The Burns Archive is a collection of over 700,000 historical photographs that document
disturbing subject matter: obsolete medical practices and experiments, death, disease, disasters, crime, revolutions, riots and war. Newsweek posted a
select gallery this past October, as well as a
video interview and walk-through with curator and collector Dr. Stanley B. Burns, a New York opthalmologist.
(Via) (Content at links may be disturbing to some.) [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Apr 26, 2011 -
15 comments
Thirty-six years after the
National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse recommended that "simple possession" of pot be decriminalised, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has
introduced a bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), to remove federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams (about three-and-a-half ounces) of marijuana and the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce (28.3 grams). Drug reform advocates
lit up hailed the legislation as "an important step toward bringing federal law into line with scientific fact, practical reality and public opinion." Is America, at long last, having a collective moment of sanity?
posted by kliuless
on Apr 20, 2008 -
76 comments
Ghost In The Machine "I have a murderer's music on my iPod and, almost reflexively, I couldn't help but think of him while listening to these songs—they were his songs, songs he gave me. [...] Listening to his music put me inside [his] head. [...] I wanted to throw up." [more inside]
posted by rossination
on Apr 13, 2007 -
41 comments
Faith based prisons... Can Gov. Jeb Bush's new drive to introduce God to the inmates make a difference, or was Jesus 'dying for our sins' not enough already? Is Jesus a solution or an excuse?
"Night has fallen. He has died now.
A fly crawls over the still flesh.
Of what use is it to me that this man suffered,
If I am suffering now?" -
Jorge Luis Borges
posted by 0bvious
on Nov 25, 2005 -
36 comments
A family of six was found dead in a case of murder-suicide, authorities in Oregon said Friday. Bryant, the father, became estranged from several branches of his family, including his parents, three brothers and a sister. The other family members were Jehovah's Witnesses and the split appeared to involve differences over religious beliefs.
In other news,
An angry, mysterious preacher told Andrea Yates that she was evil, that her children were damned, and that only death could save her. Mr. Yates testified that the preacher had taught him and his wife that children are lost forever to God, and therefore damned to eternal hellfire, if they are not "saved" by the time they are 13 or 14.
Are we regressing to the religions produced nightmares of the Middle Ages?
posted by semmi
on Mar 16, 2002 -
49 comments
It's about time! Remember the Road Rage case in San Jose where a man threw a lady's dog into traffic last year? He's been found.
The man who threw Leo the dog into oncoming traffic last year has been found. Ironically, he was found already in Jail.
posted by da5id
on Apr 13, 2001 -
8 comments
Yesterday Justice Philip Cummins looked down at the two clean-cut young men in the dock as they sat close together on a long, leather bench. He condemned the brief, severe assault that caused Hibbins' death. He said their actions could not be justified as a citizen's arrest of a suspect because they punished Hibbins instead of apprehending him. However, he said, they were not vigilantes because their conduct was not premeditated. Instead it occurred because of an unplanned upsurge of emotion in both men. The judge said their behavior belonged in the least culpable category of manslaughter because they were decent young men who entered the park not looking for trouble, who reasonably believed a woman had been raped and who were then caught up in a perverse confluence of events for which they were truly sorry.
posted by murray_kester
on Jun 23, 2000 -
10 comments
