Sunday, May 28, 2006

Five girls in Vietnam commit suicide together by drowning.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Freud would have had a field day with this
Evidently there's something in the U.S. called the "Purity Ball", wherein girls, sometimes as young as 7 years old, pledge to their fathers that they won't have sex until marriage. The fathers, in turn, pledge as the "high-priest" of the family to essentially guard the kid's virginity.

Aside from putting the girl in a cloister, i'd like to know how he proposes to do that. On second thought, i don't want to know. It's kinda creepy to contemplate.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

I wonder which alternative is worse for military morale: pulling out soldiers who are depressed about being stuck in a hell-hole situation or having said soldiers blow themselves away.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Recently a man in the United Kingdom has apparently committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. Evidently this is the second train suicide within a week. Two suicides does not a trend make, but it would be interesting to see whether additional instances of suicide by train in that country are reported in the news any time soon.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

If i understand the whole affair properly, cannibal Armin Meiwes being found guilty of murder (overturning a previous court's decision to find him guilty of manslaughter) seems to be based on the argument that Meiwes "should have known that Brandes was disturbed and should have questioned his motives for wanting to be killed." As i'm not privy to the exact details of how the two individuals interacted, i couldn't say one way or the other whether Herr Meiwes should have decided Brandes was incompetent to make his own decisions. But i'm certain i don't understand a legal system that allows a conviction to be effectively upgraded to a more serious offense; wouldn't the hearing that resulted in the change of the charge/conviction from manslaughter to murder be a form of double jeopardy?

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Should i laugh or should i cry?
GlaxoSmithKline, which is one of the bigger pharmaceutical companies, has won over $1 billion in contracts to make flu vaccine. This is the same company that makes paxil.