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Science Daily: An ancient curse aimed at a thief is one of a number of treasures to be unveiled to the public for the first time, following the largest archaeological excavation the city of Leicester has ever seen.

Over the past three years, a team of up to 60 archaeologists from University of Leicester Archaeological Services has been working on a number of sites in the city. Almost 9% of Leicester’s historic core has been subject to investigation in some form, giving new insights into the appearance and development of the Roman and medieval towns.

One of the most interesting finds from a site on Vine Street was a ‘curse’ tablet — a sheet of lead inscribed in the second or third century AD and intended to invoke the assistance of a chosen god. It has been translated by a specialist at Oxford University, and reads:

‘To the god Maglus, I give the wrongdoer who stole the cloak of Servandus. Silvester, Riomandus (etc.) … that he destroy him before the ninth day, the person who stole the cloak of Servandus…’ Then follows a list of the names of 18 or 19 suspects. What happened to them is not recorded.

Check out the video here

This video apparently shows the exact moment that Kevin Federline gets the SMS from Britney telling them that it’s over. According to the video, cameras were following him around the entire day in order to conduct an interview, part of which was him gushing about his wife and kids.

At about 1:46, you can see as K-Fed’s soul gets crushed as Brit-Brit drops the text-bomb on him via Sidekick—that is a Sidekick, right? Being divorced over the phone, wow. The Federlines truly are were America’s royalty.

This afternoon, the United Nations rejected a call by “Jedi Knights” in England for recognition of the Jedi faith as an official world religion, RAW STORY has found.

A story today in the English tabloid The Sun reported an appeal to departing Secretary-General Kofi Annan by the Jedi worshippers for official recognition of their religion. The Sun reported that 390,000 people listed “Jedi” as their faith on the 2001 UK Census. The Sun added that the Jedi believers wanted today’s UN International Day of Tolerance changed to an “Interstellar Day of Tolerance.”

But today in New York, the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations said that Mr. Annan would not make any such move. “The UN is not in the business of certifying religions,” said Mr. Annan’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

“With or without light sabres,” he added.

When pressed for further clarification, Mr. Dujarric added “If I could be transported to another planet right now, I would.”

Link to full story with video

I saw the coming attractions on TV last night… this is definitely getting added to my tivo:

TV network Fox plans to broadcast an interview with OJ Simpson in which the former football star discusses “how he would have committed” the killings of his ex-wife and her friend.

Simpson was acquitted of murder in a widely-watched trial.

The two-part interview, OJ Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened, will air on November 27 and 29, the TV network said.

Simpson has agreed to an “unrestricted” interview with book publisher Judith Regan, Fox said.

“OJ Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes,” the network said in a statement.

“In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade.”

Source

Source: AP

OIL CITY, Pa. - Letter carriers occasionally have to deal with angry dogs or maybe even a spider’s nest in a mailbox, but a mean squirrel? Barb Dougherty, a 30-year Postal Service employee, said she was attacked and bitten Monday by a squirrel while delivering mail in Oil City, about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh.

“It was a freak thing. It was traumatic,” Dougherty told The Derrick in Oil City. “I saw it there on the porch, put the mail in the box and turned to walk away and it jumped on me.”

The animal ran up her leg and onto her back, she said.

“I eventually got a hold of the tail and pulled it off me,” Dougherty said. “No one was home at the house where I was delivering the mail, but the neighbor lady heard me screaming and came over.”

Read the rest here

KishKish, makers of SAM (Simple Answering Machine) for Skype, have now added a lie detector feature to the mix, claiming to detect stress in the voice of your Skype caller, alerting you to any bending of the truth.

It’s your $49.95 a year, but we’re thinking it’ll be another decade or two before voice stress analysis can absolutely detect if someone is lying to you. This thing could cause more problems than it solves. There’s good reason why this technology is not admissible in court. The video on the company’s website is quite entertaining, though, catching old Slick Willie in a lie about Monica Lewinsky.

Product Page

Source: Manworkdesign

The Saint B is an MP3 player concept out of Russia. The unit hangs around your neck where OLED beauty glistens through a flexible black plastic cover. The player charges/syncs via USB. But what we like most about the Saint B is the sinful bang for your buck:

Sin 1: Bastardization/misuse of the cross
Sin 2: Cross is jet black (the color of sin, along with red and hot pink)
Sin 3: The Mariah Carey album you still listen to on it

Plus, the Saint B is completely protected from those pesky vampire muggers who like the iPod so much.

(CNN) — If presidential elections were held today, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would likely have a comfortable edge over Sen. John McCain, but take away her maiden name and McCain has a better shot of landing in the Oval Office.

So say the results of a CNN poll released Friday by Opinion Research Corp., which asked 506 adult Americans whom they preferred among potential 2008 presidential candidates. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 4.5 percent.

Asked if they preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton to McCain, respondents gave the Democratic New York senator and former first lady a 51 percent to 44 percent advantage over the Republican Senator from Arizona. Remove “Rodham” and McCain had a 1 percentage point advantage, 48 percent to 47 percent.

The results fall within the sample’s margin of error, so there is a “good chance, but not a statistical certainty” that Clinton’s maiden name would help her in a matchup against McCain, said Keating Holland, CNN’s polling director.

The results are consistent with earlier testing that indicated Clinton’s favorability rose when her maiden name was included in the question, Holland said.

However, using “Rodham” seems to cut into Clinton’s edge if her opponent is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Though Clinton has an advantage over Giuliani with or without her maiden name, using “Rodham” closes the gap. Asked if they prefer Hillary Clinton or Giuliani, Clinton has a 4 percentage point advantage, 50 percent to 46 percent.

Add “Rodham” to the equation and the former first lady’s advantage over the Republican former mayor drops to 1 percentage point, 48 percent to 47 percent.

Holland notes that the results are moot for two reasons: The election is still 2 years off and no poll will accurately predict a race that far in advance; and Clinton has always appeared on the ballot using her middle name, and there is no sign that she intends to abandon it in future elections.

I found this company uBreakup,that allows users to avoid the “is it because I’m a half-man overweight circus runaway” awkwardness of most breakup calls. You record your free message and schedule the smackdown for whenever you like. Now all the service needs is the uDrunkDialThemBackHorny service. That’d be a real winner.

This looks crazy, but I had to post it. This is a real boxing match, not a joke, or scam. When I heard there was a big guy from Russia boxing I thought, 6′5″ 275lbs. This guy is 7′ and weighs over 325lbs. Thats nuts, and he’s fighting a much, much smaller guy. Makes me think of Bob Sapp of K1 and Pride fame.

I know this isn’t nerdy, or urban, but I had to post it. Sorry.