‘Maya leaders are to perform a special cleaning ceremony at ancient ruins to clear bad energy after a visit by President Bush.
Mr Bush is due at the Mayan ruins of Iximche in Guatemala as part of his tour of the Latin American region, reports the BBC.
But after he leaves, Maya protesters said they would hold a ceremony to restore peace and harmony to the area.
Morales Toj said: “We will burn incense, place flowers and water in the area where Mr Bush has walked to clean out the bad energy.”
Indigenous leader Rodolfo Pocop complained: “No, Mr Bush, you cannot trample and degrade the memory of our ancestors. This is not your ranch in Texas.”‘
‘The uncoupling of American evangelism from the administration of George Bush gathered pace yesterday when one of the largest national umbrella groups of socially conservative Christians issued a statement critical of US policy towards detainees and repudiating torture as a tactic in the war on terror.
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which represents about 45,000 churches across America, endorsed a declaration against torture drafted by 17 evangelical scholars. The authors, who call themselves Evangelicals for Human Rights and campaign for “zero tolerance” on torture, say that the US administration has crossed “boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible” in the treatment of detainees.
“Tragically, documented cases of torture and inhumane and cruel behaviour have occurred at various sites in the war on terror, and current law opens procedural loopholes for more to continue,” the NAE said last night.’
‘A woman is recovering in hospital after her toddler son started her car and pinned her to a brick wall in Melbourne’s outer south-east.
A police spokeswoman said the car was parked in the driveway of the Rowville home, near the entrance to the garage, when the 18-month-old boy started its engine and it moved forward, sandwiching the toddler’s mother between the car and the wall.
The woman, in her early 30s, received pelvic injuries and a possible broken hip in the accident, which occurred at about 5.30 last night. [..]
The accident comes after a television advertisement featuring a toddler driving a car was pulled from the air following complaints it could encourage copycats.’
‘Some teens fashioned a small car to drive backwards and sideways. They take it on the street and go wild. Very entertaining.’
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‘UK scientists have identified a way of using light to rapidly detect the presence of bacteria. [..]
The team have spent five years designing special large molecules, or polymers, which can bind to cells.
Once bound the polymer changes shape and emits a light signal.
This can either be a coloured light, such as a red glow, or a light that is naked to the visible eye but can be detected under a fluorescent lamp, depending on the type of polymer that is used.’
‘This is a great prank to pull at the beach, cover yourself in sand and wait for a seagull to come by…’
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‘Illegal drugs can be “harmless” and should no longer be “demonised”, a wide-ranging two-year study concluded today.
The report said Britain’s drug laws were “not fit for purpose” and should be torn up in favour of a system which recognised that drinking and smoking could cause more harm.
The RSA Commission on Illegal Drugs ,set up in January 2005, also called for the main focus of drugs education to be shifted from secondary to primary schools and recommended the introduction of so-called “shooting galleries” – rooms where users can inject drugs. [..]
Current laws, the panel claimed, were been “driven by moral panic” with large amounts of money wasted on “futile” efforts to stop supply rather than going after the criminal networks behind the drugs on British streets.’
Polar bears are pretty smart.
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Apparently he didn’t shoot because it was too small a bear. Clever fuckers tho.
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‘A public high school has suspended three 16-year-old girls who disobeyed officials by saying the word “vagina” during a reading from “The Vagina Monologues.”
Their defiant stand is being applauded by the author of the well-known feminist play, who said Tuesday that the school should be celebrating, rather than punishing, the three juniors.
“Don’t we want our children to resist authority when it’s not appropriate and wise?” said author Eve Ensler.
The three honor students, Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word because “we knew it was the right thing to do. Since we’re comfortable saying it, we should make other people comfortable saying it,” Levinson said.’
This makes me laugh. :) Hooray for parrots.
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‘A web-based “expert system” that helped users prepare bankruptcy filings for a fee made too many decisions to be considered a clerical tool, an appeals court said last week, ruling that the software was effectively practicing law without a license. [..]
When a bankruptcy trustee noticed errors in the forms, Reynoso blamed his computerized counsel, and Ihejirika joined the party in federal court. A bankruptcy judge ruled that Ihejirika had committed fraudulent, unfair, or deceptive conduct through his computer program, and had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.’
‘It’s a crisp January afternoon, and Fergus Drennan is picking mushrooms in a field near the Kentish seaside town of Whitstable. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots some black and white feathers poking up from a tuft of grass.
“A bird!” he shouts. “It’s not even been dead that long; you can tell from the rigor mortis. It’s so cute, isn’t it? Come on… come back to life… No. It’s definitely dead. The only question is… why?”
Fergus looks up. Above him run several power cables. The bird must have been electrocuted. This is excellent news: since our feathered friend didn’t have a nasty disease, Fergus says it’s safe to eat.’
‘A group of Tennessee high school students are in hot water for trying to make a steamy porn movie between classes.
Four female and two male students were punished after a drama teacher caught them filming the flick in a Union County High School classroom.
Wayne Goforth, curriculum coordinator for the school district, told WATE-TV in Knoxville that the female students had stripped down to their underwear for the boys who were acting as the cameraman and emcee.’
He’s a very smart fellow.
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‘Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective?
This is exactly how North Otago’s newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down.
45 South volunteer Ken Jones designed the wok transmitter in his spare time last year when he wanted to provide wireless broadband to his Ardgowan home.’
‘Have you ever gotten up off the couch to get a beer for the umpteenth time and thought, “What if instead of ME going to get the BEER, the BEER came to ME???” Well, that was how I first conceived of the beer launching fridge. About 3 months and several hundred dollars later I have a fully automated, remote controlled, catapulting, man-pit approved, beer launching mini-fridge. It holds 10 beers in its magazine with 14 more in reserve to store a full case. It is controlled by a keyless entry system. Pressing unlock will start the catapult rotating and when it is aiming at your target, pressing unlock again will stop it. Then the lock button can be pressed to launch a beer in the selected direction.’
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‘Nowhere in advertising is the gap between natural beauty and manufactured perfection more apparent than on subway posters. As we wait for transportation, we are unwillingly assaulted by larger-than-life representations of supposedly beautiful salespeople. The large scale of these ads and their extremely close proximity to the viewer offer up more than perceived intimacy, however… they give us the chance to see the mechanical flaws designed to correct their physical flaws.
Why don’t we just see them for what they are? They are regular people just like us, they just have a team of retouchers waiting at the ready.
Printable cold sores allow us to take action! Bring these people back down to our level, and tell advertisers that you don’t agree with their message. How can you help? It’s easy…’
Here’s a compilation of five videos demonstrating how to get free drinks at bars using some clever tricks.
‘If lorry drivers can tear their eyes away from the satellite navigation system while approaching the village of Exton, they could well save themselves hours of trouble.
There at the side of the road are the first signs in the country specifically warning them to ignore the satnav.
Owing to a fault in the electronic information system, many drivers are sent through the Hampshire hamlet only to find the lane narrows to 6ft and they get stuck. [..]
The 49-year-old company director said: ‘The problem mushroomed overnight with the advent of satnav.’
‘The following system is provided as a free service for anyone researching different ways to pass a drug test. This system explains how to successfully pass a standard urine drug test using simple items you either have at home or can purchase at a grocery or drug store. It also explains how to successfully pass a hair drug test. The system is mainly designed for low to moderate-level users who will be taking a drug test at least 8 DAYS in the future.’
‘Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning deadly spears from sticks and using the hand-crafted tools to hunt small mammals — the first routine production of deadly weapons ever observed in animals other than humans.
The multi-step spear-making practice, documented by researchers in Senegal who spent years gaining the chimpanzees’ trust, adds credence to the idea that human forebears fashioned similar tools millions of years ago.
The landmark observation also supports the long-debated proposition that females — the main makers and users of spears among the Senegalese chimps — tend to be the innovators and creative problem solvers in primate culture.’
‘An Australian company has announced ambitious plans to prove that potentially planet-saving hot rocks are not just a load of hot air.
Geodynamics Limited says it has secured a $32 million drilling rig from Texas and is on track to spud Australia’s first commercial-scale hot rock well by the middle of this year.
The well, to be sunk four kilometres underground in South Australia’s Cooper Basin, could be in commercial production by 2010 if all goes according to plan, the company says.’
‘The humble incadescent light bulb is about to become history as Australia dumps it in favour of more energy efficient technology.
Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the standard incandescent light bulb, which has been around for 125 years, will be phased out by 2009.
It will be replaced by the compact fluorescent bulb, which costs $5 more but is around 80 per cent more energy efficient.
Mr Turnbull said new standards will be in place by 2009.’
‘For a mere $82 a computer scientist and electronic voting critic managed to purchase five $5,000 Sequoia electronic voting machines over the internet last month from a government auction site. And now he’s taking them apart.
Princeton computer science professor Andrew Appel and his students have begun reverse-engineering the software embedded in the machines’ ROM chips to determine if it has any security holes. But Appel says the ease with which he and his students opened the machines and removed the chips already demonstrates that the voting machines are vulnerable to unauthorized modification.
Their analysis appears to mark the first time that someone who hasn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement with Sequoia Voting Systems has examined one of its machine’s internals.’
‘What does it take to transform your PC into a teraflop supercomputer? It may be less than you think – two graphics cards and programming know-how are enough to push your desktop PC’s performance into a range that required 10,000 processors a decade ago.
Nvidia today released the first public beta of its CUDA, software developer kit, which so far has only been available to a limited number of developers. The company promises that the software will allow full access to the 128/96 cores of GeForce 8800 graphics cards and leverage their floating point capability, not only for graphics, but other applications that rely on number crunching performance as well.’
