Category: News

Are the world’s most popular search engine and the world’s most populous country headed for a breakup? That’s the word reverberating around the Internet today after Google said it would no longer put up with the Chinese government’s demands to censor the Internet and the rampant hacking attempts against it, which could result in the company ending its Chinese operations.

The announcement came as a stunning reversal for Google, which had capitulated to the government’s wishes to gain access to China’s fast-growing population of Internet users. Since arriving in 2006 under an arrangement with the government that purged its Chinese search results of banned topics, Google has come under fire for abetting a system that increasingly restricts what can be read online [The New York Times].

The standoff comes as no surprise to China watchers, however. “The idea that Google would be allowed to run an uncensored search engine would be inconsistent with everything the Chinese government has done and every single statement it has made over the past year” about the need for controls on the internet, says Rebecca MacKinnon, an expert on new media in China [Christian Science Monitor]. In fact, the news of this fight over censorship remains itself censored in China, The New York Times reports. Early reports in the Chinese news media mentioned terms like “free speech,” but those quickly disappeared.

The details of Google’s other grievance—China-based hacks against it—haven’t all come to light yet. But these sophisticated attacks against more than 30 firms, mostly Silicon Valley-based, appear to have targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese humans right activists. Perhaps that was the last straw for Google; an anonymous source told Wired.com that the company already deals with the Chinese government harassing its own people over there. “[Google is] really concerned about their safety and feels that there is a very real possibility that they will be interrogated,” the source said. “They have been [interrogated] numerous times before, and this time they could be arrested and imprisoned” [Wired.com].

What happens if Google actually breaks with Beijing? Baidu, China’s number one search engine, will benefit, but it won’t be the only one. “With the easing of competition from Google, it’s actually going to benefit everybody. The small operators now see an opportunity to gain some market share,” said Elinor Leung, an analyst at CLSA. [Wall Street Journal]. But what’s good for the market share of Chinese search engines may not be good for Chinese Internet users. Google’s pullout could hamper the fight for Web freedom there and elsewhere, leaving governments with even more power to set the rules about how much of the Internet people within their borders can see.

That’s if Google follows through on its threat and ends its Chinese operations. As the Wall Street Journal reports, an Irish betting site is already taking wagers whether the company will do it by 2012, and the odds aren’t good—the bookies seem to think China is too tempting a market to surrender.

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Image: Wikimedia Commons / M. Weitzel

Is the climate part of energy-and-climate legislation about to get thrown under the bus?

As Congress gets back to work, one of the big questions looming on the Hill is whether it’s time to park plans for a national curb on greenhouse-gas emissions and focus on a narrower energy bill. The rationale? Energy reform, even to boost clean energy, enjoys some cross-aisle support. Capping greenhouse-gas emissions has proven a tough slog even within the majority Democrats. And the health-care fight has undoubtedly dented enthusiasm for another bruising battle.

There’s plenty of chatter out there to that effect. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said yesterday that “I think you can expect everything but cap-and-trade,” referring to upcoming Senate work on energy legislation. Politico details the back-and-forth.

Sen. John Kerry, co-author of two of the four cap-and-trade bills bouncing about, is horrified by the prospect. He told E&E News:

“If you separate climate from energy reform, you slow your ability to create those clean jobs because every market expert tells you those energy reforms can’t take hold unless you price carbon. Unless you do something comprehensive you’re just going a more expensive, less effective route and you’ll keep trailing other countries.”

But is that really the case? Sure, a higher price on carbon emissions would be good news for everything that’s low-carbon, including renewable energy, nuclear power, and clean coal. But plenty of big countries have made huge strides in clean energy without putting a pricetag on carbon emissions.

America’s favorite green bogeyman, China, has the world’s most vibrant wind-power market, huge plans for growth in solar power, and a very ambitious schedule for new nuclear plant construction. All without any domestic caps on greenhouse-gas emissions (or international cooperation on emissions limits, either.)

When the Energy Information Administration crunched the numbers on the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill—passed last summer by the House—it found that the clean-energy provisions and cap-and-trade plan would indeed boost clean energy. But, it’s complicated.

The EIA found that all the costly and cumbersome provisions in Waxman-Markey would only boost renewable energy a modest amount over what would be built anyway. Renewables would provide 878 billion kilowatt hours in 2020 under the bill, including its nationwide renewable-energy standard, compared with 708 billion kWh if nothing was done.

It’s hard to say just what the cap-and-trade part of the bill would do for wind and solar. State-wide renewable-energy policies, for example, are a huge driver of new investment.

Yes, nuclear power and clean coal could be big beneficiaries of concerted energy and climate policies. But even that’s not a slam dunk. The EIA found that in a “high-cost” future, when nuclear and clean coal cost more than expected (ask the nuclear industry about budget overruns), nuclear power increases only marginally and clean coal stays a niche power technology.

In other words, many legislators, the White House, and and environmentalists are circling the wagons to fight this year for “comprehensive” energy and climate legislation. But cap-and-trade plans still place plenty of pushback.

There’s reason to think a clean-energy future could still be in the offing even if Congress does take the path of least resistance and scraps plans for cap-and-trade this year.

More AC action is in store for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. The latest issue of Japanese gaming mag Famitsu has preemptively announced a new entry in From Software’s Armored Core series.

32,000 acres of Pennsylvania natural gas land was just leased for $4,020 an acre. That's almost twice what the land went for a year ago.

The land in question was part of the massive Marcellus shale formation that stretches from New York to West Virginia. For natural gas bulls, it's comforting to see bidding wars heat up over shale assets. Big money is beginning to realize that shale will be a very competitive source of U.S. energy, including Exxon as shown by its recent XTO acquistion, and France's Total, as shown by their recent Chesapeake tie-up.

Philly.com: With the new agreements, about 692,000 acres of the 2.1 million acres of state forest will be under lease - that includes about 290,000 acres on which the state does not own the mineral rights. About 750 wells are in production on conservation department lands, but only three of them tap into the Marcellus. State officials expect more than a thousand Marcellus wells could be developed in the next decade.

Five companies yesterday were the apparent high bidders for the new leases located in the Elk, Moshannon, Sproul, Susquehannock, and Tioga State Forests in Cameron, Clearfield, Clinton, Potter and Tioga Counties.

Seneca Resources was the winning bidder on two tracts. The other successful bidders are EXCO Resources Inc.; Anadarko Exploration & Production; Chesapeake Appalachia L.L.C.; and Penn Virginia Oil & Gas Co., based in Radnor.

...

In 2008, in a single auction of new leases, the conservation department generated $166 million from 74,000 acres, surpassing the total generated in the previous 53 years. Those leases went for an average of $2,243 an acre.

Read more here >

The author owns shares in the natural gas company Chesapeake Energy (CHK).

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• 'Alarmist' Gas Crisis Turns To Rationing As UK National Grid Cuts Off Factory Supplies
• Ken Salazar Threatens To Dropkick The Natural Gas Revolution
• Expect Big Natural Gas Bills This Month

Germany’s Greens party celebrate their 30th birthday on Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010. The party has become one of the country’s most powerful political forces and is the world’s most successful environmental party.

Former Horry County Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charge

Acting United States Attorney Kevin F. McDonald stated that David Courtney Childers, age 45, of Myrtle Beach, pled guilty in federal court to possession of child pornography, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252A(a)(5)(B).

United States District Judge R. Bryan Harwell accepted the plea and will sentence Childers at a later date.

In June 2008, FBI agents in Illinois conducted an undercover online investigation using the identification of a known child pornographer.

Using “peer to peer” sharing software, the agents made contact with Childers, who was offering to share child pornography. Agents downloaded the child pornography, and traced the communication back to Childers’ computer at his Myrtle Beach residence.

A search of Childers’ computer confirmed the presence of child pornography. At the time of the incident, Childers was employed as a police officer with Horry County.

Mr. McDonald stated the maximum penalty Childers can receive is a fine of $250,000.00 and imprisonment for 10 years.

The case was investigated by agents of the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney William E. Day, II, of the Florence office handled the case.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

On my second day of work, I was asked to find a Stephen Colbert video.

I found it on the Comedy Central web site

The subject of Colbert’s mockery is actually one of the most significant air studies recently published. It presents evidence, for the first time, that breathing cleaner air actually makes people live longer.

A 2009 study by Arden Pope, Majid Ezzati, and Doug Dockery published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that cleaner air in the U.S. has increased life expectancy by an average of 5 months.

Over the past few decades, EPA has regulated air pollution because various scientific studies have determined that it is harmful to human health. As particles emitted into the air have been gradually reduced, pollutant levels in air have significantly decreased.

But despite the obviously cleaner air, it has been extremely difficult to confirm the resulting health improvements. Couldn’t better health also be attributed to decreased cigarette smoking, better eating habits and health care, or a variety of other changes?

Pope, Ezzati, and Dockery—an EPA PM Research Center grantee—matched air monitoring data with life expectancy data spanning three decades and 51 cities across the US. Using advanced statistical models, they accounted for any other factors that might also affect life span (like cigarette smoking) in order to see the effects of air quality alone.

Their results showed that an increase in life expectancy of 5 months was directly attributable to an average reduction of 6 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particle air pollution between 1980 and 2000.

The implication of the study—that EPA air regulations have directly and substantially lengthened human lives—is a triumph for both regulatory agencies and researchers world wide because it shows that air research and policy really do work.

Stephen Colbert isn’t the only one to recognize the importance of this finding. News of the study was reported in the Washington Post,  New York Times, and in an entire segment on NBC Nightly News.

I spoke to Doug Dockery, investigator of the study and scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, to get his take on the impact of this finding.

“There is an important positive message here,” he said.

“Efforts to reduce particulate air pollution concentrations in the United States over the past 20 years have led to substantial and measurable improvements in life expectancy.”

About the Author: Becky Fried is a student contractor with EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research, part of the Office of Research and Development.

Article Tags: Alan Caruba

Just when you thought “global warming” has been put to rest by the revelations of how the computer models supporting the hoax had been deliberately falsified to “hide the decline” in the Earth’s temperature, along comes the next Big Lie, focused again on carbon dioxide (CO2).

Wednesday, January 13, has been designated “Wear Blue for Oceans Day” by some coalition calling itself Clean Ocean Action. I don’t even care whose funding this scam, but Friends of the Earth is proudly announcing it is part of it.

They are still smarting over the December debacle in Copenhagen despite being “one of the main groups organizing a December 12 march that attracted more than 100,000 participants…” The FOE neglected to mention they all stood out in a snow storm to make their voices heard on the way the Earth was warming.

Source: factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com

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Thought it may appear to be a deja-vu, current MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi will take a Ferrari to the track again later this month, Ferrari confirmed today. The Italian earned this by clinching the ninth MotoGP title the last season. He will reportedly get behind the wheel o a F2008 in Barcelona, on January 20 and 21.

Rossi also had several tests with the Pracing Horse team in 2006 and 2008. Current test restrictions, however, do not allow him to use the latest car.

"Chairma… (read more)

I was rereading the Fifth Discipline on the way to Boston the other way, and something got me started on this. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony are the downfall of individuals, but what about the downfall of systems? Here’s my list, in no particular order:

1. Information pollution. Sometimes known as lying, but also common in milder forms, such as greenwash. Example: twenty years ago, the “recycled” symbol was redefined to mean “recyclable” – a big dilution of meaning.
2. Elimination of diversity. Example: overconsolidation of industries (finance, telecom, …). As Jay Forrester reportedly said, “free trade is a mechanism for allowing all regions to reach all limits at once.”
3. Changing the top-level rules in pursuit of personal gain. Example: the Starpower game. As long as we pretend to want to maximize welfare in some broad sense, the system rules need to provide an equitable framework, within which individuals can pursue self-interest.
4. Certainty. Planning for it leads to fragile strategies. If you can’t imagine a way you could be wrong, you’re probably a fanatic.
5. Elimination of slack. Normally this is regarded as a form of optimization, but a system without any slack can’t change (except catastrophically). How are teachers supposed to improve their teaching when every minute is filled with requirements?
6. Superstition. Attribution of cause by correlation or coincidence, including misapplied pattern-matching.
7. The four horsemen from classic SD work on flawed mental models: linear, static, open-loop, laundry-list thinking.

That’s seven (cheating a little). But I think there are more candidates that don’t quite make the big time:

• Impatience. Don’t just do something, stand there. Sometimes.
• Failure to account for delays.
• Abstention from top-level decision making (essentially not voting).

The very idea of compiling such a list only makes sense if we’re talking about the downfall of human systems, or systems managed for the benefit of “us” in some loose sense, but perhaps anthropocentrism is a sin in itself.

I’m sure others can think of more! I’d be interested to hear about them in comments.

By Juliet Ye and James T. Areddy, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

The news that Google might pull out of China has quickly become the hottest topic among China’s millions of Web users, prompting expressions of shock and disappointment — as well as flower offerings.

“I heard people talking about Google’s leaving a couple of days ago, but I was still was completely stunned by the news when I arrived at the office this morning.” wrote Twitter user Fenng. “Ten years online has turned me from an optimist into a pessimist.”

Some Web users are showing their support for the company on Twitter, which, though blocked in China, can be accessed by tech-savvy netizens, where they began organizing to take real-world action. At Google offices in China, pictured below, fans of the company gathered, some bearing flowers and messages wishing Google well. The so-called “flower campaign” gave rise to several slogans, such as “Farewell for Reunion” and “GoogleBye.”

In Beijing, supporters gathered early to offer flower bouquets in front of Google’s office in the Tsinghua Science Park. Attached to the flower bouquets were handwritten notes, including one reading “Google: Pure Man.”

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On the Internet, everyone loves Conan O’Brien. But that doesn’t translate into ratings, which means that most of you Conan lovers didn’t actually see his show last night.

So here you go. Here’s last night’s monologue, replete with many excellent digs at GE’s (GE) — and eventually, Comcast’s (CMCSA) — troubled broadcaster: “Welcome to NBC, where our new slogan is, “No longer just screwing up prime time”.

It also stars, sort of inexplicably, fellow NBC employee Howie Mandel.

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“The technology downturn of 2008 and 2009 is unofficially over.”

This, according to Forrester, which claims technology spending will roar back to life in 2010, ending the econalypse once and for all. “While the Q3 2009 data for the U.S. and the global market showed continued declines in tech purchases (as we expected),” the company said in its report, U.S. and Global IT Market Outlook: Q4 2009. “We predict that the Q4 2009 data will show a small increase in buying activity, or at worst, just a small decline.”

The research outfit expects U.S. IT spending to grow by 6.6 percent in 2010 after plummeting 8.2 percent in 2009. Meanwhile, global IT spending, which plummeted 8.9 percent last year, will rise 8.1 percent in 2010 to more than $1.6 trillion.

Driving the recovery: software, hardware and communications equipment. According to Forrester, worldwide spending on software is set to grow by 9.7 percent in the months ahead; spending on hardware and other computer equipment by 8.2 percent; and spending on comms gear by 7.6 percent. Said Forrester principal analyst Andrew Bartels, “All the pieces are in place for a 2010 tech spending rebound. In the U.S., the tech recovery will be much stronger than the overall economic recovery, with technology spending growing at more than twice the rate of gross domestic product this year.”

But that assumes that there’s no further financial disaster in 2010. If that’s not the case, then we have this to look forward to. “The most likely alternative to our forecast that the U.S. and global IT markets will recover in 2010 is a faltering tech market due to a double-dip recession that returns in 2010 after a brief two- to three-quarter economic recovery,” Forrester explains. “Should this happen, U.S. tech purchases would decline by 3% to 4% in 2010, with a second-half decline offsetting a first-half tech revival.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Econalypto: A Rightsizing Roundup
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• Analyst: The Great Dark Times Cometh!
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• GOOG at $398? Clearly, You’re Dyslexic
• WaMu: Epic Bail
• Ballmer: Better Safe Than Lehman Bros.
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• Here’s $39 Billion in Recognition for Your Hard Work on the Forthcoming Financial Crisis
• Weekend at Bernanke’s II
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Google is considering shutting down its Chinese search engine and
closing its offices in China after a series of “targeted” attacks on
the Gmail accounts of human rights activists in the country. In a remarkable and defiant blog post on the company’s website,
Google announced that it is no longer willing to self-censor its search
results on Google.cn. Marc Ambinder and James Fallows have already
contributed fast and excellent analysis.

I had a lot of
questions about this story. In the spirit of transparency (seems
important for this story) rather than stir fry my own analysis from
their thoughts, I’ll share my biggest questions about this story, and
the answers I’ve gleaned.
1) What will be the impact for Google?

As a public relations move, this is already going down brilliantly.
It’s difficult to find a newspaper or blog post that isn’t singing
Google’s praises for finally taking stand against China’s shadowy war
against free speech. Financially, exiting China is an unknown
long-term sacrifice, but in the short term, leaving the Chinese market
would be the equivalent of cutting off some hair, as opposed to
chopping off a major limb. Google is not the main search engine in
China. The company’s revenue from the Chinese market is estimated at
$600 million by JP Morgan, about two percent of Google’s yearly revenue
projections, according to paidContent.

2) What will be the impact for China?
This is harder to suss out. Google’s exit is economically immaterial to
China. It’s the optics that count. Henry Blodget sees Google’s move as
a harbinger, giving strength and morale to other countries to stand up
against the Chinese. He could be right I suppose, but plenty of
companies who deal with manufacturing in China are unlikely to be
dissuaded by free speech issues they’ve known about for years. He also
says that Google’s exit could create a public backlash in China. Again,
he could be right, but Google isn’t the main search engine in China and
savvy Internet users can already use a proxy server or buy a VPN
service to bypass China’s Great Fire Wall, according to Fallows. As for this move’s impact on
Sino-American relations, it’s really too early to tell. The State Department’s statement was short and vague.

3) Wait, Google self-censors itself?
Yes. Google might be the world’s greatest force for openness and
freedom of speech online, but it also strictly adheres to the laws of
the countries where it runs its search engine. In parts of Europe, you
can’t read about neo-Nazis. Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, Germany and
Brazil block
YouTube. In China, Fallows explains, “searches on the main Google.COM
have been uncensored for material like “Tiananmen Square” or “Dalai
Lama.””

4) Could Google have an ulterior motive here?
Always seeking the latent angle, Marc relays
two cynical takes: Google’s doing this to cover up for its Google Phone
customer services problems; and Google’s lobbying for more favorable
regulations in the States. Interesting to think about, but I share
Marc’s cynicism about the cynicism.

5) Was this smart for Google?
Last thing I wanted to share: Fallows had a wonderful interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the
Atlantic’s “First Draft of History” event. The question about China
comes at the 19:00 mark. A transcript is below the video.

Fallows posits that a Google exit won’t hurt China very much. “I
agree,” Schmidt says in the video. “The Chinese, being very clever,
have implemented censorship on a very
small amount, numerically, of information. For the average Chinese
citizen, this has not inhibited them. We don’t want this model to
succeed, because it violates the fundamental principle of the Internet.
You saw this in Iran, the phenomenal success of an online movement.

Schmidt added: “We don’t want this model to succeed in other countries
because it violates the fundamental principles of the Internet, which
have to do with openness and hearing the voices of many.”

Wrapping up, my sense is that Google prides itself on being more than
an ad-supported software and media company. It also considers itself a
worldwide symbol for something as ubiquitous and invisible as its
search robots, which is the human right to free speech and free access
to information. This is not a matter of unalloyed altruism. It’s a part
of Google’s public image. It’s what makes Google the number-one brand in the world. I think today’s decision supports that mantle.

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Alfa Romeo, Fiat

We were getting amped up for Alfa Romeo’s return to the U.S. and the chance to drive Breras and Guilietta’s on our favorite roads, and then Fiat head Sergio Marchionne delivers what they call a “smackdown” at the Detroit Auto Show. According to Autocar, Marchionne says that Fiat has to show it can sell enough cars in America to make the enterprise worthwhile on its own, which we take to mean he’s not content with Alfa being a critically loved but money-losing division of a profitable conglomerate. If Alfa can’t prove the worth of flying to America, then it will stay grounded in Europe. We have but one word to say to this news: maledizione!

[Source: Autocar]

Report: Alfa Romeo’s U.S. launch delayed originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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