Outspoken Chinese law professor silenced, classes suspended...

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Outspoken Chinese law professor silenced, classes suspended...


China University of Political Science and Law (CUPSL) attracted widespread media attention last week when it suddenly suspended Xiao Han, an associate professor of law and active blogger on Chinese legal issues, from teaching classes indefinitely.



Xiao, a 40-year-old instructor of constitutional and administrative law, is especially known among colleagues and students for voicing dissenting opinion in his blogs.



His more controversial entries examine compulsory relocation law, over-bureaucratic  university administration and the unrealistic quotas universities impose on professors for academic publication, while advocating reforms of the Chinese legal system and freer student-teacher interaction.



"I just want to let others know what has happened to me during this whole ordeal, and don't want to involve too many political issues," Xiao told the Global Times Tuesday.



Cancelled without notice



Although his blogs on sina. com and blog.163.com are still open nearly 100 entries deemed sensitive have been deleted, and now the comment sections are being censored, according to Xiao.



However, school officials cite a lack of a teaching certificate as the reason for his suspension  despite his employment at CUPSL for six years.

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Follow up to my Kiwi starvation story...

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This is a follow up to my recent kiwi starvation story, which had some ethicacy issues:




The disabled Wellington women, Margaret Page, has now not eaten for two weeks and has only drunk a very small amount of water, since declaring her intention to starve herself to death.



The sixty year old New Zealander suffered a cerebral haemorrhage 20 years ago and has been living at the St John of God care home in Wellington City since 2006. Last night a spokesman for the home said her condition had not changed.Original story

Give them a pick and shovel and send the bastards down the mines...

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Give them a pick and shovel, and send the bastards down the mines.


Beneficiary bashing express has just pulled in to the station - send them down the mines..The beneficiary bashing express has just pulled into the station. The National Government is right on cue!



Where are all the jobs the beneficiaries are expected to get? The Nats said our welfare sysytem is too generous; they have been overseas to get the latest news from Wisconson I suppose. Welfare looks like it may get rationed. After 12 months they will need to have a good case to get it back again.



Multi-millionaire John Key and former beneficiary Minister Paula Bennett would have to be two of the biggest hypocrites in New Zealand! Wankers would be the most appropriate name for these two hypocrites.



What with the mining debate and all, unemployment can be wiped out out one foul swoop - give them a pickaxe and shovel and send them down the mines!

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Sunday paper - "Tiger ready to play again"...

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Sunday paper cartoon - "Tiger ready to play again"....

The cartoon shows a putting green covered in beds. Bit sick perhaps, but this man, a golfing great, has absolutely no credibility.



He may only need four more titles to equal the great Arnold Palmer, but he lacks the credibilty to clean Arnie's shoes.



He may have ranked as one of the three great sportsmen in the world a year or two back, but he lacks any respect as a man, a husband or father, even former US president Bill Clinton has more credibility or respect.



Will he ever come back or even redeem himself? Perhaps if he spends forty days and nights out in a desert he may gain some humility and respect like the man from Galilee.

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Quote of the day...

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Quote of the day...


Quote of the day from the Dominion Post, Wellington, NZ:



"There are times when a minister says something so maddening, so death-defyingly stupid, that I am glad not to be in the same room in case I reach out, grab his tie, and end what is left of my political career with one almighty head-butt."



London Mayor Boris Johnson on British Children's Secretary Ed Balls, who does not see much of a future for Latin in schools.

Beyond the pale...

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Beyond the pale...


What three- word phrase originally meant outside of the area of Ireland controlled by England, but now means beyond the limits of acceptable behaviour?



Beyond the pale.

A warning about internet fraud and a message from Microsoft...

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An email claiming to be from Paypal was received this morning. It was actually internet fraud. They wanted my person details, name and password. Be warned, you may get one yourself. I also received the following warning  from Microsoft.

124-11-68-88.static.tfn.net.tw



We recommend that you do not continue to this website.

Go to my homepage instead



This website has been reported to Microsoft for containing threats to your computer that might reveal personal or financial information.



More information



This website has been reported to contain the following threats:

Phishing threat: This is a phishing website that impersonates a trusted website to trick you into revealing personal or financial information.





Learn more about phishing

Learn more about malicious software

Report that this site does not contain threats

Disregard and continue (not recommended)

Ghosts for sale on TradeMe...

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.
Ghosts for sale on TradeMe...



A New Zealand woman has sold two captured ghosts for $5000 on online shopping website TradeMe.



A Christchurch bidder called cdrive won the auction last night, outbidding two other contenders, according to media reports.



The seller, Avie Woodbury, has said the two spirits turned up after an experiment with a ouija board.



She claims one ghost is an old man, Les Graham, who lived in her house during the 1920s — the other is a powerful and disruptive little girl.



Since the house was exorcised in July last year the ghosts have been preserved in holy water which Ms Woodbury claims "dulls the spirits' energy".



The sale gained worldwide attention with British tabloid The Sun likening the auction to the movie Ghostbusters.



Money from the sale will go to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals once the cost of the exorcism has been taken out.



Acknowledgements: MSN Money


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Sploggers are the new nazis of the web...

Today's subject is something that has become a bone of contention for me, a blogger and a community blogger as well  -  splogger attacks.

Much of the splogging is mechanically achieved. They manage to  pour the material into your community blogsite forcing good, well written posts down the front page. Every blogger of whatever ability as a writer or reseacher, is undoubtably entitled to some time in the sun on the front page.

It would be fine if the community blogsite of which you are a member has an Administrator worth his or her salt who is prepared to instal programs to control spam, splog and porn.

Unfortunately many of these Admins don't control the unwanted material. My favourite community blogsite - Blogevolve.com -  is  literally flooded with splog, but the Admin is nowhere to be seen. The sploggers like the inmates, have taken over the institution.

What is to be done? Not a hell of a lot, I'm afraid.

The rich list...

Question 1/ Who was the richest person in history?

Question 2/ Who is New Zealand's richest person?

Question 3/ Who is Australia's richest person?


Answers at Blogevolve tomorrow:The answer

The blonde flight attendant...

The Blonde Flight Attendant...

An airline captain was helping a new blonde flight attendant prepare for her first overnight trip. Upon their arrival, the captain showed the flight attendant the best place for airline personnel to eat, shop, and stay overnight. The next morning as the pilot was preparing the crew for the day's route, he noticed the new stewardess was missing. He knew which room she was in at the hotel and called her up to ask what happened to her. She answered the phone, crying, and said, "I can't get out of the room!" "You can't get out of your room?"; the captain asked. "Why not?" She replied, "There are only three doors in here," she sobbed, "one is the bathroom, one is the closet, and one has a sign on it that says 'Do Not Disturb'!"

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The Blogevolve.com community in danger of disbanding because of splogging...

That great little community blog, 'Blogevolve.com' is in danger of disbanding because of the uncontrollable splogging and an absent Admin.

The group is looking for an alternative blogging site. I have been with BE for two and a half years and enjoyed the friendship of the bloggers there.

Splogging is a curse when the Admins dont do their work.

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