Google’s hot searches for 2010: Chatroulette, iPad, Justin Bieber – CNN.com

Apparently the naughty bits on Chatroulette didn’t deter Web surfers so much this year. And whether people agreed or differed with Steve Jobs about Apple’s “magical” iPad, they still wanted to learn more about it.

Internet users quit worrying so much about swine flu this year, though, and the memories of Michael Jackson’s death started to fade.

That’s all according to the hottest Google searches of 2010.

Simon Cowell: Susan Boyle Should Sing at Royal Wedding – omg! news on Yahoo!

If Simon Cowell had to choose, he would pick Susan Boyle to sing at Prince William‘s Royal Wedding in April.

“Susan Boyle would be perfect,” Cowell told Extra, adding that the YouTube singing sensation’s version of “Dreamed a Dream” would be the perfect wedding song.

Susan Boyle

 

The former American Idol judge also added that Prince William and Prince Harry are fans of Cowell’s British X-Factor.

“I’m actually friends with Prince Harry. Well, I wouldn’t say friends, per se, but he’s come down to the show,” Cowell said.”He and I get along very well. He’s a very, very nice guy. I like him a lot.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton, who got engaged last month after a long courtship, are set to exchange vows at Westminster Abbeyon April 29, 2011.

Do you think Boyle should perform at the Royal Wedding?

Simon Cowell: Susan Boyle Should Sing at Royal Wedding – omg! news on Yahoo!.

Thailand’s political parties: Party on | The Economist

SINCE 2006, Thailand’s courts have been in the thick of the political drama: annulling elections, dissolving parties and barring politicians from holding office. On November 29th, it was the whole Democrat Party’s turn in the spotlight. Accused of electoral fraud during an election in 2005, the party faced the possibility of dissolution and the banning of its executives, including the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, a deputy leader of the party at the time. But the final curtain was not to fall on Thailand’s oldest political party. Instead, the Constitutional Court acquitted the party in a 4-2 majority, citing a technical flaw in the prosecution’s case.

Its verdict eases the pressure on the Democrat Party and the six-party coalition it leads. But it only adds to the frustration of opponents who see social and political injustice around every corner. The red-shirted protesters—who took to the streets of Bangkok in April and May, resulting in violent clashes that left 91 dead—argue that “double standards” are at the root of Thailand’s instability. The rich and powerful write the rules and bend them to their interests. In particular, biased courts issue verdicts that suit the interests of a narrow royalist elite, or so ran the argument. By acquitting the pro-establishment Democrat Party, the Constitutional Court appeared to be following this playbook, as if doing its part to confirm the theory.

The case had been filed in April by the Election Commission (EC), which said it had found irregularities in the Democrat Party’s election expenditure. Two charges were filed; a second is still pending. The first concerned 29 billion baht of public funds that the Democrat Party had supposedly spent on election materials. The allegation was that the money had been misused. The party denied this and said that its political opponents had cooked up the case and pressured the EC to pursue it. For months, the court has considered arguments on both sides, and heard witnesses contradict each other in testimony about what happened to the money.

However, the final verdict did not decide the merits of these competing claims. Instead the court decided that the EC had not filed the charge within 15 days of its decision to prosecute, thereby invalidating the entire process. The second charge, of an illegal corporate donation, is still pending. It is not subject to the 15-day rule, but is thought to be weaker as there is less of a paper trail. The party has denied receiving any donation from TPI Polene, a petrochemical company.

The court has itself been in the spotlight of late. A series of embarrassing video recordings of judges released on YouTube have sparked lawsuits and police investigations. A video of a Democrat MP smooth-talking a secretary to the court’s president was bad enough. This was followed by recordings of judges who seemed to be discussing how to cover up dubious hiring practices at the court. So far, the court’s focus has been on finding and punishing the leakers. No judges have resigned to take responsibility. The Democrat MP, who was part of the party’s legal defence team, was given a slap on the wrist.

Mr Abhisit has been spared the inglorious fate of his two predecessors, who were both removed by the courts. One, the late Samak Sundaravej, was ousted in September 2008 for the crime of moonlighting as a TV chef. Three months later, the Constitutional Court dissolved three political parties for electoral fraud, paving the way for Mr Abhisit to take power with military backing. Thanks to the court’s latest ruling, he is still there.

Thailand’s political parties: Party on | The Economist.

What’s the point of Twitter? – Telegraph

Just what is the point of Twitter? Emma Barnett speaks to its chief, Dick Costolo, and two of its founders, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, in a bid to find out.

Dick Costolo: Twitter’s newly appointed chief executive office. Photo: REUTERS

Just what is the point of Twitter? It’s a question that users of the ‘micro-blogging’ service will have been asked many times by those who are not converts. Unfortunately, Twitter’s new chief executive, Dick Costolo, doesn’t seem to know the answer either.

“I am working on clarity around that at the moment,” Costolo admits. “I am currently trying to define what Twitter’s purpose is in the long term. We will be able to be more specific on that answer in the near future.”

Costolo took over as chief executive last month, after Evan Williams, Twitter’s co-founder, stepped down. Williams remains at the company to focus on product development but many see Costolo’s promotion from chief operating officer as a change in strategy.

The reshuffle comes after four years of focusing on product. With 370,000 people joining Twitter every day, and a valuation of $1bn from analysts Ovum, now is the time to focus on making profits and expanding globally. That task is considerably harder if nobody knows what Twitter is for.

However, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and chairman, says: “It is hard to speak about Twitter’s vision without factoring in how much of its purpose has been defined by its users over the years. Users came up with so many parts of the service, such as the ‘hashtag’ [which allows people to link to a subject or an event] as so many people use it in so many different ways.

“Twitter needs to continue being a good listener and recognise that the service has been redefined by lots of people, tweet by tweet, but also come up with its priorities.”

Williams says that Twitter’s redesign, which he managed, was an attempt to make the purpose of the site clearer: “A lot of people don’t understand that in order to get the most out of Twitter, you don’t have to tweet.

“With the new redesign we have tried to improve the ways people discover the most relevant users to follow and how they can discover the best content too. We think of Twitter as a mini web within the web – which, when managed efficiently, can be one the most useful ways to discover hugely relevant real time information…You don’t have to tweet to be a great Twitter user and we are trying to change that misperception.”

In April this year Twitter launched its ‘promoted suite’ of advertising products – its first bid to commercialise the service. Costolo said that it had gone well so far and the company was now looking to offer local advertising, via promoted tweets.

Expanding the company bring challenges of its own. Costolo says: “At the moment I am focusing on trying to ensure Twitter retains the culture of the successful tech start-up it began life as. We have gone past the point now where everyone knows everyone else’s name in the company. We now employ 325 people and are growing by the day. It is important while we open up new offices, to make sure we are still able to innovate at the same pace and grow the organisation without adding layers of unnecessary bureaucracy.”

Though Costolo would not say when Twitter would open an office in Europe or Britain, he said that, as with other US technology companies, such as Facebook, most of its international offices would be sales focused, rather than product focused.

But the product remains key. Williams thinks Twitter has yet to reach its true potential. Asked what success for Twitter will look like, he replies: “When Twitter reaches its potential, that’s success. And it’s not done that yet. It will have only done so when billions of people around the world are using Twitter on a daily basis to consume the majority of their information in real time. That’s true success.”

What’s the point of Twitter? – Telegraph.

At TSA, the hits just keep on coming | The Barr Code

Perhaps the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently has received reliable intelligence that al Qaeda has been busy recruiting cancer survivors as sleeper terrorists, and grade-school students travelling with their parents as suicide bombers.  Or maybe TSA’s leaders recently reminded the agency’s many thousands of security screeners that using common sense when deciding which airline passengers to subject to the most intrusive and demeaning security check possible, would result in an unsatisfactory rating on their next performance evaluation.

Whatever the reason, and despite a rising tide of criticism and resistance from the travelling public, the parade of  horror stories emanating from airport security check points continues.

A North Carolina breast cancer survivor was forced to remove her prosthesis during a “pat-down.”  At Detroit Metropolitan Airport a male bladder cancer survivor was forced to remove his urostomy bag, during his screening by a TSA agent so devoid of decency that the passenger wound up covered in his own urine.

In Salt Lake City, a young boy was pulled aside for “secondary screening.”  A video of the incident shows a TSA worker patting down the shirtless child while his father stands behind him watching.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently has documented more than 900 complaints from passengers, whose experiences at the hands of TSA left them feeling violated and humiliated by screeners who went too far in carrying out their duties.

Sadly, these stories are becoming all too familiar as the government refuses to back down from these invasive tactics; largely a show of security theater.

Yet even as TSA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are sticking to their story that the full, naked-body scans and the intrusive manual body searches are absolutely essential to maintain the security of commercial air travel, questions abound.

Reports are surfacing, for example, that in response to a pre-Thanksgiving Day call for air travelers to “opt out” of the full-body scanners, at many TSA checkpoints the scanners were purposefully turned off in order to minimize the chance for a successful “Opt Out Day,” and to ease the PR problems faced by TSA.

In another incident, Adam Savage of the television show Mythbusters, was subjected to a full-body scan as he was making his way through security to board a flight to speak at a conference. In a video available on YouTube, Savage explains how he usually goes through his luggage to remove any items that may be potentially harmful; noting that in this particular case he forgot to do so. Savage pulled out two 12-inch steel razor blades that were accidently left in his inside jacket pocket. Holding the razor blades at the audience, he says, referring to TSA, “You’re going to look at my junk, and somehow you miss this?”

And it is not just at airports any longer. Some federal office buildings apparently are turning to the naked-image body scanners.

For DHS, the airports may be just the starting point.  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano already has floated a plan to add additional security measures to mass transit, trains, and boats.  While it is not yet clear whether such measures would be as invasive as those now employed at airports, I would not recommend holding your breath waiting for a more reasonable approach.

At TSA, the hits just keep on coming | The Barr Code.

Nicolas Cage medley is all the rage Ben Child | Film | guardian.co.uk

Some see Nicolas Cage as the epitome of over-acting, others as one of the few performers working today able to plunder the true depths of rage and self-hatred to which humanity is capable of sinking. At times, he’s a grimacing, gurning force of nature who keeps one’s eyes glued to the screen in awe. On other occasions, it’s like watching a multiple vehicle pile-up in bullet time.

Now someone rather more hardy than myself has put together this YouTube compilation of Cage’s most intense on-screen eruptions, titled Nicolas Cage Losing His Shit and set to Clint Mansell‘s stirring theme from Darren Aronofsky‘s Requiem for a Dream. From the sublime (the great old lady terrorism in Werner Herzog‘s Bad Lieutenant) to the ridiculous (“not the bees” from another remake, of The Wicker Man) these are Nicolas Cage’s best and worst moments, maybe both at once.

For the curious thing about Cage is that when he’s at his most appalling, he’s also at his finest. Would you, like me, put up with a hundred 8mms for just one moment of Vampire’s Kiss-like brilliance? Or would you be quite happy to see him never work again? Oh and while we’re at it, has mysterious compiler Harry Hanrahan missed anything out?

Nicolas Cage medley is all the rage Ben Child | Film | guardian.co.uk.