28 November 2008

US Black Friday results: temporary Wal-Mart employee trampled to death, two dead in Toys ‘R’ Us Shooting

Every mention of this story is a free ad for Amazon.

16 August 2008

Crime-ridden Arkansas town expands 24-hour curfew

“As far as I’m concerned, at 3 o’clock in the morning, nobody has any business being on the street, except the law,” Councilman Eugene “Red” Johnson said. “Anyone out at 3 o’clock shouldn’t be out on the street, unless you’re going to the hospital.”

[via:mummila]

GITMO simulation at Coney Island amusement park

“If you climb up a few cinderblock steps to the small window, you can look through the bars at a scene meant to invoke a Guantánamo Bay interrogation. A lifesize figure in a dark sweatshirt, the hood drawn low over his face, leans over another figure in an orange jumpsuit, his face covered by a towel and his body strapped down on a tilted surface.”

[via:Metafilter]

14 August 2008

UK Gov’t Proposes Massive Internet Snooping, Data Storage

[via:Slashdot]

13 August 2008

Rat-Brained Robots could be useful in study of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy

See also: Youtube link, brief news item and video by BBC.

[via:Slashdot]

New science-changing research linking dopamine to complex social phenomena

[via:Metafilter]

10 August 2008

The Pirate Bay blocked in Italy

[via:the pirate bay]

9 August 2008

Actor Robbie Coltrane’s face used on NZ wanted poster

Actor Robbie Coltrane used as placeholder on NZ wanted poster announcing teenaged burglar

“Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar, but imagine him aged 16 with lank greasy hair and you have the picture”

[via:wordepletion]

5 August 2008

Free Culture Showcase to be included on Ubuntu disc images

“For the next release of Ubuntu we want to [...] show off some free culture artists by putting their media on millions of Ubuntu systems around the world. [...] The deadline for submissions is 4th September 2008.”

[via:mummila]

31 July 2008

Man decapitates passenger aboard Greyhound bus in Canada

“While we were watching the door, he calmly walks up to the front with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us”

[via:Fark]

25 July 2008

Russian government to regulate Emo and Goth culture?

“Last month the State Duma held a hearing on “Government Strategy in the Sphere of Spiritual and Ethical Education”, a piece of legislation aimed at curbing “dangerous teen trends”. There, without a clue in the world, social conservatives lumped “emos” together with skinheads, pushing for heavy regulation of emo websites and the banning of emo and goth fashion from schools and government buildings.”

Meditation Shown To Slow Progression Of HIV

“Researchers at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) report that the practice of mindfulness meditation can halt the decline of CD4-T cells in HIV-positive patients.”

24 July 2008

Apollo 14 Moonwalker Claims Aliens Exist

This is reported by News.com.au, owned by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch/News Corp also owns 20th Century Fox, the studio about to release The X-Files: I Want To Believe in US theaters on Friday. COINCIDENCE?!!1eleven

(This is hardly relevant, RM probably owns enough of the English speaking world’s media to make it unlikely that any news is reported by an outlet not owned by News Corp)

[via:Slashdot]

Memphis police director sues for critical bloggers’ names

“Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis[, Tennessee] have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department.

The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar.

“In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment,” the anonymous bloggers write on the site, “Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to ruin the Constitution of the United States.”

[via:Slashdot]

23 July 2008

Sweden: Drunken elk meets sorry end after toddler attack

“Three-year-old Nova was playing in her backyard sandbox when a young elk calf attacked and bit her.”

Hee hee.