Friday, November 20, 2009

Gulf of Aden

Caption from the U.S. Defense Dept.: "A boat crew from the guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin approaches three men who were spotted clinging to a piece of wood in the Gulf of Aden this week. Chosin is the flagship of Combined Joint Task Force 151, a multinational effort to conduct counter-piracy operations under a mission-based mandate to actively deter, disrupt and supress piracy off the coast of Somalia."

(U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Taylor)

Smithsonian Magazine

The December issue of Smithsonian magazine is up!

Shroud of Turin

Times of London: "Death certificate is imprinted on the Shroud of Turin, says Vatican scholar."

Javan Rhinoceros

WWF:

Highly trained detection dogs are being used help to determine the population status of the Javan rhino in Vietnam, in an attempt to save one of the world’s rarest mammals from extinction."

Scotland

BBC News: "A man who gouged out a woman's eye and threw it from an eighth-floor balcony has been jailed for attempted murder."

Piracy

Matthew Saltmarsh of the New York Times:

Pirate attacks on shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa have shown no sign of relenting, and the nations policing the seas are struggling to find solutions in a mission that seems to be covering a growing area and time frame.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Fat

Via ABC Online, Australia:

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing some 60 people to sell their fat and other human tissue to Italian co-conspirators for cosmetic use in Europe, authorities say.

Cannibals

Times of London: "Brain-eating tribe enriches understanding of mad cow disease."

Cat Fight

Two lions killed a tiger at a zoo in the Czech Republic.

Oh, What a Swim

Via IOL: "Sailor swims in violent storm to save puppies."

Global Warming

Gerald Traufetter at Der Spiegel: "Global warming appears to have stalled."

Related: State of Fear by Michael Crichton

Gondwana

National Geographic Society:

A suite of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck's bill, have been discovered in the Sahara by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno. The five fossil crocs, three of them newly named species, are remains of a bizarre world of crocs that inhabited the southern land mass known as Gondwana some 100 million years ago.

Sereno, a professor at the University of Chicago, and his team unearthed the strange crocs in a series of expeditions beginning in 2000 in the Sahara. Many of the fossils were found lying on the surface of a remote, windswept stretch of rock and dunes. The crocs galloped and swam across present-day Niger and Morocco when broad rivers coursed over lush plains and dinosaurs ruled.

Hobbits

"Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease," Wiley-Blackwell reports.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Magic Tattoos

Fewer Cambodians want magic tattoos.

Siamese Crocodiles

Via IOL: "Rare crocs found in Cambodia."

People of the Benz

"Kenyan Outrage after Leaders Ditch Mercedes" - Time

Déjà Vu

Alan Cowell, New York Times: "Seaborne raiders in a high-speed skiff tried again on Wednesday to commandeer the Maersk Alabama, the American-flagged ship seized by pirates in April, the United States Navy said."

Dead Divorcée

BBC: "A 20-year-old woman divorcée accused of committing adultery in Somalia has been stoned to death by Islamists in front of a crowd of about 200 people."

Tip for Entrepreneurs

I haven't paid attention to many news stories about Barack Obama. I have no desire to watch the on-the-job training of another amateur in the White House.

In international business, successful entrepreneurs seldom click their heels in blind obedience to political leaders. The enterpreneurs have their own strategic partners around the world.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Atherosclerosis

UCI:

Hardening of the arteries has been detected in Egyptian mummies, some as old as 3,500 years, suggesting that the factors causing heart attack and stroke are not only modern ones; they afflicted ancient people, too.

France

Via ABC Online, Australia: "A hotel in the French town of Nantes is offering the chance for people to become a hamster."

Carpets

Solana Pyne at Voice of America: "Moroccan carpets are prized for their beauty and can fetch hundreds of dollars in stores. But little of that money ends up in the hands of the women who spend months weaving the carpets."

Schutzstaffel

CNN: "A 90-year-old man from northern Germany has been charged with 58 counts of murder for the killings of Jewish forced laborers in the final days of World War Two."

Pirates

Andrés Cala and Alan Cowell, New York Times:

Somali pirates released 36 crew members and their Spanish fishing vessel Tuesday, the government here said, but officials declined to comment on reports that Spain had paid a ransom of nearly $3.5 million.

Gay Spy

Der Spiegel: "An explosive trial about to start in Munich involves a spy accused of betraying state secrets to his gay lover."

Brando

Trader Brendan Alexander has a blog.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Idaho

Rachael Horne at the Teton Valley News in Driggs, Idaho: An 11-year-old boy killed a bear at point-blank range last Wednesday night after it wouldn’t leave his family’s porch."

Tony Musulin

Tony Musulin surrendered.

Last Friday: Tony

Shackleton's Booze

"Neat: Drillers Seek Famed Explorer's Scotch Under Antarctic Ice"

Ancient Artifacts

John Tierney of the New York Times: "Do laws about the ownership of ancient artifacts help or hurt archaeology?"

Greece

ABC Online, Australia: "Greek police have arrested a heavily armed fugitive, Alket Rijai, who embarrassed authorities by twice escaping from prison in a helicopter."

China

Two tigers attacked a zoo worker.

Giant Deer

BBC: "A study of ancient teeth provides new clues as to what caused the demise of one of the largest-ever species of deer."

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Wild Tuskers

Via People's Daily:

Around 40 families of a forested tribal village in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh fled home Sunday after wild elephants went on rampage bringing down several mud-built houses in their village, reported the Indo-Asian News Service.

Kenya

VOA News: "Kenya's livestock minister says cattle rustlers have killed 11 people near the central town of Isiolo."

Ogiek

Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times: "With the stroke of a pen, the last of Kenya’s honey hunters may soon be homeless."

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Sweden

About 200 reindeer drowned in a river.

Nepal

BBC: "For the Sherpas of the high Everest or Khumbu region of Nepal, keeping healthy is a struggle."

Related: Famed Climber Dies

Headless Goat

RIA Novosti:

A traditional buzkashi sport competition in Afghanistan's capital is scheduled next week in honor of President Hamid Karzai's inauguration, the national sport federation's head, Hadji Rashid ,said on Saturday.

The competition, which will be held November 19-21, consists of players on horseback who try to hold on to a headless goat as long as possible while riding full gallop to gain sympathy from the viewers. Other players attempt to tear the goat carcass from its "owner" using practically any means. The carcass is sometimes thrown over a goal line, or slam-dunked into a vat.

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