I had sex with my brother but I don't feel guilty. An interesting article in The Times written by a woman who'd had a sexual relationship with her brother that started during their teenage years and continued through to their twenties. Many societies have an incest taboo, but anthropologists have differing views as to how the taboo arose. Claude Lévi-Strauss believed it to have arisen as a method to encourage the practice of marriage outside of one's immediate social group, so that unrelated households or lineages would form relationships through marriage, thus strengthening social solidarity.
posted to MetaFilter by electricinca at 5:43 AM on July 15, 2008 (135 comments)

The Sunday Times have published the 2008 edition of their annual Rich List. The full list of the 1000 wealthiest people in Britain is not online yet but they have published a list of the top 150 (pdf). So now you're richer than Croesus what do you spend your wealth on?
posted to MetaFilter by electricinca at 9:48 AM on April 27, 2008 (28 comments)

Jemima Packington a Worcester fortune-teller claims she can tell people's futures by using asparagus. Ms Packington, who calls herself Britain's only "asparamancer", showed off her technique at the British Trade and Travel Fair at Birmingham's NEC. Actor Tony Robinson, Baldrick in the comedy series Blackadder, also happened to be there and had his asparagus read by her.
posted to MetaFilter by electricinca at 8:09 AM on April 10, 2008 (22 comments)

British internet users face ban for illegal downloads. A draft copy of a Green Paper produced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport was leaked to The Times newspaper which detailed how the government was considering introducing legislation that would require ISPs to take action against users who access pirated material.
posted to MetaFilter by electricinca at 11:03 AM on February 12, 2008 (37 comments)

Ben Stein, actor, game show host, economist and White House speechwriter has embarked upon a heroic and, at times, shocking journey in the new documentary Expelled to confront the world’s top scientists, educators and philosophers, regarding their 'persecution' of the academics who support the non-science that is Intelligent Design. Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers amongst others claim they were duped into appearing in the film believing it to be a film that was to be titled Crossroads (no not that Crossroads, nor this one) that would be a debate about creationism versus Darwinism. No wonder Ferris took a day off from school with this guy as his teacher (NSFW).
posted to MetaFilter by electricinca at 5:58 AM on September 28, 2007 (155 comments)

Iridology may be bogus science, but it appears that the eyes really could windows to the soul as Swedish researchers reveal it may be possible to read a person's personality from their irises.
posted to MetaFilter by electricinca at 5:56 AM on February 19, 2007 (14 comments)