Morality is the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike.

Oscar Wilde

News

Report: Great Barrier Reef Has Lost Half its Coral in Three Decades

A new study has found that Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living organism, has lost more than half its coral in the past three decades.

Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science say damage from cyclones and a population explosion of predatory “crown of thorns” starfish are mostly to blame for devastating the World Heritage Site. To a lesser extent, coral bleaching resulting from ocean warming was blamed.

Jamie Oliver, an AIMS scientist who helped write the report, says reducing the population of starfish that feed on the coral is the best way to prevent a further destruction to the reef.

Opposition: No Syrian is willing to talk with the 'killers' in the government

A Syrian opposition spokesman lambasted the government's call for dialogue Tuesday, marking yet another stalemate in the country's 19-month deadly conflict.

"No Syrian is willing to sit down with any of these killers in the Syrian government who have been responsible for every single drop of blood that have been shed in Syria," Syrian National Council spokesman George Sabra told CNN from Paris.

"From day one, the regime played the same tune, call(ing) for political solution while ordering mass killing all across the homeland. They keep putting themselves in a political corner ... while their military keeps its systematic killing spree, murdering hundreds of innocent men and women every single day."

I have a foolproof plan to end insider attacks. Get the fuck out of Afghanistan!

Two Americans killed in unusual gunfight involving several Afghan soldiers

Two days after the U.S. military resumed joint operations with Afghan security forces last week following a spate of “insider attacks,” a platoon of American soldiers stopped at an Afghan army checkpoint in a volatile eastern province.

The Americans had a cordial conversation and cracked a few jokes with their Afghan comrades during the Saturday afternoon patrol in Wardak province. The Afghans offered the Americans tea. Then, according to a U.S. military official, an Afghan soldier, without warning or provocation, raised his weapon and opened fire — mortally wounding the senior American on the patrol.

Bend over and grab your ankles. "Bipartisanship" is back!

Leaders at Work on Plan to Avert Mandatory Cuts

Senate leaders are closing in on a path for dealing with the “fiscal cliff” facing the country in January, opting to try to use a postelection session of Congress to reach agreement on a comprehensive deficit reduction deal rather than a short-term solution.

Senate Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on the details, and House Republicans continue to resist any discussion of tax increases. But lawmakers and aides say that a bipartisan group of senators is coalescing around an ambitious three-step process to avert a series of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts.

First, senators would come to an agreement on a deficit reduction target — likely to be around $4 trillion over 10 years — to be reached through revenue raised by an overhaul of the tax code, savings from changes to social programs like Medicare and Social Security, and cuts to federal programs. Once the framework is approved, lawmakers would vote on expedited instructions to relevant Congressional committees to draft the details over six months to a year.

Victim of Aurora Shooting Endorses Gun Control

Earlier this year, Stephen Barton was shot 25 times in the face, neck, hand, chest, shoulder and forearm in the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. This week, he will take his scars on the national stage.

Barton appears in a 30-second ad produced by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an organization founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that calls for stricter gun control laws. The ad airs this week in Washington, D.C., and Denver, including a primetime slot before the first presidential debate on Wednesday night, which will be held a few miles from Aurora. “We can’t think of a better time to talk about this,” Barton told The Daily Beast.

While the national news zeroed in on the gun-control debate in the days and weeks immediately following the shooting, the conversation in Aurora initially focused more on memorial services and vigils.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Bears Dominate Cowboys 34-18: Tony Romo Throws 5 Interceptions, Jay Cutler Throws 2 TDs (VIDEO)

Those 30-something defenders for the Chicago Bears showed Tony Romo how much they can still play.

Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman, two of the five defensive starters for Chicago in their 30s, returned interceptions for touchdowns, and the Bears beat the Dallas Cowboys 34-18 on Monday night.

Though Romo was only sacked once, on the Cowboys' opening series, he was pressured relentlessly and threw five interceptions. That matched his career high, set five years ago in his first full season as a starter.

Pa. voter ID law ruling could mean political swing

Some political momentum could be on the line when a judge rules on whether to keep intact Pennsylvania's tough new law requiring voters to show photo identification in next month's presidential election.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson is under a state Supreme Court order to rule no later than Tuesday, just five weeks before voters decide whether to re-elect President Barack Obama, a Democrat, or replace him with Mitt Romney, a Republican.

Simpson heard two days of testimony last week and said he was considering invalidating a narrow portion of the law for the Nov. 6 election. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is possible.

Misconduct, not research error, behind most retractions, study says

Fraud, plagiarism and other forms of misconduct are responsible for the majority of retractions in biomedical journals, according to a new study.

The finding, published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicts earlier studies that suggest most retractions are the result of errors.

In a review of 2,047 retracted biomedical papers, study authors found that only 21% were withdrawn due to research error. But 67% were pulled due to misconduct, including fraud or suspected fraud, duplicate publication and plagiarism. Miscellaneous or unknown reasons accounted for the remaining 12%.

Surgeons Grow a Replacement Ear for Cancer Patient — On Her Arm

Ah, the bizarre, amazing miracles of science.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins have built a new ear for cancer patient Sherrie Walter, using cartilage from her ribs. And then implanting it in her arm. Now, this raises a few questions, the main one being, “Wait… what?”

It all began in 2008 when Walter, now 42, was first diagnosed with aggressive basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer. In 2010, it returned and spread to various areas of her head. Doctors had to remove her left ear and parts of her skull tissue, CBS News reports. Patients who’ve undergone similar procedures have used prosthetic ears, but Walter didn’t see that as the best option.