VANCOUVER - A coalition of British Columbia mayors wants the province's political leaders to join forces to end marijuana prohibition and tax the drug so their communities are safer from gang violence linked to illegal grow-ops.

Mayors from Vancouver, Burnaby, North Vancouver City, Vernon, Armstrong, Enderby, Lake Country and Metchosin make the call in a joint letter to B.C.'s premier, Opposition NDP leader and B.C. Conservative party leader.

The mayors said strict regulation and taxation are key to a new marijuana policy.

"Given the ongoing gang activity, widespread availability of marijuana and high costs associated with enforcement, leaders at all levels of government must take responsibility for marijuana policy," they said in the letter.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the joint letter to Christy Clark, Adrian Dix and John Cummins reflects the need to remove partisan politics from marijuana regulation.

Several of the mayors lead communities that have already adopted motions supporting Stop the Violence BC, a coalition of academic, legal, law enforcement and health experts seeking changes to cannabis laws.

"We see the detrimental effects of marijuana prohibition in our communities on a daily basis," said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan.

"Huge profits for organized crime and widespread gang violence in our cities are the result of this failed policy. We put our citizens and communities at risk by not taking action now."

A Stop the Violence spokesman said provincial and federal leaders must develop laws that address the health concerns of marijuana while raising tax revenues and wiping out the huge profits pocketed by gangs involved in the marijuana trade.

Last year, four former Vancouver mayors also endorsed the Stop the Violence BC coalition with an open letter to B.C. politicians.

Larry Campbell, Mike Harcourt, Sam Sullivan and Philip Owen said a change in Canada's laws to end pot prohibition will reduce gang violence.

Source

Tech Billionaires Plan Audacious Mission to Mine Asteroids

There’s gold in them there hills. You know, those ones floating around in space. Asteroids contain many tons of precious metals, making them irresistible to scientists, aerospace engineers, futurists, fiction writers … and tech billionaires. A group of wealthy, adventurous entrepreneurs will announce on Apr. 24 a new venture called Planetary Resources, Inc., which plans to send swarms of robots to space to scout asteroids for precious metals and set up mines to bring resources back to Earth, in the process adding trillions of dollars to the global GDP, helping ensure humanity’s prosperity and paving the way for the human settlement of space.

 “The resources of Earth pale in comparison to the wealth of the solar system,” said Eric Anderson, who founded the commercial space tourism company Space Adventures, and is co-founder of a new company along with Peter Diamandis, who started the X Prize foundation, which offers prize-based incentives for advanced technology development. Nearly 9,000 asteroids larger than 150 feet in diameter orbit near the Earth. Some could contain as much platinum as is mined in an entire year on Earth, making them potentially worth several billion dollars each. The right kinds of investment could reap huge rewards for those willing to take the risk. Outside of NASA, Anderson and Diamandis are among the most likely candidates to realize such a dream. Space Adventures has sent seven private tourists to the International Space Station while the Ansari X Prize led to a spurt of non-governmental manned spaceships.

 “We have a long track record of making large-scale space ventures real,” said Diamandis. Despite the promise of astronomical profits, the long time-scales and uncertain return on asteroid mining has historically driven most investors away from such undertakings. But the new company is also backed by a number of other billionaire luminaries, including Google’s CEO Larry Page and executive chairman Eric Schmidt, former Microsoft chief architect Charles Simonyi, and Ross Perot Jr. The venture also counts on filmmaker James Cameron, former astronaut Tom Jones, former JPL engineer Chris Lewicki, and planetary scientist Sara Seager as advisers.

 Still, this new undertaking will be much larger and more ambitious than anything Anderson and Diamandis have attempted before. The hurdles are many and high. While the endeavor is technically feasible, the technology has not yet been developed. And beyond their initial steps, the details of Planetary Resources’ plans remain scarce. The first hurdle will likely be ensuring that Planetary Resources has covered all its legal bases. While some have argued that governments need to set up specific property rights before investors will make use of space, the majority of space lawyers agree that this isn’t necessary to assure the opportunity for a return on investment, said space policy analyst Henry Hertzfeld at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Mining occurs in international seabeds — even without specific property rights — overseen by a special commission dedicated to the task, he said.

A similar arrangement would likely work in space. In terms of extraction, Planetary Resources hopes to go after the platinum-group metals — which include platinum, palladium, osmium, and iridium — highly valuable commodities used in medical devices, renewable energy products, catalytic converters, and potentially in automotive fuel cells. Platinum alone is worth around $23,000 a pound — nearly the same as gold. Mining the top few feet of a single modestly sized, half-mile-diameter asteroid could yield around 130 tons of platinum, worth roughly $6 billion.

 Within the next 18 to 24 months, Planetary Resources hopes to launch between two and five space-based telescopes at an estimated cost of a few million dollars each that will identify potentially valuable asteroids. Other than their size and orbit, little detailed information is available about the current catalog of near-Earth asteroids. Planetary Resources’ Arkyd-101 Space Telescopes will figure out whether any are worth the trouble of resource extraction. Within five to seven years, the company hopes to send out a small swarm of similar spacecraft for a more detailed prospecting mission, mapping out a valuable asteroid in detail and identifying rich resource veins.

They estimate such a mission will cost between $25 and 30 million. The next step — using robots to remotely mine, possibly refine ore, and return material to Earth safely — is probably the toughest phase, and Planetary Resources is still tight-lipped about its plans here. Source

This Is a Great View Of Religion In The USA

Most Corrupt Government In History

Darrell Issa: Obama's Government Most Corrupt In History First 24-04-2012 02:19 PM EDT   |   Updated: 24-04-2012 12:00 AM EDT 408 48 38 5562 WASHINGTON --

 Last year Rep. Darrell Issa retracted his statement that President Barack Obama was one of the most corrupt presidents in modern history, saying he should have parsed his words more carefully. \

Tuesday, the California Republican's more careful parsing apparently included declaring Obama's government the most corrupt in history.

 "We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said more than a year ago was perhaps -- because of the money, because of the amount of TARP and stimulus funds -- was going to be the most corrupt government in history, and it is proving to be that, just exactly that," Issa said in a Bloomberg television interview. "This money, at the American people's expense, going through the hands of political leaders, is in fact corrupting the process, whether it is Solyndra, or GSA, or a number of other scandals," said Issa, referring to the bankrupt solar firm that got a $535 million government loan guarantee and the $823,000 Las Vegas conference of the General Services Administration.

 The comments echoed the earlier statement, which Issa took a fair amount of heat over. “Do I think the president is personally corrupt? No,” Issa said when he -- at least partially -- took back his remark made on Rush Limbaugh's radio show last year. “I should never have implied that or created that in a quick statement on a radio call-in.” U.S. presidential history includes things like the Watergate, Iran-Contra and Teapot Dome scandals. A number of previous scandals have included criminal convictions, but no such allegations have been made against the Obama administration,.

However, the GSA inspector general said he is investigating the possibility of bribery and kickbacks in the GSA case. Issa's office did not respond to a request for comment on whether the congressman, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, would amend his accusation. Michael McAuliff covers politics and Congress for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook. Comments5622Pending Comments43

Woman Wins Lottery Twice In One Day...

Virginia Fike From Berryville, Virginia, Wins $1M Powerball Lottery Twice In One Day First 23-04-2012 01:14 PM EDT   |   Updated: 23-04-2012 12:00 AM EDT 27 12 396 332 A simple mistake led a Virginia woman to win a $1 million Powerball lottery twice on the same day, the Associated Press reports.

 When Virginia Fike stepped into the OldeStone Truck Stop & Restaurant in Clear Brook, Va., to run some errands earlier this month, she decided on a whim to buy two lottery tickets. Intending initially to buy one Powerball and one Mega Millions ticket,

Fike picked the same set of numbers for both: 5-13-17-20-30. "I picked numbers based on my parents’ anniversary and their ages at that time, divided by the year they were married," Fike told the Journal, adding that she loves "jackpot games" and plays when she "can afford it". When Fike had paid for the tickets, she realized that she had mistakenly bought two Powerball tickets instead. "I was like, 'If I win, I win twice'…so I just went ahead and took the tickets,"

Fike told the Northern Virginia Daily. Incredibly, the 44-year-old from Berryville, Va., was right on the money. Reaping two times the luck thanks to her fortuitous error, Fike matched every number except the Powerball and clinched the $1 million prize twice -- becoming the first person in Virginia to win two $1 million Powerball lottery prizes in the same lottery drawing, the Virginia Lottery reports.

 Virginia's newest millionaire, who claimed $1.4 million after taxes last Friday, said she is still reeling from the news. "Really it still just hasn't sunk in," Fike told the Journal. "It feels good but it's still just like right, you know somebody's going to pinch me and I'm going to wake up and this'll all be a dream."

 The outdoor enthusiast and devoted daughter told the Northern Virginia Daily that she is looking forward to taking care of her aging parents and paying some bills.

What is the DNS Changer Malware?

On November 8, the FBI, the NASA-OIG and Estonian police arrested several cyber criminals in “Operation Ghost Click”. The criminals operated under the company name “Rove Digital”, and distributed DNS changing viruses, variously known as TDSS, Alureon, TidServ and TDL4 viruses. You can read more about the arrest of the Rove Digital principals here, and in the FBI Press Release.

What does the DNS Changer Malware do?

The botnet operated by Rove Digital altered user DNS settings, pointing victims to malicious DNS in data centers in Estonia, New York, and Chicago. The malicious DNS servers would give fake, malicious answers, altering user searches, and promoting fake and dangerous products. Because every web search starts with DNS, the malware showed users an altered version of the Internet.

Under a court order, expiring July 9, the Internet Systems Consortium is operating replacement DNS servers for the Rove Digital network. This will allow affected networks time to identify infected hosts, and avoid sudden disruption of services to victim machines.

How Can I Protect Myself?

This page describes how you can determine if you are infected, and how you can clean infected machines. To check if you’re infected, Click Here. If you believe you are infected, here are instructions on how to clean your computer.

http://www.dcwg.org/

DNS Changer Infrastructure and TDSS/Alureon/TidServ/TDL4 Malware (Update)

Number: IN11-002
Date: 9 Nov 2011

UPDATE:
A court order to extend the deadline has been approved. The Internet Systems Consortium will continue operating the replacement DNS until 9 July 2012.
For more information, please visit the following: http://www.dcwg.org/

Purpose

This product provides information and mitigation advice to IT Security Specialists and potential victims of DNSChanger malware. Its goal is to assist with the detection and mitigation of the risks of such malware.

Assessment

Recently, the FBI uncovered a network of Domain Name System (DNS) servers controlled by cyber criminals. The FBI worked in collaboration with international law enforcement agencies and the cyber security community to disable these malicious DNS servers. Unfortunately, this malicious infrastructure has been used for over 3 years to steal personal information from millions of people around the world. Cyber criminals managed to infect these users'computers with malicious code that changes the users' DNS configurations to forward all their web content requests to a rogue DNS rather than a legitimate one. As DNS is necessary for most internet activities, the FBI implemented a plan for a trusted private-sector, non-government entity to operate and maintain a clean DNS server for the infected victims until they can be identified and notified. The IP addresses of potentially affected systems will be provided to the appropriate ISP and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) for victim notification.

The FBI public announcement can be found here: http://www.fbi.gov/DNS-malware.pdf

- UPDATE -

The cyber security community website on DNSChanger can be found at:http://www.dcwg.org/

Under the U.S. District Court Order currently in place, Internet Systems Consortium (ISC, http://www.isc.org/) was authorized to install, monitor and administer replacement DNS for the victims until the 8 March 2012. At this date, it is expected that victims from the DNSChanger malware associated with this operation could lose Internet connectivity, because DNS is necessary for common use.

An extension request has been submitted and is pending approval before the U.S. Court for ISC to operate replacement DNS until 9 July 2012, which is referenced at:

http://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/dnschangerextension.pdf

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is hosting a web-based tool to detect whether Internet users are affected by associated DNSChanger malware. This tool can be found at:

http://www.dns-ok.ca/

http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/em/ccirc/2011/in11-002-eng.aspx.

A penny for your thoughts on the elimination of the penny in Canada?

While delivering his federal budget on March 29, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced production of the penny would end this month. Despite reaching a production peak of nearly 1.3 billion in 2006, a 2007 survey showed only 37% of Canadian used pennies.(Photo: Kayla Chobotiuk) RELATED From the editors: Iceland, the loonie's all yours The Canadian one-cent piece, commonly known as the penny, was born in 1858. Minted alongside five-, 10- and 20-cent pieces, it was among the first series of coins produced by the then-province of Canada, which for years had fought to distance itself from the sterling monetary system in use throughout the British empire. A decimal system was adopted to put Canada’s currency in line with the U.S. dollar. The first penny was composed of nearly 100% copper. The original coin’s L. C. Wyon design—with a bust of Queen Victoria, the reigning British monarch, on one side, and an arrangement of maple leaves on the reverse—was not radically different from today’s penny. The maple leaf twig designed by G. E. Kruger-Gray on the current penny was introduced in1937, and has appeared every year since, with the exception of 1967, when it was replaced with a rock dove designed by artist Alex Colville as part of a centennial series of coins. The penny’s cost has been an issue nearly since the year it was first produced. Due to its lack of physical heft, the first Canadian penny proved so unpopular that by 1859 the coin was being sold at a 20% discount to encourage consumers to circulate them, and was not minted again until 1876. In 1920, the increasing price of copper forced a decrease in the penny’s size from roughly that of today’s quarter to its current familiar form. Copper prices were responsible for another major change in 1997,when the penny’s composition was switched to 98.4%zinc with a copper plating. Three years later it was changed again, to its current composition of94% steel, 1.5% nickel and an increased copper plating of 4.5%. As its buying power lessened with time (a penny in 1858 could buy a loaf of bread), Canadians became reluctant to carry pennies, hoarding them in jars and leaving them in convenience store take-a-penny trays. With those pennies effectively out of circulation, the Royal Canadian Mint was forced to produce an average25 pennies per Canadian per year. Despite reaching a production peak of nearly 1.3 billion in2006, a 2007 survey showed only37% of Canadian used pennies. While delivering his federal budget on March 29, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced production of the penny would end this month. In the end, the penny was collateral damage in the battle of inflation, its manufacturing cost rising to 1.6¢. In a world where even penny candy now costs more than a nickel, the copper coin became a nuisance. The Mint refused to grant the coin the dignity of becoming a low circulated collectible like its cousin the half-dollar and announced it will begin withdrawing them from circulation in the fall, though the one-cent piece will remain legal tender and retain its value indefinitely. The penny is survived by the quarter, dime and nickel, though rumours already have begun to circulate that the latter’s days may be numbered as well. PrintText: A A More Sharing Services

Meat-eating helped people take over the world: Study

QMI AGENCY

FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012 01:18 PM EDT | UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012 01:24 PM EDT

Giving up our vegetarian ways and choosing to include meat into our diet is what helped humankind successfully populate the planet, according to a new study.

When early humans started eating meat and hunting, the higher quality diet meant women would wean their children earlier and give birth to more children and quicker, say researchers at Lund University in Sweden.

What's more, hunting required people to step up their communication skills, plan and use tools. These new developments required bigger brains, which our robust new diets helped us develop, according to the study, which compared 70 mammalian species and found clear patterns.

"This has been known for a long time. However, no one has previously shown the strong connection between meat-eating and the duration of breastfeeding, which is a crucial piece of the puzzle in this context. Eating meat enabled the breastfeeding periods and thereby the time between births, to be shortened. This must have had a crucial impact on human evolution," says Elia Psouni of Lund University in a press release.

The researchers reject another dominant theory - that breastfeeding duration is a social thing, and that new moms cut it short because of time constraints and family size.

The team created a mathematical model using data on brain size and diet of 70 mammals and found all species stop breastfeeding when their brains have reached a particular stage of development, which carnivores reach more quickly.

"That humans seem to be so similar to other animals can of course be taken as provocative. We like to think that culture makes us different as a species. But when it comes to breastfeeding and weaning, no social or cultural explanations are needed; for our species as a whole it is a question of simple biology. Social and cultural factors surely influence the variation between humans," Psouni said.

Levon Helm, drummer for The Band, dead at 71

The death of Levon Helm, drummer and singer for influential 70s rock group The Band, is a significant loss for the rock n’ roll community. But in the many decades that have passed since The Band’s heyday, Helm’s cultural significance is not as widely acknowledged as it once was. It is with that in mind that we present to you five essential — and maybe little-known — facts about the legendary Levon Helm.

Related

• Levon Helm, drummer for The Band, dead at 71

1. He played backup for Dylan
In 1964 and 1965, when Dylan decided he wanted to go electric, he recruited The Hawks — an early incarnation of The Band that included Helm, along with Ronnie Hawkins and future Band members Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel — as his band. So disenchanted was Helm with the negative reception Dylan received on the tour that he took a two-year hiatus from music after it was over.

2. He didn’t much like The Last Waltz
Martin Scorsese’s portrait of The Band may be one of the most widely celebrated concert films of all time, but Helm was not a fan, suggesting in his 1993 biography This Wheel’s on Fire that Scorsese and Robertson conspired to make Robertson look like the leading man, with the rest of the Band merely his supporting players. He pointed out that Hudson and Manuel received little screen time, while also claiming that nobody in The Band — aside from Robertson — received any money from the film’s VHS and DVD sales.

3. He didn’t much like Robbie Robertson, either.
For the reasons listed above.

4. He paid for his cancer treatments by hosting the Midnight Ramble
If you already know about the Midnight Ramble — occasional concerts Helm put on at his home in Woodstock that featured performers as varied and lauded as Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Hot Tuna, Kris Kristofferson and Jimmy Vivino (of Conan fame) — you might not know that their original purpose was to help Helm pay for his cancer treatments. Helm was first diagnosed with throat cancer in the ’90s, and underwent a laryngectomy and radiation treatment. He was unable to sing until 2004; The Midnight Ramble toured for much of the 2000s.

http://youtu.be/5lXOuZgm_eY

In Susan Black's book Elton John in His Own Words, Elton says of "Levon": "It"s about a guy who just gets bored doing the same thing. It's just somebody who gets bored with blowing up balloons and he just wants to get away from it but he can't because it's the family ritual." (thanks, Alexander - London, England)

The name "Levon" came from Levon Helm, the drummer and one of the lead singers of The Band. Elton and his lyricist, Bernie Taupin, were big fans of The Band.

This is a great example of Taupin's complex, often obscure writing style. He and John made a great team because Elton could interpret his lyrics very well, giving life to the characters in the songs.

Since this runs 5:37, Elton's record company wanted to cut this down for the single so that more US radio stations would play it. Elton refused, insisting it be released full-length.

The actual New York Times page 1 headline that included the phrase "God Is Dead" is dated March 24, 1968. The phrase also appeared in a major (page 3) article on January 7, 1970. Smaller pieces dated January and April 1966 that feature the phrase in their headings can also be found. None were on Christmas Day, but the January ones are close! (thanks, Tony - Westbury, NY)

The cover art for the album was hand-embroidered on a Levi's jacket. On the back, the track listing was hand-stitched. This kind of artwork has become scarce in the age of digital design.

Jon Bon Jovi covered this for the tribute album Two Rooms. Elton played piano on some of Bon Jovi's recordings. (thanks, Brett - Edmonton, Canada)

Sir Elton and his partner David Furnish became parents to a son born on Christmas Day 2010 to a surrogate mother in California. They named him Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, which is why the baby boy ended up in this Songfact. It is assumed the name "Levon" was chosen because of the song's line, "He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day."

Bachelor and BacheloretteSued for Alleged Racial Discrimination

BY EILEEN FINAN Reporter And Source Here

Over the course of 10 years, 23 Bachelors and Bachelorettes have looked for love on ABC's hit reality franchise – each one of whom was white. And that, a lawsuit alleges, is no accident.

"This is a civil rights issue," attorney George Barrett said Wednesday in Nashville after filing a class-action lawsuit in federal court.

"ABC has engaged in conduct deliberately excluding persons of color."

Nathaniel Claybrooks, 39, and Christopher Johnson, 26, both African-American former college football players, answered an open casting call for The Bachelor in Nashville last August. They claim they were rushed through the audition process dismissively while observing white applicants treated with greater attention.

"I never even had a chance," says Claybrooks.

"In every job opportunity, you are looking to at least have a chance to compete for that job," addss Johnson. "Whenever you feel you are treated unfair or unjust, you are going to speak out."

The lawsuit alleges that ABC "knowingly, intentionally and as a matter of corporate policy refused to cast people of color in the role of the Bachelor and Bachelorette."

Warner Horizon Television, which produces the shows, calls the lawsuit "baseless and without merit."

"In fact, we have had various participants of color throughout the series' history, and the producers have been consistently – and publicly – vocal about seeking diverse candidates for both programs," says the statement. "As always, we continue to seek out participants of color for both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

Reported details of prostitution scandal fall short of Secret Service standards

Obama: Reported details of prostitution scandal fall short of Secret Service standards

Published April 15, 2012

FoxNews.com

• • 

    New reaction to scandal rocking the Secret Service

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    Calls for head of Secret Service to be fired

President Obama, in his first public remarks on the prostitution scandal involving members of the Secret Service, said Sunday that he will be "angry" if the reported allegations against the agents turn out to be true. He said Secret Service personnel, like the rest of any U.S. delegation abroad, must "observe the highest standards."

"We're here on behalf of our people and that means that we conduct ourselves with the utmost dignity and probity. And obviously what's been reported doesn't match up with those standards," Obama said, on the closing day of his visit to Colombia.

The president, though, said he would wait until the internal investigation is complete before rendering a judgment. He said he expects the probe to be "thorough" and "rigorous" -- and that if the allegations turn out to be true, "then of course I'll be angry."

The president addressed the controversy during a joint press conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Allegations that a Secret Service unit interacted with prostitutes in Colombia ahead of Obama's visit have overshadowed a trip that was supposed to focus on trade and other pressing issues between the U.S. and its Latin American ally.

Eleven agents accused of misconduct were recalled from their assignment and have since been placed on administrative leave.

Obama cast the incident as isolated, and praised the Secret Service as a whole.

"These men and women perform extraordinary service on a day-to-day basis protecting me, my family, U.S. officials," he said. "They do very hard work under very stressful circumstances and almost invariably do an outstanding job."

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, took a similar position - praising the way the agency's probe has been conducted and voicing confidence in Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

King called the incident an "aberration."

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