OSLO (AFP) - Some 60 international experts will gather in the tiny Arctic town of Vardoe, home to the worst of the Norwegian witch trials in the 17th century, on Thursday for three days of lectures and talks on witchcraft in ancient and contemporary societies.

As in the past, the alleged witches are most often scapegoats singled out by their communities as responsible for illnesses, disasters, poor harvests, bad weather and other misfortunes.

According to humanitarian organisations, in the Democratic Republic of Congo thousands of handicapped or HIV-positive children have been labelled "child witches" by self-proclaimed Pentecostal pastors and thrown onto the streets, sometimes killed.

George W. Bush has turned the executive branch into a two-way mirror. They get to see everything Americans do: our telephone calls, e-mail, and all manner of personal information. And we get to see nothing about what they do.

Everyone knows this administration has disdained openness and accountability since its first days. That is about the only thing it does not hide. But recent weeks have produced disturbing disclosures about just how far Bushs team is willing to go to keep lawmakers and the public in the dark.

Morning Edition, June 26, 2007 � A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that many doctors waste patients time ? and lose their focus ? by interjecting irrelevant information about themselves.

Researchers say physicians disclosed personal information in about one-third of office visits, and 85 percent of the disclosures werent helpful to the patient.

They may be trying to put their patients at ease, but once doctors started yakking about themselves, they rarely returned to the original topic.

This is a truly original and creative abstract. Inspirational use of common materials and imagination that is truly "outside the box".

WASHINGTON, June 25 ? After offering a bleak assessment of the Bush administration?s strategy in Iraq, Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said today that he was urging lawmakers and President Bush to change course quickly to protect a further erosion of America?s standing in the world.

PETA has a message for Michael Moore: You?re the Sicko.

The animal-rights group is blasting the filmmaker as a hypocrite for criticizing the U.S. healthcare system in his new documentary, ?Sicko,? because they say he?s in such poor health himself.

?There?s an elephant in the room, and it is you,? PETA president Ingrid Newkirk wrote in a letter to Moore.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.

He is one of the most severely injured soldiers - some think the most injured soldier - to survive.

As a high schooler, Briseno liked the Discovery Channel and CSI, and wanted to be a forensic scientist or investigator. He was 20 years old, attending George Mason University, when he was called up from the reserves and sent to war.

"All our savings, all our money, was just emptied ... the 401(k)s, everything," said Joseph Briseno, who took a new job a year and a half ago to make ends meet.

The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation. It still faces formidable obstacles in the Senate, including bitter opposition by GOP conservatives and attempts by some waverers in both parties to revise its key elements.

We?ve all been in this situation: You?ve just finished dinner, and dessert is coming up, but your beer just won?t taste right chasing down something sweet. ?What do I do?? You ask yourself, but your desire for dessert AND beer tears you apart. Naturally, you decline the sweets and opt for something salty to go with your frosty beverage.

That?s all in the past, because now you can have your beer and eat it too with the Yebisu beer jelly, a gelatin desert that is based on, smells like, and tastes like (you guessed it) Yebisu Premium Beer.

We tested out the beer jelly today and it lives up to its name. It?s jelly that tastes like beer. Perhaps the beer industry felt left out when all of the normal beverages like Calpis, Pocari Sweat, CC Lemon, and the rest all got their own popular lines of candy and desserts?

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Condemned prisoner Patrick Knight was executed Tuesday evening for the deaths of an Amarillo-area couple without delivering on a promise to tell a joke in his final statement.

Patrick Knight has been soliciting jokes in the mail and on a Web site, sometimes receiving as many as 20 a day, saying his humor was intended to raise the spirits of other inmates. He said he received as many as 1,300 proposals.

But when the moment came, Knight thanked God for his friends and asked for help for innocent men on death row. He named several he said were innocent. His voice shaking and nearly in tears, he said, "Not all of us are innocent, but those are."

After expressing love to some friends, he said, "I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. Thats the biggest joke. I deserve this."

"And the other joke is that I am not Patrick Bryan Knight and yall cant stop this execution now. Go ahead, Im finished."

There are many reasons why people like keyboards, one of the reasons is so that they can feel the keys with their fingers.� Fingers are those long skinny things that hang at the end of the your hands.� They have a bunch of nerves in the fingertips that enable people to feel things.� They can feel things like buttons.

777.coms Online Party on July 7, 2007

Welcome to the luckiest website in the world on the luckiest day ever!

We consider 777 day a very special occasion and a reason for celebration.

Mr. Murdoch has flattered Communist Party leaders and done business with their children. His Fox News network helped China?s leading state broadcaster develop a news Web site. He joined hands with the Communist Youth League, a power base in the ruling party, in a risky television venture, his China managers and advisers say.

Mr. Murdoch cooperates closely with China?s censors and state broadcasters, several people who worked for him in China say. He cultivates political ties that he hopes will insulate his business ventures from regulatory interference, these people say.

In speeches and interviews, Mr. Murdoch often supports the policies of Chinese leaders and attacks their critics. A group of China-based reporters for The Journal accused him in a letter to Dow Jones shareholders of ?sacrificing journalistic integrity to satisfy personal and political aims,? a charge the News Corporation denies.

Engineers Prove That Boxer, Hitman Hatton, Packs A Mighty Punch

Afghanistans Helmand province, heartland of Taliban guerrillas fighting NATO forces, is about to become the worlds largest drug supplier, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Helmand, a province in the south of Afghanistan, cultivated more drugs than entire countries such as Myanmar, Morocco or even Colombia, the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) said in its 2007 World Drug Report.

While the amount of land under illicit poppy cultivation fell by 10 percent globally between 2000 and 2006, global opium production soared by 43 percent to a record high of 6,610 tons in 2006 from a year earlier.

This was due to a shift in output from inferior Southeast Asian fields to more productive ones in Afghanistan -- which in 2006 produced 92 percent of all opium in the world.

Other worrying signs came from Africa, suggesting the impoverished continent could find itself at the crossroads of international drug crime.

William Shatner has taken�on a new role, as�muse to artists who created 76 works based on the actor for�Calgarys Uppercase Gallery.

"Every artist has their muse,"�he said in a message posted on the gallerys website. "Who am I to stand in the way of all these fine artists and artisans who want to use my lumpy, aging face for inspiration?

"Some creators love a great sunset; some have in mind my bloodshot eyes. Nevertheless, out of awe, amusement or pity, you should come and see this unique show."

New and established artists from across the continent contributed works.

The results�include a bust of Shatner made from�more than�9,000 Lego pieces, Shatner as Bonhomme,�Shatner portraits, Shatner driving the last spike and Shatner as Kirk�embraced by�a Gorn, a reptilian humanoid space creature.

"Its kind of about him as the centre of the universe," said artist Katie Radke.

Bringing It All Back Home is Bob Dylans fifth studio album, released in 1965 by Columbia Records.

I don?t believe people are looking
for the meaning of life
as much as they are looking
for the experience of being alive.
- Joseph Campbell

Luminosity is also about going toward the light, being in love with the light and not even worrying about getting away from the darkness. Ive learned that whatever I try to get away from only follows me, nipping at my heels. Going toward the light gives more hope. It takes less energy than trying to get away from something - and its much more fun.

Unlike previous studies, the research for the Brotherhood of St Laurence takes into account the indirect greenhouse gas emissions from producing everyday goods and services, from food and clothes to watching television, drinking alcohol and catching a plane.

The research found that wealthy, tertiary-educated households had by far the biggest "carbon footprint" in Australia, generating almost 58 tonnes of greenhouse pollution a year.

In contrast, poor families were only responsible for 22 tonnes of emissions, with pensioners and people living on welfare also recording the lowest carbon footprints. The national average was 32 tonnes a year.

The difference largely mirrors income, with the wealthiest households spending $1900 a week (excluding rent), while poor families spend just $468.

Currently the best way of treating serious burns and large wounds is to take skin from part of a patients body and graft it on to the damaged area.

To this is added human fibroblasts - cells used by the body to synthesise new tissue.

Voltaire Quotes
Quotes

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. ~ Voltaire, French Philosopher (1694-1778)

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.---- Voltaire

�I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. --Voltaire

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts. --Voltaire

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. --Voltaire

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. --Voltaire

The best way to become boring is to say everything. --Voltaire

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. --Voltaire

Ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women, accounting for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. It is estimated that there will be about 15,280 deaths from ovarian cancer in the United States during 2007.

• Tissues
• Dust pad
• Vacuum Cleaner
• Screwdriver
• Toothpicks
• Cup of water (optional)
• Q-tips (optional)

The researchers hope it might provide an alternative to skin grafts.

But this is not ideal, and there have been attempts to create a form of artificial skin.

In a process that effectively replicates the way the body makes new skin, the cells produce and release another protein, collagen, which makes the matrix more stable.

The researchers say that because the matrix is in a stable form, it is more able to withstand changes that take place during the healing process.

Others, however, have warned it is easy to heal a small, surgically-created wound in healthy volunteers, and that the true test will come when the technique is tried on real patients with real burns.

Images That Changed The World ?

More than 1,500 Nepalese women have signed up with private firms to train for a possible career with the British army after it allowed them to join the Brigade of Gurkhas for the first time in nearly two centuries.

Britain is studying how Nepalese women could be recruited for its Gurkha brigade and authorities took out a newspaper advertisement this month asking women to give "notification of interest" to serve in the army.

Gurkha soldiers, a tribe from Nepals Himalayan foothills known for their fierce combat abilities, have been serving in the British army since 1815. But until now, men have only been allowed to join

Washington - The CIA released hundreds of pages of internal reports on Tuesday detailing assassination plots against foreign leaders such as Cubas Fidel Castro and the secret testing of mind-and-behaviour altering drugs like LSD on unwitting US citizens.

Inside the Central Intelligence Agency, the documents were referred to as the "skeletons". But another name quickly caught on and stuck: "family jewels".

The CIA gave them six poison pills, and they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in the Cuban leaders food. This particular plot was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, but other plots continued against Castro. Details of this plot first appeared in Jack Andersons newspaper column in 1971.

Owners of recruitment offices for housemaids in Saudi Arabia have dismissed the labour ministrys plan to get Saudi women to work as housekeepers in an attempt to solve a shortage of maids after some Asian countries raised the minimum wage.

"Saudi families will refuse to hire a Saudi maid as these families are psychologically not accustomed to them and at the same time ... the issue requires the introduction of a new societal culture, despite that some poor Saudi women may reluctantly agree to work in rich family households," owners of recruitment offices for housemaids said in a statement to Gulf News.

A report by a Saudi newspaper said that the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Social Affairs are planning to encourage Saudi women to work as housekeepers

Facebook Toolbar for Firefox

The Facebook Toolbar for Firefox is a free extension for Firefox 2.0 that lets you extend your Facebook experience into your everyday browsing.

Millions of Americans spend their lives semi-conscious, unable to awaken from the darker version of the American Dream ? an endless parade of office buildings, meetings, shopping malls, and television commercials.

Instead of pursuing purpose, we pursue material things: plasma televisions, new cars, and granite countertops. We work at jobs we hate so we can buy things we do not need. We exchange our souls for empty production and consumption.

When I think of popular American culture, I am reminded of two quotes from George Romero?s 1978 zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead:

• Dr. Millard Rousch, Scientist: ?These creatures are nothing but pure, motorized instinct.?
• Flyboy: ?They don?t know [why the zombies keep coming to the mall]? All they know is that it used to be a very important part of their lives.?

BlueGene/L will be succeeded by the new supercomputers

The worlds fastest commercial supercomputer has been launched by computer giant IBM.

Blue Gene/P is three times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM.

Approximately 100,000 times more powerful than a PC, the first machine has been bought by the US government.

Perusing the revamped Ask.com a few thoughts quickly come to the fore: Nice interface, like the icons, the results aren?t bad and it?ll never catch Google.

Here?s the cycle: A search engine like Ask.com launches a 3D interface, skins and other key features. People like me check them out and then go back to that same old search box at the top right (or someplace else) on the browser. In most cases, the default search is Google. It almost makes me wonder if Google?s market share is a function of collective laziness. In any case, Ask.com?s buzz will wane once the news coverage fades.

Well no more. I?m going to force myself to forgo Google for a few weeks. There are a few reasons behind this move. For starters, I should be using alternate search engines as a matter of principle. In addition, Google is just creeping me out lately with all this Big Brotherish stuff like StreetView. Now Google isn?t evil, but I?m still wary.

Heres a scenario: You start a rock band, which you just happen to name after spending several hours huffing paint and drinking bleach. You spend a few years playing small clubs until youre discovered by a major label and start selling a lot of records. And suddenly you realize that the stupid name you thought up when you were huffing all that paint is going to follow you around for the rest of your life.

Here are the 25 bands who, regardless of their own musical quality, have the stupidest names on record.

* As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human
existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere
being.

Carl Jung, psychoanalyst

Imagine the shock of growing up in a loving family with people you call "Mum" and "Dad" and then, suddenly, learning that you are actually adopted!

This same sense of shock came as scientists announced that the Sun, the Moon, our planet and its siblings, were not born into the familiar band of stars known as the Milky Way galaxy, but we actually belong to a strange formation with the unfamiliar name of the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy!

The victim appealed to the church, asking it to stop Hanser from working near children, but the church would not intervene. "Its up to the church to decide where he works," argued the priests lawyer.

The CIA released hundreds of heavily censored documents Tuesday about its spying on Americans, foreign assassination plots and other misdeeds that triggered a scandal in the mid-1970s.

But as censored by the CIA, many of the most sensational events were mentioned in little more than one, sketchy paragraph apiece.

Pittsburgh - A former school security guard accused of hiding a teenage runaway in his home for a decade and having sex with her pleaded guilty on Tuesday, the opening day of his trial.

Thomas John Hose, 49, took in the 14-year-old girl and kept her from leaving the tiny home he shared with his parents and son, prosecutors said.

Tanya Nicole Kach, now 25, has said the two regularly had sex during her captivity.

Hose had been a security guard at Kachs school, and Kach went to live with him in February 1996. She has said she had a crush on him.

Hoses trial was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but instead he pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault, three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, two counts of indecent assault and one count each of endangering the welfare of children, corruption of a minor, interference with custody of children and aggravated indecent assault.

I give you the camel toe

Gone Fishin?

June 1940. Cajun boys fishing in the bayou near Schriever, Louisiana, not far from the Terrebonne School. View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Marion Post Wolcott, Farm Security Administration.

FROM BEYOND

Newspaper columnist Jack Anderson of the Washington Post was later put under CIA surveillance after he obtained information on the plot from the gangster.

The document says the CIA contacted a "trusted operational" source, Robert Maheu, to make contact with Roselli, whom he knew socially from visits to Las Vegas.

Maheu told Roselli his clients -- identified as international business firms whose interests were suffering under Castros regime -- were offering $150,000 for the death of Castro.

Maheu specifically said the U.S. government was not aware and should not become aware of the operation.

Roselli initially resisted but ultimately introduced Maheu to two men who would carry out the hit -- Chicago Mafia leaders, both of whom were on the 10 Most Wanted list.

"In August last year mother nature teased the residents of Gauteng with a promise of snow and even dispensed a few tantalising snowflakes, but nothing substantial enough to be termed a proper snowfall."

There were also reports of light snow in Waverley in Pretoria, said Gill. The last time there were widespread snowfalls in Pretoria was on 11 June 1968.

All companies, we will take them over if they continue with their dirty game. Take note, we will be equal to the challenge. We are capable of playing that game too," he said.

The threat came after a government minister said on Tuesday Zimbabwe will transfer control of all companies, including foreign banks and some mining operations, to locals if a planned black empowerment bill is passed.

Analysts said the move could deepen the countrys economic crisis.

Astronomers look to quark stars for a fifth dimension

IF THE universe has weird extra-spatial dimensions in parallel to the 3D world we see around us, then billion-dollar particle accelerators may not be the only place to find them.

So say Gergely Gabor Barnaf�ldi and colleagues at the Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics in Budapest, Hungary, who propose that extra dimensions may show their face in areas of extreme gravity around dense stars. The concept could also solve a 25-year-old puzzle about the origin of mysterious particles emanating from a distant star system.

If You See a Father Holding His Child?s Hand, Call the Cops!

If dad goes for a walk with his daughter and holds her hand, apparently Virginia Department of Health officials wants you to pick up the phone and destroy his life by reporting him as a possible sexual abuser. I would?ve thought this article about this campaign was from the Onion or some satirical publication, but it?s for real.

One of the most beautiful pictures I?ve ever seen is a picture of my father walking on the beach near sunset holding my daughter?s little hand. The picture above of a man holding a child?s hand?a touching little scene?is actually supposed to make us think he?s sexually abusing the child. Unbelievable.

From Campaign advocates recognizing, reporting suspected abuse (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 6/21/07):

?State health officials are trying a new tactic. The latest push, at least in Hampton Roads, is to educate adults on how to spot - and stop - sexual offenders.

Be the best, and someday others will be emulating you.

"These are not isolated cases," Han, director of the administrations quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday.

The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.

Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety.

"These are not isolated cases," Han, director of the administrations quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.

COLLEGE PARK, Md.-A prototype of what may be the next generation of personal computers has been developed by researchers in the University of Marylands A. James Clark School of Engineering. Capable of computing speeds 100 times faster than current desktops, the technology is based on parallel processing on a single chip.

ON the most bruising summer days it?s hard to imagine ever staring down a stove again. Those are the times when stirring sugar into cold tea feels like all the cooking anyone can handle ? and that sweetened drink seems like all the nourishment anyone will ever need. After all, the body can burn spare fat cells for days, but it hits real trouble after a few hours without liquid.

No wonder the right summer drink at the right moment feels like a lifeline and can stamp itself on the memory for years. What follows is a series of summer-drink memories brought back from impressively hot places like Iraq, Mexico and Manhattan.

All but one ends with a recipe for a favorite summer refresher, and the one that doesn?t is about beer. Even when the temperature passes 90 it?s difficult to argue that opening a beer constitutes cooking, but the results can be more satisfying than some things that take up several pages in a cookbook.

Paris Hilton: PEOPLEs Exclusive Interview

WEDNESDAY JUNE 27, 2007 09:00 AM EDT

Somewhere there is a naked Porcupine!
�
This Pit Bull decided he would attack a Porcupine; but being � brave, he learned the hard way that you cant always� win, no matter how tough you are. The vet sedated the dog and removed 1347 quills...the dog survived and hopefully learned a lesson.
�
1. � � � � Choose your fights wisely.
�
2.� � � � Dont mess with Porcupines!

Online bookseller AbeBooks.com asked customers to vote for the weirdest cookbooks. Who knew that cooking on the engine of your car was stranger than wookie cookies? The top 10:

The popular TV show "The Office" hilariously satirizes the nine-to-five work world.

The sitcom features a collection of cube-dwelling characters who are occasionally offensive, petty, obnoxious, inept, annoying, self-absorbed or unproductive -- or all of the above.

The show has clearly resonated with the public and pop-culture enthusiasts, perhaps because people sometimes catch a glimpse of "The Office" in their own workplaces.

But "The Office" offers viewers more than just laughs. The show is a cautionary tale serving up weekly reminders of how not to behave in a professional setting.

Avoid the gossip grapevine.

While funny and farcical, "The Office" does shine a spotlight on the many pitfalls of exercising poor judgment in the workplace. Use what you learn to handle yourself with tact and professionalism.

By showing respect to both your boss and your co-workers, youll build camaraderie -- and a solid reputation.

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Elizabeth Edwards confronted right-wing pundit Ann Coulter during a live interview on MSNBC this afternoon, charging that Coulters "personal attacks" on former senator John Edwards and others were based on "the language of hate."

The last time the city had "good snow" was in September 1981.

"Thereve been a few minor incidents since then in the 90s, in 1996 we had a little bit of sleet, but it was none of the big, thick stuff," Midgley said.

SA Weather Service climatologist Tracey Gill said the 10 September 1981 snow lay more than 10cm deep in places, close to the depth of snow which fell in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg

"In August last year mother nature teased the residents of Gauteng with a promise of snow and even dispensed a few tantalising snowflakes, but nothing substantial enough to be termed a proper snowfall."

There were also reports of light snow in Waverley in Pretoria, said Gill. The last time there were widespread snowfalls in Pretoria was on 11 June 1968.

The Thirteen Heavens as a Creative Progression

The levels of consciousness developed by each Underworld are developed according to a common pattern. The Maya used to describe this by the notion that a special deity or divine force ruled each of the Thirteen Heavens of the various Underworlds and from the Aztecs we have information about what these deities were:

There is also hope for reconstructing the genome of the mammoth and cave bear, according to a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Their findings are published in this weeks online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace

Over the last six months, Ive noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. Thats only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but its not a shift so much as a fragmentation. Until recently, American teenagers were flocking to MySpace. The picture is now being blurred. Some teens are flocking to MySpace. And some teens are flocking to Facebook. Who goes where gets kinda sticky... probably because it seems to primarily have to do with socio-economic class.

danah boyd
June 24, 2007

Citation: boyd, danah. 2007. "Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace ." Apophenia Blog Essay. June 24 . http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

(If you have comments, please add them to the related entry on my blog. Thank you.)

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 27, 2007 ? The search for the next ingeniously ground-breaking video game has begun. At a private developers conference this week, Nintendo announced the introduction of WiiWare?, a game-creation service that will allow developers large and small to create new downloadable video game content for sale by Nintendo through the Wii Shop Channel of the hot Wii? home video game system. WiiWare paves the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers. The first WiiWare content will launch in early 2008.

Damn! I have been throwing away coffee grounds everyday since high school and now I learn that you can use them for something! Oh well, this will have to be added to the "try sometime" list. Here are several things that those old grounds are good for:

• Deodorizer
  
• Plant food
  
• Insect repellent
  
• Dye
  
• Furniture scratch cover-up
  
• Cleaning product
  
• Kitty repellent
  
• Flea dip
  
• Dust inhibitor
  
• Cellulite reducer (what?!)
  

The DIY Maven, a featured writer on Curbly, explains all of these. So here is the scoop on the coffee grounds and here is the link to her Curbly blog.

Honor student suspended for marijuana free speech in Canada

This is an article along the lines of the "Bong hits for Jesus" article. In this case a grade 10 honor student who vows no prior drug use has been suspended from a high-school in small town Saskatchewan, Canada and was forced to miss a final exam over his research paper that compared the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. In his paper the student discussed that marijuana is the least harmful (healthwise). He was reprimanded for this accurate portrayal of the scientific evidence and cited as encouraging drug use.

Why the CIA Is Airing Its Dirty Laundry

The CIA is about to publish its "book of skeletons," as former director Bill Colby called the CIAs history of abuses. Coups, assassinations, kidnappings, domestic spying, break-ins, illegal telephone taps ? all of it past works, and mostly dribbled out in the press over the last 30 years.

So while I wouldnt count on any major revelations, CIA Director Michael Haydens declassifying this stuff is news, and good news at that. Haydens plan is not only to draw a line under the past but make a point to this and future White Houses: Politicize intelligence and youll find your name on the front page of the newspaper.

Blair swaps Downing Street for the Middle East

In a carefully choreographed sequence of events, the UN announced Mr Blairs appointment - which had been heavily trailed last week - just hours after he made his exit from British political life.

More or less simultaneously, his new role was formally announced at the UN headquarters in New York.

The former prime minister will act as the representative for the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the UN, the US, the EU and Russia.

"The president welcomes this announcement, appreciates his [Blairs] willingness to serve and to continue his work for peace in the Middle East," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Two U.S. medical institutes have teamed up to explore a poorly understood material that regulates everything from your immune system to how you digest food: baby poop.

Yes, this is serious science. At least the lab supplies are cheap.

Fourteen babies provided raw material for the poopology study, which is trying to solve a puzzle: How does the human gut change from a totally germ-free place -- in the womb -- to one filled with billions of bacteria? And why does the change happen so differently in different babies?

The medical world knows our DNA from one end to the other, but cant say the same about the intestine -- especially in the first year of life. Yet the effects last a lifetime.

IBM creates worlds most powerful computer

The first supercomputer capable of crunching through a thousand trillion mathematical operations every second has been announced by IBM. This is roughly equivalent to the combined processing power of a 2.4-kilometre-high pile of laptop computers.

Blue Gene/P will be capable of a peak performance of 3000 trillion calculations, or floating point operations, per second (3 petaflops). But its sustained performance is expected to level out at around 1 petaflop.

Each processing chip inside the machines contains 4 unique processor cores. There are 32 of these processors in every circuit board, and 32 circuit boards in every rack. With a total of 216 racks, the full machine features 884,736 unique processor cores.

When ?Digital Natives? Go to the Library

• Avoid implying to students that there is a single, correct way of doing things.
• Offer online services not just through e-mail, but through instant messaging and text messaging, which many students prefer.
• Hold LAN parties, after hours, in libraries. (These are parties where many people bring their computers to play computer games, especially those involving teams, together.)
• Schedule support services on a 24/7/365 basis, not the hours currently in use at many college libraries, which were ?set in 1963.?
• Remember that students are much less sensitive about privacy issues than earlier generations were and are much more likely to share passwords or access to databases.
• Look for ways to involve digital natives in designing library services and even providing them. ?Expertise is more important than credentials,? he said, even credentials such as library science degrees.
• Play more video games.

Scorching heat, floods wreak havoc across Europe

ATHENS (AFP) - Dozens of people across southern Europe have perished in a blistering heatwave while storms whipped the north of the continent and floods claimed four lives in Britain, officials said Wednesday.

In Greece, authorities said that the longest heatwave in the countrys history had killed five people, but media put the toll at at least 10.

"The weather conditions have been unprecedented, we have never had a heat wave lasting for eight straight days," development ministry general secretary Nikos Stefanou told private Flash Radio.

Athens on Tuesday registered temperatures of up to 46.2 degrees Celsius (115.16 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest since recordings there began in 1955, the national weather service said.

We humans are unique among the animals in having a coherent sense of self, and this begins with our appropriating our own bodies as our own. This is our most fundamental human achievement: that of transforming our pre-personal bodies ? with their blood and muscles and snot and worse ? into the ground floor of our personal identity (see my forthcoming book, My Head: Portrait in a Foxed Mirror, Atlantic Books). Looked at objectively, our bodies beneath the skin are not terribly human; indeed, they are less human than our human technologies?

Yes, we shall change; but the essence of human identity lies in this continuing self-redefinition. And if we remember that our identity and our freedom lie in the intersection between our impersonal but unique bodies and our personal individual memories and shared cultural awareness, it is difficult to worry about the erosion of either our identity or our freedom by technological advance.

Iran fuel rations spark anger, rioting

At least two pump stations torched; motorists line up for gas for hours

TEHRAN - Angry Iranian motorists lined up for gasoline for hours on Wednesday after the world?s fourth-largest oil exporter imposed fuel rationing, sparking chaotic scenes and the torching of at least two pump stations.

One Iranian news agency, Fars, said 12 gasoline stations were set ablaze in Tehran after the government?s announcement late on Tuesday, but only two could be independently confirmed.

Some drivers had scuffled while waiting to fill up their tanks before the rationing started at midnight. Others openly criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?s government, which came to power vowing to share out Iran?s oil wealth more fairly.

Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and must import about 40 percent of its gasoline, a sensitive issue when world powers have threatened new U.N. sanctions in a row with Tehran over its nuclear program.

A former National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, makes clear that in the most literal sense ?those who want to save their life? could very well� ?lose it.?� In his 2004 book (NY: Basic Books) The Choice: Global Domination Or Global Leadership he writes: ?An anxious America, obsessed with its own security, could find itself isolated in a hostile world? (p. viii).� Further: ?America must be more sensitive to the risk that its identification with an unjust version of globalization would prompt a worldwide reaction leading to the emergence of a new anti-American creed? (p. 228).� As Kofi Annan said in response to this book, ?we must strive to build a global community of shared interest.?� Put another way: we must make globalization or global interdependence serve social and economic justice for all, rather than fatten the bulging GNPs of America and the European Union.

For Manurewa woman Taasha Toetoe and her partner the triplets are the jackpot but to the medical world theyre a rarity.

While triplets themselves are rare, identical triplets occur only once in a million births.

At 11.58am, 11.59am and 12.01pm, one after the other, the boys were removed from the womb, surprising the parents who were expecting two boys and a girl.

ONE IN A MILLION: Manurewa mum Taasha Toetoe cradles her three-week-old identical triplets. The boys, who are yet to be named, are a medical rarity with only one birth in a million producing identical triplets.

Even the triplets great-grandmother, who is 85 percent blind, walks over to help feed them after her morning swim.

Write Angles

According to final official data reported by the regions central banks or statistical authorities (supplemented in a few cases by Economist Intelligence Unit or IMF estimates), FDI inflows into the transition economies reached a record total of US$112bn in 2006, up by 45% on the US$77bn received in 2005. The region thus displaced Latin America and the Caribbean as the second most important emerging-market destination for FDI after Asia. Three economies in the region were among the ten emerging market FDI recipients in 2006--Russia (3rd), Poland (8th) and Romania (10th). The US$112bn total inflows represented almost 5% of the transition regions GDP, the highest ratio achieved thus far. For the Balkans the FDI inflows/GDP ratio exceeded 10% in 2006, and it was almost 8% for the Baltics.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A single tooth led archaeologists to identify the long-overlooked mummy of an obese woman as Egypts most powerful female pharoah - what could be the most significant find since King Tutankhamuns tomb was uncovered in 1922, experts said Wednesday.

The mummy was identified as Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled for 20 years in the 15th century B.C., dressing like a man and wearing a fake beard. A monumental builder, she wielded more power than two other famous ancient Egyptian women, Cleopatra and Nefertiti, who unlike her never took the title of pharaoh.

But when she died, all traces of her mysteriously disappeared, including her mummy.

"We are 100 percent certain" the mummy belongs to Hatshepsut, Hawass told The Associated Press.

Egyptian molecular geneticist Yehia Zakaria Gad, who is on Hawass team, said DNA bone samples were obtained from the mummys hip bone and femur.

The idea of getting rid of partisan labels is a noble idea but is akin to a principal of a high school decreeing that all student cliques are abolished. They will exist in other forms no matter what the law or the principal says. There is an overwhelming negative view about political parties that is as old as the American Republic. The Constitutional framers were keenly worried about factions and parties. They were unable to stop them, as they quickly joined their own factions to debate the Constitution itself. If you dont like political parties, I would suggest you find something else to dislike, because you are not going to get rid of them. Even Communist regimes held the single party as the ideal, but it still was a party.

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Radio Frequency Ablation Vaporizes Inoperable Kidney And Liver Tumors

As a big marketer, one of the most effective techniques I use to divert you away from what really matters in life and instead focus your worries, time and money on what will make my wallet fatter is jolting you into submission.

Constantly.

We jolt you without your awareness in any direction we want you to go -- a direction that always benefits us, of course, whether "us" is a corporation or political party -- and the sick beauty is that you actually believe where we took you is where you wanted to go.

Developing a warm, friendly feeling within the new family is essential, he says.

When families do something active, something inexpensive, its easier to continue the tradition every week, says Sandler. "The critical thing is, youre creating a stable routine. It gives kids the message that parents are giving their most valuable resource -- themselves, their time, and theres no substitute for that." Because everyone agrees on it, they make a commitment to the family, he says.

Also, kids need quality time -- one-on-one time -- with each parent. Parents need to focus on what kids want to talk about, develop those all-important listening skills.

Discipline is also important, Sandler says. "It means having rules -- consistent and clear rules -- enforcing those rules, monitoring what the child is doing, sticking to the fact that youre the parent. Kids need structure. They need rules. The message is, Were going to do it, and youre going to be part of it."

The rare recurve-billed bushbird, recently rediscovered by scientists in Colombia after a 40-year absence, sports a curving beak that gives the illusion of an enigmatic smile.

This photograph, taken by a conservationist with the Colombia-based nonprofit Fundaci�n ProAves, is the first ever taken of a live bushbird.

The elusive species had not been spotted between 1965 and 2004, due to its limited range and remote habitats. It was seen recently in Venezuela and in a region of northeastern Colombia, where it was photographed.

Researchers found the bird in a 250-acre (101-hectare) reserve next to the Torcoroma Holy Sanctuary near the Colombian town of Oca�a, where in 1709 locals claimed they saw the image of the Virgin Mary in a tree root. The forests of the sanctuary have been protected by Catholic Church authorities in the centuries since.