New York City is the world's greatest cultural melting pot, so it stands to reason that its police force would be a beacon of tolerance and understanding. Right? Sorry. It turns out some NYPD officers may be racist.

California researchers spent $8.7 million on this: "Four [studies] showed that cannabis can significantly relieve neuropathic pain and one found that vaporizers are an effective way to use marijuana." We'll conservatively estimate $8.6 million as weed expenses. [LAT]

Notable trend noted by the New York Times news-paper: Transgender individuals often choose to change their names along with their sex. And New York City is a popular place to do so! The more you know. There used to be a law that name changes had to be advertised in the news-paper, which had the fringe benefit of…

High school scientists have discovered that high school athletes are more likely to drink and fight than high school non-athletes (nerds). WHOA.

No big surprise. [NYT]

Thoroughly discredited PR man Mark Penn enjoys being dominated by Rachel Maddow, and charging outrageous fees to package common sense as insight for out-of-touch corporate mouthbreathers. Today: poor people like cheap things!

The Juergen Teller shots of Victoria Beckham for Marc Jacobs' spring ad campaign were met with the usual awed glee when they were released earlier this year. But now there's a backlash! Liz Jones, a columnist at the Daily Mail, is worried that these ads "sum up just what's WRONG with high fashion." Specifically, she…

Oprah is the most important person in the world, singlehandedly driving American book-buying and butt cream choices. Ad Age has a monster article today about "How to Get Your Brand on 'Oprah,'" which is the most important task facing American marketers everywhere at any given time. And after thousands of words, the…