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Women urged to strip to support Putin as president

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Woman complains of lack of love song, is hit

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AMBRIDGE, Pa. -- Authorities say that when a Pennsylvania woman complained that her songwriter boyfriend had never written a song about her, he choked her and hit her in the face.

Ambridge police say 29-year-old Jason Banks attacked his girlfriend June 30 after she complained and pointed out he had written songs about other women.

The Beaver County Times reports that Banks has been charged with simple assault. He did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday to a phone number listed in his name.

Court records show Banks is free on bond awaiting a preliminary hearing July 25.

16-pound Texas baby breaks hospital weight record

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Why roughhousing is good for kids and their parents

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Forget about letting the kids run around unsupervised; we don't even let them jump on the beds anymore. Between helicopter parents who hover, Tiger Moms who are obsessed with academic success, and curling parents who sweep a perfectly clear path for their kids to follow, we're so worried about keeping our kids safe that we end up limiting their activity levels along with their independence.

But a little horsing around could do kids a world of good, two experts suggest—and they encourage parents to roughhouse right along with their children. "Play looks a lot different than it did 30 years ago," says Dr. Anthony DeBenedet, who co-wrote "The Art of Roughhousing: Good, Old-Fashioned Horseplay and Why Every Kid Needs It" with Lawrence J. Cohen, PhD. "I think it's time for us to kind of cut the strings a little bit. Let kids go—and play with them." "We want to get a throwback to the good stuff," he adds. "The good stuff is play. And the holy grail is roughhousing." Roughhousing does more than keep kids physically active.

"There are clear signs showing that it helps kids' academic success, it's associated with being more flexible behaviorally, being better able to deal with unpredictability," DeBenedet says. "Play—especially active physical play, like roughhousing—makes kids smart, emotionally intelligent, lovable and likable, ethical, physically fit, and joyful," they write in their book. So what is roughhousing, exactly? "You kind of know it when you see it," explains DeBenedet, the father of 5, 2, and 6-month-old girls. (Yes, girls can roughhouse, too.)

There are two main types, he says: Improvisational free-form roughhousing, which can include everything from wrestling to jumping on the couch to pillow fights, and set moves that are "almost like physical challenges with your kid." At a recent roughhousing workshop in New York, parents rolled around on mats with their children, hoisted them in the air, and took part in an energetic pillow fight:

At another event, DeBenedet demonstrated one of his favorite roughhousing moves: The Houdini. "You have to be really connected with them to do it properly," he says.

Lawyer sentenced for shooting fellow hunter

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Armed guards at restaurants

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How about a beer with your iPhone?

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College binge drinkers shrug off alcohol's ill effects

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NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - For many college binge drinkers, the perceived positive effects of alcohol as a social lubricant outweigh its negative impacts, from hangovers and blackouts to missed classes, a new study shows.

Drawing from an online survey of nearly 500 college students, researchers found that the harm caused by heavy drinking was not generally considered a strong deterrent, a finding that could offer a new direction for college programs targeting binge drinking, according to Kevin King, one of the authors of the report.

"This study suggests why some people can experience a lot of bad consequences of drinking but not change their behaviour," said King, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.

"People ... do not seem to associate their heavy drinking with negative consequences," he added.

The perceived positive effects of drinking, from improved conversational ability to enhanced sexual prowess, were thought likely to repeat themselves in a phenomenon the researchers dubbed "rose-colored beer goggles."

The study cites grim statistics on the consequences of college drinking: 1,800 deaths, 500,000 injuries and 600,000 assaults each year. While heavy drinking rates have remained stable for men, they have increased for women, according to the researchers.

People who took part in the study responded to an online survey asking how often they had experienced 35 negative consequences of drinking and positive consequences.

The list of negatives included blackouts, fights, lost or stolen belongings, hangovers and missed class. The positives benefits were better conversational and joke-telling abilities and more energy to stay up late partying.

Many of the students thought the positive consequences are worth risking the negative.

Source: http://oddnews.yahoo.com/

No More Target Practice With Photos of North Korea’s Ruler

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In an attempt to appease North-South Korean relations, the South Korean defense ministry has announced that it will order its army training units to cease using photographs of North Korea’s ruling family for target practice.

The troops have admitted to positioning the pictures of Kim Jong-il, his youngest son, and the leader’s late father in the cross hairs of a target that is often used during firing drills. No one seemed to mind or even notice until that image was widely circulated via the local press, causing consternation among authorities at a very tense period in inter-Korean relations. The South Korean government has officially banned the practice and has accepted responsibility for the “gray areas” in the law, which previously left it up to the judgment of the individual commander to decide which images were appropriate for target practice. Although the motive for using these images was to boost a battle spirit and sense of solidarity among the troops following the bombardment of a South Korean island last year, it is clearly not the most diplomatic approach to appeasing relations between the two Koreas. Perhaps more generic and innocuous targets like sitting ducks and such are more in order here?

Source: here

Astronaut selling the wrong stuff?

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction.

The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court on Wednesday, accuses Edgar Mitchell of illegally possessing the camera and attempting to sell it for profit.

In March, NASA learned that the British auction house Bonhams was planning to sell the camera at an upcoming Space History Sale, according to the suit.

The item was labeled "Movie Camera from the Lunar Surface" and billed as one of two cameras from the Apollo 14's lunar module Antares. The lot description said the item came "directly from the collection" of pilot Edgar Mitchell and had a pre-sale estimate of $60,000 to $80,000, the suit said.

Mitchell was a lunar module pilot on Apollo 14, which launched its nine-day mission in 1971 under the command of Alan Shepard. The sixth person to walk on the moon, Mitchell is now retired and runs a website selling his autographed picture.

He has made headlines in the past for his stated belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life.

"All equipment and property used during NASA operations remains the property of NASA unless explicitly released or transferred to another party," the government suit said, adding NASA had no record of the camera being given to Mitchell.

The suit said the government had made repeated requests to Mitchell and his lawyer to return the camera but received no response.

Mitchell's lawyer, Donald Jacobson, said NASA management was aware of and approved Mitchell's ownership of the camera 40 years ago.

"Objects from the lunar trips to the moon were ultimately mounted and then presented to the astronauts as a gift after they had helped NASA on a mission," Jacobson said.

Read more: oddnews.yahoo.com