A lot has been written about beheadings, and how it it must hurt the victim more and take a lot longer with a small knife like the one Jihadi John uses.

ISIS released some new beheading videos today (of soldiers and "magicians".) Check out the size of this sword. As bulky as the guy is who's wielding it, it looks almost as heavy as he is.

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The Grammys are on tonight. Bob Dylan got the MusiCares Person of the Year award. The LA Times has lots of coverage of everything Grammy releated.

Update: I didn't even recognize the opening act (ACDC) until they played Highway to Hell. The audience was singing along like it was the song of the century. Ariana Grande: I don't think I've ever heard her sing before. Her song choice almost put me to sleep. Very boring.

I was about to turn off the show when Tom Jones and whoever started singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" as a tribute to the married couple who wrote it who were in the audience. I never heard of them. But I'm glad I didn't stop watching, they sang it really well, and it can't be easy to make that song sound fresh. But the woman's outfit was awful. Big girl underpants covered from neck to floor by some sheer thing with huge black appliques. It wouldn't look good on anyone, but it really looked terrible on her. [More....]

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the two members of the Bali 9 facing the death penalty, were officially notified Thursday they are scheduled for execution this month. They will be taken from Kerobokan prison in Bali, flown to Jogjakarta, and after a 5 hour drive, arrive at the central prison on Nusa Kambangan Island near Central Java. From there, they and 8 to 10 other drug traffickers from Brazil, France, Ghana, Nigeria and the Philippines, will be driven to a shooting field in the dead of night, tied to wooden crosses and executed by firing squad.

A Catholic priest present at the 2008 execution of three Nigerian drug traffickers described the agonizing deaths.[More...]

Update: Brian Williams has released a statement saying he will take a leave of absence from NBC News for several days:

As Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us.

***

Two days of trending on Twitter is apparently all it takes for NBC News to launch an internal investigation into Brian Williams' mis-telling of his experience on a helicopter of Iraq. [More...]

Our last open thread is full, here's a new one, all topics welcome.

Imran Khawaja was a key member of Rayat al–Tawheed (RaT), a group of British recruits who went to fight the Assad regime in Syria. Known as Abu Daigham al Baritani or Abu Daigham al-Britani, he faked his own death and tried to sneak back into the UK, but was caught.

Today he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 5 years of supervision. (He will have to serve about 8 years.) [More...]

President Obama released a 29 page security plan to Congress today and said we must be careful not to overreach in the Middle East.

The United States cannot try to "dictate the trajectory of all unfolding events around the world" as it does not have infinite resources nor influence to tackle complex problems that cannot be fixed only with its military might, he said.

"We must always resist the overreach that comes when we make decisions based upon fear," Obama said.

ISIS released a statement today claiming American hostage Kayla Mueller was killed in a Jordanian bomb strike in Raqqa.

It provided photos of a bombed building, but none of Mueller. Mueller is the last known American hostage to be held by ISIS.

Long War Journal finds the claim "convenient".

While it is certainly possible Mueller has been killed, the Islamic State's description of how she was allegedly killed could very well be a crude attempt at propaganda.

ISIS also says the bombing of the building lasted an hour but no ISIS members were killed. It claims Ms. Mueller was killed by fire from the bombing.

It's bad enough that 80 million people insured through Anthem have had their personal data stolen by hackers.

The hackers gained access to up to 80 million records that included Social Security numbers, birthdays, addresses, email and employment information and income data for customers and employees,

What's worse, is there's very little that can be done to protect yourself now that it's happened. [More....]

When we last left off with Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (spiritual mentor to Al Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, bio here), he had just been jailed in Jordan for communicating with terrorists while working with U.S. lawyer Stanley Cohen to negotiate with Maqdisi's enemy ISIS to free Peter Kassig. The F.B.I. was aware of the effort, and paid for Cohen and his translator's travel. (Cohen began serving his own federal prison sentence on tax charges this month.)

Today Jordan confirmed it released Maqdisi two days ago. [More...]

ISIS burned a Jordanian pilot alive, claiming its actions are justified by the pilot having flown missions for Jordan in which Syrian civilians, including children, were killed. It views the brutal murder as justified, under the Islamic equivalent of "an eye for an eye."

IS believes in a principle known as "qisas" which, in its broadest terms, is the law of equal retaliation. Put another way, it is the Islamic equivalent of "lex talionis", or the doctrine of an eye for an eye. Within Islamic law qisas typically relates to cases of murder, manslaughter, or acts involving physical mutilation (such as the loss of limbs) and creates a framework for victims (or their families) to seek retributive justice.

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Last day of court this week. A lot of motions due Friday, though.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.