News – Hate the Player, Not the Game

General

Yet another study on the effects of game violence on kids. You know what I want studied? The effect of lack of parental control over the media a child partakes in and the effects it has on the child. Leave me to my Mature rated splatter games in peace, thanks. Blame games less, blame poor parenting and personal control more. Unless you want to neuter all media back into the 1950s to prevent any offensive media from ever influencing anyone to doing stupidity their predisposed to.

After having a heart attack, people that return to a stressful job are more likely to have another. Seems elementary to me. Any situation that causes a damaged heart to work more vigorously will be more likely to lead to further damage.

The path to human health lies with eating more excrement? Sounds ludicrous, but is it? Think on the same principal as one who takes tiny portions of poison regularly over years to develop resistance, even immunity over time. Perhaps our bid to make ourselves clean and sterile is impacting the strengths of our immune systems negatively. Wouldn’t that be the height of irony?

How to get someone committed.

How to fix a damaged masterpiece.

The blogs look at anticipated wiretapping concessions from the Democrats to the White House, reports that a White House leak dried up an intel lead on al-Qaida and right bloggers ranking up the conservatives they love to hate.

Today’s Papers has note that former White House counselor Dan Bartlett gave a speech where he candidly assessed Republican presidential candidates, the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal from a German citizen who says he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, that a “sharp debate” has broken out in the Bush administration about whether the Israeli intelligence that claimed Syria was beginning a nuclear weapons program with the help of North Korea should lead to a change in U.S. policy toward the two countries and more in the one page news.

Middle East

Oh look, Israel is snatching up more land in the West Bank. An obvious bid to secure as much land as theirs before they are forced to stop expanding into Palestinian lands by some agreement in the coming peace conference. Of course, how well will such an shameless ploy go over at said talks? This sort of bull is why I don’t think Israel’s leaders really want peace. Meanwhile Olmert pumps out the BS.

Displacement remains an issue in Iraq, with fleeing Iraqis running out of options. What will happen if they have nowhere to run?

Unity Resources Group, an Australian-run private security firm based out of Dubai, breaks into the news with the death of two Iraqi women who were in a car that didn’t heed their warnings to stop. We need to get security to the point where we can politely boot these private orgs out of Iraq.

Palestinian university students in Gaza remain cut off from continuing their studies abroad. Israel says the issue will be resolved soon. I hope it is, these youths shouldn’t be denied a chance at greater things by Israel’s bid to isolate Hamas.

The Turkish government yields to allowing raids into Northern Iraq against Kurdish separatists there. One wonders how well this might go considering the US has signed off on it, nor has Iraq’s government. Not to mention the potential havoc this could cause in the north, which has been relatively stable. Perhaps peace is an illusion, so often as it’s broken.

Africa

Fighting in Congo is hampering efforts to get aid to displaced civilians. Meanwhile the two fighting parties blame each other for breaking the peace. Sounds like par for the course.

African villagers can save their crops from elephants by playing a recording of angry African bees. Apparently the elephants don’t like the sound and leave when they hear it. That’s eco friendly pest control.

Medecins Sans Frontieres pulls out of the rebel controlled Sudanese town of Muhajiriya after fierce fighting this week.

Asia/Pacific

Australia shifts their fight against Japanese whaling to Youtube, looking to target Japanese youth. A canny maneuver, but will it work?

The Burmese people rate the world’s response to their recent turmoil. As can be expected, they look at the prospect of more US sanctions as a bad thing, considering it will do little save make the poverty that inflits the common people worse, while the rich remain fat and happy. Others wonder why more martial moves haven’t been made.

Europe

Europe marks its first anti-capital punishment day despite Poland’s attempts to scuttle it. They want it to decry abortion and euthanasia as well.

A US congressional committee is set to decide if the deaths of 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians between 1915 and 1917 classifies as genocide. Turkey has warned of ‘serious consequences’ if the bill on this subject is passed. Governments sure do like to throw that term around, don’t they. The latest meme when it comes to saber rattling.

French scientist Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg of Germany get the Nobel Prize for physics for their work which brought us the computer hard drive. A truly world changing invention and a prize well earned. One wonders what it might be like to watch the creation you helped generate mature so rapidly as it has. ‘Huge’ 30 MB hard drives used to be the size of three stacked novels. Now you can fit 8 GB into a thin little iPod hard drive. Simply amazing.

Americas

Washington DC District Judge Gladys Kessler stops the US military from sending one Mohammed Abdul Rahman from Gtimo to Tunisia because he might be tortured there.

The LA police blame poor communication and training for the excessive forced used in breaking up a May immigration rally.

Rudy and Mitt clash over taxes and spending cuts during a debate in Michigan. And Iowa voters respond. Odd to have to go to a UK news site to get interesting bits like this, eh?

Amusements

Curse.com: I’m So Sick – A video made with World of Warcraft graphics as a music video for the son “I’m So Sick”, which is from the Resident Evil: Extinction soundtrack. Very interesting and artsy.

Man arrested for cursing under “Offenses Against Public Morals” municipal code. Guess which state

Large lizards continue terrorizing Florida neighborhood. Lizards have now taken to the trees (with pic)

After posting anti drinking message on facebook, and calling police on people hanging out in a parking lot, girl is SHOCKED that fellow classmates would egg her house, throw empty beer cans in her yard and name a dead cat after her

Man driving around the block looking for his lost dog causes panic in Vermont town when over-protective parents assume he’s after their children

Another Republican caught toe-tappin in a public toilet

Customer at bank fills out withdrawal slip, hands slip to teller, completely unaware that some jokester wrote “This is a stickup” on the back of it

People over 50 are more likely to have sex on a first date than those under 40. Submitter’s Mom gets lucky at Fark all of the time and she is over 80

Texas car dealer markets car seats with built-in air conditioning using the catchy phrase, “Tired of the wet backs?”

You’re six years old and want to go to Applebees. Do you A) Ask ask an adult to take you; B) Throw a tantrum; C) Take grandma’s keys and try to drive there yourself

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this tiny insect… just kidding… it’s a 30-foot-tall spider

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this frisbee player

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this dynamic dancing duo