Pakistan: New Constellations of Power

Syed Saleem Shahzad writes:

KARACHI - The seamless friendship between the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, has cemented the relationship between the military establishments of the two countries to levels not seen since the 1950s, when Pakistan was a frontline state against communism.

The result is that Islamabad and Washington are in a position to implement coordinated, long-term policies in the region, which include action against militants, moves to improve ties between Pakistan and India, especially their dispute over divided Kashmir, and the evolution of a broad-based, stable civilian government in Pakistan.

However, just as the US and Pakistan have forged a united front, so too have the previously splintered militants and groups that oppose them in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, setting the stage for a struggle of unprecedented proportions.

link: Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

American Charged with Helping Al Qaeda; Held in Undisclosed Location

A U.S. man has been charged with giving al Qaeda details about the New York City transit system and the Long Island Railroad, as well as firing rockets at American troops in Afghanistan, according to court papers unsealed on Wednesday.

Bryant Neal Vinas, 26, is also accused of receiving military-type training between March and August last year from the Islamist extremist group headed by Osama bin Laden.

Vinas provided al Qaeda with "expert advice and assistance, including assistance derived from specialized knowledge of the New York transit system and Long Island Railroad, communications equipment and personnel, including himself," said the court papers, unsealed in New York federal court.

Vinas was being held by the FBI, officials said. They did not say where he was.

link: Man charged with giving al Qaeda NY transit data | Reuters

Phineas Gage: A New Image

Benedict Carey writes:

The medical literature is punctuated with gruesome, anonymous case studies but one of the most ghastly images of all comes with name: Phineas Gage, a Vermont railroad worker who, in 1848, was skewered through his brain by an iron bar the size of large fireplace poker in an explosion. Gage survived, became an object of medical fascination, and images of his impaled skull (preserved at Harvard University) later landed in textbooks to illustrate the function of the frontal lobes. With his frontals mangled, the once-reliable Mr. Gage became a lout and wastrel. Or so the textbook version goes.

Now, a Maryland couple has come forward with what experts believe to be a photograph of Mr. Gage, post-accident, and it is a striking reminder that there was a man behind the medical case. The iron bar did not lodge in Mr. Gage’s skull – it passed through – and the person staring out of the photograph looks far from seriously disabled. He looks like the actor Christopher Reeve in his prime, minus an eye. In an article accompanying the image in the Journal of the History of Neuroscience, Malcolm Macmillan, a psychologist at the University of Melbourne, describes the process and raises the question, Who was Phineas Gage after the accident? No one really knows, as Dr. Macmillan has pointed out in a series of papers. Mr. Gage was changed, all right, but he lived another 11 years, held several jobs, and was not so easy to fit into the “wastrel” mold given him by textbooks after his death.

link: The Curious Case of Phineas Gage, Refocused - TierneyLab Blog - NYTimes.com

Dress Codes for Traffic Light Maintenance Personnel: 1926

January 5, 1926. Washington, D.C. "Traffic Director Eldridge inspecting new lights." National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

link: Left on White: 1926 | Shorpy Photo Archive

Dwindling Population of Bactrian Camels "Genetically Unique"

The precarious status of the Bactrian camel has been highlighted by a new genetic study.

An analysis by scientists in China and Inner Mongolia shows that wild Bactrian camels are distantly related to their domestic two-humped counterparts.

That reinforces the idea that the few hundred remaining wild Bactrian camels are unique, and should be kept separate from those in domestic herds.

Bactrians are the last remaining wild camels of any type. Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus) are huge animals that stand up to 2.3m tall at the shoulder and can weigh up to 690kg.

Fewer than 1000 wild Bactrian camels survive in just a few areas in north-west China and south-west Mongolia.

link: BBC - Earth News - Wild camels 'genetically unique'

Abused Afghan Women Find Divorce a Better Option than Suicide

Golnar Motevalli writes:

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - After regular beatings, torture and attempted murder by her husband, 35-year-old Zahra tried to burn herself to death to escape her marriage. Then she learned of a safer option: divorce.

Zahra is among a growing number of women in Afghanistan's western Herat province who, with the help of a women's charity, have taken on patriarchal laws to get a divorce, a taboo in the devoutly Muslim, formerly Taliban-led state.

link: Battered Afghan wives opt for divorce instead of suicide | International | Reuters

UK Landowner on Quest for Nature's Cathedrals

Mark Kinver writes:

One of the UK's biggest landowners is embarking on a comprehensive survey to identify previously unrecorded ancient trees on its properties.

The National Trust hopes to find 40,000 of them during the three-year project.

Ancients trees provide unique habitats that support a wide range of rare species, which will be at risk if the trees are allowed to die, say experts.

The data will be fed into a national record, managed by the Woodland Trust, which is available online.

"Ancient trees can be thought of as the cathedrals of the natural world," said Ray Hawes, the National Trust's head of forestry.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Hunt hopes to find ancient trees

Ancient Crater Discovered in Sahara by Satellite Camera

Boston University scientists sifting through satellite photos found the largest crater seen to date in the Great Sahara Desert of North Africa. The 100-million-year old crater, known as Kebira, which means "large" in Arabic, is 19 miles wide, which is more than twice the next largest crater known in the Sahara.

The crater is on the northern tip of the Gilf Kebir region of southwestern Egypt near Libya. The meteorite that fell to Earth and gouged out Kebira probably was three-quarters of a mile wide. The terrain around the crater is 100 million year-old sandstone. Two ancient rivers run through the crater site from the east and west.

The shock of such a large object crashing into Earth tens of millions of years ago may have left behind the field of yellow-green silica chips – the mysterious desert glass – seen today on the surface among the giant dunes of the Great Sand Sea in southwestern Egypt.

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