Companies are pushing school software applications into classrooms with no checks about whether they respect students' privacy, or even whether they work.

The article notices only the tip of the iceberg. These programs are proprietary software, and teaching students to use proprietary software is wrong. If they send any data about a student to a company, even the student's name, that violates the student's privacy.

Mexico effectively offered $20 million to movie companies for changes in the story of the next James Bond film.

The article does not say explicitly that the movie companies accepted the deal, but that appears to be the case.

The US military has a similar practice: it cooperates only with films that will present a pro-military point of view, thus discouraging the making of films that criticize the US military or US wars.

Afghan performance artist Kubra Khademi walked around Kabul wearing steel armor fashioned to look like a sexy woman.

The curses and death threats she received demonstrate the arrogance of misogynous men. Misogyny is found in many parts of the world, but Islamic countries are the worst extreme; men claim the right to murder women and feel no shame about it.

This is why we must fight and defeat PISSI and other Islamists — though indiscriminate use of armed force is not a likely way to win.

Greece demands $500 billion from Germany in reparations for World War I and World War II.

This is in response to Germany's current economic warfare against Greece, carried out through the eurozone austerity.

How could Obama intervene in Syria against PISSI.

There is no obvious feasible way for the US to fight PISSI in Syria without helping Assad. The non-jihadi Arab opposition to Assad is almost nonexistent, and supporting it would be meaningless.

The only other forces in Syria opposed to Assad and PISSI are the democratic-socialist Kurds. I'd love to see them get support, but they may not want to do more than defend their own territory, and they may not be welcomed by Arabs.