.g. hydrochloric is used in the USA productions but in China they just cook it in sulfuric acid) followed by a solvent extraction and various other steps. The Bastnäsite contains a mix of various rare-earths including thorium, which is radioactive. Thats not necessarily a problem but it does need to be managed. EPA shut down the Molycorp mine at Mountain Pass due to accidental discharge of radioactive waste.

Agreed. People will still make Avatar with reasonable copyright terms. It's make almost 1billion in just a few years: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/avatar-opens-new-dimension-for-profits-with-745m-box-office-record-1855388.html

We should all be able to fill our collections with 20-year old songs. I think this would also encourage copyright holders to pursue new works. Which would benefit them, and the public good.

Yes the small projects add up to http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/super-soldiers-the-quest-for-the-ultimate-human-killing-machine-6263279.html
Games and meds before and after the stress of combat could make for a much better death squad.

What do you think shifting some water from poles towards equator will do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRcex9NEJZE http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fury-at-dna-pioneers-theory-africans-are-less-intelligent-than-westerners-394898.html

You got modded troll, but you made me curious, because I seemed to remember hearing these before, too. Doing a google search of "global warming irreversible YYYY" I came up with these:

From 2009, Obama has 4 years to save the world

From 2009, global warming is now irreversible, study says(also discussed on slashdot)

From 2006, The End of the World As We Know It; THE world has already passed the point of no return on global warming.

From 2005, past the point of no return.

Also from 2005, Global warming irreversible.

From 2004, Damage from warming becoming irreversible.

From 1989, We have a 10 year window to fix the problem.

What do you think of that?

odd I hear crickets.......

You got modded troll, but you made me curious, because I seemed to remember hearing these before, too. Doing a google search of "global warming irreversible YYYY" I came up with these:

From 2009, Obama has 4 years to save the world
From 2009, global warming is now irreversible, study says(also discussed on slashdot)
From 2006, The End of the World As We Know It; THE world has already passed the point of no return on global warming.
From 2005, past the point of no return.
Also from 2005, Global warming irreversible.
From 2004, Damage from warming becoming irreversible.
From 1989, We have a 10 year window to fix the problem.

What do you think of that?

Users aren't customers. If you're downloading someone's software without paying them for it, you are not their customer.

The users are, however, consumers. If you have a significant number of consumers who aren't customers, surely a more sensible approach is to investigate why this is the case and try to convert them, rather than simply dismissing them as irrelevant?

Plus, at least as far as music goes (and by extrapolation to games and software), there is a reasonable amount of evidence to suggest that "pirates" actually spend more on average than non-pirates, so are these groups' best customers.

I remember AOL UK suggesting that the towns Scunthorpe and Pensitone change their names to Socnthorpe and Pennistone because people could not register using them (they caught in the primitive obscenity filter). The absolute anger of citizens of these towns was really amusing I remember one person pointing out that thir town was much older than America, let alone America Online and they were buggered if they would change their name.

Another classic of cultural insensitivity was when they told people on the Wales regional forum that they had to post in English and Welsh was banned!

Um, no. None of those things are bullshit.

Are you sure?

The helium crisis is largely caused by a cost cutting move by congress, not an actual shortage.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html

Actually the helium shortage is strictly a manufactured shortage, created by the US Government when they (principally the Navy) decided blimps were not its platform of choice. The Government decided to dump its huge reserve of helium at submarket prices, and as such nobody bothers to extract helium from all the natural sources where is has historically been obtained.

Government passed a law shutting down the helium reserve. The law stipulates that the US National Helium Reserve, which is kept in a disused underground gas field near Amarillo, Texas – by far the biggest store of helium in the world – must all be sold off by 2015, irrespective of the market price.

There could still be as much helium produced today as ever, were it not for cheap government surplus sales, as it is, nobody bothers to extract it.

See article here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html

I was just thinking that the two companies should partner together, and offer totally customized masks made on request.

What could possibly go wrong?

BTW masks from SPFXmasks have already been used to perpetrate crimes:

News - Bank Robbery Suspect Fools Cops with Realistic Mask - InsideEdition.com
Face mask that's so good every crook wants one - Americas, World - The Independent
Spfxmasks - Gizmodo stories - Gizmodo

Top 5 2009 Estimates, Citation, of the percentage of adults (aged 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS followed by a news bit lending no credence to any claim of traditional values as we define them.

25.90 - Swaziland - 23 August 2005, Swazi girls celebrate as king lifts ban on sex for under-18s - Citation
24.80 - Botswana - 1 December 2010, Botswana mulls legalizing prostitution to fight HIV - Citation
23.60 - Lesotho - July 20, 2004, in Lesotho as in much of sub-Saharan Africa, early sex is the norm. - Citation
17.80 - South Africa - 9 October 2011, 30% of people would use condoms for their first coital sex versus 4% for oral sex - Citation
14.30 - Zimbabwe - 12 June 2009, girls as young as 12 to sell their bodies for as little as a packet of biscuits - Citation

Not too sure about those traditional values. It just looks like the dazzled approach isn't being worked.

Again, it's only a local phenomenon [...]

So, how exactly is glaciers melting around the world a local phenomen?

The US sell-off of helium means the price will exponentially inflate (heh) after 2015, once the US reserves are gone. The price of helium now is around twenty times too low, based on future needs and available supply.

Helium, also, slowly escapes into outer space, and we have to go to space to get it (barring future discoveries of unknown gas pockets), or wait millions of years for uranium/thorium decay to replenish underground stocks.

So, back to hydrogen airships? Just avoid powdered aluminum paint.

Speaking of green jobs; since the recession began I have heard many politicians and pundits say something along the line of "Our district will create jobs and prosperity by leading in the green business revolution"

How has that worked out? I think that our politicians are under some assumption that no other country in the world has engineers working on this problem. That China will sit idly by as we make efficient and lucrative clean energy products. The fact is that we cannot become proffitable just by changing industries, we need a climate where businesses are able to to succeed in any industry. We need less regulation, more efficient regulation (ie; less paperwork for compliance), and more efficient taxation. We also could do with a little tort reform and maybe some tarrif reform mixed in there.

If politicians (many of whom are lawyers and assume people like filling out pages and pages of EPA forms) took one minute to realise negative impact of the procedural overhead caused by all of these convoluted and redundant regulations perhaps we would have a chance at a business revolution. Many of these agencies use violations of these regulations as a revenue gathering device, this only serves to discourage business expansion and job creation.

To recap, I am not saying that we need to kill all business regulation, but we need to cut it down to the point where any person of average intelligence could understand them and reach compliance easily while still having time left in the day to run a business. Same general thought applies to tax law.

I dunno, maybe she doesn't want to spread her genes around. (Take that however you want)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-symmetrical-face-isnt-just-prettier--its-healthier-too-509285.html

It didn't last for very long though. The process was halted back in June after multiple earthquakes, and the UK is pretty stable geologically - earthquakes strong enough to be felt usually make the national news - so a connection seems highly likely. Coverage at the BBC, FT and Independent.

NPR reported on the same sort of thing happening in Faulkner County, Ark. I think they later stopped the drills for a period to see if it stopped the small quakes and found that the quakes did stop.

It didn't last for very long though. The process was halted back in June after multiple earthquakes, and the UK is pretty stable geologically - earthquakes strong enough to be felt usually make the national news - so a connection seems highly likely. Coverage at the BBC, FT and Independent.

Still, it is good for a chuckle every now and again if you are a Galactica fan since journos keep using headlines starting with "Fracking Protesters..." until someone gets it changed. :)

"paranoid side of the bed this morning"?
Well lets see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1041011/MI5-launch-spy-sky-UK-manhunt-British-Taliban-fought-Afghanistan.html for the interest in voice prints.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/363802/wired-coppers-the-new-technology-behind-old-bill/3 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)/CCTV.
and the http://www.independent.co.uk/news/facerecognition-cctv-launched-1178300.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4035285.stm for the joys of tracking your face...
Mix in ideas of the Data Retention Directive, the past skills of the GCHQ, MI5 funding .... you would only need to be seen near one access point.
A laptop user would have to be lucky all the time. A CCTV network only has to be lucky for a few frames...

Science is not a consensus. Do you think Newton said "aww shucks, this guy Ptolemy has the consensus for predicting the moment of heavenly bodies."? Did Copernicus say "I guess the consensus is that the sun rotates around us."? Did Lavoisier say "This can't be oxygen because Priestley says it's dephlogisticated air and after the Priestley's idea of phlogiston has the scientific consensus.

Why? Because Newton, Copernicus and Lavoisier saw that there was a crisis of theory. The observable results of experiments were causing anomalies that couldn't be described by the current paradigm that held the scientific consensus (Phlogiston, Ptolemaic astronomy or non-heliocentric orbit ). There were holes in the theories.

The same thing is happening here. There is a paradigm of forcing gasses and radiation that cannot account for the observed effects and cannot, with any accuracy, predict future climate patterns as they claim. There are no experiments to be reproduced. There is no real theory that can be falsified. And then the author's of the 'consensus' global warming theory stretch their paradigm to the breaking point by calming they can predict this incredibly complex system with a computer (named Deus ex machina apparently) and low and behold its because of human activity (but by what percent?) that the climate is warming at the rate is is. People being critical of this usually cry "there is too much entropy in the system! Garbage in garbage out! How can you see anything through the entropic noise?" (ever hear of confirmation bias? Oh ya, we see something!)

But instead of being treated as a valid critique, a real crisis in the paradigm, the 'deniers' (heh, think what Copernicus was called) are met with the idiotic chant: "The FUCkING world is going to END and you're in the pocket of big oil". And really, how many times are AGW proponents going to get it dead wrong before we decide that this paradigm is nothing more than junk science.

I am good enough at math enough to know that the AGW theories are just full of guess work, the models contain too much entropy to be driving decisions about our global economy. Pro "big government" interests have taken up this cause (oh? people cause the problem? That's exactly what we want to control!) in an effort to push more intrusive government controls on everything and confiscate any wealth in the name of "saving the planet".

When so described, how can alarmist be called a pejorative? It really sounds to me like a description of the chicken little show being put on. And the term 'denier' really presupposes that the other side has proven their theory to be a fact , I mean, how can you deny fact? If it were just a theory you may be called skeptical or even overly skeptical but denier really presupposes that AGW is solved scientific fact, when of course, even the biggest proponent will admit under pressure, it is not. And their is nothing "unscientific" about being skeptical.

If you look at northern Europeans (like me), it's easy to see we are decended from Neanderthals. Where do you think the white skin, blond hair, blue eyes, and huge noses came from? Duh. The stupid white Neanderthals mated with super-smart blacks from Africa, creating the modern race of whites.

Like this is the only reason. These people are slavers and it's an outrage the west supports these regimes. I mean just read this article about Dubai :

"It is an open secret that once you hire a maid, you have absolute power over her. You take her passport – everyone does; you decide when to pay her, and when – if ever – she can take a break; and you decide who she talks to. She speaks no Arabic. She cannot escape.

In a Burger King, a Filipino girl tells me it is "terrifying" for her to wander the malls in Dubai because Filipino maids or nannies always sneak away from the family they are with and beg her for help. "They say – 'Please, I am being held prisoner, they don't let me call home, they make me work every waking hour seven days a week.'"

You really think old Wild Bill is the first person to come up with this?

On that subject, Murdoch's daily UK tabloid "The Sun" is also in the dock over almost exactly the same thing:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/sun-and-mirror-in-the-dock-over-coverage-of-joanna-yeates-murder-2307524.html

Actually, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act allows for neglect on the part of directors of a body corporate to be just as guilty as connivance or consent. The fact is that the directors of News International should, from the information released, have known about what was going on when it was happening and if they didn't, were neglectful and still guilty. The RIP act is clearly designed to catch and prosecute all unauthorised wiretaps of this form.

Here's an excellent analysis: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/andreas-whittam-smith-if-we-dont-act-now-worse-will-follow-2307923.html

To repost a link posted elsewhere in this thread:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/deadly-bomb-was-size-of-lunchbox-2261949.html

That one killed 29 people, I seem to recall. Omagh Bombing, if you want to find out more.

Also, as another poster pointed out, a hand-grenade being set off on a busy shopping street wouldn't exactly be a barrel of fun either.

no, honestly, this is dumb. the terrorists have won.

I think it was a legitimate concern.

All it takes is one situation where "Oh hey, that box isn't dangerous at all" and the box exploding that people (even in slashdot) will scream and shout that the police haven't been doing all they need to in order to keep us safe. Would YOU just shrug it off if you heard about the police ignoring a box and hearing it exploded?

A search in google says someone was killed by a bomb the size of a lunchbox so it's possible that a tiny box could, in fact, hold a deadly bomb. Stuff it full of nails and bam, dozens injured if not killed from shrapnel.

It's wonderful we can laugh this off as security theater (and I agree the TSA is fucking ridiculous now), but it just may be better to search 100 times and find that 99 were wrong then to search 0 times and miss the 1. Ideally they would either search once exactly for the one bomb or stop them before they put their bomb out in the first place, but this is the closest we can get at the moment.

Now, if you're the kind of dude that wouldn't be worried about how potentially dangerous an unattended mystery box is, why not take this usb stick found in a parking lot and stick it in your computer? Too afraid? Well then the terrorists have won.

(Yes, I get that most of us aren't stupid enough to have autorun on in the first place, but you get my meaning I hope)

Third worker dies at Fukushima nuclear plant

By Kiyoshi Takenaka, Reuters
Saturday, 14 May 2011

A worker at Japan's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant died today, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said, bringing the death toll at the complex to three since a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.

The cause of the death was unknown. The man, in his 60s, was employed by one of Tokyo Electric's contractors and started working at the plant yesterday. He was exposed to 0.17 millisieverts of radiation today, Tokyo Electric said.

The Japanese government's maximum level of exposure for male workers at the plant is 250 millisieverts for the duration of the effort to bring it under control.

The worker fell ill 50 minutes after starting work at 6am on Saturday and brought to the plant's medical room unconscious.

He was later moved to a nearby hospital and confirmed dead, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said.

Working conditions at the plant are harsh. Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan and a ruling Democratic Party lawmaker, voiced concerns about the working environment at the Fukushima complex on Wednesday.

Speaking at the official launch, Kristian Jensen, the Library’s head of Arts and Humanities, said: “This process allows books to fulfill their original aim of being useful to as many people as possible.”

I thought that is already understood: the copyright should be extended forever, for the profit of the grand-grand-...-grand children of the author (too bad if the author sold the rights to the publisher... but it's irrelevant for the usefulness of books, isn't it?).

Besides, digitization comes with the risk of exposing these "as many" to words, facts and attitudes that are quite sensitive today. I hope that Google will take note: even more recent pieces needed a "translation" to make them politically correct.

Again: can we let the Tea Party and Michele Bachmann be hurt if indiscriminate digitized papers of the time showed that the founding fathers did own slaves (and, possibly, more than own)?

</sarcasm>

Sports riots happen all the time in the US. Maybe you don't get news about them as much over there. Maybe the scale is less dramatic. I'm not certain. I just know that sports riots happen here. Note, the link is a UK source reporting on a California riot from several years ago, which argues against my theory that people outside the US don't get news about our riots.

Anyway, it's kind of nice to think that there's a myth about America that involves us not being violent.

Now, what would be the best objective statistical way to evaluate sports riots in a society?Is anybody keeping a sports riot rating for each country?

One example is that the IMF stopped Malawi from stockpiling grain, and many people died of starvation as a result:

"... when in 2001 the IMF found out the Malawian government had built up large stockpiles of grain in case there was a crop failure, they ordered them to sell it off to private companies at once. They told Malawi to get their priorities straight by using the proceeds to pay off a loan from a large bank the IMF had told them to take out in the first place, at a 56 per cent annual rate of interest. The Malawian president protested and said this was dangerous. But he had little choice. The grain was sold. The banks were paid.

The next year, the crops failed. The Malawian government had almost nothing to hand out. The starving population was reduced to eating the bark off the trees, and any rats they could capture. The BBC described it as Malawiâ(TM)s âoeworst ever famine.â There had been a much worse crop failure in 1991-2, but there was no famine because then the government had grain stocks to distribute. So at least a thousand innocent people starved to death.

Extracted from http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-its-not-just-dominique-strausskahn-the-imf-itself-should-be-on-trial-2292270.html

Other examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund#Impact_on_access_to_food

And yes, I use the term specifically designed because TFA points out yet another step in the hundreds taken to refine that particular product to make it just about the most powerfully addictive legal product on the planet. And again, those who care turn a blind eye and hold their (greased) palm out.

I'm wondering what the likes of Philip Morris, BAT, etc would do to marijuana or cocaine if it were legalized. They already free-base tobacco: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/freebase-nicotine--why-some-some-cigarettes-may-be-more-addictive-588248.html

I don't find pipe tobacco smoke that offensive, some of it actually smells quite nice, so they've definitely made a difference to the product.

It's all still legal of course ;).

You're right about pipe tobacco, and even cigar tobacco, but those two products are FAR different than cigarettes, which is the specific product I'm speaking towards. Neither pipe or cigar tobacco, even in comparable numbers, are as deadly as cigarettes, mainly due to the difference (or lack) of chemical processing.

As far as what Big Tobacco would do with marijuana or cocaine, the answer is simple. They would change nothing in their game plan. They already have a working and hugely profitable model, so why wouldn't they fold those products into the deadly mix any different? They would process them in the same way, and make them as absolutely addictive as possible. Again, because no one is there to stop them or say otherwise.

The irony there is we all sit back and listen to the lies about how deadly and dangerous marijuana is, and yet it will ultimately be the Government who will be responsible, by legalizing it and handing it over to Big Tobacco, who will be the ones left with blood on their hands, as they'll ultimately be responsible for the first death directly attributed to marijuana use in its documented history dating back thousands of years, simply by allowing Big Tobacco to do what they do best.

And yes, I use the term specifically designed because TFA points out yet another step in the hundreds taken to refine that particular product to make it just about the most powerfully addictive legal product on the planet. And again, those who care turn a blind eye and hold their (greased) palm out.

I'm wondering what the likes of Philip Morris, BAT, etc would do to marijuana or cocaine if it were legalized. They already free-base tobacco: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/freebase-nicotine--why-some-some-cigarettes-may-be-more-addictive-588248.html

I don't find pipe tobacco smoke that offensive, some of it actually smells quite nice, so they've definitely made a difference to the product.

It's all still legal of course ;).