Seven Deadly Sins 2.0

Catholic church gets silly:

People who don't pick up their dogs' addition to the environment in the park may be risking more than a fine - they may be putting their souls at risk of damnation, according to a new Vatican list of seven deadly sins for the 21st century.

As the seven ancient wonders of the world were matched by seven modern wonders, the seven deadly sins have been given a modern version for a globalised world, announced by a Vatican official yesterday.

Polluting, genetic engineering, obscene riches, taking drugs, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice join the original seven deadly sins defined by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century: pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and sloth.

I've always wondered about the original seven deadly sins. Gluttony? Sloth? Seems like pretty thin stuff to be putting a soul in hell for eternity over. Now I guess add 'not recycling' to the list.

Fortune-telling Bureaucrats

OK, I know I already lean too heavily on "news of the weird" type posts and that I promised to put up more thoughtful content, but I just can't resist posting this story. Yes, I wrote the article. But I still can't quite believe that I was getting astrology advice from the Bureau of the National Health Insurance.

Taiwanese Bureau of National Health Insurance plays astrologist

A "whimsical" press release from the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) ranking longevity according to star signs that attracted massive media coverage has resulted in the threat of a lawsuit from a man who said his wife's state of mind has been adversely affected by the report.

The bureau received a telephone call from a man complaining that his wife's depression had worsened markedly since she read in the papers that bureau figures showed people with her astrological sign, Aries, lived the shortest lives, according to the Chinese language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper).

Saying that his wife had been threatening suicide on a daily basis since reading the reports, the man rebuked the bureau for releasing the analysis and threatened to sue, the story reported.

UNDER ATTACK

The bureau has been under attack ever since its astrological analysis of the Department of Health's 2006 death statistics hit the news stands.

The story was the Chinese-language China Times' front-page story on Wednesday and received prominent coverage in most newspapers.

With an average life span of 74.53 years old, Capricorns were said to be the star sign that live the longest, the bureau release said, followed by Aquarius and Libra. The shortest-living were Aries at 73.43 years old, while Taurus and Leo were the next shortest-lived.

Although the release stressed that the analysis was meant to be "whimsical," that did not stop members of the medical community and the public at large from criticizing the bureau over the move.

"In order to maintain the most basic appearance of the bureau's professionalism, leave the astrology to `star princes,'" ran one letter to the editor in the United Daily News on Jan. 10.

The Taiwan Medical Reform Foundation and the Alliance for the Oversight of the BNHI also weighed in publicly with their disapproval.

Bureau officials said that they'd been blindsided by the amount of bad publicity generated by the foray into fortune-telling.

"News from the bureau had been slow, so we took the opportunity to remind people to take care of themselves," said Chung Yueh-yi (鍾越漪), a deputy executive in the underwriting department of the BNHI.

"Aries tend to be workaholics, Taurus tend to be homebodies who sacrifice too much for their families while Leos tend to focus to much on appearances," Chung said, commenting on the three "shortest-living" star signs.

Chung conceded that the release was probably not scientifically sound.

"It's true, we were only working from one year's data," Chung said.

As for those who reacted negatively to the news, Chung said that she was sure that they were in the minority.

"I'm an Aries myself," Chung said "we're naturally optimistic."

Bad boys, Bad boys

Watcha gonna do? Ex-narcotic officer will tell you:

Morning Edition, October 31, 2007 · A former top narcotics officer, credited with over 800 arrests in eight years, is now selling a DVD that shows marijuana users how to avoid arrest when traveling with a stash. Law enforcement officials are outraged. [snip]

The DVD is called Never Get Busted Again, and these pictures are from Barry Cooper's previous life. That's what gives him his unique credibility. As a narcotics officer in West Texas, Cooper was a law enforcement star. That was partly due to his work ethic: Stopping 30 cars a day on the highways was routine for Cooper and his K-9 companion.

"We would pull over cars that had college bumper stickers, because we knew college kids often partied with marijuana," Cooper says. "We would pull over 'Vietnam Vet' plates, because a lot of our vets developed a habit over there."

"I feel bad about it," he admits. "I would look for Mexicans. I would look for black people. It works."

[snip]

Cooper plans to make a second DVD called Never Get Raided Again.

show some emotion

Whoa! My feature on Taiwanese emoticon usage habits made it to the front page!

Smilies are so 1990s. Emoticons have evolved to another level in Taiwan after users started making their own animated GIF files and swapping them through chat programs such as the popular MSN Messenger.

To give you a taste of Taiwanese emoticon (ab)use in action, take a look at a screencapture of a recent IM conversation I had, username blurred.

The Mummy of John Wilkes Booth

The cover story of the Memphis Flyer this week is a macabre history article on the alleged mummy of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and how it ended up, for a time, in a garage in Memphis.

Sweating furiously, the old man pried open the wooden crate and peered inside. Memphis attorney Finis Bates breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the fragile contents were undamaged.

"John, my old friend," he said. "You're home at last!"

Lying inside was the mummified body of an elderly man Bates believed was John Wilkes Booth. How the corpse of Abraham Lincoln's assassin came to rest in a Central Gardens garage remains one of the strangest episodes of our city's past.

Notes from a weird island

A few strange stories from recent editions of the TT.

Infants given extra month to disavow inherited debt:

The Ministry of Justice said yesterday it plans to amend the Civil Code to give infants a better chance of avoiding debts inherited from parents or grandparents.

Director of the Ministry's Department of Legal Affairs, Chang Ching-yun (張清雲), yesterday told a press conference that the Chiayi District Court last week saddled a three-month-old infant with debts from his dead grandfather.

In order to prevent these kind of incidents from occurring again, the ministry had decided to amend the Civil Code, he said.

Chang said that the current Civil Code stipulates that an heir must plead for an abandonment of debts from his or her dead parents or grandparents within two months of their death if the heir is aware of the debts.

He said the proposed amendment would extend the two month period to three months, giving people more time to decide whether to abandon inherited debt.

Chang added the proposed amendment stipulates that infants or secondary inheritors would be allowed to define their inheritance, which means that if infants or secondary inheritors inherit more debt than property, they can plead to define their inheritance and not have to use property to pay off the debt.

Chang said that the amendment stipulates that infants or secondary inheritors could do so within four months of their parents' or grandparents' death.

It was unclear how the ministry expected infants to plead on their own behalf.

Now that'll really be news...


Taiwanese version of wedgies considerably more exterme:

It was Alex's 16th birthday, and he had just treated his classmates to a round of cold beverages to celebrate when it happened.

"A bunch of my friends hoisted me up in the classroom and gave me an aluba on an open window," said Alex, who declined to be identified by his full name.

Alex was not referring to a misspelling of the Caribbean resort island, but a schoolyard "game" that is popular among local high school boys, as well as those in military service.

In aluba, a boy is lifted off the ground by a group of his peers. His legs are forcibly parted, and the crowd shouts "aluba" as they ram the struggling victim crotch-first into any nearby upright object, such as a lamp post, an open door or a coconut tree.

I wrote this one, haha.

Two jaws are better than one?

photo by Jeff Jeffords

Do click through. The video on the NPR website has to be seen to be believed.

Morning Edition, September 6, 2007 · Scientists in California have reported that Moray eels have a set of teeth within a second set of jaws, called the pharyngeal jaws, that help them capture their prey.

Once the Moray eel secures its prey with its first set of jaws, the pharyngeal jaws reach up from its throat, grabbing and pulling the prey down through its esophagus.

Other Moray eel-related fun facts:

• In addition to their extra jaw, some species of Moray eels are poisonous.
  
• "Publius Vedius (died 15 BC), was the son of a freedman from Beneventum. He amassed a large fortune, gaining equestrian status and serving Augustus in the province of Asia; he had a repuation for cruelty, punishing slaves by throwing them to his moray eels." -- Who's who in the Roman World by John Hazel
  
• Despite all this, some Moray eels become very friendly and tame after being fed by divers. The eels "An An" and "Ping Ping" were star attractions at a popular diving site on Taiwan's Green Island, until media reports attracted the unwelcome attention of fishermen and the pair promptly "disappeared". Here's a video of divers swimming with a friendly Moray.
  
  

Organization will set me free

Good reading for me, as I'm going through a massive de-cluttering effort before roommates can move in.

Last year, Americans spent $7 billion on organizational products for their homes, closets, and garages.

Container Store staff are trained to develop an "emotional connection" with customers. Says a salesperson, "When someone comes in to organize belts or shoes, there is usually a bigger problem."http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

1 in 3 ikea customers say they get more satisfaction from cleaning out their closets than from having sex.