Internet Readalong (Evening Edition)

[effex]

* First up: Yahoo is NOT shutting down Delicious. Halle-fucking-lujah. If that link doesn't work (the blog's gone down a couple of times) you can get the text of it here.

* The new DADT repeal got passed in the House, Democrats are pushing hard to have it through the Senete before the new year (when it becomes a Republican majority). The vote's set for tomorrow, last I heard.

* The other big piece of legislation they're trying to push through is the DREAM Act. For those who don't know, if the DREAM Act becomes law, young people who were brought to this country as children [under the age of 16] and remained in school [college] or joined the military would be allowed to work toward citizenship. It's not perfect, but it's a big step towards immigration reform.

* Oh man, Wikileaks. Okay, to start - The Atlantic has a good Beginner's Guide up with updates and background reading. I'mma point out How to Think About WikiLeaks in particular. Kate Harding has a piece up on Salon about Julian Assange (Wikileak's founder), the rape accusations against him, and the massive amount of misinformation being spread online and by the media.

Which, look. I'm pro Wikileaks. I'm pro-transparency of government and, failing that, I'm pro-whistleblowers. I'm sick at the way the US government is handling things (you should know about Bradley Manning). And yes, the timing's suspicious. None of that negates the fact that Assange is being accused of rape. Not 'sex without a condom', not 'sex by surprise', rape. Multiple counts. Of women who were not actually CIA honey traps. Excusing, ignoring, or glossing over that is Not Okay.

* Kate Harding has more up on her blog: Some Shit I’m Sick of Hearing Regarding Rape and Assange

* Sady Doyle has a whole freaking saga up about Micheal Moore, Kieth Olbermann, accountability, and Twitter. Check the Tiger Beatdown main page for updates.

* The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a bunch of religious-right organizations (including CNS, NOM, FRC, AFA, etc) as hate-groups.

* This just in: Republican politicians are hypocrites (especially about 9/11).

* Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about Richard Holbrooke's life and death. And seperately, on civility in USian politics.

* forthwritten has an extensive roundup on the UK student protests.

* Tokyo has passed legislation that 'requires the regulation of drawn materials that show explicit or unhealthful behaviors'.


ARG, OKAY, ENOUGH POLITICS. Let's have some ~science~!

* On BoingBoing: If AIDS has been cured, why is the victory party so small? (Answer: it's complicated.)

* Darryl Cunningham's put up a comic up on climate change, the science behind it, and the common arguements against it.

* The world's first government-compliant community biotech laboratory has opened in New York.

* YOU can find extrasolar planets (great, there goes my free time).

* The universe is big, really, really big. And we can see more of it than ever.

I've got another 12 or so, mostly fannish stuff, but I'll post them tomorrow. Now is the time for YULETIDE PANIC, OH SHIT. There's 3.5 hours to the defaulting deadline, which is the deadline I gave myself for getting my first draft done. Because if it's not done by then I might as well give up, you know? :/

But I'm close! So 'night (or morning, or afternoon), y'all, have a good one.

Comments

[torachan]

Thanks for the links! :)

The link about Republicans and 9/11 is broken, though.

[effex]

Arg. It's working now, thanks for letting me know!

Also I spent too much time messing around on the Scott Pilgrim avatar thingit this morning, I blame you.

[torachan]

Hee! I have a larger version of my icon as my desktop, too. ^_^;;

[lacygrey]

Why does the delicious thing make me think of a viral marketing ploy? (It was probably mearly a mistake and I am a mearly a cynic).

Still, is any publicity good publicity? Delicious was on my 'to do' list. Now I'm wondering about its permanency. I can't help thinking about Yahoo and its disposal of Geocities about a year ago.

Awesome link list BTW ^_^

[azurelunatic]

It strikes me as a company hastily covering its butt. I highly suspect that their original plan was to shut it down completely, given that it doesn't have ads that I know of, it doesn't seem to have extra-features paid accounts, and I don't think there's anything that sponsors pay them either -- unless there's something I don't know about, it would have been a very useful thing for the users, a data mine for them (who knows if/how they were using it), and entirely possibly sucking up money and not making any income, let alone profit.

The leak looked to me like a genuine leak, especially because of the high-level Yahoo guy saying that once he found out who leaked the slide, they'd be just as gone as Delicious.

And after the upswelling of internet outrage, the "No, no, we're totally not shutting it down, we're going to sell it off, stay tuned for further developments, that's totally what we were planning all along" strikes me as their expert in internet marketing telling them "Look, if you say we're shutting it down, we're going to get the wrath of the whole internet upon us, the wrath of the whole internet is already upon us, people don't like us for shutting down Geocities, people love Delicious a lot more, and they're only getting madder the longer we go, basically your only option is to try to find a buyer."