Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.
Or secret option number 4: You might be in China.
The Chinese government has a reputation for blocking certain websites, in a bid to protect the fragile, impressionable minds of its billion-plus population. I've seen this reported in the western press (especially around the time of the Olympics) as another example of how evil and oppressive this place is. But the truth is actually a little different.
Email is blocked! (Actually, no, it isn't.) Wikipaedia is blocked! (Again, no, its not. And that includes the pages about 'sensitive' issues.) I can't read the BBC site! (Yes, yes you can.) In fact, I find that very little is blocked. I can use Blogger and Youtube, I can read the news, and can do everything else I want. This isn't through a special connection set up for use by a foreigner - its from my Chinese apartment. Same goes for my Chinese workplace, and also the Chinese internet bars that I've used. I find that the censorship situation is massively exaggerated. But China-bashing is fashionable, so its ok, right?
That's not to say that some things aren't being blocked. Since the internet is reputedly 90% porn, I guess only 10% of the internet is now available to internet users in China, if this and that are to be believed. Is it right to censor internet porn? Well that's difficult for non-Chinese to comment on, since local laws and the definition of decency vary the world over. I suspect the western concensus view of this would be to say that its a free world, and people should be able to do what they want. But that argument rings hollow when coming from a land with more rules and regulations about what people can and can't do than pretty much anywhere else. Example: Riding your bike without a safety helmet - not allowed due to safety concerns, as decreed by government. But then, isn't it the welfare of the people that the Chinese goverment are thinking about, by attempting to prevent the "destruction of the moral standard of society"? Swings and roundabouts?
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