The Grammys are on tonight. Bob Dylan got the MusiCares Person of the Year award. The LA Times has lots of coverage of everything Grammy releated.

Update: I didn't even recognize the opening act (ACDC) until they played Highway to Hell. The audience was singing along like it was the song of the century. Ariana Grande: I don't think I've ever heard her sing before. Her song choice almost put me to sleep. Very boring.

I was about to turn off the show when Tom Jones and whoever started singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" as a tribute to the married couple who wrote it who were in the audience. I never heard of them. But I'm glad I didn't stop watching, they sang it really well, and it can't be easy to make that song sound fresh. But the woman's outfit was awful. Big girl underpants covered from neck to floor by some sheer thing with huge black appliques. It wouldn't look good on anyone, but it really looked terrible on her. [More....]

Our last open thread is full, here's a new one, all topics welcome.

Last day of court this week. A lot of motions due Friday, though.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Did you know the vaccine debate we are now in the middle of was an issue decided by the Supreme Court? In 1905! From the first Justice Harlan's opinion for the Court in Jacobson v. Massachusetts:

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm on a break from court and see that the Jordanian pilot was burned alive. The photos are horrific, the video is worse. No links here please.

Trial has begun in France for Dominique Strauss-Kahn and more than a dozen others on organized pandering charges (technically called "proxénétisme aggravé," which translates as aggravated procuring for the purposes of prostitution.) The charges result from a long-term financial investigation dubbed the Carlton Affair, into whether DSK knew that prostitutes who attended various business functions were part of an organized solicitation effort by businessmen and hotels using unlawful corporate funds. Background here and here.

Prostitution is legal in France. Profiting from prostitution (supplying them to others) is not. The issue is whether DSK was "complicit" in the acts of the businessmen who supplied the prostitutes or knew the businessmen were using corporate funds to pay the prostitutes. DSK has said he attended the parties but did not know the women were prostitutes. Other defendants include a senior police chief and businessmen. DSK is represented by the Henri Le Clerc, now 84. His view: [More...]

Or more properly Super Bowl Investment Open Thread. In the main event, I like the East Coast Cheaters (-1) (5 units) (as opposed to the West Coast Cheaters (a word for you Hawks fans - adderall). I also like Tails in the Coin Toss.

Before we get to the fun exotic bets on the flip side, query - does it seem to you people are talking less about Super Bowl ads this year? (Other than the ridiculous tortoise v Hare thing.) I hope so. It was too much. Now on to the fun!

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. I'll have my pick for you then, but you may remember I love the Super Bowl prop bets so I'll give you a sneak peek:

SPECIAL (NE @ SEA) - What will Katy Perry be wearing when she begins the Halftime show?

(6016) Pants (below knees) +250

We'll also have the traditional props like coin clip, length of national anthem, etc. Oh, and the game of course. I think I'm going with the East Coast Cheaters.

Open Thread.

Another busy day. Our last open thread is full, here's another one, all topics welcome.

I'll be working all day (and probably tomorrow as well.) Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: TL was down from about 10 pm last night until 5 am this morning (MT). All should be fine now.

Busy work day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Joseph Sledge of North Carolina has been released from prison after serving 37 years for murder. DNA proved he didn't do it, according to the three judge panel that heard the evidence.

Sledge is the eighth person exonerated after the state set up the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run investigative agency of its kind.

The ISIS deadline for the Japanese hostages has passed. There is no statement yet from ISIS, but one is expected.

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a challenge to lethal injection drugs filed by Oklahoma death row inmates. One of them has already been executed.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.