CANNIBAL UPSET ABOUT MOVIE
"For more than three years, the man known as the Cannibal of Rotenburg has held Germans in grisly thrall, with his lurid tale of killing and eating a willing victim he found through the Internet.
Now, as he stands trial for a second time on murder charges, the man, Armin Meiwes, has persuaded a German court to ban a horror film based on the notorious case, in part because it is, if possible, too lurid."
(NEW YORK TIMES)

HOW HIGH TIMES WOULD DESIGN A GROW ROOM
"This is how they grow it in Tennessee. This growroom was underneath a house in a cave. The entrance was through a secret hydraulic door in the garage that led to a concrete ramp that went about 50 yards into the ground. Inside the cave was living quarters and a secret escape hatch that led you through a tunnel that exited via another hydraulic door that opened up a rock on the outside. It was very elaborate. The set up allowed them to harvest every 60 days which resulted in multi-million dollar sales."
(PHISHHOOK, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

PHOTOS OF MOBILE'S MARDI GRAS 2006 POSTED
Just click on the red hyperlink to see some photos from this year's Mardi Gras in Mobile.

BILL WOULD BAN GOP PARENTS
"If an Ohio lawmaker's proposal becomes state law, Republicans would be barred from being adoptive parents.
The bill's proponent said his “tongue was planted firmly in cheek” when he drafted the proposed legislation. However, Hagan said that the point he is trying to make is nonetheless very serious.
(Lawrence Journal World, unearthed by Patti Martin)

MISSING LAWYER FOUND AFTER 7 MONTH HIATUS
A homeless man has been ID'd as Raymond Power Jr., 57, a New York lawyer who had been missing for almost seven months after suffering amnesia. Power somehow ended up at a Chicago homeless shelter and was assisted in finding out his identity by another shelter resident.
(AMERICA'S MOST WANTED, unearthed by Bill Messick)

USE OF HALLUCINOGENIC TEA UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT
In Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, No. 04-1084, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. delivered the opinion on behalf of a unanimous Court affirming the Tenth Circuit's ruling that the federal government failed to demonstrate, at the preliminary injunction stage, a compelling interest in barring respondent's sacramental use of the hallucinogenic tea known as hoasca.
(SCOTUS, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

AGREE WITH US OR WE'LL PUT YOU IN PRISON
"British historian David Irving was sentenced in Austria to three years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to charges of denying the Holocaust, saying he erred in contending there were no Nazi gas chambers during the Second World War.
Irving could have received a 10-year prison term. Under Austrian law, it is a crime to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust."
(CBC)

INTERROGATION POLICY CAUSED INTERNAL CONFLICTS AT PENTAGON
"One of the military's top civilian lawyers, one of many dissenters inside the Pentagon,repeatedly challenged the Bush administration's policy on the coercive interrogation of terror suspects, arguing that such practices violated the law, verged on torture and could ultimately expose senior officials to prosecution, a newly disclosed document shows.
But Mr. Mora's campaign against what he viewed as an official policy of cruel treatment, detailed in a memorandum he wrote in July 2004 and recounted in an article in the Feb. 27 issue of The New Yorker magazine, made public yesterday, underscored again how contrary views were often brushed aside in administration debates on the subject.
(NEW YORK TIMES)

IN CHINA INTERNET HOLDS PROMISE OF BREAKING GOVERNMENT STRANGLEHOLD
"Eleven years after young Chinese returning from graduate study in the United States persuaded the party to offer Internet access to the public, China is home to one of the largest, fastest-growing and most active populations of Internet users in the world, according to several surveys. With more than 111 million people connected to the Web, China ranks second to the United States."
(WASHINGTON POST)

DOPEY LEGISLATORS PROPOSE DOPEY LAW
"Some Geogia lawmakers want "Potsuckers" - sweets being marketed with marijuana-themed names like Purple Erkle, Blue Haze and Rasta lollipops - off the shelves and away from kids. Bill 511, a measure that would ban the sale of marijuana- or hemp-flavored candy in Georgia. The Bill's sponsor argues that "dope candy" may lead to future marijuana and drug use by young people.
(ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION)

ZACK SOTO FEATURED IN ARTICLE
Call him old school if you like. But at a time when the Frank Miller-chomping masses are tearing stand-alone graphic novels and Japanese manga off the shelves with fervor to spare, Baton Rouge artist Zack Soto holds an unwavering belief in the serial comic."
(225BATONROUGE.COM)

MEET THE .COMmunist
Columbia Law professor Eben Moglen believes "the bourgeoisie" -- namely, Microsoft, The Walt Disney Co., the WTO, the U.S. Congress and the European Commission -- form "an unholy alliance" controlling culture and information. And he advocates for the abolition of all IP laws. But he's no Marxist. This self-proclaimed "dotCommunist," who just happens to have some of the world's biggest tech companies paying his bills, sits at the forefront of a growing political technology movement. Its goal? Free software.
(LAW.COM)

WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN UNIQUE CONTEST TO BENEFIT HUNGRY
If you want to marvel at the creativity of some design firms go to this site for Canstruction. Trademarked by the Society for Design Administration (SDA) and held in conjunction with chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and allied professional organizations, it is an annual charity competition where design firms test their mettle to see who can build the most astounding structure made entirely from full cans of food. At the close of the competition all of the food used in the structures is donated to local food banks to feed those most in need. Structures, ranging in size from 1,000 to 13,000 cans, are created by stacking a variety of can sizes and shapes using the product labels as the color pallet. Structurally self-supporting, the only other materials to be used are 1/4 leveling, cardboard, tape, rubber bands and wire. This past year competitions took place in 45 cities across North America. "
(unearthed by Tommy Bealle)

A RESPONSE TO SALIM LAMRANI'S ARTICLE
Good friend and fellow traveler (to Cuba) Ted Henken has some pretty insightful responses to Salim's article. Check it out!

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA'S COVERAGE OF CUBA
Here's something that I saw today that is very interesting. The main premise is the notion that the role of the mainstream media is not to offer objective information to citizens but to defend the established political, economic and social order through diverse effective means such as propaganda, disinformation and censorship and that the role of the alternative media is to build a wall against the manipulation of reality.

It looks at Cuba, which it says is the "textbook case that should be studied at any center for the research of disinformation, because it has reached an unimaginable level of sophistication." It criticizes "the enormous difference between the ideological representation spread by the Western media and the reality inside the country," claiming that the mainstream media's "toxicity toward the Cuban problem is so effective that it has contaminated even the most progressive sectors of the developed world."
(PROGRESO WEEKLY)