Nickster’s View

With much of the UK’s airline industry in chaos today as a result of a failed terrorist attempt, questions are being asked about the future of airline security. Today my girlfriend flew to Malaga and as most people will already know by now, hasn’t been allowed any carry-on luggage.

The question from me is, why do we need to travel with our luggage anyway? There’s no good reason why you can’t pack your bags and send them over to the airport a day or two before departure. Then the bag can be scanned all day and all night, hand checked if necessary, without any inconvenience to the traveller. In fact, the traveller should in theory have a faster, easier time at airport security because it then becomes a quick body scan. You’d still collect your luggage on the carousel at the other end, so you arrive at your destination with your luggage.

If it made travel safer and less stressful, I’d happily pay a taxi-type service to come to my house, collect my luggage and take it to the airport in advance of my travel. No lugging heavy stuff around. No long security checks.

Clearly there are a million exceptions to this, like travelling with kids/babies, business travellers with laptops are the two that immediately spring to mind…but there has to be a solution to this too.

Bagless travel anyone?

N

I ordered a brand new Dell 5150 last week (Thursday to be precise) and even though I upgraded the processor and memory they delivered it today, on time. So far amazingly impressive service….and my thoughts have all been “wow, gotta blog this experience - it’s too good in a world of crap”. The real horrors start when you actually turn your shiny new box on…

The box is literally PACKED with sellware and promotional crap which is so overpowering (of a dual processor box, with NOTHING on it, running NOTHING, running as vanilla as Dell made it) that it BLUESCREENED the box! Each of these applications fights for resources - whether it was Dell’s own intro page, McAfee, Google Desktop who ever knows…but it’s bloody unimpressive to (a) pack a box full of crap to clueful users for whom it is just an irritation (if I ordered a new car, I wouldn’t accept it if it had been covered in promotional stickers or 30 day features) or (b) be so greedy as to fundamentally rock system stability.

Gotta go find that Un-Dell script now. They were doing so well….all really destroyed by marketing moron greed.

N

Two days ago I went to the Pink Floyd pre-release showing of the forthcoming Pulse DVD release. What follows is my recounting of the evening’s events on David Gilmour’s blog.

Hi all,

What a day! I SHOOK DAVID’S HAND!

I don’t normally get all gooey over physical contact, but it was immensely cool to shake David by the hand and to say thank you. I know I’m a nobody in the bigger picture of being a fan amongst literally millions and millions, but it was one of those things that I have always wanted to do. I said it to Colin and Adrian - it was definitely a checkbox in my ‘list of things I have to do before I die’, although I hadn’t held out high hopes for fulfilling it.

So, how the heck did this happen? Thanks to the wonderful FEd I went to the Pulse DVD preview/press release along with Colin and Adrian (competition winner + the Mermaid Two). I’ll try to recount as much as I can, but there was just SO much to enjoy.

Leicester Square was still baking hot at 6.00pm when I got there. I parked up in a bike bay next to Leicester Square, and as I got off my bike I noticed literally hoardes of women and quite a few police. Turned out that the Pirates of the Carribean premiere was on and Johnny Depp was there….hence frequent and random bursts of female shrieks. It’s a hard life having to fight your way through this kind of crowd on the way to see a private screening of the impending Pulse DVD

Anyhow, met up with Adrian and Colin beforehand and we went to the cinema. There were a few nervous moments when we got there because our names weren’t on any lists - and we got that ‘uh oh, not again’ feeling - but DG’s PF person saved the day with a quick call - the tickets were en-route and arrived a few minutes later, much to our relief

We passed Nick Mason being interviewed and photographed signing a statue of the Pulse cover icon (two Pulse eyes vertically stacked). Pretty cool entry sliding behind Nick and onwards into the unknown.

There were drinks beforehand and the three of us took a position in the bar area. Dick Parry strolled by. We looked at each other and grinned. Adrian points out that Phil Manzanera is just behind him. Guy walks past a seated Storm Thorgeson. We look at each other again and grins get wider. “Kind of feels like we’re in a trendy bar” I think Colin remarked and I know exactly how he felt. It felt kind of surreal just hanging out as brilliance casually swirled around us. Definitely felt way out of my league in an amazing way. Oh, and tonnes of journos that fortunately all looked the same, and I looked the same as them (balding, glasses, stripy short sleeve shirts, occasional helmet) so blending in was easy (apart from the permagrin).

At about 7.15pm we all head downstairs to the screening. Just before Stuart Maconie introduces the evening, Colin and I are eavesdropping on a pair of the journalists in the seats behind us, having a conversation about PF/DG/RW and about artists performing as they get older. They were talking so much crap that I almost wanted to interrupt and correct, but lack of bottle and unfamiliar surrounding kept me in check. One of them admitted that he hadn’t heard OAI…which pretty much destroyed his argument instantly.

So, the DVD - we saw 1 hour and 15 mins edited from the FOUR HOURS of footage on the Pulse DVDs. It was amazing to watch it again and to relive parts of it. I was there on Thursday 13th October 1994, which was the 2nd night - which became the 1st night after the mishap with the stands. I watched the video a few times after it, but I hadn’t watched it in literally 10 years…so seeing it again, especially in the context of the Royal Albert Hall shows recently (as well as Roger Waters on Saturday) was enlightening.

What hit me immediately was how everyone looked so much younger, and with so much more hair! Some classic hair from everyone involved - no-one escaped, save maybe Dick Parry.

Musically it instantly hit the right PF places, but what really hit me was just how much David’s playing has improved. Not that it was bad, I don’t mean that as a left-handed compliment, it’s just amazing to see/hear a song like SOYCD from Pulse and from the recent RAH shows so closely together because the improvement is amazing. I know it’s 14 years or something, but it’s a wonderful thing when your musical hero just gets better and better over time.

There was non-concert footage edited in there which was lovely to see - lots of shots showing the sheer scale of the stage/equipment/rig/tourstuff, as well as some lovely relaxed mucking about shots. Endearing stuff and a peek into an otherwise closed world. I’m looking forward to these kind of extras on the DVD as much as I am the concert footage itself.

I forgot how impressive the Earl’s Court lasers, lighting and audiovisual had been, especially the films spliced throughout the performance. The DVD appears to have this faded in and out through the music, so as to accompany the music. There’s SO much to read into and to have fun with that you can probably watch that DVD multiple times and still keep noticing new things.

After the screening, David, Richard and Nick sat down at the front of the stage on three leather armchairs and were briefly interviewed by Stuart Maconie (who asked some really dumb questions if I’m honest) and then it was opened up to Q&A from the floor. Usually at my university I’m the one asking too many questions, but I just couldn’t come up with a good one to ask. Some great questions that I wish I’d asked, like what did they think of the Scissor Sister’s cover of CN, to which David smiled broadly and said “entertaining”. Big smiles all round. Nick said that he liked the interpretations, like Dub Side of the Moon, more than the tribute bands that “perfectly copy our mistakes”. Another question was the eternal Oz question, but this one was whether any of them had tried it, which had everyone laughing.

What was lovely to see was the friendship between the three of them. They played off each other and all seemed very relaxed and open. There was an open acknowledgement (and inherent acceptance) that they worked on their various projects, including each others (and David alluding to Nick’s recent work with Roger). I just wish I could have come up with a good question, but I was just loving the moment and I wasn’t going to ask a question just for the sake of it (but I was damn close!).

On the way out David, Richard, Nick and Guy filed out past me…so I smiled at David and said ‘thanks very much’ and shook his hand. Briefly introduced myself to Guy (hi guy!) and Nick and then floated outside. People were taking photos and cameraphone pics, getting albums signed - maybe I should have, but the only memory I need is in between my ears. I pressed the flesh with my musical idols and it made today very special. I can’t quite explain how it feels, but it feels like something I had to do has been done. I didn’t expect to get the opportunity, but I’m just so grateful that I did.

So, FEd’ll Fix It, today you fixed it for a 35 year old Floydhead to meet Pink Floyd I can’t thank you enough. Really. Thank you from the bottom of my heart - you’re ace xxx

Oh, and the Pulse DVD is going to be seriously kickass…Monday 10th July…

Thanks FEd, thanks David et al. for just being you, thanks Colin and Adrian, thanks bloggers

Loved up in London,

N

The iPod iParty (or some similarly natty name)

An iPod feature that lets you share a playlist with a friend on the fly. Example - you and a friend are travelling together - why can’t you share the same soundtrack? Currently you have to use a headphone splitter, but at some point Apple will put bluetooth in there. I want it now. Seems to me to be a killer feature, so why the wait?

N

The Germany v. Poland game at the World Cup was blighted by violence outside between German and Polish fans. Given that Germany and Poland share a large border, and in 1939 the Germans invaded Poland, it’s not really surprising that there’s a bit of antagonism between the two countries. BUT - that was over 60 years ago - there’s no call for rucking in the streets at a football game because of it.

Anyhow, the morons love to fight and it seems like any excuse is a good one. Rather than arresting these morons and throwing them in jail, why not arrest them and put them all together in an amphitheatre. Let them kick the seven shades of shit out of each other and let the problem cure itself. The hooligans get all the time and space they need to fight (without any police intervention, or medical services for that matter - you can’t have it both ways) and the general public isn’t exposed to vicious thugs on the streets. Morons will remove themselves from the genepool in Darwinian fashion and everyone is happy.

I think this has to be a far better deterrent, knowing that you’ll be thrown into the lions den if you’re caught fighting on the streets. Way worse than prison.

Good job Nickster’s Brave New World isn’t going to happen any time soon….

N

Clomid is a fertility drug most frequently used for women with polycystic ovaries. It encourages ovulation and appears to have been very successful in helping out couples who have had trouble conceiving.

So as a single male who isn’t trying for a baby, why am I even talking about this?

One of the side-effects, if you can call it that, of a medication like Clomid is that there is an above average chance that the increased ovulation will result in multiple births, usually twins but also triplets (or more…). As a result of the apparently widespread use of Clomid there are more twins in the general population than would normally be born.

What puzzles me is this: clearly there will be a whole Generation C of Clomid Kids, but what is the effect on the genepool over time? I can’t imagine it’s anything significant, but who knows….all I know is that I see SO many twins these days that it’s definitely way over the average multiple birthrate. Are we cultivating some weird variant of the Boys From Brazil (Children From Clomid?). Maybe environmental factors are causing fertility problems, or even stress in an increasingly stressful society, or the impatience of couples wanting a child taking Clomid when it isn’t necessarily needed…whatever the reason, it’s a very twinned future…

N

Classic Sesame Street.

N
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I too am all World Cup fevered and can’t wait for the start on Friday. I’m not much of a football shirt wearer (apart from a Spurs shirt at WHL) but I couldn’t help myself….

COME ON ENGLAND!!

N

The idea that 9/11 was some sort of conspiracy hadn’t even entered my mind until a couple of weeks ago when I was around at a friend’s house. He had bittorrented some conspiracy documentaries that had him convinced, or at least seriously questionning that 9/11 was an act of terrorism by Al-Qaeda - and more like an act of terrorism by “the illuminati” to control the population more easily through fear, by passing all kinds of human rights and civil liberties in the process. It all sounded way too paranoid to me and I chalked it down to a million monkeys all typing War and Peace.

However, yesterday the US government released 0.5 frame/second footage of Pentagon being allegedly hit by an airplane. I’ve read the conspiracy theory on it being a missile attack and was somewhat intrigued, but again, didn’t think that much more of it….

…until I actually saw this newly released footage, and now I’m much closer to the conspiracists than I was before. Why:

- That just does not look like the front of a medium to large airplane.

- Given the size and scale of the explosions at the WTC, this didn’t even compare

- The US military only has surveillance cameras that capture in 0.5 frames/second? Riiiiiight.

- The Pentagon only has one camera that caught any footage of the incident? That place must have EVERY angle covered, including its own dedicated satellite, and then some.

- If you’re going to release footage to quell a conspiracy theory, why do it quite so obviously badly? Are the american public really that stupid, or that scared, that they’ll accept that as a reasonable explanation?

Whatever your beliefs. even the most open minded individual has to be suspicious when the facts are being so obviously obscured.

N

Are you sick and tired of having to endure deep fried burritos?

Is Chiquitos the height of mexican or tex-mex cuisine that you can find?

Would you rather find a decent place where you didn’t have to endure a stag night pounding cheap tequilas from the bottle?

Are you gagging for a decent burrito? some fresh soft chicken tacos?

If you can answer yes to any one of these, you need to goto MexiLondon - a small website that I’ve setup for the small but growing community of people in London who are sick and tired of the mass market crap, and just want some decent mexican food.

Website at www.nickster.com/mexilondon

N

Just for the record, David Blaine is not a magician any more. He is not an illusionist either. He’s some form of weird endurance-cum-performance artist (cum performance? yikes!). His stunts are definitely entertaining and I admire the fact that someone is apparently pushing human endurance barriers. Heck, sitting in a box for 44 days would drive me nuts - in fact, make that 10 minutes.

But please, he’s not a magician or anything even close. Even performance artists usually have an important message in their work - Blaine’s is just self promotion. And if he is an illusionist, then how much of these stunts are to be believed? Derren Brown destroyed his credibility walking the same fine line between illusion and deceit in that stupid russian roulette stunt. So I personally question the value of it at all - other than the modern equivalent of self flagellation in public to make a dime.

Oh, and if he’s so enamoured with the classic magicians and escape artists, like Houdini, then why can’t he re-enact the legendary catching a bullet in the teeth trick. I’ll be the one firing the gun.

N

According to the BBC website, Microsoft plans on having shipped 10 million units of Xbox 360s by the time Sony’s PS3 is launched in November.

This announcement literally the day after Sony announces the price and specification for their 3rd generation console, and with an unexpected visit from Bill himself to deliver the news. Uncanny timing for sure - absolutely motivated by the fact that Microsoft heavily subsidised 360 and rushed it to market.

Here’s the problem. Xbox 360 is a serious let down for gamers. Being first to market gave MS a massive opportunity to grab some of Sony’s dominance, but instead they’ve spent millions subsidising a substandard console. Why?

1) Games Support

The launch games for 360 were a massive let down. There was no ‘killer app’ or got to have game, like in the case of Halo on the 360. It’s a games console, and if the games available are crap, that makes it a crap games console. Furthermore, after months and months there are STILL no decent games out for it. Personally when I was playing it I was playing Live Arcade games more than the £40 titles - and that isn’t worth a £300 console. Now I play Eve Online on the PC

2) Media Integration

You’d have to be a certified moron or living on the dark side of the moon to not see that the living room is the new centre of the mass market computing world. Media centres and media integration is all the rage (and with good cause). So why is it that MS in their infinite wisdom decided to cripple Xbox 360 so that you cannot stream video from your PC UNLESS YOU HAVE WINDOWS MEDIA CENTRE INSTALLED ON IT??! I’m not going to wipe my machine and install Windows Media Centre just because I want to stream videos to the living room. Why couldn’t they just let me stream it without? My chipped Xbox1 has BETTER functionality that XBOX 360 and at a fraction of the price.

3) Overheating and Ugliness Issues

Who on earth wants to put a brick like the 360 PSU on display in their living rooms? And if you hide it away somewhere, the system overheats because that brick needs airflow around it. This is such a problem that there are a number of 3rd party water cooling solutions for the 360. So, you spend £300 on a console that overheats….and STILL overheats in later revisions.

4) Internet

I couldn’t believe that Microsoft didn’t put a browser on the XBOX. When 360 came out without a browser I was dumbfounded. WHY? It has an internet connection, it links to the television, it now has regular USB ports for a keyboard and mouse. Why can’t we use it to browse the web? And MS wonder why people subvert their technology by hacking it.

5) Microsoft Live Voice Communication

One of the best moves that MS has made, imho - to make all games on the XBOX use voice comms. The Xbox Live service itself I have a hard time finding fault with. The execution is fantastic, and games like PGR2 (note, not PGR3) provided (imo) one of the best games interfaces to date. Live was seamless, the game was brilliant - all was good.

So WTF happened? If you try to play any game that ISN’T a mature title (e.g. Madden 200x, Tiger Woods 200x) like the Tony Hawks skateboarding series, the gaming experience is ruined by screaming american kids. It’s intolerable having someone screaming ‘WTFOMGN00B’ every 3 seconds WITHOUT THE SKILLS TO BACK IT UP. Smacktalking is one thing, but talking shit is another. Xbox live is generally filled with people talking shit. This isn’t Microsoft’s problem or fault, but it’s a sad fact of 360 gaming these days. There are solutions, but they haven’t come to light yet and at this point I’d guess there are legions of users leaving the service altogether. Maybe I’m just too old to game on a console anymore - which is shit in itself. Shouldn’t have to be this way.

6) Games

The games are shit. Oh, I think I mentioned that already.

So, MS were first to market with their 3rd generation console. They produced a crippled and substandard product with bad games support. I suspect the vast majority of PS2 games will not have switched over, and are waiting for the PS3. MS have totally lost their advantaged position, and more importantly put themselves at a disadvantage - (a) by killing the brand amongst gamers with any clue and (b) by subsidising that garbage to make bad technology affordable.

So Mr Gates announcement yesterday comes as no surprise. They’re running scared because they’re about to get utterly destroyed by PS3 sales at a cost of millions.

Microsoft: When you start listening to your market and stop trying to control it, you’ll start winning. Until that point, you’ll continue to alienate - and make financial losses.

N

My friend Neil and I both own full sets of Star Wars stormtrooper armour. It has taken literally months to get together all the parts and accessories needed to pull off the look of an authentic stormtrooper, so after having bought the armour in December last year it has taken us until today to wear the armour outside. There are still a few fitting issues and each set of armour needs to be customised a little so that they can be worn for extended periods of time without bits falling off or coming loose. So, today was a quick beta test to see if we were ready for the outside world…and boy, what a beta test it was. It culminated in an armed response unit (SO19) coming to my home - but before I go into the detail you need to see a photo of what we look like in armour, and what the gun looks like:

With this image in mind, the two of us, both wearing armour, set off for short local stroll at about 2.30pm today. We walked out of my cul-de-sac, turned right and walked for about half a mile down to the traffic lights, turned around and came back. The whole way cars were honking at us, people were taking photos on their mobile phones, kids waving at us - we were having an absolute ball underneath our helmets - and no-one could see the massive grins. EVERYONE was enjoying it.

We got in, took off the armour and watched the football. Just after half time there’s a ring on my doorbell. It’s the police - they want a word. I open the door to be met by four armed officers from the armed response unit of the police. They tell me that they have had reports of a firearm being waved around in public. Completely dumbfounded I invite them in to show them our prop guns and stormtrooper armour. At this point there are about 10 officers in my living room, half armed to the teeth, and the other half regular police officers - and RIGHT in the middle of the 2nd half of the Spurs game (critical game, much tension).

Someone had reported our guns as being real, despite being dressed literally head to toe in stormtrooper armour. I had never considered the fact that anyone would have taken our very real looking props as real live guns in the context of obviously science fiction costumes. The police and armed reponse guys were all very amicable and the whole incident was actually very good natured - but the fact remains that there were a serious amount of police resources wasted on a pair of geeks living out star wars fantasies.

I still cannot believe that our guns were threatening or dangerous. Every single car or person that stopped to take photos didn’t shout ‘LOOK OUT HE’S GOT A GUN’ and run away - they came up to us and loved every minute of it.

The sad fact of life these days is that any gun, real, prop or toy in ANY context is considered dangerous. People are living it that much fear of terrorism that common sense has gone. Either that or I have a malicious neighbour who has nothing better to do than to mess up our fun.

What a day. No more prop guns in future, and I hate the fact that this is the world we now live in. I won’t live in fear. I certainly won’t live in fear of stormtroopers carrying guns. Morons, I tell you…morons….

N

EDIT:

My learned friend, Evz, has just highlighted an issue - when the police turned up they had no idea that we were wearing stormtrooper armour. All they apparently had been told is that someone had been waving a gun around. When we told them that we had been wearing the armour and helmets from the moment we left the house until the moment we returned, Neil said that one of the police had said ‘i’d love to know who called this one in’. At the time we thought nothing of it - but now in retrospect it makes complete sense. The armed response unit had been sent with limited information…i.e. the caller had only reported the fact we had guns, and had omitted the fact that we were wearing outlandish costumes. They clearly didn’t give an accurate description to the police and as a result lead the police on a wild goose chase because they were surprised to find that we had been wearing shiny white plastic armour from head to toe.

The bottom line is that either I have a paranoid schizophrenic or absolute killjoy living in my road. I just hope the police were pissed off enough to take it up with the caller who wasted everyone’s time.

A while back I started videoing my rides to prove to my girlfriend just how crazy London’s roads had become. What started out as a fact finding mission turned into a hobby, moving from a Nokia 6630 wedged in my lid to a proper high res helmet camera setup. I’ve caught the good, the bad and the ugly on film so far - some of it my own riding, other times other road users. This is shooting from the hip stuff (or my head if you want to be pedantic about it) - I don’t claim to be a saint, but I’m just showing that others aren’t either. London’s roads are a jungle…

This was my first Nokia video - more videos at www.youtube.com under my alter-ego, Quasimojo…

One final caveat: Not for the faint hearted in parts…

N
- just discovered that I can embed YouTube here.

I’ve been a bad bad boy. I’ve neglected my blog, and whilst I know that there’s the square root of zero people reading it, I enjoy writing it. Sometimes it’s a rant, othertimes quiet introspection. Today, it’s just the realisation that I’ve not blogged anything for a while and it’s about time to get back to it.

Not a whole hell of a lot to report. Am back from a great weekend in Brighton, where I actually managed to get some work done. It must have been something to do with removing me from my usual writing environment, or the associated stresses, but when Deb went to bed I found myself downstairs reading Marshall McLuhan and some other really arty farty design books until 2am…which I wouldn’t ordinarily do. Now I’ve just got to turn that reading into compelling argument for my Chapter 2, which is still unfinished.

I’m definitely going to have a Chapter 2 finished party…

N

I have been posting on David Gilmour’s blog for a few months now, being a total devotee to both David Gilmour’s music and that of Pink Floyd. David is playing a pre-release gig in Blackfriars to 600 people on Tuesday…a preview of the new album, “On An Island”. They have given 75 pairs of tickets away, meaning that 150 of the 600 people at that gig will be the hardcore faithful…and guess what….I GOT A TICKET!!! It’s like Willy Wonka’s golden tickets - I will be seeing David and the band play next Tuesday, in a small theatre in Blackfriars. LIFE DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!!

N

www.davidgilmour.com

When I was on my batchelors degree course I had to come up with a final year project idea. All my ideas were considered too big for a batchelors and I had to trim one down a lot to be able to do it. When I was on my masters degree course I had to come up with a project from which I wrote my thesis. All my ideas were considered too big for a masters and I used an idea the Prof gave me. Now I’m on a PhD and it’s ALL research and my ideas are still considered too big for a PhD. Both the batchelors and masters people told me I’d have to do a PhD to do that kind of work, so what gives? I think the argument is that you have to do something extremely well, not necessarily the scale of it - and if I was doing my bit perfectly then I could probably expand the scope.

The more things change, the more they don’t. Bah humbug.

N

I have been trying to write a coherent draft of chapter 2 of my thesis for a couple of months at least. I’ve made some progress and have a first draft completed, but it’s still very much a first draft. The major criticisms of it by my supervisors have been a lack of clarity in the narrative, in that I’m not leading the reader explicitly enough.

So, I have been asked to write an argument plan for the chapter, to state my arguments and positions throughout the chapter. It has been an excellent, if not brain aching, exercise because it has forced me to look at the very nature of my research.

The epiphany I’m talking about happened about 5 minutes ago as I was working on that argument plan. For a start, that plan IS my thesis, and I hadn’t seen it like that before. Secondly, that writing a PhD thesis is about some very deep thought. I realise that this might sound a bit flippant or obvious, so I’ll try to clarify.

For me, most academic tasks are about thinking - and everything in my academic life, from school to Masters degree was relatively easy provided I was interested enough in it to think about it. PhD level work requires a level of thinking that is imho significantly higher than a Masters - exponentially so. So whereas my lazy brain previously could think its way out of any hard work, it just isn’t sufficient for a PhD. Yep, epiphany = wake up call…

For me this now means that I have to increase my daily time revisiting the same issues and arguments, repeatedly until there is greater clarity in my mind than there is now. This is the deeper level of thinking that I’m talking about - almost like a long deep contemplation of the issues….a PhD meditation even. What I do know is that I have been wrong in thinking that I had spent sufficient time considering these arguments at any level deeper than a few references.

The real PITA is that I want/need to get back to the experiment and get some data in, but it seems like I’m being dragged back to the drawing board by Mr Miyagi…

N

If you’re reading this because you googled me from my comments on the BBC news pages regarding Cannabis and mental health, please be aware that the BBC cut my comment short. The full, unabridged version (!) submitted to the BBC was :

“I’m sick and tired of all this cannabis fearmongering. I’m in my 30s, a PhD student and I smoke cannabis daily. I agree that teens should not be smoking it because the research is frightening, but for the rest of us mature adults, please treat this stuff without this ‘Reefer Madness’. It’s unrealistic and unfair to those of us who don’t drink, and for whom cannabis is a positive recreational drug. We’re not lunatics, losers or druggies. We’re mature, intelligent, responsible adults who use marijuana like others use wine and who will not be persecuted for it. ”

and the bit that made it to the BBC site was :

“I’m sick and tired of all this cannabis fear-mongering. I’m in my 30s, a PhD student and I smoke cannabis daily. I agree that teens should not be smoking it because the research is frightening, but for the rest of us mature adults, please treat this stuff without this ‘Reefer Madness’. ”

A simple edit, but lessened my argument by removing the context it was originally intended for.

N

1) Goto CES AND the Adult Entertainment Expo. Die a happy man.

N