Earthman, Come Home

Venezuela greets Ahmadinejad with Shah’s anthem.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Venezuela greets Ahmadinejad with Shah’s anthem.

Sarah Palin autograph on Saddam dinar

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:25:01 +0000

Why We Tumbl

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:12:16 +0000

This post by newsweek is too long to reblog in full but well worth a read. I particularly enjoyed the idea that Tumblr is to magazines what Twitter is to news:

There are, though, some glimmers, and most of them have to do with new ways to connect to readers. Most publishers tend to think of the things their audience has to say as, at best, graffiti that they allow to be put on the sides of their nice building. One of the many beauties of Tumblr is that it gives the audience equal footing. There’s a real communication here, not just a lot of people shouting across the comment ghetto to each other, and that’s a rare thing that we should encourage.

Opera web browser 'censors' Chinese content

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:36:08 +0000

Opera web browser 'censors' Chinese content:

Web browser Opera has closed a loophole which allowed Chinese users to access sites banned by the government.

…

Previously traffic ran over Opera servers bypassing the so-called Great Firewall of China, making the browser popular with Chinese users.

"We are all prisoners of a state that wants to rob us of everything."

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:20:26 +0000

“We are all prisoners of a state that wants to rob us of everything.”

- ‘We Are All Prisoners,’ Iranian Blogger Says

BNP signs its first non-white member

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:40:27 +0000

BNP signs its first non-white member:

He’s an ‘anti-Islam activist’ and “is perhaps the kind of immigrant you want if you are going to have them.” All these people deserve each other.

"I sometimes think we’re going through a media revolution only because this societal shift..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 +0000

“I sometimes think we’re going through a media revolution only because this societal shift affects the people who get to decide if we’re living through a revolution or not. It’s been granted importance because the people it disturbs are media people and opinionistas, those with the loudest voices. If you ask my Mum what the defining character of our times is, she’d say we were living through an Age of Nice Coffee and Garden Centres. If you asked my niece, she’d say it was the Age of Primark.”

- Russell M Davies: Hysteria obscures the stuff worth worrying about

Easyjet apologises for photoshoot at Holocaust memorial

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:02:29 +0000

Easyjet apologises for photoshoot at Holocaust memorial:

Who the hell arranges a fashion shoot at a Holocaust memorial?

Stay away from my kids, Richard Dawkins

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:37:41 +0000

Stay away from my kids, Richard Dawkins:

Stay away from my kids, Richard Dawkins. And if atheists want more children who aren’t “labelled” maybe they should try to come up with an alternative to religion which matches the social capital of church-going and the moral structure of Christianity, rather than mere postmodern chatter. And while they’re at it maybe they should stop aborting so many of their own children before they get a chance to grow up at all…

Well that’s us told. And I thought the spectre of the nihilist atheist abortionist only existed in the fevered imaginings of the US religious right.

UK 'sorry' for shooting at 'Spanish flag' buoy

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:32:17 +0000

UK 'sorry' for shooting at 'Spanish flag' buoy:

The UK has apologised to Spain after the Royal Navy used a buoy with the Spanish colours for target practice.

Classy.

Martin Wilson [via]

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Martin Wilson [via]

CIA Secret Prison Found

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:05:30 +0000

CIA Secret Prison Found:

Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time. “The activities in that prison were illegal,” said human rights researcher John Sifton. “They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions.”

The programme apparently reminds Lithuanians of the days of the KGB.

Iranian banknotes uprising Above: “Long live...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:00:12 +0000

Iranian banknotes uprising

Above: “Long live freedom”

Don't blame me for creating stories on Twitter, says Stephen Fry

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Don't blame me for creating stories on Twitter, says Stephen Fry:

“There was no class more contemptuous of Twitter than the commentating journalists. Why should we care about what Britney Spears had for breakfast, they said. So may I ask you, why do you write about it in the paper? The journalists said, who needs this Twitter thing and in the next moment you read: Follow the Daily Mail on Twitter at…”