Curious News You May Have Missed

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Homo Sapiens or Neanderthals? In any event, the date of compassionate human society has just been pushed back into the last major ice age:

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of two newborns dating back 27,000 years while excavating a hillside in northern Austria. The children were not simply disposed of after their deaths, careful burial suggests "they were members of society."

The find made last week near the Danube River city of Krems is important because the newborns were buried beneath mammoth bones with a string of 31 beads - suggesting ritual internment. In recent years, archaeological finds have borne out a compassionate nature of neanderthals that previously had been thought unique to "humans" (homo sapien sapiens).

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YOKOSUKA, Kanagawa Prefecture (IHT/Asahi: September 27,2005) -- A 22-year-old Maritime Self-Defense Force leading seaman on the attack submarine Uzushio sold marijuana to civilians over the Internet, police sources said over the weekend. He is one of six MSDF members of 2 submarine crews arrested on suspicion of possessing and trafficking illegal drugs, such as marijuana or Ecstasy, the sources said. Police speculate that Sakaguchi made several tens of thousands of yen through his drug deals, according to the sources.

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The only way this story could be more bizarre is for the next chapter to claim a navy dolphin demolished the levees in New Orleans: Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina (Guardian Unlimited, Sunday) Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns.

Today, Sept. 27th: MSNBC: the Pentagon issued a statement saying all of its dolphins have been accounted for and its dolphins aren't trained to attack, just to look for "objects" with their diver companions. Plus, the Navy has no dolphin units in Louisiana, only in San Diego. MOBY SOLANGI, PRESIDENT, MARINE LIFE OCEANARIUM confirmed: "...no, the Navy has absolutely no involvement in the rescue of these animals, other than providing us with temporary pools. "