Saturday, November 8, 2008
And in Britain: Kebab Maker Has no Time for Dead Workers...
Jaswinder Singh has been banned from ever operating another restaurant in Britain after police found filthy conditions at his Pappu Sweet Center & Catering. There was a dead rat under a pan, and an employee spitting on the floor while preparing food. But what really got Singh banned was the dead...
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Friday, November 7, 2008
And in Zagreb: Performance of the Week...All-Canine Cast...
An eight-year old border collie is the star of Timbuktu, a play based on the novel by American author Paul Auster. Presented on stage at the Croatian capital of Zagreb, the play was cast with twelve stray pooches from an animal shelter. Cap the border collie plays the lead character, Mr. Bones, and...
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Thursday, November 6, 2008
And Almost Everywhere: The Invasion of the Marathon Mice…
A drug might some day turn you into a long-running machine without a day of exercise. It might work, in essence, by re-programming sugar-burning, fast-twitch muscles into fat-burning, slow-twitch muscle that does not tire easily. The key to this transition is a protein called PRAR-delta, which had...
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008
And in Virginia: Woman Killed by Diablo off his Meds...
What killed Amanda Black of Virginia Beach, VA? A memo on a whiteboard in her townhouse that read “Medicate Diablo” is probably the answer. Police believe that Black tried to administer oral medicine to Diablo, her ailing four-meter long [13 ft to our Americans] tiger reticulated python. Diablo...
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Monday, November 3, 2008
And in Florida: Stripper Loses Shoe, Calamity Ensues...
All Charles Privette wanted from a visit to a strip club in Pompano Beach, FL, was a good time. Instead he got disaster: during a pole dance, a performer’s shoe flew off her foot. It hit the ceiling, shattered the mirror on it and glass rained down on Privette, followed by the shoe. Privette...
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Saturday, November 1, 2008
And in Britain: Are You Kidding?
A new book called The Self-Esteem Trap by psychologist Polly Young-Eisendrath argues that cultivating a sense of entitlement in young people, masked as self-esteem, can create more problems than it solves. School administrators in Britain might want to pick up a copy. According to the Telegraph,...
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Thursday, October 30, 2008
And in New Jersey: Kids on Drugs? Get a Dog…
Parents worried their children may be using smack no longer have to risk embarrassing and possibly fruitless dialogue. For US$ 200.- an hour they can hire a drug-sniffing dog. “Sniff Dogs” rents out four-legged K-9 veterans to do a sweep of junior’s bedroom. Business owner Debra Stone says her...
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
And in Britain: Pray it Away...
British scientists have confirmed what God-fearing humans have known for centuries: faith heals. According to researchers at Oxford University, a firm belief in God actually increases people’s capacity to endure physical pain. The scientists subjected 12 Catholics and 12 atheists to a series of...
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Monday, October 27, 2008
Comments and Ruminations
Because of time pressure, some time ago I had to give up responding to each comment. It was a practice I enjoyed but also felt duty-bound to follow, and I still feel a bit guilty that I have not been able to keep it up. Yet there are times when there’s no way around it – I simply must answer. The...
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
And Almost Everywhere: Where Babies Come From...
Following is an interesting question, one that, I am sure, has been on your mind for some time. An answer (not the answer) is here as well, and my own comments are in square brackets... Question: “In The Cosmic Origins of Time’s Arrow ” Sean M. Carroll questions why we perceive time as only moving...
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