California Commercial Advocates Pot Legalization, Regulation, Taxation
In California, the Marijuana Policy Project has begun airing a TV commercial calling for the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana to help the state’s crippling budget crisis. Marijuana has been the top cash crop in California for years, bringing in $14 billion a year even during prohibition. Under a legal and regulated system, marijuana…
Joan Baez Sings ‘We Shall Overcome’ In Farsi
During last month’s fixed election, Joan Baez sat down in what appears to be her kitchen to dedicate a stately solo version of “We Shall Overcome” to the people of Iran – with lyrics in Farsi.
80 Million Strong DC Summit Meeting Addresses Youth Unemployment
While the official US unemployment rate hovers around 9.5%, the percentage of unemployed young people and recent college graduates is at least twice that figure. And the numbers for young Hispanics and African-Americans are another several points higher. Add the ridiculous $27,000 of debt with which the average grad is encumbered, and the absence of…
LSD-Inventor Albert Hoffman Writes Apple CEO Steve Jobs
By Richard Gehr Ryan Grimm neatly distills the fascinating historical confluence of psychedelic drugs (mostly LSD) and computer culture in this Huffington Post excerpt from his forthcoming book, This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in the United States. The surprising bit, however, is this reproduction of a 2007 handwritten…
Happy Birthday Apple App Store
The Apple App Store celebrates its first birthday this week by gathering some of its favorite games and apps on iTunes. Among the top of the list are apps for Pandora Radio and the Midomi Music Identifier and Search, both clutch for music fans. The store’s official launch date was July 11, 2008 following some…
New Google Products Unearth Gaffs From The Past
By Eric Leventhal Is there anything Google can’t do? I’m convinced they’re just a few thousand lines of code away from solving the Middle East conundrum. Introducing In Quotes and Audio Indexing, two new Google Labs applications that are somehow both addictive and truly beneficial to researchers of all levels of sophistication. It’s fascinatingly easy…
Bob Weir Twitters From DC
By Richard Gehr Mr. Weir went to Washington yesterday, as you can see from this handsome photo he twittered. Standing between Bob and Mickey Hart is of course Minnesota’s brand new junior senator – and longtime Deadhead – Al Franken. He also stopped by the White House for a meeting and meal with presidential aide…
Radiohead Manager Launches New Label
In a recent Time Out Chicago interview, German DJ-producer Paul van Dyk trashed Radiohead for being rich millionaires who could afford to give away 2007’s In Rainbows while less successful musicians still eat cat food: “Bands like Radiohead who basically made millions and millions and millions of dollars back in the days when there were…
Strip Searching Students Is Not OK
By Jonathan Perri We shouldn’t have needed the Supreme Court to confirm that school administrators do not have the authority to strip search students they suspect of wrongdoing. But that’s what happened June 25 when Savana Redding finally had her day in court nearly six years after being strip searched by a school administrator and…
Proxmire, Perseverance, And Fiscal Responsibility
By Eric Leventhal This is William Proxmire, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin who was elected after the death of Joseph McCarthy in 1957 and who remained in office until he retired in 1989. His 32-year commitment to American politics is particularly relevant to our world in 2009. First, Proxmire epitomizes the virtue of perseverance. When…