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this is pretty cool!
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I was reading an interesting article on CNN addressing many people’s worries that the US government could do the same thing as Egypt did and shut down our internet at any given time. You guys might remember the article I posted last week about this and what an outrage it would cause if the US did the same thing to its citizens. It would be a violation of our constitutional rights and we are protected under law from this type of tyrannical obstruction. But when a country is at war with itself- would these laws even matter? That’s the scary part. In theory, we the people have rights but there’s always an exception to the rule when authority feels compromised. Look at our police force. They’re not supposed to unjustly beat or kill anyone, but it happens. So could this happen to us? Not likely, experts say. Our online infrastructure is far more complex and there is no way to simply “pull the plug.” What can occur is internet usage can be blocked but not completely. There’s always ways around firewalls by using proxies or 3rd party applications, plus other high-tech techniques. What happened in Egypt is that the government evidently called its 5 internet service providers and had them stop all traffic. This could happen in the US but we have so many different online options that it would be pretty much impossible to shut the entire country down.

Andrew Blum (CNN correspondent) calls the internet “a network of networks,” and continues saying that “the idea of having to comply fully with any government order to shut them off is pretty extreme. It’s as if there were a government order to close every McDonald’s — all at once.”

So that’s sort of good news for us, even though our minds shouldn’t be left at ease. After all, the Constitution and law is merely “virtual.”

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Fire and looting have broken out against several buildings around Cairo in new fighting following a day of clashes in central Cairo between anti-government protesters and regime backers.

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Yes and a Yugoslavian won the Aussie Open for the MEN! YAY!!!

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