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• At 6.8, this quake is nearly as strong as the one that turned Haiti into a pile of rubble. Here’s a map. More details on the quake as we get them. This literally just happened.
• Update: The A.P. (grumble) reports that the quake was strong enough to shake buildings in Beijing for a minute, despite its relatively long distance away.

• $60
  billion size of the deal Australia has to supply lots of dirty, environmentally unfriendly coal to China for the next two decades
• 30
  million number of tons of coal that deal will buy China; environmentalists are up in arms, saying the deal doesn’t square with Copenhagen source

• Don’t know the Rio Tinto four? You will. The Anglo-Australian mining company is the latest focus of China’s razor-sharp focus, after four employees – including one Australian national – were charged with bribery and stealing business secrets. This comes about a month after Google suspected the country of hacking its Gibson. Sounds like somebody’s looking for a fight. source

• $6.4 billion reasons for China to be really pissed source

• half think they’ve already been attacked by a government intruder
• 36% think the U.S. might try to attack their Gibson for some reason
• 33% think the same thing about Google-accused China source

• Sister was very happy when brother gave up the thought of leaving and stayed for sister.
• A message on the “Goojje” Web site • Regarding Google’s possible leaving of the Chinese market. In Chinese, the syllable “gle” is pronounced like the word for “older brother.” Goojje, a new search engine, takes advantage of this, using the syllable “jje” to stand for “older sister.” Who’s mama bear, Baidu? source

• U.S. Claims the Internet should be free. Has Google’s back 110% in the situation. Wants an investigation of China’s online activity.
• China Says any claims by the U.S. are “groundless.” Claims the U.S. is responsible for hacking China. Called Hillary a poopyface. source

• It’s the same one that led to Google’s Gibson getting hacked. It’s been warned about for weeks, and Microsoft patched Internet Explorer ahead of its normal release cycle to prevent it, but it’s official – the hack exploited by the Chinese is out in the wild. The exploit was bad enough, but what might be worse is the fact that Microsoft reportedly knew about it in freaking September and only patched it this week. Massive fail. source