‘New research published in the March issue of Psychological Science may help elucidate the relationship between religious indoctrination and violence, a topic that has gained renewed notoriety in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In the article, University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman and his colleagues suggest that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression, especially in believers.
The authors set out to examine this interaction by conducting experiments with undergraduates at two religiously contrasting universities: Brigham Young University where 99% of students report believing in God and the Bible and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam where just 50% report believing in God and 27% believe in the bible. [..]
The research sheds light on the possible origins of violent religious fundamentalism and falls in line with theories proposed by scholars of religious terrorism, who hypothesize that exposure to violent scriptures may induce extremists to engage in aggressive actions.’
‘A 17-year-old faces a felony charge of injury to a child after police found a videotape that appears to show him and another man teaching his 2- and 5-year-old nephews to smoke marijuana, police said.
The video shows two children being taught to smoke marijuana and the men encouraging them to “get high,” police said. A man can be seen placing a marijuana cigarette into a baby’s mouth and, in another part of the video, a different boy is shown smoking on his own.’
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‘Britney Spears has flipped her lid in rehab, trying to hang herself with a bedsheet after screaming “I am the anti-christ” to frightened staff.
She made the demonic cry after scrawling the devil’s number “666” across her head. [..]
The ordeal began when she terrified staff by writing the number of the beast on her head and running around the clinic screaming, “I am the anti-christ!”
“The clinic people just didn’t know what to do,” a friend claimed.
The pop star then tried to hang herself with a bedsheet was but was found before she could hurt herself.’
‘I met god the other day.
I know what you’re thinking. How the hell did you know it was god?
Well, I’ll explain as we go along, but basically he convinced me by having all, and I do mean ALL, the answers. Every question I flung at him he batted back with a plausible and satisfactory answer. In the end, it was easier to accept that he was god than otherwise.
Which is odd, because I’m still an atheist and we even agree on that!
It all started on the 8.20 back from Paddington. Got myself a nice window seat, no screaming brats or drunken hooligans within earshot. Not even a mobile phone in sight. Sat down, reading the paper and in he walks.’
‘A US federal appeals court on Friday upheld a refusal to hear the case of a Lebanese-born German man who says he was tortured by the
CIA, citing national security reasons.
Khaled el-Masri claims was detained by the CIA for several months in 2004 on suspicion of links to terrorism.
Masri, 43, filed suit in December 2005 saying he had been snatched while on a trip in Macedonia, taken to Afghanistan, jailed, beaten and harassed before being set free without charge after five months. [..]
The US government had urged the court to reject the appeal saying that for national security reasons it could not confirm or deny any of the allegations because they were related to the activities of the CIA.’
‘More than 1 million rounds of ammunition, a cache of weapons and a tunnel were found inside a man’s home after an explosive fire that forced a neighborhood evacuation, authorities said Friday.
Three 25-gallon containers filled with an unknown fluid were found in the tunnel, which began in the garage and stretched about 10 feet into the backyard. The fluid was being analyzed by hazardous material experts, said Norco Fire Department Battalion Chief Ron Knueven.
Firefighters responded to a blaze Thursday afternoon at the Norco home, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles, and found what was believed to be the largest amount of ammunition ever discovered in the county, authorities said.
The fire caused some of the ammunition to explode, forcing evacuation of the neighborhood and keeping firefighters at a distance. [..]’
‘Boffins at Britain’s University of Manchester have created a transistor out of an atom-thick sheet of carbon. The high-speed device is so small only one electron can pass through at once. Crucially, the transistor operates at room temperature making it potentially viable for future microprocessors.
Details of the breakthrough were announced in the science journal Nature this week. The team, led by Professor Andre Geim of the Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, built the transistor from graphene, an allotrope of carbon that essentially fits all its constituent carbon atoms into a single plane. Discovered only three years ago, graphene is highly conductive.’
‘Two middle school boys facing sex abuse charges in connection with “spanking” incidents at Patton Middle School in McMinnville are back home with their parents after appearing in court on Tuesday.
The two boys, ages 12 and 13, face the equivalent of felony sex abuse charges. In court, Yamhill County authorities said their investigation showed the boys slapped female classmates on their buttocks numerous times over the past several weeks, and poked their breasts.
According to authorities, the boys were sometimes acting out a character known as ‘Party Boy’ from a movie based on a popular MTV television series.
Two of the victims testified in court they did not feel threatened and did not want the boys punished.’
Some TV presenter asks a bit of a strange question of a guest on the show.
I’m sure I’ve asked questions like that before. Maybe that’s why I’m not on TV. 🙂
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‘A 39-year-old woman who didn’t know she was pregnant gave birth this week after going to an emergency room with a stomachache.
April Barnum of Garden Grove gave birth to a full-term, 7-pound, 7-ounce boy by Caesarian section at University of California, Irvine, Medical Center, hospital officials said.
The 420-pound woman said her size kept her and others from realizing she was carrying the baby.
“Usually you can tell if you’re pregnant, but with me, I couldn’t tell,” Barnum said Thursday, a day after the birth. “If he kicked, I didn’t feel him kicking.”‘
‘A dark red shadow crept across the moon, leaving only a silver, crescent-shaped sliver as a total lunar eclipse began late Saturday.
Around the world, amateur stargazers and astronomers watched the first total lunar eclipse in three years. Partly visible on every continent, residents of Europe, Africa and the Middle East had the best view, weather permitting. [..]
Residents of east Asia saw the eclipse cut short by moonset, while those in the eastern parts of North and South America found the moon already partially or totally eclipsed by the time it rose over the horizon in the evening.
While eastern Australia, Alaska and New Zealand missed Saturday’s show, they will have front-row seats to the next total lunar eclipse, on August 28.’
‘Witnesses to a road crash on a Dutch motorway soon realised why the occupants of a van fled so quickly when police arrived and found hashish worth €15 million ($25.26 million) in it.
A police spokeswoman said the van contained 3000 kg of hashish and was heavily overloaded, although police did not know whether this had caused the crash.
“A van-driver heading to Amsterdam lost control of his vehicle and it tipped over … Witnesses were confused as to why two people got out and ran away even though no one was hurt in the accident,” she added.’
‘The Bush administration selected a design Friday for a new generation of atomic warheads, taking a major step toward building the first new nuclear weapon since the end of the Cold War nearly two decades ago.
The military and the Energy Department selected a design developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California over a competing design by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The decision to move ahead with the warhead, which eventually would replace the existing arsenal of weapons, has been criticized as sending the wrong signal to the world at a time when the United States is assailing attempts at nuclear weapons development in North Korea and Iran and striving to contain them.’
‘Two packages containing human body parts — including a liver and a partial head — that were intended for a lab were delivered to a home instead, and officials say more than two dozen similar packages could be dispersed across the United States.
The body parts, sent from China, were mistakenly dropped off at Franck and Ludivine Larmande’s home by a DHL driver who thought the bubble-wrapped items were pieces to a table.
“My husband started to unwrap one and said, ‘This is strange, it looks like a liver,'” Ludivine Larmande told The Grand Rapids Press. “He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear.”
“Something wasn’t right. It was scary, and I’m glad I didn’t open them.”‘
‘What began as a routine training exercise for some Swiss soldiers almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident, when the troops got lost at night and mistakenly marched into neighbouring Liechtenstein.
According to the Swiss newspaper Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers from the neutral country wandered more than 1.5-kilometres across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday, but they soon realized their mistake and turned back.
A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story, but said there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.
Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident, with Interior Ministry spokesman Markus Amman saying nobody in his country had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition.’
‘When Edgar Bronfman Jr gained ownership of Universal Studios he got into some odd marketing campaign practices.
One of which is this … all » rare, employee orientation video, that enlightened people about how things were going to change under new management.
It was comissioned to be written and directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and it was, and Jr. didn’t like it, so they scrapped it.
Great satire, video includes appearances by Steven Spielberg, Demi Moore, Tracy Lords, James Cameron, Michael J. Fox, and Sylvester Stallone.’
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‘The chicken toss has been declared off limits at Kansas State. For years, Kansas State students have smuggled live chickens into basketball games against Kansas, then thrown them onto the court and behind the opposing bench before tip-off – mocking their rival’s Jayhawk mascot.
But an animal rights group objected to the mistreatment of chickens, and the school issued an open letter to fans this week calling for an end to the practice. [..]
Kansas State had said it would not comment on the complaint, but the athletic department issued a statement Tuesday saying it considers live, non-service animals “contraband.” Any fans caught with animals or caught throwing any object onto a playing surface will be ejected from the game and could face prosecution.’
‘Antony and Cleopatra — one of history’s most romantic couples — were not the great beauties that Hollywood would have us believe, according to British academics.
A study of a 2,000-year-old silver coin found the Egyptian queen, famously portrayed by a sultry Elizabeth Taylor, had a shallow forehead, pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose.
On the other side, her Roman lover, played in the 1963 movie by Richard Burton, Taylor’s husband at the time, had bulging eyes, a hook nose and a thick neck.
History has depicted Cleopatra as a great beauty, befitting a woman who as Queen of Egypt seduced Julius Caesar, and then his rival Mark Antony.
But the coin, which goes on show on Wednesday at Newcastle University for Valentine’s Day, after years lying in a bank, is much less flattering about both famous faces.’
This guy skis off the edge of a rather high cliff. Seems alright.
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‘A worker at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom bonded out of jail, Thursday. Deputies said he attacked a co-worker and threatened to set him on fire, Wednesday night. [..]
“I think they’re all inaccurate,” [Kim] said. [..]
Kim and the other contract worker, 22-year-old Brandon Hoffman, according to deputies, had been having an ongoing argument as the two cleaned out a pond. Deputies said, when Hoffman turned his back, kim doused him with gasoline and even pulled out a lighter. Hoffman ran, but Kim didn’t give up.
“The suspect picked up a shovel and continued his assault on the victim, trying to hit him with the shovel. The victim then got on his cell phone, contacted us and Disney security,” said Commander Bruce McMullen, Orange County Sheriff’s Office.’
‘Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive “open wound” on the Earth’s surface.
Dr Chris MacLeod, from Cardiff University, said the Earth’s crust appeared to be completely missing in an area thousands of kilometres across.
The hole in the crust is midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. [..]
Dr MacLeod said the hole in the Earth’s crust was not unique, but was recognised as one of the most significant.
He said it was an “open wound on the surface of the Earth”, where the oceanic crust, usually 6-7km thick (3.7-4.3 miles), was simply not there.’
This is a good prank. I will need to try it on someone. 🙂
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‘· Over 50 Terabytes of Brain Image Data Accessible Online
· The Highest Resolution Whole Brain Atlases Ever Constructed
· A Suite of Free Desktop Applications for Navigating and Analyzing BrainMaps Data
· A Menagerie of Animal Brains’
‘A deviant Melbourne airline baggage courier who stole pubic and head hair from underwear and brushes in women’s luggage was jailed today for at least two years.
Rodney Lyle Petersen, 30, of Wallan, pleaded guilty to 50 counts of theft of women’s hair.
The Victorian County Court was told Petersen would pull over in his courier van and rummage through lost or delayed luggage he was returning to Qantas passengers.
He collected the pubic and head hair from brushes and underwear in the baggage and put it in plastic slips then recorded the owners’ personal details in an exercise book.’
‘Paris Hilton could have her probation revoked – possibly resulting in jail time – if she is found to have been driving with a suspended license because it would violate conditions of her previous sentence for reckless driving, authorities said Wednesday. [..]
“Our office is waiting to obtain a copy of the citation,” said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. “Once we’re able to verify that Miss Hilton was driving the vehicle, we will request that the court revoke her probation and set a probation violation hearing.”
Hilton could face up to 90 days in jail if a judge finds she violated her probation, he said.’
‘Opium production in Afghanistan reached record levels last year, the United States has said.
The US State Department’s annual report on narcotics also said the flourishing drugs trade was undermining the fight against the Taleban.
It warned of a possible increase in heroin overdoses in Europe and the Middle East as a result.’
