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This article gives an Arab perspective on the vice presidential debate. There are some interesting choices in words to describe Biden's apparent victory over Ryan Thursday night: "feisty vice president Joe Biden came out swinging" "clashed sharply" "savaged surging" "crackling showdown" "Passionate and adamant". This type of language demonstrates the writers bias toward The democratic party. They also illustrate their bias through their explanation of the mixed post-debate polls. They explain that Ryan's good looks distracted viewers from Biden's stellar points.

I think this site posts very biased articles in general on this election. After the last debate, the report on that seemed incredibly biased towards Republicans, so I think maybe they just go with whoever "won" the debate. It's interesting how the only evidence used in the debate shown in this article is about foreign policy and terrorism, and I agree that it would be interesting to look at something from Iran or the likes.

Good find, Sam! Even if the source shows overt bias, it's good to know what's out there being said about US politics!

This is interesting because even though the computers have changed so much it is fairly rare to see it used as a weapon. Apparently there have been lots of cyber attacks and counter attacks between the US and Iran and defense secretary Leon E. Panetta said that the US was at risk of a "Cyber Pearl Harbor". This raises the question of whether cyberspace could be a new front for warfare.

This article demonstrates the threat that cyberattacks pose to governments, economies, and even the people. Throughout middle school children like me we were warned of the seriousness of cyberbullying and how it could truly damage the feelings of others. However, the threats of a Cyber world war could be drastic to people all over the world. While there is no hard evidence that the latest attacks have been sanctioned by the Iranian government, the attacks have increased the disdain between Iran and the United States. In many ways the conflict does resemble bullying. Iran wants to prove that they have some power over the United states by attempting to damage our economy. They are using this entirely new medium of cyberspace to let out this aggression. The question is whether we are on the brink of a cyber war and what the consequences will be to the economy and freedom of information.

In the past Russia had always prohibited gay rights demonstration, beating the protestors. Here the European Court stepped in and ruled that it violated their policies on human rights because they stopped them from assembling and discriminated against their sexual orientation. This action of the European Court shows one of the downsides to Russia for being involved in a transnational organizaiton - the government was not able to do what it wanted (even if it wasn't the right thing) and they had to pay a fine - they had surrrendered their autonomy and had to pay.

A little gross humor. Really questionable taste. I can credit and you can thank Ryan Trutner for finding this one.

This video uses food in a very unique way to demonstrate different countries and the violence between them. The part about the twin towers definitely had a certain emotional effect even though they were made out of hamburgers it still got the point across.

Both Japan and France rank in the top 50 for Global Peace Rankings-- Japan 8th and France 48th. The biggest difference in their rankings comes from France's possession of heavy and nuclear weapons. The Japanese have limited possession of heavy and nuclear weapons as a result of the pacifist constitution they were forced to adopt following WWII which limited their ability to arm for war. Furthermore, France is involved in more conflicts and exports more weapons than Japan, which is also heavily related to the restrictions placed on Japan following WWII. However, Japan has a worse record when it comes to relations with neighbors which may be related to actions from WWII and rising tensions between Japan, China, and South Korea. Yet, perhaps unrelated to WWII and relating more to culture of society, France has a higher level of violent demonstrations and internal organized conflict than Japan. Japan has a homogenous population that has a main focus of work and a culture that accepts the social and economic hierarchy, but France has a more heterogeneous population with many disenfranchised groups that were once colonized that continue to face discrimination.

Graphical and some literary analysis of the small arms survey

A quick update: So, it looks like Hong Kong is going the way of Occupy. In less than 24 hours, negotiations between the HK government and students will be held. Most people, protestors and others, predict very little change will take place. They seem to agree any sort of meaningful change has to come from the issuer of the controversial voting amendment itself -- the Chinese government. There seems to be an increasing sentiment among residents that the show for Beijing needs to reach an end, because of all of the economic and mobility issue it currently presents.

A roadside bomb hit a military vehicle in northern Sinai. The bomb killed 7 troops and injured 6 others. Islamists in northern Sinai have waged attacks against troops and security forces, since the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year after mass demonstrations demanding his resignation.Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an al-Qaida-inspired group, conducted the majority of attacks.

Yay! Another Profile of the Syrian Republic. In April 2011 Bashar Al-Assad made an end to the 48-year-old state of emergency but demonstrations continued. Massive anti-regime protests broke out in several cities in Syria. Protesters demanded the release of all political prisoners, more freedoms for individuals and an end to pervasive corruption. In this source the European Forum analyzes and writes a profile of Syria in recent years- allowing for quantitative and qualitative analysis on my part.

Just by looking at pictures, you can see what 800,000 people mobilizing together looks like. It feels like every time I look at news, something new has happened with the protests. It was interesting to hear how adamant Hong-Kong residents are about not becoming like China.

It is crazy to see just how many people are willing to demonstrate even with the risk of government retaliation. This also hints at the fact that the number of people who supports these ideas must be many times larger.

This is a demonstration of low capacity -- there's no governmental authority able to maintain order.

It seems like gang violence has become one of Haiti's greatest challenges among the natural disasters and political upheaval. Definitely agree it is a sign of a low-capacity country, that is unsurprising, however, given their president's assassination. Similar to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, and Venezuela, who have all struggled with gang control of major portions of the country's territory. A common theme in this region of the world.

yup yup, thanks Sam, Anay and Ershai!

This is a demonstration of what happens when the government has too much power and there is not enough freedom for the citizens to force reform.

I hope my annotations saved

Great use of Diigo annotation tool, Anay!