Suntan Drug Greenlighted for Trials

Although the drug will not be available for cosmetic purposes any time soon, similar compounds are already being widely abused on the pharmaceutical black market. The official product, a man made hormone called afamalenodtide, has received U.S. government approval to begin clinical trials.

"It's a bioabsorbable implant that you just inject into the skin," said Colin Mackie, director of business development for Clinuvel, the company bringing the drug to the U.S. "It stimulates melanin production."

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Why Does the World Feel Wrong?

Those of us who want little more than peace and freedom don’t run the world.  Pursuing freedom contradicts controlling others, so we can reason that people who pursue power have some motivations separate from our own.

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Too often, I have assumed that the people working for the state take the jobs only because of the easy hours and good pay, benefits, and retirement.  For the predator, though, it offers all these things with the appetizing fringe benefit of satisfying their criminal urges without the risk of retribution.

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After considering the possibility that psychopaths have taken control of society, we find volumes of evidence to support the hypothesis.  Did Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot sympathize with their victims or have any sense of guilt?  More recently, among Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, or Clinton , can we point to one who even exhibits a façade resembling normality?  Obviously not—these lists name one person after another who has zero accountability to a rational morality.  If people like this could make their way to the highest levels of power, what does that say about lower offices?

It suggests people like this have control over the levers of power everywhere.  We live at a time when the population at large cannot achieve its wants, yet few seem to know why.  As one example, polls consistently indicate that educational matters concern the public, yet decade after decade, schooling gets quantitatively worse.  What a mystery!  Evidently, if we believe our well-meaning masters, 2,000 years of Western civilization has not yet determined effective ways to transmit key knowledge to younger generations.   However, what happens if we suspend our belief in their benevolence for a moment and consider other possibilities?  If schools fail to achieve their stated goals over several decades, might some groups see this as a success?

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Rumsfeld to stand trial for war crimes?

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak in an interview on Monday told CNN that the international body had enough evidence to prosecute Rumsfeld for his direct authorization of tortures at US detention centers in 2002.

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How the faceless and amoral world of cyberspace has created a deeply disturbing... generation SEX

Today’s teenagers are starring in the reality show of their own lives and doing all they can to make it as dramatic as possible.

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In today’s world of fast information and access to all areas, too many - particularly the young - are having to up the stakes to chase their particular dragon and get the high they crave.

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Two ex-Guantanamo inmates appear in Al-Qaeda video

One of the two former inmates, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP.

How convenient that this happens at, oh say, right after Obama orders Gitmo closed within a year.

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