One person's tyranny ...

... is an other person's purity test. In this rather rambling speech at CPAC, Beck does raise valid points about the GOP, but in demanding some kind of purity test for the faithful he seems oblivious to the tyrannical nature of this agenda. Creepy.
參考來源： Glenn Beck CPAC 2010 Speech VIDEO: Republicans Don't Need A Big Tent (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Spies Like Us

From the Telegraph (UK): "Mossad’s hit in Dubai initially seemed like a textbook assassination, but now awkward questions are being asked of Israel’s government."

 參考來源： Mossad: the Keystone spooks - Telegraph (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Techno-anxiety

I think it's funny that when Google or Facebook go on the fritz, a small vocal group of people freak-out, then the tech bloggers freak-out then the MSM freaks out. And by the time they're done freaking out, the problems been solved.

 參考來源： Facebook Status Glitches Plague Users (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Welcome to the future

There is a lot of conjecture in this article about Chinese hackers, but it does raise a few points about China's emerging technological prowess and its people's relationship not only to the West, but to their own government.

 參考來源： Panda Case Offers Inside Look at Underworld of Chinese Hacking - WSJ.com (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

What next? Book burnings?

Just when you think the Tea Party movement's foot soldiers can't scrape any more out of the bottom of the barrel of stupid, you get this gem ...
參考來源： Socialist books in the White House library? A blog provides photo evidence but only part of the story - Short Stack (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Best Tweet aggregator ever?

Someone needs to combine pleaserobme.com this with Google Maps for easier breaking and entering.

 參考來源： Please Rob Me (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Wining China

From Decanter: "Consumers still find the process of buying imported wine difficult because even in international supermarkets like Carrefour or Tesco there is little information on the label to tell them what the wine is."

參考來源： China: we must understand differences or lose out - decanter.com - the route to all good wine (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Diamond in the Rough?

Bravo to the Pulitzer organization for recognizing dogged reporting by the National Enquirer. It does make you wonder if the "mainstream media" abdicated its role by ignoring Edwards after his fall from grace because of perceived liberal bias or in a more complicated scenario, most heterosexual male reporters and editors couldn't get their heads around why the former Senator was such a screw up.
參考來源： Emily Miller: National Enquirer Officially in Running for Pulitzer Prize (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Addiction: The last refuge of a scoundrel?

From the Telegraph (UK): "Disgraced golfer Tiger Woods has taken too long to publicly apologise following his spectacular fall from grace over his alleged infidelities, experts say."

From the moment he was caught, Woods and his handlers went into overtime attempting to first conceal his actions, then failing that, attempting to turn public outrage into sympathy by letting it be known he was in some kind of therapy for his "sex addiction". The underlying message being: "He's not a cad. He just can't control himself." Weak.
 參考來源： Tiger Woods 'apology over affairs taken too long' - Telegraph (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Strained Bedfellows

From Foreign Policy: "The capture of Mullah Baradar doesn't change the fact that, on many important security issues, the United States and Pakistan still don't see eye to eye."

參考來源： Three Huge Ways Pakistan Still Isn't Cooperating | Foreign Policy (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Shake your groove thing

Samsung's launched the coolest campaign in Sweden for its newest handset, the B2100. The concept: 70 mobiles on a glass-top table. Viewers call one phone number, then enter in the number on one of the phones. You call, the phone vibrates in real time and if the cell you call falls on the ground or in an aquarium, it's yours.

 參考來源： Samsung Shakedown (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Wine winner's wonderful new gig

Probably one of the smartest social media competitions to date -- Atlanta-based wine blogger Hardy Wallace won a job with Murphy-Goode Winery based on his online shenanigans -- ended on an interesting note with Wallace moving over to the Natural Process Alliance. I've only had one of their whites, a 2008 Skin Fermented Chardonnay and it was awesome.

 參考來源： The Cellarist : "Goode Job" winner takes a new gig (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Well, that's not what they had in mind ...

From Telegraph (UK): "Google Buzz, the new social networking site, has been reported to federal investigators in the US over allegations it violated consumer protection laws."

 參考來源： Google Buzz reported to federal investigators over claims it violates privacy law - Telegraph (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Manishevitz? I think not ...

From Decanter: "Israeli archaeologists said yesterday that they had found an unusually shaped 1,400-year-old wine press that was exceptionally large and advanced for its time."

 參考來源： Ancient wine press uncovers bygone Israeli export market - decanter.com - the route to all good wine (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

If you need to ask, then you haven't been paying attention ...

While India presents itself as the world's largest democracy with an emerging economy and a huge highly educated, mercantile population, what gets lost in this PR push is just what a rogue country it actually is on the world stage. From climate change to nuclear proliferation (see Foreign Policy's "The Elephant in the Room").

By rewarding or turning a blind eye to questionable behavior (Hussein's Iraq in the 80s, any South American Right-Wing dictatorship from WWII to the present), the U.S. only created more problems. The Obama Administration's approach is a break from past bad practices.
參考來源： Instapundit » Blog Archive » WHAT’S OBAMA’S beef with India?… (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Yahoo: not dead yet!

It's not surprising that Facebook owns the lion's share of the, well, sharing, on the Web, but it's interesting that despite being long in the tooth, Yahoo comes in third behind both FB and Twitter.

參考來源： Facebook Drives 44 Percent Of Social Sharing On The Web (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

We've got it covered ...

CNNGo.com has pulled together all its 2010 Chinese New Year coverage from around the region and I think it makes a great read. Keep coming back, the celebration continues for almost two weeks!

參考來源： Chinese New Year | CNNGo.com (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

When "edgy" people are not so "edgy"

More often than not, tired, staid organizations and companies attempt to "get hep" with the kids by inviting a guest or booking an entertainer whose presence is so incongruous to the overall aesthetic or personality of the organization that when the smoke clears all you can ask is: What were they thinking?

 參考來源： The TED v. Sarah Silverman Fight Turns Really Retarded (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

Dick Cheney's War Against Democracy

It's becoming more and more obvious that the former Vice President ("deficits don't matter", "I had other priorities in the sixties than military service."; the vice presidency isn't part of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government) has a penchant for the kind of Right Wing/Communist dictatorial powers he allegedly swears he was/is trying to protect us from.

 參考來源： Cheney's Real Enemy Is Bush - Page 1 - The Daily Beast (在「Google 網頁註解」中檢視)

We are the goon squad ...

Every few years someone does a story on how technology will merge with fashion and give us the most amazing clothes EVER.

I still remember doing Periscope items for Newsweek magazine back in the early 90s where some "multimedia gultch" brainiac would suggest wearable computers. Worse still were the awful khaki pants that has not one set of pockets, but TWO. You know, a pair for your keys and change, and another pair a little further down the leg for your cell phone and Palm Pilot or Newton.

The military as we all know gets the best toys, so I think its cool they they might get mimetic fatigues that absorb the surrounding light of the battlefield and let them blend in more effectively. Still, William Gibson's description of the mimetic clothing of the hacker gang the Panther Moderns is still the gold standard by which all this fashion technology should be measured:

"The precis began with a long hold on a color still that Case at first assumed was a collage of some kind, a boy's face snipped from another image and glued to a photograph of a paint-scrawled wall. Dark eyes, epicanthic folds obviously the result of surgery, an angry dusting of acne across pale narrow cheeks. The Hosaka released the freeze; the boy moved, flowing with the sinister grace of a mime pretending to be a jungle predator. His body was nearly invisible, an abstract pattern approximating the scribbled brickwork sliding smoothly across his tight one piece. Mimetic polycarbon."
in reference to: Fashion Meets Technology: Tech Could Change Your Wardrobe (view on Google Sidewiki)

Hong Kong -- Week Six: Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Bob and I spent Chinese New Year's Eve at a dinner with Helena Lee, the woman who brokered our apartment deal for us. Born in Hong Kong, with a career in both hospitality and property development and management on four continents -- she worked in Hawaii, South Africa and now splits her time between London and Hong Kong -- Helena has been quite wonderful, showing me the ropes of the city, where to go, what to avoid and how to explore the city without falling into too many tourist traps.

Helena invited us to join she and her god son, Nick and his girlfriend, Fleur, both from Brisbane, Australia, for a traditional Chinese New Year dinner, a seven-course meal which included Drunken Chicken (the bird is poached in a garlic, ginger and Chinese rice wine sauce), roast duck, a wonderful spicy minced pork that you wrap in fresh, crispy lettuce leaves, prawns and scrambled eggs, pork friend rice and chicken and corn soup garnished with freshly chopped cilantro and scallions. We enjoyed the meal with a couple of bottles of Gewurztraminer and a Malbec. The company was great and the food incredible.

2010 is the Year of the Tiger and the red and gold banners, flags and ornaments with tiger designs are seen all over the city:

New Years here is a time for family. On Saturday afternoon, Bob and I had gone to Causeway Bay to get some more kitchen and bathroom items at the IKEA. Located about a block from Victoria Park, we forgot about the Chinese New Year fair and we emerged from the MTR to thousands of people milling about. It was insane. A walk that would normally take five minutes was easily 15 to 20.

The kids are the real winners during the Spring Festival. They pretty much get money in little red envelopes or hongbao, on new year's day.  However, the gift becomes ya sui qian, a bribe used to keep the evil spirit of Sui away from making a child sick. You can read more about that here.

Now, prior to new year's day, people have been cleaning out their homes for about two weeks; getting rid of all the bad stuff from the previous year and getting ready to welcome in the new one. It's a time for shopping for new clothes and what's wonderful is to see how in a city so influenced by Western style and culture, children walking around in the traditional jackets and pants. I was able to get this pic as Bob and I were getting the ferry today from Hong Kong over to Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon-side of the city:

I know, I know, he blinked! But we were running to catch the boat and his Mom was just so proud when I asked to take their pic. Cute kids!

We headed over to Tsim Sha Tsui for the New Year's Day night parade. We took the Star Ferry. It's like HK$3.00 and takes about 10 minutes to cross the bay.

I managed to finally get a nice pic of Bob at the end of the ferry boat pier:

When we got to the other side, the waterfront was all geared up for the evening's parade:

And you know what they say: Nothing says Happy New Year and good fortune better than a giant-sized, plastic candied Lotus Root:

Even the maître d’ at Chinese Kitchen on Canton Road got in on the act:

 

OK, we have to admit, the parade was a bit of a letdown. It began with dragon dancers, but then it was followed by a lot of local kids dance troupes, which were cute, but not really what we expected. The San Diego Chargers cheerleaders were there, too.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm not a fan of parades in general. I think it has something to do with the fact that for a few years I lived two blocks from the route of the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California and all the tourists taking up parking and screwing up the traffic jaundiced my view of all parades, Macy's Thanksgiving included ... )

And then my crappy HP digital camera started to give out. These are the best shots I got:

Here's one more pic especially for Bob's grandson, Nate. He wanted to see the fabled escalator. Here ya go, Nate!