This blog has the tagline “an illustrated introduction to criminal law and procedure.” It’s part webcomic and part law class, and all interesting. Author Nathaniel Burney breaks down criminal culpability into small pieces so we can understand some of the many facets of crime and the justice system. In the latest post, there are quite a few people who hate “you,” but they have different intents and take different actions. Which ones are guilty of attempted murder? The concepts are laid out in logical order from the beginning of the blog, but it’s not totally necessary to read them in order. Link -Thanks, Wiseayse!

According to an amendment to the local government act, passed by a strong majority in parliament last month, those found sleeping on the streets will first receive a warning.

They can subsequently be imprisoned or ordered to pay the fine.

The move has provoked widespread criticism, including from Hungary’s human rights ombudsman, the BBC’s Nick Thorpe reports.

Miklos Vecsei, deputy head of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, said the law had not been passed on the basis of any rational or professional criteria but because the public were fed up with the homeless.

Since people who cannot afford a home would likely be unable to pay a fine, one would assume that the state will have to incarcerate homeless people caught breaking the law. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Wikipedia user Nuclear Vacuum)

How did that happen? The ticket was supposed to be dated back to 2008, but the officer missed one of those critical zeros, dating the ticket 208. Whoops! Since then everything has been fixed and the guilty party was happy to pay his 100 Euro fine.

Link Via The Consumerist Image Via Superchou [Flickr]

Link Via BuzzFeed

When police went to investigate, they were met by a herd of about 50 exotic animals, and Thompson’s body in the driveway. “I had deputies that had to shoot animals with their side arms,” said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz. Soon after, officials from nearby Columbus Zoo came armed with tranquilizers to help locate and rescue as many of the animals as possible. But it didn’t go as planned: ”We just had a huge tiger, an adult tiger that must’ve weighed 300 pounds, that was very aggressive. We got a tranquilizer in it, and this thing just went crazy,” Lutz said. After the incident, he ordered a shoot-to-kill for the remaining animals.

49 of Thompson’s 56 animals were dead and buried on his property, at the request of his estranged wife, by Wednesday morning. Authorities captured a grizzly, three leopards and two monkeys, which were sent to the Columbus Zoo for safekeeping. A baboon possibly infected with hepatitis B was still missing as of Wednesday night.

How did this happen?

Ohio has extremely lax governance over the ownership of exotic animals. The state’s “inadequate regulation” puts it near the bottom of the list in a 2009 report from the Humane Society of the United States. And earlier this year, an emergency rule which “prohibited people convicted of animal cruelty from owning exotic animals” expired, allowing Thompson, who was previously charged with and found guilty of animal cruelty and neglect, to keep his 56 lions and tigers and bears.

Public safety vs. animal protection

Immediately after this story broke, Zanesville residents and national news viewers began calling the sheriff’s office and Zanesville area shelter to ask why the animals–many of them listed as endangered species–were being killed rather than tranquilized or recaptured. The short answer: No time. The longer answer is best explained by Jack Hanna, beloved animal rights activist and director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo:

“[Y]ou can’t tranquilize an animal in the dark. It upsets them … they settle in, they hunker down, they go to sleep. Obviously, we can’t find them in the dark. So what had to be done had to be done. Even a bear came after one of the officers last night, and she was just trying to get out of a car. … No one loves animals more than me, but human life has to come first.”

As night descended on Ohio and liberated exotic animals ran loose, swift and decisive action was needed to protect the human residents of Zanesville; unfortunately, it was at the expense of Thompson’s pets. The Humane Society supports Lutz’s actions and those of his team, and PETA, in a written statement, blamed legislation instead of law enforcement for the deaths.

Preventative action

Over the years, Lutz received “around 35 calls” about Thompson’s farm–all concerning “animals running loose to animals not being treated properly.” He went on to say that his office has “handled numerous complaints here, we’ve done numerous inspections here. So this has been a huge problem for us for a number of years.”

Former governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, imposed the legislation that was allowed by current governor, John Kasich, to lapse in April. Of Thompson, he said, “Someone with a record like this man was not intended to have these animals.” Strickland asserted that Thompson “would almost certainly have had his animals removed by May 1, 2011, if the emergency order had not expired.”

PETA, for its part, has been petitioning Ohio (and a number of other states) for years to institute “an outright ban” on owning exotic animals. The group is currently asking the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to “exercise its authority to declare emergency regulations to prohibit the keeping of exotic animals” as well as petitioning the state to “seize the animals over whom the agency has jurisdiction and see that they are placed in reputable sanctuaries.” Whether Gov. Kasich will comply has yet to be seen.

Is an outright ban on owning exotic animals the right move here, or should there just be stricter limitations on who can keep the animals (and where)?

Sources:

• Deputies Hunt Exotic Animals on the Loose in Ohio
• Freed tigers, lions and bears cause panic in Ohio
• Exotic animal laws called into question after Ohio killings
• Humane Society Doesn’t Fault Ohio Authorities In Animal Deaths
• At Least Two Dozen Dead in Ohio

Image

by Seth Jarndyl, Improbable Research staff

What is the lengthiest spoken oath regularly required of witnesses in a formal legal trial? I believe the answer is: 374 words, in the legal courts of Burma (now Myanmar), until at least the middle of the nineteenth century.

That, anyway, is the longest I have found in examining legal documents and historical reports from the nations of the world over the past five hundred years. If anyone knows of, and can document, a longer oath, I would of course be pleased to hear of it.

The Burmese Oath

A English translation of the oath appears in Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie’s 1853 book Burmah and the Burmese, published in London. Mackenzie writes:

Witnesses, both in the civil and criminal causes, are sometimes examined upon oath, though not always. The oath is written in a small book of pa1m-leaves, and is held over the head of the witness. Foreigners, however, take their own oaths.

Mackenzie calls the small book The Book of Imprecations, but says that “the Burmese call it, the Book of the Oath.” It includes some sentiments for any witness who would testify untruthfully:

May all those who, in consequence of bribery from either party, do not speak the truth, incur the eight dangers and the ten punishments. May they be infected with all sorts of diseases.

Moreover, may they be destroyed by elephants, bitten and slain by serpents, killed and devoured by the devils and giants, the tigers, and other ferocious animals of the forest. May whoever asserts a falsehood be swallowed by the earth, may he perish by sudden death, may a thunderbolt from heaven slay him—the thunderbolt which is one of the arms of the Nat Deva.

May false witnesses die of bad diseases, be bitten by crocodiles, be drowned. May they become poor, hated of the king. May they have calumniating enemies, may they be driven away, may they become utterly wretched, may every one ill-treat them, and raise lawsuits against them. May they be killed with swords, lances, and every sort of weapon. May they be precipitated into the eight great hells and the 120 smaller ones. May they be tormented. May they be changed into dogs. And, if finally they become men, may they be slaves a thousand and ten thousand times. May all their undertakings, thoughts, and desires, ever remain as worthless as a heap of cotton burnt by the fire.

When it comes time for the witness to speak, says Mackenzie, “The book of the oath is held over the deponent’s head, and he says:”

I will speak the truth. If I speak not the truth, may it be through the influence of the laws of demerit, viz., passion, anger, folly, pride, false opinion, immodesty, hard heartedness, and scepticism, so that when I and my relations are on land, land animals, as tigers, elephants, buffaloes, poisonous serpents, scorpions, &c., shall seize, crush, and bite us, so that we shall certainly die. Let the calamities occasioned by fire, water, rulers, thieves, and enemies oppress and destroy us, till we perish and come to utter destruction. Let us be subject to all the calamities that are within the body, and all that axe without the body. May we be seized with madness, dumbness, blindness, deafness, leprosy, and hydrophobia. May we be struck with thunderbolts and lightning, and come to sudden death. In the midst of not speaking truth may I be taken with vomiting clotted black blood, and suddenly die before the assembled people. When I am going by water, may the water Nats assault me, the boat be upset, and the property lost; and may alligators, porpoises, sharks, or other sea monsters, seize and crush me to death; and when I change worlds, may I not arrive among men or Nats, but suffer unmixed punishment and regret, in the utmost wretchedness, among the four states of punishment, Hell, Prita, Beasts, and Athurakai.

If I speak the truth, may I and my relations, through the influence of the ten laws of merit, and on account of the efficacy of truth, be freed from all calamities within and without the body; and may evils which have not yet come, be warded far away. May the ten calamities and five enemies also be kept faraway. May the thunderbolts and lightning, the Nat of the waters, and all sea anima1s, love me, that I may be safe from them. May my prosperity increase like the rising sun and the waxing moon; and may the seven possessions, the seven laws, and the seven [merits of the virtuous, be permanent in my person; and when I change worlds, may I not go to the four states of punishment, but attain the happiness of men and Nats, and realize merit, reward, and perfect calm.1

After the concluding thoughts of hope and cheer, the witness, if he is still alive and not seized with madness, dumbness, blindness, deafness, leprosy, and hydrophobia, testifies.

Note

1. Mackenzie goes on to say: “The last term requires explanation. It is the Buddhistic state of extreme delight, called nib’han, or nieban.”

Reference

Burmah and the Burmese, Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie, Geo. Routledge & Co., London, 1853.

(Images from I Can Has Cheezburger)

__________________________

This article is republished with permission from the March-April 2009 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

The story is often told to explain the absence of sorority houses on certain campuses. But for as many times as the tale is told, these laws have never actually been documented anywhere. In 1998, a group of eight Tulane University students searched through municipal and state law books going as far back as the 1800s and came up empty. I did a little digging of my own closer to home; I couldn’t find any laws in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or the municipalities where I went to school.

This is a completely strange concept to any single mother with daughters, or anyone who ever lived in the old-fashioned dormitories that were segregated by sex (I have lived in both situations). Have you ever heard of such a thing? Read more about housing laws that do and don’t exist at mental_floss. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user albioncollegespecialcollections)

“We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance.”

Who knew lemonade could be so dangerous to the public health?

Link Via Consumerist Image Via ChocoladeHam [Flickr]

The story of the “Indiana pi bill” starts with Edward J. Goodwin, a Solitude, Indiana, physician who spent his free time dabbling in mathematics. Goodwin’s pet obsession was an old problem known as squaring the circle. Since ancient times, mathematicians had theorized that there must be some way to calculate the area of circle using only a compass and a straightedge. Mathematicians thought that with the help of these tools, they could construct a square that had the exact same area as the circle. Then all one would need to do to find the area of the circle was calculate the area of the square, a simple task.

It can’t be done, but you don’t have to be a math whiz to be a state legislator. Besides, Goodwin had his reasons for pushing the bill to redefine pi. Read all about that strange episode at mental_floss. Link

Are you sick of your long commute to work and wish you could take a nap or read the web while on the road? Soon you may be able to obtain a license for a car that can drive itself. While such a vehicle may be a few years off, the state of Nevada is getting legislation in place that will allow for the implementation of hands free driving.

As we mentioned, among the bill’s requirements is for Nevada’s DMV to set guidelines by which a person obtains an autonomous vehicle driver’s licenses. The seemingly contradictory license is made even more so by the bill’s language: “The driver’s license endorsement…must…recognize the fact that a person is not required to actively drive an autonomous vehicle.” But of course guidelines must be set when operating a vehicle that navigates city streets, stops for pedestrians, etc. I’m guessing these ‘drivers’ won’t actually be allowed to nap on the way to work (at least not yet, but that is the whole point, isn’t it?), and they’re definitely going to have to know where the kill switch is in case of a malfunction.

Link

[T]he bill that criminalizes the creation or distribution of computer virus was finally enacted last Friday by Japan’s parliament. The law also includes provisions regarding punishment that will be meted out to people who have been caught sending pornographic images to random people.

These laws are meant to crack down on the dirty web of cybercrime; however, some parts of the law border on infringing the privacy of communications as it allows data to be obtained or subpoenaed by authorities from servers for investigation when necessary.

Japan is the first country to enact and implement such a law. Hopefully, we’ll be able to gauge the effectivity of passing the law a few months down the line.

Link | Image: Dvice

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. As mentioned above, an attorney can’t withdraw in the middle of litigation without the judge’s permission, and it’s indisputably unethical for an advocate to directly inform the judge that his client is a liar. What usually happens in these cases is that the lawyer approaches the bench and asks to beg off the case for vague “ethical reasons.” The judge, knowing exactly what’s going on, typically denies the request, because the jury would smell a rat if the lawyer were to disappear right before the defendant took the stand. The judge, continuing the Kabuki-style exchange, informs the advocate that he has satisfied his ethical obligations and must continue. In some courts, the lawyer can protect his sense of ethics by simply putting the client on the stand and instructing him to “tell the jury his story,” rather than specifically prompting the lies.

Slate looks at various reasons why a lawyer can and should quit a case -or not. Link

Imagine trying to prosecute someone who could only respond with oinks and grunts. Believe it or not, trials of this type did happen many times in the middle ages and continue to take place in non-Westernized countries. Mental Floss has a great collection of these stories, including a pig who was executed in people clothes, a donkey who escaped a bestiality charge through a number of character witness testimonies, and a lawyer who was able to help fight off the charges against every rat in Autun, France.

If that’s not enough animal tails trials for you, then check out Crack’s article on the same subject that includes some of the same stories, but also a few different court cases including a cat fighting for its right to free speech and a chicken who was charged with laying an egg without a yolk -which could obviously result in a basilisk baby if it was hatched. In case your wondering, both of the animals named lost and while the cat simply had to stop meowing on the sidewalk for money, the chicken was burned alive on the stake with her egg.

Of course, animals have been known to be on the other end of proceedings as well. There’s always Tabby Sal, the cat who was called for jury duty. While the issue was eventually resolved and the cat didn’t end up serving on a case, I can only imagine what kind of horrible revenge would be in store for us if animals did start to serve on juries.

After the two had worked amicably together designing custom dresses for Love, the relationship soured after some disagreements over the amount of money Simorangkir charged for the clothes. At 12:55am on the morning of March 17, 2009, Love started a series of social media posts railing against Simorangkir, starting with a lengthy post on MySpace, numerous tweets throughout the rest of the day, and even hitting the comments section of the popular handcrafted product site Etsy, where Love initially discovered Simorangkir’s work. Over the course of her day-long rant, Love accused the designer of stealing, lying, being a drug dealer and addict, being a homophobe and racist, having been arrested for prostitution, and even threatened “you will end up in a circle of scorched earth hunted til your dead.”

Simorangkir made accusations of libel and breach of contract. Love countered with freedom of speech. That trial is scheduled for next month. Read about that case and three others at mental_floss. Link

In the case of Ms. Duran, she says that simply making the claim is therefore sufficient to ensure her ownership of the Sun. In the past, a guy named Dennis Hope made the same claim — he sent letters to the government basically saying that if they don’t reply, they are giving tacit permission for him to claim the Moon. Not surprisingly, the government ignored him, so Hope now says he owns the Moon. He even took it farther, having sold deeds to property on the Moon… and he’s not going broke, having made millions doing this. At least.

However, there is more to international law than the words in the treaty. Plait explains why Duran’s claim to the sun will not hold up. Link

Here’s a bit of American history we’re all familiar with… but know almost nothing about. The BRI wants to change that, because we don’t want witch trials -or with hunts- in our era. After all, someone just might decide that reading in the bathroom is a sign of demonic possession.

(Image credit: Flickr user Lexie Rydberg)

BACKGROUND The trouble at Salem, Massachusetts, began with two young girls acting oddly. It explodes into one of the strangest cases of mass hysteria in American history. In the six-month period between March and September 1692, 27 people were convicted on witchcraft changes; 20 were executed, and more than 100 people were in prison awaiting trial.

CHILD’S PLAY

In March 1692, nine-year-old Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams, 12, were experimenting with a fortune-telling trick they’d learned from Tituba, the Parris family’s West Indian slave. To find out what kind of men they’d marry when they grew up, they put an egg white in a glass… and then studied the shape it made in the glass.

But instead of glimpsing their future husbands, the girls saw an image that appeared to be “in the likeness of a coffin.” The apparition shocked them… and over the next few days they exhibited behavior that witnesses described as “foolish, ridiculous speeches,” “odd postures,” “distempers,” and “fits.”

Reverend Samuel Parris was startled by his daughter’s condition and took her to see William Griggs, the family doctor. Griggs couldn’t find out what was wrong with the girl, but he suspected the problem had supernatural origins. He told Rev Parris that he thought the girl had fallen victim to “the Evil Hand” -witchcraft.

The family tried to keep Betty’s condition a secret, but rumors began spreading almost immediately -and within two months at least eight other girls began exhibiting similar forms of bizarre behavior.

THE PARANOIA GROWS

The citizens of Salem Village demanded that the authorities take action. The local officials subjected the young girls to intense questioning, and soon the girls began naming names. The first three women they accused of witchcraft were Tituba and two other women from Salem Village, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.

The three women were arrested and held for questioning. A few weeks later two more suspects, Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse, were arrested on similar charges. And at the end of April a sixth person -the Reverend George Burroughs, a minister that Abigail Williams identified as the leader of the witches- was arrested and imprisoned. The girls continued to name names. By the middle of May, more than 100 people had been arrested for witchcraft.

THE TRIALS

On May 14, 1692, the newly appointed governor, Sir William Phips, arrived from England. He immediately set up a special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, to hear the witchcraft trials that were clogging the colonial legal system.

* The first case heard was that against Bridget Bishop. She was quickly found guilty of witchcraft, sentenced to death, and hung on June 10.

* On June 19 the court met a second time, and in a single day heard the cases of five accused women, found them all guilty, and sentenced them to death. They were hung on July 19.

* On August 5 the court heard six more cases, and sentenced all six women to death. One woman, Elizabeth Proctor, was spared because she was pregnant- and the authorities did not want to kill an innocent life along with a guilty one. The remaining five women were executed on August 19.

* Six more people were sentenced to death in early September. (Only four were executed: one person was reprieved, and another woman managed to escape from prison with the help of friends.) The remaining sentences were carried out on September 22.

*Two days later, the trials claimed their last victim when Giles Cory, an accused wizard, was executed by “pressing” (he was slowly crushed to death under heavy weights) after he refused to enter a plea.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

By now the hysteria surrounding the witch trials was at its peak: 19 accused “witches” had been hung, about 50 had “confessed” in exchange for lenient treatment, more than 100 people accused of witchcraft were under arrest and awaiting trial -and another 200 people had been accused of witchcraft but had not yet been arrested. Despite all this, the afflicted girls were still exhibiting bizarre behavior. But public opinion began to turn against the trials. Community leaders began to publicly question the methods that the courts used to convict suspected witches. The accused were denied access to defense counsel, and were tried in chains before jurors who had been chosen from church membership lists.

The integrity of the girls then came into question. Some of the adults even charged that they were faking their illnesses and accusing innocent people for the fun of it. One colonist even testified later that one of the bewitched girls had bragged to him that “she did it for sport.”

As the number of accused persons grew into the hundreds, fears of falling victim to witchcraft were replaced by an even greater fear: that of being falsely accused of witchcraft. The growing opposition to the proceedings came from all segments of society: common people, ministers -even from the court itself.

THE AFTERMATH

Once the tide had turned against the Salem witchcraft trials, many of the participants themselves began having second thoughts. Many of the jurors admitted their errors, witnesses recanted their testimony, and one judge on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Samuel Sewall, publicly admitted his error on the steps of the Old South Church in 1697. The Massachusetts legislature made amends as well: in 1711 it reversed all of the convictions issued by the Court of Oyer and Terminer (and did it a second time in 1957), and it made financial restitution to the relatives of the executed, “the whole amount unto five hundred seventy eight pounds and twelve shillings.”

_________________________

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader.

This special edition book covers the three “lost” Bathroom Readers – Uncle John’s 5th, 6th and 7th book all in one. The huge (and hugely entertaining) volume covers neat stories like the Strange Fate of the Dodo Bird, the Secrets of Mona Lisa, and more …

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute

Sell a guinea pig, go to jail.

That’s the law under consideration by San Francisco’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare. If the commission approves the ordinance at its meeting tonight, San Francisco could soon have what is believed to be the country’s first ban on the sale of all pets except fish.

That includes dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and nearly every other critter, or, as the commission calls them, companion animals.

"People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don’t know what they’re getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized," said commission Chairwoman Sally Stephens. "That’s what we’d like to stop."

Link

What do you think? Is it a good idea to ban pet sales?

Critics contend that the law will lead to racial profiling. Even Mexican President Felipe Calderón has blasted the law as violating basic human rights.

Whether you agree with the law or not, here’s the point of this post: it turns out that despite its bluster, Mexico actually has very similar laws on its book against the country’s own Honduran illegal immigrants!

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said the law "violates inalienable human rights" and Democrats in Congress applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s criticisms of the law in a speech he gave on Capitol Hill last week.

Yet Mexico’s Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists. [...]

"There (in the United States), they’ll deport you," Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. "In Mexico they’ll probably let you go, but they’ll beat you up and steal everything you’ve got first."

Chris Hawley of USA Today has the full story: Link (Photo: Sergio Solache/USA Today)

How might these trials have worked, without divine intervention? The key insight is that ordeals weren’t just widely practiced. They were widely believed in. It’s this belief – literally, the fear of God – that could have allowed the ordeals to function effectively.

First, consider the reasoning of the defendants. Guilty believers expected God to reveal their guilt by harming them in the ordeal. They anticipated being boiled and convicted. Innocent believers, meanwhile, expected God to protect them in the ordeal. They anticipated escaping unscathed, and being exonerated.

The only defendants who would have been willing to go through with the ordeal were therefore the innocent ones. Guilty defendants would have preferred to avoid the ordeal – by confessing their crimes, settling with their accusers, or fleeing the realm.

The next thing to understand is that clerics administrated ordeals and adjudged their outcomes – and did so under elaborate sets of rules that gave them wide latitude to manipulate the process. Priests knew that only innocent defendants would be willing to plunge their hands in boiling water. So priests could simply rig trials to exonerate defendants who were willing to go through with the ordeal. The rituals around the ordeals gave them plenty of cover to ensure the water wasn’t boiling, or the iron wasn’t burning, and so on. If rigging failed, a priest could interpret the ordeal’s outcome to exculpate the defendant nonetheless (“His arm is healing well!”).

Link via Volokh Conspiracy | Journal Article | Photo: Sony Pictures

Of all the inane lawsuits we hear about, these are the worst offenders. Well, maybe not all of them; I suppose there are plenty of people out there who have wanted to sue God at one time or another. But these seven cases are truly outrageous!

In 1991, a Michigan man sued the large brewer for false advertising and mental anguish. Citing a commercial in which two women come to life for a couple of Budweiser drinkers, he was angry that he wasn’t experiencing the same fantasy. Because he’s an idiot and tried to make this happen so often, he also sued for financial loss. The case was dismissed by the judge.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by sish2000.

To consider more extreme approaches to punishing the guilty twin, the Court could order the twins separated so that the guilty twin may be punished. Even if this Solomonic option were possible in this case, as physiologically it appears impossible, this action raises grave Constitutional concerns. The Supreme Court has held that the body to be inviolate, providing slim exceptions to this rule as in the testing blood alcohol content, chemical castration, and the death penalty. This punishment smacks of the Sharia law practice of chopping off a convicted thief’s hand. Furthermore, it is hard to argue that separation would only punish one of the twins as each would be left immobile, one half of a complete body. Separation surgeries have some success as in the case of Jodie and Mary Attard (although this surgery was undertaken knowing full well that it would and did kill the weaker twin). Modern scholars estimate the rate of successful separation surgery at around 5% (see also the Bijani twins). With such dismal rates, sentencing conjoined twins to separation surgery would be the equivalent of a death sentence.

Link via io9 | Photo: US Department of Health and Human Services

“My children have to appear in court,” Erica Russell, the mother of two eighth-grade girls who spent eight hours in jail, said Tuesday. “They were handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals.”

“They’re all scared,” Ms. Russell said of the two dozen arrested students. “You never know how children will be impacted by that. I was all for some other kind of punishment, but not jail. Who hasn’t had a food fight?”

What do you guys think?  Link (Image from aggrotech‘s Photobucket album)

In court papers, PepsiCo claims it first received a legal document related to the case from the North Carolina agent on Sept. 15 when a copy of a co-defendant’s letter was forwarded to Deputy General Counsel Tom Tamoney in PepsiCo’s law department. Tamoney’s secretary, Kathy Henry, put the letter aside and didn’t tell anyone about it because she was “so busy preparing for a board meeting,” PepsiCo said in its Oct. 13 motion to vacate.

Link | Image: FBI

Andre Walker at Griffin Law said the anonymous Tweeter targeted by the writ will get a message from the High Court the next time they open their online account.

“Whoever they are, they will be told to stop posting, to remove previous posts and to identify themselves to the High Court via a web link form,” he said.

Link

It will be the second offense for Portland’s Gary Moody who was caught hiding inside the pit of a campsite latrine, once again. The creature of the black latrine claimed that he was not leering at the backsides of bathroom goers. His excuse was that he dropped his shirt down the hole; the previous time he stressed that he had dropped his wedding ring (which was never found). Moody entered a plea of no contest to trespassing for which he will serve two years of probation. He is also required to pay a fine of $1,000 and $700 to the Forest Service for the cost of pumping out the toilet tank and screening the contents.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by mrmunchies.

With all of the confusion recently on the internet about music and copyright, you may not know what’s what.  Here’s something to help you learn about how music royalties work.

Considering how much “education” about music and copyright is out there (”downloading music is stealing!” ads and the like), most people have no idea how it actually works in terms of who owns what and who should get money from what kind of use. And lately, with issues like confusion over Pandora royalties, songwriters trying to collect royalties from blogs that post YouTube videos, and even arguments that video games may constitute a public performance of music, it’s just been getting increasingly complicated.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geeksaresexy.

Two well-meaning teenage girls in Durango, Colorado decided one summer night to bake cookies for their neighbors. They packaged the baked treats in plastic wrap with a heart-shaped message wishing the recipients a good night. When they knocked at the door of Wanita Renea Young, however, the woman became so terrified that someone was outside her house at 10:30 PM that she suffered an anxiety attack and successfully sued the girls for $930 to cover a trip to the emergency room.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by fishkins.

A look back at the most interesting court cases of the last 100 years.

During the 20th century, a so-called “trial of the century” occurred every few years, fueled by media sensationalism and a public thirst for juicy gossip, celebrity lifestyles or good old-fashioned revenge. Here are 20 trials that have, at one time or another, been deemed the indisputable “trial of the (20th) century.”

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by johnson.

If you do say or write a profane word, the act could be punishable by five years in jail or a $5,000 fine.

View the Bill Via WeirdStuffNews

If you enjoyed this, you may also like how the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi is trying to ban saggy pants.

Because testing costs thousands of dollars, many small manufacturers and even stores will be forced to close:

Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children’s clothing.

The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger — including clothing — be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven’t been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead.

"They’ll all have to go to the landfill," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of Resale and Thrift Shops.

Moral of the story? Buy your kids clothes before February 10th – you may not be able to find ‘em in many stores and probably won’t find them in second-hand stores, either: Link | Find out more at the Handmade Toy Alliance

The 6-year-old service dog received an honorary law degree from Baylor University two weeks ago, when his owner, Amy Jones, graduated alongside him.

The black Labrador deserved the degree, Jones said, as he has been present every step of the way over the past two-and-a-quarter years of intensive study.

Baylor University’s dean and professors appeared to agree with Jones, as they presented Skeeter with his signed and authorized honorary degree on Saturday, Nov. 8.

"Whereas he is now an older, wiser and even a bit fatter dog; Whereas those who survive Baylor Law School are entitled to all barking rights, entitlements and appearances thereto," Skeeter’s diploma reads.

"Therefore, be it hereby decreed that Baylor University School of Law confers upon Skeeter the Labrador this honorary juris ‘dog’tor degree."

Link – via Rue The Day

(Photo: Amy Jones)