New Airline Seating Patent Promises True Sardine Experience

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Like Sardines in a CanThe quest to achieve the highest passenger density ratio per square inch might be one step closer with the patent application of the Economy Class Cabin Hexagon.

Zodiac Seats France believes this design will allow for better storage of cabin passengers while providing low-fare cargo more “space available at the shoulder and arm area.”

The kicker? You have the opportunity for two passengers staring at you the entire flight.

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Oregon Reportedly Allows Children As Young As 15 To Secure Sex Change Without Parental Notice Or Consent

336px-Seal_of_Oregon.svgRainbowFlagVarious states have moved to allow children to secure birth control without the knowledge or notification of parents, including schools that reportedly will implant IUDs in children as young as sixth graders. Oregon however is going further still and reportedly allowed 15-year-olds to get a sex-change operation at state expense under its Medicaid program. What is curious is that Oregon officials are thus far refusing to discuss the program with media despite its obvious importance to the citizens of the state. If these reports are inaccurate, we should hear it directly from these officials. If this story is true, we are witnessing a significant change in our notion of parental rights without even a passing conversation over the basis and scope of such changes.

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Report: Illegal Immigrants Account for Roughly 75 Percent of Drug Possession Cases and 30 Percent Of All Federal Sentencings

UnknownA little discussed report by the United States Sentencing Commission has been released with an astonishing figure: Of the more than 2,200 people who received federal sentences for drug possession in fiscal year 2014, almost three-quarters of them were illegal immigrants. In addition, illegal immigrants reportedly made up more than one-third of all federal sentences for all crimes.

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Tennessee Judge Allowed To Remain On Bench After Conditioning The Right To Counsel On Work And Donating To His Chosen Charities

gavel2Judge Reese Holley of Dickson, Tennessee has agreed to stop conditioning representation of counsel on making donations to his favorite charities or performing public service. What is most astonishing is not that Holley did not know what any first-year law student could tell him but that he has only been reprimanded and will be allowed to continue to serve as a judge in Tennessee after doggedly maintaining such facially unconstitutional and abusive rule. He only received a public reprimand.

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Federal Court Upholds Decision Stripping Redskins Of Trademark Protection

350px-Washington_Redskins_logo.svgThe Redskins lost a major challenge this week to the cancellation of the their trademark protection by the Patent and Trademark Office. I have previously written about my disagreement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision to rescind federal trademark protections for the Redskins as a racially disparaging name as well as the underlying law used to strip the team of its trademark protection. The law allows for a small administrative office to effectively dictate the outcome of a long simmering societal debate over the team name. More importantly, the standard for determining what names or words are disparaging remains dangerously undefined with striking contradictions as we have previously discussed in permitted and disallowed trademarks.

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Video Shows How Dog Calms Young Man In Midst Of Asperger’s Meltdown

Screen Shot 2015-07-08 at 8.37.18 AMI have often heard people question the use of service dogs for people with psychological conditions and thought that this videotape might change a few minds. It shows a young man having an Asperger’s attack and how his dog calms him down in a matter of minutes.

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Report: Norwegian Police Fired Just Two Shots in 2014

170px-Police_students,_Storberget_and_Gjengedal_patrolling114px-Badge_of_the_Norwegian_Police_Service.svgA couple years ago, we discussed how police in Iceland killed a man for the first time in history and compared that remarkable record to our own level of police shootings. This week we have another stark contrast out of Norway where police fired only two shots in 2014. They brandished firearms on just 42 occasions in 2014. Their highest rate was only 75 such incidents in 2005 and 2010.

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Doctor Faces 175 Years After Pleading Guilty To Ordering Unnecessary Cancer Treatments For Hundreds Of Victims

2A446FD900000578-0-image-a-35_1436175585124There are few felons who can top the pain caused by so many victims as Dr. Farid Fata, who is facing a demand by prosecutors for a 175-year sentence for sending hundreds of healthy patients into unnecessary cancer treatments.

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Past Disaster Scene Selfie Raises Controversy Over New DNC Spokesperson

Freundlich_selfieA couple months ago, we discussed the uproar in New York over people posting smiling selfies at the site of the deadly East Village fire. Many people were appalled by the insensitivity and part of the backlash was directed at Christina Freundlich, who worked at the Iowa Democratic Party. While some would suggest that a penchant for disaster scenes is not exactly a good omen for the upcoming elections, Freundlich has now been hired to be the face of the Democratic National Committee. As DNC spokespersons, we will be commenting on Republican excesses and mistakes.

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Roaming Charge: Man Climbs On Stage Of Performance To Plug In Cellphone

Nokia_mobile_phone_chargingI have heard of some pretty rude conduct at movies and plays but a New York man set a new low on July 2nd when he climbed on to the stage of a performance of Hand to God, the award-winning Broadway play. The reason? He spotted an outlet and plugged in his cellphone to charge it during the performance.

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La Chutzpah: Orthodox Jewish Group Dresses Up Mexican Laborers To Protest For Them At Gay Parade

There are times when New York seems like a giant set for the next Woody Allen movie. A New York Times reporter recently saw something a tad odd in the protest against the gay pride parade. The Orthodox Jewish protesters appeared to be Mexican laborers wearing ritual fringes, or tzitzit and carrying protest signs. It turns out that the Orthodox group hired Mexican laborers to be surrogate protesters so that young Orthodox boys and men would not see gay people in the parade and corrupt them. I guess the tip off for the reporter was the men saying Hoy Gavalt.

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Professor Criticized Over Racist Postings Is Hired By Rhodes College

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Rhodes College
Rhodes College
There is a new debate over impact of social media on academics. We previously debated the status of Boston University sociology professor Saida Grundy after a series of racist postings on social media. Boston University retained Grundy while many asked what would have happened if a white professor had posted the inverse comments about the “problem” of black males on campuses. Now a Memphis professor, Zandria Robinson, has triggered the same debate after denouncing whites and insisting that “whiteness is most certainly and inevitably terror.” However, in Robinson’s case, she was rehired by Rhodes College, which seemed to view her controversial comments as a positive element supporting her appointment. Some have criticized the decision and asked again if a white professor had called blackness a “terror,” if those comments would have been deemed a positive intellectual perspective.

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Citizens in England Call For Speech Crackdown After A Man Walks By Parliament With ISIS Flag

2000There is an interesting story out of England that shows the rising expectations among people that speech is regulated to prevent unpopular expressions. A man was photographed walking past Parliament with a small child on his shoulders and waiving an Islamic State flag. What I saw was a demonstration of free speech that is a testament to Western values. What many in England saw was an outrageous failure of the police to arrest the man.

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Australian Minister: Same-Sex Marriage Is Bad For The Cattle Industry

220px-Senator_Barnaby_Joyceblack-and-white-cow-3I thought that I had heard every argument against allowing same-sex couples to marry but leave it up to the Abbott Administration in Australia to come up with an especially whacked out rationale. Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce has announced that the country must preserve traditional marriage . . . for the cattle. Do it for the cattle.

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