Rampant drug use, random gunfire at Blackwater's Baghdad parties.

From Raw Story:

Blackwater employees in Baghdad held wild parties featuring large amounts of cocaine and hash, where armed personnel would sometimes fire randomly at nearby buildings housing Iraqi civilians, says a former contractor for the security company.

Howard Lowry, a Texas businessman who worked in Iraq from 2003 to 2009, made the allegations in testimony he gave in a whistleblower trial aimed at Xe Services, the company formerly known as Blackwater.

"I feel that numerous families of individuals of Blackwater employees that have been killed on the job are not getting the true story," Lowry said in the deposition, which was obtained by The Nation's Jeremy Scahill.

Scahill reports that Lowry alleges he bought at least 100 AK47 machine guns for Blackwater guards on Baghdad's black market, as well as large quantities of steroids.

Lowry says some of the steroids he purchased went to guards protecting L. Paul Bremer, the man the Bush administration appointed to run Iraq's provisional government following the invasion in 2003.

"The use of steroids and human growth hormone, testosterone, were pretty endemic to them and almost company-wide," Lowry said.

"Not only did I purchase the pharmaceuticals, but I was also given money and asked to acquire syringes and other forms or modes of injection as well," Lowry stated in his deposition. He alleges the drugs were purchased with Blackwater money.

Lowry described Blackwater guards' parties at Baghdad's al-Hamra Hotel as a "frat party gone wild." He says he saw copious amounts of cocaine and hashish at the events.

"One of the suites would be absolutely packed with gentlemen running around with either no clothes on, no shirt on. It was like a frat party gone wild. Drug use was rampant. There was cocaine all on the tables. There were blocks of hash, and you could smell it in the air...walking up to the door," Lowry said in his deposition.

On occasion, Blackwater personnel at these parties would go out on the balcony with machine guns and "would just spray the building next door, which housed Iraqi civilians," Lowry alleges.

Texas considering to rid schools of "pro-Islam" books.

Texas: Screwing up national education through bullying and bigotry. From BBC:

The Texas school board is set to vote on a resolution urging publishers to keep "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian" language out of textbooks in the state.

Among other complaints, the non-binding decree says some textbooks devote more lines to Islam than to Christianity and print "whitewashes" of Islamic culture.

Critics say it relies on a flawed reading of books that are out of use.

In May, the panel adopted guidelines that critics said injected conservative political ideas into the curriculum.

Texas is one of the largest textbook markets in the US, and a vote in favour of the resolution could carry considerable weight in the publishing industry, supporters say.

The measure, on which the Texas Board of Education will vote on Friday in the state capital of Austin, is drafted by Randy Rives, a businessman and former school official in the Texas city of Odessa.

Supporters say the resolution is needed to warn textbook publishers not to print "anti-Christian" books if they want to sell them to Texas schools.

"It's the pro-Islamic, anti-Christian teachings in these books, that is what we are concerned about," Mr Rives told the BBC.

"We're teaching double the beliefs and specifics about another religion than we are about Christianity, which is the foundation of our country."

New study finds higher-than-expected human exposure to toxic BPA.

From the University of Missouri:

Researchers have discovered that women, female monkeys and female mice have major similarities when it comes to how bisphenol A (BPA) is metabolized, and they have renewed their call for governmental regulation when it comes to the estrogen-like chemical found in many everyday products.

A study published online in the Sept. 20 NIH journal Environmental Health Perspectives ties rodent data on the health effects of BPA to predictions of human health effects from BPA with the use of everyday household products. The study was authored by researchers at the University of Missouri Division of Biological Sciences, Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab (VMDL) and the department of Biomedical Sciences, in collaboration with scientists at the University of California-Davis and Washington State University.

“This study provides convincing evidence that BPA is dangerous to our health at current levels of human exposure,” said Frederick vom Saal, Curators’ professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri. “The new results clearly demonstrate that rodent data on the health effects of BPA are relevant to predictions regarding the health effects of human exposure to BPA. Further evidence of human harm should not be required for regulatory action to reduce human exposure to BPA.”

BPA is one of the world’s highest production-volume chemicals, with more than 8 billion pounds made per year. It can be found in a wide variety of consumer products, including hard plastic items such as baby bottles and food-storage containers, the plastic lining of food and beverage cans, thermal paper used for receipts, and dental sealants. The findings in the current study suggest that human exposure to BPA is much higher than some prior estimates and is likely to be from many still-unknown sources, indicating the need for governmental agencies to require the chemical industry to identify all products that contain BPA.

Several states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, New York and Oregon, have passed bills to reduce exposure to BPA, and similar legislation is pending in the U.S. Congress.

“For years, BPA manufacturers have argued that BPA is safe and have denied the validity of more than 200 studies that showed adverse health effects in animals due to exposure to very low doses of BPA,” said Julia Taylor, lead author and associate research professor at the University of Missouri. “We know that BPA leaches out of products that contain it, and that it acts like estrogen in the body.”

“We’ve assumed we’re getting BPA from the ingestion of contaminated food and beverages,” said co-author Pat Hunt, a professor in the Washington State University School of Molecular Biosciences. “This indicates there must be a lot of other ways in which we’re exposed to this chemical and we’re probably exposed to much higher levels than we have assumed.”

The research team at the University of Missouri includes Taylor, vom Saal and student researcher Bertram Drury in Biological Sciences, as well as Wade Welshons in Biomedical Sciences and George Rottinghaus in the VMDL at MU.

Inner voice plays role in self control.

From EurekAlert:

Talking to yourself might not be a bad thing, especially when it comes to exercising self control.

New research out of the University of Toronto Scarborough – published in this month's edition of Acta Psychologica – shows that using your inner voice plays an important role in controlling impulsive behaviour.

"We give ourselves messages all the time with the intent of controlling ourselves – whether that's telling ourselves to keep running when we're tired, to stop eating even though we want one more slice of cake, or to refrain from blowing up on someone in an argument," says Alexa Tullett, PhD Candidate and lead author on the study. "We wanted to find out whether talking to ourselves in this 'inner voice' actually helps."

Tullett and Associate Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, both at UTSC, performed a series of self control tests on participants. In one example, participants performed a test on a computer. If they saw a particular symbol appear on the screen, they were told to press a button. If they saw a different symbol, they were told to refrain from pushing the button. The test measures self control because there are more "press" than "don't press" trials, making pressing the button an impulsive response.

The team then included measures to block participants from using their "inner voice" while performing the test, to see if it had an impact on their ability to perform. In order to block their "inner voice," participants were told to repeat one word over and over as they performed the test. This prevented them from talking to themselves while doing the test.

"Through a series of tests, we found that people acted more impulsively when they couldn't use their inner voice or talk themselves through the tasks," says Inzlicht. "Without being able to verbalize messages to themselves, they were not able to exercise the same amount of self control as when they could talk themselves through the process."

"It's always been known that people have internal dialogues with themselves, but until now, we've never known what an important function they serve," says Tullett. "This study shows that talking to ourselves in this 'inner voice' actually helps us exercise self control and prevents us from making impulsive decisions."

Fugitive monkey retires to Florida.

From NY Daily News:

The fugitive monkey that went on the lam after biting a Queens woman's face is living out his final days in a Florida home for wayward monkeys.

Benjamin the cantankerous capuchin turned up at Jungle Friends habitat in Gainesville, Fla., weeks after he bit Parvin Hajihossini while she was snapping his picture during a July stay at a Catskill, N.Y., resort.

Recent tests showed the 17-year-old monkey has cancer and a few months to live, said Jungle Friends owner Kari Bagnall.

Bagnall says Benjamin's owner, renowned painter Allen Hirsch, stayed with him at the 12-acre sanctuary for several weeks before leaving for Venezuela last month. At the time, Greene County, N.Y., health officials were hunting for Benjamin to check him for rabies - a test that requires the animal be euthanized so the brain can be dissected.

Bagnall said this isn't Benjamin's first stay at the habitat: Hirsch brought him there several years ago after he attacked someone else, she said.

"They're not pets," she said. "They're wild animals.... It's not a matter of if they'll bite, it's when. I don't know of any monkeys that don't bite."

Benjamin spends his days alone in a cage, surrounded by 120 other rescued monkeys in cages.

Most are ex-pets banished from homes after attacking humans -or retired research monkeys.

Hajihossini, 53, is suing Hirsch in Queens Supreme Court to recover damages for her injuries.

A scar that snakes down her left cheek left her so disfigured that she hasn't returned to work as a hairdresser.

Dead man in car slapped with parking ticket.

From NY Daily News:

A Queens man was slapped with a parking ticket as he lay dead in the driver's seat of his car, cops and family said Wednesday.

Nicholas Rappold, 21, of Flushing, was slumped across the front seat of his Jeep Cherokee on 165th St. near 35thAve. Tuesday morning when a traffic agent wrote him up for being illegally parked during street sweeping, cops and family said.

"It's really messed up," the young man's cousin Patrick Hill told the Daily News. "While he was dead in his car, a New York City traffic agent gave him a ticket."

An hour after the ticket was issued, a friend whose house Rappold had left in the middle of the night spotted his buddy's vehicle still parked outside, sources said.

The curious pal went to see why the SUV was still there and found Rappold's cold body, sources said.

Investigators interviewed the traffic agent but found no wrongdoing. "He had heavily tinted windows," a police source said in defense of the postmortem ticket. "It was hard to see inside."

But family argued that the officer could have seen Rappold, who had recently been in rehab for pill abuse.

"She could have at least knocked on the window to see if he was all right," Hill said.

The cause of death is still to be determined by the medical examiner, but investigators believe Rappold died hours before the ticketing from an overdose.

Police voided the parking summons after they released the vehicle to the family.

Girl calls off party after 21,000 reply to Facebook invite.

Damn, that's a lot of cupcakes. From The Independent:

A teenage girl who included her address in an invitation to her birthday party on Facebook was alarmed when 21,000 people confirmed their attendance.

The bash was called off when the school pupil was swamped by RSVPs from unwanted would-be guests on the social networking site.

The girl had reportedly only intended to invite 15 friends to her 15th birthday party and did not mean to make her address public.

Hertfordshire Police said officers would be patrolling the area in Harpenden on October 7 - the date it was planned for - in case large numbers turned up anyway.

Harpenden Neighbourhood Sergeant Lewis Ducket said: "We are aware of this and have been assured that the event is no longer taking place.

"I would urge people who may be planning to come to Harpenden for the party to make other plans.

"We will have officers on patrol in the area on October 7 to provide a reassuring presence and who will be able to deal with any issues, should they arise."

Although the original invitation was removed from the site, a new version was visible to all Facebook users today.

The event was not created by the girl herself but her address was again posted on the site for all to see and 19 people had confirmed their attendance.

Other linked events were also still visible to all users of the site, including a "cleaning up party" the following day, which had 80 confirmed guests.

The incident follows criticism of Facebook's privacy settings, with concerns being raised that they are too complicated.

A spokeswoman stressed that the privacy settings available for events created on the site are separate to those for users' profiles, on which they post information about themselves.

When someone creates an event on Facebook they can tick a box saying "anyone can view and RSVP (public event)".

If this is ticked then it is a public event, meaning anyone can view the content and respond.

Two men convicted of sperm donor racket.

From The Independent:

Two men were facing jail today after being convicted of running an illegal fertility company providing women with access to sperm donors.

Nigel Woodforth, 43, ran the operation from the basement of his home in Reading, Berkshire, with 49-year-old Ricky Gage.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court, south London, convicted both men of three counts each of providing sperm without a licence or third party agreement.

The pair, who earned £250,000 from the enterprise, will be sentenced next Friday.

Judge Deborah Taylor told the men: "The court is considering a custodial sentence and/or a fine in relation to these matters."

Nearly 800 women signed up to use the online service provided by the company, operating under various names including Sperm Direct Limited and First4Fertility.

Their website introduced would-be donors to women trying to conceive.

It is the first time anyone has been prosecuted under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.

The men were reported to the HFEA after one woman who used their service complained about their unprofessional standards.

US tourists buy "fake" skulls at Greek souvenir shop, get arrested.

From Reuters:

Greek police charged two U.S. tourists with desecrating the dead on Thursday after they found six human skulls in their hand luggage at Athens international airport, a police official said.

"The skulls were found in a scanner check during a stop-over in Athens on their way back to the United States," said a police official who requested anonymity. "The coroner confirmed they were human skulls."

The two young tourists said they had bought the skulls in a souvenir shop on the island of Mykonos and believed they were fake, the official said, adding they had been released pending trial.

Person falls from sky, then vanishes.

From MSNBC:

Several people in New Jersey claimed they saw a person falling from the sky with no parachute, but an extensive police search has turned up no evidence, NBC Philadelphia reported.

Witness Kelly Hale and two of her co-workers at Shore Veterinarians in Egg Harbor Township said they watched from their office windows as a human fell head-first from the sky on Tuesday.

But there were no reports of missing skydivers.

"I [saw] the guy falling, at an angle, like this," Hale told NBC Philadelphia while gesturing. "Straight down. No parachute. No paraglider."

Authorities were still investigating the incident, Egg Harbor police told msnbc.com on Thursday.

"We're not actively out there searching, but we're waiting for more information," said police Sgt. Robert Gray. He could not comment on the ongoing investigation.

Several people contacted Egg Harbor Township Police at about 3:20 p.m. Tuesday, saying that they watched a person free-falling from the sky. The witnesses described the person as falling head first, at a slight angle, toward the ground, police said.

"You could see the arms and legs flailing and his clothes were blue, a dark blue like a navy, black and gray," Hale said. "There's no doubt that it was a person. We're 100 percent sure."

Cockroach brains could be rich store of new antibiotics.

From the Burrill Report:

To some people, cockroaches are the filthy, disgusting insects that scurry frantically when the lights are turned on in a seedy apartment kitchen or bathroom. But new research has found that they could be a health benefit rather than a health hazard.

Researchers have discovered powerful antibiotic properties in the brains of cockroaches and locusts that could lead to novel treatments for multi-drug resistant bacterial infections. They found that the tissues of their brain and nervous system were able to kill more than 90 percent of MRSA and pathogenic Escherichia coli, without harming human cells.

“Superbugs such as MRSA have developed resistance against the chemotherapeutic artillery that we throw at them,” says Naveed Khan, associate professor of molecular microbiology at the University of Nottingham and supervisor of the research. “They have shown the ability to cause untreatable infections, and have become a major threat in our fight against bacterial diseases. Thus, there is a continuous need to find additional sources of novel antimicrobials to confront this menace.”

Researchers have identified up to nine different molecules in the insect tissues that were toxic to bacteria. “We hope that these molecules could eventually be developed into treatments for E. coli and MRSA infections that are increasingly resistant to current drugs,” says Simon Lee, the researcher who presented their findings at a recent meeting of the Society for General Microbiology. “These new antibiotics could potentially provide alternatives to currently available drugs that may be effective but have serious and unwanted side effects.”

Warrior worms discovered in snails.

Just what the world needs - warrior worms. From EurekAlert:

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered a caste of genetically identical "warrior worms" –– members of a parasitic fluke species that invades the California horn snail. The findings are reported in the early online version of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"We have discovered flatworms in colonies with vicious, killer morphs defending the colony," said Armand M. Kuris, professor of zoology, in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology. "These flukes have a strongly developed social organization, much like some insects, mammals and birds." The tiny warrior worms are only a couple of millimeters in length, yet they are powerful thanks to relatively large mouths.

These worms form colonies in snails. Reproductive worms and soldier worms cooperate to grow and defend their colony within the snail. These two types of individuals look and behave differently, explained first author Ryan F. Hechinger, assistant research biologist with UCSB's Marine Science Institute. The warrior worms attack other invasive parasites trying to invade the snail.

uris calls the worms parasitic "body snatchers," because they castrate the snail, making it unable to reproduce. The snail, which is only an inch and a half long, houses thousands of worms. A mature colony of this type of worm weighs 25 percent of the weight of the host snail.

The worms are produced through asexual reproduction and their relationships are even more dramatic than those among honeybees. For example, worker bees and queen bees are related as sisters through sexual reproduction. "The fluke castes described by our research team are genetically identical," said Hechinger. "They are clones."

Many other species of flukes probably have colonies of clones with castes, said Kuris. He expects international research to expand in this direction, now that this example has been discovered.

Pope likens atheists to Nazis.

Strange remarks from a former Hitler Youth. From the Daily Mail:

The Pope controversially likened the rise of atheism in Britain to Nazi Germany today as he warned against 'aggressive forms of secularism' at the start of his historic state visit.

Risking sparking a new row after one of his aides likened the UK to the 'Third World', the former member of the Hitler Youth invoked Nazi Germany in an attack on 'atheist extremism'.

It came after Benedict XVI apologised for the Catholic Church's handling of the child abuse scandal as he flew to Scotland this morning.

The 83-year-old Pope admitted on the flight that the church had not dealt with abusive priests decisively or quickly enough.

The comments are his most thorough admission to date of failings in the way the sex abuse scandal was handled.

What to do when body parts fall off.

Weird but interesting article from CNN. Also includes tips like "don't push your eyeballs back in" and "suck off the dirt" from fallen teeth.

[...] Beaty had sawed nearly all the way through his index finger, and he'd entirely cut off the top inch of his middle finger. Before they went out the door to the doctor's office, Beaty and his wife decided to put his fingertip in a Tupperware container with ice.

"That was probably the biggest mistake we made," Beaty says now.

Emergency room physicians say people often don't know what to do with a body part that's become derailed, whether it's a toe, finger, tooth or an eye that's popped out of its socket. Here's some advice:

Fingers and toes: Keep cold, not icy

A nurse at Swedish Medical Center admonished Beaty and his wife when she saw his finger lying in ice.

"This is not how to do it," Beaty's wife, Linda Carlson, recalls the nurse saying. Then, a little more tactfully the nurse added, "You probably don't plan to do this again."

The nurse informed the couple that although they were right to keep the finger cold, direct contact with ice could give the vessels freezer burn and make reattachment difficult.

Here's a better approach.

The first thing you do when a body part becomes detached is control the bleeding. Put direct pressure on the wound and elevate it higher than the heart, advises Dr. Dave Manthey, professor of emergency medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Then rinse off the severed finger or toe (or part thereof).

"You are trying to decrease the bacteria," Manthey explains. "But don't scrub it. If you scrub, you're causing blunt force damage."

Now get a clean cloth or piece of sterile gauze, dampen it with cold water and wrap the finger or toe in it. Then put the wrapped appendage into a plastic bag and put the bag in cold (preferably iced) water.

Finally, notes Manthey, keep the body part with you. For example, don't give it to a spouse, who might end up getting separated from you on the way to the hospital.

Despite the mistake with the ice, surgeons did manage to reattach Beaty's finger, and he now has full use of it, although he's lost some sensation, and it's shorter than his other middle finger.

"Draw Muhammad Day" cartoonist in hiding.

From FOX News:

The Seattle cartoonist whose artwork sparked the controversial "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!" has gone into hiding at the advice of the FBI after being targeted by a radical Muslim cleric, according to the newspaper that published her comics.

Molly Norris has moved and changed her name, the Seattle Weekly said Wednesday, after U.S.-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki placed her on an execution hit list. Awlaki -- who has been linked to the botched Times Square bombing and cited as inspiration for the Fort Hood massacre and a plot by two New Jersey men to kill U.S. soldiers -- reportedly called Norris a "prime target" for assassination and that her "proper abode is hellfire."

"You may have noticed that Molly Norris' comic is not in the paper this week," Seattle Weekly Editor in Chief Mark Fefer wrote Wednesday. "That's because there is no more Molly."

"The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, 'going ghost': moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program -- except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab," Fefer wrote.

Norris ignited a firestorm in April after drawing a satirical cartoon to protest the decision by cable television channel Comedy Central to cancel an episode of "South Park" over its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.

In her cartoon, Norris mockingly proposed making May 20 "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!"

Soon after, a fan page popped up on Facebook, but Norris wrote on her since-shuttered website that she had nothing to do with it.

"I did NOT 'declare' May 20 to be 'Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,'" she said, adding that her idea was satire that was "taken seriously, hijacked and made viral."

"I apologize to people of Muslim faith and ask that this 'day' be called off," she said.

The 27-year-old Facebook page creator -- a Canadian woman who asked not to be identified due to fears of reprisal -- told FoxNews.com in July that she was visited at her home by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials who advised her to remove her page and not to talk to reporters.

"I'm scared," she said. "I'm scared that somebody might kill me."

Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the "Draw Muhammad" page led to Facebook being temporarily blocked in Pakistan and sparked angry street protests.

In July, English-language Al Qaeda magazine "Inspire" attributed an article to Awlaki, saying Norris "should be taken as a prime target of assassination."

"The large number of participants makes it easier for us because there are more targets to choose from in addition to the difficulty of the government offering all of them special protection," wrote Awlaki. "But even then our campaign should not be limited to only those who are active participants."

He warned that "assassinations, bombings and acts of arson" are all legitimate forms of revenge against the creators of blasphemous depictions of Muhammad.

Three months in jail for stealing two hotel towels.

From ABC News:

Think twice before you take that bar of soap from your next hotel room.

A woman now faces up to three months in jail just for taking two towels from a hotel room.

A court in Nigeria has convicted Bilikisu Dowodu of stealing the towels from the Transcorp Hilton Abuja Hotel, in the country's capital city. She now has to either pay a $20 fine or spend three months in jail.

While this is probably an extreme case of punishment, guests stealing items from rooms costs hotels millions of dollars each year. And we're not just talking about some shampoo and towels.

Guests have walked out of hotels with hair dryers, corkscrews, phones, ironing boards, radios, flowers, bibles, luggage stands, coffee mugs and just about anything else that isn't bolted down.

To stop theft, hotels have secured lamps, TVs and hangers. Artwork has been bolted to the walls and mini-bars have gone high-tech. But at a certain point, hotels have to balance offering nice amenities and making their rooms feel like prison cells.

Upscale chains now don't offer robes, umbrellas and even sometimes linens in their rooms, but sell them instead in the gift shop and have added price tags to the in-room items. The moves have dramatically cut theft.

England to kill badgers.

BADGER BADGER BADGER. From BBC:

The government has set out plans to license farmers in England to shoot badgers on their land, with tens of thousands of animals potentially targeted.

The government believes the badger cull is necessary to curb TB in cattle.

Cattle TB cost the UK more than £100m last year.

But campaigners who successfully mounted a legal challenge against plans for a cull in Wales say the scientific evidence for culling does not stack up.

The European badger (Meles meles) is a protected species under European and British law, but ministers can sanction killing in certain circumstances, including to tackle diseases.

It is believed the government will change the instructions it gives to Natural England, the statutory agency that issues licences, in order that farmers can gain permission to kill badgers on the basis that they carry the bovine TB bacterium.

The previous Labour government concluded culling did not make scientific or economic sense, and instructed the agency not to issue licences for TB control.

Wildflower creates metallic armor.

Put the petal to the metal! From EurekAlert:

An unusual wildflower that accumulates metals in its leaves has been found to use them as a kind of 'armor' against bacterial infection. Scientists from Oxford University have shown that when Alpine pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens) plants accumulate metals in their leaves, they become resistant to attack by the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola. They report their findings September 9 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.

Thlaspi, a small plant in the mustard family that grows on metal-rich soils scattered around Britain and Europe, such as the sites of former mine workings, is known to accumulate zinc, nickel and cadmium to very high concentrations in its leaves. "

Our results demonstrate that these plants are exploiting their metal-rich environment to armor themselves against disease," said co-author Dr Gail Preston of Oxford University's Department of Plant Sciences, co-author of the report. "What we've found is a direct link between these high metal concentrations and resistance to bacterial infection."

Co-author Helen Fones cultivated Thlaspi plants on progressively higher concentrations of zinc, nickel and cadmium and showed that all three metals were able to defend the plant against the pathogenic bacterium. By studying diverse strains of the bacterium, she was able to demonstrate a close relationship between the ability of bacteria to grow in the presence of high concentrations of metal and their ability to infect the plants.

"Previously, it has been difficult to explain why Thlaspi plants should accumulate such high concentrations of potentially toxic metals," said co-author Professor Andrew Smith of Oxford's Department of Plant Sciences, co-supervisor of the research. "Our findings provide good evidence that, by accumulating metals, these plants benefit from enhanced protection against enemies such as pathogenic microorganisms and herbivores."

The researchers also showed that bacteria surviving on Thlaspi plants on the site of a former lead–zinc mine in Wales had a higher tolerance for zinc than bacteria isolated from plants growing on normal soils. This indicates that both the plant and its pathogens show evidence of local adaptation to survival in metal-rich environments, and that pathogens can adapt to overcome plant defenses based on metals.

"Heavy metals may be part of an evolutionary 'arms race' between plants and the microorganisms that try to colonize them," said Dr. Preston.

Star discovered made up of 10 billion trillion trillion carat diamond.

Space diamonds! From BBC:

Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered.

The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

It's the compressed heart of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded and shrunk.

Astronomers have decided to call the star "Lucy" after the Beatles song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

"You would need a jeweller's loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond," says astronomer Travis Metcalfe, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the team of researchers that discovered it.

The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 546-carat Golden Jubilee which was cut from a stone brought out of the Premier mine in South Africa.

The huge cosmic diamond - technically known as BPM 37093 - is actually a crystallised white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon.

Obama planning $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

From Raw Story:

US President Barack Obama's administration will soon notify Congress of plans to offer advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia in a deal worth up to 60 billion dollars, congressional sources said Monday.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the transaction has not yet been formally announced, confirmed a Wall Street Journal report about the deal but warned that key US lawmakers would block the move.

"You can fully expect that a hold will be placed on this deal," thought to be the largest ever arms sale of its kind, said a senior congressional source.

"There is serious concern about some sensitive material which is expected to be included in the deal," said another source, who told AFP that Obama aides would brief congressional staff on the deal on Monday.

A "hold" would come from the chair or ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee or Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which typically must sign off on arms transfers, and could change what is in the package.

The Journal, which cited unnamed officials, said the administration was also in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.

The administration sees the sale as part of a broader policy aimed at shoring up Arab allies against Iran, the report said.

The 60 billion dollars in fighter jets and helicopters is the top-line amount requested by the Saudis, even though the kingdom is likely to commit initially to buying only about half that amount, the paper said.

In its notification to Congress, expected to be submitted this week or next, the administration will authorize the Saudis to buy as many as 84 new F-15 fighters, upgrade 70 more, and purchase three types of helicopters -- 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds, The Journal said.

Scientists discover which dance moves drive the ladies wild.

From Popular Science:

For Fred Astaire, it was best done cheek to cheek. Madonna made it all about getting into the groove. And Outkast advocated shaking it like a Polaroid picture. Dancing can take many different forms. But which is proven to attract more members of the opposite sex? Science has been silent on the subject until now.

Psychologists at Northumbria University in Newcastle, the U.K., say they have used avatars shimmying to computer-generated dance sequences to pinpoint the moves most likely to win over women, reports LiveScience.

They recruited 19 men between the ages of 18 and 35 to bob to a German dance track while reflectors attached to the men’s clothing recorded their moves. The psychologists then used the motions logged by the reflectors to craft avatars – the same method the makers of Lord of the Rings employed to create the character Gollum, if you’re wondering – and then asked several dozen heterosexual women to rate the avatars. By having women watch 15-second snippets of faceless white creatures rather than actual men, the reasoning goes, the psychologists weeded out possible prejudices that might creep in because of physical attractiveness. (Because women are never prejudiced by looks in real life.)

The results, which appear in the online edition of the Royal Society’s Biology Letters, aren’t what you’d guess. The pelvis gets surprisingly short shrift. Instead, the researchers say, the difference between a bad dancer and good dancer comes down to the neck, torso, and right knee. Women tend to be drawn to men who move their upper bodies, use a lot of space, and vary their movements.

While the choice of German dance music is questionable, the researchers say the study is an important breakthrough. “Men all over the world will be interested to know what moves they can throw to attract women,” psychologist Nick Neave said. “If a man knows what the key moves are, he can get some training and improve his chances of attracting a female through his dance style.” Sense of rhythm not included.

Coozer-Bits.

WTF: FOX News blames Obama for America's Islamaphobia. Wow.

Tech: What your social networking profile picture really says about you.

Lame: Border agents accused of unconstitutionally searching, seizing travelers' computers.

Religion: US church leader's narcissism kills 13 protesters in Kashmir.

Lame: NJ borough considers ban on sleeping in public places.

Scientists teach robots to deceive humans.

What could go wrong? From Daily Mail:

It sounds like something straight out of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But, in a chilling echo of the computer Hal from the iconic film, scientists have developed robots that are able to deceive humans and even hide from their enemies.

An experiment by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology is believed to be the first detailed examination of robot deception.

The team developed computer algorithms that would let a robot ‘decide’ whether it should deceive a human or another robot and gave it strategies to give it the best chance of not being found out.

The development may alarm those who are concerned that robots who are able to practice deception are not safe to work with humans.

But researchers say that robots that are capable of deception will be valuable in the future, particularly when used in the military.

Robots on the battlefield with the power of deception will be able to successfully hide and mislead the enemy to keep themselves and valuable information safe.

‘Most social robots will probably rarely use deception, but it's still an important tool in the robot's interactive arsenal because robots that recognise the need for deception have advantages in terms of outcome compared to robots that do not recognise the need for deception,’ said the study's co-author, Alan Wagner, a research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Manila bus hostages killed by police.

From Orange:

A number of hostages shot dead during a botched mission to save them from a bus hijacker in the Philippines may have been hit by police fire.

The gunman - a disgruntled former police captain - was killed when police commandos stormed the vehicle in Manila, on August 23.

But eight tourists from Hong Kong died in the assault and three were seriously wounded.

Philippine justice secretary Leila de Lima said bullet trajectories and the hostages' wounds indicated some of the passengers may have been hit by "friendly fire".

She did not say whether any of the shots fired by police were fatal.

But Ms de Lima added that investigators will await a complete ballistics report before drawing any final conclusions.

China has criticised the rescue operation, suggesting the Philippine force was ill-equipped to handle hostage situations.

The new details of the investigation emerged as Philippines President Benigno Aquino III said he will stop apologising for the attack and focus instead on easing tensions with China and Hong Kong.

"Let me just say that this incident will not define this administration," Mr Aquino said.

The president added that he will wait for a report from a fact-finding committee before he fires any officials for the fiasco.

The Chinese Embassy said, in a statement, it expects the Philippines to come up with "a comprehensive and fair report, which tells the truth (and) upholds justice".

Coozer-Bits.

Health: 10 foods to help boost your brain power.

Awesome: Writer of the "jump the shark" episode of Happy Days speaks out.

Yipes: Two asteroids to buzz Earth today.

Beans and hard cheese will give you a baby girl.

Beans and hard cheese will also give you gas. Item!

Cutting out salt and going on a diet of beans and hard cheese gives mothers a better chance of giving birth to a girl, research shows.

The right combination of food and the timing of sex are the key factors in determining whether it's a boy or a girl, the UK's Mail on Sunday reported.

Mothers should cut out foods containing sodium and potassium-rich food such as olives, bacon, salami, smoked salmon, potatoes, blue cheese, meats, bread and pastries.

The best foods are those rich in calcium and magnesium. Calcium-rich foods include yoghurt, hard cheese, rhubarb, spinach, tofu, almonds, oatmeal, broccoli and oranges.

Brazil and cashew nuts, whole wheat cereals, figs and beans are packed with magnesium.

The scientists, from Maastricht University in Holland, also say the chances of having a daughter are boosted if couples have regular sex but not on days immediately before or after ovulation.

The findings come after a five-year study involving 172 Western European women aged from 23 to 42 who had all previously given birth to boys but wanted girls.

When they were trying for a child again they were told to cut out salt and eat at least a pound of dairy products a day.

Almost 80 per cent of the women who stuck to the diet ended up giving birth to girls.

A spokesman for the scientists said: "The results show that both diet and timing methods increase the probability of a girl - the impact of the diet being the most pronounced.

"It shows a substantial success rate when both methods are applied correctly."

Transformers 3 extra in coma after accident.

Hopefully Transformers 3 doesn't cause brain damage for this poor woman as it will undoubtedly cause the audience. Item.

Indiana State Police say a movie extra was critically injured on the production set of a blockbuster sequel.

Spokeswoman Sergeant Ann Wojas said Gabriella Cedillo was in a critical condition, according to a family member in Chicago.

On Wednesday, she was driving her car through a scene of Transformers 3, filming in Hammond, Indiana, when a stunt for the scene went horribly wrong, MyFoxChicago.com said.

Witnesses said a cable snapped, whipping through her windshield and hitting her in the head. She is recovering from brain surgery at Loyola Medical Centre.

Neighbours said Ms Cedillo was excited to be working on the movie.
"It was a blessing to know she was going to be a part of it," Nate Smith told the TV station. "But then to find out she was part of the unfortunate accident, it set you back a few steps. ... Nothing you can do but sit and pray."

The last day of filming in Chicago had been scheduled for Thursday, but it was called off because of the accident.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Gabriela, her family and loved ones," the film production said in a written statement. "We are looking into what caused the accident."

State workplace investigators in Indiana also are looking into the accident.

Police say Ms Cedillo was an extra, not a stunt professional.

A hospital official said she had no information about Ms Cedillo.

Coozer-Bits.

Creepy: Japanese girl stabs 81-year-old to death on subway.

ZombieWatch: Scientists explore cannibal bacteria.

Lame: Race, insurance status cited in uneven death rates among pedestrians hit by cars.

Science: New bee species discovered in downtown Toronto.

Yipes: 70s superstar dies in freak hay bale accident.

Awesome: Scientists discovery why fish oils work well against inflammation and diabetes.

Boozalicious: Ancient civilization drank beer as antibiotics.

Belgium imploding.

Our waffles may never be the same... From Raw Story:

BRUSSELS — A top Belgian politician warned the country's citizens on Sunday to "get ready for the break-up of Belgium," as King Albert II seeks to relaunch knife-edge coalition talks.

Leading francophone Socialist Laurette Onkelinx, considered a potential successor to party chief Elio Di Rupo, who gave up on negotiations with separatist Flemish leaders on Friday, gave her prognosis in a newspaper interview.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that because if we split, it will be the weakest who will pay the heaviest price," she told La Derniere Heure. "On the other hand, we can no longer ignore that among a large part of the Flemish population, it's their wish.

"So yes, we have to get ready for the break-up of Belgium. Otherwise we're cooked.

"When I look at the letters I receive, loads of people think it's possible. (Our) politicians have to be prepared," underlined the current caretaker federal minister for health and social affairs.

Albert II tasked late on Saturday the respective speakers of Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders state parliaments to try once more to navigate seven-party talks aimed at securing some form of government, other than the existing day-to-day formation.

That came after seven weeks of efforts by Di Rupo, who says that the biggest Flemish party, the independence-minded New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), rejected the widest set of concessions towards full autonomy for Flanders in Belgium's tortured recent history.

Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of the year, adding a further layer to the pressure on the sovereign, has not been able to point to a stable government since June 2007.

Boy Scouts strike deal with abuse victims to end lawsuits.

I don't trust any organization that obsessed with different types of knots. From Philanthropy Today:

Ending a long-running legal dispute, the Boy Scouts of America has a reached a settlement of undisclosed terms with six men who say they were sexually abused by a scout leader as boys, says The New York Times.

The agreement follows a jury decision in a case filed by one of the men, Kerry Lewis, in which the Boy Scouts were ordered to pay him $19.9-million in damages. A former assistant troop leader named in the case, Timur Dykes, admitted during the trial that he had molested Mr. Lewis when he was in the scout program.

The judge in the case ordered the parties involved in all six lawsuits to participate in mediation to try to reach a resolution.

The Boy Scouts of America said the organization since has put safeguards in place to ensure the safety of the youths who participate its programs. Deron Smith, a Scouts spokesman, said the charity was “deeply saddened by the events in these cases.”

Ryanair considers removing co-pilots to save money, says stewardesses can emergency land planes.

Ryanair is dangerously insane. From Orange:

Airline pilots have accused Ryanair's Michael O'Leary of endangering passengers' safety after he called for co-pilots to be replaced with air stewardesses.

Dismissing the vital role of second pilots, Mr O'Leary suggested money could be saved by getting rid of them all together.

If the pilot were to run into problems he suggested an air stewardess, trained to land the plane, could step in.

However, his flippant comments have led to outcry among pilots, who claim the decision would put passengers' lives at risk.

The British Airline Pilots' Association said the move would be "unwise and unsafe" with one senior pilot going as far as to say it would be a "recipe for business disaster."

The Ryanair boss, who has headed the airline for 17 years, made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.

"Really, you only need one pilot. Let's take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it," he said.

"If the pilot has an emergency, he rings the bell, he calls her in, she could take over."

A BALPA spokesman condemned the comments, saying: "Are there no lengths to which he will not go to get publicity?

"His suggestion is unwise, unsafe and the public will be horrified."

A senior pilot, who wished to remain anonymous, also criticised the move, saying: "The public have no wish to be flown at cheap rate into their graves."

He said that although Mr O'Leary may think "he will be laughing all the way to the bank", he would in fact see a worried public "desert him".

"In reality, it would be a recipe for business disaster, with the public deserting the airline in droves."

This is not the first time the Ryanair boss has landed himself in hot water with controversial comments, deigned to create maximum publicity for the airline.

Mr O'Leary has already suggested the airline reduce the number of toilets on board and make them coin operated to bring in more money.

He also put forward plans for stand-up space on flights, an idea that was rubbished by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

Coozer-Bits.

Dorky: Interesting NYT profile on the "real" William Shatner.

Aww: Slideshow of cute, angry otters.

Politics: Al Franken finally coming out of his shell.

Interesting: Illegal immigration to the US has actually plummeted in the last 10 years.

Lame: War profiteers Blackwater created 30 fake shell companies to rake in millions in government contracts.

Happy National Welsh Rarebit Day!

Happy National Welsh Rarebit Day to our British readers and other fans (?) of toast covered in a savory blend of melted cheese, dark beer, and mustard!

Universe not created by God, says Stephen Hawking.

Not to argue with the world's smartest living person, but I'm pretty sure an old man on a cloud made everything. From The Guardian:

God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book.

In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity.

In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking had seemed to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. But in the new text, co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, he said new theories showed a creator is "not necessary".

The Grand Design, an extract of which appears in the Times today, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," he writes. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

In the forthcoming book, published on 9 September, Hawking says that M-theory, a form of string theory, will achieve this goal: "M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find," he theorises.

"The fact that we human beings – who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature – have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph."

Hawking says the first blow to Newton's belief that the universe could not have arisen from chaos was the observation in 1992 of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun. "That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single sun, the lucky combination of Earth-sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings," he writes.

Major GOP donor is US's biggest human trafficker.

From Raw Story:

A business owner indicted for the human trafficking of 400 laborers from Thailand is a frequent donor to the Republican Party and recently waged war against other companies involved with hiring illegal immigrants.

The Associated Press reports that according to the allegations, "the recruiters lured the workers with false promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports, failed to honor their employment contracts and threatened to deport them."

The FBI considers this the largest human-trafficking case in US history, and those indicted face maximum sentences of five to 70 years in prison, the Justice Department confirmed to AP.

The man at the helm is Mordechai Orian, 45, President and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc., a labor contracting group. Five of his affiliates and contractors were also charged in the scheme.

Orian gave tens of thousands of dollars to the National Republican Congressional Committee on eight occasions between 2004 and 2006, according to the election records database Newsmeat. His largest contribution of $11,000 came on July 13, 2006. Orian also gave $2000 to the GOP-affiliated Restore America PAC twice in that period.

Gone Fishin'.

Be back in a bit!

What's killing our forests? 45 billion pairs of chopsticks.

From the Houston Chronicle:

So, what exactly do you do with 45 billion pairs of chopsticks? If you have an idea, the government of China would love to hear from you.

Residents of the People’s Republic of China produce 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks each year, or 130 million pairs each day, according to Los Angeles Times, which reported on the story earlier this week.

The problem? Made from birch and poplar, China’s disposable chopsticks bring down about 100 acres of forests every day, estimates Greenpeace China. That’s 16 to 25 million trees felled each year for a single-use utensil. Across the East China Sea, Japan uses more than 20 billion disposable chopsticks annually, nearly 97 percent of which come from China.

In fact, for a brief time back in the 80’s, one American company tried to cash in on Japan’s penchant for hariwashi, as the throw-away chopsticks are called. At the cost of more than $3 million, the town of Hibbing, Minn. (better known as Bob Dylan’s hometown) attempted to make and export chopsticks made from local aspen forests. The factory failed and closed two years later, crushing townspeople’s hopes of providing jobs and dominating the Japanese disposable eating utensils market.

Still, back in China, officials have been trying numerous measures for more than a decade to rein their country’s growing appetite for convenience and dining-on-the-run. The government has instituted taxes on the sticks and plenty of citizens – concerned about deforestation of China’s forests – have attempted to convince their compatriots to stick with “real” chopsticks through humorous ad campaigns. Opponents of those efforts insist the chopsticks are important to the economy and argue the country’s disposable stick factories employ 100,000 in economically depressed areas.

So, the next time you pick up a pint of Kung Pao chicken to-go, ask yourself, “Wo zhēn de xūyào yīcìxìng kuàizi?” Do I really need disposable chopsticks?

Chicago Tribune: An ode to Jeff Goldblum.

Every major paper should run loving tributes of the One True Goldblum.

Let us now praise Jeff Goldblum. Even in "The Switch."

To be clear, the new comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman has some interesting wrinkles lifting it out of the romantic-comedy norm. One of them is the tall, eagle-eyed Goldblum who, as the male protagonist's work colleague and sounding board, does the best he can to make "Are you trying to tell me…" exposition worth hearing.

Goldblum's amused (and amusing; it's hard to be both at once) way with his lines, his rhythmic change-ups and — my favorite pointless bit — his comically challenging Thelonious Monk-like intro at the keyboard, just before he leads a group of kids and adults in "Happy Birthday": All these flourishes, mostly vocal, add up in small ways. Midway through the picture you realize you're really looking forward to the next time he comes back on screen.

We all have our favorite character actors. Many of them, such as Goldblum, have also taken leading roles in blockbusters, seemingly by chance or accident. His biggest were "Jurassic Park" and "Independence Day," and having an idiosyncratic performer lighten those big-budget loads amounted to very astute casting. If it were up to me, every bombastic summer picture would co-star Goldblum, J.K. Simmons, Kristen Wiig, Craig Robinson, Armin Mueller-Stahl and, in a surprise cameo, Bill Murray. "Transformers 4," right here!

More love here.

Coozer-Bits: Robot Uprising Watch Edition.

RUW: Robots enjoy donuts at art gallery.

RUW: Iran builds "Ambassador of Death" flying killer robot.

RUW: NASA builds new evil space robot to help with chores on the International Space Station.

RUW: Scientists build a robot that can learn emotions.

Animal takes picture of photographer.

From Daily Mail:

This clever cub became the ultimate wildlife photographer after outfoxing a professional and taking her own picture as he was snapping her.

The inquisitive five-month-old vixen was so intrigued by the camera equipment she clambered right on top of it.

And while she was supposed to be the subject of the shoot, the cub stood on the shutter release button and took her own frames.

Simon Czapp, 25, visited the New Forest Wildlife Park to capture images of new arrival Jessie, named after Toy Story's cowgirl.

She has been rehoused at the animal park in Ashurst, Hampshire - home to wolves, wallabies, deer and otters in 25 acres of ancient woodland - after being abandoned by her mother.

Jessie was offered a few scraps of ham to entice her into posing, but she quickly became so fascinated by the cameras she put on her own performance.

Bedbugs found in Empire State Building.

From Huffington Post:

It survived the Depression, a bomber crash and King Kong's climb, but can the Empire State Building withstand a bedbug infestation? Officials say exterminators had to clean out an employee changing room in the tower's basement after bedbugs were found there last week.

The officials tell The New York Daily News that an employee had the bedbugs on his clothes and brought them into the building, but that the problem is now under control.

Tourists visiting the skyscraper say they are disgusted by the bloodsucking pests.

Bedbugs have been discovered recently in New York City theaters, clothing stores, office buildings, housing projects and posh apartments.

The city fielded 11,000 complaints about bedbugs last year.

Coozer-Bits.

Aww: How 12 dog breeds got their names.

D'oh: 2 arrested after trying to smuggle $50m Van Gogh painting.

Eats: Burger King introduces 2500-calorie pizza-burger.

Yipes: Gunmen take over upscale Rio hotel.

Man tries killing himself at Phish concert.

I would too if I were at a Phish concert. From NY Post:

An unhinged concertgoer at the Jones Beach amphitheater hurled himself 25 feet from a balcony onto the seats below last night, officials and witnesses said.

The 25-year-old man made the terrifying dive at a Phish concert just before 10 p.m., during intermission.

A helicopter was called, but the victim was rushed by ambulance to Nassau University Medical Center. His condition was unknown.

No one else was injured.

"He pushed people out of the way and he jumped; he didn't fall," said concertgoer Merritt Walsh. "It was intentional."

A female fan said, "I was sitting two rows behind from here he hit. He hit a chair and he broke the back of another chair. "There was blood everywhere. Everyone was yelling, 'Clear the way! Clear the way!' "

A doctor sitting near where the victim fell said the man's face was "busted up," but he was breathing on his own and conscious.

Ninjas rob NYC jewelry store in midday heist.

From senior ninja news correspondent, Jen K. Item!

Two ninja-like robbers, dressed head-to-toe in black, pulled off a brazen, midday heist in a Diamond District store yesterday, tying up the owner and his son and swiping $60,000 in cash and bling before fleeing, police said.

The crooks sprinted out of the West 47th Street shop Namat before cops were called at about 2 p.m. -- after the victims had wriggled out of their bindings in the shop.

Although the robbers disabled the store's camera, "there are lots of video cameras on the street," said one cop at the scene.

Merchants and shoppers were astounded at the brazen daylight heist.

"It takes something like this to make you want to get up and do something," said one businessman who claimed he'd been thinking about a security upgrade.

Columbia plane hit by lightning, crashes into three pieces - 130 people SURVIVE!

Incredible. From Daily Mail:

It's the type of image that usually signals tragedy - the mangled wreckage of a passenger jet full of people, torn into three pieces crumpled on a runway.

But this horrifying picture instead represents a miraculous escape for all but one passenger on board.

The Boeing 737 aeroplane was carrying 131 people when it crashed on landing and broke into three pieces on a Colombian island in the Caribbean early this morning.

But, astonishingly, 130 of those on board survived - many, according to early reports, without even being injured.

Tragically, one passenger was killed in the crash - 65-year-old Amar Fernandez de Barreto.

Authorities said that at least five people had been reported injured.

Everyone else, it appears, survived unscathed.

Colombian Air Force Col. David Barrero said officials were investigating reports the plane had been hit by lightning before crashing at 1:49 am (0649 GMT).

The Aires jet had left the Colombian capital of Bogota at about midnight for San Andres Island, about 120 miles east of the Nicaraguan coast.

'The skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport,' said Barrero, commander of the Caribbean Air Group, by telephone from San Andres.

He said 125 passengers and six crew members had been aboard.

Coozer-Bits.

Eats: San Francisco creates the red velvet fried chicken.

Dorky: Arithmetic is broken.

Awesome: Skateboarding priest a YouTube hit.

Yipes: Thai cops hunt "Invincible" kickboxer in ex-Marine's murder.

Yipes: Chicago averages one bus collision a day.

RUW: Scientists hack into cars' computers - control brakes, engine remotely.

Bandage-wrapped man robs pharmacy.

Sounds like the Invisible Man! From Breitbart:

A man was jailed on charges he robbed a southwestern Pennsylvania supermarket pharmacy while his face was wrapped in medical bandages and a surgical mask. State police said 52-year-old Edward Singer entered the Giant Eagle on Route 31 in Somerset Township about 7 p.m. Wednesday. Police said Singer gave the pharmacist a note that read, "Don't do anything stupid, this is a holdup."

Police said the note also demanded Suboxone, which is used to treat opiate addictions, and the prescription painkiller OxyContin. Police said the pharmacist gave the suspect 22 Suboxone pills before he drove away in a pickup that police stopped a short time later for failing to stop at an intersection.

Police said they found a gun, bandages and the drugs in the truck. Online court records did not list a defense attorney.

Bacteria have a sense of smell.

From BBC News:

Research has shown that bacteria - among the simplest life forms on Earth - have a sense of smell.

Scientists from Newcastle University in the UK have demonstrated that a bacterium commonly found in soil can sniff and react to ammonia in the air.

It was previously thought that this "olfaction" was limited to more complex forms of life known as eukaryotes.

The finding, published in Biotechnology Journal, means that bacteria have four of the five senses that humans enjoy.

The discovery also has implications in the understanding and control of biofilms - the chemical coatings that bacteria can form on, for example, medical implants.

Bacteria have already demonstrated the ability to react to light, in analogy to sight, and to change the genes that they express when confronted with certain materials, in analogy to touch.

Average couple has sex 104 times before getting pregnant.

From News.com.au:

The average couple has sex 104 times before getting pregnant, according to a British survey published today.

Women took six months on average to conceive their first child, with couples having sex around four times a week while they were trying.

The study of more than 3000 mothers, commissioned by UK family planning company First Response, also found that two-thirds of women got pregnant more quickly than they expected.

One in 10 women were so eager to conceive they even called their partner home from work to have sex while they were ovulating, it said.

"Having sex 104 times before falling pregnant does sound rather a lot, but as they say, practice makes perfect. Trying for a baby is a very exciting time for a couple, and many try to have sex at every opportunity in order to get pregnant," said First Response spokesman Dr. Mike Smith.

But nearly a quarter of women said sex became “boring” when trying to start a family, while 11 percent of men complained about the amount of sex their partner demanded and admitted to feeling "completely used."

The survey also found that one in 10 women told their parents before telling their partner that they were expecting a child.

Toy sales stopped Return of the Jedi's dark ending.

Who doesn't love a good teddy bear dance party? From News.com.au:

Toy sales stopped George Lucas from ending his Star Wars saga on a downbeat note, the film's original producer has revealed.

As Lucas announced that his saga was finally coming to Blu-ray, and gave fans a sneak peak of a lost opening to Return of the Jedi, Gary Kurtz, who produced Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, talked about the film's lost ending.

Kurtz told The Los Angeles Times that Lucas had originally planned a much darker ending to Return of the Jedi: Han Solo was to die and a battle-weary Luke Skywalker was to have walked off alone "like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns".

What audiences ended up getting was dancing Ewoks and a happy ending.

Kurtz, who rarely speaks about his involvement in Star Wars, told the Times that after Empire came out in 1980, he and Lucas started discussing ideas for a third film but it soon became apparent that they were heading in different directions.

"We had an outline and George changed everything in it," Kurtz told the Times.

"Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover Han Solo in the early part of the story (Solo had been kidnapped at the end of Empire) and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base.

"George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason."

Kurtz, who had been Lucas's producing partner for more than a decade, decided to part company with Star Wars and move onto other projects.

He said that by the time Empire Strikes Back came out, the toy business was starting to drive Lucas's empire, which has made $18 billion on a Star Wars franchise that includes not just films but TV series, toys, books and clothes.

"The first film and Empire were about story and character, but I could see that George’s priorities were changing.

"It's a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It's natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that's not the best thing for making quality films."

Bed bug infestation has reached nationwide epidemic proportions.

From AlterNet:

Peter Krask stepped out of his New York City apartment one day last year, shut the door, and walked away forever, leaving behind almost everything he owned.

He carried away only a few items of clothing, personal records, and his computer.

Krask's apartment was infested with bedbugs. Savoring warmth, they swarmed in his DSL port, light fixtures, carpets and furniture. They'd feasted on him nightly for a year — which he spent visiting doctors in an increasing state of panic over the rashes inflaming his buttocks and other body parts before finally ascertaining the cause.

It was Cimex lectularius, the flat, cockroach-colored, lentil-sized pest whose favorite food is not just warm blood but human blood. Bedbugs are back, bigtime. According to a National Pest Management Association study, outbreaks have soared 81 percent nationwide since 2000. Their sudden resurgence in all fifty states of a formerly bedbug-free nation has caught off-guard not just the medical and pest-control industries but millions of ordinary people who now apply costly, time-consuming, potentially toxic and inconclusive strategies for slaughtering insects that inhabit indoor environments both soft and hard and can lie in wait without eating for up to a year. Finding hosts, they feed by night, doubling in size as they suck.

Lending a whole new meaning to the phrase "home invasion," the very idea stokes our deepest fears of swarming hordes and sleeper cells and sneak attacks.

Bedbug infestations at Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret and other trendy Manhattan stores last month — and last week in Manhattan's Time Warner Center, home to CNN — cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each in lost sales, furniture, equipment and merchandise, plus the wages of dozens of workers transporting, fumigating and destroying tainted goods. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

America's bedbug problem, says University of Florida entomology professor Philip Koehler, "has reached epidemic proportions."

Karaoke taking over the high seas.

Finally, I can sing "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean in the Caribbean Ocean! Item!

Gone are the days of cruise ship karaoke singers screaming "I Will Survive" to a taped backing track.

Karaoke, the popular onboard diversion, has evolved to include video games with virtual instruments, professional recording studios and "American Idol"-style competitions. The latest option for those looking to belt out (or butcher) pop hits in front of fellow cruisers? Carnival Cruise Lines has begun offering karaoke backed by a live house band.

By year's end, Carnival will feature live band-backed karaoke on 12 of its ships, with professional musicians playing guitar, bass, drums and keyboard, and backup singers providing the harmonies. Passengers can croon or caterwaul over 100 popular songs from artists like ABBA, Zac Brown Band, the Beatles, Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi and Lady Gaga. The program, called "Superstar Live Karaoke," is already available onboard Carnival Conquest and Carnival Valor, and later this week, the offering will debut on Carnival Pride. Interested passengers need only sign up with the on-site host in the Superstar Live Karaoke lounge after boarding to participate -- availability will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Teen sex not bad for grades.

Especially if the teen sex is with a teacher. From ABC News:

There's good news for parents who worry that their teenagers' sex lives are affecting their school performance: A provocative new study has found that teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those who don't have sex.

The same isn't true for teens who "hook up." Researchers found that those who have casual flings get lower grades and have more school-related problems compared with those who abstain.

The findings, presented Sunday at a meeting of the American Sociological Association in Atlanta, challenge to some extent assumptions that sexually active teens tend to do poorer in school.

It's not so much whether a teen has sex that determines academic success, the researchers say, but the type of sexual relationship they're engaged in. Teens in serious relationships may find social and emotional support in their sex partners, reducing their anxiety and stress levels in life and in school.

Menstrual cramps may alter brain structure.

From ScienceDaily:

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), or menstrual cramps, is the most common gynecological disorder in women of childbearing age. Lower abdominal pain starts with the onset of menstrual flow and this ongoing pain stimulus can cause alterations throughout the nervous system.

In a study scheduled for publication in the September issue of the journal Pain, researchers report abnormal changes in the structure of the brain in PDM patients, whether or not they are in fact experiencing pain.

Lead investigator, Professor Jen-Chuen Hsieh, MD, PhD, Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, commented, "Our results demonstrated that abnormal GM [gray matter] changes were present in PDM patients even in absence of pain. This shows that not only sustained pain but also cyclic occurring menstrual pain can result in longer-lasting central changes. Although the functional consequences remain to be established, these results indicate that the adolescent brain is vulnerable to menstrual pain. Longitudinal studies are needed to probe hormonal interaction, fast-changing adaptation (intra-menstrual cycle) and whether such changes are reversible or not."

Wells Fargo deliberately manipulated overdraft fees, ordered to pay $200 million.

From CNN:

Wells Fargo was ordered to pay more than $200 million in restitution to California customers for manipulating and multiplying overdraft fees, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup of Northern California, in his 90-page ruling Tuesday, said Wells Fargo used "a bookkeeping device" that turned one instance of overdrawing an account into as many as 10, allowing the bank to multiply the number of fees it could collect from a single mistake.

"The bank went to considerable effort to hide these manipulations while constructing a facade of phony disclosure," he said.

The ruling said Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) must pay $203 million in restitution to California customers for its liberal use of $35 overdraft fees. This is a fraction of the $1.8 billion in overdraft fees that the bank collected in California from 2005 to 2007, according to the court.

"The revenue generated from these fees has been massive," wrote the judge.

Untreatable superbug hits UK.

From Orange:

A 'superbug' that is resistant to the most powerful antibiotics has reached the UK.

Scientists are warning the bug, an enzyme called New Delhi-Metallo-1 (NDM-1), could spread across the world as nothing is being developed to treat it.

There has been 37 reported cases in the UK, mainly among patients who travelled to areas of Asia for cosmetic surgery, transplants and cancer treatment.

The bug can exist inside different bacteria, like E.coli, and cause infections in other parts of the body.

It can also move from one bacterium to another and experts are concerned it may attach itself to more dangerous diseases and cause them to become resistant to antibiotics.

The scientists, writing in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, said: "It has an alarming potential to spread and diversify."

Dr David Livermore, one of the researchers and who works for the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA), said: "The NDM-1 problem is likely to get progressively worse in the foreseeable future.

"The potential for wider international spread and for NDM-1 to become endemic worldwide are clear and frightening."

Infections have already been passed from patient to patient in UK hospitals.

Researchers say the way to stop NDM-1 is to identify and isolate any patients who are infected.

Solar tsunami to kill us all tonight.

I think I just had a coronal mass ejection in my pants. From NY Post:

Earth is bracing for a cosmic tsunami Tuesday night as tons of plasma from a massive solar flare head directly toward the planet.

The Sun's surface erupted early Sunday morning, shooting a wall of ionized atoms directly at Earth, scientists say. It is expected to create a geomagnetic storm and a spectacular light show -- and it could pose a threat to satellites in orbit, as well.

"This eruption is directed right at us and is expected to get here early in the day on Aug. 4," said Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."

The solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, was spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which captures high-definition views of the sun at a variety of wavelengths. SDO was launched in February and peers deep into the layers of the sun, investigating the mysteries of its inner workings.

"We got a beautiful view of this eruption," Golub said. "And there might be more beautiful views to come if it triggers aurorae."

Study: Monkeys hate flying squirrels.

Finally - we have discovered a new way to enrage monkeys! Thanks, scientists! From Christian Science Monitor:

Japanese macaques will completely flip out when presented with flying squirrels, a new study in monkey-antagonism has found. The research could pave the way for advanced methods of enraging monkeys.

Researchers have observed small monkeys called Japanese macaques going bananas at the sight of a flying squirrel.

This riled-up response is probably just a false alarm, with the monkeys mistaking the squirrel for a predatory bird.

[...] When Japanese giant flying squirrels glided over to a tree in the monkeys' vicinity, adults and adolescent macaques started hollering at it threateningly, the researchers report. Young macaques screamed and mothers scooped up their infants, while adults and high-ranking males in particular went and physically harassed the offending squirrel.

Woman fakes own cremation with mannequin, cow parts.

From CBS News:

A former Los Angeles mortuary employee has been convicted of defrauding insurers by staging a fake funeral and attempting to cover it up by cremating a mannequin and cow parts she placed in the casket.

The U.S. attorney's office said Monday that 67-year-old Jean Crump was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud.

Prosecutors say she and three accomplices took out bogus death certificates, purchased a burial plot, buried an empty casket and staged a funeral, then billed $1.2 million to insurance companies.

They say that when insurers investigated, Crump and her cohorts exhumed the coffin, filled it with a mannequin and cow parts and cremated it.

Her accomplices have pleaded guilty in the scam. Crump is to be sentenced Nov. 29.

31 infected by the PLAGUE in Peru.

From CBS News:

Peru's health minister says an outbreak of plague has killed a 14-year-old boy and infected at least 31 people in a northern coastal province.

Health Minister Oscar Ugarte says authorities are screening sugar and fish meal exports from Ascope province, located about 325 miles northwest of Lima. Popular Chicama beach isn't far away.

Ugarte says the boy, who had Down syndrome, died of bubonic plague July 26.

He said Monday that most of the infections are bubonic plague, with four cases of pneumonic plague. The former is transmitted by flea bites, the latter by airborne contagion. The disease is curable if treated early with antibiotics.

The first recorded plague outbreak in Peru was in 1903. The last, in 1994, killed 35 people.

Teacher throws herself down stairs to avoid classroom evaluation.

From the NY Post:

Maybe she should have just called in sick.

An untenured Brooklyn high-school teacher catapulted herself down a school stairwell in a wacky attempt to avoid a classroom observation by her supervisor, a probe obtained by The Post shows.

Staffers at the HS for Innovation in Advertising and Media told investigators that first-year teacher Ilene Feldman was so petrified about a scheduled classroom observation -- coming in the wake of a poor performance review -- that she staged a clumsy pratfall in a stairwell rather than risk getting a second negative rating.

Untenured teachers can be canned out of hand if they are rated unsatisfactory after any of their first three years on the job.

Verve singer leaves stage during set to watch the Pixies instead.

From News.com.au:

Brit rocker Richard Ashcroft stormed off stage during his set at the Splendour in the Grass festival last night.

The former Verve frontman was reportedly unhappy with the small crowd that had come to watch him and lashed out at Splendour organisers for putting him on at the same time as two of the festival's major draws, Empire of the Sun and the Pixies.

He stopped mid-song and told startled fans he may as well go and watch the Pixies instead of continuing with his set.

He then reportedly threw down his tambourine and stormed off to a waiting car.

Festival-goers left the venue complaining about his unprofessionalism.

Wisconsin woman unwittingly ships military hardware to Russia.

From ABC News:

A Wisconsin woman who thought she had landed a job shipping clothing to Russian orphans inadvertently found herself at the center of an international weapons smuggling ring, unwittingly sending stolen sniper scopes, night-vision goggles and military gear to Russia, according to police.

Police say the woman, who received the work-from-home job offer through a Website, was likely a patsy in a scheme to ship sensitive equipment purchased with stolen credit cards.

Police, now working with the FBI, would not identify the 44-year-old woman from Ripon, Wisc., and said they had not yet determined who was behind the smuggling ring or fraudulent job offer. A phone number associated with the woman's addressed listed in the search warrant was disconnected.

"If 'ABC Arms Dealer' in California sends a package with a rifle scope directly to Russia that is going to raise a red flag and likely get stopped and searched," Capt. Bill Wallner of the Ripon Police Department told ABC News.com. "But a package being sent from a private citizen in Wisconsin might not get searched. That's why they were using her. They were paying her to change the packaging and address labels."