Political commentator Keith Olbermann and Iraq War veteran J.R. Salzman (pictured left) have been in a Twitter war this week.

Examiner.com has the blow by blow account, which began when Salzman tweeted this past Sunday, "Getting 2nd Amendment advice from Bob Costas is a bit like getting career advice from @KeithOlbermann".

Salzman's tweet was in regards to comments made by NBC's Bob Costas regarding the right to keep and bear arms, reports the Examiner.

A number of messages were exchanged between the two.

Salzman tweets under the username @JRSalzman, while Olbermann tweets under the username @KeithOlbermann.

Olbermann eventually tweeted, "I'm sure you'll accomplish the second half of that if you haven't already. Your conduct on twitter embarrasses the military."

Examiner reported a number of people stood up for Salzman on Twitter according to Twitchy, a Twitter curation news site.

For those of you who don’t know Iraq War Veteran J.R. Salzman, he is a champion log roller who was wounded in Iraq when his vehicle was struck by an IED.

Salzman is also a military blogger, who has maintained his website Lumberjack in a Desert since the early days of blogging.

So, where’s the feud at right now?

Salzman tweeted hours ago, “Btw, brave man Keith Olbermann blocked me so I couldn't respond after he tweeted that I was an embarassment to the military. #coward”

Full Story: Examiner

Image Source: Blackfive

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Project preserves stories of veterans. Veterans are popular interview subjects — those who served decades ago in World War II or Vietnam are invited to classrooms to share their experiences with students, or encouraged by historians to record their stories.  History educators at Cal State San Marcos, eager to build on the region’s deep military history, thought: Why not capture the everyday experiences of more recent, closer-to-home veterans, whether they served abroad or Stateside, while their memories are fresh?
(UTSanDiego.com)

Social media a powerful tool for army: ADF. AUSTRALIA'S military could eventually use social media to give the public a blow-by-blow account of some operations, similar to the way Israel used Twitter in the recent Gaza conflict, a senior Defence official says.  But that's a long way off, with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) still developing a strategy to better handle social media usage among its ranks.  ADF director general of public affairs Brigadier Alison Creagh on Wednesday discussed the opportunities and challenges presented by social media and how its use by the ADF could evolve...
(The Australian)

Tweets of rage: does free speech on the internet actually exist? Is Twitter more like a phone company or more like a newspaper? It's a laughably strained comparison — Twitter is Twitter, not some relic of a previous era — but the answer is central to understanding the pressures on large internet service providers to regulate what their users say. And as more and more speech takes place on the internet, the answer becomes more and more important: the future of free speech might have more to do with corporate censorship than the First Amendment...
(The Verge)

My POW story.  George Coffin, the last known surviving World War II Prisoner of War from Crawford County, passed away Wednesday, November 21. Before his death, Coffin recorded his experiences as a POW for his granddaughter to present to sixth grade students at Ar-We-Va.  In honor of his dedication to the country, the Denison Bulletin and Review is running his remarkable story as a three-part series.  In Part 1, Coffin, who was a medical corpsman with the 81st Combat Engineers, detailed his capture by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and told about escaping and then being recaptured...
(SouthwestIowaNews.com)

Police Can Record Video Inside Your Home Without A Warrant, Appeals Court Says. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court provided some comfort to those fearing the seemingly limitless potential of new technologies to enable government privacy invasion. In holding that police could not attach a GPS device to a car and track it for 30 days without a warrant, the court said, “At bottom, we must ‘assur[e] preservation of that degree of privacy against government that existed when the Fourth Amendment was adopted.’”
(Think Progress)

Amputations, beheadings and a crucifixion: Horrific stories from Yemen where Al Qaeda has imposed sharia law. Al Qaeda committed 'truly shocking' human rights abuses including crucifixions and the beheading of an alleged sorceror during its 16 months in control of a southern region of Yemen, a report by Amnesty International claimed today.  The London-based charity has also released a video which appears to show a suspected thief having his hand amputated by the Ansar al-Sharia militia, which seized power of the Abyan governorate in February 2011...
(Daily Mail)

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Army Strong Stories, the popular blogging platform that lets Soldier bloggers and supporters share their views on Army life revealed a new design.

The announcement came today in a press release published via PRNewswire.

The all-new site includes:

- Enhancements and new functionality: Provides streamlined navigation and engaging visual content for bloggers and site visitors for an updated user experience. The website is now responsive, meaning it is seamlessly viewable from any desktop, mobile or tablet device.

- 15 topical pages: Give site visitors an all-access pass to hundreds of stories on topics of interest, painting a more complete picture of life in the Army. From basic combat training to educational opportunities and diversity in the Army, these pages offer an inside look at Army life. By sourcing content from beyond the site and Army walls, the picture is given greater credibility and places Army Strong Stories at the forefront of current habits in media consumption and discovery.

- Downloadable apps: Allow site visitors and bloggers the ability to access and contribute to the more than 5,700 written and video stories seamlessly using iPhones and iPads. Access the iOS app here: http://bit.ly/armystrongapp.

Learn more about the new design over at here.

Visit Army Strong Stories here.

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You may have seen the news over the past few days that much of the internet in Syria was down, but it’s back online now.

That’s good news for Syria’s rebels who rely heavily on the internet and other tools to communicate with each other and with the rest of the world.

Amy Chozick, a reporter with The New York Times, has an in depth article that discusses just how useful Skype is to Syrian rebels and how dangerous it is also becoming.

“For months, rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad have used Skype, a peer-to-peer Internet communication system, to organize and talk to outside news organizations and activists”, writes Chozick.

The video chat and messaging service is so useful that Chozick goes as far as saying if the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt were Twitter Revolutions, then Syria is becoming the Skype Rebellion.

While Skype has been helpful, it also has a downside, Chozick points out.

“Using satellite phone service to connect makes Skype potentially more dangerous since it makes it easier to track a user’s location.”

Much more to the story over at NYT.

On a separate but related note, I checked in on the only blog written from Syria that is currently indexed here on Milblogging.com.  The blog is called Thoughts and feelings of a Syrian freedom fighter written by “Big Al”.  I was hoping to find out more about the internet situation, but "Big Al" hasn't written a new post since early August, about the same time the blog gained interntional attention, thanks to CNN.  It's not known why the blog has gone pretty much silent.
 
Image Source: Military.com

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Internet, phone services back online for much of Syria.  Internet and cell phone coverage were restored Saturday to most Syrian provinces, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, two days after a blackout shut down virtually all Internet service in the country.  Residents in the capital, Damascus, told CNN via Skype that their Internet and cell phone services were working again.  Syria's Internet and phone systems blacked out Thursday.  A Syrian government information minister said Friday that "terrorists" -- which is how the Assad regime refers to rebels in a bloody, ongoing civil war -- cut the cable, knocking out Web communication with other countries...
(CNN)

Skype, Facebook, teddy bears help with holiday deployments. Recently, Tracy Kline lined up all of her Black Friday purchases in her shopping cart and sent her husband iPhone photos of the presents she'd bought.  U.S. Navy Seabee Petty Officer 1st Class Jamie Kline, who is based in Gulfport with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74, is overseas during the holiday season -- one of many American military personnel away from their families. But thanks to the images, the Seabee, who has been in Asia and other places on the tour, could see what his wife was buying their two sons -- 2-year-old Mason and 9-year-old J.J. -- for Christmas...
(The Sun Herald)

Elgan: I want a military smartphone.  The most innovative and important consumer electronics company isn't a company at all. It's the Pentagon.  If that surprises you, consider that U.S. military research built the ocean that Silicon Valley swims in. The Pentagon's research organization, DARPA, funded or helped develop the Internet, GPS, the graphical user interface, the Google StreetView concept, Siri and much more.  Now, the military wants to put smartphones in the hands of all deployed troops. I think their phones are going to be better than regular smartphones. And that's why I want one...
(Computerworld)

Texas World War II submariners meet to share stories.  The four men in yellow vests stand out in the Golden Corral restaurant, where about 30 U.S. military veterans are gathered on a recent Saturday to eat and talk about submarines.  Their hair is a little grayer. They move slower. And the younger men there don't hesitate to remind anyone talking to the United States Submarine Veterans Inc. Cowtown Base to speak up so these fellows can hear.  They are World War II veterans, a small but treasured generation of submariners now in their 80s and 90s...
 (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Texas museum's collection of exhibits and artifacts tells the story of World War II in the Pacific.  The first thing visitors see when they enter the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, is philosopher George Santayana's quote about those who cannot remember the past being condemned to repeat it.  Anyone who explores this world-class museum will not soon forget what he or she has seen.  The museum covers 6 acres and features 50,000 square feet of indoor exhibits. The price of admission is good for 48 hours because many visitors come back for a second day to see everything...
(Leader-Telegram)

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Bloggers, Podcasters and Web TV content creators will be connecting at NMX 2013 in Las Vegas, January 6 – 8, 2013.

Over 140 educational sessions will be held by more than 175 industry leaders including Military.com's own Jacey Eckhart and Amy Bushatz of SpouseBUZZ.

On Day 1 of the Expo at 10:30am, the Homefront and New Media panel will take place.

This session will examine how technology has revolutionized the life of the military family. From simple communication with loved ones downrange or on deployment to the rise in military spouse blogging as a means of connecting across continents military families are more exposed to information than ever. What are the opportunities and successes and has technology become too accessible.

Takeaways

1. To walk the fine line between using military news as a spade to build community and using news as a stick to poke the audience.

2. To build relationships with fellow bloggers while sorting through the temps, genuine geniuses, and nutterbutters.

3. Three surprising non-military topics you can write that appeal to military audiences and bring them to your site

Learn more about NMX 2013 here.

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November has been a busy month for military blogs, with several added to the Milblogging database. 

New listings range from military spouses to an airman preparing for an upcoming deployment, to a British Army girlfriend whose blog has attracted thousands of daily readers including celebrities, to many many more notable blogs.  Check out the list below.

Until February...., Zoey Peace, United Kingdom, The diary of an unconventional Army girlfriend: th...

Red Horse Blog, Josh Line, United States, This is Tsgt Line. I am assigned to the 555th Red ...

U.S. Navy JAG Corps, Not specified, United States, THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE U.S. NAVY JUDGE ADVOCATE ...

USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74), Not specified, United States, Your home for news from USS John C. Stennis

Engaged to the Army, Malori F., United States, My life as a future military wife, a 20-something ...

Army Dentistry, Mike Barno, United States, Life in the US Army Dental Corps

The Foodie Army Wife, Conni Smith, United States, A Real Army Wife, sharing her love of cooking, Arm...

Quartermisses, HH6, United States, Having spent my first 25 years (give or take a few...

Army Wife & Co., Heather Dobbins, United States, In three short years, my husband and I have been t...

Give Me Grace, Hannah Ulvik, United States, A blog about my family's PCS to RAF Mildenhall wit...

Teresa's Tidbits, Teresa Hermann, United States, My unfiltered thoughts on being a Mom of 3 boys, o...

REL's life of fitness, the military, and other shenanigans, Arielle Wadsworth (Cabico), United States, I currently serve in the United States Air Force a...

Love and Coffee Mugs, Amanda Marie, United States, Our adventures in our new air force life.

Gina left the mall, Gina, United States, I never thought about the troops. Then one random...

Stetsons, Spurs, and Stilettos, LTarmywife, United States, I'm a 20-something journalist and Army wife who gr...

That girl denise, Denise, United States, Hi! I'm Denise and my husband is Dave! Together we...

Adventures of an Army Wife, Ashleh, Pakistan, Hello world, I am Ashleh, a proud Canadian current...

Soldier Witch, Jamie Ray, United States, Welcome to my Blog. The purpose of this is to try ...

The Happy Here Blog, Andrea, United States, Hi, I'm Andrea! I'm a twenty-something Army wife m...

The Gunny's Wife, Gretchen, United States, Hi there! My life isn't the most unique or excitin...

Forever Yours, Semper Fi, Mrs. Sykes, United States, I'm a 20 something wife and mommy. This blog is ab...

Flip Flops and Combat Boots, Nicole, United States, My name is Nicole. I'm a 26 year old wife, puppy m...

Military Working Dog News, Not specified, United States, News related to military working dogs and their ha...

NAWCAD Commander's Blog, RDML Randy Mahr, United States, Welcome to the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft D...

Naval History Blog, Group blog, United States, First and foremost, this blog is an excursion into...

Reporting for Duty: Mommyhood, April Stanford, United States, I am a full-time mom first and foremost! I am also...

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Syrian Internet Is Off The Air. Starting at 10:26 UTC on Thursday, 29 November (12:26pm in Damascus), Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down. In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet.  We are investigating the dynamics of the outage and will post updates as they become available...
(Renesys Blog)

Somali militants known for brutal ways says video shows Kenya army abusing suspected militants. A video that appears to show Kenyan troops beating militant suspects has opened the force to criticism from al-Qaeda-linked militants who are known for carrying out harsh punishments like stonings, amputations and beheadings.  An al-Shabab spokesman claimed on Twitter that a video obtained by a Kenyan TV station shows Kenyan troops abusing Muslims. The spokesman said the video shows that Kenyan troops are waging war on Islam...
(Washington Post)

Stories of war in our soldiers' words – from Crimea to Afghanistan. WHEN Clive Tougher reads through diaries and letters written by serving soldiers, one thing that strikes him is how little has changed since the 1800s.  "They all write about looking forward to coming home and having a pint with their mates," laughs Clive, 77.  "I was recently talking to someone out in Afghanistan and, even though they've often have access to phones and e-mail, he said the thing the lads like most is getting a proper old-fashioned letter from home."
(This is Nottingham)

The rising impact of social media.  Warfare in the information age has changed dramatically. Traditionally, media campaigns have served only as a supplementary tool in a war. But today, the media play a crucial role in influencing world opinion and winning support.  To win wars in the information age, the United States has explored and exploited all possible options. In the Iraq War, the US army used an "embedded" information control strategy, allowing more than 600 journalists from around the world to cover news along with the combat troops. In fact, "embedded coverage" is a well-designed media experiment for using the media to give the world the US military version of a war...
(China Daily)

WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning gives evidence for first time. After 917 days in military captivity, the world finally heard on Thursday from Bradley Manning, the army soldier accused of being the source of the largest leak of government secrets in US history.  In a dramatic opening half-hour of testimony on the third day of the pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade military base in Maryland, Manning spoke at length for the first time about the period after his arrest in May 2010.  Manning detailed the trauma he experienced at the hands of the US military while he was incarcerated for having allegedly handed hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks...
(Guardian)

David Petraeus says he 'screwed up royally' in letter to old Army buddy. Ex-CIA chief David Petraeus took the blame for the extramarital affair that torpedoed his career, but his forgiving wife, Holly, is sticking by him, according to a newly revealed private letter.  “I screwed up royally,” Petraeus told his longtime Army pal, retired Brig. Gen. James Shelton in the hand-written missive. “I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing at the end of the day,” he wrote in the Nov. 20 message.  Petraeus stepped down on Nov. 9 as news of his affair with biographer Paula Broadwell went public...
(New York Post)

World War II veterans tell stories for future generations. It's an opportunity to document history through the words of Kern County's World War II veterans.  Wednesday, several veterans were invited to our KGET studios, to share their memories of the war, while their interviews were captured on video for future generations to see.  It's a collaborative effort with Honor Flight Kern County, 17 News, the Kern High School District, American Sound Recording Studios, and the Historical Society...
(KGET TV 17)

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There was a real interesting story in the Daily Mail, a British daily  tabloid newspaper, about an Army girlfriend from the UK who blogs.

According to the reporter Martha De Lacey, Zoey Peace was struggling to cope with the heartache of being apart from boyfriend Cpl Sam Garwood, while he serves on the front line in Afghanistan, so she started a blog called Until February.

Peace describes her blog as, "The diary of an unconventional Army girlfriend: the first 6 month tour of Afghanistan. From attempting to become a domestic goddess, losing a stone, becoming a semi pro "athlete" hmmmmm ok or just being able to run a mile (either or…), DIY and yoga. This is me VS 6 months without you...... Spread the word on twitter #smilecampbastion"

Peace told Daily Mail the blog attracts thousands of daily followers and has become a huge hit among all the soldiers in Camp Bastion.

Here are some facts mentioned at the top of the story:

- Zoey Peace's blog, Until February, is getting thousands of hits a day
- Her boyfriend, Cpl Sam Garwood, 24, is on fifth tour, in Camp Bastion
- She charts quest to become 'domestic goddess' before Sam gets home
- Zoey, 26, is from Cambridgeshire, and Sam is from Norfolk
- Has received Twitter support from Lorraine Kelly and Chesney Hawkes

There is a lot more to the story, details that you can read on Daily Mail.

You can keep up with Zoey Peace here:  http://untilfebruary.blogspot.co.uk/

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Google Launches “VetNet” To Help Military Veterans Re-Enter The Civilian Life, With Google+ As The “Plumbing”. For the men and women that serve our country, coming back from that life isn’t easy. I don’t have experience with it, but do know many veterans who are going through that.  Today, Google launched a new initiative called VetNet to help people connect and re-enter the working life. The company is putting its social backend, Google+, to work on this project...
(TechCrunch)

Videos appear to show Syrian rebels shooting down military helicopter. Three amateur videos have emerged that purport to show rebels shooting down a Syrian military helicopter outside Aleppo. The videos appear roughly consistent with a claim, posted to Facebook by the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a rebel umbrella group, that “The Free Syrian Army has downed an attack helicopter using anti-aircraft weapons in the Sheikh Salman area in the western countryside.”
(Washington Post)

My POW story. George Coffin, the last known surviving World War II Prisoner of War from Crawford County, passed away Wednesday, November 21. Before his death, Coffin recorded his experiences as a POW for his granddaughter to present to sixth grade students at Ar-We-Va. In honor of his dedication to the country, the Denison Bulletin and Review will run his remarkable story as a three-part series...
(SouthwestIowaNews.com)

Schmidt records war story for history. Gov. Terry Branstad thanked 29 Iowa veterans — including Gary Schmidt of Ankeny — for documenting their wartime memories at the fourth annual Veterans History Project earlier this month at AIB College of Business.  Schmidt is an Army veteran of the Vietnam War...
(The Des Moines Register)

Some Twitter users hail Bradley Manning as a hero. U.S. Army soldier Bradley Manning leaked 750,000 documents to Wikileaks. Arrested in 2010, Manning is finally beginning pre-trial hearings this week.  He’s become a martyr to those who consider his conditions in jail to be abusive, and a hero to the hacker collective known as Anonymous...
(Twitchy)

2012 “If Not Me, Then Who…” Gala. The inaugural “If Not Me, Then Who…” Gala is a  national event focused on honoring the men and women who serve us.  On Dec. 6, 2012, at the Union League in Philadelphia, the Travis Manion Foundation will bring corporate, community, and military leaders together to honor fallen heroes, veterans, active duty troops, and military families. The special evening will  culminate with the presentations of the first-ever “If Not Me, Then Who…” and Corporate Leadership Awards, as  well as Character Does Matter scholarships; these will be given to those who have gone above and beyond in challenging themselves to honor our fallen...
(The Travis Manion Foundation)

Library of Congress pulls diaries, letters from those who experienced Civil War for exhibit. Letters and diaries from those who lived through the Civil War offer a new glimpse at the arguments that split the nation 150 years ago and some of the festering debates that survive today.  The Library of Congress, which holds the largest collection of Civil War documents, pulled 200 items from its holdings to reveal both private and public thoughts from dozens of famous and ordinary citizens who lived in the North and the South. Many are being shown for the first time...
(Daily Reporter)

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) social media division has been in the limelight recently because of the conflict with Hamas.

Now it's getting public attention once again, only this time, it's due to a posting of a picture to Facebook by its social media chief Lt. Sacha Dratwa.

The photo (displayed above) shows Dratwa at the beach with his face covered in mud. 

Alongside the image the caption reads, "Obama Style".

According to Mail Online, Dratwa has come under a barrage of abuse for the picture. 

Despite the nature of the photo and caption, Dratwa denies being a racist.

Via Mail Online:

He also took to Facebook to deny that he is racist and to criticise those who spread the picture.

'There have been attempts to make use of private photos from my Facebook profile in order to publicly misrepresent my opinions,' he wrote.

'I am, and have always been, completely candid about my beliefs and have nothing to hide – as reflected by my Facebook profile, which until recently was open to everyone.'

He added: 'The aforementioned photos do not reflect my beliefs and have no bearing whatsoever on my position in the IDF.'

Full story here.

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East coast army hires Twitter, Facebook expert. The Canadian army's east coast branch has hired a civilian to tweet and Facebook for the troops.  Major Mark Gough is the media contact for Land Force Atlantic Area, but said he needed outside help for using social media.  "None of us are experts in social media. We all have our own Facebook pages, individually, personally. Some of us engage in Twitter, but none of us have used this in an organizational sense," he said...
(CBC News)

Voices of Korean War Veterans” Oral History Project. High school students from throughout the United States, its territories, and Department of Defense (DoD) schools are now invited to submit their short videos to the DoD 60th Anniversary of Korean War Commemoration Committee (KW60) and the GI Film Festival (GIFF) to participate in a new educational outreach program, “Heroes Remembered: Voices of the Korean War.”  The Heroes Remembered program was created to encourage high school students to help preserve the stories of our Korean War Veterans...
(eMilitary.org)

Army CID warns of online romance scams. Officials with the Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) have issued a warning about Internet scams involving persons pretending to be soldiers.  CID “continues to receive hundreds of reports from people worldwide, of various scams involving persons pretending to be U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan or somewhere else in the world,” according to the release... 
(Fayobserver.com)

World War II submariners share stories that never grow old. The four men in yellow vests stand out in the Golden Corral restaurant, where about 30 U.S. military veterans are gathered on a recent Saturday to eat and talk about submarines.  Their hair is a little grayer. They move slower. And the younger men there don't hesitate to remind anyone talking to the United States Submarine Veterans Inc. Cowtown Base to speak up so these fellows can hear.  They are World War II veterans, a small but treasured generation of submariners now in their 80s and 90s...
(Star-Telegram)

Middle East foes deploy state-of-art social weaponry. You furnish the pictures, the US press baron Randolph Hearst reputedly boasted a century ago, as the story goes, and I'll furnish the war.  The conflict in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, halted after a ceasefire agreed to on Wednesday, has certainly produced powerful images of death and suffering that have been immediately circulated through social networks, no newspaper baron needed... 
(The Sydney Morning Herald)

Book tells how 18th-century newspapers covered war. A new book uses a collection of 18th-century newspapers to tell the story of how the Revolutionary War was reported by publications in America and Great Britain.  Todd Andrlik (AN-der-lihk) is a Chicago-area marketing executive who began collecting newspapers from the 1700s five years ago. His collection now tops 400, including some that are the rarest surviving publications from the American Revolution...
(ABC6)

Library of Congress to showcase rare Civil War documents. Letters and diaries from those who lived through the Civil War offer a new glimpse at the arguments that split the nation 150 years ago and some of the festering debates that survive today.  The Library of Congress, which holds the largest collection of Civil War documents, pulled 200 items from its holdings to reveal both private and public thoughts from dozens of famous and ordinary citizens who lived in the North and the South. Many are being shown for the first time...
(USA Today)

Pickering resident pens personal war story. When his mother died five years ago, Rick Pyves found 230 letters she and his father had written to one another and letters his father had written to his parents during the latter part of the Second World War, most when Ron Pyves was overseas.  The Pickering resident says when he found the letters "a light bulb went on" in his head: his parents, Ron and Kay, were "eye-witnesses to history -- both in Europe and on the homefront."
(DurhamRegion)

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This is something I’ve been talking about for a long time (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) and I’m glad to see it’s finally getting some attention from lawmakers.

The Hill is reporting the conflict between Israel and Hamas has rekindled calls for Twitter to shutter the accounts of U.S.-labeled terror groups.

“Seven House Republicans asked the FBI in September to demand that Twitter take down the accounts of U.S.-designated terrorist groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Somalia's al Shabaab. The letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller was spearheaded by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), who said Wednesday that the recent events vindicated the request.”

What’s been particularly disturbing is the nature of the tweets by the Taliban that gloat over the death of NATO forces, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

If nothing else, this should be interesting to watch.

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Citizen journalists report Sierra Leone elections by SMS. On Saturday Sierra Leone went to the polls. The story of the elections was covered by a group of newly-trained citizen journalists posting updates by SMS, most using basic 'green screen' Nokia mobile phones.  Those text reports, giving details such as the number of people waiting at a polling station, quotes from voters, and colour such as "no electricity at Femi Turner station Godrich as it is an unfinished building, NEC agents using lamps to count", were sent for the price of a local text and received to a Gmail account in London, from where they were verified, curated and manually posted to Twitter...
(Journalism.co.uk)

Secret message found with carrier pigeon may never be deciphered. Before military forces had secure cell phones and satellite communications, they used carrier pigeons. The highly trained birds delivered sensitive information from one location to another during  World War II. Often, the birds found the intended recipient. But not always.  A dead pigeon was recently discovered inside a chimney in Surrey, England. There for roughly 70 years, the bird had a curious canister attached to its leg. Inside was a coded message that has stumped the experts...
(The Sideshow)

Smithsonian gathers best art of Civil War era. Paintings and photographs depicting the raw reality of the Civil War marked a major change in American art that tossed out romantic notions of war.  Some of the finest artists of the day, including Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Frederic Church and Sanford Gifford, painted landscapes and scenes of everyday life to show how the war transformed the nation. Their best works, along with some of the first photographs of soldiers killed on the battlefield, have been gathered by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for a major exhibition on how artists represented the war and how the war changed art...  
(NBC29)

Neighbors: Postcard mailed in 1943 finally delivered to Elmira.  A postcard sent to two Elmira sisters nearly seven decades ago arrived last week at the intended address, but it ended up in the hands of two different sisters.  The postcard, sent July 4, 1943, from Rockford, Ill., was intended for Pauline and Theresa Leisenring, who once lived in the home along Bridgman Street in Elmira.  It was sent by their parents, who were visiting their brother at the Medical Center Barracks at Camp Grant...
(Star-Gazette)

Gaza conflict: the war games of the Israel Defence Force.  On November 14, the drone assassination of Hamas military chief Ahmed Al-Jaabari appeared on the Israel Defence Force's YouTube page in a grainy ten-second clip.  The black-and-white footage showed Jaabari's car explode in a flash of white surrounded by a superimposed yellow target.  An image with the words "eliminated" in bold letters overlayed onto Jaabari's face emerged within minutes of the attack in a tweet from the IDF's official account.  In the days that followed, "points" and "badges" appeared on the military's blog, rewarding online interaction and promotion by users and assigning them a cyber military rank based on the frequency of their visits...
(Telegraph.co.uk)

Remarkable life story of 97-year-old Frampton war widow published in new book. IT'S a life story that spans a century, continents and two world wars, bringing history to life.  Now 97-year-old Aine Branting has written her remarkable tales of living in wartime Berlin and then carving a new life in Australia.  It is a vividly written tale of the author's childhood in Germany, of how she survived there during World War Two and bravely built a new life down under...
(This is Gloucestershire)

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A South Korean Twitter user who had re-tweeted North Korean doctrine and claimed he was trying to lampoon the North's government, has received no prison time.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Park Jeong-geun was found guilty of violating the National Security Law, which prohibits any glorification of North Korea, but was only given a suspended 10-month sentence.

And of course, Mr. Park stated he would no longer re-tweet messages from North Korean Twitter accounts.

The WSJ reports:

“The case is one of several over the past few years in which Twitter comments have tested the limits of South Korean laws covering political expression, defamation as well as the security law covering North Korean propaganda. In August, a South Korean army officer received a suspended jail term for insulting President Lee Myung-bak on Twitter.

Even before the rising use of Twitter, South Korea wrestled with conflicts between its highly-networked citizens, who enjoy some of the fastest Internet speeds and wireless services in the world, and a cultural tradition that values respect via age-based hierarchies.”

Full story here.

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What would you expect to happen if you took a photo of yourself like the one above at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers?

That's a picture of Lindsey Stone. 

The photo, which landed on Facebook, has created a furor.

Military blog This Ain't Hell first broke the story called Douche bag being douchie earlier this week and it has exploded online, not only on social media sites but across blogs and news sites.

Jonn Lilyea writes:

"Meet Lindsey Stone, a self-proclaimed douchebag. See that picture? She thinks it’s hilarious because she’s being her douche bag self. Of course, she’s at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, and she thinks that doing what she’s doing is like smoking under a “No Smoking” sign."

Now for some updates:

Lindsey Stone And Jamie Schuh Lost Their Jobs Over Infamous Facebook Photo

Lindsey Stone story on NBC

Lindsey Stone’s father “appalled”

The internet saw what you did

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According to WND, a pro-Israel group has launched a citizen email campaign demanding that Twitter ban Hamas.

Participants in the campaign put their names on an email to Twitter that demands the company “observe both the United States law and your own Terms of Service by immediately banning Hamas, the Izzadeen Al-Qassam Brigades and any related entities from operating Twitter accounts (e.g. @AlqassamBrigade).

The email warns Twitter that the local office of the United States Attorney is receiving a copy of the email “so that they can weigh appropriate legal measures in the event that you continue to permit terrorists to use your services.”

In case you're wondering, Hamas is still using Twitter with no problem.

Twitter tends to not get too involved in these types of things somehow, so it should be interesting to follow and see the outcome.

Full story here.

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I’m surprised I just became aware of the military blog "Army Dentistry" which is written by Army Captain Mike Barno, but now I’ve got it added to Milblogging.com.

Seven months ago, Barno returned from a year-long deployment to Afghanistan.

A story he wrote this week called "Watching an American Soldier Die" was featured on TIME.com.

The post talks about exactly that- watching an American Soldier die who was brought into a clinic where he was working.  It’s a death that bothered him particularly more than the others.

Barno says he finds himself thinking less of Afghanistan.

He concludes his post,

“In the fast-paced, cushioned lifestyle we enjoy in our country it is easy to forget how many are still serving in Operation Enduring Freedom. As Thanksgiving approaches this week I will take a few extra moments to thank God for bringing me home safely and pray for those who are still downrange. And I will remember to ask God to bless the families of the fallen who celebrate the holidays this year for the first time without their loved one.”

You can read the full story over at Army Dentistry.

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With much of the news focused on the Twitter war between Israel and Hamas, Fast Company's Neal Ungerleider got a chance to speak to the Israeli Defense Forces' Spokeperson's Unit, Captain Eytan Buchman.

Here are some highlights of the interview:

FAST COMPANY: Can you run us through what the IDF's Spokesperson's Unit does, and how it operates on social media. Do you have a dedicated social media staff, and has your social media strategy changed during the Gaza conflict?

"We've been operating on a variety of platforms with a number of different Twitter accounts, on Facebook, on YouTube during the course of the operation. We opened up a Tumblr account, we have a Google+ account, Pinterest ... we're operating on almost every single account we can to make sure that we can get out our message as fast as possible to as many different audiences as possible."

FAST COMPANY: For your Twitter account, what does the IDF Spokespersons' Office try to do to take followers who are, in this conflict, pro-Hamas or at least anti-IDF, to try to win them over or at least to criticize less?

"We feel that as soon as you have the facts behind you, it's just a matter of reaching out and getting the right message to people.  A lot of times this just means that we are tweeting out to the Internet and hoping people pick up on it and it will generate interest. Occasionally, we will see something that we feel is blatant misinformation and we'll act on it."

FAST COMPANY: What relationship does the IDF Spokesperson's Unit have with the actual companies of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube-Google? I understand that one of your videos, the targeted killing of Ahmed al-Jabari, was actually taken off YouTube for a brief period of time?

"We maintain a technical relationship, like most large businesses or organizations do, with these accounts.”

For details on the full interview, go to FAST COMPANY.

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As Twitter war rages, #stoptheterror Instagrams aim to wage peace. As the world continues to hope for a cease-fire between Israel and militants in Gaza following days of deadly violence, one Israeli decided to take matters to social media.  Ido Simyoni, a television producer from Israel, decided to start a project asking people to post images on photo-sharing service Instagram and tag them #stoptheterror...
(CNN)

Terror case against four Inland men steeped in social media. The case against four men with Inland Southern California roots who are accused of plotting terror attacked against U.S. forces in Afghanistan appears to be a contemporary crime case steeped in social media.  Federal authorities said the suspects shared radical, anti-American comments on various social sites, posted some details on Facebook and communicated plans via the streaming video site Skype...
(The Press-Enterprise)

You Have to See This: HBO’s Witness and the Stories Behind War Photos. No matter what lies writers may tell ourselves, very often it’s the pictures that truly bring us the story–particularly in war zones and strife-torn areas, where there are brutalities you have to see to believe. But the taking of the pictures is a story in itself; a story of why certain people seek out what most people close their eyes to, run close to danger and manage to distill scenes of chaos into single defining image...
(TIME)

"Call For Film Entries" Announced For 7th Annual GI Film Festival In Washington, D.C. During Armed Forces Appreciation Month In May 2013. The award-winning GI Film Festival, the nation’s only military-themed film festival, announced today's its official "call for film entries" for its 7th Annual GI Film Festival to be held in Washington, D.C. in May 2013. The GI Film Festival is open to filmmakers of all levels of experience -- from first-timers to veteran directors and producers. Each submission must include at least one major armed forces character (real or fictitious) who is portrayed in a respectful manner...
(Cision Wire)

Israeli army, Hamas military tap power of social media. When the Israeli Defense Forces first announced it had killed top Hamas military commander Ahmed al-Jabari last week, Twitter was its medium of choice.  Using the Twitter handle @IDFspokesperson, the IDF communications tweeted a photo of Jabari with the word "Eliminated" stamped across his face, along with a list of his alleged offenses. The IDF also uploaded a video of the attack that killed him to YouTube...
(USA TODAY)

The Tweets of War. The author Chuck Klosterman recently wrote, “Following any event on Twitter radically amplifies the illusion of its import. It makes you believe things matter far more than they do.” New Yorker readers defined Twitter as “Logorrhea, in brief,” which is to say, excessive and often incoherent wordiness in a hundred and forty characters or less. News outlets and the people employed by them use it to broadcast the fruits of their labor. But Twitter is rarely the place where one finds significant pronouncements...
(New Yorker)

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