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Censorship

Submission + - YouTube bans video containing Qur'an quotes

Submitted by
skraps
skraps writes: "YouTube, in a move that has caused quite a reaction in the community, has censored popular atheist commentator NickGisburne. Mr. Gisburne has built a large following on YouTube by making simple and accessible logical arguments against Christian beliefs, and had recently decided to change the focus of his videos to the Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam. YouTube reacted by deleting his account, along with 60+ videos, after he posted a simple slide-show video with direct quotes from the English translation of the Qur'an, containing no commentary aside from the video's title "Islamic Teachings — Cruelty from the Qur'an". YouTube's explanation was "After being flagged by members of the YouTube community, and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature. Due to your repeated attempts to upload inappropriate videos, your account now been permanently disabled, and your videos have been taken down."

Do "Web 2.0" sites like YouTube fit the legal definition of a "public commons", and if so, what will it take for corporations like YouTube to start honoring constitutionally protected speech?"
Privacy

Submission + - China Creates Massive Online ID Database

Submitted by schwaang
schwaang writes: While the US continues to hash out concerns over the Real ID Act, which aims to create a national ID by standardizing state driver's licenses, China Digital Times points out a story from Xinhua Daily News describing China's massive online ID database, which they sell will help prevent fraud. From the article:

Anyone can now send a text message or visit the country's population information center's website, to check if the name and the ID number of a person's identity card match. If they do match the ID cardholder's picture also appears, said the Ministry, adding that no other information is available to ensure a citizen's privacy is protected.

Completed at the end of 2006, China's population information database, the world's largest, contains personal information on 1.3 billion citizens.

Giving public accessing to the database is also designed to correct mistakes if an individual discovers that their name, number and picture don't match.
Space

Submission + - Big Bang Enigma Solved

Submitted by
newsblaze
newsblaze writes: "Astro-Cosmologist Jerome Drexler says the Big Bang may have satisfied the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In Big Bang Enigma May be Solved by Relativistic Dark Matter, Drexler, former NJIT Research Professor of physics, says the Big Bang was actually a Relativistic Big Bang. The temperature of a Relativistic Big Bang could be estimated by averaging the energies of the relativistic protons and helium nuclei. The estimated temperature would be extremely high and probably of the same order of magnitude as the temperature scientists estimate for the Big Bang. Nevertheless, the Relativistic Big Bang would have the very low entropy that the Second Law of Thermodynamics requires for the "beginning of time.""
Democrats

Submission + - Barbara Boxer Wants Opinions on Global Warming

Submitted by
fistfullast33l
fistfullast33l writes: "Barbara Boxer(D-CA) wants to know how you would legislate environmental issues in the 110th Congress. She has posted a survey asking you to rank 9 items that Congress can do to limit the effects of Global Warming. The Congresswoman is currently Chair of Environment and Public Works Committee in the United States Senate and plans to put your input to good use."
The Internet

Submission + - Blake Ross- thoughts Firefox and Opera

Submitted by
elcid73
elcid73 writes: "OperaWatch.com readers submitted a handful of questions to FireFox founder and creator Blake Ross, and here are his responses. It's one of the most balanced and open minded reads on browsers and the future of web that I've come across in recent memory...
I think Opera is better geared toward advanced users out of the box, whereas Firefox is tailored to mainstream users by default and relies on its extension model to cater to an advanced audience. However, I see both browsers naturally drifting toward the middle. Firefox is growing more advanced as the mainstream becomes Web-savvier, and I see Opera scaling back its interface, since it started from the other end of the spectrum.
I especially enjoyed the diplomatic "three word description" of Opera that he ended with...
Opera: Our best ally
"

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