At the beginning of March a van carrying illicit cargo in Amsterdam crashed and scattered it across the road. Three tonnes of hashish went up in smoke when the Dutch authorities incinerated the illicit cargo from the crashed van.
Detectives hunted for the van’s driver and passenger who fled the scene after the accident. It’s unknown if the occupants were injured. It’s estimated that the pair left behind about $23.5 million dollars worth of goods including the van. Police were busy tracing the van’s ownership but feared that it might have been stolen or leased.
The accident happened during the morning rush hour on a highway outside of the town of Avenhorn, about 30 kilometres north of Amsterdam.
The driver lost control of the vehicle as he or she was heading towards Amsterdam. Witnesses watched the van hit a barrier, flip and crash into another car before coming to a rest. Packages of hash were strewn over the area, and hundreds more were found stacked on wooden pallets in the van.
Marijuana and hash are technically illegal in the Netherlands, but under the country’s tolerance policy, police do not arrest anybody for possession of small amounts. It is sold openly in licensed shops, which, paradoxically, have no way of legally acquiring their chief product.
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This past October National Public Radio reported that there might be thousands of prison inmates using cell phones while in jail.
The problem with this of course is that cell phones are contraband in all correctional facilities.
The problem has gotten so bad that Maryland State Senator Ed DeGrange said he was sitting at his desk when an inmate called him on his cell phone with a list of general complaints!
A warden in Texas also reported that he had received a call from the mother of an inmate demanding that the warden do something to improve cell phone reception in the prison so that she could talk to her son easily.
I guess we might as well oblige the inmates and set up their cells like the photo above?
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Interestingly, every two months, dozens of couples meet in a pub in Singapore, have drinks, mingle, and then decide whether they want to sleep with one another. In other Countries this would not be looked upon as being all that odd but in a country where oral sex is illegal and Playboy magazine is banned this is pretty unusual.
There are more than 10 swingers clubs in Singapore, most of them private, some of them online. With more than 6,000 members, the Web-based United SG Swingers is one of the biggest.
A 42-year-old Singaporean company executive who only wanted to be identified as Jack said “There are a lot more people that are open to the idea. It’s so widespread now, Swinging is all about sex. It’s satisfying the urge to have casual sex and doing it with somebody you’re comfortable with,” said Jack, who has been swinging for 10 years.
For all their enthusiasm, few swingers tell family and friends about their lifestyle, although the practice is not illegal in Singapore. Swinger believe that they will be perceived as perverts if they are open with their friends and family about their lifestyle choices.
In another interesting turn, this past Friday Singapore opened Sexpo 2006, the country’s second sex exhibition, featuring an array of toys and seminars.
At United SG Swingers, people share erotic photographs, exchange personal ads and correspond about the next gathering. It is a close-knit community in which couples recommend good sex partners and criticize those who aren’t. A police spokesman confirmed that swinging is not illegal as long as it is done behind closed doors, is consensual and no money changes hands.
This year, the organizers of United SG Swingers started holding “on premise” parties, where couples can engage in group sex in houses and hotel rooms across Singapore. At these parties, the bedrooms have a strict clothes-off rule and the “hard swingers” can engage in partner swapping. The “soft swingers” are couples who stand around and watch, or have sex with their own partners in full view of others.
Couples who swing say that seeing their own partners in action keeps their passion burning. “It’s like looking at cake and wanting to eat it,” said the main organizer of United SG Swingers, 37-year-old IT specialist Josh, as his 32-year-old wife nodded in agreement.
But some swingers disapprove of these parties, saying they can degenerate into orgies. “You can’t establish pure friendships when there’s a large group,” said Ishak. “Genuine swingers would want to establish trust — you can’t trust a person just by meeting them one time and then think they can do it with your wife.”
A 34-year-old Australian who attends swinging parties told Reuters that Singapore’s scene is just evolving. “It’s very innocuous here, it’s not like other countries,” he said. “Compared to Australia and Europe, it’s more discreet and less lively. Singaporeans are pretty reserved in a lot of ways.”
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