brave new world

United Nations report: ‘Designer drug’ use, abuse and production surging

"Designer drugs are multiplying at a worrying rate and increasingly sending users to hospital, a UN-affiliated report said Tuesday, calling for international efforts to stem the spread of these substances. Aggravating the problem further was the fact that these drugs were not subject to international control regimes and were readily available on the Internet, requiring states and international institutions to find new ways to identify the drugs and stop their distribution. Another problem was the rise in prescription drug abuse, including painkillers, sedatives and others used to treat epilepsy, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and mental illnesses." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUnited Nations report: ‘Designer drug’ use, abuse and production surging

Group warns military: Prepare now for risks of ‘mutant soldier’ future

"Researchers at California Polytechnic State University warn that the U.S. military is working to create and implement technologies that will give soldiers 'mutant powers' without fully thinking through the consequences. The report warns that 'military human enhancements' could pose a decided risk to enlisted personnel. The means used to produce the enhancements, including drugs, special nutrition, electroshock, gene therapy and robotic implants, are all only dimly understood. The consequences of utilizing these techniques with anything but exquisite care could be devastating." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGroup warns military: Prepare now for risks of ‘mutant soldier’ future

Drones Are Like Structured Finance

"What happened with structured finance and what's happening with drones is that the adoption and increased use of the technologies come to have an independent effect on the underlying phenomena, the housing bubble and the war on terror's killing bubble. Being effective and low-cost technologies, they heighten the bubbles as people use them intensively. The indiscriminate use or broad use or overuse of these technologies cause problems all their own and, in the hands of their users, who were investment bankers and now U.S. government officials, they become contributory causes of new problems." Continue reading →

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It’s Happening Faster Than Even I Thought

"Since I manage an internet privacy company, people expect me to be pessimistic on the development of the surveillance state. But even I didn't expect the surveillance state to form this quickly. 2012 has been a banner year for amoral marketers and soul-dead overseers, and the situation is probably much worse than you realize. A very deep surveillance state is being completed now. It's your choice whether or not you'll escape it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIt’s Happening Faster Than Even I Thought

UK survey finds one new ‘legal high’ goes on sale every week in Britain

"A record 57 new legal highs have been detected so far this year, with the EU’s early warning system reporting the appearance of more than one new psychoactive drug on the market every week. The rise and rise of legal highs is being driven by an explosion in the number of online retailers selling the new drugs in Europe, which has risen from 170 in 2010 to a record 693 internet 'head shops'. The European drug experts say those manufacturing the drugs are trying to evade attempts to ban them by using ever more obscure chemical groups to synthesise them; a rising number of products now include several psychoactive substances." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUK survey finds one new ‘legal high’ goes on sale every week in Britain