So now Google, which has allowed computer-to-computer calls/video calls for a while, has decided to take on Skype by offering computer-to-telephone services. These types of calls will be free to the U.S. and Canada for the rest of the year, and then users will be charged a “small fee” afterwards. There will also be a small fee for calling other countries.

I don’t particularly like the fact that Google is trying to get their little fingers into every tech pie out there, but ya know what? This has got to be better for the customer in the end. More competition will drive down prices, and that’s what we all want anyway, right??

OK, so what will Skype do to answer?

The jury just returned with the long-awaited verdict in the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial. The former governor of Illinois was found guilty of lying to the FBI, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The jury was deadlocked on all 23 other charges against Blago, and on four charges against his brother Robert — resulting in a mistrial on those counts. The prosecution will now have to consider whether to retry Blagojevich.

I’m actually surprised that the jury didn’t find him guilty of anything else. The guy just screams “sleazeball politician”, doesn’t he? Oh, well… I guess he was just too good at choosing his words when trying to strike those closed-room deals.

Photo: EPA/TANNEN MAURY

Brookfield Zoo euthanized Leah the Bald Eagle today due to complications from respiratory issues. Leah had been at the zoo for more than three decades after having been found in Minnesota with an eye injury.

Bummer… it’s always sad to hear about animals dying in captivity like this. I’m not sure what the typical lifespan of a Bald Eagle is, but it sounds like Leah lived a fairly long time.

Everyone expects BP to be paying the piper for a long, long time for their role in one of the biggest oil disasters in history. Shrimpers and hotel owners have already sued the company for lost revenues, and now states might be joining in on the lawsuits. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida have already received some $305 million from the oil giant to help pay for cleanup costs and tourism advertising, but are likely to go after more.

This is only the beginning for BP. They’ll probably get hit with lawsuits involving the Louisiana Jones Act, loss of livelihood, health problems stemming from the oil spill, and who knows what else.

Usually I’m against people suing corporations for tens of millions of dollars, and think that there should be a cap on damages awarded by juries. But it’s very hard to feel any sympathy for BP in this case. Pictures from the ongoing oil leak are sickening, and it’s extremely difficult to wrap my head around the kind of long-term devastation this will cause to the Gulf region. What a terrible situation all around.

Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch scumbag who was the prime suspect in the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway 5 years ago, was arrested in Chile in connection with another murder in Peru. Stephany Flores, 21, was found face down with a broken neck in a Lima hotel room that had been registered in van der Sloot’s name for 2 weeks. Van der Sloot and Flores were seen entering the room at about 5am. Van der Sloot then emerged alone about 4 hours later, and the girl’s body was found 2 days later by a maid. The date of the suspected murder? May 30 — the 5-year anniversary of Holloway’s disappearance.

I really don’t know what to make of all this. It certainly seems that van der Sloot is guilty of something. After all, he was clearly on the run, the news report I read said he resisted arrest, and it looks like he cut his hair very short and even dyed it. These are not the actions of an innocent man.

But at the same time, would he really be so brazenly stupid as to let himself get caught on camera with the victim and then kill her on the anniversary of Holloway’s disappearance??? That just seems so ludicrous. Plus, an FBI agent familiar with the Holloway investigation said that the violent nature of Flores’ death didn’t really fit with van der Sloot’s profile.

I would love nothing more than to see this smug little asshole put away for life, but I just have a feeling that there’s a bit more to this crime than meets the eye.

(AP Photo/Roberto Candia)

I am just absolutely amazed by the story of Ruben van Assouw. This is the 9-year-old Dutch boy who is the sole survivor of the Afriqiyah Airways crash that claimed 103 people in Tripoli, Libya last Wednesday. Plane crashes, of course, are horrific events, and they’re even more terrifying to me personally since I am scared of flying. We almost never get any good news out of a plane crash, so I really do consider Ruben’s survival a miracle.

The downside, obviously, is that the boy lost his parents and brother in the crash, and will likely be scarred for a long, long time. He will also likely contend with survivor’s guilt at some point — and will probably be in the media spotlight for a good long while, especially as anniversaries of the crash come up.

I hope Ruben can come to terms with all of this someday. Maybe with the right support system in place, he’ll turn out just fine.

(AP Photo/Libya TV, via APTN )

So kudos to New York and federal authorities for nabbing Faisal Shahzad, the man believed to be behind the Times Square SUV bomb scare this past weekend. They used video surveillance footage and good detective work to figure out who the guy was, and then they set out to get him. The only problem in the whole scenario is that they nabbed him on board an Emirates jet set to fly to the UAE. This despite the fact that Shahzad was on the No-Fly list and all that.

WTF??? This certainly doesn’t make me feel any safer about flying. I thought all those security measures were supposed to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen!