U.S. workers will leave an average 4 vacation days on the table this year, one more than last year, according to the 6th annual Vacation Deprivation Survey sponsored by Expedia. This despite the fact that at an average of 14 days total, we are already deprived, trailing Australia (17), Canada (19), Great Britain (24), Germany (27), and France (39) in holiday time. Why don't we get more time off? And why aren't we using the time we do get? [Full results (PDF))]
posted by madamjujujive on Jun 5, 2006 - 89 comments

Mention nude art, get suspended. 25-year veteran art teacher Pete Panse recommended several ways for his ninth grade advanced art students to improve their skills, one of which included nude life figure drawing sessions at other art schools. For this, the Middletown, NY School District Board of Education suspended him, pending hearings in which he may be fired. They'll be after our bathroom mirrors next. [via DC Art News]
posted by brownpau on Mar 9, 2006 - 78 comments

Oh great merciful heavens! Who, oh who, will protect the dear children from the rampant sexual content that lies buried in... The Sims 2? According to Miami attorney Jack Thompson, it's worse than the now-infamous Hot Coffee mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that Hillary Clinton has made such a fuss about.

His claim is that behind the pixellated screen placed by the game in front of nude characters is full, anatomically-correct, genital detail, and a cheat code can remove that easily. Electronic Arts maintains that behind the screen is only Ken-And-Barbie smoothness. (Should be easy enough to check out, anyone?)
posted by JHarris on Jul 22, 2005 - 77 comments

The ESRB changes GTA: San Andreas rating from "M" (Mature) to "AO" (Adults Only). This following a brief media blitz surrounding the "Hot Coffee" mod, a fan-made workaround that allows players to access what amounts to a "dry humping" minigame in the code which was not made directly available in the game. In the PC version, the mod adds nude models. [more inside]
posted by Target Practice on Jul 21, 2005 - 111 comments

No sex, please, we're Republicans. At the dawn of a digitised, globalised millennium, these creeps want the clocks turned back to a time when the church held sway over our sexuality. They prefer us ignorant and terrified, alone in the dark, the better for them to control us through fear and guilt. Too bad for them that we live in the bright, vivid light of our incandescent dirty dreams.
posted by acrobat on Dec 3, 2004 - 64 comments

The Pagan Pilgrim: Thomas Morton and the Maypole of Merrymount.
posted by homunculus on May 17, 2004 - 7 comments