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Guilty until proven innocent. I guess no one should have been confident of her being found not guilty. At approximately 1:45pm today, Shapelle Corby of Australia was sentenced to 20 years in prison for importing narcotics into Indonesia - $4000 worth of weed that would have sold for $40,000 in Australia. $4000 worth of weed that was never fingerprinted nor tested. Her main line of defence, that the dope was the result of a bungled drug smuggling operation in Australia, backed up by the Australian Government by a letter to the Indonesian Government was not enough. Previous discussion here.
posted by Jase_B at 11:30 PM PST - 74 comments

What is Torture? Slate does an in-depth primer on American interrogation, with the chain of command, legal memos, a taxonomy of torture tactics "listed in order from least to most severe" (which roughly corresponds to the Human Rights Watch Table of Interrogation Techniques Recommended/Approved by U.S. Officials), and military reports.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:30 PM PST - 15 comments

Hundreds of twins in group photos from a Twin Festival. Twins Days in Twinsburg, Ohio claims to be the world's largest annual gathering of twins. Sarah Small's Photographs Twin Festivals
posted by growabrain at 10:23 PM PST - 27 comments

Wood burning jet engine Lots more fun from the folks at Nye Thermodynamics
posted by warbaby at 10:04 PM PST - 13 comments

Foreign Exchange TV with Fareed Zakaria - I'd heard about it, but thought it was only showing on OPB; checked again and lo and behold all the episodes are online! Watched a couple episodes so far; they're pretty good, esp if you're into foreign policy and stuff :D
posted by kliuless at 7:37 PM PST - 4 comments

Micromovie awards 2005 - the mission: produce a 90-second movie filmed entirely on a mobile phone (dubbing of better quality audio permitted). Dozens of films are available here for viewing. Sponsored, or course, by a major phone manufacturer. Don't let that distract you from the cute little films, though)
posted by Jimbob at 7:31 PM PST - 3 comments

I just want to spread the immense joy of Winamp TV, which is a route to all kinds of Filipino servers playing all your favourite copyrighted television material commercial-free 24/7 but it's OK because I'm not linking to those servers directly no sir.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 3:27 PM PST - 87 comments

11 Steps to a Better Brain Funny, reading MeFi is not on the list.
posted by peacay at 2:25 PM PST - 25 comments

Anybody into smoked beer? It's called Rauchbier and it's a new one on me, but it's been around since the 1500s. (I'm apparently a little behind the curve). Here's a recipe if you are into homebrewing. (Which reminds me, did you see the article: How to Brew Beer in a Coffee Pot ???)
posted by spock at 2:23 PM PST - 33 comments

Composite Drawings of suspects wanted by the Michigan State Police. With photos of the suspect if they are captured, for comparison. Via.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:08 PM PST - 49 comments

WCBS reporter Arthur Chi'en fired the same day for saying the F-word on air in response to two Opie and Anthony hecklers behind him. Should this man be fired for doing something any new yorker would do? WCBS seems to think so.Some are trying to "save" him. I say Let the Revolution begin.
posted by supertremendus at 12:57 PM PST - 46 comments

Despite efforts to stop phishing and pharming, they have continued to become more pervasive. While some tools, organizations and lawmakers are helping combat the problem, they have done little to curb these activities. Cellphones, Yahoo IM and AIM were all recently hit by new types of attacks. The AIM attack was more sophisticated than previous versions and combined phishing with a worm that installed software that allows the attacker to potentially take over the comprimised machine. To complicate problems further, a vast majority of these scams take place in locations that make it difficult if not impossible to prosecute the operators.

Because of this, I was delighted to read about hackers that are defacing phishing sites. While this is not legal either, it was some what satisfying to find out these asshats were getting a taste of there own medicine. Do any of you think a penny should be wasted persuing these hackers? If not, what are the legal implications in allowing hackers to attack some sites and not others?
posted by Mr_Zero at 12:06 PM PST - 17 comments

Thomas Jones and Tammie Bristol, both Wiccans, divorced in 2004. Likely they disagree about much, but not which religion they wish to teach their son. Too bad for them, then, that a Marion County Superior Court judge included a provision in their divorce decree which bans them from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals". Neither parent requested this; in fact, both vehemently objected, yet the judge refused to remove it. I guess them there activist judges are a threat to freedom of religion after all - but I doubt that the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration will be going after this guy. Funny; he's right up their alley.
posted by tzikeh at 11:52 AM PST - 46 comments

Rip Taylor on the web! For those who need a little confetti in their life.
posted by adrober at 11:06 AM PST - 23 comments

MLB's All Porn Mustache Team
Cue: Funky bassline and Wa-Wa guitar.
Is it just me or does Jeff Kent's 'stache (bottom of the page in the honorable mentions section) look like more peach fuzz than manly man style?
Who did they miss?
posted by fenriq at 10:07 AM PST - 30 comments

Contagious Media......................................................................
posted by dersins at 9:39 AM PST - 60 comments

The Choirboy. Lawrence Lessig takes onto an other battle.
posted by NewBornHippy at 9:09 AM PST - 16 comments

Abusing Amazon images. And you thought URL manipulation was a lost art.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 6:49 AM PST - 27 comments

Canadian suicide hotline stops its 24 hour service and adopts a 9-to-5 format. Apparently, people only feel like killing themselves at work. Located via Fark.
posted by deusdiabolus at 2:57 AM PST - 40 comments

Dracula Blogged: Bram Stoker's vampire novel, published by its own calendar. According to the site description:

Individual pieces of the novel will appear on the calendar dates indicated in the text, starting with Jonathan Harker's May 3rd Bistriz journal entry, and finishing up with November 6 and the final Note.

Be sure to check the comments, which are full of interesting tidbits about the novel, Stoker, Transylvania and historical accuracy (or innacuracy, as the case may be).
posted by LeeJay at 12:04 AM PST - 14 comments