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Greetings,

Unfortunately, there has been an electrical fire at the data center housing Entrecard’s servers. The servers have not been damaged, but the site may be down for as long as 12 hours.

Entrecard is hosted with ThePlanet, and this fire has effected over 9000 websites, as many of the world’s most popualar websites are hosted with ThePlanet. They are working around the clock to get their data center back online, and we are hoping that they get it back online fast.

Thank you for your pateince and understanding with this rare and frustrating problem. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing we can do but wait for The Planet to get their datacenter back online.

Please check back with Entrecard in 12 to 24 hours.

Thanks,
Entrecard Team

WITNESS: Royal flaws in focus at birth of Nepal’s republic

Gopal Sharma has been a Reuters correspondent in Nepal since 1995, covering the Maoist insurgency as well as the peace process which led to the fall of the monarchy. In the following story, Gopal recounts the royal family’s decline.

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Four people, clad in white mourning clothes, carried a dummy corpse in a bamboo coffin.

“Gyane is dead. We are carrying his body to the cremation grounds,” they said, using an abusive shortened form of King Gyanendra’s name.

Watching the crowds gathered to celebrate the birth of the republic of Nepal last Wednesday, it was clear to me they were not yet done protesting against the king.

Analysis: Tampa hiring Melrose makes no sense

If, as reports suggest, the Tampa Bay Lightning is poised to fire coach John Tortorella and replace him with Barry Melrose, this could really get ugly.

And considering it’s the Lightning we’re talking about here, that’s saying something.

Apparently prospective new owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie think it would be a good idea to give a Stanley Cup winning coach the heave-ho and replace him with a guy who not only hasn’t coached a game in the NHL for 13 years, but was one who had a mediocre .449 winning percentage in just three seasons of NHL experience in the first place.

Yup, that’s got success written aaaaall over it, doesn’t it?

I don’t care how good a coach Melrose was when he was behind the bench for the Los Angeles Kings back when mullets were stylish. I don’t care how much hockey he has watched and how closely he has been connected to the game through his job as an analyst for ESPN. The game has passed him by.

Winter Classic in Chicago a classic idea

So, it looks like the Chicago Blackhawks are going to be hosting the Detroit Red Wings in next season’s Winter Classic at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. At least, that’s the rumor that has started to leak. Nothing’s official quite yet.

Let’s hope that it does become official soon. Very soon. Like between Game 4 and 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals soon. This would be awesome to watch, and it would be great for the game.

Now, I’ve ran into quite a few folks that think that another outdoor game on the heels of this season’s tilt would be a bad idea, because they are afraid that the NHL may end up turning this into an annual event, and thus cause the game to lose its novelty. To be honest with you, I can see where they are coming from. Heck, I kind of agree with them. After next season’s tilt, they should give it a rest for a couple years.

Canada launches privacy probe into Facebook

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into Facebook after four students complained that the popular Web site violates Canadian law by disclosing personal information to advertisers without proper consent.

The University of Ottawa law students, some of whom are dedicated Facebook users, allege in a complaint lodged Friday that the social networking Web site has committed 22 violations of the law.

“There’s definitely some significant shortcomings with Facebook’s privacy settings and with their ability to protect users,” said Harley Finkelstein, 24, one of the students behind the complaint.

Facebook has refuted the claims, saying that the complaint ignores key elements of the company’s policy.

“We’ve reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors — most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users,” Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly said Friday in an e-mail.