Several reports surfaced on Thursday afternoon that access to the Internet has been cut off in many parts of Egypt. Social networking sites -- mainly Facebook -- had continued to serve as meeting and planning places for residents of the country, but then access to the Web disappeared entirely, even the country's government site, www.egypt.gov.eg.

Without being dramatic, it makes one wonder if access to the Internet at this point in history is actually a human right. Just as water, food and other items necessary to everyday life are considered freedoms that every person is entitled to, is access to information and the ability to communicate part of that list?

The technology channel over at The Atlantic has a translated (Arabic to English) pamphlet that had been serving as an instructional guide to Friday's planned protest.

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

Photo: Egyptian protesters clash with riot police in Suez, Egypt, on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011. Egyptian activists protested for a third day, as social networking sites called for a mass rally in Cairo after Friday prayers, keeping up the momentum of the country's largest anti-government protests in years. Reports that the Internet has been shut down throughout the country surfaced on Thursday afternoon. Credit: Associated Press

President Barack Obama was asked two years ago, before Super Bowl XLIII, for which team was he was for: the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Phoenix Cardinals. Just nine days after his historic inauguration, Obama's reply sounded genuine and bereft of any political agenda.

"I am a longtime Steelers' fan. Mr. [Dan] Rooney, the owner, was just an extraordinary supporter during the campaign, Franco Harris was campaigning for me in Pittsburgh. Coach [Mike] Tomlin was a supporter." So Obama said from the Oval Office in January 2009.

"I wish the best to the Cardinals. They've been long-suffering. It's a great Cinderella story, but other than the Bears, the Steelers are probably the team that's closest to my heart," Obama said.

Now that the Steelers are back in the Super Bowl, the president has decided not to root publicly for his second-favorite team. Quite a curious decision since their opponent, the Green Bay Packers, are the longtime rival of his favorite team the Chicago Bears. Especially interesting because the Packers knocked off the Bears Sunday in order to earn their spot in the Super Bowl.

Via YouTube Thursday, Obama fielded a question from someone a Packers' backer. The president replied, "I've got to stay absolutely neutral on this one, and may the best team win."

Could it be that Wisconsin is a state Obama needs to secure for reelection? He beat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Dairy State by 15 points in the Democratic primary in Februrary 2008, and he beat John McCain there by nearly 14 points in November. Certainly the good-natured Wisconsinites would understand if the former senator from Illinois would pull for his second-favorite team to trounce the Packers for what they did to his Bears.

A stop in Wisconsin Wednesday would have been a great opportunity for Obama to look the cheeseheads in the eye and say he hopes the Steelers avenge the defeat the Bears had just suffered. Instead he played the diplomat.

"Let me begin by clearing something up. I have not come to Packer Country because I lost a bet," Obama said to a crowd in Green Bay that included Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who had presented him with a Packers jersey. "Sunday was a tough day to be a Bears fan. But even if it didn't go the way I wanted, I'm glad we got to see one of the greatest rivalries in sports go another round.

"And so, in the spirit of sportsmanship," Obama said, "let me just say this: Congratulations, and good luck in the Super Bowl."

RELATED:
Was that plagiarism in Obama's State of the Union?
Obama State of the Union 2.0: Cheesehead Edition

-- Tony Pierce
Twitter.com/busblog

Photo: President Obama holds an autographed Charles Woodson Green Bay Packers jersey given to him by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker after he arrives in Wisconsin Wednesday. Credit: Larry Downing / Reuters

In odd and somehow very delightful news -- a piano randomly showed up in Biscayne Bay on Tuesday. Thus far, no one seems to know how it got there.

We'll spare you the piano bar jokes, but honestly -- how great would it be, if someone just went out there and started playing?

Above is CNN's footage of the instrument, sitting alone at the end of a sandbar.

It's sort of poetic: If you could make one request, what song would you ask a seafaring pianist to play? 

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

Taco Bell's meat is the target of a lawsuit, accused of not containing enough beef to deserve being called "seasoned meat".

An Alabama law firm has filed a class-action suit against the fast-food company claiming the ground beef (deemed "seasoned beef" by Taco Bell externally, and "taco meat filling" internally) has less than the amount of meat (40%) required to fit the definition as beef.

"You can't call it beef by definition," attorney W. Daniel "Dee" Miles III said in regard to the suit his firm has filed. "It's junk. I wouldn't eat it."

Taco Bell released a statement, published on its website, defending its food.

At Taco Bell, we buy our beef from the same trusted brands you find in the supermarket, like Tyson Foods. We start with 100 percent USDA-inspected beef. Then we simmer it in our proprietary blend of seasonings and spices to give our seasoned beef its signature Taco Bell taste and texture. We are proud of the quality of our beef and identify all the seasoning and spice ingredients on our website. Unfortunately, the lawyers in this case elected to sue first and ask questions later -- and got their "facts" absolutely wrong. We plan to take legal action for the false statements being made about our food.

The readers of the Times' Booster Shots blog, however, are having some interesting discussions about  the suit.

"I have no beef with Taco Bell -- literally," wrote a commenter named Gramps.

"There was a time when they used the real thing. I worked there in 1984 and we made the taco meat from raw beef and a dry seasoning mix. We cooked the beans from dry pintos in a giant pressure cooker. We also shredded the lettuce and cheese, sliced the tomatos and olive, and fried the taco shells on site," Tackerman wrote.

"Tackerman, I remember when Taco Bell used real beef too ... Government regulations certainly play a factor, but you can't tell me they aren't saving some coin using less beef in their product.  But still ... 35%? I might have to rethink my occasional forays 'outside the bun.'  LOL...." wrote dtech001.

Does this suit change the way you look at Taco Bell's products? Share your thoughts below.

 -- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Customers dine outside a Taco Bell restaurant in Burbank on Dec. 5, 2006. Credit: Ric Francis / Associated Press

Advertisements. We know them, we memorize them, we make parodies -- and we often come to hate or love them, as some memorable campaigns become part of our pop-culture fabric.

Such is the case with Old Spice guy. You might remember last year's "I'm on a horse" commercial.

We saw many parodies, but probably our favorite was "Sesame Street's" take. Grover says, "Anything is possible when you smell like a monster and know the word 'on.'"

Apparently, Procter & Gamble took note of the success, and Old Spice guy is back to give us more towel-wrapped man advice. The video (top) is a preview of what's to come. Watch out for the "striking brown eyes."

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

Tuesday  morning, as reported by Times foreign correspondent Jeffery Fleishman, some of the largest protests Egypt has ever seen erupted in Cairo.

Mimicking protests in Tunisia last week, people took to the streets and began to rally against political repression and unemployment under President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for three decades.

As shown in the video above, protesters faced off with police who used tear gas.

Similar protests were seen earlier this month in Tunisia, and at that time many questioned whether social media sites -- such as Twitter and Facebook -- were the drivers behind such uprisings.

The social networking sites obviously helped groups to organize, as 80,000 or more people signed up on Facebook to attend Tuesday's rallies in Cairo (though fewer than 80,000 showed up).

And Egypt's government clearly cares about its people's access to Twitter, as the country blocked Internet access to the microblogging site on Tuesday.

This sort of revolt was also seen in Moldova in 2009, when Twitter and mobile phones were largely employed to organize groups to rally against their communist government. Moldova is a somewhat low-tech country (with less infrastructure than the United States), so these events showed that little was needed to create an uprising. All you need is people with feature phones, Internet access and free social networking sites.

It's almost a revolution in three easy steps. So simple, and yet the issues (and the regimes) that are being protested are nothing short of life-and-death concerns.

It leads us to a series of questions: What will social media's role be in government going forward? Will Twitter and Facebook continue to be tools for organizing revolution? How will future technologies shape the way people and their governments communicate?

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

Almost exactly a year ago, President Obama gave his first State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress.

He said about American history: "It's tempting to look back ... and assume that our progress was inevitable. America was always destined to succeed." But then he reminds viewers that the nation has historically faced many difficult challenges.

Speaking to the nation after one of the worst financial periods in its history, he references Wall Street being rewarded while Main Street suffered — rhetoric that became almost customary throughout the rest of 2010.

He talked about bank bailouts and recoveries. He called for bipartisan efforts to work through differences and problems. He said that anxiety has no party lines and that our stubborn resilience is our common ground.

He said: "One woman wrote to me and said, 'We are strained but hopeful. Struggling but encouraged.' It's because of this spirit — this great decency and great strength — that I have never been more
hopeful about America's future than I am tonight."

That was last year. What are you expecting or hoping the president will address Tuesday night? What are the chief challenges of the nation post-recession?

 — Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

When met with the the idea of the Hollywood dance club the Roxbury, it's hard not to think of the 1990s Saturday Night Live skit involving the slimy characters played by Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan dressed in rayon suits bopping their heads to Haddaway's "What Is Love."

After being closed for about 13 years, the Roxbury has now moved east from its Sunset Strip location to one on Ivar near Hollywood Boulevard.

The snottier-than-thou attitiude has also risen from hibernation and made the move, it appears.

"We turned down 400 people last week, and we had a great-looking crowd, which is very important," said Elie Samaha, one of the co-owners of the original Roxbury and who has a stake in the new incarnation. "I don't care who you are, if you're a guy and you only have one girl with you, you're not getting in. If you have three or four with you, you're welcome."

"It's a kick in the teeth," complained Chris Breed, one of the original co-owners of Sunset Boulevard's Roxbury, who has nothing to do with the new club. "It's kind of a disappointment to me that just one partner can bring back the Roxbury, because it will never live up to the original," he sighed.

-- Tony Pierce

Photo: The exclusive interior of the new Roxbury. Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez, Los Angeles Times

It's Friday, and we're not sure that we'll see something cuter than this today.

A little French girl named Capucine tells a story. At first it seems she is going to recite A.A. Milne's classic 'Winnie the Pooh,' but then her imagination takes hold and instead we're told of magic, heaven, a menagerie of animals, and an orange ring.

Her creativity on camera is an adorable way to end the week.

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

On Jan. 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States.

That was 50 years ago today, but some of the words of this now-famous speech are still true.

He says, referencing the nation's adversaries:

So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms — and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

The second video below is the remainder of his speech, in which he speaks possibly some of the most famous words ever spoken: "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski