The Knights Templar are demanding that the Vatican give them back their good name and, possibly, billions in assets into the bargain, 700 years after the order was brutally suppressed by a joint venture between the Pope and the King of France.
If the Holy See doesn’t comply, the warrior knights, renowned for liberating the Holy Land, will deploy that most fearsome of weapons: a laborious court case through the creaking Spanish legal system...
Well, if it was 700 years of continued oppression, then they might have a case. Other than that, what money hungry group of d-bags is claiming their name for this case?
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A U.S. scientist said Sunday he has discovered the globe's tiniest species of snake in the easternmost Caribbean island of Barbados, with full-grown adults typically stretching less than 4 inches (10 centimeters) long.
S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State University whose research teams also have discovered the world's tiniest lizard in the Dominican Republic and the smallest frog in Cuba, said the snake was found slithering beneath a rock near a patch of Barbadian forest.
Hedges said the tiny-title-holding snake, which is so diminutive it can curl up on a U.S. quarter, is the smallest of the roughly 3,100 known snake species. It will be introduced to the scientific world in the journal "Zootaxa" on Monday.
"New and interesting species are still being discovered on Caribbean islands, despite the very small amount of natural forests remaining," said Hedges, who christened the miniature brown snake "Leptotyphlops carlae" after his herpetologist wife, Carla Ann Hass.
The Barbadian snake apparently eats termites and insect larvae, but nothing is yet known of its ecology and behavior. Genetic tests identified the snake as a new species, according to Hedges. It is not venomous.
Zoologist Roy McDiarmid, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, said he has seen a specimen of the diminutive creature. He saw no reason to argue with the assertion that it is the world's smallest snake.
McDiarmid said the Barbados creature is a type of thread snake, also called worm snake, which are mostly found in the tropics. "We really know very little about these things," he said in a Sunday telephone interview from his Virginia home.
Finding the globe's tiniest snake demonstrates the remarkable diversity of the ecologically delicate Caribbean. It also illustrates a fundamental ecological principle: Since Darwin's days, scientists have noticed that islands often are home to both oversized and miniaturized beasts.
Hedges said the world's smallest bird species, the bee hummingbird, can be found in Cuba. The globe's second-smallest snake lives in Martinique. At the other end of the scale, one of the largest swallowtail butterflies lives in Jamaica.
Scientists say islands often host odd-sized creatures because they're usually inhabited by a less diverse set of species than continents. So island beasts and insects often grow or shrink to fill ecological roles that otherwise would be filled by entirely different species.
And here's a picture of the adorable little thing:
Also, about the templars, normally a person's right to present legal actions prescribes in 10 to 15 years. HOWEVER, there's a special kind of situation for treasures: as long as there is still memory of its true, legitimate owner nobody else can acquire it. So, in sctrict theory, the person who proves that he's the owner could still ask for the thing to be reinvidicated back to him.
I find this tricky, though, because I doubt that the Knights Templar are constituted as a juristic person so in that front they do not own the treasure, and, on the other hand, I don't believe they can prove to be descendants, and consequently heirs, of some people who lived 700 years ago.
It's like this in Spanish and Ecuadorian Law, at least. US and English legislations are probably different.
A giant inflatable dog turd created by the American artist Paul McCarthy was blown from its moorings at a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a window before landing in the grounds of a children's home.
The exhibit, entitled Complex Shit, is the size of a house. It has a safety system that is supposed to deflate it in bad weather, but it did not work on this occasion.
Juri Steiner, the director of the Paul Klee centre, in Berne, told AFP that a sudden gust of wind carried it 200 metres before it fell to the ground, breaking a window of the children's home. The accident happened on July 31, but the details only emerged yesterday.
Steiner said McCarthy had not yet been contacted and the museum was not sure if the piece (pictured here) would be put back on display.
The installation is part of an exhibition called East of Eden: A Garden Show, which features sound sculptures in trees and a football ground without goalposts. The exhibition opened in May and is due to run until October.
The centre's website describes the show as containing "interweaving, diverse, not to say conflictive emphases and a broad spectrum of items to form a dynamic exchange of parallel and self-eclipsing spatial and temporal zones".
Amusing, but sorta falls into the "how in the world is this art?!" category.
Well I think it's art. It's part of an exhibition designed to depict various aspects of a garden, and the artist appears to be both literally and figuratively disrupting the sanctity and harmoniousness of a beautiful garden with something that does the same thing in real life.
If it's created by a human being* and is designed to convey some sort of message, no matter how mundane or seemingly trivial, then it's art. "Artistic ability" has little to do with it. Art is just storytelling, and anyone can tell a story.
BOONEVILLE, KY—Barack Obama's once-commanding lead in the polls slipped to two points Monday, continuing a month-long slide that many credit to the recent appearance of the Democratic candidate's heretofore unknown half-brother, Cooter Obama...
Comments
well... who are they? surely a secretive place like the interwebz is a good place to share such info!:D
:police:
As far as the Knights Templar, certainly there's a statute of limitations on this sort of thing? 700 years...yikes.
:objection:
And here's a picture of the adorable little thing:
Also, about the templars, normally a person's right to present legal actions prescribes in 10 to 15 years. HOWEVER, there's a special kind of situation for treasures: as long as there is still memory of its true, legitimate owner nobody else can acquire it. So, in sctrict theory, the person who proves that he's the owner could still ask for the thing to be reinvidicated back to him.
I find this tricky, though, because I doubt that the Knights Templar are constituted as a juristic person so in that front they do not own the treasure, and, on the other hand, I don't believe they can prove to be descendants, and consequently heirs, of some people who lived 700 years ago.
It's like this in Spanish and Ecuadorian Law, at least. US and English legislations are probably different.
uuuuughhhhh... :yuk:
Well okay, maybe I'm a... TINY bit impressed!
Soup-perm-mark-ed would not be amused.
Giant Dog Turd Wreaks Havoc at Swiss Museum
Amusing, but sorta falls into the "how in the world is this art?!" category.
However, I must concede that perhaps inflatable house-sized dog shit that attacks and frightens children is most likely art.
If it's created by a human being* and is designed to convey some sort of message, no matter how mundane or seemingly trivial, then it's art. "Artistic ability" has little to do with it. Art is just storytelling, and anyone can tell a story.
*or gorillas
*or elephants:
*or chihuahuas: