Monthly Archives: July 2006

Students Breach Great Firewall of China!

The great firewall of China is an internet firewall which blocks people living in China from viewing certain websites and content on the internet. For example, if you type in Falun Gong in a search engine (a religious group banned in China) it will not show any content. This is very obviously censorship and completely unfair to peoples human rights and freedom of education and lifestyle. So this is what led students from Caimbridge University to try and crack it. And they have! Not only that but they have managed to then use the firewall to launch denial-of-service attacks against specific IP adresses in China. This means that they can even deny access to sites by the Chinese government!

This furthers my own belief that rules of any kind are essentially made to be broken. Especially ones that inhibit people from living free thinking, and fulfilling lives. And on that note, this day being the 4th of July “freedom and independance” celebration in the United States, it seems suiting to end with a quote.

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” ~Abraham Lincoln

The Rebbe on Intolerance

Intolerance lies at the core of evil.
Not the intolerance that results
from any threat or danger.
But intolerance of another being who dares to exist.
Intolerance without cause. It is so deep within us,
because every human being secretly desires
the entire universe to himself.
Our only way out is to learn
compassion without cause. To care for each other
simple because that ‘other’ exists.

– Rabbi Menachem Mendle, the Lubavitcher Rebbe

In honour of his memorial (yahrzeit)

Empty the Landfils?

Recycling is becoming easier with new technologies, techniques and other innovations, which means that we can start reusing discarded items that have ended up in landfills. The recycling and reuse sector of the American economy has grown so much that it currently employs as many people as the auto industry!

“Without recycling, given current virgin raw material supplies, we could not print the daily newspaper, build a car, or ship a product in a cardboard box,” says Powell. “Recycling is not some feel-good activity; it is one of the backbones of global economic development.” To his way of thinking, recovering cast-offs and putting them to good use “are key ingredients to industrial growth and stability.”