Four soldiers were wounded.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Foreign Policy's top 100 public intellectuals
Any list of "top intellectuals" that contains names like Joseph Ratzinger, James Lovelock, Yusuf al-Qaradawi (???) and Tariq Ramadan cannot be taken seriously (not to mention Noam Chomsky, Jürgen Habermas and many other specimens of ideological vermin, but that's another matter).
But at least the list also contains Dawkins, Dennett, Hirsi Ali, Hitchens, Pinker, Venter and Wilson, so it's not all bad.
Another Pakistani soldier beheaded
Yesterday:
A note left on the corpse said the soldier had been killed in revenge for Wednesday's missile massacre in Damadola village in Bajaur tribal district near the Afghan border.
The soldier was kidnapped overnight and his decapitated body dumped on the roadside some eight kilometres (five miles) from a paramilitary post near the main town of Khar, local official Mowaz Khan said.
"This is our revenge for the US missile attack," the note signed by militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said.
Source
"Militants behead Pakistani soldier to avenge US missile strike," AFP, May 16, 2008
Related posts
• "The body had bullet wounds and its severed head was lying nearby"
"He said some people had done black magic on him"
An illegal immigrant in Britain who battered a student to death with a cricket bat claimed at his murder trial this week that people "had done black magic on him."
The name of the man is Dawood Khan, and he is from Afghanistan.
Two more honour killings in India
First a 19-year-old girl in the state of Gujarat was murdered by her father for marrying against the wishes of the family. She was shot with a revolver and then hit in the head with an axe, according to this, and local witnesses claim that the girl's mother and sister both participated in the murder.
And in Haryana, another woman was strangled by her father on suspicion that she was having an extra-marital affair.
Black magic SMS
In Malaysia:
Police advised the public to ignore a Short Messaging Service (SMS) text involving a so-called group of black magic followers from Indonesia trying their witchcraft through the telecommunication network.
The text told people not to pick up their mobile phone if the colour of the caller number flashing on the phone was in red, claiming the black magic followers were trying their ilmu (knowledge) through phone.
It also claimed that if people answered the call they would die.
Source
"Ignore 'blackmagic' SMS, say cops," Daily Express (Malaysia), May 17, 2008
How to explain a UFO case
James Oberg explains what the classic 1984 UFO sighting in Minsk really was.
"Artist" covers closed gas station with blanket
It doesn't take much to be a great artist these days...
But if good-for-nothing cretins like Christo and Jeanne-Claude can waste time and shitloads of money on this useless bullshit, then why not up-and-comer Jennifer Marsh.
Man tries to scratch an itch with a revolver, shoots himself
Is anyone surprised that this guy is from Texas?
Pretending to smile can be bad for your health
According to Professor Dieter Zapf at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, smiling too much against your own will can eventually lead to depression, the immune system being affected, higher blood pressure and other problems.
The gecko that crawled up a chicken's bottom
A doctor in Darwin in northern Australia claims to have found a tiny gecko inside a chicken's egg:
Peter Beaumont broke open an egg and was shocked to find a dead gecko inside. “I was cracking the eggs into a pan when I noticed one of them was all cloudy. I looked at the shell and saw a tiny gecko,” he said.
The lizard could not have entered the egg after it was cracked open because it was embedded between the interior of the shell and the egg’s membrane, he said.
Dr Beaumont believes the lizard climbed into the chicken’s bottom, perhaps to feed on an embryo, before dying and becoming cocooned in the developing egg.
Sounds like a variation of the "frog in a stone" myth.
Source
Nick Squires, "What came first - the egg or the gecko inside?" The Daily Telegraph, May 16, 2008
How to ward off problems in China: Carry an ox pendant
Blizzards, riots, pro-Tibet fanatics, train wrecks, earthquakes - it has not been a good year for China so far. But never fear, "feng shui master" Raymond Lo in Hong Kong knows what's behind all the misery, and he also knows how to fix it:
Lo said part of the problem might stem from the birthdates of China's current leaders - president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao. Both were born in 1942, The Year of the Horse.
In Chinese astrology, 2008 is The Year of the Rat and, according to Lo, this is part of the problem.
"Chinese people believe in animal astrology," Lo said in a telephone interview. "In animal astrology we know the horse clashes with the rat. This is a very common thing, well known among Chinese people. So if you are born in the Year of the Horse, because of the clash against the rat you will have a turbulent year."
Lo offered a remedy. He said carrying an ox pendant - for people such as Hu and Wen - could help ward off problems, because the ox is seen as a friend of the rat.
Source
Stephen Wade, "Year of the Rat causing China's tough year?" AP, May 15, 2008
"When there are mangos in the markets there is madness in the streets"
So-called "mango madness" (a period of extreme weather tension that triggers violence as the wet season hits) in northern Australia is not a myth, according to this.
Idiot falls from balcony in spitting contest
He took a running start...
A SWISS man died when he fell from a hotel balcony during a spitting match with a friend, a Swiss newspaper has reported.
The daily Blick said the 29-year-old man took a run-up from inside the room so he could spit further, but lost his balance and plummeted 6.4m to the street below.
He died in hospital.
Source
"Man dies in spitting contest plunge," The Daily Telegraph (Australia), May 14, 2008
Related posts
The invasion of the crazy, electronic-eating ants
In Texas, billions of tiny "crazy rasberry ants" arrived onshore from a cargo ship, and promptly began eating computers, alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges and all other things electronic that they can find.
The ants are spreading fast, threatening, among other things, NASA's Johnson Space Center and the William P. Hobby airport in Houston.
But I'm sure one of the countless preachers, televangelists and cult leaders that Texas is also infested with can talk to God and get this thing fixed in no time.
£1 million spent on protecting non-existent newts
Leicestershire County Council in Britain spent £1 million protecting a colony of rare newts on a building site - only to later discover that no newts lived there.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Godman wanted by Interpol arrested
A "godman" in India, wanted by Interpol since 2004 for fraud, has been arrested in Kerala. His ashram was raided last weekend, and police found "porn CDs, documents of land deals, bottles of liquor and a tiger skin." He has also been accused of rape.
He goes by the name of Amritha Chaithanya, but his real name is apparently Santosh Madhavan.
His earlier fraud victims are demanding his extradition to the United Arab Emirates, and a cop in Kerala has been suspended for his links to this scumbag.
Pouring 40 trillion liters of water into the garbage can
People in the U.S., just like in Britain, throw away a third of all the food they buy (worth $48.3 billion a year). And this, according to the Stockholm International Water Institute, means that 40 trillion liters of water each year is squandered.
115 people kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in Algeria last year
According to the country's interior minister.
Fifty years of DARPA
The mechanical elephant didn't really work. Nor were the telepathic spies a great idea.
More on the history of DARPA here.
Child militancy on the rise in Pakistan
In the Taliban-infested Swat area:
In his report on children’s rights, the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) Child Rights Committee (CRC) District Co-ordinator Shaukat Salim said that child militancy in Swat is on the rise.
...
Revealing the ordeal of one Abid, 12, Salim said that the boy had been admitted to Fazlullah’s madrassa by his parents to memorise the holy Quran. “I learnt 18 siparahs (volumes) of the Quran at the madrassa. Then, during the military operation, Mullah Fazlullah and his spokesman Sirajul Haq compelled me to wear a suicide jacket and target the district courts of Swat,” the CRC district co-ordinator quoted Abid as saying.
Source
Akhtar Amin, "30 madrassa students arrested for child militancy in Swat," Daily Times (Pakistan), May 15, 2008
The universe is twice as bright as it appears
Dust blocks about half the light emitted from stars and galaxies.
Wildlife numbers down by almost a third since 1970
Birds, animals, marine and freshwater creatures are disappearing from the planet at a catastrophic rate because of habitat destruction, exploitation and pollution.
And, according to the WWF, the human population (still increasing rapidly due to the out-of-control population growth in the third world) consumes 25% more natural resources than the planet can replace every year.
Here is the "Rarest of the Rare" list, the twelve animals most in danger of extinction.
Bicycle molester convicted
In Sweden:
A 40-year-old man from Östersund in northern Sweden was convicted on Friday on three counts of sexual molestation for satisfying himself on the saddles of women’s bicycles.
The man confessed that in three separate cases, he slashed the tires of bicycles belonging to women he found attractive, and then proceeded to rub up against the bicycle seats for sexual gratification, reports the Östersunds-Posten (ÖP) newspaper.
He claimed that he was suffering from a confused state of mind following a separation in the spring of 2007.
According to the newspaper, the court stated during the hearings that one of the victims had lived in fear for months on account of the unknown stalker repeatedly masturbating on her bicycle within sight of her home.
This sort of thing seems to be strangely popular.
Source
David Landes, "Fetishist convicted for molesting bicycles," The Local, May 11, 2008
Thousands of protected African grey parrots are captured and slaughtered every year
In Cameroon, according to this. The heads of the parrots are chopped off and their tails are plucked, the remains being abandoned to rot, but it is not entirely clear where the heads and the tails are taken and what they are used for, although this might give a clue:
A suspect recently arrested by game rangers while transporting 353 parrot heads and 2000 tails, revealed that a witch doctor treating his mentally ill brother requested the heads and tails to continue treatment.
The heads are probably exported to India and China, and the tails go to Nigeria.
Source
Fidelis Pegue Manga, "The Battle for Parrot Souls in Southeast," The Post (Buea, Cameroon), May 12, 2008
"Apostasy" is punishable by death, says Maldivian Muslim scholar
According to this:
The leader of the religious Adhaalath party scholars’ council has said he advocates the death penalty for those who convert from Islam to another religion, as well as amputation of hands for certain types of theft.
Security guards dismissed for bewitching the president
The bewitching was "revealed" to president Bingu Mutharika in Malawi by a witchdoctor.
French myths
Not all Frenchmen wear berets and hooped shirts and ride bikes festooned with onions.
More myths dispelled here.
Goodbye to God
John Loftus, author of Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity
Let's hope a lot of people will follow his inspiring example.
Loftus is also the author of Why I Rejected Christianity: A Former Apologist Explains
Win or die
More than 400 thoroughbred racehorses, many in perfect health, are killed each year by lethal injection at a clinic behind the Hipodromo Camarero racetrack in Puerto Rico.
One of the most gruesome crime scenes investigators have ever seen
A 26-year-old woman named Lisa Freiberg and her two young children were found mutilated and dismembered in Florida a few days ago. At least one of the victims had been decapitated, and the bodies were in such bad shape that visual identification was impossible. Even the dog had been killed.
Here (and here) is the guy who did it, a former Florida Department of Corrections officer. He recently moved in with Lisa after she had met him on the internet.
UPDATE: Apparently he used to mutilate cats, as well.
Earthquake in China update
Two days ago, the official death toll stood at 12,000, but it has since risen to 21,500 and is yet likely to top 50,000. The total damage is estimated at $20 billion.
Tough choices have been necessary in some cases, but at least there doesn't seem to have been any looting so far.
Related posts
In the near future, every police station will have a psychic
According to Pravda, Russian police is using hypnosis to investigate crimes, and "criminalists are sure that in the near future each police station will have a psychic."
Who knows, this story might even be true...
Don't smoke after you've poured kerosene all over yourself
Smoking kills...
Hifumi Kubota, 45, was taken for questioning to a police station in the central Japanese city of Nagoya on Saturday after a woman who was living with him told police that he was acting violently.
When officers came to his house, "he poured kerosene over himself in front of police," a police spokesman said.
Mr Kubota refused to change his kerosene-soaked clothes at the police station and asked to smoke during questioning, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun and other Japanese media.
Despite no-smoking rules in the building, a police official gave him a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. When Mr Kubota stood up, his right knee was ablaze and he quickly turned into a fireball, the reports said.
Who was more stupid here, the cop or the crook?
Source
"Kerosene-soaked man dies after lighting up in police station," AFP, May 12, 2008
"It's obviously some very, very demented person"
In New Zealand:
Invercargill police are searching for a 'demented' person who mutilated a cat, drawing satanic symbols on a wall in its blood.
The cat's body, decapitated head and severed limbs were found at Turnbull Thomson park yesterday evening.
Above the body the number 666 and an upside down cross had been drawn in blood.
Source
"'Demented' cat killer in Invercargill," The New Zealand Herald, May 13, 2008
"There is a lot of homosexuality in our prisons"
In Kenya, where 48,000 inmates are packed into spaces designed for 15,000 in the country's 89 prisons. As a result, skin ailments, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are common.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Twelve-year-old girl trained to be dominatrix
These people almost deserve a good whipping...
Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Monday accusing a woman arrested in Dallas of training her child to be a dominatrix, selling her sexual services and photographing some of the acts.
The 44-year-old mother, whose name is not being published to protect the identity of her daughter, was arrested Friday. Also charged is Todd B. Barkau, 35, of New York state, who authorities say started advertising the girl on the Internet as a 19- to 20-year-old dominatrix when she was 14.
The mother is accused of encouraging and participating in the venture to exploit the girl, who is now 20.
Mr. Barkau and the mother once lived together in Blue Springs, Mo., where the business was allegedly run.
"Barkau obtained control of a 12-year-old girl and he groomed, trained and forced her to become a sexual dominatrix," U.S. Attorney Jon Wood said at a news conference Monday in Kansas City.
The "training" began in 2000, according to this, when Barkau forced the then 12-year-old girl "to engage in sex acts with him and with other men. According to the indictment, he also had the girl watch pornography on the Internet as a teaching tool."
Source
"Woman arrested in Dallas accused of training girl to be dominatrix," AP, May 13, 2008
61% of Jehovah's Witnesses strongly believe that Satan exists
According to a survey by the Barna Group.
Munyakaibo cult preaches against satanic mobile phones and computers
This is a new cult in Uganda, according to this. The believers hate science, and they "don't believe in numbers, so they do not count anything." And, following a classic pattern, they refuse medial services from hospitals, opting instead to "pray" for the sick.
This will be the inevitable consequence of such madness.
Indian sorcerer raped teenage daughter repeatedly
Here we have yet another nasty evildoer of the magic persuasion, this one apparently from the Josef Fritzl school of alternative parenting:
In a shameful incident reported in the state capital on Tuesday, a father was alleged to have raped his 16-year-old daughter repeatedly for the last one-and-a-half year.
The incident was reported from Thakurganj police circle. The victim was identified as Nisha Dwivedi (name changed), a resident of Barora Hussainbari in Thakurganj.
On Tuesday, Nisha along with her uncle, Laxmi Narain came to the police station and lodged a complaint against her father Rajendra Prasad, who was arrested later. In her complaint, Nisha alleged that, Prasad, a sorcerer, used to administer intoxicating drugs to her and when she would fall unconscious, he would rape her. He continued the condemnable act despite objections from his second wife, Rajni. Nisha said Prasad used to beat family members if they opposed.
Source
"Man accused of raping daughter," The Times Of India, May 14, 2008