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Strange 'twin' new worlds found A pair of strange new worlds that blur the boundaries between planets and stars have been discovered beyond our Solar System. A few dozen such objects have been identified in recent years but this is the first set of "twins". Dubbed "planemos", they circle each other rather than orbiting a star. Their existence challenges current theories about the formation of planets and stars, astronomers report in the journal Science. "This is a truly remarkable pair of twins - each having only about 1% the mass of our Sun," said Ray Jayawardhana of the University of...

Honey helps problem wounds Medihoney more effective than antibiotics -- Bonn-led study to start soon This press release is also available in Germany. A household remedy millennia old is being reinstated: honey helps the treatment of some wounds better than the most modern antibiotics. For several years now medical experts from the University of Bonn have been clocking up largely positive experience with what is known as medihoney. Even chronic wounds infected with multi-resistant bacteria often healed within a few weeks. In conjunction with colleagues from Düsseldorf, Homburg and Berlin they now want to test the experience gained in a...

X-rays reveal Archimedes secrets By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News A series of hidden texts written by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes are being revealed by US scientists. Until now, the pages have remained obscured by paintings and texts laid down on top of the original writings. Using a non-destructive technique known as X-ray fluorescence, the researchers are able to peer through these later additions to read the underlying text.

The 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries have witnessed the most spectacular population growth in human history, most of it in Third World countries. The world’s population, estimated at 6.4 billion in 2006, grows by more than 70 million people per year. In sixty years, Brazil’s population has increased by 318 per cent; Ethiopia’s by 503 per cent. There are now 73 million people in Ethiopia – more than the population of Britain or France. At the same time, many of the most economically successful countries, both in the East and in the West, have problems with ageing...

As co-author of Showdown: Why China Wants War With the United States, I have argued that the real villain behind last week’s North Korean missile test is Red China. Why? Because the tests were undoubtedly an intelligence windfall for the Communist regime in Beijing. [snip] As a result of the tests, the PRC got a free look at U.S. capabilities. The PRC saw which military resources the U.S. committed, which tactical weapons were deployed, (ships, air and land-based systems), which frequencies [were] used (to be jammed in time of war). They also got to see how quickly and accurately we...

DENVER A 15-year-old girl can enter into a common-law marriage in Colorado, and younger girls and boys possibly can, too, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

I've searched extensively online for a new ISP. No luck. I think I'll have better luck with recommendations from my FReeper FRiends. Requirements: 1) It must be cheap. No more than $140-$180 a year ($15 a month max) or not much higher. 2)It must be faster than 46.6 kbps. (That's the fastest speed I can log on at now.) Would prefer 50.6 kbps or higher. Thank you for any recommendations.

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) - Internet portal Yahoo and online auction giant eBay announced a partnership for advertising and online payments. Under the deal, Yahoo will become the exclusive third-party provider of graphical advertising on eBay's site and eBay's PayPal will become the exclusive payment system on Yahoo's sites.

Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the country's top Muslim religious authority, last month issued a religious ruling, or fatwa, condemning the display of statues in Egypt.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A former U.S. solicitor general will help Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel appeal his murder conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying Monday the case will focus on when the charges were filed. Theodore B. Olson has argued 43 cases before the nation's highest court, including representing George W. Bush in the disputed presidential race of 2000.

LONDON (Reuters) - Overseas doctors, mainly from the Indian sub-continent, demonstrated outside the Department of Health in London on Friday to protest against new rules forcing them to leave Britain.

Zimbabwe's white farmers say they have been invited to apply for land - in an apparent U-turn by the government which has seized their land.

Religious group merges with gay rights task force 1,400 'welcoming' congregations are represented -- hopes for 10,000 in 5 years The gay rights movement has found God. After decades of working to change secular institutions, the national movement, which has largely convinced society that homosexuality is neither a mental disorder nor a crime, is focusing on what its leaders say is their last, and biggest, challenge: convincing believers that it's not a sin.

I've stopped watching award shows, but I'll make an exception for one of my favorite stars/diplomats. Shirley Temple Black, age 77, will be awarded a Life Achievement Award on Sunday night. She's going to be giving a speech. I will definitely be watching. The show will be on the TNT Network at 8:00 PM, Sunday, January 29th. BTW, I tried to pick out my favorite Shirley Temple movie. It's impossible. The Little Princess, Captain January, Heidi, Stowaway... I may as well list them all. It's impossible to pick just one. Any other Shirley fans?

Hi Joe: Just when I thought it was safe to say I enjoy the occasional blockbuster, Slate has asked us to discuss whether Spielberg and Lucas "killed the movies." It was a topic raised a few months ago by Louis Menand in The New Yorker and in reviews of the British critic Tom Shone's lively pro-Hollywood book Blockbuster—which is a sort of counterargument to Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls that the most extraordinary era in American cinema (the late '60s and early '70s) ended with Jaws and Star Wars. Biskind found this a major bummer; Shone mostly thinks it's...

In his weekly opinion column, Brian Walden considers the political muddle created by archaic terms such as left wing and right wing. Of all the confusing expressions in politics, left wing and right wing are the worst. We go on using these archaic terms because they're a kind of shorthand that avoids unnecessary explanations. But we'd be better off with the explanations, even if they took time. The basic terminology of politics has become misleading. Groping around to discover what's left wing or right wing distracts us from stating what the real issues are. The language of left and right...

Kill her/Don't kill her - Where do the media & others stand on this issue? Please add to this list. Let's keep it alphabetical so we can easily find names. Don't Kill Her Art Bell President George Bush Governor Jeb Bush Alan Dershowitz (believe it or not!) John Gibson Nancy Grace Joe Scarborough Randall Terry Kill Her Deepak Chopra Attorney George Felos Barney Frank If you have knowledge regarding the following media people & others, please put them on the appropriate list. Please don't make assumptions (as with Alan Dershowitz above). You have to have actually heard the words come...

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, AUTHOR, “RIGHTS FROM WRONGS”: Well, the legal situation is, whether you approve of it or not that, the court has ruled that this is the young woman’s choice, that she has made a decision to die and they are simply enforcing her will. My own view, if I were writing the Florida law, would be very different. I would say that the statement of one person reported by one other person, not in writing... SCARBOROUGH: Hearsay. DERSHOWITZ: ... should not be enough to overcome the presumption of life, that you have plenty of time, all of eternity to...

Western aid winning hearts By Mark Dodd January 12, 2005 THE spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah says he is losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Aceh's tsunami survivors because of the humanitarian assistance from Australian and US military forces. A spokesman for Abu Bakar Bashir said the Indonesian cleric, who is on trial for terrorism, regarded the relief operations by Australian and US military personnel as a dangerous development, overshadowing the role of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI). "We are suspicious of the presence of foreign soldiers and their show of force and the minimum publicity given...

Gay leaders try to reframe struggle for marriage rights/They'll reach out to Middle America Washington -- From adopting a NASCAR dad to embracing the moral rhetoric of the 1960s civil rights movement, gay and lesbian leaders are rethinking their message and market after last week's sweeping election losses, but they are refusing to retreat on same-sex marriage. The Nov. 2 election was "a wake-up call for gay and lesbian Americans and organizations," Patrick Guerriero, president of the gay Log Cabin Republicans, declared in a new mission statement. "We lost," Guerriero said. "If we listen to those attempting to sanitize or...