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China

China Tightens Internet Control: Bans Anonymity, Allows Government To Delete Posts

XINHUA (China), VOICE OF AMERICA (USA), REUTERS

Worldcrunch

BEIJING - Chinese legislature has passed a law that includes mandatory real-name registration for Internet users, Xinhua reported on Friday.

The new rules were announced by the official Xinhua news agency on Twitter:

Rules approved Friday in China to enhance protection of personal info online and safeguard public interests twitter.com/XHNews/status/…

— Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) Décembre 28, 2012


Chinese authorities and Internet companies like Sina Corp have been working together to censor and monitor what people say online. But the government has now put measures such as deleting posts into law, reports Reuters.

"The law should escort the development of the internet to protect people's interest," Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said in a front page commentary, reports Voice of America. "Only that way can our Internet be healthier, more cultured and safer."

The Chinese government says that tighter monitoring of the Internet is required to prevent people making malicious and anonymous accusations online, disseminating pornography and spreading panic with unfounded rumors, reports Reuters.

These new restrictions follow a series of corruption scandals amongst lower-level officials exposed by Internet users.

Earlier this year, the government began forcing users of Sina Corp's popular Weibo microblogging platform to register their real names.

Popular foreign sites Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked in China.

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Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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