The Milky Way ... cool!

Hello from Shanghai

I've arrived in Shanghai on business. Just got in a couple of hours ago, and decided to kill sometime by going for a walk along Nanjing Rd. -- "China's historic No. 1 shopping street. This Oxford Street of the East extends to over 5km from the Bund to Jing'an Temple including Nanjing Road East Pedestrian Street. Many shops are open till 10 p.m." I've forgotten what an entertainment the street could be. I got propositioned every few steps: "Watches, DVD, MP3, iPod, iPhone, t-shirt, sexy girl massage." It was the same thing, in the same order, from many of the street hucksters. I didn't bite, especially since they all pointed down a less than welcoming side street as the destination to finalize the deal. I did stop in the official Beijing Olympics store to make a couple of gift purchases, however. They had some cool merchandise -- probably once in a lifetime purchase.

On another interesting note: entering mainland China requires the filling out of an arrival and departure card. Most countries have these, and I guess it's an exercise to keep track of visitors. On the back of the Chinese card, was printed the following:

Important Notice

1. Aliens who do not lodge at hotels, guesthouses or inns shall, within 24 hours (72 hours in rural areas) of entry, go through accommodation registration at local police station.
2. Aliens holding visas Z, X or J-1 shall, within 30 days of entry, apply for Residence Permits to the exit-entry department of the public security bureau of the city where the applicants reside.
3. Aliens shall not be employed in China without permission of the competent authorities of the Chinese Government.
4. Aliens who reside or stay in China shall carry with themselves their passports or Residence Permits for possible examination.
5. In case of emergency, please dial 110 to seek help from police.

Those are the rules. I'm obeying them.

View from my Hotel

This is what I see when I look out my window from the 16th floor of the Langham hotel in Kowloon. And no, it's not a funky camera -- just a panorama.

Hello from Kowloon

I'm currently in Hong Kong on business. Spent most of my day today indoors, working. But, I had to get out around noon, since I was starving. I took a walk (see map below) from my hotel to Flower Market Street (a street just with flower shops -- I kid you not). It was a bit of a walk -- 4.4km according to Google Maps. Not bad, but I think I lost a year off with the walk. It was around 31 Celsius today, and quite sticky humid. Nathan Road was crowded with people -- and the air was stifling with smog. You couldn't really see it, but you could breathe it. It was thick, and with the humidity, it was like breathing soup -- really bad soup. The air was also filled with smells -- which I'm not going to comment on, other to say that your imagination has nothing on the reality. Along the way on Nathan, was a block guarded by giant Banyan trees. It was totally cool -- something I had never seen before. Especially to see them cropping out of sides of the roads. I also took the photo to the right of an outdoor market. I walked through it, and it definitely made for good people watching. Surprisingly, the smog and the smells were absent there.


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Caption this

This is funny in many ways ... I can't even begin to caption it however.

26 elements have been added since 1923, when will it end?

The reDiscovery Institute ... I'll let them speak for themselves:

The reDiscovery Institute is non-profit, public-policy think-tank located in Tacoma, Washington, with branches in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas. The reDiscovery Institute fosters integration of science education with traditional Judeo-Christian principles of free market, limited government, property, faith, and corporal punishment.

The best!

Survival

Mary Ellen Park Photography

Mary Ellen Mark's documentary photography: 1987 - 1997 ... demonstrating the power of the art form. Check out the rest of the photos in the afterword, complete with a little story to set context. Very powerful.

Cheers

What we take for granted ...

Steven Segal's Emotion Chart

Nuclear Explosions Since 1945

Naturally, the US tops the list of exploding hell on Planet Earth ... followed closely by the Russians. The British, French and Chinese have done their bit as well, to rattle Mother Earth's bones. [Source: Radical Cartography]

Victorian All-in-One PC

Here's a PC fit for the dead hag, Queen Victoria herself. See more at Steampunk Workshop.

Burning Through Oil

A NY Times graphic on America's oil problem.

Caption This

Brick Works

Drink Tap

The copy for this ad from tappening.com reads:

Every year, 38 billion water bottles end up buried in the earth. Drink tap.

My marriage isn't threatened ...

... by gay marriage. Here's a straight guy for gay marriage.

The Future of Africa

I just found this image at Development Crossing (via peacebob's post on reddit), taken by John Marie Lugemwa, in Uganda. First thought that popped into my head was cute ... second was, hope.

I Got Fired

Would the real Homer please stand up?

Rendered by Pixeloo.

Sunset on Mars

Chicago After Dark

Awesome night shot of Chicago, found on myelectricsheep's flickr account.

Mario, dat you?

Just click on the thumbnail!

Empty Gesture

Pic says it all.

The Leading Edge

A close-up view of the exterior of space shuttle Endeavour's crew cabin, starboard wing and payload bay door was provided by the station's Expedition 16 crew. Before docking with the station, STS-123 commander Dominic Gorie flew the shuttle through a roll pitch maneuver, basically a backflip, to provide the station crew with a good view of Endeavour's heat shield.

Using digital still cameras equipped with both 400 and 800 millimeter lenses, the station crew took a number of photos of the shuttle's thermal protection system and sent them to teams on the ground for analysis. A 400 millimeter lens was used for this image.

Image Credit: NASA

Ålesund, Norway

Ålesund, Norway ... a little sea port that would be cool to visit.

A Real American

This cartoon is so true.

Last Weekend in Ottawa

Ottawa, March 2008 (Winter)

Last weekend, my wife and I were up in Ottawa. I had business on Monday/Tuesday, but we had the weekend. We looked for Stephen Harper (so I could moon him) on Parliament Hill, but could find him. My hopes of him being buried in snow was no realized. On Sunday, we drove into distinct foreign parts, by crossing over to Gatineau Park. There was a lot of snow there. At least three feet. It was winter!

World AIDS Day

Advert for World AIDS day.

Executions at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Everyday, there are lots of executions in China's stadiums. Enjoy the Olympics!

This is part of a postcard campaign by French agency Ayrine, and was produced by an in house team, named Carte Blanche, for a creative competition on social and environmental issues, and distributed by Cart'Com. You can find more social advertising at osocio.

M104, The Sombrero

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 9.0, making it a galaxy that can easily be seen with amateur telescopes. The large bulge, the central supermassive black hole, and the dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.

In all the world ...

I found this image at Dan Phiffer's site, where it's described as:

Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc. Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth.

Click the image to see the original.

Newfoundland Vacation, Oct. 2007

Newfoundland Vacation, 2007

Finally, got the pictures down to a manageable number, and uploaded them. It took some time. Enjoy! (And since there's 796 of them, you'll have to click here to see the full slideshow.)

Dubai Gone Wild

Dubai is on a building spree, as evidenced by these photos collected by Dubai Architecture. For all their advancement in technology and architecture however, it's still a place where have their population aren't considered people, and must hide themselves so they don't tempt their men -- who for some reason, would much rather hang out in the modern splendor being built, with other guys.

Faces of Terror

These images were taken from EastSouthWestNorth's The Children of Iraq. The entry has an exhaustive collection. I couldn't finish looking at all of them. It was too emotional ... too disturbing. It brought me to tears.

Snow Day!

Feb. 6, 2008 Snow Day
It snowed today ... lots!

Soldiers View

Iraq is horrify for us far away from it ... how is it for the soldiers? Check out this post at you.presscue.

Holy Shit!

There really isn't much more to say about this pic.

Poachers Should be Shot

From the BBC: The female rhino survived for 35 hours after being shot twice and having her horn sawn off at Kazrianga National Park in India.

Mars Pic

I was led to this link of a Mars photo at space.com. The caption reads:

NASA'S Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this westward view from atop a low plateau where Sprit spent the closing months of 2007. Several bloggers and other enthusiasts have pointed to a tiny structure (red circle) on the Martian surface as a human figure and thus evidence of life on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.

I thought it was quite ironic, the Google Ad that was dispayed to the right of the image.

Hello Kitty AR-15

I can't explain this. See details here.

Winter

There was snow today -- just a lot of snow fell to open 2008. So we went for a walk. Check out the photos (and previous winter shots).

Tarzan in the Jungle

15 square kilometer of rain forest disappears every minute.

The Age of the Consumer

Text: It's pretty amazing that our society has reached a point where the effort necessary to extract oil from the ground, ship it to a refinery, turn it into plastic, shape it appropriately, truck it to a store, buy it, and bring it home, is considered to be less effort than what it takes to just wash the spoon when you're done with it. Unfortunaltey, no one likes to wash dishes ... and it's so damn cheap to buy a plastic spoon.

1 GB, 20 Years

There was a time, when 1 gigabyte actually meant something. When having 1GB of something, actually, well, it meant something. It gave you bragging rights. It screamed 1 billion! These days, for the "gimme right now generation," it's just something else from their older sibling's generation for them to sneeze at. Me, I appreciate that 1GB from 20 years ago. No, you couldn't carry it around in your pocket -- but boy could you hurt somebody with it!

Barn

Yes, this is a barn.

The Milky Way

As seen from Death Valley.

Living in Three Centuries: The Face of Age

Mark Story has captured 72 faces, of individuals who have lived through three centuries. The faces of age is remarkable -- each capturing more than the normal lifetime of stories. Check them out, and read their stories.

The thumbnail on the right is of the oldest living man in the USA. At 112 years old, he saw combat in WWI, where he earned the Victory Medal, the Occupational Medal, and the French Legion of Honor. He has seven children, and worked as a superintendent of a Sunday School class for 75 years. He never smoke, drank or took any kind of medicine. He drove his car until he was 106 years old, and only stopped after his kids hid his car keys.

Arts, Design Blog

Check out some really cool images from teh Arts, Design Blog.

Stop Victimizing With Reason

I found this amusing. Go on ... click the thumbnail. It won't hurt, unless you don't like reason.