Rotundus.com

I've mentioned to a number of people that the churches that I visited in Israel seemed to be more often than not creepy and somewhat pagan rather than Christian. Here's a few clips from the news about one of the church buildings that I visited - the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem:

Disputes are not uncommon, particularly over who has the authority to carry out repairs. For example, a wooden ladder has remained on a ledge just above the main entrance since the 19th Century - because no-one can agree who has the right to take it down. (From BBC News)

The keys to the main entrance of the church have been held by a Muslim family since the 12th century because the Christians do not trust one another.

...

In the midst of a blistering heatwave in the summer of 2002, the Coptic monk on duty moved his chair from its agreed spot to a shadier corner. The move was taken as a hostile manoeuvre by the Ethiopians and 11 monks needed hospital treatment after the ensuing fracas.

...

In 1995 the church announced it had reached a decision on how to paint a part of the dome in the central part of the structure — but only after 17 years’ debate.
(From The Times Online)

Israeli police moved into the shrine, which faithful also believe contains the tomb of Jesus, to restore order and said they arrested two clerics.

Dozens of worshippers, dressed in the vestments of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations, traded kicks and punches, knocking down tapestries and toppling decorations at the site in Arab East Jerusalem.

...

Fights are not uncommon in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre among the representatives of Christian denominations who are responsible for maintaining its different chambers.(From the November 10th New Zealand Herald)

Make sure your underwear fits and is unobtrusive, consider whether your eyebrows are a distraction to others and, at all costs, avoid looking cheap.

This is the grooming advice given to new staff at Leeds Metropolitan University as part of a guide to etiquette.

The rules were set out during “manners training”, which included how to walk wearing a hat, how to select the correct cutlery during dinner and how to make polite small talk.

(Continued in The Times Online)

Switch the genders around and would you see a similar story of release from jail? (Can anyone say "serial killer"?)

A Georgia grandmother who came under suspicion because all five of her husbands had died was released Thursday from a North Carolina jail where she had been held on charges in one of their deaths.

...

Prosecutors allege Betty Neumar tried to hire three people to kill Gentry in the six weeks before his bullet-riddled body was found in his rural North Carolina home.

Since her arrest, police in Florida and Ohio have begun to re-examine the deaths of her first child — Gary Flynn, whose 1985 death was ruled a suicide — and three of her other husbands, though she faces no charges in those cases.

Georgia police recently closed their re-examination of the death of her fifth husband, John Neumar, saying they have no evidence she was involved.

(Via MSNBC)

In related news, in the US "the average prison sentence for men who killed their wives was 17.5 years; the average sentence for women convicted of killing their husbands was 6.2 years." (Source)

The National Survey of Student Engagement — an annual report providing comparative data on student experiences at four-year institutions nationwide — is entering its 10th year. Now that the survey is reaching what some consider a critical mass of participants, this year’s report finds that variations in educational quality are more prevalent within institutions than among them. As a result, NSSE officials argue that holistic assessments, such as theirs, provide a more accurate comparison than do those using institution-wide averages.

- Reported in Inside Higher Ed