(no subject)
I know this is Mac's area of expertise but oh well...
Amsterdam Sells 'No Toking' Signs
AP
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Feb. 3) - If you can't beat em ... joint em?
The City of Amsterdam has begun selling recently introduced "no toking" signs to prevent the official ones from being stolen as collectors items, a spokesman said Friday.
The signs were created as part of an experimental ban on smoking marijuana on the street in "De Baarsjes," one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. The measure, which went into effect Feb. 1, was intended to reduce loitering and petty crime.
"On Wednesday we placed the first sign and it was gone the next morning," said Wim de Graaf. "We put up a new one Thursday and it was taken the same night as well. That's when the idea came to us to just sell them."
The signs show two fingers holding a cone-shaped cigarette, with small white marijuana leaves on a black background - all enclosed within a red circle.
The city is selling them for around $110 U.S. dollars each, and plans to donate proceeds to charity.
"We're selling them at not much more than they cost, so we expect profits will be modest," De Graaf said. But he added the city has already had numerous requests for the signs, some from outside the city.
Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police don't bother prosecuting possession of small amounts. It is openly sold in designated cafes known euphemistically as "coffee shops."
But people who smoke weed outside in De Baarsjes risk a fine equaling $60.
De Graaf said the signs can be ordered via De Baarsje's Web site.
"Now everyone can have his own 'no toking' sign simply by ordering them through the city," the site says in a tongue-in-cheek advertisement.
And my favorite:
Plastic Traffic Cop Slows Cars in Russia
AP
MOSCOW (Feb. 5) - This is one Russian traffic cop who will never issue a ticket or take a bribe: he's made of plastic.
A life-size mock-up of a traffic police officer is prompting more drivers to obey the speed limit on a highway in western Russia, the plastic policeman's flesh-and-blood colleagues said in a report on state-run Channel One television Sunday.
"Our monitoring has shown that drivers here ... are more disciplined: they slow down," said Ivan Zybin, the deputy commander of a traffic police detachment in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border.
A bit like the kind of flat cardboard cutout that enables tourists to snap photos with world leaders, this fake human figure comes complete with a nearly two-dimensional patrol car, a speed gun and a black-and-white baton - held up to signal travelers to be cautious.
But Alexei Zakharov, the officer who served as the model for the mock-up, said that the sight of his plastic double prompts some drivers to do more than slow down.
"Some drivers stop and come up to him to show their documents, others sit in their cars and wait for the inspector to approach them. They sit there for five minutes and they drive away," he said.
The stretch of highway is busy, in part because of drivers traveling to Ukraine, and officer Sergei Kurdyumov said the mock-up boosts manpower.
"He helps us in that we can't be in two places at once - here and there," he said.
Regional authorities plan to use more of the mock-ups if the experiment proves successful, Channel One reported.
Traffic police sometimes place mock-ups of patrol cars by Russian roadsides for similar purposes.
Non-plastic Russian traffic police are widely known for accepting bribes, which are sometimes offered by drivers who want to avoid losing their license or facing inconvenient paperwork or a court appearance.
Amsterdam Sells 'No Toking' Signs
AP
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Feb. 3) - If you can't beat em ... joint em?
The City of Amsterdam has begun selling recently introduced "no toking" signs to prevent the official ones from being stolen as collectors items, a spokesman said Friday.
The signs were created as part of an experimental ban on smoking marijuana on the street in "De Baarsjes," one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. The measure, which went into effect Feb. 1, was intended to reduce loitering and petty crime.
"On Wednesday we placed the first sign and it was gone the next morning," said Wim de Graaf. "We put up a new one Thursday and it was taken the same night as well. That's when the idea came to us to just sell them."
The signs show two fingers holding a cone-shaped cigarette, with small white marijuana leaves on a black background - all enclosed within a red circle.
The city is selling them for around $110 U.S. dollars each, and plans to donate proceeds to charity.
"We're selling them at not much more than they cost, so we expect profits will be modest," De Graaf said. But he added the city has already had numerous requests for the signs, some from outside the city.
Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police don't bother prosecuting possession of small amounts. It is openly sold in designated cafes known euphemistically as "coffee shops."
But people who smoke weed outside in De Baarsjes risk a fine equaling $60.
De Graaf said the signs can be ordered via De Baarsje's Web site.
"Now everyone can have his own 'no toking' sign simply by ordering them through the city," the site says in a tongue-in-cheek advertisement.
And my favorite:
Plastic Traffic Cop Slows Cars in Russia
AP
MOSCOW (Feb. 5) - This is one Russian traffic cop who will never issue a ticket or take a bribe: he's made of plastic.
A life-size mock-up of a traffic police officer is prompting more drivers to obey the speed limit on a highway in western Russia, the plastic policeman's flesh-and-blood colleagues said in a report on state-run Channel One television Sunday.
"Our monitoring has shown that drivers here ... are more disciplined: they slow down," said Ivan Zybin, the deputy commander of a traffic police detachment in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border.
A bit like the kind of flat cardboard cutout that enables tourists to snap photos with world leaders, this fake human figure comes complete with a nearly two-dimensional patrol car, a speed gun and a black-and-white baton - held up to signal travelers to be cautious.
But Alexei Zakharov, the officer who served as the model for the mock-up, said that the sight of his plastic double prompts some drivers to do more than slow down.
"Some drivers stop and come up to him to show their documents, others sit in their cars and wait for the inspector to approach them. They sit there for five minutes and they drive away," he said.
The stretch of highway is busy, in part because of drivers traveling to Ukraine, and officer Sergei Kurdyumov said the mock-up boosts manpower.
"He helps us in that we can't be in two places at once - here and there," he said.
Regional authorities plan to use more of the mock-ups if the experiment proves successful, Channel One reported.
Traffic police sometimes place mock-ups of patrol cars by Russian roadsides for similar purposes.
Non-plastic Russian traffic police are widely known for accepting bribes, which are sometimes offered by drivers who want to avoid losing their license or facing inconvenient paperwork or a court appearance.