Finally they got him!

Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says

The best part is probably the comments section. Brilliant

H/T: Henry Huttinger's FB wall

Nuer Twins

Nuer (NE Africa) twin infants’ bodies were placed in trees due to their purported kinship with birds. Both birds and twins were children of God, gaat kwoth, spirits who dwell in air and clouds. A stillborn twin was left in a reed basket in a tree fork and birds of prey supposedly left them intact. Adult Nuer twins weren’t buried, but were laid on a platform with no ceremonies. Twins did not attend others’ funerals.

That was extracted from an article on the anthropology of twin deaths from the 'Twin Research and Human Genetics' journal. Fascinating stuff.

I originally saw this on Mindhacks

That MLK quote

Im sure by now you have seen THAT MLK quote appearing somewhere on your twitter thing and your facebook newsfeed. Oh how the kids love it. Its like Michael Jackson's death all over again......

Anyways, you may also have been hearing that the quote is actually a fake.

Well, as it turns out, it was neither. It was just a bunch of overly excited re-posters playing a global electronic game of 'chinese whispers'. How in the world people can fail at copy and pasting is beyond me, but apparently the whole thing started with this one facebook status. Note the beginning of the quotation marks. Also note the commenters trying to out do each other in the level of self-loving smugness*

So there you have it.....mystery solved, now you can all go back to posting about the more mundane aspects of your lives while I go back to facestalking your girlfriend.......and mother.

*By this comment I have been promoted to the smug lord

Relax....

I was going to post something about the new draft of the South Sudan Transitional Constitution, however, Roving Bandit and his superior internet connection beat me to it.

So instead, here is a word from our sponsors.....

Link

An unfortunate bit of irony

SPLM confiscates Telefon Kuku’s Telephone

Al-Akhbar, Khartoum, 21/04/11 – Informed sources in Juba report that the SPLM confiscated yesterday the telephone of Telefon Kuku, the independent candidate for the gubernatorial position in Southern Kordofan. Kuku was expected to address supporters through phone at the launch of his elections campaign in Kadugli. The campaign was launched without his speech but was addressed by members of his campaign team.

No comments please...

One of the funniest/most annoying thing about conferences, presentations, forums and other general large meetings where information is shared and discussions are had, has to be the people who comment in the end:

“Bla bla bla capacity building, bla bla empowerment bla bla, Thank you…….

Any questions……or comments?”

“Yes, over there…”

“Hi, yes I am the guy who likes to ask questions not because I don’t know the answer, but rather because I want the audience to recognise how intelligent I am. My question, while presented as a question with a question mark in the end, is actually just a statement about something that is not really related to the topic, but makes me sound really clever and smug….?”

“err… ok…thanks? Anyone else?”

“I would just like to trump the previous commenter by drawing everyone’s attention to the serious issue of culture. Yes… culture, culture, culture. This issue was not mentioned enough time in the presentation and that gives me the opportunity to look really culturally sensitive and cool…because that is just who I am. So yes, we should all be aware of culture”

“Culture, yes, a very important issue. Oh, it looks like we are getting a lot more hands going up. I guess the topic at hand is really controversial or there are just a lot of forum trolls here. You ma’am”

“Hi, I am the type of person who likes to take advantage of these opportunities to do some shameless self-promotion of my organisation. I typically work for the UN or a popular NGO and I am going to tell you all how OUR programme already addresses the issues being discussed and have seen remarkable results because, well, we are amazing.”

“O….K….. next?”

“Ahem…yes that is right, I just cleared my throat. That means I am preparing to give a nice long speech. I am one of those prestigious acting person who holds that astounding skill of being able to stand at talk for longer than the actual presentation itself. Don’t worry if you missed the beginning of my speech because the end has nothing to do with it”

“…. Huh? oh… OH! Thank you sir for that… err… thank you. I think we are gonna end… no wait, yes, you?”

“Hi yes, I am the guy who would just like to briefly blame Khartoum for this problem… it is their fault… everything is their fault”

“Oh yes, I would like to agree with you sir. I would also like to place some of the blame on the Murle… those guys are always up to no good”

“Thanks? Awkward. I think we have just run out of time. So I would just like to….”

Bang! “Ouch!.......Oh, excuse me. Sorry, I’m the guy who doesn’t actually care about the issue but could not turn down the opportunity for a free lunch. I like to time it so that I am here just long enough to legitimise my presence in the lunch queue… please continue.”

“Ok. Well, as I was saying, I would just like to finish up about now, so no further comments or questions please. I do see that a lot of you still have something to say, but there really is not anymore time for you, Ms. ‘OMG this is so gender biased’ or you, Grandpa ‘learn to turn your phone on silent’ and of course, you, ‘weird guy who looks like he’s frantically writing notes while sniggering to himself as people make their comments’, I hope whatever your writing isn’t going to end up on some blog somewhere.”

Cyber uprising in Sudan

Across the Arab World we have been seeing nation after nation rising up to overthrow their respective dictators. At the forefront of coordination and communication amongst these nations has been the internet and social networking services. Therefore, being the fox that he is, President Bashir has always tried to stay ahead of the game.

His first move came at the start of February when he called upon the citizens of Sudan to 'Like' his page so that it becomes clear that he definitely has more friends on his profile than the opposition. He even went so far as to encourage authorities to extend the electricity grid so that more people can join Facebook and be friends with him.

However, Bashir did not feel that this was sufficient. Therefore, in true Bashir proxy militia style, he has unleashed his "Cyber-Jihadists" or Cyber-Janjaweed on those opposition supporters roaming the social networking sites with orders to "crush" all that try to topple the government.
Soon, mass Facerapes/Frapes will commence and a genocide of profile pages will ensue. Thousands will have to seek refuge in lesser sites such as Bebo, Myspace and even Friendster, where basic services such as chat and tagging are almost non-existent. Livelihoods will be destroyed as countless livestock and crops on Farmville are neglected.

I am therefore urging the Internet Architecture Board and the entire international internet community to convene and to come up with a resolution to establish a "No-Surf Zone" over Sudan. Responsibility of enforcing this should then be transferred over to those of Anonymous.

This is an issue of the utmost gravity. We must act now before countless internet identities are massacred.









I have no shame