A couple of news items remind us that we’re not that far removed from the days of flattened globes and foppish robes. In Assam, an angry mob does what angry mobs do best — irrational accusations followed by violent consequences:

A Tribal mob in northeastern India lynched and decapitated two women accused of practising witchcraft, threw their bodies into a river and paraded their heads as trophies, police said … Villagers believed the women “had cast evil spells,” the police official said, and afterwards paraded the heads “as trophies.” Eight people have been arrested over the attack. [The Courier-Mail]

And on the high seas near Bangledesh, government crackdowns have led to a drastic decline in old-school, non-digital piracy:

… the number of attacks has fallen from 58 in 2003 to just 17 in 2004. The (International Maritime Bureau) has praised the Bangladesh authorities, saying that the fall in attacks shows that when governments “are committed to tackling piracy and provide the necessary resources, the attacks would eventually reduce.” [Jane’s]

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LetÂ’s say that youÂ’ve just had a brutal argument with your wife. SheÂ’s always giving you the business about something: You spend too much time with your friends…you ought to spend more time with the kids…you need to spend less time with your mistress…and so on. After a fight with his wife, an unemployed man in Uttar Pradesh had just about enough. He flew the coop, and returned two years later with the ultimate retort:

During his absence, he got himself castrated and became a eunuch, earning money by singing and dancing, a common form of employment among IndiaÂ’s ostracized community of eunuchs. “I was always fond of singing and dancing, but felt suffocated in my body as a man,” Nabiullah was quoted as saying. His wife, Shama Parveen, fainted when he returned home late last month… [Reuters/Yahoo!]

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