Denver council gives initial OK to ban on open pot smoking
The Denver City Council on Monday gave initial approval to banning smoking marijuana on private property if visible from the street or sidewalk.
The council voted 7-5 in favor of the provision that effectively would prohibit pot smoking on Denver's publicly visible lawns, porches and balconies.
The final vote is set for Monday.
"I really believe (that if) the front of your property is open, it is public," said Councilwoman Jeanne Robb, who offered the amendment. "It does set the standard. I am trying to balance the rights of those who consume marijuana and those who want to protect some enjoyment of their own property."
The vote came after an hour of public testimony by 26 people and another hour of discussion among council members.
For several weeks, the council has tried to write a law that would establish where people can smoke marijuana when they are on private property. The city is trying to put rules in place before legal
sales of recreational marijuana to adults begin Jan. 1.
"Many of our citizens don't know what the rules are," said Councilman Charlie Brown, who voted against the amendment. "We need a proactive campaign to let them know what the rules are. We have 40 days to do it."
Regardless of whether the law passes, Denver Police Chief Robert White said enforcement would be the police department's lowest priority.
"Our primary (goal) would be compliance," he said.
If the alleged offender was no longer on the porch or smoking marijuana when officers arrive, "that would be the end of our action," White said.
Public testimony was both strongly supportive of forbidding marijuana smoking on front lawns and strongly against the measure.
"This is embarrassing," said Robert Reginelli, who said the city will look foolish to the rest of the nation, which is watching how Denver adapts to legalized marijuana. "This clearly violates the will of the voters."
Ashley Ebert, 23, said she smoked medical marijuana because she had cervical cancer and it helped her deal with the pain from chemotherapy.
"It is insane to not allow people to use it on their front porch," she said. "You should teach your children what is OK and what is not."
Christine Walravens, a physician at Children's Hospital Colorado, said she often sees young mothers who say they have been smoking marijuana throughout their pregnancy. She said the council should do anything it can to prevent children from being exposed to marijuana smoking.
"This is not the Denver that I grew up in," she said.
Sandra Hagen Solin spoke on behalf of Smart Colorado — a group working on marijuana policy — and said her group is "holding the line" on this issue.
"As parents, we are taking responsibility to talk to our children, but we need your support," she told the council before the vote.
Whether you are an advocate or not my friends, history is being made in Colorado regarding marijuana laws. I plan on keeping up with this story and Ill keep you updated.
Giant prehistoric toilet unearthed
A gigantic "communal latrine" created
at the dawn of the dinosaurs has been unearthed in Argentina.
Thousands of fossilised poos left by rhino-like megaherbivores were found
clustered together, scientists say.The 240-million-year-old site is the "world's oldest public toilet" and the first evidence that ancient reptiles shared collective dumping grounds.
The dung contains clues to prehistoric diet, disease and vegetation says a study in Scientific Reports.
"It's a warning to predators. If you leave a huge pile you
are saying: 'Hey! Watch out!'
Elephants, antelopes and horses are among modern animals
who defecate in socially agreed hotspots - to mark territory and reduce the
spread of parasites.
But their best efforts are dwarfed by the enormous scale of this latrine -
which breaks the previous record "oldest toilet" by 220 million years.Fossil "coprolites" as wide as 40cm and weighing several kilograms were found in seven massive patches across the Chanares Formation in La Rioja province.
Some were sausage-like, others pristine ovals, in colours ranging from whitish grey to dark brown-violet. "There is no doubt who the culprit was," said Dr Lucas Fiorelli, of Crilar-Conicet, who discovered the dung heaps.
"Only one species could produce such big lumps - and we found their bones littered everywhere at the site."
The culprits were dicynodonts - ancient megaherbivores
The perpetrator was Dinodontosaurus, an eight-foot-long megaherbivore similar to modern rhinos.
These animals were dicynodonts - large, mammal-like reptiles common in the Triassic period when the first dinosaurs began to emerge.
The fact they shared latrines suggests they were gregarious, herd animals, who had good reasons to poo strategically, said Dr Fiorelli.
"Firstly, it was important to avoid parasites - 'you don't poo where you eat', as the saying goes.
"But it's also a warning to predators. If you leave a huge pile, you are saying: 'Hey! We are a big herd. Watch out!"
The predator in this case was the formidable Luperosuchus, a crocodile-like carnivore up to 8m in length. But the dung patches were equally intimidating.
A museum of poos has been created by the researchers
A density of 94 poos per square metre was recorded by the researchers. And the excrement was spread across patches 900 square metres in size. Prehistoric coprolites are nothing new, but it is extremely rare to find an accumulation as old and substantial as this one - because faeces degrade so easily.
A sheet of volcanic ash has preserved the ancient dung piles "like Pompeii", said Dr Fiorelli.
The coprolites are like time capsules.
"When cracked open they reveal fragments of extinct plants, fungi, and gut parasites," said Martin Hechenleitner, a fellow author on the study. "Each poo is a snapshot of an ancient ecosystem - the vegetation and the food chain.
"This was a crucial time in evolutionary history. The first mammals were there, living alongside the grandfather of dinosaurs. "Maybe with these fossils we can glimpse into the lost environment which gave rise to the dinosaurs."
YAWN!. I know. Sorry.
The Marvels of Science
The notorious white separatist Craig Cobb is currently soliciting like-skinned people to move to his tiny town of Leith, N.D. (pop. 16) to create a deluxe Caucasian enclave, but at the urging of a black TV host submitted to a DNA test in November to “prove” his lineage--and turned up 14 percent black (“Sub-Saharan African”). (He has vowed to try other DNA tests before confirming those results.) Bobby Harper (previously, Leith’s only black resident) was gleeful: “I knew there [had to be another] black person in town.” (In mid-November, Cobb was charged, along with an associate, with seven counts of terrorism for walking menacingly through Leith wielding a long gun.)
A racist is someone who wakes up every morning with the same mission, to show the world just how stupid they really are.
Wasteful Government Spending?
The U.S. government has engaged in some legendarily wasteful projects, but leaders in China’s Yungai village (pop. 3,683), in Hunan province, have surely raised the bar for epic squander after borrowing the equivalent of $2.4 million and building an impressive seven-story government headquarters--but with 96 still-unlooked-out front windows because there is no activity beyond the first floor. According to an October London Daily Telegraph report, the only occupants are the village government’s eight employees.
Informal Georgia Sobriety Tests
Rachel Gossett blew a .216 alcohol reading in Loganville, Ga., in November, but that was probably a formality after an officer witnessed her attempt to put a cheeseburger from a Waffle Shop onto her foot as if it were a shoe. And Rashad Williams, 38, was charged with DUI in Atlanta in October after he crashed through the front of a Walgreens drug store and then, according to a witness, calmly exited his vehicle (which was sticking halfway into the building) and resumed drinking next door at the Anchor Bar.
Chutzpah!
Sheriff’s deputy Darrell Mathis of Newton County, Ga. (30 miles east of Atlanta), a five-year veteran, was arrested in September and charged with selling marijuana locally--from his squad car, in uniform, and apparently without inhibition. A confidential informant, unnerved by Mathis’s alleged brazenness, convinced FBI agents in April 2013 to do a by-the-book sting (with which Mathis of course naively cooperated, according to Bureau affidavits). (In their final meeting before the arrest, for example, Mathis took pains to assure the agents: “Don’t worry. I’m on your side,” he said. He was reportedly enthusiastic about the sting’s plan to run marijuana and cocaine from Alabama to North Carolina.)
Edward William Bright Stabs Brother Over Argument About Silverware: Cops
Guess they determined what silverware they're not using.
Edward William Bright, 47, allegedly stabbed his brother repeatedly following an argument over which silverware to use for dinner, ColaDaily.com reported.
Deputies were called to Bright's home in Richland County, S.C., around 6 p.m. Sunday, according to NBC 26. According to the sheriff's report, the argument over silverware led Mr. Bright to grab a steak knife and stab his brother multiple times in his torso.
The brother's injuries were not life-threatening. Bright was charged with second-degree assault and battery, according to the Associated Press.
Westboro Baptists Will Picket Paul Walker's Funeral
Westboro Baptist 'Church' will be picketing Paul Walker's funeral, because harassing grieving people is just part of their creed.
After the 'Fast And The Furious' star tragically died in a car accident at the age of 40, WBC tweeted:
"The furious God cut off Paul Walker! Thank God for His condign wrath!"
WBC regularly pickets the funeral of soldiers, and they now seem to be targeting celebrities too. Their problem with Walker appears to be that he "taught a nation to be fast & furious."
It takes all kinds to make up this big ol' world I suppose, some are a little bit weirder than others, and this is my look at just a few of them posted right here for you. Thanks for reading!!
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