California vending machines to dispense medicinal highs

Dan Glaister Tuesday January 29, 2008

The Guardian
They are green machines, but not that sort of green machine. Two automated vending machines have been installed in the Los Angeles area, ready to dispense OG Kush and Grandaddy Purps.
If you don't know what that means, you're probably not a potential customer of the Herbal Nutrition Centre, a legal marijuana dispensary. The centre is one of two in Los Angeles to have installed the green painted vending machines for its registered customers, offering them a safe way to get their merchandise outside of dispensary hours......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2248565,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick, Video

Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick
Don't you just hate when some upstart comes along and threatens your best-laid plans? We were struck by how well one of Reese Witherspoon's monologues from the film Election fits the narrative of Campaign 2008.

http://slatev.com/player.html?id=1377935786

Sex in the City

January 27, 2008
Style
Sex in the City
By SUSAN MORGAN; Photographs by DWIGHT ESCHLIMAN
‘As an art dealer, I’ve always liked to be involved in big productions,” says the curator and gallerist Emi Fontana. “I’m not particularly good at selling small things that end up in the living room.” Fontana’s current big production, “Women in the City,” which goes up Feb. 9, is the debut of West of Rome, her newly founded nonprofit arts organization based in Los Angeles.
On view in more than 50 locations — ranging from video billboards along Sunset Strip to the Huntington Library’s botanical gardens — “Women in the City,” with support from the Broad Art Foundation and the François Pinault Foundation, presents breakthrough work by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler and Cindy Sherman......

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/magazine/27style-hollywood-t.html?ref=design

Huge Blow for the Clinton Campaign

[When Bill Clinton was president, he and his wife sailed with the Kennedys off Cape Cod. In this 1997 outing, the former president is at the helm, Hillary Rodham Clinton is second from left and Senator Edward M. Kennedy is to her right.]

By JEFF ZELENY and CARL HULSE
Published: January 28, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, rejecting entreaties from the Clintons and their supporters, is set to endorse Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid on Monday as part of an effort to lend Kennedy charisma and connections before the 22-state Feb. 5 showdown for the Democratic nomination.
Both the Clintons and their allies had pressed Mr. Kennedy for weeks to remain neutral in the Democratic race, but Mr. Kennedy had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign, aides said. He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Kennedy considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/us/politics/28kennedy.html?em&ex=1201669200&en=e799ff05bbf92f47&ei=5087%0A

Update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2248768,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Wickman's Wick Dipper

Use Wickman's Wick Dipper to extinguish candles without the wick smoking. Dip candle wick into molten wax, lift and center. This process of quenching the wick eliminates wick smoldering and adds fuel to the wick for relighting. Each wick dipper is packaged in a black gift box.
Rated "Best of Los Angeles 2007" by LA Magazine Price: $6.95
http://www.candledelirium.com/Candle-Accessories/Wickman-Wick-Dipper/

Authorities Raid California Museums

By GREG RISLING – 21 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal agents raided several Southern California museums on Thursday in search of Southeast Asian antiquities believed to have been illegally obtained, smuggled into the U.S. and donated so collectors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.
Agents also investigated American Indian artifacts at one museum.
Search warrants were executed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Authorities said no arrests had been made and no charges had been filed.
Court documents portray a five-year scheme in which the owner of a Los Angeles art gallery worked with a smuggler to bring in artifacts from Thailand and China, offered them as charitable contributions and then tried to claim the donations as tax write-offs by boosting their value. In some cases, museum officials initially questioned how the artifacts were obtained but eventually accepted them, according to affidavits filed in support of the search.
The investigation is the latest public relations debacle for museums in the United States that have been accused by foreign governments of housing treasures stolen from their countries. Italy has been negotiating with various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, to have various statues, vases and other items from Roman and Greek times returned.....

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilPjvHo7GZlGVfk7_kQnz3_4s0TgD8UCKTKO0

Update: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/arts/design/26muse.html?ref=design

Opinions: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-childs29jan29,0,1918168.story

Retreat House by Sarah Rich

It's easy to understand why Rich's "Retreat House" was chosen as one of the Top 10 prefabs by Inhabitat. Its compact design is fuctional, warm, affordable and has low environmental impact. What isn't clear, is why mainstream consumers continue to feed the demand for generic, expensive and environmentally disastrous housing. When prefabs first hit the market, they had their issues, but with the multitute of design companies now producing them, there are more options, different price ranges and competition seems to be keeping the cost affordable for now. So why is it taking so long to catch on? -Eve

New Zealand Joins Great White Shark Fan Club

New Zealand Joins Great White Shark Fan Club
March 13, 2006
Release from: The Age (Australia) New Zealand is moving to protect great white sharks in its waters, Conservation Minister Chris Carter said today. Carter released a public discussion paper outlining options for New Zealand giving what he called "the celebrity predators of the ocean" the formal protection specified in the International Convention on Migratory Species. He said great whites were protected in Australia, South Africa and the United States. "They are an object of fear and fascination, but sadly there is growing evidence that this magnificent and rare species is in trouble internationally," Carter said. "Like many other top predators, populations of great whites tend to be small and lack the elasticity to withstand external pressures, such as fishing and environmental change. "The government believes it is time we thought seriously about playing our part in what is a global conservation issue," Carter said. The discussion paper suggests imposing fines of up to $NZ250,000 ($A220,000) for killing one of the man-eating great whites, which featured in the film Jaws.

http://www.cafepress.com/stickem.20925300

Mummies from Graeco Roman period in Fayyoum

Monday, January 21, 2008
The Egyptian antiquities mission has discovered several well preserved mummies covered with cartonage in Fayyoum that date back to the Greco-Roman period. One of the caskets contained a badly decayed mummy with a golden face mask, Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Sunday. Some of the mummies were covered with eight layers of linen and tied with rope, he said. The mission also unearthed three caskets, dating back to the Ptolemaic Age and adorned with funereal paintings from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. The mission also discovered necklaces, other jewellery and cloth painted with an anchor and key motif.