Yes, they do seem somewhat unflattering. I suppose the Diane Arbus school of freakshow photography will never die. In my eyes it is an immature photographer who seeks out these types of easy hits. When we start out we all shoot old people with lots of wrinkles, and tramps with torn faces. Eventually, hopefully, we learn to see the freaks inside ourselves instead.

For more great fun at other people's expenses, Google "Shelby Lee Adams".

Isn't the real question if the grave is empty or not?

If it is, then all christians who earlier said that it was a fake would immediately claim it to be real, and any atheists who previously claimed the grave to be real would turn around and call it a fake.

It is of course pointless to try and find a real grave that conveniently has "here lies..." with all the facts corresponding to the bible. Because the bible is a work of fiction, possibly based on real characters and events. Possibly and to some degree.

Those who have faith aren't interested in facts. Because they think they know it all if they have read that one book. If their messiah returned they would kill him within hours for claiming something so blasphemous.

And those (like me) who are atheists really think that it is a huge waste of scientific resources to chase fairytales. Spending money on the science of the bible is like building a huge telescope to locate the Death Star.

I'm sure no one will boo him the next time. :D

I haven't read about this before but my immediate question is: How come she has forgotten how to talk? She must have done so fluidly at age eight. When people are isolated they continue talking to themselves, at least internally. And even if she didn't do this, she would remember language like you remember for instance swimming. After a week it would be more or less back.

I remember there was something similar about commuting pigeons in England. They would take the local train or subway (tube) to the park every day and then take the train back home in the evening. Or the other way around. Think it was in New Scientist. Years ago. Apparently they knew when their stop was coming up because they would walk over to the doors and wait.

Also there was a web video of something similar but I cannot find it now.

I've given alcohol to my daughter when she was 15. I don't really get what the problem is here. You have a choice... the kid will drink in small amounts once in a while at home with you around, or she will drink in large amounts somewhere else with some older guys she thinks are cool because they have done jail time. (Notice how objectively i phrased those two choices)

Well... according to the CIA World Factbook, 25% of the population in India is below the poverty line. I happen to think that this is rather a lot, but you may choose to disagree.

I don't believe that people in third world countries have a harder time processing information either, which is why I didn't say that.

Anyway, I'm sure that what they really need to improve their lives is some nice US plastic wrapped disposable takeaway consumer culture.

This somewhat depresses me. People in third world countries see McDonalds and Coca Cola as huge status symbols. I remember seeing McDonalds everywhere in South America and the food there was almost twice the price of the "real" food in other restaurants. And so much worse.

But people will rather pay more to eat an inferior meal. Stupidity... yes in a way but many people are not used to the onslaught of western commercials and billboards and cannot objectively process the information.

Eventually the local places go out of business and all the revenue goes out of the poor country and into rich US pockets. And people who already have very little have to pay a lot more for a premade meal.

Aha. The plot thickens...

Me neither. It reeks of urband legend. Would be cool though. Maybe someone is trying to set up Canada as a future target for US invasion.

Probably very windy out there. In any case, as Wikipedia puts it, "Sealand's claims to sovereignty and legitimacy are not recognised by any country". So basically it isn't sovreign or legitimate.

It really doesn't matter what people want to claim as their right as long as the big powerful people of the world want something else. It's their world. We just rent a room in it.

If someone puts a web server out there that can potentially link up all kinds of obscure p2p activity, then all they have done is to place themselves on the one place where anybody can get to them and take them down with force without any possibility of protest or help from anyone. Bad move.

Lol. I thought it was one of these. Oh well. Good job Withveous! http://www.wendelboe.no/kunst/auksjoner/2004/4_04/images/59.jpg

Yes the introduction of those midichlorians was such a cop-out. As a kid I remember The Force being completely plausible to me, like all the parlor tricks in the bible. And then they chickened out in order not to upset the huge ammount of conservative christians in the US. So now it is ruined. Depressing.

I am completely amazed.

I would say that Laurie Georgeson is more or less correct.

This does indeed resemble something very commonly used for ironing, but it was not used with an iron since it is from a time when the iron was not yet a household item. Instead you used it in conjunction with a round stick used to roll the fabric. The idea is to smooth linen.

In Norwegian this is known as a "Mangletre", from the German "mangelen" (which I suppose means "mangle") and the Norwegian "tre" ("wood"). It was common for a bride groom to offer one of these beauties to his new bride as a gift. Lucky girls. You would get quite a workout from using these.

here in Norway they are nearly always decorated with a handle shaped like a horse. I have never seen a fancy moving metal handle like this before. Don't know it's function.