SISTINE CHAPEL FRESCO TRANSLATED INTO GRAFFITI
Lying on industrial scaffolding, his legs dangling high above the ground, graffiti artist Paco Rosic reaches for a can of Leather Brown paint. With a quick, rattling shake, he squeezes the nozzle and adds subtle highlights to the hand of God reaching for Adam, as he attempts to recreate Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel frescoes in his own street style.
(From a Seattle Times Story)

INSULTED TURKEYS
All caught up in issues like rendition, wiretaps and secret tribunals, we tend to forget that things are really screwed up elsewhere. Turkish novelist Elif Shafak has been acquitted in the case against her which was for, get this, "insulting Turkishness", a case stemming from remarks in her latest novel. She had faced up to three years imprisonment. Here's the best part of this: Shafak, who gave birth to her first child on Saturday, was unable to attend the trial and it was not postponed."
(CIHAN NEWS AGENCY, unearthed by Zaman Online)

RENTAL FEES FOR ROTARY PHONE WERE $14,000
Relatives of an elderly woman in Ohio are outraged. They say that over the past 42 years she has paid approximately $14,000 U.S. in rental fees for her two landline rotary dial phones.
(NEWS.COM, unearthed by infopackets)

"SORRY" SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD
"A government commission on Monday exonerated a Canadian computer engineer of any ties to terrorism and issued a scathing report that faulted Canada and the United States for his deportation four years ago to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured.

The report on the engineer, Maher Arar, said American officials had apparently acted on inaccurate information from Canadian investigators and then misled Canadian authorities about their plans for Mr. Arar before transporting him to Syria.
(NEW YORK TIMES)

14,000 ARABS IN LIMBO
In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law. Defenders of the system say it's an unfortunate necessity in the battles to pacify Iraq and Afghanistan, and to keep suspected terrorists out of action. But many say that the detention system often is unjust and hurts the war on terror by inflaming anti-Americanism in Iraq and elsewhere.
(AP, unearthed by Common Dreams)

POWELL LETTER TO MCCAIN
"Here is a link to a letter sent by former Secretary of Defense and General Colin L. Powell to Senator John McCain expressing opposition to President Bush's expressed interest in having Congress pass legislation to circumvent the Geneva Convention.

SEE ALSO THIS LETTER FROM 29 RETIRED MILITARY LEADERS URGING CONGRESS TO REJECT THE PROPOSAL
(FINDLAW)

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE
Internet geeks have been unearthing some remarkable China secrets. Using Internet programs like Google Earth to view satellite and aerial images of the world they have spotted an underwater submarine tunnel off China's Hainan Island, a mock-up of a Taiwanese air base in China's remote western desert, and a huge and startlingly accurate terrain model in northwest China that replicates a sensitive border area with India.
(COMMON DREAMS)

ABU GHRAIB FILES
"279 photographs and 19 videos from the Army's internal investigation record a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious prison -- and make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable.
(SALON)

YOU'VE GOT MAIL: YOU'RE FIRED!
Radio Shack executives defended their impersonal approach of sending termination notices to 400 employees by email. They said it was more merciful than face-to-face interaction because it was quicker and gave workers more privacy.
The workforce reduction notification is currently in progress,' the bloodless message Read. 'Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated.
(OREGONIAN)

STING NABS ILLEGAL TRADERS
"It began with a tip. A phone call from a concerned woman to a federal agency that an illegal trade was about to take place. That was in August 2004. A small player was arrested, but the call set investigators on a trail that led them from coast to coast, and they eventually arrested nine persons and accused them of illegal trading.
(WASHINGTON POST)

WTF!?!
"An Ohio grandmother fought for and won the right to keep her personalized license plate after allegations that they were profane.
(MSNBC, unearthed by Thomas DiGiulan)

PORN BOOB-BOOB
"Sweden's state broadcaster SVT on Monday faced ridicule for their porn boo-boo. They mistakenly showed a porn movie in the background of a news broadcast over the weekend. Viewers of a five-minute news update at midnight on Saturday could see explicit scenes from a Czech porn movie on a TV screen behind news anchor Peter Dahlgren.
(AP, unearthed by Kate Varner)

BIN LADEN'S DREAM GIRL
Although he claimed music was evil, Bin Laden spoke of spending vast amounts of money to go to America and try and arrange a meeting with her.
(ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION)

ALABAMA CHURCH GROUP FINED FOR CUBAN TRAVEL
"U.S. Treasury officials have fined an Alabama church group $34,000, accusing members of Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham and several other churches of engaging in prohibited tourist activities while in Cuba last year for religious purposes.
(BIRMINGHAM NEWS, unearthed by Jack Zylman)

DUTY TO DO JUSTICE
The problem is that lawyers' often considerable skills can be harnessed to extraordinarily undemocratic and troubling ends. To be sure, it is sometimes the advocate's job to make weak arguments look strong, and vice-versa. But government lawyers have a different calling. They have a duty to argue what is right, not just what is convenient. Their motto is, 'The government wins when justice is done' - not, 'The government wins when it gets to do whatever it wants.'
(FINDLAW, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)