Now 55 and a staff member at the German Archaeological Institute, Schmidt has joined a long line of his countrymen here, reaching back to Heinrich Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy. He has settled in, marrying a Turkish woman and making a home in a modest "dig house" in the narrow streets of old Urfa. Decades of work lie ahead.
Disputes are normal at the site—the workers, Schmidt laments, are divided into three separate clans who feud constantly. ("Three groups," the archeologist says, exasperated. "Not two. Three!") So far Schmidt has uncovered less than 5 percent of the site, and he plans to leave some temples untouched so that future researchers can examine them with more sophisticated tools.
Whatever mysterious rituals were conducted in the temples, they ended abruptly before 8000 B.C., when the entire site was buried, deliberately and all at once, Schmidt believes. The temples had been in decline for a thousand years—later circles are less than half the size of the early ones, indicating a lack of resources or motivation among the worshipers. This "clear digression" followed by a sudden burial marks "the end of a very strange culture," Schmidt says. But it was also the birth of a new, settled civilization, humanity having now exchanged the hilltops of hunters for the valleys of farmers and shepherds. New ways of life demand new religious practices, Schmidt suggests, and "when you have new gods, you have to get rid of the old ones."
I think by "rape" they mean carry off by force. There's a number of old paintings about the rape of such-and-such, it always made me do a double take in art history class.
William Shatner takes commanding lead in push for GG
By canada.com/CNS, Canwest News ServiceApril 23, 2010
If the thousands of fans of the aging actor have their way, William Shatner, the Montreal-born space traveller who played Kirk on Star Trek, will succeed Michaelle Jean, whose term ends in September.
If the thousands of fans of the aging actor have their way, William Shatner, the Montreal-born space traveller who played Kirk on Star Trek, will succeed Michaelle Jean, whose term ends in September.
Photograph by: File, Getty Images
Mr. Spock is finally going home to Vulcan - the Alberta version - so is it possible Capt. James T. Kirk may move from the bridge of the USS Enterprise to Rideau Hall and assume the mantle of Canada's 28th Governor General?
If the thousands of fans of the aging actor have their way, William Shatner, the Montreal-born space traveller who played Kirk on Star Trek, will succeed Michaelle Jean, whose term ends in September.
The 79-year-old Shatner, who has said he would prefer the job of prime minister, has offered no official response to the GG-draft but did post this on a recent twitter:
"I'm being drafted by various groups to run for Governor General. Would they accept me if I campaign for salmons' rights?"
About 12,000 people have indicated they would take Shatner under most any conditions. They have signed a Facebook page launched March 22 that suggests that Canada "boldly go where no country has gone before" and chose Shatner over other popular suggestions.
In an exclusive series from themarknews.com and canada.com, 10 prominent Canadians were asked to nominate one individual each who they think would make a great viceroy. The complete list of the nominees are anything but obvious, ranging from Wayne Gretzky, wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen, and former politician Preston Manning. Shatner led the race with a commanding 43% of the vote. Rick Hansen trailed a distant second at 11%, with Leonard Cohen in third at 10%.
If Shatner gets the nod from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has the final word on the assignment, the Facebook page offers some mind-bending scenarios:
"Imagine Mr. Shatner reading the speech from the throne in that classic Captain Kirk style we have all come to know and love.
"Imagine Mr. Shatner strolling through the corridors of Rideau Hall in one of the sharply tailored suits he made famous on Boston Legal.
"Soon, those visions could be a reality."
The only 'tribble' for his online fans is that Shatner says he doesn't have time for another "five-year mission" as Governor General.
His Star Trek co-star doesn't have that problem. He's headed to a ceremony in Vulcan, Alta., on Friday that will help usher in the small farming community's new status as the "Official Star Trek Capital of Canada."
Leonard Nimoy helped put the town on the map last year when he got behind its failed bid to hold the premiere of the Star Trek reboot in their town. So he will be front and centre for a parade Friday. A bronze bust of Mr. Spock will be unveiled and Nimoy will leave behind a "live long and prosper" handprint.
When Michael Baulderstone, a comic-book store owner, dressed as Spider-Man for a promotional event in his shop he never imagined that by the end of the day he would become a real-life crime-fighting superhero.
Luckily, Mr Baulderstone’s “Spider-sense” was tingling and he was able to thwart an attempted theft from his shop in Adelaide with the aid of The Flash and some trusted Jedi Knights wielding lightsabers.
The comical crime caper began on Saturday morning in the Adelaide Comics Centre, tucked away in a shopping centre in the heart of the city. Fans dressed as their favourite superhero characters had descended on the store for the international free comic-book day — an event designed to encourage children to read.
Mingling among the customers in fancy dress — including a Wolverine, a Catwoman and someone dressed as Kick-Ass, the character from the recent British film about a hapless American teenager who creates his own superhero to fight crime — Mr Baulderstone noticed someone acting suspiciously.
The customer, who was dressed as himself — a comic fan in an overcoat and jeans —allegedly picked up an X-Man Omnibus, valued at A$160 (£97), from the window display.
“My Spider-sense was tingling,” Mr Baulderstone, 45, told The Times while he fielded congratulatory calls for his superhero behaviour. “I didn’t want to scare him off so I followed him around the store and eventually said, ‘Are you right there, mate?’ ”
With no police — or Batman — on hand to help, Mr Baulderstone decided to take matters into his own red and blue Lycra-clad hands. “I’m 169cm tall and only 57kg, so I’m a tiny bloke but I just grabbed his bag and looked in it and there was the book,” he said.
“I had 50 people in the store so I just shouted for someone to guard the front door and it just happened that the Jedi Knights were there and they had their lightsabers out so they held the door until the police arrived.
“My colleague, who was dressed as The Flash, kept running the shop and stayed calm. It really was a team effort.”
CCTV footage captured the whole scene on tape. The footage shows Spider-Man calmly confronting the unmasked offender and confiscating his backpack. Mr Baulderstone, a life-long comic fan who has owned the shop with his colleague Peter Spandrio for three years, said that they often had people trying to steal valuable comics. However, never before had one been stopped by a real-life superhero. He said: “When the police came in they managed to keep a straight face and just hauled him away.”
A Christian leader and prominent neuro-psychiatrist who co-founded the Family Research Council with evangelist James Dobson took a ten-day European vacation with a callboy he met through RentBoy.com and was caught in an airport with the escort by a Miami newspaper.
The escort said he had met George Rekers, professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina, on RentBoy.com. Rekers, when confronted, didn't deny that he'd met the callboy online, but said he had hired him to help him carry his baggage and didn't learn he was generally hired for "private company" until mid-way through his European vacation.
"I had surgery," Rekers told Miami's New Times, "and I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him." (The paper noted that it didn't stop him from pushing a "tottering" pile of luggage through Miami International Airport.)
The callboy, identified by a pseudonym, told the New Times' Penn Bullock and Brandon Thorp that Rekers claim that he didn't know his "line of work" seemed spurious.
"He should've been able to tell you that," he said. "But that's up to him."
According to Penn and Thorp, the slender, 20-year-old escort's profile advertises his "smooth, sweet, tight ass" and "perfectly built 8 inch cock." RentBoy.com's profiles are not indexed by Google.
“It is clear that Rekers has baggage and certainly needs help,” said Wayne Besen, a prominent opponent of the "ex-gay" movement and director of the nonprofit Truth Wins Out. Referring to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a conservative who claimed he was hiking when he'd actually been meeting with a mistress, he added: “At least he did not say he was walking the Appalachian Trail.”
"This is a bombshell that completely discredits the ex-gay industry and proves that the movement is a fraud,” Besen added.
The paper printed emails exchanged between the professor and the escort prior to their trip. Rekers co-founded the conservative and anti-gay Family Research Council with Rev. James Dobson in 1983.
"I'd like to propose another trip to Rome, Italy, for a week or more," Rekers purportedly wrote in an Mar. 21 email obtained by New Times. "This is so exciting to have a nice Travel Assistant and traveling companion! Wow! I'm so glad I met you."
"I called and talked to the reservation guy in London and reserved a room with two twin beds," Rekers allegedly remarked in a later email.
Rekers is a prominent advocate against gays in Florida, where he resides. He testified against Florida allowing gay couples to adopt, asserting that children of gay couples "living with a practicing homosexual in the adoptive home,” are especially “vulnerable to psychological damage and an increasing inability to adapt."
A commenter on a California Catholic daily, which reported the findings of Rekers' investigations into gay adoption, remarked, "The active principle in these children's stress is the fact that their welfare comes in dead last in the homosexual lifestyle - it is oriented toward grooming them for traumatic early sexualization and exploitation by adults."
The escort told New Times that Rekers is "primarily a family man," despite their European jaunt.
"You don't understand how much this guy honestly cares about taking care of kids," he was quoted as saying.
Reker is the author of "Growing Up Straight: What Families should Know about Homosexuality."
I don't see what the problem is. Sometimes I need to hire a manservant to help me with my heavy loads. Or just to assist me when I'm working on the car, lube jobs, smoothing the piston heads after misfire, you always need an extra pair of hands if you're working on the crank shaft. I don't understand what's so wrong about that.
You can't say confirmed on the internets unless you super duper mean it. That's how everyone knows you're telling the truth when you say that Keanu Reeves is going to be playing the part of Doc Brown in the Back to the Future remake.
Mexican authorities have arrested a man who was trying to smuggle 18 small monkeys into the country by carrying them in his clothing.
Roberto Sol Cabrera, a Mexican citizen, was stopped at a random check at Mexico City's international airport after arriving from Lima.
In a statement, police said Mr Cabrera Zavaleta had been behaving "nervously".
Once he was searched, it was discovered that he had hidden 18 titi monkeys in a girdle around his waist.
After his arrest, Mr Sol Cabrera confessed that the animals had travelled in his luggage, and that he had put them under his clothing "to protect them from X-rays" as he was going through customs.
The animals had been put into socks, police explained, and two of them were dead at the time of confiscation.
Many species of titi monkeys, a species from South America, are in an endangered animal list by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).
The Mexican government recently restricted imports of primates and since Mr Sol Cabrera did not have any permits, he will remain in custody while more investigations take place.
'Tradition'
In a video published by the Mexican Public Security agency, Mr Sol Cabrera says he had paid $30 (£19.70) for each specimen in Peru.
According to estimates, monkeys like the ones confiscated in the airport could have been sold for between $775 (£509) and $1,550 (£1,018) in Mexico.
Adrian Reuter, local representative for Traffic - an international organization that monitors wildlife trade - told the BBC that animal trafficking is a serious problem in Mexico.
"The reasons are two: one, because Mexico is an important route for those who want to smuggle animals into the US, and the other, because, as in other countries of Latin America, there is a deep-rooted tradition of having wild animals as pets," he said.
The Sonora market, in the Mexican capital, is known to sell parrots, monkeys or reptiles for private owners.
Mr Reuter recognizes that in the last few years, the Mexican government has improved efforts on fighting animal-trafficking criminal networks, rather than focusing on the citizens who want to have "a parrot for company", he says.
I laughed at the title and the stupid man, but then I was very sad that it said he had them in his luggage then stuffed in socks. If 2 died, the rest were probably not doing very well, either. This is pretty sad news.
Comments
...wiki says he's some underage pop star. I guess that explains my confusion.
Except not really because I would never wish disease upon another person, even one with such heavily auto-tuned music.
I know the way to the dungeons, I'll go myself. I'll wait for mario to set my execution date.