Remember that song from the ’80s by Yes? “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” When I heard that as a kid, I misheard the lyrics. I was convinced they were singing about the “owner of the lonely horse.” (I also thought Starship “milked this city.” I was wrong.) It was not until I was nearly out [...]
When I was in high school, an especially talented teacher brought the hammer down on all of us idealistic almost-voters. Our votes for president, she told us, wouldn’t count. Easy for her to say. And not necessarily wrong. We were living in Alaska, which holds a whopping three electoral votes. And those three electoral votes [...]
An unusual video showed up on the Ifgogo blog that’s created a ripple on the internet over the last few days. It’s a video of a Chinese farmer piloting a flying machine that he is supposed to have built on his own. The shanzhai huaxiangji, or little mountain village glider, if the translation’s any good [...]
Since the screen on my cell phone has been broken for months, that’s been my latest excuse for holding off on signing up for Twitter. No more. So now I’m on Twitter. And what do you know, my first so-called “tweet” is about the last post I put on my so-called blog. And now I’m [...]
The always worthy Frontline is airing a documentary tonight following young Chinese adapting to a changing urban environment: No shortage of stories coming from the city in China. (No shortage of cities in China; something like 100–or more–cities with populations that exceed one million.) I chalk this up, in part, to a fascination with people [...]
Who says politics has devolved into a slideshow? Looks more like it’s the center ring. This was recorded for the WWE, broadcast last night. I guess they really are trying to get that working class white male vote. No more direct route than pro wrestling, right? I like how McCain suggests that he’s “the [...]
I’ve been throwing ideas around lately to all kinds of people. They haven’t stuck, which is too bad. But one of them was to look at the history of the torch relay after reports that the IOC and Britain may forgo the tradition in the runup to the 2012 games. I kind of knew the [...]
Making the rounds online, for good reason. I’ll have more content up soon, I hope.
Here is an amazing feat of engineering.The vehicles and robots from Star Wars were always fun to watch, but seemed less feasible, because they had articulated legs and moved like animals. Wheels seem much more efficient and, frankly, easier. But look at this:Notice how that guy nonchalantly kicks BigDog about 35 seconds in? It’s just [...]
Last August I went to northeast China and for the following five months I’ve been putting together a story about an eco-village in China. Or, rather, an attempted eco-village. Here’s how Frontline/World described it: “The village of Huangbaiyu in rural northeast China was supposed to be a model for energy-conscious design. The initial project was [...]
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