| Bridgend Suicides: Cousins Found Dead
Kelly is reported to have been friends with two of the victims, Gareth Morgan, 27, and Liam Clarke, 20. Friends paid tribute to the latest victims. Mark Bennetta, 23, said: It's like a trend. It's as if people are thinking 'he's done it - I'll have a go'. "It's just getting a bit beyond belief." He thought some of the young people were having relationship problems, but doubted whether internet site Bebo was connected with their deaths. Several of the victims used the social networking site, which has been flooded with tributes. South Wales Police were called to an address in the Cefn Glas area of Bridgend at 9.15pm on February 13, where Nathaniel had harmed himself. .
Dillard's race-based pricing
Court TV has details on Dillard's response to a federal lawsuit complaining about higher prices charged black customers in the department store chain's hair salon in Montgomery, Ala. A defense brief submitted in Alabama federal court cites numerous supposed characteristics of black hair that make treating it more "time consuming and technically demanding than fulfilling the minimal (or non-existent) conditioning needs" of the typical white customer. Vaughan Thomas, who filed the suit, tells Court TV that "hair is hair" and the price should be the same for everyone. Added her lawyer, Patrick Cooper: "It's amazing to me that a Fortune 500 company would use this kind of pseudo-science in court to prove that it takes longer to wash African-American hair," Cooper said.
ORU alumni support sought
Uncertainty remained Saturday about what effect Richard Roberts' resignation as president will have on Oral Roberts University, but some observers said it was a step toward improvement.
"I think people are going to be waiting and watching: OK, can it survive without a Roberts at the helm?" said Donald R. Vance, professor of biblical languages and literature.
Vance said he thinks alumni need to support ORU as it undergoes this transition, after being led for 42 years by a Roberts. ORU professors are committed to the school's evangelical Christian mission, but that might not be obvious without a TV minister as president, he said. Christian colleges across the country are led by non-ministers -- "it will just be different for us."
ORU leaders have not addressed what role, if any, Roberts will have at the university.
China tops India again
Not only was India behind China in number of papers published, Jain notes, but far more Chinese research papers are landing in top Western journals. More worrisome still for the Indians – and encouraging for the Chinese – is the likelihood that the trend is going to continue: Jain writes that the World Bank's “Knowledge Index," a ranking that looks at a country's scientific fundamentals including Internet and PC usage, patents, and IT adoption by local companies, also skews heavily toward China. In 1995 China scored 3.03 and now scores 4.21, he writes, but India has gone in the other direction, scoring 2.76 11 years ago and just 2.61 today. With scores like that, China can afford to suffer its share of embarrassing science scandals. .
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