Indian root bridges

I found this at the last minute. It's not about politics or current events, but it's still really cool.

It's a BBC Travel article about people living in the Meghalaya region of India. This place is one of the wettest places on Earth, and during the monsoon season, the rivers grow and become extremely difficult to cross. This is a problem for the indigenous Khasi people, because they still need to get around the jungle during this time.

Up until about 180 years ago, the Khasi would make bridges out of bamboo. Unfortunately, these would often rot and break, leaving people stranded on one side. So eventually, they found a way to guide the roots of rubber trees to reach across the stream. There'd be a tree on either side, and the roots would meet and weave around each other. Eventually, it would be strong enough for people to cross.

Many of these living bridges still exist today, but the practice is dying out due to more modern bridge construction with materials like steel rope. Additionally, new and more direct paths are being created, meaning that a lot of the bridges aren't needed anymore. However, some of the existing ones are being modified or expanded in hopes of attracting tourists.

China and the Internet

This article from CNN is about China and its form of Internet censorship, known as the "Great Firewall."

Despite the  Chinese government's widespread censorship of online content, Chinese web-based businesses are doing extremely well. Some of them are worth billions of dollars. Also, the article mentions that China has "more Web users than the population of the United States."

People fifteen years ago didn't think China's system would work, claiming that an Internet without real freedom of expression isn't really the Internet. But nowadays, it seems like it's worked just fine for the Chinese - and that has implications for the rest of the world. Some human rights groups are concerned that places like Russia or Egypt might adopt similar systems. That's concerning, because access to information is an important component of freedom - so much so that unrestricted Internet access was at one point declared a human right.

There are ways for people in China to bypass the firewall, but the government has continued to crack down on these methods. New methods will probably appear in their place, but it may become harder and harder to develop them.