India Blocking Blogs

Cross-posted from Historicus.us

In a quick non-history, academic, or teaching post, it appears that India is blocking access to blogs that are stored on blogger or typepad. 

People that are tracking the issue indicate that it is related to reported terrorist use of blogs to coordinate the Mumbai explosions. Geocities-based blogs and websites are also blocked by the Indian Department of Telecommunications.  The Great Indian Mutiny is reporting that Wordpress and Livejournal are not effected.  This restriction on free speech and free access to information puts India in a new select group other than the nuclear club: Pakistan, China, and Saudi Arabia also censor portions of the Internet.

Interestingly, there are already a large number of methods readily available to work around India's (and other nation's)  attempt at censorship.  Digital inspiration provides a full list of methods to access blocked sites.  The site also describes
how bloggers can ensure that people in areas practicing censorship of the Internet can get to their content, by using Feedburner to syndicate their sites.  India Uncut provides a different group of suggestions, including subscribing to blogs via Bloglines, or using the www.pkblogs.com service created for Pakistanis during their government's crackdown.  Torpark
provides a utility that you can run from a USB key fob to create a secure web connection that seems basically unblockable.  If these methods aren't sufficient you (or people in India, China, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia) can use this nicely detailed (and long) list of methods around censorware, courtesy of Boing Boing.

So, obviously, my small readership here is not likely to run into the problems plaguing India's blog readers.  I would be shocked if anyone in India even found this place, much less read it regularly.  However, censorship and free speech are extremely important to my heart - one of my never-ending research projects deals with censorship during wartime.  I understand the need and the desire to block the communication methods that terrorists use, but once you find these links, does it make sense to shut them down from a national security standpoint?  Think about it - if you discovered this communications method, why not just monitor it, and use the information you gather to scoop up the bad guys.  That's basic intelligence work.  Censoring the blogs is a knee-jerk reaction of scared officials and politicians.

Anyway, I'd appraciate it if you would spread the word - either on your own blogs, links here, or however.

New Site

I've moved the vast majority of my posts to the new website at http://www.historicus.us. I will still update this site periodically for now.

Happy News

Heather applied for graduation from CU yesterday. If things go well, she will graduate December 22nd!

You should be a writer...

You Should Be a Science Fiction Writer

Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you're from. And while you may have some problems being "normal," you'll have no problems writing sci-fi. Whether it's epic films, important novels, or vivid comics... Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!

Summer Reading

I'm taking advantage of time off from taking classes at FSU to get some reading done this summer. Not only did I read a few more of the books in the Aubrey-Maturin series while we were in Hawaii, but I finally read Raymond Feist's Serpent War series. It's the set of his books that I haven't read - for some reason the first time I picked them up a decade ago, they just didn't appeal to me. Having read them, some of the events of later books make a lot more sense. Continuity, what an idea...

From "fun" reading material, I've moved on to something a bit more educational in nature. My first serious summer reading was Richard Evans' The Third Reich in Power, which is a frightening view of how the Nazis ran things before the beginning of World War II. Among other things it shows the beginning of the concentration camps, the betrayal of working class that brought them to power, and the concessions they had to make in Bavaria to prevent revolt.

Staying with World War II, I moved to Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad. Beevor provides both the background to the German invasion of Russia, conflict between Wehrmacht Generals and Hitler over how and when to invade, the brutal tactics used by both the Germans and the Soviets, the grim reality of the siege of Stalingrad, and the horror inflicted by the Soviets on the trapped Germans after the Soviets finally counterattacked. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the Eastern Front, particularly the mass rape of German women by the Red Army, and Stalin's insistence on creating a buffer between the Soviet Union and Germany after the war...

Today, while resting an injured foot (don't ask), I finished Stephen O'Shea's The Perfect Heresy. What does this have to do with the World War II theme above? Not much. I just have this batch of 15 books to work through, and five of them are about the Albigensian Crusade. If there must be a theme here, you could say they are all about the persecution of an inoffensive religious minority. O'Shea gives a very readable and sympathetic account of Cathar religion, the culture of the Languedoc, the tactics used by the Cistercians, Dominicans, Popes Innocent, Gregory, and Benedict, and the French crown to crush the Cathar heresy, and to take over the independent realms of the region.

This evening I am starting on Victor Davis Hanson's A War Like No Other, which was a well-appreciated Birthday gift from Sam and Carolyn - I probably haven't thanked them for sending it, but I have been looking forward to it.

CU Chancellor recommends firing Churchill

I'm sure that this is not the end of the story, but it's a start.

Although I agree that the academic issues certainly warrant firing Prof. Churchill, I can't help but feel ambivalent about the whole thing. After all, would anyone have even noticed if not for his absolutely asinine comments about the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center? Probably not. So, despite the well-documented academic misdeeds, the perjury in court, etc... I almost feel like there was the element of the witch hunt here.

Not that any of us will miss him much.

Myths about the Medieval World

James Franklin posted a brief page with information and links de-bunking 10 popular myths regarding the Medieval period. While I haven't perused all of the links, the list itself is fairly entertaining.

250,000 year old stone axes found in Britain

Those Neanderthals could really flake an flint axe. This one measures a foot long, and is impressive work - sharp, well-shaped, and durable. Just the sort of thing for dealing with a really large hunk of meat....

Check it out here.

Agricultural Revolution moved back in time

This article from the Jerusalem Post discusses the findings of some new research on the domestication of various grains in the Ancient Near East, Europe, and the Americas. Not only does it show that domestication of a particular crop might be started in one location (Turkey), and later (thousands of years) completed in a distant location (Central Europe), but that the process began much earlier than previously imagined. Two examples include fig cultivation in the Jordan Valley 10,000 years ago and 100,000+ finds of wild oats and barley near Jericho from 11,000 years ago.

Lacking Inspiration

I just haven't been inspired to write here lately. Although I had every intention of adding an article about our last magnificent day on Kauai, I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it. Beyond that, politcally oriented writing just doesn't interest me much at the moment (neither do political blogs, for that matter). I don't really want to mix the historical / education blogging with the older politcal items too much, due to the ongoing concerns in Academia that blogging has potentially negative effects for your career.

The career issue does affect all industries, however, there is so much competition in academia right now, it doesn't make much sense to call attention to things that might be damaging. I think that I will shut this place down this summer and setup a new history / academic blog that I've already reserved the domain name for. I expect to work on that in July / August, so stay tuned.

World Cup

This years' World Cup has reinvigorated my interest in soccer in ways that our more successful 2002 run in South Korea and Japan did not. It may be that the time zone issue is more conducive to actually watching the games - although work does get in the way a bit, but it may be that I'm ready to come back to the sport more generally.

I was quite disgruntled that MLS closed the Tampa Bay Mutiny shortly after we moved to Colorado, and despite the profusion of Tampa associated players on the Rapids' side, I just haven't been able to attach to the local team emotionally. Part of it is that the Rapids' style is just a bit boring at times - I'm not into the traditional english longball method. I want passing, movement, and creativity - all of the things missing from the English World Cup squad, and the U.S. effort against the Czech Republic. I much prefer the style we saw Saturday against Italy, or displayed by Ghana against the Czechs.

The Souvenir Feeding Frenzy

Our original plan was to spend the day relaxing at the resort with a quick trip to the Hawaiian Trading Port in Lawa'i. Things did not quite work out that way.

First we had breakfast at the Ilima Terrace, a beautiful, if more formal setting than the Seaview Terrace. Heather had Belgian waffles and guava juice while I had scrambled eggs. The scrambled eggs were not the standard Denny's variety - I had two eggs, roasted fingerling potatoes, a rasher of thick-cut bacon, sauteed asparagus spears, and a broiled tomato half with grated parmesan cheese on top. We topped things off with Kona coffee and a shot glass sized papaya smoothie, which our waitress greeted us with.

In addition to the food, Ilima provides an excellent garden view of koi, swans, Nene's, and an artificial waterfall. And the Pacific Ocean. Pictures of that will come tomorrow - I stupidly did not take the camera to breakfast.

After our feast we gathered the Jeep from the valet (these guys rock), and headed up to the Trading Post. This place makes the other stores we've visited, particularly Hilo Hatties look, like Walmarts for cheap, plastic, tourist-oriented crap. We found just about everything we were looking for, and somethings we weren't, at the Hawaiian Trading Post. If yoy come to Kauai, go there for gifts, particularly jewelry.

Because we had convinced ourselves that it would be a quick trip, we decided to head back to Waimea (again) for lunch at Shrimp Station and then more shaved ice at JoJo's. We ran into a snag along the way - construction on State Road 50. This set us back about twenty minutes, as asphalt wasw laid on the road - despite the states' supposed shortage of the stuff.

We also made the mistake of blowing past the Shrimp Station and heading to Forever Kauai in Kekaha at the state recommended, but poorer route into Waimea Canyon (take Waimea Canyon Road instead - we did). Forever Kauai yielded a few really interesting items, but was decidedly not the T-shirt mecca we had been told it was. Don't go out of your way for this joint.

We headed back along the coast to Shrimp Station and had a pretty good, if pricey ($24), lunch of fried shrimp. This was somewhat delayed by a search for an ATM, which we found a few blocks further into Waimea. After Shrimp Station we went back to JoJo's for shave ice and time on the pier.

JoJo's illustrated some of the problems locals run into when guidebooks tell the world about the best places. In this case, we ran into a hoard of other tourists, and watched a minimum of four local customers head out the door in frustration rather than wait in the very long line. Not having anywhere to be, we chose to wait, enduring the slow service and clueless clientele. I know that we're also here as tourists, but we at least read signs and make room for other customers.

The shave ice and view from the pier were worth it - particularly when we headed back toward Poipu and saw the horde of other tourists sitting outside JoJo's with their shave ice and no view but Waimea's main road. Yes, it is petty, but it made us happy anyway.

More traffic delays ensured that it was 4:00 pm when we got back to our room, which gave us enough time to head to the business center to send a giant box of stuff back to the mainland, but not enough for time hanging out by the water. What can you do? It was better than hauling all that stuff on the airplane, and this way its ensured. It may also get home about the same time we do.

Instead of relaxing by the sea, we had burgers by the docks and looked at the resorts lagoon. Then we headed to the Seaview Terrace for drinks and the Torch Lighting Ceremony, which brings us our only pictures of the day.

This is the welcoming Hula, a traditional Hula, which I prefer to the more modern ones...

And this is gas torches being lit. Gas isn't very traditional, but it still [i]looks[/i] cool.

Our next update will probably be from home in Colorado.