More events...

to the conviction of British teacher Gillian Gibbons for allegedly insulting Islam in Sudan. The incident occurred when she allowed her class of seven-year-olds to name a teddy bear Muhammed for a project on animals. The class voted for the name, which is one of the most common names in the Muslim world. After a school staffer complained about the teddy bear, Gibbons was arrested last Sunday.

Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in jail, however, her conviction could have carried a sentence of 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine under Sudanese law.

After last Friday’s prayers, several thousand people, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, protested in several locations throughout Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, calling for Gibbons’ execution and burning her picture. Gibbons was taken to a different location to keep her safe. Thumbs down to this violent, mob type behavior as well.

This situation is utterly ridiculous. It is clear that Gibbons had no intention of insulting Islam. The case should never have been tried in the first place, and the fact that Gibbons was convicted anyways shows the amount of hatred in Sudan for foreigners at this time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to Mason hosting the 2008 Olympic Landscape Sculpture International Exhibition. 51 sculptures by artists from around the world were installed on campus to represent the Olympic spirit. The sculptures are on display until Friday, December 7 on the plaza between Mason Hall and the Center for the Arts. The sculptures on campus make up only half of the entire exhibition. An international panel of 17 experts chose 110 sculptures from more than 2,400 entries submitted from 90 countries.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to Beacon, part of the Facebook Ads platform that Facebook introduced several weeks ago. Beacon keeps track of certain activities of Facebook users on more than 40 participating Web sites, including Blockbuster and Fandango, and reports those activities to the user’s Facebook friends, unless told not to do so. This program has been blasted by many concerned about safety, particularly a Computer Associates security researcher who conducted an experiment on Beacon’s reach into computer activities. According to the researcher, he found that Beacon will report back to Facebook on members' activities on other websites that participate in Beacon even if the users are logged off from Facebook and have declined having their activities broadcast to their Facebook friends.