Were crows used in the hunt for Osama bin Laden?

This may well be the sequel to Alfred Hitchock's iconic horror movie "The Birds". Scientists at University of Washington have been training and studying crows and ravens, testing their ability to recognize and remember human faces. They had people wear "caveman" masks around campus, and found that the birds could not only recognize individual 'cavemen",  but would swarm them as well.

Hitchcock and friends

Enter the U.S. military. When they got a whiff of the experiments being conducted they contacted John Marzluff, the professor running the research. They gave Marzluff funding to see if birds could be used to help track down Osama bin Laden.

Marzluff: “[Crows and ravens] have a long - term memory, very acute discrimination abilities, and if a group of crows knew bin Laden as an enemy, they would certainly indicate his presence when they next saw him.” 

No word on if birds did indeed play a role in the bin Laden hunt and we will likely never know. Just keep watching for that sequel ...

Related articles

• US military planned using spy crows to find Osama bin Laden [Neurophilosophy] (scienceblogs.com)

Stunning timelapse video of Las Vegas - "24 Hours of Neon"

Photographer Philip Bloom shot "24 Hours of Neon" using HDR tone mapping, a process that combines different images of the same scene, made at different exposures, into one frame, producing a tonal range not available in normal photograph. From Bloom:

"I wanted to create a sense of colour and insanity that Las Vegas gives you. All from one view point. My balcony. With that restriction can you do it? Well I did it before in my two previous timelapses...

This was harder in a way as there was no single focal point like in the Sydney Harbour piece or the Space Needle piece.

I made a virtue of the HDR tone mapping with the change of pace in the music and also my use of bookends which I love."

The result is a stunning video, with a beautiful soundtrack by Clint Mansell.


24 Hours of Neon from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

The ugliest buildings in America - let's start with Meadowlands Xanadu

The Week has put together a great visual list of the ugliest buildings in America. Let's begin with the  New Jersey "megamall" Meadowlands Xanadu (now American Dream Meadlowlands)  – stalled in construction – one of the latest eyesores to join the list of hideous structures. The mall was described by Mills Corporation chairman Laurence E. Siegel, the original co-developer of the project, as "...a new standard for bringing lifestyle, recreation, sports and family entertainment offerings together in one location."  Ground was broken on the complex on September 29, 2004, and was expected to open two years later. A series of owners and bankruptcies have stalled the project, with the new owners now forecasting the completion in 2013. Read the entire mall sad saga here.

You've had a taste, go to The Week to see a slideshow of the rest of the uglies.

American Dream Meadowlands previously "Meadowlands Xanadu"Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Millertime83

Ultra-orthodox Jewish newspaper Photoshops Hillary Clinton out of photo

Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish newspaper, Der Tzitung, has Photoshoped Hillary Clinton out of the iconic photo of U.S. leaders watching the attack on Osama bin Laden. A second woman standing at the back was also removed. The reason for this Soviet style removal? Apparently, the newspaper will not print images of women in the newspaper because it might be considered sexually suggestive. Huh?? Failed Messiah broke this story.

Here is the photo as it appeared in Der Tzitung:

Here is the original photo distributed by the White House:

Here is the meta data caption that the White House included with the photo. Note the part about not altering the photo:

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Seated, from left, are: Brigadier General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb, Assistant Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command; Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Standing, from left, are: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; Tony Binken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

They certainly are not the first newspaper to alter a news photo. There was a famous one last years showing the now deposed president of Egypt walking behind President Obama, which was altered by an Egyptian newspaper to have Obama following the Egyptian president. What can I say except shame, shame, shame.

Update: Der Tzitung has now issued the apology: a hypocritical religion-trumps-the-truth sort of apology:

"The White House released a picture showing the President following “live” the events in the apprehension of Osama Bin Laden, last week Sunday. Also present in the Situation Room were various high-ranking government and military officials. Our photo editor realized the significance of this historic moment, and published the picture, but in his haste he did not read the “fine print” that accompanied the picture, forbidding any changes. We should not have published the altered picture, and we have conveyed our regrets and apologies to the White House and to the State Department.

The allegations that religious Jews denigrate women or do not respect women in public office, is a malicious slander and libel. The current Secretary of State, the Honorable Hillary R. Clinton, was a Senator representing New York State with great distinction 8 years. She won overwhelming majorities in the Orthodox Jewish communities in her initial campaign in ‘00, and when she was re-elected in ‘06, because the religious community appreciated her unique capabilities and compassion to all communities. The Jewish religion does not allow for discrimination based on gender, race, etc.
We respect all government officials. We even have special prayers for the welfare of our Government and the government leaders, and there is no mention of gender in such prayers.

All Government employees are sworn into office, promising adherence to the Constitution, and our Constitution attests to our greatness as a nation that is a light beacon to the entire world. The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. That has precedence even to our cherished freedom of the press! In accord with our religious beliefs, we do not publish photos of women, which in no way relegates them to a lower status. Publishing a newspaper is a big responsibility, and our policies are guided by a Rabbinical Board. Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging to women, which is certainly never our intention. We apologize if this was seen as offensive.
We are proud Americans of the Jewish faith, and there is no conflict in that, and we will with the help of the Almighty continue as law-abiding citizens, in this great country of our’s, until the ultimate redemption."

Oy vey!

Infographic: How Americans feel about the hit on bin Laden

After 10 years of hunting and trillions of dollars spent waging war,  Osama bin Laden is finally history.  I'm certainly not losing sleep over the quaint issues of whether the U.S. broke international law in the operation or executed an unarmed man. Here's how President Obama felt about the operation as told to  60 Minutes :

"As nervous as I was about this whole process, the one thing I didn’t lose sleep over was the possibility of taking bin Laden out,” he said. “Justice was done. And I think that anyone who would question that the perpetrator of mass murder on American soil didn’t deserve what he got needs to have their head examined.”

 "It was the longest 40 minutes of my life with the possible exception of when Sasha got meningitis when she was three months old, and I was waiting for the doctor to tell me that she was all right. It was a very tense situation.”

“These guys are going in, you know, the darkness of night. And they don’t know what they’re gonna find there. They don’t know if the building is rigged. They don’t know if, you know, there are explosives that are triggered by a particular door opening. So huge risks that these guys are taking. And so my number one concern was, if I send them in, can I get them out?”

But how does the rest of America feel about the "hit"? Good.is with Column Five Media produced this graphic showing the opinions of the American people using data from a USA Today/Gallup poll.

Graphic: GOP candidates face-off with facial analysis

It's all in the face –  at least according to experts at Sensory Logic. They analyzed the facial reactions of the major contenders for the Republican presidential candidate and rated them on their chances of winning the nomination based on facial appeal. Sounds simple, but it's really quite an in depth analysis.  Fast Company, has taken the data and compiled it in this very interesting graphic.

From Sensory Logic:

"Sensory Logic quantifies and analyzes the emotions shown by consumers, executives, politicians, professional athletes, witnesses, and others, to learn what their faces reveal about the emotional responses to stimuli/situations, as well as their personalities."

From Fast Company:

"Fast Company, exclusively, met with [Dan] Hill [president of Sensory Logic] to understand his methodology and get an initial read and deconstruction of the Republican faces of 2012. This first-ever facial coding of the full presidential field is based on Hill’s methodology, which correlates 23 Facial Action Units to 7 Core Emotions plus the widely accepted Big 5 Personality Traits model producing Sensory Logic’s EmoTraits®. [The methodology builds off of a 19th century foundation laid by biologist Charles Darwin and refined more recently by Paul Ekman.]"

Fast Company's much deeper analysis  can be can read here.

Credit: Doogie Horner/ Fast Company/Sensory Logic

New mineral discovered in meteorite - could be a problem for Superman

Scientists have discovered a new mineral embedded in a meteorite, believed to be one of the oldest minerals in the solar system: krotite. The solar system was formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The streaks of krotite within the meteorite are called as refractory inclusions. This one has been more playfully named "Cracked Egg".  

From Science Daily:

 "It is the main component of an unusual inclusion embedded in a meteorite (NWA 1934), found in northwest Africa. These objects, known as refractory inclusions, are thought to be the first planetary materials formed in our solar system, dating back to before the formation of Earth and the other planets."

Will this new mineral be the new Achilles' Heel for Superman?  Is this payback for renouncing his U.S. citizenship? Stay tuned ....

The "Cracked Egg" grain, in which krotite was discovered. Credit: Image by Chi Ma

The architectural plans for Osama Bin Laden's house

We've seen the photos, now you can view the plans for the world's most wanted man's house. Andrew Buncombe from the Independent, has dug up the actual plans filed with the local authorities in 2004 for the construction of Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Buncombe reports: "A file held by the local authorities in the town shows that plans for the “pucca” (or proper) house were filed in the summer of 2004 by the man known as Arshad Khan, who is thought to have been Bin Laden’s courier. His ID card, Number CH 9613-753-20, believed to be fake, gives a date of birth as 09/06/1977. It is though the house was completed by September 2005, raising doubts about some reports claiming the property was raided by the Pakistanis in 2003. The file also shows that the occupants never paid any property tax, and that the completed building breached several guidelines."

 Read the entire story here.

Video: "Gaythering Storm" - "Gathering Storm" parody

This first video is a very funny parody of a National Organization for Marriage Gathering Storm TV Ad. Watch the parody and then watch the original below it. In their words: "The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it."

Japanese scientists invent kissing transmission machine

Scientists in Japan have invented a "kissing machine" that electronically transmits a kiss. "If you take one device in your mouth and turn it with your tongue, the other device turns in the same way," researcher Nobuhiro Takahashi said. "If you turn it back the other way, then your partner's turns back the same way, so your partner's device turns whichever way your own device turns."

What kind of use can a device like this have? Takahashi: "For example, if you have a popular entertainer use this device and record it, that could be hugely popular if you offer it to fans," he said.

Hey girls, line up for your kiss with Justin Bieber!

One in four public soap dispensers are contaminated with bacteria and spread germs during hand washing

Image via Wikipedia

It's always been common wisdom that washing your hands with soap eliminates, or at least reduces the amount of bacteria on your hands. Didn't your mother always say: "Wash your hands".

Well hold on to your hand sanitizer. A new study provides some disturbing findings about soap dispensers and hand washing. This study, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, has found that one in four public soap dispensers in public washrooms are contaminated with bacteria. It gets worse. That contamination is passed on to the hand washer, even after thoroughly washing the hands.

From the study:

"Bulk-soap-refillable dispensers are prone to extrinsic bacterial contamination, and recent studies demonstrated that approximately one in four dispensers in public restrooms are contaminated. ^"

^{"The purpose of hand washing is to remove soil and to reduce the level of potentially pathogenic transient microorganisms. This is the first study to quantitatively demonstrate that washing hands with contaminated liquid soap actually increases the number of Gram-negative bacteria on hands. Furthermore, the results directly demonstrate that bacteria from contaminated hands can be transferred to secondary surfaces. We therefore conclude that washing with contaminated soap not only defeats the purpose of hand washing but may contribute to the transmission of potentially harmful bacteria."}

Putting this real simply, if you use the public facilities and wash your hands, you have a one in four chance of having more bacteria on your hands than before you washed them. I suppose the moral of the story is don't use public facilities, or if you do, use your hand sanitizer. Look out Howie Mandel!

Related articles

• 5 Steps to Effective Hand-Washing (everydayhealth.com)
• Soap vs. Hand Sanitizer (fitsugar.com)

Dying man's last blog post – sad and inspiring – Derek Miller 's final post

Image via Wikipedia

Derek Miller died in Vancouver on May 3, 2011. Incredibly, the blogger left one last post on that day, that is both very sad and inspiring. It's sad for the obvious, but inspiring for his lack of fear and in the way he embraced life. Here are some quotes from the blog post:

"Here it is. I'm dead, and this is my last post to my blog. In advance, I asked that once my body finally shut down from the punishments of my cancer, then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote—the first part of the process of turning this from an active website to an archive." 

"If you knew me at all in real life, you probably heard the news already from another source, but however you found out, consider this a confirmation: I was born on June 30, 1969 in Vancouver, Canada, and I died in Burnaby on May 3, 2011, age 41, of complications from stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. We all knew this was coming.That includes my family and friends, and my parents Hilkka and Juergen Karl. My daughters Lauren, age 11, and Marina, who's 13, have known as much as we could tell them since I first found I had cancer. It's become part of their lives, alas."

"What is true is that I loved them. Lauren and Marina, as you mature and become yourselves over the years, know that I loved you and did my best to be a good father.Airdrie, you were my best friend and my closest connection. I don't know what we'd have been like without each other, but I think the world would be a poorer place. I loved you deeply, I loved you, I loved you, I loved you."

"I haven't gone to a better place, or a worse one. I haven't gone anyplace, because Derek doesn't exist anymore. As soon as my body stopped functioning, and the neurons in my brain ceased firing, I made a remarkable transformation: from a living organism to a corpse, like a flower or a mouse that didn't make it through a particularly frosty night. The evidence is clear that once I died, it was over."

"So I was unafraid of death—of the moment itself—and of what came afterwards, which was (and is) nothing. As I did all along, I remained somewhat afraid of the process of dying, of increasing weakness and fatigue, of pain, of becoming less and less of myself as I got there. I was lucky that my mental faculties were mostly unaffected over the months and years before the end, and there was no sign of cancer in my brain—as far as I or anyone else knew. "

"The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. There is always more to find out. I don't look back and regret anything, and I hope my family can find a way to do the same."

Read the full post here.

Nancy Pelosi can't make her mind up about Osama bin Laden

Image by TalkMediaNews via Flickr

We have gotten quite desensitized to politicians lying to us, recanting their words after having "mis-spoken" about something. That said, Nancy Pelosi is in desperate need of a continuity assistant, who can keep track of her opinions.

Here's what she had to say about Osama bin Laden at a press conference in 2006:

"Even if [Osama bin Laden] is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done ... is done. And even to capture him now I don't think makes us any safer."

Now we'll fast forward to May 2, 2011:

"The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. ... I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. ... The death of Osama bin Laden is historic...."

(from the Power Line)

I suppose it's no coincidence that George W. Bush was president in 2006 .....

Eating less salt does NOT cut risk of heart disease

Image via Wikipedia

We have been told for years by doctors and government health departments that eating salt causes heart disease. Not so, a new study says. Reuters is reporting that people with higher salt intakes were not, I repeat, not, more likely to have high blood pressure or die of heart disease.

The findings "certainly do not support the current recommendation to lower salt intake in the general population," study author Dr. Jan Staessen, of the University of Leuven in Belgium, told Reuters.

The existing salt guidelines are based on data from short-term studies of people in a experiment where they were fed either a high or low sodium diet. U.S. guidelines currently recommend consuming less than 2,300 milligrams of salt daily and 1,500 mg in people who are more at risk for high blood pressure or heart disease. According to the new findings, making the leap from the small test groups, to the general population, hasn't held true.

In this new study, which used existing data from two different studies, the chance of getting heart and blood vessel diseases did not differ with salt intake levels. In fact, participants with the lowest salt intake had the highest rate of death from heart disease and people who ate the most salt had the lowest.

Pass the salt!

From the FBI files: The case of the master art forger

The FBI has recently revamped its website, allowing for easy access to its "vault",  a treasure trove of great case history. This one about an art scam in 2004 shows how a big time art dealer  pulled off a major series of art scams. It took money, skill, patience and of course a certain amount of chutzpah. The scammer wasn't quite that good – he was caught. Here's some of the case highlights:

1990: Buy the authentic Marc Chagall La Nappe Mauve for $312,000.1993: Have it copied by an expert forger and sell the forgery for $514,000.1998: Sell the authentic work of art for $340,000. GAIN OVER 8 YEARS: $854,000.

1996: Buy the authentic Gustave Moreau L'Enlevement de Ganymede for $285,000.1997: Have it copied by an expert forger and sell the forgery for a $55,000 loss—price tag $229,000.1999: Sell the authentic work of art for a bigger loss—$170,000.                   GAIN OVER 3 YEARS: $399,000

Other paintings involved in the scams include Chagall's Les Marie au Bouquet de Fleurs and Le Roi David Dans le Paysage Vert; Marie Laurencin's Jeune Fille a la Mandolin; Paul Gaugin's Vase de Fleurs (Lilas); and Paul Klee's Palaste, all pictured above. Read the complete FBI  file here.

Video: Watch the Earth age 750 million years in one minute

Hey buddy - have a minute to spare to watch the Earth's continents being formed? This very cool video is from the Visible Paleo-Earth project – an initiative by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico to visualize the Earth’s changing appearance over the past 750 million years. See the rest of their collection at http://phl.upra.edu. Sit back an watch a bit of geological history unfold.

Twitter users hit back at the Donald

In one corner -  the ridiculous comb-over king Donald Trump.  In the other -  President Obama. It's not that I'm a huge Obama fan; I'm not and believe he's made his share of mis-steps running the country, but you have to take your hat off to him on offing Osama bin Laden in a most spectacular manner. Obama managed to swing back with humour at Trump in his speech at the Press Club dinner, but it looks like the Osama take-down in the knock out punch. Even the Donald has asked for a truce.  It's obviously getting a lot of twitter action, and here are a few of the most recent tweets:

"Bin Laden is dead. I didn't kill him. Please let me sleep now." – The man who live tweeted the Osama bin Laden raid

Sohaib Athar – aka twitter user@ReallyVirtual – was just a tech consultant hanging out, specifically Abbottabad, northern Pakistan. His twitter profile says he's "An IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops."

Now he's known as the guy that live tweeted the attack on the bin Laden mansion. It looks like the attention is taking its toll on him, however.

Here's his final tweet before going to bed after being hounded by media around the world:

Here are some of his tweets during the attack:

Google photos of Osama bin Laden

After a decade of a "Where's Waldo" chase, Osama bin Laden is finally dead. It would be a smart idea for the U.S. to show photos of his dead body to put the doubters to rest, as distasteful as this may be. Does this change the terrorism outlook?  Not a bit, but a bit of vengeance has been served. Here's the Wikipedia entry on the world's former number one terrorist, updated with his date of death:

"Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎, ʾUsāmah bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin; March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011 was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. As a result of his dealings in and advocacy of violent extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his billionaire family."

Here's a look at the assortment of images that come up when you type in "Osama bin Laden" in Google photos.

Video: Man struck by lightening twice within one minute

In this video from a security camera, a man is struck by lightening twice within a minute and walks away. The jogger gets struck once and is knocked to the ground, gets up and is struck a second time and walks away. Is this real footage or a hoax? The chances of getting struck by lightening are about one in 700,000. The odds of getting struck twice in one minute are astronomical.  No one seems to know if this is real or not and there is no information with the YouTube video to help decide. Have a look and decide for yourself.

Here's the first strike:

And the second strike:

And now the video: