Hello, I've waited here for you.
I haven’t seen so many women on one page of Businessweek since…ever.
The Amazing Discussion That Led to the Wikipedia Blackout
“The debate started with a straw poll Jimmy Wales sent out to the community back in December … which led, over the weekend, to a conversation conducted among 1,800 Wikipedians.
“Support. I thought about NPOV, but realized that NPOV won’t matter if Wikipedia becomes too much of a liability to exist anyway. The way the bill is formulated reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how the internet works. The repercussions are global.”
And this:
“Support. You can’t be neutral when your very fabric of being is under threat of erasure.”
Not earth-shattering on their own; taken together, though, and taken as an instance of pseudo-democratic digital collaboration, they’re pretty remarkable.”
And they say voicing your opinion randomly for the Internet isn’t worth much. I’ll miss you, Wikipedia.
I love how God’s will is unknowable but how all of these fucktards seem to know exactly what he’s thinking.
Seven US States Are Limiting College Voting Rights?
“Seven states have already passed strict laws requiring a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license or a passport) to vote, which many students don’t have, and 27 others are considering such measures. Many of those laws have been interpreted as prohibiting out-of-state driver’s licenses from being used for voting.
It’s all part of a widespread Republican effort to restrict the voting rights of demographic groups that tend to vote Democratic. Blacks, Hispanics, the poor and the young, who are more likely to support President Obama, are disproportionately represented in the 21 million people without government IDs.”
Not sure how much of this is conspiracy, but it’s not fair to say young people are likely to vote for Democrats, it’s EDUCATED people that do.
Royalists Work to Stifle Criticism of Thailand's Monarchy
“We have reached a stage where people would want to drive you out of the country or even want to kill you for having different thoughts,” said Anon Numpa, a lawyer who represents a dozen clients accused of insulting the monarchy.
In their zeal to protect the king, ultraroyalists in Thailand may be weakening the institution of the monarchy, he said.
“To protect God,” Mr. Kong wrote, “sometimes the self-appointed guardians risk despoiling his name.”
Some of the pieces of this article made me gulp a little, which is to say something about the ‘loyalty system’ I grew up in. Some would say I was brainwashed to believe the way I do. I’ve always known to love the king and the royal family, and they have a dear place in my nationalism. To read anything that spells negative thoughts about them makes me uncomfortable. That said, I do believe the punishments are getting to be extreme for this day and age. Someone from the royal family should step up to figure out a way to make the laws appropriate for today’s society without removing the national love for the royal family. There has to be a way for things to balance both without having to have people live in secrecy and fear.
lol Herman Cain y u mad tho?
Occupy Wall Street? Better off Occupying Hollywood
“Johnny Depp did not decimate your 401K and your children’s college savings plans. He did not foreclose your home. He did not take away your health insurance when you got laid off … All the guy’s ever done is dress like a pirate and entertain people.
[T]he entertainment industry is so bloated and reckless that it can pay him $50 million in the last year alone. Depp just shrugs: “If they’re going to pay me the stupid money right now, I’m going to take it.””
Interesting. Though Hollywood never bothered the government to save it, it is true that there are way more people overpaid for dumb shit that need not to be. By this notion, we should consider Occupying Yankee Stadium as well, and I am a Yankee fan.
Warning: A little graphic.
This photo is just insane. The violence continues in Mexico, including five decapitated heads found in front of a middle school, and this picture of police covering dead bodies literally next to a resort is nothing short of jarring. How can this have gone on for this long?
In Small Towns, Gossip Moves to the Web, and Turns Vicious
Apparently, this article was on the New York Times this morning. On Page One, no less. So when a friend of mine sent the link for me to read and my first reaction was somewhere along the line of, “who gives a shit,” I may have offended him.
I thought the article, while well-written, isn’t news breaking. And not all features have to be, but my initial reaction of carelessness stems from the fact that this article says small towns are using the Internet as a tool for evil; gossips that ruin lives and businesses. As the author puts/quotes it, sites have become a Gawker of each little towns and presumably undeveloped, undereducated folks aren’t using the web very well at all.
I don’t mean to be ignorant, but doesn’t corruption on the web and the Internet as a thruway to maliciousness unsurprising? I have seen this done time and time again especially in my motherland (sadly) but I don’t seem to grasp why America sees it as a big deal now. It’s kind of high school to me. Yes, we need to learn how to use the web better. Maybe the Times stating it on its front page makes it official or something.
shoulder-blade asked: I think you should just take me to Thailand.
Get a ticket, I’d love to! And the people elect the prime minister, Thailand is ruled under a constitutional monarchy.
Thailand elects its first female prime minister
So she’s 44, a political novice and the sister of the fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra. This is an interesting combination, and I am thrilled to see a female in office but her qualifications make me a bit nervous. Naturally, there will be tons of pressure for her regarding corruption issues, the economy, the red shirt bullshit and just running a country that’s fallen so far since her brother’s been kicked out. I just want my country back to its regularly peaceful and united state.
[via CNN]
"I doubt we’ll ever know who shot bin Laden, but I would give a nut to tell his story. Seriously. A whole nut. All of it. I guess in a jar."
« Chris Jones (Esquire) via @MySecondEmpire
The New York Times recently awarded Agnes Dherbeys for her photo reporting of the ongoing Thailand red shirt protest. As much as this particular photo I chose to blog invokes fear and is a damn gutsy picture, the reality of this situation still comes off mixed. I feel as though foreign media may see the protest as a form of Thai liberation, and that coverage in Thailand itself is so hush-hush because of the constitutional monarchy. Still, I have to say as a part-time resident, violent protests are not the ways to gain peace and fairness. Our economy has gone to shit since the protest, and I still can’t believe nearly a year since I was in Hong Kong crying from photos of the Central World arson, things are still at an unrest.
Thailand translates to land of the united, of kindness, of honor and trust. It’s like our people don’t even remember the reasons behind our identity anymore. How can you even call yourself a citizen?
After hours of breaking news footages…
As much as this is a development, the whole celebratory reaction to Osama Bin Laden’s death is sitting quite uneasily with me. While I understand the feeling of relief, especially for those who’ve lost loved ones as a result of 9/11 and the war, I can’t justify the animal house that’s happening across the United States right now. This doesn’t mean troops are leaving Iraq tomorrow, or that gas prices will drop to under a dollar a gallon. It just feels like Americans want to be patriotic, but don’t know how to truly be it.
“Nothing like partying hard at a funeral.”
“People are happy in a jingoistic, faux-nationalistic way.”
Now I am relieved that justice is somewhat served to this man, but I don’t think I can equate happiness to death. You can say what you want about my admitting this as not being a “true American” but I can’t react that way. If I were to imagine I had a relative who died from this 9/11 era, I would not be dancing and singing that my loved one’s assailant is dead. I wouldn’t see his Bin Laden’s face, I’d see that relative. And he or she wouldn’t want me to be partying in that honor. It’s all bitterness.
All I can say is it’s great that there is one less person like Bin Laden in the world, but the endless cheering is a bit ridiculous. It’s just too gruesome to me.
