Brilliant Arguments

An Important Solar Update

Toby McCasker of Vice.com somehow got an interview with Angeles Duran, who as I'm sure you remember is la mujer española que es la propietaria del sol. See "The Woman Who Owns the Sun Is Using Her Powers for Good," Vice.com (October 2013); see also "Sunshine No…


If They Violate Your Privacy in the Woods, Do You Make a Sound?

Not if you don't know about it, according to Rep. Mike Rogers, who, incredibly, is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Mike Masnick writes at techdirt about an amazing exchange between Rogers and Prof. Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at…


UPDATE: Hiccup Girl Convicted of Murder

Jennifer Mee originally became semi-famous in 2007 when she had hiccups that lasted for months and sometimes hit a frequency of 50 hiccups per minute. (They eventually stopped by themselves.) She became more semi-famous three years later when she was…



Defendant Claims His Underwear Is 50 Years Old

Faced with evidence that he and his family lived in luxury on a politician's salary, Bo Xilai insisted in court that he is a simple man, according to reports yesterday. Bo, who was formerly head of the Communist Party in…


What? I Said “Trust NASA.” What Did You Think I Said?

Surely this was just a typo: When this is actually what was going on: Based on documents provided by Edward Snowden, the Post reports that the NSA, to which the President seemed to be referring last week, has in fact "broken…


And This Is My Pet Unicorn, Mr. Carrot Pretty Lashes

Here's where this is going, in case you found this through an innocent unicorn-related search: [The defendant's] attorney … called the prosecution's case a stretch of the imagination. "Getting struck in the testicles is no way a reward or an…



Michael Jackson’s Ghost Testifies His Death Was an Accident

It testified over objection, of course, but the objection was apparently overruled. As you may recall, Jackson died in 2009 from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol, given to him by Dr. Conrad Murray. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter…