Disintegrating State: Guinea-Bissau

“The election won’t end the problems,” said Cheik Malaine, a 26-year-old who works at a downtown stationery store, as rocking goumbé music blared from the ruling party’s building next door. “The problem is the army,” he said, looking down.

Antonio Armando, a teacher, said angrily: “It’s not possible, to live in a state where there are killings all the time. We practically have no state.”

A leading political scientist, Flavien Fafali Koudawo, said, “The day after the election will be the same as the day before.” Then he began laughing, explaining it as “the humor of desperation.”

The state “is in a phase of deliquescence,” said a former justice minister, Carlos Vamain. “The state has been dismantled.”

link: Nation in Disarray Holds Few Hopes for Vote - NYTimes.com

O Arizona: Sheriff Joe Won't Play

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office will not cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice in an ongoing investigation into whether the office uses racial profiling, Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced in a news conference Tuesday.

Arpaio said he's halting all interviews between his staff and DOJ investigators.

The sheriff claims the DOJ is investigating his office for political reasons, not because of racial profiling; according to Arpaio, the Democrats in Washington don't agree with section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows local law enforcement agencies to assist with illegal immigration enforcement efforts.

link: Arpaio To DOJ: 'Don't Pick On Me' - Politics News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Photo Archive: Fall of Warsaw in 1939

File:Fall of Warsaw in 1939.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Monkey See Grammar, Monkey Do Grammar

Studies on monkeys have revealed clues about the evolution of language.

In the journal Biology Letters, researchers said that cotton-top tamarins are able to spot if the order of syllables in a word is "wrong".

They familiarised the monkeys with two-syllable terms, and recorded their reaction to words that were not consistent with that syllable pattern.

The team says the work illustrates how many animals use patterns that have become intrinsic to human language.

And this provides evidence of the "non-lingual" origin of certain aspects of language, the group told BBC News.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Monkeys recognise 'bad grammar'

Election Continues to Reverberate in Iran

“The events of the June 2009 elections in Iran have largely stripped the Islamic republic of Iran of its republican claim and completed the process that was initiated by the presidential elections of 2005,” said Rasool Nafisi, a professor at Strayer University who follows events in Iran.

The competing poles of Iran’s system have produced a fight-to-the-death ethos. Compromise is not just elusive but a sign of weakness.

link: News Analysis - In Iran, a Struggle Beyond the Streets - NYTimes.com

Test-Tube Sperm: A Scientific First?

Scientists in Newcastle claim to have created human sperm in the laboratory in what they say is a world first.

The researchers believe the work could eventually help men with fertility problems to conceive.

But other experts say they are not convinced that fully developed sperm have been created.

Writing in the journal Stem Cells and Development, the Newcastle team say it will be at least five years before the technique is perfected.

link: BBC NEWS | Health | Scientists claim sperm 'first'

Plants that Want to Burn

Olivia Judson writes:

But here’s the odd thing. Many plants that live in places prone to fire are highly flammable — more flammable than plants that live elsewhere. This has led some to speculate that these plants have actually evolved to cause fires: that they “want” fire, and have evolved features that make it more likely that a spark will become a flame, and a flame will become a fire. I call this the torch-me hypothesis.

link: On Fire - Olivia Judson Blog - NYTimes.com

Untangled: Marc Johns

Marc Johns creates whimsical drawings filled with dry wit and humour. Whether it’s a man with branches growing out of his head that need pruning, or a pipe that’s trying to quit smoking, his characters are simply, sparsely drawn, yet speak volumes with just a few strokes of the pen.

link: bagger: Marc Johns