In 'What Made You Think That Was a Good Idea?' news: The FBI has used a picture of a Spanish member of parliament to create a digitally-altered image of what Osama Bin Laden could look like today. The Spanish MP said his forehead, hair, and jaw-line had been "cut and pasted" from an old campaign photo. He said, "I was surprised and angered because it's the most shameless use of a real person to make up the image of a terrorist." He's concerned that he could wrongly be identified as Bin Laden, and that his safety is at risk.
The FBI admitted that a forensic artist had used certain facial features "from a photograph found on the internet." A spokesman for the FBI said that forensic artists normally "select features from a database of stock reference photographs to create the new image...[but] the forensic artist was unable to find suitable features among the reference photographs and obtained those features, in part, from a photograph he found on the internet...The similarities between the photos were unintentional and inadvertent. " Uh, no they weren't. You can't take pieces of someone's face and place it on someone else's face and then say similarities were unintentional. You made the similarities. Also, the article said the forensic artist was not aware of the identify of the individual in the photograph. So he didn't know his name or that he was a Spanish MP, so I'm curious how he came about finding this picture? Did he just google "guy that kind of looks like Osama bin Laden"? (Full Story)
Senegal's president said he will offer free land and voluntary "repatriation" to Haitians affected by the earthquake. The president said that Haitians are children of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal. The president's spokesman said, "Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land -- even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come. If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region." He also added that if a region was given, it would be fertile land and not part of the country's deserts. (Full Story)
That's a really generous offer on Senegal's part. And I know this isn't really very sensitive of me, but something about the way the spokesperson presented the offer reminded me of "Call now and you will get your own land. Operators are standing by. Tell all your friends! If you call within the next 20 minutes, you will get fertile land. If we reach our sales target, everyone gets a region!"
The 'Wow...' news of the day: A study has found that adults in Scotland drink the equivalent of 46 bottles of vodka per person in a year. That figure is also equivalent to 537 pints or 130 bottles of wine per person. And what's crazy is that, most likely, not every Scot of drinking age (18+) is consuming this much alcohol. Which means there are people consuming way more than 46 bottles of vodka a year...
To address the drinking problem, the Scottish government is pushing for a minimum price for alcohol. The Scottish Health Secretary said, "All the evidence tells us that the big rise in Scottish alcohol consumption in recent decades is closely linked with the 70% drop in alcohol's relative cost... Currently there is nothing to stop supermarkets selling alcohol more cheaply than bottled water and that's why it's possible to exceed the weekly drinking guidelines for a man for less than 3.50 pounds (approximately $5.70 USD). (Full Story)
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