Holland Hashish Heaven

Decriminalized, widely distributed, widely used from age 18 by persons who would lose their jobs if caught toking in the U.S., from politicians to cops, marijuana has become the de rigueur drug of choice in the Netherlands.

Cannabis, relaxing / calming / pleasure-inducing, and per reports from the Dutch, 3 out of 4 pot users abstain from all other drugs. Unlike cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and tobacco, marijuana is a short-term / long-term "minimal risk" substance.

Holland, a land of drug decriminalization, legitimized prostitution, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia, a right-wing religious nightmare, yet a land with much less crime, drug violence, teenage pregnancies, and a host of other advantages over the uptight demonized drug-users-be-damned position of the U.S.

Source:

• ABC News [link inactive]

Dino-Ducks

Sifting water with a strainer bill, like modern ducks and flamingos, 7-foot tall ostrich-like dinos known as ornithomimids wandered Mongolia and Canada 70 million years ago, based on fossils discovered there.

These types of fossils, revealing a comblike soft-tissue structure of the beak, are a unique discovery, never before seen in a dinosaur.

Sources:

• The Times [link inactive]
• MSNBC [link inactive]

The U.S. nuclear defense shield currently under design targets ICBMs shortly after they're fired, during the initial 4 to 6 minute hot burn phase. All fine and good, if it works, until you get down to exactly what happens if it works.

If it works, the missile would fall short of its target, but depending on exactly where the booster was destroyed and what trajectory resulted from the destruction, the missile could fall and detonate anywhere from shortly beyond the point of destruction to less than predictable points beyond.

Since that point of destruction may be over Alaska, Canada, Mainland Europe, or Great Britain, the technology is certain to engender strong opposition unless the issue of "not on *my* head" is addressed.

Source:

• New Scientist

G-Spot - Likely a Pseudo-Science Myth

First described in 1950, and first-named in a book in 1982, the sexually erogenous area of female arousal known as the G-Spot turns out to be a likely myth. The studies on the matter have been poorly done, in a pseudo-science type way, with a minority of the subjects studied, a handful of women, claiming existence of a G-Spot.

In objective studies of the areas in question, no evidence of any especially sensitive area of neurons in the vagina has been discovered. So, for women feeling shortchanged by the lack of a G-Spot, not to worry, it's likely your lack is all in the mind as objective evidence that there is such a thing is lacking.

Source:

• Yahoo / Reuters [link inactive]