Yahoo! has gotten a lot of crap for complying with Chinese law when it handed over information relating to a Chinese dissident. Immediately, the company was lambasted and just recently, Congress took their shots. I’ve finally read a reasonable and very fair positive criticism from Techcrunch to what Yahoo! did.
From Duncan Riley:
“Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan contended that Yahoo employees in China had little choice but to comply with the government’s demands. “I cannot ask our local employees to resist lawful demands and put their own freedom at risk, even if, in my personal view, the local laws are overbroad,” he said.”
And…
“Foreign and US companies trading in the United States are expected to comply with local laws, even those that many would now consider to be morally and legally indefensible. It was Google who refused to comply with subpoenas from the Justice Department in 2005, where as Yahoo complied.”
Google — the company with the f*cking motto of ‘DO NO EVIL’ — complied with Chinese censorship laws when it was told to. If you want to do business in China, you have to follow their laws. That’s just the way it is, until maybe in the future the government becomes more democratic…
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HBO, bring on The Wire!
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A laser to kill HIV?
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I haven’t played this yet, surprisingly. It’s apparently one of the hardest games ever made. It’s the “real” Super Mario Bros. 2.
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I join the 3 out of 5 Radiohead fans who paid absolutely nothing for the band’s latest album In Rainbows. I’m waiting to buy the actualy physical CD version of the album due sometime next year. I’ll take the physical format over the digital one anytime of the week.
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Baseball news:
1. Greg Maddux won his 17th Gold Glove. It’ll be a great day when he gets his 350th victory next season.
On a side note, I’m glad Alex Rodriguez didn’t win another undeserved Gold Glove at third base. Kudos to Adrian Beltre. And FINALLY, Jimmy Rollins gets some love.
2. The San Francisco Giants trade Time Lincecum and I’ll become an Oakland Athletics fan.
3. As always from Buster Olney, a cool quote about the prospect of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim trading for Miguel Cabrera:
“A lineup with Cabrera and Vladimir Guerrero would have that David Ortiz-Manny Ramirez look to it.”
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Martina Hingis retired. Sucks a nut…
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Britney Spears has the No. 1 album in this country. Oh wait… no it’s The Eagles.
Could this be a conspiracy to drop Britney Spears from the music spotlight? I haven’t heard her new album, but from what I’ve read the album seems to please some critics. Does Britney give a bad name to more than just herself? I applauded MTV for giving Britney the spotlight in the 2007 Video Music Awards ceremony, despite her natural ability to destroy her reputation.
MTV owes her everything for what she did to make MTV what it was during the late 90’s and early 00’s. What would they going to do? Pretend she didn’t exist? TRL became a household name. Britney, Christina Aguilera, the Backstreet Boys, and N’Sync all contributed to the out-of-nowhere teen pop craze that probably single-handledly killed the music industry. Maybe that will be my next article?
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NPR released a new version of its music site. And that’s great for indie fans.
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Interesting quotes from the November 3rd-9th, 2007 issue of The Economist:
“President Mahmond Ahmadinejad of Iran of Iran, not usually a reliable authority on current affairs, got it right in an open letter to George Bush: ‘Whether we like it or not,’ he wrote, ‘the world is gravitating towards faith in the Almighty.'”
“Mr. [John] McCain may have set the tone with a recent ad mocking Mrs Clinton’s attempt to waste $1m of taxpayers’ money commemorating the drug-fuelled Woodstock music festival of 1969. Mr McCain, who was being tortured by the Vietcong at the time, deadpanned: ‘I wasn’t there…I was tied up.'”
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Quote from Homicide: Life On The Street:
Det. John Munch: “Life should come with a money back guarantee. If you’re not satisfied, return unused portion for a full refund.”