For Valentine's Day (1 of 4): Love Around the World

Saturday Afternoon Tweets: Dead Chinese Pedestrians

It has been a zany day of news events both here in America, as well as around the globe, as evident from these ten tweets (not all of them are about news items):

1) Male Thoughts: And yet another day I've gone without using calculus (top image)

2) Because I'm a Guy: It can take me anywhere between 0.02 seconds to 3 days to reply to a text.

3) Patrick Radden Keefe (bottom image): Astonishing story. Look both ways indeed: Why drivers in China intentionally kill pedestrians they hit.

4) Anne Applebaum: Europe turned away from crises in Libya and Syria. But now the results have arrived on their shores (center image: Both Turkey and Greece have received influx of refugees en route to western Europe).

5) John McCain: Must-read WSJ-Opinion: Beijing's Martial Display_ China puts on a show of military power and nationalism.

6) Bridget Bowman: Two protests confronting each other in Upper Senate Park (in Washington, DC).

7) Denver Post: Two suspects in custody in connection with Eagle County armed robbery where one person was shot.

8) WRAL News (Raleigh, NC): Just in: Authorities evacuate Chatham County Food Lion after bomb threat (it was later revealed that no bomb was found).

9) PRI's The World: This Afghan teen rapper has gone from poverty in Afghanistan to eating sushi in the US (she resides at a boarding school in Utah).

10) Montreal Gazette: "Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee to make announcement regarding gender change status."

http://www.twitter.com

Ten Things to Know: Cold War Remembered

1) "The Originalist," a play about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the second most conservative members of 'The Supremes' after Clarence Thomas, is extending its run at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, until May 31st. The play stars Edward Gero as Scalia. The play was written by John Strand and the production is directed by Molly Smith. (The justice is pict. top, not the actor playing him on stage).

2) The Robert Cray Band will perform at the Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount, Va., one hour south of Roanoke, on May 5th.

3) CINE Cinema Bar Cafe, an independent cinema in Athens, Ga., will be screening shorts in a program entitled The Best Films of the New York International Children's Film Festival on May 2nd and 3rd.

4) According to the BBC, China has overtaken France in wine production. China is however still second behind Spain. America has the highest wine consumption with France and Italy ranking second and third.

5) The BBC also reported that Mustafa Akinci, a center-left politician has won the presidential election for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a country that is only recognized by Turkey. Akinci defeated incumbent conservative Dervis Eroglu by gaining 60-percent of the popular vote. Akinci promises to make stronger efforts to unify the divided island nation of Cyprus.

6) Two of European soccer's most-anticipated weekend soccer games, Arsenal vs. Chelsea in the EPL and Benfica vs. Porto in Portugal, both concluded in 0-0 ties.

7) Author Richard Martin will speak about his new book "Coal Wars" at the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo., on April 30th.

8) Novelist Mary Costello will read from her latest work "Academy Street" about an Irish immigrant to New York on May 1st at Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore, in Washington, DC.

9) According to Uberfacts, the Soviet Union refused to hold the 1980 Paralympics because the nation claimed it did not have any disabled athletes.(1980 Olympics, pict. center)

10) On this day in 1965, CBS reporting legend Edward R. Murrow, who grew up on a family farm near Greensboro, NC, died at age 57. (pict. bottom)

http://www.arenastage.org/

https://www.harvester-music.com/

http://www.athenscine.com/intro.php

http://boulderbookstore.indiebound.com/

http://www.politics-prose.com/


http://www.athenscine.com/intro.php

Tweets of the Day: What To Do About the Great Dictator?

We can't bring ourselves to post an image of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, so in his place, we have an image of Mad King George. The other two images are Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn., top) and The Katzenjammer Kids, a beloved American comic strip of yesterday; we are using their image in reference to a tweet from the always hilarious faux news publication "The Onion."

Though many of these tweets suggest vast opposition to intervention in Syria, I support any measures as it now seems clear that thousands and thousands could be randomly killed if something is not done to stop him and his insanity. But, we do feel obligated to show a range of public opinions.

Here we go:

1) CommonKnowledge (@CommonKnowUK): "China sends warships to #Syria. Joining Russian warships in the Mediterranean."

2) Raquel E Saraswati @RaquelEwati: "Oh Thank God Madonna lent her foreign policy expertise to the debate on #Syria. SAID NO ONE EVER."

3) Reason @reason, a conservative Libertarian magazine: "Polls show Americans demand Obama get Congressional approval for #Syria airstrikes."

4) TheNation @thenation, a liberal magazine: "President Obama was right to seek approval to strike Syria- but new Congress must turn him down."

5) Hurriyet Daily News@HDNER: "Eleven G-20 states, including #Turkey and #US urge strong response to #Syria #chemicalattack"

6) The Onion @theonion: "Nation Throws Great Temper Tantrum Upon Learning Syria is Complex, Nuanced Issue."

7) Dennis Kucinich @Dennis_Kucinich, a former Democratic congressional rep from Ohio:"Busy day today! I'm on @oreillyfactor tonight; 8:30 ET talking #Syria. Tune in if you can."

8) Roll Call @rollcall: ""Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va) sees Syria vote coming within two weeks."

9) Slate @slate: "With #Syria, Obama made the exact same mistake Bill Clinton made 20 years ago with Serbia."

10) The Daily Beast @thedailybeast: "@nytimes staffers got 'physically ill' watching and editing #Syria execution video."

11) The Hill @thehill: "Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) leaning towards supporting military action in Syria."

12) DenverPoliticsNews @denverpolitics: "AP Survey: House shows opposition to Syria attack."

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.rollcall.com/

http://reason.com/

http://www.thenation.com/

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/

10 People Who Will Decide Election (10 of 10)_ Wisconsin

It is now 7:00 a.m. in Stockholm, Sweden, 9:00 a.m. in Dubai, and high noon in Shanghai, wherever you are, you're with the greatest blog in the universe....well, we don't take ourselves that seriously. And, we are ripping off that slogan from the BBC World Service.

Today, we finally conclude our long-drawn out series on the American Presidential Election, which is now a mere 26 days away. Our focus will be on Wisconsin, the home state of Republican nominee Mitt Romney's veep choice Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) who has so far motivated partisan Republicans and far right Tea Partiers while alienating center-left Democrats and possibly independents with his potentially radical views on small government.

And, here is a look at our last fictional voter:

Name: Alexia Demopolous

Ethnicity: Greek-American

Residency: Racine, Wisc.

Age: 26

Gender: Female

Occupation: Pizza delivery

Voting status: Undecided

According to the latest "Politico" swing state map, which we are watching as closely as Jimmy Stewart watched Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," President Barack Obama is winning Wisconsin by a 51-46 % margin.

The local newspaper in Racine "The Journal-Times" is reporting that the Racine Tea Party will hold a 'Victory 2012' rally on Oct. 27th in which U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson (R) will be schmoozing with the most extreme elements of the conservative movement. Thompson is being opposed for the open seat by Cong. Tammy Duckworth (D-Wisc).

Wisconsin is, much like Minnesota and Iowa, a hard state to pinpoint in terms of the state's political swings. Wisconsin was served by Sen. Russ Feingold (D), one of the more progressive members in the U.S. Senate, but after three successful terms, Feingold was surprisingly ousted by Tea Party favorite Ron Johnson who now holds Feingold's seat.

Racine itself seems a bit hard to forecast as Racine County voted for Obama by a 54-46 % margin in 2008, but the county turned around and supported Johnson just two years laters.

Ryan represents Racine as Racine County is in his first district. Tomorrow (or later today) in Danville, Kentucky, Ryan will face Vice President Joe Biden in the only vice presidential debate.

http://www.derangosdelivers.com (a pizza delivery place in Racine, Wisc.)

http://www.journaltimes.com

http://www.politico.com

Olympics Mosaic_ Canada Wins First Gold on Trampoline

With so much going on at once, it is virtually impossible to keep track, yet alone blog about the 2012 London Olympics. And, since we are in Providence, Rhode Island, (not where we're really at) we are virtually the last people in the world to see the Olympics live.

But, we will try our best here:

1) In the women's trampoline final, Rosannagh MacLennan, 23, (pictured above) won Canada's first gold medal thanks in part to a hop from China's Huang Shanshan, who finished with silver. Another Chinese trampolinist He Wenna got bronze. And, Canada's Karen Cockburn finished fourth. MacLennan cried as she heard the playing of "O Canada," the country's national anthem.

2) An Aryan white supremacist in the United States boasted of his attraction to the very gorgeous Czech Republic beach volleyball players Kristina Kolocova (center, left) and Marketa Slukova (center right) who upset the Brazilian duo of Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes yesterday in Olympic play. The fringe right-wing extremist will undoubtedly have to reconcile the fact that the Czech team will next face the American duo of Jennifer Kessy and April Ross.

3) Iranian men's weightlifter Saed Mohammadpourkarkaragh, 19,  has perhaps assured himself of having the longest name of any athlete at the games, but gold in his event went to Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan, a country with a reputation of long surnames of their own.

4) Chinese women's diver He Zi, 21, has perhaps assured herself of having the shortest name of any athlete at the games and she will be taking a silver medal home too; we were amused when the NBC announcer said the diver, quite an attractive athlete, did not have a boyfriend because she doesn't have time for that. Her teammate Wu Minixa won the gold, while Laura Sanchez Soto of Mexico came in the third today. Italian diver Tania Lagnotto finished a respectable close fourth. We were also impressed with American diver Cassidy Krug (pictured below), a Stanford University alum and one of our favorite American athletes; she finished seventh in an event that featured many amazing dives.

5) We conclude with another water sport as the United States beat Italy 9-6 in women's water polo in a quarter-final match. Melissa Seidemann, who like Cassidy Krug is a graduate of Stanford University, had a hat trick in the win.

http://www.olympic.ca

www.usawaterpolo.org

http://www.usadiving.org

http://www.gostanford.com

http://www.kolocova-slukova.cz

Olympic Stories- Turkish Female Weightlifter (almost) Medals

Though Chinese women's weightlifter Wang Minigjuan, who turns 27 in October, (pictured below) won the gold medal in the 48-kilogram lightweight division on Saturday at the 2012 London Olympics, Nurdan Karagoz, 25, got considerable media coverage in her native Turkey as she finished fifth.

Karagoz scored a 187, which was the result total of her three combined lifts. Earlier, Karagoz won silver at the European Championships held in Antalya, Turkey, she won that some color medal at the previous European Championships in Russia. Additionally, Karagoz won a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in France.

Weightlifting has been a popular sport in Turkey since the legendary men's weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, aka the Pocket Hercules, won a gold medal in the sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. 

Despite being a four-time world champion (2002, 2003, 2005 and 2009), Wang Mingjuan had never competed in the Olympics due to injuries. In London, the Chinese lifter pulled 91 kilograms in the snatch and 114 kilograms in the clean and jerk.

Except for Karagoz, each of the top six finishers was from an Asian-Pacific nation. Hiromi Miayke of Japan won silver andd Ryang Chun Hwa of North Korea captured the bronze.

 

Parade of Nations (three of four)_ China-Spain

We continue to list 2012 London Olympics athletes who were flag-bearers for their respective countries on Friday with a look at those participating in sports ranging from men's basketball to women's judo.

Here is the latest list:

China: Yi Jianlian (pictured below, men's basketball)

Finland: Hanna-Maria Seppala (pictured, center, swimming)

Jordan: Nadin Dawani (women's judo)

Kenya: Jason Dunford (pictured above, men's swimming)

Libya: Sofyan el Gidi (men's swimming)

Malaysia: Pandelela Rinong (women's diving)

Russia: Maria Sharapova (tennis)

Spain: Paul Gasol (men's basketball)

Quote of the Night- Pearl S. Buck

Today's quote of the day comes from Pearl S. Buck (1862-1973), a novelist and author who was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia; Buck's birthplace is now a historic museum. Her parents were missionaries to China.

Buck wrote her signature novel "The Good Earth" (1931) which earned her a Pulitzer Prize. It was the fist novel in her historic literature trilogy, which also included "Sons" and "A House Divided."

The author is also a noted alumni of Randolph Macon's Women College, which is now Randolph College (a co-ed school) in Lynchburg, Va.

Here is her quote, it's one regarding 'man's best friend:'

"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet remain silent."

http://www.pearlsbuckbirthplace.com

http://www.wvculture.org

http://www.wvtourism.com

http://www.randolphcollege.edu

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (3 of 6)- Barcelona to Beijing

Today, we head from Barcelona, Spain, where they are likely still in jubilation after defeating Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 Soccer Cup, to Beijing, China, where James Fallows of "The Atlantic" seems to spend a lot of time (forgive the frequent magazine reader humor).

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics were the ones which featured the Dream Team which represented the United States. The team which featured Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan beat the African nation of Angola 116-48 in one preliminary game, but hopefully the Angolans got some autographs afterwards.

In women's gymnastics in Barcelona, Tatiana Gutsu of Romania edged American gymnast Shannon Miller for all-around individual gold; Russian swimmers Alexander Popov (pictured) and Yevgeny Sadovyi won five gold medals between them.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, American gymnast Nastia Liukin (pictured here) edged out teammate Shawn Johnson for all-around individual gold; American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals?!


So, today we ask how far a part are these cities; is the answer?:

A) 5,180 miles

B) 5,480 miles

C) 5,680 miles

D) 5,980 miles

UPDATE: The answer is B

Casualties of Modern Technology- Newspapers (2 of 12)

Since I was once a newspaper reporter, declaring my old profession to be a 'casualty of modern technology' may not go over well, but it has been a full decade since I was covering Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors meetings in Woodstock, Va.

According to Wikipedia, there were 6,580 newspapers in the world which sold 395 million copies a day. But, a steep decline has occured since then. As Gene Weingarten, a humor columnist from "The Washington Post" stated a few years ago (this is a paraphrase): 'how can you exist as a business when you give away your product for free on the Internet?'

And, many newspapers across the United States have been hit hard, including "The Herald-Sun" in Durham, NC. The daily newspaper owned by the Paxton Group in Paducah, Ky., had over 50,000 daily subcribers in 2003. As of 2010, it has just over 25,000. As a result, the newspaper fired 81 of its 350 employeees, including prize-winning cartoonist John Cole, in 2008. There have been even more layoffs at the newspaper since then.

The newspaper traditionally consists of features, such as comic strips, classified ads, advice columns, obituaries, recipes, horoscopes and editorial cartoons.

But, newspapers have not lost their value when it comes to informing the public, especially on local issues. This is particularly true today, which is Election Day here in the United States.

Both "The News and Record" in Greensboro, NC, and its alt weekly competitor "Yes Weekly!" will have major stories tomorrow regarding the outcome of a highly contested local mayoral race between the incumbent Republican mayor of Greensboro Bill Knight and his challenger Robbie Perkins, a candidate endorsed by "Yes Weekly!."

According to the PRI show "The World," a radio program that airs on many NPR stations in America, Chinese-language newspapers, including the Hong Kong-based "Sing Tao Daily," are playing a vital role in the likely election of Ed Lee, who would become the first person of Chinese heritage to become the mayor of San Francisco.

But, as to the future of newspapers, that is an open question. In fact, as I was typing this, someone was asking if this household would be interested in getting the local paper in the zip code I am presently at (it was not "The News and Record" or "The Herald Sun).

Status Update_ Today Has Been a Fairly Rotten Day

There are always days which fall through the cracks for whatever reason, and for me today was one of those days.

But, while discovering this image of rotten bananas, we were able to research the banana fruit and learn some relatively interesting and potentially useful information.

Bananas are native to South and Southeast Asia. The fruit is grown in 107 countries. Bananas became cultivated in Latin America by the Portuguese.

The top five banana-producing countries are India, the Philippines, China, Ecuador, and Brazil. Costa Rica which produces many of the bananas found on American grocery store shelves ranks eighth in world production.

Quote of the Week- Sun Tzu

Today, we quip the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu (544-496 BC) who ironically has a statue of himself in Tottori, Japan. We should perhaps dedicate an entry to the tsunami sufferers some time...........hmmm......yeah, that PSA series didn't go over too well (you need to be a long-time reader of this blog to perhaps get the joke and we don't have very many of those).

Tzu's most famous work "Art of War," which Paris Hilton has supposedly read!, was listed by "Mental Floss" magazine as one of the best books once can read on the Washington, DC metro commute between Arlington and the Smithsonian stops (Mental Floss actually said it was one of the best short books to read, we are putting in the DC metro to hopefully 'increase our circulation numbers' in that area which has considerably more people than War, WVa.,* where I am blogging from at the moment**).

Here is the quote from the great Chinese philosopher which will paste here so we can get out of the building in time for Oprah:

"If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril."

*- There is actually a coal-mining town called War, WVa., the far southeastern part of the state.

**- It is not actually where I am blogging from!

Status Update_ When Will E-Harmony Hook Me Up with an Asian Girl?

Status Update for 1/25/11: "I wonder when E-Harmony will hook me up with an Asian girl. Perhaps, the reason why I have this desire stems from my infactuation with the David Bowie song 'China Girl.' Shhhhhhhhhhh...."


I have been an E-Harmony member for almost two years now; it has been a mostly frustating experience.


One chief reason for this, besides all the normal things that go a wry when one is dating someone they don't know, is that they never quite match me with the right woman for my interests.

I must profess that I absolutely adore Asian girls, irregardless if they are Japanes, Chinese, Korean or even Malaysian.

I have never actually dated one though I made a futile attempt at trying to arrange a coffee date with an Asian-American girl several years ago.

The reason for this mgiht well stem from the David Bowie video for his 1983 hit "China Girl." In his recent memoir "Talking with Girls About Duran Duran," Rob Sheffield, who also writes for "Rolling Stone" said that he once told REM member Peter Buck that he was jealous of how girls liked REM when he was in high school.

Buck replied that he once felt the same way about David Bowie in the '70s!

Ironically, my mom is apparently in the process of trying to get her Vietnamese hair-stylist to set me up with a girl from Ho Chi Minh City; we'll see how that goes. Perhaps, I can stop in Hong Kong or Shanghai while I'm at it.

And, hopefully, it will be a more positive experience than the ones I've had with E-Harmony so far!

Quote of the Week- Pablo Picasso

You know an artist is a legend when he or she has two major exhibitions going on in two totally different parts of the globe simultaneously. And, that is the case for the late Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) who was the first artist I had ever heard of as a child (saw his name in a kid's book, textbook or magazine, I think). Currently, one can see his paintings at either the Kunsthaus in Zurich, Switzerland, until Jan. 30 or the Ben Brown Fine Arts Center in Hong Kong (China), until Jan. 28.

Here is the quote which folks at Project Plase, a homeless organization in Baltimore, Md., would definitely disagree with, especially since there could a ton of snow in Maryland starting tomorrow. But, though we disagree with Picasso's sentiment here- unless someone wants to bring their cousin Charles Manson home for Thanksgiving, it is certainly amusing:

"Is there anything more dangerous than sympathetic understanding?"

Quote of the Day- Rutger Hauer

We continue our series of 32 quotes from people, who may be dead or alive, associated with one of the 32 countries in the 2010 World Cup.

For The Netherlands (we prefer to call it Holland), we go with '80s action film star Rutger Hauer, seen here in the original 1986 version of "The Hitcher."

Holland is off to a good start in the World Cup as they beat Denmark 2-0 on Monday.

Hauer is also known for his role in the 1982 science-fiction film "Blade Runner," which has become a cult classic.

Here is his quote:

"Good guy or bad guy, hero or anti-hero; it doesn't matter to me, what role I play, only the character have something magical."

SIDEBAR: Apparently, North Korea recruited many soccer fans to support their country's appearance in the World Cup, but since there are severe travel restrictions on the citizens of the isolated nation, many Chinese people have come to support 'The Boys from Pyonyang.'

China did not qualify for the World Cup. The BBC talked to Wang Qi, a Chinese man who has professed loyal support for North Korea. At the last minute, North Korean officials decided that they could send a delegation of fans from their own country to South Africa after all. But, in spite of the support of the imported Chinese fans, North Korea still lost 2-1 to traidtional powerhouse Brazil yesterday.

But, there was a bright spot for the North Korean team as Ji Yun-Nam scored a goal for them in the waining minutes of the match which assuredly came as a surprise to soccer fans in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paolo and perhaps just about everywhere else!

Quote of the Week- Mao Tse Tung

Since we made the decision in jest to quote radical left-wing folks this month on our blog (perhaps, not the wisest decision considering I live in a town just slightly to the left of Provo, Utah), we are continuing on with a quip from the brutal Chinese dictator Mao Tse Tung (1893-1976), who apparently never got to see Scooby Doo at Carowinds (an amusement part in Charlotte, NC):

"There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants."