Photo File: Druids in Life Magazine

A druid participates in a dawn ceremony as part of the midsummer rites at Stonehenge.

In early October, 2010, the ancient pagan tradition of Druidry was, for the first time, formally classed as a religion in Britain. The legal significance of this new status for those who today call themselves Druids is considerable: they can, for instance, receive exemptions from taxes on donations. The spiritual significance, meanwhile — of having one’s religion recognized on a par with, say, the Church of England after years of living on the very margins of Europe’s great faiths — can hardly be overstated.

See and read more via Life Magazine

Photo Flash: Sea Cucumber Mountaineer

According to National Geographic (published July 7, 2010):

Ten potentially new species—including “mountaineering” sea cucumbers (pictured above) and possible “missing links” between invertebrates and backboned animals—were discovered during the six-week expedition.

The voyage, which ended July 3, was the last of the MAR-ECO project, a series of biological surveys of unexplored waters along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the underwater mountain range that bisects the Atlantic Ocean from north to south.

Deep-sea sea cucumbers are normally found on the ocean floor. But the study team saw several species high on steep slopes of the vast underwater mountain range running the length of the Atlantic Ocean.

“We’ve always thought of them as slow-crawling animals, but they are actually capable of swimming,” marine biologist Monty Priede, said. “This is quite important on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, because otherwise there’s a risk of starving if they get stuck on a ledge somewhere.”

See more photos of the newly discovered species here

posted by: Brent Carter

In WTF News: Roundup July, 7 2010

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BANS PRESS PHOTO ACCESS TO GULF OIL SPILL, THREATENS JAIL TIME

According to a new safety zone rule passed down from the US government, reporters and photographers are not allowed within 65 feet (20 meters) of booms, boom operations, and other cleanup activities, except with the express permission of the US Coast Guard. CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports that the limit was originally 300 feet, but it was reduced to 65 feet.

But to complicate matters, under the new rule, anyone found “willfully” in violation of the rule would be fined $40,000 and charged with a Class D felony. Class D felonies typically carry a jail sentence. The law especially affects photographers in the area who need to be on site in order to properly cover the events.

Our two cents: I assume our new policy for the Gulf Oil Spill is to act like it never happened in the first place by banning media coverage until everyone forgets that it did.

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CORRUPTION IN AFGHANISTAN: US CUTS AID AFTER BILLIONS SIPHONED OFF TO DUBAI

Brigadier General Mohammed Asif Jabarkhel sits with folded arms in his office, just a few steps away from the security checkpoint at Kabul International Airport. “Of course I know what’s going on here,” the 59-year-old head of the airport’s customs police grumbles from beneath his thick moustache as a fan whirs in the background. “But, in this country, who’s allowed to speak the truth?”

Jabarkhel is referring to the huge amounts of money regularly being secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases. According to some estimates, since 2007, at least $3 billion (€2.4 billion) in cash has left the country in this way. The preferred destination for these funds is Dubai, the tax haven in the Persian Gulf. And, given the fact that Afghanistan’s total GDP amounts to the equivalent of $13.5 billion, there is no way that the funds involved in this exodus are merely the proceeds of legal business transactions….

Since invading Afghanistan in 2001, the United States alone has invested almost $300 billion in military and reconstruction efforts there. But far less progress has been made than what was either hoped for or expected. One major reason for this could be the fact that a significant portion of the millions meant for reconstructive efforts continue to be siphoned off. The people benefiting are often those who enjoy extremely close business ties with the donor countries….

Reports on cases of persistent corruption like this have enraged American politicians and led a key panel to approve a freeze on the $3.9 billion in aid for Afghanistan’s government already earmarked for the 2011 budget year.

Read the full article via Der Spiegel International (published July 5, 2010)

Our two cents: Thank god we’re not in debt in this country otherwise we might actually miss the $3 billion that magically disappeared in the Afghan War. Oh…wait a minute, we’re actually massively in debt – over $13 trillion in debt to be more precise.

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ECUADOR POLICE SEIZE 100-FOOT NARCO-SUBMARINE BEING SECRETLY BUILT IN A REMOTE JUNGLE

Police in Ecuador seized a 100-foot submarine being built by suspected drug traffickers capable of carrying a crew of six and 10 tons of cocaine on underwater voyages lasting up to 10 days — a “game changer” for U.S. anti-drug and border security efforts, officials said Monday. A raid Friday by 120 police officers and soldiers netted the fiberglass sub as it was nearing completion in a clandestine “industrial complex” hidden in mangrove swamps near San Lorenzo, a town just south of the Colombian border.

Read the full article via LA Times (published July 6, 2010)

Our two cents: First and foremost you’ve got to respect the ingenuity of the Ecuadoran drug dealers who built the sub. And I’m sure a few months from now the Pentagon will unveil the first billion dollar nuclear-powered submarine built specifically for the “War on Drugs.”

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WIDOW LIVED WITH CORPSES OF HUSBAND AND TWIN SISTER

The 91-year-old widow lived by herself in a tumbledown house on a desolate country road. But she wasn’t alone, not really, not as long as she could visit her husband and twin sister.

No matter they were already dead. Jean Stevens simply had their embalmed corpses dug up and stored them at her house — in the case of her late husband, for more than a decade — tending to the remains as best she could until police were finally tipped off last month. Much to her dismay.

“Death is very hard for me to take,” Stevens told an interviewer.

As state police finish their investigation into a singularly macabre case — no charges have been filed — Stevens wishes she could be reunited with James Stevens, her husband of nearly 60 years who died in 1999, and June Stevens, the twin who died last October. But their bodies are with the Bradford County coroner now, off-limits to the woman who loved them best.

Read the full article here via Associated Press (July 5, 2010)
Watch video of the story here

Our two cents: Creepy!

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KOBAYASHI ARRESTED AS CHESTNUT NABS 4th HOT DOG CROWN

Cops carted away six-time Nathan’s champ Takeru Kobayashi after the legendary competitive eater — banned from the Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest today — tried to rush the stage. Two beefy men, wearing polo shirts with NYPD logos, stopped Kobayashi as he attempted to hop a barricade and reach Joey Chestnut after the San Jose, Calif., eating machine won his fourth consecutive Nathan’s title.

“I saw Kobayashi trying to push his way through the police,” a witness said. “He got to the top step, almost to the stage, but he didn’t get onstage.”

The muscle men put Kobayashi in a headlock and dragged him backstage. It wasn’t immediately clear what Kobayashi wanted to do onstage. Kobayashi was barred from eating today due to an ongoing contract beef with Major League Eating. Kobayashi was charged with resisting arrest, trespassing and obstruction of governmental affairs, police said.

Read the full article here via the NY Post (published July 4, 2010)

Our two cents: You would think the NYPD would be too busy harassing New Yorkers at post 9/11 checkpoints to work security at a hot dog eating contest, apparently not.

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posted by: Harold Johns III

In WTF News: Roundup June 29, 2010

News moves fast these days, really fast, so fast we often struggle to get all the information we want to share up on The Rathaus. Our WTF News can be particularly troublesome in this regard, seemingly because we’re swimming in just this type of news as of late. So in an effort to document the best of the worst and the weirdest in the news, we’ve put together another roundup segment. Here’s what we’ve been shaking our heads to in WTF disbelief recently.

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OFFICERS CLAIM THEY DON’T NEED A LAW TO STOP PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM TAKING PICTURES

Two police officers stopped a teenage photographer from taking pictures of an Armed Forces Day parade – and then claimed they did not need a law to detain him.

Jules Mattsson, a 16-year-old freelancer from Hackney, east London, was photographing police cadets on Saturday when he was ordered to stop and give his personal details by an adult cadet officer who claimed he needed parental permission to capture images of the cadets.

After arguing his rights in a series of protracted legal debates with officers, the sixth former says he was pushed down a set of stairs and detained for breaching the peace until the parade passed.

Read the full article (with video of the incident) via The Independent

Our two cents: England’s own Association of Police Chiefs has made it clear that police are not allowed to harass photographers of any kind while in the public realm, so obviously the cops were out of line and acted like a goon squad in this instance.

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OKLAHOMA POLICE TASE AN 86-YEAR-OLD BEDRIDDEN WOMAN FOR NOT TAKING HER MEDS

American police have been accused of tasering an 86-year-old bed-ridden grandmother. Lonnie Tinsley called the emergency services to his home in El Reno, Oklahoma, when he became concerned that his grandma Lona Vernon had failed to take her medication. But instead of a medical technician, he claims at least a dozen armed police officers answered his call.

When Mrs Vernon ordered the police from her house, officer Thomas Duran allegedly decided she was being ‘aggressive’ and gave the order: ‘Taser her.’ Her alarmed grandson is then said to have replied: ‘Don’t taze my granny!’ According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Tinsley’s ‘obstructive’ behavior prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers. He was then assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car.

In order to ensure ‘officer safety’, one of his men ‘stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation.’ Another of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn’t solid. A second fired his taser, ‘striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain’, and unconsciousness.

Read the full article via the Daily Mail

Our two cents: American cops use tasers with all the discretion of a drunk teenager carrying a gross of bottle rockets. Check out TaserWatch to read other incidents of Taser abuse.

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ALL MCNUGGETS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL, SOME CONTAIN THE SAME INGREDIENTS AS SILLY PUTTY

U.S. McNuggets not only contain more calories and fat than their British counterparts, but also chemicals not found across the Atlantic. CNN investigated the differences after receiving a  blog comment asking about them.

American McNuggets (190 calories, 12 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat for 4 pieces) contain the chemical preservative tBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleum-based product. They also contain dimethylpolysiloxane, “an anti-foaming agent” also used in Silly Putty. By contrast, British McNuggets (170 calories, 9 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat for 4 pieces) lists neither chemical among its ingredients….

Dimethylpolysiloxane is used as a matter of safety to keep the oil from foaming, says Lisa McComb, who handles global media relations for McDonald’s. The chemical is a form of silicone also used in cosmetics and Silly Putty. A review of animal studies by The World Health Organization found no adverse health effects associated with dimethylpolysiloxane.

TBHQ is a preservative for vegetable oils and animal fats, limited to .02 percent of the oil in the nugget. One gram (one-thirtieth of an ounce) can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse,” according to “A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives.”

Read the full article via CNN’s The Chart

Our two cents: As a general rule, don’t eat food with an ingredient you can’t pronounce.

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LIGHTNING STRIKES THREE OF THE TALLEST BUILDINGS IN CHICAGO AT THE SAME TIME

Watch the video here

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AT LEAST 604 PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED DURING RECENT PROTESTS AGAINST THE G20 SUMMIT IN TORONTO, CANADA

Many of those arrested were innocent bystanders who were waiting for buses, walking their dogs or just taking a stroll. Amnesty International Canada is calling for an independent review of the G8/G20 security measures.

Read the full article via CBC News

Watch video taken behind the lines here

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posted by: Harold Johns III

In WTF News: Blackwater Opens Storefronts, Sells Merchandise Online

Finding the perfect gift for a psychopathic soldier of fortune or a fan of American mercenaries can be tough. Luckily America’s most notorious military contractor has you covered.

According to Noah Shachtman of Wired (published June 7, 2010):

The company formerly known as Blackwater has tried, with only limited success, to shed its tainted name. So now, “Xe Services LLC” is embracing the Blackwater brand, and opening a series of retail stores under the infamous guns-for-hire moniker.

At the Blackwater Pro Shops in Fayetteville, North Carolina and Salem, Connecticut, you can “purchase clothing and equipment emblazoned with the logo,” the Solider Systems blog explains. If that doesn’t get your blood pumping you can also try out your new firearms at their indoor range.

There’s already an online store selling all sorts of swag — from a “BW Cosmopolitan Pilsner Glass” to a rifle. Maybe they’ll get really smart and leverage the awesome logos that Danger Room readers designed for ‘em a few years back.

If you’re interested in learning more about Blackwater/Xe’s dirty deeds we highly suggest the work of author and investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill.

posted by: Harold Johns III