Stephen Harper’s plagiarism scandal

The Liberal Party of Canada has accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of reading a plagiarised speech in 2003 two days after the then-Australian PM John Howard read effectively the same speech. At the time, Harper was in opposition.

Well, judge for yourself. Politicians surely should double check what has been written for them. I doubt this will cause too much of a dent in confidence in Harper in the upcoming elections but come on.

Facebook disables ‘old Facebook’ workarounds

Facebook has today disabled workarounds to the “old Facebook” layout. Previously, installing Greasemonkey on Firefox and an additional script, or installing the Developer add, would get you access back to the old layout and not have to see Facebook’s ugly new look.

Despite over 2,100,000 people joining a group asking for 1,000,000 against the new layout, Facebook has once again said “screw you”, and appears so hell-bent on the new layout they’ve disabled these workarounds — and have even disabled the old facebook for developers. Quite ridiculous.

A popular winner

Sebastian Vettel. Youngest ever F1 pole sitter. Youngest ever F1 race winner — and a popular one at that. It is an amazing result for the team that were once Minardi. As a Minardi fan, the last time I can remember enjoying a race result was Minardi’s points at the shambolic 2005 US Grand Prix — this by far tops that.

Time to boycott Facebook

Facebook intends to force the “new Facebook” on all its users next week. They’ve effectively told easily 100,000 people — at least — “screw you, we don’t care about what you think”, and they obviously haven’t bothered to take into account any of the feedback people against it have been sending them. Time to boycott the ugly new Facebook, then. You’d think that they’d be smart enough to know that the current look is an asset, but apparently not.

Hurricane Gustav: water flowing over Industrial Canal

Hurricane Gustav made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana, at around 1430 UTC (9:30 am local). Rainbands lashing New Orleans right now, with TV pictures showing waters flowing over the Industrial Canal. More to come.

Sarah Palin is McCain’s pick

Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, is to be John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee, according to CNN. If elected, she would be the first female vice-president.

It’s going to be a historic campaign — either the first black President, or the first female VP, will be elected. Now, I wonder what effect the selection of Gov. Palin will have on Hillary Clinton’s disenchanted women supporters…

CNN reports that she’s a long-time NRA member, which will boost the gun community’s trust in the ticket, but why not Mitt Romney? Michigan’s 17 electoral votes — and a boost on the economy angle — surely would’ve helped.

Joe Biden?

“Biden voted in favor of the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.”
(Wikipedia)

Biden’s also been in Washington longer than John McCain has. Is that really “change”?

Games of the XXIX Olympiad underway

The Beijing Olympic Games began today with the opening group matches in women’s football, two days ahead of the opening ceremony.

Today’s lineup (times local):
* Argentina 1–2 Canada (5 pm)
* Germany 0-0 Brazil (5 pm)
* Japan 2–2 New Zealand (5 pm)
* China vs Sweden (7:45 pm)
* North Korea vs Nigeria (7:45 pm)
* Norway vs United States (7:45 pm)

Germany v. Brazil and Norway v. United States are obviously the two big games of the bunch. As of this writing (7 pm local time in China), the first three matches are now complete — with the highly-anticipated Germany–Brazil clash of the titans ending in a dour 0-0 draw.

Also, Severe Tropical Storm Kammuri has hampered preparations for equestrian events in Hong Kong. The storm made landfall in Guangdong Province east of the Leizhou peninsula a few hours ago just west of Hong Kong.

Greek sprinter who missed Athens dope test to sue IOC president

One of two Greek sprinters who missed a pre-Games dope test in 2004 and was subsequently droped, Katerina Thanou, is threatening to personally sue IOC President Jacques Rogge if he bans her from the Beijing Games.

According to BBC Sport, Thanou’s lawyer has threatened that legal action would be pursued if Dr Rogge threw Thanou out of Beijing — despite him having the right to do so following her agreement to give up accreditation at a disciplinary hearing over the 2004 matter.

Now, Thanou’s lawyer, in a letter to the IOC, claims that any attempt to ban Thanou from Beijing would constitute “an abuse of power and discrimination against an athlete who has qualified successfully according to the rules and it will breach the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Oh please, get a life. Thanou knew what she was doing and what she would face. Rogge has the right to ban her and Thanou should have been given a life ban, like Dwain Chambers.

On a separate issue, Thanou is also threatening to sue the IOC if Marion Jones’ gold medal from the Sydney Games in 2000 is not awarded to her by Monday. The IOC obviously has good reason to be wary of awarding her that medal. However, on this case, Thanou should be awarded it unless there’s definite proof she was in violation of any rules in 2000.

China ‘unblocks’ some web addresses

“In China, Internet access is fully open.” — Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee (BOGOC).

Riiight.

News today that China has unblocked some web addresses following a protest from the International Olympic Committee. It’s not clear whether these sites have been unblocked to everyone or only for the journalists reporting on the event.

Amnesty International, bbc.com/chinese, the Chinese Wikipedia and similar sites are reportedly among those unblocked, although CNN reports that some of these sites, while unblocked, were still “unavailable” at times.

China, stop the act already. And the IOC, well, you’re just a useless, shameful bunch of bastards who don’t dare to challenge BOGOC on this issue.