Updates on Venezuela and Ukraine

The main thing I want to blog about today is HUGE international news. The first bit is about the protests still happening in Venezuela.



Last we talked, of course, Venezuelans were protesting president Nicolas Maduro's government for over a week – seemingly over the problems of shortages, inflation, insecurity, the lack of opportunities.





Allegedly, Maduro's government has now blocked social media.





International news outlets have been attacked, and as of typing this, at least 5 people have been killed; one of the most recent was opposition supporter (and beauty queen), Genesis Carmona, who was shot by people riding by on motorcycles.



Thousands of Venezuelans are still in the streets protesting.



The footage and pictures coming from this, are very very intense.



And it's going to be interesting to see what does happen; and as things keep developing I will, of course, keep you up to date.

The other international news I want to blog about – I've been blogging about it all week – is Ukraine. The situation continues to get worse and worse, and worse (especially if you've been keeping up with the news, or the live stream link that I've been including). There are many more deaths. As of typing this, 70 people have been killed. That number coming from medic with the opposition; and the AP notes it has not been verified right now.



Protesters have been capturing policemen.



There is now video footage of what looks to be policemen sniping at protesters.



And this is followed by footage of the actual protesters being hit, so you know that it's live ammo and not something else.

The protesters were fighting back with bricks, Molotov cocktails.



There have been reports of small arm fire.



A lot of what I know is happening on the ground, are coming from the people actually there, and non-American sites.



Lol, I typed that because when you go to many American sites, this is what you see:



This is literally CNN.com right now; 'cause who in mainstream media cares about people being murdered in the streets? Those people aren't Americans, you know who's an American? The $19 billion app.



And, on FOXNEWS.com, you don't really care about that, Obama didn't cause that, we're worried about the "government in the newsroom"!



On MSNDC.com, we care what Chris Christie is going to say.



Venezuela and Ukraine aren't even in the top ten things!





I thought for a second maybe HLN was covering it. I was like, "Oh, they're going to sensationalize it!", but then I remembered they're the missing-white-girl/trying-to-use-YouTubers-to-have-some-sort-of-relevance-in-this-day-of-age channel.



And then, ABC, lol, actually ABC News was reporting on it – it was their number one story.



And this is just me venting on it. Genuinely, I hate blogging about stuff like this, because there's no twist to it, or silver lining, or happy thing. But the fact that the other guys with actual journalism degrees don't, or they at least wait until they know that they can make it sexy in some way, that's the reason why I do, that's the reason I will continue. Why? Because I think that it's more important that more people know about this than Facebook acquiring WhatsApp.

I think that's where I want to actually end this article. All that typed, I'd love to know your thoughts too.

An Update on the Situation in Ukraine

If you've been following this live stream, or keeping up to date, you can see that everything is still going strong – there's fire in the streets.



As of typing this article, it's been reported that now, 25 people are dead, including 10 police officers – and a figure that is likely to go up. We have over 800 people injured.



The footage, in general, coming out of this, is just terrifying. I watched a video of a guy getting his leg blown off with a grenade!

It's being reported that, on top of just everything continuing, the reason this escalated even more: riot police tried to storm the encampment of protesters, it didn't work out as planned.





There's also now, video showing Ukraine soldiers surrendering to these protesters.



During this typing, it said that their barracks was on fire at the same time. And, it seems that this is a mix of soldiers that do not want to fight, but also are on the protesters' side.

The Associated Press is also reporting that the leader in Ukraine is replacing the head of the armed forces.



We also have Ukraine security service announcing it's launching a counterterror operation.



The service saying that in the past 24 hours, riders took over 1,500 firearms and 100,000 bullets!!





And so, hearing this now, maybe what we've in these protests is nothing compared to what we're going to see!!!

I just hope this violence, and these deaths, end soon. But, who really knows what's going to happen next? That being typed, as things develop, I will keep you up to date. And I actually think this is where I'm going to end this article and I'd love to know your thoughts on that.

SOCHI 2014: Brother's Keeper

This bit of awesome that I just had to share with you today, is from the Olympics. This all happened during the finals of the Men's Cross-Country Skiing Sprint.



Russian Skiier, Anton Gafarov, crashed during the race.



Really, really hard his left ski was badly damaged.



He tried to go down...



...and then, BOOM!



He fell down again and the ski broke in half!



And just when it looked like he was going to have to quit the race...



...a Canadian coach by the name: Justin Wadsworth, ran out to the course with a replacement ski...



...put it on for him...



...and Gafarov was able to finish the race – albeit 3 minutes behind the leaders.



It was warming watching him receive a standing ovation as he reached the finish line.



When Wadsworth was asked why he did this, he said:



Conclusively, two things:

1. I love good sportsmanship, and

2. I love Canadians!

Twitter: A Change of Scenery

In interesting tech news, even though Twitter just changed its design, it may be changing again to something that looks like this:



A lot of these tech companies run 1%, or . 1% tests on their community so a small portion gets this new thing they tested out.



They see what people think, how people actually use it, and then the rest of us get it.



This one (kind of) looks a bit Facebook-y/Pinterest-y.





And I'd love to know what you think on the design. More importantly, do you think Twitter and Facebook are going to survive the next...let's say...4-5 years?

Gays in the NFL

Prospect for the draft, Michael Sam, came out Sunday night – the Sunday before last – announcing that he was gay.



And so, this is news in America because as one NFL scout said:



His former team, some NFL stars, many people came out in support of him.



And, from this, stories started coming out: will this change his draft spot? For better or worse?



Lol, my favourite thing so far, was ESPN SportsNation putting up a poll; and the question for the poll was, "Is the NFL ready for a gay player? At the initial moment of research, it was 63% Yes, 37% No.



Pretty much even across all the states, except Tennessee and Mississippi. Those states, at various levels, saying NO.



And, since many blogs started reporting on this, many people from Mississippi were like, "Dammit, Mississippi!", which seems to be their new slogan.



Nonetheless, a lot of people voted that, "Yes, the NFL is ready".

But, the main thing is, this is really a non-story. The fact that it is a story, is the story.