• Church historian Mary Rubin argues in her new book that over the years, the image of the Virgin Mary has drastically changed. Although Mary was initially depicted as a "figure of immense solemnity," in the 11th and 12th century there was "an attempt to make Mary into the mother next door, not just the mother of Jesus in heaven, who cooks and does everything that mothers do." • After surviving an accident that killed her father, a brave 7-year-old drove the family's damaged car several miles to get help. Police say that alcohol was likely a factor in the crash. • Canadian prosecutors have dropped charges of attempted murder against a U.S. man believed to be involved in the slaying of several abortion doctors. James Kopp is currently serving a life sentence, plus 10 years, for the 1998 fatal shooting of a doctor who ran an abortion clinic. • Divorce lawyers and private detectives agree: GPS is a great tool for catching cheating spouses. • A new documentary, Pressure Cooker follows several high school students as they take high-stress cooking classes to prepare for the Culinary Institute of America scholarship competition. Top Chef meets The Paper? • Former tennis prodigy Andrea Jaeger has joined the ranks of the Anglican Dominican nuns. As a child, Jaeger was scarred by both the instability of her life and her distant, abusive father, and she hopes that today's child stars will be better nurtured and protected. •  City officials in Karachi, Pakistan cite the rising influence of the Taliban as the primary reason women are experiencing an increase in violence and harassment. • An Italian bride made it through her ceremony only to run off at the reception with the driver. She claimed that she had to change clothes, but once she left, she had her new lover call her husband. Her husband is now seeking to file charges. • Horrible person Drew Peterson called into a radio show this morning to try out a few of his brand new prison jokes. We're not laughing. •  A "feral" child has been found in Russia living with her parents and grandparents in the Siberian city of Chita. The 5-year-old girl was never allowed out, and never learned to speak. She lived for years in a room with several dogs and cats, and thus reportedly communicates by barking. • New research illustrates the significance of coloring in gender identification. If the skin around the eyes and mouth are reddish in hue, than the face is more likely to be identified as male. If it is greener, the face is seen as female. • A 27-year-old incarcerated man has plead not guilty in the murder of Chandra Levy. •  A 32-year-old religious school teacher from Miami has been charged with sexual battery on a child after she admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old student. When police arrived at her house to question her, she was unavailable, due to the fact that she had gone on vacation in Disneyland with the student. • 

In Mother of God, Miri Rubin explores the role Mary has played in the history of Christianity, from what Patrick Leigh Fermor described as "the austere aloofness of an oriental empress…calm, unreal, hieratic" in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where western equivalemnts were more connected to the viewer. Says the Economist:

By studying the different ways in which Mary was described, hymned and painted in medieval Italy, one can also describe Europe's beginnings as a great political and commercial enterprise. Her absence was a defining feature of the colder, more rational world that emerged in the Protestant north. And in the colonial era, above all in Latin America, she metamorphosed seamlessly from conquerors' champion to helper of the oppressed-long before any of the founders of modern literary theory had come up with fancy ideas about shifting metaphors and "floating signifiers".

The official adoption of Mary as a crucial part of Christian doctrine did a lot to define the nature of Christian divinity generally; what had been the subject of debate was now set in stone. "Once this principle had been established, every deviation from it, every current of thought that called into question the double nature-divine and human-of Christ, could be presented as a direct insult to his mother; and theological arguments duly became more personal." Mary, then, was central not merely to defining early Christianity and crystallizing the philosophical divides between East and West but to its evolution; through observing society's relationship to the central figure of the virgin, Rubin is able to explore the Church - and by extension, much of history - as a whole.

Mother Of God [Economist]

"There is no pornography here, there's no sex, there are no virgins menstruating or feeling each other up. This is artistic expression," said Ricardo Oyarzun, who staged a fashion show yesterday that featured designs inspired by the Virgin Mary. Unlike the "sexy" Virgin Mary featured on a recent cover of Mexican Playboy, Oyarzun says he did not intend to represent the religious figure. Still, a conservative group tried unsuccessfully to block the show in court, and Oyarzun says has received telephone threats and excrement has been smeared on his doorstep. Chile's Episcopal Conference, which includes Catholic bishops, issued a statement saying, "We look on with special pain and deplore those acts which seek to tarnish manifestations of sincere love toward the Virgin Mary, which end up striking at the dignity of womankind by presenting her as an object of consumption." [Reuters]

Prasad argues that a virgin could give birth to a child, but no woman could produce a boy without the donation of a Y chromosome. In order for Mary to have given birth to Jesus, she would have had to have a condition called testicular feminisation, which would make her genetically male, but with the genitals of a woman. Unlike pythons, hammerhead sharks, and Komodo dragons, there has never been a documented example of a virgin birth in humans.

Virgin Conception Would Be More Plausible If Mary Was A Man [Guardian]

• Coke plans to release a new diet drink this week using a natural, calorie-free sugar alternative even though the FDA hasn't formally approved the ingredient. • Remember that Playboy Mexico cover that featured a sexy Virgin Mary? The U.S. Playboy headquarters apologized on Friday. • The Australian claims that young Aussie women are choosing babies over careers because Australia is experiencing a baby boom. • A 16-year-old Girl Scout from Michigan is determined to break the 60,000 cumulative record for cookie boxes sold by a single Girl Scout. • A poll of English children found that they believe Simon Cowell to be more famous than God and that they would like to ban divorce. • A woman named Claudia put out an ad in The Tampa Tribune looking for a nice girl to date and eventually marry her son. • Oh God: new research suggests that the best chance of "reeling-in" (their words) an unmarried father is to get him involved during the pregnancy. • Last week, the Afghani province of Ghazni put a ban on female voices on the radio. • The Women Film Critics Circle named Changeling the best film that "most passionately opposes violence against women" of 2008. • A study of birds sleeping has found that birds remember and practice songs that they heard the day before while they are sleeping. • Want to know some horribly dumb reasons that some English people gave when dropping off their dogs at shelters this year? "My dog doesn't match the sofa" and "the dog looks evil and has different colored eyes—just like David Bowie." •

• A roving gang of female bandits have been stealing credit cards and IDs from men at bars in Austin, Texas and using the plastic to get cash. • A recent study has found that postpartum depression can lead to poor sleep quality and the lack of sleep can aggravate PPD symptoms. • Russia's main pro-government youth group is staging a "Miss Constitution 2008" beauty contest for women to represent some changes to the constitution that the group would like to see added which includes extending the presidential term so Putin can reclaim the top job. • A new book, Femme Fatale: The Female Criminal, compares representations of female criminals in films and books with mug shots of actual female criminals from the State Reformatory of Women at Long Bay from 1914 to 1930. • A new study has found that cash incentives may help dieters stay motivated to lose weight because... duh. • A recent study has found that women have not made significant gains in top U.S. jobs but women are poised to make more achievements in the future. • An 82-year-old woman in New Hampshire was lucky to have her cell phone with her when she fell down a 12 foot well on Sunday. She called 911 and was saved in minutes. • A Princeton University scientist has found new evidence that sugar is addicting. • A new study has found that although half of women remember their labor pain as being less severe than it was at the time, one in six mothers remember it being more painful after 5 years of giving birth. • The rise in "matrimonial detectives" in England has been attributed to the recession by one cheater PI, who sees more people cheating when they have more spare time. •