TIL: Today I Learned

[Hygro]

TIL that our Green-Left party in the Netherlands wants to attack the drugs maffia producing xtc pills,

Noooo

and secure the quality, by allowing regulated commercial production.

Yayyyyyy

Here in NL, at a production cost of approx Euro 0.50, dealers buy at Euro 1.00-2.00 and the consumer's market price is approx Euro 4.00, for an xtc pill with approx 150 mg MDMA.
Especially younger people use it when going out for the evening/night. At pubs 25%, at festivals 50% of the people. Closing in to alcohol consumption frequencies.

The argument is basically: "why allow alcohol and criminalise xtc, when both are comparable bad for your health ?"

It is not that the people behind this want to encourage the use, just like they do not want to encourage the use of alcohol.
The only real difference imo that a prohibition of alcohol is more favorable in building up and supporting a maffia than xtc pills.

I expect many mayors (responsible for the local police departments) to support this except in typical conservative areas or smaller towns.

It will be the start of a more public societal consensus discussion that could very well take a decade or so before some legal change will happen.

Super fascinating.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It can be pretty dangerous and it's easy to overdose.
Much better to provide an official source with reliable quality and warning labels on the packaging than giving criminals a monopoly.

Being able to tax it is also probably a benefit. You can't really tax the black market.

 

[rah]

Black market tax is called bribes.

 

[Lexicus]

TIL that if you delete and then re-enter the email address you have registered with CFC the site will flag your account as inactive requiring you to resend the confirmation email to regain permission to take actions in the forums.

 

[Phrossack]

TIL that Japan executed some of the members of Aum Shinrikyo behind the subway attacks just this July. It amazes me how long appeals processes can be.

 

[Traitorfish]

I didn't realise that Japan still had the death penalty. I suppose if there's a twenty-plus year appeals process, they probably don't make heavy use of it.

 

[cardgame]

TIL that ctrl-f can highlight words ordinarily hidden behind spoiler code. Expandables like our forum are safe, but redactions may not be - my exhibit A is from TV Tropes.

 

[shadowplay]

TIL license plates in the Northwest Territories are shaped like polar bears.

 

[Takhisis]

Why is there a specific place for a ‘sticker’?

 

[Cutlass]

Why is there a specific place for a ‘sticker’?

It's obsolete in the US now, but in the past every year you renewed your registration, they gave you a small sticker that went on the plate which showed it was an up to date registration.

 

[Arakhor]

That's why we had tax discs in the UK. I don't know how it's done now in the digital era.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It's obsolete in the US now, but in the past every year you renewed your registration, they gave you a small sticker that went on the plate which showed it was an up to date registration.

That's still a thing at least in IL, MO and CA.

 

[Cutlass]

That's why we had tax discs in the UK. I don't know how it's done now in the digital era.

Police cars now have laptop computers built into them with wireless connections to the police database. So they can look up your registration before they even get out of their cars to see if it's up to date.

 

[Broken_Erika]

But if you eliminate the stickers, you'll put countless bureaucrats out of jobs. Can't have that!

 

[Cutlass]

They eliminated it here to save costs.

 

[Takhisis]

It's obsolete in the US now, but in the past every year you renewed your registration, they gave you a small sticker that went on the plate which showed it was an up to date registration.

Reminds me of the old natural-gas engine certification ovals here. Thanks.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned that on December 4, 292277026596, the 64-bit Unix time stamp will stop working. Hopefully by then we'll have a solution to this.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Today I learned that on December 4, 292277026596, the 64-bit Unix time stamp will stop working. Hopefully by then we'll have a solution to this.

Since the Sun will be dead by that time (and Earth long before then), I doubt there will be anyone around to worry about it.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Since the Sun will be dead by that time (and Earth long before then), I doubt there will be anyone around to worry about it.

It would be pretty funny if humans have colonized the galaxy by then and a trillion people on some ringworld die because they didn't update their OS.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Today I learned that on December 4, 292277026596, the 64-bit Unix time stamp will stop working. Hopefully by then we'll have a solution to this.

This will be the new "Millenium Bug" in, well, quite a few millenia from now.