Obama Drug Czar Pick Tied to Abusive Christian Rehab Linked to Contributor Charged with $3.5 Billion

If his opposition to needle exchange and maintenance treatment for addictions isn’t enough to convince you that Jim Ramstad isn’t qualified to serve in Obama’s cabinet as “drug czar,” how about an earmark funding a Christian addiction “program” that uses outdated and abusive tactics and tries to “complete” Jews? Now add a connection between that program and a man who is charged with swindling investors out of $3.5 billion dollars.

That’s right. Jim Ramstad was the sole sponsor of an earmark providing $235,000 to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a branch of a national anti-addiction group which believes that recruiting people into the Assemblies of God ministry will cure their addiction.

Yes, this is the same Teen Challenge that prompted George W. Bush to de-regulate faith-based addiction treatment in Texas in 1997. The program couldn’t meet basic education standards required for qualified counselors, but Bush wanted it kept open.

PharmFree.org

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation’s oldest and largest, independent association for physicians-in-training, announces PharmFree.org, the medical community’s home for reclaiming the ethics of medicine by removing conflicts of interest and restoring the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship. PharmFree.org, created in collaboration with the Prescription Project, a drug industry watchdog group, provides the most comprehensive collection of resources for students seeking policy change at their institutions.

“It is not often that students have the opportunity to initiate such large policy reform in their schools and medical centers,” says Dr. Brian Hurley, AMSA’s national president. “With all the recent research, media attention, and discussion within academic medicine, the issues of conflicts of interest and the proper role of industry in medicine have reached a tipping point. The information available at PharmFree.org empowers students to work with their schools toward major reform.”

Video Arcade

Montreal art-rockers Arcade Fire have posted two excellent interactive videos on their website — and you can have more fun with them in five minutes than you’d get from a day’s worth of MTV.

In “Neon Bible,” the band’s lead singer, Win Butler, appears against a black background; click on his hands, mouth, and eyes to affect his voice and motions. In the “Black Mirror” video, you control the arrangement — lose the vocals, drop the bass, or (for a supercreepy effect) hear the string section all by its lonesome. The chance to connect with your inner Phil Spector — that’s creepy, too, but rewarding enough to make you consider music as a second career.

http://www.neonbible.com/yope.html

Stimulating Sites

Step in to a world only a designer could create.
Lim Si Ping is truly original in her artwork.
I just love looking at her website to get inspired.
Her artwork takes me into a surrealist world and I never want to come back.

Why you should mix records on crap speakers

Bill Moriarty, record producer and Highrise customer (case study), offers some interesting advice to other producers at his blog: Mix Records on Crap Speakers.

“It’s the very naive producer who works only on optimum systems.” -Brian Eno

It’s unlikely whoever is buying your records has anything better than an average hi-fi, boombox, car stereo, or ipod. I’d bet they don’t have studio monitors.

Recording & mixing solely on studio monitors is foolish. All that low end in the guitar? It’s useless in the small speakers. It’s just taking up frequencies the bass or drums or organs or tenor instruments can occupy. You have to be ruthless in cutting away useless frequencies so the record is loud & jumps out of all speakers. Make the record sound outstanding on little crap speakers since that’s where most people will hear it. I’ve found when I do this it still sounds great on the fancy speakers.

Love this. It’s not about the gear. In fact, gear can distract you from the essence of what you’re working on. Strip what you’re doing down to its bare essentials and evaluate that. If that comes off great, then it will work as it gets louder, starts to grow, or whatever. (And web designers can definitely apply the same idea to bandwidth speed, screen size, etc.)

Source: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1449-why-you-should-mix-records-on-crap-speakers