better watch your step

A blog called Stryde Hax has done a very thorough job of looking into the whole He Kexin age controversy using "only publicly available, primary, linkable information." The results suggest that she is fourteen and that, possibly, Google has cooperated actively or passively with the Chinese government in hiding this fact.

From the post:

Much of the coverage regarding Kexin's age has only mentioned "allegations" of fraud, and the IOC has ignored the matter completely. I believe that these primary documents, issued by the Chinese state, directly available from China by clicking on the links above rise to a level of evidence higher than "allegation". The following points bear mentioning:

1. Google's cached copy of the spreadsheet does not contain Kexin's age record, and Baidu's does. This does not necessarily imply that Google allowed its data to be rewritten by Chinese censors, but the possibility does present itself.
2. From the minute I pressed the publish button on this blog, the clock is ticking until Kexin's true age is wiped out of the Baidu cache forever. It is up to you, the folks reading this blog, to take your own screenshots and notarize them by publishing them. If you put a link in the comments section, I'll post it.

However, this is minor compared to some other totalitarian moves the Chinese government has been pulling. The government has detained several "tech-art" activists for an attempted LED-based protest, which BoingBoing has been following closely.

More stories of attempted protests and arrests can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

(gymnast age post via Deadspin)