Are Those Birds In Your Pants?

White-Rumped Shama K. W. Bridges

Props to whoever noticed bird poop on a smuggler's socks. The smuggler passing through LAX turned out to have 14 birds in his pants when he was busted. Of course the inspectors were onto him already because he'd previously left behind a suitcase full of contraband birds.

Also in today's links: signs of an enhanced MacBook, plus multiple medical miracles.

• The pictures of the first face transplant performed in the United States were astounding -- and on the heels of that comes news that surgeons performed the first double hand transplant. Eight such operations have been done in the world. I'm going to bet the first thing the guy does with his new hands is applaud his doctors.
• At the same time that such surgery with donor parts is advancing, researchers are also working to get people to grow new parts, "resurrect fetal wound healing." So far, one doctor has succeeded in getting a patient to regrow part of the muscle in his upper leg using an extracellular matrix, a kind of scaffolding for new cells derived from pig tissue.
• Say it's your heart that's hurting: super-insulating technology developed by NASA is being used in an implantable device to help regulate ailing hearts, allowing for more precise placement.
• An employment ad that was placed -- and then quickly yanked -- by Apple seems to indicate that the company is working on 3G-enabled MacBooks.