IAmSpartacus Uprising Shows the Power, and Problems, of Twitter
Humor  Twitter is the perfect vehicle for comedians, established
or otherwise. Shame the British courts disagree.  Twitter joke
trial  The Twittersphere is hashtagging support for a British
man convicted of menacing behavior after using the deadly weapon
of humor: He joked about blowing up an airport in a tweet.
Twitter users have retweeted Paul Chambers' original update,
from January 6 of this year, by the thousands, turning the
#IAmSpartacus hashtag into Twitter's biggest trending topic. The
underlying message is that, in a country which positively revels
in sarcastic and ironic humor, our judiciary do not seem to be
able take a joke.  As a result of the verdict, Chambers lost his
job as a financial manager, and so mounted an appeal to have the
conviction quashed. Yesterday however, the judge rejected his
appeal, calling the tweet "menacing in its content and obviously
so." To add insult to injury, she upped his fine by £2,000, to
£3,000. Even