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OT: The News Thread

MindzEye

Wayward Ditch Pig
Started one of these a few months back and it went strong for a little while, but died off. May as well resurrect it.



Scientologists convicted of Fraud in France

A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France.

Two branches of the group's operations and several of its leaders in France have been fined.

The case came after complaints from two women, one of whom said she was manipulated into paying more than 20,000 euros (£18,100) in the 1990s.

A Scientology spokesman told the BBC the verdict was "all bark and no bite".

France regards Scientology as a sect, not a religion.

Prosecutors had asked for the group's French operations to be dissolved and more heavily fined, but a legal loophole prevented any ban.

Instead, a Paris judge ordered the Church's Celebrity Centre and a bookshop to pay a 600,000-euro fine.

Alain Rosenberg, the group's head in France, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined 30,000 euros.

Three other leading members of the group were also fined.

The article goes on to mention that a total ban on the "church" may still be possible.

(forgot to link it, but this was a BBC report)
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

another advance in Cancer research

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/uor-sdg102609.php

Despite a 30-year lifespan that gives ample time for cells to grow cancerous, a small rodent species called a naked mole rat has never been found with tumors of any kind—and now biologists at the University of Rochester think they know why.

The findings, presented in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the mole rat's cells express a gene called p16 that makes the cells "claustrophobic," stopping the cells' proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. The effect of p16 is so pronounced that when researchers mutated the cells to induce a tumor, the cells' growth barely changed, whereas regular mouse cells became fully cancerous.

"We think we've found the reason these mole rats don't get cancer, and it's a bit of a surprise," say Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov, professors of biology at the University of Rochester and lead investigators on the discovery. "It's very early to speculate about the implications, but if the effect of p16 can be simulated in humans we might have a way to halt cancer before it starts."
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

http://www.sportsrubbish.com/2009/10/26/soccer/entire-colombian-soccer-team-murdered/

say what you want, but we never take our shit half as seriously

Ten members of an amateur Colombian soccer team called Los Maniceros (The Peanut Vendors) have been found dead in Venezuela.

The team had been missing since October 11th after traveling to Chururu for a match. On that day, police say 25 armed men stormed the field and “asked the referee for the list of players on the Los Maniceros team, called out the players’ names, lined them up and took them to an unknown destination.”

On Saturday, 10 bodies were found in various locations around the area. One “lucky” player managed to survive the ordeal, but had been shot in the neck and is still recovering in a hospital.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

how much you wanna bet that "lucky" player's "luck" runs out pretty soon and they end up getting him anyways?
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

how much you wanna bet that "lucky" player's "luck" runs out pretty soon and they end up getting him anyways?

It depends on if these guys were targeted specifically, or if they were just wrong place, wrong time and killed as a political statement.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

It's cases like this where I'm torn on an ideological level. I'm against capitol punishment 99% of the times...but this is one of those 1% cases where the slayings were brutal, cold, & calculated and a person like that simply doesn't deserve mercy.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

Gotta stick to my ideologies here, no capital punishment for anyone. Make the ******* suffer, what if a person just dies and that is it you know. Gots to make sure that he suffers.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

It depends on if these guys were targeted specifically, or if they were just wrong place, wrong time and killed as a political statement.

Its soccer in Europe... they were targeted specifically. Those guys probably werent playing too good so some angry gamblers killed them.

Vesa would of been killed 20 times by now if this was soccer :eek(16):
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

Capital punishment all the way baby...in certain cases.

Lethal injection, quick, cost effective and make sure the families of all of the dead get to watch...and none of this one way mirror shit.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

Gotta stick to my ideologies here, no capital punishment for anyone. Make the ******* suffer, what if a person just dies and that is it you know. Gots to make sure that he suffers.

I agree to exetent but I like to take it one step further. And eye for and eye. You rape, you get raped, you murder, you are murdered and so on...

Obviously this can't apply for all crimes, but the heinous ones it should apply to
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

Its the easy way out though.

Make the ****ers suffer for what they've done. They may think twice about raping someone when they are get reamed in the arse by a dry Lexington Steele dildo
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

I don't really have any proof handy, but I'm pretty sure capital punishment costs a lot more than life in prison.

Kick all the pot smokers out and there should be plenty of room.

And though I really don't care all that much if a murder/rapist/diddler dies or not, we really can't kill people and call ourselves a civilized society. Plus, like others mentioned, it's a far worse punishment to let these scumbags rot in jail for half a century.

And wanting to actually watch someone die, no matter what they did, is pretty ****ed up.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

I think Capital punishment are a huge disservice to our justice system, you have to understand that some of these miserable mother ****ers are not afraid of death. If you keep them locked in a hell hole, that is where they will truly suffer.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

And wanting to actually watch someone die, no matter what they did, is pretty ****ed up.

What if it's your daughter or wife that gets raped and murdered, would you mind watching it then or be like me and want to kill the ****er with your own bare hands.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

the problem I have with letting someone who isn't able to be rehabilitated (and in this case, I'd say that tag is apt) is that I want no part in paying 40-50K per year for the next 50 years to watch him rot.

Seriously...that's 2.5 million dollars spent (quite a bit higher total number as well when you factor in inflation over that time period) that could have been put to much better use by society.

I firmly believe that most criminals can be rehabilitated, but for the ones that can't....well, see, there's my 1% problem.
 
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