With the advent of online forums has come the concept of internet trolls. If you are reading this, you know what they are. In fact, anyone that has spent any amount of measurable time on an internet discussion board has experienced them first-hand.
The phenomena of trolling has been discussed, thoughtfully, both online and offline.
Glenn Beck is “transitioning” away from his daily Fox News program later this year.
Mashable is reporting that:
– More than a third of Beck’s Fox audience was lost after his “Restoring Honor” rally at the Washington Mall.
– After calling President Obama a racist, ColorofChange.org urged consumers to boycott Beck’s advertisers, ultimately resulting in more than 400 Fox advertisers saying they didn’t want their commercials on Beck’s show, according to Forbes. That cost Fox News owner News Corp. a cool $600,000 a week.
Via the NYT:
A small device exploded outside Jerusalem’s central bus station on Wednesday, leaving at least 12 injured, according to Israeli emergency services.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the bomb was strapped to a telephone poll near the stop, located outside the International Convention Center and across from the central bus station. Local news media reported that there was no sign of a body at the scene to indicate a suicide attack.The explosion did not appear to be large enough to destroy nearby buses though it did blow out windows. Television images showed people carried away in stretchers.
“I heard the explosion in the bus stop,” Meir Hagid, a bus driver who was driving through the station when the blast occurred, told The Associated Press. He said nobody in his bus was hurt.
The explosion came amid rising tensions between Hamas and Israel, and appeared to be the first attack to strike inside Israel in some time.
Several news outlets are reporting that Palestinian blogger Waleed Hasayin is facing life in prison for insulting Islam and promoting atheism online.
But many people in Qalqilya seem convinced that this Facebook apostate is none other than a secretive young man who spent seven hours a day in the corner booth of a back-street hole-in-the-wall here. Until recently the man, Waleed Hasayin, in his mid-20s, led a relatively anonymous existence as an unemployed graduate in computer science who helped out a few hours a day at his father’s one-chair barber shop. Several acquaintances described him as an “ordinary guy” who prayed at the mosque on Fridays.
But since the end of October Mr. Hasayin has been detained at the local Palestinian Authority intelligence headquarters, suspected of being the blasphemous blogger who goes by the name Waleed al-Husseini. The case has drawn attention to thorny issues like freedom of expression in the Palestinian Authority, for which insulting religion is considered illegal, and the cultural collision between a conservative society and the Internet.
With the recent spate of high profile and not-so high profile gay teen suicides this fall its clear that something needs to be done.
I admit I am out of the loop and as such this diary won’t include clever analysis or biting arguments. Real-life obligations and exhaustion are my excuse. I don’t know the intricacies of the upcoming midterm elections or other particulars.
Here’s what I do know: This is one of the most important elections of my lifetime. Here’s Rob Reiner on Real Time with Bill Maher with the first fitting Godwin I have ever seen.
Protesters marching through downtown Toronto set police cars ablaze and smashed store windows in a show of opposition to the G20 leadership summit, as police in riot gear scrambled to contain the violence.
Black-clad “anarchists” separated from what began as a peaceful procession, fanning out through the core of a city generally known for its civility, and forcing police to rush to keep up.
Police cars were set ablaze in at least two areas, including the city’s Bay Street financial district, while protesters on trendy Queen Street smashed storefronts and damaged media trucks.
Late in the afternoon, with a light rain falling, hundreds of protesters faced off with police at the corner of Bay and King streets, an area ringed by the head offices of four of the country’s top banks.
Toronto Mayor David Miller condemned the violence, but said it was caused by a small group within the larger protest.
“A relatively small group of people … came clearly with the intent of damaging property and perpetrating violence,” Miller said at a news conference. “They’re criminals that came to Toronto deliberately to break the law.”
Anarchist groups, which led the violence, had specifically mentioned banks as targets in the run-up to the G20, and a Royal Bank of Canada branch in Ottawa was firebombed last month by a group saying they would protest at the summit.
Around 1:30pm today a 5.0-magnitude earthquake started near the Ontario-Quebec border and reportedly shook parts of upstate New York and Ohio as well as Chicago, Cleveland and Indiana. The earthquake’s epicentre was about 55 kilometers north of Ottawa, where buildings were evacuated, and people poured onto the streets by the thousands.
In an interview on CNN with Larry King this week, President Obama expressed hope that the flotilla incident while tragic, could somehow provide an opening to bolster Middle East peace efforts.
This Monday, May 10, 2010 musician activists Bono and Bob Geldof will edit the Toronto-based newspaper the Globe and Mail. In the issue, will be a special edition devoted to the future of Africa.
