* Astronomy

Chinese authorities' closure of a leading Tibetan intellectual's blogs signals another online chill, Human Rights Watch said today. Oeser, whose blog at http://woeser.bokee.com was closed in late September, is the first Tibetan writer inside the mainland to openly raise in Chinese critical questions about China's role in Tibet and to urge Beijing to negotiate with the Dalai Lama. Oeser, born in 1966, graduated with a degree in Chinese from the Southwestern Institute for National Minorities in Chengdu, and later attended the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing as a visiting scholar. From 1990 she worked as an editor of the journal Tibetan Literature (Xizang Wenxue) in Lhasa. She is the author of 10 volumes, including one book of collected poems, a prose volume Notes on Tibet (2003), and two books on the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution which are not distributed in China. She was removed from her position at the Tibet Cultural Association in Lhasa in 2004 after China's United Front Department and its Publications Bureau determined that her writings contained "political errors" due to the positive references in Notes on Tibet to the exiled Tibetan leader. Oeser has reportedly has been unable to apply for a passport since then.

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Google appears to have rather carelessly mislaid the whole of Tibet, the once independent state turned autonomous region of China.

Google mislays Tibet, as a quick query on Google Earth confirms, Tibet is conspicuously absent from the search monolith's database, which comes as something of a surprise since even Beijing decided to call the place the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) after its military occupation of the country which began in 1949.
The rest, as we all know, is history. While the Tibet issue has become one of Hollywood A-listers' pet causes célèbres and an ongoing source of indignation to lovers of democracy worldwide, the Chinese have got on with the business of dragging the country kicking and screaming into the 21st century (the Chinese version) or systematically raping and pillaging a once beautiful land (according to the pro-Tibet lobby).
The key to China's development of Tibet is its military presence there. Opponents of the regime reckon there to be anything up to 500,000 People's Liberation Army (PLA) personnel in the region. Beijing says there are just three border guards and a small Yorkshire Terrier called Chairman Mao who acts as regimental mascot.
Well, we decided to go and have a look for ourselves - on Google Earth, naturally. And before we start our short tour of Tibet, be warned that before trying this at home, bear in mind that the place is bloody vast and background information is scarce and often wildly inaccurate, especially with regard to Chinese military facilities.

Another caveat: we're assuming for the purposes of our flight over Tibet that the country includes the Qinghai (Amdo to the Tibetans) province to its north-east, as claimed by some pro-Tibet forces:

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A young Tibetan writer secretly sentenced to one of the harshest jail terms in recent years in the Himalayan region over a book he never published has appealed to the United Nations for help.

In a letter smuggled out from the Chusul prison on the outskirts of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and seen by The Times, Dolma Gyab said his aim was to draw attention to the situation in Tibet and to seek help against a 10-year jail term that he said was unfair.

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To counter the poaching of endangered animals and to promote conservation, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, made an emotional appeal to outlaw the trade in animal skins in January.

Now Tibetans are burning wild animal furs and infuriated the Chinese who regard such actions as disruptive.

In January, the Dalai Lama told pilgrims at the Kalachakra, a Buddhist prayer meeting, in south India that he was "ashamed" to see images of Tibetans decorating themselves with skins and furs.

"When you go back to your respective places, remember what I had said earlier and never use, sell, or buy wild animals, their products or derivatives".

Eight Tibetans have been arrested in Sichuan province since late February for carrying out the burning "under foreign influences".