Sunday, 7-2-06: Report after report of atrocities by American soldiers have been coming out of Iraq. There've been four more reports just this month. The latest is that a squad of 5 soldiers spent nearly a week studying a family and plotting. Then they raped an Iraqi woman and murdered her and her family to cover it up. If convicted, the soldiers could receive the death sentence. Wednesday, 7-5-06: If water behaved like a typical liquid, it would be a gas at room temperature, and it would shrink when it freezes. Instead, it's a liquid, and ice floats. Scientists have found out that it's because water molecules arrange in a network of pyramids rather than chains or rings. (There's an animated tour of water at www.sacredbalance.com/web/drilldown.html?sku=111.) Researchers have found a strong connection between being obese and being depressed. Depression and anxiety are 25% more comon in the obese. They're also 25% less likely to use drugs and alcohol. The myth of a fat jolly person is a myth.... Beta Pictoris is a star that was first observed in the 1980s, and it has a bright disk of dust around it. It's 20 million years old, a young star, and planets are forming. With better telescopes it's been discovered that the disk is warped. The warpage comes from there actually being two disks, and the outer one is tipped five degrees with respect to the inner. Ever have one of those mornings? In local news, 2 guys tried to steal an ATM, and they would have made it, only their front-loader got stuck. They ripped the ATM out of the wall by attaching straps to it, but then they shoved it around like a hockey puck trying to get it into the bucket of the tractor, and they only succeeded in shoving it through the front door of the Clackamus Community Federal Credit Union. In the end, they also wedged their front-loader in the front door and had to leave it behind. But they cleverly set it on fire to cover their tracks. Actually, all they did was melt the steering wheel. Then they stole a Mack dump truck and took off in it. In the afternoon they set it on fire and abandones it too. "What a bunch of knuckleheads," the Milwaukie Police spokesman said. One the other hand, they haven't been caught.... Thursday, 7-6-06: In 2003 CIA agents abducted a Muslim man from the streets of Milan. The man they abducted was taken to Egypt and is still there being tortured. Now 2 Italian high-level intelligence officials have been arrested, and 4 Americans are sought, including the CIA's former Rome station chief. 22 other CIA agents are being sought on previous arrest warrants. So far, Italy's Justice Minister has refused to forward the requests to Washington. In local news, 2 robbers forced their way into a home. They were caught, and it turns out one of them was a guy who used to work for the owner, and fell off a roof. He felt the owner didn't follow through on a deal to put him up in a motel till he got well. The owner says he always treated him fairly. The robber got 17 years in prison. In more local news, an Oregon tourist in New Orleans was walking in the French Quarter when a robber stuck a gun in his ribs. Cicero Smith pushed his fiance out of the way and attacked the robber with his fists. The robber shot at him five times, and hit him 3 times, once in the shoulder and twice in the legs. The robber ran off, and Cicero's fiance tore up his shirt to make tourniquets for his legs. The robber was arrested minutes later. "I'm a little shook up," the fiance said. "She survived without a scratch," Cicero said. "That's all that matters." Friday, 7-7-06: An 86-year-old Portland woman is suing her neighbor for $1.4 million after his 2 dogs allegedly killed her cat. He found the dead cat in her yard and disposed of it without telling her what had happened. When confronted by the woman's family members, he admitted it. The woman wants $500,000 for emotional distress and negligence, and $100,000 each for trespassing, taking of property, nuisance and false imprisonment. The last is because he lets his dogs roam free, and she feels imprisoned in her house. By the way, she has a new cat. But she doesn't let it go outside. In local more news, police are looking for a man who stole a security camera from the Beaverton Library. He shouldn't be too hard to find, as the camera took his picture before he stole it. Saturday, 7-8-06: In local news, the physical plant director at Western States Chiropractic College, a guy named Tim Hughes, came home Thursday evening and discovered a burglar going through his mother's vanity. "I knew if I could get ahold of him, he was mine," Tim said. Tim grabbed the man's hair and dragged him fighting down the hall. "I kicked him in the balls. I swear to God, I never had such clarity." The man bit him on the leg, and they fought some more. Tim, who weighs 320 pounds, got the man pinned, and called 9-1-1. His mother is now boasting how her "baby boy whooped the hell out of a criminal." Tim says, "This is the wrong house to come to."