Did you know that Portugal basically decriminalized all drugs in 2001? Take a guess what the results have been over the intervening decade. If you guessed that the results would be a drop in drug use, a drop in HIV cases arising from drug use, and a big jump in people in treatment programs, you’d be right. (I wish there was more in the article about the presence or absence of effects on criminal cash flow arising from the presumable price drop in a decriminalized environment.)
Tag: crime
Not How O’Toole & Hepburn Would Do It
What you’re looking at there is apparently around $613 million. (And yes, it is very odd when you think about the difference between owning digital copies of the images, which is free… and owning the originals, which are apparently somehow worth over $600 million. But that’s not the point.) Those five paintings were stolen last night from the Museum of… Read more →
Aside
I have enough Australian friends that I usually don’t bother to trot out the tired old “nation of criminals” joke/insult (although I do like Moran’s “it’s a jail” line–but I can’t deliver it like he can). I’m tempted to do it this once, though, just to provide some kind of segue to linking to some vintage Sydney mug shots. Look at those shots–those are some characters, man.
Aside
I think I would title the story Swedish Surrealist Heli-Ninjas Commit Perfect Theft. But the writeup at The Punch is pretty good too. That’s caper movie material right there–“competence porn”. I love that it actually happened.
Punks and Parker
For some reason, reading that story about the 84 year old grandpa laying out the punks who tried to rob him makes me think of this panel from Darwyn Cooke‘s version of The Spirit: Speaking of Darwyn, his first adaptation of Richard Stark‘sa.k.a. the recently deceased Donald E. Westlake Parker stories is coming out soon. I was already pretty jazzed… Read more →
Sunday Night, Not Too Serious
I’m just closing some tabs here as I’m watching the adaptation of Choke. It’s actually a pretty good adaptation. Or maybe it’s just Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston carrying it. Anyway, on to the tabs–nothing too deep tonight: I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to hear that Sarah Palin’s daughter and her hockey player fiancee have broken up. I… Read more →
Cheney’s Assassination Bureau
You’ve probably seen the story by now: Hersh replied, “After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet.” Hersh then went on to describe a second… Read more →
Observational Items
I believe that it is not hyperbole to say that the existence, even in conceptual form, of the Chompr is the final clear sign that Western society has slipped completely into decadence. First of all, if you can’t hold a sandwich in your hand, you shouldn’t be trying to eat it. Second of all, you should be able to engineer… Read more →
Utterly random points
So, I thought the barbecue sauce guy was weird, but he has possibly been surpassed by the eggbeater bandit. New Walter Jon Williams books are automatic buys in this house (as you know if you’ve been reading for a while), and now he’s not just selling me his books, he’s putting anime on my Ziplist. I may have mentioned that… Read more →
Urban Camouflage
This could easily have been the last item in that last link post, but I felt it was gloriously bizarre enough to merit a post all its own: Man found in WI basement covered in BBQ sauce APPLETON, Wisc. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A couple telephoned police in the middle of the night after finding a man in their basement covered… Read more →
Y.A.L.P.
I had a definite plan this morning to do a little geohashing and see who showed up at the local meeting. Too bad the algorithm would have put me in the Atlantic Ocean off the South Shore. Maybe tomorrow it’ll be on land–easy enough to calculate with the online reference implementation. Actually, if I had access to an ocean-worthy boat,… Read more →
Early Saturday Morning Gallimaufry
And, time to close a few more tabs… It’s lovely that the Internet can bring me an interactive beer and food matching guide. Sadly, it uses a different algorithm than I do–resulting in far more matches with “see through” beer than my scheme would generate. Speaking of beer, I love the idea of beer haiku. My favourite so far: You… Read more →
Definitely the headline of the month
Sometimes I am very glad that I only have to deal with the relatively more abstract, if no less scary, concerns of modern Western society. Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital KINSHASA (Reuters) – Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of… Read more →
Scottish protection rackets
Things I Learned Today #1: “blackmail” is a Scottish word, and the Highland Scots invented the protection rackets. World Wide Words: Blackmail The mail in blackmail (at various times also spelled maill, male and in other ways) is an old Scots word for rent. This was usually paid in what was often called white money, silver coins. It comes from… Read more →
It’s like a movie plot
Did you see this bit on BoingBoing? Adrian says: According to the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen.se, police suspect that a team of thieves operating in Sweden are using little people hidden in hockey bags and placed in the cargo holds of buses to loot passengers luggage while in transit. They link to the original story in Swedish, which does me… Read more →
