The Off Topic Topic

[alfred russel]

Seems an odd thing for her family to lie about to her.

Holocaust survivors aren't exactly well know for white washing the history of SS officers.

Maybe her mother was sleeping with the SS officer, and that is how they survived the war. Maybe a german officer is even her grandfather.

[Jacob]

Maybe her mother was sleeping with the SS officer, and that is how they survived the war. Maybe a german officer is even her grandfather.

Sometimes you're kind of tacky, Dorsey.

[The Brain]

Love is tacky.

[The Brain]

Just got off the phone with two very heavily accented foreigners (probably South Asian).  They claimed to be calling from Microsoft about people in Russia and China trying to steal personal information from my computer, and they wanted to show me what was going on by me pressing [Windows button] + r.

Scam or legit?  I hung up on them.

Seriously?  You can't tell between a Russian accent and a South Asian accent? 

[alfred russel]

Sometimes you're kind of tacky, Dorsey.

It isn't like that would be so unusual in the holocaust, and someone has to put in the legwork to make tim less of a gullible person.

[derspiess]

They gave out rings at the Holocaust?

[Barrister]

Toxic W-18 drug developed in Edmonton hitting streets across Alberta
W-18 is considered 100 times more potent than fentanyl
CBC News Posted: Feb 22, 2016 10:16 AM MT Last Updated: Feb 22, 2016 10:16 AM MT


An ultra-toxic drug surfacing in Alberta's black market traces its origins to medical research conducted in Edmonton more than 30 years ago.

W-18, a synthetic opioid with no known clinical use, is considered 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl; a similar narcotic responsible for at least 213 overdose deaths in Alberta last year.

Only ever been tested on mice, human consumption of the W-18 — especially among street users — could have deadly consequences, according to forensic chemist Brian Escamilla.

"When fentanyl hit the streets, we often saw overdose deaths. You're likely to see that here too, just because of the potency of this compound," said Escamilla,who works at California firm which specializes in training law enforcement agencies in the safe handling of clandestine drugs.

W-18 was largely unheard of in Alberta until a drug bust last August put the law enforcement community on alert.

In what was the first publicized seizure of the drug on record in Canada, three of 110 pills seized from a home on the outskirts of Calgary, tested positive for the narcotic.

Though Edmonton police haven't seen the drug here yet, they are warning students about its dangers in school presentations across the city.

The drug was first developed in the early 1980's by a group of University of Alberta researchers.

Chemists stumbled upon formula

In an attempt to create a non-addictive painkiller, the team of chemists, led by pharmacology professor Ed Knaus, stumbled upon the formula for W-18.

"They developed some new compounds," said Escamilla. "In a matter of fact, they actually developed more than 30 compounds.

"But none of the compounds got picked up by a pharmaceutical company so, in essence, their patent lapsed and it just sat on a shelf until someone in China went through the old medical journals, found this compound and started synthesizing it."

According to Escamilla, clandestine labs overseas are taking advantage of a lack of stringent regulation on W-18, and other "designer drugs."

Although never approved for use on humans, W-18 has yet to be classified as a controlled substance in Canada or the United States, creating a legal grey area for smugglers.

"These labs in China, they've been trying to find legal substitutes for drugs like MDMA, which is ecstasy, for amphetamines, for cocaine. They just now started to venture into the opiate drugs.

"They started with fentanyl, and now they've found something more potent than fentanyl," said Escamilla.

'A lot of profit to be made'

"There is a lot of profit to be made and it also skirts most of your government regulations when it comes to controlling narcotics."

W-18 is so potent, ingesting even a minute trace could have dire consequences, according to Escamilla.

"When you look at fentanyl itself, your average dose is 125 micrograms, which is equivalent to the size of two grains of salt.

"This drug is 100 times more potent than that," said Escamilla who notes that the drugs are created in unregulated labs, where dosing will be unreliably dangerous.

"When you try and cut a drug up to that level, you're going to have 'hot spots' in the tablets. There are going to be individual dosages that have elevated drug concentrations that are going to take people out." 

Alberta hospitals have been on alert for signs of W-18 overdoses since the beginning of the year.

Although there is no evidence that use of the drug has become widespread, Escamilla says the true numbers would be impossible to track.

"Because these drugs are in such residual concentrations, it's very difficult if not impossible to pick these up in a field test or toxicology," said Escamilla.

"We might be missing some overdose deaths."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/toxic-w-18-drug-developed-in-edmonton-hitting-streets-across-alberta-1.3458461

This is some really creepy and scary stuff.  Someone (presumably in China) was digging through old medical journals to find the most powerful opioid they could find.  Find some compound that was only ever tested on mice and start cranking it out to sell on the streets.  And of course because it's so obscure it actually isn't a listed substance under the CDSA.

[Liep]

Danish politics is in a meltdown at the moment that might end with the government stepping down. A minister did some creative calculations and presented an environment law as amazing and very good for everyone.

Turns out it wasn't as amazing and all the scientists that contributed research for it denounced its conclusion. She told them they were wrong, but a governmental support party thought it was a bit too arrogant and wanted her fired.

PM said: "not gonna happen, fuck you all."

Now no one knows what's going on because the PM's press secretary has said that the PM has gone to bed.

[The Larch]

What kind of environment law did they want to push?

[Valmy]

What kind of environment law did they want to push?

Solve global warming by...taking away the sun?

[derspiess]

Turns out it wasn't as amazing and all the scientists that contributed research for it denounced its conclusion. She told them they were wrong, but a governmental support party thought it was a bit too arrogant and wanted her fired.

PM said: "not gonna happen, fuck you all."

Now no one knows what's going on because the PM's press secretary has said that the PM has gone to bed.

I like it.

[Liep]

What kind of environment law did they want to push?

They wanted to lessen the restrictions on farmer's use of fertilizer.

[Liep]

Turns out it wasn't as amazing and all the scientists that contributed research for it denounced its conclusion. She told them they were wrong, but a governmental support party thought it was a bit too arrogant and wanted her fired.

PM said: "not gonna happen, fuck you all."

Now no one knows what's going on because the PM's press secretary has said that the PM has gone to bed.

I like it.

Still no word, the political pundits might soon explode. It's fun but weird.

[Liep]

Most likely scenario is now a new election, and considering how much refugee policies affected the last election which was before the crisis I can't even imagine how big a role it'll have this time.

Get ready for more headlines involving Denmark and nazi references.

[Liep]

Crisis is off (as far as the media is concerned), a Danish restaurant got 3 michelin stars for the first time. Now that is breaking news.