To illustrate this, here’s an Alexa traffic graph for some of the largest filesharing sites for the past three months:

And to make things even worse for the RIAA/MPAA, anyone can download a 90MB file containing all the torrents listed on The Pirate Bay and gain access to any of them even if the site disappears tomorrow.

So, um… good luck trying to kill piracy, guys.

The Telegraph writes that Florence Green, the world’s last World War I veteran, has died.

The great-grandmother signed up to the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) 93 years ago in September 1918, when she was aged just 17.

 

The clip below was shot earlier today and it shows the bombardment of the city of Homs by Syrian loyalist forces. At least 50 civilians were killed.

The BBC has a meaty write-up on the subject if you’re into reading lots of words. If you don’t want to read too many words but are curious as to how Anonymous managed to gain access to the conference call, well, it was thanks to an email intercept containing the login information. Pretty nifty on Anon’s part, pretty dumb on FBI’s part. Although, considering how boring this call was, I think they could just make all their conference calls public because nobody would want to listen in.

At least 40 73 (!) Egyptians lost their lives on a soccer stadium today after the wrong team won the game. Apparently the organizers forgot to announce that the stadium doubled as a place of mass execution in-between matches.

A security official and a medic said fans of the home team, Al-Masry, swarmed the field after a rare 3-1 win against Al-Ahly, Egypt’s top team. They threw stones, fireworks, and bottles at the fans and injured some players.

 

Soon after the violence, a soccer game in the Cairo Stadium between the Al-Ismailiya and Zamalek teams was called off in mourning for the violence in Port Said.

 

State TV showed video of sections of the Cairo stadium on fire. The announcer said angry fans of the Zamalek protested the cancellation and set some sections of the stadium on fire.

On a serious note though, what the hell is wrong with soccer fans? They’re some of the most savage people on the planet, and it’s all over a ball. 40 73 dead is similar to what happened last year when Mubarak’s police charged into the crowds of protesters. In fact, I think one full day of violence during the revolution had fewer dead than this soccer match…

This is just mind boggling insanity.

via google.com/hostednews/ap/

Over 23% of all the goods and services made since 1AD were produced from 2001 to 2010, according to an updated version of Angus Maddison’s figures.

If this trend will continue for the 2010-2020 period, half of all the goods and services made since 1AD will have been produced in just 20 years. That’s 50% of all the stuff ever made on this planet.

Completely healthy and sustainable.

via economist

Source: frugaldad.com

Just kidding. The money came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“By supporting the Global Fund, we can help to change the fortunes of the poorest countries in the world,” Gates said in a statement. “I can’t think of more important work.”

If there was ever a Steve Jobs Foundation, its aim would have been to undermine the efforts of the Gates Foundation. Sort of a counter-philanthropy thing.

“What’s that, Bill? You want to reduce poverty and expand access to information technology? You leave me no choice but to outsource ten thousand jobs to this Chinese company where workers are treated like slaves.”

via edition.cnn.com

To prevent the remaining file-sharing sites from distributing illegal MP3s and to help artists reach new levels of wealth, record label executives have decided to send e-mails filled with disapproving emoticons (ಠ_ಠ) to all known offenders.

And just like that, they’ve shut down the file-sharing site Megaupload and arrested its owners. They’ve also indicted all of the website’s staff.

This is how I reacted when I heard the news.