ItSeemstoMe

Elie Wiesel's Indirect Wisom on China

When he was 15, Elie Wiesel and his entire family were crammed into cattle cars and taken to Auschwitz. Only Elie survived.  I just finished reading Night, his memoir of what happened to him in Nazi concentration camps.  This book had the same gripping impact on me that I experienced while viewing Schindler's List, a movie I saw once over ten years ago and still remember every minute of it.

This, it seems to me, is as it should be.

The book also contained his brief, eloquent, powerful Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Delivered in 1986, it is perhaps more true today than it was then, I am sad to say. One paragraph jumped out at me:

"Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free. How can one not be sensitive to their plight? Human suffering suffering anywhere, concerns men and women everywhere."

What has this to do with China and the controversies continuing to swarm around the activities of Cisco, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google? It has everything to do with it.

Craig Ventner's Nice Little Thing

The Washington Post has a nice article on Craig Ventner, discoverer of the human genome.  Now he's trying to invent a new fuel, using microbes.  Now that seems to me to be a really food idea.

Conferenza Covering TED06

Sam Perry is down at TED the annual brainfest that is always among the year's best technology conferences. He's coverig the conference in depth at Conferenza. Check it out, if you are at all interested in the impact of the world and technology on each other.

China Censors Scored from Inside and Out

The first reports that a dozen former Communist arty officials, including a former propaganda chief  have denounced recent government censorship acts.  I only wish that American companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco would join in the chorus.

The New York Times today has two articles relevant to censorship in China. 

Speaking of that gang of four, the Times also reports that Representative Christopher Smith, Republican of New Jersey, "unleashed a scathing condemnation" against them for their reprehensible collaboration with Chinese censors. It seems to me that Cong. Smith should be commended for speaking out.

"I'm Tagged" Meme

I was beginning to think no one would tag me. but David Parmet got me this morning with this 4 things meme that is going around and around like a hamster on steroids. So here I go:

Four jobs I had

• Taxi driver
• Stock boy in a pants factory
• Short haul truck driver
• Sheepskin Slipper Salesman at Arts & Crafts Shows

Four Movies that I've watch more than 4 times

• Citizen Kane
• Children of Paradise
• Chariots of Fire
• Gandhi

Four TV Shows

• Lost
• Deadwood
• Old West Wng
• Old Saturday Night Live

Four Places I've travelled

• Cuba
• Seychelle Sea Caves of Mazatland
• Fiji
• Singapore

Four meals I love

• Fresh barbecued Salmon
• Veal Chops
• Fruiti del Mar
• Thai anything

Four websites I visit too much

• Amazon Affilliate's Page
• Schwab Stocks
• Technorati
• PubSub

Four places I'd rather be

• Sailing
• Gardening
• Tahoe
• Maui

Four books I'd grab in an Earthquake

• Any in the Patrick O'Brian Series
• The Tipping Point
• Cluetran Mainifesto
• Krakatoa

Four tunes that play through my head

• Always on My Mind--Wille Nelson
• Funny Valentine--Diane Krull
• Don't Stand So Close-Sting
• Any Sinatra solo

Four things I'd give the world instead of a Coke

• Hope
• A spamguard that works
• Clean water
• Free wireless broadband

Four bloggers I'm dragging in

• Ivan Chew
• Maryam Scoble
• Evan Erwin
• Ernie the Attorney

Rafat Catches New Yorker Flipping Over Snow

Rafat Ali took this great action photo in today's snows of New York.

I spent the first 32 years of my life as a New Englander. It had it's niceties, but in the end I left for three very clear reasons: (1) December, (2) January and (3) February.

Live Blogging Demo 06

For the next few days I'll be live blogging at the Demo 06 conference in  Phoenix.  If tech conferences, enterpreneurs and new technologies interest you, please join me at the Conferenza blog

Broback on James Frey & Fact Checking

Well, this is the second time I posted something on the wrong blog. This is one of the arguments I know against having three blogs like I do.  In any case the original posting has been moved over to Naked Conversations where it belongs. Sorry.

Farber On Why Gates Won't Cross China

Dan Farber has a brief, powerful ZDNet Face to Face piece on the repercussions of Gates, Brin et al's collective willingness to go along with the Chinese government at the expense of the Chinese people and their standing in world opinion.

China's 2 Google Versions: Castrated and er ... Uncut

Once again, through Rebecca MacKinnon there's a bit more detail on just what is going on in China.  As it turns out the Chinese can still access www.google.com, the same uncensored version we see, as opposed to www.google.cn, which is the trimmed, censored and sanitized Chinese government approved version.

This seems to me to be a good thing, but I am not optimistic that it is a situation, which will remain in place. At come time this government who is apparently escalating its suppression of its own people on a great many fronts, will move to close the spigot on that free flow of information. I would be surprised and heartened if Google did anything but go along once again. Having taken its baby step to do just a little bit of evil, it is now in position to take the next great leap forward.