Whatever happened to ... Esperanto?

RGE - Can the Pentagon balance Chinese power …

Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan - New York Times

Cyber horse:
"The Chinese government hardening attitudes towards Japan are correct and the Chinese population dislike of Japan is correct too.

This is not a question of chickhen or egg what came first regarding the recent spats between China & Japan of who started it, who provoked who, on the recent disputes over the sea.

Japan always felt this way about her neighbours for like over 100 years."


LT805:

" I'd second that...

It's quite good that mouthing off is all they can do...

Fundamentally, these extremists don't know what they are messin with this time around. At the core of their heart, they actually believe China is a perpetual fail state. And even with economic progress, will always be less than sub-humans when compare to their "glorious" traditions. You can't reason with insanity...but when push comes to shove, it is my consolation that you can kick their sorry arses."

The Prodigy Puzzle - New York Times

The Observer | International | China's young escape into the web

'The internet is just a tool, not a cause of the problem. Change needs to happen across society. The pressures from school and from home are just too much.'

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Fears for China's cultural identity

As China rises, so does Japanese nationalism

As China rises, so does Japanese nationalism

LRB | Richard Rorty : How many grains make a heap?

Necessary a posteriori truths

China to Give Memorial Rite to Hu Yaobang, Purged Reformer - New York Times

It's boring, it's sad, and there is no one to give your hand to
In a moment of soul's adversity...
Desires! ... what is the use of vainly and eternally desiring?
And the years are going by - all our best years!
To love ...but who then? ...
For a time - is not worth the effort,
And to love eternally is impossible.
If you look into yourself, there is no trace of the past there;
Both joy and torment, everything is come to nothing.
What of passions? - well, sooner or later their sweet sickness
Will vanish in the light of reason.
And life, if you look with cold attention around you --
Is such an empty and stupid joke.

French riots

The Civ 4 Modern soundtrack

The Civ 4 Modern soundtrack
Composer - John Adams

AnfortasWound
ChairmanDances
Chconne
ChristianZeal
CommonTones
GrandPianola1
GrandPianola2
Harmonielehre
HymingSlews
LoopsAndVerses
MeisterEckhardt
ShakingAndTrembling
ThePeopleAreHeroes
TrombaLontana

French actress takes New York by storm

Isabelle Huppert

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Faces of the week

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Faces of the week

"Mikhail Mikhailovich, I challenge you to a duel!"

If you can read this article while making the toast, you could be saving valuable seconds

"But it doesn't pay to be too obsessed with how much time we spend on the minutiae, because even the greatest achievements break down into minutes of mundanity."

With dozens of novels, essays, short stories and translations, Mr. Ba established himself decades ago as one of China's greatest modern writers. Along with Lu Xun, Mao Dun and Lao She, he helped describe and define modern China's awakening and upheaval early in the 20th century.

I remember vaguely as a child (or maybe the memory is constructed) that I saw the television redition of "Family". It was the scene where the youngest child leaves home behind and sails up river. However the significance eluded me then and it was not until last year, when I actually read the novel that all the parts connected.

Let this be a homeage to this literary giant.

Isolated and vulnerable

Something that transpired during the weekend:

Happened downstairs

At first I thought the uproar was just over the game, but minutes later I open the window the parking lot was filled with police cars and ambulances.

Renaissance for the nationality that dared not speak its name

"while it has the defence of being a Plasticine fantasy, is also guilty of sentimentalising and simplifying England; but unexpectedly this vision no longer feels like the concoction of a 'heritage' country for export but as a heroic refusal to bend to American expectation. In a culture enraged by US arrogance and expansionism, parochialism becomes a form of radicalism and resistance."