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Sex scandal in China forced actor to leave the showbiz indefinitely

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edison-chen.gifOne of the sure-fire ways to vex the always watchful Great Firewall of China is an Internet sex scandal involving its famous celebrities in Hong Kong.

This might be one of the reasons, aside from public castigation, why popular actor and hip-hop artist Edison Chen apologized to the public and vowed to leave the show business indefinitely. But for perverts, he’s the sex god of China these days.

In case you don’t know, Chen was in the movie The Grudge 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Ok, never mind. Back to the main issue.

According to Chen, those 1,300 sex and sexually suggestive photos of 6 famous celebrities were stolen when he went to a computer repair shop to fix his lustful laptop. It was later uploaded on the Net by one of the shop’s crew.

To date, this scandal has led to 10 arrests for distributing explicit photos – a big deal if you’re in China since pornography is a mortal sin there. China even censured its local search engine Baidu.com for allegedly helping spread these photos.

Then again, 1,300 private photos? Wow!

Originally posted on February 21, 2008 @ 11:35 am

Study: Internet sex offender stereotype very inaccurate

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sex-offender.gifContrary to the media attention that Internet sex offenders are getting, a new study reveals that all these risks connected to social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are all exaggerated.

The study entitled “Online ‘Predators’ and Their Victims: Myths, Realities and Implications for Prevention” was conducted by the University of New Hampshire.

It basically contradicts the image created by the media that online predators resort to deception and violence to attack children. Most Internet sex offenders are actually young adults who seduce teens unknowingly, usually leading to a nonforcible statutory rape. Conversely, cases involving violence, stalking or kidnapping are very rare.

Oh, if you’re wondering who’s this innocent looking guy, his name is Joshua Karney and he is one of the most wanted sex offenders in the UK.

Originally posted on February 20, 2008 @ 10:09 am

Cut undersea cables might be an act of sabotage

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undersea cablesA few weeks ago, the conspiracy theory on cut of 5 undersea cables is far from reality. Why not? Some experts believe that 65% of cable disruptions are due to fishing nets, 18% on stray anchors and the rest due to earthquakes and related incidents.

But specialist team from a UN agency does not rule out the deliberate act of sabotage as the primary reason of this disruption in the Middle East. However, this is not yet conclusive since the investigation is still ongoing.

Though the damage on one undersea cable was officially blamed on a ship’s anchor, the others remain a big mystery to investigators. For one, this area is marked no-go zone so unlikely for ships to dare trespass this location. If it’s true this is an act of sabotage, what are the possible reasons for this attack?

via The Telegraph

Originally posted on February 20, 2008 @ 10:52 am

Pageflakes.com targets education and social communities

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pageflakes-elections.gifPageflakes is another customizable and movable homepage which helps heavy Internet users personalize and organize information without rummaging through many Websites every single day.

If you think this is somewhat similar with My Yahoo and iGoogle, you’re right. Why not, Pageflakes CEO Dan Cohen was the mastermind behind these two popular customizable homepages.

Now, the company is actively working on different customizable web pages or “pagecasts” education and social communities. The first one is focused on local schools and boards to help educators sort out class schedules, calendars, grades, exam timelines and message boards. You can check out samples of homepage platform, grade tracker, and message board.

Moreover, Pageflakes has developed several pagecasts for ongoing social events or campaigns such as the 2008 Elections, St. Patrick’s Day, marathons, and Easter. Anyone can see these from clicking the links or signing in and looking in the community section.

Originally posted on February 19, 2008 @ 6:15 am

Chinese search engine censured– AP

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The Associated Press reports that a Chinese government-sponsored watchdog has censured Baidu.com for allegedly helping spread sexually explicit photos that appear to feature several Hong Kong stars. The photos, which appear to show actor Edison Chen and several female stars performing sex acts or in sexually suggestive poses, are believed to have originated in Hong Kong.

Originally posted on February 19, 2008 @ 8:35 pm