So. the third post.
I'd like to do something at least slightly useful with this blog.
I think I'm gonna write about the internet.
From now on, one website a day, I'm going to explore the net and report my findings here. Which means I have a great excuse to just keep on doing what I've been doing because now OH MAN I'M WRITING ABOUT IT whoa. So it's research if you find me playing games and reading captioned pictures and suchlike.
I'd like to start off with something meaningful.


http://collateralmurder.com/
I discovered this because most of Facebook is taken up by everyone posting a link to it. The website has a seventeen minute, fourty-seven second video of the U.S. military killing roughly a dozen people and injuring two children. Two of those killed were journalists employed by Reuters. According to the US military, they died in a battle.
"In August 2007, Reuters used the Freedom of Information Act to request a copy of the video evidence taken from the primary helicopter involved in the attack."
It's now April 2010. The video has finally been released. Wikileaks acquired and decrypted this video.
I watched it, and it seems like the people in the helicopters mistook the journalists' cameras for various weapons including RPG's and AK-47's. The helicopter attacked, shooting into a group of people. Instructions are issued to one of the members of the armed forces to move to the location and take photographs after the shooting ends.
One of the more alarming elements of this is the following exchange:
"Oh, yeah, look at those dead bastards."
"Nice."

Wait, nice?
No. NO. That is NOT what you say. That is NOT what you say when you kill people. That is NOT an appropriate response to somebody who says that after killing people.
I say a lot of awful things to and about a lot of people, but I would never say what those soldiers said.
At 8:44 there's an injured man crawling on the curb while the soldiers discuss what to do about him. Soon after, a van approaches, attempting to pick up the bodies, and the soldiers request permission to kill the driver and passengers. It's granted.
Shots are fired at the van just after it begins to drive away. The vehicle ceases function and the people who jump out of it and attempt to escape are shot at.
Another alarming element:
After the shooting ends, when ground troops arrive, one of the soldiers drives over a dead body.

Anyway, sorry for the depressing post, but depressing things are often important, and this is one of those.