Here’s a digest of some articles I collected this week that are either funny, interesting, or just plain weird.

1. Blind Justice? Attractive Get Breaks with Juries – CBS News
   In completely unsurprising study results, Cornell researchers have found that juries are significantly more likely to convict an ugly person than an attractive person in identical circumstances. Where evidence is strong and the case is serious, attractiveness plays less of a role. But where the charges are minor, or the evidence is ambiguous, ugly people are at a serious disadvantage. They get higher sentences too — way higher!
2. Toilet Brush ‘Blunder’ Death – The Sun (UK)
   A man is taking legal action after an inquest found that his wife died due to serious errors by her examining doctors. The woman had somehow fallen onto a toilet brush handle which embedded itself in her buttock. The foreign object was missed by doctors. The woman died of complications during surgery to finally remove the handle — four years after she had fallen on it.
3. Pizza in Naples ‘cooked with wood from coffins’ – Telegraph (UK)
   Prosecutors in Italy are claiming that the oak wood being used in Naples’ pizza ovens has come from a grisly source. It is alleged that gangs are digging up coffins from the local graveyard and selling the wood to owners of local pizza parlours looking to save on costs.
4. U.S. rights group sues to protect right to swear – Vancouver Sun
   The American Civil Liberties Union is taking action against Pennsylvania police. Apparently, the cops have been arresting (and in some cases jailing) about 750 people per year simply for uttering profanities or making profane gestures. The ACLU claims that the disorderly conduct charges are unconstitutional, because  swearing is protected speech under the First Amendment.

I’ll post more articles when I get some free time.