• Kaelling - Danish: a woman who stands on her doorstep yelling obscenities at her kids.
• Okuri-OKAMI - Japanese: literally a “see-you-home-wolf”. A man who feigns thoughtfulness by offering to see a girl home only to try to molest her once he gets in the door.
• Jayus - Indonesian: someone who tells a joke so unfunny you can’t help laughing.
• Spesenritter - German: a person who shows off by paying the bill on the firm’s money, literally “an expense knight”.
• Kanjus Makkhicus - Hindi: a person so miserly that if a fly falls into his cup of tea, he’ll fish it out and suck it dry before throwing it away.
• Tartle - Scottish: to hesitate when you are introducing someone whose name you can’t quite remember.
• Prozvonit - Czech and Slovak: to call someone’s mobile from your own to leave your number in their memory without them picking it up.
• Hira Hira - Japanese: the feeling you get when you walk into a dark and decrepit old house in the middle of the night.
• Cafune - Brazilian Portuguese: the tender running of one’s fingers through the hair of one’s mate.
• Layogenic - Tagalog, Philippines: a person who is only good-looking from a distance.
• Gattara - Italian: a woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats. (This is what my family thinks I will end up being one day.)

America: Land of the Privileged: Despite its enormous wealth and highly advanced technology, the United States lags far behind other industrialized countries - and even some developing ones - in providing adequate health care to women during pregnancy and childbirth. The U.S. ranks 41st in a new analysis of maternal mortality rates in 171 countries released by a group of U.N. public health experts. The survey shows that even a developing country like South Korea is ahead of the United States. Based on 2005 estimates, the U.N. analysis suggests that one in 4,800 women in the United States carry a lifetime risk of death from pregnancy. By contrast, among the 10 top-ranked industrialized countries, fewer than one in 16,400 are facing a similar situation. The reason? According to experts, in many European countries and Japan in the industrialized world, women are guaranteed good-quality health and family planning services that minimize their lifetime risk. Many independent experts and sympathetic legislators hold the current U.S. public health policy responsible for its dismal record because some 47 million U.S. citizens have no access to health insurance, most of them African Americans and other minorities.

Violent Nature: It is not the cartoons that make your kids smack playmates or violently grab their toys but, rather, a lack of social skills, according to new research. “It’s a natural behavior and it’s surprising that the idea that children and adolescents learn aggression from the media is still relevant,” says Richard Tremblay, a professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology at the University of Montreal, who has spent more than two decades tracking 35,000 Canadian children (from age five months through their 20s) in search of the roots of physical aggression. “Clearly youth were violent before television appeared.” Tremblay’s results have suggested that children on average reach a peak of violent behavior (biting, scratching, screaming, hitting…) around 18 months of age. The level of aggression begins to taper between the ages of two and five as they begin to learn other, more sophisticated ways of communicating their needs and wants.

Bad Sport: An East Rockaway, N.Y., soccer mom took a page out of TV’s “WWE SmackDown,” grabbing a metal folding chair and bashing her daughter’s coach in the face, according to police. The irate mother, who was seen using a key to scratch a vehicle she apparently thought belonged to the 68-year-old coach, was later busted at her home and charged with reckless endangerment. The mom was mad that the coach gave her bad directions to the game.

And you thought you had bad luck? For one Scottish couple, bad luck really does come in threes – particularly when it comes to mother nature. Gale-force winds flattened Brian and Pauline Reece’s garage on Tuesday and last week a strong earthquake caused cracks in their house. Disaster struck again yesterday afternoon when the couple went to the Invercargill City Council to see what they had to do about their garage. Upon returning to their car in Kelvin St about 1.40pm, they found it surrounded by firefighters and discovered their rear window had been smashed. Only minutes earlier, the wind had picked up the H from the H&J Smith sign on the side of the building above and blown it down on to their car.

What do you mean, he’s gay? Australian Paul Croft got a tattoo of Harry Potter wizard Albus Dumbledore on his back but is now being teased by pals after he (Dumbledore) was outed as gay. Croft spent a year having the Hogwarts headmaster etched into his skin as a surprise for his five kids. The huge $1200 tattoo shows Dumbledore holding a scroll bearing the names of his Harry Potter-mad children Charlotte, Deanna, Brandon, Tamzin and Paris. “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said. But the factory worker has been the butt of jokes ever since Harry Potter author JK Rowling revealed last week that Dumbledore was in love with a fellow male sorcerer. “It’s been terrible,” Croft said. I’ve always liked Dumbledore - just not in that way.”

Is this your dream job? A condom company is looking for 1,000 volunteers to test its products and report back on their findings. It opened the job competition Monday and will continue accepting applicants until Nov. 4. “Applicants will be asked a series of questions to make sure they are a good fit for this dream job,” the company said in a statement. Questions include how often do you use condoms? And why do you want to be a Durex condom tester? In an interview, Steve Mare, brand manager for Durex Consumer Products, conceded that it’s more of a contest or survey that will help the company gauge consumer satisfaction and preferences than an actual job offering. “There’s certainly an element of fun involved with the program and we don’t want to deny that,” he said from Norcross, Ga.

Why is San Diego on fire? “I would have guessed because it’s very dry and windy, but James Hartline has a less obvious answer,” writes a blogger at Pharyngula. Hartline said, They shook their fists at God and said, “’We don’t care what the Bible says, We want the California school children indoctrinated into homosexuality!’ And then Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the heinous SB777 which bans the use of ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ in the textbooks and promotes homosexuality to all school children in California. And then the wildfires of Southern California engulfed the land like a raging judgment against the radicalized anti-Christian California rebels.” Doesn’t God have a baseball team to manage? It would be a better use of his time than these silly destructive temper tantrums, the blogger wrote.

It’s Rocky the Frying Squirrel! A kamikaze squirrel fell from the sky and detonated a woman’s car. Firefighters said the buck-toothed sabateur had been gnawing on power lines connected to a transformer above the 2006 Toyota Camry. “The squirrel chewed through the wire, was set on fire, fell down directly to where the car was,” Tony Millar said. “The squirrel, on fire, slid into the engine compartment and blew up the car. Police said there were no injuries - except, that is, for the squirrel, which is dead.

Prisons nix handbook for female employees: The New York state Department of Correctional Services is no longer distributing or using a handbook that told its female officers to not gossip at work, be too bossy at home or swear to “be one of the boys.” That handbook, which had been given to officers who graduated from the training academy for more than 20 years, was featured recently in an article in The Post-Standard. Women were encouraged to play tennis or eat ice cream on their days off to relieve stress and to not dress for work as if they were going to a nightclub or beach. No such handbook exists for male officers, who outnumber female officers by about 10 to 1. The book had sections on catcalls and wolf whistles, discouraged women from being flirtatious on the job and encouraged them to seek out other women’s advice in child-rearing. The handbook, and other memos, are part of a federal lawsuit filed by Penny Collins of Marcellus, a state corrections officer who claims she was discriminated against and harassed on the job because she is a woman.

Falsely accused woman released after 70 years: A woman who was locked up for 70 years after being falsely accused of stealing half-a-crown in England, has died just months after being reunited with her family. Jean Gambell spent most of her life being passed around various mental institutions after being labeled as a teenager as a “feeble-minded person.” Over the years, the 85-year-old lost all contact with her family. It was by chance that her brother discovered that she was still alive and was able to organize a tearful family reunion at a care home in Macclesfield. At the age of 15, in 1937, Jean was falsely accused of stealing 2s 6d (12.5p) from the doctor’s surgery where she worked as a cleaner. She was sectioned under the 1890 Lunacy Act and even though the money was later found, she has been moved from mental institution to mental institution.

Tattoo spells out Coca-Cola: A man who has proudly showed off his tattoo for 26 years was baffled to realize it actually spelled Coca-Cola. Vince Mattingley had his named tattooed on his chest in Chinese writing after asking staff at his favorite restaurant to write his name in Chinese symbols. But a waiter drew the Coke words - and Vince had it etched on his chest. Vince only realized the mistake when he recently traveled to Thailand and a barman asked him why he had Coca-Cola written on his chest. “I thought it was a joke then I found out that’s what it said. The restaurant staff must have had a good laugh about it,” Vince said. He now plans to get another Oriental tattoo to cover up the name. He added: “I’m going to go with something Japanese this time.”

When is a bra strap just a bra strap? How old do you have to be before you can be accused of sexual harassment? And is it sexual harassment when a 7-year-old at a school in Duncanville, Texas, tells a classmate to wear a darker shirt because he can see her bra strap? According to officials at places like Fossil Hill Middle School in Fort Worth, Texas, yes. Catherine Price of Broadsheet writes: “I mean, come on — a 7-year-old pointing out a bra strap? He’d probably point out a classmate’s booger, too. That doesn’t mean he’s necessarily trying to humiliate or harass the person — he’s just being a kid. … you can reprimand a kid for being rude without accusing him or her of sexual harassment. By making a big deal out of childish behavior that, in these cases, really is just childish, we’re doing a disservice to the victims of real harassment.”

Arrested for standing on the street: When Matthew Jones of Brooklyn lingered on the corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenuein New York, gabbing with friends as other pedestrians tried to get by, something unusual happened: He was arrested for it. A police officer said Mr. Jones was impeding other pedestrians and charged him with disorderly conduct. After trying twice to get the charges dismissed, Jones has taken his case to the Court of Appeals, which heard arguments this week. According to the original complaint against Mr. Jones, the officer “observed defendant along with a number of other individuals standing around” on a public sidewalk in June 2004. Mr. Jones was “not moving, and that as a result of defendants’ behavior, numerous pedestrians in the area had to walk around defendants.” Fortunately for Jones, New York’s highest court appears to believe he has a leg or two to stand on: “Isn’t that lawful conduct?” wondered Judge Robert S. Smith. Later he added, “Your conduct can’t be illegal just because an officer notices it.”

Sidewalk chalk nets 6-year-old potential $300 fine: A 6-year-old Brooklyn girl’s family was threatened with a $300 fine after a neighbor complained to the city about the girl’s blue chalk drawings. The absurd warning from the city Sanitation Department arrived Oct. 5, a few days after Natalie Shea scribbled a blue flower on her parents’ 10th St. stoop in Park Slope. The Sanitation Department claimed that Natalie’s drawings amounted to “graffiti.” The letter was automatically churned out after a neighbor complained to the city’s 311 line. The city told the family it had 45 days to remove the doodles or face the hefty fine. Natalie, a first-grader, doesn’t understand all of the fuss. “My mom got a ticket for graffiti, and it wasn’t even graffiti,” she said. “I think it was chalk. It was art, very nice art.”

Short people ‘have a chip on their shoulder’: Speaking as a shortie (under 5’0) I think this is a bunch of baloney, but in the interest of keeping you informed to the latest scientific findings on the vertically challenged, get a load of this one from the journal Clinical Endocrinology, which claims that short people have an unhealthy attitude to life. Short men and women apparently complain of poorer mental and physical health than those of an average height. Researchers examined more than 14,000 responses to the 2003 Health Survey for England. They were then asked to rate their health on a range of indicators such as mobility, pain and depression. Those in the shortest height category - men shorter than 5ft 4in and women shorter than 5ft - reported much poorer health, according to the report. Apparently, short people would rate their health 6 percent higher health rating if they were around three inches taller.

Mothers Against Mothers: Don’t these people have anything better to do? Guess not. From the Phoenix New Times, it seems that Mothers Against Drunk Driving is claiming all legal rights to the phrase “Mothers Against,” and has sent a cease and desist letter demanding that “Mothers Against Illegal Aliens” change its name.

Cool Balloon: At the annual International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, N.M., the star balloonist has his own security detail: Storm troopers. Belgian Benoit Lambert’s hot-air balloon, in the shape of Darth Vader’s mask, is harder to navigate than traditionally shaped balloons. But Lambert says he flies confidently because “the force is with us.”

Swearing is Good For You, God Damn It: Swearing at work helps employees cope with stress, academics at a Norfolk university have said. A study by Norwich’s University of East Anglia (UEA) into leadership styles found the use of “taboo language” boosted team spirit. Professor Yehuda Baruch, professor of management, warned that attempts to prevent workers from swearing could have a negative impact. But Professor Baruch discouraged swearing in front of customers.

Modified people: This frightening picture speaks for itself. Click here if you want to see more. (Warning, could cause nightmares.)

Naked, Tickling, Peeing Bandit Caught: A 50-year-old man arrested after police said he urinated into milk and left bodily fluids inside a home is believed to be the naked bandit who has terrorized women for years by sneaking into their homes and tickling sleeping victims in central Florida. (Do all weirdos come from Florida?) Police said Thomas Blacine was arrested over the weekend when a police dog tracked his scent to a sport utility vehicle parked near the 700 block of East Second Street after a woman said she was fondled in her sleep. Investigators said Blacine’s actions fit the modus operandi of a man they have been hunting since 2004 in connection with more than 12 naked intrusions into Central Florida homes.

Another Kook from Florida: A city council candidate in Hialeah, Fla., is on the defensive after being criticized for referring to oral sex in one of his campaign slogans. Hialeah City Council incumbent Jose ”Pepe” Caragol, 76, used the slogan “If you like oral sex, vote Caragol for council” as part of his campaign for re-election, The Miami Herald said Saturday. Caragol said the slogan represents his unusual style and that he never intended on offending anyone. “People want to give it a negative interpretation, but anyone who knows me and my way of being knows that I didn’t mean for the comment to degrade or offend anyone,” he told the Herald.

Modern art, circa 9000 BC: This wall painting was discovered by a team of French archaeologists working at Djade al-Mughara, a Neolithic site in Northern Syria. The red, black and white painting measures 2 square meters, and has been dated to around 9,000 BC (making it the oldest known wall painting). Team leader Eric Coqueugniot says, “It looks like a modernist painting. Some of those who saw it have likened it to work by (Paul) Klee.”

Unbelievable: An Australian performer who has had an ear grafted onto his forearm in the name of art has sparked controversy. Cyprus-born Stelios Arcadiou, known as Stelarc, says his extra ear, made of human cartilage, is an augmentation of the body’s form. The ear does not function, but he hopes to have a microphone implanted to allow others to listen to what his extra ear picks up.

Too Cute: A kitten has found a new mother in a golden retriever, which began producing milk after hearing the cat’s cries. The dog, named Honey, had not given birth in 18 months when its owner, Jimmy Martin, took the kitten home after it ran in front of his truck. Mr Martin’s wife, Kathy, said: “She started licking her and loving her. Within a couple of days, Honey started naturally lactating. The kitten took right to her, and she started nursing her.” The kitten, named Precious, had refused to drink from a bottle, and the family feared that it might die. They were told by a veterinary surgeon that interspecies nursing happened on rare occasions, the Winchester Star reported.

Johns Hopkins Lists ‘Terrible Ten’ Behaviors

1. Discrimination in an employment situation
2. Erratic or aggressive driving that endangers others
3. Taking credit for someone else’s work
4. Treating service providers as inferiors
5. Jokes or remarks that mock another’s race, gender, age, disability, sexual preference or religion
6. Children behaving aggressively or bullying others
7. Littering (including trash, spitting, pet waste)
8. Misuse of handicapped privileges
9. Smoking in non-smoking places or smoking in front of non-smokers without asking
10. Using cell phones or text messaging in mid-conversation or during an appointment or meeting.

What would make your list of “terrible behaviors?”

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. Seventeen percent believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
• The World Health Organization “ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was] … 37th.” In the fairness of health care, we’re 54th. • “The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens” (The European Dream, p.80).
• Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That’s six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
• “U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower” (The European Dream, p.81).
• The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• Women are 70% more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• “Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its work-force in the 1980s. … In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1%” (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
• “Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined” (The European Dream, p.28).

The USA is “No. 1″ in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

Italy’s mama’s boys: The Italian government is handing out grants to help mommys’ boys leave home. The move comes after economists warned almost 60% of young adult Italians stayed at home and were not marrying, having children or building up homes of their own. Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa says part of a two billion euro provision in the 2008 state budget will be used to help young people move out of family homes. He said: “Let’s get these big babies out of the home.” Many young people say they cannot afford to move out of home so the government has announced plans to make more affordable accommodation available and build more public housing. EU figures show that 56% of 25 to 29 year-olds still live with their parents in Italy, compared to 21% of Germans and just five per cent of Swedes.

Blame it on the rain: The weather shouldn’t affect life satisfaction, right? Oh, but it does. In one study, people called on sunny days were more satisfied with their lives than people called on rainy days. This suggests that people are using their current mood, which is largely caused by temporary external factors (in this case, the rain), to evaluate their life satisfaction. In other words, when we’re doing something difficult like rating our overall life satisfaction, something that doesn’t come very naturally, we tend to rely on our current mood, even if that mood is influenced by factors that are, for the most part, irrelevant to our overall life satisfaction — like the weather.

Pediatricians double as Big Brother: Thanks to guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, doctors across the country are interrogating our kids about mom and dad’s “bad” behavior. The paranoia over parents is so strong that the AAP encourages doctors to ignore “legal barriers and deference to parental involvement” and shake the children down for all the inside information they can get. And that information doesn’t stay with the doctor, either. One mom reports that the pediatrician asked her 5-year-old daughter if “daddy owned a gun.” When the little girl said yes, the doctor began grilling her and her mom about the number and type of guns, how they are stored, etc. The doctor then filed a report with the police about her family’s (entirely legal) gun ownership.

Artists’ secret shopping mall pad: Eight artists built and furnished a secret apartment inside a US shopping mall - and stayed there for four years. They used breeze blocks to build the apartment in a disused space connected to the car park of the mall in Providence, Rhode Island. The artists ate, drank, slept, read, held meetings, watched TV and enjoyed PS2 games in their secret pad, reports the Providence Journal. They furnished it with a sofa, a love seat, a coffee table, a breakfast table with four chairs, lamps, a throw rug and paintings. But they lacked running water, a refrigerator and a toilet. The artists brought in jugs of drinking water and sneaked out to use mall toilets. Their leader, performance artist Michael Townsend, 36, was arrested after security at the Providence Place mall finally caught up with them. Townsend pleaded no contest to a criminal charge of trespassing.

Two tickets needed for conjoined twins: A mother who wanted to take her 1-year-old conjoined twin daughters on a cross-country flight to visit relatives was frustrated because she was told she’d have to buy an extra seat. Delta agents told her she would have to purchase a ticket for her daughters Emma and Taylor, who are conjoined at the chest. Because the twins have their own lungs, Delta originally told Bailey she had to buy an extra seat because both children need access to an oxygen mask in case of an emergency. Airline officials said there was nothing they could do and suggested that Mandy Bailey contact the American Red Cross to see if it would pay for it. After a call from a reporter, airline officials changed their minds.

Orang-utans prefer blondes: Sibu orang-utan has miffed his Dutch keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes. Apenheul Primate Park hoped Sibu would become its breeding male when he arrived two years ago, but orang-utans aren’t his type. Instead, Sibu fancies his female keepers, especially blondes. That, the spokeswoman said, was common for orang-utans but Sibu has a fetish for tattoos, harking back to a heavily tattooed keeper who reared him.

Incredible dog hulk: Maybe they should call her a whoppet - after all, she’s a whopper of a whippet. This is Wendy, the dog whose appearance is a long way from the usual long, lean and sleek look of her breed. She was born with a genetic defect which has left her looking like the Incredible Hulk of Hounds. Her head, heart, lungs and legs are the size of those of a normal whippet, but a gene defect means she is “double muscled.”

Does your baby look like your cat? A newspaper in London is collecting pictures. Aren’t they cute?

Prisoner mails himself to freedom: A convicted fraudster escaped from a high security jail in Germany after climbing into a cardboard box and mailing himself to freedom. Max Friedener, 28, escaped from prison in Darmstadt after hiding in the box in the mailroom. He escaped from the mail van as it was driving away.The escape was only noticed when the mail truck arrived at the sorting depot and the hole in the box was spotted. It is the second time a convict has earned a ticket to ride by using the mail system. Only last month a convict in neighboring Austria escaped from Graz prison by posting himself out in a large box that was supposed to contain lamp post parts. Both escapees are still at large.

Charges dropped in sherry enema death: There are people out there who are way, way weirder that you are. Case in point, negligent homicide charges have been dropped against a woman who had been accused of killing her husband with a sherry enema that led to alcohol poisoning. Court records show the charge against Tammy Jean Warner, 45, of Texas City, was dismissed Aug. 31 because of insufficient evidence, the Houston Chronicle reported in its online edition Wednesday. Michael Warner, 58, died May 21, 2004. An autopsy showed he had been given an enema with enough sherry to have a blood alcohol level of 0.47 percent, almost six times the legal limit of .08 percent in Texas. Tammy Warner has told the newspaper that her husband was addicted to enemas and often used alcohol in them to get drunk.

Court OKs strip searches for ibuprofen: In schools, that is. This is from the too ridiculous to be believed file. Nevertheless, it is true. The 9th Circuit Appeals Court has ruled in favor of a school that forced a 13-year-old girl to expose herself to school officials because they suspected that she had … Advil. Yes, Advil.

Traffic signs offer humor: Oak Lawn, Illinois, mayor hopes drivers who won’t obey a stop sign will at least hit the brakes for a stop sign gag. Won’t stop for a traditional sign? What if Diana Ross, in a way, pleads with you? “STOP,” reads one. “IN THE NAAME OF LOVE.” Or how about John Wayne? “STOP. RIGHT THERE PILGRIM.” There are 16 messages on 40 sign posts. Each is the brainchild of first-term mayor Heilmann, a lawyer and former improv actor who created the signs in response to residents’ complaints of blown stop signs.

They really wanted to get drunk: From Spokane, Wash., four Geiger Corrections Center inmates mixed hand sanitizer and Kool-Aid to make an alcoholic drink and became so rowdy after downing the beverage that guards had to intervene. Backed by four tactical and SWAT teams, the guards later launched a facility-wide search for contraband. Officers finally strapped two of the intoxicated inmates into restraint chairs. The unrest did not appear to be an organized effort, Geiger Capt. John McGrath said Friday. Bonus: The inmates may be moody in part because of a decision to suspend Geiger volunteers pending a review, McGrath said. Geiger inmate Roger H. Nordling, 54, escaped during his Bible study after a volunteer let him out of a small building to get fresh air.

Penis pump judge: In June, penis pump judge Donald Thompson lost his bid to get out of jail early claiming that his sentenced for masturbating on the bench was too stiff. Now an appeals court has upheld his conviction on four counts of indecent exposure for using a penis pump while presiding over four trials in 2002 and 2003. He was sentenced to four, one-year sentences in state prison and fined $40,000. Thompson’s attorneys had argued that the prosecution had used illegally obtained evidence including the penis pump, arguing that it had been damaged and shouldn’t have been allowed to be demonstrated in court during the trial. The court ruled that the pump was in working order. Thompson was charged with masturbating while presiding over jury trials including a murder case.

Blocks lead to language skills: Playing with blocks helps young children gain language skills, a small study concluded. After six months, language scores among half of 175 children aged 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 who were sent plastic blocks were 15 percent higher than a matched group that did not receive the free blocks, according to the study by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. Study author Dimitri Christakis, writing in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, said unstructured play with blocks stimulates thinking, memory and physical mastery of objects at a time when a child’s brain is growing rapidly. Note to the wise: the study was funded by Mega Bloks, owned by Montreal-based toy maker MEGA Brands Inc.

Mystery man leaves trail of stone heads: Police in Yorkshire, England, are on the trail of a shadowy figure who has been dumping giant carved stone heads on village doorsteps at dead of night. The man has left at least 13 at locations 100 miles apart. Each of the foot-high stones had the hand-written rhyme Twinkle, twinkle, like a star. Does love flourish from afar? taped to it. There was also a symbol on the reverse similar to the religious “chi-rho” sign with letters added which also could spell the word “paradox.” Sounds like a marketing scheme to me, but the carved heads are actually very nicely done.

Got a test? Drink a beer: You may be hard-pressed to recall events after a night of binge drinking, but a new report suggests that low to moderate alcohol consumption may actually enhance memory. “There are human epidemiological data of others indicating that mild [to] moderate drinking may paradoxically improve cognition in people compared to abstention,” says Maggie Kalev, a research fellow in molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a co-author of an article in The Journal of Neuroscience describing results of a study she and other researchers performed on rats.

Big Brother is watching you: The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials. The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department’s Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country. But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

‘Gay’ penguins title tops list of challenged books: “And Tango Makes Three,” an award-winning children’s book based on a true story about two male penguins who raised a baby penguin, topped the American Library Association’s annual list of works attracting the most complaints from parents, library patrons and others. Overall, the number of “challenged” books in 2006 jumped to 546, more than 30 percent higher than the previous year’s total, 405, although still low compared to the mid-1990s, when challenges topped 750. “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, was published in 2005 and named by the ALA as one of the year’s best children’s books. But parents and educators have complained that the book advocates homosexuality. Other books on the 2006 list include two by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, “The Bluest Eye” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved,” both cited for language and sexual content; Cecily von Ziegesar’s popular “Gossip Girls” series, criticized for sexual content and language; and Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War,” for language, violence and sexual content.

Federal judge dismisses lawsuit over use of word ‘rape’ in trial: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against a state judge who barred the words “rape” and “victim” in court, ruling that the accuser failed to prove the court should intervene. U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf also determined Tory Bowen didn’t provide enough evidence to show why her lawsuit against Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront wasn’t frivolous. Bowen, 24, argued in the complaint that Cheuvront violated her free-speech rights by barring the words from the trial of Pamir Safi, 34, who Bowen said raped her while she was intoxicated. Safi, charged with first-degree sexual assault, said the sex was consensual. The language restrictions, which also barred the use of the words “sexual assault,” were in effect for Safi’s first trial, last November.