Middle East
Things Are Getting Bad In Syria Again
The army has won a few Damascus suburbs back from the rebels(via)
Bashar al-Assad's army have retaken some parts of suburban Damascus previously held by rebels. According to the BBC, a "huge" number of troops and tanks were sent in to fight off the rebels, and the suburb of Saqba is still being shelled. The Free Syrian Army claims it still has a presence in the area, but for now it's mostly lying low. More than 60 Syrians were killed in fighting this weekend, with upwards of 26 dying in what have apparently been the fiercest engagements the Syrian capital has seen during the 10-month uprising. UK
One Of London's Occupied Buildings Was Reclaimed By The Man
The 'Bank of Ideas' is empty now
(via)
When we went along to Occupy London's 'Bank of Ideas' a couple of months back, it didn't seem all that threatening. It was mainly just a bunch of people sat around talking about things. But for whatever reason the Metropolitan police and the City of London have never really liked squatters, and they proved this again last night when they emptied the otherwise disused building – owned by Swiss megabank UBS – late last night. Around 50 Occupiers were turfed out onto the streets just after midnight. I don't know when you last left the house, but it was really cold last night. They must have been freezing. For the most part, the eviction passed off peacefully, though the Occupiers have complained about "utterly irresponsible" tactics used by the authorities. It seems as though one bailiff in particular got pretty angry. Apparently he punched a photographer called Jules Mattsson in the face before driving his car really fast at a group of protesters. What a dick! Internet
Thailand May Have Been Deprived Of Some Or All Of Rob Delaney's Jokes
The country became the first to back Twitter's nation-specific censorship technology(via)
Late last week, Twitter announced that it would allow national governments to control what their populations see when they log-on to the site. Given Twitter's role in popular democratic uprisings such as those seen in the Arab Spring, this announcement prompted a lot of hand-wringing about freedom of speech online. Seriously, you won't believe the amount of hands that have been wrung. One man who wasn't letting the decision get him down was Rob Delaney, who put together this list of his most offensive and disgusting tweets so that Twitter users across the world could test out the site's new geo-targeted censorship technology. Thailand is pretty big on censorship already, so it's no big surprise that they are being dicks (even if their Prime Minister is a babe). UK
A Rich Man Was Bullied Into Not Getting Any Richer (For Now)
Poor Stephen Hester
(via)
Stephen Hester is the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland. He's been the chief executive of RBS since October 2008, when some rich oil men withdrew billions of pounds from the vaults in one go and crippled the bank to the extent that the government had to step in and bail them out with taxpayers' money. Stephen Hester could have woken up today one million pounds richer, but he was bullied out of accepting the share bonus on offer from the RBS board by the public and the Labour Party. Hester's decision, made while he was in the spiritual home of banks, Switzerland, has been broadly welcomed, though at the moment there's nothing stopping him receiving a bonus of up to £8 million in March. People didn't want him to accept the bonus because RBS is 82 percent-owned by the taxpayer, and is currently worth about half the £45 billion that the government pumped in to save it back in '08. Internet
You Can Buy Guns On The Internet Now
From the same place you can buy drugs (via)
Remember Silk Road? Well, it's now a one-stop shop for anyone who can't be bothered to traipse around high streets in the cold looking for an Uzi to go with their acid. As the world's lawmakers continue to huff and puff about whether or not you and I should be allowed to stream scenes from Taxi Driver on this website, Silk Road has been getting tooled up. Here's a list of the weaponry you can currently purchase at the site, where hundreds of users trade with each other using Bitcoins, (aka hacker money): One of the most reliable sellers on the site is someone calling themselves 'Dbush', who, over 100 transactions down the line, has a 100 percent feedback rating. According to Dbush's profile, he/ she can get hold of "AK pistols, AR15 pistols, and many tactical style guns. Additionally regular style shotguns, rifles, and handguns are available." Dbush also sells meth, acid and ecstasy, so if there are any hackers out there who are fortunate enough to be going on a Stag weekend soon, you know where to go.
Things Are Getting Bad In Syria Again
The army has won a few Damascus suburbs back from the rebels(via)
Bashar al-Assad's army have retaken some parts of suburban Damascus previously held by rebels. According to the BBC, a "huge" number of troops and tanks were sent in to fight off the rebels, and the suburb of Saqba is still being shelled. The Free Syrian Army claims it still has a presence in the area, but for now it's mostly lying low. More than 60 Syrians were killed in fighting this weekend, with upwards of 26 dying in what have apparently been the fiercest engagements the Syrian capital has seen during the 10-month uprising. UK
One Of London's Occupied Buildings Was Reclaimed By The Man
The 'Bank of Ideas' is empty now
Annons
When we went along to Occupy London's 'Bank of Ideas' a couple of months back, it didn't seem all that threatening. It was mainly just a bunch of people sat around talking about things. But for whatever reason the Metropolitan police and the City of London have never really liked squatters, and they proved this again last night when they emptied the otherwise disused building – owned by Swiss megabank UBS – late last night. Around 50 Occupiers were turfed out onto the streets just after midnight. I don't know when you last left the house, but it was really cold last night. They must have been freezing. For the most part, the eviction passed off peacefully, though the Occupiers have complained about "utterly irresponsible" tactics used by the authorities. It seems as though one bailiff in particular got pretty angry. Apparently he punched a photographer called Jules Mattsson in the face before driving his car really fast at a group of protesters. What a dick! Internet
Thailand May Have Been Deprived Of Some Or All Of Rob Delaney's Jokes
The country became the first to back Twitter's nation-specific censorship technology(via)
Late last week, Twitter announced that it would allow national governments to control what their populations see when they log-on to the site. Given Twitter's role in popular democratic uprisings such as those seen in the Arab Spring, this announcement prompted a lot of hand-wringing about freedom of speech online. Seriously, you won't believe the amount of hands that have been wrung. One man who wasn't letting the decision get him down was Rob Delaney, who put together this list of his most offensive and disgusting tweets so that Twitter users across the world could test out the site's new geo-targeted censorship technology. Thailand is pretty big on censorship already, so it's no big surprise that they are being dicks (even if their Prime Minister is a babe). UK
A Rich Man Was Bullied Into Not Getting Any Richer (For Now)
Poor Stephen Hester
Stephen Hester is the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland. He's been the chief executive of RBS since October 2008, when some rich oil men withdrew billions of pounds from the vaults in one go and crippled the bank to the extent that the government had to step in and bail them out with taxpayers' money. Stephen Hester could have woken up today one million pounds richer, but he was bullied out of accepting the share bonus on offer from the RBS board by the public and the Labour Party. Hester's decision, made while he was in the spiritual home of banks, Switzerland, has been broadly welcomed, though at the moment there's nothing stopping him receiving a bonus of up to £8 million in March. People didn't want him to accept the bonus because RBS is 82 percent-owned by the taxpayer, and is currently worth about half the £45 billion that the government pumped in to save it back in '08. Internet
You Can Buy Guns On The Internet Now
From the same place you can buy drugs (via)
Remember Silk Road? Well, it's now a one-stop shop for anyone who can't be bothered to traipse around high streets in the cold looking for an Uzi to go with their acid. As the world's lawmakers continue to huff and puff about whether or not you and I should be allowed to stream scenes from Taxi Driver on this website, Silk Road has been getting tooled up. Here's a list of the weaponry you can currently purchase at the site, where hundreds of users trade with each other using Bitcoins, (aka hacker money): One of the most reliable sellers on the site is someone calling themselves 'Dbush', who, over 100 transactions down the line, has a 100 percent feedback rating. According to Dbush's profile, he/ she can get hold of "AK pistols, AR15 pistols, and many tactical style guns. Additionally regular style shotguns, rifles, and handguns are available." Dbush also sells meth, acid and ecstasy, so if there are any hackers out there who are fortunate enough to be going on a Stag weekend soon, you know where to go.