This week, Michael is out of the hospital. A new statement on the singer’s website relates that he has been discharged, though he is still needs time to “rest and recuperate.” There is no word on when Michael could be well enough to return to performing. The statement, in full:

We can confirm that George Michael has been discharged from hospital and continues to rest and recuperate. He is well and thanks everyone for all the messages of support.

According to a BBC News report, Michael was a passenger in a Range Rover that crashed. The singer had to be airlifted to a trauma center in London. Witnesses stated that Michael had a deep gash in his forehead following the accident.

The AP is reporting that two men attacked another man in London this morning. Those on the scene said that the attackers employed a number of weapons, but it’s unknown if a gun was involved yet.

Police responded to reports of an assault where they found one man dead. The two other men were shot and taken to nearby hospitals.

The above scenario may seem like a random act of violence, but the authorities aren’t so sure yet. An anonymous government official said that the attack may have been “terrorist-motivated” and that the authorities are investigating the incident as such.

While it may pale in comparison, this isn’t the first time London has suffered a terrorist attack. In 2005, suicide bombers attacked the public transportation system in London leading to the deaths of fifty-two civilians and over 700 were injured.

More details regarding this latest attack will likely emerge in the coming days. We can just be thankful that not more were injured or killed.

Here’s a report with more details on the attack:

According to a Telegraph report, Mirren was dressed as Queen Elizabeth II when she took to a London street and yelled at the performers outside the Gielgud Theature in Westminster. It was reported that her language was quite strong as she demanded the troupe quiet down. She was reportedly also accompanied by Rufus Wright, who was also costumed in character as Prime Minister David Cameron, making the entire spectacle seem rather bizarre.

Mirren and Wright are currently starring in The Audience, a play in which Mirren, playing the queen, meets with British Prime Ministers from the 50s on. The play debuted in February and Mirren last week was awarded an Olivier Award for her role as the queen. Mirren also won an Academy Award for best actress in 2006 for playing Elizabeth II in the movie The Queen.

According to the Telegraph, the drummers were part of a parade promoting a music festival called As One in the Park.

Some held signs saying, “Larry Page supports terrorism.”

Here’s a video from the protest that has been uploaded to YouTube:

Here’s a video the Telegraph has shared:

Here is what YouTube (Google) has said in a statement (via The Telegraph) regarding its refusal to remove the video in question:

“We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions. This can be a challenge because what’s OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video – which is widely available on the Web – is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube.”

If one goes to view the video on YouTube, they are met with the following message before they can click through to watch it:

The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised.

The option to not display this warning in the future is available.

“Innocence of Muslims” is also the top search suggestion from Google’s autocomplete when you get as far as typing “Inn”.

The protests were reportedly just the first in a series, which, according to the Telegraph, will include a “million-strong march in Hyde Park” in the coming weeks.

It’s Ubisoft’s Wii U-exclusive title ZombiU, that is the most surprising, though. Nintendo has positioned itself with the Wii as a family-friendly, casual gamer company. To see a gruesome survival horror game as an exclusive launch title means that Nintendo is looking to bring back “hardcore” gamers into its fold.

We’ve already had a good look at the zombie mayhem that awaits in ZombiU, including the trailer from the Wii U announcement and a gameplay walkthrough featuring Buckingham Palace that demonstrates how the Wii U GamePad will be used while playing the game. Today, Ubisoft has released another trailer that demonstrates just how hectic ZombiU can become.

The video, seen below, shows a section of the game where players will cross a zombie-infested Tower Bridge to get to the Tower of London. After that, a daring escape shows that rescue might not be in the cards for the citizens of London.

That’s because the company has just announced that they are hiring a new engineering team to be based in London.

From a note on the Facebook Engineering page:

London is a perfect fit for Facebook engineering – it’s a global hub, and it has a vibrant local startup community with lots of great technical talent. Our team in London will start small, focusing on building a core of great engineers, and then grow over time and eventually focus on building products in key areas like mobile and platform.

If you’re serious about getting a job inside this new engineering office, you could always visit the London jobs page. There, we’re reminded that Facebook offers 25 yearly vacation days and 9 company holidays as well as paid baby leave and a free gym membership. Not bad.

“Despite the size of our service – 900 million users and growing – we still push new code to the site every day. We eliminate unnecessary process and give all our engineers the opportunity to work on the things that matter most,” said London engineering team leader Philip Su. “Our engineers in London – like those in Menlo Park, New York, and Seattle – will be able to pursue great ideas and ship products quickly.”

[Image via Engineering Like A Boss Facebook page]

“We have written software that captures all the tweets coming out of the UK mentioning the Olympics, and are running sentiment analysis algorithms on them to determine their emotional content,” says Sosolimited’s Justin Manor. “The rising and falling mood of the nation with respect to the Games is charted throughout the day on a large LED wall next to the Eye, and every night at 9pm, that data is played back out across full color architectural lighting fixtures around the Eye and with large ground based search beams.”

“We have teamed up with EDF Energy, one of the Tier-1 sponsors of the Olympics, as well as Ignite, an amazing events company in the UK, to pull this crazy project off. If you happen to be in London for the Games, please stop by the Eye, and you’ll probably bump into one of our team onsite!”

[Via Todd Wasserman]

Technically, Big Ben is the name of the bell that sits at the top of Clock Tower, and was named for the Benjamin Hall, an engineer who’s name is inscribed on the bell. The 316 foot tower is one of London’s most well-known landmarks.

“The House of Commons Commission welcomed the proposal to rename the Clock Tower Elizabeth Tower in recognition of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and will arrange for this decision to be implemented in an appropriate manner in due course,” a spokesman said to AFP.

MPs realize that the colloquial term “Big Ben” will likely still be used, but wanted to honor the second queen to reach her diamond jubilee. Queen Victoria, who celebrated her diamond jubilee in 1897, lends her name to the tower at the west end of parliament.

[source: AFP]

The pay-as-you-go hotspots will be set up by Virgin Media, near ticket booths, escalators and platforms by the end of July, in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics. Up to 120 stations are planned to be added by the end of the year, and Virgin Mobile subscribers can log on for free.

London Underground’s strategy director Gareth Powell states, “The first stations include some of our busiest and most well-known destinations and we’re on track for a successful launch this summer, all delivered at no additional cost to fare-payers or taxpayers.”

Regarding the London Summer Olympics, organizers of the games have established some guidelines for volunteers, relating to their use of social media. Essentially, they don’t want the 70,000+ volunteers tweeting about big name athletes, or disclosing the locations of politicians and celebrities.

“Mobile phones and other devices are increasingly being used in all levels of criminal activity,” said Stephen Kavanagh, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. “When a suspect is arrested and found with a mobile phone that we suspect may have been used in crime, traditionally we submit it to our digital forensic laboratory for analysis.”

The system will be used by “trained officers to examine devices and gives immediate access to the data in that handset.” The data extraction system will be available to around 300 Met officers. It is not clear at this stage as to what will happen to the extracted data off a suspect’s phone if he or she is not charged with an offense after being arrested.

Let us all hope tha this does not end up coming to the United States. I don’t think it will because we have much higher freedom of speech laws, and much more stringent laws in the due process system that we give police officers.

photo courtesy of ACESO