A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on the "hacking movement" known as anonymous.  They recently pulled one of their biggest hacks yet, and failed.  Last week, anonymous attempted to hack the Vatican's website "in an attempt to spread awareness of child sexual abuse/assault by priests, among other things."  The first article I read about this movement (I previously referred to anonymous as a group, but that doesn't seem to accuractley describe it).  Since the movement gained publicity in 2008, many people, often with no relation to anonymous, have hacked sites of a broad range of organizations claiming to be part of anonymous usually in an attempt to extort money or something.  The oddest thing that strikes me about anonymous is the fact that it has no real set goal or purpose.  It seems to just enjoy reaking havoc on websites that oppose their interests (which seems to be just about any and everything).  It seems the one thing everyone who is (or maybe isn't) in anonymous can agree on is that free internet data is essential to their cause and that seems any website or group that opposses this idea will instantly become a target by anonymous.  Back to the attack on JC.  According to a leading figurehead of the anonymous movement, the Vatican's website was able to prevent the hack because of proper investments in its infrastructure which of all the websites that have been hacked, its kind of ironic that this is one of the few (while huge technology leaders such as Sony) that actually did that.       

 BBC Link
       As the Syrian crisis rages on, more and more innocent people are losing their lives.  A French journalist reported via video that she has suffered a broken femur and is immediate need of surgery.  This might seem kind of bad but I believe she is kind of ignorant to realality.  She knowingly snuck into Syria because the borders have been closed for quite some time now trying to get a good scoop on the bitter war raging within its borders.  She was obvisouly aware of the dangers when entering, and now that she has been hurt, expects that they can call a ceasefire and  rescue her (while hundreds of thousands already go unattended who also need medical attention).  She knew what she was getting into and ignorantly believes now that people will treat her differently than the rest of the wounded people from the Syrian Crisis because "she is from the outside".  What it comes down to though is that she is now on the inside and she has no more right than anyone else to be rescued at this point because she willing entered this country with full awareness of the consequences because she was probobly "eager" to be the first in on ths scoop even though that meant endagerment to herself and her crew.  She has this misconception that a lot of people possess that they are different from the crowd of people and therefore deserve special treatment.  If a rescue chopper landed in Syria and was only able to take one person.  I hope to god it would be an injured Syrian citizen because they had no choice in the matter of being in Syria when the bombings started compared to this reporter who thought she could best the situation because she was ignorant of the sad reality of what was actually going on.  Syria is a warzone right now and your life means little to the current government in place fighting ever so deseperatly to stay in power.    

Link to the two most recent videos on your Dr. Ayers Blog
     This class is really opening my eyes to the outside world.  I knew there were wrongdoings going on around the world, but this class has brought them to the front of my attention.  Who would have guessed that the little bar of happiness you open was the result of child labor and slavery.  What is even more bothersome is the fact that at a world conference, when child slavery in the Ivory Coast was brought to the board in a 2002 board meeting, it was passed off as a disbelief and wasn't properly attended to.  For instance, they passed a bill saying they should have all chocolate not produced from child labor, which is good, but the due date on this wasn't for over a decade!  How can they sit back and watch their wallets grow heavy while they know that their are thousands if not millions of children in Africa being forced to work chocolate plantations, receiving no pay, little food, and probobly unaccepetable health and housing services.  I would then like to the pose the question, "what can one person actually do about this large of a problem?"  I would probobly have answered nothing.  This was until I viewed this TED talk by Natalie Warne who should how she brought together tens of thousands of people to the city of Chicago to bring to Oprah's attention about a problem she heled near and dear.  It was there and then that I realized one person can actually make a difference about something, as long as they remane persistant and keep their eye on the goal.  This had me thinking about the question "Why should we care about what happens around the world?"  This quote from Valentines Day really struck me, "Ask yourself what you'd want them to do if you switched shoes."  I have realized over the years that the reason I was born into a secure family and someone else was born into slavery was sheer luck.  I am not a better person or anything, I got lucky, and if I did not get lucky, I would sure hope that some person who did get lucky would help me in a time of need.  One life is no more important that another in the scheme of things and that is why people who were blessed with being born into a safe home should be thankful and give back to those who were not as fortunate. 
    I'm aware this probobly makes no sense all being in the same paragraph, but I believe they were all little bits and pieces that alone were irrelevent, but came together to form the big picture.

Ny Times
    I didn't mispell bad as you probobly have already guessed.  Baad, is the Afghanistan tradition of taking young women as a source of punishment for wrongdoings performed by elders of the family.  This practice is highly illegal, yet still prospering in much of South and Eastern Afghanistan.  This is one of the traditions that was prevelent in ancient times and somehow managed to make the transition into a more modern world.  Crimes punishable by this include; Eloping, adultry, severe debt, and dishoring a family.     
    Whats surprising to me is that this is a lot more common than you'd expect.  It happens everyday, yet no one ever talks about it or at least reveals it to the national media.  The only reason this story actually got published is because some girl managed to escape one of these Baad kidnappings and live.  Not only that, but she was willing to put herself in danger by talking to interviewers about the subjects surely putting her into serious danger.  
    Apperently this practice shows a lack of faith in the Afghanistan government, which many of its citizens call "corrupt".  They  revert back generally to tribal law, which doesn't ban or even frown upon the use of women as material for exchange and debts.  A combination of deep historical roots and a disregard for the official government will make this practice very hard to eliminate from the entire country of Afghanistan, much like the practice of Wife-burning in India, which wasn't outlawed until the Europeans colonized it

BBC
    I would love to meet the person who came up with this idea.  He will be one of the people who goes down in history for "starting something big".  After the Russian government issued a ban on rallies involving people, someone decided to do the next best thing and start rallies with toy figurines holding placards.  Aside from how incredibly adorable this is, it points out a serious offence against the rights of Russian Citizens.  Although guarenteed the right to free peaceful assembly by their constitution, the government has passed a law forbidding such rallies in hopes to insure that the current Prime minister, Vladmir Putin, can stay in power.  He has been accussed several times of ballet stuffing and winning through corrupt methods.  Now that a mayor has passed a ban on toy rallies, oppositionists are lashing out by the tens of thousands protesting for fair elections and to regain their civil rights.  
    I think it is ironic how it takes something so small or insignificant to start a huge revolution.  I would say its quite similar how it takes a small spark to start off a barrel of dynamite.  This wave of protest was comming, it just needed something to start it going.  I believe that if this opposition gets enough support, it could change how elections are held in Russia and result in a more suitable leader put into office and the removal of Vladmir Putin who has some practices that are questionable at best.  Unfortunately, this battle which has started with plastic figurines will most likely end with metal and blood. 
     

BBC LINK
    This stuck out to me because some people in my family suffered from Alzheimers disease.  Alzheimers is a very scary disease because the fact that you know it is coming, and there is litterly nothing you can do about it.  Eventually, you lose your personality and even sometimes forget who you are.  I feel even more pity for all the family members who have to watch Alzheimers patients suffer and slowly change.  What is even more disheartening is taking care of someone who does not recognize you and never will. 
    Back to the drug.  Although this drug is still in its earliest stages, it has already shown extremely promising effects of quickly removing brain plaques hundreds of times faster than any preceding drugs of its kind.  What usually took drugs several months to do, this one has proven to do the same thing in just a few days!  The scientists warn however that very few drugs make the transition from animals to humans which is very hard to do with all the FDA laws.  
    I really hope this drug makes the transition because I'd say that after cancer, Alzheimers is one of the worst diseases out there because it gives everyone the fear of growing old altogether. According to British scientists, Dementia patients in the UK alone will reach over 1 million in the next decade and I think its quite obvious that if this drug turns out that it does  work in humans, then that number will be significantly less  if not non-existent. 

LINK
    Is the world becoming a more dangerous place to live?  Today, Al-Shabab, an Islamic terrorist organization centered in Somalia has joined forces with the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.  Both organizations wreak havoc on non-Islamic communities in the Middle-East and Northern Africa.  This merger can mean nothing but trouble, with many Islams still angry over the death of Ossama Bin-Laden, I suspect many more innocent lives will be taken in the months to come.  Al-Shabab, which is currently fighting to take over the war torn country of Somolia, which is being supported currently by the United States, will now have more dangerous arms at their disposal. Al-Shabab has infact already received training from members of al-Qaeda reportedly meaning their memebrs will be more capabale of pulling off deadly attacks on the very fragile country.  I fear the war on terrorism has just become a much bigger war to fight and it will be a long time until we can put down what I call this "uprising of bullies".  Terrorists are basically bullies, in all meanings of the word.  They can't present a formal argument to convince people to share their interests, and instead force people to conform to their views via violence, threats, murder, and bombings.  The U.S., has the power to surpress (wipe out) them, but I believe we are civil enough and humane enough not to just kill off thousands of  people and rather try and civilly (spelling?) sway them onto the right path.  I fear though, since many politicians don't want to touch on that subject to get elected into office because the public doesn't seem to enjoy getting on this subject.  So it will probobly be meany years    

    

Link
    I have always kept a "Chinese Takeover" in the back of my mind.  With the U.S. in such a high amount of debt, I have always thought all the countries would at some point just lose their patience with us and go to war against us.  This article calms that thought somewhat seeing huge problems occuring in China.  I'm not sure of the current statistics for this in the U.S., but I am almost certain that we do not have 10% of our population in need of care due to mental problems yet not receiving care.  In the past few years as well, many schoolyard attacks have killed many innocent chinese children.  The article also talks about how most doctors there are not even certified and there is such a lack of doctors, most families are abandoning or locking up their mentally ill.  I was glad to read however that the government has pledged to put billions of dollars aside to help the mentally ill and get better facilities for them (there current ones being located very far from urban towns and cities.)  I don't really blame the government fully though for the current crisis though because apperently there are so many stress related mental disorders appearing in China over the past few years that no one can keep up with them all.  Even thought these are all terribly events, it makes me feel better to know that we here in America are not the only people with problems.  My question now becomes which country is actually doing humane things and not in severe debt, because I had always thought China was on top of things since the revolution way back when.