You Missed It: Tweetless hour edition

We officially hit summer this week, even though really we’ve all been calling it summer for nearly a month now. I’m fine with Memorial Day being everyone’s mental start to the summer, but I need to call out the beer industry for jumping the gun. Summer brews are often available far in advance of the actual season. For example Samuel Adams Summer Ale was on the shelves at my grocery store in early April. I don’t mind looking forward to summer, but that’s a bit excessive. It makes me get excited for something way before I should, like a Halloween sale on Christmas presents. If you were busy announcing a massive vehicle recall this week, odds are you missed it.

When the fail whale fails
Twitter’s fail whale did not make an appearance on Thursday, even though the site was down for more than an hour. Twitter says it was an internal error, a hacker group said it was responsible for the issue. Whatever, the cause, it was mass hysteria online, where people took to outlets like Facebook and Tumblr, complaining in less than 140 characters about how they couldn’t tweet.

The decision was profanity-laced
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that broadcasters are allowed to air swears and nudity, for now, because the FCC had not given television stations clear guidance on what is and is not acceptable in its eyes. This means that until the FCC amends its rules, you can cuss and strip all you want without fear of being fined. Next week, The Guys will be writing all of our posts in the nude.

Free as a bird
Remember when the H5N1 avian flu virus killed a few hundred people several years ago? As it turns out, with as few as five genetic mutations, it could be as airborne as its namesake. According to a new study that was banned from publication last year for national security concerns. The report’s release seems to be a testament to how confident the federal government is that there is no terrorist threat. Sleep well, America!

Romney can point to not one, but two gay friends

Let it never be said that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney doesn’t have the support of Republican gays. In fact, he has two of their support.

Just to clarify: that’s two individual gay and lesbian members of the directing board for GOProud. The other two gay board members voted against endorsing Romney over his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, yet the decision passed by a bare majority. So, it’s a gay Republican organization … that doesn’t much care about gay Republican rights. Just Republican talking points. But it’s a gay organization, not just plain old Republicans. Yet, three of the board members are straight, which is cool, but two of them just voted against gay marriage, and one wouldn’t take a stand on an issue that would probably matter to a gay political organization …

You know what? We’ll let you sort it all out, readers. Frankly, we can’t make tops or bottoms out of it.

Japan hates Youtube people

It’s easy to shorthand Japan as “Crazy Japan,” mainly because it’s fairly accurate most of the time. But every so often Glorious Nippon severely tests that “Glorious” part, and prove the characterization spot-on. This is one of those times.

Japan’s government has just passed a law that would outlaw the act of “ripping” copyrighted material of any kind to users’ computers, and the knowing downloading of such material from any internet source. Naturally, this is targeted towards folks who record TV shows and DVDs/Blu-rays for sharing, archiving, and of course piracy. That part of the law is a good thing. Punishment ranges from hefty fines to jail time. The law goes into effect this October.

But wait, there’s more.

The broad, vague wording of the law opens the potential to prosecute users with the temerity to view copyrighted material on such innocuous sites as Youtube, because those sites upload data to users’ computers. And it potentially covers international viewers of Japanese copyrighted material. What’s more, analysts suggest that the law could be used to suppress material that the government finds uncomfortable.

This bears all the hallmarks of a law written by fearful companies and legislators who would rather destroy that which they don’t understand and can’t adapt to. Of course, natural challenges over enforcement, scope and freedom of speech will rise up, but truthfully, it doesn’t seem really feasible that the Japanese public will muster the kind of intense resistance that Americans raised over SOPA and PIPA.

Prove me wrong, Japan. Prove me wrong.

South of the border tastes not heading up north

It’s a sad day in Alaska. There were no polar bears invading, people didn’t go crazy from all the sunlight on the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, nor did Sarah Palin announce she was going home.

Nope, the bad news is that the town of Bethel will not get a Taco Bell, as they hoped. The entire town is the victim of a cruel hoax. It seems someone spread around flyers promising free gorditas from a Taco Bell promising to open before July 4.

And so, Bethel will continue on, being forced to make its own food or eat at mom-and-pop restaurants. Weep for its citizens, dear reader.