This just in from my friends at UPI: ‘Oldest’ man actually died 32 years ago TOKYO, Aug. 5 (UPI) — A man thought to be Tokyo’s oldest resident at 111 years old actually died more than 30 years ago and was left to mummify in the family home, a report said.
(collection of photos from passports of individuals suspected in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh) This just in from CNN: — Alleged Israeli agent to be tried in Germany over charges relating to the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai. G.
While I’m not surprised that the Pentagon has barred Michael Hastings from a previously approved “embed”, they are not handling this well and are messing up again. The President and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates should intervene and order the Pentagon to invite Michael Hastings back into the embed fold.
America and Japan: the cutest military alliance in the whole world. Occasional blogger Gen Kanai sent me this fascinating note referencing a CNNGo post by Matt Alt about manga cartoon love and the US-Japan security relationship. From Gen Kanai: This is pretty amazing.
Nearly two and a half million other views have seen this — but I had not. The Toshiba Space Chair Project? Make sure you watch until the very end. Will be interesting to see how China beats this. — Steve Clemons Hat tip to Gen Kanai for this and his excellent blog.
The Bilerico Players have put together this slightly odd — but highly informative — animated exchange between a mocked-up Judge Vaughn Walker and a legal counsel supporting the anti-same sex marriage Proposition 8, which was Judge Walker struck down. Worth the seven minutes.
University of Vermont Political Science Professor F. Gregory Gause, III, writing at the Foreign Policy/Middle East Channel, is pessimistic about Saudi Arabia King Abdallah’s efforts to woo Syria away from Iran and reconstitute the Riyad-Cairo-Damascus Arab triangle.
(click image for larger version) Jonathan Guyer is a program associate at the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force and the official cartoonist of The Washington Note. He blogs at Mideast by Midwest. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen certainly caught our attention on the Sunday talkies.
This is a guest post by Parag Khanna, A Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order. Khanna is pictured above with his team mates who drove this ambulance in an 8000 mile Mongolia charity rally.
The news Saturday that after years of failed negotiations the United Arab Emirates will ban the data and email service on Blackberry phones after October 11 without an agreement allowing the Emirates to monitor the currently encrypted data raises fascinating questions about how authoritarian governments cope with emerging technologies.
