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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Coinciding with Easter Sunday, Glasgow Cannabis Social Club’s annual 420 event was held on Glasgow Green, under sunny blue skies, and overlooking the river Clyde. Despite the city’s council attempting to revoke permission for the gathering at the last minute, police were happy for it to go-ahead with approximately a dozen officers attending in high-visibility vests.

The Daily Record reported five arrests were made for minor offences, likely smoking and possession of small quantities of cannabis. Taking a less-sensational — and more accurate — line of reporting, the Monday edition of Glasgow’s Evening News stated five were referred to the Procurator Fiscal who is responsible for deciding if charges should be brought.

Official figures provided by the police were that 150 attended. With people coming and going, Wikinews reporters estimated upwards of 200 attended, compared to nearly 700 who had signed up for the event on Facebook. Hemp goods were advertised and on sale at the event, and some attendees were seen drinking cannabis-themed energy drinks.

“I was searched and charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act (which is a lot of bollocks)” one attendee noted online, adding “not fair to happen on a brilliant day like it was, other than that I had a great day!” A second said they were openly smoking and ignored by police, who “were only really focusing on people who looked particularly young”.

Cannabis seeds were openly and legally sold at the event and a hydroponics supplier brought a motortrike towing an advertising trailer. Actually growing cannabis is, however, illegal in the UK.

With the event openly advocating the legalisation of cannabis, speakers put their arguments for this to a receptive crowd. Retired police officer James Duffy, of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, spoke of the failed United States alcohol prohibition policy; stressing such policies needlessly bring people into contact with criminal elements. Highlighting other countries where legalisation has been implemented, he pointed out such led to lower crime, and lower drug use overall.

One speaker, who produced a bottle of cannabis oil he had received through the post, asserted this cured his prostate cancer. Others highlighted the current use of Sativex by the National Health Service, with a cost in-excess of £150 for a single bottle of GW Pharmaceuticals patented spray — as-compared to the oil shown to the crowd, with a manufacturing cost of approximately £10.

Similar ‘420’ pro-cannabis events were held globally.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

A New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey has put the Opposition New Zealand National party so far ahead of the governing New Zealand Labour party that it would form a majority Government if a general election were held today.

The poll, taken in the week after the budget shows 50.9 percent of likely voters would give their party vote to National. Labour is more than 17 points behind, on 33.6 percent.

Translated into seats under New Zealand’s MMP electoral system, this would allow National to govern independently with 64 seats in New Zealand’s 120 seat Parliament with a two seat overhang.

In the preferred Prime Minister stakes, new National leader John Key has jumped 9.3% to 45.5%, ahead of the incumbent Helen Clark who has dropped 5.6% to 42.21%.

The poll follows a recent TV3 TNS poll which puts Mr Key ahead of Miss Clark as preferred Prime Minister, ending her eight year reign as preferred Prime Minister.

The New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey, polled 600 voters between May 18 and 24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 per cent. The survey was started one day after the 2007 Budget announcement, which announced further details to KiwiSaver, a retirement savings scheme, but did not announce any personal tax cuts.

The next New Zealand general election will most likely be held in the second half of 2008.

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April 7, 2005

Drug giant Pfizer’s two blockbuster Cox-2 inhibitor drugs, Celebrex and Bextra, were both cited by the Food and Drug Administration for safety problems, particularly for long term users.

Last Thursday the FDA allowed Pfizer to keep Celebrex on the market if it added the “black box” warning to the physicians’ guideline. This warning is the strongest the FDA can give to doctors, and focuses on the increased chances of cardiovascular problems and gastrointestinal bleeding. Doctors should use the lowest possible dosage of Celebrex and for the shortest time necessary, it adds.

Meanwhile, Bextra was taken off the market today. Bextra users were told to stop taking the drug, according to reports.

Pfizer agreed to mandates by a blue ribbon panel of specialists, convened in February, to review the risks associated with the popular Cox-2 class of painkillers. The pills are taken by 50 million people worldwide.

The actions by the FDA are attributed to charges the agency was too slow and allowed manufacturers to report problems voluntarily. It also comes as other experimental Cox-2 drugs emerge, such as Merck’s Arcoxia and Novartis’s Prexige, and seems to raise the requirements for their future approval.

Critics said the Cox-2 inhibitors were over-prescribed and offered no more relief than cheaper over the counter medications such as ibuprofen.

Pfizer Inc (NYSE Symbol PFE) was trading at 26.90 at close on Thursday, up 0.15%

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Hewlett-Packard (HP) expects to lose 9,000 jobs between now and 2013 in a US$1 billion (£686m) restructuring plan.

The 9,000 jobs losses will be in the enterprise services division, but the company expects to add about 6,000 employees to its sales and delivery teams.

HP commented in a statement, “As a result of productivity gains and automation, HP expects to eliminate roughly 9,000 positions over a multi-year period to reinvest for further growth and to increase shareholder value”

HP will invest in fully automated data centers as it makes operational changes in its Internet technology services business. HP said the restructuring will generate savings of $500–700 million (about €407–571 million) in net savings after reinvestment.

Hewlett-Packard has around 300,000 employees and is the world’s largest technology company by sales. HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Gay Talese wants to go to Iraq. “It so happens there is someone that’s working on such a thing right now for me,” the 75-year-old legendary journalist and author told David Shankbone. “Even if I was on Al-Jazeera with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be pleading with those bastards! I’d say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.'”

Few reporters will ever reach the stature of Talese. His 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was not only cited by The Economist as the greatest profile of Sinatra ever written, but is considered the greatest of any celebrity profile ever written. In the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire in October 2003, the editors declared the piece the “Best Story Esquire Ever Published.”

Talese helped create and define a new style of literary reporting called New Journalism. Talese himself told National Public Radio he rejects this label (“The term new journalism became very fashionable on college campuses in the 1970s and some of its practitioners tended to be a little loose with the facts. And that’s where I wanted to part company.”)

He is not bothered by the Bancrofts selling The Wall Street Journal—”It’s not like we should lament the passing of some noble dynasty!”—to Rupert Murdoch, but he is bothered by how the press supported and sold the Iraq War to the American people. “The press in Washington got us into this war as much as the people that are controlling it,” said Talese. “They took information that was second-hand information, and they went along with it.” He wants to see the Washington press corp disbanded and sent around the country to get back in touch with the people it covers; that the press should not be so focused on–and in bed with–the federal government.

Augusten Burroughs once said that writers are experience junkies, and Talese fits the bill. Talese–who has been married to Nan Talese (she edited James Frey‘s Million Little Piece) for fifty years–can be found at baseball games in Cuba or the gay bars of Beijing, wanting to see humanity in all its experience.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Gay Talese.

Monday, December 31, 2007

This week the government of Moldova approved an awareness-raising strategy on Moldova’s integration into the European Union.

The strategy was proposed to the Government by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration; the Ministry has argued that Moldova’s citizens must be educated about the impact of the forthcoming European integration.

The draft strategy document states that Moldova does not currently have any organised system for distributing information about the European Union to its populace, and that the Government has failed to perform any targeting of information to specific demographic groups. Taking into consideration the priority placed on EU integration by the current government of Moldova, the strategy document suggests methods to improve the situation and proposes a mechanism to enable the Moldovan public to participate actively in the European integration process. It is intended that an integrated system for providing information on EU integration will provided by the Government as a result of this draft.

The new information provisions will include such projects relating to EU – Moldovan cooperation such as information centers, a free-of-charge phone line, a website, information bulletins, improvement of information held in public libraries, etc. The strategy also proposes the instruction of journalists, press officers, and functionaries working in the local public administration on the topic of EU integration.

Public tender will be invited to select the businesses that will supply key components of these projects, as the government lacks the resources needed to fully finance the implementation of the strategy from the current budget. The strategy was planned with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Eurasia Foundation.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an outbreak of salmonella that has affected at least 399 people in 42 different U.S. states has been linked to King Nut, an American brand of peanut butter. In Minnesota, the state’s Health Department announced that bacteria tests for the disease on a tub of creamy King Nut peanut butter had tested positive for the disease, initiating a recall by its distributor in Solon, King Nut Companies.

Workers found evidence from these tests that the brand caused the outbreak. This has not been completely proven, however, as the Food and Drug Administration and King Nut itself are still conducting tests to discover if the case is isolated or related to the nationwide incident.

According to a statement made by the Health Department, the brand is used in many places including schools, hospitals, some restaurants and retirement homes, 20 alone being in Minnesota. A tub of peanut butter used inside of a retirement home where many of its citizens had become sick was tested positive by Minnesota’s health department.

Yesterday, King Nut Companies recalled all peanut butter distributed by their company. The president of King Nut Companies, Martin Kanan, said in a statement yesterday, “We are very sorry this happened. We are taking immediate and voluntary action because the health and safety of those who use our products is always our highest priority.”

In a web statement, King Nut told all of its customers to “put on hold all of their peanut butter in question. A recall of this product will be announced Monday morning. At this point it is unclear what Peanut Corporation of America will do with regard to this case or the national case of the salmonella outbreak.” The Peanut Corporation of America, located in Lynchburg but also operating in the states of Texas and Georgia, is the manufacturer for King Nut.

Salmonellosis is an infection of salmonella bacteria that usually results in diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. These symptoms are normally developed 12 to 72 hours after a person is infected, and can last anywhere from 3 to 7 days. Most of the time, the infected person will recover from the disease, but younger and older people have higher risks of it developing and becoming serious. Rarely, salmonella can cause hospitalization, and very rarely, it can lead to death.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.