As the New Year approaches and relfect on the turbulent year this has been I am struck by a small bit of news that I found this morning. It's not earth shattering or even tragic but does illuminate the stark difference among countries.

China has the most stringent internet access anywhere. And now they have made it even more difficult to access the world's information. The government has set up a clearing house of sorts to intercept all data and "compare it against an ever-changing list of banned keywords or Web sites, screening out even more information. The motive is often obvious: Since late 2010, the censors have prevented Google searches of the English word “freedom.” states a NY Times article.

Last month the power to decide what to restrict was handed down to some younger people. The world thought they would relax the rules but apparently not. They have clamped down even tighter as if reading other opinions would affect their reign.

The flip side is us...in America we can turn on any opinion we want. And being such well rounded and open minded people, many find only the voices and opinions they agree with. Can anybody say polarized? I'm not condoning China's behaviour but I am wondering how the complexity and fragmentation of media has affected us. Do you think it's impacted the seemingly divisive nature of Washington DC?

I guess time will tell. By Monday late afternoon we'll see if there's an agreement to prevent the fiscal cliff. Judging by results of the poll...the majority of Gothamites think it will happen but 42% don't think so or are not sure...