A blog where the Savage nonsense that So-cals Snowman regurgitates & makes it on the web. As an aspiring hip-hop artist, things from dope new music, crap music & strange things that have to do with music may appear. You may also see posts from the MMORPG Perfect World which rocks! Its 100% FREE! Been playin since Oct09. Besides music & games you will get my once in a while random rants,crazy drug news & funny shit I find on the web.
A report from an NHS Foundation Trust concerning contaminated drugs in the London area has come to our attention concerning the benzodiazepine, alprazolam. The batch was bought under the pretence that it was heroin but was later confirmed as a mixture of alprazolam, caffeine and paracetamol that, if injected, presents a significant risk of death.
The incident happened in the Slough and Guilford areas. The side effects reported are extreme drowsiness, flu-like symptoms and vomiting, although the vomiting is more likely to be a result of heroin withdrawal. Reports say the powder may have an orange tinge and has the appearance of foundation make up. There are differing reports to the colour of the powder when cooked; some are saying almost black, others are saying dark green or dark red. The number of incidents are unconfirmed at this time and the source unknown.
However, this is not the first time Alprazolam, a powerful sedative, has been unknowingly bought by heroin users. Earlier this month, more than ten people were treated after injecting the substance. There have been cases where not only was there Alprazolam in the batch but there was no trace of heroin.
Originally made to supplant barbiturates, benzodiazepines (Benzos) are a Class C drug used for many conditions including anxiety and panic disorders, insomnia and alcohol withdrawal. They are commonly used in the medical profession as a premedication for medical procedures. For most the conditions they can treat, it is usually only prescribed for short periods of time.
Common short-term side effects include drowsiness, decreased alertness and lack of concentration, longer term effect can include general deterioration in mental and physical health. Other reactions to Benzos include irrational aggression, violence and suicidal behaviour although these are rare.
Because of its widespread availability, benzodiazepines- alprazolam in particular- is the most commonly misused drug. Many benzos are used to alleviate the “come down” effect of speed ecstasy or cocaine. It cannot be dissolved fully in water and as a result, this can result in serious damage to the arteries if taken intravenously. A study in USA by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that if mixed with alcohol it could have severe and even fatal consequences.
We ask that people be aware and exercise caution. If any of the potential symptoms are displayed it is strongly advised to get to the nearest Accident and Emergency room to get treated, especially if you are in the Slough and Guilford area. Once again the symptoms are Drowsiness, flu-like symptoms and vomiting. If you come across any substance similar to the description above then do not use it.
LONDON — Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.
British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.
Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.
Heroin, crack cocaine and metamfetamines, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.
The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and was published online Monday in the medical journal, Lancet.
Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.
"Just think about what happens (with alcohol) at every football game," said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study and co-authored a commentary in the Lancet.
When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.
But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.
"We cannot return to the days of prohibition," said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study's authors. "Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won't go away."
King said countries should target problem drinkers, not the vast majority of people who indulge in a drink or two. He said governments should consider more education programs and raising the price of alcohol so it isn't as widely available.
Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classify drugs. For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior advisers, David Nutt — the lead author on the Lancet study — was fired after he criticized the British decision.
"What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science," said van den Brink. He said considerations about revenue and taxation, like those garnered from the alcohol and tobacco industries, may influence decisions about which substances to regulate or outlaw.
"Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit," he said.
It all started when Raymond Roberts was pulled over in his Hyundai by the Manatee County, FL (yes, that's a real place), sheriff's office on Wednesday for speeding. When the cops approached his car, it apparently reeked of weed, so they made the 25-year-old get out of the car for a search. From the Smoking Gun:
During the search, when Deputy Sean Cappiello "felt a soft object in the crack of his buttocks," the suspect "began to tense up." Roberts volunteered to remove the item. “Let me get it, hold on” he said, and proceeded to place a "clear plastic baggie with a green leafy substance" on the car's hood.
It was 4.5 ounces of marijuana — though probably any situation in which a cop is groping around your butt crack would probably make you "tense up."
Roberts conceded that the weed was his, but the search didn't end there:
But, as the deputy reported, "I then searched his shorts again and felt another object that was in the crack of his buttocks. I pulled the object out from the exterior of his shorts and a clear plastic baggie with a white rock substance fell to the ground." This plastic bag, a test would later determine, contained 27 pieces of crack cocaine.
Roberts was quick to clarify the ownership situation. "The white stuff is not mine," he said. "But the weed is." Just because a bag of drugs is in your ass doesn't mean you own it. (It could be your son's, for example, and you are just about to mouth kiss it to him.) The crack cocaine had just been left in the car by a friend, you see, and when the cops pulled him over he decided to do himself and his friend a favor and stick it up his butt. It actually makes perfect sense, when you think about it.
Drug smuggling gangs in Mexico have sent well-armed assassins, or "sicarios," into Arizona to locate and kill bandits who are ambushing and stealing loads of cocaine, marijuana and heroin headed to buyers in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security has warned Arizona law enforcement authorities.
In a memo sent in May and widely circulated since, the department said: "We just received information from a proven credible confidential source who reported that a meeting was held in Puerto Penasco in which every smuggling organization who utilizes the Vekol Valley was told to attend. This included rival groups within the Guzman cartel."
Joaquín Archivaldo Guzman Loera heads what formally is known as the Sinaloa Cartel, which smuggles multi-ton loads of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the United States. One of the most powerful and dangerous drug gangs in Mexico, it also is known as the Guzman cartel, which has been tied to the production, smuggling and distribution of Mexican marijuana and heroin and has established transshipment outlets in the United States.
The Vekol Valley is a widely-traveled drug smuggling corridor running across Interstate 8 between the Arizona towns of Casa Grande and Gila Bend, continuing north towards Phoenix. It gives drug smugglers the option of shipping their goods to California or to major cities both north and east.
The Homeland Security memo said a group of "15, very well equipped and armed sicarios complete with bullet proof vests" had been sent into the valley. It said the assassins would be disguised as "groups of 'simulated backpackers' carrying empty boxes covered with burlap into the Vekol Valley to draw out the bandits." Once identified, the memo said, "the sicarios will take out the bandits."
The federal government has posted signs along Interstate 8 in the Vekol Valley warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and the local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.
The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego. They warn travelers they are entering an "active drug and human smuggling area" and may encounter "armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed."
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, told The Washington Times earlier this month that Mexican drug cartels have posted scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and "they literally control movement.
"They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has," he said. "This is going on here in Arizona. This is 70 to 80 miles from the border -- 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States."
The sheriff said he had asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but instead got 15 signs. He also has confirmed that he got the Homeland Security memo warning of the assassins.
Rising violence along the border has coincided with a crackdown in Mexico on warring drug gangs, who are seeking control of smuggling routes into the United States. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has waged a bloody campaign against powerful cartels, and more than 28,000 people have died since he launched his crackdown in late 2006.
Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has called the signs "an insult to the citizens of border states."
"American citizens should not have to be fearful for their lives on U.S. soil," he said. "If the federal government would do its job of enforcing immigration laws, we could better secure the border and better protect the citizens of border states."
Two years ago, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of Homeland Security, said in a report that border gangs were becoming increasingly ruthless and had begun targeting not only rivals, but federal, state and local police. ICE said the violence had risen dramatically as part of "an unprecedented surge."
The Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center, in its 2010 drug threat assessment report, called the cartels "the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States." It said Mexican gangs had established operations in every area of the United States and were expanding into rural and suburban areas.
It said assaults against U.S. law enforcement officers along the southwestern border were on the increase, up 46 percent against Border Patrol agents alone.
By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times
October 15, 2010
Consumer confidence may be down, but use of marijuana, meth (methamphetamine), and ecstasy, along with nonmedical use of prescription drugs, is up among Americans. Between 2008 and 2009, illicit drug use among people aged 12 years and older in the United States increased from 8.0 percent to 8.7 percent.
The new overall figure, which is the result of a national survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and entitled the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), was mostly associated with a large increase in marijuana use. Approximately 67,500 people were surveyed.
Marijuana, Meth, and Ecstasy
The rate of marijuana use among youth aged 12 to 17 increased from 6.7 percent in 2008 to 7.3 percent in 2009. While this rise in marijuana use was significant, the 7.3 percent figure is lower than the 2002 level of 8.2 percent.
Overall illicit drug use among young people also rose, from 9.3 percent in 2008 to 10.0 percent in 2009. Of interest, however, is that the number of young people who believe smoking marijuana once or twice a week is harmful declined from 54.7 percent in 2007 to 49.3 percent in 2009.
When looking at the past-month use of ecstasy and methamphetamine, the survey found that the number of meth users rose from 314,000 in 2008 to 502,000 in 2009, and that among ecstasy users, the numbers increased from 555,000 in 2008 to 760,000 in 2009.
Among adults aged 18 to 25, overall past-month use of illicit drugs increased from 19.6 percent in 2008 to 21.2 percent in 2009. This increase was largely associated with more use of marijuana.
Some Good News about Drug Use
According to Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy, “past month marijuana use was much less prevalent among youths who perceived strong parental disapproval for trying marijuana or hashish once or twice than among those who did not—4.8 percent versus 31.3 percent, respectively.” Cigarette use among people aged 12 years and older has reached a low of 23.3 percent, and cocaine use among the same age group has also declined 30 percent from 2006.
Results Not Surprising
Kerlikowske called the survey results “disappointing, but not surprising,” and said that the current approach by the National Drug Control Strategy, which focuses on “prevention, treatment, smart law enforcement and support for those in recovery,” is the right one. He added that “our efforts must be reinforced and supported by the messages kids get from their parents.”
Despite the increased use of marijuana, meth, ecstasy, and other illicit drugs among Americans, the number of people who receive specialized treatment for a substance abuse problem is far lower (2.6 million) than the number who need it (23.5 million).
They found Marcus Turner in a ditch in north Mississippi, naked and shot to death.
It was the end of a young man's life and a grim reminder of a larger truth: The Mexican drug war isn't as far away as you might think.
The order that led to Turner's death was phoned in from Mexico, prosecutors say. They say the man on the other end of the line was Craig Petties of Memphis, Tenn., alleged to be a drug trafficker who developed such close ties to a Mexican cartel that he moved south of the border and lived under its protection for years.
His story reflects the tight links between Mexican cartels and homegrown drug trafficking organizations throughout the nation. It also shows that Americans who buy illegal drugs contribute to funding corruption and killings in Mexico.
Petties could face the death penalty on charges that he ordered assassinations of six Memphis rivals while operating a trafficking empire that funneled hundreds of kilos of cocaine and more than a ton of marijuana into Tennessee and other states.
Petties has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. He and his attorney declined interview requests.
The case is a personal tragedy for the family of Marcus Turner, whom Petties allegedly ordered kidnapped in 2006 because he knew where to find someone who had stolen cocaine from the organization.
Turner's mother, Lucy Turner of West Memphis, Ark., says her son was involved in the drug trade and that she begged him to change.
"And he did tell me before he died, 'Mama, I do what I do by choice. Not because I don't know better. Because you and Daddy taught me well'."
The Turner kidnapping is one of many acts of violence that authorities have linked to Petties, who grew up in a tough South Memphis neighborhood and built an extensive criminal record.
U.S. Marshals say he is a half brother to Paul Beauregard, better known as DJ Paul of the popular rap group Three 6 Mafia, which has produced songs about drug trafficking and killings. Through a publicist, Beauregard declined comment.
The pending federal case against Petties dates to 2001, when he and others were caught with 600 pounds of marijuana.
Released on bail, Petties disappeared in 2002, officials say. It's unclear when he arrived in Mexico.
Petties was living under the protection of the Beltran Leyva cartel, with whom he had done business in the U.S., the former attorney general of Mexico, Eduardo Medina Mora, has said.
The cartel's leaders were the Beltran Leyva brothers, a group of five or six men who would later break off from the larger Sinaloa Cartel, based on Mexico's Pacific coast.
Medina Mora said that Petties became a broker for the cartel, "using his contacts in the United States to secure and speed up the traffic of drugs to the north."
Petties was a key liaison between the cartel and African-American groups and his flight to Mexico may have even helped him expand the enterprise beyond Memphis and into Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas, Drug Enforcement Administration agent Abe Collins wrote in a 2008 affidavit.
Mexican groups dominate wholesale-level drug dealing in the United States and act as drug distributors or suppliers in at least 230 U.S. cities, the National Drug Intelligence Center wrote in a December 2008 report.
"The growing strength and organization of criminal gangs, including their growing alliances with large Mexican (cartels), has changed the nature of midlevel and retail drug distribution in many local drug markets, even in suburban and rural areas," the center wrote in 2009.
That makes it harder for state and local authorities to fight trafficking, the report says.
In Memphis, for instance, most of the cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine that arrives is smuggled from Mexico and delivered by 18-wheelers or cars with secret compartments, said Keith Brown, who until recently served as resident agent in charge for the DEA.
He said Mexican cartels act as suppliers but usually don't control sales in Memphis.
About 6,600 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year.
America has seen relatively little violence by Mexican cartels because traffickers view U.S. law enforcement as more competent and less corrupt than Mexican institutions, said Alex Posey, an analyst with the global intelligence company STRATFOR.
But the Mexican military and other Mexican agencies were responsible for Petties' January 2008 capture in a city called Queretaro.
Petties was quickly deported home.
Later that month, the Mexican military arrested Alfredo Beltran Leyva, one of the brothers in the cartel's leadership.
The remaining brothers suspected betrayal by the Sinaloa Cartel, a group they had been part of, according to drug cartel expert George W. Grayson.
That led to a bloody war between the cartels.
Then on Dec. 17, 2009, Mexican Marines killed cartel leader Arturo Beltran Leyva and six of his men in a shootout. It appeared to be a victory in the war on cartels that Mexican president Felipe Calderon has waged since the 2006 start of his presidency.
The Marines lost one man, whom they buried with honors.
But after the funeral, assassins broke into a house and killed the Marine's mother, his aunt, a sister, and a brother.
Shortly thereafter, Petties was moved from the federal lockup in Memphis to another federal institution in Tallahassee, Fla. The Bureau of Prisons won't say why.
One possible reason emerged in June, when Petties was indicted for having weapons while imprisoned in Memphis.
As Petties awaits trial, Marcus Turner's three children are growing up without a father.
Lucy Turner, who works as an emergency services dispatcher, said the loss of her son has affected the youngest daughter, who's now eight.
"Her doctor says she's very depressed, and he thinks that's what she's depressed about," she said. "But she talks about her daddy all the time."
Lucy Turner didn't weep in a recent interview. She says that a few months ago, she wouldn't have been as strong.
"I would just cry my heart out. That was my baby."
By DANIEL CONNOLLY - Scripps Howard News Service
Posted: July 30, 2010
Android’s market share continues to rise, and — according the latest smartphone penetration figures presented by Nielsen — for the first time Android has over-taken the iPhone in new subscriptions during the second quarter of 2010. While overall subscriptions have continued to grow with 25 percent of the mobile market now using a smartphone, Google’s Android again saw big growth, up to 13 percent overall share compared to Q1’s 9 percent. It was the largest growth for any smartphone platform.
In terms of subscriptions over the past month, Android has surpassed iPhone in new users, with 27 percent of smartphone subscribers going with Android compared to the iPhone’s 23 percent. RIM still holds the highest but steadily declining figure at 33 percent. It will be interesting to see the numbers for quarter three after the iPhone 4 and new Android phones from Motorola on Verizon have had a good chunk of time to stew.
Always fight, no matter the resistance
Stay focused and maintain persistence
Cuz demons will come and try to take you
How will you fare? when theres no one to save you?
If your mind is strong, you can take them down!
The weak die quickly,quietly, with no sound...
nothing but evil layed on the ground.
Follow your dreams,be relentless...UNTIL DEATH!
There will always be snakes, rats, haters talking under breath.
Ignore the bullshit and FUCK what they say!
Don't trip on the past or future, just work on today.
....Me? I have faith in myself, today I have focus.
When I start to rhyme, my words swarm like locusts.
I keep my game on point and my goals in mind,
you can either roll with the real...or walk with the blind
im back baby! whats up my hip hoppin, xtc poppin, acid droppin savages! your boy So-cal Snow aka Silent Snow aka Young Powder and im back on the race track!
Did a 90 day stretch at rehab and doin absolutely great. I am and forever will be smoking weed but thats not to say my 3 months were a waste. Your boy actually gained quite a lot of knowledge. Bottom line is having your own personal connection with God (Higher Power) and control and rationality! Right now ya boy has a job and a place to stay (soon2be a private apt) just got a 2nd job and big things coming which will be explained in a video blog in the next few days.
get a blunt and realize reality
why the whole worlds mad at me
The product of the world's beauty and travesty
I spoke with the devil and rode the river styx
I spat on the gates of hell just for kicks
I may die young and never be rich
but before my last breath i know this
I saw the ultimate truth through the tears and rips
Raised up to the clouds and gave the sky a kiss
love the world but hate it the same, this is called balance
See God smile as I laugh at the challenge
there is no good or evil, forget what you were told
Just live your life and go for gold.
Push it to the limit and keep your stride
Your vision will change from closed to wide
Reach the heavens and see all white
Observing nothingness, a euphoric delight
Saw the light hit my knees and cried
Got so far did so much and died
Couldn't say a word to God except...i tried
This coffee really sucks.
A nutty Harvard professor has put a jolt in the java trade with a strange new inhalable espresso -- allowing caffeine fiends to breathe in their morning cup of joe.
"That's what I do with all of my food anyway," said Esther Green, a tourist from Toronto who sampled Le Whif yesterday at Dylan's Candy Bar on the Upper East Side.
The coffee hits consist of powder inside lipstick-like containers that are pulled open, inserted in the mouth and inhaled.
The sticks are sold individually for $3 or in boxes of three for $8 -- and each stick delivers 100 milligrams of caffeine, the equivalent of a cup of espresso.
NY POST/Chad Rachman
A BLOW OF JOE: Esther Green, a customer at Dylan's Candy Bar, samples a drag of Le Whif espresso powder yesterday. "That's not a child's flavor," she said.
A whiffer can get up to nine hits from an individual stick, depending on how hard they inhale.
But it's not everyone's cup of tea.
"That's not a child's flavor," Green said, after taking a generous "drag."
"It's interesting. On the espresso side. I don't know. I need some mocha."
Dylan's -- the city's sole purveyor of the kooky coffee -- sold out of 108 individual servings and 93 three-packs in a matter of hours during Thursday's unveiling.
They're restocking a limited supply on Wednesday and they hope to fill the shelves again toward the end of the month. Dylan's still has inhalable versions of chocolate in stock.
A gourmet market in Cambridge, Mass., is the only place in the United States to buy Le Whif.
"Here's a customer right here for you," Green said, offering her son Jacob a puff of powdered chocolate.
"I don't know," he said, after trying it. "It's like if you bent over a bowl of chocolate shavings and breathed in."
The bizarre brew was concocted in a Paris lab by Harvard professor David Edwards and chef Thierry Marx.
Edwards, a biological engineer, designed the airborne coffee and food particles to be too large to enter the lungs.
Instead, they land on the tongue and cheeks, giving the taste, and kick, of coffee without the cup.
"It's less than one calorie a puff, so you can taste the chocolate without the calories," said Dylan's spokeswoman, Jordan Kerr.
Staff Analysis Looks At Bill To Legalize, Tax Marijuana
POSTED: 1:36 pm CST March 9, 2010
UPDATED: 2:17 pm CST March 9, 2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Californians use about 1 million pounds of marijuana a year or nearly a half-ounce for every person in the state, according to a staff analysis from the Board of Equalization.The legislative analysis considers a proposal by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D- San Francisco, to legalize pot and impose a $50 per ounce fee on retail marijuana sales in California, Sacramento television station KCRA reported.According to BOE estimates, if Ammiano's bill were enacted, it would bring about $1.4 billion into the state's coffers.
Report: Californians Marijuana Use
Among other finds, the report also estimated the street value of marijuana would decline 50 percent, consumption would increase 40 percent, and the $50 per ounce fee would reduce usage by 11 percent.Board of Equalization staffers estimated 22.3 million pounds of marijuana were grown in California in 2006, and the state exports about 8.6 million pounds annually.The BOE estimated the value of marijuana grown in California at $35.8 billion.
FRom Phandroid.com by Rob Jackson on March 16th, 2010
Flurry, a company that has analytics tracking code on at least 1 app on 80% of iPhone and Android devices, has just released some incredibly interesting statistics. With that level of reach, the company is confident they can accurately estimate/report on unit sales of individual phone models. Want to see their estimate of Motorola Droid sales vs. Apple iPhone sales after each phone was on the market for 74 days?
That’s right – the Motorola Droid beats out the iPhone (first generation) by a hair. Pretty amazing accomplishment if you ask me. And as the Android army grows in numbers on a number of levels – carriers, manufacturers, form factors, etc… – the statistics will only get more impressive.
[Flurry via MobileCrunch]
Here is the screenshot they claim validates the latter of those 3 rumors (BOGO):
I would be surprised if a brand new Android Phone were offered as part of a BOGO sale, but I’ve been surprised before. Other Android Phones rumored to be included in that sale are the Samsung Behold 2, T-Mobile G1, T-Mobile MyTouch 3G and Motorola CLIQ.
Was anyone here in a TMO store today that can verify any of this occurring?
Crazy thing I was at the Palm Desert Mall here in the Coachella Valley with this Female and the girl got tired so we were about to leave when i said to hold up i want to ask about my CLIQs cracked screen (touch screen still works 100%) and to my amazement a Motorola REP was there showing off the CLIQ XT and I got to play with it and spoke to him for quite a while since i knew info about the phone, the specs and camera and such. When i mentioned my screen he played with it and i quote said "holy crap the touch screen is undamaged, thats amazing!" Moto built a sturdy ass phone.
THE XT though feels beautiful like the guy from phonedog says below. thin but not cheap thin. and no trackball or d-pad or w/e navigator phones have these days but something similar to a laptop.slide your finger up it goes to w/e is up and same with evry other direction. there's no mouse on screen it just goes to the next icon that is in that direction. very cool and a swype technology for txting on a touch screen once you're used to it PWNZ the ipod or any other touch screen keyboard. I still love my hardware keyboard on the O.G. CLIQ but could learn to luv SWYPE. anyway I loved the few minutes (20min maybe) i spent with the phone. chek phonedogs impressions and then when its released the end of March see for youself.
Snow OUT!
Let's see ... CLIQ, Droid, Devour, Backflip, and now CLIQ XT. I've been seeing A LOT of the Motorola PR people over the past few months. In the past few weeks, even, Devour, Backflip and CLIQ XT have dropped in rapid sequence, establishing Motorola and Motoblur as the first on the block to get messaging phone-style Android devices out to the major US carriers (Sprint notwithstanding).
Just because you're first to the game doesn't mean you're going to win it, however. So how does CLIQ XT, the latest in the MotoBlur assault on America, stack up? After precisely one minute less than one full day with it, this is what I can tell you:
- The phone ships with Android 1.5 installed, just like Backflip, instead of 1.6 like Devour. Not really sure why. Kind of a drag. But a 2.x upgrade is forthcoming, at least.
- Performance-wise, CLIQ XT is roughly on par with CLIQ and the original Devour, though it seems to have been spared the lag that marred my Backflip loaner. This ain't no Nexus One, but the device isn't maddeningly slow, either.
- The phone feels good in the hand. CLIQ XT is lightweight but not flimsy, plastic but not super cheap feeling, and its rounded corners and relatively slim profile should render it easily pocketable.
- You get two back covers in the box: One dark grey/black and textured, the other purple and smooth. Too bad I had so much trouble taking them on and off.
- Multitouch is good. Out of the box CLIQ XT offers pinch-and-zoom in both the Web Browser and Photo Gallery, and despite my not being entirely sure when I'm supposed to zoom in on a photo and when I'm instead rotating it, the system works well. The capacitive touch display is pretty responsive, all in all. So far. After less than a full day. I mean, barely less, but still less.
- CLIQ XT's trackpad is so much more useful than Devour's optical D-Pad I don't even know what to say. Except that it's bigger, centered instead of offset to the left (great when Devour's keyboard is open, lousy when it's shut), and bigger. Did I mention that it's bigger? It's true. And so it's more usable, even if it's not quite perfect.
- A 3.1" display isn't really all that small, but Motorola managed to make it look small by surrounding it with a lot of plastic on the CLIQ XT. There's just too much bezel here. I'm not sure how you get around that, given the phone's proportions, but as with the other recent Motoblur phones, I found myself wanting less plastic and more display on XT. The MotoPeople hinted that more Droid-style devices (larger displays, less bezel) are headed to the US later this year.
- XT gets two new apps (well, more than two, but two of note, anyway): Swype and Connected Music Player.
Swype is that new dance craze that's sweeping the land. First you stick your finger out, then you trace a line through the letters in whatever word your spelling (as opposed to tapping them one by one). Swype works well, and works well on CLIQ XT, too. The first time I tried Swype I didn't like it, but the MotoPeople helped me to understand that because I'm a "two thumb typist," I probably won't like Swype as much as the single finger typists for whom Swype was made. That makes sense. And, it turns out, most of you are single finger pointers when it comes to using touchscreen phones. So there you go. Meanwhile, I can turn Swype off and use the standard Android keyboard instead. Or replace it with something else after I ask John Walton what Android keyboard I should use. I can't keep up.
Connected Music Player is a music player app with integrated streaming radio, music video search & playback, TuneWiki integration, and a Shazam-style song ID tool. You can listen to me try to trick the song ID tool into thinking I'm even remotely on key in my unboxing video.
- The rest is pretty standard smartphone fare: 5 MP camera, 3.5mm audio jack, 2GB microSD card slot, microUSB port, GPS, 3G & WiFI, Bluetooth, and so on. How cool is it that that spec list consitutes "standard fare" these days? Remember when I used to complain about phones that had weird non-standard headphone jacks? That used to be EVERY phone. Hooray for progress!
More on XT as I use it more. I think I might have to come up with some suitably entertaining way to compare the new Motoblurs. Like a Dogfight video or something. Hmm ...
Frome http://www.icenews.is Posted on 02 March 2010
Police in southern Sweden received a visit from an unhappy member of the public who asked authorities to test the hashish be had purchased for traces of LSD, complaining that the smoke had been way too strong.
The Local reports that the 26-year-old man asked officers to register a formal complaint over the quality of his gear, stating that his session had left him feeling distinctly paranoid and his girlfriend seemingly morphing into a sea creature.
The cannabis connoisseur comes from Eslov in the Skane province, where fellow smokers are no doubt excited at the news of the psychedelic weed. He went on to inform police that not once during ten years of using hashish as a recreational drug had he endured such a bad trip, ignoring the fact that the drug has been illegal since 1930 in Sweden.
His suspicions that his latest purchase may have been laced with LSD started soon after he puffed on a joint, at which point his television allegedly began talking to him; followed by the epiphany that his girlfriend was actually a dolphin.
“It could possibly be classified as assault, if the hash is found to contain LSD,” said Eslov police officer Mats G Odestal, who also informed media that it was debateable whether the hashish provider would be facing charges over the products quality. The dealer is unlikely to face any charges at all given his customer’s reluctance to reveal his identity, despite the experience leaving him shaken and frightened.
We recently learned the Motorola Opus One would be named the Motorola i1 and head to Sprint Nextel and Boost Mobile as the first Push-To-Talk Android Phone. There are a couple new details about the i1 that you should know about.
First of all, since December 2009 the device was rumored to have a 3MP camera. That’s wrong says Engadget’s tipster – it’ll be a 5MP. Rejoice. Secondly, it’ll come pre-loaded with Opera Mini as the default browser – both timely and welcome news considering what else has happened in the Android world today.
So… PTT iDEN fans… who of hands who is happy about the i1!
THIS IS MY GOOD HOMBOY PIMPIN QUINN PERFORMING SOME SONGS OF HIS HE WROTE DOIN HIS OWN BEATS AS YOU CAN SEE. HE IS GONNA BE KILLLIN HIS SHOW IN AN HOUR BUT HERES HIM RAPPIN SO YA'LL CAN SEE MY BOY HAS MAD SKILLS!!! I WILL BE POSTING SOME VIDEOS OF MYSELF THIS SUNDAY SO CHECK BACK FOR SOME OF YA BOY MC SNOW!
What the hell? Look, I'm not saying video games are heroin. I totally get that the victims had other shit going on in their lives. But, half of you reading this know a World of Warcraft addict and experts say video game addiction is a thing. So here's the big question: Are some games intentionally designed to keep you compulsively playing, even when you're not enjoying it?
Oh, hell yes. And their methods are downright creepy.
"Each contingency is an arrangement of time, activity, and reward, and there are an infinite number of ways these elements can be combined to produce the pattern of activity you want from your players."
Notice his article does not contain the words "fun" or "enjoyment." That's not his field. Instead it's "the pattern of activity you want."
"...at this point, younger gamers will raise their arms above their head, leaving them vulnerable."
His theories are based around the work of BF Skinner, who discovered you could control behavior by training subjects with simple stimulus and reward. He invented the "Skinner Box," a cage containing a small animal that, for instance, presses a lever to get food pellets. Now, I'm not saying this guy at Microsoft sees gamers as a bunch of rats in a Skinner box. I'm just saying that he illustrates his theory of game design using pictures of rats in a Skinner box.
Gaming has changed. It used to be that once they sold us a $50 game, they didn't particularly care how long we played. The big thing was making sure we liked it enough to buy the next one. But the industry is moving toward subscription-based games like MMO's that need the subject to keep playing--and paying--until the sun goes supernova.
Now, there's no way they can create enough exploration or story to keep you playing for thousands of hours, so they had to change the mechanics of the game, so players would instead keep doing the same actions over and over and over, whether they liked it or not. So game developers turned to Skinner's techniques.
This is a big source of controversy in the world of game design right now. Braid creator Jonathan Blow said Skinnerian game mechanics are a form of "exploitation." It's not that these games can't be fun. But they're designed to keep gamers subscribing during the periods when it's not fun, locking them into a repetitive slog using Skinner's manipulative system of carefully scheduled rewards.
Why would this work, when the "rewards" are just digital objects that don't actually exist? Well...
#4.
Creating Virtual Food Pellets For You To Eat
Most addiction-based game elements are based on this fact:
Your brain treats items and goods in the video game world as if they are real. Because they are.
People scoff at this idea all the time ("You spent all that time working for a sword that doesn't even exist?") and those people are stupid. If it takes time, effort and skill to obtain an item, that item has value, whether it's made of diamonds, binary code or beef jerky.
There's nothing crazy about it. After all, people pay thousands of dollars for diamonds, even though diamonds do nothing but look pretty. A video game suit of armor looks pretty and protects you from video game orcs. In both cases you're paying for an idea.
Happy anniversary, honey.
So What's The Problem?
Of course, virtually every game of the last 25 years has included items you can collect in the course of defeating the game--there's nothing new or evil about that. But because gamers regard in-game items as real and valuable on their own, addiction-based games send you running around endlessly collecting them even if they have nothing to do with the game's objective.
As the article from the Microsoft guy proves, developers know they're using these objects as pellets in a Skinner box. At that point it's all about...
#3.
Making You Press the Lever
So picture the rat in his box. Or, since I'm one of these gamers and don't like to think of myself as a rat, picture an adorable hamster. Maybe he can talk, and is voiced by Chris Rock.
If you want to make him press the lever as fast as possible, how would you do it? Not by giving him a pellet with every press--he'll soon relax, knowing the pellets are there when he needs them. No, the best way is to set up the machine so that it drops the pellets at random intervals of lever pressing. He'll soon start pumping that thing as fast as he can. Experiments prove it.
See? Proof.
They call these "Variable Ratio Rewards" in Skinner land and this is the reason many enemies "drop" valuable items totally at random in WoW. This is addictive in exactly the same way a slot machine is addictive. You can't quit now because the very next one could be a winner. Or the next. Or the next.
"Holy shit! We almost won."
The Chinese MMO ZT Online has the most devious implementation of this I've ever seen. The game is full of these treasure chests that may or may not contain a random item and to open them, you need a key. How do you get the keys? Why, you buy them with real-world money, of course. Like coins in a slot machine.
Wait, that's not the best part. ZT Online does something even the casinos never dreamed up: They award a special item at the end of the day to the player who opens the most chests.
And that's hardly the most ridiculous aspect of the game.
Now, in addition to the gambling element, you have thousands of players in competition with each other, to see who can be the most obsessive about opening the chests. One woman tells of how she spent her entire evening opening chests--over a thousand--to try to win the daily prize.
She didn't. There was always someone else more obsessed.
So What's The Problem?
Are you picturing her sitting there, watching her little character in front of the chest, clicking dialogue boxes over and over, watching the same animation over and over, for hour after hour?
If you didn't know any better, you'd think she had a crippling mental illness. How could she possibly get from her rational self to that Rain Man-esque compulsion?
BF Skinner knew. He called that training process "shaping." Little rewards, step by step, like links in a chain. In WoW you decide you want the super cool Tier 10 armor. You need five separate pieces. To get the full set, you need more than 400 Frost Emblems, which are earned a couple at a time, from certain enemies. Then you need to upgrade each piece of armor with Marks of Sanctification. Then again with Heroic Marks of Sanctification. To get all that you must re-run repetitive missions and sit, clicking your mouse, for days and days and days. Boobies be damned.
Once it gets to that point, can you even call that activity a "game" anymore? It's more like scratching a rash. And it gets worse...
#2.
Keeping You Pressing It... Forever
Now, the big difference between our Skinner box hamster and a real human is that we humans can get our pellets elsewhere. If a game really was just nothing but clicking a box for random rewards, we'd eventually drop it to play some other game. Humans need a long-term goal to keep us going, and the world of addictive gaming has got this down to a science. Techniques include...
The easiest way is to just put save points far apart, or engage the player in long missions (like WoW raids) that, once started, are difficult to get out of without losing progress.
But that can be frustrating for gamers, so you can take the opposite approach of a game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where you make the levels really short so it's like eating potato chips. They're so small on their own that it doesn't take much convincing to get the player to grab another one, and soon they've eaten the whole bag.
Somewhere in that bag is an angry dinosaur and a kidnapped princess.
By the way, this is the same reason a person who wouldn't normally read a 3,000-word article on the Internet will happily read it if it's split up into list form. Are you ignoring boobies to read this? I've done my job!
Play It Or Lose It:
This is the real dick move. Why reward the hamster for pressing the lever? Why not simply set it up so that when he fails to press it, we punish him?
Behaviorists call this "avoidance." They set the cage up so that it gives the animal an electric shock every 30 seconds unless it hits the lever. It learns very very fast to stay on the lever, all the time, hitting it over and over. Forever.
"Get back to Excitebike!"
Why is your mom obsessively harvesting her crops in Farmville? Because they wither and rot if she doesn't. In Ultima Online, your house or castle would start to decay if you didn't return to it regularly. In Animal Crossing, the town grows over with weeds and your virtual house becomes infested with cockroaches if you don't log in often enough. It's the crown jewel of game programming douchebaggery--keep the player clicking and clicking and clicking just to avoid losing the stuff they worked so hard to get.
All Of the Above:
Each of those techniques has a downside and to get the ultimate addictive game, you combine as many as possible, along with the "random drop" gambling element mentioned before (count how many of these techniques are in WoW). They get the hamster running back and forth from one lever to another to another.
If the levers are far away, they may drive their adorable cars from one lever to another.
So What's The Problem?
We asked earlier if the item collection via obsessive clicking could be called a "game." So that raises the question: What is a game?
Well, we humans play games because there is a basic satisfaction in mastering a skill, even if it's a pointless one in terms of our overall life goals. It helps us develop our brains (especially as children) and to test ourselves without serious consequences if we fail. This is why our brains reward us with the sensation we call "fun" when we do it. Hell, even dolphins do it:
This is why I haven't included games like Guitar Hero in this article. They're addictive, sure, but in a way everybody understands. It's perfectly natural to enjoy getting good at something. Likewise, competitive games like Modern Warfare 2 are just sports for people who lack athleticism. There's no mystery there; everybody likes to win.
But these "hit the lever until you pass out from starvation" gaming elements stray into a different area completely. As others have pointed out, the point is to keep you playing long after you've mastered the skills, long after you've wrung the last real novel experience from it. You can't come up with a definition of "fun" that encompasses the activity of clicking a picture of a treasure chest with your mouse a thousand times.
This is why some writers blasted Blizzard when WoW introduced a new "achievement" system a couple of years ago. These are rewards tied to performing random pointless tasks, over and over again (such as, fishing until you catch a thousand fish). No new content, no element of practice, or discovery, or mastery was included. Just a virtual treadmill.
Or a hamster wheel.
Of course, game developers (and various commenters, I'm sure) would correctly point out that nobody is making the players do it. Why would humans voluntarily put themselves in laboratory hamster mode? Well, it's all about...
#1.
Getting You To Call the Skinner Box Home
Do you like your job?
Considering half of you are reading this at work, I'm going to guess no. And that brings us to the one thing that makes gaming addiction--and addiction in general--so incredibly hard to beat.
As shocking as this sounds, a whole lot of the "guy who failed all of his classes because he was playing WoW all the time" horror stories are really just about a dude who simply didn't like his classes very much. This was never some dystopian mind control scheme by Blizzard. The games just filled a void.
Why do so many of us have that void? Because according to everything expert Malcolm Gladwell, to be satisfied with your job you need three things, and I bet most of you don't even have two of them:
Autonomy (that is, you have some say in what you do day to day);
Complexity (so it's not mind-numbing repetition);
Connection Between Effort and Reward (i.e. you actually see the awesome results of your hard work).
Notice that pants are not necessary for job satisfaction.
Most people, particularly in the young gamer demographics, don't have this in their jobs or in any aspect of their everyday lives. But the most addictive video games are specifically geared to give us all three... or at least the illusion of all three.
Autonomy:
You pick your quests, or which Farmville crops to plant. Hell, you even pick your own body, species and talents.
Annoying your Facebook friends with updates is a really annoying talent.
Complexity:
Players will do monotonous grinding specifically because it doesn't feel like grinding. Remember the complicated Tier Armor/Frost Emblem dance that kept our gamer clicking earlier.
Connection Between Effort and Reward:
This is the big one. When you level up in WoW a goddamned plume of golden light shoots out of your body.
This is what most of us don't get in everyday life--quick, tangible rewards. It's less about instant gratification and more about a freaking sense of accomplishment. How much harder would we work at the office if we got this, and could measure our progress toward it? And if the light shot from our crotch?
The beauty of it is it lets games use the tedium to their advantage. As we discussed elsewhere, there's a "work to earn the right to play" aspect of World of Warcraft, where you grind or "farm" for gold for the right to do the cool stuff later. The tedious nature of the farming actually adds to the sense of accomplishment later. And it also helps squash any sense of guilt you might have had about neglecting school, work or household chores to play the game. After all, you did your chores--the 12 hours you spent farming for gold last Tuesday was less fun than mowing the fucking lawn. Now it's time for fun.
The terrible truth is that a whole lot of us begged for a Skinner Box we could crawl into, because the real world's system of rewards is so much more slow and cruel than we expected it to be. In that, gaming is no different from other forms of mental escape, from sports fandom to moonshine.
Heroin: It's pretty much WoW in a syringe.
The danger lies in the fact that these games have become so incredibly efficient at delivering the sense of accomplishment that people used to get from their education or career. We're not saying gaming will ruin the world, or that gaming addiction will be a scourge on youth the way crack ruined the inner cities in the 90s. But we may wind up with a generation of dudes working at Starbucks when they had the brains and talent for so much more. They're dissatisfied with their lives because they wasted their 20s playing video games, and will escape their dissatisfaction by playing more video games. Rinse, repeat.
And let's face it; if you think WoW is addictive, wait until you see the games they're making 10 years from now. They're only getting better at what they do.
Angels Who Love from a Distance By MC $now
I look around my world for a sign of hope. Awoman of true spirit and a real soul free 4m dope. Ppl say "Snow you crazy blood" but when I feel its right I let my heart choose it. Even if this Angel of resides in Massachusettes. A $avage lives in the light & fights in the dark, he works in complete silence and all thats seen is the spark. He's an angel himself with wings stained of blood from past pain, suffering inside going insane. Wishing to hug his angel and hold her close wrapped in their wings. He can't imagine more beautiful things. This Savage prays for her arrival 2 the west 2 come by years end, what kills is the suspense. Not even Santa or God himself could provide better presents. Bottom Line is the one I call my angel rocks. So Beautiful when she's in the room time stops. She is my inspiration to never stop and get that gwap. She is the one I want standing next to me when I reach the top. This was written the night she asked for it @2:15am and I have nothing left. So if this didn't explain who she is "I love you Steph"
01 Max Day 02 African Elephant 03 Epilepsy 04 New Chief 05 Money 06 Drag Ft. The Dude 07 He's Alive 08 Check 09 Murder Mook, The Dude, Drag-On 10 Emergency Broadcast 11 Big Deal- Freestyle 12 Drag-On + Eyez B 13 Welcome To H.E.- Freestyles
If you remember Drag-On you got mad props from me he was one of the best out of all the Ruff Ryders back when doubleR was runnin the game. He is on his way back into the game with dope beats and great flow. this kids got flow i wont front. he switched his style up from the way he used to rap(all fast if you remember) but he brngs his og style out here n there in a few tracks and his new style doesn't dissapoint so dont trip he still flame on! Im on my way through the mixtape as this is being written but so far i havent heard 1 track i dont like or love. Basically nothing i can hate on so far.
ANY OLD RUFF RYDERS FAN OR RAP FAN SHOULD CHECK THIS SHIT OUT YO! DOWNLOAD BELOW!!!
If you went to a middle school like ours, chances are at some point the pimply kid sitting in the back row tried to convince you huffing magic markers and snorting Pixie Stix were a great, cost-effective way to get high. Unfortunately, those quasi-legal time killers can also be harmful to your health and, in some cases, deadly.
We asked Asylum's most-trusted physician, Dr. Ken Spaeth, to explain the effects of various low-cost trips that have spread regularly through detention halls. (Not all of them are harmful, some are just stupid.)
Huffing Glue Apparently assembling the models of Correllian Cruisers isn't rewarding enough as glue huffing continues to cause death and injury every year. The glues used typically contain organic solvents (and not "organic" in the overpriced-fruit sense of the word). Many of these solvents are potentially cancer-causing and damaging to your bone marrow. Kidney and liver damage can occur also, as can damage to the parts of your brain that control movement.
Whippets Commonly called laughing gas or, in geek speak, Nitrous Oxide (N2O), it's given by a dentist to make you forgive him for drilling your head. Also, used in whipped cream cans, there are serious health risks beyond a sugar rush. Inhalation can cause hypoxia, a low-oxygen state that if not of extremely short duration is bad for your brain, heart and life, and can even cause seizures or put you in a coma. Nitrous Oxide also depletes the body of B12, a vitamin needed for long-term health of blood cells, nerve cells and DNA .
Snorting Pixie Stix Pixie sticks contain dextrose, citric acid, and artificial and natural flavorings. Unless bringing back childhood memories qualifies as hallucinogenic or harmful, Pixie Stix are pretty benign.
Smoking Banana Peels This is a myth held over from the '60s, possibly started by your dad. Perpetuators will tell tales of a psychoactive substance called Banadine (sometimes Bananadine) found in banana peels. Asinine is more like it -- there is no such substance. On the upside, banana peels are reportedly good for shining leather shoes. (Seriously.) Sudafed According to Urban Dictionary, the over-the-counter decongestant makes you makes you feel like you're floating on a cloud. But Sudafed-Pseudoephedrine (the drug's full name) is a key ingredient in the production of methamphetamine aka meth, which commonly destroys lives. Taken regularly, Pseudoephedrine can damage your heart, brain and kidneys. You may have also heard of "Meth teeth." Eating, snorting, smoking nutmeg Oh nutmeg, you're in every kitchen and yet no one knows what to do with you. As you sat unnoticed lo these many years, rumors have surfaced that you're a drug. Some of nutmeg's elements, such as myristicin and elemicin, are thought to provide a meth-like or hallucinogenic state. Depending on the amount ingested, health effects range from psychosis, palpitations, stomach pain, difficulty urinating, and even death. Most effects resolve in a few days although the psychosis can persist in people who abuse regularly. In case you're wondering, amounts used in recipes are not anywhere near enough to turn banana bread into a magic carpet ride.
Cough Syrup In large amounts, cough syrup's active ingredient Dextromethorphan DXM can induce a dissociative state. Commonly reported side effects include psychosis, palpitations, stomach pain, violent behavior, difficulty urinating and death. Abuse of DXM products can cause liver damage, seizures, coma, vomiting and abnormal heart rhythms. As a result, DXM is kept behind the counter in many pharmacies and requires ID to buy.
Huffing Dust-Off Propellants -- compressed gases commonly used for clearing dust from computers -- are often riddled with questionable labeling. They don't really contain air at all, but actually volatile organic compounds. Death has occurred as a result of huffing such propellants. If done on a regular basis, huffing these can result in varying degrees of brain damage. (By the way, why are we buying things to blow dust for us? Good lord, we're lazy.)
Magic Markers Maybe it's having "Magic" in the title that motivates huffers to suddenly want to doodle. Fortunately, although full product listings are hard to get hold of, most manufacturers claim these contain nothing harmful. However, permanent markers commonly contain organic solvents that if used regularly can cause permanent damage to your heart, liver, brain, as well as hearing and memory loss, and even immediate death.
Huffing Gasoline Is it surprising this is a bad idea? Gasoline is made up of aliphatic hydrocarbons -- basically, prehistoric dead stuff. Not only does gasoline often contain cancer-causing chemicals, it can also significantly damage the nervous system. Long-term damage to the heart, nervous system and kidneys may occur.
Huffing White-Out While texting can be addictive, it only causes tendinitis. Correction fluids pose potential health risks from huffing. Chemicals found in correction fluids vary greatly; often they contain organic compounds such as ethylene glycol, petroleum distillates or mineral spirits. Regular abuse can lead to damage to the liver, kidneys, and nervous system and even death, as a result of inadequate oxygen to the brain and heart.
Dr. Ken Spaeth is a Harvard-trained physician and a faculty member at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He is also co-author of "The Bioterrorism Sourcebook." You can e-mail him your questions at askdrken@aol.com.
http://twitter.com/ScSilence
I love hip hop to my heart's core. I consider myself an artist with a gift with words.I have multiple personalities, It all depends on my day and when you catch me. I am very intelligent but do some dumb shit at times. I'm a total anime/PC geek and a born andbred hu$tler.
I started free-styling at 14 and haven't quit since. The name is Young Powder, a man he himself will never truely know...
Whippets 
Sudafed 
Cough Syrup 
Magic Markers
