Turkey lifts two-year ban on YouTube

BBC News, 30 October 2010 Last updated at 22:11 GMT

Turkey has lifted its ban on YouTube, two years after it blocked access to the website because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder.

The decision to ban YouTube was widely
criticised by many Turks, including the president

Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, who is in charge of internet issues, said the government had been in contact with Google, which owns YouTube.

Mr Yildirim said there was no longer any reason to ban the website, because the offending videos had been removed.

Insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk or "Turkishness" is illegal in Turkey.

The video clip prompting the ban was reportedly posted by Greek users of the website and dubbed Ataturk and Turks homosexuals.

The move was nevertheless widely criticised by many Turks, including by President Abdullah Gul, who asked officials to find a solution.

'Third party'

Speaking on Turkish television on Saturday, Mr Yildirim said the ban had been lifted after "common sense prevailed".

"But we didn't get here easily - we have been through a lot in the process," he told NTV.

"I hope that they have also learned from this experience and the same thing will not happen again. YouTube will hopefully carry out its operations in Turkey within the limits of law in the future," he added.

In a statement, YouTube said that it had received reports that some users in Turkey were once again able to access its content.

"We want to be clear that a third party, not YouTube, have apparently removed some of the videos that have caused the blocking of YouTube in Turkey using our automated copyright complaint process," it explained.

"We are investigating whether this action is valid in accordance with our copyright policy," the company added.

In 2007, Turkey's parliament adopted a sweeping law that allowed a court to block any website where there was "sufficient suspicion" that a crime had occurred.

The eight crimes listed include child pornography, gambling, prostitution, and "crimes against Ataturk".

In June, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said the law was being used to block access to more than 5,000 sites, making internet censorship in Turkey amongst the heaviest in the world.

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Press Freedom Index 2010

Solar Shield--Protecting the North American Power Grid: NASA

NASA Science, Oct. 26, 2010

Oct. 26, 2010: Every hundred years or so, a solar storm comes along so potent it fills the skies of Earth with blood-red auroras, makes compass needles point in the wrong direction, and sends electric currents coursing through the planet's topsoil. The most famous such storm, the Carrington Event of 1859, actually shocked telegraph operators and set some of their offices on fire. A 2008 report by the National Academy of Sciences warns that if such a storm occurred today, we could experience widespread power blackouts with permanent damage to many key transformers.

What's a utility operator to do?

The sun rises behind high-voltage
power lines in North America.

A new NASA project called "Solar Shield" could help keep the lights on.

"Solar Shield is a new and experimental forecasting system for the North American power grid," explains project leader Antti Pulkkinen, a Catholic University of America research associate working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "We believe we can zero in on specific transformers and predict which of them are going to be hit hardest by a space weather event."

The troublemaker for power grids is the "GIC" – short for geomagnetically induced current. When a coronal mass ejection (a billion-ton solar storm cloud) hits Earth's magnetic field, the impact causes the field to shake and quiver. These magnetic vibrations induce currents almost everywhere, from Earth's upper atmosphere to the ground beneath our feet. Powerful GICs can overload circuits, trip breakers, and in extreme cases melt the windings of heavy-duty transformers.

This actually happened in Quebec on March 13, 1989, when a geomagnetic storm much less severe than the Carrington Event knocked out power across the entire province for more than nine hours. The storm damaged transformers in Quebec, New Jersey, and Great Britain, and caused more than 200 power anomalies across the USA from the eastern seaboard to the Pacific Northwest. A similar series of "Halloween storms" in October 2003 triggered a regional blackout in southern Sweden and may have damaged transformers in South Africa.

While many utilities have taken steps to fortify their grids, the overall situation has only gotten worse. A 2009 report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the US Department of Energy concluded that modern power systems have a "significantly enhance[d] vulnerability and exposure to effects of a severe geomagnetic storm." The underlying reason may be seen at a glance in this plot:

Growth of the High Voltage Transmission Network and annual electric energy usage in the United States over the past 50 years. Credit: North American Electric Reliability Corporation and the US Dept. of Energy.

Since the beginning of the Space Age the total length of high-voltage power lines crisscrossing North America has increased nearly 10 fold. This has turned power grids into giant antennas for geomagnetically induced currents. With demand for power growing even faster than the grids themselves, modern networks are sprawling, interconnected, and stressed to the limit—a recipe for trouble, according to the National Academy of Sciences: "The scale and speed of problems that could occur on [these modern grids] have the potential to impact the power system in ways not previously experienced."

A large-scale blackout could last a long time, mainly due to transformer damage. As the National Academy report notes, "these multi-ton apparatus cannot be repaired in the field, and if damaged in this manner they need to be replaced with new units which have lead times of 12 months or more."

Permanent damage to the Salem New Jersey
Nuclear Plant GSU Transformer caused by
the March 13, 1989 eomagnetic storm.
Photos courtesy of PSE&G. [larger image]

That is why a node-by-node forecast of geomagnetic currents is potentially so valuable. During extreme storms, engineers could safeguard the most endangered transformers by disconnecting them from the grid. That itself could cause a blackout, but only temporarily. Transformers protected in this way would be available again for normal operations when the storm is over.

The innovation of Solar Shield is its ability to deliver transformer-level predictions. Pulkkinen explains how it works:

"Solar Shield springs into action when we see a coronal mass ejection (CME) billowing away from the sun. Images from SOHO and NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft show us the cloud from as many as three points of view, allowing us to make a 3D model of the CME, and predict when it will arrive."

While the CME is crossing the sun-Earth divide, a trip that typically takes 24 to 48 hours, the Solar Shield team prepares to calculate ground currents. "We work at Goddard's Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC)," says Pulkkinen. The CCMC is a place where leading researchers from around the world have gathered their best physics-based computer programs for modeling space weather events. The crucial moment comes about 30 minutes before impact when the cloud sweeps past ACE, a spacecraft stationed 1.5 million km upstream from Earth. Sensors onboard ACE make in situ measurements of the CME's speed, density, and magnetic field. These data are transmitted to Earth and the waiting Solar Shield team.

"We quickly feed the data into CCMC computers," says Pulkkinen. "Our models predict fields and currents in Earth's upper atmosphere and propagate these currents down to the ground." With less than 30 minutes to go, Solar Shield can issue an alert to utilities with detailed information about GICs.

Pulkkinen stresses that Solar Shield is experimental and has never been field-tested during a severe geomagnetic storm. A small number of utility companies have installed current monitors at key locations in the power grid to help the team check their predictions. So far, though, the sun has been mostly quiet with only a few relatively mild storms during the past year. The team needs more data.

"We'd like more power companies to join our research effort," he adds. "The more data we can collect from the field, the faster we can test and improve Solar Shield." Power companies work with the team through EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute. Of course a few good storms would help test the system, too. They're coming. The next solar maximum is expected around 2013, so it's only a matter of time.

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

More Information:

• Solar Shield -- project home page
• Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) -- This is where Solar Shield calculations are done
• Severe Space Weather-Social and Economic Impacts -- (Science@NASA) A summary of the 2008 National Academy of Sciences report
• High-Impact, Low-Frequency Event Risk to the North American Bulk Power System -- A Jointly-Commissioned Summary Report of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy's November 2009 Workshop"
• Super Solar Flare -- (Science@NASA)
  

Solar Weather NASA/SDO

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NASA is Building a 'Solar Shield' to Protect Power Grids from Space Weather

Google Invests in Wind Farm Transmission Project

PC World, By Nancy Gohring, IDG News

Google is continuing to back green energy projects, this time investing in the construction of a backbone that will carry energy produced by wind turbines off the East Coast back to shore.

The search giant said it is putting up 37.5 percent of the equity for the initial development stage of the project, but did not put a dollar amount on the investment. The development stage involves obtaining the necessary approvals to finance and begin building the line, said Rick Needham, green business operations director for Google.

"Although the development stage requires only a small part of the total estimated project budget, it represents a critical stage for the project," Needham wrote in a blog post.

The transmission line will run for 350 miles off the coast from New Jersey to Virginia, he said. It will carry power from offshore power hubs that will collect power from multiple offshore wind farms.

Without such a backbone, offshore wind developers would be forced to build individual transmission lines for each offshore wind project, he wrote.

When fully complete, the backbone could carry enough power to serve about 1.9 million households, he said.

Despite the potential, some proposed wind farms off the East Coast have met with opposition from groups who say the farms harm marine and bird life and mar the view.

Google said it is making the investment because it thinks it will offer a solid financial return while being good for the environment. The Mid-Atlantic region is ideal for offshore wind power creation because nearby coastal areas have large population centers that have already overstretched the existing grid, Needham said.

Trans-Elect is leading the backbone project and Good Energies and Marubeni Corporation are also investing in the initial development stage.

Trans-Elect did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the cost of the development stage or the entire transmission project. The New York Times reports that the total bill for the transmission project will reach US$5 billion.

Google has invested in another green energy project. In May, it invested $38.8 million in a project to build two wind farms in North Dakota. The rooftops of its headquarter buildings are covered in solar panels and it offers plug-in electric vehicles for employees to use to run errands during the work day.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

Study: Malaysians have the most friends, at least on social media

CNN News, By the CNN Wire Staff, October 11, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Those with online access use the Internet more often than TV, radio and newspapers
• The study spans 46 countries
• Newer digital markets shoot past mature markets in terms of blogging, social networking

(CNN) -- Malaysians have the most buddies in online social networks, the Japanese have the fewest, and e-mail is now relatively passe in some parts of the world, according to a research project that spans 46 countries.

Malaysians average 233 friends on social networks
and spend the most time per week using social media.

According to the findings of the British research agency TNS, those online are spending, on average, more time on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn than on e-mail -- even though such social networks have become mainstream in many markets only in the past few years.

But while online social networking has skyrocketed in Latin America, the Middle East and China, those in more established digital markets still spend more time on e-mail.

The researchers said they conducted 50,000 interviews with people in 46 countries.

The study reveals Malaysians have the most friends on social networks, with an average of 233 friends, and also spend the most time using social media -- an average of nine hours a week. Brazilians are also digitally popular, with an average of 231 friends.

The Japanese had the smallest average circle of friends at 29, and Tanzanians had an average of 38. But the study's findings noted that some might embrace fewer -- but closer -- friendships.

Researchers also concluded that "emerging" digital markets have shot past more mature online markets in terms of blogging and social networking.

"The research shows four out of five online users in China (88 percent) and over half of those in Brazil (51 percent have written their own blog or forum entry, compared to only 32 percent in the US," TNS said.

The study also indicates those who have online access most often go to the Internet for media consumption; 61 percent of online users go to the Internet daily, compared to 54 percent for TV, 36 percent for radio and 32 percent for newspapers.

"The Internet is a huge part of life in the 21st century but how it affects our lives varies depending upon where in the world you live," said TNS Chief Development Officer Matthew Froggatt said in a statement.

China blanks Nobel Peace prize searches

CNN News, By Steven Jiang, CNN, October 8, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• China tries to delete jailed Nobel Peace prize winner from Internet public domains
• Searches in China for "Liu Xiaobo" or "Nobel Peace Prize" throw up error messages
• But some messages of support from inside China are getting online
• Jailed dissident was awarded Nobel peace prize Friday

Beijing, China (CNN) -- With news media across the globe reacting to this year's Nobel Peace Prize announcement, authorities in the winner's homeland are racing to delete his name from all public domains.

Type "Liu Xiaobo" -- or "Nobel Peace Prize," for that matter -- in search engines in China and hit return, you get a blaring error page.

It's the same for the country's increasingly popular micro-blogging sites. "Nobel Prize" was the top-trending topic until the authorities acted to remove all mentions of the award.

Propaganda officials have also pulled the plug on international broadcasters -- including CNN -- whenever stories about Liu air.

Text-messaging on mobile phones is not immune from censors, either. A Shanghai-based netizen, @littley, tweeted his unfortunate experience: "My SIM card just got de-activated, turning my iPhone to an iPod touch after I texted my dad about Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize."

For most ordinary Chinese, the only glimpse of the story came when an anchor read a short statement from the foreign ministry on state TV, blasting the Norwegian Nobel committee's choice of an imprisoned Chinese dissident for the prize "a blasphemy."

The Chinese government, in its effort to control the flow of information, has long blocked some of the world's top social networking sites - including Facebook, Youtube and most overseas-based blogging services.

Disagreements over Internet censorship led to a war of words between Beijing and Google early this year, leading the search engine giant to redirect its Chinese services to Hong Kong.

Frustrated netizens have dubbed the state's extensive Internet filtering system the "Great Firewall of China," which is said to employ the world's biggest cyber police force to monitor the world's biggest online population of more than 400 million people.

An increasing number of mostly young, tech-savvy users, however, have learned to rely on proxy servers to circumvent the censors and log on to banned sites like Twitter, where the mood was ecstatic Friday night.

"We finally have our own Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi," exclaimed @xieyi64.

"How come I feel today is the real National Day?" tweeted @joeliang, referring to the just-ended week-long holiday marking the 61st anniversary of the People's Republic.

Echoing their sentiment, many Twitterers -- based in China according to their profiles -- admitted they have cried in joy upon hearing the news.

Others expressed admiration for the Norwegian Nobel committee for its decision despite Beijing's stern public warning against it.

"Thanks for giving China a glimmer of hope," tweeted @Frankus21, while many more said they paid their tribute to the Scandinavian nation by eating a celebratory dinner featuring salmon, arguably Norway's most famous food.

With the news blackout there was also little criticism online of the Nobel award.

But some of the online enthusiasm has even spilled into the real world. A witness told CNN a small group of people gathered at Temple of Earth Park in Beijing to celebrate Liu's winning, only to be quickly dispersed by local police.

All the excitement aside, Chinese Internet users don't see their government loosening its grip on the media - old or new - anytime soon. They do hope, however, that their collective voice online will help push for Liu's early release.

Liu's wife, speaking to CNN after the announcement, certainly counts on these messengers to spread her husband's story.

"People who want to find out the news will be able to do so," Liu Xia told CNN under the watchful eyes of police in her apartment, when asked about China's censoring of the story.

Related Article:

China wages propaganda war after Nobel

Indonesian Government Stripped of Power to Ban Books