"One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing." - Oscar Wilde

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UK rejects music copyright extension - "The British government rejected a plea to extend copyright laws for sound recordings to beyond 50 years on Tuesday, prompting the music industry to accuse it of not supporting musicians and artists."
Finally, some sense!

Lowering the Bar: A Wine So Good It May Turn Your Robbery Into a Group Hug - "A group of friends in Washington, D.C., were enjoying steaks, jumbo shrimp, fine cheeses, and a bottle of the Chateau Malescot, when a man wearing a hood burst in. Pointing a gun at the head of a guest, he said “Give me your money, or I’ll start shooting.” Up to this point, the robbery was proceeding in the traditional manner, but then guest Christina Rowan said, “We were just finishing dinner. Why don’t you have a glass of wine with us?” Amazingly, he agreed, and sampled the Chateau Malescot St-Exupery. “Damn, that’s good wine,” he said. After a little more wine, and some Camembert, he had changed his mind. “I think I may have come to the wrong house,” he said, putting his gun away. “I’m sorry. Can I get a hug?”"

Couples to wed at 99¢ Only Store - "The low-frills wedding was conceived by bargain shopping guru Sue Goldstein, who has published more than 70 books on finding great deals and has appeared on TV shows including Oprah and The Today Show . "The whole idea is to draw attention to the ludicrousness of the extravagance of weddings," said Ms. Goldstein, who lives in Flower Mound."

Burglars Search Google To Break Into Safe - "Two burglars had door keys, pass codes and combinations to help them break the safes at an indoor amusement center, but they had to turn to Google for help to steal their loot."

George Comstock 1915-2007 - "Comstock began his career in public health as a commissioned officer with the U.S. Public Health Service in 1942. During the last six years of his 21 years of service, he was the chief of Epidemiological Studies, Tuberculosis Program. Comstock ran the first trials of the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis in Georgia and Alabama. The studies conducted there from 1947 to 1951 were essential to determining the vaccine to be largely ineffective against tuberculosis, which led federal public health officials to decide against vaccinating children in the United States with BCG."
Wth. And they only stopped giving it here 50 years after they found it was ineffective.

Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel - "Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product. Muscles make it deliberately, producing it from glucose, and they burn it to obtain energy. The reason trained athletes can perform so hard and so long is because their intense training causes their muscles to adapt so they more readily and efficiently absorb lactic acid."

Therapist 'had sex with split personalities patient's other self' - "A therapist has been accused of taking advantage of a patient with a split personality - using one of her alter egos for sex, another to be his cleaner and a third to lend him cash for holidays. When confronted by his alleged victim he refused to comment, saying he had a duty of confidentiality to her other personalities."

Rationally Speaking: And now one about Jewish Orthodoxy - "The fixation of even secular Jews – such as several of my friends – with adherence to downright silly rituals (usually in the form of complex and entirely arbitrary rules about food), and often with marrying only Jewish partners, is disconcerting... most of my friends aren't Italian, and I don't particularly look for Italians when pursuing a relationship. If I did so I would feel, well, racist. One can argue that the propensity toward insularity of Jewish communities is a result of many centuries of persecution from the outside, except of course that it is historically more accurate to point out that Jews (like many other fundamentalist religious communities) have always drawn sharp boundaries with the outside world. Indeed, given the already strong propensity of human beings for being suspicious of – if not downright hostile toward – outgroups, it is easy to see how Jewish isolationism has in itself been part of the cause for the persecutions"

Survey: Men Happiest With Smart Wives - "Every extra year of education a wife has under her belt significantly increases the chances her husband will report being highly satisfied with life. But Shane Mathew Worner, of the Australian National University's economics program, says it may be that an educated woman's earning power is her biggest asset."