PaRaDoX

skysignal:

Absinthe was never any more poisonous than whiskey. The myth goes back at least to the 1800s, and claims that it causes hallucinations, as potently as LSD, and fries the brain. Not true. Absinthe is manufactured from Artemisia absinthium, a plant which has no poisons in it. It is very bitter, like the Greek Ouzo, and the distillation process routinely results in absinthe proofs of 100 to 180 (50% to 90% alcohol by volume). This is significantly stronger than the average whiskey, but will not affect the drinker in any way other than drunkenness.

The truth, though, is that during the Moulin Rouge days of Toulouse-Lautrec and van Gogh, starving artists liked getting drunk, and couldn’t afford the good stuff. So they bought absinthe from cheap street vendors, who did not care to sell uncontaminated products. Cyanide and strychnine were found in this absinthe, and caused hallucinations.

Today, it is legal in the U. S., and perfectly safe to drink if bought commercially.

 hmm..

skysignal:

icanread: (by nehnehnetoi)

 ouch.

fuckyeahlgbt:

fuckyeahbisexuals:

myholigay:

827:

robodomdo:

=[

This is really horrible, but a fact. It’s obvious why so many GLBT youths are scared to come out.

TRUTH

fuckyeahlgbt:

fuckyeahbisexuals:

lexluthr:

classics:

tedroden:

joshmohrer:

inothernews:

Front cover, Bangor (Maine) Daily News, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

There are people who celebrate keeping people who love each other apart.  There are people who make it their pathetic life’s work to keep two people who belong together from being together.  There are people who revel in not letting others be genuinely happy, and making them feel like second-rate citizens in their own country, for the want of “preserving tradition.”

These people are assholes.

I’m from Maine. I was in that 47.2% that voted no. 10 years ago, that number wouldn’t have even been half that. Yeah the results are really disheartening, but we’re getting there. And I’m damn proud of that 47.2% of my home state.

fuckyeahlgbt:

shaanmichael:

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) — The suspect in the brutal slaying of a gay teenager in Puerto Rico will be charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and four other counts, the prosecutor in the case told CNN.

Juan A. Martinez Matos was arrested late Monday in connection with the slaying of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, whose decapitated, dismembered and partially burned body was found Friday afternoon on a road in central Puerto Rico.

In addition to murder, Martinez Matos will be charged with three weapons violations and one count of hiding evidence, prosecutor Yaritza Carrasquillo said.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to recommend that Martinez Matos be charged under federal hate crimes law, Carrasquillo said. That decision was not expected to come Wednesday.

The U.S. gay community is asking authorities to investigate whether the slaying was a hate crime, said Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“The brutality of the slaying and the fact that he was openly gay leads us to believe it was very possibly a hate crime,” Serrano said Tuesday.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, which means federal agencies have jurisdiction.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, in consultation with local officials and other agencies, would determine whether the slaying will be prosecuted as a hate crime.

“It’s at a very preliminary stage,” Lymarie Llovet, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, said Tuesday. “There’s the potential for a federal investigation.”

Martinez Matos, 26, was arrested late Monday at his home in the Mogote de Cayey neighborhood, said Wilson Porrata Mariani, another spokesman for the Guayama police district.

Police impounded two cars and also are investigating a home in another neighborhood, Huertas del Barrio Beatriz de Cidra.

Lopez Mercado’s body was found on Puerto Rico Road 184 in another part of town, Barrio Guavate de Cayey, police said.

Authorities are investigating whether the killing involved sex, Hector Agosto Rodriguez, police commander in the town of Guayama, told CNN affiliate WLII TV.

The slaying has reverberated through the gay and lesbian community in the United States, where supporters started a Facebook page called “Justice for Jorge Steven Lopez — End Hate Crimes.” The group demands an investigation by Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno and prosecution of the case under the federal hate crime law.

The Federal Hate Crimes Law was enacted in 1969 to guard the rights of any U.S. citizen who is targeted because of race, color, religion or national origin, or because of an attempt to engage in one of six protected activities, such as voting, going to school or attending a public venue.

President Obama signed into law last month the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends federal protection to illegal acts motivated by a person’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

If Martinez Matos is charged under the hate crimes provision, it is believed it would be the first such case under the latest addition to the law.

mrshannonlee:

suicideblonde:

librarysciences:[via lapetitecoccinelle].

mrshannonlee:

fuckyeahphotography:

Above is Untouchable, the creepiest, most sinister camera ever produced (to my knowledge). The camera was created by Mr Belger in order to photograph HIV sufferers, so naturally he filled parts of the camera with HIV positive blood. Says the artist, ‘The blood pumps through the camera then in front of the pinhole and becomes my #25 red filter’. Incredible. Found at Boy of Blue.