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Upload a File, Go to Prison. A new bill called the Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003, or ACCOPS, proposed in US Congress on Wednesday would land a person in prison for five years and impose a fine of $250,000 for uploading a single file to a peer-to-peer network. The bill "clarifies" that uploading a single file of copyright content qualifies as a felony. Penalties for such an offense include up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. In addition, filming a movie in a theater without authorization would immediately qualify as a federal offense.
posted by riffola at 11:58 PM PST - 36 comments

From the NYT (reg req.'d) This is the saddest story I can imagine. "It was only a week ago that the tiny body of Stephanie Ramos was found in a plastic bag in a garbage truck in the Bronx, discarded by a foster mother who told the police that she panicked when the severely disabled girl died. It was an ugly ending by any measure, but particularly cruel in this case because the little girl's life began the same way: wrapped in a plastic bag and discarded on a New York City byway." Has anyone ever been a foster parent? A foster child? Are things often this bad - and this good? (That'll make sense when you read the story.)
posted by Jos Bleau at 7:21 PM PST - 9 comments

"This summer Mars will be the brightest it will ever be in our lifetimes." On August 26–27 Mars will be the closest it has been in 60,000 years. Some viewing tips can be found here. You can generate different viewpoints with NASA's Solar System Simulator as some have done recently.
posted by john at 6:57 PM PST - 11 comments

Silence of the Lambs: The Musical - Featuring the showstopping tune "If I Could Smell Her..." Ummm...you know what? Just click the link.
posted by ColdChef at 6:26 PM PST - 22 comments

Preparing for War, Stumbling to Peace The Bush administration planned well and won the war with minimal allied casualties. Now, according to interviews with dozens of administration officials, military leaders and independent analysts, missteps in the planning for the subsequent peace could threaten the lives of soldiers and drain U.S. resources indefinitely and cloud the victory itself. Lonely At The Top Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week that he hoped to enlist as many as 30,000 troops from 49 nations. The problem, however, is that many of the recruits the Pentagon has tried to line up so far appear to fall into two categories: the not so willing and the not that able. Report: U.S. May Call National Guard for Iraq Duty - The Pentagon could start a call-up of as many as 10,000 U.S. National Guard soldiers by this winter to bolster forces in Iraq and offset a lack of troops from allies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Postwar Window Closing in Iraq, Study Says A team of outside experts dispatched by the Pentagon to assess security and reconstruction operations in Iraq reported yesterday that the window of opportunity for achieving postwar success is closing and requires immediate and dramatic action by U.S. military and civilian personnel. Turning and turning in the widening gyre...
posted by y2karl at 3:05 PM PST - 52 comments

House Democrats Storm Out of Ways and Means Committee Chairman Calls Capitol Police to Restore Order - ARRRGGGGH! This government is so frustrating. No side is right they are all wrong. Is anything being done for the good of the nation anymore or do they all just do what they want? Poor impulse control all around.
posted by dirtylittlemonkey at 2:00 PM PST - 66 comments

mmm! Mr Brain's faggots!. Ever tried one of Mr Brain's faggots? You can read a review of "Mr. Brain and his faggots" or check out the Doodys the official faggot family or even become a faggot fanatic yourself!
posted by bitdamaged at 12:32 PM PST - 31 comments

He's Canadian, if you know what I mean: According to Matt Drudge, the White House press office specifically tipped him off to the fact that ABC News reporter Jeffrey Kofman is not only gay, but Canadian. Kofman angered the White House with his recent report on the plummeting morale of US troops in Iraq. What's next, White House interns tp'ing the houses of NYTimes columnists? Slam books? Impeachment?
posted by serafinapekkala at 11:16 AM PST - 38 comments

Retro phone fun. Remember the days when telephone numbers included an exhcange, like BUtterfield 8, MUrray Hill 7, or YUkon 5? Even you young whippersnappers can look up your current phone number and see what it's exchange name used to be. If your number isn't in the database, you can check Ma Bell's list of recommended exchange names. The next time someone asks for your number, use the exchange and watch hilarity ensue.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:58 AM PST - 34 comments

The U.S. government launches Hi, a new Arabic-language lifestyle magazine targeted at 18-35 year olds in Middle Eastern countries. Story ideas for the first issue.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:37 AM PST - 13 comments

Defend your castle! Just in time for flash friday...Watch out, it's addictive :)
posted by unreason at 10:22 AM PST - 32 comments

A "Nuremberg Files" of Dogs. In the last week in Portland, OR, 8 dogs have been fatally poisoned by vigilante dog haters planting herbicid-laced sausage in dog parks. Now this group [who claim not affiliation with the dog-killers] has posted a photo gallery of "surveillance" photos of people walking their dogs.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 10:17 AM PST - 108 comments

FBI questions man for reading a critique of Fox News. Marc Shultz, a freelance Atlanta writer was reading a print out of this article in a coffee shop when another patron reading over his shoulder apparently found the content seditious enough to deserve a quick call to the Feds, who sent out two agents to check it out.
posted by jonson at 10:11 AM PST - 53 comments

What does your last name mean? This site has a good variety of surnames with etymologies that seem to be trustworthy in general. You may have to try variant spellings; for instance, "Cardoso" comes up empty, but "Cardozo" gives:

Spanish and Portuguese, derived from Cardoso 'place where thistles grew', town or city from which the first bearer moved; also found in the form CARDOZA; made popular by the Sephardim moiety (Spanish-Portuguese group of Jews).

And if your name isn't there, you can try Behind the Name, which depends on submissions from readers and so is spottier, but has (for example) Nixon ("son of Nicholas"), which vitalog omits. Enjoy!
posted by languagehat at 9:32 AM PST - 52 comments

Little robots in your pants -- Popular Science calls Dockers to investigate their claim that the stain-repellent "Go Khakis" use nanotechnology. Certainly my favorite headline of the day thus far.
posted by logovisual at 9:08 AM PST - 16 comments

Intacto - An interesting foreign language film about the mechanics of luck as a commodity. I just wanted this film last night and am trying to understand all of the possible permutations of how luck worked in this movie. Anyone interested in discussing it is encouraged to do so.
posted by Wong Fei-hung at 8:52 AM PST - 7 comments

Script-O-Rama! Hundreds and hundreds of film scripts, film transcripts, tv show scripts, and anime scripts.
posted by crunchland at 8:43 AM PST - 5 comments

A University, far away. Tens of thousands of U.S. students will lose most or all of their financial aid.
posted by plexi at 8:22 AM PST - 15 comments

Anyone want a prestigious award for journalism? The USC Annenberg School for Journalism is accepting entries for the 2003 Online Journalism Awards, for independent and affiliated sites in eight different categories, including online commentary and creative use of the medium. So, who would you nominate? Any hidden treasures of the web this year?
posted by insomnia_lj at 8:18 AM PST - 2 comments

The Online Etymology Dictionary. I'll be spending most of my day here.
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:03 AM PST - 18 comments

Stone inhabitants and extraordinary houses of Prague. More at the Praha experience.
If you like this, you might also like fifty doors of Paris and San Francisco.
posted by plep at 7:08 AM PST - 6 comments

The World Body Painting Festival will be held in Austria at the end of the month. The event site has some colorful photo galleries from prior years. Are these festivals the modern incarnation of an ancient art and tradition? Is there a gold standard? Some works show great artistry while others, not so much. This photo has always been one of my favorite examples. NSFW - nakedness abounds!
posted by madamjujujive at 7:06 AM PST - 14 comments

Dr David Kelly the alleged 'mole' in the WMD row apparently found dead. He was at the centre of the UK Government's row with the BBC over reporter's claim that the Prime Minister's special adviser, Alistair Campbell, sexed up a dossier on Iraqi WMDs by adding a claim that they could be launched in 45 minutes. The Government says there will be an independent judicial review of the WMD affair if the body is Dr Kelly.
posted by brettski at 7:01 AM PST - 52 comments

The jig is up. Robert Jospeh, a top aide to Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, worked with Dick Checny's office and "insisted" the uranium intel be included in Bush's State of the Union speech.
posted by the fire you left me at 6:34 AM PST - 16 comments

Southeast Airlines has plans to install digital video cameras throughout the cabins of its planes to record the faces and activities of its passengers at all times. Furthermore, the charter airline will store the digitized video for up to 10 years. And it may use face recognition software to match faces to names and personal records.
posted by Irontom at 6:18 AM PST - 17 comments

As a matter of fact, you can tell a book by it's cover.
posted by coudal at 6:14 AM PST - 15 comments

Watchdog's Bark Judicial Watch, the group that's been suing for access to Cheney's Energy Task Force notes, finally gets some docs, and guess what? Way back in 2001, Cheney, et al, were looking at maps of Iraqi oil fields. Is this the bookend clue, that coupled with Rumsfields 9/12 comments about going after Iraq, starts to shed real light on the administrations foreign policy objectives?
posted by tellmenow at 5:30 AM PST - 36 comments

The Star Wars Alphabet Project is where it's at. Jon Palmer is constructing LEGO models of every alphabet starfighter not visualised in the Star Wars universe. I can only wish that I'd thought of this first. Via
posted by armoured-ant at 5:03 AM PST - 14 comments

John Dean's analysis of the administrations case for War. "What I found, in critically examining Bush's evidence, is not pretty. The African uranium matter is merely indicative of larger problems, and troubling questions of potential and widespread criminality when taking the nation to war. It appears that not only the Niger uranium hoax, but most everything else that Bush said about Saddam Hussein's weapons was false, fabricated, exaggerated, or phony."
posted by thedailygrowl at 1:42 AM PST - 73 comments