The Invisible Library

Praise Be To the Sky Fairy and the Seven Lords and Ladies of Haute Cotoure!

Neal Pollack has returned to the Blogosphere! We might just beat these thugs and get our country back.

Update: Chinese Blog Ban

Not a whole lot to update, I�m afraid. My initial post (below) stands: International blog hosts such as typepad and Blog.com are unaccessible to Chinese Bloggers. The companies that run those sites have reported no technical failure on their end and the Chinese government isn�t saying much of anything on the matter. The Chinese blog hosts are claiming that it�s merely a technical set back that is keeping them down, but their is a lot of suspicion that there is pressure form above to stay off line.

At this point, I�d like to say that it is difficult to verify any information, as all the claims I�ve been able to find are unsubstantiated posts on blogs No news services have run this story, as far as I can tell. This doesn�t mean it isn�t happening, of course. Just that the facts are sketchy and often contradictory, hence the lack of any citations that you can hang your hat on. But given the nature of this story, I think it can be safe to assume something shady is going on. This is a major set back to China�s image as a country on the verge of freedom.

Jane Perrone, Blogger for the Guradian:

Philip [A Chinese Blogger] writes: ‘While the rest of the world may not yet consider blogs a relevant media source, in the People’s Republic they are one way for people to make themselves heard. Since the mainstream Chinese press is heavily controlled and websites such as BBC News are blocked, blogs provide an alternative voice.’

This isn’t very helpful to what Philip calls the ‘new wave of commentators and diarists’ who have begun to blog. He believes that the crackdown ‘may well be related to the current electoral debacle in Taiwan, plus the publication of a letter regarding the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Both of these have been widely discussed by bloggers. It would appear that the government, already nervous of the internet, wishes to further suppress blogging as a medium for discussion.’

I want all our Blog Brothers and Sisters in China, and especially in Taiwan, to know that we�re with them on this fight. Keep speaking. If you can�t get to your blog, talk about it in the street. Let everyone know that the Chinese Government is suppressing the voices of the people.

Alas, All Things Must End

Spring Break officially ends Sunday night but since I’ll be driving all day Sunday, it actually ends tonight. Which means I’m spending today with my wife. So no posts until at least Monday Afternoon, after I’m back at Grad School, sawing away on my MLS degree. I have to say I’m well rested and feeling a bit energized. I might even make ith through the rest of the semester without killing anyone.

There’s a first time for everything.

China Bans Blogs

All typepad.com and blogs.com hosted sites are banned in China starting this morning, a week after China has agreed to amend its constitution to respect human rights. This is another move by the Central government to curb free speech and freedom of information on the Internet.

Someone tell me again why we’re friends with China but enemies with Cuba. Maybe BushCo. is envious of the absolute stranglehold that China has on their media. After all, if Bush had that kind of ability to censor TV, nespapers and the Internet, he wouldn’t have to worry about people like Richard Clarke spoiling his plans for corporate hegemony.

Note to fellow Bloggers: get the word out. Post about this, then send an e-mail or ping to Yan at Glutter and let her know your voice is part of the chorus. She’s a Hong Kong blogger, and would very much appreciate your support.

Update, via USAToday:

Thanks to Elayne Riggs for pointing out the misinformation and shame on me for not checking my sources. This is still a bad thing as censorship of any kind is simply wrong but it changes the issue slightly that it’s China-based Blog hosts that are being banned, rather than International based hosts. It makes the issue a lot more murky, as it’s unkwon as of yet if these Chinese blogs were just engaging in free speach or in actual sedition (though in China, they are often considdered synonyms).

If It’s Friday…

It must be time for some catblogging!

Lucy demonstrates scientifically that sharks are not the only animals who are made mostly of cartilage. Sometimes, she’ll fall asleep in some contorted Gordian knot pose, other times she does it just for attention.

Pansypoo, everyone’s favorite Ludite Blogger, sent me some pictures of her cat, Basil, who seems to be half gargoyle, what with the eyes and the sitting atop high corners and the flaven.

“He’s not the Savior! He’s a very naughty boy!”

from the Beeb:

Monty Python’s film The Life of Brian is to return to US cinemas next month following the success of The Passion of the Christ.

The Biblical satire will be re-released in Los Angeles, New York and other US cities to mark its 25th anniversary.

Adverts will challenge Mel Gibson’s blockbuster with the lines “Mel or Monty?”, “The Passion or the Python?”

Distributor Rainbow said it hoped the film would “serve as an antidote to all the hysteria about Mel’s movie”.

This is the best news I’ve heard all day. If I believed in God, I’d ask him to bless those Python Boys.

Damn Strait!

AP (via Corrente):

POMONA, N.J. (AP) - The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. called gay marriage a civil rights issue, denouncing a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban it.

Constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it, Coretta Scott King said Tuesday.

“Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union,” she said. “A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.”

Hats off to Mrs. King. Good to see she hasn’t lost the fire, unlike some. That’s right, I’m looking at you, Mr. Jesse “Rainbow Coalition” Jackson.

Introducing, Lucy the Library Cat

Lucy will be dropping by from time to time, especially on Cat Blogging Fridays to comment on events of the week. She isn’t pleased in this picture but she just heard what Bush’s goons are saying about John Kerry now.

Viva La Revolution!

The Purge is complete. I uploaded Appleworks 6 yesterday and deleted the Microsoft Office Suite, which now officially makes my computer Microsoft free*.

I’ve been doing other upgrades as well, such as moving from OS 10.2(.8) to OS 10.3,and loaded Dreamweaver MX, Adobe CS and about 10 gigs worth of new music to iTunes. I’ve even been fiddling with a bunch of pretty, new icons and desktop themes and now have the coolest computer on the block next to my wife’s iMac, which has all the same software I just mentioned as well as an external hardrive that bumps her total storage capacity up to 220 gigs. That sounds like an awful lot but my wife is a photographer and so needs a lot of storage space for digital images. Though it does give one elbow room to ponder.

In 1969 we put three men on the moon with a couple of serial processors that took up a room the size of an apartment and were roughly a thousand times slower than my iPod, which fits in my pocket. Those giant supercomputers had a whopping 35 megs of total storage capacity. The future is a strange and ever expanding world. I’m glad I live here, rather than say in the fifteenth century.

_________
*I still have a handful of fonts designed by Microsoft but it’s unlikely that Comic Sans or Georgia Seriff will unexpectedly quit on me so they can stay.

Return of the Librarian

I know I only said I’d be away for a day or two, and that was four days ago but I’ve been away on Special Library related Program Activities of a secretive nature. All I can say is, if you haven’t already, go see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I have made some blog related decisions in the last few days while I’ve been relaxing and enjoying Spring Break. I realized that recently I’ve wandered from the stated purpose of this Blog, which is to discuss writing (especially mine), books, and Library and free speech issues. I’ve been ranting about BushCo. Shenanigans far too much and not really adding anything but my own two cents to news items that other bloggers have been covering far better. So, no more politiblogging, except when it has to do with the Patriot Act, or books or if I’m really pissed about something or just feel like babbling.