Yeah, NYC is gross sometimes.  You just have to love it regardless.

Apparently, the bedbug epidemic is back. (Remember last time, in 2006? We didn’t either.) This time, the New York Post is reporting, it’s the subway stations that are infested. 

Specifically citing seats in stations at Union Square, Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Fordham Road, the Post article references third-party quotes from one of the city’s “leading bedbug authorities”… which must be one of the worst jobs in the city.

If we learned anything from The Wire, it’s that the Drug War is totally insane. Which we already sort of knew.

But then we hear stories like this, and we realize that the rest of the country still hasn’t figured it out.

The United States is home to less than five percent of the world’s population – but almost a quarter of the world’s prison population. We have more prisoners than anyplace else in the world, both in terms of percentage and sheer numbers.

We’re talking about 2.3 million Americans behind US bars; China, with four times our population, is a distant second, with 1.6 million prisoners.

Worse, in the 1980s we had about 40,000 people in jail for drug crimes; today, it’s over half a million.

The NY Times‘ national legal correspondant, Adam Liptak, spoke with NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday. Author of the Times’ recent series of legal criticism, “The American Exception,” Liptak tries to make sense of the ridiculously unbalanced political system we’ve got going on – and figure out why we’ve got more people in prison than any other country in the world.

Surprise, surprise — the problem’s our law enforcement, legal and judicial systems… not our people.

You’ve got to hear this interview this interview.

Tokyo based artist Rikki Kasso recently launched his new website www.rikkikasso.com

You can also check out his ongoing photography series at tokyoundressed.blogspot.com

Following the Organic Consumers Association’s revelations that so-called “organic” or “natural” product brands were actually made with toxic chemicals such as 1,4-dioxane, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps has sued numerous companies in the industry that it accuses of using misleading labeling to deceive consumers. The lawsuit is meant to encourage the named companies (see list below) to either reformulate their products to eliminate the petrochemical materials, or to change their labeling and stop using the words “organic” or “natural” on their products.Companies sued by Dr. Bronner’s include Estee Lauder, Ecocert, OASIS, Stella McCartney’s CARE, Jasön, Avalon Organics, Nature’s Gate, Kiss My Face, Ikove and others. Each of the companies being sued, says Dr. Bronner’s, are using potentially dangerous chemicals that certainly don’t quality as natural or organic. The product categories include shampoo, body wash, liquid soap, skin cleansers and other personal care products.

(via Natural News)

(Thanks Caitlin!)

Columbus, Ohio’s unparalleled producer of smooth-as-butter beats, J Rawls – responsible for the Lone Catalysts, and plush sounds like Black Star’s “Respiration” – has been getting deep into the neo-soul, and it fits the man like a velvet glove.

Witness last year’s The Essence of Soul for evidence: while recording it, J Rawls was introduced to Middle Child, a talented young soul singer from Youngstown, OH who’s been gathering attention since her early work with Riot West Entertainment. After working with her on a few tracks for Essence, Rawls realized they made an ideal collaborative team — and decided they would do a full album together.

That album, Rawls & Middle, is dropping soon (June 10) — and it’s everything you’d expect from these two.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you thought pocket dialing emergency services just as you and your significant other were starting to get frisky made for an awkward situation, read what happened to this Marine.

Check out this sacred Indian Baby Tossing ritual (via This Indifferent Universe - thanks Peter Wu!)

Estevan Oriol just put us onto this recent piece by Retna and The Mac. The female character comes directly from an Estevan Oriol photograph (note the signature in the lower corner).

Go to estevanoriol.blogspot.com for more… or check the Daily Dose for some flicks of Retna & The Mac doing touch-ups.