Tuesday, November 18, 2008
And in China: A Brisk Business in Organs...
When a patient has an organ transplant in China, chances are it was harvested from an executed prisoner. In a recent article in the British medical journal The Lancet, China ’s vice-minister of Health, Huang Jiefu, writes that more than 90 per cent of organs in his home country are from prisoners....
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Monday, November 17, 2008
And in Dunbar, Scotland: Angela’s Hamster and the Firefighters...
Firefighters in Dunbar, Scotland, are nothing if not dedicated. When Angela Appleby phoned the fire station in a fret because a pet hamster, Fudgie, was on the loose, the engines came racing. Firefighters dismantled Appleby’s stove and gas pipes, launched a chocolate-covered camera probe into...
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Sunday, November 16, 2008
And in the Air: Your Walking May be Bad for My Health...
Walking the aisle during lengthy air travel may be good for your health but bad for the health of your fellow passengers. That’s the surprise finding from research into airplane ventilation systems to be formally presented this month. The systems are designed to reduce passenger exposure to anything...
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Saturday, November 15, 2008
And Everywhere: Are We Coming to the End of the Road?
A British geneticist claims to have made a startling discovery: humanity has stopped evolving. He apparently arrived at this conclusion after studying new data, studying behavioural patterns, and watching Rosie O’Donnell eat a side of ribs. Professor Steve Jones of University College London cites a...
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Friday, November 14, 2008
And in Japan: Virtual Murder Haunts Online World...
A player of the virtual-world game MapleStory [which is all about Canada and maple syrup, apparently] has been arrested for murdering her online husband. The unnamed woman, a piano teacher [not surprising, they can be vicious!] from Miazaki, was furious when her “husband”, who lives in Sapporo,...
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
And a Little More About the Oldest Little Animals...
Bacteria have even set up permanent camp inside our cells. Mitochondria, the powerhouses that supply energy to nearly every cell in the body, are the descendants of bacteria that were engulfed by larger microorganisms billions of years ago And: Some of them are fast! Whipping their tails, E. coli...
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
And Everywhere (At Least Where You’ll Ever Be): The Oldest Known Animals...
Bacteria, which have been around for at least 3.5 billion years. And at about 5 million trillion trillion strong, they and their cousins, the archaea, vastly outnumber all other life forms on Earth. Lined up end-to-end, they would stretch some 10 billion light years – literally from here to the edge...
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
And in New York City: Judy Defies both God and Elvis...
Judith Rodrigues-Lyttwyn of New York City is defying divine will in her lawsuit against Our Lady of the Snows Church. She alleges that after her confession, the church’s Father Elvis Elano began an affair with her, saying her presence was like a “thunderbolt” and that her relationship had been...
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Monday, November 10, 2008
And in Jerusalem: Monks in Punch-up near Jesus’ Tomb...
Israeli police rushed into one of Christianity’s holiest churches yesterday and arrested two clergymen after an argument between monks erupted into a brawl next to the site of Jesus’ tomb. The clash between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks broke out in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered as...
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Sunday, November 9, 2008
And in Jamaica: Who Stole the Beach?
Jamaican investigators are still scratching their heads over the mysterious disappearance of an entire beach, after hundreds of tons of white sand from a developing resort were discovered missing last July from Coral Spring Beach on Jamaica ’s north coast. No arrests after nearly three months, or an...
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