Today's news

Updates of my friends on facebook are very boring by now. I am not quite sure if this means that my facebook friends are boring themselves. The situation with the tweets from people I am following on twitter is even worse; most of the times they are equally boring not to mention that they keep retweeting each other. These are the reasons that I bought a smartphone. I play a game with some bees which is fun. And I have the pulse application where you can gather different news agencies and read the news very quickly. The fun thing about the Pulse is that you realise once again that news differ from agency to agency. Also the fact that you can browse and read them quickly makes you draw some interesting links and connections.

Today's bad news

- For some time now there are some bad things going on in Syria. Government forces fight rebels. They also kill them. The United Nations General Assembly passed a Resolution on Friday saying that these bad things should stop. Some States seem to be happy with this development - 133 States to be precise. Some other States are being sceptical and still thinking about it. For example, 12 States voted against the Resolution and 31 abstained. 'Abstained' does not mean that they did not even bother attending the meeting but it rather means that when they were asked they ticked the box 'I dont know/ I dont respond' - like in polls. Well, there isnt a box like that when voting in the General Assebly but you get the point. Among the 'no's' were Russia, China, Syria, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Burma, Venezuela, Zimbabwe. Sounds like a communist conspiracy to me. These developments came from BBC.

- Aljazeera and the Haffington post are a bit more critical towards Russia though. It seems  that Syria asked for a loan from Russia. This is because Syria is running out of diesel oil. Russia will be generous as always. The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitali Churkin, is very firm on his position that the Resolution undermines the chances for launching a Syrian process for a political settlement. He means that they have first to kill all the rebels and then they will discuss it over tea and biscuits. 

- Reuters News site was hacked. That was relatively easy to spot on the Wall Street Journal but quite difficult on Reuters. Weird, isnt it? By the way the news in both sites is under the 'Technology' heading. This is weirder since hacking involved a false posting purporting to carry out an interview with a Syrian rebel leader. Given the recent attacks against well established media and corporations (see the outrageous Arctic Ready hoax by Greenpeace, the Occupy movement and the YesMen and the Wikileaks attack/hoax against the New York Times) I would say that the situation is worrisome. We are running out of credible and trustworthy information.

 

Today's good news

- BBC reports that Peru burns 50-tonne marijuana haul. According to the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Peru increased the coca production by 33%. And as if this is not enough, local coca farmers have started to cultivate marijuana plants alongside coca bushes. These developments are alerting for many reasons: 1) everydody knows that the colombian stuff is the best in the market and now Peru is overtaking the market - not fair! 2) More production, lower prices. Everybody knows - even the US - that self-regulation of the market doesnt always work. 3) To be honest, I am very concerned about the side effects of growing marijuana together with coca.

- Now this burning marijuana hauls situation may be linked to the fact that they saw aliens in Brazil. I dont know, it depends where you stand on this - literally.      

- Sweden's ambassador is one step before taking the boot out of Belarus. Belarus doesnt like him. Belarus is also one of the bad guys voting no in the Syria issue. Belarus will kick the ambassador out because he is allegedly involved in promoting democracy and human rights in the country. For example, he donated some books on human rights in a University library and had meetings with the Bularrusian opossition. Things are very tense after the teddy bear intrusion: 'the Swedish plane dropped about 800 toy bears near the town of Ivenets and near the capital Minsk, each carrying a message urging the former Soviet republic to show greater respect for human rights'. This is Aljazeera. Cold war all over again! I think this is the funniest part of my day.

- Tesco Bank will offer mortgages. Details on BBC.

- Syria's video activists use camera phones to fight the revolution. Guardian. But who watches them anyway?

That is all for today. 

PS Good luck to Curiosity!