After decades of misguided hysteria, the War on Drugs may have an epidemic worth freaking out about, and it’s spreading across state and demographic lines at the speed of the Internet. NATASHA VARGAS-COOPER travels the country to uncover the way-less-glamorous-than-it-sounds world of bath salts, which has already come to a strip mall near you.
COLUMBUS, OH — On an unseasonably hot and muggy May afternoon, a squad of armed agents from the Franklin County Drug Task Force — some wearing street clothes, some wearing menacing ski masks — swarms into a storefront aptly named the Joint. Sandwiched between a liquor store and a sex shop, and adjacent to the Ohio State University campus, the Joint is one of 18 different head shops, gas stations, carryout restaurants, and mini-marts being searched this day by seven task force teams consisting of several dozen officers from numerous local police departments and prosecutors’ offices, all spearheaded by the County Sheriff here in the state capital.
Make no mistake: This is no ordinary pot bust. The raids are part of the ongoing Operation Synthetic Drugs, a highly coordinated and choreographed sweep through central Ohio. The target of this operation — which has received assistance from the DEA and the FBI — is a strand of a relatively obscure but insidiously metastasizing illegal substance marketed under the name “bath salts,” a deceptively innocuous moniker used to disguise the drug as a benign household product.
Read more HERE.
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Topix “Your Town. Your News. Your Take. Local news and discussion forums for every city in the US, thousands of cities throughout the world and 300,000 other topics.”
The most common type of breast cancer (70%) originates in the breast ducts and is known as ductal carcinoma. A less common type of breast cancer (15%) is known as lobular carcinoma, or cancer that originates in the lobules. More rare types of cancers include medullary carcinoma, Paget’s disease, tubular carcinoma, inflammatory breast cancer, and phyllodes tumors. – Provided by RandomHistory.com
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Finally: Microsoft’s Surface tablet makes its debut
Rumored:Â Obama may back down on his promise to veto CISPA
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Retro sexploitation movie magazine covers
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This house is located on an island called Elliðaey near Vestmannaeyjar, a small archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The house was given to singer, Bjork from her motherland as a “Thank You” for putting Iceland on the international map.
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Weight Loss Surgery May Increase Alcoholism Risk
People who have undergone gastric bypass surgery may be more at risk of abusing alcohol than those who have had other types of weight loss surgery, according to a recent study. Out of approximately 2,000 patients of various obesity surgeries, the two-thirds who had had gastric bypass surgery—which reduces the size of the stomach in order to limit food intake—were found to be most at risk. Two years after the surgery, almost 11 percent reported having drinking problems—a 50 percent increase from before the surgery.
More …
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One hell of a scary amusement park ride found in Russia.
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RIALTO, Calif. (KTLA) — Police confiscated marijuana plants as well as a wood-handled pitchfork and hoe into evidence from the home of Rodney King as officials try to determine how he died.
Officials said there were no “outward signs” of alcohol or drug use that may have caused King to fall into the pool Sunday morning.
An autopsy on King’s body has been completed, but the results are being deferred pending the results of toxicology tests.
A community vigil is planned for 6 p.m. Monday in Leimert Park to honor King.
King, whose beating by police in 1991 sparked the L.A. Riots, was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday. He was 47.
King was found by his fiancee at the bottom of the pool at his home in the 1000 block of E. Jackson Street around 5:25 a.m. Sunday.
Police received a 911 call from King’s fiancee, Cynthia Kelley, DeAnda said.
Officers found King at the bottom of the pool, removed him and attempted to revive him.
He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 6:11 a.m., DeAnda said.
Kelley, who was a juror in King’s lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles in 1994, told police King was an “avid swimmer,” but that she was not.
Investigators are looking into reports by a next-door neighbor who said she heard the 47-year-old King in his backyard sobbing uncontrollably shortly before a splash.
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A man at a Connecticut deli called 911 and asked the authorities to intervene after he became concerned that the sandwich shop was not preparing his order correctly.
“Um, hi. My name is Rother McLennon and I’m at Grateful Deli,” the man says on the 911 recording. “I specifically asked for um little um, turkey, and little um ham and a lot of cheese and a lot of mayonnaise…and they are giving me a hard time so I was wondering if you could stop by and just…”
That’s when the dispatcher responds in disbelief, asking, “You’re calling 911 because you don’t like the way they’re making your sandwich?”
“Exactly,” McLennon answers.
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Garfield Debuts (This day in 1978)
When Garfield debuted in 1978, the comic strip appeared in just 41 newspapers. Today, Jim Davis’s strip about a lazy, sarcastic cat and his lonely owner, Jon Arbuckle, is syndicated in more than 2,500 papers with a readership of more than 200 million people. The feline who loves lasagna and hates Mondays has spawned books, movies, and merchandise, which are sold in more than 100 countries and earn nearly $1 billion each year. How have Internet artists altered the strip in unusual ways?
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Now imagine this on your floor.
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Burger King Japan Serves 5-Patty Whopper Special to Commemorate Fifth Anniversary
For the fifth anniversary of Burger King in Japan, the chain has decided that bigger is indeed better. A new promotion offers not a double, not a triple, not a quadruple, but a quintuple Whopper — that’s five whole patties on one burger.
According to Burger Business, the deal will set customers back 5.50 yen, which is about $7. Apparently this is half what the normal cost of a five patty burger would be, which would typically sell for $14. Unfortunately for 5-patty Whopper fans, the price cut promotion only lasted a short three days. Although, a five-day celebration of Burger King’s fifth anniversary with a 5-patty burger would have seemed more fitting.
This is not the first time Burger King has created a limited-time offer that falls under the category of gluttonous. Just a few months ago Burger King allowed customers to add 15 strips of bacon to their burgers for a mere 110 Yen, or $1.24. In fact, Burger King Japan has even made larger burgers. In 2009, the fast food giant debuted the 7-patty Whopper as a tribute to the launch of Windows 7 — that’s a septuple burger, folks.
As Burger King Japan seems to have set the precedent for larger-than-life Whoppers, it will be interesting to see if the trend continues.
Would you eat a 5-patty Whopper?
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Badass ways to pass a beer!
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