Tag: world news

Greetings, readers! We have a special “spooktacular” version of World in Briefs this week. Prepare to be shocked, terrified, and confused over these real events going on in the world—the very world that you live in! For the best experience make sure to listen to Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s classic hit “Monster Mash” while reading.

Space is pretty cool. Many people can recall dreams of being an astronaut when they were growing up—exploring distant planets and wearing a funny suit with a fishbowl for a hat. As they got older, most lost the desire due to the impracticability of such aspirations. Work, bills, family, and life in general took the front seat. Looking up at the sky at night, I think we all wonder about the rest of the universe from time to time. What’s going on out there?

The Higgs particle answers the important question of how matter formed shortly after the Big Bang to create the universe. The solution involves the existence of an invisible field that extends throughout the entire universe. The more the elementary particles inside atoms interact with this field, the greater their mass and the heavier they become.

India If a man told you that he dreamt about a hidden pile of gold, would you go search for it? Well, the Indian government would. Hindu village sage Yogi Swami Shobhan Sarkar says he dreamt that 1,000 tons of gold was buried under a ruined palace. He wrote the central bank describing his dream, and the state Archaeological Survey of India sent a team of archaeologists. Swami Sarkar worries for his country’s future with the current economic crisis and wishes for the government to use the money to help it recover.

Syria's Bashar al-Assad has agreed to destroy chemical weapons and has until mid-2014 to destroy the over 1,000 tons of stockpile weapons. As of October 7, the Syrian government has cooperated and the arsenal destruction is being overseen by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Assad claimed that it would take about a year to destroy all the chemical weapons.

Ah, coffee—that wonderful beverage to which our country is addicted. The 1:1 ratio of Starbucks to U.S. citizens is proof enough. However, a recent action within a Colombian city might rival our caffeinated nation. Last Friday, October 4, a remarkable group of 13,800 people claimed to gather in a town square in Tunja to share a cup of joe.

Greenville College is a wonderful place. Most people would be hard-pressed to find another environment that is as supportive, comforting, and enriching as this campus. It only makes sense that most students would focus their attention on what happens locally. If you had a team of cats with jetpacks doing a choreographed flight performance to Smash Mouth’s greatest hits, why would you want to think about anything else? Comparing GC to the aforementioned cats performance might seem a bit absurd, but the point stands—no matter how great GC is, we should not limit our view to its borders.

United States If King Kong has taught us anything, it’s that male gorillas do not know how to positively treat the other gender. Sure, climbing a skyscraper while holding a woman seems like a good idea in theory; it’s actually a pretty bad plan. Patrick the gorilla is just like King Kong, but smaller and a jerk. After biting a female gorilla and sneering at others, this Dallas Zoo primate is being sent to South Carolina for therapy. He’ll live comfortably in his own place and bring enjoyment to the crowds that come to visit him. "He's beautiful and smart and everyone loves him," said Laurie Holloway, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Zoo. "We're really sad to see him go but it's for the best for the zoo and for Patrick." His old space will be used to bring in two new gorillas, including Zola, a break-dancing gorilla. This is some serious monkey business.

“The operation is now over,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address on Tuesday, September 24. The operation was a response to an attack a few days earlier on the Westgate centre shopping mall in Nairobi by Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab. "We have ashamed and defeated our attackers."

Picture this—it’s a nice Sunday night. You’re playing a game of Monopoly with your brother. You’ve played the game together many times before and you often manage to keep it civil. Sometime he wins and sometimes you win. That’s just part of the game. Today, however, things are a bit peculiar. Your brother wants to alter the current rules of how the game is played, and he won’t take no for an answer. With neither side willing to concede, there is but one option—a Monopoly shutdown.