News.

In horrifying news today:

Priest unrepentent after crucifying of nun (via Drudge)

A Romanian Orthodox priest who ordered the crucifixion of a young nun because she was "possessed by the devil" and now faces murder charges was unrepentant on Saturday as he celebrated a funeral mass for his alleged victim.

"God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil," Father Daniel, 29, the superior of the Holy Trinity monastery in north-eastern Romania, said before celebrating a short mass "for the soul of the deceased", in the presence of 13 nuns who showed no visible emotion.

He insisted that from the religious point of view, the crucifixion of Maricica Irina Cornici, 23, was "entirely justified", but admitted that he faced excommunication as well as prosecution, and was seeking a "good lawyer".

Just...o_o

In the "was that really a good idea" department:

Michael Jackson's acquittal celebration was attended by one of his jurors! (Also via Drudge.)

Among the approximately 400 people who arrived at the Chumash Indian Casino was juror Pauline Coccoz. When she walked into the casino and heard Jackson's music playing, Coccoz said, the enormity of what had transpired hit her.

"They were playing 'Beat It,' and I almost started to cry," she said as she waited to enter the showroom.

Uh, yeah. Was that the best thing to say?

In Oops! news:

Plane crashes on California freeway

A small plane crashed onto a heavily traveled freeway, clipping a vehicle and injuring two people aboard the plane, authorities said Saturday.

The 1952 Beech Bonanza V35 had engine failure late Friday due to a fuel problem on its way from Sacramento to Fullerton and crashed onto the Ventura Freeway, fire Capt. Ed Cowan said.

I have it on good authority that MacGyver hates flying light planes. Just so you know.

In "well, hmm, I could have told you that" news:

Most prefer to watch movies at home

Hollywood is in the midst of its longest box-office slump in 20 years, and 2005 is shaping up as the worst year for movie attendance in nearly a decade, if theater business continues at the same lackluster rate.

While 73 percent said they preferred staying home to watch movies on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view, 22 percent said they would rather see them at a movie theater, according to the poll conducted for The Associated Press and AOL News by Ipsos.

I saw the results of a study earlier today that discovered that larger brains lead to higher intelligence. Modern research is so impressive!

This part of the movie poll article stood out to me, though:

But the poll found that people who use DVDs, watch pay-per-view movies on cable, download movies from the Internet and play computer games actually go to movies in theaters more than people at the same income levels who don't use those technologies. That suggests the technology may be complementing rather than competing with theatergoing.

Damn straight. I likes that kinda result! :D

Finally, in Star Wars news:

I guess the sextet will be released in 3D in a few years. (WTF?) Also from that article, concerning the TV series,

one of the shows would follow the adventures of a young Luke Skywalker, and reveal how certain characters ended up together.

I wonder if "certain characters" might include Han, Chewie, and/or Lando...

I like how the original article states that its source is "www.www.mainichi-msn.co.jp.com". That's, like, a ridiculous URL, that doesn't even exist. I can only assume they mean www.mainichi-msn.co.jp. (I had no idea, by the way, that Mainichi and MSN had teamed up!) Anyway, I can't find that article on the site, but that's probably because 1) their search sucks; 2) my Japanese skills suck. Alas! I did find this article about the Revenge of the Sith premiere (did you know that Star Wars in Japanese is スター・ウォーズ?), and starwars.jp, which is...interesting. Is it official? :>

Oh! I found it! :D スター・ウォーズ：１００時間テレビドラマ化 Funny, that's a lot shorter than the FlixnJoystix article.

I like how they refer to the new TV series as a "100 hour television drama". Very precise!