bizarre -tidbits

London: A judge in Britain declined to jail a career criminal believing that spending time in prison would actually prove "too easy" place for him.

Judge Gillian Matthews QC said that with over half of his life spent behind bars, serial crook James Wanley could do jail "standing on his head" and that he needed to be given "a tougher punishment", Daily Express reported.

Wanley,39, of Hartlepool town in north east England, has been offending despite spending 20 years behind bars, Teesside crown court was told.

He admitted having committed burglary. He has 21 convictions for the offence and a record that stretches back to when he was aged 13.

While sparing him a return visit the Judge Matthews said: "I am going to give you a chance, but this chance is actually harder than custody - but it is your choice."

The judge awarded the heroin-user Wanley, a 12-month suspended sentence, a month-long curfew and an order to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

Venting his anger at the lack of respect the non-custodial sentence showed to innocent victims blighted by repeat offender burglars, Tory MP Phillip Davis said: "What an absolutely damning indictment of the prison service this is.

People already think that prison is too easy - what with access to phones, Sky TV and computer games - and now we have a judge admitting it. Is it any wonder criminals have no fear of being caught?"

 courtesy;daily bhaskar.com

tidbits-bizarre

London: Archaeologists have discovered a cache of human bones in Mexico, which they claim adds credence to rumours that an ancient tribe in that country practised cannibalism in the belief that it would help improve harvest. 

A team at the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History says the bones were found in Durango State, in the northern part of the country, inside a cave hamlet built into a cliff, the 'Daily Mail' reported. 

The site -- called Cueva del Maguey -- dates back to around 1425 and was formerly home to the Xiximes tribe. And, the archaeological trove included more than three human dozen bones which showed evidence of having been defleshed, cooked and then ritualistically marked with stone blades.

Rumours of cannibalism among the 5,000-strong Xiximes have long existed due to the historical accounts of Jesuit missionaries, which labelled the tribe "the wildest and most barbarian people of the New World". 

The Xiximes apparently believed they could guarantee a good harvest if they consumed the souls of their enemies, ate their bodies and hung their bones from trees as offerings to the spirits. There had previously been no scientific evidence to back up those early accounts, but the team behind the discovery and subsequent research says the bones, which have laid virtually undisturbed for centuries, offer concrete proof.

"Cannibalism was a crucial aspect of their worldview, their identity. Through their rituals, cannibalism, and bone-hoarding, they marked a clear boundary between an 'us' and 'them'," said José Luis Punzo, an archaeologist with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History. The rituals were tied to the agricultural cycle of planting and sowing corn, according to the research reported in the 'National Geographic'.

After each harvest the warriors of the Xiximes were sent to hunt for flesh, preying often on lone men working in isolated conditions in the pine forest region, some 8,530 feet above sea level. 

While there were battles with other tribes, and a ready menu of Spanish colonials too, only the bodies the Xiximes people had value for the rituals. 

The warriors brought their unwilling victims back to the village where they were ripped limb from limb. The bones were cleaned and the flesh eaten in soup as part of an all-night celebration complete with tribal song and dance.

The bones were then stored in treasure houses until the start of the planting season when they would be hung from trees as an offering to the spirits the tribe believed would bless the crops, say the archaeologists.

courtesy'dailybhaskar.com