The American Civil Liberties Union warned that the federal government has been using corporations to carry out surveillance of citizens because private firms are not subject to many privacy and civil-liberties laws. [Wired]
German men were being admonished to pee sitting down by a gadget called the WC ghost; when the device detects a lifted toilet seat, it says, in German: “Hey, stand peeing (“Stehpinkeln”) is not allowed here and will be punished with fines, so if you don’t want any trouble, you’d best sit down.” It was reported that the term for a man who pees sitting down, “Sitzpinkler,” is a synonym for “wimp.” [Telegraph]
Twenty-seven inmates of the county jail in Clearwater, Florida, who were released so that they could flee Hurricane Charley were still at large; 256 inmates were let out of jail but most returned in four days as instructed.
[Guardian] Edvard Munch’s The Scream was stolen by armed robbers from a crowded museum in Oslo, Norway. [Reuters]