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WorldWeird: [Closed] NEWSTRANGE -- the Informus Thread (Closes 30th September)

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    • CommentAuthorWood
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2012
     (10821.1)
    Well at least there's good news :



    Newsweek : "Heaven is real"

    Yup, you read that right. Not "is heaven real ?" Not "New findings in Near-Death Experience science", straight-up "Heaven is Real".

    When leading neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander found himself in a 7-week coma in 2008, he experienced things he never thought possible - exclusively excerpted from his upcoming book Proof of Heaven, he shares his journey to the afterlife in this week’s Newsweek.
    • CommentAuthor256
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2012
     (10821.2)
    You really just want to ask that guy: "Does that mean everything else people dream while in comas is real, too?"
    • CommentAuthorWood
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2012
     (10821.3)
    Nope, coma dreams are only real if you're a doctor.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2012 edited
     (10821.4)
    "Yup. Science in this country is basically fucked. "

    Nah. As long as people pay huge amounts to attend top American universities, they'll be able to afford to continue to import the world's best scientists.

    (While the majority of living science Nobel Laureates are based in American universities, the majority of them are immigrants.)
  5.  (10821.5)
    @Kosmopolit:

    Maybe, but if you look at the long term, the people graduating and becoming administrators/deans/presidents/wealthy alumni are going to grow up in a culture where science education is being disproportionately controlled by these guys. When it comes time to start importing Nobel Laureates the next generation may decide that the prestige isn't worth the threat of eternal damnation.

    I just happened on this breakdown of who all is on the Science committee and, more importantly, the subcommittee on education. Scary stuff.

    Maybe you're right, though, and these guys can't do too much damage. Still, the fact that they hold science positions at all is disturbing.
    •  
      CommentAuthorFoamhead
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2012
     (10821.6)
    Whereas Britain embraces science...

    Teenager undergoes surgery after drinking liquid nitrogen in cocktail
    The 18-year-old from Heysham in Lancashire reported feeling breathless after drinking the liquid during a night out with friends on Thursday, Lancashire police said in a brief statement.
    She was taken to Lancaster Royal Infirmary and diagnosed with a perforated stomach. Doctors performed emergency surgery to remove a section of her stomach, thought necessary to save her life. The teenager was in a serious but stable condition, police said.
    •  
      CommentAuthorTF
    • CommentTimeOct 8th 2012
     (10821.7)
    Why am I a bit proud of that kid?
    •  
      CommentAuthorFoamhead
    • CommentTimeOct 8th 2012
     (10821.8)
    Maybe someone over the pond could organise a Nitrogen Cocktail Fundraiser for all those science committee fundies & creationists? (my brain convulsed typing that last bit.) It's not as if they're likely to understand the risks, are they.
    • CommentAuthorWood
    • CommentTimeOct 8th 2012
     (10821.9)
    • CommentAuthorWood
    • CommentTimeOct 8th 2012
     (10821.10)
    Former archbishop of Canterbury wins Godwin award

    Asked about anti-gay-marriage campaigners being described as "bigots" – on one occasion by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister – Carey said: "Let us remember the Jews in Nazi Germany. What started against them was when they started to be called names.

    "And that was the first stage towards that totalitarian state. We have to resist them. We treasure democracy. We treasure our Christian inheritance and we want to debate this in a fair way."


    Because of course, the anti-gay-marriage campaigners are totally the one being persecuted here.
    •  
      CommentAuthorFoamhead
    • CommentTimeOct 9th 2012
     (10821.11)
    First we have kids drinking liquid nitrogen and now:

    Elderly couple unwittingly grow huge cannabis plant.



    (My mum's a keen/obsessive gardener and was in Amsterdam last week...think I might have to go see them soon-ish.)
  12.  (10821.12)
    I've never seen pot grow as bushy as that. Pity they didn't get to flower it.
    •  
      CommentAuthorFinagle
    • CommentTimeOct 9th 2012
     (10821.13)
    I assume that's probably going to be not very potent if it flowered, right? Due to being carelessly fertilized by wild pollen? Or would it make a difference if the plant originally came from some elite hydro strain?
    •  
      CommentAuthorGreasemonkey
    • CommentTimeOct 9th 2012 edited
     (10821.14)
    An elite hydro strain wouldn't grow like that in soil. I'd say it's a commercially developed outdoor strain of the type grown on the black market. But yeah, that pot is obviously growing in lush conditions, and could potentially yield a high-quality smoke if flowered, harvested, dried and cured properly (and assuming it's a female plant. Even if it were fertilised, the seeds would be worth money for their excellent genetics). The old folks could've financed a trip around Europe for themselves if they'd played it right.

    The same thing happened to an old war vet I knew, about twenty-five years ago. I had a secret plant going in a dense part of the park, and when it disappeared I assumed it'd been stolen. Mid autumn, my war vet buddy asked me to come and check out the smelly plant in his back yard. He'd found what he'd thought was a seedling of a native hibiscus, transplanted it into his garden and fed it blood and bone, and while it wasn't as bushy as the plant in the above story, it was over eight feet high and yielded 28 ounces dry. Gotta love old people and their green thumbs.
    •  
      CommentAuthornelzbub
    • CommentTimeOct 10th 2012
     (10821.15)
    Unfortunately in these northern European climates there is unlikely to be enough time for that plant to finish flowering.

    From the look of the leaf structure this is a sativa dominant strain and would take at least nine weeks but more likely twelve to sixteen weeks flowering.

    When you consider that flowering will not trigger until the approach of the autumnal equinox-and 12 weeks from there puts you into December by which time frosts will have done their damage- it's unlikely that a mature harvest would be possible.
    A plant that size would have provided a couple of thousand healthy clones though, and I would have love to have seen them finished.

    I do a legal grow of a few plants in my back garden every year here in Amsterdam. They rarely finish properly, but still yield something worth smoking every year or at least something to make some wicked hash with.

    Enough of being a weed bore(sorry) I'll get back in me box.
  16.  (10821.16)
    Great piece on Iceland's revolution.

    I know we have some Icelanders here, surely this has been brought up before? It's the first I've heard of it, and I thought I was good at paying attention. :)
  17.  (10821.17)
    @Nelzbub - Twelve to sixteen weeks seems like a long flowering period even for outdoors, unless we're talking a pure sativa. Those leaves look fat enough to have a fair amount of indica in them, and I'd expect something closer to a mid November harvest depending on strain. It doesn't appear to be an early flowerer (some strains will start flowering with a 14/10 photoperiod, round the beginning of September in these latitudes), so it's still possible the plant might have succumbed to the cold before its buds were properly ripe.

    I loved their story about having bought the plant at a garage sale, too. Who sells cannabis seedlings that way?

    PS - Ever try growing any of the autoflower strains?
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeOct 10th 2012 edited
     (10821.18)
    Magnus, of course the Icelandic revolution "worked" - if ripping off the citzens of other countries for around $10 billion can be described as "working".

    The Icelandic banks were only allowed to operate in other countries in the EEA because the Icelandic government pretended to guarantee the accounts held in those banks.

    That's why the Icelandic government was on the hook- not because they were "bailing out" rich fat cats but because they, in effect, helped those banks defraud tens of thousands of ordinary people in Britain and other European countries.

    Next time you complain about the British government cutting services, remember that Iceland's "revolution" is part of the reason for that.

    Oh and the reason other countries can't copy Iceland is that rather than fucking over and bankrupting the citizens of other countries by allowing banks to default, they'd be fucking over and bankrupting their own citizens.
  19.  (10821.19)
    •  
      CommentAuthorsneak046
    • CommentTimeOct 11th 2012
     (10821.20)
    @kosmo/magnulus -

    Don't be too quick to blame Icelandic bank debt for cutting UK services: (this comes from my hometown's own council press release).

    •Heritable Bank, which the council had £15.6m in, has already returned £10.294m. It is currently estimated that the final sum recovered will be around 90% of the original deposit, plus interest.

    •The council now also expects to get 100% of the £11m and 98% of the £15m back from Landsbanki and Glitnir banks respectively now that it has been given priority creditor status.

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