• awful A blogger under the pseudonym Harriet Jacobs loudly complained in a post after the release of Google Buzz, due to the fact it allowed her abusive ex-husband to harass her.
• better After she wrote an epic blog post (now protected), Google dealt with her concerns (partially) and the media grabbed a hold of the story, too. She still plans to quit Gmail.

• Get your war on! In the first major assault since Obama moved to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, NATO and the U.S. are attacking the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, which is a new style of fighting for the region. Marjah is the last large stronghold the Taliban has in the rough and tumble Helmand Province. Here’s a lineup of the troops ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum:

• 4,500 U.S. Marines are leading the offensive
• 1,500 Afghan troops are joining in the attack
• 300 U.S. soldiers are taking part, too source

• What a convoluted system. For a week, we told you about our trials and travails regarding Newsday’s subscription advertising. We got bored of making fun of them admittedly (and tired of the useless “news alerts” that felt like vectors to send ads to us more than actual news alerts), but now they’ve actually given us some ammo.

• Shoddy service Today, they finally sent us an e-mail, two and a half weeks after we signed up, asking for money, with full details of the process. Nobody ever called us or asked us about it. If Newsday wanted our service, they would call us first.
• pay all at once? We definitely don’t like the $40/every two months setup, instead of just subscribing for a week just to try it. So yeah, we’re not signing up for this. It’s seemingly designed to discourage you from subscribing to Newsday.
• Our advice to newsday Paywalls can work, but your all-or-nothing paywall system seems broken. There’s no online component at all. Also, people outside of Long Island are interested in what happens in Long Island. Consider that, guys.

A final tally of our Newsday adventures

• 17 days it took for Newsday to decide to charge us

• 17 number of text-message updates we got from Newsday; nearly all of them had ads as long as the news itself
• six of the updates said “Officials: 5 killed, 12 injured in Conn. power plant blast” (spread out over two days)
• 4-5 number of e-mail updates we’ve been getting from Newsday each day, and they’re kinda annoying

• This is not an issue of freedom of the press. The concern is not the content per se, although some of it is alarming – homophobic and racist and so forth.
• Virginia Tech Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Spencer • Regarding the school’s push to take funding away from the school paper, The Collegiate Times, due to the fact that their site allows anonymous comments. Apparently, it breaks some stupid policy. While the paper has independence from the school, they do receive $70,000 yearly, along with free office space. In case you need a single reason why this is a bad idea, whatever the policy may be, we have a pretty good one: The paper’s excellent coverage of the school’s 2007 shooting. Student journalism needs to be protected. (hat tip Charles Apple) source

• 22 states have atheists ready to take your precious poodle

• $110 cost of having an atheist take care of your pet for 10 years after the rapture, which is funny
• $15 cost for each additional pet you want to be safe after you’ve been saved by your Lord
• 100 morons have actually taken Eternal Earth-Bound Pets up on their offer source

• I think he wants a more private life. … It’s difficult being a Kennedy. People see the upside, without being aware of the downside.
• Patrick Kennedy biographer Darrell M. West • Regarding why Patrick Kennedy might be so willing to give up his congressional seat. Beyond poll-related reasons (Kennedy, who’s been in Congress since his mid-20s, wasn’t doing well), recent family issues had a lot to do with it. He has two cancer-survivor siblings, his mom is an alcoholic and his dad, Ted Kennedy, just died. “There is lot of stuff going on in that family at every level,” he said. Kennedy, at 42, is young enough to enjoy life out of politics. source

• 150 passengers stuck at one of D.C.’s busiest metro stations, Farragut North (it’s downtown)
• 90 minutes stuck on a freaking train during rush hour; scary, but nobody was injured at all
• three hours the government has been back at work since the snow shut it down for a week source

• 30% increase in Lego’s sales during a recession source

• 54
  years the amount of time a Kennedy has been in Congress in some way, shape or form
• early
  2011 the period when that’s probably going to end; blame Ted’s kid, Patrick, for this source

• He has to keep busy while Lil’ Wayne’s in jail, right? Word on the street is that Birdman, a.k.a. Bryan Williams, is getting in the oil business with his brother and Cash Money Records co-founder Ronald “Slim” Williams. They have a Web site and everything. It’s called Bronald Oil & Gas. Wonder how they came up with the name. source