Chinese As She Is Writ

The poem was originally published in the June 6 issue of Qilu Evening News, a newspaper circulated mainly in Shandong province. In the poem, Wang impersonated a dead victim expressing his gratitude to the government from his grave.

"天灾难避死何诉，主席唤，总理呼，党疼国爱，声声入废墟。十三亿人共一哭，纵做鬼，也幸福。银鹰战车救雏犊，左军叔，右警姑，民族大爱，亲历死也足。只盼坟前有屏幕，看奥运，共欢呼。“

Here is rather literal translation:
"Natural disaster is inevitable, so what should I complain about my death? The president calls, the Premier asks, the Party cares, the country is concerned, the voice goes into the rubbles. One billion and thirty million people shed tears, I felt happy even as a ghost. Silver eagles and army vehicles came to rescue, soldiers, police officers - the great love! I am satisfied to die. I only wish I could have a TV set so I could watch the Olympic Games and cheer with others."

Ah, yes, TV sets....

Openness in the Middle Kingdom

The most senior Chinese official jailed for sympathising with the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests has urged the leadership to make public the events that led to the government's decision to crush the pro-democracy movement.

The demonstrations, which lured more than a million people on to Beijing's streets, ended in a military crackdown on June 4 of that year. Now a fading memory, the massacre is still taboo in the Chinese media.

Bao Tong, once the top aide to purged Party chief Zhao Ziyang, argued that China has been praised for its transparency in handling the devastating May 12 earthquake and should also reveal the rifts in the leadership that led to the massacre.

"Through this quake ... they have tasted the benefits of openness and should know that openness is better than being closed," Bao told Reuters in an interview at his Beijing home.

Sounds good to me.

Open Geology

Once that open access, open data meme starts spreading, there's just no stopping it....

British scientists are leading an international effort to bring together all the known geological information about every country in the world. By making the data freely available and allowing researchers to track geological features across national boundaries, the project will make it easier to plan international projects, predict earthquakes and locate natural resources such as oil and gas.

Once the project, called OneGeology, is up and running the data will be searchable via the internet. "Geology has no respect for national frontiers," said Ian Jackson, who is coordinating the project for the British Geological Survey (BGS). "The data exists, but accessibility is the key."