On November 2, the residents of Denver, Colorado passed the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative. With 100% of precincts reporting, the final tally for the vote was 56,001 YES votes to 48,632 NO votes, approximately 54% - 46%. The measure changed city law to allow for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and over. The act is largely symbolic, though, as state and federal laws supersede local law, and authorities have already stated that state possession laws would be applied. However hope remains, for the passage of the initiative marks Denver as the first area in the nation to legalize private use of marijuana, for recreational as well as medical use. Is the legalization of marijuana at the federal level now within our reach?

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Life, I've been told, is a school. I've always thought that it was more like a college, where your participation determines what you get out of it. I never made it through college, but I've learned a lot in life, and over the past year, I've been engaged in a sort of group learning experience - one of me, thousands of them. They are honeybees, and they teach the lessons of the hive.

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During the spring semester of my sophomore year at the University of Colorado Boulder, I took an entry-level sociology class called Deviance in Society. I registered for the course after a long pot smoking session with this sociology major named Ruthie who'd taken it her freshman year.

"Is that class really as cool as it sounds?" I said, passing the green plastic bong down to where she was sitting barefoot on the rug. I'd been burned before on courses that had cool sounding names, like the Chaos Theory and Non Linear-Systems class that actually expected you to do some pretty intense math.

"Hell yeah," Ruthie said before taking a hit. I watched the brown bong-water bubble at the bottom and realized I really needed to change it. "I loved that class. You learn a lot of neat stuff," she said as she exhaled.

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Perhaps it sounded good on paper, but Intel's latest ad campaign "Experience Entertainment in Your Lap" doesn't really go where you want to go today.

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The science of genomics is the study of genes and their function. Recent advances in genomics are bringing about a revolution in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of disease, and are providing new ways for scientists to develop pharmaceuticals by targeting the specific genes, or the corresponding proteins responsible for the disease. The details of the process are summarized at Decision Resources. They write "Genomics-based drug discovery now offers the improved ability to identify greater numbers of drug targets. Genomics is based on the concept that a gene's function is to generate a certain effect or group of effects in the body. Genes achieve this functionality through the proteins they produce. Although the genes themselves might become therapeutic targets, the pivotal rationale behind this approach is that, by linking public genomic data with proprietary genomic sequence information, pharmaceutical companies can then launch a focused search for proteins expressed from these genes, providing additional therapeutic targets."

The new genomic approach to drug design may have a significant impact on the quality and scope of pharmaceuticals available, it also raises some important questions with regard to social justice, that is, how can you insure that certain groups of people are not disadvantaged with regard to drug development? It is conceivable that the pharmaceutical industry, driven either by profit or prejudice, will avoid developing drugs that will be vital to a minority population.

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On this day 224 years ago, the British General Lord Charles Cornwallis offered his sword in surrender to the French General Rochambeau and General Lafayette, ending the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia. The defeat of the British to the combined French and American forces, coupled with the defeat of the British fleet by French Admiral de Grasse in the Battle of the Chesapeake, was a devastating blow to the British war effort and effectively ended the American Revolutionary War. A century later, the Statue of Liberty, the ubiquitious symbol of American liberty and freedom, was unveiled in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886 as a gift from the Fench to their "sister republic". Grover Cleveland accepted the statue with a speech: "It is a token of the gratitude and appreciation of France, assuring us that in our efforts to commend to the world a government by a free people, we have a steadfast ally, and can demonstrate the kinship of republics. We are not met to bow before a severe and warlike god, but to honor our own peaceful deity".

A century after that, France is the most universally reviled Western country in the United States.

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Account anonymization on Kuro5hin is a blunt tool at best with which to enforce community standards. It doesn't let the user know what behaviour crossed the line, and it doesn't let the other admins know what behaviour crossed the line either. (The admin that did the anonymization can leave a note, if they choose.) It also doesn't let the admins see what accounts the other admins think are worth watching.

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George A Romero's Dead trilogy - Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead - were low-budget, low-production value gore-fests dismissed by critics but loved by horror fans. Over the years they wormed their way into popular consciousness and have been re-evaluated, elevated from exploitation B-movies to savage satires on modern American society. With the recent release of sequel Land of the Dead, now is a good time to look back at Romero's films and their cultural impact.

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If you look at the Army Field Manual's section on interrogation techniques, you will find an enlightening little passage on the subject of "coercive" interrogation, which says in part:

The use of force, mental torture, threats, insults, or exposure to unpleasant and inhumane treatment of any kind is prohibited by law and is neither authorized nor condoned by the US Government. Experience indicates that the use of force is not necessary to gain the cooperation of sources for interrogation. Therefore, the use of force is a poor technique, as it yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say whatever he thinks the interrogator wants to hear.

Yesterday evening, John McCain passed an amendment to the next military appropriations bill which if followed would end such practices by simply requiring the treatment of detainees to be held to the standards in the Army field manual. Bush claims he's going to veto it. This would mean the first, and so far only, veto of Bush's entire presidency would be performed in support of torture.

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I've got Good News and I've got Bad News.

Recently, the government of Florida managed to pull together to pass HB 0249, a law now commonly known as the "Stand Your Ground" law. This law provides for the following:

"A person, not engaged in an unlawful activity, who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so, to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself, herself, or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

So, finally, this Christmas, when we all leave our trailer parks and go to line up outside Walmart to score those cheap 40" TVs, and there is a riot when they finally open the doors, I can light you up like 2Pac when you get in my face.

Now, on to the bad news.

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