They have one word in their vocabulary and it's a single syllable at that.

But farmers claim cows appear to 'moo' in regional accents, despite their limited conversational skills.

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog, as a famous New Yorker cartoon once said. Nobody knows when you're the CEO of a big company, either, or a popular doctor, or a columnist posting comments on his or her own writings if you're writing under an assumed name. And while anonymity can be an attractive feature of the Internet, how and when you use it raises some interesting ethical questions.

Do you like to glug away at cans of sugar-free fizzy drinks but simultaneously worry that the artificial sweeteners might not be that much better than sugar itself? So the news of a plant-derived sweetener with claimed health-promoting effects would be good news.

Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours.

Japanese scientists used a range of data to calculate the environmental impact of a single purchase of beef.

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens (published in the United Kingdom as God is Not Great: The Case Against Religion) is the latest in a rash of athiestic manifestos attempting to portray religion as a malignant force in the world. Currently the book has been on the New York Times best seller list for 14 weeks and has sold over 58,000 copies. This review by Stephen Prothero from The Washington Post casts an interesting light on the methods Hitchens uses to communicate his frustration with theistic thinking and the influence it has on society.

U.S. Hindu organizations are urging presidential candidates to denounce the protesters who disrupted the Senate as the first-ever Hindu opening prayer was being delivered last month.

The three protesters -- identified in the Christian media as a couple and their daughter -- were removed from the Senate floor and arrested by Capitol Police on July 12 after they began shouting, "This is an abomination," and asking for forgiveness from God.

In the USA, spending on veterinary care is expected to reach US$9.8 billion in 2007, up from US$7.2 billion five years ago, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

Puri (Orissa): The famed Jagannath Temple in Puri, Orissa, boasts of having one of the biggest kitchens in the country.

Around 500 cooks and 300 helping hands prepare 56 different offerings known as 'Mahaprasad' or 'Abhada' for Lord Jagannath, which are served to the deity six times a day.

The kitchen has 32 rooms, 752 stoves and nine earthen pots.

The meals include seven different types of rice, four types of pulses, nine types of vegetables and different items of sweet dishes.

SELEKSIA, Kazakhstan -- The house where Maya Salakhutdinova lived is now a shell of ruined walls with broken cinder blocks and splintered wood spilling in a heap onto a narrow lane. Last month, her house and 11 others in this village, a secluded enclave about an hour from Almaty, Kazakhstan's commercial capital, were bulldozed by court order.

All the destroyed homes belonged to members of a Hare Krishna community, which has a temple in a converted farmhouse here, as well as 116 acres of farmland. A bulldozing in November leveled 14 Hare Krishna homes.

ISKCON devotees in Moscow have permission to build a temple on the outskirts of the city. The traditional Indian temple will be constructed on land recently allocated by the Moscow mayor. The process for obtaining building permits in Moscow typically takes up to a year to complete. Approval for the temple came in just ten weeks.

Inmates at a prison in southern India are eating so well that many are reluctant to leave, while other convicted criminals are trying to move in, a newspaper said Thursday.

ISKCON, commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement, started serving prasadam—pure vegetarian sanctified fare— in the jail on May 21 under contract from the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore.

Karasai district officials brought busloads of laborers and police officers with them, indiscriminately taking crowbars and sledgehammers to the homes. They threw personal possessions out into the street, even as the horrified devotees pleaded with them and begged for mercy. Mechanical diggers then moved in, literally “crushing the houses to dust.”

His Holiness BB Govinda Swami and Anuttama Dasa are in Washington, DC this week to raise awareness about the crisis in Kazakhstan, meeting with high-ranking US officials and human rights advocates. Govinda Swami is also collecting funds for the newly displaced devotees.

The Sri Jagannath temple in Puri, India, has seen an increase in revenue over the past two years due to recent administrative reforms, but the temple also intends to dispose of tens of thousands of acres of land that is currently in unauthorized use by others.

"BBT is a worldwide entity with offices in five countries," said Jayadvaita Swami, one of seven BBT International trustees. "We meet several times a year and are in constant touch on email, but we still felt the need for training to better respond to the needs of our constituents and help us be a more effective team."

The ISKCON Child Protection Office held a three-day child abuse safety training program the first week in May in New Vrindavana. Seven devotees, including teachers, Sunday School teachers and social workers, attended the training.