While You Were Sleeping

by Kelley Granger, August 24, 2007

Pagans in Dorset, England are distressed at marketing efforts for the Simpsons movie. A giant underwear-clad Homer Simpson waving a doughnut has been painted next to the 180-foot Cerne Abbas Giant, a centuries-old landmark believed to represent ancient spirituality and bring fertility. "It is very disrespectful," Ann Bryn-Evans of the Pagan Federation says. "Are they going to use the countryside as a giant billboard?" The painting, done by artist Peter Stuart, was done with biodegradable paint and will wash away with the rain, but Bryn-Evans claims, "it's been raining buckets and the thing's still there."
Source: BBC News


In mid-July, Italian Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi called the rate of traffic accidents, injury, and death on Italian roads a “national emergency” and is pushing for tougher penalties and arrests. Rome, which ranks second in the world for highest concentration of car ownership, touts 2.4 million cars for 2.5 million residents—but has one of the worst driving records in Europe. Rome’s rate of pedestrian injury or death is 8.47 people per 1,000, compared to other European cities like London and Paris, that have less than 1 death per 1,000 pedestrians. Danger exists for motorist and passenger as well; statistics show that only one in five Italians wears a seatbelt, including children, who often ride without a car seat or on the lap of the driver. A bill has been submitted to the Senate which would raise vehicular manslaughter to a murder charge for drunk drivers and limit the speeds of young drivers. The issue has also received attention from the Vatican, which released its Guidelines for Pastoral Care of the Road, more commonly known as the “Ten Commandments” of driving, in June. The commandments include orders to protect vulnerable parties, to avoid using a car as an expression of power, and not to kill.
Source: The New York Times, UK Times Online

Research is showing a strong link between a population’s exposure to lead and the crime rate, with violent crime spiking two decades following a peak in lead poisoning. After studying nine countries and accounting for different modes of policing, economic status, abortion rates, and demographics, economist Rick Nevin believes that 65 to 90 percent of crime rate variations can be explained by lead exposure. Other evidence shows that lead is a neurotoxin causing impulsive behavior and aggression. This pattern, and the earlier phasing out of lead, may help explain the dramatic 67 percent drop in homicide and 57 percent decrease in overall crime during Rudy Giuliani’s term as mayor of New York City; two studies by criminologists Richard Rosenfeld and Steven F. Messner say only 10 to 20 percent of the change is due to his zero-tolerance policing tactics.
Source: The Washington Post