Yesterday’s News: Thursday, 2 June 2011

Here we go again with another round of links and curiosities. Buckle up, faithful reader!

• The Globe and Mail reported that Dimitri Soudas, director of communications for the Prime Minister’s Office, is stepping down

• They also noted that it’s apparently much easier for a terror suspect to get onto no-fly watch lists than it is to get off

• A man in Toronto’s west end has been accused of beating raccoons with a shovel

• Macleans reported that a majority of Canadians don’t support certain key Tory policies

• The CBC reported that Health Canada is currently reviewing two studies that show that Yasmin, the highest-selling birth control pill in the country, may put women at higher risk of blood clots

• For some strange reason, the fertility doctor who helped that “Octomom” lady have fourteen children has just had his license revoked

• BoingBoing noted that YouTube has pledged to give its users the option of attributing a Creative Commons license to their videos, starting at 9:00 AM PST today

• They’ve also noted that two New York hotels involved in recent high-profile sexual assault cases have given their housekeepers panic buttons to use in the event of attack – and a union for hotel workers is now working on legislation to make these buttons mandatory at all New York hotels

• Slashdot gave a nod to an emerging debate over the merits of mining Jupiter, Saturn, and other gas giants for fuel; plenty of jokes about mining Uranus for gas soon followed

• They also acknowledged that DC Comics has basically rebooted its entire fictional universe

• Meanwhile, the Canadian government has declared the issue of cybersecurity to be “foremost in importance” among a list of consultation topics related to Canada-US security

• Speaking of which, apparently, North Korea is training cyberwarriors abroad

• Not only that, but Mashable also ran a story about Chinese hackers targeting domestic activists and US government officials in a recent Gmail phishing attack

• They also acknowledged that the San Francisco Giants have become the first professional baseball team to say it gets better

• The Atlantic noted that a certain unfortunately-named congressman can’t say for sure if that’s his junk in a lewd photo that was posted through his Twitter account this week

• Human Rights Watch reported on the detaining, interrogation and beating of several protesters by Iraqi authorities in Baghdad

• Amnesty International weighed in with their own statement

• Feministing examined the ways in which private prisons in the US are profiting from the anti-immigrant movement

• They also wished us all a happy pride month

• As blogTO noted, it’s also Toronto bike month

• Chart rightly declared the Lonely Island “the best rap band in the world”

• Shaq announced his retirement on Twitter

• Pat Robertson once again said something unbelievably idiotic, according to Mother Jones

• The latest in the One Hundred Months series is a list of ten steps to tackle climate change

• Lifehacker took a look at the four stages of teaching yourself to cook

• Dumb Little Man examined the simplest way to improve your creativity, health and relationships

• Gizmodo posted a series of tips on surviving the modern day breakup

Finally, over at democracy101.ca, I posted this, this, this and this.

Posted in Yesterday's News