Seems that Wisconsin courts have ruled in the favor of privacy for nudists.

A state appeals court ruled Tuesday that a person who is voluntarily nude in the presence of another still has privacy rights against being secretly videotaped, in a decision that bolsters Wisconsin's video voyeur law.

The ruling upholds the felony guilty plea of Mark Jahnke, who videotaped his girlfriend while she was naked and while they were having sex. He argued in his appeal that because the woman agreed to be naked around him, she had no reasonable expectation of privacy.

The more you know….

I've been using a computer to communicate with faceless strangers since the late 1980s. I've been at it so long that I use my old 2400 baud modem as safe place to hold my coffee cup on my desk. I've been part of BBSes, various forums and have even been granted access to a little spot on Popehat to call my own.

But I really think I missed the memo on Facebook – because after a few quick searches, I feel like I'm the only one not using it. Am I even saying that right? On it? Facebooking? Maybe I just don't understand the raison d'etre but I was rather amazed at the number of people I've known that maintain a page. And how they're all connected to one another. Somehow.

Did I need to know that one of my high school friends is currently boozing it up in Fort Lauderdale? Or that a former girlfriend apparently enjoys dancing on top of the bar at Coyote Ugly? Hell, I even managed to find some people I attended grammar school with and haven't seen in nearly 25 years. On this glorious day after Christmas, I'm left with no other conclusion than to think I'm back to where I was at the age of 15 – a social outcast.

But at least I can see some pictures of familiar faces from my basement window.

It was two weeks ago that my normally reliable computer died. It was only three years old and I had no plans of upgrading any time soon — my futures were heavily invested in plastic instruments and the greatness that is Rock Band.

About fifteen minutes after I realized something was really wrong, I could actually feel the beginnings of true panic creeping in. Of course I'm no stranger to the total failure of a computer (I believe I'm now on #6 since 1994), so I'm well versed in the expected feelings of regret over data potentially lost or even the sudden frustration over a complete lack of Internet access.

But this time was different. Suddenly I was cut off from a game I'd previously held in contempt. Suddenly the tables were turned and the ugly face of addiction came into focus.

My name is Mike and I'm addicted to World of Warcraft.

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Specifically when a sex offender dies after being discovered in or near the bedroom of a 17 year old girl. Incidentally, he was naked and wearing a mask.

Police responding to a call from the city's northwest side about 3:20 a.m. found 64-year-old Robert McNally on the hallway floor with his arm around the neck of 52-year-old David T. Meyers, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

These things happen.

"Nobody wins," McNally told The Indianapolis Star. "It's a lose-lose situation for everybody. He has family also."

A humble man – without question. If I could, I'd buy him a beer.

Mark Sandman would have turned 56 today; he died on stage in 1999 while playing a show in Italy. And while it may be cliche to suggest he died before his time, his contribution to music is still missed – at least by those that remember his presence.

Thankfully with the proliferation of sites like Youtube, Morphine videos can be shared with anyone that might have missed them the first time around. Do yourself a favor an enjoy the greatness that is Morphine.

I felt bad but there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I could do to make it go away. I woke up and thought, "Everything's going to be alright. Everything's going to be ok." Then it hit me, like a wave. This is my shame…

Do you have an expectation of privacy when you creep into your wife's nursing home to have sex with her while she's in a coma?

David W. Johnson believes so. The prosecution, not surprisingly, disagrees.

He loves it – when Mastercard creates an Islamic debit card.

"It is designed to appeal to both Muslim and non-Muslim individuals who prefer better financial control as the card ensures that purchases are automatically deducted from the cardholder's account and approved only if enough funds exist within the account. It helps track spending, comes with worldwide acceptance at more than 26 million locations and can be used at an ATM for e-banking," says Fozia Amanulla, chief executive officer of Eoncap Islamic Bank.

I'm not sure exactly what features make this particular card compliant with Shari'ah, but I guess we just scored one for Capitalism.

Can we just all agree that these guys look ridiculous?

There's only one man I want to see wearing a suit with shorts at his job. And he better be playing a Gibson Guitar and throwing up devil horns.

Back in April I was pondering the existence of numerous Wisteria vines around my property. Specifically why the previous home owner was so enamored with the stuff that she planted more than one. Over the last three months I've since discovered three additional vines sprouting up around the property, all of which have been eradicated.

And although I need to yank errant sucker-vines off the one remaining plant, I had settled into learning to live with Wisteria. Until this afternoon when I discovered that it's actually much, much worse.

I don't have Wisteria at all. It's a Trumpet vine.

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Texas State Representative Warren Chisum (R-Sanctity) is looking to require a mandatory two year waiting period for divorces. Unless, of course, couples are willing to attend a special ten hour course that I'm guessing somehow convinces them to butch-up and try harder. Similarly, his proposal would increase the cost of obtaining a marriage license from $30 to $60, unless the couple attends an eight hour course first – then the fee is waived. I would hope there's some basic accounting lessons taught during those eight hours. Like maybe something about how unfunded mandates, err home projects, cause fiscal strain?

Remember folks, marriage is serious business.

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I'm always amazed at how technology seems to win in the end. It would seem that some police departments are actively encouraging citizens to report crimes via text messaging.

When Boston adopted the system last year, the first text tip yielded an arrest in a New Hampshire slaying. In the 12 months that ended June 15, Boston police logged 678 text tips, nearly matching the 727 phone tips during the same period.

On some levels I guess this program can be sucessful. Is it less threatening for a tipster to text a message to a slient observer than to call and speak to someone? Earlier this week Patrick raised a similar issue regarding Terrorist Liason Officers, and while texting the police isn't really in the same ballpark as training an army of nosey neighbors, knowing how most people treat text messages it seems to me like it would be a lot of overhead to manage a text tip line. It's probably too soon to tell if this program will be as useful as D.A.R.E., but I guess we can hope.

A bacteriophage is a specialized type of virus that infects bacteria. It's more or less a wonderfully simple machine that delivers viral genetic material into bacterial cells for the sole purpose of converting the bacteria into a production factory for more bacteriophages.  Here is an electron micrograph showing a typical T-Even phage:

Earlier today Intel sort of announced the development of the worlds fastest chip, crafted completely from silicon. There's all kinds of technical specs listed that probably impress someone, but I couldn't help but wonder if the shape was intentional or completely accidental.

I'm sure George de Mestral would be impressed.

Via

Who knew this whole time that we were being so wasteful with milk? Wal-Mart and Costco are leading the change to a more squarish jug and plenty of customers love the idea:

“I hate it,” said Lisa DeHoff, a cafe owner shopping in a Sam’s Club here.

Well, there's bound to be some resistance.

“It spills everywhere,” said Amy Wise, a homemaker.

It's a learned skill.

“It’s very hard for kids to pour,” said Lee Morris, who was shopping for her grandchildren.

And there you have it — won't somebody think of the children?

It's acutally an interesting idea and I'm a bit surprised it took this long to formulate. If the producers really end up saving on shipping costs and can reduce water their usage by up to 70%, then I, for one, would like to welcome our new milk container overlords.

would be to find a stalker hiding inside the cushions:

According to the police report, Limones used a box cutter to carve a space for himself in the couch, then climbed inside to wait. When the woman jumped up and ran, he flipped over the couch and came after her.

I have previously mentioned things you don't want to find in your house. Safe to say, I've added this guy to my list.

Hat tip to Blues

No, really – I mean it.

It's also easy to imagine how sarcasm might be selected over time as evolutionarily crucial. Imagine two ancient humans running across the savannah with a hungry lion in pursuit. One guy says to the other, "Are we having fun yet?" and the other just looks blank and stops to figure out what in the world his pal meant by that remark. End of friendship, end of one guy's contribution to the future of the human gene pool.

If only it were that easy.