Today in #tips, Maryland police brutalize a college student, Nike appears to be cool with sexual assault, scary goings-on at Apple, the Trojan virus that could expose your perverted ways, J.K. Rowling's takedown of the Tories, and more.
Marriage_Iguana links to a horrific story and video out of Maryland: 21-year-old student John McKenna was set upon by riot police and mounted cops for no apparent reason and was beaten so badly that he required eight staples to close the "gaping" head wound he received. Shockingly, the po-po claimed he'd been aggressive towards them, but the video shows McKenna did no such thing. To add insult to brutality, after his bashing McKenna was "allegedly told by officers in Maryland not to make a fuss about his injuries because they would have to fill out more paper work."
LeftCoastLady bears the sad news that metal band Type O Negative's frontman Peter Steele has died.
missing_piece has an in-depth look at how corporate marketing strategies can determine whether or not an athlete loses sponsorship in the wake of scandal. In this case the focus is on Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger, noting that both have done deals with Nike—but who was dropped? Michael Vick, for one, because Nike "consider[s] any cruelty to animals inhumane, abhorrent and unacceptable." But cruelty to ladies—which Roethlisberger has been accused of—still gets the Nike swoosh, it seems.
spikenard says Glenn Beck says something about wingnuts needing to be in a concentration camp in Texas, but the article is worth it for the map showing the "states that took in more federal tax revenues than they sent to Washington."
atlasfugged passes along the info that Sarah Palin will receive$2 million per season for her new TLC "reality" show. We still can't believe Sarah Palin is to be featured on a network that was once branded "The Learning Channel."
breathless brings the news that a new Trojan virus, packaged to look like a downloadable Hentai game, could publicly expose you for the pervert you are in private. When users boot up the "game," the virus takes a snapshot of their web history, posts it to the web under their name, then seeks to extort a hearty 10 pounds sterling ($15.49) to remove the information from the internet. Which is a price most would pay not to be on record as favoring schoolgirl/tentacle sex.
I, via my boyfriend Reddit, share a pictorial commentary on Apple's slide towards too much creepy computery control.
Attila the Bun points out that J.K. Rowling has written a brilliant op-ed for the U.K. Times, "The Single Mother's Manifesto," firmly grounded in Muggle political realities. Capable of writing from the perspective of both the put-upon single mother on government benefits she once was, and the glittering literary quadrillionaire she is at current, Rowling explains why it's still better to vote Labour for all of their failings. Do yourself a favor and watch a session of the British parliament in action sometime—there's more shrieking and squabbling than can be found on the entirety of Big Brother seasons 1-42.
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