Blog Heap of Links for the day 19 March 2009

In a further sign that the Obama administration is shifting away from the "war on drugs" policies of its predecessor, the country's top law enforcement official has announced that the federal government will end raids on groups that supply medical marijuana. Eric Holder, the attorney general, said federal agencies would now concentrate their efforts on traffickers who pass themselves as medical dispensaries and "use medical marijuana laws as a shield".

An urban legend about a gang initiation at Wal-Mart that included a killing spree was being spread once again in Salt Lake County on Thursday. But law enforcers wanted to assure the public that there was no truth behind the myth. ... But enough people have received the rumor through text messages that the sheriff's office was forced to spend much of Thursday morning answering phone calls from concerned residents. The text tells people, "Do not go to any Wal-Mart tonight. Gang initiation to shoot three women tonight. Not sure which Wal-Mart, so please pass this on."

Jerry Jalava's 2GB USB finger looks like a normal finger, but it's detachable and he leaves it inside his computer's slot while using it. The Finnish programmer plans to "upgrade" his finger in the future with one that has a removable fingertip, an RFID tag and more storage space.

The final build of Internet Explorer 8 has been released in 25 languages. ... The public Windows 7 beta is not being updated, and although Microsoft released an update for IE8 for Windows 7 in February, the next update is not likely to arrive until the Windows 7 Release Candidate next month. For everyone else, in the coming weeks Microsoft will put IE8 out as an optional download on Windows Update and then later roll it out to users via Automatic Updates.

California corrections officials released a new photograph of imprisoned mass murderer Charles Manson on Thursday, showing the balding, gray-bearded killer at the age of 74. [Still has swastika tat, doesn't really have the manic eyes anymore, but still an a'hole.]