Paper recently published at Rice University about the role of women in the Arab Spring. I haven't read it yet but it looks interesting. Might be cool to read if anyone is writing their paper on the Arab Spring.

Sorry to keep posting but I thought that this topic was important. Facebook going public as a company could have ramifications for the development of other forms of social media if the shares don't sell well (which they aren't). Is this slow sell a result of general cautiousness over tech stocks or social media specifically? Facebook's disappointing public trading debut could have a ripple effect on everything from IPO valuations to venture-capital funding in the months ahead, especially in anything related to social media.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Pakistani government blocked access to the social networking service Twitter on Sunday, after publicly holding Twitter responsible for promoting a blasphemous cartoon contest taking place on Facebook, officials said. A government spokesman was quoted by local news media as saying that the government had been in talks with Twitter to remove "objectionable" material but that there had been no results.

It was an incongruous sight for a baseball stadium: tens of thousands of Orthodox Jewish men, all dressed in black suits and white shirts, streaming through the gates of Citi Field on Sunday, bearing not blue-and-orange Mets caps but tall, big-brimmed black hats. I feel like this event is a few years late. I understand the rising presence of social media in peoples' lives yet I don't know how effective the rally will be in limiting internet usage amongst Orthodox Jews. I wish the article included more information about specific measures. It does talk about filtering technology and apps for locating synagogues and kosher eateries. One guy goes to an internet café where a rabbi can monitor your activity in addition to blocking websites. How does this compare to limits in other orthodox/religious sects in the US? Any info on internet usage amongst American muslim youth?

Chinese authorities forced Al Jazeera English to close its China news operations, and suggested that its reporter had broken unspecified laws and behaved unethically. The Chinese government refused to explain Tuesday why it had expelled the the English language correspondent of Al Jazeera, but hinted at charges she had broken Chinese laws and behaved unethically. The government rep says they welcome journalists who report "objectively." Calls into question who defines objectivity. Does China only call journalism they like objective? Does objectivity apply to investigative journalism?