University of Michigan is working on some interesting internet technology that should allow people to visit websites (YouTube, frex) that are banned by the countries they are in (China, frex):
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/31/138872976/a-new-way-around-internet-censorship
So if you’re in China, and you want access to a banned site like YouTube, you just type YouTube.com into your browser, and the Telex station will see that connection, and disguise it as something innocuous. You might be watching YouTube, but to a censor, it will just seem as if you’re visiting a harmless, non-blocked site.
Neat.
And not exactly relevant, but also on the NPR website:
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/31/138639711/math-can-predict-insurgent-attacks-physicist-says
Guy predicts terrorist attacks with math. How weird is that?