This Just In-ternet

This week's headline that Virginia will be the first state to require Internet safety lessons for 11-16 year old children is a step in the right direction.

The announcement made by the Virgina Department of Education's office of educational technology ironically enough arrived after a YouTube video was posted and discovered by authorities which led to charges against eight Florida teenagers, between the ages of 14-18, in the "animalistic attack" against 16 year old Victoria Lindsay stemming from an alleged dispute on MySpace.com.

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Tibet vs. China

Today's rolling rally at the University of Massachusetts Amherst brought heated tensions amongst Tibetan and Chinese supporters close to home. The public debate between the two groups eventually led China's supporters to turn and walk in the other direction. But Tibet's supporters followed close behind and the walking demonstration continued to proceed throughout the UMass campus.

Chinese supporters handed out "The Tibet Facts" to those passing by which claims 10 reasons why the Free Tibet Movement is not a passion for freedom, but a distaste for peace and hope.

Powerful words were also exchanged between the two groups. "One China" could be heard amongst China's supporters who outnumbered Tibet's in their cry for, "No freedom. No Olympics" and "No staged violence."

Related WashingtonPost.com Articles of Interest:

• What They're Really Fighting for in Tibet
• China Blocks Reporting in Tibetan Area
• Olympic Official Criticizes Anti-Chinese Protests
• China Uses Heavy Hand Even With Its Gadflies
• Tensions high ahead of San Francisco Olympic torch run
• Buddhist Monks Call for Dalai Lama
  

Congratulations

Columbia University announced the winners of the 2008 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama and Music today. Six awards were given to The Washington Post, marking the greatest number of Pulitzers awarded to the paper yet.

Articles written by journalists Dana Priest and Anne Hull chronicling the Walter Reed Army Medical Center throughout 2007 were praised for their work under the category of Public Service.

In a March 8, 2007 post, I looked at the history of the Medical Center after following the Post's online interactive coverage, now a Pulitzer Prize winner. Priest and Hull's"Walter Reed and Beyond" is still readily available at WashingtonPost.com.

Honor those who have served our country by doing them a service. Read the articles and view the interactive material included in the Post's 2007 series and learn about the realities our own people have endured following war.

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Paging All Pages

In an effort to "improve the overall effectiveness of the Program," the U.S. House of Representatives Page Board recently revamped their guidelines for employees when interacting with the House pages. The cause for alterations stem from a 2006 scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) and more recently, a series of page expulsions from the program due to inappropriate conduct.

WashingtonPost.com blogger Mary Ann Akers posted, "Note to Lawmakers: Don't Feed the Pages!" on April 4 saying, "The new rules, a list of twelve commandments, spells out common-sense approaches on where and how to draw boundaries with the youngsters, and includes blunt language on rules against touching and entertaining pages."

The first three rules:

1. "To treat all House Pages with respect, integrity, dignity and consideration;"
2. "To offer appropriate mentoring to House Pages, being mindful of the need to maintain a professional relationship and appropriate physical and emotional boundaries;"
3. "To suggest, host, or take part in Page Program functions;"

Click here to view all 12 of the new guidelines.

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A New Newseum

Washington, D.C. will unveil the Newseum building on April 11 chronicling the media, then and now.







The WashingtonPost.com's objective pre-opening coverage identified the museum as one of the downtown's grandest architectural projects in the last decade. A multimedia piece accompanied their story and included a photo slide show, which is like taking a tour of the museum from the confines of your very own office.

Here is what some of the readers had to say about "Washington's New Landmark" in response to the Post's Howard Kurtz.

• llrllr wrote:
  As a 40-year journalist, I'd love to see the new Newseum. But at $20 a head, I think I'll take my wife to lunch instead. Ashame. I thought a Foundation ran this thing.
  4/6/2008 6:21:45 PM
• vuac wrote:
  The old Newseum in Arlington had free admission. It also had some most unusual artifacts that are missing from this one, which seems dominated by television monitors and cyberspace fads. A shame!
  4/4/2008 11:58:03 PM
• RaiderDan wrote:
  ``An overpriced monument to journalistic self-glorification.''
  
  No truer words were spoken. Firefighters cops and doctors don't give themselves similar ``look at us!'' venues.
• slowdream wrote:
  I wouldn't be caught dead in this disgusting monument to liars and traitors.
  4/6/2008 8:54:53 PM

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Backfeed

Western Massachusetts citizens are encouraged and willing to participate in conversations with local politicians and The Republican's MassLive.com enables discussions such as these through their community podcasts.

"Ask Mayor Sarno" is a podcast on MassLive.com featuring questions from citizens and readers, both named and anonymous, addressed to Springfield's recently appointed Mayor, Domenic Sarno.The Mayor's April 3 podcast addresses ongoing steps to improve the aesthetics of Springfield's downtown. Through the planting of new flowers and a general clean up, Mayor Sarno was confident in his city's face lift. Despite facing flu-like symptoms, Mayor Sarno sounded very appreciative of the opportunity to participate in the podcast and to address the listeners questions.

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April 1, 2008

Google has really taken April Fool's Day to a rocking new level.

First, I signed on to Blogger only to be introduced to the alleged up and coming Google Weblogs. Of course I wanted to learn more and followed a suggested video link, but to my complete surprise was greeted by Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video. I returned to the original page introducing the Weblogs and tried the video link and once again was directed to Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."

I dismissed this oddity and went about my day until now when searching YouTube for viral campaigning videos and visiting the site's Featured Videos. Bunny eating banana caught my attention and I clicked the link and was perplexed once more when directed to Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."

Looks like the jokes on us Google.

Check out the University of Massachusetts Amherst's t0mfoolery featured annually in the The Daily Collegian on April Fool's.

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