Is this non-you-tube link that I clicked on a live thing happening right now? I'm a technological baby who doesn't always understand this stuff. What am I looking at? Where are these people exactly? Are they in front of gov't offices or what?

The March _Atlantic_ has an excellent report by James Fallows called "The Connection Has Been Reset." It's at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall

Deeply reported, yet nicely accessible.

All authoritarian regimes restrict the net. It's the nature of authoritarianism. I know it's a bitter pill for Saloniks to swallow but even the UN via its UNDP annual report series tabs the Arab world as dead last (even after sub Saharan Africa) as relatively not free in terms of internet access either through outright banning, limits on telcom access or manipulated price structures. In short, the Arab world has no need to block access, they simply don't allow it or provide it in the first place.

Someone I know who's working in China right now emailed me last night to say he can't access CNN, CNBC, Yahoo or Google news, or other non-Chinese news sites, and that foreign news channels on the TV are blanked out, too. The email was very carefully worded to indicate -- without explicitly saying so -- that people are aware this probably means something is happening in Tibet, and that they are eagerly looking for roundabout ways to get news.

It's not really a "China" issue, it's a "Tibet" issue. The middle class wired generation in China knows to keep its opinions to itself and its nose out of politics. Knowing what happens in far away Tibet has about as much impact on their lives as today's car bombing in Iraq has on us. And we know about it. Are we storming the White House? I tend to think governments are overly paranoid and the populace overly claims to be oppressed. Take a look at Russia, there's no media restrictions there and yet Putin looks to be a new Tsar for life, more or less.

Typically China blocks any sites supporting Tibet, but for those who can get through, http://www.tchrd.org/ is providing a lot of up-to-date info and eyewitness accounts, as well as http://savetibet.org/index.php.