Strange & Stupid: Amusing News

“Dear Lord: Thank you for bringing me to Timmy’s house and not to Michael Vick’s — AMEN!”

“I was hanging out with this guy who was in a motorcycle club. One day while visiting their “clubhouse,” he took me into this room and bolted the door shut. He wanted to play me his favorite record, but he didn’t want any of his “brothers” to hear it…. It was Sam Cooke singing “The Great Pretender.” I looked at this white supremacist lowlife, with his hand on his heart and his eyes shut, swaying to that clear, black voice, and I thought, “I’ll have some of that.” -Chrissie Hynde, of the Pretenders, on how her band got their name

Natural disasters have quadrupled in two decades

More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming.
“Oxfam… says that rising green house gas emissions are the major cause of weather-related disasters and must be tackled,” the organisation said, adding that the world’s poorest people were being hit the hardest.

The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report.

“This year we have seen floods in South Asia, across the breadth of Africa and Mexico that have affected more than 250 million people,” noted Oxfam director Barbara Stocking.

“This is no freak year. It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people.”

She added: “Action is needed now to prepare for more disasters otherwise humanitarian assistance will be overwhelmed and recent advances in human development will go into reverse.”

The number of people affected by extreme natural disasters, meanwhile, has surged by almost 70 percent, from 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994, to 254 million people a year between 1995 to 2004, Oxfam said.

Floods and wind-storms have increased from 60 events in 1980 to 240 last year, with flooding itself up six-fold.
But the number of geothermal events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, has barely changed.
Oxfam urged Western governments to push hard for a deal on climate change at a key international meeting that runs December 3-14 on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Rich Western nations and the United Nations must act to “make humanitarian aid faster, fairer and more flexible and to improve ways to prepare for and reduce the risk of disasters,” it said.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Bali aims to see countries agree to launch a roadmap for negotiating cuts in climate-changing carbon emissions from 2012.

The Oxfam study was compiled using data from the Red Cross, the United Nations and specialist researchers at Louvain University in Belgium.

Older white women join Kenya’s sex tourists
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.

They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they say is “just full of big young boys who like us older girls.”
Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.

Allie and Bethan — who both declined to give their full names — said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya’s palm-fringed beaches. They would do well to avoid the country’s tourism officials.

“It’s not evil,” said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men.
“But it’s certainly something we frown upon.”

Also, the health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms — finding them too “businesslike” for their exotic fantasies.

The white beaches of the Indian Ocean coast stretched before the friends as they both walked arm-in-arm with young African men, Allie resting her white haired-head on the shoulder of her companion, a six-foot-four 23-year-old from the Maasai tribe.

He wore new sunglasses he said were a gift from her.
“We both get something we want — where’s the negative?” Allie asked in a bar later, nursing a strong, golden cocktail.

She was still wearing her bikini top, having just pulled on a pair of jeans and a necklace of traditional African beads.
Bethan sipped the same local drink: a powerful mix of honey, fresh limes and vodka known locally as “Dawa,” or “medicine.”

She kept one eye on her date — a 20-year-old playing pool, a red bandana tying back dreadlocks and new-looking sports shoes on his feet.
He looked up and came to join her at the table, kissing her, then collecting more coins for the pool game.

“JUST UNWHOLESOME”

Grieves-Cook and many hotel managers say they are doing all they can to discourage the practice of older women picking up local boys, arguing it is far from the type of tourism they want to encourage in the east African nation.

“The head of a local hoteliers’ association told me they have begun taking measures — like refusing guests who want to change from a single to a double room,” Grieves-Cook said.

“It’s about trying to make those guests feel as uncomfortable as possible … But it’s a fine line. We are 100 percent against anything illegal, such as prostitution. But it’s different with something like this — it’s just unwholesome.”

“PREYING ON POVERTY?”

Emerging alongside this black market trade — and obvious in the bars and on the sand once the sun goes down — are thousands of elderly white women hoping for romantic, and legal, encounters with much younger Kenyan men.

They go dining at fine restaurants, then dancing, and back to expensive hotel rooms overlooking the coast.

“One type of sex tourist attracted the other,” said one manager at a shorefront bar on Mombasa’s Bamburi beach.

“Old white guys have always come for the younger girls and boys, preying on their poverty … But these old women followed … they never push the legal age limits, they seem happy just doing what is sneered at in their countries.”

Experts say some thrive on the social status and financial power that comes from taking much poorer, younger lovers.
“This is what is sold to tourists by tourism companies — a kind of return to a colonial past, where white women are served, serviced, and pampered by black minions,” said Nottinghan University’s Davidson.

“LIVE LIKE THE RICH”

Many of the visitors are on the lookout for men like Joseph.
Flashing a dazzling smile and built like an Olympic basketball star, the 22-year-old said he has slept with more than 100 white women, most of them 30 years his senior.

“When I go into the clubs, those are the only women I look for now,” he told Reuters. “I get to live like the rich mzungus (white people) who come here from rich countries, staying in the best hotels and just having my fun.”

At one club, a group of about 25 dancing men — most of them Joseph look-alikes — edge closer and closer to a crowd of more than a dozen white women, all in their autumn years.

“It’s not love, obviously. I didn’t come here looking for a husband,” Bethan said over a pounding beat from the speakers.

“It’s a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn’t pay for anything, and I get what I want — a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?”

where did they FIND this baby?

…on little scraps of paper, while i was cleaning the tsunami of my desk.

Love is like a minefield.
You take a step, get blown to pieces, put yourself back together and stupidly take another step. I guess that’s human nature though. It hurts so much to be alone, we’d rather blow up.

Be quick to love, and make haste to be kind.

and on a lighter note,

The human and chimpanzee genomes vary by just 1.2 percent, yet there is a considerable difference in the mental and linguistic capabilities between the two species. A new study showed that a certain form of neuropsin, a protein that plays a role in learning and memory, is expressed only in the central nervous systems of humans and that it originated less than 5 million years ago. The study, which also demonstrated the molecular mechanism that creates this novel protein, will be published online in Human Mutation, the official journal of the Human Genome Variation Society.

Led by Dr. Bing Su of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Kunming, China, researchers analyzed the DNA of humans and several species of apes and monkeys. Their previous work had shown that type II neuropsin, a longer form of the protein, is not expressed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of lesser apes and Old World monkeys. In the current study, they tested the expression of type II in the PFC of two great ape species, chimpanzees and orangutans, and found that it was not present. Since these two species diverged most recently from human ancestors (about 5 and 14 million years ago respectively), this finding demonstrates that type II is a human-specific form that originated relatively recently, less than 5 million years ago.

Gene sequencing revealed a mutation specific to humans that triggers a change in the splicing pattern of the neuropsin gene, creating a new splicing site and a longer protein. Introducing this mutation into chimpanzee DNA resulted in the creation of type II neuropsin. “Hence, the human-specific mutation is not only necessary but also sufficient in creating the novel splice form,” the authors state.

The results also showed a weakening effect of a different, type I-specific splicing site and a significant reduction in type I neuropsin expression in human and chimpanzee when compared with the rhesus macaque, an Old World monkey. This pattern suggests that before the emergence of the type II splice form in human, the weakening of the type I splicing site already existed in the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, implying a multi-step process that led to the dramatic change of splicing pattern in humans, the authors note. They identified a region of the chimpanzee sequence that has a weakening effect on the splicing site that also probably applies to humans. “It is likely that both the creation of novel splice form and the weakening of the constitutive splicing contribute to the splicing pattern changes during primate evolution, suggesting a multi-step process eventually leading to the origin of the type II form in human,” the authors state.

They note that further studies should probe the biological function of type II neuropsin in humans, as the extra 45 amino acids in this form may cause protein structural and functional changes. They note that in order to understand the genetic basis that underlies the traits that set humans apart from nonhuman primates, recent studies have focused on identifying genes that have been positively selected during human evolution. They conclude, “The present results underscore the potential importance of the creation of novel splicing forms in the central nervous system in the emergence of human cognition.”

Researchers have produced new DNA evidence that almost certainly confirms the theory that all modern humans have a common ancestry.
The genetic survey, produced by a collaborative team led by scholars at Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin Universities, shows that Australia’s aboriginal population sprang from the same tiny group of colonists, along with their New Guinean neighbours.

The research confirms the “Out Of Africa” hypothesis that all modern humans stem from a single group of Homo sapiens who emigrated from Africa 2,000 generations ago and spread throughout Eurasia over thousands of years. These settlers replaced other early humans (such as Neanderthals), rather than interbreeding with them.

Academics analysed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA of Aboriginal Australians and Melanesians from New Guinea. This data was compared with the various DNA patterns associated with early humans. The research was an international effort, with researchers from Tartu in Estonia, Oxford, and Stanford in California all contributing key data and expertise.

The results showed that both the Aborigines and Melanesians share the genetic features that have been linked to the exodus of modern humans from Africa 50,000 years ago.

Until now, one of the main reasons for doubting the “Out Of Africa” theory was the existence of inconsistent evidence in Australia. The skeletal and tool remains that have been found there are strikingly different from those elsewhere on the “coastal expressway” – the route through South Asia taken by the early settlers.

Some scholars argue that these discrepancies exist either because the early colonists interbred with the local Homo erectus population, or because there was a subsequent, secondary migration from Africa. Both explanations would undermine the theory of a single, common origin for modern-day humans.

But in the latest research there was no evidence of a genetic inheritance from Homo erectus, indicating that the settlers did not mix and that these people therefore share the same direct ancestry as the other Eurasian peoples.

Geneticist Dr Peter Forster, who led the research, said: “Although it has been speculated that the populations of Australia and New Guinea came from the same ancestors, the fossil record differs so significantly it has been difficult to prove. For the first time, this evidence gives us a genetic link showing that the Australian Aboriginal and New Guinean populations are descended directly from the same specific group of people who emerged from the African migration.”

At the time of the migration, 50,000 years ago, Australia and New Guinea were joined by a land bridge and the region was also only separated from the main Eurasian land mass by narrow straits such as Wallace’s Line in Indonesia. The land bridge was submerged about 8,000 years ago.

Australia’s archaeological record provides several apparent inconsistencies with the “Out Of Africa” theory. In particular, the earliest known Australian skeletons, from Lake Mungo, are relatively slender and gracile in form, whereas younger skeletal finds are much more robust. This robustness, which remains, for example, in the brow ridge structure of modern Aborigines, would suggest either interbreeding between homo sapiens and homo erectus or multiple migrations into Australia, followed by interbreeding. The archaeological data also indicates an intensification of the density and complexity of different stone tools in Australia during the Holocene period (beginning around 10,000 years BP), in particular the emergence of backed-blade stone technology. The first dingos arrived at around the same time, and it is thought both were brought to the continent by new human arrivals – leading to theories of a secondary migration that has resulted in disputes regarding the single point of origin theory.

When backpackers Caroline Day and Mei-Yin Lee discovered they had won Lotto they rang home from the newsagency. It was after one in the morning in Britain but Ms Day wanted to share the news with her mother.

During that joyous phone call, they calculated they had won about £220,000.

But three weeks later when Dr Lee rang NSW Lotteries to inquire about the money, a “bold” fraud by an employee at the newsagency came to light - and it would be another 27 months before the pair saw their money.

In an email to the Herald from her home in Britain, Dr Lee - an Australian citizen from Perth - said she was “over the moon” that their long legal battle with NSW Lotteries had been settled and that changes had been made to the way claims were processed.

On January 4, 2005 Dr Lee and Ms Day presented their Lotto ticket at the World Square Newsagency Bookshop. A friend took their photo with the ticket before they handed it in and filled in a claim form.

After the transaction, the employee who had served them, Chrishartato Ongkoputra, known as Chris Ong, substituted their claim form for one of his own. He then sent his form, and their winning ticket, to NSW Lotteries.

“The stars really aligned for him,” said the barrister James Stevenson, SC, who is representing newsagents Michael Pavellis and his partner Sheila Urech-Tan.

Mr Ong knew that NSW Lotteries would not pay out for 14 days. He told his boss he was having visa problems and needed to return temporarily to Indonesia. He gambled that the backpackers would not chase up their win until after he had left the country.

“The [newsagents] have been betrayed by a person they had no reason to doubt. They now find themselves in the position of being sued for half a million dollars plus costs by an agency of the government,” Mr Stevenson said.

At the time of Mr Ong’s fraud, NSW Lotteries was already reviewing its security following a similar fraud at an agency in Croydon. A report by NSW Lotteries, tendered in evidence, said it needed to address the problem with unregistered tickets to protect the corporate image and customer confidence.

Dr Lee is just happy the matter has been settled.

The 12 middle school students had just finished watching an instructional video produced to help break down the “no snitching” culture in Boston when a court volunteer asked them a series of questions.

How many have heard shootings at night?
Every hand went up.

How many knew someone who had been shot?
At least seven raised their hands.

Finally, how many have ever reported gunfire to police?
This time, no one raised an arm.

The children’s response is why court officials have been showing the video “You Be the Judge” to hundreds of fifth- and sixth-graders since January. The video, filmed by the Huntington Theatre Company, tells the fictional story of a Boston teenager named Bobby Wilson who is left holding a gun his friend used to shoot another teenager after a drug deal gone wrong. Bobby is arrested when his girlfriend, who had urged him to go to the police, refuses to hide the gun for him. His fear of “snitching” leads to a first-degree murder charge and he is left sitting morosely in a courtroom, filled with regret, as a jury decides his fate.

On Monday, the 12 students - sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from the McCormack Middle School in Dorchester - gathered in West Roxbury District Court for a viewing.

The children were older than most of the students who have watched the video, and some had already had brushes with the law. Court officials were worried they would react cynically to the video.

As it played, the children did snicker occasionally, mocking the sometimes stiff acting and melodramatic courtroom scenes. But they paid attention and stayed quiet for most of the film.

“It was good,” said Shawn Rowe, a serious, hazel-eyed 15-year-old, afterward. “It seemed like something that could happen.”

For others, the video lacked credibility.

“That video wasn’t real. It was made by adults,” said one 14-year-old eighth-grader who declined to give his name. “If it had been done by kids, it would have been way different.”

Asked what he meant, he said that for one thing, most girls he knows would have hidden their boyfriend’s gun.

“My girl would take that hammy,” he said, referring to the slang word for gun. WHAT?!?!? YOURE 14!!!“I wouldn’t,” retorted Myiesha, a 14-year-old girl who asked that her last name be withheld.

The video unleashed a torrent of discussion inside the judges lobby, where Kathleen Coffey, the first justice of the West Roxbury court, had invited them to view the film with probation and police officers.

The children debated whether Wilson should be found guilty and if his girlfriend did the right thing - most of them believed she did. They then peppered Coffey and the officers with questions about mandatory gun sentences, why juveniles are sometimes charged as adults, and why police shoot to kill. In turn, the officials asked the children why they do not turn to authority figures when they witness an assault or are the victims of one.

“If you go to the principal, that’s going to make things worse,” Rowe said. “Because they’re going to come after you even more.”

The video, which features police officers, court officials, and teenagers from across the city, is part of Reinventing Justice, a volunteer program of police officers, lawyers, and others run by Coffey and designed to make the courts more accessible to the community.

Coffey said they decided to show the film to middle school students because they are more likely influenced by its message than high school students, who have formed firmer opinions about cooperating with police.

Middle school students are at “the turning point,” she said. “You still have their attention.”

As the students prepared to leave her conference room for a tour of the courthouse, Coffey told them she hoped they would reflect on what they discussed that morning. They would be heading into her courtroom to watch defendants plead their cases. Many of them, Coffey told them, are good people who made “bad decisions.”

“What we’re talking about is serious,” she said. “I pray every night and I’m sure your parents pray every night that you will make good decisions.”