As a half-Jewish atheist who grew up in apartheid South Africa, where Christianity was used to justify the most appalling acts and laws, your correspondent is not a big fan of the religion of Jesus, or any other religion.

Some people find China "lacking in spirituality", but I love the fact that nobody here thinks religion is special, or exempt from the standards by which we judge other belief systems and ideologies.

In most Western countries, including places like the U.K. where there are very few people of faith, religion is always accorded some special status that makes it more difficult to criticize, say, the Pope, or the local mullah, than any other political figure. The irreligious and areligious culture of China is fresh air to me, and I do not have much time for missionaries, Far Loon Goons, and other people who seek to introduce new religious ideas to this country.

Yet, I admire anyone who is willing to stick it to the Man in difficult circumstances, and that can sometimes include "underground" Christians. And I have a real admiration for gay atheist Chinese guys who try to make documentary films about underground Christians in Beijing. Nice one.

Beijing. January 16. Xinhuanet: China has now overtaken Libya in the annual press freedom index compiled by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders organization, marking the growing opportunities for open media enquiry in the country.

Since 2002, China has also moved above Burma, Turkmenistan, Nepal, Iran, Eritrea and Cuba, signifying the progress China has made in protecting journalism and developing the harmonious society.

"We're not as bad as those North Koreans, make no mistake," said Xiao Huang, a former editorial assistant with The Beijing News.

Meanwhile, the US has plummeted more than 20 places since last year, and Japanese press freedom has also fallen in the last three years, according to the index.

"That Koizumi bloke should stop visiting that shrine, the bastard," said Xiao Huang, who now drives a cab.

本方法是专利申请, 当用户访问的网站有了新的RSS后,会通知用户的RSS阅读器.英文不好, 抄之:SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] The present invention provides techniques for detecting, managing, and presenting syndication XML (news feeds). In one embodiment, a web browser automatically determines that a web site is publishing syndication XML and notifies the [...]

a hotel with a light emitting mesh facade that wraps around the whole building, containing sensors that detect the daylight sun amplitude. at night, each node emits color according to how much that node collected sunlight. therefore, the mesh reflects the energy levels of each day, changing over seasons & due to weather conditions.
each node is self-contained with an independent sensor & LED lights, without the need of a central computer controlling the whole structure. a small scale prototype of this system will be exhibited at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) next month.
see also the spots berlin & chanel ginza & enteractive & bix & blinkenlights dynamic architecture facades. [jamesclar.com|via pixelsumo.com]

a 8 storey high kinetic data visualization sculpture, as a new symbol for the London Stock Exchange, consisting of a grid of 162 cables arranged in a square,. each cable carryies 9 spheres that are free to move independently up & down the length of 32m. the spheres act like animated pixels, able to model any shape in 3 huge dimensions.
the form & motion of the installation is determined by real-time stock exchange data. at the end of each day, the spheres fall into their resting place showing whether the market was up or down. see also balloons scatterplot. [greyworld.org & setpixel.com|via interactivearchitecture.org]