- Duuuude, this is totally uncool. Why is the Denver
Police Department being so gnarly and harsh on its officers when it comes to
them taking a second job providing security for the chron addicts at local
marijuana shops? As everyone who loves to toke it up knows, properly licensed
stores will be allowed to sell marijuana to the public under state law starting
on Jan. 1 and with drugs on the premises, those shops will need someone to help
keep the peace and protect their kush stash. Sensing there might be offers
made, the department preemptively went buzzkill over the weekend with an
official notice informing officers that they will not be allowed to work at
marijuana shops while off-duty. The notice explains that no officer will be
allowed to work in any off-duty security roles in any location where marijuana
is sold. Aside from being totally bogus and ridiculously infringing upon the
rights of men and women to do whatever the hell they want – legal activities,
no less – when they're off the clock, there are other issues with this ass-hatted
policy. “The Denver Police Department and other city leaders continue to make
fools of themselves by developing rules without thinking them through,” said
Mason Tvert from the Marijuana Policy Project. “There’s absolutely no logical
reason why we wouldn’t let police officers who are able to work off-duty in
bars and in liquor stores simply work at a retail marijuana stores to keep
people safe.” The stoner with the funny last name makes an excellent point and
thankfully, the policy could be changed as retail marijuana stores become
integrated around the city next year. “It’s a new industry, we don’t know how
it’s going to work itself out, nobody can really say that. So rather than
saying we’re going to put officers in there right now, we’re going to take a wait
and see attitude,” said Denver Police Spokesman Sonny Jackson. Here’s hoping
much-needed change comes to the DPD sooner rather than later……….
- Give Oregon starting
tight end Pharaoh Brown credit for finding a fun, creative and borderline
criminal way of getting out of a bowl game trip that many of the Ducks probably
would rather avoid. Brown and his teammates are ranked 10th in the nation and
missed out on a BCS bowl game, instead accepting a bid Sunday to play Texas in
the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30. Given that several members of the team were b*tching
about potentially going to the Rose Bowl for a second straight year instead of
appearing in the BCS championship game (before a late-season swoon left them
outside the BCS party), a trip to San Antonio for the lowly Alamo Bowl probably
doesn’t have many of them geeking out. Perhaps Brown is one of those
disinterested Ducks and maybe, just maybe that’s why he organized a massive
snowball fight over the weekend that grew to include several players and more
than 100 students. Unidentified players reportedly organized the snowball fight
and participated in the snowball fight on Friday, but the video didn’t go viral
until Monday. When it did, the world got to see the group stopping several cars
and pelting them with snowballs, along with dumping containers of snow on
several vehicles’ windshields. One driver -- identified as former professor
Sherwin Simmons -- was hit repeatedly and had a large container of snow thrown
on him through the driver's side door. As a result, Brown has been suspended
for the Valero Alamo Bowl for his role in the incident and other players were disciplined
internally. "On Saturday, I was made aware of an incident that occurred
Friday afternoon during the snow day involving multiple Oregon students,
including members of the football team," Ducks coach Mark Helfrich said in
a statement. "The behavior exhibited in the video is completely
unacceptable and dangerous. We take this matter very seriously and disciplinary
actions have begun." Way to have a sense of humor, coach………
- The coldest place on Earth has
been measured by satellite and yes, it is Vladimir Putin’s icy heart of evil. Wait….that’s
not true? Not according to a team of researchers from the U.S. National
Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., it’s not. No, these smart people in
lab coats insist the actual coldest place on Earth is right where it should be,
in the heart of Antarctica (probably a future sight of an über-staged Putin
photo op with a rare animal). The record low of 135.8 degrees Fahrenheit was
recorded on Aug. 10 and researcher Ted Scambos and his team say it is a
preliminary figure. They will refine the number using data from various
space-borne thermal sensors and the temperature could decline by as much as one
degree. The previous low temperature, more than seven degrees warmer, was
measured at the Russian Vostok base in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. The record
cold was measured several feet above the ground and the satellite figure used
to determine the record e is the "skin" temperature of the ice
surface itself. "These very low temperatures are hard to imagine, I
know," Scambos said. "The way I like to put it is that it's almost as
cold below freezing as boiling water is above freezing. The new low is a good
50 degrees colder than temperatures in Alaska or Siberia, and about 30 degrees
colder than the summit of Greenland.” He noted that by comparison, the current
winter blast sweeping across the United States is “very tame by comparison.” Scambos presented
his team’s findings at the nonstop kegger that is the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the largest annual
gathering of Earth scientists. He and his colleagues examined data records from polar orbiting satellites stretching
back some 30 years and found that the coldest moments in Antarctica occur in
the dark winter months at high elevations, where the extremely dry and clear
air allows heat to be radiated very efficiently out into space. The mega-cold
spots on the icy continent tend to be "strung out like pearls" along
the ridges that link the high points, or domes, in the interior of the
continent. "If you were standing in one of these places, you'd hardly
notice you were in a topographic low - it's that gentle and that shallow. But
it's enough to trap this air,” Scambos added……….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The rage just keeps on flowing
around the globe and to start the new week, it landed in Singapore, where an
angry and inspired mob of around 400 people set fire to vehicles and clashed with
police in the Indian district of the city after a man was hit and killed by a
bus. Making the mini-revolt all the better, it was the first major riot in the
city-state for more than 40 years. Police announced 27 arrests in the aftermath
of the riot, which began after a private bus hit and killed an Indian national
in the Little India area. The riot is also believed to be linked to growing discontent
among low-paid foreign workers, including last year’s outbreak of labor unrest when
around 170 bus drivers from mainland China went on strike illegally. In Sunday
night’s riots, a crowd of people smashed the windscreen of the bus while the
victim remained trapped under the vehicle. According to Singapore police, the
27 arrested were of South Asian origin and they expect to make more arrests in
coming days. Some officers were sent out on the streets to quell the riot and a
statement by the Civil Defence Force (CDF), which oversees ambulances and fire
fighting, said rescuers trying to remove the body had "projectiles"
thrown at them when they arrived on the scene. In the melee, several police
cars were overturned and set ablaze and an ambulance allegedly received the
same bold treatment. Ten police officers were also reportedly injured in the
riot, although Singapore Police Force Commissioner Ng Joo Hee insisted no Singaporeans
were involved. As far as we know now, there was no involved in the riot. The
unwanted violence, rioting, destruction of property, fighting the police, is
not the Singapore way," Ng said. Nice move, N. blaming the construction
workers from Bangladesh and India who frequent the area on Sunday nights for
the incident. It’s not tough to determine why Singapore doesn’t produce enough
riots: The country has tough laws on rioting that carry a sentence of up to
seven years in prison and possible caning. Thankfully, that doesn’t stop those
who truly want to make a point……..
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