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Following Google's high-profile spat with China over censorship in 2010, the company has been mostly candid about its disagreements with the country's Internet policies. However, those comments have usually been tempered by the silent understanding that China must be dealt with in some fashion. But in a new interview, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt offers even more revealing insight into how the company views China and its future as a global technology player.

"I believe that ultimately censorship fails I personally believe that you cannot build a modern knowledge society with that kind of behavior, that is my opinion," Schmidt told Foreign Policy magazine. "I think most people at Google would agree with that. The natural next question is when [will China change], and no one knows the answer to that question. [But] in a long enough time period, do I think that this kind of regime approach will end? I think absolutely."

Schmidt's comments were made last week offstage during the Aspen Ideas Festival, an annual gathering of global scholars, artists, experts and business leaders held in Aspen, Colorado. Schmidt's comments come amidst China's newfound popularity as Silicon Valley's hardware manufacturer of choice. China has also enjoyed new global influence as a technology hub as its local brands such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent rack up large chunks of market share in Asia versus Western competitors. But despite China's rise to tech prominence, Google's experience in the country has apparently changed the way it looks at the region.

"We argue strongly that you can't build a high-end, very sophisticated economy... with this kind of active censorship," Schmidt continued. "That is our view We believe in empowering people who care about freedom of expression."

This tension between China as a facilitator of tech innovation as well as the source of various human rights concerns was the focus of a recent Time magazine cover story titled "The Cult of Apple in China." Presently, China sales represent roughly 20 percent of the company's overall revenue, a staggering figure that has compelled Apple to become more aggressive in its efforts to cater to Chinese consumers while remaining sensitive to local human rights issues and factory conditions as the global community watches closely.

On the other end of the spectrum, Google's fortunes in the country appear nowhere near as robust. In fact, Schmidt extended his comments beyond the topic of censorship and painted a rather dark picture of China for the future.

"The evidence today is that Chinese attacks are primarily industrial espionage... It's primarily trade secrets that they're trying to steal, and then the human rights issues, that obviously they're trying to violate people's human rights," Schmidt said. "So those are the two things that we know about, but I'm sure that there will be others It's probably the case where the Chinese government will continue to make it difficult to use Google services The conflict there is at some basic level: We want that information [flowing] into China, and at some basic level the government doesn't want that to happen."

For more, see PCMag's Life Behind the Great Firewall of China slideshow below.

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Google's Schmidt Predicts End of China's Internet Firewall

PALO ALTO, Calif.

Facebook has new competition. A Palo Alto-based developer on Monday launched a new social networking website that has investors going "gaga."

Lady Gaga fans like Hayward's Elizabeth Ortiz are called "little monsters."

Ortiz proudly shows off her tattoo inside her lip that reads "monster."

"It's inspired by Lady Gaga," she said.

And now the so-called "Mother Monster" Lady Gaga has launched her own social networking website called LittleMonsters.com.

The social networking website was in beta testing for months and just went online to the general public Monday. Like Facebook and Twitter, users on LittleMonsters.com can have followers, chat, post comments and pictures and engage in other activities.

But unlike Facebook, the site is all Gaga all the time.

Palo Alto based company Backplane developed LittleMonsters.com.

Silicon Valley 411 reports the company raised $4.3 million from investors, far more than it needed.

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New social network site centered on Lady Gaga launches

By Jocelyn R. Uy Philippine Daily Inquirer

Health Secretary Enrique Ona

It turns out that the Philippines is not exactly new to the milder forms of the virus that has killed many children in Cambodia.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said enterovirus 71 (EV-71) infections have been occurring in the country, though reported only intermittently, but the deadlier kind is still very rare.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona and the World Health Organization also clarified in a joint statement Tuesday that the Cambodian EV-71 was of the encephalitis type and not hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD), a self-limiting illness, as health experts earlier announced.

Ona explained that the virus, excreted in human feces, causes different diseases of varying intensity, which includes the usually mild HFMD, acute respiratory disease, acute flaccid paralysis and the deadly brainstem encephalitis. It is the latter that caused the death of more than 50 children in Cambodia.

The Cambodian victims experienced fever followed by rapid respiratory deterioration and impaired consciousness. Death occurred 24 hours after hospital confinement, said Ona.

To ensure that the Philippines remains free of the deadly strain of the EV-71, Ona has directed all hospitals and health providers to report to the DOH individual cases, or even outbreaks, of all EV-71 infections.

Mandatory notification will improve monitoring of EV-71 infections and ensure that necessary measures are in place to guarantee that the Philippines is free from the highly fatal, severe form of EV-71 infections, stated Ona.

The health department has advised the public, especially those with infants, to properly dispose of baby diapers or human waste, to observe strict personal hygiene and observe regular hand-washing to prevent the spread of the virus.

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Cambodia Killer: Mystery disease nothing new in PH

By GARY PINNELL | Highlands Today Published: July 11, 2012 Updated: July 11, 2012 - 12:00 AM

If Art Subklew could describe the 2012 election in a word, it would be exhausting.

Republicans and Democrats find little to agree on these days, but they react similarly to the 2012 presidential campaign. Nearly identical percentages of Republicans and Democrats say the election will be too tiring and annoying.

But on the positive side, there also is widespread agreement that the campaign will be informative and thrilling.

A June survey of 2,013 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found just 49 percent expect the election to be entertaining. Fifty-nine percent of Dems say the election will be exciting, compared with 51 percent of Republicans and just 41 percent of independents.

Sally Strickland's word is frustrating.

"People don't get it," said Strickland, who isn't an Obama supporter. If she could magically change something about this election, she'd force the candidates to tell the truth.

Eighty-five percent of Republicans and 83 percent Democrats say the campaign is important, as do 77 percent of independents. Not Crystal Serrano, who buys gold at Lakeshore Mall.

The Avon Park woman is apathetic. "I'm not a very political person. I'm trying to get into it. But my one vote doesn't really count for anything. I wish it could."

Monica Celebrano of Sebring is just annoyed. "It's not for me, it's really not."

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A word about the election

Jim Cramer says, The markets are as "dumb as plywood." But that's a good thing, because it means that anyone paying attention can profit from it, he says. Case in point: A 271-word press release from truck engine maker Cummins (CMI), which, just after 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, single-handedly took down the entire DJIA. Cramer said the press release starts out simple enough, with yet another dividend boost, but then things turn ugly when the release announced lowered full-year revenue guidance. Cramer said for a growth stock like Cummins, the lowering of revenue forecasts is a "death blow". It signals that the world is either slowing or the company's best days are behind it. In the case of Cummins, the company continues to innovate and take market share from rivals like Navistar (NAV), so it's clearly not a company in decline -- which means that the world's economies are indeed slowing more than forecast. Cramer said investors could of seen this coming an avoided it if they were listening to the Alcoa (AA) conference call Monday night. The aluminum maker told investors that demand was slowing more than forecast. Cramer said opportunities like today's can easily be spotted if investors have their eyes open and are paying attention. OFF THE CHARTS: Cramer and colleague Scott Redler went over the chart of Facebook (FB), the IPO disaster from two months ago that might finally be worth owning. Redler felt that shares are now a buy between $30.50 and $32.50 and he expects strength to continue to an additional seven to eight points of upside. Cramer, however, remains bearish on Facebook, saying it's too dangerous to own before the company reports earnings on July 26. Too many questions remain about the Facebook's business, he said, and only the earnings call can answer them. HOME RUN DERBY: The results are in and "Mad Money" viewers have voted Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) as their pick for the biggest winner in the 2H of 2012. While the markets are expecting Belviq to be a $1B-$3B opportunity for the company, it may not be able to live up to the hype, Cramer says. All things considered, Cramer said that Arena has a risk-reward that's too dicey. He prefers Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX), another of his five candidates from Monday's show. He said Onyx's blood cancer drug is also awaiting FDA approval and would be the company's second drug on the market. EXECUTIVE DECISION: Cramer sat down with Jeff Bradley, CEO of Globe Specialty Metals (GSM), a high-quality producer of silicon-based specialty metals. Shares of Globe are just off their 52-week lows but sales were up 5% in the company's most recent quarter. Cramer said Globe tells a compelling story and doesn't deserve to trade alongside other, ailing cyclical companies. NO HUDDLE OFFENSE: Cramer said he's still reluctant to call a bottom in natural gas. While it's true that drillers are slowing production and moving assets into finding oil, and both the U.S. and Canada are progressing with plans to export natural gas to the rest of world, that's still not enough to move the needle. LIGHTNING ROUND: (Bullish) HON buy on weakness; DIS; LULU; CMG; SBUX; CELG. (Bearish) TSCO; GR ring the register and sell; SCSS.

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Jim Cramer's "Mad Money"