Germany Is Officially The World’s Least Funny Country – Now an international poll appears to reinforce the humourless national stereotype after concluding that Germany is the least funny country in the world. More than 30,000 people in 15 countries were asked to rank the nations with the worst sense of humour and Germany came out on top. I’m sorry, you make joke? [telegraph]

Gaddafi’s Compound Flattened – In a sudden, sharp escalation of NATO’s air campaign over Libya, warplanes dropped more than 80 bombs on targets in Tripoli in an assault that began Tuesday morning and continued into the predawn hours of Wednesday, obliterating large areas of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya command compound and what NATO identified as other military targets around the capital. [nytimes]

Gaddafi Vows To’ Fight To The Death’ – In a phone call to the Libyan state television station yesterday, Col Gaddafi denounced the rebels and said he would not surrender. “We will not kneel!” he shouted. “We will not surrender: we only have one choice – to the end! Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering,” he shouted. Cool beans. [independent]

Gaddafi’s Daughter Sues NATO Over Airstrike – The daughter of Muammar Gaddafi has launched a lawsuit for murder following the death in April of four members of her family during a Nato air strike. Legal papers were submitted to the prosecutor’s office in Brussels on Tuesday by the French lawyer for Aisha Gaddafi. [guardian]

Woman Gets Tattoo Of 152 Facebook Friends [Video] – The occasional tattoo can be quite fetching–especially if it adorns an unexpectedly location. However, so many seem to adorn the human body in the same way that fungus adorns your average paving stone. One woman, who seems like she might be a fan of Facebook, or merely a little insecure around the edges, decided that she needed to have a very modern tattoo. [cnet]

SABC In Last-Ditch Bid To Overturn M&G Ruling – The South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC) has notified the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) of its intention to fight their decision to uphold the Mail & Guardian’s complaint against the SABC regarding its broadcast of Robert Gumede’s claims of corruption and racism against investigative journalist Sam Sole. [mail&guardian]

Margaret Thatcher Refuses To Meet Sarah Palin – Sarah Palin wants to show to the Republican right that she is the true keeper of the Ronald Reagan flame by meeting the late president’s closest ally on the world stage. A meeting with Margaret Thatcher in the centenary year of Reagan’s birth would be the perfect way of launching her bid for the Republican nomination for the 2012 US presidential election. Unfortunately that won’t be happening. [guardian]

Facebook, Google & Yahoo Join Forces To Fix Internet’s Biggest Problem – Imagine if the world ran out of phone numbers. Mobile providers could issue no more smartphones, businesses could create no new call centers, and the public would be left fighting over and recycling a diminishing amount of existing phone numbers. “That’s a similar situation that we’re in on the Internet,” says Facebook’s Donn Lee, pointing out that the web’s billions of IP addresses are about to hit its max. [fastcompany]

Michelle Obama – White House Rebel – The most recognizable woman in the world routinely ducks reporters to have what she calls a “normal” life. Hiding beneath a baseball cap, the first lady of the United States has picked through sale racks in the frenetic Tysons Corner, Va., mall with girlfriends, bought supplies for her dog at Petco using her own credit card, and dined at some of D.C.’s hippest eateries largely unrecognized. [dailybeast]

Kallis Crowned SA Cricketer Of Year – At the Cricket SA awards dinner in Johannesburg last night, Jacques Kallis was named cricketer of the year and Test cricketer for 2010/11. The allrounder was lauded for his centuries in both innings of the January Test match against India in Cape Town, despite suffering a painful injury. He scored 161 and 109 not out in the game. [timeslive]

Security Firm Issues Alert On Facebook Facial Recognition – If you’re worried about certain pictures of yourself on Facebook, now’s the time to delete them. Security firm Sophos issued a warning on Tuesday saying the social networking site had enabled facial recognition technology on accounts without informing users of the change. [pcworld]

Tiger Woods Pulls Out Of US Open – Tiger Woods announced Tuesday that persistent leg injuries will prevent him from playing in next week’s U.S. Open, depriving the event at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda of golf’s marquee attraction while stoking questions about what impact Woods’s chronic health concerns will have on his pursuit of his sport’s most revered number: Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 major championships. [washpo]

Kanye West Pushes It, With Dead Models Video – With dead models hanging from nooses around their necks and dismembered heads littering the floor, Kanye West has produced what must surely be his most controversial video yet.
The video for Monster, leaked online today, even shows Kanye in bed with a couple of apparently dead models, positioning their limp hands to touch one another. [dailymail]

Raw Beauty Of NASA’s Mission To Saturn – If you’re a big NASA freak, you know that the Cassini Solstice Mission to Saturn has produced some of the most striking imagery of outer space around, starkly minimal black-and-white photographs of moons and planetary rings and tumbling asteroids that look as if they had been custom-shot for an art film. Chris Abbas has made that art film.. [fastcodedesign]

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