September 2009



Longest Known Judicial Oath

According to the people at Improbable Research, who collect interesting and completely ridiculous studies done in many scientific fields (including the social sciences), the longest known oath required of witnesses in a judicial proceeding was the oath required in Burmese…


Monkey Mask Fails to Defeat Traffic Camera

This may seem at first like a great idea for beating those automatic photo-enforcement cameras they set up to catch speeders: I would honestly like to be able to say this idea worked and that there was still a mystery…


UPDATE: “Open Mike” Duvall Resigns

Well, that didn't take long.  Just one day after the public disclosure of his affair with a lobbyist, on whom he was also cheating (if that's the right word) with a third woman, all of which was revealed by him in…




Malaysian Woman Sentenced to Caning for Drinking Beer

I have been meaning to post on this case for a while, and given yesterday's post on the story of Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman punished for wearing pants, now seems like a good time. In July, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno,…


Sudan Fines Woman Who Dared To Wear Pants

The New York Times reports that a Sudanese woman has been fined the equivalent of $200 after a trial on Monday in which she was found guilty of wearing pants in public.  She was, however, spared the 40 lashes she…


Slight Problems Found With “Nurse of the Year” Award

Here is a short list of the potential problems that authorities recently alleged in connection with Betty Lichtenstein's "Nurse of the Year" award, which she received in 2008: She isn't a nurse. Wait, I found a few more: She was…