Blog Topic: 6

http://thenextweb.com/asia/2011/03/15/china-gmail-problems-may-be-caused-by-great-firewall-upgrades/

This article is about China's continuing drive to censor information on the web. Unlike earlier blockings however this time they are targeting Gmail, a direct link between people. Not content to simply censor information sensitive to the Chinese government, they now are attempting to block the personal correspondence of the Chinese people. This came to light when many people on the Gmail site in China were experiencing difficulties in accessing their personal accounts. Google responded by saying that any problems with access was most likely due to the governments interference with their internet. Although such censorship is abhorred to us, to the Chinese the previous censoring might not have been a terrible inconvienience; this new attempt at censorship however, seems to much even for the Chinese populace to live with.

Blog Topic: 5

This map shows the number of car deaths on average in the world. Although the number of deaths in more developed countries such as the U.S. and Europe, the number of deaths in South and East Asia are by comparison, massive. As these countries are developing the number of cars they have is increasing faster than than the infrastructure and faster than most people can acquire them. This leads to many people riding in one car and on poor roads, if on roads at all. These factors lead to many deaths in these countries. Just as the developed world learned to maintain a strong road system to ensure the safety of their road travelers.