News – Careful Censorship

General

There is call from campaigners for the likes of Myspace and Facebook to clamp down on pro-anorexia sites. The sites reply that its hard to tell the difference between a support group and pro-ana group. Which can be true enough, when one has to start moderating on this level, care need be taken to reduce the unrest caused amongst one’s users.

Pakistan is being blamed for a two hour outage of Youtube, due to their attempts to block access to the site. Just goes to show censorship is a dangerous thing.

Bad news for Vista users. The next update from Microsoft might make some of your third party apps stop working. Looks like most of the software effected is security related. Good thing I’m not using it.

Could free be the new price of the future economy? That’d be nice.

While Wikipedia and the like are good shows of online collaboration, virtual democracies they are not. That not being a bad thing. Totally open and free endeavors rarely turn out well, as cathartic as it is to have something that has that perfect freedom.

Explainer details on flu shots.

The Blogs look at the latest Obama/Hillary debate, the annual League of Conservation Voters scorecard and J-Lo’s new kids.

Today’s Papers has Oscar coverage, how both Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton have changed positions on a number of issues, the “hushed worry” of many Obama supporters who fear he will be assassinated if he wins, or gets close to winning, the presidency and more in the one page news.

Middle East

Day five of Turkey’s invasion of Northern Iraq. Iraq’s government lodges weak protests, but with approval of the US, they don’t seem to have the gall to straight up demand that anything stop. Which is amusing for a supposed sovereign nation.

Eli Moyal, mayor of the beleaguered Sderot, says he wants to talk to Hamas in a bid to get a ceasefire with regard to the rocket attacks Perhaps he finally realizes that retaliation won’t solve this crisis.

A draft of the Iraq weapons document released by the UK years before is revealed to have had a side note on Israel. The Foreign Office made sure to bury any mention of Israel, prompting protests now that it is shown what they did.

This is what I like to see. Palestinians in peaceful protest of Israel’s blockade of their territory.

Hamas wants the EU to step up pressure on Israel to stop the blockade. And while the EU has protested against he blockade, they’ve also urges the rocket attacks to stop. A balanced view that should be applied to both sides in this everlasting conflict.

What we don’t need is the BS that Hezbollah’s leader continues to spew, which only inflames the situation.

Not everyone marks the surge as a success.

Africa

Sudan’s situation continues the slow march from worse to even worse, with the government doing little to solve the problem and the world showing little insight into how to prompt concrete change toward the better.

Somalia is still a hotbed of violence between the new government and Islamist militants. With the militants making inroads.

Asia/Pacific

Further rape allegations against US troops stationed in Japan make for a sore spot in relations. Maybe we shouldn’t have troops stationed in Japan anymore. What purpose does this serve in today’s world, besides threatening relations with a small percentage of them can’t seem to restrain themselves from jumping on the Asian chicks?

Europe

Deputy PM Dmitry Medvedev, the man in line to be Russia’s next leader, vows that Russia will support Serbia against Kosovo’s bid for unilateral independence. With the lingering potential for more trouble, the US Embassy is sending out all non-essential personnel.

Now that Putin is on his way out, not a bad time to muse just how his past leadership of Russia will be viewed by history. Personally, I think he’ll be seen as the man that single handedly reversed Russia’s forward movement out of the cold war years, sinking it back down into a mire of being a ‘troublesome’ nation.

Americas

Raul Castro is officially in charge of the country now. Rather than pick a young face as his second, he’s picked another of his own generation, making me think there won’t be enough change coming to prompt a change in US policy.

The government gives approval of a ‘virtual fence’ of cameras and sensors for the US/Mexico border. One wonders if this will satisfy some of the

Amusements

Homeless man calls 911, asks to go to jail. Refused. Calls again. Arrested for abusing 911 service. Finally finds place to sleep

When the cop asks if there is any pot in the car the answer should be yes or no. He already knows that there shouldn’t be any. (last story)

Liquor store employee tries to turn $1600 cash deposit into big Bingo winnings. Game over B-4 she knew it

No matter how drunk you are, it doesn’t give you free license to urinate in front of the police station in the middle of the afternoon

1. Join South Korean army. 2. Get so stressed out you go bald. 3. Demand government compensation. 4. Profit, big time

Cathay Pacific pilot loses job after buzzing runway at 28 feet in 777 jet as a dare – with chairman of Cathay Pacific on board

<A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/business/25drive.html?em&ex=1204088400&en=5a8064ee1f7f7db9&ei=5087 “>Fewer teens are getting licenses to drive partly because parents are driving their precious snowflakes everywhere. Corey Haim surrenders

You’re a care worker and two of your elderly charges get in a scuffle. Do you a) break it up, b) get help, or c) get out your cell phone and film the granny fight

Woman looks out window one morning, sees Jesus Christ in her tree. It’s not news, it’s bark

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this dude doing whatever the hell he’s doing

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this riveting scene

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this reflective river