Indonesian Muslims drop fatwa against expensive coffee.

Good news for java in Java. Item!

Indonesia's highest Islamic body today abandoned a proposal to ban Muslims from drinking the world's most expensive coffee, which is extracted from the feces of a small mammal called the civet.

It had considered issuing a fatwa against the rare coffee, made using beans picked out from the excrement of the nocturnal, cat-like creature, on the grounds it was unclean.

"After a long discussion among clerics here, we decided that it's not sinful for Muslims to drink the Luwak coffee," the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) chairman Ma'ruf Amien told a press conference.

"It's not haram [forbidden in Islam], as long as you wash the beans with water to remove the civet cat's droppings."

Locally known as Kopi Luwak, the beans come from the ripest fruits eaten by the civet, which are digested before being excreted and roasted. It is highly prized for its smooth flavor.

The beans cost up to $600 dollars per kilogram, and only 200 kilos are produced worldwide each year, according to Indonesia's association of coffee producers.

Cops shocked pastor to death.

From the Denver Post:

Marvin Booker just wanted to get his shoes.

But deputies at the new Denver jail told him to stop. When Booker, who was being processed on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, didn't obey, he was held down, hit with electric shocks and then placed facedown in a holding cell, according to two inmates who watched it unfold.

Booker never got up. He was pronounced dead later that morning.

"I've never seen anything happen like that before in my life," said John Yedo, 54, who was being processed on a charge of destruction of property and said he witnessed the scene. "What I saw is not what you'd expect to see in America."

The two jail witnesses, who were both arrested in the early-morning hours of July 9 around the time Booker was being processed, were contacted and interviewed by The Denver Post separately. Both of them said they had not been questioned by police investigating the death of Booker, a homeless ordained minister who served the poor, but also a habitual criminal with a long string of arrests.

Capt. Frank Gale, spokesman for the jail, said he cannot comment on the ongoing investigation by the Denver Police Department and the Denver district attorney's office, and cannot confirm the inmates' accounts.

He said what happened at the Van Cise-Simonet Detention Facility would have been recorded on videotape.

"If in fact what they are saying is true, it should be reflected in the video," Gale said.

District attorney spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said she couldn't comment during the investigation, which could take several more weeks. The coroner's office is awaiting test results before completing the autopsy report and determining how Booker died, she said. In the meantime, the deputies involved in Booker's case are still on the job.

Yedo has had one prior arrest, in 1974 on a drug charge. Christopher Maten, 25, the other witness, was arrested in 2005 for public consumption of alcohol. Neither is a career criminal. The versions the two suspects tell are nearly identical.

Russian deaths mount as heatwave and vodka mix.

From Comrade Jen. From BBC News:

Scores of Russians have died in the past few weeks amid a heatwave that shows no sign of breaking.

Many of the dead have drowned after taking a swim - often after having drunk too much vodka.

For the past two weeks temperatures across much of western Russia have soared past 35C, in the hottest and longest heatwave in decades.

Russia is also suffering what is thought to be the worst drought in more than 100 years.

There has been virtually no rain since winter and crops are shrivelling.

"We've had 10mm of rain, scorching hot temperatures over 35C, which have just burnt all the crops up," says Colin Hinchley, a Briton who now farms in Penza near the Volga river, in southern Russia.

"Winter wheat crops are 50% of the yield, and spring crops, in some cases, are going to be virtually none."

A state of emergency has been imposed in 16 Russian regions, and the government is increasing loans to try to help farmers avoid bankruptcy.

"It's a major calamity, the situation is extremely serious," said Viktor Zubkov, the first deputy prime minister responsible for agriculture.

n the centre of Moscow, teams of tanker trucks roam the streets spraying water to try to stop the asphalt from melting.

At lakes and rivers around Moscow groups of revellers can be seen knocking back vodka and then plunging into the water.

The result is predictable - 233 people have drowned in the last week alone.

In one incident six schoolchildren drowned, because the summer camp employees looking after them were drunk.

The heatwave is expected to last another week. By then Moscow may well have broken through its highest ever temperature of 36.6C.

Duckling rescued, brought to Paradise.

This place sounds incredible. If you've got some extra bucks, it sounds like this place could really use it. From NY Daily News:

A tiny yellow duckling recently found wandering alone on the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden has since landed in paradise.

"I knew a fledgling would never survive with all the predators in the Garden," said the bird's rescuer, a state licensed wildlife rehabber who asked not to be identified because some neighbors don't know that she cares for squirrels, pigeons and other creatures in need from her Manhattan apartment.

The curious fluffy bird spent the night frolicking in the rescuer's bathtub before making the four-hour journey to the Berkshire Bird Paradise, where she was greeted by a gaggle of ducklings that reside at the upstate sanctuary.

Located in upstate Grafton, the safe haven is home to more than 1,200 disabled and unwanted birds, from emus, pigeons, and tropical birds to owls, hawks, falcons, and eagles.

New York City residents regularly make the drive to hand-deliver injured pigeons and squirrels to founder Peter Debacher, who turned his parents' 20-acre farm into a maze of wooden pens and exotic plants in 1972 as a "labor of love."

Wildlife officials across the country have sent injured birds for his care, from an eagle mauled by a grizzly bear in Alaska to cranes left over from a breeding program in Maryland.

"All life is sacred; once you spend some time with them, you realize every creature has its uniqueness," said Debacher, a former Army cook who served in the late 1960s in Panama, where he bought parrots being sold as pets in the vegetable stands and set them free.

In the last three decades, he has taken in more than 20 wounded eagles, including Victoria, a bald eagle who survived the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

Victoria's two baby eaglets - their father, Baldwin, came from a zoo - who were born in the sanctuary were recently released into the wild.

Meanwhile, Debacher's latest mission is to provide refuge to an eagle shot in the wing in Afghanistan.

Concerned Navy Seals recently e-mailed Debacher, asking him to take the wounded steep eagle, but U.S. wildlife regulations have kept the bird from entering the country.

Debacher has enlisted help from author Barbara Chepaitis to cut through the red tape and act as a liaison between lawmakers and the soldiers.

Chepaitis, a bird lover who discovered the sanctuary years ago, understands the depth of Debacher's compassion. In her new book, "Feathers of Hope" (SUNY Press), she provides an intimate view of life at the sanctuary and the enormous effort it takes for Debacher to maintain his dream.

After all, the sanctuary is a humble place run by a small army of volunteers. Debacher estimates it costs about $150,000 a year to run the nonprofit facility, which relies strictly on monetary donations and community outreach.

State troopers and DEC workers regularly drop off road kill and dead rats, which feeds the birds. Day-old bread donated by local stores, and apples, pumpkins and other fresh veggies from local farmers help feed squirrels and pigeons.

Kids from nearby Tryon Juvenile Detention Center even help paint signs and make bird feeders, while learning about compassion for animals.

Despite his enormous lifelong commitment to the animals, Debacher does not feel shackled down. He says sharing an occasional movie and a sandwich in town with his wife, Betty Ann, and their 16-year-old daughter helps keep him going.

He said, "This is my paradise and I love it."

The Berskshire Bird Paradise welcomes visitors. For information or to make a donation, go to www.birdparadise.org.

British man buys huge amount of cocoa beans, holds them hostage to drive up global price of chocolate.

What an asshole. From Daily Mail:

A British financier who dramatically cornered a huge chunk of the world’s cocoa supply has been dubbed ‘Choc Finger’ by City traders.

Anthony Ward, 50, who has amassed a £36 million fortune, is a real-life Willy Wonka and now owns enough beans to manufacture 5.3 billion quarter-pound chocolate bars.

The holding is so massive it threatens to force manufacturers to raise the price of some of Britain’s most popular chocolate.

Armajaro Holdings, a hedge fund founded by multi-millionaire Mr Ward, pulled off the £658 million purchase of 241,000 tons of cocoa beans.

It is likely that the mountain of beans will be held in warehouses in London, Liverpool, Humberside and Holland.

The move was the largest single cocoa purchase for 14 years and came as bean prices rose to the highest level since 1977 – £2,732 per ton.

The purchase has surprised commodity dealers because, in a highly unusual move, Mr Ward’s firm has actually taken delivery of the beans. According to industry sources, in 98 per cent of transactions, traders exchange contracts which give them the option to buy and sell cocoa at various prices and at different times without ever taking possession of the stock.

The move has prompted speculation that Mr Ward is stock-piling huge volumes of cocoa in order to exert a stranglehold over supply and force the price even higher.

The Great Gatsby now a video game.

What's next - The Snows of Mt. Killzone? Gears of War & Peace? Sense & Sensibility & Ratchet & Clank? Ok, I got nothin. From Ology:

I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you that video games are better than novels. That would be ridiculous. I will ask you one thing, though: Have you ever won a novel?

If not, you'll soon have the chance. The Great Gatsby, a new PC game, is the next entry in the "Classic Adventures" series, which takes players on point-and-click journeys through the world of literature. In Gatsby, players will follow Nick Carraway as he attempts to navigate the complex social world of the 1920s while having as much extravagant fun as possible. Dance the Charleston! Drink bootleg gin! Stare longingly at the greenish light across the water! The possibilities are endless.

Fans of the Dante's Inferno game may be disappointed to learn that Gatsby is a "hidden object" game and not a hack-and-slash action-fest. I was really hoping we'd get the chance to impale people on one of those canes that goes with top hats. Still, sophomore English students who are crunched for time ought to check out Gatsby for educational purposes. Go ahead, bored high school kids! See if you can collect all 151 Metaphor Points!

Study: Pear-shaped women face dementia risk.

Item!

Pear-shaped women, who have a high hip-to-waist ratio, may be at greater risk of developing dementia in old age than women with rounder, apple-like figures, research suggests.

The large scale study was the first to show obesity directly impacts on cognitive and memory decline, but also unexpectedly revealed a woman’s shape, as well as size, was a risk factor.

“Obesity is bad, but its effects are worse depending on where the fat is located,” said the study leader, Dr Diana Kerwin, of Northwestern University, Chicago.

Pear-shaped celebrities include Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce, while apple-shaped women, whose waist and hip measurements are much closer, include Catherine Zeta-Jones and Drew Barrymore.

“Pears” tend to gain most weight on the hips and bottom, while “apples” accumulate a tire around the middle.

Vatican: Female priests as bad as child rape.

From News.com.au:

The Vatican placed the ordination of women as Roman Catholic priests on the same level as child abuse in the eyes of the Church.

The Canon Law’s revision to the laws on sexual abuse of children by priests included the “attempted ordination of a woman,” with future cases to lead to immediate excommunication at the hands of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Catholic Church teaches it cannot ordain women as priests because Christ chose only men as his apostles.

Many respected scholars argue that Mary Magdalen was an Apostle but her role in the early Church was downgraded by male writers with an agenda of promoting the all-male priesthood.

[...] The new “substantive norms” on “delicts against the faith” came days after the Church of England General Synod voted in favor of legislation to ordain women bishops.

British scientists create bulletproof custard.

Isn't all British cuisine bulletproof? From PopSci:

Liquid armor has been shown to stop bullets more effectively than plain Kevlar, according to British firm BAE Systems. The material could be used to make thinner, lighter armor for military personnel and police officers, the BBC reports.

Materials scientists combined a shear-thickening liquid with traditional Kevlar to make a bulletproof material that absorbs the force of a bullet strike by becoming thicker and stickier.

Its molecules lock together more tightly when it is struck, the scientists explained -- they described it as "bulletproof custard," the BBC reports.

Shear-thickening liquids are composed of hard nanoparticles suspended in a liquid, which turns rigid after being struck with a bullet or shrapnel. BAE says their tests provide the first clear evidence that it can actually protect people.

In the tests, BAE scientists used a gas gun to fire ball-bearing bullets at nearly 1,000 feet per second at two test materials -- 31 layers of regular Kevlar and 10 layers of Kevlar combined with the shear-thickening liquid.

The shear-thickening liquid stopped the bullets more quickly and prevented them from penetrating as deeply, the BBC says. British media got a preview of the materials at a BAE facility in Bristol, England.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has studied using liquid armor to replace traditional Kevlar armor, which is heavy and bulky.

18th century wooden ship discovered buried at World Trade Center site.

This sounds like the work of Jacob. From Daily Mail:

The remains of a ship dating back to the 18th century have been uncovered by workers close to the the old World Trade Centre site in lower Manhattan.

Archaeologists said the 32ft-long vessel was probably used along with other debris to fill in land to extend New York City into the Hudson River.

Those who examined the find described it as 'significant'.

An anchor weighing seven stone was also discovered at the site, although investigators said it was unclear whether it belonged to the newly-unearthed ship.

Archaeologists Molly McDonald and A. Michael Pappalardo examined the ship when it was found by staff about 30ft below street level in a planned underground vehicle security centre.
Ms McDonald said: 'We noticed curved timbers that a backhoe [mechanical digger] brought up.

'We quickly found the rib of a vessel and continued to clear it away and expose the hull over the last two days.'

The two archaeologists work for AKRF, a firm hired to document artefacts discovered at the site.

They called Tuesday's find significant but said more study was needed to determine the age of the ship.

'We're going to send timber samples to a laboratory to do dendochronology that will help us to get a sense of when the boat was constructed,' said McDonald.

A boat specialist was due at the site today to further investigate the find which is turning into a race against time after the delicate wood was exposed to air.

Study: Word of God causes cancer in children.

Good thing the Church doesn't believe in electromagnetism. From Raw Story:

VATICAN CITY — A court-ordered study has found that electromagnetic waves beamed by Vatican Radio leave residents living near the station's antennas at a higher risk of cancer, Italian media said Wednesday.

"There has been an important, coherent and meaningful correlation between exposure to Vatican Radio's structures and the risk of leukaemia and lymphoma in children," the report said, according to the daily La Stampa.

The report also warned of "important risks" of dying of cancer for people who had resided at least 10 years within a nine-kilometre (5.5-mile) radius of the radio's giant antenna towers near Cesano, some 20 kilometres north of Rome.

The radio's director, Federico Lombardi, disputed the report, saying: "Vatican Radio is astonished to hear the news on the results of the study."

Lombardi, who is also the Vatican spokesman, added: "Vatican Radio has always observed international directives on electromagnetic emissions and since 2001 has observed more restrictive norms set by Italy to allay the concerns of the neighbouring populations."

Speaking on Vatican Radio, he said: "According to international scientific literature on the matter, the existence of a causal link like the one apparently hypothesised by the report had never been established."

A Rome judge ordered the report in 2005 as part of an investigation into a complaint filed in 2001 by Cesano residents who alleged health hazards posed by the electromagnetic waves.

Vatican Radio's then-president Roberto Tucci and director Pasquale Borgomeo were among defendants in a case that was thrown out last year after the statute of limitations expired.

At the time, Lombardi said he was not satisfied with the result since he had expected an acquittal.

The Vatican spokesman said the Holy See would soon publish its own experts' conclusion in the case.

A 2001 investigation by Italy's environment ministry showed that magnetic fields in the area were six times more powerful than allowed, while Rome's Lazio region estimated that the rate of deaths from leukaemia among children in the Cesano area was three times higher than in adjoining areas.

Tons of fat clogging London's sewers.

From Raw Story:

A team of workers sporting breathing apparatus and carrying shovels has started clearing around 1,000 tonnes of fat from sewers around London's Leicester Square, a water company said Tuesday.

Cooking fat being poured down drains under one of the city's main tourist attractions is thought to be causing blockages.

Leicester Square borders London's Chinatown and its bustling restaurants and cafes, as well as the West End and Soho entertainment districts.

The clean-up, which could take up to two months, is described as the biggest ever of its kind by Thames Water, the firm organising it.

Danny Brackley, one of those involved in the clean-up, said they could not even access the sewers at first as they were blocked by a four foot (1.2 metre) thick wall of solid fat.

Uh huh huh... Beavis and Butt-head returning to MTV.

From the NY Post:

"Beavis and Butt-head" -- the show that celebrated the slacker way of life and helped make MTV into a network that did more than just play music videos -- is coming back.

The move to resurrect the hugely popular 1990s animated anti-heroes has been rumored for several days. But yesterday, sources at MTV confirmed that a new batch of "Beavis and Butt-head" episodes are in the works.

The new series would keep Beavis and Butt-head in their perpetual high-school state, but it would be updated so that the pals -- who obsessively watch music videos on a battered TV set -- could lob their snarky comments at more current targets like Lady Gaga.

The show's minimalist animated style is also expected to remain intact.

The return of "Beavis and Butt-head" will be a backdoor means for MTV to return to showing music videos -- something the network was founded upon but abandoned in the last decade to make room for popular reality shows like "Laguna Beach," "The Hills" and "Jersey Shore."

"Beavis and Butt-head," which premiered in 1993, began as an animated short called "Frog Baseball," which aired on MTV's "Liquid Television."

The basic plotline revolved around two shorts-wearing, spectacularly immature teenage pals whose banter was delivered against the backbeat of their constant idiotic laughter.

Series creator Mike Judge, who's also creating the new episodes, voiced both characters.

The guys worked at a fast-food joint and were always out to "score" with "chicks" when they weren't sitting on a ratty couch watching music videos.

Beavis, the blond half, usually wore a Metallica T-shirt and would morph into his crazed, gibberish-spewing alter-ego, "Cornholio," when he ingested too much sugar.

Butt-head was the "cooler" of the two. He usually wore an AC/DC T-shirt and often picked on Beavis in much the same way Moe would slap around Curly, Larry and Shemp on "The Three Stooges."

The duo was so successful they were spun off into a 1996 big-screen movie, "Beavis and Butt-head Do America" and a marketing juggernaut of T-shirts and character trinkets.

A recurring character on the show, high-school classmate Daria (whom they called "Diarrhea"), eventually got her own MTV series.

After MTV canceled "Beavis and Butt-head" in 1997, Judge went on to create "King of the Hill" for Fox.

He also wrote the cult-classic movie comedy "Office Space" and last year's big-screen movie "Extract."

MTV officials had no comment yesterday.

Judge is "not commenting at this time," his publicist said.

Woman jailed for sending text threats to herself.

From Breitbart:

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - An Orange County woman was sentenced to a year in jail for sending hundreds of threatening text messages—to herself. Prosecutors said Jeanne Mundango Manunga told police her former boyfriend and his sister-in-law were behind the threats.

Manunga was sentenced Friday in Santa Ana Superior Court. She was convicted in May of three felony counts of false imprisonment by fraud or deceit and two misdemeanor counts of making a false police report.

Prosecutors said Manunga started sending the threatening messages after she and her former boyfriend stopped dating in 2008.

Manunga also was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay about $50,000 in restitution.

Update: Spain win at World Cup seals perfect eight for psychic octopus.

This has been the best news story of the year. From Breitbart:

Salty soothsayer Paul, the "psychic" octopus, finished the World Cup with with a flawless record as Spain's 1-0 win over the Netherlands in Sunday's final leaves him with eight perfect predictions.

The eight-legged oracle has become a World Cup sensation by correctly forecasting all seven Germany games in South Africa and he finished the tournament in style by predicting a Spanish victory in Sunday's final.

As Paul foretold last week, Spain won their first World Cup title after Andres Iniesta's 116th-minute strike at Soccer City broke Holland's hearts.

The tentacled tipster also correctly predicted Germany would beat Uruguay in Saturday's third place play-off.

In the now familiar routine, two boxes were lowered into his tank last week, each containing a mussel and the flags of the two opposing teams.

Paul went straight to the correct box both times, wrenched open the lid and gobbled the tasty morsel.

But the art of football predicting has become a dangerous job for the English-born clairvoyant.

He fell offside with bitter German fans who threatened to turn him into sushi after he predicted a semi-final defeat for the Mannschaft against Spain.

Paul's home, an aquarium in western Germany, has received death-threat emails saying "we want Paul for the pan," said entertainment supervisor Daniel Fey.

No less an authority than Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero has called for octopus bodyguards.

Spanish Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian has called for the creature to be given an "immediate" free transfer to Spain to "ensure his protection."

Stung by Paul's "treachery" at picking Spain over Germany in last Wednesday's semi-final, some sections of the 350,000-strong crowd watching the game on giant screens in Berlin sang anti-octopus songs.

The honour of Paul's mother was called into question, according to witnesses.

His prediction of a Spanish victory is expected to be the last for Paul, who in octopus terms is a pensioner, at the grand old age of two-and-a-half. Octopuses generally live three years at the latest.

Russians convicted and fined over art show.

Salvador Dali should be fined for inciting cowardice. His art has no backbone. From BBC:

Two men who organised a controversial art exhibition in Moscow in 2007 have been found guilty by a Russian court of inciting hatred.

Andrei Yerofeyev and Yuri Samodurov had set up the Forbidden Art exhibition at the Sakharov Museum in Moscow.

The show provoked condemnation from the Russian Orthodox Church, among others, for artworks that included a depiction of Jesus Christ with the head of Mickey Mouse.

Both men were ordered to pay a fine.

The exhibition featured several images of Jesus Christ. In one painting of the crucifixion, the head of Jesus Christ was replaced by the Order of Lenin medal.

There was also a spoof ad for Coca Cola with the slogan "This is my blood" that visitors looked at through peep holes.

Mr Yerofeyev, an art expert, and Mr Samodurov, the former director of the Sakharov Museum, said they organised the exhibition to fight censorship of art in Russia.

But prosecutors opened an investigation after an ultra-nationalist Orthodox group filed a complaint against the show.

The court fined Mr Samodurov 200,000 rubel (£4,300) and Mr Yerofeyev 150,000 rubel (£3,200).

The trial began in April 2009 and was fiercely criticised by rights activists and artists.

Scientists find two proteins that can neutralize 90% of HIV strains.

From AOL News:

American scientists are touting a major stride toward a vaccine that can ward off HIV, after finding two key proteins that neutralize 91 percent of the virus' 190 strains.

The team of researchers with the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center hopes the antibody discovery can spur successful work toward a method of preventing HIV, which already afflicts an estimated 33 million people worldwide.

The discovery, published in this week's Science, is courtesy of Donor 45, an unidentified African-American man whose body produced the antibodies, called VRC01 and VRC02.

Scientists have already identified the 12 cells in his body that produced the proteins. If they can harness the mechanisms by which the antibodies were made, they might be able to create a vaccine that would spur anybody's body to make the HIV destroyers.

Update: Spanish prime minister offers protection to psychic squid.

My god... psychic squid monsters now control the Spanish government! From News.com.au:

The Spanish Prime Minister has jokingly offered state protection for the German octopus that has predicted a slew of correct results of World Cup matches.

The octopus, called Paul by his handlers at the Aquarium Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, predicted the outcome of all six of Germany's matches - including the 1-0 semi-final loss to Spain - by choosing to eat a morsel of food from boxes emblazoned with the flags of the German team and its rivals.

Four times he chose the Germans and they won; twice he plumped for their rivals - and they won too.

Now Spain's politicians are worried some German fans may take their "revenge" on the octopus for their team's exit.

"I am concerned for the octopus ... I am thinking of sending him a protective team," joked Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero on Radio Cadena Ser.

His Environment and Fisheries Minister, Elena Espinosa, also suggested a moratorium on going after Paul.

"On Monday, I shall be at the European Council of Ministers and I shall be asking for a [fishing] ban on Paul the octopus so the Germans do not eat him!"

Some Germany fans have posted messages on internet forums suggesting that Paul's reward for his clairvoyant powers should be a meeting with the barbecue or the paella pot. One German journalist said after the semi-final that he had "a sudden desire to eat a bit of squid".

That struck a chord with Spanish fans and even ahead of the match Spanish Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian called for the creature to be given an "immediate" free transfer to Spain to "ensure his protection".

Psychic octopus receiving death threats.

From Huffington Post:

The psychic octopus known for his amazingly accurate World Cup predictions has received death threats, the Telegraph reports. Paul, the oracle octopus whose prescient premonitions perfectly predicted the outcome of all six German World Cup games, first generated anger from Argentinian fans who believe his percipient pick doomed Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Paul's keeper in Oberhausen, Germany said "there are always people who want to eat our octopus but he is not shy and we are here to protect him as well. He will survive."

Paul's powers reached a new level on Wednesday, when his bold pick against his current home country proved correct, bringing his World Cup record to a jaw-dropping six for six.

The beautiful and brilliant octopus accurately predicted all four of Germany's victories, as well as their upset loss to Serbia and semifinals defeat at the hands of Spain.

Enormous squid sex organ detected.

Hopefully it wasn't a Japanese schoolgirl who detected it. From BBC:

The mating habits of deep-sea squid have been revealed for the first time, after the discovery of a male squid with a huge elongated and erect penis.

The male squid's sexual organ is almost as long as its whole body, including the squid's mantle, head and arms.

That shows how male deep-sea squid inseminate females; they use their huge penis to shoot out packages of sperm, injecting them into the female's body.

The discovery may also help explain how giant squid mate in the ocean depths.

Deep-water fisheries expert Dr Alexander Arkhipkin of the Falkland Islands Government Fisheries Department, based in Stanley, explains how he and his colleagues made the discovery, details of which are published in the Journal of Molluscan Studies.

"The mature male squid was caught during a deep-water research cruise on the Patagonian slope. We took the animal from the catch, and it was moribund with arms and tentacles still moving, and chromatophores on the skin contracting and expanding," he told the BBC.

"When the mantle of the squid was opened for maturity assessment, we witnessed an unusual event.

"The penis of the squid, which had extended only slightly over the mantle margin, suddenly started to erect, and elongated quickly to 67cm total length, almost the same length as the whole animal."

Seagull thinks he's a cat.

Item!

A confused seagull is having something of an identity crisis - apparently believing that he is a cat.

Mr Pooh was adopted by June and Steve Grimwood after he fell down their chimney as a baby.

The couple discovered the soot-covered youngster sitting in their fireplace while investigating a strange rustling.

At first they took the chick back outside, placing it on top of the roof of their home in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex.

However, it soon became apparent that Pooh's mother had abandoned him so they decided to hand rear him themselves.

Mr Grimwood, 52, said the couple's three cats were extremely wary of the new arrival at first.

However, he added, it wasn't long before Mr Pooh was happily eating cat food out of a bowl with them.

Since then the now three-year-old gull has become firm friends with felines Mitzi, Gus and Henry.

Mr Pooh has now flown the coop, setting up home with a female on the Grimwood's roof.

However, he returns to visit his human and feline friends three times a day - at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Magnetic nanoparticles can be used to control human behavior.

From PopSci:

Researchers in Buffalo are bringing us a step closer to being controlled by machines. Or magnetized nanoparticles, at least: Heated magnetic nanoparticles targeted to cell membranes could control your behavior, according to a new paper in Nature Nanotechnology.

The researchers, led by University of Buffalo physics professor Arnd Pralle, used magnetic fields to activate neurons in a cell culture and steer the movement of nematode worms.

The findings could lead to cancer treatments that remotely manipulate cells in certain tissues, or diabetes therapies that remotely stimulate pancreatic cells to release insulin, according to the University of Buffalo.

[...] Because the cells are not harmed, the method can be used in living animals, which opens the door for specialized pharmaceuticals or therapies. It can also illuminate the signaling networks that control animal behavior, Pralle says.

Wal-Mart spending millions to fight a $7,000 fine.

From the NY Times:

Wal-Mart Stores has spent a year and more than a million dollars in legal fees battling a $7,000 fine that federal safety officials assessed after shoppers trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death at a store on Long Island on the day after Thanksgiving in 2008.

The mystery, federal officials say, is why Wal-Mart is fighting so hard against such a modest fine.

It is not as if Wal-Mart has not already taken action to address any missteps and prevent another such accident. Three weeks before the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered the fine, Wal-Mart, seeking to avoid criminal charges, reached a settlement with the Nassau County, N.Y., district attorney that called for the company to adopt new crowd management techniques in all 92 of its stores in New York State. At the time, Wal-Mart also agreed to create a $400,000 fund for customers injured in the stampede and to donate $1.5 million to various community programs in Nassau County.

More recently, the company announced improved crowd-control policies for all its United States stores to try to prevent such an accident from happening again.

But in fighting the federal fine, Wal-Mart is arguing that the government is improperly trying to define “crowd trampling” as an occupational hazard that retailers must take action to prevent.

Wal-Mart’s all-out battle against the relatively minor penalty has mystified and even angered some federal officials. In contesting the penalty, Wal-Mart has filed 20 motions and responses totaling nearly 400 pages and has spent at least $2 million on legal fees, according to OSHA’s calculations.

The dispute has become so heated — and Wal-Mart’s defense so vigorous — that officials at OSHA, an arm of the Labor Department, complain that they have had to devote huge numbers of staff time to the case, including 4,725 hours of work by employees in the legal office.

The company has made so many demands that Labor Department officials said they would not discuss the case except on condition of anonymity because they feared being subpoenaed about their discussions with a reporter.

On Wednesday, the dispute will reach a climax of sorts: Wal-Mart’s lawyers are scheduled to contest the fine before a federal appeals commission.

OSHA levied the $7,000 fine in response to the death of Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old temporary employee, who died from asphyxiation when a stampede of post-Thanksgiving shoppers at a Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream, N.Y., busted through the doors and trampled him just before the store’s 5 a.m. scheduled opening. The crowd, estimated at 2,000 people, had been lined up for hours near a handwritten sign that said “Blitz Line Starts Here.”

In May 2009, OSHA accused Wal-Mart of failing to provide a place of employment that was “free from recognized hazards.” Specifically, the agency said the company violated its “general duty” to employees by failing to take adequate steps to protect them from a situation that was “likely to cause death or serious physical harm” because of “crowd surge or crowd trampling.”

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, says that regulators are trying to enforce a vague standard of protection when there was no previous OSHA or retail industry guidance on how to prevent what it views as an “unforeseeable incident.”

[...] OSHA officials acknowledge that the agency is seeking to establish for the first time that an unruly crowd is an occupational hazard that can cause death or serious injury — and that employers must therefore develop plans to protect workers against such a hazard.

But federal officials say that in its settlement with Nassau County prosecutors, Wal-Mart had in effect already admitted that it had that responsibility and agreed to three years of monitoring. So OSHA officials question why the retailer is putting up such a fight.

Treasure hunter unearths Britain's largest ever hoard of Roman coins.

Ancient coins are awesome. From Daily Mail:

A treasure hunter armed with a metal detector has found 52,500 Roman coins, one of the largest finds of Roman coins in Britain.

The hoard, which is valued at £3.3million, dates from the third century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset.

The coins were in a huge jar just over a foot below the surface and were located by Dave Crisp, 63, from Devizes in Wiltshire.

Archaeologists believe the hoard, which sheds light on the economic crisis and coalition government in the 3rd century under Emperor Carausius, will rewrite the history books.

He told how his detector gave a 'funny signal', prompting him to dig down through the soil.

'I put my hand in, pulled out a bit of clay and there was a little Radial, a little bronze Roman coin,' Mr Crisp told the BBC.

'Very, very small, about the size of my fingernail.'

He added: 'I have made many finds over the years, but this is my first major coin hoard.'

It is thought the £250,000 find - known as the Frome Haul - represents the biggest single haul ever unearthed in Britain.

The hoard is one of the largest ever found in Britain, and will reveal more about the nation's history in the third century, said Roger Bland, of the British Museum.

Study: Children ruin lives.

From Guest-Coozer La! Item!

It is the one maternal feeling no mother wants to experience, the ultimate in parenting taboos: admitting (whisper it) that life might have been better before you had children. Now new research purports to show that starting a family doesn't make parents any happier than their childless counterparts.

A book out next month will cause controversy by suggesting that parents exaggerate how much better off emotionally they are with children around. Nick Powdthavee's The Happiness Equation paints a bleaker picture of parenthood than most parents would own up to recognising.

His findings will unsettle those parents convinced their children enrich their lives. But Dr Powdthavee's views may actually chime with more mothers and fathers than a quick glance around your local park would suggest, according to the magazine Psychologies.

Far from turning their lives into one long treat, say mothers in an article for the monthly, having children left emotional scars and endless worries that turned their lives upside down. Marsha, 50, described being "locked in a daily battle" with her son, who left home at the earliest opportunity, while another, Laura, 40, said she "missed the creative output" of her former life.

Descriptions of constant struggles with children suggest that parenting has more downsides than permanent fatigue and loss of social life. "No group of parents, whether married, single, step or empty-nesters, reported significantly greater emotional wellbeing than non-parents," found Robin Simon, professor of sociology at North Carolina's Wake Forest University. "Of the three major components of adult life – employment, friendship and parenthood – raising children is the only one that doesn't promote wellbeing."

Although most parents would claim that children enhance their lives, Dr Powdthavee, a behavioural economist at the University of York, believes this is only because "there is a discrepancy between what we think makes us happy and what happiness data shows actually makes us happy". He added: "When you measure how happy parents are on a happiness index, they report either an insignificant difference in happiness or lower levels of happiness compared with non-parents."

PSA: Ancient monster whale MIGHT KILL YOU!

From New Scientist:

The fossilised skull of a colossal whale with a killer bite has been uncovered by a team who reckon the monster shared the Miocene oceans with a giant shark.

The bones, dated to 12 to 13 million years ago, were spotted by Klaas Post of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in Peru's Ica desert. In homage to Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the beast has been named Leviathan melvillei.

The skull is a huge 3 metres long, says team member Olivier Lambert at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The team estimates the whale would have been between 13 and 18 metres long, like a modern sperm whale.

What really surprised the researchers was the size of the whale's teeth. "Some of the biggest ones are 36 centimetres long and 12 centimetres wide, and are probably the biggest predatory teeth ever discovered," Lambert says.

PSA: Eco-friendly reusable bags MIGHT KILL YOU!

From Daily Mail:

Reusable shopping bags harbour potentially deadly bugs and could threaten public health, say scientists.

Tests on shoppers' bags revealed that half contained traces of the lethal toxin E.coli, which killed 26 people in Scotland in 1996 in one of the world's worst food-poisoning outbreaks.

The scientists also found many bags were contaminated with salmonella.

They say reusable bags must be washed regularly at high temperature to kill bugs left by the packaging from raw meat.

The level of bacteria they found was high enough to 'cause a wide range of serious health problems and even death', particularly to children.

PSA: Common food dyes MIGHT KILL YOU!

From CNN:

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says food dyes pose a number of risks to the American public and is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban three of the most commonly used dyes: Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. A new CSPI report says those dyes contain known carcinogens and contaminants that unnecessarily increase the risks of cancer, hyperactivity in children and allergic reactions.

"These synthetic chemicals do absolutely nothing to improve the nutritional quality or safety of foods, but trigger behavior problems in children and, possibly, cancer in anybody," said CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson, co-author of the report. "The Food and Drug Administration should ban dyes, which would force industry to color foods with real food ingredients, not toxic petrochemicals."

The FDA has not read the report yet an agency spokesperson said. "We appreciate the report from CSPI and look forward to reviewing it. We take our commitment to protecting children seriously".

According to the report, tests done on lab animals found contaminants that raised health concerns about several of the nine dyes currently approved for market. The approved dyes are Blue 1 & 2, Citrus Red 2, Green 3, Orange B, Red 3 & 40 and Yellow 5 & 6. And every year, about 15 million pounds of these dyes wind up in our food, with alot of it ending up in things like candy, fruit drinks and cereals.

Summer lethargy.

Taking a break for a couple of days. Come back real soon!

World Cup player slaps female reporter.

It's ironic that he's a striker. From Yahoo! Sports:

PRETORIA, South Africa – Algeria soccer player Rafik Saifi slapped a female journalist across the face as the aftermath of the United States’ dramatic World Cup victory turned ugly at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Wednesday night.

While walking through the interview zone, Saifi spotted writer Asma Halimi, who works for Algerian newspaper Competition, and struck her with his open hand in front of dozens of witnesses. Halimi responded by striking the player in the mouth.

Saifi then threw a sports drink bottle at a wall in the interview area, as Halimi was ushered away by security staff.

Saifi came on as substitute for the last five minutes of the USA’s 1-0 victory.

“I said nothing to him and he reached over and hit me,” Halimi said to Yahoo! Sports. “So I hit him back. I said nothing to him first.”

It is understood that Saifi and Halimi had previously had a difference of opinion over an article she wrote for her newspaper.

Man builds nuclear reactor in Brooklyn warehouse.

From NY Daily News:

By day, he's a freelance computer programmer, building a Web site for fashion giant Gucci.

At night, he bikes to a nondescript Brooklyn warehouse, where he says he's building something with a bit more oomph - a homemade nuclear fusion reactor.

Meet Mark Suppes, an amateur scientist from Bedford-Stuyvesant who believes he can help save the world.

"I was inspired because I believed I was looking at a technology that could actually work to solve our energy problems," Suppes, 32, told the BBC.

Suppes says he has developed a working fusion reactor, a device that combines atoms to create energy.

Some see nuclear fusion as the holy grail of energy, a clean, cheap power source that doesn't rely on radioactive material.

Suppes' science project is legal and not considered dangerous - but people who live near the Bedford-Stuyvesant warehouse on Park Ave. where Suppes performs experiments aren't convinced.

"What if something goes wrong? There's a gas station two blocks away," said Geanine Robinson, 35, who lives in the Marcy Houses across the street from the warehouse.

Suppes began constructing his reactor two years ago, using $35,000 worth of parts he got on eBay.

He bought an additional $4,000 worth of parts with money he raised from investors and hopes to create a more sophisticated reactor.

The goal is to build a device that could produce more energy than it takes to power it - a conundrum that has hampered scientists for some 50 years.

"The attractiveness of the fusion reaction is you don't produce large quantities of radioactive materials," said Charles Sparrow, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Mississippi State University. "But to have enough of these reactions to produce energy that's significant is what we've been working on for a long time."

Dutch police to use "decoy Jews."

Circumcise in disguise! From the Telegraph:

Lodewijk Asscher, Amsterdam's mayor, has ordered the new decoy strategy to cut the number of verbal and physical attacks on Jews, amid fears that anti-Semitic "hate crime" is on the rise.

"Jews in at least six Amsterdam neighbourhoods often cannot cross the street wearing a skullcap without being insulted, spat at or even attacked," according to local reports.

Amsterdam police already disguise officers as "decoy prostitutes, decoy gays and decoy grannies" in operations to deter street muggings and attacks on homosexuals or the city's red light district.

Police in the Dutch city of Gouda have claimed the use of officers disguised as apparently frail old age pensioners has helped cut street crime.

"If we receive several reports of street robbery in a certain location, we send out the granny. That soon quietens things down," said a spokesman.

Secret television recordings by the Jewish broadcasting company, Joodse Omroep, broadcast at the weekend, have shocked Amsterdam, a city which prides itself on liberalism and which is home to the Anne Frank museum.

The footage showed young men, often of immigrant origin, shouting and making Nazi salutes at a rabbi when he visited different areas of the Dutch capital.

Wall Street sign worth more than Wall Street.

Item!

A vintage sign that once marked an intersection near the New York Stock Exchange has sold for $US 116,500 at auction.

Christie's said the enamel "Broad St" and "Wall St" sign was bought on Tuesday by an unidentified phone bidder.

The auctioneer had estimated its value at $US 60,000 - 80,000 before the sale. The sign stood in front of the former headquarters of J P Morgan & Co in New York.

The intersection was the scene of a 1920 Wall Street bombing that killed 38 people and injured hundreds. Shrapnel scarred the sign.

Christie's says the sign went up in the late 19th century and came down sometime after the bombing.

It was recently shown at the Museum of American Finance in New York.

Men, women jailed, flogged for mingling.

It's okay - they provide us with oil. From News.com.au:

Judicial officials say a Saudi court has convicted four women and 11 men for mingling at a party and sentenced them to flogging and prison terms.

The men, who are between 30 and 40 years old, and three of the women, who are under the age of 30, were sentenced to an unspecified number of lashes and one or two year prison terms each.

The fourth woman, a minor, was sentenced to 80 lashes and was not sent to prison.

The ruling was handed down overnight at a court in the northern town of Ha'il.

The officials say the police saw the group partying until dawn last month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam that prohibits unrelated men and women from mingling.

Giant Jesus statue struck by lightning, destroyed.

This one goes out to Nick. From Dayton Daily News:

MONROE — Charred remnants remained this morning of the large Jesus statue iconic to Interstate 75 that was destroyed following an apparent lightning strike during a thunderstorm late Monday night.

The Lawrence Bishop Music Theater at Solid Rock Church on Union Road endured smoke damage, according to officials. Damages to the King of Kings statue and the theater were estimated to be around $700,000, said Monroe Fire Chief Mark Neu.

No one was injured in the blaze.

The smell of smoke surrounded the area of the statue’s charred frame, and the pond in front of it appeared murky, witnesses said.

[...] “God struck God, I like the irony. Jesus struck Jesus,” said Dawn Smith, 25, of Hamilton, who was among those standing outside the vehicles along Union Road. “I had to see it. What else are you going to do on a Monday night?”

Since its completion in 2004, the statue, which appeared to come out of a pond in front of the nondenominational megachurch, was known by multiple nicknames, including “Touchdown Jesus” because the arms and hands were raised upward. It also was known as “Big Butter Jesus” after comedian Heywood Banks referred to it as such and created a song about the statue, which he performed on radio’s popular “The Bob and Tom Show.”

Japanese woman randomly breaking babies' legs.

Japan is so strange. From Japan Times:

UTSUNOMIYA, Tochigi Pref. (Kyodo) A woman under arrest for breaking a 3-month-old girl's legs at a children's goods shop in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, in May was served a fresh warrant Saturday on suspicion of breaking the left leg of another infant at the store about 20 minutes earlier.

Yuko Sotome, 28, has owned up to the assault, saying she was "envious of families who looked happy," local police said.

In addition to assaulting the 3-month-old, Sotome, who lived in the city, allegedly twisted and broke the left leg of a 2-month-old boy at the shop on the morning of May 26 after asking the mother to let her hold the child.

Sotome allegedly told the mother, "Your baby is adorable, let me hold your baby," and assaulted him during the roughly five minutes she spent holding him.

Zombie Watch: German nobles created their own mummies.

From Der Spiegel:

When they died, Germany noble families of the 18th century did what the Egyptians had done before them: They had themselves mummified. As an increasing number of such well-preserved corpses are found, scientists are trying to find out why.

Baron von Holz had a difficult lot. During the Thirty Years' War, von Holz fought in the Swedish army as a mercenary, but he was not granted a hero's death on the battlefield. He was cut down, rather less heroically, at the age of 35 by either the flu or blood poisoning. And it was only in death, that his situation really improved.

His family dressed his mortal remains in precious calf-leather boots with nailed soles. The warrior was then laid out in a kind of luxury crypt under the castle of Sommersdorf near Ansbach, in modern-day Bavaria. In those vaults von Holz's corpse was privileged with an honor previously reserved primarily for Egyptian pharaohs: His body did not decompose.

More than 370 years after his untimely death, the nobleman still lies in his casket, well preserved. Von Holz was a giant of a man, standing 1.80 meters (around 5'10"), at a time when most humans were far shorter. To this day, his feet are still shod in those smart leather boots that his clan had made for him almost four centuries ago.

Study shows direct link between circadian clock in pancreas and diabetes.

Interesting stuff. Item!

The pancreas has its own molecular clock. Now, for the first time, a Northwestern University study has shown this ancient circadian clock regulates the production of insulin. If the clock is faulty, the result is diabetes.

The researchers show that insulin-secreting islet cells in the pancreas, called beta-cells, have their own dedicated clock. The clock governs the rhythmic behavior of proteins and genes involved in insulin secretion, with oscillations over a 24-hour cycle.

The findings, which will be published June 18 by the journal Nature, shine a light on a system that hasn't been recognized as having a strong effect on the process of glucose homeostasis.

"This is the first evidence of how the circadian clock may affect the development of diabetes," said Joe Bass, M.D., associate professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine and of neurobiology and physiology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. "The biological programs in animals for harvesting energy -- much like the photosynthesis of plants -- are under control of the clock. Our findings will help us figure out the causes of glucose abnormalities, but we still have a lot to learn."

The research, led by Bass and Biliana Marcheva, a doctoral candidate in Bass' lab and first author of the paper, represents many years of work and involved key collaborators Louis H. Philipson of the University of Chicago, Joseph S. Takahashi of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Seth D. Crosby of the Washington University School of Medicine.

In their study, the researchers knocked out the clock genes in islet beta-cells in mice and found the animals developed impaired glucose tolerance and abnormally low levels of insulin and went on to develop diabetes. The clock of the beta-cell coordinates glucose management, and the loss of the clock inhibited the cells from secreting insulin.

Children with home computers likely to have lower test scores.

O RLY??? OMGPON1ES!1! From EurekAlert:

Around the country and throughout the world, politicians and education activists have sought to eliminate the "digital divide" by guaranteeing universal access to home computers, and in some cases to high-speed Internet service.

However, according to a new study by scholars at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, these efforts would actually widen the achievement gap in math and reading scores. Students in grades five through eight, particularly those from disadvantaged families, tend to post lower scores once these technologies arrive in their home.

Professors Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd analyzed responses to computer-use questions included on North Carolina's mandated End-of-Grade tests (EOGs). Students reported how frequently they use a home computer for schoolwork, watch TV or read for pleasure. The study covers 2000 to 2005, a period when home computers and high-speed Internet access expanded dramatically. By 2005, broadband access was available in almost every zip code in North Carolina, Vigdor said.

The study had several advantages over previous research that suggested similar results, Vigdor said. The sample size was large -- numbering more than 150,000 individual students. The data allowed researchers to compare the same children's reading and math scores before and after they acquired a home computer, and to compare those scores to those of peers who had a home computer by fifth grade and to test scores of students who never acquire a home computer. The negative effects on reading and math scores were "modest but significant," they found.

"We cut off the study in 2005, so we weren't getting into the Facebook and Twitter generation," Vigdor said. "The technology was much more primitive than that. IM (instant messaging) software was popular then, and it's been one thing after the other since then. Adults may think of computer technology as a productivity tool first and foremost, but the average kid doesn't share that perception." Kids in the middle grades are mostly using computers to socialize and play games, Vigdor added, with clear gender divisions between those activities.

Vigdor and Ladd concluded that home computers are put to more productive use in households where parental monitoring is more effective. In disadvantaged households, parents are less likely to monitor children's computer use and guide children in using computers for educational purposes.

The research suggests that programs to expand home computer access would lead to even wider gaps between test scores of advantaged and disadvantaged students, Vigdor said. Several states have pursued programs to distribute computers to students. For example, Maine funded laptops for every sixth-grader, and Michigan approved a program but then did not fund it.

Love ballads make women more likely to give you their number.

Well, now I know to stop trying to serenade girls with Cannibal Corpse's "Butchered at Birth." Item!

If you're having trouble getting a date, French researchers suggest that picking the right soundtrack could improve the odds. Women were more prepared to give their number to an 'average' young man after listening to romantic background music, according to research that appears June 18 in the journal Psychology of Music.

There's plenty of research indicating that the media affects our behaviour. Violent video games or music with aggressive lyrics increase the likelihood of aggressive behaviour, thoughts and feelings -- but do romantic songs have any effect? This question prompted researchers Nicolas Guéguen and Céline Jacob from the Université de Bretagne-Sud along with Lubomir Lamy from Université de Paris-Sud to test the power of romantic lyrics on 18-20 year old single females. And it turns out that at least one romantic love song did make a difference.

Guéguen and Jacob were part of a research team that had already shown how romantic music played in a flower shop led to male customers spending more money. This time the researchers used questionnaires to pinpoint agreed-upon neutral and romantic songs. They chose 'Je l'aime à mourir', a well-known love song by French songwriter Francis Cabrel, and the neutral song 'L'heure du thé', by Vincent Delerm. A group of young women separate from the main study rated 12 young male volunteers for attractiveness, and the researchers picked the one rated closest to 'average' to help with the experiment.

The researchers then set up a scenario where the 87 females each spent time in a waiting room with background music playing, before moving to a different room where the experimenter instructed her to discuss the difference between two food products with the young man. Once the experimenter returned, she asked them to wait for a few moments alone, and this gave the 'average' male a chance to use his standard chat up line: "My name is Antoine, as you know, I think you are very nice and I was wondering if you would give me your phone number. I'll phone you later and we can have a drink together somewhere next week.'

The love song in the waiting room almost doubled Antoine's chances of getting a woman's number -- 52% of participants responded to his advances under the influence of Francis Cabrel, whereas only 28% of those who had heard the 'neutral' song by Vincent Delerm offered their details.

Ocean changes to have dire impact on humans.

Hey everyone, have a great weekend! PS - We're all going to die. From ScienceDaily:

The first comprehensive synthesis on the effects of climate change on the world's oceans has found they are now changing at a rate not seen for several million years.

In an article published June 18 in Science magazine, scientists reveal the growing atmospheric concentrations of man-made greenhouse gases are driving irreversible and dramatic changes to the way the ocean functions, with potentially dire impacts for hundreds of millions of people across the planet.

The findings of the report emerged from a synthesis of recent research on the world's oceans, carried out by two of the world's leading marine scientists, one from The University of Queensland in Australia, and one from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the USA.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, lead author of the report and Director of The University of Queensland's Global Change Institute, says the findings have enormous implications for mankind, particularly if the trend continues.

He said that the Earth's ocean, which produces half of the oxygen we breathe and absorbs 30% of human-generated CO2, is equivalent to its heart and lungs. "Quite plainly, the Earth cannot do without its ocean. This study, however, shows worrying signs of ill health.

"It's as if the Earth has been smoking two packs of cigarettes a day!"

He went on to say, "We are entering a period in which the very ocean services upon which humanity depends are undergoing massive change and in some cases beginning to fail," says Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg. "Further degradation will continue to create enormous challenges and costs for societies worldwide."

He warned that we may soon see "sudden, unexpected changes that have serious ramifications for the overall well-being of humans," including the capacity of the planet to support people. "This is further evidence that we are well on the way to the next great extinction event."

The "fundamental and comprehensive" changes to marine life identified in the report include rapidly warming and acidifying oceans, changes in water circulation and expansion of dead zones within the ocean depths.

These are driving major changes in marine ecosystems: less abundant coral reefs, sea grasses and mangroves (important fish nurseries); fewer, smaller fish; a breakdown in food chains; changes in the distribution of marine life; and more frequent diseases and pests among marine organisms.

Organic labels trick dieters into eating more.

So much for my organic, vitamin-fortified hotdog-shoved-in-a-Twinkie idea. From LiveScience:

The "organic" label skews people's perceptions about food in ways that might promote obesity, a new study finds.

The results show people sometimes assume organic foods are lower in calories and so it's OK to indulge in organic cookies more often than regular ones. Exercise was also deemed less necessary after eating organic desserts.

The findings are in line with previous work showing food labels can spur misperceptions. For instance, labeling a food as "low fat" can lead people to infer that it also has fewer calories, and foods marked as having "low cholesterol" can be judged as having less fat. Also, there is a strong tendency for Americans to associate the concept of "organic" with healthiness, the researchers say.

70,000 mozzarella cheese balls confiscated.

The blue cheese shroud of Turin... From HuffPo:

ROME (AP)-- Italian police confiscated some 70,000 balls of mozzarella in Turin after consumers noticed the milky-white cheese quickly developed a bluish tint when the package was opened, authorities said Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Galan ordered ministry laboratories to investigate what he called a "disturbing" development.

State TV said a woman in Turin called police after noticing that the mozzarella, made in Germany for an Italian company, turned blue after contact with air, and that several merchants in Turin had received similar complaints. Later in the day another consumer, in Trento, a city 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the east in northern Italy, made a similar discovery, authorities said.

Samples were sent to laboratories that normally deal with anti-doping testing in sport to see if they could detect any foreign substances.

Results were expected in a few days.

Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio alerted German authorities and the European Commission to the apparently tainted mozzarella, the health ministry said.

No cases of illness were immediately reported.

Who watches the watch list?

From Congress.org:

Erich Scherfen served in the Army Infantry for 13 years as a helicopter pilot, but a year after he traded his guns for a commercial airline pilot badge, he found himself on the opposite side of national security.

For reasons that are still unclear to him, Scherfen, a Gulf War veteran and a Muslim, was added to the terror watch listed in April of 2008.

"It was a shock," he told Congress.org. "To think I had flown helicopters loaded with rockets at one time for the U.S., and then was listed."

The terror watch list was designed to prevent attacks by keeping a close watch on suspected terrorists. But some critics question how well it is being managed by intelligence officials, arguing it has too many "false positives" like Scherfen.

Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said federal agents are biased toward adding people to the list and against removing those who are later found to have been included mistakenly.

"Nobody ever lost a job from putting someone on the list — even if they're innocent," he said. "But God forbid you don't put someone on the list and they are guilty. You could lose your job."

An FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the list is constantly updated to remove false positives.

"[People on the list] are constantly reviewed on a day-to-day basis to make sure the right people are watch-listed," said the official, who works as a national security officer at TSC. "There's no benefit to watch-listing innocent people."

FBI Terrorist Screening Center officials have argued that the watch list "is one of the most affective counterterrorist tools for the U.S. government."

In an address before the House Judiciary Committee in March, TSC Director Timothy Healy said the center and watch list protect "the American public from terrorist threats while simultaneously protecting privacy and safeguarding civil liberties."

It's hard to know how effective the program is due to the secrecy around it.

A 2009 audit by the Inspector General found the nomination process flawed, saying the FBI did not "consistently update or remove watch list records when appropriate."

Auditors found that 35 percent of the names and identities were associated with outdated FBI codes or were totally unrelated to terrorism and that false positives were often not removed until months later.

The audit also criticized "non-investigative" nominations, where agents put any name or identity they believe is a threat to national security on the list without opening an investigation.

The Inspector General said the procedure was too "vague" with "weak or nonexistent" controls. These "non-investigative subjects," it said, weren't subjected to adequate review and were rarely examined for potential removal from the list.

Calabrese said those watch-listed would certainly find it difficult to get a public job working for the government or any government-paid position that requires a background check.

In Scherfen's case, he didn't lose his job, but he almost did. He was suspended without pay by his employer, Colgan Air Inc., but was later reinstated after Scherfen's lawyers threatened a lawsuit.

Pentagon revives Bush-era domestic spying unit.

From Raw Story:

The Pentagon's spy unit has quietly begun to rebuild a database for tracking potential terrorist threats that was shut down after it emerged that it had been collecting information on American anti-war activists.

The Defense Intelligence Agency filed notice this week that it plans to create a new section called Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence Operation Records, whose purpose will be to "document intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and counternarcotic operations relating to the protection of national security."

But while the unit's name refers to "foreign intelligence," civil liberties advocates and the Pentagon's own description of the program suggest that Americans will likely be included in the new database.

FICOR replaces a program called Talon, which the DIA created in 2002 under then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as part of the counterterrorism efforts following the 9/11 attacks. It was disbanded in 2007 after it emerged that Talon had retained information on anti-war protesters, including Quakers, even after it was determined they posed no threat to national security.

DIA spokesman Donald Black told Newsweek that the new database would not include the more controversial elements of the old Talon program. But Jeff Stein at the Washington Post reports that the new program will evidently inherit the old Talon database.

Vatican blesses Blues Brothers.

From the NY Post:

They really were "on a mission from God."

In a stunning move by the Vatican, the classic Dan Aykroyd-John Belushi comedy film "The Blues Brothers" was declared a "Catholic classic" alongside more pious films such as "The Ten Commandments" and "The Passion of the Christ."

The announcement was made in the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, corresponding with 30th anniversary of the release of the film.

"As a former altar boy from age 6 . . . but a somewhat lapsed Catholic, I was delighted with the endorsement," Aykroyd said in a message to The Post yesterday.

"My local monsignor will immediately be receiving a check for parish needs."

L'Osservatore editor Gian Maria Vian praised the flick for its plot, in which Jake Blues (Belushi) and his brother Elwood (Aykroyd) battle cops, neo-Nazis and crazed country fans in a bid to save the Catholic orphanage where they were raised.

"For them, this Catholic institution is their only family," Vian wrote. "And they decide to save it at any cost."

L'Osservatore's editorial lavishes praise on the 1980 comic romp, in which Aykroyd and Belushi say that they're "on a mission from God." The writers call it "incredibly shrewd" noting that in one scene a picture of Pope John Paul II could clearly be seen.

One million dogs to be slaughtered in Iraq.

So sad. From Mother Jones:

Amid its struggles with Sunni jihadists, Shiite radicals, and Kurdish separatists, the Iraqi government is training its sights on a new enemy: dogs. According to the UK's Daily Mail, Iraq is spending 35 million dinars—about $30,000—to send 20 shotgun-wielding squads out to hunt down the capital's strays. Their goal: Killing one million canines. So far, they've scratched 42,000, and they're averaging 2,400 a day. "We could consider this the biggest campaign of dog execution ever," Baghdad's chief veterinarian, Mohammed al-Hilly, told the newspaper.

Put so bluntly, it sounds heinous, perhaps even criminal. It's also a tough pill to swallow for many US servicemembers in Iraq, who find comfort in adopted Iraqi pets that wandered in from the wild. But the dog-eradication program is incredibly popular among Iraqis, and could even enhance the government's standing with its discontented populace. And it's not unprecedented: Saddam Hussein used to sponsor dog roundups, and the US military is currently waging its own campaign against the country's feral dogs.

Wild animals also pose special problems for American service members in Iraq. Despite the fortifications at the US coalition's largest bases—mazes of walls, cameras, guns, checkpoints—coyotes and cats slip through at will, often crossing soldiers' paths in the dusty dark of night, catching fish on base lakes and moats, or tracking rats underneath the soldiers' sleeping trailers. Rabies is an ever-present concern, as is the general nastiness of the feral animal population. Plus, military working dogs are ubiquitous in Iraq, and keeping them away from wild animals is a paramount concern. Units that rely on working animals have rules of engagement empowering them to kill any creature that ventures too close to their dogs.

The US military command also forbids soldiers to own pets. It's right there in General Order No. 1, the master document regulating military and contractor behavior: "Adopting as pets or mascots, caring for or feeding any type of domestic or wild animal" in the Iraqi war zone is a crime, on a par with using illegal drugs, distributing pornography, drinking liquor, keeping war spoils, or selling your gun. The military doesn't just ban contact between soldiers and animals; it's contracted with KBR—yes, that KBR—to provide "vector control" on big installations like the Victory Base Complex on Baghdad's outskirts. The company's employees roam those bases, rounding up any animals they find, especially those being sheltered by the troops. All the animals are destroyed.

"No one involved in the animal control program enjoys the task," Lt. Colonel Raymond F. Dunton, chief of preventive medicine for the US military in Iraq, told the AP. "Unfortunately, it is critical that we continue this work to protect the health and safety of our service members."

"We are in the prevention business. We try to prevent problems," said Gary Orsack, manager of KBR's vector control program on the Victory Base Complex, which surrounds Baghdad International Airport. All the animals caught on VBC are taken to a clinic on an adjacent outpost, where they are euthanized. The name of the post where that clinic is located: Camp Slayer.

Prison inmate uses invisible ink, Sudoku to hatch helicopter escape plan.

Not that I want this murderous a-hole on the loose, but who doesn't love an intricate escape plan? From BBC:

A murderer's plot to escape from jail by helicopter has been foiled by prison guards and the police.

Brian Lawrence, 67, from Berkshire, planned to escape from Parkhurst last week using helicopter flights at the Isle of Wight Festival as cover.

He communicated with his accomplices using lemon juice as invisible ink and codes hidden in sudoku puzzles, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has revealed.

Lawrence is serving life for murder and for plotting two further killings.

The MoJ said he drew maps and gave encrypted instructions for his plan to bring a helicopter into part of the prison grounds not protected by nets.

It is believed Lawrence targeted the festival as members of the public would be less suspicious of a helicopter due to the air movements associated with the music event.

He intended to fund the escape using the sale of a quarry in Newbury, Berkshire, then flee to Spain.

Southwest intercepts package containing dozens of human heads.

Try not to lose your head when you travel. From MSNBC:

Dozens of human heads were intercepted by a Southwest Airlines employee last week, the airline confirmed Thursday.

The heads, which were intercepted in Little Rock, Ark., were handed over to local officials who are now investigating whether or not the heads were properly obtained.

Southwest officials said the airline refused to ship the package because it was not labeled correctly. "And then when we found out what was in the package, we contacted local authorities and they contacted the coroner," said airline spokesman Marilee McInnish.

The package was on its way to the Fort Worth office of Medtronic, a Minnesota-based medical research and technology company, NBC's affiliate in Dallas Fort-Worth reported. Little Rock police handed the package over to the country coroner.

The coroner is currently investigating whether the heads were legally obtained.

"We've come to the conclusion that there is a black market out there for human body parts for research or for whatever reason," Pulaski County coroner Garland Camper told NBC Dallas Fort-Worth. "We just want to make sure these specimens here aren't a part of that black market and underground trade."

McInnish said it was her understanding that the heads were going to be used for educational and research purposes.

Coozer-Bits.

Hero: Man saves dozens of people from suicide.

Tech: Top 10 stupid Hollywood hackers.

Science: Prehistoric mammal hair found in amber.

Health: How to slow hair loss.

Gross: Woman finds mutant blob in Capri Sun.

D'oh: Sand drives army to ditch Velcro in favor of the simple button.

Lame: GOP operative embezzles $1m from Bloomberg.

Mummified man found in chimney.

Item!

The mummified body of a man thought to have died 20 years ago was found in the chimney of a Finnish industrial building while it was being demolished.

Identification papers found in a wallet in the corpse's pocket indicated it belonged to a man born in 1953 who disappeared in 1991. He was declared dead in the early 2000s, local tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported.

"The police are investigating whether the man was placed in the chimney or went there himself," criminal investigator Juha Juurinen told Finnish news agency STT.

The chimney, in a factory in the city of Vantaa near Finland's capital, was not used for decades, and the body was found Sunday as construction workers tore it down.

Mother kills pregnant woman over spilled coffee.

Israel really is the place for overreaction, huh? From the Jerusalem Post:

A woman who was eight months pregnant was stabbed to death by her neighbor in Ashdod on Sunday following an argument over spilled coffee.

Tali Atar, 34, was repeatedly stabbed in the torso and neck by a 38-year-old mother of two who lived one floor below her, police said.

Atar was rushed to the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot in critical condition, where doctors battled to save her life and rescue her unborn child.

The baby was rescued by an emergency c-section operation, and is said to be in stable condition, but Atar succumbed to her wounds shortly afterwards, doctors said.

Police arrested the murder suspect after arriving at the building, and say the suspect, a mother of two, has linked herself to the stabbing.

"We arrived at the address after being notified of an incident," Supt. Meital Geref, spokeswoman of Lachish police, told The Jerusalem
Post.

Several reports said the two women had been involved in a long-standing and escalating feud, and that Atar was stabbed after being accused by her neighbor of deliberately spilling coffee outside of the suspect's apartment.

The two women allegedly met at the building's entrance, where the murder suspect produced a knife and proceeded to stab Atar.

"We are at the start of the investigation. We cannot yet confirm that there was a previous feud," Geref said.

She added that police received a report that garbage had been thrown outside of the door of the murder victim on Sunday morning.

"We had no previous complaints of violent incidents," Geref said.

Paramedics described finding Atar lying in a pool of blood outside of the building and commencing immediate attempts to save her life.

Atar, who had three children in addition to the new born baby, worked in a soup kitchen, family members said.

Strip club provides lap dances for tornado relief.

Now I know why it's called a twister... From Toledo on the Move (via CNN):

TOLEDO, OHIO -- Everyone is doing their part to help the victims of the tornadoes that roared through northern Ohio last week, including one those at a local strip club.

Marilyn's on Monroe, 715 Monroe St., will host "Lap Dances for Northwestern Ohio" this Saturday, June 5, in an effort to help residents in areas of Fulton, Lucas, Ottawa and Wood counties that were devastated by the severe weather.

All proceeds from the club's door cover between 7:00 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. will be donated to ISOH/IMPACT, a charity organization that ensures all money will be distributed to families and victims directly affected by the tornadoes.

The downtown Toledo strip club raised $1,000 for Haitian earthquake relief in February of this year during a similar event, "Lap Dances for Haiti."

Spider study: Women are dirty fighters, men have dance-offs.

From Discovery, thanks to Coozer-Phile Jeff!

Pairs of female jumping spiders were matched off in a mini, gladiator-like arena, while researchers recorded fight tactics in an effort to find a pattern.

What did they find? The females fight dirty.

While the males "push each other back and forth like sumo wrestlers," lead author Damian Elias of the University of California at Berkeley said in a press release, the females displayed less civil tactics.

The research is published online in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

"Males have a more gentlemanly form of combat, whereas in females it's an all-out fight," said Elias. "At the drop of a hat they start bashing and biting each other."

Another difference was that the female fights were often duels to the death, whereas males tended to resolve things through elaborate dance displays rather than fighting.