Eclectic Collection I

I always end up with an accumulation of random interesting websites so every week I'll be putting up one of these lists, hopefully with some short previews. Maybe these annoy you, or maybe you look forward to my finds. Either way, I'm postin' em'. I'm going to entitle them from now on "Eclectic Collection" without any more explanatory intro's. [By the way, did you know that synonyms of "eclectic" include "catholic" and "liberal"?]

Town shuts down 13-year-old's $5-a-month worm-selling business because the small cardboard sign on his lawn violated zoning laws

But the town's planning commission sees it differently. The sign Joe stuck in his front yard on Washington Road to advertise his business, commission members said, violated local regulations on home businesses. Joe's stepfather, August Reil III, described the sign as a placard about 18-by-18-inches, that read "Nite Crawlers" and listed Joe's phone number.

"What kind of town am I living in where they're going to put the kibosh on a 13-year-old's worm business?" Reil said. "It was just to teach him the values of working and getting paid for it."

[It will cost the kid $130 to appeal the ruling.]

Which Travelers Have 'Hostile Intent'? Biometric Device May Have the Answer

At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones.

With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses -- blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels -- that then were analyzed by software. The idea was to ferret out U.S. officials who were carrying out carefully constructed but make-believe terrorist missions. [...]

Even though his expertise is in human observation, U.S. behavior-recognition expert Dr. Ekman says projects like Cogito deserve a shot. He expects technology to advance even further, to devices like lasers that measure people's vital signs from a distance. Within a year, he predicts, such technology will be able to tell whether someone's "blood pressure or heart rate is significantly higher than the last 10 people" who entered an airport.

Gallup: Many Americans Harbor Strong Bias Against U.S. Muslims

[Now this is really incredible. I have to post it in its entirety. Emphasis added.]

By E&P Staff

Published: August 10, 2006 10:40 AM ET
NEW YORK A new Gallup poll finds that many Americans -- what it calls "substantial minorities" -- harbor "negative feelings or prejudices against people of the Muslim faith" in this country. Nearly one in four Americans, 22%, say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbor.

While Americans tend to disagree with the notion that Muslims living in the United States are sympathetic to al-Qaeda, a significant 34% believe they do back al-Qaeda. And fewer than half -- 49% -- believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States.

Almost four in ten, 39%, advocate that Muslims here should carry special I.D. That same number admit that they do hold some "prejudice" against Muslims. Forty-four percent say their religious views are too "extreme."

In every case, Americans who actually know any Muslims are more sympathethic.

The poll was taken at the end of July and surveyed 1,007 adult Americans.

Cat parasite may affect cultural traits in human populations

Although this sounds like science fiction, it is a logical outcome of how natural selection leads to effective strategies for parasites to get from host to host, said Lafferty. Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite of cats, both domestic and wild. While modern humans are a dead-end host for the parasite, Toxoplasma appears to manipulate personality by the same adaptations that normally help it complete its life cycle. The typical journey of the parasite involves a cat and its prey, starting as eggs shed in an infected cat's feces, inadvertently eaten by a warm-blooded animal, such as a rat. The infected rat's behavior alters so that it becomes more active, less cautious and more likely to be eaten by a cat, where the parasite completes its life cycle. Many other warm-blooded vertebrates may be infected by this pathogen. After producing usually mild flu-like symptoms in humans, the parasite tends to remain in a dormant state in the brain and other tissues.

Evidence for subtle long-term effects on an individual's personality, reported by researchers in the Czech Republic, inspired Lafferty to explore whether a shift in the average, or aggregate, personality of a population might occur where Toxoplasma has infected a higher proportion of individuals.

Are New Weapons Being Used in Gaza and Lebanon? [somewhat graphic photos of the injured]

On 7 July 2006, Gulf News reported a claim by Dr. Al Saqqa, Head of the Emergency Unit of El Shifa Hospital, Gaza that the Israeli Occupation Force was using a new 'chemical' weapon. He has worked at El Shifa for ten years. He had noted that two hundred and more casualties of Operation Summer Rain (sic) had unusual wounds. These numbers included about fifty children. Later evidence from Dr. Al Saqqa described surface wounds as having the general appearance of those due to 'shrapnel' - fragments from shell, missile or bomb casings - but no fragments were to be seen on x-ray. There were usually entry and exit wounds. When the wounds were explored no foreign material was found. There was tissue death, the extent of which was difficult to determine. It is vital, especially with deep wounds, to excise all dead tissue. A higher deep infection rate resulted with subsequent amputation. In spite of amputation there was a higher mortality.

New, Deadly Weapons Used by Israel on Lebanon, Gaza

By now there are countless reports, from hospitals, witnesses, armament experts and journalists that strongly suggest that in the current offensive, Israeli forces are using “new weapons” in Lebanon and Gaza.

New and strange symptoms are reported amongst the wounded and the dead.

Bodies with dead tissues and no apparent wounds; “shrunken” corpses; civilians with heavy damage to lower limbs that require amputation, which is nevertheless followed by unstoppable necrosis and death; descriptions of extensive internal wounds with no trace of shrapnel, corpses blackened but not burned, and others heavily wounded that did not bleed.

"Witness of Those Two Days"

Witnesses' personal accounts of the immediate aftermath of the atom bombs upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, links at the top of the page. Not for weak stomachs.