Category: Uncategorised

Missed this one last month in the UK: a woman was convicted for “possessing records likely to be used for terrorism”, whatever that means. As far as I can see, she had downloaded some documents on guns and bombs (like, er, just about every teenage boy in the country), and written some angry poems about killing people.

So, basically, she’s been fantasizing about being a jihadi rather than fantasizing about being James Bond.

For this she’s already been in jail for 5 months, and has a 9 month suspended sentence.

“In 1989, the [Chinese] government didn’t know why Tiananmen happened. Now, by reading the Internet, they know what’s going to happen. They know about movements in their infancy and they’re able to kill them when they’re still young”

…according to Chinese blogger Michael Anti. Ethan Zuckerman’s summary of a Berkman talk he gave has lots of other fascinating comments.

Livejournal has just been taken over by SUP, the russian company that was already managing Russian-language livejournals. Compared to when SUP first started managing the Russian service, the reactions among Russian users seem surprisingly positive. i.e. more people are pleased to have LJ under Russian control than are frightened that they’ll be more vulnerable to government pressure.

Still, I’m not thrilled by their decision to announce this just after the Russian elections. It looks a lot like trying to bury the news while Russian lj users are distracted, even if it wasn’t intended that way.

A phrase I never expected to read:

seat-of-the-pants jurisprudence

ReutersL

The Islamic Republic [of Iran] has repeatedly blamed the violence in Iraq on the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.

Um…and this is a controversial position how, exactly. Is anybody suggesting militias would be killing thousands if Saddam were still in power


OK, OK, I admit secret police disappearances, torture, etc. count as violence. Still, a strange way of phrasing things…