If things couldn’t get anymore absurd in Mexico, the new chief of police in a northern border town is a 20 year old criminology student but only because no one else applied for the job. Talk about work experience

Marisol Valles became director of municipal public security of Guadalupe “since she was the only person to accept the position”, the mayor’s office of the town of some 10,000 people near the US border told local media yesterday.

Ms Valles is studying criminology in Mexico’s most violent city of Ciudad Juarez, some 60km west of Guadalupe.

Raging turf battles between rival drug gangs have left some 6500 people dead in Ciudad Juarez alone in the past three years.

Much of Chihuahua state has suffered from the spiral of drug violence, including in Guadalupe, where the mayor was murdered in June and police officers and security agents have been killed, some of them beheaded.

Last week alone there were at least eight murders in Guadalupe, in an area deemed a high-traffic transit point for illegal drugs across the border into the US state of Texas.

More than 28,000 people have died nationwide in suspected drug violence since December 2006, when the Mexican government launched an offensive against its criminal gangs with the deployment of some 50,000 troops.

The Guadalupe mayor’s office has only one police patrol car and receives security assistance from the army.

(courtesy of news.com)

Stefani Germanotta was born in New York City on March 28, 1986, to an Italian American family, the eldest child of Joseph Germanotta, internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia (née Bissett) She learned to play piano from the age of four, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by age 14.

Germanotta had initially signed with Def Jam Recordings at the age of 19, although she was dropped by the label after only three months.Shortly after, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed. The first song she produced with RedOne was “Boys Boys Boys”, a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls” and AC/DC’s “T.N.T.”

How she got the name Lady Gaga

Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped her write some of her earlier songs, compared some of her vocal harmonies to that of Freddie Mercury. Fusari helped create the moniker Gaga, after the Queen song “Radio Ga Ga”. Germanotta was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read “Lady Gaga.”He explained,

Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing ‘Radio Ga Ga’. That was her entrance song. [Lady Gaga] was actually a glitch; I typed ‘Radio Ga Ga’ in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow ‘Radio’ got changed to ‘Lady’. She texted me back, “That’s it.” After that day, she was Lady Gaga. She’s like, “Don’t ever call me Stefani again.”

She was known thereafter as Lady Gaga The New York Post, however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.

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4real Superman Wheaton was born in February 2008. The New Zealand court has taken issue with his name because numerals are not allowed in names. The parents, however, are debating this law. If they cannot name him 4real, they will make his name “Superman,” officially, but friends and family will call him “4real.” They were inspired when they saw the baby for the first time under the ultra-sound and discovered he was “for real!”

9. GoldenPalaceDotCom Silverman

GoldenPalaceDotCom Silverman is a $15,000 name. The Internet casino GoldenPalace.com bought the name on eBay from expecting parents, and got more than it paid for in media attention. The branded baby was born in May, 2005. Actually, the little guy was not the first GoldenPalaceDotCom, a mother of five, Terri Illigan, sold her naming rights for $15,199, and changed her name to GoldenPalace.com, as well.

8. Savior God Scientist Allah

Savior God Scientist Allah was the name of a 16-month old Michigan boy. Unfortunately, he died after falling from a seventh story window on April 20, 2006.

7. Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen Zappa

Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen Zappa is the youngest child of Frank Zappa. Her siblings are Moon Unit Zappa, Dweezil Zappa and Ahmet Zappa. Apparently, she was screaming louder than any other baby in the nursery, and that’s how she got the name “Diva.” And I suppose “thin muffins” make you scream, too.

6. Espn Malachi McCall

Espn Malachi McCall (pronounced “Espen”), born in August 2001, is the youngest of three children in the world known to be named ESPN. Like Espn Curiel in Corpus Christi, and Espn Blondeel in Michigan, McCall’s parents are sports fans. His middle name means a biblical messenger of God, so they sometimes call him “the sports messenger.” If they have another son, they will name him Fox Sports McCall.

Here’s my card, call me!!

5. Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K.

Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K., pronounced, “Your Highness,” was born in February of 2003 to Evelyn and Kendall. This name is (in case you missed it) a reference to the illicit drug ketamine.

4. Lleieusszuieusszesszes Willihiminizisteizzi Hurrizzissteizzi

Lleieusszuieusszesszes Willihiminizisteizzi Hurrizzissteizzi was a resident of Los Angeles; appears in Robert Ripley’s second Believe It or Not! (1948).

3. Dick Assman

Dick Assman is a Canadian service station owner. His name propelled him to international celebrity status in 1995, after David Letterman discovered him. On the show, Joe Namath declared himself an “Ass-maniac” and Tony Orlando performed a musical tribute. Afterwards, Assman received a number of contracts for commercial appearances, as well as many marriage proposals. Who doesn’t want to be Mrs. Assman?

2. Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116

Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced Albin) was a name given to a child by the parents of a Swedish family, which they described as “a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation.” The name was rejected by a Swedish court and they were charged a fine. The child’s name was later changed to A (also pronounced Albin), but this too was rejected. On his first passport, the boy’s name reads “Icke namngivet gossebarn,” meaning “unnamed little boy.”

1. @

@ was the name that a Chinese couple attempted to give their child in August 2007. Li Yuming, the deputy chief of the State Language Commission, did not say if officials accepted the name. The Chinese, though familiar with the @ symbol, often use the English “at” to sound it out. With a drawn out “T” is sounds something like “ai ta,” or “love him,” in Mandarin.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly. Probably wasn’t the same elephant.

After securing a surprising win over U.S. Representative and former Delaware governor, Mike Castle, things have taken a turn for the worse for Miss O’Donnell. Amid footage from her earlier years where she admitted to have practiced witchcraft, her most recent debate with senate Chris Coons reminded us of Sarah Palin. She was also interviewed by Wolf Blitzer from CNN, here are some of the answers she provided:

Blitzer: “What would you cut in the federal budget? And don’t just say waste, fraud and abuse, because everybody says that.”

O’Donnell: “I would cut waste, fraud and abuse.”

Facepalm!!

Member of the audience: “Name a supreme court ruling that you most object to”

O’Donnell: “Oh gosh ummm give me a specific one I’m sorry (followed by an uncomfortable chuckle)”

Member of the audience: “Actually I can’t because I need to know which ones you object to”

O’Donnell:“I’m very sorry. Right off the top of my head, I know that there are a lot, but I’ll put it up on my Web site, I promise you.”

It’s scary when we have people like this who want to have the power to make decisions that would affect millions of people.

Hotass of the week goes to :

Minka Kelly

Introducing you to Esquire’s Sexiest Women Alive. Minka was born in California, Los Angeles, June 24, 1980 and is the daughter of former Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay.

“I’ve never done a sexy photo shoot before. I’ve never really honestly tapped into that side,” said the “Friday Night Lights” star in an interview with Esquire. “It was really liberating. It was exciting. I would look at the pictures, like, that’s me?”

The daughter of former Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay and late former Las Vegas showgirl Maureen Kelly, Minka has revealed that she has worked as a nurse in Los Angeles to pay the bills while doing modeling jobs on the side.

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Chichen Itza (Mayan), Mexico

Chichen Itza (pronounced /tʃiːˈtʃɛn iːˈtsɑː/;from Yucatec Maya: Chi’ch’èen Ìitsha’, “at the mouth of the well of the Itza”) is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico.

Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, from what is called “Mexicanized” and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion.

Machu Picchu (Incan), Peru

Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Pikchu) – “Old Mountain”, pronounced [ˈmɑtʃu ˈpixtʃu]) – is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,430 metres (7,970 ft) above sea level.It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Cuzco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). Often referred to as “The Lost City of the Incas”, it is perhaps the most familiar icon of the Inca World.

Angkor Wat (Khmer), Cambodia

Angkor Wat (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត) is a Hindu temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and part of his capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation — first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country’s prime attraction for visitors.

Pompeii (Romans), Italy

Pompeii is a partly buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, its sister city, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 meters of ash and pumice, and it was lost for over 1,500 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1599. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire. Today, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Italy, with approximately 2,500,000 visitors every year.

Palenque (Mayan), Mexico

Palenque (Bàak’ in Modern Maya) was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the seventh century CE. After its decline it was absorbed into the jungle, but has been excavated and restored and is now a famous archaeological site attracting thousands of visitors. It is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, located about 130 km south of Ciudad del Carmen (see map) about 150 meters above sea-level.

Ephesus (Greek), Turkey

Ephesus (Ancient Greek Ἔφεσος, Turkish Efes) was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era. In the Roman period, it was for many years the second largest city of the Roman Empire; ranking behind Rome, the empire’s capital.Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it the second largest city in the world.

Sanchi (Buddhist), India

Teotihuacan, Mexico

Teotihuacan – also written Teotihuacán, with an orthographic accent on the last syllable – is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramidal structures, Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the Avenue of the Dead, and numerous colorful, well-preserved murals.

The city was thought to have been established around 200 BCE, lasting until its fall sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries CE. At its zenith in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. At this time it may have had more than 200,000 inhabitants, placing it among the largest cities of the world in this period. The civilization and cultural complex associated with the site is also referred to as Teotihuacan or Teotihuacano.

Persepoli (Achaemenid), Iran

Persepolis (Old Persian 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 Pārsa, Takht-e Jamshid or Chehel Minar) was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE). Persepolis is situated 70 km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid) and Parseh. The earliest remains of Persepolis date from around 515 BCE. To the ancient Persians, the city was known as Pārsa, which means “The City of Persians”. Persepolis is a transliteration of the Greek Πέρσης πόλις (Persēs polis: “Persian city”).

Coba (Mayan), Mexico

Coba (Cobá in the Spanish language) is a large ruined city of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is located about 90 km east of the Maya site of Chichen Itza, about 40 km west of the Caribbean Sea, and 44 km northwest of the site of Tulum, with which it is connected by a modern road.

Coba is estimated to have had some 50,000 inhabitants (and possibly significantly more) at its peak of civilization, and the built up area extends over some 80 km². The site was occupied by a sizable agricultural population by the 1st century. The bulk of Coba’s major construction seems to have been made in the middle and late Classic period, about 500 to 900, with most of the dated hieroglypic inscriptions from the 7th century. However Coba remained an important site in the Post-Classic era and new temples were built and old ones kept in repair until at least the 14th century, possibly as late as the arrival of the Spanish.

These are the only Lost Cities we have seen (well mysterious anyway)

In one of the largest genetic studies ever, an international team of researchers, including Cambridge and Oxford experts, has pinpointed more than a dozen genes that affect whether we store fat around or waists or across our thighs and bottoms.

(The Duchess of York and her daughter have strikingly similar boy shapes. Experts say this could be down to genetics and not coincidence)

And, perhaps not surprisingly, most have a stronger affect on the female body shape than the male one.
The discovery is important because the distribution of fat around the body is known to have clear implications for health.
Apple-shapes, or people with beer bellies and muffin tops, are at higher odds of diabetes and heart problems than those who are pear-shaped or bottom heavy.

Working out why fat settles where it does could lead to more effective diet pills that would help millions shed unwanted pounds from their bellies.
The scientists scrutinised data from 32 previous studies involving almost 80,000 people for clues to the genetics of body shape.
They then checked their findings against data from 29 studies involving more than 113,500 men and women.

They pinpointed 14 genetic patterns associated with waist-to-hip ratio, 13 of which were new.
Seven have have much stronger effects in women than in men, suggesting they may underlie some of the normal difference in fat distribution between the sexes, the journal Nature Genetics reports.

‘Understanding biology through finding genes is just a first step in a long journey towards treatment but it is a vital one.

‘As efforts to tackle obesity through changes in lifestyle or by different treatment options have proved extremely challenging, the potential to alter patterns of fat distribution may offer an alternative for future drug discovery.’
A second, linked, study, found 18 new genes that affect weight, taking the number of known obesity genes to 32.

Researcher Dr Ruth Loos, of the MRC Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, said: ‘These two studies are the beginnings of new insights into the biology of obesity, which in may turn lead to more targeted approaches to obesity prevention and potentially to the development of new drugs.

Mmmm, pear

‘But we should not forget that, while the genetic contribution to lifestyle is substantial, a large part of obesity susceptibility remains down to our lifestyle.’
US researcher Dr Joel Hirschhorn, of the Children’s Hospital Boston, said: ‘Different people have different susceptibilities to obesity.

‘Some don’t rigorously watch what they eat or how much they exercise and still resist gaining weight, while others constantly struggle to keep their weight from skyrocketing.

‘Some of this variability is genetic, and our goal was to increase understanding of why different people have different inherited susceptibility to obesity.’

Professor Jeremy Pearson, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘We’ve known for some time that while fat anywhere in your body is not good for you, fat around the tummy increases your risk of heart disease and other illnesses more than fat around the bum.

‘It is likely that several of these new genes will control the behaviour of fat cells.
‘This will need to be confirmed with further research but these findings are a good stepping stone towards how we might be able to offer new dietary advice or medicines to control the pattern of fat distribution in the future.’

Courtesy of The Daily Mail

The Scientific Fundamentalist
A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature
by Satoshi Kanazawa

The male advantage in general intelligence does not emerge until after puberty, because girls mature faster than boys

Taller individuals are more intelligent than shorter individuals, and men just happen to be taller than women. In fact, once we control for height, women on average are more intelligent than men. It still remains true, however, that, without controlling for height or anything else, if you simply compare men and women, men on average are slightly more intelligent than women.

Another little-known fact is that, because girls on average mature faster than boys, the male advantage in intelligence does not appear until after puberty, when boys and girls finish maturing and growing. Until then, girls are on average always more mature than boys at any given chronological age. So comparing boys and girls, say, at age 10, is like comparing boys at age 10 and girls at age 12. Naturally, older and more mature children have greater cognitive capacity than younger and less mature children. So if you compare boys and girls at the same chronological age, girls on average are more intelligent than boys. In other words, the sex difference in the rate of maturity masks and drowns the sex difference in general intelligence.

Here’s a perfect demonstration, using data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) in the United Kingdom. The NCDS contains a population (not a sample) of all babies born in Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) in one week in March 1958 (n = 17,419), and has followed them throughout their lives for more than half a century. The NCDS also has one of the best measures of general intelligence in all of survey data. They measure intelligence at age 7 (with four different cognitive tests), at age 11 (with five different cognitive tests), and at age 16 (with two different cognitive tests). Note that the respondents are largely before puberty at ages 7 and 11, but largely after puberty at age 16.

Here are the graphs that chart the mean IQ of the NCDS respondents by sex at ages 7 and 11, before puberty. You notice that girls are slightly but (given the large sample size) statistically significantly more intelligent than boys at both ages. At age 7, the mean IQ for girls is 100.6 while the mean IQ for boys is 99.4. At age 11, the mean IQ for girls is 100.4 while the mean IQ for boys is 99.6.

However, the sex difference is reversed at age 16, as the following graph shows. Post puberty, the mean IQ for girls is 99.2 while the mean IQ for boys is 100.8. Remember, these are the same individuals who are tested at three different ages in their lives. (And, no, it does not mean that girls become less intelligent after puberty in any absolute terms. The IQs are calculated and normed at each age separately. It only means that girls become less intelligent relative to boys after puberty.)

However, the sex difference is reversed at age 16, as the following graph shows. Post puberty, the mean IQ for girls is 99.2 while the mean IQ for boys is 100.8. Remember, these are the same individuals who are tested at three different ages in their lives. (And, no, it does not mean that girls become less intelligent after puberty in any absolute terms. The IQs are calculated and normed at each age separately. It only means that girls become less intelligent relative to boys after puberty.)

However, the sex difference is reversed at age 16, as the following graph shows. Post puberty, the mean IQ for girls is 99.2 while the mean IQ for boys is 100.8. Remember, these are the same individuals who are tested at three different ages in their lives. (And, no, it does not mean that girls become less intelligent after puberty in any absolute terms. The IQs are calculated and normed at each age separately. It only means that girls become less intelligent relative to boys after puberty.)

Because of their faster rate of maturity, girls are more intelligent than boys until puberty, but the male advantage in intelligence emerges when boys are fully mature and become taller than girls. (You notice that girls tend to be taller than boys at any given age until puberty.) Now the next evolutionary question is: Why do girls mature faster than boys? If you have been a regular reader of my blog, if you have been keeping score at home, you should be able to figure out the answer. (Hint: It’s the same reason that women are on average shorter than men.) But I will leave it for another post.

As information become more accessible as technology improves, we become more susceptible to coming across falsified information. Now a good idea before you go ahead and pass on this information would be to verify this information to avoid embarrassment; especially if you are a international multi-million dollar news station.

Actual jet pack
(click to enlarge)

Fox news ran a story about the apparent preparation of the LAPD to purchase at 10′000 jetpacks at a cost $100,000 each for the police and fire department. The disappointing thing is that their source was The Weekly World News, a newspaper that brought us headlines such as “10 New Commandments Found” and “UFO Alien backs Obama”. CNN couldn’t wait to poke a dig at Fox News’s fumble and ran their own story on them (here).

You’re a an internationally known news station and you are getting your news from a well known fictitious news creating newspaper and not checking to see if the information is true? Fox News, you are the Dumbass of the week

Hotass of the week goes to:
Katy Perry

Real name Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, born October 25th 1984 in Santa Barbara California is a singer. She rose to fame in 2008 with her hit single “I kissed a girl” but suffered many a set back before then. She released a self-titled gospel album in 2001 as Katy Hudson which failed with the closing of its record label that year. She recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed most of a solo album from 2004–2005, neither of which was released.

After signing on with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single, “Ur So Gay”, that November, which garnered attention but did not chart.

Her latest appearances have been in Esquire magazine doing a sexy photo shoot and a skit on SNL in a rather revealing Elmo shirt

Here at Neebone we only remember her from the film Four Brothers and an appearance in My Wife and Kids but those appearances have cemented visions of sexiness in our minds. It’s incredible how different she looks when she has her hair dyed

Clearly, he needs a self-aiming gun. Fortunately, one should be available next year.

Using the One-Shot system, under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a new electro-optical system will calculate the ballistics for him, telling him where to aim and ensuring a perfect shot — no matter the weather conditions.

Lockheed Martin won a $6.9 million contract this week for the second phase of DARPA’s One-Shot system, which will provide direct observations of a target, measure every variable that influences a bullet’s flight, and calculate the aim offset in a sniper’s rifle scope.

During the project’s first phase, which started in 2007, Lockheed developed a down-range system that measured average crosswind; range to target; spotter scope position; air temperature, pressure, and humidity; and more, according to Military Aerospace. Using all those variables, the company calculated the ballistics for a .308 bullet at ranges as far as 3,600

While that’s impressive, the system was too heavy and unwieldy, and it couldn’t be used with standard rifle scopes. The phase-two design will be more compact and able to operate in real time and over longer distances.

It will measure atmospheric conditions, account for the weapon’s maximum effective range and include GPS coordinates. It’s also supposed to communicate with the rifle scope, informing the gun itself of the aim point offset and expected crosswind.
Lockheed is supposed to deliver 15 field-testable prototypes by next October.