High, neighbor?

	Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette Click photo for larger image.

With marijuana on the front pages again, it's time to test your geo-political knowledge of the pot trade. Which bordering country famous for hockey has a thriving marijuana trade? You guessed it: Canada. The July issue of Playboy, out soon, says the Canadian Rockies are a hotbed of pot-smuggling. Writer Robert Sabbag has other interesting revelations:

Marijuana is Canada's most valuable agricultural product, worth an estimated $7 billion-plus in British Columbia alone -- more than the nation gets from cattle, wheat and timber.

The U.S. is the largest market for "BC bud," Canada's high-end dope that is five times as potent as regular weed. Smugglers estimate that U.S. demand is 2,000 to 3,000 pounds a day. Cost: between $2,900 to $4,000 a pound, and smugglers can earn $100,000 a week. Despite increased security after 9/11, smugglers run two or three helicopters three times a day. Makes you wonder if we're watching the right border.

Yak-ety yak

Who spends more time on their cell phones -- men or women? The answer, of course, is men, and, speaking on behalf of members of The Morning File's current gender, we say this is nothing to be proud of. A survey of more than 1,000 people by wireless purveyor Cingular concludes that men talk on wireless 35 percent more than women. "Despite common misconceptions, men do communicate, or at least attempt to, using an average of 571 minutes a month," the press release says brightly, "compared to an average of 424 wireless minutes a month for women." Communicate? Where did Cingular get the idea that yakking away on a cell phone has anything to do with "communicating"? If it's any consolation to either gender, women still talk more at home, using 491 minutes each month versus 321 for men. If you add those figures by gender, these people are spending about 900 minutes on the phone -- 15 hours a month -- that could be spent watching television.

We're for uncool

From the AP
• Man Buys Smoker, Finds Human Leg Inside • Coach Stops Runaway Horse by Biting Ear • Man Allegedly Tries to Use 'Blurry' $100 • Police Break Up Brawl at Chuck E. Cheese • Suggestive Card Ruffles Farmer's Feathers • Nerds to Auction Themselves to Women • Toilet to Tap? San Jose Probes Plan • Seattle to Allow Pygmy Goats As Pets • Yankees Rookies Dress Up in Oz Costumes

You are what your cell phone ring tones say you are, and it isn't always pretty. Earlier this year, British-based carrier Tesco Mobile surveyed 1,000 customers and discovered that 21% thought having a standard ring tone was "uncool." Oh, really? Well, 100 % of The Morning File has a big problem with this 21%. We think having as your ring tone "La Cucaracha," "Flight of the Bumble Bee," "I Wanna Sex You Up," "Rump Shaker," "Achy Breaky Heart," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Saturday Night Fever," or "Pachebel's Canon" is uncool. The survey did get one thing right, homing in on people whose phones play the popular "Crazy Frog," the clucking chicken or any number of other annoying animal noises: "If you're one of these folks, you may be a sociopath."

No strings

Say you're among the minority of cell phoners who have a cell strictly for safety purposes, not as a way of life, and you're trying to figure out the cheapest way to do this. The answer, in growing numbers, seems to be prepaid or pay-as-you-go phone service, according to The Washington Post. Customers buy a phone, then draw down from their balance with every call or text message. With calls at roughly 20 cents a minute, the average prepaid phone user spends about $30 a month, rather than the $55 a month average paid by a customer with a contract. Pre-paid service accounts for roughly 10 percent of the 182 million U.S. cell phone subscribers. By contrast, 95 percent of wireless users in Italy and 50 to 55 percent in Germany and the United Kingdom go the prepaid route, which is also standard in developing countries.

"I have fleas"

OK, you've got a cell phone, but you have no way to communicate with your dog. Outrageous on the face of it, but it's no problem, if you're a customer of KTF Corp., a South Korean mobile phone operator. It has a service that enables dog owners to know whether their pets are feeling happy or sad. Users must first connect to the Internet with their cell phones, and then register information on their dogs, such as breed and age. The service then records the dog's bark. The owner will receive text messages telling them how their pet is feeling, such as "I am happy" or "I am frustrated," but nothing useful, such as, "Are you sure you need that third martini?"

Oversight

The lead item in Friday's Morning File, about a husband and wife celebrating their record-breaking 80th wedding anniversary, neglected to mention where they were from -- Hereford in western England.