Unsurprising Gallup Poll

No surprises here: if you're an American and you hate Muslims, you probably hate Jews, too.

During the First Crusade, Europe's Christian soldiers descended upon Jerusalem after months of struggle and found themselves confronted by its protectors: Muslims, Jews and a smaller number of Christians. The Crusaders slaughtered the populace and razed the city.

The behavior of their descendants has not improved much.
in reference to: How to Spot an Islamaphobe - The Daily Beast (view on Google Sidewiki)

Defining Terror

This article examines how Al Qaeda and its ilk, despite the American Right's continued efforts to paint the movement as the next great existential threat to the U.S., are like the Nazi and Communist regimes of the 20th Century in that the people they most torment and murder are those they've sworn to protect.
in reference to: The Timeless Face of Terror - The Daily Beast (view on Google Sidewiki)

But, they feel no pain!

Why does one get the feeling that this is all theater?
in reference to: At Davos, Bankers Are On The Run - WSJ.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Engagement and cooperation

Interesting story: China to participate in a multinational plan to fight Somali piracy. China's ability to project strength beyond its territorial waters will most certainly be analyzed by all Western parties involved, NATO, the EU and, of course, the U.S.

in reference to: BBC News - China's anti-piracy role off Somalia expands (view on Google Sidewiki)

Marriage as a Zero Sum game

The constant equation of same-sex marriage being the death-knell for the institution as a whole is now bordering on the hysterical.

On what planet or in which alternative universe does the making the legal partnership between two consenting adults of the same sex irrevocably damage the same legal rights of opposite sex couples?

If conservatives wish to save marriage, wouldn't it be best to outlaw the no-fault divorce? By broadening the spectrum of those who can get married to the whole adult population, wouldn't that help codify the idea of marriage and importance to the social fabric as opposed to it being some exclusionary club, specificallyonly for those who feel it necessary for procreation?

Like a lot of things in America right now, this is not that complicated, folks. Stop making it so.
in reference to: The Bizarre Case Against Gay Marriage - Page 1 - The Daily Beast (view on Google Sidewiki)

Pork as a verb

Argentine President hopes to bolster sales while giving Silvio Berlusconi a run for his money as Rake-In-Chief.

in reference to: Eating pork is good for your sex life, Argentine president claims - Telegraph (view on Google Sidewiki)

Privatized space? From a "socialist"?

Has the world finally gone insane? See, this is where we separate the Libertarian/Free Market Republicans from the "Just Say No to Everything" Republicans.

Since NASA should have been a branch of the military from the get-go, maybe this is the future for government-controlled space access. The Pentagon goes about its business with big aerospace while entrepreneurs and a whole new generation of pioneers reach out into orbital travel, exploration and research.

On the other hand, in the almost comically deregulated frenzy the U.S. has functioned under for the last 20 years, I can only see more $300 ashtrays or people cutting corners at the expense of human life and costly satellite technologies.
in reference to: Obama Plan Would Put Moon Mission in Private Hands, Not NASA’s - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Somali pirates offer booty to aid Haiti

In other news, Capt. Jack Sparrow teamed up with Davey Jones in a show of solidarity to urge the East India Company to welcome their galleons without cannon fire.
in reference to: Mute magazine - Culture and politics after the net (view on Google Sidewiki)

Poignant essay on the end of Colonialism

The GM here at CNNGo, Kim Willis, brought this article to my attention. After 63 years, the Far Eastern Economic Review stopped publishing and a former editor, Bruce Gilley addressed the changes in the region and why it wasn't just the "scourge of the new media" that contributed to its demise. Great stuff.
in reference to: Far Eastern Economic Review | Elegy for a Colonial Perspective (view on Google Sidewiki)

A fine time for wine in the Kong

Amazing really, because it appears to be an extension of how the region defines success and luxury by using or appropriating Western brands and celebrities. Considering that wine production in the region has been for centuries near to scant.

in reference to: Sotheby's fine wine auction breaks more records in Hong Kong - decanter.com - the route to all good wine (view on Google Sidewiki)

It only sounds funny ...

... until it actually happens. Then it's not funny at all.

On the day of 9/11, one of my co-workers, Rob Myers, looked up from his computer and said, quite simply: "It's like the work of some Bond villain."

And he was correct: An International terrorist hiding in an underground layer, funded in a quasi-legitimate manner with a network of operatives moving freely between borders did a hyper-coordinated attack on a world power from within that country's borders, even using some internal assets (flight schools, etc.) to facilitate the attack.

The Mumbai attack had echoes of similar coordination. Chilling.
in reference to: The World’s Most Bizarre Terror Threats | Foreign Policy (view on Google Sidewiki)

But, but ... It's just a big iPhone!

I think we all kind of knew that, but it's still kind of a let down.

Still, I like the look of that book library ...
in reference to: Apple unveils the 'magical' iPad - CNN.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Breitbart's "reporter" ...

... is now no longer a reporter for Mr. Breitbart's fine online journals?

James O'Keefe is either on your payroll or he isn't Mr. Breitbart. Make up your mind.
in reference to: Breitbart says arrest not related to BigGovernment, but he's paying alleged wiretap plotter O'Keefe "a fair salary" | Media Matters for America (view on Google Sidewiki)

Pay Wall? I don't think so ...

Baleful article on one paper's experiment with the pay wall model. New York's Newsday paid subscriptions are failing to deliver ...

in reference to: After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web Site | The New York Observer (view on Google Sidewiki)

Dirty Tricks party up to its old dirty tricks?

"There's a lot we still don't know about the four men implicated in the alleged attempt to bug Sen. Mary Landrieu's phones yesterday, but a little-known organization called the Pelican Institute appears to be key to the story."

in reference to: Landrieu Phone Bugging Case: What Is The Pelican Institute? | TPMMuckraker (view on Google Sidewiki)

We've heard this before ...

... when the Kindle was unveiled. Interesting to see if Apple can leverage the success of its digital download system for video and audio into a successful print platform.

Remember, the MP3 revolution killed the larger music industry's old business model and negated the idea of the "album" to a greater degree.
in reference to: Apple in Talks With Publishers in Advance of Tablet's Debut - WSJ.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

That's why it's called "reporting"

It's not that most bloggers are stupid. It's that they're just dishonest most of the time.

Since the Right blogosphere is especially adept at misinformation, and its audience so bloody-minded that facts are almost irrelevant if they don't support the preconceived narrative created by Fox, et al, news stories correcting their false assertions will fall on deaf ears. Too bad ...
in reference to: What the Obama School Teleprompter Photos Really Show - Sphere News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Nuclear Terror

Gripping read from Foreign Policy: "As is now evident, assertions about what is "imaginable" or "conceivable," however, are propositions about our minds, not about what is objectively possible."

in reference to: A Failure to Imagine the Worst | Foreign Policy (view on Google Sidewiki)

When High Art Meets Low Brow

Tilda Swinton has been a joy to watch in movies for more than three decades. Anyone who has seen her in Derek Jarman's agitprop movies know she is a chameleon and her performance in Michael Clayton was really one of the film's highlights.

Like Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, Swinton would do Conan proud.
in reference to: Tilda Swinton Would 'Absolutely' Play Conan (PHOTOS) (view on Google Sidewiki)

Bjork - All is Full of Love

The girl just can't help herself ...

Can you spell "recipe for disaster"?

Yes, because the government has done such a bang up job regulating the financial sector, military contractors and health care, now we're going to let the "free market" decide the lives of our astronauts and the fate of our space program. Nice.
in reference to: White House Decides to Outsource Some NASA Work - WSJ.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Mona Lisa Overdrive

If the latter half of the 20th Century was defined on geopolitical terms by the Cold War, with the proxy wars in Southeast Asia and South America, the stalemate which divided Europe and the escalation of nuclear armaments, will the 21st Century be defined by full-scale conflicts taking place in real time on an ongoing basis in cyberspace?

Will countries and corporations (to a greater degree, re: Google's recent infiltration) keep the facade of civility in the public sphere while on the digital battlefield private, personal and government information, money and power is accessed, stolen spied upon and possibly deleted?
in reference to: The Internet war - washingtonpost.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

ElBaradei Unplugged

Interesting interview with former head of the IAEA. He is still shrewd and polite to a fault but manages to get a few digs in here and there with all the players in the nuclear game.
in reference to: Interview: Mohamed ElBaradei | Foreign Policy (view on Google Sidewiki)

Myth-making?

Jobs adds to the jabber about the Unicorn-like Apple Tablet ...
in reference to: Overheard: Steve Jobs Says Apple Tablet “Will Be The Most Important Thing I’ve Ever Done.” (view on Google Sidewiki)

Hong Kong -- Week Three, January 17 to January 23

It was quite the week. I started moving into the apartment and I got to go on a field trip to Macau for the day.

One of the more surreal experiences is actually buying furniture at the local IKEA (yes, they have the meatballs here, too). I went to the IKEA located in the Causeway Bay neighborhood, about half-way between the office in Quarry Bay and my new neighborhood in Central.

Big furniture is on the first floor, fold-out couches, dining room tables, desks and chair, consoles for your surround-sound HDDVDTV ... all very courant. However, the basement level with home furnishing and kitchen tables and chairs has to be the closest I will ever get to shopping in Hobbiton.

Last Saturday, as I was herded through the maze past fugly armoires, chrome and plastic desk lamps, rattan woven trash baskets and crockery, I came upon what must have been the largest Australian I've ever seen. As tall as he was wide, this merry gent and his not-so-ample, yet solid-of-frame wife were test-driving kitchen chairs even I considered too frail and dodgy for my bulky figure.

Everything here is smaller.  Mostly due to space issues, but I think also because the indigenous people are predominantly more compact and slender. My trip out to Macau seemed to amplfy that. I breezily suggested the former Portuguese protectorate was like Atlantic City, but the truth is it's more like LasVegas, if Vegas went to Weight Watchers.

The casinos in downtown Macau are impressive, gaudy, electric gambling dens that would blend right in on the Strip. There's even a Wynn that looks exactly like the Wynn hotel and casino in Sin City, except Lilliputian-ized for local consumption.

Still, despite the fact that someone installed a reproduction of The Venetian nearby (I know, a tiny copy of a copy, right?), I don't think anything beats the glitz of the Grand Lisboa (WARNING, if you're in the office reading this, the casino's website comes with an unfortunate soundtrack):

 

Still, the opulence, faux or otherwise, doesn't take away from the wonderful Mediterranean style of the Macau's original downtown area, especially Largo do Senado, the central square that's beautifully tiled and surrounded by 17th, 18th and 19th century buildings all built in styles reminiscent of Portugal. I didn't get to spend a lot of time, so I'm definitely going back for an overnight stay when Bob's here. Check out the facade of the Ruins of St. Paul's. It was built in 1602 and was burned down several times over a three-hundred year period.

Like a lot of the world, it's been marketed for tourists and there are tons of vendors selling dried meats -- pork and beef mostly -- and the driest almond cookies I've ever tasted. I loved one of the pharmacy signs, though:

Such a comfort.

Since President Obama's visit to China, I've been jonesin' for a Maobama T-Shirt, and while not the original, my prayers were answered:

I got mine in black. I also picked up the Ronald McDonald, too. Such commentaries on Western Cultural Imperialism are that much funnier when you know there's a Starbucks about two shops down from this vendor. The McDonald's was around the corner.

There is always construction going on in Hong Kong, and there was quite a bit of it in Macau, too. I took a cab out to Colôane Island to the world famous Fernando's. It's a Portuguese restaurant of the old school style. While it began very Mom 'n' Pop about 15 years ago, don't let the plain-dressed dining area in the front fool you. They've expanded out the back into a resort-like open air dining area that easily seats a hundred people.

Still, stick to the front, you can smoke there and old-timer Portuguese guys -- ex-pats and Macau-born -- seem to like to hang out and jaw.

Anyway, about the construction. It's everywhere. On my way back by bus from Fernando's, we drove by a rather large swathe of land that appeared to be the new home to a W and a Westin Hotel, as well as what looked like luxury stores and another casino. Recession? What recession?

Back in Hong Kong, while I haven't come across building sites as large as the one I saw in Macau, there's plenty of refurbishing and facade work going on in almost every neighborhood. But what makes this really cool is the use of bamboo. Nope, no steel pipes and girders for the construction teams to amble up and down here, they keep cost down and productivity high going Mother Nature's way:

Yes, that's a bamboo construction platform. On the second floor of a building over hanging a really busy street. In fact, I took this shot on the King's Road. Not far from my hotel.  Some of it's really pretty. This was at a warehouse in the Tsuen Wan neighborhood on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong:

One of CNNGo's city editors, Zoe Li, who covers Hong Kong, well, her family is in the furniture making business, specifically building pieces in the Ming Dynasty style. She heard me looking for some stuff and hooked me up with her uncle, Li Kwan Yau. Oddly enough, I didn't buy any Ming-style furniture from him, but three beautiful rosewood side tables. One for the TV, and another two for lamps and stuff. I also got a small coffee table. Her uncle was generous with his time and offered great advice.

After I made the purchases, I wanted to buy a bag to carry my stuff around. I'm not a fan of backpacks, I was looking for a messenger bag. Mr. Li dropped me off a nearby shopping mall the MetroPlaza in Kwai Fong. Now, as Hong Kong malls go, this one was pretty run of the mill. Middle-class, not too swank like Pacific Place or Taikoo Place here on the island. But what made MetroPlaza interesting was the older, stall like markets in the Kwei Fong Plaza connected to it via a pedestrian bridge.

The home of suspect Hello Kitty Chinese New Year banners, designer jeans, flat screen TVs, mobile phones and digital music and video systems, Kwei Fong Plaza is jam-packed with shoppers and vendors. I tried to take a shot from the top floor on the escalator, but you had to experience it to feel the energy. I'm definitely going back. I mean, c'mon, portable DVD/MP3/HDTV players for HK$300? Sold!:

Yesterday, Mr. Li came to the apartment with his son, Michael, to drop off the pieces and they took measurements for an armoire and a dresser. Their work is impressive, and very sturdy. Mr. Li is one of four sons whose father came to Hong Kong at the end of World War II and began the business. Now Mr. Li is the only son left running in the business. His children have no interest in continuing it and Michael is a programmer. Brave new world.

So a week in Hong Kong wouldn't be the same without me getting lost again and I did, but my missteps took me to the coolest pieces of public art I've seen in a long time:

Dragon's are cool and the Chinese see them as representing power, success and good fortune. I'm pretty sure I was in Wan Chai or the southern part of Causeway Bay when I ran into the Dragon. Good fortune.