Most paranoid car feature ever

Volvo has introduced a new safety feature that will tell you if there is someone hiding in your car by detecting a heartbeat. This post comments on it nicely. I think it's the first car feature designed to protect you from a scene in the movie, Urban Legend.

Ron Paul on the Colbert Report

I missed Ron Paul on the Colbert Report. Watch the video. The guy has no shot of winning anything, because he supports the very unpopular Constitution of the United States. Whacko! I might not even consider it immoral to vote for him.

Federal jury rules against city in eminent domain case

The Daily News reports a local case of eminent domain abuse. I cannot figure out from the story whether the proposed use of the land, to make a housing project, was reasonable in the first place, but the city violated federal law by refusing to disclose their plans to the landowners. Speculation about the project and legal wrangling caused the couple to lose their business. A federal court ruled that the city failed to inform the landowners, and forced the city to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Here is the link to the story.

Fools Tools On The Hill

Sometime between 1988 and last week, CRACKED Magazine became funny (and considerably smuttier). It also went digital, with a web site that has some of the funniest crap I've seen since The Onion.
Venturing into territory heretofore covered only by the likes of reason and RADAR, CRACKED.com now presents "The 5 Biggest Pricks in Congress." The most amazing part of this article is that the writers were able to narrow the list down to just five.

FAIRNESS DOCTRINE ALERT: Attention, right-wingers! Four of the top five pricks are Republicans! Proceed at your own peril.

The 5 Biggest Pricks in Congress [CRACKED.com]

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The Pants Party Is Over, People

In a stunning display of judicial sanity, a Superior Court judge in Washington, D.C. ruled that administrative law judge Roy L. Pearson is not entitled to $67 million from a local laundromat owned by a Korean couple. The lawsuit was filed because Pearson claims the laundromat lost a pair of suit pants he brought in for cleaning, and tried to replace them with another pair that he claims were not his.

To those against tort reform for frivolous lawsuits and outrageous awards, perhaps now you'd be inclined to reconsider your position.

So how big was this case, anyway? According to the article:

The two-day trial earlier this month drew a standing-room-only crowd, including many Korean and international media outlets covering the story. It even overshadowed the drunken driving trial of former Mayor Marion Barry.

Ah, Chocolate City.

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Via Instapundit- The ten worst jobs in science. My favorite is elephant vasectomist.

God says Pi = 3

I Kings 7:23-26

He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it. Below the rim, gourds encircled it - ten to a cubit. The gourds were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea. The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center. It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths. (NIV)

The Bible is the word of God, yes? Anyone who claims otherwise is a heretic bastard.

Well look at this grave, grave offense to your beliefs.

Pi. π. .

The value for pi used in calculators is 3.141592654. But if we look at the word of God, it states that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is 30:10 cubits. In other words:

3

Also known as 3.00 or 3.0. But here we have these self important mathematicians who believe they can improve on the word of God! What an effrontery. Biblical literalists, you are faced, as when with evolution, with an important dilemma if you wish to continue your peace of mind.

The whole post can be found at Gospel of Reason.

Hat tip Isegoria.

Why Not Just Force Him To Play Dungeons & Dragons For 36 Months?

From the land of Rush and hockey pucks comes this staggering tale of judicial cock-blocking:

PETERBOROUGH, Ontario - A judge has ruled that a 24-year-old Canadian man is not allowed to have a girlfriend for the next three years. (emphasis mine)

The ruling came after Steven Cranley pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several charges stemming from an assault on a former girlfriend.

Cranley, who has been diagnosed with a dependent personality disorder, attacked his girlfriend in an argument after their breakup.

If this had been my sentence between the ages of 17 and 32, I'm positive I'd get plenty of credit for "time served." Thank you, I'm here all week!

Judge orders man not to have girlfriend [Yahoo! News]