Global Voices Online

UAE's ISP has blocked UAE community Blog. It's not clear yet what is the reason. A blogger who goes by the name war_in_iran said that: “They maybe the community was having a bad effect “culturally” on the the innocent youth of this great country.”

2,000 Jordanians protested in front of the parliament today, denouncing terrorism and mainly the act of those four IAF (Islamic Action Front) MPs who went to Zarqawi’s funeral to offer their condolences and praise him as a “martyr”, Naseem said.

The comedy of errors continues with the IDF positing various theories about how eight Palestinian beachgoers were blown to smithereens last Friday. At first, the Israeli press and military sources said the most likely explanation was an errant Israeli shell which hit the beach instead of its target 400 meters away. But almost immediately, the press reported that perhaps a Palestinian bombmaker had had a “work accident.” The following day the new theory was that an errant Qassam rocket had hit the beach, Richard Silverstein said. Read the rest of the theories he report.

Arturo de Albornoz wonders if Coca-Cola didn't go too far when they turned several bus stops into (ES) goal post facades (with photos). A few days later, de Albornoz finds out that the Pepsi-owned brand “Gauraná Antarctica” one-upped Coca-Cola by engulfing entire bus stops with life sized goal posts (ES).

Menéame announces with much fanfare (ES) that the Spanish Wikipedia reached 125,000 entries on Friday. Eduardo Arcos documents it's exponential growth in 2006 (ES).

President Arroyo in Philippines suggested doubling the number of students in a class to solve the problem of classroom shortage. Rolly does not agree “Excuse me but is the President that naive? Is this a simple mathematical problem? Why do I sense a famous “eat-cake-because-there=is-no-bread” stance made by a beheaded French queen? No, it may not be as callous but it is just as absurd. Has the President forgotten that when it comes to education, quality is important? For quality to be had, there should be a lesser student to teacher ratio so that the teacher can attend to more students that he/she possibly can.”

Wendy thinks she has the ability to communicate with spirits. “The first time when I was 7. I used to cry and complained that I did not want to go to school. Reason? I used to sit in this dark bicycle shed before school starts. There was always this old man who wears a white turban and white long sleeved shirt and sarong, carrying a walking stick who sits next to me every day and starts talking to me. The eerie thing is that no one has ever seen this man and no one ever sees him sitting next to me.”

Meifon talks about the importance of eating together with family and is proud of her parents who encourage her to be independent.

Jesse of Bored in Brno visits a famous Czech composer's archive (Leos Janacek, “considered among the three most significant Czech composers in the history of this country's music”) and finds it a bit too researcher-unfriendly.