Yesterday’s News: Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Hey, my brother turns thirty today! Happy birthday, Jon! Let’s celebrate with a look at some of the stuff that happened on the web on the last day of your twenties. That’s the same as an actual gift, right?

• The Globe and Mail pointed out that the new federal budget is “short on details” when it comes to how the proposed $4 billion will be saved, noting that there’s no doubt that certain programs will be cancelled

• The NDP and the Liberals spoke out against the budget, saying that it doesn’t address the needs of families

• The Globe also reported on a new mental health study, which found that happily married US soldiers who communicated with their spouses through delayed means like snail mail had lower levels of post-traumatic stress disorder than those who communicated with their spouses through calls and instant messages

• By the way, Canadian Forces just completed their last battlefield offensive in Afghanistan

• The good people at Literature for Life, an organization whose board I’m happy to be on, received a rather glowing testimonial from the Women Moving Forward Program at the Jane/Finch Community Family Centre

• As the Atlantic reported, it turns out that actually was a genuine photo of Congressman Weiner’s business

• Talking Points Memo, meanwhile, basically encouraged everyone to make their own joke about Andrew Breitbart hijacking a press conference about an overexposed dick

• Mother Jones posted a list of the top 11 political sex scandal apologies other than Weinergate

• Mashable noted that the United Nations has declared Internet access a human right

• Macleans ran an online poll asking if the new Parliament can be more civil

• Crooks and Liars gave a nod to an essay by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times about the Tea Party utopia – which, apparently, is Pakistan

• They also poked fun at Fox News, who flanked a story on Sarah Palin with a photo of comedian Tina Fey, despite the fact that Palin is one of their own employees

• BoingBoing posted this old instructional film from the 1950s, which was created to teach people how to dial with their brand new rotary phones

• They also examined how doctors first noticed the existence of AIDS in 1981

• Slashdot noted that 25% of American hackers are FBI or CIA informants

• They also noted that the periodic table now has two new elements

• According to Schneier on Security, MI6 hacked into an online al-Qaeda magazine and replaced an article on making bombs with a cupcake recipe

• Yesterday was the International Day of Slayer, according to Chart

• Dumb Little Man posted a list of six easy networking tips for introverts

Finally, over at democracy101.ca, I posted this, this and this. More to come today!

Posted in Yesterday's News