News: Billionaire says the war on drugs has failed

Billionaire Richard Branson says it’s time to legalise drugs

Virgin entrepreneur and billionaire Richard Branson it’s time to rethink the approach we have to currently illegal drugs in our society. He wrote in London’s Telegraph before he was due to appear at a Parliamentary inquiry: “Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails, billions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and thriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach. First, prohibition and enforcement efforts have failed to dent the production and distribution of drugs in any part of the world. Second, the threat of arrest and punishment has had no significant deterrent effect on drug use. We need a debate on how policy can cut consumption and reduce harm, rather than inflammatory scaremongering. It is not about supporting drug use; it is about solving a crisis.”

He said analysing new and better policies to deal with drugs needed to happen, just like it might in a business. “We should instead measure the outcomes in the same way that a business would measure the results of a new ad campaign. That means studying things like the number of victims of drug-related violence and intimidation, levels of corruption connected to the drug market, the amount of crime connected to drug use, and the prevalence of dependence, drug-related mortality and HIV infection.”

What to wear in the office … a tricky dilemma?

Women might be breaking through the glass ceiling, but they still have a harder time deciding what to wear. If only because there’s so much bloomin’ choice. And that’s not always a good thing. News.com.au reported: University of Sydney research fellow Prudence Black, an expert on corporate women’s wear, said many women were subjected to more “look-ism” than ever before. “How we look at work is certainly becoming more important and we are judged on that,” she said. “We have relaxed conventions in fashion in a lot of areas but not the corporate world.” Dr Black said some companies were even stamping out regular dress-down days after discovering that it affected office productivity. “They found that it ‘casualised’ people beyond what they were wearing and actually spread into their work practices,” she said.

Myer womenswear general manager Nicole Naccarella said, while suits were a timeless classic, corporate women could still maintain their executive style in carefully selected skirts, dresses, knitwear or coats. “A lot of girls like to be able to wear something to work that they can wear out to dinner later,” she said. Ms Naccarella observed a recent return to 1940s glamour, with longer, fuller skirts gaining popularity. “In a professional environment I think to the knee is the best length for a skirt, or just above the knee,” she said. “You certainly couldn’t wear a mini-skirt and look professional.”

Ovarian cancer detection might come earlier

Scientists have been comparing the changes in cancerous ovarian tissue to ‘normal’ ovarian tissue at the Sydney Garvan Institute for Medical Research since 2008 and have made enough progress to predict that early detection of cancer may soon become the norm. Ninemsn reported: By scanning the genome, the team has been able to pinpoint changes in the DNA of six specific genes, which they believe could be used to identify ovarian cancer. Scientists hope the findings, which were published in the journal Cancer Letters on Tuesday, could one day lead to earlier diagnosis.

“In the future high-risk patients, such as post-menopausal women, would actually be able to go in for a yearly blood test and we would be able to pick up these changes in the DNA,” researcher Brian Gloss told AAP.

“The idea would be that on a screening basis we would be able to pick up early disease before it spreads.”

Navy would disobey Abbott’s asylum boat policy

Opposition leader Tony Abbott announced any future Government he led would turn asylum seeker boats around and send them back to Indonesia under Navy escort this week. He said: “It is time for Australia to adopt turning the boats as its core policy.” But a retired Admiral said the Navy would almost certainly disobey his orders because officers were obliged to follow international law. The Australian reported: Admiral Chris Barrie (ret), who served as Chief of the Defence Force at the time of the Tampa crisis, said government policy could not override international law. “Policy can’t override international law; nor can it tell a commanding officer what decisions he must make at sea at the time. Irrespective of any government’s policy, I’m sure our officers and sailors will act in accordance with international law and the safety of life at sea conventions.” Mr Abbott defended his position on radio: “This is a vital part of an effective policy to stop the boats and sure, it is not without its risk, but the riskiest thing of all is to allow the boats to keep coming.” Serving naval officers reportedly told the newspaper their concerns were grounded in the likelihood that asylum seekers would deliberately set fire to their vessels to avoid being towed or taken back to Indonesia.

The technology we won’t need for much longer

With the news that Kodak, the iconic camera company, likely won’t be around much longer, futurist Mark Pesce listed the other technology that might go the way of the consumer film camera. Mr Pesce said the landline was the most obvious as most Australians own mobile phones. Cheap point-and-shoot cameras would also fade out as the cameras in mobile phones continually improved in quality. DVDs would live briefly on in the latest formart, Blu-Ray, before our media went entirely online he said. “Is it going to be a replacement of one for the other or is it simply all going online? It’s a bit of both. I think that Blu-ray is probably going to be the last transition we’ll see in a physical medium, because after that it’s all going to be NBN.” On the evolution list are the obvious: books and music (disappearing online or on to e-readers) and television sets. TVs will still be used as display screens, Mr Pesce says, but we’ll watch most of our TV online. Anything to add?

We’re losing the education race: Gillard

The Prime Minister has produced Organisation of Economically Developed Countries (OECD) data to show that Australian students are falling behind their Asian counterparts. A 15-year-old average student in Australia is as much as six months behind an equivalent student in leading nations. “We don’t seem to be extending as far as we can the kids at the top and we have a pool of kids who don’t meet the standards, and that’s highly correlated with disadvantage kids from poorer households,” she said. But no new funding has been promised to help things out, instead the PM said she would focus on ‘consolidating’ existing education strategies.

How much downtime are you getting from work?

Australian workers are enjoying good fortune when it comes to their work/life balance according to business analyst IBISWorld. We apparently have an extra 1.7 hours a week to do with what we want compared to 11 years ago. Shopping, watching TV, going to grab brunch. That’s 78.1 hours every year. Retiring Baby Boomers, a growth in part time and casual jobs and ‘guilty’ workers who want to spend more time with their kids have led to the increase. How’s your work/life balance?

What else is in the news and on your mind?