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ROME (AP) -- Italian police have arrested a man in Venice who was allegedly wandering around St. Mark's Square and other city landmarks while secretly filming thousands of women's bottoms, officials said Tuesday. The man was arrested Saturday after police on patrol noticed him closely following a young woman while carrying a large bag hanging from his shoulder. "He was very well dressed," paramilitary police Capt. Mario Marino said. "He followed her and when she bent over to pick up something he tried to place the tip of the bag under her skirt." Upon inspection, the bag revealed a sophisticated...

A Dane County sheriff's deputy stopped a jail inmate from committing suicide Monday night after finding the inmate with a sheet tied around his neck. According to the sheriff's office, the incident happened about 11 p.m. Monday. "The deputy found the inmate attempting to strangle himself," said sheriff's office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer. "He was able to untie the sheet from around the man's neck, enabling the inmate to get oxygen." The inmate was conscious but turning blue and gasping for air. Jail medical staff responded and assisted in stabilizing the inmate. The inmate was transported to UW Hospital, and while...

On May 2, Chile's Chaiten Volcano released a gigantic cloud of emissions composed of ash, steam, smoke, and various oddball gases whose estimated amount equals to one trillion cow farts, a UN-sponsored climate change study revealed. "In just one day, this volcano set the Kyoto Protocol back 15 years, obliterating the otherwise outstanding success of our multi-billion dollar efforts to curb the release of cow farts into the atmosphere," complained Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Cow Farts (IPCF) Rajendra K. Pachauri at an emergency conference at Grand Plaza Hotel in New York yesterday. "Therefore, we demand that this eruption be...

CONFLUENCE, Pa. - Two Somerset County men are charged with trying to steal live power lines that were still attached to a transformer and utility poles...

Dartmouth English professor Priya Venkatesan is suing her students for “mental harassment” and the college’s administrators for “failure to safeguard my emotional health.” Venkatesan maintains that some of her students were so resistant to her exposition of “French narrative theory” that the classroom became a “hostile working environment.” “They argued with my ideas,” she charged. “They questioned my authority.” The professor’s suit mentions a specific incident wherein students assailed her contention that science is “a patriarchal construct that suppresses feminine ways of knowing.” One of the students took issue, citing empirical evidence in his argument. When he was applauded by...

World Top Secret: Our Earth Is Hollow! About the Author... RODNEY M. CLUFF, author of World Top Secret: Our Earth Is Hollow! was born and raised in the American colony of Colonia Juarez in northern Mexico. He became interested in the Hollow Earth Theory at the age of 16 while working on a New Mexico farm where the farm manager told the workers of the theory. He thought, What an ideal place for the Lord to hide the Lost Tribes of Israel! After graduating from high school, Mr. Cluff served a full-time mission for the LDS Church in Mexico where...

In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers. The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on. "They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio...

American psychologists have unearthed a “marital rating scale” used by marriage counsellors in 1939 to assess the performance of wives – and the categories make interesting reading for modern couples brought up to believe in the equality of the sexes. Women are awarded marks if they dress for breakfast, ask their husband’s opinions on important decisions and let their partners sleep late on Sundays and holidays.....

COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A southwest Ohio man who planned to be buried next to his mother found someone else already in his grave. David L. Bingham says someone who shares his name has taken over his final resting place in Colerain Township.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - Savannah police say a homeless man was electrocuted after apparently trying to steal copper from wires on a utility pole. The Savannah-Chatham Metro Police say the man, whose identity was withheld until notification of relatives, fell from the pole near the Amtrak station Sunday night after he tried to cut live wires at the top. More than 100 cases of copper theft were reported to Savannah police last year, and it continues to be a problem.

HOLYHEAD, Wales — A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of a group calling itself the Jedi church was given a suspended sentence Tuesday. Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, attacked Jedi church founder Barney Jones — aka Master Jonba Hehol — with a metal crutch, hitting him on the head, prosecutors told Holyhead Magistrates' Court. He also whacked Jones' 18-year-old cousin, Michael Jones — known as Master Mormi Hehol — bruising his thigh in the March 25 incident, prosecutors said. The two cousins and Barney Jones' brother, Daniel, set...

Like many Americans who have severe forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Ms. Saks and Ms. Spikol are speaking candidly and publicly about their demons. Their frank talk is part of a conversation about mental illness (or as some prefer to put it, “extreme mental states”) that stretches from college campuses to community health centers, from YouTube to online forums. “Until now, the acceptance of mental illness has pretty much stopped at depression,” said Charles Barber, a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. “But a newer generation, fueled by the Internet and other...

INHABITANTS OF THE MOON By D. B. Huntington. From the Young Woman's Journal Vol 3 published by the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of Zion in 1892 Astronomers and philosophers have, from time almost immemorial until very recently, asserted that the moon was uninhabited, that it had no atmosphere etc.. But recent discoveries, through the means of powerful telescopes, have given scientists a doubt or two upon the old theory.Nearly all the great discoveries of men in the last half-century have, in one way or another, either directly or indirectly, contributed to prove Joseph Smith to be a Prophet.As far...

Man On The Moon--A Colossal Hoax that Cost Billions of Dollars Although many believe man first reached the moon in July, 1969, we have information from a very reliable source, the Sanskrit Vedic scriptures, that the astronauts never actually went to the moon. The manned moon landing was a colossal hoax. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami (04-08-08) Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, the spiritual master of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, once described materialistic civilization as "a society of the-cheaters and the cheated." Looking at our modern world, we can easily see why: massive advertising campaigns for cigarettes and liquor that...

Estonian authorities have slapped a flatulence tax on farmers to compensate the country for the methane gas produced by cows. Farmers this week received their first 'fart tax' demands asking them to pay for the greenhouse gases their cattle produce.

It seems like a peculiar case of genomic overkill: a single-celled bacterium has been found that keeps tens of thousands of copies of its genome. The finding sets a record for most genomes per cell, but also poses an obvious question: what could be the advantage of stashing away as much as 200,000 copies of your genome? The number of genome copies in each cell varies by species. Many bacteria have only one copy; most cells in the human body contain two. Plants are notorious for being genomically promiscuous, picking up extra genomes then losing them again in a cycle...

Mainland archaeologists have discovered a fractured but almost complete skull in Xuchang , Henan province , that they believe is from an anatomically modern Homo sapiens nearly 100,000 years old. If the estimate is correct and if the skull, broken into 16 pieces seemingly by a powerful strike, demonstrates a feature of the East Asian population, then one of palaeoanthropology's paradigms - "Out of Africa" - may be shattered. Part of the Out of Africa theory holds that anatomically modern human beings first appeared in Africa. Then, about 100,000 years ago, they moved off the continent and took over the...

Just for fun, let us remember today the real(sic) history behind Sinko de Mayo. Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York. This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico. But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank,...

Why did the chicken cross the road? BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE! JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road. HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road.; This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to...

Economic weakness trims March trade deficit with imports falling sharply WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as demand for imports fell by the largest amount since the last recession was ending. The Commerce Department reported Friday that the deficit totaled $58.2 billion, down 5.6 percent from February, a larger improvement than had been expected. The smaller deficit reflected spreading weakness in the U.S. economy, which cut demand for imports by 2.9 percent, the largest one-month decline since December 2001, one month after the last recession ended. The decline, which pushed imports down to $206.7 billion,...

Italian builders uncover 2,000-year-old tombs ARCHAEOLOGISTS were yesterday celebrating the discovery of 27 2,000-year-old tombs in Italy's "Valley of the Dead". The tombs, some dating back to the 7th century BC, were found by chance while builders carried out work. The whole area was sealed off yesterday and put under police guard to prevent anyone from trying to steal artefacts inside the burial chambers. Grave robbers, or tombaroli as they are known in Italy, make a lucrative living from selling such objects to museums or private collectors. Archaeologists say there is also a "good chance" that there may well be...

In yesterday's paper, a story by Megan Gillis who covers the local courts beat gave me pause. In fact, I had to do a double-take on the front page date to ensure it wasn't April Fool's Day. Get this: The city's panhandlers union has launched a million-dollar lawsuit against the City of Ottawa because the city dared to install a $25,000 fence at the underpass between the Rideau Centre and the Government Conference Centre. The panhandlers union (PU in short form) alleges that this fence violates their freedom of association as guaranteed to them under the Charter of Rights and...

Eat like a caveman for a healthy heart By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent Last Updated: 8:28PM BST 08/05/2008 A “caveman diet” of berries, nuts, lean meat and fish could help reduce the risk of developing heart disease, a new study shows. Scientists found that volunteers who ate the stone age fare for just three weeks had lowered blood pressure and a reduced risk of clots. They also lost an average of five pounds in weight.Meat, as long as it is lean, is beneficial Our early ancestors lived on a diet lacking in cereals, dairy products and refined sugar for centuries...

There is a news report starting to make the rounds amongst the MSM on a study that claims to have discovered why conservatives tend to be happier than liberals and it is just the sort of bilge that the MSM loves to promulgate. We may see more of it over the next several days because, while it is titled "Conservatives Happier Than Liberals," it is basically saying that the reason conservatives are happier is because they just don't care about other people. This purported research claims to pinpoint the reason conservatives are happier and it is because they have theirs...

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A Florida man is accused of ripping off his wife's prosthetic leg during a fight after leaving a sports bar. Officers in Port St. Lucie said they found a 29-year-old woman in a sport utility vehicle Tuesday night with a bruised eye and missing a leg and pants. "He ripped my leg off," the woman told police. Police then questioned the woman's husband, Luis Ramirez, 35, who said he was arguing with his wife after leaving a bar, TCPalm reported. He denied stealing her leg. The woman told police that Ramirez became possessed and started...

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A top Canadian official sought to calm an international uproar over hundreds of ducks killed at Canada's biggest oil sands plant by promising, at a U.S. oil industry event on Monday, that the incident will not go unpunished. The deaths of 500 ducks last week on a Syncrude Canada Ltd wastewater pond was unacceptable, Industry Minister Jim Prentice said during an acceptance speech after Canada was named "Country of the Year" by Energy Magazine. "We anticipate those responsible will face full scrutiny under Canadian law and, insofar as the government of Canada is concerned, there will...

Saturday, May 3, 2008 6:38 AM CDT Postville men arrested, charged with 27 fishing violations WEST UNION (AP) --- Three men have been arrested and charged with 27 fishing violations after using beer cans to catch trout from a northeastern Iowa creek. Authorities say an off-duty Fayette County deputy noticed suspicious fishing activity at Glovers Creek trout stream earlier this week. He called the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. DNR officials accuse the three men of illegally tying fishing lines to empty beer cans, then dragging the cans with the catch to shore. Authorities seized the trout, illegal fishing lines,...

   International Respect for Chickens Day, May 4, celebrates the devotion of hens to their chicks and deplores the suffering of motherless chickens on factory farms. In this photo, Ruby fosters Ivy, a chick rescued from a factory farm in North Carolina to live in a safe and loving home. (PRNewsFoto/United Poultry Concerns)MACHIPONGO, VA UNITED STATES May is International Respect for Chickens Month MACHIPONGO, Va., April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- InternationalRespect for Chickens Day, May 4, celebrates the dignity, beauty and life ofchickens and protests against the bleakness of their lives in farmingoperations. Launched by United Poultry Concerns in 2005,...

Protein analysis confirms modern birds descended from huge predatory dinosaur, study finds. In the first analysis of proteins extracted from dinosaur bones, scientists say they have established more firmly than ever that the closest living relatives of the mighty predator Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds. The research, being published today in...

The look that says 'I've just eaten all your chickens': The fox who was too fat to flee the coop Last updated at 15:16pm on 27th March 2008Opening her chicken coop one morning, Terri Strick hoped to find some fresh eggs from her hens. Instead all she found was one - very full - fox, as well as an assortment of blood-stained feathers. Leave me alone: Basil looks unimpressed to be woken up after feasting on the chickens The creature, which she has nicknamed Basil, had already killed six of her chickens the week before. He returned two weeks ago...

You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the "dignity" of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called "plant rights" is being seriously debated. A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring "account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms." No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology...

When Barack Obama needed Oprah Winfrey’s help, she delivered. When he needed an infusion of campaign cash, she threw a star-studded fundraiser last summer at her California estate. When he needed a big-name draw in the early-primary states, she addressed massive crowds in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. And when Obama was looking for a late boost in a critical Super Tuesday state, Winfrey was once again there for him, giving up her Sunday afternoon for a Los Angeles rally. But as Obama faces his most crucial primary day in months and struggles to move past the Rev. Jeremiah...

Gary Paul Nabhan has spent most of the past four years compiling a list of endangered plants and animals that were once fairly commonplace in American kitchens but are now threatened, endangered or essentially extinct in the marketplace. He has set out to save them, which often involves urging people to eat them. Nabhan engaged seven culinary, environmental and conservation groups to help him identify items for the list and return them to culinary rotation. Then, leveraging the rising interest in regional food, he convinced hundreds of chefs, farmers and curious eaters to grow and cook some of the lost...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A giant inflatable pig that went missing from a Southern California music festival at the weekend has been found in tatters in a desert town. The pig, which has been a signature Pink Floyd stage prop since its appearance on the 1977 cover of "Animals" featuring the song "Pigs on the Wing," broke away from its tethers on Sunday night at Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival. The festival organizers offered a $10,000 reward for the two-story inflatable pig belonging to ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters. Two couples said on Wednesday they had found the shredded...

This had me in stitches this morning -- enjoy. (h/t Jonah at NRO)

EL PASO, TX - A little known domestic terrorist group has become a major target of the Department of Homeland Security in recent months. The group, known as the Tumbleweed Liberation Front, or TLF, is a militant environmentalist faction with cells throughout the western states...

I love the juxtaposition of video clips of Iraq and Berkely when a hippie claim that the marines make him feel like Berkely is being "occupied". The ex-marine flips out flips out and when an old bearded hippie asks him what's wrong just he says, "oh my buzz, I'm getting a little wrecked". The old guy says "Right on man." When a code pinker says its important to protect free speech so she can protest. He says, "If only there was an organization sworn to protect that free speech." She says "that would be great." You can't make this...

A "What If" parody asking what would happen if Christians acted like Muslims. Uses the blasphemous new Paul Verhoeven book about Jesus as a springboard. Excerpt: "In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared a state of emergency this morning as factional fighting between Christian militants paralyzed the city. Elements of the Legion of Mary, Campus Crusade for Christ and the Salvation Army clashed in Manhattan and Queens, while members of the First International Holy Crusade Church of the Power of God in Christ, Inc declared Harlem an autonomous Christian state."

With as much ink as is devoted to House Bill 89, it is remarkable that there is often a deficit of fact and reality. HB 89 contains language that would allow more than 300,000 Georgians who have undergone background checks and satisfied other requirements to obtain concealed handgun licenses the ability to defend themselves in restaurants. Ron Wolf of the Georgia Restaurant Association decries this proposal ("Take guns off the menu," @issue April 29). We think that is unreasonable. Even the finest restaurants cannot guarantee patrons sanctuary from criminal attack and life-threatening violence. In fact, some of the most horrific...

Technologia Aeroespacial Mexicana (TAM) has designed a strap-on helicopter. Tiny rockets on the tips of the propellers eliminate the need for a tail rotor, making it possible for the device to be worn on a human body. Credit: TAM. Ever since the first human saw a bird soaring through the clouds, our species has harbored a great envy for the freedom that flying gives. Now a company from Mexico is trying to capitalize on this desire with their design for a strap-on helicopter, which is intended to be worn on the back of an individual and lift them into...

First, the bad news: the inner solar system is unstable. Given enough time, Jupiter's gravity could yank Mercury out of its present orbit. Two new computer simulations of long-term planetary motion — one by Jacques Laskar (Paris Observatory), the other by Konstantin Batygin and Gregory Laughlin (University of California, Santa Cruz) — have both reached the same disturbing conclusion. Says Laughlin, "The solar system isn't as stable as we'd thought." Both teams have found that Jupiter's gravity can increase Mercury's orbital eccentricity over time. Mercury's path around the Sun is already nearly as elliptical as Pluto's. But Jupiter can make...

DOVER, Minn. — A southeastern Minnesota woman is accused of hitting her brother-in-law with a hatchet in a dispute about cows. Brenda Kay Shorter of Dover faces two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, according to Olmsted County prosecutors. The alleged attack happened last week in Dover Township. Shorter, 35, told deputies she "just lost control" and struck the man on the head, court records said. A current phone listing for Shorter wasn't available. The alleged victim told officers he had a dispute with the woman over how he treated his cows.

Incan skull surgery By Bruce BowerApril 25th, 2008 Holes in ancient skulls reflect skilled medical careHealing Hole in the HeadANCIENT SURGERY A new analysis of ancient skulls reveals skills of Incan healers in cranial cutting.Valerie AndrushkoWhen Incan healers scraped or cut a hunk of bone out of a person’s head, they meant business. Practitioners of this technique, known as trepanation, demonstrated great skill more than 500 years ago in treating warriors’ head wounds and possibly other medical problems, rarely causing infections or killing their patients, two anthropologists find. Trepanation emerged as a promising but dangerous medical procedure by about 1,000...

WASHINGTON: Human beings for 100,000 years lived in tiny, separate groups, facing harsh conditions that brought them to the brink of extinction, before they reunited and populated the world, genetic researchers in a study said on Thursday. "Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction," said paleontologist Meave Leakey, of Stony Brook University, New York. The genetic study examined for the first time the evolution of our species from its origins with "mitochondrial Eve," a female hominid...

Erie, Pa. – Astronomers are looking to identify Earth-like watery worlds circling distant stars from a glint of light seen through an optical space telescope and a mathematical method developed by researchers at Penn State and the University of Hawaii. "We are looking for Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of their star, a band not too hot nor too cold for life to exist," says Darren M. Williams, associate professor of physics and astronomy, Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. "We also want to know if there is water on these planets." For life to exist, planets must have...

Armed only with a screwdriver, a 95-year-old woman in a wheel chair kept a burglar from breaking into her home by repeatedly stabbing his hand. It was 3 a.m. when a 95-year-old Bartlesville woman heard somebody break the glass on her front door and push the door open. When a hand came inside and tried to unlock the door, she stabbed it. Again and again. She stabbed that hand many times over the next hour, say Bartlesville Police. The woman would not leave the door for fear the man would break in while she was calling for help. Eventually, the...

"The idea is simple: Instead of growing a chicken embryo into a bird and cutting meat from it, you skip the bird part and grow the meat directly from the embryo."

Scientists say pyramids could be concrete April 23, 2008 Scientists are taking a new look at Egypt's pyramids to see if some of the blocks could have been made from concrete. Linn W. Hobbs, a materials science professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Boston Globe there is a chance ancient Egyptians could have cast the blocks from synthetic material instead of carving them from quarries. Scientists have long believed Romans were the first to use structural concrete. Undergraduates in MIT's Materials in Human Experience class are building a scale-model pyramid made of quarried limestone and blocks cast from...

We've all goofed up and flubbed up things we've previously done time and again. It turns out the root of these brain farts may be a special kind of abnormal brain activity that begins up to 30 seconds before a mistake even happens. The solution to such screw-ups could be a kind of mind-reading hat, a device to predict and even prevent mindless errors that can threaten lives. When people blunder after performing the same task over and over, scientists had suspected that such lapses were due to momentary hiccups in concentration. Still, little was known about what the brain...

Mika: Clinton Campaign 'Pounced Like Lemmings' By Mark Finkelstein | April 22, 2008 - 07:16 ET Granted, there lots of time to go, but it's not going to be easy to catch Mika Brzezinski, the early clubhouse leader for the Year's Most Inapt Metaphor. Barackophile Brzezinski made her bid for the prize during the opening segment of today's Morning Joe, accusing the Clinton campaign of having pounced on Obama like . . . lemmings. Let's set the stage: the topic was a TV commercial Hillary's running in PA that, in touting her readiness to confront any crisis, briefly flashed an...