New Year's Eve could go off without a bang for some Neapolitan men
New Year's Eve could prove to be something of a damp squib for some men in the Italian city of Naples.
Hundreds of Neapolitan women have pledged to go without sex unless their men promise to refrain from setting off dangerous illegal fireworks.
Local authorities are backing the women and have sent out text messages urging the men to "make love, not explosions".
The women say it is the only way to persuade their partners that they are serious about their concerns.
"Setting off illegal fireworks isn't celebrating, it's dangerous," Carolina Staiano, a founder of the campaign, told La Stampa newspaper.
The idea of no sex is not exactly popular
Local councillor Vincenzo Sorrentino
She told women that if their man did not understand the dangers they should "take action and make him sleep on the sofa".
''If a sex strike is what it takes in order to get the attention of our men, husbands, partners and sons, then we're ready for it," Mrs Staiano, 44, told Italy's Ansa news agency.
'Sensitive issue'
Mrs Staiano, who has the support of local churches, speaks from personal experience when warning of the dangers of fireworks.
She has spent her life caring for her father, who was left partially paralysed and with epilepsy after a firework exploded next to him at New Year's Eve party before she was born.
But the campaign, which started as a small-scale pledge in her home town of Lettere, about 40km (25 miles) from Naples, now has hundreds of supporters and has generated massive media interest.
''I'm receiving phone calls all the time from people who want to join. To be honest, I really wasn't expecting this level of interest,' said Mrs Staiano.
The move was inspired by the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens refuse to have sex unless their men folk forge a truce with their rivals from Sparta.
Doctor and local councillor Vincenzo Sorrentino, who has long campaigned against the illegal fireworks, said a sex ban was "an issue that men are particularly sensitive to''.
''The idea of no sex is not exactly popular and polls among local men have suggested they plan to make much greater efforts this year to prevent illegal fireworks being let off," he said.
Previous attempts to prevent the New Year's Eve mayhem had proved unsuccessful, said Mr Sorrentino, but he hoped the women's threat would do the job.
"They are more convincing and they always achieve their goals," he said.
The BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Rome says if the men of Naples fail to get the women's message, an awful lot of them could be waking up on sofas on New Year's Day.
When will it end? Never. Fighting has been going on for thousands of years, but, with the advent of missile/rocket technology, things are only worsening. Israel is being a spoiled 10 year old child right now. I mean, really. Bush is being stupid as always. I'm sure that Gaza will cease fire first when it was Israel that started initiated the firing in the first place, out of nowhere. Things are looking pretty bleak. This may change my plans to visit Israel, Palestine, and Jordan in April. I'm not afraid of "getting bombed" or dying, but I would rather not spend a ridiculous, non-refundable amount of money on a plane ticket only to be turned away from the visit. I had planned on visiting Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, some other Palestinian territories as well as Petra in Jordan. Alas, this may have to wait. I'm going to purchse my ticket in the next week or two, so depending on how these "cease fire" talks go will decide the fate of my plane ticket. I know there will never be peace, but if they decide on a substantial enough cease fire, at least five or six months, I will go as planned.
Here is an article posted on the BBC today;
Israel rejects Gaza truce calls
Gaza wakes up to another day of air strikes
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected international calls for a 48-hour truce in the Gaza Strip to allow in more humanitarian aid.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to stop peace talks with the Israelis if the strikes continued.
The UN Security Council is to meet shortly to discuss the crisis as calls grow for an end to the violence.
Israeli air strikes on Gaza have continued for a fifth day, while more Hamas rockets have landed in Israel.
The town of Beersheba was hit, the deepest penetration by rockets so far.
In the last five days, Israeli jets and attack helicopters have hit Hamas targets, including security compounds, government buildings, smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt and homes belonging to militant leaders.
Palestinian officials say 391 Palestinians have died in the Israeli air strikes; four Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza, which is under Hamas control.
After meeting his cabinet, Prime Minister Olmert said conditions were not right for a ceasefire, but he did not rule one out in the future.
"If conditions will ripen, and we think there can be a diplomatic solution that will ensure a better security reality in the south, we will consider it. But at the moment, it's not there," he was quoted by aides as telling the cabinet.
Any ceasefire with Hamas had to be permanent, he said, adding that there was international consensus that Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel had to stop.
In particular the hospitals have been depleted and stretched to the maximum because of the closure imposed
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, said he "would not hesitate to stop" peace talks with the Israelis "if they go against our interests and offer a support to aggression".
He called the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip "barbaric and criminal aggression".
International appeals
Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told AFP news agency that his group was open to any ceasefire propositions as long as they meant an end to the air strikes and a lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The BBC's Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, says that if Hamas is open to a ceasefire, it will increase international calls for talks to at least investigate what is possible.
But Israel's leaders are not yet ready to stop their attacks because they need to show that they have won a permanent end to rocket fire from Gaza, adds our correspondent.
Mahmoud Abbas calls for an "honourable truce" in Gaza
International appeals for Israel to end its bombing campaign against Gaza have been mounting.
A European Union statement called for an "unconditional" halt to Hamas rocket attacks.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged an "immediate and urgent ceasefire" to stem a "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.
But US President George W Bush repeated earlier statements that Hamas should take the first step to ending hostilities by halting rocket fire into Israel.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Mr Bush had been assured by Mr Olmert that only Hamas sites in Gaza were being targeted and that "appropriate steps" to avoid civilian casualties were being taken.
Hospitals depleted
While Israeli air raids continued on Wednesday, rockets fired by Palestinian militants landed in and around the southern Israeli town of Beersheba, about 40km (24 miles) from Gaza.
Although no serious casualties were reported, this is the deepest that Palestinian rockets have penetrated inside Israel - something that will only increase Israeli public support for continued military action, observers say.
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Hamas rocket reaches Beersheba
A police spokesman said 860,000 Israelis were now in range of Palestinian rockets.
The UN says at least 62 Palestinian women and children have died since Saturday. Palestinian medical officials say more than 1,700 people have been injured, overwhelming Gaza's hospitals.
"In particular the hospitals have been depleted and stretched to the maximum because of the closure imposed," the Red Cross spokesman in Gaza, Iyad Nasr, told the BBC.
It is not known exactly what rockets Hamas and other groups in Gaza have
Israel says Hamas used the six-month truce to boost its arsenal through smuggling tunnels
Grad-style missiles have reached Ashkelon since 2006
Recent strikes in Ashdod could be Iranian-made Oghab, Fajr-3 or Ra'ad missiles
Israel said it was allowing 106 lorries carrying humanitarian aid - including medical supplies - from a variety of international organisations into Gaza on Wednesday.
Israel has massed forces along the boundary with Gaza and has declared the area around it a "closed military zone".
Correspondents say this could be a prelude to ground operations, but could also be intended to build pressure on Hamas.
A statement by Hamas has warned any invasion would see "the children of Gaza collecting the body parts of Israeli soldiers and the ruins of tanks".
The Israeli air strikes began less than a week after the expiry of a six-month-long ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but has kept tight control over access in and out of Gaza and its airspace.
....As for an update on me, I've been UBER busy. And I do mean uber. It snowed, finally, a considerable amount. I spent Christmas at Northstar with my Mom, Cliff, the brothers, and David. After getting off work, David and I drove to SoCal on Saturday to make a quick visit to the rest of our families, and then we drove back to Tahoe. It was a VERY quick trip, with traffic all the way up and down the I-5. I also bought my plane ticket to Vegas for SIA, and booked a room at the Excalibur January 27th-30th. Right now I am on my lunch break, during an incredibly busy day, to write this blog. I'm sorry to those of you who have been waiting for an update, calling or texting; I haven't really been on the internet at all, especially not on my blog, facebook, or myspace. So don't take it personally if I haven't gotten back to you! I haven't gotten back to anyone. Oh, and my fingernails all broke, so texting is a bitch right now [tiny touch screen letters and no stylus]. I probably won't text you back. Or call you. I'll try the internet thing again though, haha. My next day off is in a week or so, in which snowshralping, reading, and internetting [yes, I realize that is not a real verb] will ensue.
The equivalent of a year's worth of horse dung in snow! And it's going to keep on snowing every day, minus one bluebird day this week that will be EPIC! Soooooo stoked. It is about time, folks. I think the boys and I are going to set up some shtuff in the backyard tonight, so hopefully we'll have some fun! PS. how cute is Wylie?! PUPPY!
In this decapitated skull from around 300 B.C., found in mud, researchers used a CT scan to show brain material (the dark folded matter at the top of the head). The lighter colors in the skull represent soil. Credit: York Archaeological Trust
A representation of the more than 2,000-year-old skull generated from the CT scans taken at York Hospital. Credit: York Archaeological Trust
Archaeologists have found what they say is the oldest brain ever discovered in Britain, or at least the shriveled remnant of one, in a decapitated skull that dates back more than 2,000 years.
Inside the skull, the scientists found "a yellow substance which scans showed to be shrunken, but brain-shaped," according to a University of York statement.
"I'm amazed and excited that scanning has shown structures which appear to be unequivocally of brain origin," said Philip Duffey, a neurologist at York Hospital who scanned the skull.
The researchers do not claim the brain is the oldest in the world, as some news reports suggested.
The skull was found in a muddy pit unearthed during excavations on the site of the University of York's campus expansion at Heslington East and is thought to have been a ritual offering. Nobody is sure how the brain remained preserved for so long.
Here's how the noggin was first noticed: York Archaeological Trust dig team member Rachel Cubitt reached in and, while she cleaned the soil-covered skull's outer surface, "she felt something move inside the cranium. Peering through the base of the skull, she spotted an unusual yellow substance."
"The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare," said Sonia O'Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford. "This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the UK, and one of the earliest worldwide."
O'Connor called it the oldest brain found in Britain and "one of the earliest worldwide."
One might think the oldest preserved brains would come from Egyptian mummies, but the minds of mummies were typically removed and discarded. "The brain was removed by carefully inserting special hooked instruments up through the nostrils in order to pull out bits of brain tissue," according to an Encyclopedia Smithsonian article on Egyptian mummies.
The mystery of the British brain's preservation could be cracked with more research. For instance, another oddity is that there was no skin or other tissue remaining, Duffey said.
"I think that it will be very important to establish how these structures have survived, whether there are traces of biological material within them and, if not, what is their composition," Duffey said.
It is not unheard of for soft biological tissue to be preserved over long periods of time. In 2005, scientists announced they had discovered 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex blood vessels. And the 5,200-year-old "Iceman" mummy, found in 1991 in the European Alps, has yielded a wealth of tissue.
Is all the "fun done" for tourists in Amsterdam? Renowned for its unionized hookers in the Red Light District, it's openness to sex, and the multitudes of "coffee shops" getting Uni students from all over the world high, Amsterdam apparently is going to clean up its act.
I was perusing BBC.co.uk, and came across this article;
"
Amsterdam to cut brothels by half
The red light district has been popular for 700 years
Dutch authorities have revealed details of their plans to clean up Amsterdam's famous red light district.
They say they will close half the city's brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in a bid to drive organised crime from the city centre.
Council officials gave the sex industry a warning a year ago that they were going to close some brothels.
The deputy mayor of Amsterdam says the plans will stop the city being a "free zone" for criminals.
Last year the city said it wanted to close one-third of the red light district's brothels, where scantily-clad prostitutes display themselves in shop windows.
But the new measures aim to reduce the number of sex "windows" from 482 to 243, a council spokesman said.
Amsterdam also wants to close half of the 76 marijuana shops in the city centre.
City centre 'decay'
The city council says that some other businesses are also related to the decay of the city centre, including peep shows, sex shows, mini-supermarkets, phone and souvenir shops, and they will also be shut down.
You won't have to be embarrassed
Lodewijk Asscher Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam
It says there are indications that some red light businesses serve as a cover for organised crime, including drugs and the trafficking of women.
"Money laundering, extortion and human trafficking are things you do not see on the surface but they are hurting people and the city. We want to fight this," said Deputy Mayor Lodewijk Asscher.
"We can still have sex and drugs but in a way that shows the city is in control."
Officials have set aside some 39m euros (£33m) to bring back hotels, boutiques, galleries and restaurants to the area.
'Tolerant and crazy'
The plans come just days after a national ban on hallucinogenic or "magic mushrooms" from shops known as Smart Shops.
The BBC's correspondent in the Netherlands, Geraldine Coughlan, says the latest plans go much further than had been expected.
Critics say the crackdown in Amsterdam is the latest example of a hardening of the traditional liberal Dutch approach to social issues including prostitution and soft drug use.
But Mr Asscher said that the changes would be more in line with Amsterdam's image as a "tolerant and crazy place, rather than a free zone for criminals".
"It will be a place with 200 windows (for prostitutes) and 30 coffee shops, which you can't find anywhere else in the world - very exciting, but also with cultural attractions," he said, adding: "And you won't have to be embarrassed to say you came."
Prostitution will be allowed only in two areas in the district - notably De Wallen, a web of streets and alleys around the city's medieval retaining dam walls.
The area has been a centre of prostitution for hundreds of years.
Prostitution was legalised in the Netherlands in 2000, formalising a long-standing tolerance.
Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but prosecutors will not press charges for possession of small amounts. Coffee shops are able to sell it openly. "
Does this mean that the infamous Banana Bar will close?!?!
Greece has enough issues. I hope this will all be sorted out by summer. Super messed up though. I understand the anger, but an eye for an eye makes the world blind. Use your anger in a constructive way, instead of causing more desolation. What the police did was, indeed, messed up, and i understand the response.....
Third day of anti-police riots across Greece
1 day ago
ATHENS (AFP) — Fury at the fatal police shooting of a schoolboy erupted in a third day of rioting across Greece on Monday, with youths looting stores, attacking hotels and clashing with the security forces by parliament.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called a cabinet crisis meeting late Monday after having vowed to bring the unrest under control.
In the streets meanwhile, riot police were pelted with stones by a group of some 300 youths outside parliament and in the northern city of Salonika a policeman was wounded in a firebomb attack.
With a general strike now planned to protest the killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos on Saturday, the damage to businesses and the country's reputation as a tourist destination was steadily rising.
Youths attacked cars and looted dozens of stores in Salonika, Greece's second largest city, and clashes broke out in the central city of Trikala.
The unrest also spread to the popular resort islands of Rhodes where police fired tear gas at protesting pupils and Crete where police buildings were pelted with stones.
There were even scuffles and two arrests outside the Greek embassies in London and the Cypriot capital Nicosia.
As despairing traders sifted through the wreckage left by weekend rioting, Caramanlis appeared on national television to denounce "the extremist elements who exploited the tragedy.
"The unacceptable and dangerous events cannot and will not be tolerated," added Caramanlis.
A government spokesman denied rumours that a state of emergency would be declared.
Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos late Monday defended the police response to the rioting and looting rampages.
"The police are there and doing everything necessary to protect lives and property," he said after leaving a two-hour cabinet meeting.
However, when questioned by journalists about the failure of security forces to prevent a third day of rioting across the country, he added: "I'm not satisfied, and I apologise to the Greek people."
The unrest has now left dozens wounded, caused widespread destruction and put new pressure on Karamanlis, already under fire over the economy and a number of scandals.
Some of the worst violence came in Trikala where three police were hurt in clashes when dozens of youths broke off from a larger student demonstration and attacked banks, shops and cars on the city's main square.
About 300 students and other youths also attacked cars and stores in Salonika, where a police officer was hospitalised with a hand injury after a firebomb attack on his station.
Police rapidly lost control of a night-time protest in central Salonika where scores of stores were looted by youths.
In Athens, firefighters were called to 24 banks, 35 stores, 24 cars, 12 homes and a district office of the ruling New Democracy party hit by a small bomb. Six police vehicles were also destroyed.
Protestors also set fire to the lobby of the Hotel Athens Plaza on central Syntagma Square and the Christmas tree on display there which was supposed to have been lit in a ceremony on Sunday.
Late Monday, rioters kept up a cat-and-mouse chase with police through the streets of the Greek capital. Hooded and helmeted youths penetrated as far as the plush district of Kolonaki, smashing stores a short distance from the Mexican embassy and the British Council before retreating anew.
Riot police responded with heavy discharges of tear gas, sending clouds billowing over the Athens sky.
"Police waged defensive action to avoid head-to-head clashes and avoid further loss of life," said the ruling party's general secretary, Lefteris Zagoritis, told state television NET.
"Glass is important, but life more so," he said.
Several universities in Athens and Salonika were ordered closed for two days from Monday, and Greece's education minister said high schools would also remain closed on Tuesday in tribute to the slain boy.
Pupils plan a rally in the capital on Tuesday and a general strike planned for Wednesday has become a new focus for the radical left to show its anger.
Greek police have arrested two officers involved in the shooting of the teenager in the Athens district of Exarchia on Saturday.
Grigoropoulos was among youths who had allegedly thrown stones at a police car. One of the two officers left his vehicle to fire three times at the teenager, who was hit in the chest, witnesses said. Grigoropoulos was confirmed dead in a nearby hospital.
Epaminondas Korkoneas, 37, who allegedly fired the shots, was detained on suspicion of homicide while his partner Vassilis Saraliotis, 31, was arrested as an accessory.
Ballistics results are expected by Tuesday.
The violence is the worst to hit Greece in decades.
Exarchia is a bohemian neighbourhood near central Athens that is considered an anarchist stronghold and as such is rarely patrolled by uniformed police.
In 1985 another 15-year-old pupil, Michalis Kaltezas, was shot by a police officer, triggering violent clashes with the police in Exarchia.
Exarchia was also the scene of major student protests in 1973, which led to the fall of the country's military dictatorship in 1974.
We will be shooting for a calendar with pictures of girls that can ride. If you snowboard in the LAKE TAHOE area, and would be interested, please contact me via myspace or email with a picture and your contact information. There will be both shots of riding and bathing suits. And yes, there IS monetary compensation. Pretty decent money, actually. And please, only girls that can actually ride.
wyley [the puppy] has been dragging around a pair of boxers [from the laundry room, i presume] for the past couple days, and i asked whose they were and the roommie's said "they are your boy toy's!" upon further inspection, i discovered that yes, THEY ARE DAVID MANN'S SKIVVIES!!! AHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAH AHAHHAA AHAHAH AHAHAH
GOOD DOG!!!
and i tried to take them away and she clenched her jaws on them, and I proceeded to pull her across the living room and kitchen to the laundry room.
other things she's chewed on in the past 15 minutes; 1 AA battery and 1 oddly shaped piece of cardboard
The idea of no sex is not exactly popular 
