Magic Statistics

I should have posted this on St Valentine's Day, but better late than never.

Science discerns the power of love.

As if inspiring countless songs and poems and an international holiday weren't enough, love now is being credited with a truly amazing power: the ability to resist temptation.

In an experiment with college students in long-term relationships, researchers at UCLA and the online dating service eHarmony found that asking coeds to reflect on the love they felt for their boyfriends or girlfriends blunted the appeal of especially attractive members of the opposite sex.

"Feeling love for your romantic partner appears to make everybody else less attractive, and the emotion appears to work in very specific ways by in enabling you to push thoughts of that tempting other out of your mind," said Gian Gonzaga, an eHarmony research scientist and lead author of the study, which appears in the current issue of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

"It's almost like love puts blinders on people," said co-author Martie Haselton, an associate professor of psychology and communication studies at UCLA.

This calls for a love song (needless to say, one that rocks). 

Another fine love song is posted here.

Back in September 2005, RCMP seized over 4000 marijuana plants in six houses in Whitehorse.  Eight men were arrested and charged with marijuana cultivation, possession for purposes of trafficking, and theft of thousands of dollars' worth of electricity.

Four men were convicted at trial in November 2006, but the other four were acquitted after the court excluded evidence that RCMP had supposedly collected improperly.

The Crown appealed the acquittals, but has now been forced to abandon the appeals because authorities cannot locate the four suspects to serve them notice of appeal.

[T]he Crown filed a notice of appeal of [judge Karen] Ruddy’s decision in May [2007].

Before the appeal could proceed, the defendants had to be served notice.

But the RCMP could not find the four men.

They were no longer in Whitehorse and had left no forwarding addresses.

“After they were acquitted, they were no longer subject to the court processes that required them to remain in touch with the court, their bail supervisor and so forth,” said [Crown counsel Noel] Sinclair.

They disappeared.

Of a total of 20 charges originally filed, ten were thrown out.  Three of the accused pled guilty to marijuana production and spent a year in jail.  One man wants to plead guilty in Vancouver where he lives; his case is still before the courts.

The names of the eight arrestees are: Wei Xiong Wen, Zhu Dong Liang, Kiu Tin Yeung, Wei Min Zhai, Guang Xian Zhu, Jian Xiong Zhou, Kwok Yiu Cheung and Min Shan Jian.  The press reports at hand do not specify which four pled guilty and which four were acquitted and disappeared.

Previous related posts:

• Yukoners biggest pot-smokers in Canada
• Miniscule bail set for marijuana growers

Sharia alert in Bauchi state, Nigeria, where Islamic law has been in force since 2000.

Six people convicted by Islamic sharia courts in a northern Nigerian state are awaiting death by stoning, while 46 others are waiting for amputation, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported on Friday.

The men on death row in Bauchi state include a 52-year-old sentenced in 2004 for getting his teenage step-daughter pregnant and another who was sentenced in 2002 for having sex 13 times with his friend's wife, the agency said.

The report did not say how many people were facing such penalties in 11 other northern Nigerian states that have criminal courts using sharia law. Such data is not collated centrally.

The sentences must be ratified by the state government before they can be carried out.  The Reuters story does not indicate how long that might take.

Only last week, reporting on the impact of Sharia law in Nigeria, the BBC said, “[T]he harshest Sharia penalty - death by stoning - has never been carried out.”  Perhaps BBC spoke too soon.

In other news from Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, Kano state has forbidden film-making after a sex video recorded by cellphone camera was circulated.  This effectively shuts down the state’s movie industry, potentially throwing thousands out of work.

Finally, Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi, Governor of Zamfara state boasts that Sharia is so fully integrated into his state that it can never be eradicated or curtailed.  He also claims that Sharia has become effective far beyond the 12 states that have formally adopted it.

"When you go to places like Enugu State [in southern Nigeria] and see those female Fulani that go about half nude before the introduction of Shariah, they now dress in veils (Hijab). The essence of the Shariah as we have been saying always is not to punish but to educate and correct the people.

Nevertheless, those who will not be “educated” and “corrected” will be punished.

The Fulani are a diverse ethnic group spread across West Africa who have been Muslim for many centuries.  Gov Shinfaki implies that Fulani women were not “good” Muslims, but had to adopt the customary dress of his brand of Islam in order to be “correct”.

h/t for Reuters link: Dhimmi Watch

Previous related posts:

• Muslims riot after Christian woman rejects Muslim suitor
• Muslims rampage against Christians in northern Nigeria
• Nigerian state requires all students to wear Muslim dress
• Nigerian Taliban
• Nigerian Christian children kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam

Saudi Arabia’s religious police, the Muttawa, continue to subject women to discrimination, harassment, and abuse, according to reports received by Yakin Erturk, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, during her recent visit to the Wahhabist kingdom. 

Erturk said that while some Saudi women she met during her visit at the government’s invitation expressed satisfaction with their lives, ‘others have raised concerns of serious levels of discriminatory practices against women that compromise their rights and dignity as full human beings.’

Others related ‘the domestic abuse they systematically encounter with little prospect of redress.’

Ms Ertuk also discovered that there is no definite timeframe for removing the legal prohibition on women driving.

h/t: International Christian Concern

Previous related posts:

• Saudi Arabia’s muttaweenies strike again
• Muttaweenies are on the job
• Women forced to leave seminar on Islamic medical ethics

Here’s a vintage oldie: Bob Dylan sings “Living the Blues” live on the Johnny Cash Show in 1969.

Since you've been gone,
I've been walking around
With my head bowed down to my shoes.
I've been living the blues
Ev'ry night without you.

I don't have to go far
To know where you are,
Strangers all give me the news.
I've been living the blues
Ev'ry night without you.

I think that it's best,
I soon get some rest
And forget my pride.
But I can't deny
This feeling that I
Carry for you deep down inside.

If you see me this way,
You'd come back and you'd stay,
Oh, how could you refuse.
I've been living the blues
Ev'ry night without you.

h/t: Expecting Rain