Homer Bigart

Homer Bigart was one of America's best newspaper reporters. He also was a college dropout.

"N.Y.U. liked him well enough, but Mr. Bigart remained unconvinced that his journalism professors knew much about journalism," Richard Severo of the New York Times wrote in 1991.

Shopping Bag

In Scotland a woman found a human head in a shopping bag.

Sleepwalk

An 18-year-old sleepwalker fell to his death in Germany.

Shandong Province

Steve Jackson of BBC News: "Scientists in China say they believe a group of dinosaur fossils discovered in the east of the country could be the largest collection ever found."

Naples

BBC News:

New Year's Eve could prove to be something of a damp squib for some men in the Italian city of Naples.

Hundreds of Neapolitan women have pledged to go without sex unless their men promise to refrain from setting off dangerous illegal fireworks.

Service Animals

Rebecca Skloot: "It’s no longer just guide dogs for blind people. Service animals now include monkeys for quadriplegics, parrots for psychotics and at least one assistance duck."

Celtic Village

Archaeologists discovered the remnants of an ancient Celtic village near Krakow, Poland.

Facial Hair

BBC News: "The famous beards and moustaches of India — seen as representing a huge tradition to the outside world — are under threat, a new book says."

Guard Dogs

BBC News: "A scheme using dogs to protect sheep and goats from attack by wild animals in Namibia is proving so successful that it has been exported to Kenya."

Looking for Love

Via ABC Online, Australia: "There's a gnawing problem in the British countryside — a giant beaver on the loose, wreaking havoc in southwest England."

Spanish Ship

BBC News: "Construction workers in Argentina have struck oil — of the olive variety — as they unearthed a colonial-era Spanish ship believed to be 250 years old."

Khyber Pass

Voice of America:

Pakistan has closed the main supply route in the Khyber Pass for NATO forces operating in Afghanistan, as Pakistan launched an offensive against militants in the region.

Tariq Hayat, Pakistan's top administrator for the tribal Khyber region, told reporters Tuesday that helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery units have deployed in the area near the Afghan border. Hayat says supplies to NATO forces through the pass will be "suspended" until the operation is complete.

Militants have carried out a series of attacks on NATO and U.S. military convoys along the vital supply route in recent weeks.

Related: Plan B

Stilwell Road

During the Second World War more than 1,100 American troops died building the Stilwell Road.

Gator

BBC News: "Wildlife officials in Australia are investigating how an alligator native to North America was found wandering around a campsite in New South Wales."

Magpie

"A magpie flying along with a mobile phone it had stolen accidentally dropped it in front of two police officers in Germany," Spiegel Online reports.

Newlywed Game

Via ABC Online, Australia: "Police in the north Indian city of Dehradun have arrested a woman who reportedly married more than a dozen older men and promptly ran off with whatever money and valuables she could get her hands on."

Russian Roulette

"An inebriated German man decided to play Russian roulette with a loaded revolver in front of his family at Christmas, and lost," Spiegel Online says.

Business Heritage

"The best leaders can sense the winds of change and adapt with the times." — Harvard Business School

HBS database: Great American business leaders of the 20th century

H-Bomb

William J. Broad of the New York Times:

A new book says Moscow acquired the secret of the hydrogen bomb not from its own scientists but from an atomic spy at the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico.

Previous: Atomic Bomb

African Penguins

Terry FitzPatrick at Voice of America:

Millions of African penguins once roamed the beaches along the continent's southern coast. But their population is collapsing and conservationists have begun drastic measures to prevent the species from going extinct.

26th of July Movement

Fidel Castro's mountain hideout

Croutons

Ted Landphair at Voice of America:

Many quick-service restaurants, including McDonald's and Burger King and Denny's, serve salads — prepackaged, delivered by a server, or available from a salad bar. And uncounted millions of the croutons that top those salads come from a single factory in Chicago.

Web site: Quality Croutons

Red Robber

A man in a Santa outfit robbed a shoe shop in Russia.

Tiwi Islands

Carved poles, Tiwi Islands

ABC Online, Australia: "One of the first ships destroyed in Australian waters during World War II has been found off the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory."

(Photo credit: Tourism NT)

Hold That Tiger

The Times of India has an article about a tiger at a village in India's state of West Bengal. Read the whole thing.

Jungle Attack

Leaping from the bushes, a leopard pounced on an 11-year-old boy, killing him. The jungle attack happened yesterday in India's state of Uttarakhand. Searchers found the child's body.

New York City in the Roaring '20s

From Time magazine, May 19, 1924:

Trinity Church (Broadway and Wall St., Manhattan) stands on one of the most valuable plots of land in the U.S. Yet a clever group of swindlers is reported to have made a fortune out of questioning the validity of Trinity's title to the land it occupies.

Get the details here.

Stray Cat

A stray cat saved the life of a man in Taiwan.

Pirates

Press TV in Iran: "Somali pirates have released one of two Yemeni fishing ships they hijacked earlier this month, a Yemeni Coast Guard source says."

Dogfights in Afghanistan

Kirk Semple of the New York Times reports from Kabul: "Since the Taliban’s ouster, dogfighting has regained its earlier popularity, with informal weekly tournaments in Afghanistan’s major cities."

Samuel P. Huntington

American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, died this week.

Quiet, Please!

In Philadelphia a man shot a theatergoer for talking too loudly.

Leopard on the Veranda

Last night a leopard attacked a three-year-old boy on the veranda of home in India's state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Neighbors rescued the lad," a trader told me. "The boy is in critical condition at a local hospital."

Big Splash

A shark attacked a 51-year-old snorkeler near a beach in Australia.

Murderous Rampage

New York Times: "The man who went on a rampage in a Santa Claus costume and killed himself was found with $17,000 in cash and a plane ticket to Canada, the police said."

Yesterday: Bad Santa

Baby Jesus

Early on Christmas Day, 20-year-old Virgen Maria gave birth to a boy in Peru. She named him Jesus.

The father is a carpenter.

Business Heritage

Henry Ford II, aka Hank the Deuce, marched to his own drummer.

John S. DeMott, Time magazine, October 12, 1987:

Outside the office, Ford did what he wanted, when he wanted. A reveler, Ford once led an orchestra through a swimming pool while the musicians played "When the Saints Go Marching In."

Henry Ford II (1917-1987)

Viagra

New York Post: "The CIA is taking a hard line against terrorism — bribing Afghan tribal chiefs with Viagra, it was reported yesterday."

Tower

IOL in South Africa:

Two men were rescued from a 50-meter radio tower in Lenasia on Thursday, after they climbed up to be "closer to Jesus" on Christmas, paramedics said.

Footwear

RIA Novosti:

A shoe-throwing competition using a portrait of George Bush as the target took place on Friday in Iran's capital, Tehran, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

Iranians in the capital were invited to throw their shoes at a poster of U.S. President George Bush after the country's traditional Friday Muslim prayers were over. The event was held at Tehran University.

Once there were enough direct hits and the portrait became shabby, the crowd tore the poster down and ripped it to pieces.

Turkey

Sabrina Tavernise: "While other Muslim societies are wrestling with radicals, Turkey’s religious merchant class is struggling instead with wealth."

Wolf Captured

Via People's Daily in China: "Forestry workers have caught a wild wolf near Badaling, a section of the Great Wall in northern Beijing, ending widespread fear of residents and travelers."

Previous: Wild Wolf

Luxury Goods

Kari Jensen at Voice of America:

With the global economic slump cutting into consumer sales, makers of luxury goods are starting to feel the bite, with one study indicating the industry will contract next year. But in Hong Kong, high-end retailers are counting on Asia's wealthy to keep spending.

Fat Tigers

"Authorities in Nepal said on Wednesday they have stopped feeding tigers in the country's only zoo for one day a week to keep them from piling on the weight," an article at IOL says.

In the wild, big cats don't eat every day. When I managed an African wildlife preseve, I never fed the 120 lions on Sundays.

Pirates

Voice of America:

A maritime official says German forces have rescued an Egyptian ship from a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden.

Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau, IMB, says pirates tried to hijack a bulk carrier with 31 crew off the coast of Somalia Thursday. He says a passing ship alerted the bureau, which asked a multinational coalition force in the area to help.

Choong says a German warship sent a helicopter that scared off the attackers, but not before the pirates shot and injured a crew member.

He says the injured man was airlifted to the German ship for treatment.

Update: The Germans released the pirates.

Bad Santa

In Southern California a gunman in a Santa suit killed at least eight people at a party (updated).

Dissatisfied Customer

RIA Novosti:

A man opened fire with a pistol wounding a sales assistant following a complaint over impotency tablets sold by a sex shop in downtown Moscow, a police source said on Thursday.

The police source said the incident occurred on Wednesday evening, when "The customer entered the sex shop ... and began complaining about the poor quality of impotency pills that he had bought. An argument ensued during which the man shot a 30-year-old woman twice."

Nativity Scenes

BBC News, via ABC Online, Australia: "Right-wing politicians in Italy have protested at the inclusion of Islamic symbols in nativity scenes in some of the country's churches."

Government Gossip in Georgia

RIA Novosti:

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has hit Prime Minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili in the face and thrown a phone at him, the Alia daily reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed source.

The presidential press service slammed the report as "complete nonsense that deserves no comment."

Traveling with Mummies

BBC News: "An Australian man has been arrested at Cairo airport after security staff found ancient Egyptian animal mummies in his luggage, reports say."

Plane Truth

What goes up must come down.

Rhode Island

"A 65-year-old, family-owned company makes about 80 percent of the altar bread used by American churches," reports Katie Zezima of the New York Times.

Smithsonian Magazine

The January issue of Smithsonian magazine is up!

Jewelry Store

RIA Novosti:

A jewelry store owner in the Dutch city of Borne has fought off three would-be burglars by throwing his precious wares at them, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Wednesday.

According to jeweler Ted Koning, 49, he was standing behind the counter of his store on Tuesday evening when three men entered and pointed a gun at him, demanding money and jewelry.

"My actions were completely reflexive," Koning was quoted as saying by De Telegraaf. "I started throwing boxes of jewelry, necklaces and other trinkets at the men's heads. They were obviously so confused by this that they ran out of the store empty-handed."

Do You Believe in Magic?

Voodoo the cat reportedly survived a 34-story fall from an apartment building in Australia.

Spy Ship

Jason Strother: "Forty years ago, North Korea freed the crew of the USS Pueblo, a U.S. Navy ship it had captured 11 months earlier. The ship itself is still in North Korea."

Background: Pueblo Incident

Wild Wolf

Via People's Daily in China:

Police and forestry workers at Badaling, a section of the Great Wall in northern Beijing, are setting traps for an alleged "wild wolf" which some villagers claimed to have spotted — and even captured on camera.

Business Heritage

William Randolph Hearst, circa 1904

From Time magazine, August 20, 1951:

He was great fun to work for; after a hard day in the newsroom he liked to gather the staff at his big house for lavish parties complete [said horrified gossips] with "abandoned dancing girls."

Read more about American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951).

Sex and the Single Squid

Philip Bethge, Der Spiegel: "A Dutch biologist has extensively studied the reproductive techniques of deep-ocean squid."

Poinsettias

Los Angeles Times: "The bloom is off the poinsettia business."

Cruise Ships

Spiegel Online:

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said tour operators that continue to send cruise ships through the Gulf of Aden despite the piracy raging there are risking the lives of their passengers.

Lonely Man

"Berlin's celebrity polar bear Knut got an unwelcome visitor on Monday when a man jumped into his enclosure saying he didn't want to be alone this Christmas," Spiegel Online reports.

Deceit

Natalie Angier of the New York Times: "Apparently, humans are not alone in their deceitful ways."

Vulture Coast

Subject: Somalia

"Somali sources tell VOA that the Islamists' tough stance against piracy has prompted many poor people in coastal communities to quietly begin supporting the return of Islamist rule," Alisha Ryu says.

Related: Operation Atalanta

French Guiana

Simon Romero of the New York Times: "Since arriving more than 30 years ago, Hmong refugees have thrived in Cacao, French Guiana, a former prison colony in South America."

Vigilantism

"In Guatemala, people have had enough of corrupt police and brutal extortions by gangs," reports John Burnett of NPR. "They've turned to vigilantism. Lynch mobs and death squads are now commonplace."

Byzantine Gold

Voice of America:

Archaeologists in Israel said they have unearthed more than 250 gold coins dating back to the seventh century A.D., making it the largest cache of gold coins from that period ever found in Jerusalem.

A British archaeologist found the treasure trove on Sunday while excavating the ruins of a building. The dig site is now a parking lot on the edge of Jerusalem's walled Old City.

The gold coins date back to the Byzantine period and bear the image of the Emperor Heraclius, who ruled between 610 and 641 A.D. The nearly 1,400 year-old coins depict him in military dress, holding a cross in his right hand.

Officials at the Israeli Antiquities Authority Monday said the coins had likely been hidden in one of the building's walls. They said archaeologists have never discovered more than five Byzantine-period coins at a time in Jerusalem before.

Old Tombs

Egyptian archaeologists uncovered two ancient tombs at Saqqara.

Racehorses

RIA Novosti: "A MAN truck with 10 horses in its trailer was stolen on Monday evening from the Central Moscow Hippodrome, Russia's largest racetrack and horse-breeding center, a police source said."

Background: MAN trucks

War and Peace

Kyodo News, via the Japan Times:

Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, who won the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize for working out Japan's three-point nonnuclear policy, asked the United States in 1965 to use its nuclear weapons against China in immediate retaliation should a war break about between that country and Japan, according to newly declassified Japanese diplomatic documents.

Finland

Via ABC Online, Australia: "Police in Finland believe they have caught a car thief thanks to a DNA sample taken from a sample of his blood found inside a mosquito."

Astrology

"People in many countries believe in astrology, but horoscopes have a particularly enthusiastic following in Sri Lanka," Roland Buerk of BBC News observes.

Pig Thieves

A mob of villagers attacked two pig thieves in eastern Uganda.

"The mob chopped off the limbs of the two men," a trader said. "Both men bled to death."

Headless Bodies

BBC News: "Police in Mexico have found nine decapitated bodies close to a highway in the southern state of Guerrero."

More: Here is an update from the Los Angeles Times.

Lockheed

Peter Pae of the Los Angeles Times:

A. Carl Kotchian, the former president of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. whose admission of paying millions of dollars in bribes to foreign government officials led to the imprisonment of Japan's prime minister and political upheaval in several countries in the 1970s, has died.

The Japanese prime minister, Kakuei Tanaka, never served his four-year prison sentence in the Lockheed payoffs scandal. He kicked the bucket after his conviction and before his imprisonment.

Ponzi Schemes

Charlotte Rampell of the New York Times: "Mathematically speaking, Ponzi schemes are doomed. So, what’s the exit strategy?"

Flaw

Jacqueline Froelich of NPR:

An estimated 60 million bison roamed the prairie when Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492. By 1900, only hundreds were left after herds were slaughtered for meat, pelts and sport. Although there are now half a million bison in the United States, researchers have discovered that most of them carry cattle genes — placing the animals at risk.

Shoes in the News

Sebnem Arsu of the New York Times: "Orders for Ramazan Baydan’s shoes, formerly known as Ducati Model 271 and since renamed 'The Bush Shoe,' have poured in from around the world."

Merchant Sailors

Carlos H. Conde of the New York Times put together an article about Filipino merchant sailors: "There has always been an element of risk in the seafaring life, but with a surge in piracy off the Horn of Africa, the dangers have seldom been more glaring."

Corruption

Siri Schubert and T. Christian Miller: "Corruption helped to build Siemens, but also cost it $1.6 billion, the largest fine for bribery in modern corporate history."

Banks

Janon Fisher of the New York Post: "Eric Manson says he never uses a gun when he robs a bank. He says he doesn't need one."

Teacher

BBC News: "An Egyptian mathematics teacher has appeared in court in Alexandria accused of beating an 11-year-old to death because he did not do his homework."

Update: The court jailed the teacher for six years.

All That Glitters

The New York Daily News has a brief report about the theft of Paris Hilton's pet rocks.

Notes

Stephen Gibbs of BBC News:

A series of anonymous notes have been posted outside schools in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez threatening to kidnap pupils if money is not paid.

The notes state that teachers should hand over their end-of-year bonuses to avoid the threat to their students.

Sex City

Daniel Schweimler of BBC News:

La Plata is a lovely city. Its central plaza is dominated by a beautiful cathedral; its tree-lined streets are full of interesting shops and quality restaurants.

It is a thriving university city and the capital of Buenos Aires province — the largest and wealthiest in Argentina.

But there is also a sinister, sleazy underside to La Plata.

Continue reading "Dark side of Argentine sex city."

Caviar

"Beluga caviar seized by Italian customs officers is to be distributed to poor people in Milan as a Christmas gift," the BBC says.

China's Navy

China plans to dispatch two destroyers and a supply vessel to protect merchant ships from attacks by Somali pirates.

Iranian Warship

Iran sent a warship to the Gulf of Aden.

Business Heritage

"As a journalist, I am in command of a small sector in the very front trenches of this battle for freedom," publishing tycoon Henry R. Luce told readers.

From Time magazine, March 10, 1967:

Henry Robinson Luce (1898-1967)

Dead Cats

BBC News: "Mice may be responsible for a blaze that killed nearly 100 cats at an animal shelter near the Canadian city of Toronto, officials say."

Greek Goblins

Dan Hawaleshka at Spiegel Online:

Who says Santa Claus is the only one trying to come down your chimney during the festive season? According to Greek mythology, a gaggle of goblin-like spirits are trying to slide into homes — and instead of presents they are intent on leaving a trail of destruction.

Chinese Ship

The gutsy crew of a Chinese ship used beer bottles to fight a gang of armed Somali pirates during a confrontation earlier this week.

Birds

Russian border guards seized 500 parrots.

Gift

A Bahraini businessman wants to give a Mercedes limo to the shoe-throwing reporter.

Central African Republic

Mike Thomson of BBC News:

Before the bandits came it was called Gouromo, but since that night it has become better known by a new name: "The Widows' Village."

Tijuana Brass

Richard Marosi of the Los Angeles Times: "Teodoro Garcia Simental is said to love the ladies, fast horses and dissolving enemies in lye."

Elephant Attack

A wild elephant killed a man near a village in India's state of Orissa.

Foreign Spies

RIA Novosti:

Foreign intelligence services continue to try to obtain classified information on the Sevmash shipyard in Russia's northern Arkhangelsk Region, a senior FSB official said on Thursday.

Sergei Stepura, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Directorate for the Arkhangelsk Region, said the countries involved included the United States, some of its NATO allies, and specific Asia-Pacific states.

Located in Severodvinsk on the White Sea, Sevmash is Russia's largest shipyard and builds nuclear-powered submarines, oil and gas platforms and tankers.

Sisters

RIA Novosti:

Police in Yakutia, northeast Siberia, have freed a 15-year-old girl who had been sold by her older sister for 10,000 rubles ($370) to work as a sex slave, a Russian newspaper reported.

Komsomolskaya Pravda said Sveta, from Russia's Far Eastern Primorye Territory, was found by police in Yakutsk after she had been held in an apartment 10 days.

Sveta was sold to a sex trafficker who drugged her and drove her to Yakutsk. She later found out that her sister Anya, who had previously worked as a prostitute, had sold her to buy clothes.

Paris Fog

ABC Online, Australia: "A British passenger plane was forced to turn back minutes before landing in Paris because the pilot of 30 years' experience was not qualified to land in fog, an airline confirmed."

Unmanned Combat Aircraft

This week Northrop Grumman unveiled the first of the U.S. Navy's new unmanned combat aircraft.

(Photo credit: Jeff Swann)

Big Raptor

ABC Online in Australia has news about a dinosaur find in Argentina.

Somali Pirates

Today's top stories about pirates:

• Chinese rescued from pirate attack — CNN
• Germans won't fight pirates on land — Spiegel Online
• Analyst doubts effectiveness of UN crackdown — VOA News

Hobbits

Press release from the University of Minnesota:

University of Minnesota anthropology professor Kieran McNulty (along with colleague Karen Baab of Stony Brook University in New York) has made an important contribution toward solving one of the greatest paleoanthropological mysteries in recent history — that fossilized skeletons resembling a mythical Hobbit creature represent an entirely new species in humanity's evolutionary chain.

Previous: Palau

Palermo

Elisabetta Povoledo, New York Times: "A suspect arrested in a series of high-profile raids on leading Mafia families was found hanged in Palermo’s Pagliarelli prison hours after his arrest, Italian officials said Wednesday."

Parrots

RIA Novosti: "Almost 1,500 parrots have been discovered in a two-room apartment owned by a German pensioner in Berlin, the local veterinary service said on Wednesday."

Bank Job

RIA Novosti:

A man and a woman were arrested by police in the southwest Urals Republic of Bashkiria on Wednesday on suspicion of robbing a bank with a gun-shaped cigarette lighter, a police spokesman said.

The two masked suspects, who were also armed with a hammer, stole 33,000 rubles ($1,200) from a branch of state savings bank Sberbank in the village of Tirlyan of Bashkiria's Beloryetsk district on Wednesday.

"The robbers took the cash and fled," a bank employee told police.

Later the 23-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman stopped a car and asked the driver to give them a lift.

The car was stopped by the traffic police, who discovered a bag with the money, the fake gun and the masks.

Related: America's Bonnie and Clyde

City of Death

Archaeologists discovered the ruins of an entire city in northern Peru.

"The once buried city showed evidence of human sacrifice," the BBC says.

Lingerie

Martin Asser of BBC News looked at lingerie in Syria.

No Place to Hide

Margaret Besheer at Voice of America: "The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing member states to fight pirates in Somali territory by land, sea and air."

Previous: Hot Pursuit

Quiet Bison

UC Davis:

During bison mating season, the quietest bulls score the most mates and sire the most offspring while studs with the loudest bellows see the least action, according to a surprising new study by researchers at University of California, Davis, and Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.

Three Statues

BBC News: "Three ancient statues, engraved with a little-understood sub-Saharan language, have been unearthed in Sudan."

Sea Wolves

Pirates seized two vessels near Yemen.

Waterfront

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation relates an anecdote about former FBI director Louis Freeh.

American Gothic

Government charwoman, Washington, DC, 1942

Photographer: Gordon Parks, American, 1912-2006

Battlefield

Andrew Curry at Spiegel Online: "Archaeologists in Germany say they have found an ancient battlefield strewn with Roman weapons."

Offer

RIA Novosti: "A Saudi businessman has offered $10 million for one of the shoes thrown by an Iraqi journalist at U.S. President George Bush in Baghdad, Saudi television reported on Tuesday."

Bag Lady

"Lawyers for Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have filed a lawsuit against a company for selling a bag featuring a nude image of her," BBC News says.

Pirates and Warships

Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times: "More than a dozen warships from nearly the same number of countries have joined the hunt for Somali pirates, but the pirates do not seem especially deterred."

Santa's Magic

From Matt Shipman, News Services, North Carolina State University:

Don't believe in Santa Claus? Cutting-edge science explains how Santa is able to deliver toys to good girls and boys around the world in one night.

If you're skeptical of Santa's abilities to deliver presents to millions of homes and children in just one night, North Carolina State University's Dr. Larry Silverberg, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, can explain the science and engineering principles that allow the Jolly Old Elf to pull off the magical feat year after year.

With his cherubic smile and twinkling eyes, Santa may appear to be merely a jolly old soul, but he and his North Pole elves have a lot going on under the funny-looking hats, Silverberg says. Their advanced knowledge of electromagnetic waves, the space/time continuum, nanotechnology, genetic engineering and computer science easily trumps the know-how of contemporary scientists.

Silverberg says that Santa has a personal pipeline to children's thoughts — via a listening antenna that combines technologies currently used in cell phones and EKGs — which informs him that Mary in Miami hopes for a surfboard, while Michael from Minneapolis wants a snowboard. A sophisticated signal processing system filters the data, giving Santa clues on who wants what, where children live, and even who's been bad or good. Later, all this information will be processed in an onboard sleigh guidance system, which will provide Santa with the most efficient delivery route.

Silverberg adds that letters to Santa via snail mail still get the job done, however.

Silverberg is not so naive as to think that Santa and his reindeer can travel approximately 200 million square miles — making stops in some 80 million homes — in one night. Instead, he posits that Santa uses his knowledge of the space/time continuum to form what Silverberg calls "relativity clouds."

"Based on his advanced knowledge of the theory of relativity, Santa recognizes that time can be stretched like a rubber band, space can be squeezed like an orange and light can be bent," Silverberg says. "Relativity clouds are controllable domains — rips in time — that allow him months to deliver presents while only a few minutes pass on Earth. The presents are truly delivered in a wink of an eye."

With a detailed route prepared and his list checked twice through the onboard computer on the technologically advanced sleigh, Santa is ready to deliver presents. His reindeer — genetically bred to fly, balance on rooftops and see well in the dark — don't actually pull a sleigh loaded down with toys. Instead, each house becomes Santa's workshop as he utilizes a nano-toymaker to fabricate toys inside the children's homes. The presents are grown on the spot, as the nano-toymaker creates — atom by atom — toys out of snow and soot, much like DNA can command the growth of organic material like tissues and body parts.

And there's really no need for Santa to enter the house via chimney, although Silverberg says he enjoys doing that every so often. Rather, the same relativity cloud that allows Santa to deliver presents in what seems like a wink of an eye is also used to "morph" Santa into people's homes.

Finally, many people wonder how Santa and the reindeer can eat all the food left out for them. Silverberg says they take just a nibble at each house. The remainder is either left in the house or placed in the sleigh's built-in food dehydrator, where it is preserved for future consumption. It takes a long time to deliver all those presents, after all.

"This is our vision of Santa's delivery method, given the human, physical and engineering constraints we face today," Silverberg says. "Children shouldn't put too much credence in the opinions of those who say it's not possible to deliver presents all over the world in one night. It is possible, and it's based on plausible science."

Wild Elephants

Last Saturday a herd of 13 elephants killed two villagers in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The herd also destroyed several homes.

Kidnapped in Mexico

Marc Lacey of the New York Times:

An American security consultant who is an expert on kidnapping and has helped negotiate the release of scores of kidnap victims in Latin America over the years was himself kidnapped last week in northern Mexico after delivering a seminar there on how to avoid that fate, according to officials and published reports.

The Ghost Who Walks

King Features Syndicate:

In the beginning he had been a half-drowned sailor, flung ashore on the terrible, blood-drenched Bengalla coast after pirates burned his ship and slaughtered his mates. The gentle Bandar pygmies, taking him to be a sea god of ancient prophecy, nursed him back to fitness and became his everlasting friends — as the castaway faced his destiny, donned costume and mask and was reborn as the first of the Phantoms, scourge of predators everywhere.

The Phantom — the favorite comic strip of jungle traders.

Fans can rejoice.

Background: "Fantom, Yu Pren Tru Bilong Mi" (Time magazine, 26 Sep 1977).

Angry Ape

In India a chimpanzee injured a two zoo visitors.

Baseball Bat

RIA Novosti: "A man in Moscow has beaten to death his wife's boss and former lover with a baseball bat after he threatened to sack her unless she got back together with him, Russian media said on Monday."

Crossbow

RIA Novosti: "A Moscow businessman is in hospital after being shot with a crossbow in what is believed to have been a failed murder attempt, a police report released on Monday said."

Greater Mekong

WWF: "Over a thousand new species have been discovered in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia in just the last decade, according to a new report launched by WWF."

Obama Soda

"The election of Barack Obama has inspired one French entrepreneur to create a new soft drink," says Eleanor Beardsley of NPR.

Uranium

Lydia Polgreen, New York Times: "A fight over deposits of uranium is unfolding in northern Niger between a band of Tuareg nomads and the army."

News Bulletin for Rumrunners

Lucy Williamson, BBC News: "Indonesia is facing a nationwide alcohol shortage."

Great Depression

Migrant mother, California, 1936

Photographer: Dorothea Lange, American, 1895-1965

American Newspapers

Sylvia Maria Gross at NPR:

The newspaper industry is in crisis. It seems like hardly a week goes by that a major city daily doesn't fire scores of reporters. Amid all the downsizing, there's one particular specialty that's becoming something of an endangered species.

Continue reading "Is The End Near For Editorial Cartoonists?"

Cocaine Trade

From Chris Kraul of the Los Angeles Times: "In Colombia, they call him Captain Nemo."

Business Heritage

Powerhouse mechanic working on a steam pump, 1920
Photographer: Lewis W. Hine, American, 1874–1940

Prisoner

A poltergeist reportedly held a burglar captive for three days at a house in Malaysia.

Sea Pirates

India's navy nabbed 23 pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

Greek Tanker

"Somali pirates have released a Greek chemical tanker they captured in October but three of the ship's 20 crew members are feared dead," reports Press TV in Iran.

Statue of Ramses II

Edward Yeranian at Voice of America:

An archeological team, under the direction of Egypt's well-known antiquities chief Zahi Hawas, has begun uncovering rubble under which the largest known statue of Pharoah Ramses II is buried in the southern Egyptian town of Sohag.

Rower

"An Italian man who was trying to row solo across the Pacific Ocean has had to be rescued just short of his destination in Australia," BBC News says.

Art

Simon Worrall of BBC News:

Bob Wittman has been on the frontlines of the war against art crime since 1989.

In a distinguished career he has recovered stolen art worth millions, in more than a dozen countries.

Background: Art Crime Team

Skepticism

Al Pessin at Voice of America:

The Pentagon says it is looking into how it might act on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution, being circulated by the United States, that would, for the first time, authorize military action against pirate bases inside Somalia. But a senior American admiral is expressing skepticism about the plan.

Previous: Hot Pursuit

Holiday Witch

Michael Giglio at Spiegel Online: "In Babbo Natale, Italy has its own Father Christmas. But it's La Befana, the ugly, broom-flying and present-wielding witch who keeps children on their toes in many parts of the country."

Chief of Station

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Lawrence R. Devlin, who as the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in Congo in 1960 avoided carrying out an order to assassinate the ousted prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, died Dec. 6 at his home in Locust Grove, Va."

Previous: CIA

Vodka Snacks

RIA Novosti: "A 28-year-old man has been detained in southern Ukraine after killing and then cutting up his girlfriend for 'vodka snacks,' media reports said on Friday."

Frontier Conflict

Alexei Barrionuevo of the New York Times: "Brazil’s Supreme Court voted to uphold the creation of an indigenous reserve in the Amazon that is larger than Connecticut but home to only 19,000 Indians."

Amish Farmers

Adam Davidson, NPR: "Americans have been hearing for months now about the devastating problems facing U.S. financial institutions. But in at least one corner of the country, the banking system is doing just fine."

Earthquake Prediction

"Scientists are forecasting that in the next several decades there will be another major earthquake off Sumatra like the one that spawned the tsunami in 2004," Henry Fountain of the New York Times says.

Skull in a Muddy Pit

"Archaeologists have found the remains of what could be Britain's oldest surviving human brain," BBC News reports.

Dense Forest

In northern India a leopard took the life of a 12-year-old girl.

"The girl died when she entered a dense forest to collect firewood," a traveler told me.

Zoo Life

Cornelia Dean of the New York Times: "A new report suggests that living in a zoo drastically shortens the lives of elephants, but the Association of Zoos and Aquariums disagrees with the findings."

Copper Weapons

Diggers unearthed a hoard of 4,500-year-old copper weapons at a beach in northern Greece.

Mountain

Russia's state news agency, RIA Novosti: "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin named on Thursday a mountain peak in the Caucasus in honor of Russian spies."

Hot Pursuit

Subject: Somali Pirates

"The United States began circulating a Security Council resolution on Wednesday that would significantly beef up interdiction efforts by permitting foreign forces to attack pirate bases on land," says Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times.

Fishing Vessels

Pirates captured two Yemeni fishing boats.

Fortune in Diamonds

Jackie Northam at NPR:

Nearly two decades ago, a dogged geologist named Charles Fipke was practically down to his last nickel. He and a fellow prospector, Stewart Blusson, had been crisscrossing the vast frozen hinterland of Canada's Northwest Territories for more than 10 years, looking for one of the world's most precious gems: diamonds.

Read more.

European Eels

"The European eel, categorized as 'critically endangered' by the IUCN and red-listed in WWF’s fish guide, is set for a rough Christmas if Baltic ferry line menus are an accurate guide," WWF says.

Elephant Smugglers

WWF:

Around 250 live Asian elephants have been smuggled from Myanmar in the past decade, mostly destined for “elephant trekking” tourism activities in neighboring Thailand, a new report by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC reveals today.

Meanwhile blatant illegal ivory trade continues in Myanmar, with TRAFFIC surveys of 14 markets and three border markets in Thailand and China finding 9,000 pieces of ivory and 16 whole tusks for sale.

Tidal Waves

BBC News: "More than 400 people have been made homeless by huge tidal waves which hit the northern coastal region of Papua New Guinea, reports say."

Runaway Train

Spiegel Online: "Germany's national railway has admitted that one of its regional trains traveled 40 kilometers through eastern Germany on Monday — without a driver."

Piracy

"The increasing number of pirate attacks on the open seas has shipowners and governments desperately seeking countermeasures to stop the brazen seizures," Mark McDonald of the New York Times says.

Related article from Spiegel Online: "German Cruise Ship Evacuates Passengers."

Poland

Via IOL: "Green campaigners called in police after discovering an illegal logging site in a nature reserve — only to find it was the work of beavers."

Maritime News

Somali pirates released a Greek-owned ship.

Herd of Elephants

A herd of elephants crushed a 65-year-old woman to death in India's state of Uttarakhand.

Music

Mike O'Sullivan at Voice of America:

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller teamed up in 1950 to write music, and went on the compose some of the biggest rock-and-roll hits of the 20th century, including Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog."

Eat 'Em if You Got 'Em

Via IOL: "Australians were urged on Tuesday to eat camels to stop them wreaking environmental havoc, just months after being told to save the world from climate change by consuming kangaroos."

Dead Lemurs

A fire killed 30 lemurs in the United Kingdom.

Monkeys for Lunch

U.S. Customs agents found three charred monkeys in a man's bags.

Great Sphinx of Giza

"A British geologist claims the Egyptian Sphinx could be much older than previously thought and might have originally had a lion's face," reports Press TV in Iran.

Atomic Bomb

New York Times: "Insiders say the atomic bomb was invented once and its secrets spread around the globe."

Willian J. Broad wrote the article.

New Taj Mahal

Mark Dummett of BBC News: "A life-size replica of the Taj Mahal, often described as the world's most beautiful building, is due to open for visitors in Bangladesh."

Poison or Whiskey

"Five aboriginal tribespeople in India's eastern Andamans archipelago have died after mistaking a toxic chemical that washed on to their shore for alcohol," Subir Bhaumik of BBC News says.

Sore Leg

In Hong Kong a giant panda bit the leg of a zookeeper.

Kiss

BBC News: "A young Chinese woman was left partially deaf following a passionate kiss from her boyfriend."

A Night to Remember

Bow of the RMS Titantic at the bottom of the North Atlantic

Image courtesy of NOAA and the Russian Academy of Sciences

Freezing Waters

Two airplane pilots survived 18 hours on a tiny sheet of ice.

Headhunters

RIA Novosti:

A Tajik national was decapitated near Moscow in what is believed to have been a race-hate murder, Russia media reported on Tuesday.

Police are currently searching for those involved in the attack on the two men, who worked at a vegetable warehouse close to the village of Zhabkino in the Moscow Region's Leningrad District.

Investigators say that the two Tajiks, aged 20 and 22, were returning from work through a local grove at around 11.30 p.m. on Friday when unknown assailants attacked them with weapons firing non-lethal ammunition.

One of the men was hit in the temple, but somehow managed to escape from the attackers, who were described as eyewitnesses as being of "Slavic appearance."

The decapitated body of the other man was later discovered in the grove by his brother, who had been informed about the attack by the survivor. The head was not located.

2008 Bribe Payers Index

Transparency International:

Companies based in emerging economic giants, such as China, India and Russia, are perceived to routinely engage in bribery when doing business abroad, according to Transparency International’s 2008 Bribe Payers Index (BPI), released today.

Key findings

Belgium and Canada shared first place in the 2008 BPI with a score of 8.8 out of a very clean 10, indicating that Belgian and Canadian firms are seen as least likely to bribe abroad. The Netherlands and Switzerland shared third place on the index, each with a score of 8.7. At the other end of the spectrum, Russia ranked last with a score of 5.9, just below China (6.5), Mexico (6.6) and India (6.8).

The BPI also shows public works and construction companies to be the most corruption-prone when dealing with the public sector, and most likely to exert undue influence on the policies, decisions and practices of governments.

Sex

Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "While prostitution may be one of the most recession-proof businesses, brothel owners in Europe and the United States are feeling the recession’s pinch."

Lord Howe Island

ABC Online, Australia: "The world's rarest insect has been returned to its native habitat on Lord Howe Island."

Web site: Lord Howe Island (Australia)

Arrests in Romania

Interpol:

Romanian police have arrested one Romanian and two Hungarian nationals who were selling stolen artwork directly from their hotel room in Brasov. Police recovered several paintings and a large number of ancient objects worth several million Euros which had been stolen from a private collection in Vienna, Austria, in September 2008.

Trading Post

Archaeologists discovered an Illyrian trading post.

Puppies

"A toddler lost in the Virginia woods was back home safe Sunday thanks to two puppies who kept him warm through a harrowing night of freezing temperatures," Jane H. Furse writes in the New York Daily News.

Jealous Behavior

Nell Greenfieldboyce at NPR: "Dogs have an intuitive understanding of fair play and become resentful if they feel that another dog is getting a better deal, a new study has found."

Ho Chi Minh City

Via IOL: "Vietnamese police have arrested seven people in a raid on a brothel with up to 90 prostitutes who said they had been beaten and sometimes locked in dog cages, media reports said on Monday."

Brandenburg Gate

"Berliners are worried about their Brandenburg Gate after a four-meter high crack appeared in its north wing," Spiegel Online reports.

Time

Via IOL: "A Dutch court says two men are guilty of grave robbery and should each serve 18 months in prison for stealing a gold watch and chain from a man's corpse."

Tribe in Brazil

Alexei Barrionuevo of the New York Times reports from Tabatinga in Brazil:

The Tikuna Indians living near this Amazon outpost long believed that their community was a portal to the supernatural, to immortals who would guard them and secure their existence.

But lately they are finding that location may instead be a curse.

British Monarchy

"Further evidence has emerged that King Edward VIII was seeing a mystic during the abdication crisis, prompting the Archbishop of Canterbury to intervene," the BBC says.

Isabella

Student Handbook of Northwestern State University:

Northwestern State University of Louisiana stands on ground that has been dedicated to learning for well over a hundred years. Prior to the American Civil War, a portion of the present campus was the property of the Bullard family of Natchitoches. As early as 1856, the Bullard mansion was in use as a convent by the Religious Society of the Sacred Heart. The following year a school building was erected at the convent and in 1884 the town and parish of Natchitoches purchased the property. Three of the four great white columns that once supported the east gable of the mansion still stand on “The Hill” and serve as the unofficial symbols of the university.

The handbook relates the legend of Isabella:

Isabella was a young French maiden, renowned for her beauty, who once lived in the original Bullard mansion after the Bullards were gone. The young lady had many suitors but preferred the company of a young man from the East, sent to Louisiana on business. They fell in love and were to be married. Shortly before the wedding date arrived, the young man was killed in a duel. Legend has it that the duel concerned a dispute over another woman.

Isabella, overcome by grief, became a nun, and the French maiden’s beauty wasted away through constant mourning of her intended. Everyone believed she had gone mad from grief and mourning. One stormy night she ended her mourning by plunging a dagger into her heart. Soon after, she was found dead in her room, with a bloody handprint on the wall.

Her spirit roamed Bullard mansion until it was torn down. Since then she has roamed various buildings on campus. She lived in East Hall until it was torn down in 1926. This was evidenced by the eyewitness accounts of girls who lived in East Hall. From East Hall, Isabella’s spirit moved to the Music Hall and resided there until 1946; then this building was also torn down. Just before the Music Hall was dismantled, a group of young men, dressed in sheets, coaxed Isabella from the doomed building.

From there she wandered aimlessly around campus from building to building (including East Varnado) for almost three years, until, becoming weary, she chose Caldwell Hall as her next residence. Speculation has it that Caldwell was chosen because of its close proximity to the original Bullard dwelling. According to newspaper articles, the official date of the move was January 15, 1949. Reportedly a letter from the ghost was found on the steps of Caldwell along with a few drops of blood.

Isabella’s present residence is the Old Women’s Gym ... located on College Avenue beside Varnado Hall. When Caldwell Hall burned in October 1982, a group of 750 students gathered and performed a ceremony on Halloween night that aided Isabella in her transition to her present location.

Speed

A ship escaped an attack by pirates near Tanzania.

Taiwan

In Taiwan some shamans are changing with the times.

Spy Stories

From truTV's Crime Library:

Mata Hari

"The true story of the young woman who sought adventure, seduced Europe with her exotic dancing and became one of the most famous spies."

Reilly, Ace of Spies

"The amazing true story of the man who was the prototype of Ian Fleming's James Bond character."

Sunny von Bülow

Enid Nemy of the New York Times:

Martha (Sunny) von Bülow, the American heiress who was first married to an Austrian playboy prince and then to a Danish-born man-about-society who was twice tried on charges of attempting to murder her, died Saturday at a nursing home in Manhattan.

If You Can't Be Good

BBC News:

Dutch authorities have revealed details of their plans to clean up Amsterdam's famous red light district.

They say they will close half the city's brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in a bid to drive organized crime from the city center.

Slavery

Press TV in Iran: "There are currently more slaves in the world than at any point in the history of mankind, says investigative journalist Benjamin Skinner."

Business Heritage

The Crime Library at truTV has a feature story about the murder of Stanford White in New York on June 25, 1906:

Great beauty, enormous wealth and murder. He was the architect for the homes of the super rich, but his scandalous seduction of the beautiful actress at age 16 came back to haunt him when her millionaire husband took revenge.

Black Pete

Daryl Lindsey at Speigel Online: "Few European Christmas traditions elicit as many diverse and divergent opinions as Black Pete of the Netherlands."

Hard Times

"Shipping benefits from globalization more than almost any other sector," notes Thomas Schulz of Der Spiegel. "But this has also made it more vulnerable to the global economic crisis."

Jewels

On Thursday armed bandits stole an estimated USD 101 million worth of jewels from the Harry Winston store in Paris.

Web site: Harry Winston

Danish Warship

A Danish warship rescued a group of suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

Witch Camps

Naomi Seck at Voice of America:

In many parts of Africa, traditional beliefs include the existence both of powers to heal and powers to do harm. In northern Ghana, some women, accused of hurting others through witchcraft, are exiled and come to live together in so-called witches camps.

Rock Painting

BBC News: "An ancient cave painting from northern Australia depicts a previously unknown species of large bat, researchers say."

Fat and Furious

In South Africa a hippopotamus killed a 43-year-old man.

Somali Fishermen

Horand Knaup at Spiegel Online:

Firing shots at a luxury cruise ship, taking a supertanker hostage: the papers are full of Somalia's audacious pirates. But the local fishermen grab fewer headlines — and have a stricken existence.

Breath Tests

"Politicians in Australia's most populous state could be breath-tested for alcohol before voting on laws after a series of late-night incidents that have embarrassed the center-left government," a Reuters report at IOL says.

Witch Killer

BBC News:

Police in southeast Nigeria have arrested a man who claimed to have killed 110 child "witches."

"Bishop" Sunday Ulup-Aya told a documentary film team he "delivered" children from demonic possession.

But after his arrest, he reportedly told the police he had only killed the "witches" inside, not the children.

Run, Sheep, Run

From the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti:

NATO aircraft killed a flock of sheep in the Afghan province of Laghman, in a botched attack on Taliban gunmen, according to sources in the governor's office.

Provincial police say the incident occurred on Wednesday night near the town of Mehtar Lam. Shots fired from NATO helicopters killed over 200 sheep belonging to local shepherds.

The sources told reporters that NATO troops claim they were targeting Taliban warriors.

Navajo

Navajo man wearing a ceremonial mask, circa 1904

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Photographer: Edward S. Curtis, American, 1868-1952

Lake Wanderer

A researcher at England's University of Portsmouth identified a new species of pterosaur.

African Ivory

U.S. federal agents arrested six people on charges of conspiring to smuggle elephant ivory into the United States.

Amputation

BBC: "A British doctor volunteering in DR Congo used text message instructions from a colleague to perform a life-saving amputation on a boy."

Yemeni Ship

Pirates released a Yemeni cargo vessel.

Crab

RIA Novosti:

Nearly 400 tons of crab worth $36 million which was seized from poachers will have to be destroyed in Russia's Far East, a law enforcement source said on Wednesday.

On August 1, 2007, amendments to Russian fishery laws, designed to prevent corruption and confiscated catches being sold on the black market, came into force. Under the law, all seafood and crab that have been caught by poachers must be destroyed.

Night Stalker

Last night a leopard mauled four people at a village in India's state of Uttar Pradesh.

Closing the Deal

How do you close a deal with Somali pirates to secure the release of a ship?

"From what can be gleaned — how the negotiations run their course and how the ransoms are paid — what goes on would be worthy of a Hollywood action movie script," says Robyn Hunter of BBC News.

Extension

"The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution allowing member states to continue fighting pirates off the coast of Somalia for another year," Voice of America reports.

NATO

A warship prevented more than a dozen pirate boats from hijacking five merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden.

Krampus

Spiegel Online:

In Austria, Santa keeps track of who's been naughty and nice — and unleases a 7-foot-tall horned devil on the naughty. He's called the Krampus, and he's unlike any Christmas tradition you've ever seen.

Gold Seekers

From RIA Novosti: "Russia's National Geological Prospecting Company announced on Tuesday the discovery of a large gold deposit in the Republic of Buryatia in East Siberia."

H. Rider Haggard

Read online: King Solomon's Mines and other books by Sir Henry Rider Haggard.

Lampposts

RIA Novosti: "Police in northern Egypt are on the lookout for 400 steel lampposts worth just over $900,000 dollars that were stolen from a busy highway, national media reported on Tuesday."

Stone Age

BBC: "Rare artifacts from the late Stone Age have been uncovered in Russia."

Fish

Survival International:

A man from the remote Jarawa tribe on the Andaman Islands in India is missing and presumed dead following a conflict with a group of poachers who were fishing illegally on their land. Police have arrested the poachers.

The Jarawa man, called Hotelle and thought to be about 18 years old, was severely beaten in the conflict on 19 November. He was last seen struggling to keep afloat whilst the poachers continued to attack him. One of the fishermen was also killed by members of the tribe.

The poachers were camping near one of the Jarawa’s huts. When the Jarawa demanded some of the fish that had been caught in their reserve, the fishermen threw boiling water at them and beat them with sticks. The Jarawa killed one of the fishermen with their arrows, and the fishermen attacked a Jarawa man by beating him when he jumped into a river in an attempt to escape.

The invasion of their land by poachers poses a serious threat to the Jarawa, who number 320 and have only had friendly contact with the outside world since 1998. Poachers risk bringing in diseases to which the Jarawa hav