[Quote]:

An opposition MP set off a teargas canister in the South Korean parliament in a failed attempt to prevent the ruling party passing a free trade deal with the US.

Proponents said the deal, the largest US trade pact since the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), could increase commerce between the two countries by up to a quarter. But the opposition claims it will harm South Korean interests, putting jobs at risk.

Members of the ruling Grand National party were greeted with shouts and screams as they occupied the national assembly’s main hall to railroad the deal. Opposition MPs tried to physically block them, leading to scuffles and Democratic party’s Kim Sun-dong set off teargas.

Well, that’s one country where there right people are getting teargassed.

Tear gas: It’s essentially an eye moisturizer!

[Quote]:

Great Lord Cthulhu, destroyer of mankind, has arisen from his watery repose and is currently causing a minor traffic incident in Enfield.

[Quote]:

Inspired by the collaborative intelligence of her fellow software designers, Kare stayed on at Apple to craft the navigational elements for Mac’s GUI. Because an application for designing icons on screen hadn’t been coded yet, she went to the University Art supply store in Palo Alto and picked up a $2.50 sketchbook so she could begin playing around with forms and ideas. In the pages of this sketchbook, which hardly anyone but Kare has seen before now*, she created the casual prototypes of a new, radically user-friendly face of computing — each square of graph paper representing a pixel on the screen.

[Quote]:

A helicopter pilot helping to install a Christmas tree on Auckland’s waterfront has crashed into the ground, with the pilot escaping serious injury.

Another angle at the 3:20 mark

[Quote]:

Attention holiday shoppers: your cell phone may be tracked this year.

Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year’s Day, two U.S. malls — Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. — will track guests’ movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones.

While the data that’s collected is anonymous, it can follow shoppers’ paths from store to store.

The goal is for stores to answer questions like: How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most customers linger in Victoria’s Secret? Are there unpopular spots in the mall that aren’t being visited?

[..]

Still, the company is preemptively notifying customers by hanging small signs around the shopping centers. Consumers can opt out by turning off their phones.

Consumers can opt out by not consuming…

Of course, they claim to do this to “improve the shopping experience” which is marketing speak for “shove more ads in your face”

and take a look at the picture with that article: “An anonymous mobile phone survey” sounds, to the average consumer, like maybe you’d be given a number you could call and fill out a survey or answer some questions about your experience in the mall, right? This is disingenuous to say the least.

[Quote]:

Australian police are investigating a former senator’s allegations that an executive from Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited offered him favourable newspaper coverage and "a special relationship" in return for voting against government legislation.

Bill O’Chee made the allegations in a nine-page statement to police and they were published on Wednesday by Fairfax Media newspapers, rivals of News Corp’s Australian subsidiary.

[Quote]:

University of California officials said Tuesday they will pay the medical expenses of students who were pepper sprayed during an Occupy Davis protest last week.

It’s a good bet that to get the medical bills paid for, they have to sign something that they won’t sue.

[Quote]:

Judge William Adams, who made national headlines after the release of a 2004 video of him beating his then-teenage daughter, has been suspended by the Texas Supreme Court.

Suspended with pay, by the way.

[Quote]:

Microsoft has long been one of the most ardent proponents of expanding U.S. copyright law. But that enthusiasm doesn’t extend to the new Stop Online Piracy Act, which its lobbyists are quietly working to alter, CNET has learned.

It’s little surprise that Web-based companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter oppose SOPA, which is designed to make allegedly piratical Web sites virtually disappear from the Internet. They, and many civil liberties and human rights groups, worry that SOPA could jeopardize legitimate Web sites too.

Sad that the only reason this bill is going to die is because powerful corporations decided to “voice their displeasure”. The public doesn’t matter any more for law makers.