Welcome to the newest blogger

Jen just joined the blog. Welcome!

ACLU Denounces FBI Tactics Targeting Political Protesters

I had no idea that the FBI treated protesters like criminals. This press release by the ACLU asks them to stop, and links to an FBI memo, and a DOJ opinion discussing spying on protesters. My recommendation? Protest all you want -- but in disguise :-)

American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Denounces FBI Tactics Targeting Political Protesters

Sci-fi - growing a mouth on a shoulder blade

A german man eats a german sausage after a mesh cage in his shoulder blade was used to grow a new, replacement jaw bone. Stem cells at work.
Full, True Story

Lightning Pool

Fun flash game. Thanks to Steve Bass for the lead!

Closure on the JibJab "This Land" song case

It's over. The law suit over whether the hilarious "This Land is My Land" Kerry-Bush animation is an illegal rip-off or not.

Apparently, Woody Guthrie published the song in 1945, and did not bother to renew the copyright 28 years later. So it dropped off into the public domain. Yay!

EFF, who served as JibJab's lawyers, made the announcement. And Wired News has a good article about the settlement.

Misc Magician News

I was in Las Vegas for a week or so, and saw a ton of shows. Now that I'm home I decided to pop the keyword 'magician' into Google News and see what odd stories pop up. Here are some highlights:

Entertainers for Bush is a grassroots organization whose purpose is to rally support for President Bush in the entertainment community. Jeff Hobson, who I saw this week in Vegas, is one of the members.

A Gang of Balloon Twisters roam the streets in San Mateo, CA.

David Copperfield plays party-planner to three NYC party planners. It's an odd story, but basically he threw a party for them in his Manhattan penthouse to promote their new book called Fete Accompli!: The Ultimate Guide To Creative Entertaining Get it from Amazon here.

David Blaine made the list of top-ten most unpopular people in London. It's a bit odd, since I thought he lived here in NYC. He came in #4, behind a shady union boss and the mayor, but ahead of the boss of Starbucks. Oh well, it's a short story, so you might as well take a look here or even here.

This bizarre story alleges that an Israeli magician bilked teens out of money after pretending to get them modeling gigs. He should go to South Beach and pick up women -- they all want to be models :-)

A Magician/DJ named Brian West in Wisconsin is ordered to stop performing for kids because he is a convicted sex offender. Luckily the story is short because I don't want to read much about it.

There's a story about a street magician in Pittsburgh having a tough time. It's just not a busking town. Oh well.

This next one is from Pakistan. I'm quoting the whole story:
Black magician poisons girl
LAHORE: A black magician on Friday morning poisoned to death a teen-aged girl. Her body was found in Shafiqabad police precincts. Police said Humera was brought by her mother and uncle for ‘treatment’. They stayed in a hotel and contacted the ‘black magician’, who poisoned her to set her free from the magic spell. Humera died later in the hotel room. Later, her body was packed in a bed sheet and thrown at Ravi National Park. The police found the hotel’s tag on the bedsheet and arrested Humera’s mother and uncle.

Finally, I found a Mentalist's show that claims to have god-like powers. It's the Kaballah Show, and will be in NYC next month. Should be fun ;-)

Read your fortune mame?

I gave this post very thourough consideration. The man has recently published a book on the topic and it is on the internet so it must be legit. Plus if this sort of futune telling does catch on it would be one heck of a business.
Full Story

Everyone Loves to Get Applause

Very unfortunate, toy making is a worthy endeavour. Now, if he had focused on real estate first and toys second where would that leave him? What if he owned the building his toy company was in? He wouldn't have been threatened with eviction that's for sure.

Applause.com

Toy company Applause CEO commits suicide

New York Store - No Change In Its Cash Registers

The owner has opted to round all purchases down to the nearest dollar. This is great! I wonder if he sells candybars? There has to be something to buy for under a dollar :)

New York Store Carries No Change In Its Cash Registers

England Jealous of W. Bush

England lacking the office of president, more precisely the role of George W. Bush, is looking to restore a once lost, but not forgotten, power position. I wonder if 'W' has a suit with bells?

Full Story

Fire breather is burned at party

Yep, the flames came back at her and burned her face and torso. It's really dangerous to breath fire.

From the good magi on the Genii Forum is a link to site with Fire Breathing Safety, and a book/video on how to do it properly.

I wish I had these when I started playing around with fire stuff. Luckily I got bored (and nearly arrested) early on and stopped.

Fire breather is burned at party

Micrsoft's new product will hurt TV, help pornographers

This is a great article about Microsoft's upcoming PMC, or Personal Media Center.

Here's a quote:

I was wrong when I called the PMC "dumb." It's smart—smarter than I ever could have imagined, actually. You've got to think big to create something capable of simultaneously killing off one of America's best loved industries, while at the same time making pornography socially acceptable. My hat's off to Microsoft. Because even if round one of the PMC fails, watch out. By version three, they'll get it right.

Read the rest

Finger Head

This is the most disturbing picture I've seen in a long time.

team america

The creators of South Park have a new movie coming out in October -- Team America. Check out the trailer.

Another good one is Will Ferrel as President Bush in this ad for ACT.

On a serious note, people continue to be murdered in Iraq. The latest is a Turkish man who was shot in the head. Another blogger links to the video. Check it out if you have the stomach for it.