1/5/2014::The world needs to stop, too much news

How a hunch led to stunning claim on Buddha birth date

The two archaeologists had a hunch that the Buddha's birthplace in southern Nepal held secrets that could transform how the world understood the emergence and spread of Buddhism.

Their pursuit would eventually see them excavate the sacred site of Lumbini as monks prayed nearby, leading to the stunning claim that the Buddha was born in the sixth century BC, two centuries earlier than thought.

Veteran Nepalese archaeologist Kosh Prasad Acharya had carried out excavations in Lumbini before in the early 1990s, when Nepal was still ruled by a king and a Maoist insurgency had yet to kick off.

A map of 19th Century shipping routes and nothing else

Nautical trade routes stretch like so many lengths of string in this arresting visualization of intercontinental commerce in the 1800s. The map that emerges highlights not only several continents and their busiest ports, but the various trade winds that cycle through the lower reaches of Earth's atmosphere.

The map is the work of Ben Schmidt, assistant professor of history at Northeastern University. Like many of our favorite visualizations, Schmidt's creation sprang from a publicly available data set: ship's logs, originally compiled by 19th Century oceanographer Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury, that were later catalogued by NOAA. Schmidt calls the map an exercise in the "Digital Humanities," where tools from the 1990s are used "to answer questions from the 1960s about 19th century America."

Kentucky Man Denounces US Safety Net While Relying on Government to Stay Alive

In a recent National Journal article, journalist Beth Reinhold exposes yet again the politically destructive reality that many poor whites -- particularly in the South -- will vote for candidates opposing government safety net programs, all the while accepting or living off those programs.

Reinhold chooses Kentucky as her case in point, where Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wages racial class warfare with his ongoing denunciation of government assistance to the needy.

Unfortunately, poor whites have long been lured by the Pied Piper "welfare queen" image (a mythical black woman allegedly driving a Cadillac paid for by Medicaid and food stamps -- no, it doesn't make any economic sense; it's sort of like a Disney fantasy for racists), even when, as Reinhold points out "ample and objective statistics show...that most welfare recipients are white families with children, the stereotype of the welfare queen persists."

Utah Rep Introduces Amendment to Protect Churches From Performing Same-Sex ‘Weddings’

A lawmaker in Utah has proposed a constitutional amendment that would protect churches in the state from being forced to perform same-sex ‘weddings.’

Republican Representative Jacob Anderegg told reporters this past week that he constructed the amendment in light of increasing court rulings that interpret the equal protection clause of 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as trumping the 10th Amendment, which protects states’ rights.

“Like [hockey star] Wayne Gretzky said, ‘A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be,’ ” he told the Salt Lake Tribune. “I think this is where the law is going and want to put some extra protection in place.”

Life After Brain Death: Is the Body Still 'Alive'?

A 13-year-old girl in California continues to be on a ventilator after being declared brain-dead by doctors. Although a brain-dead person is not legally alive, how much of the body will keep on working with the help of technology, and for how long?

Jahi McMath of Oakland, Calif., was declared brain-dead last month after experiencing an extremely rare complication from tonsil surgery. Jahi's family members have fought to keep their daughter on a ventilator, but a judge has ordered that the machine be turned off next week.

A person is considered brain-dead when he or she no longer has any neurological activity in the brain or brain stem — meaning no electrical impulses are being sent between brain cells. Doctors perform a number of tests to determine whether someone is brain-dead, one of which checks whether the individual can initiate his or her own breath, a very primitive reflex carried out by the brain stem, said Dr. Diana Greene-Chandos, an assistant professor of neurological surgery and neurology at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "It's the last thing to go," Greene-Chandos said.

2014 elections: 10 critical Senate races

Republicans have their best shot in years at taking back the Senate in 2014, but a lot has to break their way.

They have to pick up just six seats and defend 14, unlike Democrats who have to defend 21 seats.

The mood is right for the GOP: The president is unpopular. The economy is still lagging. And Obamacare has ticked off independents.

But Republicans blew it in 2012, letting the Senate slip away despite favorable circumstances. Democrats, meanwhile, will do their best to hang on, distancing themselves from the president and his health care law.

Steven Seagal considering run for Arizona governor

The actor and martial artist told a Phoenix-area ABC affiliate that he’s willing to reach into the belly of the beast, and considering a run for Arizona governor. Seagal, 61, has been hard to kill as one of sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “posse” a group of about 3,000 volunteer lawmen that are occasionally above the law. Seagal has been focused less on issues of urban justice than border security while working with Arpaio, and considers it an important problem facing the country.

Stetson Smith Left Toddler Alone In Car To Shoplift From Walmart: Cops

A Tennessee father pleaded guilty Friday to leaving his toddler in a freezing cold car while he allegedly went to shoplift from Walmart.

Stetson Smith, 20, was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days probation and ordered to have no contact with his son or the boy's mother, WBBJ reported.

Police in Dyersburg responded to a shoplifting report at Walmart on December 27, after officials say Smith was caught shoplifting on a security camera. When they arrived to arrest him, they found his son -- whose age has been reported varyingly as 8 months, 1 year, and 2 years -- alone in a freezing cold truck.

Family of ‘stand your ground’ shooting victim settles civil case with defendant

The family of a teenager killed in 2012 after an argument with an older man over loud music at a Florida gas station has settled their civil suit against the shooter for an undisclosed sum.

The Florida Times Union reported Friday that defendant Michael Dunn, a 47-year-old software engineer accepted a civil settlement offer made by the family of Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old student from Marietta, Ga., who had been living in Jacksonville with family at the time he was killed.

Dunn’s criminal trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 3.

States in play: 2014's top governor races

The 2014 ballot includes 36 governors races, the results of which could be a strong indicator of the national mood heading into the next presidential contest.

Democrats say that the GOP governors elected in 2010 were a product of that year’s tea party wave and, now that the trend has receded and they’re up for reelection, they don’t belong in statewide office. Republican governors argue that, unlike their congressional counterparts, they’re the only ones in the country enacting real reforms and getting things done.

Which argument will win in which state? Here are POLITICO’s 10 key governors races to watch

Rosie Pate, Grandmother, Allegedly Calls 911 To Ask For Beer

A grandmother in Memphis was jailed this week after officials say she called 911 for "police assistance in getting a beer," according to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun.

Rosie Pate, 68, told local news station WREG that the allegations are false. “I have lived to be 68 years old and I never dialed no police to bring me beer,” she told the station.

The criminal complaint states that Pate got into an argument with her granddaughter and slapped her because she wouldn't buy Pate a beer. According to WMC-TV, the granddaughter had a scratch under her eye.