If you’re a company that wants to do business in China then you have to play by the Chinese Government’s rules. If you provide search results, that means you have to adhere to their strict censorship rules.

I think that sucks, but China is a BIG market and when your competitors are there, it’s got to be tough to resist the temptation. Google, MSN and Yahoo! are all there and playing by the rules. Personally, I don’t think American companies should be doing business someplace where they have to act in a manner that is diametrically opposed to very core American values, such as the freedom of speech. The high road isn’t littered with big piles of cash however, so I don’t actually expect major corporations to take it.

Unfortunately, things are getting a little more alarming than just blocking certain search results. Yahoo! in particular has been involved with the jailing of at least three Chinese dissidents. In the most recent case, Jiang Lijun was jailed after Yahoo! handed over a draft email that had not yet been sent. I’d like to think that Yahoo! was just complying with some form of a subpoena-like demand and not pro-actively policing their users’ communications.

The draft e-mail, titled Declaration, was similar to manuscripts called Freedom and Democracy Party Program and Declaration of Establishment, recovered from a computer and a floppy disk owned by two other Internet activists, the verdict said.

The information proved that Jiang and the other activists were planning to “make preparations for organizing a party and to use violence to overthrow the Communist Party,” the verdict said.

Dissident isn’t an inaccurate label for Jiang, but I’m sure, depending on your point of view, any of several labels might apply. Activist. Terrorist. Revolutionary. I don’t claim to know every facet of the story, but by American standards, perhaps he should be considered a Hero.

That, of course, would make Yahoo! a villain.

I’ve voted for Senator Feinstein several times now. That may be ending soon.

Via Boing Boing:

Diane Feinstein constituents - say no to banning MP3 streaming!: Cory Doctorow:
A Pledgebank campaign is looking for constituents of California Senator Diane Feinstein to sign on to vote against her if she keeps on supporting the PERFORM act, which will ban MP3 streaming and mandate DRM for Internet audio.

Link

(Thanks, Bri!)

I encourage you to go read what the EFF has to say about this. I’ve also read what Senator Feinstein has said on her own page. After doing a little more research, I can say with the utmost confidence that I am definitely against the PERFORM act and I think it’s a bad idea. I’ve signed the pledge publicly stating so, even though I don’t expect the pledge to do much directly. What I do hope, however, is that it generates more awareness regarding the issue.

House of Cosbys is a pretty funny series of animated shorts. It’s all about a guy who was a big Bill Cosby fan and wanted one of his own (”to entertain me and tell me Cosby jokes all the time”) and it goes a little too far (”Each Cosby is getting worse than the last, you see.”)

Well, newsflash, boys and girls. Dr. Huxtable is dead and buried. The pudding guy has turned sour. And who the hell knows what happened the the jovial comedian that chatted with kids who said the darnedest things. That’s right, Bill Cosby has become a cranky old man.

That’s right. The Cosby Legal Team has issued a cease and desist. Apparently they’ve never heard of parody. Yeah. That. The thing that’s protected by US Law.

Andy Baio of Waxy.org is the recipient of this cease and decist and he is, rightfully, standing his ground which is quite refreshing in this era of litigious threats and duck & cover. Read about it here.

I’ve decided to help him out and mirror the files here for the time being. I’ll leave them up here until this blows over and I want the space back. Unless of course I receive some correspondence from The Cosby Legal Team. That might extend the length of the time that the files hang around here.

• house_of_cosbys_1.mp4
  
• house_of_cosbys_2.mp4
  
• house_of_cosbys_3.mp4
  
• house_of_cosbys_4.mp4
  
• house_of_cosbys_5.mp4
  
• curiosity_cosby_bloopers.mov
  
• house_of_cosbys_musicvideo.mov

Enjoy.

Consider this a public service announcement. Got a shredder? I do. Cross-cut, baby. Dice those Credit Card applications.

Via Boing Boing:

Guy gets credit card using torn up application: Mark Frauenfelder:
Rob Cockerham of Cockeyed.com says:

I wasn’t sure if just tearing a Credit Card application into tiny bits was good enough to prevent dumpster-diving theft, so I did a test.

I tore one up, then taped it back together again, filled it out with a DIFFERENT address and CELL number.

Sure enough, in four weeks I was rewarded with a shiny new card with a $5,000 limit.

Now I guess I’ll go buy a shredder with this card.

Link

Update: It was Chase Mastercard, by the way. Not that I expect any better from, say, Providian or BofA… maybe Amex. Still gonna shred them all though.

It’s time for Child’s Play again. In case you don’t know what it is, here’s a blurb from the official site:

For the past three years, gamers and geeks around the world have raised nearly a million dollars in toys, games and cash for sick kids in Children’s Hospitals across the globe through a grassroots charity called Child’s Play.

Created by Penny Arcade, no “Administrative Fees” or other nonsense is collected; all gifts and donations go directly to the hospitals for distribution to sick kids.

Gabe, of Penny Arcade fame, put it in good perspective in his post, I’ll quote a chunk here:

These hospitals obviously receive plenty of donations year round but what we learned is that the money they get for the most part is spent on things much more important than toys. Things like medicine and equipment are a bigger priority than say Crash Bandicoot.

These Kids need toys though. They need games to play and crafts to make in order to take their minds off their situations. Something as simple as a Game Boy can make the stay in one of these Hospitals much more bearable for a kid.

That pretty much sums it up. It’s a good cause. Go do it.

Via Amber Mac:

Post this link to help Hurricane victims - MissingKatrina.com:My good friends at Textamerica just let me know that they’ve launched a site, Missing Katrina, to allow victims of Hurricane Katrina to post photos to try to find missing friends/family. If you have a website or blog, please take a few minutes to post a link to Missing Katrina.

“This site is here to help you try and find your missing friends and
relatives from hurricane Katrina. You can post their pictures here by
uploading them directly from your PC. You may also enter details like
your phone number and email address.”

They’ve also set up a toll-free number if you need help uploading photos and posting information - 1-800-774-0512.

(Donations can be made online at the American Red Cross website.)

First of all:

• Donate via Apple
• Donate to Second Harvest
• Donate To Red Cross via Amazon
• Craig’s List Links for Katrina Aid
• FEMA’s list

There are tons of methods to donate money or volunteer. If the above don’t suit your fancy, Google is your friend.

The following is a sort of stream of consciousness rant…

Annette heard from a friend of hers that live(s/d) in New Orleans, finally. It’s good to know he’s safe. (The same cannot be said of his house.) He had some pretty disturbing eye witness reports of what’s going on down there, though. It’s no exaggeration to call it madness. While some of the harsher news reports give an idea of how bad it’s gotten, they only give a glimpse of how horrific the situation really is. The biggest problem now? People.

Looting is one thing. In some cases, it’s pure greed… in other cases it may be a desperate act commmited in the name of survival. Of course, the latter only applies to those who would be looting food or supplies. TVs, and the like, hardly count.

But it’s much worse than looting, of course. People are raping and killing each other. Shooting at search and rescue teams. Attacking police, National Guard and reporters.

It’s been said that Katrina is possibly the worst natural disaster to hit The United States ever. It’s no surprise that it has managed to fell a portion of human civilization. New Orleans, as a society, has effectively collapsed. What I find interesting, and incredibly sad, is that once society is stripped away and the incredible pressure of these extreme circumstances applied, one can truly see good and evil people in the world.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I don’t know everything going on down there. Circumstances are, as I said, extreme. Some reports say that some of the people shooting at police are trying to get them to come save their families (ok, that’s a fucking ludicrous thing to do, and I can’t imagine EVER being so desperate that I thought that opening fire on someone might get them to come help me…) but even if you drop that sort of thing from the equation… people are raping and killing each other. Other victims. How fucking evil do you have to be to, in the middle of this fucking disaster, rape somebody? I’m sorry, there’s no excuse in the world that’s going to play out as “I thought this might be the only way”. Acts such as that are beyond justification.

Anyways. At least there are good people in the world too. Hopefully we’ll be hearing stories about some of those people too. In the meantime, it’s things like Hurricane Housing that give me the slightest inkling of hope for humanity.

Current project should be lightening up soon, and maybe I’ll have time for a better update.

Child’s Play
was started by Gabe and Tycho over at Penny Arcade. It’s a great charity, benefiting kids in children’s hospitals and it’s primarily funded by gamers over the internet. It’s a great chance, once a year, to try and prove that not every gamer on ‘net is an anonymous fuckwad. And since it’s set up by gamers for gamers so you know they cater to our lazy asses quite well. They’ve partnered with Amazon, Toys R’ Us and Imaginarium to make it a painfree method to do something worth a few karma points.

The first year, all the procedes (over $250k in cash and toys) went to Seattle Children’s Hospital. This is the second year now and they’ve expanded to cover several hospitals across the US. I’ve donated to the Oakland one, but you can pick whatever one you want. If you can afford it, just fucking do it. Like now. It takes a few minutes and will probably be the most worthwhle thing you do all day, knowing you. :P

ps: If you wanna know more about how/why the formed this charity, check out the FAQ page (”Q: What’s the full story of how Child’s Play came about?”). It’s a good thing to read.

BoingBoing led to an article at BloggingBaby about a dad who’s chronicling the daily progress of his baby son who was born premature. And by premature, I mean 24 weeks. Way too fucking early. He was 1 lb, 7 ounces. Way too fucking small. If you follow the link in the story, be forewarned… it’s intense. (Sorry. That’s the only word that I can muster that doesn’t seem incredibly pathetic in it’s attempt to convey the potential emotional impact of this story.) Nonetheless, if you can divorce yourself from the events for just an instant (which may be hard to do), you can see how cool it is that this guy can keep his family and friends updated via his blog.

Salam Pax is the psuedonym of a blogger in Bagdhad. Here’s some deductive work to support his legitamacy.

I imagine his postings won’t last much longer as his ISP, not to mention power, is probalby not long for this world. If you find commentary that isn’t absolutely pro-American objectionable, you might want to avoid his blog. He doesn’t seem too fond of America and is opposed to the war. Nonetheless, it’s facisnating reading. The Internet is an amazing thing.

Take care, Salam Pax. Good luck.