Snopes, which does a wonderful job countering modern multimedia credulity by debunking urban myths, thinks the one about being raped or robbed after a traffic stop by an unmarked car in an isolated area is credible enough that you should not pull over until you are in a lighted populated area. You should also call 911 and have them verify that their patrol cars are in the area.

In 1996 Governor Pataki issued an executive order to prevent unmarked New York state police cars from stopping motorists for routine traffic violations, citing “a growing number of cases around the country in which criminals trap their victims by posing as police officers.” If he’s worried about it, you should be too.

[via Rebecca Blood]

“Many patients whose hearts have stopped beating claim to have hovered above their bodies and looked down on themselves as others worked to resuscitate them. Mainstream scientists believe these visions are a fabrication of the mind. Dr Peter Fenwick, from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, plans to test this view at 25 hospitals across the UK.

He wants to place suspended pictures from the ceilings of accident and emergency units that only someone high up in the room will be able to see. Patients that survive cardiac arrest will be interviewed to see if they have had an out-of-body experience and whether they saw the pictures.” BBC Fenwick is a neuropsychiatrist in London with a background in epilepsy research and treatment and an abiding interest in anomalous experiences like the NDE (near-death experience). The alterations in consciousness and subjective experience during certain epileptic states have, in my opinion, much to do with anomalous experience, although most epilepsy specialists stay away from “flaky” topics scrupulously. Another psychiatrist who considers the anomalous is VM Neppe of the Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute, to which my very first weblog entry in November 1999 pointed.

A Spell to free oneself from Excessive Computer Enchantment:

Many good folk have found themselves ensnared in a growing web of computer generated artifice and glamoury. While computers are sometimes a useful tool, one must take care to have a healthy relationship with them. If you have found that they seem to be draining your time and energy away, or slowly invading your soul, then this spell is for you. If you are seeing pixels, icons, and dialog boxes in your dreams, it may already be too late, but give this spell a try anyway.

“Archaeologists and scholars say a scroll unearthed in present-day Palestine is a long lost chapter of the ancient book of Proverbs. The so-called ‘thirty-second chapter’ reveals that the industrious woman portrayed in Proverbs 31 was a myth, albeit a cruel one.

‘This is a day of liberation,’ said Jennifer Scorgan, the speaker at a women’s retreat in Ohio, when news about the discovery filtered in. The meeting was interrupted to make the announcement, and women burst into tears, then stood on their chairs and cheered.” Lark News [via walker]

NY Times editorial:

“…Other wrong turns, however, were chosen because of a fundamental flaw in the character of this White House. Despite his tough talk, Mr. Bush seems incapable of choosing a genuinely tough path, of risking his political popularity with the same aggression that he risks the country’s economic stability and international credibility. For all the trauma the United States has gone through during his administration, Mr. Bush has never asked the American people to respond to new challenges by making genuine sacrifices.

(…)

Mr. Bush is a man who was reared in privilege, who succeeded in both business and politics because of his family connections. The question during the presidential campaign was whether he was anything more than just a very lucky guy. There were times in the past three years when he has been much more than that, and he may no longer be a man who expects to find an easy way out of difficulties. But now, at the moment when we need strong leadership most, he is still a politician who is incapable of asking the people to make hard choices. And we are paying the price.”