20 December 2013

Stories from 20 December 2013

Don't Just Retweet Blood Donation Requests. Donate!

  20 December 2013

Dr. Roshan Radhakrishnan at Godyears asserts the importance of donating blood and wonders about the fate of all the blood request retweets in his Twitter timeline: Does anyone ever come to the aid of those tweets? Do you honestly know anyone who has seen a retweet and taken a break...

South Korean Education Ministry Discourages Students’ Poster Movement

  20 December 2013

As South Korean university students’ ‘We Are Not Fine!’ poster movement spreads like wildfire across the country, even up to the point of motivating high, junior high and elementary students [ko] to write their own, the Ministry of Education has given notice to schools to control students’ poster-making in order...

The Postcolonialist Calls for Submissions on ‘Sites of Home’

  20 December 2013

A recently launched online magazine and journal, The Postcolonialist, is calling for submissions for the upcoming edition of its academic journal. The Postcolonialist is an inter-disciplinary, multi-lingual publication featuring research, commentary, and creative production from and about postcolonial regions and perspectives. The About page of the website adds:  We are an alternative and interactive avenue by which scholars, journalists, writers...

Jihadists Online: The Dark Side of the Internet

  20 December 2013

Islamist Jihadists are online. Lebanese blogger – and occasional satirist – Karl Sharro tweets: I honestly sometimes can't tell anymore if I'm watching news from Syria or a period drama from early Islamic history. — Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) December 16, 2013 Syrian Noor Al Ali replies: @KarlreMarks Have you come...

Top 10 YouTube Videos of 2013 in Japan

  20 December 2013

RocketNews24 has compiled a list of the top 10 YouTube videos in Japan for the year 2013. The list includes a video uploaded by a popular Japanese idol girl group AKB48, a video of two cute kids showing off their new toys, and a video of a shocking moment of...

Photos of Mass Candlelight Rallies in South Korea

  20 December 2013

By holding candlelight rallies across the country, frustrated South Koreans have voiced flooding concerns over current political developments and series of scandals, including the snowballing election manipulation allegations. @Emfla505 tweeted [ko] this stunning photo of protest in Seoul (below) and WikiTree.com site gathered more photos of rallies on December 19. 오늘 서울시청 광장입니다! 민노총의 깃발이 빠져 나가고...

Japan's Open Data Catalog Launches Beta Version

  20 December 2013

Data.go.jp, a website that aggregates publicly available data by Ministries and Agencies of the Japanese government, launched its Beta version on December 20, 2013. Datasets by 21 governmental organizations and 567 groups are available under Creative Commons License Attribution 2.1 Japan detailed in the Terms of Use. This comes as a...

Chinese Film Director Feng Xiaogang on Censorship

  20 December 2013

When asked about his dream during an interview at China's top Tsinghua University, Chinese film director Feng Xiaogang said[zh] to the students: I have realized all my dreams, if there is any, that is one day, I wish there's no film censorship in China.  His words inspired thunderous applause. He...

Protesters March Against Nuclear Plant's Re-Start on Japan's Kyushu Island

  20 December 2013

About 1,800 people marched on December 15, 2013 in protest of the re-start of the Sendai Nuclear Power Station [ja], according to the protest organizer. After two years of the plant's operations being suspended, Kyushu Electric Power Company applied for a review in July from the Nuclear Regulation Authority with the intention...