Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

21 Sep 2010 21:14

tags

World: Google’s transparency map: The U.S. firmly at the top, China missing

  • We appreciate Google doing this. Letting people know how governments are censoring or looking into content is important for a free society. However, we do find China’s entry very disappointing. Here’s all it says: “Chinese officials consider censorship demands to be state secrets, so we cannot disclose that information at this time.” That said, take a look at how the U.S. compares to every other country. They’re way ahead of everyone else. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Jun 2010 11:17

tags

Tech, World: Who blinked first in the Google vs. China search stand-off?

  • Google did, but not too much. The search giant angered China by re-directing to its free-speech-allowing Hong Kong site, threatening to revoke its business license. So, to prevent that, Google will force Chinese users to click on an image before going to the Hong Kong site, which is annoying but likely gets around China’s problems. Will it work? Good question. China is finicky. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Apr 2010 09:40

tags

Tech: Apple’s censorship police targets another op-ed cartoonist

Apple rejected cartoonist Daryl Cagle’s iPhone app, “Tiger Woods Cartoons,” because it ridiculed a pulbic figure. Yo Apple, this is a stupid policy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Apr 2010 10:00

tags

Culture: Comedy Central wusses out on “South Park” big time

  • We’d be so hypocritical against our own message, our own thoughts, if we said, ‘okay, well let’s not make fun of them because they won’t hurt us.’ It matters to me when we talk about Muhammad that I can say we did this… and I can stand behind that.
  • “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker • Regarding the whole “Muhammad” controversy that’s trailed the show this week. He made these comments before last night’s show hit a fever pitch, and on the show there was prominent, over-the-top censorship of the word “Muhammad.” But on the other hand, there were blasphemous images for other religions on the show – Jesus watching porn and Buddha snorting coke. Because we wouldn’t want some of our society’s greatest social satirists to wuss out on us here. (Update: Comedy Central put in the large amount of censorship, and won’t let the “South Park” dudes stream the episode.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Apr 2010 11:10

tags

Offbeat: China’s willing to leap over the Great Firewall for Japanese porn stars

  • What sparked so much discussion about me by Chinese people? What happened? Please tell me.
  • Japanese porn star Aoi Sola • On her newfound popularity on Twitter with the mainland Chinese. After her fans found out she was on the site, they freaked out and found ways around the “Great Firewall” that China uses to block certain speech-allowing sites. “In China you can get anything you want on the Internet, you just have to want to bad enough,” said China-based tech industry analyst David Wolf. So, on the scale from Tiananmen Square to Japanese porn stars, Japanese porn stars win. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2010 09:43

tags

Tech, World: Protip to Web-censored countries: Use Opera. No, really

  • 32% of people in Kazakhstan use Opera for browsing source
  • » Why Opera, anyway?: Well, Opera has this Turbo Browsing mode that goes through a proxy. The feature is intended to make Web browsing faster, but has the side effect of getting around the country’s censorship law, which passed last year. Too bad the iPhone app sucks.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Apr 2010 16:01

tags

World: Somali militants think the BBC is evil, knock it off the air

  • BBC is owned by England and it spreads (a) colonial and Christian agenda in the Muslim world. BBC fights Islam … it is against the Islamic administration in Somalia.
  • A message from the al Shabaab militant group • Regarding their cutting off of BBC broadcasts in regions of Somalia controlled by the group. The broadcast service doesn’t have any studios in Somalia but broadcasts its main London feed to local FM stations in the war-torn nation. BBC’s Head of International Relations & Africa Region, Jerry Timmins, was upset about the actions. “We are disappointed in this interference with our broadcasts in Somalia as in the end,” he said, “it is the Somali people who are most affected.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

30 Mar 2010 21:50

tags

World: Question: Is Google working in China right now?

  • NO no word on whether China straight-up blocked it yet source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Mar 2010 10:54

tags

Tech, World: Google and China are just about done with each other

  • Now Google suddenly wants to break its promise, and if it’s not satisfied it will criticize China for a worsening of the investment environment. This is entirely unreasonable. What has changed is not China’s investment environment. It is Google itself.
  • Chinese official media source Xinhua • Regarding Google’s decision to move out of the Chinese market (a decision reported by the Financial Times today but not formally announced). To a degree, they’re totally correct. Yeah, Google changed. They decided that they couldn’t do censorship anymore, and were optimistic they could get China to bend for them. Not so much. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 11:24

tags

Tech, World: What are the odds that Google will leave China, anyway?

  • 99.9% that’s a lot of nines, guys source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>