Welcome to The Faster Times update. In today's edition, we bring you musical roots, internet censorship, Spiderman's comeback, Michele Bachmann, and a a new Lebanese government. Enjoy!

It is easy to gaze upon the world with a divisive eye; to slice schisms between us and them, between this or that. It is easy only to notice the space between lyrics like “The ghost of ‘lectricity howls in the bones of her face” and “Bikinis, tankinis, martinis / No weenies / Just to get in betweeny.” It is all too easy to ignore the striking similarities between Bob Dylan and the artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg.

The U.S. State Department is leading efforts to combat internet censorship abroad with “shadow” Internet and phone systems. Dissidents can use these systems to “undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks,” reports the New York Times. These efforts have gained momentum in the face of the Egyptian Internet shutdown during the last days of President Hosni Mubarak’s leadership as well as recent internet censorship in Syria.

At the beginning of the second act of Spider-Man 2.0, the evil Green Goblin explains how he was transformed from scientist Norman Osborne to genetic mutant: It took weeks and cost $65 million – “well, more like $75 million,” he says in a cackle that sounds like a cross between Foghorn Leghorn and Harvey Fierstein. This is an inside joke, or at least it would be an inside joke if the making of “Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark” were not the most publicized Broadway backstage story in history.

In a republican debate as boring as Monday night’s, which will inevitably be remembered as the lacklustre “This or that? Coke or Pepsi?” debate, we were all eagerly anticipating something big – was Rick Santorum going to say something involuntarily racist maybe, or was someone planning on hacking into the backdrop projector and upload a slideshow of Anthony Weiner’s email attachments? This was supposed to be, after all, a savage GOP debate showdown, but it quickly transcended into a political forum where the seven candidates were united in their hexing healthcare, lambasting Obama’s economy package and, Ron Paul aside, desire to outlaw gay marriage and abortion, while advocating less government intervention in people’s lives.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced the formation of a new cabinet today, filling the top posts primarily with Hezbollah-allied candidates. Hezbollah is generally considered an ally, and by some a puppet, of the Syrian government. The Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, is currently battling their own popular uprising, which has refused to die out despite an increasingly violent crackdown.