Saturday 7 May 2016
Wednesday 4 May 2016
Global drugs movement vow to target North-East landmarks with wild cannabis grows
SUPPORTERS of a fast-growing global drugs movement have pledged to plant cannabis at every well known landmark in the North-East.
The illegal substance is already flourishing at well-known landmarks including London’s Tower Bridge, The Shard and Big Ben after the sites were targeted by pro-cannabis group Feed the Birds.
Cannabis clubs across the North-East have now vowed to work together in a bid to grow the drug around well-known sites such as The Angel of the North, Middlesbrough’s Transporter Bridge, The Bottle of Notes and Tyne Bridge.
The project – which operates world-wide and has thousands of followers – was established by a farmer, a psychiatrist and a barrister in a bid to decriminalise the drug and take it out of the hands of drug dealers and pharmaceutical companies.
Founder Finn Hemingway – giving his first interview exclusively to The Northern Echo - said the organisation is driven by the needs of medicinal users who are often criminalised for their personal use.
According to Mr Hemingway, the wild grows in public places create a visual form of protest against prohibition, while making a medicinal strain of the drug freely available for those struggling to cope with symptoms of conditions including cancer, HIV and MS.
Feed the Birds also freely distribute thousands of seeds and lighting kits to users across the world.
Mr Hemingway said: “We’ve been doing this for years under a media blackout and we’ve grown everywhere you can imagine.
“This isn’t original, it’s a return to the days before prohibition and we don’t take much notice of whether it’s legal or not.
“We’re not here to convert people and we won’t benefit anybody ramming our message down throats.
“But anything we can do to stop people suffering, we’ll do it and cannabis is proven to help people with illnesses like cancer, arthritis and HIV.
“By helping medical users, we can get them away from low quality cannabis and dealers and make them self-sufficient.
“They’re not taking it out of choice, they’re taking it because it’s the only thing that works for them and they’re being criminalised.
“We don’t support a black market and want people to be able to get away from dealers and reliance on prescription medicine.
“People are ending up in court and with criminal records for trying to heal themselves.
“If you can look at people suffering and sleep at night, good for you but I can’t and had to do something about it.”
A spokeswoman from Cleveland Police confirmed cannabis had been found at the Bottle of Notes in Middlesbrough and said: “It’s not illegal to own or distribute seeds but it’s illegal to grow cannabis.
“If it’s reported to us that an individual is growing cannabis outdoors, we will investigate but in cases like this, it would be very difficult to pinpoint who that cannabis belonged to.”
Cleveland police and crime commissioner Barry Coppinger added: "Tackling illegal drug misuse and dealing remains a priority as as I hear first hand from our communities the harm it causes users and the neighbourhoods.
"Cultivation of cannabis, which is a Class C drug, is illegal. Our central drugs enforcement team has seen some real success in terms of identifying and disrupting cannabis farms in recent months and I would like to commend their efforts and commitment."
Playing the Rookie season in Rocket League
In my experience, the first few games of each level are just a huge jump in quality from your previous opponents. But maybe 10 or 12 games into an 18-game season I started getting the hang of it. It's all about getting used to the new techniques and strategies, I think. Now online play? That's a whole different bag.
The worst is going from 2v2 Rookie to 3v3 Pro. Not only are the bots better, but the entire dynamic of the game changes with the additional players.
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN On The First X-MEN Movie “That’s my idea!”
Can you remember when Bryan Singer was a revered member of the “superhero director” community. Hell, the dude started the entire modern genre of realistic, costumed vigilantes with 2000’s X-Men (although Blade fans might disagree). In those early years, Singer could do absolutely no wrong. No one else had successfully created a group of super powered freaks into a realistic world, with a list of hero themed failures a mile long, starting with Spawn of course (again, Blade fans might disagree, but “Vampire killer” is a far easier pill to swallow than “Eye lasers man”). Though, in recent years the community’s been a bit bitter towards the Sing-meister.
Sure, we all felt betrayed when he abandoned the third X-Men movie in favor of Superman Returns, and a bit more heartbroken when Brett Ratner was chosen as his replacement, but we shouldn’t judge Singer for his change in projects. Hell, he offered to make the third X-Men flick once his Supes film was finished, but Fox refused, and proceeded with a different (and far less skilled) director.
Combine all of this with the rise of Marvel Studios, and the incessant fanboy chanting of “Send the Rights Back To Marvel!”, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for an entirely indignant, unfounded backlash.
Well, here’s an interesting anecdote for you. Hugh Jackman spent time with Christopher Nolan, while the two worked together on The Prestige, and eventually the conversation veered towards the X-Men franchise. Here it is, as told by Hugh Jackman:
There wasn’t really a superhero genre before X-Men came out. Funny enough, I remember catching a plane while we were promoting The Prestige with Chris Nolan [who] said to me that he’d always had the Batman in his mind. Even way back before 2000, he had the version of Batman that he ended up making in his head. He said, ‘when I went into the cinema and saw X-Men, I said damn, that’s my idea.’ The idea that you could really dive in to the emotional life, to the vulnerability of these characters and that, as well as being fantastical, amazing and action, is what’s going to hook people and make them care. That’s what Bryan did, he had a lot of courage to do that.”
Sunday 17 April 2016
Randy, I love South Park.
This is where you are wrong. It starts off innocently. You find a recipe that needs something you don't have so you think sure, what's wrong with a little paprika in the house. You use a little in the recipe and then by the time the weekend is over the jar is half gone. Then you realize paprika isn't as strong as you like so you order smoked paprika. Then you move on to other spices like clove or allspice. And that cheap $4 bottle at the local grocery store you used to be content with. Not anymore. Only exotic spices that must be watered with unicorn tears and ordered online will do. Then you need to start buying special equipment like an electric grinder or mortar and pestle. You see it's a very dangerous and slippery slope. One needs to be very careful when deciding to start a spice rack.
