"the descendents of those surviving hogs are being reintroduced to their natural habit at the foot of the Himalayas", whereupon they were immediately eaten by eagles, dogs, and local natives.

waugsqueke said: "That's a bit frightening to think that people believe that is true."

I think you're confusing "believe that is true" with "believe that *should* be true". It *is* true, at least in the US (and any other part of the world to which we want to spread Democracy). Police *can* do as they please, and their brethren in blue will back them all the way. I don't think it's right, but I have no gun and no badge, so I have no say in the matter.

The police are legally allowed to break any law they please, anytime they please. Just get over it.

I read there for a while, but a few abusive authors made life miserable in the forums. Then, around the one-year mark, they changed management, and introduced an editorial bias into their story selection process that made it not worth reading anymore. At least it's still free.

@MIKEY LIKES BOINGBOING, @RYANH: Once they started sponsoring ads by Microsoft, what did you expect? I'm sure we'll see some ads for "the Beijing Olympics" and "Canadian Baby Seal Fur Coats" anytime now.

District Judge Harold Baer, Jr., agreed with the Magistrate in most respects, but declined to issue Rule 11 sanctions, because he felt the lawyers' misrepresentation was the result of sloppiness rather than an intention to mislead, "giving them as officers of the Court the benefit of the doubt"

I love the smell of judicial corruption in the morning.

criminal accountability for war crimes

That is so 20th-century. In this post-9/11 world...

I couldn't even get to the photos without creating a Flickr account.

12,000 years ago, all mankind lived in perfect harmony. They were all "emo". Then, somewhere, a terrible mutation sprang up, and a dangerous, irrational, violent human was born. Natural selection allowed this human to have many children, whose numbers grew until they could band together, and wipe out the "emos". This continued, and thus began "civilization". They continue to rule today, mostly because the emos, who continue to be born, are too afraid of their insane neighbors to do anything about it. Just be quiet, hope you don't get noticed.

Excellent story, and just the right length. Does anyone know of a site with more Flash Fiction?

What's the point of voting in New Jersey?

Interesting anecdote about 'Scape Ore' swamp: Apparently, during the Revolutionary War, British soldiers captured a band of 'camp followers', ladies of the evening who plied their trade amongst the local soldiers. These ladies later escaped into said swamp, earning it the name '(E)scape(d) (wh)ore' swamp. (Say it with a British accent, it'll make more sense.)

It's a very attractive installation, and I can clearly smell them looking at the pictures. Impressive art.

@157: That's because everyone knows that FM are soul-sucking corporate sellouts, and nothing can be done to save them. It's BoingBoing that we care about. :)

@159: There are plenty of names on the masthead, Takuan. I think they are big kids, who are fully capable of answering for themselves. In fact, I'm really only interested in what the BB principals have to say about this matter. But thanks for playing. :P

Apparently, the people responsible for sacking the previous commenters, have themselves been sacked. Either that or they have been bitten by a Møøse. Hello? TNH? MF? Anyone home?

Unicorn Chaser!

TNH: I only know what the boingers say; from that, I must infer what they think, or care about. I don't think BB will fail w/o M$ money; frankly, if you really *needed* their money to survive, I'd understand. In this case, I think it's more likely that the *readers* will withdraw. But, assuming you still wish to select sponsors that match my preferences, then you need to be informed about those preferences. And if you still ascribe to the policy of only taking "wonderful" advertisers, then you needs must include M$ under that "wonderful" rubric. That causes me pain, which I have shared with you. Finally, I suspect that the M$ revenue from their "high-end ad campaign" is more than "a little". I shall now take my leave, that you may roll, like Scrooge McDuck, in your ill-gotten gains. :)

So this:

"...by taking the time answer a few questions, you can help us ensure that the sponsors we select match your preferences. (We have a policy of only taking "wonderful" advertisers in any case!)."

has been replaced by this:

"Those high-end ad campaigns exist because the weblog-reading audience is now large enough to compete with old-media advertising venues like print magazines."

I interpret those statements together to mean "we used to care what the readers thought about our advertisers, but, not so much, now that we're big enough to attract the big bucks."

For the record: Microsoft does *not* "match my preferences", nor do I consider them to be "wonderful".

Thank you for producing such wonderful content. I only wish my thanks could help pay your bills.

You can only stare at those huge piles of money for so long...

Seeing M$ adverts here is like running into PZ Myers in church.

I feed around a dozen stray cats on my apartment patio, and the opossums and raccoons always come around dusk and clean out the bowls. They *lurve* the cat food.

Oh, yes, by all means, let's just hide the swastikas, then everyone will just get along.
Security through obscurity doesn't work any better for fascism than it does for computers.

I'm with Violettverq. I left when the *last* Evil Empire assimilated Flickr.

Congratulations!

It's good to see they are serious about being a "real" religion; identifying those who must be excluded because of their heretic beliefs is always a necessary first step.

It's funny that the first post on said CyberLawg was on April 1st of last year.

It's also funny that the first post for said CyberLawg was on April 1st of last year.

Yes, we're preparing the smallpox-ridden blankets as we speak.

@#4: I don't think #2 meant the *venue* was private property - that's not what you're wanting to photograph anyway. It's the *products* that you are interested in, and they are, indeed, private property. The fact that the venue was built with public funds is irrelevant; concerts and public performances are often held in these types of publicly-funded venues, with (apparently) legal restrictions on photography.

The point about the irony is spot-on, however.

This entire story is suspiciously short on details. The previous comments raise several issues which you'd think any crowd smart enough to contain Ray Bradbury would have noticed. I'm almost ready to call shenanigans on this...

Laws are selectively enforced to control the populace, and prevent civil disobedience. Once everyone is comfortable routinely breaking the law, then otherwise law-abiding citizens will find that simple things, like insisting on their Constitutional rights, can be taken away from them by selectively enforcing laws (that they may not have even known existed) only against the "squeaky wheels". Read your Ayn Rand, folks.

All Hail the Mighty Gopod!

That is so The Virgin Mary. Or Jesus. I can't tell which.

#4: Obviously, you've never seen a cathedral.

I think it's a wonderful project.

Most Americans are completley unaware of the massive earthen works associated with the archeology of the US.

Wouldn't want us dwelling on the fact that we stole this land, would we?

Why doesn't my login allow me to comment on gadgets.boingboing.net? Have I been banninated before ever posting?

They got me just last week. Here's my post about it. I think they should be tied to chairs and beaten with hammers.

I'm a dues-paying SFWA member

Then you're just contributing to the problem. In fact, you're funding their efforts. Do you not see a problem there?

And my girlfriend wonders why I won't fly...

Sigh. Looks like every other blog out there, and that's sad. Don't like the ads all on the right, but I guess it was necessary, so you could run those huge HP ads, and please your masters at Federated Media.