Are you reading this?

I read many things that interest me that would otherwise seem like a waste of time to many others. This is one of them.

News nowadays is transferred through both traditional and modern media. People still read newspapers & magazines, listen to the radio, and watch news reports. But other people, usually those half the age of the first category, receive their news from elsewhere. 'Internet' is only an umbrella term. There are websites from Reuters, CNN, BBC, or NYT. There's Google News, a portal (*cough* computer program) consolidating content from across the web. There's Wikinews, self-published and community-monitored news from anywhere, anytime if you think it's important. There are Blogs if you feel self-righteous or protective about what you write.

New forms of news have popped up across the world (at least the wired part, that is). I didn't come across News.com until today! And it's great in that it not only writes great editorials but also has a 'Big Picture' function informing you of how all the news is related, like this particular piece.

You know how Google News ranks news according to relevance? Well, there's this new site digg.com that doesn't rely (*cough* trust) a computer algorithm tuned by Google's computer engineers. It allows users to submit relevant stories and also to vote on which ones they think should be the headlines, rather than let some authoritative editor to do the job. Remember how Wikipedia lets YOU edit whatever content you feel is incorrect? Guess what? You can do that even to websites! Check out Wetpaint.com and what they can do.

It's fascinating and wonderful how in the world now we are no longer limited to news that people feed into our mouths (though some still opt for that option), but can pick from an assortment of Social, Wiki, and Personal media. But don't forget, when you're browsing happily, that there are people who do not have the same rights that you do, however close they may be.

Friends, in China, you can't even use Gmail. In China, you can't access Wikipedia. In China, any politically sensitive blogs even remotely related is filtered, censored, or blocked. Reflect on that. Cherish the freedom that you possess.