U.N. Commission Calls for Legalizing Prostitution Worldwide (CNSNews.com) - A report issued by the United Nations-backed Global Commission on HIV and the Law; recommends that nations around the world get rid of “punitive” laws against prostitution – or what it calls “consensual sex work” -- and decriminalize the voluntary use of illegal injection drugs in order to combat the HIV epidemic. The commission, which is made up of 15 former heads of state, legal scholars and HIV/AIDS activists, was convened in 2010 by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and is jointly backed by the United Nations Development Programme and UNAIDS – the Joint U.N. Programme on AIDS/HIV. The commission recommends repealing all laws that prohibit “adult consensual sex work,” as well as clearly distinguishing in law and practice between sexual trafficking and prostitution. Specifically, the commission wants to: -- “Decriminalise private and consensual adult sexual behaviours, including same-sex sexual acts and voluntary sex work.” -- “Reform approaches towards drug use. Dr.
Long-bearded axe A bearded axe, or Skeggöx (from Old Norse Skegg, beard + öx, axe) refers to various axes, used as a tool and weapon, as early as the 6th century AD. It is most commonly associated with Viking Age Scandinavians. The lower portion of an axe bit is called the "beard" and the cutting edge of the bearded axe extends below the width of the butt to provide a wide cutting surface while keeping the overall weight of the axe low. The hook, or "beard" of the axe would have also been useful in battle, to hook onto things, such as shields or weapons, to pull them out of the defender's grasp. Modern Japanese bearded axe, demonstrating the grip for shaving wood Additionally this design allows the user to grip the haft directly behind the head for planing or shaving wood. Variations of this design are still in use by modern woodworkers and some foresters.
Just how prevalent were Axes, Flails, and other "strange" weapons on the battlefield? : AskHistorians Pudding Air Travel Redemption Claim: A clever consumer earned millions of miles of free air travel by taking advantage of a Healthy Choice pudding promotion. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2000] David Phillips, a civil engineer at UC-Davis, has become a cult hero in the obsessive subculture of people who collect frequent-flier miles by converting $3,150 worth of pudding into miles. Oh, yeah — he's also going to claim an $815 tax Last May, Phillips was pushing his shopping cart down the frozen-food aisle of his local supermarket when a promotion on a Healthy Choice frozen entree caught his eye: He could earn for every 10 Universal Product Codes (bar codes) from Healthy Choice products he sent to the company by Even better: Any Healthy Choice bar codes mailed by the end of the month would rack up double the mileage, or 1,000 miles for every "I started doing the math, and I realized that this was a great deal," he said. "They had individual servings of chocolate pudding for apiece," he said. miles. But not to worry.
New Color Display Feature Added to 5000-series Rail Cars CTA’s newest rail cars now feature new LED display signs in colors corresponding to the transit system’s eight rail lines—another amenity to benefit customers. 5000-series rail cars with the full-color LED signs began operating on the Pink Line, Tuesday. The signs are located on a train’s head car, as well as on the sides of each car. When the CTA originally contracted for the cars, color electronic displays were not readily available. The color LED signs will not cost the CTA additional money; the change orders are factored into the purchase price of $1.137 billion for the full 706 rail car order. The first 114 cars built without the color signs will be retro-fitted starting this fall. Photo
The Whiskey Rebellion. | Broken Piano for President [Click to enlarge] After conferring with my publisher’s legal minds, I’ve been given the green light to post this. If you haven’t been following, Jack Daniel’s sent me a letter saying the artwork for Broken Piano for President must be changed. What follows is, perhaps, the most polite cease and desist ever written. If it wasn’t signed by some lawyer, I’d imagine ol’ Gentleman Jack penning it himself, twirling his bushy mustache. In case you’re wondering, no, my publisher, Lazy Fascist Press, will not be taking them up on their offer. *Good news if you already own a copy of Broken Piano for President: that baby’s going to be a collector’s item. Powell’s appears to be sold out. Amazon still has some for sale. Like this: Like Loading... Why so many communist philosophers? Barcelona, Spain - Reading and writing about Karl Marx does not necessarily make you a communist, but the fact that a number of distinguished philosophers are reevaluating Marx's ideas certainly means something. After the autumn 2008 global economic crisis, new editions of Marx's texts returned to our bookstores accompanied by a large number of introductions, biographies, and new interpretations of the German master. While this resurrection was undoubtedly caused by the financial meltdown allowed by our democratic governments, Marx's revival among philosophers is not as simple a consequence as many believe. After all, in the early nineties the great French philosopher Jacques Derrida anticipated this return as a response to Francis Fukuyama's (self-proclaimed) "neoliberal victory" at the "end of history". The Marxist revival What is 'communism'? Communism and democracy Santiago Zabala is ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona.
How to Create Circles with CSS | Bryan Hadaway's Web + Tech Blog UPDATE – For future-proofing and responsive design, you can simply use: border-radius:50% Making circles with CSS3 is very simple, but not very well supported with older browsers. If your design depends on circles (and you need to accommodate users on older browsers) you should definitely use images instead. However, if your audience is more tech-savvy (meaning they’ll likely be using the latest browsers to view your site) or you feel it’s otherwise safe to start using CSS3 on your site the following styles will work in the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari and even IE: Code Last Refreshed: August 13th, 2012 Plain Circle With or Without Text Inside Hello <div class="circle">Hello</div> going a step further… Clickable Link Circle Button Hello <a href="#" class="button">Hello</a> going even a step further… Menu Hover Effect Circle Button <a href="#" class="menu">Hello</a> and getting really stylish… Stylish Menu Hover Effect Circle Button <a href="#" class="stylish">Hello</a> The Formula Call Us!
Do blind people hallucinate on LSD? I’ve just found a remarkable 1963 study [pdf] from the Archives of Opthalmology in which 24 blind participants took LSD to see if they could experience visual hallucinations. It turns out, they can, although this seems largely to be the case in blind people who had several years of sight to begin with, but who later lost their vision. Those blind from a very early age (younger than two years-old) did not report visual hallucinations, probably because they never had enough visual experience to shape a fully-functioning visual system when their brain was still developing. It is evident that a normal retina is not needed for the occurrence of LSD-induced visual experiences. These visual experiences do not seem to differ from the hallucinations reported by normal subjects after LSD.Such phenomena occurred only in blind subjects who reported prior visual activity. The drug increased the frequency of visual events such as spots, lights, dots, and flickers.