Some weeks ago we told you about the YouTube video by a South Korean calling himself “PSY” that was getting a phenomenal numbers of hits – 900 million since it was uploaded last July. The dazzling, fast-paced “Gangnam Style” oddity subsequently attracted the attention of the White House, and PSY was invited to perform at the White House’s annual “Christmas in Washington” TV special.
Turns out the South Korean singer is an American military troop basher. Political activist Kristinn Taylor appeared on my radio program “The Andrea Shea King Show” last Friday night to talk about PSY’s on-stage antics at a concert in 2002 during which he protested against the U.S. military presence in South Korea by smashing a model of a U.S. tank, and again in 2004 when he performed a song that described killing “Yankees” who had tortured Iraqi prisoners and killing their families “slowly and painfully.”
Taylor said he immediately posted a petition on the White House website requesting President Obama disinvite the Gangnam Style rapper: “As commander-in-chief, how can Pres. Obama honor someone who calls for killing our troops and their families?”
The petition attracted more than 500 signatures before it was removed from the White House “We the People” site with a message stating the petition was outside the site’s scope: “… has been removed from the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov because it was in violation of the We the People Terms of Participation.”
On Saturday it was reported the Korean singer who attended college in the U.S. and has previously performed for our military, issued an apology, saying he “would ‘forever be sorry’ for any pain he had caused.”
Despite the rapper’s anti-American views, PSY’s invitation to perform had not been rescinded as of this writing, and President Obama reportedly will attend the concert.
Related: Gangnam Style rakes in the cash.
Some peace on earth
Definitely not “Gangnam Style“.
Watch this Christmas video and you’ll understand why:
God bless our men and women who fight for peace, and special blessings to those who wait at home for them. Thank you to all in uniform, then and now.
Texting turns 20
Did you know it was 20ears ago this month that the first ever text message was sent?
Neil Papworth, originator of SMS, or Short Message Service now commonly known as “text messaging,” developed the communication function before there even were keyboards on our cellular devices! He used his PC to type out the world’s first message sent: “Merry Christmas.”
“Texting didn’t really take off until some years later, once handsets were able to both send and receive and people could send SMS to their friends on different networks,”
Papworth wrote on his blog. The first media attention I remember the event receiving was when the BBC News website marked the 10th anniversary of the first text. Since then, I’ve given radio interviews, been flown to London with my family for a movie premiere, featured in a Super Bowl ad, been an answer to a Jeopardy question and had articles written on the achievement in newspapers from The Sun to the Times of India and the Montreal Gazette. Who knows what the 20th anniversary will bring?”
See who’s doing the most texting, at an average of 60 text messages a day.
Related: What are you using your cell phone for?
Save a life
When I was in my teens, I worked during the busy Christmas season at a part-time job with a major department store located in a shopping mall. One day while on my way in from the parking lot, a man collapsed onto the sidewalk and laid there in the frigid air. Chances are he suffered from sudden cardiac arrest. I panicked, not knowing what to do. Would you?
Today there are AED – Automated Exterior Defibrillators – located in public places. Do you know what is packed inside this portable medical device that delivers an electrical shock to restart a person’s heart? It provides voice prompts that tell you exactly what to do and will only administer a shock if needed, so there’s no reason to hesitate. Would you know how to use it?
Watch this video to learn more. It could save a life!
And now for the good news!
The U.S. House of Representatives, as the U.S. Senate did earlier, unanimously passed a resolution last Wednesday to ban U.N. Internet control. The regulation was presented at the U.N. International Telecommunications Union world conference to revise a global telecom treaty which could be used to levy more controls on the Internet.
Phys.org reported that the gathering “has triggered fierce objections from Washington and from Internet freedom activists who fear new rules that could end the freewheeling system of the Internet.”
They never give up
A top priority for new House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, when the 113th Congress meets in January will be to bring a cyber security bill to the floor that has “buy-in” from industry.
McCaul says he’ll seek feedback from tech companies and critical infrastructure operators on what should be in cyber security legislation.
“You’ll see a bill coming out of the Homeland Security Committee. That’s one of my top priorities as chairman,” McCaul said.
Wonderful.
Too much information!
You know that present under the tree? Chances are it was purchased from the giver perched on the loo.
Turns out some 16 percent of online holiday shopping in the U.S. is conducted from a toilet. The gift that keeps on giving?
“More than 38 million Americans, with men found more likely than women, are accused of the clandestine multitasking according to calculations based on 2,104 online adults surveyed in November,” according to a survey done by CashStar.
