Censorship in China...

Despite all the horror stories you hear about China about a lack of free speech and a non-existent free press, I've encountered very little censorship during my time here.

Much of that has to do, I'm sure, with the fact that the Olympics are in town. The government has cleaned up its act for a month or two, Internet barriers have temporarily come down (all except, for me, Facebook, Wordpress and, weirdly, one of my credit cards) and the local media has continued its tradition of self-policing and China promotion. While my troubles on the 'net are an annoyance - particularly the Facebook thing, since I can sometimes get on and sometimes not - the most censorship I've experienced has been from a mulit-billion dollar American company. One I happend to work for not so long ago.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket into the Bird's Nest to see the Mens 100m Finals - arguably the marquee event of any Summer Games and, really, the only one I definitely wanted to make sure I saw. It lived up to the legends of Olympics past: Tyson Gay's injury keeping him from the finals, the current and former world record holders lining up for the finals, a pair of unsung Americans running alongside and the culmination of Usain Bolt (who, by the way, started running the 100m less than a year ago) breaking his own world record to win gold.

As the eight sprinters lined up to start, the capacity crowd of 91,000 fell to a hush and rose, as one, to its feet. We stood there, poised and ready, as if we were tensed to run the race alongside the Olympians. The entire crowd could hear the call of, "On your mark... set!" and then let out a defining roar milliseconds after the starting gun. We screamed for 9.69 seconds, took a breath, and then screamed some more - in disbelief, in joy, in celebration, in the Olympic spirit.

I had my Flashcam with me and I captured that moment live, in the stadium, just soaking it all in. But NBC, apparently, thinks it owns the rights to the very Olympics itself and keeps kicking my video of YouTube. And there's nothing I can do about it. Apparently, one of the world's ten largest companies that generates billions in revenue each year thinks that someone shooting at an event their television network covered (not even using their footage) could bring down their entire profit stream.

So, thank you GE and NBC Universal. You've just shown me what censorship is all about in China.

Dear SeeMikeWrite,

NBC Universal (Sports) has claimed some or all visual content in your video Usain Bolt World Record - live from the Birds Nest. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program.

Your video is no longer available because NBC Universal (Sports) has chosen to block it.

Claim Details:

Copyright owner:	NBC Universal (Sports)
Content claimed:	Some or all of the visual content
Policy:	Block this content. Applies to these locations: Everywhere

NBC Universal (Sports) claimed this content as a part of the YouTube Content Identification program. YouTube allows partners to review YouTube videos for content to which they own the rights. Partners may use our automated video / audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.

For more information about this claim, visit the Video ID Matches section of your YouTube account.

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the suspension of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide. If you believe that this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you may file a counter notice. For more information on this process, please see: How do I file a counter notice?

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

Video success and the shameful sequel...

So, I've gotten 18,000 hits on YouTube from my last crappy video and am now in the top-100 travel guru type folks for the past week. Weird, eh? Well, I didn't want to rest on my laurels, so I've just put up a video that's just as crappy, but also just as timely and hopefully people will be searching me out.

Here's some footage from the Birds Nest of Usain Bolt's world record-breaking 9.69 second finish in the Men's 100m finals tonight...



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Note: NBC blocked the video about 12 minutes after I put it up, so I re-did it this morning in the hopes that they won't do it again. We'll see...

Video B-Roll from the Opening Ceremony celebration...

Nothing too special on this one, just a collection of shots from around Beijing on 8/8/08. Hope you like it!

Oh, the humanity! (of the Beijing subways)

I've been on crowded trains before, don't get me wrong.

When I lived in London, my daily commute involved taking an overland train from Clapham Junction (Britain's busiest rail station) to Waterloo and then switching to the subway during rush hour. If I had enough room to hold a paperback in front of my face AND still have it far enough away to pick out individual letters without my eyes cramping, it was a light travel day. That hardly ever happened.

Coming to Beijing, a delightful city of 17 million in a country of 1.3 billion people (one-sixth of the world's population), I knew I was in for some close encounters of the Chinese kind in public transport. Every day since I've gotten here, I've been pushed, poked, prodded, piled on, pried past and probably propositioned politely on the subway. The Line 1 trains are particularly packed. Frankly, the time of day doesn't really matter... Sure, it's more backed up during the moring/evening rush hours, but I've gotten into squished cars at 2:30 in the afternoon. Whatever, it's part of life here.

The fun thing I didn't expect to find here was what I affectionately call "The Running of the Chinese Bulls." You see, I'm staying beyond the end of Line 1. That line ends at a stop (Sihui East). From there, I have to switch to the Batong Line if I want to continue eastwards from downtown. It makes no sense whatsoever - the Beijing MTA could easily just make the Line 1 trains keep going instead of pulling U-turns and heading back west, but whatever. I'll post more on that sort of commonplace Chinese efficiency later.

The Running of the Chinese Bulls is what commuters do every time they have to switch trains at Sihui East. The line up at the doors of a Line 1 train, sprint out in a mad dash from the car, up the closest flight of stairs, through corrals set up for the express purpose of preventing the weak and young from being trampled, back down a flight of stairs to a different platform and then huddle around the areas where the next train's doors will open. Once that train pulls into the station, the people cluster around the doors - literally pressing themselves against the side of the car - before sprinting for a seat as soon as they whoosh open.

It's hysterical.

I've seen full-on dives for seats, mothers tossing toddlers into an open plastic chair, bags thrown down to mark territory and more sucker punches thrown in the scrum than I could count. Within three seconds, every seat is taken and the chaos subsides into the usual sort of spacy silence you'd expect from the commuting crowd. It's rather uncanny and something you just need to see for yourself. So, I've taken it upon myself to videotape the scramble for my next YouTube project.

Here goes nothing...

Great Wall Video - Visit to Badaling

Here's take 2 for my travel videos... So much for one a week! It's on my YouTube site or you can just watch it below. Let me know what you think!

My virgin effort...

The audio and editing suck, but it was my first try with the Flip and iMovie. At least it's somewhat coherent... and hopefully I'll figure out how to get a thumbnail image in there, too.

It's a start... enjoy!

Also, here's the link to my YouTube account.

Spelling Bee, Bill Simmons and Numbnuts - LOTD for you...

You probably couldn't miss it this year, as the Scripps National Spelling Bee had its quarter-finals, semis and finals broadcast by ESPN360, ESPN2 and ABC.

First observation - didn't it used to be the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee? (Answer: Yes, as recently as 2003). What happened to Howard? Did the dude pass away? Did Scripps stage a coup or hostile takeover? Has the "Howard" been scratched off the trophy? We need the answers.

I actually missed it this year. I don't normally watch it start to finish, but I'll usually turn in for a few spellings, try them on my own and go a big, fat 0-15 or so. ABC had the finals on during the Celtics/Pistons Game 6 (which, incidentally, got bumped from the mother station for the Bee), so I watched that instead.

For me, best part of the Bee isn't watching our next generation of scholars in action, seeing the cooperation and good sportsmanship they always demonstrate or learn some new words to add to my everyday lexicon. Nope. I watch for the astoundingly high levels of unintentional comedy. Just check out the "Numbnuts Clip" from eventual champion, Sameer Mishra:



The second highlight, after seeing a new batch of homeschoolers, band kids, chess-club members and social pariahs gesticulate and hyperventilate on national television, is re-reading Bill Simmons' classic ESPN.com running diary of the 2002 Bee. Absolutely hilarious and still funny six years later.

If any of you haven't read Simmons, I have him linked on the right for a reason. Sure, he's "just" an Internet sports columnist, but he's also one of my favorite writers. He's hysterically biting, relatively incisive and he's a Sox fan, so what more could you ask for? Definitely check him out.

Those are your links of the day... Bee well. Ha.

Coming to a YouTube link near you...

Today, I went out and bought The Flip Ultra. It's a handheld video camera that's about as basic as basic gets. It's roughly the size of a cell phone, has a 1x1 inch screen, three buttons and a U,D,L,R control pad.

And that's it.

To record a fairly decent quality video, all you have to do is press the record button and point the camera and whatever you're shooting. It's so easy, my mom could do it.

The best thing about The Flip, though, is that it has a built-in USB connector. So, you can shoot a video, plug it into your laptop and load it onto your computer almost instantly. You can then edit the video in pretty much any program - iMovie, Final Cut Pro, whatever crappy program Windows uses or on the camera's included software. After that, you're just a couple clicks away from YouTube fame.

I'm planning on using it to do short and simple travel videos while I'm in Japan and China. I do have a YouTube account, but I've never uploaded anything - that'll change in a bit. I'm going to try to do a test video or two in the next few days.

If anyone has any travel video suggestions - just let me know!

LOTD... or This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse...

Normally, I wouldn't bother you with such trite material, but this was just too terrible to pass up. This is an actual song by an "artist" named Riskay who apparently has (incredibly) a SECOND album coming out. Yes, the world been subjected to not one, but two Riskay offerings.

Apparently, the tune "hit big in 2007" as an Internet session. Whatever. It's called "Smell Yo' 'Weewee'" and is the thrilling story of a girl who, suspecting her man is cheating, tells him to drop trou so she can... well, you get the point.

I'd say enjoy, but I don't think you will. Try not to bang your head onto your desk in horror and/or paroxysms of laughter.

(PS - NSFW)

Editor's note: I decided I couldn't, with good conscience, keep the video posted here. If you really want to see it, here's the link. But you're going to have to leave my site to see it.

Editor's update: There's also an acoustic version. Rock on.

I'm not dead yet...

No, my friends, I haven't kicked the bucket yet. Nor have I been eaten by a moose in the nether regions of New Hampshire.

I was suffering from an absolutely horrible case of writer's block. You see, I'm working on my thesis (I think I've mentioned it here, but it's the culmination of three years' work, 60 grand and the capstone on a completely non-marketable MFA). It's due to my reader and adviser in about five weeks. Ten days ago, I completely conked out - I was sick of the project, didn't know where to go with it next, out of ideas and couldn't string together two coherent paragraphs.

For my subscribing faithful, you'll probably ask, "How is that any different than your writing here, Mike?"

In which case, I'm smack you in the face. But point duly noted.

Anyways, I felt like if I wasn't working on the thing that I've left my job to actually work on, then the last thing I should be doing is writing about the miscellany in my life that appears here. It's not that I don't love you readers (yes, all 2 and a half of you), it's just that I am a man of principles. Sometimes. And my principles said that I had to churn out another chapter of thesifizing before I posted another blog to destroy your workplace productivity.

But good news. I sat myself town and told myself, "Mike - now I don't like you and you don't like me - but we're going to lock ourselves in this room and not come out until you have 10 or more pages written that don't look like used Charmin." And it worked. I'm on a roll now (which is like unused Charmin).

Alas, this is not the long-awaited, genius post that you've come to expect, nay demand, from my thoroughly unprofitable site. Those are coming. For now, I've got a meeting that I have to get to, so you're just getting this update, a LOTD and two YouTube videos I've become obsessed with. See, I can make sure your productivity plummets even without writing.

You're welcome.

---Link of the Day---
Check out Pando.com. My brother alerted me to this site. It's a way to send large files (up to 1 gig) for free. So, basically, we're using it to illegally share music. Can I get an "Amen!"?

Also, it has a handy function that will allow me to post files here. Once I figure out how that works, I'll probably post some sample tracks that you can try for free and then go buy the album so I don't get sued.

---Videos of the Day---
Okay, so over 15 million people have already seen these on YouTube, but in case you haven't, I enjoyed them. You will, too. Both are from Jimmy Kimmel's late night show on ABC, which I don't watch, but do enjoy every time I happen to flick through it.
"Sarah Silverman - 'I'm doing Matt Damon'"








...and the response...



Talk soon!