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What's your favorite museum and why?
posted by christina at 11:34 PM PST - 40 comments

Are we too tough on crime? "Nationwide, crime rates today are comparable to those of the 1970s, but the incarceration rate is four times higher than it was then. It's not crime that has increased; it's punishment." Yes, of course, people who do bad things should be punished. But is the current system worth the social and economic cost? Is there any better way to go about this? (Note: Lots of interesting internal links within the article.)
posted by edlark at 8:02 PM PST - 27 comments

The EFF gets a meeting with Adobe, but does it come quickly enough? I, for one, am not ready to easily forgive and forget the company's actions, regardless how strong Adobe's case against him. Keep your eye on the ball and maybe we'll see a bad law overturned and an injustice corrected.
posted by Kikkoman at 7:17 PM PST - 20 comments

Another flash movie attempts to be both 'witty' and 'clever'. Remember kids, friends don't let friends make crappy flash movies in hopes of becoming the next AYBABTU.
posted by jcterminal at 3:28 PM PST - 23 comments

You, too, can be a male porn star! All you need is some Viagra to give you the stamina for a five-scene workday on the set.
posted by msacheson at 12:47 PM PST - 28 comments

Hundreds flush with excitement during test of arena's plumbing "We just drank a lot of tea at El Fenix, and we're ready to do what we can for our Stars," Diana Parker said before marching off to her assigned station. You have to use a email and password...so use mine. It's worth it. email - 404@404.com password - password.
posted by bradth27 at 12:14 PM PST - 7 comments

Nurses have to be virgins. Turkey's health minister says high school girls studying to be nurses must be virgins and the virginity tests he is authorizing will protect the nation's youth from prostitution and underage sex.
posted by nonharmful at 12:02 PM PST - 9 comments

author on book on George W. Bush a suicide...and will be buried next to Vince Foster?
posted by Postroad at 11:09 AM PST - 27 comments

Berlin Teen Fails to Stop Flying Cow Spectacle. I tried and tried to come up with an appropriate smart aleck comment for this one... but to no avail. I did learn that it is legal to have a food fight in Berlin however.
posted by fluxcreative at 10:40 AM PST - 27 comments

If somehow you could pack up your sorrows.... Mimi Farina dies at 56. I read Richard Farina's book a while back, but it wasn't until this year that I heard Richard & Mimi singing. In my alternate reality, Richard doesn't die, and writes a dozen more books including one with his pal Tom Pynchon; Mimi isn't eclipsed by her older sister, and the two keep singing for another 30 years.
posted by idiolect at 10:09 AM PST - 3 comments

Protester dies in G8 summit clash A demonstrator has been killed amid clashes in the Italian city of Genoa where the leaders of the world's major industrialised countries are meeting for an annual summit.
posted by jbelshaw at 9:51 AM PST - 155 comments

Powell won't serenade his peers at Asian meeting The U.S. Secretary of State has finally found something that's above and beyond the call of duty. And it's a shame, really. I mean, what would his singing voice sound like? I must know! Would it put Vietnam Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien's folk song to shame? Would he have a dusky, husky Barry White purr or a silky Harry Belafonte rasp?
posted by allaboutgeorge at 9:50 AM PST - 7 comments

"There might be consumer expectations here, but there is no legal right." For the last several months, music consumers around the world have unwittingly been buying CDs that include technology designed to discourage them from making copies on their PCs. The technology inserts audible clicks and pops into music files that are copied from a CD onto a PC. According to Macrovision, the company that has provided the technology to several major music labels. (I want to say "Fuck the music industry," but that would be rude.)
posted by tranquileye at 9:08 AM PST - 48 comments

From The Smoking Gun comes a couple of fabulously funny court orders courtesy of the Honorable Samuel B. Kent of Texas. First, we have a order denying a motion to transfer (the good stuff starts on page 2, second paragraph). My favorite line: Defendant will again be pleased to know that regular limousine service is available from Hobby Airport, even to the steps of the humble courthouse, which has got lights, indoor plummin', 'lectric doors, and all sorts of new stuff, almost like them big courthouses back East. The second one is an equally funny Order or Transfer for the Republic of Bolivia vs. Phillip Morris.
posted by internal at 9:00 AM PST - 17 comments

Lizzie Grubman is beginning to lose her clients finally. As posted earlier this is an interesting story.
posted by da5id at 7:43 AM PST - 20 comments

Germans to build Dracula theme park "German investors and the Romanian
government are planning to develop Dracula Land, a "terror" theme park in Transylvania that officials hope will boost the country's ailing tourism industry"
posted by christina at 7:42 AM PST - 8 comments

Citizen wins 3-year battle on bogus jaywalking ticket, but his lawyer pockets most of the $27,500 settlement. Ahh, well, at least he fought the good fight and won.
posted by fleener at 6:37 AM PST - 12 comments

Slumping Sales. The RIAA appears to be losing money so far this year because people aren't buying as many cd's and aren't going to as many concerts. It's hard to tell if there's some correlation between the demise of napster and the falling sales or if the numbers are down because the new album's coming out aren't really that good. Personally, I'd say a little bit of both. I haven't purchased many cd's this year, although there are one or two that I plan to pick up in the coming months (only because I've already downloaded the songs and know that it's worth the money).
posted by dave at 6:05 AM PST - 37 comments

Cat that lived in bookstore dies at age 20. What seems like a fairly cut and dried local interest story cranked out by hacks at our crappy hometown rag is ohhhh so much more. Click through to the comments to get the inside scoop.
posted by machaus at 5:17 AM PST - 56 comments

Want to Live Rent Free? Get sick. What is a landlord to do when they have the legal right to evict a tenant, follow all of the legal procedures to evict a tenant, and then the judge forces them to allow the tenant to stay, rent free, for an unspecified length of time? How is it that this man's landlord suddenly has to pick up the slack/cost left by government sponsored social services, at a steep personal cost?

At what point do you become responsible for other people's survival?
posted by kristin at 2:01 AM PST - 41 comments