Wednesday, 11. January 2017

This Obscure Marijuana-Related Illness Is On The Rise In States With Legalized Pot


Ever heard of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome? Don’t worry, almost no one else has either. But it’s a very real, and frightening, condition that can affect people who smoke heavy amounts of marijuana. And unfortunately, it appears to be on the rise in states that have legalized recreational cannabis. “It is certainly something that, before legalization, we almost never saw,” Dr. Kennon Heard told CBS News. “Now we are seeing it quite frequently.”

health.good.is wikipedia.org

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Watch How Casually False Claims are Published: New York Times and Nicholas Lemann Edition


Like most people, I’ve long known that factual falsehoods are routinely published in major media outlets. But as I’ve pointed out before, nothing makes you internalize just how often it really happens, how completely their editorial standards so often fail, like being personally involved in a story that receives substantial media coverage. I cannot count how many times I’ve read or heard claims from major media outlets about the Snowden story that I knew, from first-hand knowledge, were a total fabrication. We have a perfect example of how this happens from the New York Times today, in a book review by Nicholas Lemann, the Pulitzer-Moore professor of journalism at Columbia University as well as a long-time staff writer for The New Yorker. Lemann is reviewing a new book by Edward J. Epstein – the long-time neocon, right-wing Cold Warrior, WSJ op-ed page writer and Breitbart contributor – which basically claims Snowden is a Russian spy.

theintercept.com

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Prince's Music Could Be Available To Stream Soon


Prince's music could soon be available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music with his estate currently working on securing deals with the streaming platforms.

The estate of Prince Rogers Nelson, one of the few musicians unavailable on most streaming services, is closing in on deals that will pave the way for the artist’s music to play at major outlets like Spotify and Apple Music, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Representatives of Prince, who died in April at age 57, have all but finished a deal for songs like “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry” to be played in public, said the person, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. The estate is also nearing a deal with a record label, the person said, without being more specific. Both are preludes to streaming agreements.

bloomberg.com

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A New Era of Mass Surveillance is Emerging Across Europe


The world was a different place when, in October 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) struck down the “Safe Harbour” data-sharing agreement that allowed the transfer of European citizens’ data to the US. The Court’s decision concluded that the indiscriminate nature of the surveillance programs carried out by U.S. intelligence agencies, exposed two years earlier by NSA-contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden, had made it impossible to ensure that the personal data of E.U. citizens would be adequately protected when shared with American companies. The ruling thus served to further solidify the long-standing conventional wisdom that Continental Europe is better at protecting privacy than America.

justsecurity.org

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BuzzFeed publishes unsubstantiated Trump report, raising ethics questions


Site posted documents about his purported behaviour in Russia with a warning that they contained errors and were ‘unverified and potentially unverifiable’

BuzzFeed’s decision to publish an intelligence report filled with salacious and unsubstantiated claims about Donald Trump’s purported behaviour in Russia has triggered a political storm and debate over media ethics. The news website posted the unredacted documents on Tuesday, just 10 days before Trump’s inauguration, with a warning that the contents contained errors and were “unverified and potentially unverifiable”.

theguardian.com

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Barbie™ Typewriter


Alphabet substitution cipher The Barbie Typewriter E-118, is a low-cost electronic typewriter, developed as a childeren's toy by Mehano in Slovenia (formerly: Yugoslavia) and sold worldwide by Mattel (US) 1 . The E-118 is the latest model in the product line that started with the E-115. The electronic typewriter was the successor to the earlier purely mechanical Barbie typewriter models. It is little known that all electronic variants have a hidden built-in cryptographic capability that allows secret writing.

Barbie™ Typewriter

cryptomuseum.com

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Tuesday, 10. January 2017

Gelungen: Die ARD präsentiert das Darknet


Die ARD nähert sich dem Phänomen „Darknet“ mit einer TV-Dokumentation. Die ist gelungen und zeigt die Ambivalenz von Anonymisierungs- und Verschlüsselungstechnologien mit einem Schwerpunkt auf die Durchsetzung und den Schutz von Menschenrechten.

netzpolitik.org

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Why Amsterdam’s coffee shops are closing


ON DECEMBER 31st the world’s oldest coffee shop, Mellow Yellow, in Amsterdam, was forced to roll down its bright yellow shutters one last time. Over the past half-century, many a foreigner has smoked their first spliff at this cosy cafe, which sat perfectly on the route between two tourist favourites, the Heineken Brewery and Rembrandt Square. Mellow Yellow is the latest in a string of Amsterdam coffee-shop closures, a development that is worrying health workers, law enforcement officials and potheads equally because it may push drugs back onto the street. The number of coffee shops in the Dutch capital has fallen by half since 1995, from 350 to just 167. Why are so many Amsterdam coffee shops closing?

economist.com

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Mesmerizing Timelapse Video From ‘Planet Earth II’ Reveals The Psychedelic World Of Fungi


Fungi are already interesting themselves, but when you have the chance to see some unusual ones blooming at night in a stunning timelapse, then that’s truly mind-blowing. This footage from Planet Earth II, shot by Steve Axford, even includes a few specimens of this psychedelic world that were captured for the very first time.

tranquilmonkey.com

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Cops Using FAKE Drug Tests To Convict Hundreds Of Thousands – Redacted Tonight


Faulty results from cheap roadside drug tests are sending tens of thousands of innocent people to jail or prison and ruining their futures. So why do police departments rely so heavily on a test that’s so obviously flawed? Correspondent Natalie McGill uncovers this highly gross miscarriage of justice and more on Redacted Tonight.

trofire.com

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'Hollyweed' sign prankster arrested


Los Angeles police on Monday arrested a local artist suspected of a New Year's Day prank in which he altered the letters of the famous Hollywood sign to read "Hollyweed." Pranksters change iconic Hollywood sign to 'Hollyweed' Zachary Cole Fernandez, 30, was booked on a misdemeanor charge when he voluntarily surrendered to the authorities with his attorney at his side. He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to appear in court on February 15, a police spokesman said.

abs-cbn.com

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Travel To The Moon With David Bowie 360 Video


NPR's YouTube channel, Skunk Bear, answers your science questions — and this week we picked one in honor of David Bowie. Bowie was born on January 8 - the artist would have been 70 on Sunday. Today, January 10, marks the first anniversary of his death. Bowie filled his songs with references to space, and his first big hit, "Space Oddity," was released just days before humans first walked on the moon.

npr.org

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