‘Children playing with toy guns run the risk of being confronted by armed marksmen, Essex police have said.’

‘A gay bar in China’s Yunnan province that receives government funding from the state health bureau for AIDS prevention is empty, because all the gay people are afraid that being seen there will lead to discrimination and harassment.’

With some justification, it would seem. Commenter Digilante claims:

‘It’s like the “Free HIV/AIDS Test” drive that they had in my (Chinese) wife’s home town. It didn’t take long for people to work out that those who tested positive were never seen again.’

’ “Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 ‘maritime companies’ and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,” Mohammed said.

“The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials … we’ve made piracy a community activity.” ‘

‘In Denmark, it’s legal to make copies of commercial videos for backup or other private purposes. It’s also illegal to break the DRM that restricts copying of DVDs. Deciding to find out which law mattered, Henrik Anderson reported himself for 100 violations of the DRM-breaking law (he ripped his DVD collection to his computer) and demanded that the Danish anti-piracy Antipiratgruppen do something about. They promised him a response, then didn’t respond. So now he’s reporting himself to the police. He wants a trial, so that the legality of the DRM-breaking law can be tested in court.’

‘Back on Chuo street, Akiba’s artery, it’s hard to imagine that samurai once paraded here on their way to present gifts to the Shogun. For 35 years, it was closed to car traffic every Sunday to leave the way clear for street performances. Now the police cruise along the back roads in patrol cars, stopping and searching people in costumes.’

‘“And yet,” says Galbraith, “the animation popular in Akihabara is made by and for otaku [the ‘geeks’ of the article’s title] , who Japanese don’t like. In this sense, there’s a conflict of interest – a schizo policy of wanting to promote anime culture through Akihabara without actually having to deal with otaku who hang out here.” ‘

A blog post revealing some of the - for most of us - unseen side of the music industry: how it deals with the artists.

‘I still think he was a jackass, though, and that sentence continues to haunt me. Because $10,000 might have been nothing to him, but it was clearly something to me. And his inability to take it seriously – to put himself in my place, just for the length of our phone call – suggested that people who care about $10,000 mistakes, and the principles of things, like, say, honoring contracts even when you don’t have to, are the real idiots.’

‘Danny may even be right. But there’s another possibility – one I don’t necessarily subscribe to, but one that could be avoided entirely by humoring pests like me. There’s a theory that labels and publishers deliberately avoid creating the transparent accounting systems today’s technology enables. Because accurately accounting to my silly little band would mean accurately accounting to the less silly bands that are recouped, and paying them more money as a result.’

(Via Cat.)

‘Rochon1 analysed the literature on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and found all the studies that had ever been published where one NSAID was compared to another. In every single trial, the sponsoring company’s drug was either equivalent to, or better than, the drug it was compared to: all the drugs were better than all the other drugs.’

’ “I could not park my truck near my house since the mountain blocked my path,” he told Reuters. Das said he was also afraid of bandits stealing his truck. “I had to leave my truck miles away, so I decided to do something about it myself,” Das said by telephone.

Local villagers, who previously had to trek around the mountain, are now using the tunnel to get to work.’

‘So mystifying are the former prime minister’s financial structures – which involve highly specialised limited partnerships and parallel companies – that the Guardian today launches an open invitation to tax specialists and accountants to attempt to explain the motivation behind such structures. We have published the Companies House documents and other legal papers regarding the structure of the partnerships at guardian.co.uk and invite expert comment via our site at guardian.co.uk/politics/series/blair-mystery.’

‘It has the appearance of children’s modelling clay, which once out of its airtight packet, can be moulded into any shape and fixed onto leather, metal, ceramic, wood and plastic. After about 24 hours it “cures” and will adhere to any substance with the strength of ultra strong glue but it does not become rock hard. Instead, it stays slightly flexible.’

A five-star restaurant where you dine in the dark. The waiting staff are blind.

‘Mocha tells me that some people come here to party but most come to make out. For me, what’s hitting this whole experience out of the ballpark is the way I am really just tasting the food I’m shoving in my mouth for what seems like the first time in my life. It’s like every single ingredient is self-separating inside of my mouth for a very detailed taste check.’