you're a female cashier or a corporate officer at Wal-Mart, age 18 and over, and you're not afraid to shed your inhibitions in front of the camera, Playboy wants you.

Playboy wants Wal-Mart women

] Ah, science! Ennobling. Fascinating. Deeply challenging.
] Also, dangerous, gross and mind-bogglingly boring. We at
] Popular Science are sometimes brought up short by the
] realization that there are aspects of science%u2014entire
] jobs, even%u2014that, when you strip away the imposing
] titles and advanced degrees, sound at best distasteful
] and at worst unbearable. Having chosen last month our
] second annual Brilliant 10%u2014a group of dynamic
] researchers making remarkable discoveries%u2014we turned
] to this pressing question: For the rest out there, just
] how bad can a science job get?
]
]
] The answer: Really, really bad.
]
]
] We solicited nominations from more than a thousand
] working scientists and culled the list for the most
] noxious. Then we voted. Which is to say, there is
] absolutely nothing scientific about the ranking of the
] worst jobs in science that appears on these pages; it is
] simply the collective opinion of a group of alternately
] awestruck and disturbed editors who rarely suffer
] anything worse on the job than keyboard- induced
] repetitive-motion syndrome.

Popular Science | The Worst Jobs in Science

] Recording artists across the board think the music
] industry should find a way to work with the Internet
] instead of suing people who have downloaded music.
]
] "They're protecting an archaic industry," said the
] Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. "They should turn their
] attention to new models."
]
] "This is not rocket science," said David Draiman of
] Disturbed, a hard-rock band with a platinum debut album
] on the charts. "Instead of spending all this money
] litigating against kids who are the people they're trying
] to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn
] how to effectively use the Internet."

Wayne Coyne's quote towards the end of the article is great:
"I don't know that there's any one factor behind the industry," said Coyne. "Maybe it's downloading, or maybe people just didn't feel like buying so many records. So Metallica makes $10 million instead of $20 million, who cares? To me, the sympathy is unwarranted. Some of this is just the hazard of doing business. It's the nature of the world. At the end of the day, it's just rock and roll. It isn't that big of a deal."

ajc.com | News | Artists blast record companies over lawsuits against downloaders

"Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure," Cash's manager, Lou Robin, said in a statement issued by Baptist Hospital in Nashville.

Thursday was a crappy day, as John Ritter also passed away unexpectedly while working on his TV show.

One very interesting tidbit that was on NPR this morning, but I can't find references of on Google yet, is the statement that while in the Air Force, Johnny Cash was a codebreaker. This would make Johnny the Alpha-Geek, and most beloved, as the original codebreaking Man in Black.

Music Legend Johnny Cash Dies at 71

] He was a poor sharecropper's son from Kingsland,
] Arkansas, who sang to himself while picking cotton in the
] fields -- then later sang to millions through recordings,
] concerts and his late-'60s TV variety show.
]
] He became a country music statesman who found a home with
] rap-rock producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings.
]
] He was called the "Man in Black," who once sang "I shot a
] man in Reno/Just to watch him die," but opened his
] concerts with the friendly, modest greeting, "Hello, I'm
] Johnny Cash."

It's a sad day in music.

CNN.com - 'Man in Black' Johnny Cash dead at 71 - Sep. 12, 2003

] In 1969, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the
] first man to walk on the moon, uttering the immortal
] phrase, "One small step for man, one giant leap for
] mankind." Or did he? Previously suppressed footage
] discovered by blogjam shows that Armstrong's reaction was
] a great deal more uninhibited than history suggests, and
] that a hasty editing job was needed to prepare the
] astronaut's moment of glory for broadcast.

Jesus H. Christ this is fucking funny.

Blogjam presents: Neil Armstrong - The Truth

] You may think your salary is paltry, but compared with
] most of the world's population, you're up there with Bill
] Gates.

don't forget how good you have it!

Westerners Pretty Rich

] In fact, they're tracking every download and selling the
] data to the music industry. How one company is turning
] file-sharing networks into the world's biggest focus
] group.

This is so obvious. Essentially, the music industry tracks what is being downloaded and where. They heavily promote the respective artists in the respective areas. Brilliant you say? No, just good marketing, and another reason why this is not a THREAT to the industry. It's a catalyst for growth.

I am reminded of a great interview that Peter Gabrial gave. He was asked about piracy, particularly in the third world (where he is heavily influenced and very popular). He said essentially that he viewed piracy as an opportunity. "If people are copying my work, I just go tour there." Peter got it. He realized that there was demand for his work, and maybe he isn't making royalties because of the copying, he has the opportunity to make REAL money by touring and selling merch. Oddly enough, this interview was in the early 80s.

BigChampagne is Watching You

] A homesick shipping clerk had himself shipped from New
] York to Dallas in an airline cargo crate, startling his
] parents -- and a deliveryman -- when he broke out of the
] box outside their home.
]
] Charles D. McKinley, 25, was arrested and jailed on
] unrelated bad-check and traffic charges after his
] overnight odyssey. Federal officials are considering
] additional charges of stowing away on a plane.

CNN.com - Homesick man who flew as cargo recounts journey - Sep. 10, 2003

] Los Angeles, CA - The RIAA announced that they would
] begin a strategy of profits by lawsuit, which should keep
] them a viable business indefinitely.
]
] "It's really a bold new idea that really gets back to the
] roots of the RIAA," said new RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch
] Bainwol. "We'll no longer be worried about distributing
] music. The file sharers will do that for us, but now
] we'll just make our money from suing them and that's
] really what we're all about."
]
] According to a report by The Inquirer it will take the
] RIAA over 2,000 years to sue every file sharer, which
] confirms the long-term viability of the business model.

BBspot - RIAA Says Future of Music is Suing File Sharers