Special Dog Center of Legal Battle in Australia

A LEGAL fight has erupted over ownership of a five-legged puppy, with a freak show owner claiming the dog is his.

Lilly, the Chihuahua-terrier puppy was born about six weeks ago with an extra leg which is white and without feeling, The Charlotte Observer reported.

But Lilly is currently at the centre of a legal storm and may end up in a New York freak show if John Strong gets his way.

The Coney Island exhibitor says he plans to sue the pup's original owner, Calvin Owensby of Gastonia, who he claims broke an implied contract to sell him the dog.

The two had agreed on a price and Mr Strong paid a $US1000 deposit, The Observer said.

But Mr Owensby decided to sell the pup to a Charlotte woman after media reports of the freak-show deal sparked an outcry from animal lovers.

Lilly's extra leg makes it hard for the seven-week-old puppy to walk, so her new owner Allyson Siegel plans to have it removed next week.

But Mr Strong says he'll seek an injunction to stop any surgery on the pup.

link: Five-legged puppy at centre of legal fight for ownership | News.com.au Top stories | News.com.au

Black Honduras Hurt by Zelaya's Ouster

Surrounded by hundreds of protesters shouting for the return of ousted President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya were a dozen black Hondurans swaying to the rhythm of their own drums and singing in their local Garifuna language.

They weren't there to support the populist president — ousted more than three weeks ago — but to defend one of his most controversial ideas: revising the constitution.

"We have no political visibility in this country and that makes us extremely vulnerable," said Alfredo Lopez, 56, a community activist and one of about 400,000 ethnic Garifunas in Honduras. "The constitutional assembly would have given us a chance to change that."

Zelaya was toppled June 28 as he aggressively and, some argue, illegally pursued a national referendum to redraft the constitution. With just six months left in his term, his enemies feared he was bent on abolishing presidential term limits to remain in power.

But for many Garifunas, the constitutional assembly held the promise of winning long-sought rights, such as proportional representation and legal title to communal and ancestral land.

"We have been in a continuous struggle for decades to have a voice, to be visible, to have representation," said Celeo Alvarez Casildo, president of the Organization for the Development of Ethnic Communities. "It's not that we supported Zelaya — and much less the events that led to his ouster — but we have our own very good reasons for wanting a constitutional assembly.''

link: Who had hope under Zelaya? Neglected black Hondurans | McClatchy

Data Art

Artists Create Stunning Works Of Art From Mounds Of Data

Obama Weighs In on the Case of Dr. Gates

Helene Cooper writes:

President Obama bluntly accused the police of acting “stupidly” by arresting the Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week after an officer had established that Mr. Gates had not broken into his own home in Cambridge, Mass.

Mr. Obama stopped short of accusing the police department of racial profiling, as Mr. Gates has done. But during a prime-time White House news conference that was otherwise largely devoted to health care, Mr. Obama weighed in full bore on the Gates case and suggested that the police should never have arrested him.

He added that African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States have long been familiar with racial profiling by law enforcement.

“There’s a long history in this country of African-Americans being stopped disproportionately by the police,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s a sign of how race remains a factor in this society.”

link: Obama Criticizes Arrest of Harvard Professor - NYTimes.com

Book of the Planets, 1541

1541: Book of the Planets (Das Planeten Buch. Von Natur, eygenthumb, und wirckung der siben Planeten…), published in Strassburg by Jacob Cammerkander

link: Ptak Science Books: History of Dots

David Lynch Photographer

The ever-prolific David Lynch just completed a personal photography project in collaboration with musician, artist and producer Danger Mouse. The photos are odd, tripped out, discontinuous as a dream, and fun. See some preview images, and read more, here in Lens Culture. For the moment, you can hear the entire album for free at NPR. More info at Aline Smithson's blog.

link: New photography from David Lynch — bizarre, of course - lens culture photography weblog

New Bio-Mass Powered Robot a Gentle Herbivore, Not a Flesh-Eating Monster, Alas

Larry Greenmeier writes:

When Robotic Technology, Inc., and Cyclone Power Technologies announced earlier this month they had completed the first phase of their project to build a robotic vehicle that could scavenge sticks, grass, leaves and other biomass to fuel itself, the companies had no idea that their proposed machine would set off one of humanity's worst fears: the dawn of an artificially intelligent race of self-sufficient mechanical devices with a hunger for organic meals (including people). The companies quelled last week's clamor that their Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) was being developed as a carnivore by pointing out that it will, in fact, be a vegetarian.

link: Biomass-Fueled Robot to Chow Down On Veggies, Not People, Makers Insist: Scientific American

Blue Brain Project: Artificial Human Brain Possible in 10 Years

Johathan Fildes writes:

A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed.

Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, has already simulated elements of a rat brain.

He told the TED Global conference in Oxford that a synthetic human brain would be of particular use finding treatments for mental illnesses.

Around two billion people are thought to suffer some kind of brain impairment, he said.

"It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years," he said.

link: BBC NEWS | Technology | Artificial brain '10 years away'