Thus far, 13 Miami police officers, active and retired, have been accused of planting guns, lying during investigations, tampering with evidence, and trying to cover up 4 shootings in which 3 people were killed.

The deaths / gun plants at issue:

• A 73-year-old man was killed when 123 shots were fired at a house in a drug raid in 1996. Another occupant of the house, the man's 14-year-old granddaughter, narrowly missed being hit. Police claimed the man fired first. No drugs were in the house. Some drug evidence was found outside a window.

• 37 bullets were fired at two young men who were shot in the back and killed as they were fleeing. They had snatched some purses.
  

Sources:

• MSNBC [link inactive]
• Miami Herald (1 of 2) [link inactive]
• Miami Herald (2 of 2) [link inactive]

Photo Evidence of Life on Mars?

Hungarians, studying over 60,000 photos taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, have found evidence of thousands of dark dune spots in the Mars snow-covered southern polar region which resemble organisms found near the South Pole on Earth.

Source:

• ABC News / Reuters [link inactive]

Botulism Cure for Pain?

One dose of a botulism-derived drug prototype may be able to provide relief of chronic pain for weeks and even months, per lab trials currently underway at Porton Down in Wiltshire.

To develop the drug, the botulinum bacteria, one of the most deadly toxins known to humans, was altered via molecular engineering. The result? A substance that blocks the body's pain nerves.

Source:

• Independent News [link inactive]

There have been so very many master teachers in the history of humankind, the written history, that is, with so much of our history lost prior to the advent of written records or destroyed (the most egregious destruction being the burning of the library at Alexandria in the 4th century C.E.).

A brief list follows - apologies for the many master teachers missing from this list, as I'm providing a brief list to offer a perspective / appreciation for the vast number of teachers and cultures and civilizations that have led us to our current positions which are way stations we reside in on a series of long paths toward our ultimate fates, in this, our one and only *sure* shot at life ...

• those who invented the deity concepts prior to written language in cultures across the globe
• those who created written symbols for spoken language in diverse cultures across the globe
• those responsible for the design and construction of the great pyramids of Egypt
• the creator of the concept of Ma'at in Egypt
• the creator of the concept of Enneads in Egypt
• the creator of the concepts and practices revolving around Osiris-Isis-Horus-Dionysus in Egypt
• first documented monotheist - King Akhenaton
• the creator of the 'Elysian Fields' concepts in Egypt
• the writer of the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead'
• the mysterious writers/creators of deities in Mesopotamian cultures
• creators of the Shang Dynasty
• the mysterious creators of Greek mystery religions
• the mysterious writers of the Vedas
• Hammurabi
• creators of the worship of Ahura Mazda
• Zoroaster
• Lao Tsu
• Jaimini
• The Buddah
• developers of concepts used by the Orphics
• Pythagoras
• Socrates
• Plato
• Aristotle
• Homer
• Plotinus
• Alexander the Great
• the masters of the greatest library the world has ever known at Alexandria,
• the developers of the concepts entailed in religious syncretism
• the Ptolemies
• Confucius
• the developers of Stoicism
• the developers of Epicureanism
• the developers of Skepticism
• the developers of Paganism
• the developers of Gnosticism
• Seleucus Nicator
• Asinaeus and Anilaeus
• Philo
• Julius Caesar
• Caesar Augustus
• the Sicarii
• Paul
• the writer(s) of the biblical book of Mark
• the writer(s) of the mysterious source book known as Q
• Lukuas-Andreas and Bar Kokhba
• Akiba
• Clement of Alexandria
• Origen
• Ambrose of Milan
• Mani
• the developers of Mithraism in the Roman Empire
• Constantine
• Arius
• Theodosius
• developers of Shinto
• Saint Augustine
• developers of Islam
• William Shakespeare
• Sir William Wallace
• Giordano Bruno
• Galileo
• Rene Descartes
• Sir Isaac Newton
• Voltaire
• writers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence / Constitution /
  Bill of Rights
• Patrick Henry
• Thomas Paine
• Thomas Jefferson
• John Adams
• Charles Darwin
• Robert G. Ingersoll
• Mark Twain
• Bertrand Arthur Russell
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Max Planck
• Sigmund Freud
• Albert Einstein
• Isaac Asimov
• Carl Sagan
• Richard Dawkins

Sources:

• Pro-Humanist FREELOVER