1 RACIALLY-MOTIVATED MASS-MURDER IS SANE? Well, the important thing is that Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik will be locked up for 21 years – -more if he’s deemed a danger to society. Which, duh.

2 LET’S HAVE ANOTHER SHOOTING IN THE U.S.! A laid-off worker shot and killed a former co-worker near the Empire State Building in New York, then got into a shoot-out with police and lots of bystanders got shot — many, apparently, by police bullets. The shooter is dead, dead, dead. What a mess.

3 SPEAKING OF AMERICA Wells are drying up in drought-blasted Missouri, It’s a record year for West Nile disease and Texas is getting it the worst, That “legitimate rape” Republican is, gasp, polling badly, there are new details on accused Colorado mass murderer James Holmes a study says Mitt Romney should’ve picked a female running mate, well duh, but at least Romney has a money-making database to boost his political donations.

4 MEANWHILE IN CANADA Consumer debt just hit an eight-year high,  Guelph Liberals have been fined for unidentified robocalling, Nobody but Alberta likes the Northern Gateway pipeline but at least popular Toronto Mayor Rob Ford likes the province, our embassy in Denmark is under investigation for misusing alcohol stocks, hmm sounds fun, and the Canadian Military will spend 16.5 million to give Stephen Harper an erection. Oh, and Conrad Black really wants to keep his Order Of Canada.

5 LANCE ARMSTRONG: BIG FAT LIAR? The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency stripped the legendary cyclist of his seven Tour Du France titles for being a big fat doping cheater. The International Cycling Union hasn’t weighed in yet.

6 SCIENCE SAYS MANY ANIMALS HAVE CONSCIOUS AWARENESS LIKE HUMANS This happened in July but I’m just hearing about it now so we’ll just have to cope. So, animals have consciousness. To which I say: well , duh. Basic observation skills tell us that animal have emotional states and personalities. It’s not anthropomorphising: it’s called not being blind. Anyway it’s important to have science break it down because yay science! Here’s the story on io9, and here’s the money quote from the July 7 Cambridge Declaration On Consciousness:

“[T]he weight of evidence  indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.” Consequently, the weight of evidence  indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”

Francis Crick, by the way, was one of the people credited with discovering the double helix structure of DNA (along with Rosalind Franklin and James D. Watson).

H/T to Dakota. Annnd video!