Groklaw to Close

Groklaw announced it would close on May 16, 2011. Croklaw has been a significant motivation for this blog, as 1) The Seagull personally felt for the founder Ms. Pamela Jones, especially after she was reported by a Microsoft hired-gun as 'old', 'ugly' and 'no where to go for a career', all could be related to the Seagull himself; 2) Groklaw fought a worthy cause, and made a very positive impact to both social and technical progress of the society.

Who is Han Han?

Hanhan is a young man born in Shanghai. His career is a race car driver, the best or one of the best in China. However, he made his name when he was a teenager, when he published his first novel (and dropped out of high school).

His top notch racing and novel writing career was overshadowed by his blog writing hobby, which made him a spiritual idol for many Chinese. He has been bold in scolding corrupted officials and ridiculing Party policies. And so far, his otherwise 'sharp' criticism has been tolerated by the communism regime. Although his blogs are often deleted, it was not clear whether the instruction was from the top of the Propaganda Ministry, or a victim of overzealous lower level network police. Han Han makes painstaking efforts to make sure his words are not provoking or inciting any actions.

Han's tranquil life style is being threatened by a Time Magazine survey of Time 100 of 2010. Only three persons from China are listed as candidates of 201. In additional to Han, other Chinese are Party Boss of Chongqing, jailed intellectual Liu Xiaobo and CEO of a Chinese search engine.

Han was not surprised by the nomination, but commented that he was not 'influential' in China at all. Han said, he was but a insignificant role with a small voice on the big stage of modern China. When hit by the spotlight, audiences see him. Taking the spot light away, no body would notice. Any Party members in China, 80 million strong, or any government officials would have deeper and more lasting impact to Chinese people. He must be right.

First Online Privacy Case Sentenced

On Dec 29th last year, Jiang Yan jumped from 24th floor of her apartment building in Beijing, exhausted and desperate from her husband Wang Fei's extramarital affair with a co-worker Dong Fang. She arranged her MSN Live blog opened by a friend after her death, which contains a letter along information of her husband and his mistress.

A 'network mob' was summoned out of anger and websites were set up to curse the husband and his lover. Soon the two were fired, and the husband was diagnosed with depression.

The case went to trail in Chaoyang Court of Beijing. The man sued websites and won a verdict of RMB Yuan 3,000 ($500) and 5,000 ($800) from two sites, a third site was acquitted because it removed the offending materials in time. The case is significant as it is the first of such in China.

Reading between lines:

1) Network media could be held responsible for privacy violations, even though the information is freely accessible online. The MSN LIve Space Blog authored by Jiang Yan, the original source of the allegedly offending information, has never been shut down. MSN was never named in the lawsuit brought by the husband;
2) Hosting company was not liable as long as they removed the materials posted by its users 'promptly';
3) The fine, $500 for setting up a special column and leaked private information and $800 for setting up a dedicate website contains private information, is hardly a serious punishment by all means;
4) The court made a judicial recommendation to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, suggesting a harsher monitoring system on online speech.

Pretty Woman, Walkin' Down the Street

38 years old pretty woman Xie Jingling fell victim of her blog writing hobby, where she posted in detail, without details of specific encounters though, her sexual relationships with other males. In one incident, she was the only female director on a five person board, and with each of the four male directors aged 28 to 58 on the board, she had a romantic history.

People expect, and understand, pretty women have privileges. Ordinary people have only rare opportunities to appreciate beauties from a distance, but Jingling's blog gives them a chance to peek and wow. Curious readers also learned about her sexual life with her husband, which was 'always the best' as she noted one morning. She wrote about 'trivial stuff', such as taking classes, work, family, Mom, and her 3 years old baby. She wrote about her disappointment of her meeting with her college sweetheart in Canada, and pregnancy of her husband's ex-girlfriend. She wrote about her lovers, her lovers' lovers. Her stories scatter around places in China, Canada and the US, in cars, parks, hotels. At the same time, she is a young, nonetheless senior official overseeing a industrial park of national significance.

It's just fascinating to learn what a colorful life a (Chinese) pretty woman enjoys. I would certainly vote for her if whoever next 'core' picked her up as his running-mate.

Pretty woman walkin down the street
Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet
Pretty woman, I dont believe you
Youre not the truth
No one could look as good as you
Mercy

Pretty woman, wont you pardon me
Pretty woman, I couldnt help but see
Pretty woman, and you look lovely as can be
Are you lonely just like me

Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman, talk a while
Pretty woman, give your smile to me
Pretty woman, yeah, yeah, yeah
Pretty woman, look my way
Pretty woman, say youll stay with me

Cause I need you
Ill treat you right
Come with me baby
Be mine tonight

Pretty woman, dont walk on by
Pretty woman, dont make me cry
Pretty woman, dont walk away
Ok

If thats the way it must be, ok
I guess Ill go on home, its late
Therell be tomorrow night

But wait, what do I see?
Is she walking back to me?
Yeah, shes walking back to me
O-oh
Pretty woman

Fucker Handbook Might be Work of Performance Artists

The Western Fucker's Handbook might be a work of a group of performance artists, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

Chinese Internet users are raging against the anonymous author of a blog they say insulted China with its purported accounts of a British teacher's sexual exploits among Shanghai women.

However, a person responding to an e-mail to a contact address on the site said the authors were a group of performance artists who had fabricated its content as an investigation into online vigilante behavior.

"We did not anticipate quite the level of anger this would raise," said the message, which said the authors behind the cyber name "Chinabounder" included a British man, an Australian woman, two Chinese men and a Japanese woman.

The message said the blog had been closed out of concern for the safety of the group's Chinese members and ordinary expatriates in Shanghai.

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