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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Fish can count to four - but no higher

Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four.

  • The secret language of fish
  • Fish that attacks people caught in Witham
  • Previously it was known that fish could tell big shoals from small ones, but researchers have now found that they have a limited ability to count how many other fish are nearby.


    Too many to count: Fish could not count past four
    Too many to count: Fish could not count past four











    This means that they have similar counting abilities to those observed in apes, monkeys and dolphins and humans with very limited mathematical ability.

    Christian Agrillo, an experimental psychologist at the university of Padua in Italy said: "We have provided the first evidence that fish exhibit rudimentary mathematical abilities."

    Last year, he and his colleagues showed that if a female mosquito fish is harassed by a male, she will try to avoid his attentions by seeking solace in the largest nearby shoal; demonstrating that the fish can tell bigger shoals from smaller ones.

    The team first conducted a series of experiments to see whether a lone mosquito fish would prefer to join a shoal of between two and four others.

    The results, published on the BBC Worldwide's natural history site, loveearth.com, show that females preferred to join shoals that were larger by just one fish significantly more often - consistently preferring shoals of four fish rather than three fish, and consistently preferring shoals of three fish over those containing just two.

    A second series of experiments revealed the fish's ability to process larger numbers. The fish were not able to directly count over four, but they were able to distinguish between larger numbers if they differed by a ratio of 2:1.

    For example, the fish could distinguish between a shoal of 16, compared to a shoal of eight others. But they could not tell the difference between a shoal of 12 compared to a shoal of eight, a ratio of 3:2. This demonstrates that fish are able to visually estimate larger numbers - but not very accurately.

    Prof Angelo Bisazza, who led the latest research, said that fishes' numerical abilities were actually on a par with the numerical abilities of monkeys and human infants between six and 12 months old, who were both able to visually count small numbers and less accurately estimate larger ones.

    Adult humans use a third counting mechanism, in which they verbally count much larger numbers.

    Dr Agrillo said: "The most interesting thing is that fish performance is very similar to what is observed in adult humans who possess a very limited vocabulary for numbers."

    For example, speakers of the Amazonian language Mundurukú lack words for numbers beyond five. "Their limits in quantity tasks closely resemble what we found in pre-verbal organisms such as fish!" he added.

    A variety of animals, including pigeons, parrots, raccoons, ferrets, rats, monkeys and apes are to varying degrees capable of either counting, adding or subtracting numbers. Most need to be trained to do so.

    Without training, adult rhesus monkeys are capable of subtracting small numbers, and are capable of representing the number zero.

    Wild lions apparently have a rudimentary ability to count. When a pride of lions hears the roar of an approaching lion then two or three females, rather than a lone greeter will always go out to meet the stranger. But if two approaching lions can be heard, the resident females send out four of their own.

    Original here

    Shark vs. Shark at Mall of America


    The teenage girl who is allergic to WATER

    Teenager Ashleigh Morris can't go swimming, soak in a hot bath or enjoy a shower after a stressful day's work - she's allergic to water.

    Even sweating brings the 19-year-old out in a painful rash.

    Ashleigh, from Melbourne, Australia, is allergic to water of any temperature, a condition she's lived with since she was 14.

    Scroll down for more ...
    Ashleigh, 19, has been allergic to water for five years

    She suffers from an extremely rare skin disorder called Aquagenic Urticaria - so unusual that only a handful of cases are documented worldwide.

    When Ashleigh gets wet her body explodes in sore, itchy red lumps that take about two hours to ease.

    She has to wash. But showering is a painful experience and she can only do it for a minute at a time.

    These brief showers are the only contact Ashleigh has with water. The one thing she doesn't miss is the washing up.

    "People find it hard to believe, they say things like 'Oh my god, how do you wash.

    Scroll down for more ...

    The rash Ashleigh gets after coming into contact with water is MORE painful than it looks

    "That makes me feel dirty, but I consider myself a very clean person," she said.

    Most of us take showering for granted but for Ashleigh it's a painful endurance that often reduces her to tears.

    "Although my rash is unsightly, and often looks like I'm diseased, the feeling is so much worse than it looks," she said.

    "I can't go anywhere for about two hours afterwards because it's so severe.

    "There's been many occasions where I've been so itchy, I've made myself bleed from scratching."

    Away from water pretty Ashleigh appears like any other healthy teenager.

    She leads a busy life studying Journalism and Public Relations at university and working in an office.

    But if she gets wet she attracts unwanted attention.

    "People stare at me in the street," said Ashleigh who lives with her mum Louise Miller, 42.

    "After a shower I stay at home until it goes away, that frees me of the burden of having to explain."

    Ashleigh spends a lot of time explaining her condition because few people have heard of it. Most doctors and dermatologists have never seen a case of it. "Many people don't even believe me when I tell them," said Ashleigh, who hardly believed it herself at first.

    She developed the condition five years ago after an acute case of tonsillitis. She was prescribed a heavy dose of penicillin that rid her of the tonsillitis but left her with another problem.

    "I suddenly started getting a rash after I showered or swam," says Ashleigh who used to swim regularly and spend a lot of time at the beach.

    "I tried to ignore it but it got progressively worse so I went to see a dermatologist."

    Ashleigh's dermatologist, Professor Rodney Sinclair, told her the penicillin had altered the histamine levels in her body and caused the Aquagenic Urticaria to occur.

    There is no cure and no successful treatment for the condition so the gravity of the situation began to dawn on the 14-year-old Ashleigh.

    "I was in disbelief for a while, but I soon realised how serious it was.

    "I cried for a few hours, then picked myself up, and kept going. I realised it was something I had to live with," she says.

    So Ashleigh found ways to avoid water - she stopped doing sports and anything that made her sweat.

    She makes sure she stays in air-conditioned places and always has an umbrella in her car. Her family and boyfriend of three years, Adam, 23, are very supportive but her condition makes intimate moments with her Adam a little difficult.

    "We have to sleep with a sheet between us at night, and I can't go near him if he's sweaty," said Ashleigh.

    Even the experts seem a little vague about Aquagenic Urticaria.

    Dermatologists agree there's an association with elevated blood histamine levels, but there are other processes at work since antihistamine drugs often provide no relief at all.

    Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists says: "There isn't a wealth of information about Aquagenic Urticaria because it's extremely rare.

    "We're not sure how many cases there are in the world and we do not yet fully understand the precise mechanisms that trigger the weals."

    Original here


    Outrage as pupils in school near 'suicide hotspot' Bridgend are told to write imaginary suicide notes

    A school near Bridgend has sparked outrage after pupils were ordered to write imaginary suicide notes in class, it emerged today.

    Students aged just 13 were told to carry out the exercise in an English lesson in order to "get into the mind of a troubled teenager".

    The school is situated just a few miles from the South Wales borough of Bridgend, an area which has been struck by a string of apparent hangings by young people.

    Scroll down for more...


    Outrage: Pupils at Radyr Comprehensive School were asked to write suicide notes in a lesson

    Today the grieving mother of one of the victims said the task showed a "disgusting" lack of sensitivity in the wake of the tragedies.

    And parents of the children who were asked to perform the "literary" exercise said it was inappropriate to ask young children to imagine having suicidal thoughts.

    Year Nine pupils at Radyr Comprehensive School, in the outskirts of Cardiff are studying a book in which the main character finds his sister dead with a suicide note next to her body.

    The children were asked to write their own version of the letter which features in Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman.

    One parent said: "It's dreadful they were asked to do this at such a sensitive time.

    "All the children are aware what is going on in Bridgend - what was this teacher thinking of?

    "The pupils are being asked to express suicidal thoughts that they don't have - but who knows what that could lead to?

    "My daughter said the book is making her depressed."

    The headteacher of the 1,400-pupil school yesterday said their English teacher did not associate the class project with the Bridgend suicides - even though it is just 12 miles away.

    A mother of one of the 17 suicide cases yesterday condemned the suicide notes class exercise as "disgusting".

    Tracey Roberts, whose son Anthony Martin, 19, hanged himself almost a year ago, said: 'I find this very, very disturbing.

    "The worst thing any parent can ever do is read a suicide note from your own child.

    "It is a sick world when the schools are telling kids to do it.

    "Quite honestly, it is disgusting. They should not be putting these ideas into the minds of 13-year-old children."

    The 42-year-old added: "Discussing a proper suicide strategy for schools is a good idea - but getting these children writing suicide notes is just so wrong.

    "This school is so close to Bridgend that all the children must be aware of what is going on. I think they should stop it immediately - they are playing with fire."

    Mrs Roberts' son who was the fifth out of 17 young people to be found hanged in the Bridgend area since the start of last year.

    Noughts and Crosses is not on the curriculum for all schools - but has been used as a text by Radyr Comprehensive for two years.

    Headteacher Steve Fowler said today: "Noughts and Crosses is a well-known book by a highly regarded author, commonly read in schools.

    "The suicide is a relatively small sub-plot in a book that deals with many weighty topics such as racism, terrorism and the death penalty.

    "One of the main characters learns of the death of his sister and finds an envelope from her addressed to him."

    Mr Fowler said the task was a 'spontaneous piece of writing' where children were asked not to turn over the page to find out what the letter said - but to write their own version of the suicide note.

    He added: "Such predictive tasks are commonly set as activities in the study of any text.

    "There are clearly grave sensibilities in South Wales at the moment about young people taking their own lives.

    "However, the teacher setting the text did not associate the task with news stories but rather considered it part of the textual study of a serious book dealing with serious issues in a serious way.

    "Any offence caused is completely unintentional."

    A Cardiff council spokesman said: "Schools are expected to cover a range of sensitive issues with young people via the curriculum.

    "This book was selected for study some time ago and we have no reason to doubt the ability of teachers at Radyr to deal with such matters in an appropriate manner."

    Original here

    UK paper: Photo is of boy loved by Anne Frank

    A handout picture of Peter Schiff along with a dedication are shown Monday at the Anne Frank House in The Hague. Anne met Peter at school in 1940 and later, while in hiding in Amsterdam, wrote about how much she missed him. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen and Peter at Auschwitz.

    LONDON - A British newspaper has published what it calls the first known photograph of a boy Anne Frank fell in love with and wrote about in her famous diary.

    Anne Frank, the Jewish schoolgirl who wrote her diary while hiding from the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II, was captivated by Peter Schiff.

    She met him at school in 1940, his family also having fled from Germany to Amsterdam the previous year. At age 11, Anne fell in love with Schiff and later, while in hiding in Amsterdam herself, wrote about how much she missed him

    Her last mention of Schiff was in 1944, the year her family's safe house was raided by the German security police. She later died in a Nazi prison camp.

    Anne's attic
    Nov. 25: NBC's Dawna Friesen takes a tour of the Amsterdam house where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis.

    NBC News Web Extra

    Sunday's The Observer newspaper reported that Ernst Michaelis, 81, of London, found a photo of Schiff in a family collection after realizing that Anne Frank was writing about a boy he had known as a fellow student in Berlin.

    Michaelis, who moved from Germany to Britain many years ago, said he has had the photo authenticated and that it will be displayed on the Anne Frank House Web site.

    Schiff also is believed to have died in a Nazi prison camp.

    The Anne Frank Foundation in the Netherlands was closed on Sunday and could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press for comment.

    Original here

    5 Books That Can Actually Make You Stupider

    Reading brings to mind wisdom, the exchange of ideas and quiet contemplation. It does not bring to mind people who need help putting their pants on. These books change all of that.

    This book contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages. The title alone proves the retardedness of everyone who's even touched it three times over:

    1) They had to write both Lotto and Lottery on the cover, for fear of missing half their target market. "Dur, this book is for lott-e-ry, dat sounds more fancier than the lotto we simple folk play 'round these parts"

    2) The use of "everyday players" make you realize that the target market for this book is a group of folks who think of themselves as mere regular players, while a secret cabal of professionals keeps scooping all the jackpots. Why, if only these everyday players had access to some kind of inside knowledge!

    3) Third. Goddamn. Edition. We have no idea what possible refinements to lotto-winning technology the author could be adding each time, short of scribbling "hahaha, oh God this is working--I can't believe it's working" all over the proof copy before sending it back to the printers. A third edition of anything hasn't damaged our faith in humanity so much since the newspapers ran their "Princess Diana--still dead" memorials in 2000.

    The back-cover blurb is an even richer treasure trove of anti-logic. Professor Smith proudly promises to reveal the secrets of interpreting your dreams with the end goal of predicting the winning lotto numbers. We hate to break it to you but if the best your conscious mind can come up with is "buy a book about how to win the lotto written by someone who has not done so," then we're guessing your mind is not an unharnessed money-making probability super-predictor.

    This book is simply cruel. Buying a lotto ticket may be a tax on people who don't understand statistics, but it still provides that momentary hope--those few seconds where you get to picture yourself as a filthy rich hedonist. This book systematically harnesses and murders those hopes, telling the reader that playing the lotto is actually a valid financial strategy and something that can be worked at. When you're taking money AND killing the dreams of those with nothing to hope for but winning the lottery, you have officially reached the rank of King Bastard.

    What You Could've Bought:

    An Elementary Introduction to the Theory of Probability

    Even the name of this book demonstrates that it doesn't know when to quit. "The Title: Subtitle (another bit of Title)"--You don't get up to 52 Sudoku ideas if you're even remotely prepared to cut unnecessary or pointless things. Even so they'd need to devote 10 secrets to "Picking up the pen" to get this many tips for such a mind bogglingly simple game. People like to believe that they're undiscovered super-geniuses because they can outwit the back page of a daily newspaper, which is why Sudoku are carefully crafted to:

    a) Look smarty-pants because they have numbers in them.

    b) Actually be about as difficult as writing down your credit card number.

    They enable thousands of mobile office chair-weights to go about their day with the smug secret knowledge that they're actually pretty damn smart.

    Tips include sage advice on topics such as "scanning the rows" and "filling in the gaps." Based on title alone, it's pretty clear that the author personally infiltrated the invisible floating MENSA fortress and wrestled secret Sudoku strategies out of the cold hands of dead Nobel Prize winners. The intellectual level of the average reader? Well, "scanning the rows" is split up over three separate tips. But it's not until you get to the part where two separate tips are given over to "taking a break" that you realize that the book you're reading was written after this phone conversation:

    Publisher: We need a Sudoku book right now before the idiots lose interest!

    Maths guy: How long have I got?

    Publisher: The courier's on his way!

    The fact that this book has specifically 52 great Sudoku-solving secrets is terrifying. The implication is that somebody might need to take a week to digest every tip about the secret mysteries of number writing over the course of a year, and that this person might be wandering around bookshops loose and looking for a car that looks interesting enough to walk out in front of. Nevertheless, at least this book keeps them safely occupied sucking the lead out of pencils, otherwise their stubbornness, ready cash and need for instructions for even the simplest of tasks could lead them to less benign pastimes.

    What You Could've Bought:

    How to Live a Life That's Not Boring

    There are millions of masturbation manuals in the world, but most of them consist of pictures of girls (or guys) and a tactful understanding that the reader will just get on with it. Not many men are confident enough to interrupt another male mid-stroke with a stern cry of "You're doing it wrong!" let alone offer them instruction. But that's exactly what Dr. Litten did. Not only can he refer to masturbation as "solo sex" with a straight face, but he sold enough books to get a deal for a sequel.

    Dr. Litten really set himself a challenge coming up with a sequel, considering that the final chapters of The Joy of Solo Sex included psychic masturbation and the Ultimate Orgasm (who, if memory serves, recently defeated the Hulk in a Marvel crossover). And seriously, what can you do after the Ultimate Solo Sex Orgasm, save for closing the Terminal Browser Window and shooting the Final Wadded-up Tissue into the wastebasket?

    This may explain how Dr. Litten achieves the impossible halfway through his own book and fucks up masturbation (we're fairly sure fucks up masturbation is a fetish, but we're too terrified to Google it) with the chapter "Sharing Solos." We're not sure exactly how repressed the author is or how cruelly his burly father crushed his dreams of being a dancer, but once you've got two men naked, having handsex together we've got a different word for that. The ability to even write the phrase "sharing solos" and not see a problem indicates a level of psychotic self-denial that would make Nixon look like a weeping Oprah guest. The progression from "play with yourself" to "play with yourself and other naked men" puts you close to the most important naked-man-based revelation since Archimedes.

    All of which is fine for Dr. Litten himself, but no use to the poor soul who's on his second "romance DIY" book and is expecting pages with titles like "Mongolian Thumb Twister" and "How to Make It Feel Like Someone Else!" to help pass the long, occasionally damp nights.

    What You Could've Bought:

    How to Talk to Women

    Or, for one in 10 men (including Dr. Litten):

    The Coming Out Guide

    Supercharged quantum touch sounds like something Stephen Hawking has built into his wheelchair to disintegrate bullies who don't realize that the "Jock:Nerd" power dynamic changes radically after the first Nobel Prize. In reality it's what happens when someone sees a copy of Scientific American in the trash while trying to think up an official sounding name for 'waving your hands mystically and going ooga-booga.' "

    The original quantum touch therapy consists of imagining colors and focusing on body parts. That's it. That's the entire therapy. The book jacket is lined with gushing testimonials from those who have been Quantumly touched, about how much supercharging things enhanced their incredibly gullible lives.

    Considering that these are people who believed the first book which said "think about the color red and you'll feel good," a book that asks you to "think about the color red harder and you'll feel EVEN BETTER" didn't have to deliver much.

    Hard scientific evidence is provided by the fact that thinking about silver can provide the same benefits as colloidal silver. Obviously the "it's the same color so it should do the same thing" school of medicine isn't very popular, but that's just because Big Pharma doesn't want the little man to know that a bag of Skittles can cure AIDS.

    Add the fact that colloidal silver has slightly fewer medical benefits than punching yourself in the face and you've got a treatment so many levels removed from reality there's a genuine risk it could be run over by Superman riding a unicorn on his way to meet a reasonable political blogger.

    Mr. Herriott insists on being called "Dr.", having a Ph.D. in naturopathic medicine, but is strangely reticent to mention where it comes from--possibly because the true center of naturopathy, Narnia, can only be found by those pure of heart.

    What You Could've Bought:

    Quacks: Fakers & Charlatans in Medicine

    We do have the cover image for 'Much Ado About Nothing' as well, but this picture is much, much funnier.

    Star Trek features warp drives, holodecks and the cures to all modern diseases--and the part that an army of nerds decided to spend all their time thinking about is a made-up language. Since the "fictional language" and "classical literature" markets don't actually overlap, this book is proof that a small but very profitable core of fans will buy absolutely anything connected to their chosen obsession. As soon as someone casts limited-edition Borg models out of depleted uranium rods, they'll solve the nuclear waste problem, earn a lot of money and--after a small lethal exposure period--eliminate all "Kirk Vs. Picard" arguments.

    Even assuming you receive a cranial trauma serious enough to make "Shakespeare as portrayed by prune-headed aliens" seem like a good idea, why would you ever pick the goddamn romantic comedy? Of all the Bard's works, this is the one that benefits least from a warrior culture and a language that sounds like you're choking on a furball. Hamlet would work, and be 20 times shorter as it would skip directly to the final scene where everyone kills each other. Macbeth would no longer be driven mad, cursed and slaughtered for his regicide:

    MhaQ'Beth: I've just killed the king!

    Klingon population: Awesome! Hail King MhaQ'Beth!

    Macbeth: w00t!

    Or how about Othello, where things would have gone much easier for everyone:

    I'agHo: My lord, I fear your wife is unfaithful with ...

    OKHel'lo: How dare you, you filthy P'tagh!

    If you must have Klingon romance (in which case there are a number of terrifying forums that cater to your deeply disturbing needs), at least go with Romeo and Juliet. Sure, it's an insane tale of pedophilia*, murder and suicide but since the only acceptable method of Klingon suicide is to attack a larger force, the final scene would be much less sissy as K'Romm'O and Jhilleat declare war on Europe and charge the entire German army together. Like Butch and Sundance, but with fucking.

    Original here

    Taranaki Daily News | Saturday, 23 February 2008

    Ivan Segedin's subterfuge killed him when he was in a head-on car crash while wearing a fake seatbelt, a coroner says.

    "Ultimately Mr Segedin's actions in driving without a seatbelt have cost him his life in an accident that he may well have survived had he worn one," coroner Carla na Nagara said yesterday.

    Mr Segedin died in a crash on July 22 last year near Okato, in Taranaki, from multiple injuries when his car crossed the road and collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle, the coroner said.

    Mr Segedin, 39, refused to wear a seatbelt and had been fined for not wearing one 32 times since February 2003.

    Examination of his car found that, though it was fitted with proper seatbelts, an additional belt with a long strap had been knotted above the seatbelt on the driver's side, providing a belt to simply sit over the driver's shoulder, Ms Nagara said.

    Presumably this was to create the illusion to a passing motorist or police officer that a seatbelt was being worn when it was not.

    Mr Segedin's car had an expired warrant, was full of rust, and an autopsy blood test showed he had taken methamphetamine and cannabis. But Ms Nagara said not wearing a seatbelt was the one variable that made the difference between life and death. "He died when quite possibly he need not have."

    His fatal injuries were caused when he was thrown forward on to the steering wheel in a low-impact crash.

    No blame or responsibility for the crash rested on the other driver, Ms Nagara said.

    Original here

    Seatbelt subterfuge kills driver

    Ivan Segedin's subterfuge killed him when he was in a head-on car crash while wearing a fake seatbelt, a coroner says.

    "Ultimately Mr Segedin's actions in driving without a seatbelt have cost him his life in an accident that he may well have survived had he worn one," coroner Carla na Nagara said yesterday.

    Mr Segedin died in a crash on July 22 last year near Okato, in Taranaki, from multiple injuries when his car crossed the road and collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle, the coroner said.

    Mr Segedin, 39, refused to wear a seatbelt and had been fined for not wearing one 32 times since February 2003.

    Examination of his car found that, though it was fitted with proper seatbelts, an additional belt with a long strap had been knotted above the seatbelt on the driver's side, providing a belt to simply sit over the driver's shoulder, Ms Nagara said.

    Presumably this was to create the illusion to a passing motorist or police officer that a seatbelt was being worn when it was not.

    Mr Segedin's car had an expired warrant, was full of rust, and an autopsy blood test showed he had taken methamphetamine and cannabis. But Ms Nagara said not wearing a seatbelt was the one variable that made the difference between life and death. "He died when quite possibly he need not have."

    His fatal injuries were caused when he was thrown forward on to the steering wheel in a low-impact crash.

    No blame or responsibility for the crash rested on the other driver, Ms Nagara said.

    Original here

    'Bird-boy' found in Russia

    A 'bird boy' was found in Volgograd several days ago. A 7-year old boy was taken away from his mother, 31. A woman took an interest in birds more than in her own son, that’s why he became a real Mowgli.

    ‘Bird-boy’ found in Russia
    ‘Bird-boy’ found in Russia

    A boy lived with his mother in a 2-room apartment full of cages with feed and droppings. She had her own domestic birds and fed wild ones. A woman neither beat him nor left him without food. She just never talked to him. It was all the birds that communicated with the boy and taught him birds’ language.

    “When you start talking to him, he chirps”, - says Galina Volskaya, a social worker of Kirovskiy region, Volgograd. A boy doesn’t understand human language at all. He just chirps and when realizing that he is not understood, starts to wave hands in the way birds winnow wings.

    The boy’s mother signed an abdication from a child. A boy now lives in the asylum, but soon will be transferred to the center of psychological care. The child has a so called “Mowgli syndrome”, which in the past years has become widely spread. for example, during the last 2 months 5 children with the same symptoms were found.

    In Cambodia a 27-year old wild woman was recently found. She lives in the jungles, walks nude and doesn’t understand human language. However, a local policeman acknowledged her as his daughter that got lost 18 years ago while at 8. In Africa a 10-year old boy was found among the pack of monkeys. In the USA 2 girls were brought up by a pack of monkeys. In Russia a 9-year old boy became a head of wild dogs’ tribe.

    Translated by Lena Ksandinova

    Original here

    Hot for Teacher: 18 Sexiest Sex Offenders


    It has to be said: female school teachers are the new male Catholic priests.

    Sexual offenses committed by female teachers is at its peak, much like the libidos of the accused. While male teachers are (rightfully) lambasted for their sexual misconduct, women seem to get off much easier - literally and figuratively. And why, you ask? The answer is simple: older women seducing younger men is part of our culture, like it or not. Just ask Mrs. Robinson, or Stifler’s Mom.

    South Park touched on the subject in “Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy,” where Kyle’s little brother Ike has an affair with his Kindergarten teacher. The cops in the episode have a field day with the case, exclaiming “niiiiiiiiice” after hearing about the teacher’s naughty secret. Their point, however blurry, was well taken: everybody loves a sexed-up authoritative figure, within reason.

    My point and solution? Horny teachers should wait, ever so patiently, until their prey graduates. If you’re into kids, you derserve to be locked up; if you’re into being the older lady for kicks, play your cards right, don’t break the law, and have at it like a jackrabbit.

    We here at COED do not condone sexual misconduct by any means, unless said means consist of hot, willing and able teachers getting down with young studs. Just kidding…?

    Check out 18 of America’s Sexiest Sex Offenders after the jump and vote!

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    Cameo Patch

    Cameo Patch
    Age at time of offense: 29
    Location: Toole County, UT

    Occupation: Substitute Teacher

    Lover: 17 year-old male student

    Crime: Performing oral sex on a minor. Charged with unlawful sexual conduct and lewdness

    Sentence: $2000 fine, 36 months probation and ordered to obtain a psycho-sexual evaluation.

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    Angela Comer

    Angela Comer
    Age at time of offense: 26
    Location: Kentucky

    Occupation: Middle School Math Teacher

    Lover: 14 year-old male student

    Crime: Fled the country with a 14-year-old lover and her four-year-old son.

    Sentence: Indicted by a grand jury in Kentucky on felony custodial interference, two counts of third-degree sodomy and four counts of unlawful transaction with a minor relating to sexual acts.

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    Danielle Walls
    Danielle Walls
    Age at time of offense: 25
    Location: San Diego, CA

    Occupation: High School History Teacher

    Lover: 16 year-old male student

    Crime: 10 to 25 sexual encounters with a minor, supplying drugs and alcohol to a minor. Pled guilty to multiple counts of unlawful sexual contact and furnishing alcohol to a minor in addition giving a controlled substance to a minor.

    Sentence: 1 year in jail, 5 years six months probation.

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    christine-scarlett.jpg

    Christine Scarlett
    Age at time of offense: 39
    Location: Strongsville, OH

    Occupation: Art Teacher

    Lover: 17 year-old male student

    Crime: Scarlett allegedly held a win a date with a teacher contest, and took Bradigan to Dairy Queen. Bradigan said Scarlett then made a move on him in the parking lot of a Strongsville mall. Bradigan says a sexual relationship followed.

    Sentence: Sentencing yet to take place.

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    Amber Jennings

    Amber Jennings
    Age at time of offense: 30
    Location: Dudley, MA

    Occupation: High School English Teacher

    Lover: 16 year-old male student

    Crime: Emailing nude pictures and video of herself to a former student. Pled guilty to “disseminating harmful materials to a minor”.

    Sentence: 2 years probation

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    Rebecca Dawn Bogard

    Rebecca Dawn Bogard
    Age at time of offense: 27
    Location: Biloxi, MI

    Occupation: High School Teacher

    Lover: 16 year-old male student

    Crime: Sent explicit text messages and trysted with the victim in her white Jaguar, which bore the license plate “GRRRRR.”

    Sentence: Facing felony sexual battery charges.

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    Mary Kay Letourneau

    Mary Kay Letourneau
    Age at time of offense: 34
    Burien, WA

    Occupation: Elementary School Teacher

    Lover: 13 year-old male student

    Crime: Having sex with a minor.

    Sentence: Pled guilty to two counts of second-degree statutory rape and was sentenced to 89 months in prison.

    Fact: Letourneau was her victims 3rd grade tacher and began their sexual relationship when she taught him again in 6th grade when he was 13 years old. Letourneau gave birth to his love child while serving her 89 month prision sentence. Letourneau was released from prision in 2004 and was married to her victim (now 21 years old) one year later.

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    pamela smart

    Pamela Smart
    Age at time of offense: 23
    Location: Derry, NH

    Occupation: Media Services Coordinator

    Lover: 15 year-old male

    Crime: Seduced 15-year-old William “Billy” Flynn and threatening to leave him unless he killed her husband.

    Sentence: Charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Note: Nicole Kidman portrayed Pamela Smart in the movie To Die For.

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    Janelle Batkins

    Janelle Batkins
    Age at the time of crime: 42
    Location: Clinton, MI

    Occupation: French Teacher

    Lover: 17 year-old male student

    Crime: Had sex with underage student at her home over a several month period.

    Sentence: Charged with two counts of CSC and if convicted she will serve jail time.

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    Loni Follks

    Loni Folks
    Age at time of offense: 24
    Location: Petal, Mississippi.

    Occupation: 5th Grade Teacher

    Lover: 16 year-old male student

    Crime: Arrested on Jan 28, 2008 for having sexual relations with a minor.

    Sentence: Charges pending.

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    Sandra Geisel
    Age at time of offense: 42
    Location: Colonie, NY

    Occupation: English Teacher

    Lover: 4 students incuding a 16 year-old student.

    Crime: Having sex with 4 students including a minor in the backseat of her car.

    Sentence: Albany County District Attorney’s office filed two felony rape charges.

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    Heather Shelton

    Heather Shelton
    Age at time of offense: 22
    Location: Buncombe, NC

    Occupation: Teacher’s Assistant

    Lover: 18-year-old student

    Crime: In North Carolina it is a felony for any teacher to have sex with a student regardless of the age of the student.

    Sentence: Fired from her job

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    Carrie McCandless

    Carrie McCandless
    Age at time of offense: 29
    Location: Jefferson County, CO

    Occupation: High School English Teacher
    Lover: 17 year-old male student

    Crime: Having sex with a minor during a school sponsored camping trip to the Rockies. Pled guilty to tampering with evidence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

    Sentence: 45 days in days in prison, 5 years probation, 1 - two year deferred sentence, 1 – 4 year deferred sentence and 10 year registration as a sex offender

    Odd Fact: Carrie’s husband was the school’s principal.

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    Amy McElhenney

    Amy McElhenney
    Age at time of offense: 25
    Location: Austin, TX

    Occupation: High School Spanish Teacher

    Lover: 18-year-old student

    Crime: Charged with having an improper relationship with a student, a second-degree felony.

    Sentence: A conviction on a second-degree felony could result in up to 20 years in prison

    Notes: Competed in the 2002 Miss Texas pageant after she was crowned Miss Bexar County.


    Pamela Rogers Turner
    Age at time of offense: 27
    Location: McMinniville, TN

    Occupation: Elementary School Teacher, Physical Education and Basketball Coach

    Lover: 13 year-old male student

    Crime: Having vaginal and oral sex with a minor on more than a dozen occasions at school, her home and the teens’ home. She was later arrested for sending nude photos, sex videos and text messages to a minor and continuing communications with the boy through blogs and a website after her original arrest. She was ultimately charged with 4 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and violation of probation

    Sentence: 270 days in prison, an 8-year suspended sentence, 7 years 3 months probation, register as a sex offender and surrender her teaching certificate for life.


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    [click image to see gallery]

    Debra Lafave
    Age at time of offense: 25
    Location: Tampa, FL

    Occupation: Middle School Teacher

    Lover: 14 year-old male student

    Crime: Numerous sexual encounters with a teen in her classroom, her home and her SUV. Charged with 4 felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition.

    Sentence: 3 years house arrest, 7 years probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender who cannot work near children

    Odd Fact: Nick Carter claims to have lost his virginity to Ms. Lafave


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    — Honerable Mention —
    *Neither of the two below have been convicted of a sex crime*

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    Erica Chevillar
    [click image to see gallery]

    Erica Chevillar
    Age: 26
    Location: Boca Raton, FL

    Occupation: 10th grade social studies teacher

    Notes: Posed for the US National Bikini Team and resigned rather than facing punishment when parents in the school district saw the pictures online. After resigning Chevillar posed for Playboy and joined WWE’s Diva search.

    Check out Erica’s super hot Playboy and US Bikini Team pics here.

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    Tamara Hoover

    Tamara Hoover
    Age : 29
    Location: Austin, TX

    Occupation: Art teacher

    Crime: Allegedly being the subject of explicit photos that had been posted on Flickr, a public photograph sharing website.

    Sentence: Agreed to resign from her position at Austin High School in Texas and received a $14K settlement from the school.

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    Who is America’s Sexiest Sex Offender


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