Exclusion of scientists from drugs council ‘worrying’ Government plans which could potentially see no scientists sitting on its drugs advisory council are "worrying", campaigners said today.
Neuroscience professor Colin Blakemore said scrapping the statutory requirement for scientists to sit on the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) was wrong and urged ministers to listen to scientific advice even when it was inconvenient.
But the Home Office said the move was intended to give the Government greater flexibility in the expertise it was able to draw on.
Prof Blakemore told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "You can see why evidence and advice might be inconvenient to a minister who is confident in his or her own judgment.
"But, as (US President) Barack Obama said just before his inauguration, 'We should listen to the scientists even when what they say is inconvenient'.
"I think another look at the range of expertise that was required statutorily on the advisory council was overdue. But the deliberate exclusion of any reference to any scientist on the committee is obviously worrying."
The proposals, which were contained in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, remove the requirement for the ACMD members to include a doctor, a dentist, a vet, a pharmacist, a drugs industry expert and a scientist from another branch of chemistry.
Crime Prevention Minister James Brokenshire said: "Scientific advice is absolutely critical to the Government's approach to drugs and any suggestion that we are moving away from it is absolutely not true.
"Removing the requirement on the Home Secretary to appoint to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs at least one person with experience in six specific areas will allow us greater flexibility in the expertise we are able to draw on.
"We want the ACMD to be adapted to best address the challenges posed by the accelerating pace of challenges in the drugs landscape."
Last year, ACMD chairman Prof David Nutt was forced to resign by then-Home Secretary Alan Johnson after saying ecstasy was less harmful than alcohol.
Exclusion of scientists from drugs council 'worrying' - Home News, UK - The Independent
Everything is okay, everything you read in the manistream media is true! Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. Al qaeda, Mohammed, terrorism, terrorism. War in Iraq. War in Afghanistan. Al qaeda. Osama Bin Laden. Tora Bora. Afghanistan. Terrorism. Stay scared, stay separate. Terror, terror, terror. Terror is bad, you are bad. GO SHOPPING. Stay scared.
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UK : East : Haverhill flooded with sewage! as if its not rank enough over there :yakk:....
Town hit by overflow of raw sewage
Raymond Brown A river of raw sewage four inches deep flooded a main shopping street in Haverhill.
The flow, which stretched for more than 400 yards and was 15ft across, was caused by a build up of fat and other items which had frozen because of plummeting temperatures, according to water bosses.
Fountains of sewage about 6in in height bubbled up from under Wethersfield Road.
Traffic drove through the sludge, spraying it along pavements and forcing shoppers to walk through the liquid waste.
Richard Murray, who owns the Photo2Prints store on the A1307, discovered the sewage as he stepped out of his shop on Wednesday at around 8.15am.
He said: “It was absolutely stinking. There was just a river of raw sewage and was about six inches deep in some places. There were loads of fountains of sewage bubbling up from holes in the street.
“I had to tell people they were walking in raw sewage and one lady said she’d have to throw her trainers away. Taxis and cars were just driving through it and not even slowing down. I said to one taxi driver he’d have to wash his car before taking any passengers.
“It was absolutely disgusting. The workers from Anglian Water were at it all day trying to remove a blockage from the sewer pipes.”
Anglian Water has warned people to think about what they pour down their drains. A spokesman said: “This spill was the unfortunate and unpleasant consequence of people putting things down the sewer that simply shouldn’t be there.
“Fats, oils and greases may go down your sink as a liquid, but as soon as they reach the cold depths of our sewer system, they start to congeal.
“This is made worse when people flush nappies, wet-wipes and other sanitary items down the toilet.”
He added: “In this case, we had to get a specialist high-powered jetting system in to clear out the blockage.
“We need to get the message across that the toilet is not a wet dustbin.”
Haverhill Weekly News | Haverhill Jobs, Sports & Haverhill Property | Haverhill West Suffolk | Town hit by overflow of raw sewage
US : Hollywood Publicist Ronni Chasen shot dead.. A bizzare real life incident like something straight out of the plot of a crime/action movie - but unlike the movies its surely not that easy to fire five shots into a moving vehicle?
She must have properly pissed off someone determined to finish her off - but you'd expect this more to happen with a younger, sketchier actor/director who might have got caught up in drugs and gangs than some veteran in their 60s...
A prominent Hollywood publicist has been shot dead behind the wheel of her car on a Beverly Hills street.
Early on Tuesday police found Ronni Chasen shot multiple times in the chest in her Mercedes Benz, which had crashed into a lamp post.
Ms Chasen, 64, had just attended the premiere of the Cher movie Burlesque, which she had been promoting, US media reported.
Police said they had identified no suspects or motives in the case.
BBC News - Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen shot dead
Benefit Cuts What do you make of them? Personally, cautiously, I think they sound quite sensible.
Have listed the main points below (taken from the BBC)
Replaces working tax credit, child tax credit, housing benefit, income support, jobseekers' allowance and income related allowances
Low paid workers to keep more of what they earn
Benefits cut for three months if job offers refused
People can move in and out of work without losing benefit
Starts for new claimants in 2013
Will take up to 10 years to come fully into effect
3 strike rule for people refusing to go attend interviews/take offered work/not attending the job centre appointments
£2.1bn start up costs
Meant to save money in the long run through reducing fraud and error
12
Rioters Chase Cops in London….Police Run for Cover Protests turned to violence in London and a group of angry Muslim protesters chased the cops away while chanting Free Palestine. It was last month, but it didn't get much play on the news, especially not from this camera.
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nothing like a nice peaceful protest! gotta love the police being on the backfoot though!
Suspected bomb found aboard cargo plane in London "An ink toner cartridge suspoected to have been converted into a bomb has been found aboard a United Parcel Service flight in London.
CNN reported that the flight was travelling to Chicago from Yemen. The bomb was discovered when the plane was stopped in London, CNN said.
Two UPS planes at Philadelphia airport and one UPS plane at Newark airport in New Jersey were also being investigated for suspicious packages. A UPS truck in New York City was also under investigation, police said."
Suspected bomb found aboard cargo plane in London | World news | guardian.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11654390
Rent is too Damn High Excellent! Although it is a shame you can't get serious candidates like this!
The Rent Is Too Damn High Party
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0[/YT]
MY : Woman dies after parcel bomb explodes outside flat A worrying situation - and more likely to be linked to domestic crime than Islamic terrorism (Malaysia is an Islamic nation but Sharia law only applies to those shown as Muslim on their ID cards)
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The 51-year-old owner of the 12th floor apartment unit, who was awakened from his sleep when he heard a knock on his door at 8.30am yesterday, found a cardboard box with two pomeloes placed on top, on the floor outside his unit.
The man, who wanted to be identified only as Lim, said he smelt kerosene and felt suspicious.
“I asked several neighbours if they had seen anyone place the box there but no one saw anything,” said Lim, who runs an Internet cafe and a restaurant on the ground floor of the apartment block.
He then called Ng and Goh to inspect the contents of the box.
The box exploded when the workers touched it.
A pomelo is like a giant grapefruit, native to SE Asia. wouldn't suprise me if they'd used the fruit part of the trigger mechanism for the IED - its the sort of thing Chinese gangsters would do (people in Malaysia are easily distracted by food). The pomelos "were not badly damaged (!)" so Malaysian CSI are hoping to get fingerprints from them, assuming fat cops don't eat the evidence by mistake...
Death Penalty Just saw this on another forum I post on. However, I think the general tone of people's thoughts Is different there. I wanted to do a small test for myself, and to see what you lot thought too, and have an intelligent discussion. Which I dont think Id have on the other forum ;) Dont get me wrong, there are some clever folk over there, but generally not.
Anyway, they posted a Petition for the Death Penalty to be brought back as an option for punishment.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/DeathPenalty2007/
Personally I don't think so. The point the petiton starter Is making, Is that people aren't scared of the law anymore. It may be true within some crimes, but no crime really deserves death. I would say there are not many sane people who commit horrific crimes. With this being said, a fucked up mind does not warrant their death as punishment. I think everyone deserves a chance at least, of redemption.
I also think most murders of innocent people are acts of passion, with the one's that aren't being acts of insanity. Passion being the irrational cloak that covers a person's mind to enable them to take such actions. Insanity being unable to think like everyone else.
There are exceptions to the above, but I think that covers the most common murders.
Anyway, to the original point, you cannot show me many people anywhere who would see a life sentence a consequence they could live with in return of them being able to murder a person. No one In the right mind would give that. This leaves me to believe that people who commit those crimes, are not in the right mind, or thinking of consequence, so It is irrelevant of the punishment.
What do you lot think ?12…56
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