World News(Stuff to Discuss) Free For All

[Predator24]

Google Inc. said Friday that it was working to block pornography reaching users of its Chinese service after a mainland watchdog found the search engine turned up large numbers of links to obscene and vulgar sites.

Google said in a statement that company officials had met government representatives "to discuss problems with the Google.cn service and its serving of pornographic images and content based on foreign language searches.

"We have been continually working to deal with pornographic content ? and material that is harmful to children ? on the Web in China," the statement said.

The statement followed accusations from the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center that Google had failed to "filter pornographic contents from its search engine results according to China's relevant laws and regulations."

The watchdog said tests found that the search engine provided links to a large number of lewd and vulgar pictures, videos and articles, though it gave no specific examples.

China, with the world's largest population of Internet users at more than 298 million, has the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and censorship and has issued numerous regulations in response to the rise of blogging and other trends.

While the government claims the main targets are pornography, online gambling, and other sites deemed harmful to society, critics say that often acts as cover for detecting and blocking sensitive political content.

State media reported Friday that the government had stopped some of Google.cn's search functions. Details weren't given, and it wasn't exactly clear what had been closed off.

In its statement, Google said the company was working to fix any problems with improper searches. "This has been a substantial engineering effort, and we believe we have addressed the large majority of the problem results," it said.

Google, headquartered in Mountain View, California, has struggled to expand in China, where it says it has about 30 percent of the search market. China's homegrown Baidu search engine remains the most popular, with about 60 percent of the market.

The company launched Google.cn with a Chinese partner after seeing its market share erode as government filters slowed access for Chinese users to its U.S. service.

While sites on topics such as the banned Falun Gong sect or Tibetan independence are perennially blocked in China, readers could still gain some access to such information through Google's cache function.

Google.cn returns search results on sensitive political topics only for sites not offensive to the government. Human rights activists have criticized the new service, which excludes search results on human rights, the Dalai Lama and other topics banned by the communist government.

The accusations against Google.cn come as a controversy simmers in China over a government order to load Internet-filtering software on every new computer sold on the mainland from July 1.

The government says the Green Dam Youth Escort software is aimed at blocking violence and pornography, but users who have tried it say it also prohibits visiting sites that discuss homosexuality and even blocks images of pigs because it confuses them with naked human bodies, according to Hong Kong media reports.

The software has also aroused safety concerns, with computer scientists at the University of Michigan reporting last week that it contained "serious security vulnerabilities due to programming errors," and recommended users protect themselves by uninstalling Green Dam immediately.

After a major outcry by citizens used to the relative freedom of online life, legal challenges and petitions, the government appears to have backed off slightly, saying users would not be obligated to use or install the software.

[SirLongFoot]

Grow a pair.

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[Predator24]

No one was murdered during Bush vs. Gore.

Makes you think about what we are really doing over here.


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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Damn this is the first time I've actually seen this Neda. She was hot and it's really a shame. Good will come now that she's a martyr and a rallying cry.

FUCK YOU MULLAHS! May a MK-77 drop on your heads.

[Predator24]

I've been reading blogs from Iranian women over the last few months and the stories they tell are horrific and cool. Since 70% of the population is under 30, most of them just want to be like us in the West.

If you ever read the Scarlet Letter or been to Witch Trial country in Salem, Massachusetts, imagine living like that ALL THE TIME in this day and age.

These Iranian chicks want to FUCK!!!!

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[blixa]

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Theyve been ready for centuries....

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[Predator24]

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California parents beware: Those little tax deductions running around the house are now worth less (in a strictly financial sense, of course).

To help balance its budget, California has reduced the state tax credit for dependents.

The change will increase a family's California taxes for 2009 by about $210 per dependent compared with 2008.

A family with one dependent that normally gets a state-tax refund will get back $210 less when they file their 2009 return next year. A family that normally owes money will have to pay $210 more. Multiply that by two or more dependents, and it really adds up.

This may come as a shock to parents who have been too busy shuttling between soccer games and viola lessons to keep up with the state's budget fiasco. The Franchise Tax Board is trying to get the word out, so families can prepare.

At issue is the exemption you get for each person listed on your tax return. The credit reduces your tax bill dollar for dollar. (The exemption credit phases out for couples with more than roughly $326,400 in adjusted gross income and singles with more than $163,200. This column applies to those under the limit.)

The change essentially takes us back to where we were before 1998.

Before then, the credit was the same for adults and dependents. But in 1998, when the state was awash in cash, it roughly tripled the amount for dependents.

In 2008, the exemption was $99 for each adult and $309 per dependent.

Now that the state is swimming in red ink, it decided to take away that gift to families and set the dependent credit equal to the adult amount for 2009 and 2010. So the dependent credit will shrink from $309 to roughly $99. (The credit is indexed for inflation; the final amount for 2009 will be announced later this summer.)

If you are in this boat and would rather not face a big tax bill early next year, you could pay more state tax this year, either by increasing the amount withheld from your paycheck or - if you are self-employed - by making bigger estimated quarterly tax payments.

To increase your withholding, file a new Form DE 4 with your employer. (This is the state version of the federal Form W-4.) You can get one at work or download it at links.sfgate.com/ZHLJ.

You don't have to do this now. The Franchise Tax Board will not slap you with an underpayment penalty that results from this change on your 2009 taxes. But it could for 2010.

If you don't increase your withholding, make sure you're saving enough to pay the tax next year, says Gina Rodriquez, Sacramento bureau chief with Spidell Publishing, which provides education and research to tax professionals.

[McHookerino]

Supporters of legalization and decriminalization of marijuana received a boost from Capitol Hill Tuesday, as Massachusetts Congressman, Barney Frank introduced a bill to the House of Representatives, which, if passed, would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level.

The bill, labeled H.R. 2493, the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009, would remove federal penalties for personal possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana (roughly 3.5 ounces), and would reduce the penalty for smoking pot in public to a mere $100, echoing Massachusetts?s similar (though controversial) marijuana law, which passed last November.

?I think John Stuart Mill had it right in the 1850s,? said Congressman Frank, ?when he argued that individuals should have the right to do what they want in private, so long as they don?t hurt anyone else. It?s a matter of personal liberty. Moreover, our courts are already stressed and our prisons are over-crowded. We don?t need to spend our scarce resources prosecuting people who are doing no harm to others.?

On top of explicitly (re-)granting citizens the right to marijuana possession, the bill would give states legal breathing room to draft less insane, life-crushing drug laws without having to contradict federal law in the process.

But don?t get your bongs out yet ? Frank introduced a similar bill last year, which failed miserably. So if you want to help push this bill through congress, visit MPP.org, here to sign their petition to congress. It?s called being active, people. Which, if you smoke enough pot, you probably know nothing about.

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[Carlos Spicy Wiener]

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I agree with this. people should be able to smoke it just like in Amsterdam, every city or state should have a certain area were it's cool to just go and smoke and buy.

[McHookerino]

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I don't even smoke and I support it. I guess I'm just really passive on topics like this, abortion, weed, gay marriage I could care less is someone wants to get high, get married, not ruin their life by having a child when their not ready