Like Google, Skype’s a great service, but their flexible ethics when it comes to user’s privacy lacks the same quality of excellence. We shortly mentioned that Skype’s user agreement includes wire-tapping provisos, but now they’ve gone the whole hog: their Chinese service includes a special chat censorship feature.
china
Chinese Flash Mob Shoppers
By 5.17.06
Lets get this Chinese export into the US economy by the junkload: the latest craze in China is tuangou, or “team buying.” Consumers find each other online, agree to show up at a store at a certain time and flexing their collective bargaining muscle to successfully demand group-rate discounts. Impactlab reports:
China’s Executed Supply Japanese Ill With Organ Transplants
By 3.22.06
In Japan, organ donation is almost entirely unheard of, due in large part to a taboo associated with it according to traditional Buddhist beliefs. An organ transplant supposedly makes the body less clean and perfect — an odd mentality to take when you’re talking about replacing a black and diseased kidney with a functioning one. Nevertheless, those who are in dire need of organ transplants tend to die in Japan because there aren’t enough organs to go around.
The Great Wal-Mart of China
By 3.21.06
- “Wal-Mart Stores plans to hire up to 150,000 employees in China over the next five years, five times the number of workers it currently has there, as it expands its number of stores, the company said Monday.”
China Fights ICANN With New Domain Name System
By 3.8.06
The Chinese — weary of America’s control and insistence on Roman characters for domain names — have decided to set-up their own competitor to ICANN for domain names.
The Week in Product Recalls: Poisonings, Burns, Strangulations, Deadly Chickens
By 2.24.06
Hazard: “The recalled charms contain high levels of lead, posing a serious risk of lead poisoning and adverse health effects to young children.”
Tiananmen Square on Google.cn
By 2.8.06
One of our favorite blogs, Stay Free Daily, posted this side-by-side screen capture of the image search result for “Tiananmen Square”. The left side is from Google.fr. The right side is from Google.cn.
Everyone Hates Google.cn
By 1.26.06
Apparently, we weren’t the only ones upset by what Consumerist commenter Hawkins described as Google’s “capitulation to the commie bastards”… although he followed it up with: “But I submit that a constant reminder, every time you search, that you’re being dicked again by your government is better than nothing.” Which are the exact words that Google themselves should have used at the press conference. You might want to submit your C.V. to Google P.R., Hawkins.
Adult Diapers All The Rage Among Chinese Travellers
By 1.25.06
On the other hand, maybe the Chinese should be censored.
Alongside food and fire crackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their lunar New Year shopping: Adult diapers. Sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the toilets are jammed with people, newspapers said Tuesday.
Maybe Google’s actually got the right idea here. Do we really want to encourage the free exchange of ideas with a people who would find soiling themselves, then sitting around in their own filth for a twenty hour train ride, preferable to just going in front of someone else? Or, hell, just sticking their ass out the window? Can you imagine being one of the few passengers with pride on that cattle car, packed in the middle of a thousand peasants happily stewing in their own feces? Remind us to link this story next time we complain about Amtrak. God bless America, baby.
Google Censors Its Chinese Service
By 1.25.06
Google has decided to open up a censored Chinese search service:
Google, famous for its “Don’t Be Evil” philosophy, is seeking to soften potential criticism by promising to inform Chinese users when search results are censored, something other China-based search services do not do. The decision to exclude results on sensitive topics such as democratic reform, Taiwanese independence or the banned Falun Gong movement has clearly been particularly difficult for a company dedicated to making information “universally accessible”.
The $10k Car: Should We Feel Bad for Buying a Geely?
By 12.20.05
Next year’s Yugo is set to be the Chinese-made Geely 7151 CK—pronounced “JEE-lee,” as in “fra-gi-le.” The mid-sized sedan will be hitting our shores for around $10,000, making it by far the cheapest car in its class. But can you, in good conscience, purchase it?
Geely’s average cost for workers in China is $3.50 an hour. That compares with hourly labor costs of $73.73 for GM.
Considering the quality of cars coming out of GM over the last ten years, we think you most certainly can. Japanese and Korean cars started out as bargain-basement alternatives to Detroit steel, and even at current prices, tend to offer a much better car for the money. If the Geely ends up being a quality product, we welcome the destruction of one of America’s primary exports.
