Voodoo sex romp sets Brooklyn apartment on fire.

From NY Daily News:

A couple engaged in a voodoo sex romp in Brooklyn set off the weekend blaze that killed a woman and left dozens homeless, sources said.

A woman paid $300 to a voodoo priest on the fourth floor of the apartment building on E. 29th St. She wanted him to perform a mystical ceremony that would bring her luck, the sources said.

The voodoo priest placed candles on the floor around the bed on Saturday. He lit the candles then the couple began having sex. Candles were accidentally knocked over, igniting bed sheets and their recently discarded clothes.

Instead of calling 911, the man conducting the ceremony tried to put out the fire using water from the bathroom sink, the FDNY said in a statement.

Someone else in the apartment opened a window and a door leading to the building's hallway, creating wind gusts that "shot the flames back inside, creating a blowtorch effect," fire officials said.

Flames tore through the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, causing one of the floors to collapse. A resident on the top floor, Mary Feagin, a 64-year-old retired teacher, died in the blaze.

Twenty firefighters and 11 residents were injured and 47 families were left homeless.

Without referring to the sex, Fire Commission Salvatore Cassano lamented the series of errors that lead to the fire.

"Time and time again we respond to tragedies that could have been so easily prevented," he said. "This fire had so many of those elements - candles left on the floor near combustible material, one of the occupants trying to douse the flames before calling 911 and an open door, which allowed fire to spread into the hallway."

No one has been charged.

"Hopefully others will learn from this tragedy," Cassano said.

Costco makes big move toward sustainable seafood.

Great news and a rare case of a huge corporation acting responsibly. From Alternet:

[...] Greenpeace just announced that Costco has a new policy for sustainabe seafood that affects a "vast majority of the chain's seafood inventory and means the retailer will discontinue sales of twelve kinds of fish associated with severe environmental concerns, including shark, orange roughy, Chilean sea bass, and Atlantic halibut." And they "also pledged to pursue aquaculture certification standards that support best practices, as farmed salmon and farmed shrimp are two of its largest volume items."

Because of Costco's huge size, this is a really big win for our fisheries and ocean health. The company is still far from perfect, but this latest step in the right direction should be applauded. One thing to keep an eye on is that they will sell some questionable species if they are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which is the most recogonized name in the sustainable seafood biz, but not without its flaws, either.

"We recognize that Costco is moving in the right direction," said Trenor. "That said, Greenpeace shares the concerns some scientists and environmental groups have voiced about the MSC and its standards. Hopefully a progressive company like Costco will use its significant purchasing power to push the MSC to continue to improve and become the gold standard that we all hope it will be."

Vatican: Priests have been raping nuns to avoid AIDS from prostitutes.

From the Independent (via Coozer-Phile Duff):

The Catholic Church in Rome made the extraordinary admission yesterday that it is aware priests from at least 23 countries have been sexually abusing nuns.

Most of the abuse has occurred in Africa, where priests vowed to celibacy, who previously sought out prostitutes, have preyed on nuns to avoid contracting the Aids virus.

Confidential Vatican reports obtained by the National Catholic Reporter, a weekly magazine in the US, have revealed that members of the Catholic clergy have been exploiting their financial and spiritual authority to gain sexual favours from nuns, particularly those from the Third World who are more likely to be culturally conditioned to be subservient to men.

The reports, some of which are recent and some of which have been in circulation for at least seven years, said that such priests had demanded sex in exchange for favours, such as certification to work in a given diocese.

In extreme instances, the priests had made nuns pregnant and then encouraged them to have abortions.

The US article was based on five documents, which senior women from religious orders and priests have presented to the Vatican over the past decade. They describe a particularly bad situation in Africa. In a continent devastated by Aids, nuns, along with early adolescent girls, are perceived by some as safe sexual targets. The reports said that the church authorities had done little to tackle the problem.

The Vatican reports cited countless cases of nuns forced to have sex with priests. Some were obliged to take the pill, others became pregnant and were encouraged to have abortions. In one case in which an African sister was forced to have an abortion, she died during the operation and her aggressor led the funeral mass. Another case involved 29 sisters from the same congregation who all became pregnant to priests in the diocese.

The reports said that the cultures in some African countries made it almost impossible for a young woman to disobey an older man, especially one seen as spiritually superior. There were cases of novices who applied to their local priest or bishop for certificates of good Catholic practice that were required for them to pursue their vocation. In return they were made to have sex. Some incidents of sexual abuse allegedly took place almost within the Vatican walls.

Certain unscrupulous clerics took advantage of young nuns who were having trouble finding accommodation, writing their essays and funding their theological studies.

Forced to acknowledge the problem, the Vatican has tried to play down its gravity. In a statement issued yesterday the Pope's official spokesman, Joaquin Navarro Valls, said: "The problem is known and involves a restricted geographical area. Certain negative situations must not overshadow the often heroic faith of the overwhelming majority of religious, nuns and priests".

Cats adore women, form same bonds as human babies.

From Discovery:

The bond between cats and their owners turns out to be far more intense than imagined, especially for cat aficionado women and their affection reciprocating felines, suggests a new study.

Cats attach to humans, and particularly women, as social partners, and it's not just for the sake of obtaining food, according to the new research, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Behavioural Processes.

The study is the first to show in detail that the dynamics underlying cat-human relationships are nearly identical to human-only bonds, with cats sometimes even becoming a furry "child" in nurturing homes.

"Food is often used as a token of affection, and the ways that cats and humans relate to food are similar in nature to the interactions seen between the human caregiver and the pre-verbal infant," co-author Jon Day, a Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition researcher, told Discovery News. "Both cat and human infant are, at least in part, in control of when and what they are fed!"

For the study, led by Kurt Kotrschal of the Konrad Lorenz Research Station and the University of Vienna, the researchers videotaped and later analyzed interactions between 41 cats and their owners over lengthy four-part periods. Each and every behavior of both the cat and owner was noted. Owner and cat personalities were also assessed in a separate test. For the cat assessment, the authors placed a stuffed owl toy with large glass eyes on a floor so the feline would encounter it by surprise.

The researchers determined that cats and their owners strongly influenced each other, such that they were each often controlling the other's behaviors. Extroverted women with young, active cats enjoyed the greatest synchronicity, with cats in these relationships only having to use subtle cues, such as a single upright tail move, to signal desire for friendly contact.

While cats have plenty of male admirers, and vice versa, this study and others reveal that women tend to interact with their cats -- be they male or female felines -- more than men do.

"In response, the cats approach female owners more frequently, and initiate contact more frequently (such as jumping on laps) than they do with male owners," co-author Manuela Wedl of the University of Vienna told Discovery News, adding that "female owners have more intense relationships with their cats than do male owners."

Cats also seem to remember kindness and return the favors later. If owners comply with their feline's wishes to interact, then the cat will often comply with the owner's wishes at other times. The cat may also "have an edge in this negotiation," since owners are usually already motivated to establish social contact.

Although there are isolated instances of non-human animals, such as gorillas, bonding with other species, it seems to be mostly unique for humans to engage in social relationships with other animals. In this case with cats, it's for very good reason. Cats could very well be man's -- and woman's -- best friend.

"A relationship between a cat and a human can involve mutual attraction, personality compatibility, ease of interaction, play, affection and social support," co-author Dorothy Gracey of the University of Vienna explained. "A human and a cat can mutually develop complex ritualized interactions that show substantial mutual understanding of each other's inclinations and preferences."

Dennis Turner, a University of Zurich-Irchel animal behaviorist, told Discovery News the he's "very impressed with this study on human-cat interactions, in that it has taken our earlier findings a step higher, using more modern analytical techniques to get at the interplay between cat and human personalities."

Turner, who is also senior editor of The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behaviour (Cambridge University Press), added that he and his colleagues "now have a new dimension to help us understand how these relationships function."

Polysics releasing new album!!

From their newsletter. HURRAY!

Hi there!! TOISU!!!!
Here is the Polysics 15th mailing magazine.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
///SHOW ON USTREAM///

We have good news for overseas Polysics fans.
The Polysics one-man show at Shibuya-AX in Japan on 4th March
will broadcast on Ustream.
This show has meanings of 14th anniversary, pre-show for new
album will release on 9th March, and summarization of new Polysics
which has started as 3 piece band.
The show will be fan.
MUST WATCH IT OR DIE!!!

POLYSICS　one-man show
2011.3.4 (FRI) start 19:00
URL http://k.d.combzmail.jp/t/4ya7/a0u5tpu08ig7lr8tti

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
///RELEASE////

Polysics new album “Oh! No! It’s Heavy Polysick!!!” will be
released on 9th March.
This album is the first full album by new Polysics.
Songs is totally original and unique, at the same time, sound is
more dynamic and aggressive.
It will be addictive what the title says.
You must be Heavy Polysick once you listen to this album!!!

[Release info.]
『Oh! No! It’s Heavy Polysick!!!』
2011/03/09(Wed) release
KSCL 1458
Price：\3,059

Firefly fans step up campaign.

Yes, please, make this happen! From CNN:

True Browncoats, like the fictional freedom fighters they named themselves after, don't give up easily.

Those diehard fans of "Firefly," the 2002 cult TV hit, have a history of turning to the internet to buck improbable odds in defense of their favorite show.

Now, they're at it again.

Just days after an apparently offhand comment from Nathan Fillion, who played Capt. Malcolm Reynolds on the short-lived Fox series, the Web has once again lit up with efforts to revive the sci-fi franchise.

Last week, Fillion, who now stars in ABC's "Castle," told Entertainment Weekly he'd love to play Mal again. Then, he ratcheted things up a notch.

"If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to "Firefly," make it on my own, and distribute it on the internet," Fillion told EW, a CNN.com partner.

Then, some possibly surprising online reactions started rolling in.

The next day, former "Firefly" writer Jose Molina wrote on Twitter: "For what it's worth, I've told him I'd drop what I was doing and follow."

Then, Jane Espenson, who wrote an episode, chimed in: "I'm there, if needed," she tweeted.

Jewel Staite, who played ace mechanic Kaylee on the show, had a simple answer when a Twitter follower asked if she'd be on board: "Is the Pope Catholic?"

That was more than enough for fans (whose "Browncoat" nickname, by the way, comes from the Western-style dusters worn by Fillion and others on the show).

A website, "Help Nathan Buy Firefly," popped up, under the title "Let's get the Captain his money."

The goal? To set up a means of collecting pledges that would turn into donations if a revived "Firefly" looks like it could become a reality.

The pledge system hadn't been officially created as of Tuesday, but fans were already writing in the site's comment section that they're willing to pony up.

In five days, the site's Facebook group had picked up more than 33,000 members -- about 10,000 of them in the past 24 hours.

The two creators of the site are remaining publicly anonymous for now. In an email to CNN (which came from an address linked to the site and was mentioned on the group's Facebook page), they said they work in the nonprofit field but "have no credentials to speak of" in the TV/film industry or "Firefly" community.

They acknowledged that the odds that Fillion was serious about buying the show's rights are "pretty low," but hope the community's willingness to support some sort of revamped "Firefly" will encourage creator Joss Whedon or someone else with the proper clout to make a move.

"Joss paid out of pocket to make [Web series] 'Dr. Horrible,' and it's not only paid him back, it's paid the folks involved," they said in the email. "We'd like to see him be willing to let fans become his pocket and revisit ['Firefly']."

They say they "won't take a penny" from anyone until someone like Whedon or Fillion gets involved in an effort to revive the show and would look to set up a not-for-profit foundation or something of the sort if that happens.

Other devotees of the cult favorite say they're not surprised by the quick Web action.

"I couldn't believe it when I first read the story," said Brian Harvard, co-creator of the 25,000-member-strong "Bring Back Firefly" Facebook page. "Then, all of a sudden, everyone's posting these links to the 'Help Nathan Buy Firefly' page and I said, 'We've got to help get the word out about this.' "

Even before "Firefly" was officially sacked in 2002, fans had taken to the Web to try to save it. Using the online tools of the early 2000s -- message boards, fan sites, chat rooms and LiveJournal blogs -- they organized. Call it an early example of crowd-sourcing.

They collected money for an ad in Variety, organized a postcard-writing campaign to Universal Pictures and, when the DVD box set was released, raised $14,000 to put copies on 250 Navy ships for the crews to watch.

The fan base's self-styled guerrilla marketing is widely considered to have helped Whedon get funding for 2005's "Serenity," a feature film that draws together some of the loose ends from the series.

"On the internet, that was one of the first times you've seen such a drive to bring something back," Harvard said. "Now, with the advent of Facebook? My goodness -- that's probably the most useful tool, next to the internet itself, to really bring some fire under this movement."

Harvard acknowledges that Fillion's comment sounds like an off-the-cuff quip. (And 20th Century Fox, which owns the rights to "Firefly," hasn't expressed any desire to sell them.)

But he says that doesn't mean nothing will come out of the internet reaction to it.

"Even if this project goes nowhere, at least it's something to show the powers-that-be that there's a product there that could be making them some money," he said.

Another lawmaker caught sending pic... this one dressed as a tiger.

This is just bizarre. We need to vote these lunatics out of office. Item.

Grinning broadly in his tiger costume, this was the picture a Senator sent to a female member of his staff at 1am in the morning.

David Wu has admitted he is on medication for mental health problems, but is refusing to resign.

He is receiving counselling after the pressures of his job and looking after his family became too much for him.

The Democrat Senator for Oregon confirmed on ABC's Good Morning America that his staff had tried to stage an ‘intervention’ and force him to have psychiatric treatment when his erratic behaviour caused them deep concerns.

But despite lingering concerns over his mental health, he claimed he can ‘emphatically do the job’.

The admission from Wu begins to explain a catalogue of strange incidents which have sparked a whispering campaign that he is unfit for office.

At least six of his team of 20 have quit - including his chief of staff, communications director and treasurer - meaning he has had to take the unusual step of managing his own campaign finances.

Local newspapers have reported that staff confronted him about his drinking and harassment, but that he was not interested in listening to their advice.

They claimed Wu, whose marriage broke up in 2009, displayed a violent temper -- and became unpredictable.

Wu told ABC: ‘This was a very difficult time in my life. I’ve had a couple of pretty stressful years raising my children basically on my own.

‘Last October was not a good month. I did some things I sincerely regret and as a result I saw fit to get professional help.

‘I’m in a good place now, I’m taking care of my two children, I’m taking care of my 88-year-old mother, I’m taking care of myself and very importantly I’m taking care of the people of Oregon.’

Wu added that he did not seek help in October because he was unable to take the time off, although he later changed his mind.

The picture of him in a Tiger costume was sent to a female member of staff at 1.03am on October 30th from his personal Congressional email account.

He had both hands - paws - held up to either side of his face and was grinning broadly.

In an attempt to make it look like it was from one of his daughters, he wrote: ‘You're the best, but my Dad made me say that, even though you threatened to shut down his campaign.’

An email half an hour later with the subject ‘wasted’, supposedly from his son, read: ‘My Dad said you said he was wasted Wednesday night after just three sips of wine.

‘It's just that he hasn't had a drink since July 1. Cut him some slack, man. What he does when he's wasted is send emails, not harass people he works with.

'He works SO hard for you . . . Cut the dude some slack, man. Just kidding.’

Wu told the ABC show that he deeply regretted sending the emails.

He said: ‘I think a take-home lesson from this is that while they were very unprofessional you shouldn’t ever send photos of yourself in a Halloween costume.

‘It isn’t professional even when you’re joshing around with your kids a couple of nights before Halloween.

‘I did send those photographs, it was unprofessional, it was inappropriate,’ he said.

Wu added that being his own treasurer would be a ‘temporary situation’ - such an arrangement is frowned upon in the interests of financial proprietary.

‘I emphatically can do that job, I am doing that job,’ he said.

'It was a very tough time, I’ve got myself into a good place...and I’m taking care of myself and my constituents.’

Pizza saves woman's life.

From the Toronto Star:

MEMPHIS, TENN.—Authorities say a pizza delivery driver who was concerned about a regular customer may have saved the elderly woman’s life.

Domino’s delivery driver Susan Guy told WMC-TV that Jean Wilson has ordered pizza every day for the past three years.

On Monday, Guy said her boss told her Wilson hadn’t called in three days. Guy insisted on going to check on the woman. When no one came to the door, Guy asked a neighbour whether he’d seen Wilson and then called police.

Police broke the door down and found Wilson on the floor. She’d fallen Saturday and couldn’t get to a phone to call for help.

Investigators said it’s possible her pizza-heavy diet may have saved her life.

Late Monday evening, Wilson was listed in non-critical condition at a hospital.

Coozer-Bits.

Awesome: Step-by-step guide on making your own human skull goblet!

Robot Uprising Watch: Brain-machine interfaces to learn about users.

Tech: Scientists create car that can be driven by THOUGHT.

Religion: 36 killed in stampede at holy festival.

Sad: Aspiring NYC artist dies homeless, frozen to death.

Yipes: Stranded motorist struck and killed by own car.

20% of US's dams in danger of collapsing.

From Daily Mail:

The U.S. could be set for a catastrophic flood in the near future after 4,400 of the country's dams were declared susceptible to failure.

Nearly 20 per cent of the nation’s 85,000 dams could give way and need to be repaired, according to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.

However, with costs of repairs running into billions of dollar, a fix is unlikely any time soon considering the current economic climate.

One of the communities most at risk are the 4,000 residents who live downstream of the Lake Isabella Dam, which is built on an active fault line that has the potential to cause a devastating earthquake which would crumble the earthern water barrier.

Engineers who built the 57-year-old dam have said that the structure is also in danger of eroding internally.

If the dam were to break, Lake Isabella would probably be carried away and billions of gallons of water would rush down the Kern River Canyon onto the town of Bakersfield, home to 340,000 people.

The potential disaster would rival the Great Flood of 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which killed over 2,000 people and caused million of dollars' worth of damage.

Plankton key to origin of Earth's atmosphere.

From EurekAlert:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers studying the origin of Earth's first breathable atmosphere have zeroed in on the major role played by some very unassuming creatures: plankton.

In a paper to appear in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Ohio State University researcher Matthew Saltzman and his colleagues show how plankton provided a critical link between the atmosphere and chemical isotopes stored in rocks 500 million years ago.

This work builds on the team's earlier discovery that upheavals in the earth's crust initiated a kind of reverse-greenhouse effect 500 million years ago that cooled the world's oceans, spawned giant plankton blooms, and sent a burst of oxygen into the atmosphere.

The new study has revealed details as to how oxygen came to vanish from Earth's ancient atmosphere during the Cambrian Period, only to return at higher levels than ever before.

It also hints at how, after mass extinctions, the returning oxygen allowed enormous amounts of new life to flourish.

Saltzman and his team were able to quantify how much oxygen was released into the atmosphere at the time, and directly link the amount of sulfur in the ancient oceans with atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide.

The result is a clearer picture of life on Earth in a time of extreme turmoil.

"We know that oxygen levels in the ocean dropped dramatically [a condition called anoxia] during the Cambrian, and that coincides with the time of a global extinction," said Saltzman, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State.

Climate change affecting food safety.

From Michigan State University:

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Climate change is already having an effect on the safety of the world’s food supplies and unless action is taken it’s only going to get worse, a Michigan State University professor told a symposium at this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Ewen Todd, an MSU professor of advertising, public relations and retailing, organized a session titled “How Climate Change Affects the Safety of the World’s Food Supply” at which several nationally known experts warned that food safety is already an issue and will worsen unless climate change is confronted.

“Accelerating climate change is inevitable with implications for animal products and crops,” said Todd, who also is an AAAS Fellow. “At this point, the effects of climate change on food safety are poorly understood.”

However, Todd said there are already a number of examples of climate change taking its toll on the world’s food supply. One is Vibrio, a pathogen typically found in warm ocean water which is now becoming more common in the north as water temperatures rise.

“It’s been moving further up the coast these past few years,” he said. “There was an outbreak of it near Alaska in 2005 when water temperature reached 15 degrees Celsius.”

Todd also said that extreme weather – droughts and heavy rains – is having an impact on the world’s food supply. In some areas crops are being wiped out, resulting in higher prices and other issues.

Peaceful Japan trying to create a secret spy agency.

This is adorable. From Japan Times:

SYDNEY (Kyodo) Japan has established a secret foreign intelligence unit for the first time since the war to spy on China and North Korea and gather information to prevent a terrorist attack, according to an Australian report Monday citing a classified U.S. cable obtained by WikiLeaks.

The Sydney Morning Herald and other Fairfax newspapers said the cable provided exclusively to them shows a spy unit has been created under the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office and modeled on such Western intelligence services as the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6.

According to the report, a discussion in October 2008 between the former head of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Research and Intelligence, Randall Fort, and Director Hideshi Mitani of Japan's agency revealed a shift in Japanese attitudes for the first time since World War II and signaled that a having a "human intelligence collection capability" was a priority.

A secret cable to Washington by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo indicates the decision was made by the then Liberal Democratic Party government led by Yasuo Fukuda until September 2008 and upheld by his successor, Taro Aso, whose party was defeated in the August 2009 election that brought the Democratic Party of Japan to power after decades of LDP rule.

"The decision has been made to go very slowly with this process as the Japanese realize that they lack knowledge, experience, and assets/officers. A training process for new personnel will be started soon," the embassy told Washington in the leaked cable.

The cable also revealed Japan's lack of information on North Korea, with Mitani frankly admitting to his U.S. counterpart that Japan's best insights into Kim Jong Il were through his former sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, who had published a memoir.

Animal rights group shuts down Japan's whaling season.

It's great to see good news. From CNN:

Japan has canceled the rest of its winter whaling season, with a top official reasoning that environmentalists' obstructive efforts made it dangerous for whalers to stay on the high seas.

Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Michihiko Kano told reporters Friday that the country's government halted whaling because of actions taken by the animal rights group, Sea Shepherd. He stressed that Japan did not want to do so, but felt its hand was forced.

"From the viewpoint of our crew's safety, we have decided to cut short the research whaling at this time, against our will," he said.

The decision marks the first time Japan has canceled its whale hunt in the waters of the Antarctic since it started the practice in 1987. In 2005, Sea Shepherd began its bitter battle with Japanese whalers, monitoring them and occasionally getting into altercations. What Japan calls its winter whaling season typically extends into mid-March.

On Thursday, Hiroshi Kawamura, a government official in charge of research whaling, said Japan had decided to a temporary halt while it determined its next step -- one that it later ended up taking .

Japan has left its fleet of four whaling vessels in the Antarctic, as it decides what to do about the winter hunt, according to the ministry.

Capt. Paul Watson, who is helming a Sea Shepherd vessel called the Steve Erwin off the coast of Antarctica, said early Friday that at least some of those whalers were still in the Antarctic region.

"If it's true, this is great news," said Watson, who heads Sea Shepherd's operations in the Antarctic. "But we'll keep tailing them until they leave these international waters."

Watson said he and his colleagues have gained momentum and numbers steadily in recent years, while Japanese whalers have become less of a force -- especially economically. He suggested that his group was able to "bankrupt" the fleet so that it wasn't economically feasible to keep going..

He said it was wrong for the Japanese minister to label him and others as dangerous, adding that no one has ever been hurt in their efforts.

"We're getting more support every year, so it's working out that we're wearing them down," Watson said. "We've found a way where, once we're on them, they can't kill whales."

"We're very stubborn and very persistent. We've clearly frustrated them," he added.

Japan annually hunts whales, despite a worldwide moratorium on whaling, under the auspices it is conducting scientific research. The moratorium allows the culling of whales for purposes of scientific research.

Critics call Japan's hunt a cover for commercial whaling, since the whale meat ends up in supermarkets and restaurants. Animal rights groups, from Greenpeace to Sea Shepherd, and the governments of Australia and New Zealand, have publicly condemned Japan's hunts.

"I hope this is the end of whale hunting by Japan," said Watson. "But if they return next year, we'll be here."

Woman sues Century 21 for 80 cents.

From the NY Daily News:

A coupon-clipping New Jersey mom insists Century 21 short-changed her and is suing the famed department store to recoup a grand total of...80 cents.

That's right, 80 cents.

Tova Gerson claims in court papers that she used a $5 coupon when she bought more than $100 worth of stuff last month at the chain's Paramus, N.J., store.

When she returned one item a week later, Gerson claims she got back $17.17 instead of the $17.97 she had been expecting because the coupon had been pro-rated over all the goods she purchased.

So she hired a New York lawyer and tried to up the ante by filing a class action lawsuit on Feb. 10 for damages.

Gerson has "been injured as a result of defendant's fraudulent conduct," the lawsuit states.

Reached at her suburban home in Bergenfield, N.J., Gerson refused to answer any questions about the case.

"It's not a good time," she said, accompanied by a pair of kids. "I'm a mom. It's not a good time."

Told there was going to be an article about the suit, Gerson said, "I'd really rather you didn't."

Gerson's lawyer, Harry Katz in Fresh Meadows, Queens, did not return repeated calls to his office.

There was also no comment from Century 21's legal team.

Katz and Gerson, who records suggest are related, teamed up before to launch a similar lawsuit in December 2008 against the Modell's sporting goods chain.

In that case, Gerson bought more than $100 worth of gear using a $25 coupon and complained "the consumer lost the full benefit" of the coupon if they returned "some or all items."

It was not immediately clear what happened to that suit - or whether Gerson was getting any other disgruntled consumers to go after Modell's.

In the Century 21 case, Gerson claims she bought $108.16 from the store on Jan. 10.

Included in the court papers are a copy of a receipt for purchases of tights, leggings, "faux suede" moccasins and other items. It says Gerson paid cash and got the $5 off.

On Jan. 19, Gerson returned a pink, two-piece, infant girl's outfit citing "incorrect size," according a copy of another receipt.

"By pro-rating the $5.00, the plaintiff lost the amount of $0.80 she would have been entitled to as part of a coupon she used," the lawsuit states.

South Dakota may legalize the murder of abortion doctors.

This is horrifying. These legislators are lunatics. From Alternet, submitted by Coozer-Phile Duff:

We knew the abortion debate was moving to scary extremes, but WHAT? New legislation in South Dakota is being introduced that would make killing abortion doctors a 'justifiable homicide.' Legal. Murder. It's too shocking to comprehend. Mother Jones:

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Jensen, a committed foe of abortion rights, alters the state's legal definition of justifiable homicide by adding language stating that a homicide is permissible if committed by a person "while resisting an attempt to harm" that person's unborn child or the unborn child of that person's spouse, partner, parent, or child. If the bill passes, it could in theory allow a woman's father, mother, son, daughter, or husband to kill anyone who tried to provide that woman an abortion—even if she wanted one.

Originally the bill was meant to clarify language in the state's justifiable homicide laws, but the anti-choicers immediately latched on with the abortion amendment after testimony in support made by representatives of the Family Heritage Alliance, Concerned Women for America, the South Dakota branch of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, and a political action committee called Family Matters in South Dakota.

Sara Rosenbaum, a law professor at George Washington University, told Mother Jones, "It takes my breath away. Constitutionally, a state cannot make it a crime to perform a constitutionally lawful act."

Drug trafficking submarine found in Colombia.

From CNN:

The Colombian military has seized a 100-foot-long submarine capable of transporting eight tons of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, news reports say.

The vessel was found in a jungle area in Timbiqui in southwestern Colombia on Sunday, according to a report from RTT News.

Colombian navy officials said the homemade sub had two diesel engines and sophisticated navigational equipment that would enable it to travel to Mexico while remaining up to 30 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

The vessel was set up for a crew of four but was unoccupied when found, RTT reported. Officials estimated it would have cost $2 million to build.

The submarine is just the latest example of crafts smugglers have made to try to get their illicit cargo past law enforcement.

US veterans sue Pentagon for ignoring rape victims.

It is shameful, if not downright evil, that our army and government turn a blind eye to this. From Daily Mail:

Fourteen U.S. veterans who say they were raped and abused by their comrades today accused the Pentagon of ignoring their claims.

More than a dozen female and two male current or former service members will launch a legal action today, claiming that servicemen get away with rape and other sexual abuse.

One woman claimed that two male colleagues raped her in Iraq and videotaped the attack, circulating it around the base.

She was bruised from her shoulders to her elbows from being held down but charges were not filed as the commander said she 'did not struggle enough or act like a rape victim'.

Victims have also claimed that they are often ordered to serve alongside those they say attacked them.

So incensed are some of the victims about the way complaints were handled that several women have waived their anonymity to speak out.

In a federal class-action lawsuit to be filed today, they want an objective third party to handle such complaints because individual commanders have too much say in how allegations are handled.

The alleged attackers in the lawsuit include an Army criminal investigator and an Army National Guard commander. The abuse alleged ranges from obscene verbal abuse to gang rape.

It also specifically names Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld who they say both failed to take aggressive measures to protect women.

In 2009, there were 3,200 sexual assaults reported in the military with fewer than a quarter of those prosecuted, many for lesser charges.

In fact statistics show it is more likely for a woman to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.

Panayiota Bertzikis, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and claims she was raped in 2006, said: 'The problem of rape in the military is not only service members getting raped, but it's the entire way that the military as a whole is dealing with it.

'From survivors having to be involuntarily discharged from service, the constant verbal abuse, once a survivor does come forward your entire unit is known to turn their back on you. The entire culture needs to be changed.'

After 20 years of legal battles, Chevron fined $8 billion for Amazon pollution.

From Treehugger (thanks Jen):

It's been a long battle: people of the Ecuadorean Amazon against Chevron, which is accused of dumping more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste sludge into the Amazon, leaving people sick with cancer and suffering miscarriages and birth defects. But the BBC reports that, after a lawsuit lasting nearly 20 years, a court in Ecuador has fined Chevron $8 billion for the pollution.

Technically, Texaco did the dumping—into unlined pits and rivers between 1972 and 1992, destroying large areas of rainforest—but the company merged with Chevron in 2001 and has never taken responsibility for the mess or its cleanup.

Chevron has called the ruling a "product of fraud" and plans to appeal—but one lawyer for the plaintiff also said he might consider an appeal, because the damages award is too small.

Considering the company tripled its profit in the second quarter of last year to $5.4 billion, it's not crazy to think people in Ecuador would be entitled to at least $8 billion for 20 years' worth of ongoing and irreparable health problems and damage to delicate ecosystems.

Cairo's cats forgotten as its humans rebel.

From Time:

Trying to reach Cairo's Tahrir Square through clouds of tear gas and volleys of rubber bullets, Egyptian TV anchor Mona Khalil was forced by the tumult into a side street. There, she remembers, "I saw cats running, running, running, and trying to get into houses or staircases or buildings and some of them were really gasping." Two kittens had found shelter under a car. She managed to take them inside a building, away from the toxic fumes. Others were not so lucky. "Going back later I found two cats that were lying on their sides, dead," she adds. For Khalil, 43, who is also one of the leaders of Egypt's fledgling animal rights movement, the event had particular resonance. It was, she said, "the first slap in the face that, oh my God, those streets are filled with cats and dogs."

While the world has focused on the many troubles faced by humans during the 18-day uprising, the four-legged residents of Cairo have been left to fend for themselves. Many Egyptians, expats, and tourists have been forced by authorities to flee the country without their pets; zoos and pet shops were also abandoned. The chaos of the uprising put a tremendous strain on the nation's largest animal rights organization, the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals (ESMA), of which Khalil serves as treasurer. "It's very common to see stray cats and dogs on the street, but not for us to see [abandoned] Persians and Siamese," she says.

[...] So much of what Westerners know about Egypt is animal related, from riding camels around the Pyramids to studying about the worship of cats in Pharaonic times. The recent political turmoil has revealed many deep-rooted, previously overlooked problems in that country, the plight of their animals not the least among them. "A couple of people have asked me why they should care about animals all the way in Egypt," says Cooper. "My response has been to say that animals aren't citizens of countries. They're citizens of our hearts, and our hearts have no borders."

ESMA's web site can be found here.

Woman, 55, beats back tiger with soup ladle, saves husband.

From BBC:

A man has been rescued from a near-fatal attack by a tiger in northern Malaysia by his wife.

She entered the fray wielding a wooden soup ladle at the tiger - which fled.

Tambun Gediu, now badly lacerated and recovering in hospital, had tried hitting the tiger away in vain and says his wife saved his life.

Wildlife rangers plan to track the tiger and send it further into dense, unpopulated jungle in the the northern state of Perak.

"I was trailing a squirrel and crouched to shoot it with my blowpipe when I saw the tiger.

"That's when I realised that I was being trailed," Mr Gediu said after surgery.

The tiger pounced not far from the Gediu home in a jungle settlement of the Jahai tribe.

Mr Gediu had tried climbing a tree to escape the animal, but was dragged down by the tiger.

His wife, 55-year old Han Besau, rushed out of the kitchen on hearing his screams and used the kitchen implement to good effect.

"I was terrified and I used all my strength to punch the animal in the face, but it would not budge," the New Straits Times newspaper quoted him as saying.

"I had to wrestle with it to keep its jaws away from me, and it would have clawed me to death if my wife had not arrived."

It was the first time anyone in the village had been attacked by a tiger.

Wild Oats CEO arrested in child prostitution sting.

From CNN:

The chief executive officer of a Western grocery store chain resigned after he was arrested in a child prostitution sting, according to police and CNN affiliate KNXV.

Michael Gilliland, 52, was one of eight people arrested in the sting, said Steve Martos, spokesman for Phoenix police. He is accused of soliciting sex online from a girl who identified herself as a minor on Thursday, he said.

Nevertheless, "the suspect arranged a meeting with this underage female" and allegedly drove to a hotel to meet her, authorities said. "The suspect agreed to pay the underage female for sexual intercourse," police said.

Gilliand founded Wild Oats Market, which was bought by Whole Foods in 2007, and was the CEO of Sunflower Farmers Market. He was charged with felony child prostitution.

Guitar Hero shuts down.

I guess people can only fit so many plastic drum sets in their apartments. From CNN:

The premiere plastic guitar game just flamed out. Activision, beset by falling sales, has decided to shutter the division that created "Guitar Hero" and its sequels.

It's an ignominious exit for a title that was once touted as the first great game franchise of the 21st century. "Guitar Hero" was created in 2005 by indie studio RedOctane, in collaboration with Harmonix, which had previously found success with the "Karaoke Revolution" franchise.

"Karaoke Revolution," where players plugged microphones into their consoles and were scored on the accuracy of their singing, was the first game to show a significant number of videogamers were interested in making "music." RedOctane's "Guitar Hero" proved they were equally interested in shredding a plastic guitar.

Activision purchased the franchise in 2006 for $100 million; to date it has shipped more than 25 million units for a roughly $2 billion ROI. "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" made $1 billion on its own. Harmonix went on to publish the highly successful "Rock Band" franchise, which added drums, microphones and keyboards to the plastic guitar mix.

How the mighty have fallen. The holiday season was a disastrous one for the music game genre. First Harmonix was sold by Viacom to a consortium of shareholders; the terms were undisclosed, but it was reported to be a fire sale. MTV Games, which collaborated with Harmonix on "Rock Band," was shut down. "Guitar Heroes: Warriors of Rock," the sixth title in the series, received lackluster reviews and even more lackluster sales.

Activision posted a $233 million net loss for the fourth quarter. Its decision to lay off the 500-person "Guitar Hero" division was, Activision said in a press release today, "due to continued declines in the music genre."

Shirtless GOP lawmaker caught trolling Craigslist to cheat on his wife.

Classy.

Upstate Rep. Christopher Lee abruptly quit his job yesterday after he was exposed trolling for an extramarital tryst on Craigslist -- using his real name and Gmail account.

In a mind-boggling blunder, the Buffalo-area Republican, who is married with a young son, responded to an ad in Craigslist's "women seeking men" section in DC. He claimed to be a "divorced" "lobbyist" and a "fit fun classy guy."

As proof, Lee sent along a cheesy photo of himself, flexing his muscles and posing shirtless in front of a mirror.

Lee's cover was blown when his would-be conquest did an Internet search, discovered he was lying, and sent the treasure trove of their correspondence to Gawker.com, which yesterday posted it online. Lee's staffers -- who initially suggested the lawmaker's e-mail had been hacked -- dodged media queries before announcing the resignation late yesterday.

"I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents," Lee said in the statement, which did not address the Craigslist brouhaha. He later told Fox News Channel, "I gotta work this out with my wife."

Lee's downfall apparently was sparked by his exchange with a 34-year-old single woman of "black/Irish" descent, who had advertised online for a "financially & emotionally secure" man.

"Will Someone Prove To Me Not All CL [Craigslist] Men Look Like Toads," she wrote in a Jan. 14 ad.

"Hi, Hope I'm not a toad. :)," Lee responded.

"I'm a very fit fun classy guy. Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft 190 lbs blond blue. 39. Lobbyist. I promise not to disappoint."

Lee, who represented Amherst, NY, is 46 -- although the woman he'd apparently hoped to romance had specifically said she wanted a man between 30 and 40.

At some point, Lee sent the photo of himself, posing in dress pants with a bare chest.

"I just took this one . . . I'm relaxing at home," Lee e-mailed.

"So do you always send shirtless pics to women from cl?" the woman responded. "Sorry. It's all I had," Lee replied.

The Gmail address he used matched the one posted on Lee's Facebook account.

When the woman asked if he was divorced, Lee answered, "Yes," and said he had a child.

In reality, Lee is married. He, his wife, Michele, and their young son recently moved into a new, $650,000, five-bedroom, four-bath home in the Buffalo suburb's Pomeroy Park area, public records show. According to his e-mail exchanges with his new Craigslist friend, Lee wasn't a first-time philanderer.

When the woman -- reportedly a college grad and government employee -- asked Lee when his last date was, he replied, "Lol. last Monday. She was not as advertised. Lol . . . how do people think you aren't going to figure it out once you see them in person."

In June 2009 -- shortly after he helped pass the Student Internet Safety Act -- Lee wrote an op-ed piece warning kids about the dangers of the Internet.

"Responding to what may seem like a friendly e-mail . . . can have serious consequences," he wrote. "Private information and images can so easily be transmitted to friends and strangers alike."

Keith Olbermann to join Current TV.

Cool, I hope he becomes the new host of Infomania! Item!

Keith Olbermann announced on Tuesday that he will host a one-hour, nightly primetime show on Current TV starting in late spring. He will also become the "chief news officer" for Current. Olbermann had been without a television home since he abruptly left MSNBC, where he had hosted "Countdown" for eight years, in January.

For Olbermann, his move to Current gives him a chance to wield large influence over a a relatively tiny network. Current averages about 23,000 viewers in primetime every night--a far cry from the million or so viewers who watched "Countdown."

In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday morning, Olbermann said that "nothing is more vital to a free America than a free media, and nothing is more vital to my concept of a free media than news that is produced independently of corporate interference." He called Current "the model truth seeking entity" in television, and said that his new show was "the most exciting event in my career."

Olbermann said the show "will be for all intents and purposes an improved and we hope amplified and stronger version of the show that I just did at my previous network." He could not, however, provide details of the name and time of the show, saying only, "stay tuned."

Al Gore, the chairman of Current TV, also spoke on the conference call. He said he was "extremely honored and delighted" that Olbermann was coming to Current. He said Olbermann was a "great fit with Current in every way."

Olbermann will also be the executive producer of the new show. In the conference call, he called Current the only "independent news and information" channel in the United States. He said he was looking forward to working somewhere where "purely market forces are not the deciding factor in what we're doing here."

Asteroid may hit Earth in 2036.

We are dooooooomed!! From HuffPo:

Apophis Asteroid is back in the news after a Russian report concluded it could hit Earth in 2036. They even have a date for the potential impact.

"It's likely collision with Earth may occur on April 13, 2036," Professor Leonid Sokolov of St. Petersburg State University concluded, according to UPI, which also reports an unrelated 4-foot-wide asteroid passed by Earth this week.

Sokolov says while the chances for impact are slim, it's important to plan for all possible scenarios, per Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. He added the asteroid is most likely to disintegrate into smaller parts that could collide with Earth in following years.

The Apophis Asteroid made headlines in 2009 when scientists predicted a greater than 2 percent chance of impact.

NASA scientists are cautious about the prospect.

"Technically, they're correct, there is a chance in 2036 [that Apophis will hit Earth]," said Donald Yeomans, head of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. But that chance is just 1-in-250,000, Yeomans added.

Woman dies after illegal butt enhancement surgery.

From Daily Mail:

A British student who flew to America for illegal buttock-enhancement surgery has died from medical complications.

Police said Claudia Adusei, 20, checked into a budget Philadelphia hotel with three friends to have the procedure.

Almost 12 hours after receiving 'industrial silicone' injections of she complained of chest pains and was rushed to hospital where she later died.

The procedure, which can cost up to £2,000, involves substance usually used as a sealant.

Adusei was among a group of four British women from London who had flown to Philadelphia on February 5 for cosmetic surgery.

The Delaware County Medical examiner said a preliminary cause of death is the silicone injected into the woman's vascular system which ultimately led to a heart attack.

They have not released the name of the party who reserved the rooms at the Hampton Inn or who administered the silicone.

But the female 'surgeon' who performed the procedure is reported to have disappeared when the victim began feeling ill.

Police are now seeking two people involved in the cosmetic procedures which they believe were arranged over the internet.

Nonprofit ad meant to stem violence leads to death threats.

From the Nonprofit Quarterly:

Yesterday we reported how a purposely-insensitive Groupon television ad that ran during the Superbowl, mocking the plight of Tibetans, triggered negative reactions and resulted in an apology from the company's chief executive.

Now comes word of another Superbowl campaign, launched with good intentions by an Iowa nonprofit that serves victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, that so enraged some people that they've issued death threats against the organization's head. The campaign by Riverview Center in Dubuque encouraged people to watch television ads other companies were airing during the Superbowl and "pay attention to some of the negative messages" they contain. The campaign also invited people to visit Riverview's website to learn about what they can do to help end violence and sexual abuse.

Among the items on the Riverview site is an ad that features a smiling baby with the following voiceover: "He’s tough. He’s strong. He’s aggressive. He raped his girlfriend. But he wasn’t always this way. What are you teaching your son? …” Although the spot has been airing for about a year on television stations in northeast Iowa and parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, Sunday's campaign brought attention to it for the first time to many more people, including some around the world alerted to it by other blog postings.

After the ad aired, the angry emails began pouring in to Josh Jasper, Riverview's president and CEO. Said Jasper about the outraged responses: “I appreciate and respect when people have differing viewpoints. But for individuals to take it to a personal level and threaten my life, that’s taking it too far.”

Shipwreck's oldest beer to be analyzed, brewed again.

Item!

Samples of the world's oldest beer have been taken in a bid to determine its recipe - and brew it again.

In July 2010, a Baltic Sea shipwreck dated between 1800 to 1830 yielded many bottles of what is thought to be the world's oldest champagne.

Five of the bottles later proved to be the oldest drinkable beer yet found.

The local government of the Aland island chain where the wreck was found has now commissioned a scientific study to unpick the beer's original recipe.

Divers found the two-mast ship at a depth of about 50 metres in the Aland archipelago, which stretches between the coasts of Sweden and Finland in the Baltic Sea.

The ship was believed to be making a journey between Copenhagen in Denmark and St Petersburg, then the capital of Russia.

The salvaging operation to bring up 145 champagne bottles - since determined to include vintages from Heidseck, Veuve Clicquot, and Juglar - had one casualty: a bottle that burst open at the surface, revealing itself to be beer.

The brew has already been sampled by four professional beer tasters.

"They said that it did taste very old, which is no surprise, with some burnt notes. But it was quite acidic - which could mean there's been some fermenting going on in the bottle and with time it's become acid," said Annika Wilhelmson of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).

VTT has now been commissioned to get to the bottom of the sunken beer's recipe.

"We're going to try to see if we can find any living yeast or other microbial cells, because that would be very interesting with respect to reproducing the beer," Dr Wilhelmson explained.

Kansas abolishes its arts commission.

It's pretty lame when governments cut programs and assume nonprofits will/can fill in the gap. From the Kansas City Star:

Gov. Sam Brownback signed an executive order Monday abolishing the Kansas Arts Commission and replacing it with a private, nonprofit organization.

The move will save the cash-strapped state nearly $600,000 a year, but it has upset some arts advocates who worry about eroding support for the arts and art education.

“Our state faces a nearly $500 million budget shortfall,” Brownback, a Republican, said before signing the order. “Let’s do all we can to protect the core functions of government.”

The Arts Commission funnels state and federal arts grants to local organizations, artists and art education programs. Starting July 1, the nonprofit Arts Foundation will seek private funds.

Brownback wants Kansas to spend $200,000 next year to assist the foundation, and he said additional funding in future years is a possibility. He appointed nine Kansans to lead the foundation.

The executive order takes effect July 1 unless lawmakers vote to overturn it within 60 days.

Arts Commission Chairman Henry Schwaller said he has already discussed that possibility with legislators.

Schwaller worries that the new foundation won’t be eligible for federal funding and that private donors are unlikely to make up the difference.

“We understand there’s a $500 million deficit,” he said. “But our funding is so small — only 29 cents per capita per year — that cutting this is not going to make a sizable dent.”

Catholic Church gives blessing to confession iPhone app.

I wonder if being an Angry Bird is a sin...

The Catholic Church has approved an iPhone app that helps guide worshippers through confession.

The Confession program has gone on sale through iTunes for £1.19 ($1.99).

Described as "the perfect aid for every penitent", it offers users tips and guidelines to help them with the sacrament.

Now senior church officials in both the UK and US have given it their seal of approval, in what is thought to be a first.

The app takes users through the sacrament - in which Catholics admit their wrongdoings - and allows them to keep track of their sins.

It also allows them to examine their conscience based on personalised factors such as age, sex and marital status - but it is not intended to replace traditional confession entirely.

Instead, it encourages users to understand their actions and then visit their priest for absolution.

More here.

Coozer-Bits.

Creepy: Snakes used to have legs.

Duh: The more you lie, the easier it gets.

Neat: Anthropologists discover earliest cemetery in Jordan. Also: red foxes may have been Man's best friend before dogs.

Yipes: Pirates seize Italian oil tanker.

Neat: New bear habitat lets children swim with polar bears.

Angry crowd of 1,000 Muslims burn down churches in Indonesia.

From BBC:

More than 1,000 Muslim protesters have stormed a courthouse and burned two churches in central Java, Indonesia.

The attacks in Temanggung happened after a Christian man was sentenced to five years in jail for distributing leaflets deemed insulting to Islam.

Indonesian police said the crowd considered the sentence too lenient and were demanding the death penalty.

The incident came two days after Muslim villagers in western Java killed three members of a minority Islamic sect.

A police spokesman told the BBC that the angry crowd began attacking the court building in Temanggung after the verdict was read out.

The violence spread to surrounding neighbourhoods where two churches were set on fire and a third was damaged.

Police fired warning shots into the air to disperse the crowds.

In a separate development, a video has emerged of Sunday's deadly attack on members of the minority Ahmadiyah Muslim sect.

The footage apparently show how a group of about 20 men were forced by an angry crowd to strip before they were beaten so violently that several died.

The Ahmadiyah sect has been labelled by the government as deviant, but is not banned.

A body which advises the US government on religious freedom has said Indonesia must act against "extremist" attacks.

"Indonesia is a tolerant county that should be more intolerant of extremist groups. It's time the Indonesian government brings them to account for the violence and hatred they spread," said Leonard Leo, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population but it is a secular nation.

International human rights groups say more hardline fringe groups have been harassing religious minorities in recent years. The Indonesian president has been criticised for not doing enough to protect the rights of all citizens.

Researchers link processed food to lower IQs in kids.

I like to think that emulsifiers and preservatives help keep brain cells fresh. From Consumerist:

It could be that munching on processed foods packed with fat and sugar may make kids a bit less intelligent. British researchers have found 3-year-olds who munch on such grub tend to have a slightly lower IQ when they reach age 8. Meanwhile, 3-year-olds with healthier diets were shown to have higher IQs five years later.

CNN reports the link between processed foods and eventual lower IQs stops at age 3. Kids aged 4 to 7 didn't show different IQs at age 8 no matter what their diets were. The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, but the researchers dubbed the link between diet and IQ as "weak and novel."

The chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Obesity Leadership Workgroup notes that it's difficult to pinpoint what causes IQ fluctuations in kids because diet is simply one variable in child development.

Man killed by cockfighting bird.

Good.

A California man attending a cockfight has died after being stabbed in the leg by a bird that had a knife attached to its own limb.

The Kern County coroner says 35-year-old Jose Luis Ochoa was declared dead at a hospital about two hours after he suffered the injury in neighboring Tulare County on Jan. 30.

An autopsy concluded Ochoa died of an accidental "sharp force injury" to his right calf.

Sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt says it's unclear if a delay in seeking medical attention contributed to Ochoa's death. Tulare officials are investigating, and no arrests were made at the cockfight.

Cockfighting is a sport, illegal in the United States, in which specially bred roosters are put into a ring and encouraged to fight until one is incapacitated or killed.

More here.

GOP lawmaker suggests "emptying the clip" at immigrants.

From Huffington Post:

Alabama state Sen. Scott Beason, a Republican, reportedly made eyebrow-raising remarks over the weekend, calling on members of his party to "empty the clip and do what has to be done" in order to address illegal immigration, which he regarded as a problem.

According to the Cullman Times, Beason concluded a fiery speech on the issue with the extreme language at a Republican party breakfast. His comments come in the wake of the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona.

Beason accused Democrats in his home state of intentionally neglecting to tackle the immigration issue. He alleged his colleagues on the other side of the aisle were motivated by a belief that "when more illegal immigrants move into an area, when their children grow up and get the chance to vote, they vote for Democrats."

Later in his speech, the Alabama Republican warned that failing to confront illegal immigration could "destroy" local communities in the state.

In a phone interview with the Gadsden Times on Monday, Beason said that his "empty the clip" reference was taken out of context.

Coozer-Bits.

Film: Just how many days does Bill Murray spend stuck reliving Groundhog's Day? (Thanks Mike!)

Lame: Bank of America pays $410m to settle overdraft fees row.

Duh: Shocked mother sues Nutella for not being healthy.

Fast food meat contains 12% ammonia-treated scraps.

From ABC News:

How much meat is in your Taco Bell taco filling? How much is in your McDonald's Quarter Pounder or your Burger King Whopper? And is this meat really meat--or something else?

These questions took center stage in January when a California woman sued Taco Bell, claiming its taco filling is only 35 percent ground beef. The rest, she alleges in her class action suit, consists of edible padding: binders, extenders, preservatives, additives and other non-meat ingredients. Taco Bell says not only is its filling 88 percent ground beef, but that this beef is no different from what you'd buy at your local supermarket for use at home. The company has fought back with a counterattack ad campaign. Where's the truth?

Kantha Shelke, chief science officer of Corvus Blue LLC, a Chicago food science and nutrition research firm, says it's frankly impossible for a consumer to know how much meat is in a food item at Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King or any other fast food restaurant. That's because such disclosure is not required. Even when an item is touted as being "all-beef," it may be only 70 percent meat and not run afoul of regulations.

Non-meat ingredients in meat items include ones that add flavor or promote consistency, and binders. "American consumers think they're being cheated out of their money when they hear that term," says Shelke. "But logically speaking, binders are a very natural thing. They prevent water from coming out during cooking. When you make meatloaf at home, you use breadcrumbs for the same reason—to hold the moisture."

As for the meat itself, some of it can be…well, not exactly what you think of when you think of meat.

Bill Marler, an plaintiffs' attorney specializing in food safety lawsuits, says that it's common for up to 10 percent to 12 percent of that juicy burger you're about to pop into your mouth to be "ammoniated beef product"—scraps and trimmings left over from slaughter that used to be relegated for use in pet food.

They no longer are, thanks to a treatment process that uses ammonium hydroxide to protect meat made from scraps against bacterial contamination, thus rendering it fit--at least according to regulators--for human consumption.

The product is produced by Beef Products Inc. of South Dakota, whose website says that if you're eating a hamburger in a "quick-service restaurant" (the food industry's preferred term for fast food), "...chances are you'll be eating product produced by BPI."

NYC bans smoking OUTSIDE.

From Huffington Post:

New York City's parks, beaches and even Times Square will be off-limits to smokers under one of the nation's toughest anti-cigarette laws passed Wednesday by the City Council.

"This summer, New Yorkers who go to our parks and beaches for some fresh air and fun will be able to breathe even cleaner air and sit on a beach not littered with cigarette butts," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after the 36-12 vote.

The smoking ban will cover 1,700 parks and 14 miles of public beaches plus boardwalks, marinas and pedestrian plazas like the one in the heart of Times Square. The ban goes into effect 90 days after Bloomberg signs the bill; the mayor has 20 days to do it.

States and cities from Maine to California have banned smoking in public parks and beaches, but New York is pursuing one of the widest-reaching urban bans. Smoking is also prohibited in Los Angeles city parks and in Chicago parks with playgrounds.

Supporters of the New York ban said exposure to secondhand smoke poses health risks.

"The statistics don't lie: Secondhand smoke kills," Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. "With this bill, all New Yorkers can now breathe easier and breathe cleaner air."

A law banning smoking in New York City bars and restaurants went into effect in 2003.

Half the world covered in snow.

At first glance it looks like a graphic from a Discovery Channel programme about a distant ice age. But this astonishing picture shows the world as it is today - with half the Northern Hemisphere covered with snow and ice.

The image was released by the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Association (NOAA) on the day half of North America was in the grip of a severe winter storm.

The map was created using multiple satellites from government agencies and the US Air Force.

That Antarctica, the Arctic, Greenland and the frozen wastes of Siberia are covered in white comes as no surprise. But it is the extent to which the line dips down over the Northern Hemisphere that is so remarkable about the image.

The shroud of white stretches down from Alaska and sweeps through the Midwest and along to the Eastern seaboard. The bitter cold has reached as far as Texas and northern Mexico where in Ciudad Juarez temperatures today were expected to dip to minus 15C.

In the U.S. tens of millions of people chose to stay at home rather than venture out. In Chicago, 20in of snow fell leading to authorities closing schools for the first time in 12 years. The newspaper for Tulsa, Okalahoma, was unable to publish its print edition for the first time in more than a century.

More here.

Father of murdered children arrives at court in horror clown mask.

This guy's got problems. From Daily Mail:

A father whose cheating allegedly drove his partner to start a fire which killed two of their three children bizarrely arrived at court yesterday wearing a grotesque clown mask.

James Maynard donned the disguise, which stunned onlookers, as he attended the murder trial of his former partner Fiona Adams.

He grinned as he removed the mask before entering the courtroom. He offered no explanation as to why he chose to wear the disguise, which is reminiscent of the red-haired clown in Stephen King's horror novel 'It'.

Ms Adams, 23, is alleged to have started the fire to ‘create a drama’, but the blaze took a ‘rapid and devastating hold’ on the semi-detached home she shared with her family.

Although she managed to escape and throw her youngest son Kiernan, now 18 months, to safety, her daughter Niamh, five, and son Cayden, two, died.

Yesterday Nottingham Crown Court heard that her relationship Mr Maynard, 28, had been ‘volatile’ since they met when she was just 17.

WikiLeaks: World on brink of nuclear terror attack.

From Daily Mail:

Al Qaeda is attempting to stockpile ‘dirty’ radioactive explosives that could be used to target British troops or for a larger urban attack, it has emerged.

New diplomatic documents released by WikiLeaks show that U.S. intelligence personnel have been informed of terrorist attempts to acquire dangerous amounts of uranium and plutonium.

The cables warn of a large trafficking operation of chemical weapons material and threats of a ‘nuclear 9/11’ unless the West intervenes swiftly.

Security chiefs briefed a Nato meeting in January 2009 that Al Qaeda was planning a programme of ‘dirty radioactive improvised explosive devices (IEDs)’.

The IEDs could be used against coalition forces in Afghanistan but would also contaminate the surrounding land with nuclear waste for years to come.

In a separate development, the cables quoted in the Telegraph reveal that the FBI is tracking down a team of Qatari men suspected of providing assistance to the 9/11 bombers.

U.S. officials were warned by an Indian national security adviser that terrorist organisations now ‘have the technical competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb’.

British officials have also expressed fears of covert weapons development in Pakistan.

A leaked document regarding official defence discussions in 2009 highlighted 'deep concerns' that a rogue scientist could 'gradually smuggle enough material' out of the Pakistani nuclear programme to construct a weapon.

Cuckoo's Nest hospital discovers 3,500 cremated remains in "room of forgotten souls."

From Daily Mail:

The mental hospital which was used in the 1975 cult film that helped launch Jack Nicholson's career, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has unearthed the remains of 3,500 people.

Politicians visiting in the dilapidating, 128-year-old hospital discovered the cremated ashes in 2004 in a number of corroding copper cannisters in the storage area they dubbed 'the room of forgotten souls'.

Now, in an attempt to find out who the thousands of ashes belong to, Oregon State Hospital has published online the names, birthdays and dates of death of patients who passed away between 1914 and the 1970s.

Some of the copper canisters had fused together after years of neglect, making it even more difficult to match the remains to the deceased.

When One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest screened it caused an outrage, leading many to question the state of psychiatric help in America.

The movie was filmed at Oregon State Hospital because that had been the setting of the 1962 novel, written by Ken Kesey.

Coozer-Bits.

Awesome: Baseball-loving nuns sell Honus Wagner baseball card for $220K.

Hero: Cool profile on Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Man."

Sad: Mass slaughter of dogs after Vancouver Olympics revealed.

Yipes: US president may gain power to shut off Internet.

Spain's unemployment rate surges to 20%.

From Yahoo! News:

Spain announced Friday its jobless rate surged to a 13-year record above 20 percent at the end of 2010, the highest level in the industrialised world, as the economy gasped for air.

It was more bad news for an economy fighting to regain the trust of financial markets and avoid being trapped in a debt quagmire that has engulfed Greece and Ireland and now menaces Portugal.

Another 121,900 people joined Spain's unemployment queues in the final quarter of the year, pushing the total to 4.697 million people, said the national statistics institute INE.

The resulting unemployment rate was 20.33 percent for the end of the year -- easily exceeding Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's target of 19.4 percent.

Spain appears to be stuck in a rut of staggeringly high levels of unemployment.

After posting a jobless rate of 18.83 percent in 2009 and now 20.33 percent in 2010, the government is forecasting 19.3 percent for 2011 and 17.5 percent in 2012.

The Spanish economy, the European Union's fifth biggest, slumped into recession during the second half of 2008 as the global financial meltdown compounded the collapse of a labour-intensive construction boom.

Brazilian Charles Bronson turns self in.

From Huffington Post:

SAO PAULO — Brazilian authorities says a former fire chief has turned himself in to face allegations he killed at least eight drug users in the neighborhood where his son was killed by robbers.

Jorge Luiz Thais Martins commanded the Parana state firefighters' department from 2007-2009,

Police had issued an arrest warrant for Martins for his alleged involvement in the killings that happened after his son's unsolved death in October 2009.

A spokesman for the state public safety department says police are investigating the possibility the crimes were committed as vengeance.

Spokesman Giovani Santos says Martins made no comment when he turned himself in Friday.

Chick-Fil-A is anti-gay.

This reminds me of when Grimace and the Fry Guys helped me pray out the gay. From Daily Mail:

A fried chicken chain run by a devout Christian family has been branded homophobic for backing a group which campaigns against gay marriage.

Chick-Fil-A, which says its corporate purpose it to ‘glorify God’, was savaged when it emerged one branch was providing food for the anti-gay Pennsylvania Family Institute.

Blogs immediately lit up with criticism with calls for for a nationwide boycott while students at some universities attempted to get it thrown off campus.

On the Chick-Fil-A official Facebook page the debate got so intense that moderators had to step in to remind people to ‘be respectful of others’.

The row exploded after the New York Times revealed that Chick-Fil-A sandwiches would be used to feed those attending a seminar called ‘The Art Of Marriage: Getting To The Heart Of God's Design’ in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The same piece pointed out that a few years ago the firm had given away CDs of a Bible-themed radio show with kids meals, which was produced by the Christian organisation Focus On The Family, which is against gay marriage.

Within hours an online petition asking Chick-Fil-A to stop supporting such groups had got 25,000 signatures.

On top of that customers such as Ryan Luzzi vented their anger at the company’s Facebook page and said: ‘I used to love you guys. That is until I found out how backwards and hateful your organisation is! I will NEVER EVER patronise any of your stores again!’

Others came out in support, however, such as Thelma Jean Zeigler Waldroup who posted: ‘From now on my family will be eating more Chick-Fil-A food.

‘I will support all Christian companies. I like that they honour God on the Sabbath.
‘If the gays don't like it then is just too bad.’

Chick-Fil-A later backed down and said it was dropping its support of any such groups.

The company’s president Dan Cathy said in a statement: ‘Chick-Fil-A's corporate purpose is 'To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us, and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-Fil-A.'

‘As a result, we will not champion any political agendas on marriage and family. This decision has been made, and we understand the importance of it.’

He did however add that the company would ‘continue to offer resources to strengthen marriages and families’.

‘To do anything different would be inconsistent with our purpose and belief in Biblical principles’.

House GOP plan to redefine "rape."

From Mother Jones:

Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. (Smith's spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment.)

Given that the bill also would forbid the use of tax benefits to pay for abortions, that 13-year-old's parents wouldn't be allowed to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure. They also wouldn't be able to deduct the cost of the abortion or the cost of any insurance that paid for it as a medical expense.

There used to be a quasi-truce between the pro- and anti-choice forces on the issue of federal funding for abortion. Since 1976, federal law has prohibited the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, and when the pregnancy endangers the life of the woman. But since last year, the anti-abortion side has become far more aggressive in challenging this compromise. They have been pushing to outlaw tax deductions for insurance plans that cover abortion, even if the abortion coverage is never used. The Smith bill represents a frontal attack on these long-standing exceptions.

"This bill takes us back to a time when just saying 'no' wasn't enough to qualify as rape," says Steph Sterling, a lawyer and senior adviser to the National Women's Law Center. Laurie Levenson, a former assistant US attorney and expert on criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, notes that the new bill's authors are "using language that's not particularly clear, and some people are going to lose protection." Other types of rapes that would no longer be covered by the exemption include rapes in which the woman was drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacity, and many date rapes. "There are a lot of aspects of rape that are not included," Levenson says.

As for the incest exception, the bill would only allow federally funded abortions if the woman is under 18.

The bill hasn't been carefully constructed, Levenson notes. The term "forcible rape" is not defined in the federal criminal code, and the bill's authors don't offer their own definition. In some states, there is no legal definition of "forcible rape," making it unclear whether any abortions would be covered by the rape exemption in those jurisdictions.

The main abortion-rights groups despise the Smith bill as a whole, but they are particularly outraged by its rape provisions. Tait Sye, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, calls the proposed changes "unacceptable." Donna Crane, the policy director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, says that making the "already narrow exceptions for public funding of abortion care for rape and incest survivors even more restrictive" is "unbelievably cruel and heartless."

"This bill goes far beyond current law," says Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), a co-chair of the congressional pro-choice caucus. The "re-definition" of the rape exception "is only one element" of an "extreme" bill, she adds, citing other provisions in the law that pro-abortion rights groups believe would lead to the end of private health insurance coverage for abortion.

"Somebody needs to look closely at this," Levenson says. "This is a bill that could have a dramatic effect on women, and language is important. It sure sounds like somebody didn't want [the exception to cover] all the different types of rape that are recognized under the law."