Tim Bray’s weblog is a great read; I’ve added it to my daily list. Today, he’s provided a fantastic article about the drugs problem in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Dublin has historically had a serious of up-and-down swings with a heroin problem; at one stage, it was one of the worst in Europe. It improved quite a lot during the 90’s, but it’s going downhill again, apparently; maybe the legislators need to read this article.
(The big problem as far as I can see is that treatment centres are horrifically underfunded, it being a lot easier, and — while not cheaper — at least already budgeted for, to ship the junkies off to prison. Business as usual. Of course, while they’re there, they’re (a) off the streets (out of sight, out of mind), and (b) learning all the latest criminal techniques, and getting well hooked on all the cheap heroin in there.)
(BTW did you know that one reason heroin is massively popular in prisons, is due to drug-testing? Apparently, marijuana can be detected a month after use, whereas heroin is undetectable 48 hours afterwards. So prison drug-testing regimes indirectly encourage heroin use. Oops!)
Linux: Linux Journal: report from LinuxWorld Ireland. Sounds like a great talk from maddog and Michael Meeks. And if you look carefully at the photo on that article page, you can see Proinnsias in the background!
Mind you, I would probably have just done my ‘incomprehensible question about software patents’ schtick with the IBM guy again…
What with this and GUADEC coming to Dublin, I’m missing all the good piss-ups^Wevents it seems ;)