Who are Americans?

Which countries worldwide are the leaders in internet censorship for their citizens?

Looking at the filtering and censorship of political, social, conflict/security and internet tools, the OpenNet Initiative determined that the people of Iran, China, and Burma (Myanmar) have very little open access to internet websites. The governments in those countries filter out websites on all 4 criteria measured.

Tunisia and Saudi Arabia are not far behind Iran, China and Burma. No data was available on Cuba and North Korea, whose governments are also well known for restricting what can be viewed on the internet. Read the rest »

Where are the world’s most powerful supercomputers located? The latest June 2008 version of the TOP500 supercomputers includes the first ever supercomputer to reach a peak performance of more than 1 petaflop/s (one quadrillion floating point operations per second). The Number 1 ranked system, named ’Roadrunner’, was built by IBM for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The USA holds the top 5 supercomputers on the list. Germany holds the top system outside the USA. India and France also have systems in the Top 10.

The USA holds 257 of the 500 systems. Europe holds 184 systems and Asia holds 48 systems. Some of the leading countries on the list include the United Kingdom (53 systems), Germany (46 systems), Japan (22 systems), China (12 systems), India (6 systems). Read the rest »

The Save Darfur Coalition, founded in 2004, is an alliance of over 180 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations that are united together to help the people of Darfur, Africa. The Coalition’s member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages, races, religions and political affiliations.

Save Darfur uses media outreach, public education, coalition building and grassroots mobilization to pressure policymakers and decision-makers in the USA and around the world to help the people of Darfur, and to put an end to the genocide.

The Million Voices for Darfur campaign in 2006 delivered one million hand-written and electronic postcards to President Bush, demanding that he support a stronger multinational peacekeeping force to protect the people of Darfur. Read the rest »

Winrock International is an American nonprofit that works worldwide to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources by linking local individuals and communities with new ideas and technology. Winrock, founded in 1985, works in more than 65 countries, including the regions of Asia, Middle East, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the new Independent States of the former Soviet Union.

Projects supported by Winrock include avian influenza, child labor prevention, conflict management, human rights issues, legal reform, refugees & internally displaced persons, rural development, ecotourism, education, energy, environment, food security, forestry, microfinance, human trafficking prevention, women’s enpowerment, water projects and many other issues.

Winrock’s staff is working in Sichuan Province to help in disaster relief for the victims of the recent Chinese earthquake. Read the rest »

Which countries have the worst press freedoms? An annual study by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has measured the level of press freedom in 169 countries.

The 20 countries with the lowest press freedom rankings for 2007 are listed below: Read the rest »

Sharing Resources Worldwide (SRM), based in Madison, Wisconsin, is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2002 by two registered nurses, Lisa Fernandez and Mary Dowling, to make surplus and recycled medical supplies, equipment and related medical services available to needy populations around the world.

Since 2002, SRM has provided over $11,200,000 in total value to their missions and shipments, including: Read the rest »

Give2Asia (San Francisco) has a presence in 21 countries in Asia and offers many services to help donors customize their giving. Special projects now support China’s earthquake relief efforts and aid to Burma (Myanmar) cyclone victims.

Donors can choose to give to:

Hosted Funds - select from a variety of hosted funds. Read the rest »

Project Concern International (PCI), based in San Diego, CA, works in Asia, the Americas and Africa to bring better health and hope to children living in poverty. In 1961, a young doctor from San Diego, Dr. Jim Turpin, volunteered at a Tijuana, Mexico clinic, and saved two children who were dying of pneumonia.

Dr. Turpin later formed PCI and moved his family to Hong Kong to open a floating clinic that offered basic medical services to the residents of Kowloon. Today, PCI works in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Mexico. Read the rest »