Blog Heap of Links for the day 16 December 2015

Islamic State terrorists in Syria received all necessary materials to produce deadly sarin gas via Turkey, Turkish MP Eren Erdem has told RT, insisting there are grounds to believe a cover up has taken place.… “There is data in this indictment. Chemical weapon materials are being brought to Turkey and being put together in Syria in camps of ISIS which was known as Iraqi Al Qaeda during that time…"

Greenville, Virginia’s Riverheads High School… Classroom teacher, Cheri Laporte, asked students to practice “calligraphy” by copying the Muslim statement of faith, also known as the shahada, which translates as: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Recitation of the shahada is a fundamental step in conversion to Islam. … students were not informed of the translation or of the specific meaning… female students were invited to don Muslim apparel and subsequently were photographed in costume by the teacher.… Teacher Laporte was aware of the translation of the text assigned and was unapologetic… previously had circulated a Koran in the classroom, but had intentionally declined to make a Bible available…

…North Korea’s highest court has sentenced a South Korea-born Canadian pastor to hard labour for life for subversion… Hyeon Soo Lim, the head pastor at a Toronto church that is one of Canada’s largest court said Lim had attempted to overthrow the North Korean government and undermine its social system with “religious activities” for the past 18 years…

…A diet based on vegetables and fruit may be more beneficial to the human body, but professor Paul Fischbeck said: "Lots of common vegetables require more resources per calorie than you would think. Eggplant, celery and cucumbers look particularly bad when compared to pork or chicken.

"Eating lettuce is over three times worse in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon."…

…Dogs became self-domesticated as they slowly evolved from wolves who joined humans in the hunt, according to the first study of dog genomes.

And it shows that the first domesticated dogs came about 33,000 years ago … in southern East Asia… and migrated to Europe, rather than descending from domesticated European wolves 10,000 years ago as had previously been thought. … several basic aspects about the origin and evolution of the domestic dog are still in dispute including several different geographical regions as the proposed birthplace of domestic dogs, and estimations of the date of divergence between wolves and dogs…

A London court has cleared a rich Saudi Arabian immigrant of raping an 18-year-old girl as she slept. He argued that he accidentally tripped and penetrated her with his erect penis, which just happened to be protruding from his underwear…

…Like the Ents from JRR Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings saga (only a bit slower), these trees actually move across the forest as the growth of new roots gradually relocates them, sometimes two or three centimetres per day.…

…an officer responding to a Tulsa shooting scene hit a deer with his SUV.… officer swerved to miss the eight-point buck but still struck it. The collision killed the deer. … officer was not injured…

It worked against Bush, it worked against Sarah Palin but it ain’t working against Donald Trump. And the establishment, including the media appears to be having a nervous breakdown.

For six months now— everything they hit Trump with…just makes him stronger.…

The two largest school districts in the USA, one in Los Angeles and one in New York City, received bomb threats today. NYC authorities did not consider the threat credible, and schools remained open. Los Angeles, however, decided to close all 900+ schools in the LAUSD. The threat was later determined to be a hoax.

In other news, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National in France, was acquitted on a charge of inciting hatred by saying that Muslims praying in the streets reminded her of Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama said that the only way to achieve peace is to establish a dialogue with the Islamic State.…

…On this day in 1773 the Boston Tea Party occurred. Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.…