NEW YORK (AP) -- Recording industry titan Sony BMG Music Entertainment agreed Monday to pay $10 million and stop bribing radio stations to feature its artists in what a state official called a more sophisticated generation of the payola scandals of decades ago.

The agreement springs from an investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who called the practice "pervasive" in the industry and suggested other music industry giants could face similar penalties.

Pay-for-play "is driving the industry, and it is wrong," Spitzer told reporters

Spitzer rules.

Sony Agrees to $10M 'Payola' Settlement

Julian Beever is an English artist who is famous for his art on the pavements of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. It's peculiarity? Beever gives his drawings an anamorphosis view, his images are drawn in such a way which gives them three dimensionality when viewing from the correct angle.

It really is pretty amazing.

3D street drawings. Too cool!

The idea of a caterpillar that eats a snail seems impossible -- like finding a new species of wolf that dives for and dines on clams, says a University of Hawaii researcher.

But that is what Daniel Rubinoff of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources discovered and reported in yesterday's issue of the journal Science with his graduate student William Haines.

The unique behavior occurs in predatory caterpillars in the genus Hyposmocoma, found only in Hawaii, he said.

Just thought this was neat.

Honolulu Star-Bulletin News /2005/07/22/

This is a regular web broadcast (i.e., large downloadable video files) which is mainly a parody of hardcore gamers.

Well, at least we *hope* it's a parody. I find it entertaining, anyway.

Pure Pwnage

RICHMOND, Va. -- A brain-dead pregnant woman being kept on life support has passed a milestone in her fetus' development, giving her family renewed hope her child will survive.

Susan Torres' fetus recently passed the 24th week of development _ the earliest point at which doctors felt the baby would have a reasonable chance to survive outside the womb, her brother-in-law said.

Brain-dead woman's fetus past most critical developmental period:

n honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we’ve added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. Happy lunar surfing.

Google is funny. Zoom all the way in.

Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

Miami, Florida -- Authorities are sending convicted sex offenders to jail on probation violations for having racy magazines such as Maxim, in the latest crackdown on probationers in the state.

Officers searched the Miami home of Andrew Calderon on May 18 and found a sexy calendar, a racy poster, and a few copies of Maxim magazine. Calderon, 23, was jailed for six days before a judge ordered his release.

What is next? Sending a guy to jail for watching TV?

Weird News - Tampa Bay's 10 News - WTSP

That smiling sun on Kentucky's license plates was just a bit too cheerful for most drivers: Now Mr. Smiley's headed for the recycling bin.

The sunshine plates were met with ridicule when then-Gov. Paul Patton unveiled the design in December 2002. Gov. Ernie Fletcher is scheduled to announce the change at a news conference Tuesday.

Finally some good news out of Frankfort. Personally I hate that smiling license plate. Lucky for me I drive a truck and have a plain white plate with purple numbers. I'm not exactly sure who's bright idea it was to change the state motto from "Where education pays" to "Unbridled spirit" but it got that plate changed so I am all for it.

Ky. to Drop 'Mr. Smiley' License Plates - Yahoo! News

"I didn't remember this, but my dad was obsessed with the Super 8 camera and I just saw these films recently. He's filming and it's my mom trying to hand me to Ronald McDonald. But it's kind of a weird-looking, bad Ronald McDonald - it might even have been a woman.

"I'm screaming in terror and they just keep pushing me towards this clown and I'm like fighting him off."

With The Devil's Rejects starting next weekend I found this kinda funny but it explains Captain Spaulding from House of 1000 Corpses.

- ZOMBIE BLAMES RONALD McDONALD FOR CLOWN DISLIKE

Whew. Fair warning. This dog is UUUUUGGGG-ley.

World's Ugliset Dog Contest won