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07 May 2011 12:35

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World: Navy SEALS didn’t have a tape measure during Bin Laden raid

  • However, the heavily-armed, electronically wired SEALs didn’t come with a tape measure to get an accurate height reading. According to reports, a Navy SEAL of about 6-feet laid out next to bin Laden’s corpse to gauge the Al Qaeda leader’s height. The corpse was several inches taller.
  • An article on CBS’ Dan Farber • Noting the fairly awkward way that they measured Osama bin Laden’s height after the raid that led to his death. Could you imagine? These big hulking men just killed Bin Laden, only to have to force one of them to lay the ground next to him to do rough measurements? That’s weird. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 May 2011 16:37

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World: The real question: Was Osama bin Laden smoking marijuana?

  • They were growing pot on his compound: A recent report by our boy Nic Robertson of CNN notes that the slain al-Qaeda leader may have had an interesting crop on his property. Next to the cabbage and potatoes were potent marijuana leaves, which is interesting for a number of reasons. Osama had longstanding kidney problems, which might partly explain it, but if he was smoking recreationally, that adds a new wrinkle to this story. LOOK AT US, SPECULATING! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 May 2011 10:07

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World: Note from al-Qaeda: Osama bin Laden dead, but we’ll retaliate

  • Soon — with help from Allah — their happiness will turn into sorrow, and their blood will be mixed with their tears.
  • A message reportedly from al-Qaeda • Revealing that Osama bin Laden is dead (on their end), and that retaliation was likely in the cards. The statement was posted on notable jihadist forums this morning, and SITE Intelligence Group translated it. “We will not deviate from that or change until Allah judges between us and between our enemy with truth,” the note continues. “Indeed, He is the best of all judges. Nothing will harm us after that, until we see either victory and success and conquest and empowerment, or we die trying.” So, to those doubting Bin Laden’s death: So there’s this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 May 2011 10:41

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Politics: Journalists dropped everything after Osama bin Laden’s death

  • Where were you when you found out Osama bin Laden died? If you were anything like us, you were sitting in a bar in Virginia Beach, having your birthday weekend abruptly ended by a historic news story, reblogging and retweeting stuff on your phone and taking grainy photos of the bar’s TV screen when something notable happened. (We have the photos to prove it.) Maybe you might’ve been watching “The King’s Speech” on pay-per-view and had to pause it in the middle. Or perhaps you were getting off a plane when your phone started buzzing with all sorts of crazy crap. Or about to get on one — to Afghanistan — when you suddenly had to jump off and cover a major story at home. Or maybe you were sitting in bed, reading a book about Bob Dylan. Or maybe you were actively ignoring the news, only to have your daughter call you to point out that all hell was breaking loose. All of these scenarios happened to journalists. All of them stopped what they were doing and got directly to work. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 May 2011 15:30

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Politics: Apache tribe wants apology over Bin Laden’s “Geronimo” moniker

  • geronimo A prominent and storied Native American leader, known for his daring attacks and escapes while battling both Mexican and U.S. soldiers — also, the code name given to Osama bin Laden in last weekend’s operation.
  • apache The modern representation of Geronimo’s Apache tribe, from Sill Falls, Oklahoma, has taken issue with this. Tribe Chairman Jeff Houser wants an apology from the White House for using Geronimo as the bin Laden code name. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 May 2011 10:45

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Culture: Steelers’ Rashard Mendenhall feeling heat over Bin Laden tweets

The Pittsburgh halfback said this: “It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side.” He also doubted al-Qaeda’s role in 9/11. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 20:39

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World: UCLA researchers figured out where Osama was two years ago

  • The theory was basically that if you’re going to try and survive, you’re going to a region with a low extinction rate: a large town. We hypothesized he wouldn’t be in a small town where people could report on him.
  • UCLA geographer Thomas Gillespie • Describing the hypothesis that he, colleague John Agnew, and a bunch of students used to figure out that Osama bin Laden was hiding out in the general region near Abbottabad, Pakistan — back in 2009, when such a revelation was unexpected and amazing. “Caves are cold, and you can’t see people walking up to them,” Gillepsie noted, though also suggested he should’ve had a more inconspicuous home, instead of a fortress that stuck out like a sore thumb. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

02 May 2011 15:52

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World: Bin Laden compound close to Pakistani military academy

  • Where it all went down: The Guardian has a nice article up about the town of Abbottabad, where U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden at his compound, pictured above. One of the big early questions raised by bin Laden’s location was his surprising proximity to the Pakistani capitol of Islamabad, and whether the Pakistani authorities had any inklings the al-Qaeda mastermind was hiding in their midst. A less than encouraging tidbit on that front — bin Laden’s compound sat just a “few streets away” from a sprawling Pakistani military academy specializing in training officers. This is maybe the most relevant ongoing geopolitical story to come out of bin Laden’s death, and one which we’ll be watching with interest in the weeks to come. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 May 2011 13:08

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Tech: Protip: Be careful when searching for anything Bin Laden-related

  • cause Whenever a story comes out of nowhere to be a major news story — say, Japan’s earthquake or Osama bin Laden’s death — it tends to draw a lot of search traffic overnight to new terms that come up based on the story.
  • effect Now that anything Bin Laden-related is SEO platinum, malware creators are using the opportunity to load your computer with a virus — using such mechanisms as Google Image Search. Be careful out there, guys. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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