News That Stays News

Bright Lights, Big City January 22, 2011

An excellent article from an excellent (and apparently conservative) magazine, City Journal, about the long line of New York writers.

Linked January 20, 2011

1. Nicolas Kristof on China. Good news- Xi Jinping, Chinese heir apparent, has a daughter attending Harvard. But then again, Benjamin Netanyahu went to MIT, and he’s no picnic.

2. Blackwater is helping a South African PMC called Saracen stick its fingers in the Somali civil war, with the help of financing from the UAE. I’m glad that journalists continue to ignore Blackwater’s desperate attempt at rebranding by calling itself Xe.

Decrescendo Dept. January 19, 2011

The whole Rare Earth metal controversy may have been blown out of proportion, as US news about China often is (see the post about the Confucius Peace Prize for another instance of this).

Browsings January 18, 2011

1. Where did all the Korean grocery stores go?

2. Five Emotions Invented by the Internet

Linked January 18, 2011

1. American used cars sell in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, even preowned cars take on the gloss of status symbol and have developed nicknames. The 2000 Honda Accord is widely known as “Baby Boy.” The flashy 2003 Accord earned the sobriquet “End of Discussion.” Then came the redesigned, equally impressive 2007 Accord: “The Discussion Continues.”

I’m driving a 2005 “End of Discussion” myself.

2. A profile of Jon Huntsman that does a fair deal of fawning. Though to be fair he has had quite a career- high school dropout, White House aide, Deputy Commerce Secretary, Ambassador to Singapore, Deputy Trade Representative,  Governor of Utah, Ambassador to China, putative presidential candidate.

3. Border Collie learns 1022 proper nouns, rudimentary grammar.

4. Contemporary Asian art. What does a table with three legs look like?

Creating the Military-Industrial Complex January 18, 2011

An intel-style analysis of the advances in the Chinese defense industry.

Who Runs Gov? January 17, 2011

A speculative piece in the NYT about how much power Hu Jintao actually has in China. I’m sure the Chinese think that this is how the American government and media conspire to embarrass them during Hu’s visit.

Really Cool Chart January 15, 2011

We’ve all heard that California would be the eighth largest economy in the world, if it were allowed to secede; thanks to this map of the US, we also learn that Texas has an economy roughly the size of Russia’s, and that Washington, D.C. approximates Kuwait.

“Cronopios and Famas” by Cortazar January 14, 2011

I’m afraid these short stories are unintentionally private, though they may be wonderful in if you can find them in English.  A sample instruction:

“To cry, turn your imagination to yourself, and if this is made impossible by your contracting the habit of believing in the outside world, think of a duck covered in ants, or one of those gulfs of the straight of Magellan where nobody ever goes.  Ever.”

Credit: Lidiya

Early UN Propaganda? January 14, 2011

This article claims that “UN Forces” was used to describe the Allies in WWII, at least in news publications.  It would certainly put Korea in a different context, but unfortunately, I can’t tell if this is really true, or if they just used Lexis to cherry-pick the supporting evidence.