More negative news on gastric banding weight-loss surgery: A Belgian study suggests the bands are prone to nasty complications years after surgery. Almost 40% of patients had a major complication 12 years or more down the road, LiveScience reports. Infections and disintegration of the band were the main issues; 60%…
Continue reading …Licensing agreements can make for dry reading, but BoingBoing points out an interesting exception. Eugene Blanchard’s textbook Introduction to Data Communications is free online , and Blanchard allows people to use it however they see fit. His licensing agreement, however, asks for a dozen unusual things in exchange. Some examples: “That…
Continue reading …Women who want to get an abortion in South Dakota must now wait a full three days after meeting with a doctor under a measure signed into law today by Gov. Dennis Daugaard, the AP reports. It’s the longest such waiting period in the nation. The law also requires that…
Continue reading …A judge in Florida trying to resolve a convoluted case involving a mosque and four of its fired trustees says he will consult Islamic law to settle one aspect of the case, reports the St. Petersburg Times . The decision is drawing flak from conservative bloggers who say sharia is being…
Continue reading …Washington state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen thinks it’s time to get rid of a benefit long enjoyed by the state’s ferry workers: cleaning up puke. Thanks to the so-called “vomit clause” in workers’ contracts, they get paid double-time whenever they have to mop up after a hurling passenger, the Herald…
Continue reading …A top Senate Democrat tried to throw some cold water on the talk of impeaching President Obama over the military action in Libya, saying that if what Obama did was impeachable, so was every US military operation since World War II. “That one-day kind of story, which is all it…
Continue reading …An easy first lesson is emerging from Japan’s nuclear mess: No nuclear reactors should be in operation anywhere unless they have robots ready to fend off disaster, writes William Saletan in Slate . He’s not talking about run-of-the-mill robots that replace humans at menial tasks. He means expensive, radiation-resistant robots that…
Continue reading …Keeping a diary is well worth your while—but there are some “do’s and don’ts” to keep in mind, writes Monty Python’s Michael Palin in Vanity Fair . The big one is, “don’t try and make your life interesting when it isn’t,” notes the committed diarist. “At the airport that Bruce…
Continue reading …Today’s op-ed page of the Los Angeles Times illustrates how President Obama is taking flak from both sides over his Libya decision: Not fast enough: Jonah Goldberg thinks Obama blew it by not acting in the early days of Libya’s unrest, when a “small intervention” such as bribing military officers…
Continue reading …When you’re being carted off to jail while half your guests are wiping pepper spray out of their eyes, it’s safe to say your wedding reception could have gone better. Such is the tale of 28-year-old Angela Davito: Police were called to her wedding reception Saturday after a large brawl…
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