Son of bin Laden Dead in Pakistan?

One of Osama bin Laden's sons may have been killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan earlier this year, National Public Radio reported.

Saad bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader's third-oldest son, is "believed" to have been killed by Hellfire missiles fired from a US Predator drone "sometime this year," the US broadcaster said on its website.

The United States has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda. The US military and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are the only forces that deploy drones to the region.

US spy agencies are "80 to 85 percent" sure that Saad bin Laden is dead, a senior counterterrorism official told NPR, while acknowledging that it was difficult to be completely sure without a body on which DNA tests could be conducted.

Officials at the CIA and the US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, told AFP they could not immediately confirm the report.

link: The Raw Story | US strike may have killed bin Laden's son: report

Pelosi Firm on Public Option Health Care

Christopher Hayes writes:

Just got back from an hour-long interview Speaker Pelosi gave to a few journalists on healthcare. I've interviewed the speaker a number of times, and it always strikes me how vast the gap must be between Pelosi's public persona as a kind of gentle earnest liberal grandmother, and her behind-the-scenes role as an incredibly effective vote wrangler. At one point she said that she's always called Washington DC "the city of the perishable. When you got the vote, you take the vote." And at this she pounded her fist into her hand with relish and a smile that made me think about just how much she seems to like her job.

She seemed confident about the House being able to pass a healthcare bill with a "strong" public option, the importance of which she repeatedly stressed. "That's gonna happen," she said flatly. She also said that for all the stories about Democrats rebelling over the Ways and Means proposed surtax on the rich, she's gotten very little push back from members of her caucus.

link: Pelosi on the Public Option: "That's Gonna Happen."

Death of the Minotaur: Emil Alzamora

adski_kafeteri: Emil Alzamora

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'

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.

link: Google Reader (74)