WEIRD STUFF

Does anyone else find it incredibly strange that the Anglican Church can get so up in arms about a "virtual desecration" of a cathedral while not saying a peep about real cases where churches have been desecrated by violence?  Examples of the Church’s silence include the terrorist seige at the Church of the Nativity in 2002, numerous bombings of churches in Iraq by insurgent forces, and recent attacks on churches in Indonesia to name a few.  Perhaps the Church of England should turn its rage against video games to more substantive cases?  Does anyone know of examples where they have actually spoken out against these real outrages?  I’d be happy to be proven wrong.

THE CHURCH of England has threatened legal action against Sony after a violent PlayStation 3 computer game depicts Manchester Cathedral as a back-drop for a battle.

Church leaders accused Sony of “desecration” and said it had not asked permission to use the building.

The new game, Resistance: Fall of Man, sees a virtual shoot-out between warring soldiers inside a mock-up of the cathedral. Players assume the role of an army sergeant as a battle is held inside the cathedral, with troops shown taking aim from the nave.

Church officials described Sony’s use of the building as “sick” and sacrilegious and demanded its removal from shops.

Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, said: “For a global manufacturer to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible.”

David Wilson, a Sony spokesman, said: “It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. Throughout the whole process we have sought permission where necessary.”

source, picture source Tags: church of england, anglican church, manchester cathedral, resistance: fall of man, church bombing

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I guess if you’re going to protest auto use by riding a bike, doing it en masse is not quite enough to get the attention you want.  Ride naked but beware the saddle sores!  They put padding in biking shorts for a reason.

When Michel Perrault headed out for a bike ride on Saturday, he made sure to fasten his helmet and slip into his birthday suit.

Perrault was one of about 30 nude cyclists who pedalled through the streets of Montreal to draw attention to the excessive use of gas-powered vehicles.

"I certainly wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have to, but I want to be part of the gang. I want to prove the point,” he said, while waiting for the event to start.

"I want to get undressed in front of everybody and show them I am completely free of any kind of shame.”

Instalments of the World Naked Bike Ride were also expected to roll in several European cities, as well as the United States, Japan and Mexico.

In Canada, in-the-buff cyclists planned to take to the streets of Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Moncton.

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source Tags: cycling, naked, protest, gasoline, saddle sore

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When you want attention, trying hopping on the Popemobile.  At least you’ll be on national television!

A German man has tried to jump into Benedict XVI’s popemobile during his weekly general audience held in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

The 27-year-old man was wrestled to the ground by security officers.

The Pope, himself German, was not injured and did not seem to notice the incident. He proceeded with the audience as normal.

In 1981, Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II was shot by Turkish gunman Ali Agca as he drove around the square.

The man who tried to jump into the popemobile on Wednesday had been standing among some 35,000 people who were attending the audience.

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source Tags: popemobile, dumb guy, grabbing attention

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Enough said…

In the Gaza Strip’s Jabaliya refugee camp, Aref Suleiman was raised on Palestinian struggle against the Jewish state. Today he lies in an Israeli hospital bed, his body riddled with Palestinian bullets, his wounds tended daily by Israeli nurses.

For the 22-year-old Mr Suleiman, who was shot five times point blank by Hamas militants last month during a renewed bout of Palestinian infighting, this is not the Arab-Israeli conflict he learnt about as a child growing up in Gaza’s desperate, rubbish-strewn alleys.

"Palestinians shoot me and Jews treat me," he laughs bitterly. "It was supposed to be different."

The Barzilai Hospital sits on a sandy hilltop above the Mediterranean Sea in the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon. In recent months, five Palestinian rockets have landed in the grassy dunes that encircle it, just six miles from the Gaza Strip.

Barzilai, however, has become a rare bastion of civility in an increasingly hate-filled conflict and a unique meeting ground for two peoples who otherwise have little direct contact.

Wounded Palestinians who get permission from the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army are allowed into Israel to seek medical treatment that is not available at Gaza’s rudimentary clinics. Here, Israelis and Palestinians meet their erstwhile foe, in many cases for the first time in their lives.

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source Tags: palestinans, israel, in-fighting, paradigm shift

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Remember when it was "just" us Americans that were fat?  Apparently Europe is catching up.

A majority of adults are obese or overweight in most EU nations and the young are increasingly making Europe a fat continent, the EU’s top public health official said Wednesday.

Bad diets based on fatty and sweet ingredients combined with physical laziness account for six of the seven top factors leading to bad health, said EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.

For years the EU Commission has warned governments to act - but the situation is getting worse. "Everybody has to be blamed - including the authorities, including the industry, including the consumers," Kyprianou said.

His biggest worry is the increasing girth of children. "If we don’t act, today’s overweight children will be tomorrow’s heart attack victims," he said.

source Tags: overweight, obese, eu, europe

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Now this is a really really BIG PIG

Hogzilla is being made into a horror movie. But the sequel may be even bigger: Meet Monster Pig. An 11-year-old boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9 feet 4, from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.

If the claims are accurate, Jamison Stone’s trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.

Hogzilla originally was thought to weigh 1,000 pounds and measure 12 feet long.
National Geographic experts who unearthed its remains believe the animal actually weighed about 800 pounds and was 8 feet long.

Regardless of the comparison, Jamison is reveling in the attention over his pig.

"It feels really good," Jamison said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It’s a good accomplishment. I probably won’t ever kill anything else that big."

Jamison, who killed his first deer at age 5, was hunting with father Mike Stone and two guides in east Alabama on May 3 when he bagged Monster Pig. He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.

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source Tags: pig pig, hogzilla, huntin’

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