97094
submission
bored_lurker writes:
According to a story carried on the washingtonpost.com (among others) an Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt's first prosecution of a blogger. The judge issued the verdict in a brief, five-minute session in a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. He sentenced Nabil to three years in prison for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and another year for insulting Mubarak. Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of up to nine years in prison.
In some places discussing politics and religion in the workplace is considered bad taste, but jail time for doing it in a blog? Will the rest of the world stand by and say nothing?
97060
submission
mozzwald writes:
Virtually all phone services (cellular and land-line) were disrupted Tuesday in Central Illinois because of a cut fiber line near Joliet Illinois. "Officials also said a separate piece of equipment that serves as backup near Decatur also went down, causing disruption to 309, 815, and 217 area codes." This caused major problems for businesses that use credit and debit card machines. It even caused sporadic problems with 911 services.
97052
submission
andy1307 writes:
According to this article in the Washington Post, Chinese teenagers deemed addicted to the internet are being treated in military run installation. Led by Tao Ran, a military researcher who built his career by treating heroin addicts, the clinic uses a tough-love approach that includes counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks. The state run media blames internet addiction for for a murder over virtual property earned in an online game, for a string of suicides and for the failure of youths in their studies. Located on an army training base, the Internet-addiction clinic is distinct from the other buildings on campus because of the metal grates and padlocks on every door and the bars on every window.From the article "On the first level are 10 locked treatment rooms geared toward treating teen patients suffering from disturbed sleep, lack of motivation, aggression, depression and other problems. Unlike the rest of the building, which is painted in blues and grays and kept cold to keep the teens alert, these rooms are sunny and warm."
97026
submission
Megnatron writes:
Penny Arcade has a letter from the stepmother of one of the kids who was recently charged with killing a homeless guy, defending the parents, and, in a refreshing twist, the games industry.
97024
submission
jaweekes writes:
The TV program "Top Gear" recently launched the "largest non-commercial rocket launch in European history" in the form of a rocket-propelled Reliant Robin. From the article http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/production_notes /shuttle.shtml "What could possibly be so difficult about building a space shuttle? Quite a lot, as it turns out. This was easily Top Gear's most ambitious film and, while everything didn't go quite according to plan, we're still very proud of the results. Here are just a few of the things that happened when we tried to put an ageing three-wheeler into space."
