New items for January 27, 2010: Google Reader: "No one else has access to the world you carry around within, Cover Your Ears, <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/26/why-isnt-a-political-documenta" title="Why Isn't Hillary: The Movie Worth As Much As Nicole Richie’s Shit?”>Why Isn’t Hillary: The Movie Worth As Much As Nicole Richie’s Shit?, Meet the New DEA Administrator…, D.C. Police Raid Wrong Home, City Refuses [...]

Cracked has a humourous little piece up called 7 Bullshit Police Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies), but I find myself knowing better for all of them (in part from interactions with the judicial system, sadly). In regards to #5 — not talking to the police is obstruction of justice — you don’t have to [...]

Important stuff.

According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll: Eight in 10 Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use and nearly half favor decriminalizing the drug more generally, both far higher than a decade ago. If that many people really want medical marijuana, and half as many really want decriminalization (or legalizing) why do so few politicians [...]

New items for January 25, 2010: Google Reader: Bitch Culture, A (Not So) Complete History of Naked ‘Survivor’ Castaways, Wonky content clauses

New items for January 24, 2010: Google Reader: I Tried As Hard As I Could Dad To Grant Your Final Wishes, Ode to Firearms, Social Darwinist Republican? SC Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer makes some stunningly libertarian statements against Society's Moochers

What I’ve been reading lately Siege mentality – The wide world of fictional drugs – Language-related efforts to help out in Haiti – Note also the use of distributed technologies (twitter, etc.) Why condoms don’t offer real protection from STDs – Defending the Planet: NRC Final Report If this goofy WP plugin works the way [...]

It may be possible to smell fear on another person: “The chemical transfer of anxiety may cause a feeling of discomfort in the perceiver. It’s like a sixth sense,” says psychologist Bettina Pause of the University of Düsseldorf in Germany, one of the authors of the paper. Here is the paper at PLoS ONE. I’ve [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy There are only two recession-proof industries: booze and sex. One of them only costs you time, which you will have plenty of being unemployed. The other one simply dulls the pain. Black-markets don’t count because they’ll prosper regardless and could possibly fail if [...]