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Dog Mauling Victim's Partner to Test Wrongful Death Law California law is clear: Only legal heirs -- surviving spouses, children and parents -- are entitled to sue for wrongful death. Not long-term lesbian partners -- but Susan Smith is going to try. [link spotted on web queeries] "The state can't have it both ways, you can't condition a right on marital status, then deny a whole class of people the right of access to be married."
"Any expansion of domestic partner rights is something conservatives in Sacramento, such as the Capitol Resource Institute, will vigorously oppose. 'I sympathize with her loss,' said Karen Holgate, policy director for the institute. 'My second reaction is why would she want to allow herself to be used in her grief for political gains?'"
posted by palegirl at 9:44 PM PST - 10 comments

Racing Past the Truth. A new perspective on Earnhardt's death, the purpose of which is to question the supposed cause of death and general lack of research in the reporting thereof.

The most interesting part, though, is pointing out how the makers of the Head and Neck Restraining System (HANS) are milking his death for all its worth, even though it probably would have done nothing to save him.
posted by thebigpoop at 9:25 PM PST - 10 comments

Love Big Brother? Love Quake 3? Try this
I'm just disappointed that Slash has been ejected already.
posted by davidgentle at 9:04 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Are you a duclod? For at least a decade, mysterious letters have been sent from around the nation to students at a small midwestern college filled with facts about "duclods." From the best I can tell looking at the college newspaper webpage this is not a prank. Has anyone ever heard this term?
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:18 PM PST - 12 comments

Is it just me, or does it seem ridiculous that Napster will have one billion dollars of expendable net income over the next five years that it will be able to pay to the record labels? The labels would be crazy to accept this; in a year, when Napster files for Chapter 11, the settlement would vanish.
posted by delfuego at 5:27 PM PST - 26 comments

Sonic Death Monkey! Somebody obviously is a fan of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity," and has either invented a one-man band or invented a website for a one-man band. This site is worth it for the pictures alone, although the half-mad text ain't bad either.
posted by Skot at 3:41 PM PST - 3 comments

another hairbrained scheme. verisign (owner of network solutions) has devised a proprietory system that will allow cell-phone web-surfing fools to type in a phone number instead of a URL. it seems that "www.news.com" is hard on a keypad. you have until april to apply to the new service (called WebNum) for one of the easy-to-remember numbers...1000, say. at which point WebNum (how much do I like saying that?) will decide on the most "effective" assignment of the requested shortcuts.
posted by rebeccablood at 2:27 PM PST - 16 comments

Muffin Films - charming flash animations centered around muffins. [via 50cups]
posted by plinth at 1:35 PM PST - 8 comments

Britain's best footballer, David Beckham, and his wife Posh Spice are almost as important as royalty. That they have agreed to be interviewed by spoofist Ali G is a tad surprising...read the transcript here.
posted by ecvgi at 1:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Metababy is back and in full effect, I think I was the first to modify it!!!
posted by dancu at 12:34 PM PST - 18 comments

starting your own church It might be wise to start your own church. Pres Bush now must decide whether Scientology is or is not a "true" religion. The president's father got big bucks from Rev. Moon of the Moonies, a group that gave generously to Bush the Father, so I imagine that group is a true religion. We too can feed at the spiritual udder. I hope some faith-based charity goes to Travolta and Cruise.
posted by Postroad at 10:51 AM PST - 30 comments

The Key Vanishes: Scientist Outlines Unbreakable Code [NEW YORK TIMES - free reg required]
In essence, the researcher, Dr. Michael Rabin and his Ph.D. student Yan Zong Bing, have discovered a way to make a code based on a key that vanishes even as it is used. While they are not the first to have thought of such an idea, Dr. Rabin says that never before has anyone been able to make it both workable and to prove mathematically that the code cannot be broken.
 
Once this gets out, the debate on exporting strong crypto would seem to be essentially over.
posted by mikewas at 9:17 AM PST - 10 comments

I usually wouldn't post something that I found through the office "humor" mailing list, but this just seemed very MetaFilterable. Physics geeks especially take note.
posted by jpoulos at 9:12 AM PST - 4 comments

Untangling an online breakup. Seapetal vs. Gothimuscle: a bond between author and bodybuilder formed in bondage ends with matching restraining orders. With a "trail of cyber-breadcrumbs" in the form of scurrious emails, chat-room stalking and nude photos that leads all the way to the Fetish Fleamarket, this anti-love story bears all the trapings of a Boston.com headline on a slow news day. But the question remains: where and how do we process crimes of harassment that occur in virtual places under assumed screen names? What's a real-world restraining order good for when all the attacking is done on the net?
posted by sixfoot6 at 7:53 AM PST - 5 comments

Beyond the bar code: Tags on retail products will send radio signals to their manufacturers, collecting information about consumer habits -- and raising privacy concerns. Radio tag technology is already here, used in fields such in livestock, freight-train cargo and highway tolls. The only barrier to widespread use is consumer products is price. When they can be made for a penny, expect to see them everywhere. From the March issue of MIT Technology Review.
posted by jhiggy at 7:51 AM PST - 13 comments

This article about the stereotyped Black man offered up by nearly every reality TV show broadcast in the US ends just as it's getting to the essence: why is this the "reality" the networks -- and damningly the audiences -- are choosing?
posted by sudama at 6:17 AM PST - 80 comments

Trekkers Rejoice! Word is a new Star Trek television series is in development. Time to pull those rubber ears out of the dresser and head out on the SciFi convention circuit again.
posted by darren at 5:49 AM PST - 25 comments

Blair goes along with us to bomb Iraq. Britain was ready to soften boycott against Iraq. We changed Blair's mind. Drudge reports more sophisticated equipment used by Iraq supplied by China.
posted by Postroad at 4:29 AM PST - 3 comments

Chaos rules the classroom in The Best & The Brightest. How many of these precocious tots can you name? (Jeffrey, I presume you saw this coming.)
posted by jjg at 12:48 AM PST - 83 comments

The Oregon Vortex is a nice place to visit if you enjoy places where things roll uphill and things change size base on their position. Many have tried to figure it out. Physicist John Lister spent forty years there only to burn all his notes.

When is someone going to let the vortex genie out?
posted by john at 12:22 AM PST - 40 comments