Saturday 22 September 2007

Melbourne is about to get a whole lot more funky...

Looks like Melbourne is about to get a whole lot more funky, because I just scored myself a position with Krome in Melbourne.

I'll be starting there in exactly 4 weeks.

I'll be Lead Tester, in charge of 10 people, working on a new Xbox360 project.

It's not as exciting as Star Wars which I'm working on in Adelaide, but on the other hand it's not working on a F-ing PSP title...

Never lived outside of South Australia, so I have a tiny bit of trepidation about it all, but on the other hand I've been bitching about needing to get away from Adelaide for years...

Sunday 2 September 2007

The Truth about Ecstasy

I'm really, really disappointed that no journalist has the balls to stand up and tell the truth about ecstasy.

Since Anna Wood, no journalist in Australia has dared question the hardline stance on the drug, even though deaths from the drug have been very few.

Truth of the matter is pure MDMA is one of the least harmful 'illegal' drugs available.

Yes, it causes brain damage in rats, but anything that simply makes a case for rats shouldn't be able to take it.

The infamous "hole in the brain" on Oprah has been proved as precisely what it is - bullshit. The brain scans have been shown to be false, and the scientist involved in initial testing on monkeys to back up this claim somehow mixed his MDMA sample with a methamphetamine sample and drew the wrong conclusions. This was the same scientist paid by the DEA in the 1980s to first investigate MDMA and it's impact on the brain.

There is one guy in the UK who took 40 ecstasy pills a week for 14 years who is severely mentally retarded, but you'd have to be pretty retarded to take 40 a week in the first place.

Even though Australia's ecstasy pills contain little MDMA, and the substitutes can cause both physical and mental health problems, proper testing of pills will reduce some of the harm that can do.

I'm not proposing everyone go out and take the drug. That would just be silly.

But I am amazed that all the Johns debacle has done is made people call for tougher testing.

It's predictably pathetic of the Australian press. These people need to grow a pair and seek the truth, not regurgitate the garbage the Government feeds them.

If anything, Johns has shown that being a regular taker of the drug has little impact on an individuals performance within society.

And isn't that what they whole drug debate is meant to be about - limiting the impact of harmful drugs on individuals, ensuring people performing well in society?

Isn't that what makes someone who drinks a bottle or two of wine a night but can still go to work the next day "better" than a bum who does the same but doesn't go to work?