The New York Times CAIRO, Egypt - Some Arabs watching the escalating violence in Iraq expressed fear Thursday that the United States, rather than helping to stamp out extremism, might have created a new, toxic incubator for it, while others expressed satisfaction that the Americans are getting their nose bloodied. <p>Charred and mutilated bodies, nosebleeds, same thing.<p>~~~<p>The New York Times If it can truly be said that people train cats, rather than the other way around, then human-feline bonding apparently had its start at least 9,500 years ago - about 5,000 years earlier than previously thought. French archaeologists, excavating a grave in Cyprus, have found the remains of a person, some buried offerings and the curled-up skeleton of a cat. Everything about the grave, dated at about 7500 B.C., suggested to the discoverers that the cat probably had as favored a place in the life of the departed person as that of your dear Daddles or Willie or whatever the name of the little master of the house. If the interpretation is valid, and other experts think it is, then cat domestication probably began with some of the first farmers in the Middle East - and opportunistic prototypes of Tom and Jerry. ...<p>(It's an interesting story if you strip out the nonsense.)<p>[ April 08, 2004: Message edited by: SeaRaven ]</p>
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