A 71-year-old woman was arrested on drug charges after a chest-high marijuana plant was found in her yard, a plant she said was meant to keep animals away from her garden.

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Chart of 18 Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and their positions on 25 issues ranging from Iraq, immigration, universal heathcare, stem cell research, and same-sex marriage.

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Jane Macartney in Beijing

Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people.

“The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,” according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1.

read the rest of the article . . .

An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign

by Edward Jay Epstein

The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value—and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems.

article continues . . .

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the promise of biofuels (such as ethanol and bio-diesel made from plants) to reduce our dependence on oil. However, to produce enough corn-based ethanol to meet current U.S. demand for gasoline, we would need to nearly double the land used for harvested crops, plant all of it in corn, and not eat any of it.

Fuel from plants? Sounds pretty good. But before you rush out to buy an E-85 pickup, consider:

The United States annually consumes more fossil and nuclear energy than all the energy produced in a year by the country’s plant life, including forests and plants used for food and fiber, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Energy and Cornell University researcher David Pimentel.

To produce enough corn-based ethanol to meet current U.S. demand for automotive gasoline, we would need to nearly double the land used for harvested crops, plant all of it in corn, and not eat any of it. Even a greener fuel source (such as the switchgrass Bush mentioned, which requires fewer petroleum-based fertilizers and ingredients than corn and reduces topsoil losses by growing back each year) could provide only a small fraction of the energy we demand.

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Contributed by Mike
Friday, June 9th, 2006 @ 11:27AM

from the one-way-to-look-at-things dept

One of the more annoying things we’ve found when discussing how the entertainment industry needs to adapt and change and embrace new technologies in place of their old business model, is the repeated claim that it’s impossible to make money if the content is given away for free. Impossible is a pretty absolute statement — and all you need is one example to disprove it. However, as we’ve shown, there are many, many examples of entertainers who have learned how to make more money out of giving away their content — which seems to disprove the whole “impossible” bit. However, the industry folks don’t seem to know how to respond to that, so they just keep saying it’s impossible.
(article continues . . . )

Read More (and check the links and comments at techdirt.com . . .)

After you see this, please call your representatives and just tell them where you stand. I called all 3 today and it took 30 seconds each. Do it!

-Zack

Also check this site for more info and to find your reps if they’re not in TN.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/

If you’re in TN:

Call your Representative and 2 U.S. Senators today to urge them to preserve Internet freedom by supporting Network Neutrality.

Congressman Zach Wamp
Phone: 202-225-3271
District Offices:
Chattanooga: 423-756-2342
Oak Ridge: 800-883-2369

Senator William Frist
Phone: 202-224-3344
District Offices:
Chattanooga: 423-756-2757
Jackson: 731-424-9655
Kingsport: 423-323-1252
Knoxville: 865-637-4180
Memphis: 901-683-1910
Nashville: 615-352-9411

Senator Lamar Alexander
Phone: 202-224-4944
District Offices:
Blountville: 423-325-6240
Chattanooga: 423-752-5337
Jackson: 731-423-9344
Knoxville: 865-545-4253
Memphis: 901-544-4224
Nashville: 615-736-5129

To maximize impact, please call their Washington, D.C. and local offices.

Here are some other good sources:

1. Video: Rep. Markey’s “This is the moment” speech April 26, urging support for his Net Neutrality amendment.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1675&id=

2. “Gun owners, librarians unite against Bells,” Telephony, April 24, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1750

3. “Keeping a Democratic Web,” New York Times editorial, May 2, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1747

4. “Net Losses,” New Yorker, March 20, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1646

5. “Why You Should Care About Net Neutrality,” Slate.com. Prof. Tim Wu Guest Column, May 1, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1684

Never mind what you’ve heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.

From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the global climate seems to be crashing around us.

The problem — as scientists suspected but few others appreciated — is that global climate systems are booby-trapped with tipping points and feedback loops, thresholds past which the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden and self-perpetuating collapse. That’s just what’s happening now.

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by Kurt Vonnegut

Excerpt from rant published on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 by In These Times

——————————————
I am of course notoriously hooked on cigarettes. I keep hoping the things will kill me. A fire at one end and a fool at the other.

But I’ll tell you one thing: I once had a high that not even crack cocaine could match. That was when I got my first driver’s license! Look out, world, here comes Kurt Vonnegut.

And my car back then, a Studebaker, as I recall, was powered, as are almost all means of transportation and other machinery today, and electric power plants and furnaces, by the most abused and addictive and destructive drugs of all: fossil fuels.

When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there won’t be any more of those. Cold turkey.

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t like TV news, is it?

Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.

And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.