British inventor Josh Silver, a former professor of physics at Oxford University, has come up with a game-changer of a product design with his water-lensed glasses.
Amateur biologists are goofing around with genetics in garage-based labs that some fear could unleash new and dangerous life forms.
This Machine Might Save the World
Two desktop-printer engineers quit their jobs to search for the ultimate source of endless energy: nuclear fusion.
"Somebody described it as a thermonuclear diesel engine," Laberge says
For stores, a very un-merry holiday
Sales during the crucial year-end shopping season evaporated as economic woes trumped gift-buying enthusiasm among consumers.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The 2008 holiday sales season is one of the worst for retailers in decades, as consumers' concerns about the economy and job losses crushed the typical year-end shopping exuberance.
Ten men and one woman were sentenced to death in Texas in 2008, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. It was the lowest annual figure since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty.
"The need for revenge, for vengeance is being curbed, the appetite is no longer there," contends Robert Hirschorn
Saudi court tells girl aged EIGHT she cannot divorce husband who is 50 years her senior
A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty.
The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 135 miles north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.
Lawyer Abdullar Jtili said:"The judge has dismissed the plea, filed by the mother, because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty."
Oh please. We put 8 year olds in halter tops, and hot pants that say “juicy” across the seat, and see to it they are preggers or at least deflowered by 15.
I love how judgmental of other cultures we are. We have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world, the highest prison population of the industrialized world, and we’re hip deep in a pedophile witch hunt.
We don’t care in this country if 8 year old boys are molested by the elderly clergy en mass, but one little foreign girl MIGHT get molested and we lose our minds.
The bottom line is a lot of men read that and got jealous because they want a 16 year old at 40, and this is just a bit much even for them. The Saudi depravity reflects their depravity hence the rage.
If you’re really so pissed, how about we bomb them? Oh wait they can fight back. And they sell us our oil.
In short, put up or shut up.
Frohergeist
@Brandon M. Sergent -
1.) I don’t put 8 year olds in halter tops and hotpants, nor do I see to it that they’re statutory raped. If you do stuff like that, please stop. Or at least stop projecting it upon others.
2.) I’m assuming you live in sub-Saharan Africa when you say “we”, because they’ve got the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the world. The United States has the highest population percentage in prison; what does that have to do with any aspect of this article? Also, I can’t tell if you’re outraged that there’s a “pedophile witch-hunt” going on.
3.) I care if little boys are being molested by clergy. I’m also allowed to care if “one little foriegn girl” might be molested thru conventions of regional religious doctrine. Once again, plz stop projecting.
4.) Most disturbing projection yet. Is that the bottom line? You really don’t think people can earnestly get upset over tacit governmental approval of (at best) systemic undermining of women’s rights or (at worst) statutory rape? That this is clearly the sole fault of the envy of depraved Western mid-life-crisisers?
5.) What a preposterous false dilemma. And even more projection. “If you do not approve of someone’s actions, destroy them UTTERLY or you are a hyprocrite!” Is that how the world works for you? Utter subservience to your will, or destruction? No other options? Absolutely everything in life is more complicated than “A; if not A, B.”
You’re a psychopath. Not in the flippant, disparaging term; the clinical term.
@Frohergeist
"I don’t put 8 year olds in halter tops and hotpants."
I'm pleased that you personally do not engage in this behavior but a quick trip to your local mall or walmart will show that others do. If you do not see this behavior personally in your area, well good for you. In that case I'd suggest you go clothing shopping for an 8 year old girl. It's an eye opening experience for those that have not.
See the rest of my reply at http://newshate.blogspot.com/2008/12/8-year-old-girl-cannot-legally-divorce.html
I will not reply in full here, I doubt the post's author wants a flame war.
"when you say “we”"
I meant, industrialized world, my apologies. Obviously crushed third world nations will have a higher TPR.
"what does that have to do with any aspect of this article?"
I was suggesting that we have little right to be judgmental until we get our own house in order.
"Also, I can’t tell if you’re outraged..."
Yes I am. Pedophilia is a problem we exacerbate for profit. It's a public health issue, not a legal one. Just like the drug war.
"I care if little boys are being molested by clergy."
Good for you. So do I. But I must remind you that you are not the whole of the United States. I'm speaking of the American populace generally. As far as the media goes, attacking the church and its battalion of molesters was a passing fad, at best.
"You really don’t think..."
Of course they can. I'm commenting on why. Things like what the article are speaking of happen all the time, yet this is supposed to be news.
In the face of female circumcision, honor killings, torture, and human right's violations generally in these countries, which magically aren't news anymore, if they ever were, I have to ask, why?
I have a theory...
Because we are a culture Obsessed with underage sex, that's why. If she had been beaten to death with a rock, or had her genitals stitched shut, or both, we'd not be having this conversation, because it would not have been a story.
But because some guy gets to potentially raise her to be a little sex slave, and screw her the instant he feels like it, we're all frothing at the mouth. Color me cynical, but I can't help but think a good chunk of that rage is jealousy.
And no, obviously some are angry for what I would call ethical reasons, such as myself, and perhaps even you. But even those people need to be reminded that this is not an honest reporting with the aim of solving the problem. News is a business. And sex sells. If this really was news to the people merely because its an extreme ethical violation, and not a pedo fantasy come to life, Amnesty International would get more hits than foxnews.com. We control what gets covered. If the demand were there for real news, we'd have it. We don't, so there isn't.
"No other options?"
Setting aside the fact of a probable Tom Clancy style reaction if the 8 year old girl in question was a doe eyed white American, I'll say sure, there are other options. But considering the froth spitting hatred, and armchair torture-expert style, reaction to domestic pedophiles, I'd say bombing the Saudis into radioactive glass seems a rational response by comparison.
My personal suggestion would be an immediate and complete international boycott of all Saudi imports and services spearheaded by the United States domestic economic consequences be damned. I personally choose to be poor and sleep at night, rather than be rich and worry about my soul.
But you and I both know that's not going to happen. America hasn't been something to be proud of in decades, if ever. In my opinion America is one of those looks good on paper not so much in execution kind of things, but I digress.
I believe they could skin a dozen infants in Saudi Arabia and broadcast it live on Al Jazeera and we'd do nothing, we'd demand some sort of gesture, but ultimately we'd forget, and we'd damn sure not let it interfere with out football watching. My suggestion of bombing was primarily designed to make people think "well why don't we bomb them?" in the face of such strong "justification." Hopefully they'd realize, it's because they have our economy grabbing its ankles.
My core point is this; obviously we don't Really care. If we did we'd be doing something about it other than waxing self-righteous on a blog. Hell, look at 911, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, and our government invades Iraq, and we let them? Come on.
We can't look up from our collective genitals long enough to care, hence our interest in this case.
Your reaction is case in point. You feel personally insulted by my position, which says more about you than me. Ironic, considering your repeated claims of projection on my part. The point is I don't care about you personally, I only care about the arguments you present, and the ideologies you represent. you on the other hand have no idea what you hate, and so for the moment, it's me.
"You’re a psychopath."
Perhaps. That's not for me to judge is it. Pick a point of my logic, a point you feel is the result of mental defect. I'll show you my thinking.
If the world did judge me, by merely stating it to be the case without evidence, as you have, my response would be along the lines of the following.
"See, I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve." - The Joker
