Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
China has denounced US criticism of its Internet controls, saying it could harm ties between the two countries. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Thursday for China to lift restrictions on the Internet. Marco Werman talks with Rebecca MacKinnon who is writing a book on the Internet in China. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has harshly criticized China and other countries for restricting Internet access. Mrs Clinton said there had been a recent spike in threats to the free flow of information. She was speaking at the Newseum in Washington, DC in a wide-ranging speech on Internet freedom. Cyrus Farivar reports. Download MP3 (Photo: US State Department)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This week, we look at two major stories. The first is the relief effort in Haiti, which was hit by a devastating earthquake earlier this week. We examine the importance of getting telecommunications back up and running, both for aid groups and for locals. Also, we talk about how US aid groups are turning to text messaging to raise funds. Our other big story is Google’s announcement that it may pull out of China completely.
Internet giant Google has said it may end its operations in China following a “sophisticated and targeted” cyber attack originating from the country. In Beijing, the news prompted some to leave flowers outside of Google’s offices. We’ll check in with our correspondent in Beijing, and our reporter in San Francisco. (Photo by youthfilm)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Our top five language stories this month: African languages get their versions of Windows; the government of Moldova changes the name of the country’s official language; South Korean birthing centers go multilingual; unfortunate foreign meanings of baby names and how you can protect yourself; and Na’vi, invented for the silver screen, hopes to emulate Klingon.
This week cartoonists take a jab at President Obama’s attempts to defuse a racial flare-up by inviting the protagonists to the White House for a beer.
They also have fun with global warming fears, North Korea, the stunning corruption scandal in New Jersey, and the news that Microsoft and Yahoo are ganging up on Google.
Patrick Cox and Carol Hills select the top five language-related
stories from June. Among them: Google translation gets to work on the streets of Teheran; Microsoft’s choice of Bing as the name for its search engine to rival Google may not go down well in China; a music festival in Quebec runs afoul of language sensitivies; and a drug ring in Pennsylvannia uses Iraqi Arabic dialects in its communications.Listen
The BBC’s Jonah Fisher takes us into a rainforest in Mozambique that scientists were unaware of until they picked up evidence of it in a Google Earth search last year. Listen
This week, MIT’s SixthSense human-computer interface aims to the web, well, wherever you want it. Also, the European Union puts some financial hurt on chip-maker Intel. Persian bloggers weigh in on the release of journalist Roxana Saberi. And Google Oceans goes deep. Listen
This week, we get positively bookish. We’ll hear the latest on with Google’s Book Search project, which wants to, well, scan and make available just about every book on the planet. But Google’s not the only dog in that hunt. UNESCO has launched what it calls the World Digital Library, and it’s got a lot more than just books. Then, we take an in-depth look at all manner of e-books and e-readers. Is paper doomed? Also, we hear about a piece of internet filtering circumvention technology called Psiphon. And Yahoo puts webcams on some purple bikes and lets them loose in the world. Listen
