Hey, Soul Sister: Most Downloaded Song in 2010

Maybe it's not the best song of all time. However, this song is the American overall best selling song in 2010, iTunes best-selling single of 2010, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and Columbia Records' most downloaded song of all time. The song, which was a lead single for Train's Save Me San Francisco album and was written by Patrick Monahan, Amund Bjorklund and Espen Lind, is placed at 8th place for the most digitally downloaded song ever with 4.8 million copies sold in the US alone. It also received a quadruple platinum certification by the RIAA.

In my opinion, what makes the song attractive is the background music with the unique high-pitch acoustic touch of ukulele (Hawaiian traditional guitar.) It makes the song distinctive among today's songs which mostly depend on modern amplifier and countless sound effects. What I like the most from this song is its video clip. The video took place around the corner of Morton Ave and Echo Park Ave in Los Angeles, California. I just love the simple suburban ambience as well as the thorough way the "black inks" crawl along the background through a stop-motion style. It's just briliance.

Okay, I know the description is less important than the clip itself that some of you aren't even read it at all. So have a look and enjoy!

WikiLeaks

Recently, WikiLeaks – not related to Wikipedia – has become a hot topic internationally as they decided to publicize highly classified documents and videos. WikiLeaks describes itself as "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking". The main objective of this organization is claimed to be a medium in which government and corporate misconducts are revealed. The organization claims that it had received more than 1.2 million diplomatic cables and top secret documents, especially of those which related to the U.S. government.

The website of this non-profit organization was launched in 2006. The founder, Julian Assange, has numerous experiences in the internet technology, including being charged by hacking the computers of an Australian telecom. As an Australian-born, he studied physics and mathematics at the University of Melbourne. The latest news reported that Assange has been arrested in London for accusation on raping and molestation on two Swedish women. The interesting part here is, one of the woman was suspected to had a connection with the CIA.

With TED's Chris Anderson, Assange talked about how the site operates, what it has accomplished, and what drives him. The interview includes graphic footage of a recent US airstrike in Baghdad.

In 2009, Amnesty International recognized Assenge with an International Media Award for the publication of a report titled “Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances”. In April 2010, the most shocking video was published, where the U.S. armies killed 12 Iraqis, including two journalists. Its most recent publicity was the gradual publicity on U.S diplomatic cables.

Some government authorities have started to build a countermeasure. In most countries, the public can no longer has access to the U.S. embassy’s secret documents through the website. Also, students at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs were prohibited to post links, to discuss, or even to give comments on WikiLeaks documents on their Facebook or Twitter accounts as by doing so would threaten their employment possibility.

In November 2010, Assange told Swiss public television TSR that he was considering to seek political asylum in Switzerland and setting up a WikiLeaks foundation in the country to move the operation there. According to him, Switzerland and Iceland are the only countries where WikiLeaks would feel safe to operate.

Following continuous U.S. diplomatic cables leak by the end of November 2010, several companies severed ties with WikiLeaks, including EveryDNS and Amazon.com that claimed the severance was due to DDoS attacks and was not initiated by the U.S. authorities.

CNN television network reported that, after being ousted by Amazon servers, WikiLeaks is now residing in a new location in Sweden. This “whistle-blower” site is now using the biggest provider in Sweden, Bahnhof, which is headquartered in a 30-meters underground bunker. The bunker, which was used as a war station during the Cold War, is approachable from Sweden capital, Stockholm. The same bunker is used as a center for WikiLeaks data and secret files.