Home on the Internet

In Peavine one of those unappreciated daily pleasures I enjoyed was waking up to NPR and the local public radio station. While repairing the previous day's bodily entropy I enjoyed listening to an in-depth discussion of what had gone on around the world while I slept. That's something I miss in China. You can't turn on the radio here and get real news - much less news in English. You can do that in Taiwan and Hong Kong but not in the PRC.

But thank heaven for the Internet! I can listen to NPR and even my local public radio station on my Internet connection here. While the Chinese government blocks many news sites and sources of information they tend to ignore the multitude of English language radio stations on the Internet. They pay much more attention to any news sites in Chinese. Tonight I'm listening to one of my favorite NPR programs - the Diane Rehm Show - a daily topical news interview program. It brings home right into my little office in Shanghai.