*NYU to Ban Killer Coke: New York University will ban Coca-Cola from campus on December 8th (joining 19 other colleges), unless the company agrees to an independent investigation into conditions at a Columbian bottling plant. And this November 9th, NYU graduate students and teaching assistants plan to strike over the right to unionize.

*Blogs and Dogs Conference: Alberta, Canada will play host to a blogging conference called Blogs and Dogs for 4 days in December. It won’t be about bloggers meeting each other’s dogs, though. It’s actually about blogging and social software with an included dog sled race for all participants!

*Democrats, Don’t Ignore the War: Former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich calls on Democratic leaders to make their party a true opposition party to get things done and get troops home from Iraq in an article on Alternet. Ignoring the war apparently wasn’t helping.

*Ashlee’s fast food flipout: Terrible singer and actress Ashlee Simpson got drunk and went crazy at a Canadian McDonald’s and here’s the (poor quality) video to prove it! She’s probably unset she wasn’t invited to Blogs and Dogs 2005…

*Splogs Solution: Class Action Lawsuit Against Google?: Ensight.org’s Jeremy Wright ponders whether suing Google could help stop the spam blogs (or “splogs”) problem on site’s like Google’s Blogspot. Interesting idea, but could it really work? Any lawyers want to chime in on this one?

*NaNoWriMo: November is National Novel Writing Month. Join in with bloggers or others for a fourth year of novel writing. Can you write an entire novel in less than 30 days? I think I’ll wait ’til next year.

*Famous Friends UK: A British service called Famous Friends will photoshop you into celebrity photos for a fee. Why didn’t I think of that as a business venture? You can even become a Scientologist celebrity-friend! [via Chris Diclerico]

*Most New Yorkers In Favor Of Smoking Ban In Some Outdoor Areas: Bad news for you city smokers out there — now non-smokers don’t want you to smoke anywhere. Well, there’s still inside your car… oh wait.

*Deadly Wilma eyeing Florida: The record-tying 12th hurricane of the season is also the strongest recorded Atlantic hurricane ever. The Category 5 monster may reach Florida by this weekend. Hopefully Hurricane Wilma will lose some of it’s power before it reaches the US.

*4 Fox shows named worst for families: “The War at Home,” “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” and “The OC” were on the Parents Television Council’s annual list of family-offending television shows. “CSI” and “Desperate Housewives”were on the list, too. The PTC was only able to come up with 9 primetime shows they deemed fit for kids.

*Homeland Security Secretary: ‘I’m not a hurricane expert’: Alan Chertoff attempted to defend his handling of Hurricane Katrina by telling lawmakers he relied on Michael Brown and FEMA to make all the decisions. Great way to insure homeland security, Alan.

*Spain seeks arrest of U.S. soldiers: Spain issued an international arrest warrant for three American soldiers for the death of TV cameraman Jose Couso, who was killed when a US tank shelled the Palestinian Hotel in the advance into Baghdad in April 2003. A Ukranian Reuters camerman was also killed in the attack. At least 37 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

*Spammers face jail in Nigeria: This letter will definitely come to you as a huge surprise, but Nigeria passed a new law that would penalize unsolicited email spammers with up to three years of jail or fines up to $7,700.

*Baby on the way for Tom and Katie: Just call it Baby TomKat — Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have really done it this time — literally. With no date set for their wedding, TomKat announced that Katie Holmes is pregnant… or did we all just get Punk’d?

*RIAA sued by victim: Remember this name: Tanya Andersen. The 41-year-old disabled Oregon mother has chosen to fight back and is countersuing the RIAA for RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and negligent misrepresentation among others.

*Photoshop Magic Melts Prison Bars: A service catering to convicts takes photos of prisoners with their visitng loved ones in prison visiting rooms and then photoshops them into “exotic locales.” And for $10 and a pack of cigarettes, it’s quite a steal.

*Blu-ray support hinges on disc copy, says Intel: Intel stands up for limited consumer rights in the HD DVD versus Blu-Ray successor-to-the-DVD battle by taking sides. Too bad that if both formats are released as planned consumers will still get screwed.

*Weblogs Inc. Being Bought Out By America Online: AOL buys the weblog network for a reported $25 million and now there are rumors Gawker Media’s gossip blogs might be in talks with a buyer. No word yet on when AOL plans on running Weblogs Inc. straight into the ground.

[Harkening back to the old days and ways of CityCynic.com, I present a new regular feature on the blog called “Today in Links,” featuring multiple interesting news stories I’ve come across. Enjoy. –Ed.]

*Engadget Labs launching October 15: Weblogs, Inc.’s Engadget, the gadget blog, will launch an NYC-based testing lab to perform CNET-style benchmark tests on all sorts of gadgets they review. The blog laboratory will also feature a podcasting studio for interviews with gadget makers.

* Flash memory prices to fall following Apple’s Nano deal: Apple got a bargain on it’s Samsung flash chips for the iPod nano, so now flash memory manufacturers will be forced to reduce the price of flash memory cards, benefitting consumers.

* Ground Zero focus turns to retail: Planners for the new World Trade Center site are turning the attention to adding retail space to Ground Zero after Pataki put the kibosh down on the International Freedom Center. Walmart seems very interested.

* Giants and Jets Agree to Build a Joint New Jersey Stadium: Acting NJ Gov. Richard Codey gets the two New York football teams to stay in New Jersey with a brand new shared $800 million football stadium at the Meadowlands. Designs for the stadium may include lighting the exterior blue or green depending on which team is playing at the time.

* MTA imposes $25 fine for drinking coffee on the subway: The MTA voted to keep a rule against drinking anything on the subway. That means you, morning coffee commuters! Check out the insane things that came out of MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow’s mouth at the meeting. At least they weren’t able to get that photo ban passed.