law

None of us is immune from being our own worst enemy.

We find ways to sabotage ourselves that aren't even assuaged by years of visits to our psychologists.

The extremely openhearted may, therefore, find a certain at-oneness with an alleged drug dealer whose bottom may have caused him to be arrested.

As KGW-TV deals it, Raleigh Reynolds, 25, was allegedly about to participate in a narcotic business transaction.

Unfortunately (at least for him), police say a 911 dispatcher got to listen in on the proceedings, as Reynolods inadvertently called it in.… Read more

Is a robot about to excise your prostate? Well stop right there, mister. Here's some litigation that might interest you.

In a surreal twist to the ads you often see for legal help with accidents, arrests, or debt, law firms in Louisiana and Alabama are fishing for victims of what they call "bad robot surgery."

The ad below from Becnel Law Firm, LLC and Riley & Jackson looks like something that would play in the background of a sci-fi film, but it's serious. The campaign Web site Badrobotsurgery.com says, "Robotic surgery can severely injure the bowel, bladder, and blood vessels. Some of these injuries can even occur without the surgeon knowing it, which can lead to severe complications if left untreated." … Read more

As a society, we have become used to difficult, inappropriate, and embarrassing pictures being uploaded to Facebook.

No, it hasn't yet stopped us from marveling, musing, and laughing at their content.

But we've become more understanding about humans' urges to display themselves being greater than their capacity to think through the consequences of such a display.

Still, we should reserve our judgment about an image posted to Facebook that featured Tom Keller, the police chief of Confluence, Penn.

It is impossible to know precisely what confluence of events led to this picture appearing on his Facebook page.

What'… Read more

Weapons cost money.

This is something we hear all the time in discussions about budgets cuts.

It's also something the Kitchen family discovered when they gave their little 5-year-old Danny the passcode for their iPad.

Danny, you see, wanted to play Zombies vs. Ninja, a game that somehow has passed me by. Still, the future brigadier-general of the British army explained to his parents that the game was free.

Greg and Sharon Kitchen of Warmley, England, were busy entertaining, so what better way to keep their little 5-year-old quiet than to bury his fascination in an iPad?

As the Telegraph reports, … Read more

There are many intelligent teens in America's high schools.

They know how to fight for their rights and how to right their wrongs. They are being well-educated, after all.

Yet one California high schooler was stupefied after she set up a sting operation to catch a thief.

As ABC News 10 in Sacramento reveals, Justine Betti was miffed that money and other valuable items seemed to be disappearing from students' backpacks during gym class.

No kids, you shouldn't keep money in your backpacks, but, as you would say, whatever.

Anyway, Betti decided that she was savvy enough to … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Is Spotify unfair to musicians?

- Spotify reports net loss of $59 million 2011.

- Spotify will pay $500 million to artists and rights holders in 2013.

- Benford's law, also called the first-digit law.

- Godwin's Law, also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies.

- The Audiophiliac wants to see your audio system.

- Are the Monoprice 9774 speakers inspired by, or knocks-offs of, the Energy Take Classic 5.1?… Read more

What do you do if someone who isn't a friend sends you a Facebook message?

Some people might not even know they've received one. It might well appear in their "Other" folder and who looks there?

In the case of Anna Lamb-Creasey, it took her weeks to realize someone had tried to contact her. It turned out that the message -- with the profile picture of Atlanta rapper T.I.-- came from a lieutenant in the police force.

The message told her that she should call the police.

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Lamb-Creasey had … Read more

Tilera, one of the most aggressive advocates of the multicore-processor approach, today announced a new member of its Tile-Gx family that doubles the number of computing engines to 72.

The Tile-Gx72, the company's new flagship chip, isn't geared for general-purpose computing tasks like running smartphones or PCs. Instead, it's for tasks that can be sliced up into many independent operations -- networking equipment handling multiple data streams or servers for handling lots of streams of media.

But even if you're not going to find Tilera Inside stickers on your next tablet, it's an interesting product, … Read more

When you make your Facebook profile picture that of Action Man (aka the British G.I. Joe), it can be a clue to your fascination with fantasy.

It also suggests that if there's a toy mortar in the background of the picture, that, too, might actually not be entirely real.

Please try telling that to the five carloads of police who raided Ian Driscoll's house in Tewkesbury, England, armed with guns and a search warrant.

"The Action Man looked a bit like me, so I decided to put it as my Facebook picture. I didn't even notice the mortar in the background," 43-year-old Driscoll explained to the Daily Mail.… Read more