“Locals blamed the U.S. military for the shark’s presence.

Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a “75 percent chance” Americans had put the shark in the water.

“This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I believe that America is behind this matter,” said fisherman Hatim Karim.”

This is a tactic I can really get behind.  The propaganda potential alone is limitless:

  • This is by far the ickiest Facebook group that I’ve seen in a long time:  10,000 Jesus DVDs.  Did you know that:

    • The Jesus Movie is the most-watched movie in history?

    • That it’s been viewed 6 billion times since 1979?

    • Roughly 200,000 people “chose Christ” after viewing it?

    • That 200,000 people out of 6 billion is 0.003%?

    • That probably only one out of the above four facts is probably true (hint: It’s the one with math in it!)

  • The Superest is a very funny, very pretty site that pits two artists against each other in a contest:  One must produce a superhero concept, the other must come up with one to outdo the first, and the first comes back to defeat it, ad infinitum.  It started with The Un-Opposinator (”will win every battle provided there’s NO opposition”), and currently stands — through a very weird and enjoyable chain — with Fun Uncle Stu.  The archives aren’t long, so now’s your chance to get aboard.  (via Glark)

  • Google announced their omni-internet social platform this week, called OpenSocial.  After listening to a couple of guys on CBC Radio bust a nut over it last night, I find that it’s basically nothing more than an open API and a single sign-on through Google’s services.  Great news, if I (or anyone I know) still had an Orkut ID or found 99% of the applications on Facebook remotely useful — as it stands, I think most people are just going stay where the people are, and where they can get a hold of them.

  • Shortly after telling everyone that Dumbledore was gay, J.K. Rowling has released seven hand-written copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which apparently has something to do with someone or whatever in the last Harry Potter book.  I only take note of this because it’s kind of neat, particularly given that six of the seven were given to people confidentially, and the last will be auctioned off for a children’s charity.  The stories will never be published.

  • Finally, the most popular featured YouTube video of the day: