Is India pulling a China?

Medianama is reporting that some ISPs in India have blocked Typepad, Mobango and Clickatell. From what we’re reading it is sporadic and happening in certain parts of India.

Also read their piece ‘How the Indian Government plans to regulate online content and blogs’

Excerpt:

So, what does this mean?

It means that given that the Indian government is unable to control content on the Internet, it is giving itself enough powers to control access of its citizens to that content, by controlling the ISPs. The process by which it can block sites is fairly bureaucratic, and it will be difficult for a request from a normal citizen to be entertained. But what is alarming is that the government itself has enough opportunity, given how vague the reasons for blocking are, to block anything it wants to block.

In the end the movie did more for Zuckerberg’s popularity than anyone expected.

Interesting interview to revisit in the lead up to the Oscars.

So a Beverly Hills based programmer Dan Loewenherz created an app that emails you as soon as the friend you are stalking changes their relationship status.

So what does one do when they find out the friend they are ‘monitoring’ is suddenly single? Do they offer a shoulder to cry on hoping it leads to something more? Or brazenly swoop in and lay stake immediately? Obviously you can’t hang around waiting for too long, or some other stalker might move in. Or perhaps the idea is that the person being ‘stalked’ should feel flattered by the attention in the first place.

Any which way you look at it, there’s something not quite right about any of it.

Here’s three India related stories that grabbed us this morning:

• A centuries old deal making practice of trading with hidden hand signals between buyer and seller [Video at BBC]

• The Capgras Delusion is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that an acquaintance, usually a spouse or another close family member, has been replaced by an identical looking impostor. One of 10 disorders that doctors in India are discovering among Indians. [Tehelka: Bizarre diseases striking urban Indians]

• An Indian website is offering bachelors a ‘virtual wife’ to give them a taste of married life before they go through with the real thing. The site lumps women into four categories – devoted homemaker, control freak, shopping & soap opera obsessed and ambitious banker. [Full post at Orange]

‘Tiny Buddha’ has a genuinely sweet and helpful list of 10 Mindful Ways To Use Social Media which ‘The Reformed Buddhist’ totally and hilariously smacks down with his 10 Unmindful Ways to use Social Media.

We’re wondering: What would Buddha have to say about people hurling pearls of wisdom using his name?