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Links for April 9

Stephen O’Grady: Clouds Rolling In: The Google App Engine Q&A. Great rundown.
Bruce Schneier: The Feeling and Reality of Security. Understanding the differences and how to manage them is the key to successful security policy.
FP Passport: The Olympic torch’s mysterious companions. The torch escorts are members of a paramilitary group sponsored by the Chinese government. Their comrades are in Tibet suppressing dissent by force right now. I’m glad the Olympics are going to be in China because it has served to remind the world of the brutality of the Chinese regime.
Continuing Intermittent Incoherency: App Engine: Most Of The Stuff I Want, None Of The Stuff I Don’t. Another take on Google App Engine.

Tags: · Google, human rights, links, politics, python, scalability, security, sports, Web development

1 Charles // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:29 am

“… the brutality of the Chinese regime.”

I agree.

Reading this, though, it struck me that we lost the moral high ground with China and most other countries a long time ago. We can’t really say anything about anyone’s brutality.

China invaded a sovereign nation, overthrew the government, and occupied its territory. There’s a lack of human rights — no due process, no habeus corpus, torture.

And American did — and does — the same damn thing.

Protestors about the Olympics, Tibet is in the news again and it’s 2008 and Gitmo is still open for business.
2 Bill Altreuter // Apr 11, 2008 at 8:09 am

I think you are exactly right about why the notion of boycotting the Olympics, although well-intentioned, is wrong. China is not well understood by most Americans (or by a goodly portion of the rest of the world, either). Seeing it will help. More importantly, allowing the Chinese to see more of the rest of the world will ultimately bring about more change than isolation could ever accomplish.
3 andrew // Apr 11, 2008 at 9:44 pm

Actually that sounds about right considering the history of the Olympic Torch: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7330949.stm