I wrote about his conviction last year in this post here.

I included some statistics on current spam levels and how this single conviction will do nothing to stem to flow of unwanted spam in your inbox.

From Reuters here:

A spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney’s office said a grand jury has charged DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, with one count of theft and one count of taking someone else’s identity.

The felony indictment stemmed from a visit Simmons made to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, in April during which he gave his name as “Troy Jones,” to avoid paying for treatment.

The indictment is the latest in a string of tangles with the law for the 37-year-old rapper.

Earlier this month, Simmons was arrested at a Phoenix airport for failing to appear in court, failure to pay fines and driving without a license.

The rapper was arrested in May on suspicion of drug possession and animal cruelty after searches of his home allegedly turned up weapons, drugs, dog carcasses and abused pit bulls.

Great, another black guy who loves to abuse Pit Bulls. So if this punk has so much cash he can afford lawyers, and bail money, plus all his drugs, and a shovel to bury torn up bodies of dogs, why can’t he afford Blue Cross/Blue Shield? Oh, ’cause health insurance isn’t “Keepin’ it real, bitches.”

From the AFP here:

The city of Los Angeles announced it will ban all plastic bags from retail stores as of July 1, 2010, following similar anti-pollution regulations already enforced in San Francisco.

The second-largest US city behind New York, Los Angeles, with its four million population, will ban plastic bagging in all supermarkets, grocery and retail stores, the Los Angeles City Council said in its new regulation.

After July 1, 2010, all store customers must provide their own bags or purchase bags made of paper or other biogradable material from the store for 25 cents (0.25 dollar).

The goal is to rid the city of some 2.3 billion non-biodegradable plastic bags that are distributed each year and end up polluting waste dumps for a long time.

So why doesn’t the city government just admit that their recycling program is a total failure if all those plastic bags are going to the dump? And if the recycling is working, why the need for the second law? The only explanation is that this is a political stunt- one that forces citizens to cough up cash for something that has always been free.

Wiccans find “spells of destruction” in the Pagan Yellow Pages

Heck, they had candles. They had a witch staked to the ground. I say:

Burn the Witches!!!1!

From WTOP here:

A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery.

Katherine Gunther, 36, of Lebanon, pierced her left foot with the sword while performing the rite at Oak Hill Cemetery. The ceremony involves the use of candles, incense and driving swords into the ground during the full moon.

Gunther said was aiming to put the sword in the ground, but hit her foot instead.

Gunther immediately pulled the sword out of her foot, and her companions took her to Witham Memorial Hospital, where she was kept a couple days for treatment.

The Wiccans were warned that being in the cemetery in the city about 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis after posted visiting hours constitutes trespassing.

What kind of stupid religion involves trespassing in a graveyard? And swordplay? Who did she think she was? The Highlander? There can be only One! Foot!

Click the little applet below to enjoy.

Not that I would watch such streaming media while I was working or anything. Strictly for after-hours entertainment.

And yeah, I know you can probably download all of these in high quality DIVX from P2P networks, but as a security guy, I think that swapping files like that is the equivalent of being blindfolded and tossed to the bottom of a pile of a sweaty gangbang of yiffing furries. No Thanks.

From the AP here:

Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months.

The fish don’t do the job alone. After 15 to 30 minutes in the tank, customers get a standard pedicure, made easier by the soft skin the doctor fish leave behind.

Ho believes his is the only salon in the country to offer the treatment, which costs $35 for 15 minutes and $50 for 30 minutes. The spa has more than 1,000 fish, with about 100 in each individual pedicure tank at any given time.

The owner is also talking about setting up all-over fish treatments to treat other skin flaky problems like psoriasis.

From ThisisPlymouth here:

THE fire brigade has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after seven firefighters took two hours to rescue a seagull.

One crew was called to the roof of a sausage factory after reports a bird was trapped under netting.

The RSPCA called Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service on Wednesday to free the bird. But when they discovered they could not reach it, they called for back-up. A second crew with a hydraulic aerial platform was then dispatched by fire service headquarters.

It travelled 12 miles from its base in Taunton to the sausage factory in Bridgwater. The estimated cost of the rescue operation was £800.

At 9am yesterday fire crews were again called by the RSPCA to rescue a seagull that was trapped in a TV aerial. One crew from Exmouth freed the bird, which was taken to a vet where it died.

The picture above was taken during my visit to Plymouth to the Mayflower Steps. That’s a seagull sitting atop Old Glory there. Needless to say, in a town by the sea, seagulls are a huge pest. Next thing you know, there will be ambulance rides for rats who swallowed rat poison.

And here is the sign on the pump.

Awesome.

Thanks to my buddy Mike for uploading this to his iPhone gallery. I haven’t pulled the photos off my camera yet, but the iPhone has built-in gallery features for fast sharing. Yeah, I’m a little jealous at how cool the iPhone is. But my Kodak camera got just as many bars as his iPhone did this weekend- ZERO!