Accessing blocked feeds in the PRC

I am finally moving the blog onto a non-blocked server. Expect something before Halloween. Until then, with both feedreader and blogspot on the wrong side of the GFW, I’ve had to take counter-measures.

I tricked the Chinese site feedsky into publishing my feed by anonymousing my blogspot feed. You can access that feed stream here:

http://feed.feedsky.com/granitestudio

Not sure how long that will hold up, but it’s working as of right now.

I’ve also had luck accessing the feed using anonymouse and this feed:

http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://granitestudio.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Thanks to those of you who have stuck with the blog whilst the nanny has her day.

I know I’m belaboring an old point, but even with big buildings and highways choked with cars, can you really consider yourself a modern, developed nation if you need to go to such great lengths to block information from your own citizens? If China really is a strong nation–ready to take its place in the company of the world’s powers–then what is the government so afraid of? Is the CCP so weak that it can really be brought down by a few blogs, a feedreader, and the BBC? Just what are China’s leaders so afraid of?

And yes. I’m

October 7th, 2007

Photographs of 19th-century Turkestan

For those interested in Central Asian history, the Library of Congress has made available online a large collection of photographs from the 1860s. The original collection was compiled under the direction of Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman (1818-1882), the first governor-general of Russian Turkestan. The Russian had been steadily pushing into the region throughout the 19th century as part of the “Great Game,” and sacked the city of Tashkent in 1865 and Samarkand in 1867. By 1868, the region had been made a separate guberniya under Von Kaufman.From the collection description: Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman (1818-1882), the first governor general of Russian Turkestan, commissioned the albums to acquaint Russians and Westerners with the region. The Russian orientalist A.L. Kun (also spelled Kuhn) compiled the first three parts, and the albums were formerly referred to as the Kun Collection. The other compilers included M.T. Brodovskii, M.A. Terentyev, N.V. Bogaevskii and photographer N.N. Nekhoroshev. The Military-Topographic Department, Military District of Tashkent printed the lithographic parts of each plate. The production work was primarily done in St. Petersburg and Tashkent in 1871-72.

As a historian, I love old photographs, but it’s worth mentioning that colonialism didn’t always have to come bearing guns or bibles,

October 7th, 2007

日历

October 2007
M T W T F S S
« Sep   Nov »
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031