Comments

kdaviper

Cars

Who Drives Better: Drunks or Stoners?

By Posted on 5.27.2009 29 Comments
When I slipped behind the wheel of the traffic simulator at Israel's Ben Gurion University recently, it was less than two minutes before I was bumping into the virtual cars and swerving around pedestrians. Maneuvering through the tree-lined urban roads projected in dayglo colors on giant screens was tricky--and I wasn't even one of their hard-drinking or toking research subjects.

5.31.2009 at 12:23pm - Comment by kdaviper

The only way to answer the question correctly would be to survey people, find out what percentage of the population have driven drunk and/or stoned, and compare those numbers to the percentages of auto accidents or fatalities that have been reported for each group of "inhibited" people, then factor out a few from each situation for people that can't drive regardless of physical state.
Entertainment & Gaming

Reefer Gladness

By Christine Cyr Posted on 4.20.2009 20 Comments
It's April 20th, National Weed Day -- the unofficial national holiday of stoners everywhere. From the party to end all parties at the University of Boulder to the crowning of Ms. High Times at an undisclosed New York City location this afternoon, the skunky perfume of cannabis is in the air. But this year, those who toke at the altar of Mary Jane may have a little more to celebrate. In politics and the media, the legalization of marijuana seems to be gaining traction.

4.22.2009 at 11:45pm - Comment by kdaviper

@bdhoro87: The latest news I've heard is that the DEA will no longer raid despenseries if they are in compliance with their state law. @Eggman02: You are confusing two different things: getting high and driving while intoxicated. Smoking marijuana is not equivalent to somebody discharging a firearm in a populated area. The people who choose to drive while intoxicated would be driving while intoxicated regardless of marijuana's legal status. Your theory would lead to the illegalization of anything that could be used in a malevolent way from duck tape to pencils to words themselves.
Entertainment & Gaming

Reefer Gladness

By Christine Cyr Posted on 4.20.2009 20 Comments
It's April 20th, National Weed Day -- the unofficial national holiday of stoners everywhere. From the party to end all parties at the University of Boulder to the crowning of Ms. High Times at an undisclosed New York City location this afternoon, the skunky perfume of cannabis is in the air. But this year, those who toke at the altar of Mary Jane may have a little more to celebrate. In politics and the media, the legalization of marijuana seems to be gaining traction.

4.21.2009 at 04:30pm - Comment by kdaviper

Appearently, my comments were misconstrued as "I believe that it is perfectly okay for a person to drive while intoxicated and abandon their family." Also, the person who chooses to get baked instead of playing with his or her child does not care for the child in the first place, and therefore, the child would most likely be neglected weather or not drug use was present. This is also true about the statement about productivity; a person who cares about his or her productivity would not choose to get baked all the time. Alcohol is already perfectly legal (to those over the age of 21) and our workforce isn't made up of drunken slobs, why should someone expect anything different from the legalizaton of cannabis? And the idea of prison sentances for drug offenders is insane. The statistics clearly show that inprisonment does nothing to stop drug users from continuing their drug use once they are free (and do to the availablity of illicit drugs in prisons, if the drug use even stops upon encarceration). Inprisonment only removes a drug offender further from society and makes it harder for the offender to become a normal part of society and obtain gainful employment; with no job to fill their time, the drug user has more time to use drugs and has to use criminal means to support their habbits (for those drugs that are addicting like heroine, cocaine, methamphetamine, nicotine, etc.). And to think that imprisoning a child's parent for extended periods of time for drug use is going to be any better than the parent's death is also a crazy notion. The childeren who fall victems of the penal system are often put in orphanages and foster care (which often leads to abuse) or in the best case scenario are left to live their lives with only one parent (I have seen statistics that show that 95% of drug addicts grow up in single parent housholds). If the child does miraculously make it through all of the adversity, he or she will likely have a deep resentment towards government and authority and end up effervescing with negative criminal energy.
Entertainment & Gaming

Reefer Gladness

By Christine Cyr Posted on 4.20.2009 20 Comments
It's April 20th, National Weed Day -- the unofficial national holiday of stoners everywhere. From the party to end all parties at the University of Boulder to the crowning of Ms. High Times at an undisclosed New York City location this afternoon, the skunky perfume of cannabis is in the air. But this year, those who toke at the altar of Mary Jane may have a little more to celebrate. In politics and the media, the legalization of marijuana seems to be gaining traction.

4.20.2009 at 05:12pm - Comment by kdaviper

It should be noted that illegal drugs cause problems because they are illegal. Violent cultures have developed around the illegal drugs because they are black market items. This status ensures that the prices stay high and the high prices in turn cause people to be willing to do violent things to posess them or the right to sell the drugs in a certain area. Also, the federal government has no right to pass a law prohibiting posession or use of ANY substance, as the constitution does not address controlled substances. According to the tenth amendment of the constitution, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." If a state or community wishes to prohibit use of a controlled substance, it is their right to do so, not that of the Federal Government. Finally, since when is it the government's responsibility to keep people from doing harmful things to THEMSELVES, especially if they harm nobody else in the process.
Gadgets

Growth Gadget

By Posted on 3.12.2009 5 Comments
Is it the size of the wave or the motion of the ocean? That debate may never be settled, but a new study out of Italy suggests penile extender claims may not be as “short” on truth as widely assumed. Not something that concerns you, Mr. Well-Endowed? Well, considering the average American’s erectile length (5 inches) is well shy of the French (6.2 inches), Germans (5.6 inches), Italians (5.9 inches), Mexicans (5.8 inches), Chileans (5.5 inches) and Columbians (5.4 inches), consider it a matter of national pride.

3.16.2009 at 10:51am - Comment by kdaviper

Could have something to do with the amount of fat people in the US.
Science

Is Pot a Performance Enhancer?

By Brett Zarda Posted on 2.10.2009 23 Comments
We didn’t want to write about it. Seriously, we didn’t. Sure, Michael Phelps has digital technology, the 24-hour news cycle and precision blown glass to blame for his plight but we’re better than that.* But when US Swimming went and suspended Phelps for two months for, ultimately, acting his age, we felt compelled to write something. The 'Science' part of Popular Science restricts us from condemning the insanity of the punishment (note, however, they did nothing following his 2003 DUI).

2.9.2009 at 03:19pm - Comment by kdaviper

marijuana doesn't have to be inhaled, either; there are other means of using the plant. this means that marijuana would have to fit BOTH of the other requirements
Entertainment & Gaming

Video Games that Beef Up the Brain

By Christina Hurtado Posted on 12.30.2008 2 Comments
In a recent study from UC Berkeley, scientists revealed significant physical differences in the brain development of children from different socio-economic backgrounds.

12.30.2008 at 12:55pm - Comment by kdaviper

oh man, the Oregon Trail. that was good stuff.
Science

If a Train Leaves New York at 5pm . . . Will it Teach a Kid Math?

By Posted on 5.5.2008 10 Comments
We have all at one point or another learned some variation of a mathematical formula involving trains and their timetables. For example: if a train leaves Boston for New York at 7am and travels at 60mph, will it beat a train leaving Providence at 6am traveling 45mph? The idea behind this kind of "story" problem is to engage a student with a real-world example to which they can relate. The thinking follows that that engagement will solidify the mathematical concept. It's one of those conceits that has hung around for seemingly as long as math has been taught. And it may very well be completely wrong.

5.5.2008 at 09:16pm - Comment by kdaviper

A train leaves the station at 5:00 due east going 55mph. Another train leaves a station 600 miles away heading due west at 4:30 going 40 mph. How does this make you feel?
Technology

How It Works: The Best View From Space Yet

By Posted on 3.13.2008 3 Comments
When the GeoEye-1 surveillance satellite comes online this spring, its advanced optics will produce more-detailed images than any commercial satellite, capturing objects as small as home plate on a baseball diamond and filling in the fuzzy spots on Google Earth.

3.14.2008 at 03:03pm - Comment by kdaviper

Aww, I want a sixty-thousand megapixel camera!!!
Technology

The Real-life Death Star

By Posted on 3.7.2008 6 Comments
Friends of the Dark Side, your time may soon be at hand. It seems we have a literal death star aiming in our general direction. The culprit is part of a binary star system—two stars which orbit each other—by the name of WR 104. Both are massive and very, very hot. One will eventually explode into a harmless supernova, providing us with a lovely astronomical light show. The other, however, might be deadly.

3.7.2008 at 09:50pm - Comment by kdaviper

technically, these stars could have already exploded, maybe even thousands of years ago. We only get to see stuff in the universe that has already happened x years ago (where x is the distance in light years).