Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.
Amazon Signs Discovery Communcations To Streaming TV. Amazon's making another move to bolster the selection of video content on its Prime service, announcing it's signed up Discovery's material. There's mention of Dirty Jobs and shows like Whale Wars, but not the iconic MythBusters (whose team was last seen in a Steve Jobs documentary, just so you know). Amazon notes it now has 17,000 videos available through Prime. --KE
New Satellite Phone Safety Guide Released. Documentary filmmaking outfit Small World News, which works with local journalists in warzones and unfree societies, has released a new guide to satellite phone safety. The PDF offers commonsense advice for satellite phone users on how to avoid eavesdropping and detection. --NU
Syrian Refugee Smuggles YouTube Atrocity Videos Inside Body To Canada. The Toronto Star discovered a new way of smuggling video footage out of Syria: hiding them in flesh wounds. The newspaper's Rick Westhead interviewed a refugee now living in Canada, "Mustafa," who hid a Nokia Micro SD memory card inside a small self-inflicted cut to his arm. Mustafa smuggled out 42 videos which were later posted to YouTube under a variety of throwaway usernames. The videos, whose authenticity could not be verified, appear to show graphic footage of civilians intentionally killed by Syrian government forces. --NU
--Updated 12:45 p.m. EST
"Why I Left Google" Explains Ex-Googler's Dashed Dreams. Google's focus on social search and rush to compete with Facebook for advertising is compromising its ability to nurture innovation at the grassroots level, according to James Whittaker, an ex-Google employee who left the search giant for Microsoft. He describes in a blog post how he saw the company and its priorities change as Facebook loomed as a threat and adversary. "Like the proverbial hare confident enough in its lead to risk a brief nap, Google awoke from its social dreaming to find its front runner status in ads threatened," Whittaker writes. Read the rest of his post here. --NS
--Updated 6:55 a.m. EST
Google's Doodle today celebrates the would-be 101th birthday of origami master Akira Yoshizawa.
Complaint Against China's Rare Earths In WTO. The U.S., E.U., and Japan have lodged a complaint with the WTO against China and its current rare earth policy. In it, they accuse China of keeping prices low within the country and pressuring manufacturers to move there. A shade over 95% of the rare earths produced globally for electronics and renewable energy are mined in China. --NS
Encyclopaedia Britannica Shuts Down Print Business. Encyclopaedia Britannica is shutting down their presses and phasing out their production of their iconic hardbound encyclopedias after 244 years. They're instead focusing on web content, taking competitor Wikipedia on their own turf, after a sale of just 8,000 volumes of their 2010 edition. --NS
BBC Hacked In Iran. The BBC Persian TV service was hacked in Iran, BBC has announced. This recent cyber attack follows other attempts to disrupt the service in the country--BBC has said there have also been attempts to jam their satellites and clog their phone lines with bogus calls. --NS
--Updated 5:45 a.m. EST
Yesterday's Fast Feed: Yahoo Sues Facebook, Twitter Acquires Posterous, Dugan Leaves DARPA For Google, and more!