On behalf of medical organizations, universities, & individual patients, pathologists and genetics researchers, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against Utah-based Myriad Genetics and the US Patent and Trademark Office. Myriad holds the US patents to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, associated with hereditary causes of breast and ovarian cancers. Their patents guarantee the company the right to prevent anyone else from testing or studying those genes, which the ACLU says is unconstitutional and inhibits researchers from finding treatments and cures. [more inside]
posted by zarq on May 13, 2009 - 64 comments

Play board games during the holidays? Try an updated version of an old classic. You can indulge in as much sex, drugs, crime, and rock and roll as your health will handle, just don't roll a 1 on your first turn or you'll be aborted before you get started. [more inside]
posted by mrmojoflying on Dec 27, 2008 - 6 comments

Oil's got one. So does cocaine. There used to be one for light bulbs and another for uranium. While we know one currently exists for diamonds, some folks think the music industry has one. [more inside]
posted by Mutant on May 5, 2008 - 21 comments

Struggling for a way to combine your love of simulated cut-throat capitalism with your love of the Adelaide Crows, classic Coca-Cola ads, Réunion Island, or the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror? Look no further than one of the 1,235 special-edition Monopoly boards. Browse the full street layout of 64 national variants at Monopolybase, or check the going price on 225 official Parker Brothers -opolies from Aachen to X-Men. If even that's not good enough for you, you can always (as discussed here), roll your own.
(Plus 35 Harry Potter games, 100+ rejuvenating house rules, and more from Israeli board-game blogger Yehuda Berlinger.)
posted by ormondsacker on Aug 13, 2007 - 28 comments

Have you ever gotten stuck in a never-ending game of Monopoly? Turns out the game wouldn't take so long if we didn't play with so many made-up rules. There are many different variations of house rules. Some people even make up their own extreme game. The official Monopoly rules are posted at Monopoly Collector, which also has game history and facts, as do the Monopoly pages at Hasbro. If you're into statistics, Durango Bill has an excellent article on Monopoly probabilities. Also related, old-style Monopoly card illustrations. And just for fun, check out "Monopoly Cards We'd Like To See" at Dribble Glass. Or, make your own Chance and Community Chest cards at Sign Generator.
posted by amyms on Mar 27, 2007 - 46 comments

In Korea, you use Windows and IE, or you're out of luck. MeFi's own Gen Kanai writes about the Microsoft lock-in in South Korea. It is also a monoculture in other ways, of course, but in a country of 48 million where internet usage has risen from 9 million in 1999 to 35 million today, that leads the world in broadband penetration, some lessons for the rest of the world about the dangers of monopoly might be learned.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on Feb 1, 2007 - 30 comments

Anyone ever win McDonalds Monopoly? Mmmm.... It's McDonald's Monopoly season again! Looking for Boardwalk? Good luck. Where are the winners(pdf) now? Or is it all just a fraudulant scam? Mmm... I'm scoffing it!
posted by Gankmore on Oct 11, 2006 - 26 comments

Media-opoly from Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse skit created by Robert Smigel broadcast in 1998 on NBC, a subsidiary of GE. Not broadcast since, apparently.
posted by riotgrrl69 on Aug 12, 2006 - 25 comments

A canonical list of Monopoly house rules.
posted by Saucy Intruder on Jan 7, 2006 - 36 comments

McOpoly. Let the games begin. Now we have a reason to eat at McDonalds every day. However, it is funny how so many million dollar winners have been convicted of fraud in the past. Imagine winning the ultimate prize.
posted by lightweight on Oct 21, 2004 - 14 comments

WalmartFilter: "Wal-Mart controls a large and rapidly increasing share of the business done by most every major U.S. consumer-products company: 28% of Dial total sales, 24% of Del Monte Foods, 23% of Clorox, 23% of Revlon... Wal-Mart plans to open 1,000 more supercenters in the U.S. alone over the next five years.. giving it control over 35% of U.S. food sales and 25% of drugstore sales...The $12 billion worth of Chinese goods Wal-Mart bought in 2002 represented 10% of all U.S. imports from China." Setting aside questions of monopoly, isn't this a potentially dangerous monoculture?
posted by alms on Oct 15, 2003 - 95 comments

This Monopoly parody is causing quite a fuss among "black leaders". Is it a stereotype of the "ghetto life" image the media shows us? Sure. But is this game (and the "ghetto life" image) a stereotype that you connect directly to dark-skinned people, as the clergymen seem to think?
posted by bhayes82 on Oct 9, 2003 - 66 comments

Monopoly Stats. Now you can play the odds [via boingboing.net]
posted by srboisvert on Sep 19, 2003 - 11 comments

So the FCC might let me be... On June 2, FCC commissioners will vote on proposed changes to U.S. media ownership rules. Proponents of eliminating a ban on "cross ownership" argue that mergers between local newspapers and radio and TV stations in large and medium-sized markets will boost the quality and quantity of local news reportage. The nonprofit Consumers Union calls the ban "critical to the independence and diversity of our nation's media". Let the FCC know where you stand (third item on list).
posted by Bixby23 on May 14, 2003 - 15 comments

Habla Usted Clear Channel? So Clear Channel wants to dominate Spanish-language radio? Nothing new. From the first link, the final piece in a Salon series on media consolidation: The deal is big and contentious, and involves politics, music and media -- and, to make matters even more interesting, Clear Channel, the U.S. radio station conglomerate, has a starring role. Clear Channel is HBC's largest shareholder, and the company has been accused by opponents of the deal of maneuvering illegally behind the scenes to exert control over HBC, as well as spreading rumors of drug use about the CEO of HBC's chief competitor.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly on Apr 23, 2003 - 2 comments

Should FCC allow big media to get bigger? The FCC will soon rule on whether media megaboxes should be allowed to dominate a given market's radio, television, and print media simultaneously. They have already loosened restrictions on radio and the proliferation of Clear Channel has led to a 30% reduction in radio station ownership and, some believe, to the homogenization of popular music. Should the FCC eliminate the regulations preventing mega-media from monopolizing television and print media?
posted by answergrape on Jan 31, 2003 - 28 comments

Diamonds , a symbol of love for a large part of this century. Yet there is an underlying monopoly who have socially engineered the whole entire idea that a "Diamond is Forever". Does your notion of a diamond change knowing that a consortium is ensuring that their Monopoly is Forever?
posted by mutantdisco! on Aug 14, 2002 - 105 comments

"How Much Starbucks is Too Much?" This article predicts that our favourite caffeine pushers could double the number of outlets in the US without saturating the market. Pretty graphs, but has anyone told this guy about Starbucks' more sinister plans? warning, second link = Onion story
posted by nprigoda on Aug 1, 2002 - 31 comments

Create your own Monopoly Game Surely the perfect customised gift? You can change the name of the game, the theme, the name of the properties/stations, and also the rules. Apparently it uses a 'What You See Is What You Get Realtime Interface', which allows users to personalise the game completely to their requirements, and then print out and proof the new design. What I find most interesting about this product offering is that the whole process is completely automated. Once you've designed and ordered your customised game, it goes straight to print/production, and is then sent out to you. No human intervention is required. This appears to me to be pretty ground breaking stuff (well in the Toy World anyway), or am I just way behind the times? (via the Ecademy discussion list)
posted by RobertLoch on Jun 28, 2002 - 28 comments

AOL may buy AT&T broadband in a deal that could allow them to own the browser, net access, data pipes, and content for a vast majority of internet usage and users. How far will AOL/TW go to control any and all forms of media? Are hearings to break the company up far off?
posted by mathowie on Sep 10, 2001 - 14 comments

In the midst of being indignant over the death of the BeOS, Scot Hacker talks about Microsoft's OEM license with hardware vendors. Although Microsoft claims the terms of the agreement are a "trade secret," preventing it from making appearnce in the DOJ circus, apparently it prevents OEMs from installing any non-Microsoft OS along side a Microsoft OS... If true, the "browser integration" thing's just a minor annoyance - this would be monopolistic and anti-competitive... via rc3.org
posted by m.polo on Aug 31, 2001 - 9 comments

You loose, but it's not your fault. I wonder if a winter edition of monopoly will come out because of this.
posted by tiaka on Aug 21, 2001 - 18 comments

PacBell seeks to secure a monopoly Californians urged to contact the PUC to put the brakes on PacBell's plan to kill the independent ISP. Should they be allowed to take their toys and go home or be forced to share? And, what effect will this have on the future of tech companies if PacBell is able to lock out DSL competition?
posted by sillygit on Jul 31, 2001 - 6 comments

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. - Jumpin on bandwagons since 1969.
posted by bondcliff on Jun 20, 2001 - 15 comments

Welcome to the blob. Please watch your step. It looks like Viacom's going to swallow up Yahoo! and all its assorted properties. What does this leave untouched, by partnerships or redistribution deals or what-have-you? Anything? (Who was it again who was predicting that one large company that controlled everything called Omnivox? I remember reading about it somewhere when I was, like, ten or so.)
posted by maura on Jan 17, 2001 - 11 comments

The U.S. Post office is a monopoly! or is it? USPS allows rate hike under protest...
We can't choose another vendor for this service. It is illegal for anyone to deliver to a mailbox other than the USPS. Has there ever been a substantial court case challenging this?
Should it be privatized? Your thoughts?
posted by ooklah on Jan 10, 2001 - 40 comments

Simpsons Monopoly One wonders why they don't include a pewter figure of Mr. Burns to encourage future capitalists.
posted by ed on Dec 12, 2000 - 0 comments

Wow! Non-election related news. Courtesy of Linux Weekly News (which came out this morning), a picture of the new ".com" version of Monopoly. Did they get the companies in the order of priority you would have expected?
posted by baylink on Nov 10, 2000 - 8 comments

It looks like the Microsoft vs. DOJ case might be worth paying attention to again, as their settlement talks have ended. "After more than four months, it is apparent that the disagreements among the parties . . . are too deep-seated to be bridged," said mediator, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will probably issue a verdict any day now.
posted by endquote on Apr 2, 2000 - 0 comments