FUCK you, Google. FUCK YOU.

The celebrated openness of the Internet -- network providers are not supposed to give preferential treatment to any traffic -- is quietly losing powerful defenders.
Google Wants Its Own Fast Track on the Web

Google Inc. has approached major cable and phone companies that carry Internet traffic with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google has traditionally been one of the loudest advocates of equal network access for all content providers.

...
Separately, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have withdrawn quietly from a coalition formed two years ago to protect network neutrality. Each company has forged partnerships with the phone and cable companies. In addition, prominent Internet scholars, some of whom have advised President-elect Barack Obama on technology issues, have softened their views on the subject.

The contentious issue has wide ramifications for the Internet as a platform for new businesses. If companies like Google succeed in negotiating preferential treatment, the Internet could become a place where wealthy companies get faster and easier access to the Web than less affluent ones, according to advocates of network neutrality. That could choke off competition, they say.

For computer users, it could mean that Web sites by companies not able to strike fast-lane deals will respond more slowly than those by companies able to pay. In the worst-case scenario, the Internet could become a medium where large companies, such as Comcast Corp. in cable television, would control both distribution and content -- and much of what users can access, according to neutrality advocates.

Huh.

Did He Jump or Was He Pushed? Aristide and the 2004 Coup in Haiti

Tasers kill 400 so far, according to the CBC. Canadian Police ban it, what about the US?

Via: Pams House Blend
The 'non-lethal' Taser: 400 dead since 2001

Law enforcement agencies in Canada are banning the shock device in the wake of a study by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

The study includes a medical analysis that concluded someone shot with a Taser could face as high as a 50 percent chance of cardiac arrest. The Taser company, however, still says its weapons can't kill.
"It is unfortunate that false allegations based on scientifically flawed data can create such uncertainty," Steve Tuttle, a Taser vice president, told The Arizona Republic.
Stories of Taser-related deaths have stacked up over the years, many involving police officers who never realized the harm their Taser could cause.
A man described as "emotionally disturbed" fell to his death after police Tasered him on fire escape. The officers who gave the order took a Glock 9mm from the locker room and shot himself in the head.

MORE

So cause he hates gays, he's gonna jump to the party that hates blacks AND gays. Fucker.

Rod 2.0

One story that we haven't followed this week is the implosion of the New York State senate over the possibility of a same sex marriage bill. The latest: The rabidly anti-gay and controversial Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. says claims he's being "threatened" by gay rights advocates and may jump ship to the Republicans. The Bronx Pentecostal minister, a fierce opponent of gay rights and same-sex marriage, threatened incoming Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith against bringing a marriage bill up for a vote next year. Diaz claims, "The gays are calling my office. They're jamming my phones. They're going to see what we can do." (Diaz made the accusations in an incoherent rant to Liz Benjamin of the Daily News, but "set the record straight" in a another incoherent press release naming Post gossip maven Liz Smith.) The anti-gay clergyman and minister says he will either join the Republicans—whom he often endorses—stay neutral to create an impasse, or join the Democratic conference.MORe

interesting

The Last of the Zoroastrians