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POPSMadagascar - a destination with a difference Madagascar's wildlife is unique, and the island is home to 11 species of lemur, many kinds of chamaeleon, and a host of other creatures.Set in a striking landscape ranging from lush jungle to spiny forest and from colourful towns to idyllic beaches. If you are looking for a destination with a difference, Madagascar certainly fits the bill.
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POPSRestaurant review: Burma Superstar's new location in Oakland's Temescal District I so want to try the tea-leaf salad: Left to my own devices, I went for the obvious - starting with the tea leaf salad ($9). The pile of pungent, soft, fermented tea leaves is so alluring I might follow it into a dark alley some night. Arrayed around the tea leaves are small heaps of ingredients of all different textures and flavors - potent dried shrimp and fried garlic slices (too many, really), crunchy split peas, nutty sesame seeds and peanuts, tomatoes, lemons, and on and on, all over a bed of chopped romaine. Tossed tableside, it's a three-ring circus in your mouth.
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POPSChina Time Art in China - the struggles; Western attitudes and more. Matthew Carver's thoughts after a visit there.
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POPSDragon Jewellery, Men Jewellery, Women Jewellery, Fashion Trends, Fashion Accessories, Fibre2fashion Dragon Jewellery, Jewellery To Outlive Fashion Trends, Chinese Jewellery Finds Way Into Other Asian Markets, In An Exclusive Interview With Fibre2fashion, Officials From Choi Tai Fook, A Popular Chinese Jewellery Brand State, That Their Brand Mainly Targets Southeast Asian Women Fond Of Chinese Traditional Culture Instilled In The Exclusive Designs
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POPSAsian Women I love the colors and textures here - sent by a friend on StumbleUpon - wanted to share.
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POPSSix Questions for Juan Cole, Author of Engaging the Muslim World In the Cold War, the U.S. blithely overthrew democratically elected governments in Syria and Iran to ensure Western European access to inexpensive petroleum, considered by elites in Washington, D.C., to be key to free market economic growth and to defeating the Communist bloc. Iran in particular never forgave the United States for this heavy-handed intervention. Going forward, the temptation to conduct further oil wars will be severe. Once the world economy recovers, demand will spiral up, and the discovery of new fields is unlikely to keep pace with that new demand, especially that of China, India, and other rising Asian powers with large populations.
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POPS'Oldest English Words' Identified The researchers used the university's IBM supercomputer to track the known relations between words, in order to develop estimates of how long ago a given ancestral word diverged in two different languages. They have integrated that into an algorithm that will produce a list of words relevant to a given date. "You type in a date in the past or in the future and it will give you a list of words that would have changed going back in time or will change going into the future," Professor Pagel told BBC News. "From that list you can derive a phrasebook of words you could use if you tried to show up and talk to, for example, William the Conqueror." That is, the model provides a list of words that are unlikely to have changed from their common ancestral root by the time of William the Conqueror.
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POPSThe Chinese way of transgenic rice The European discourse of playing God does not play well in Asia; it presupposes the God of Genesis, a creator with a plan, a garden, absolute control and a stable equilibrium of species. And in general the Apocalyptic vision of European political activism has not penetrated beyond small numbers of urban professionals in Asia, where grounds of objection to transgenics have to do with consumer preference and resistance to corporate globalization. China is the case that confounds the discourse; not , but Chinese scientists have been the drivers of transgenic research and development. China showed how public sector investments in transgenics could target specific problems in agriculture without signing away the farm. China is moving aggressively to boost biotechnological research, citing the awesome responsibility of ensuring enough food for its huge population. Anyone paying attention to China's melamine adventures and other product quality issues has
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POPS'It's the culture, stupid!' Europe “All that has made European culture and civilization great – the Europe of the thousand cathedrals, the Europe of the custodians of the artistic treasures, of literature and Christian music, the Europe that expressed real solidarity and service to the poor through the emphatic force of Christian charity – found their origins in the Bible,” Oceania Putney, 62, noted the striking cultural contracts in his region, from the highly Western and secular ambience of urban Australia and New Zealand to the staggering variety of indigenous tribal groups in more rural areas and across the islands of Oceania. In Papua New Guinea alone, he noted, there are 847 distinct languages, and overall there are as many as 1,200 different tongues in Oceania.
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POPSWhy do displays of compassion differ between East and West?
I am trying to understand A bit more: "In many Asian countries, favors invariably create obligations, which is perhaps why people are sometimes disinclined to interfere in the problems of others. You are obliged to take care of your family, your friends, or even your fellow countrymen. But the idea of universal charity is too abstract, and smacks of the kind of unwelcome interference that Western imperialists — and the Christian missionaries who followed them — practiced in the East for too long. The notion of "Asian values," promoted mostly by Singaporean official scribes, was partly a critique of universalist Western claims. Asians, according to this theory, have their own values, which include thrift, deference to authority, the sacrifice of individual to collective interests, and the belief that countries should not stick their noses into others' affairs. Hence, the hesitant response of Southeast Asian governments — and public opinion — to the Burmese disaster." see source
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POPS Al Gore Endorses Al Franken!!! Franken's old Playboy article concerns Democrats Rep. Betty McCollum, who supported the comedian's rival Mike Ciresi until he dropped out of the race for the party's nomination for the Senate, complained Thursday that she and other Minnesota Democrats will be on the same November ballot as a candidate "who has pornographic writings that are indefensible." http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1412373&nid=213 Franken Asian Sterotype Shock Video For a person who wants to represent Minnesota in the United States Senate, this video clip will most certainly call into question the credibility of someone who apparently doesn't realize that Minnesotan has one of the largest Hmong population in the country. A culture that has succeeded in this nation by having to fight against racism, inequality and cultural stereotyping. http://www.minnesotademocratsexposed.com/2008/03/14/franken-asian-stereotype-shock-video/
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POPSRow over fish in urinal The best bit - "The owner added that the fish were intended as an attraction for diners and were not used in dishes." :-))
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POPSThe Billy Letters Bill, Greetings. Received your letter. Glad to hear my letter to you in '99 made a difference. When do you graduate? Yeah, get me a subscription to Radar Magazine. What is it about? Know any Asian girls willing to correspond? Send pictures. You can photocopy 5 on 1 page or send 'em singular. Nothing scenic though. Send some of girls in bikinis. Do you go clubbing? Seen any good movies? Saw 3:10 to Yuma the other day. It was an OK Western. Didn't do too good at the box office though. Do you have family? I'm youngest of five. That's all for now. Take it E/Z write when you get a chance. Your friend, Richard
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POPSResurgence of the fake tattoo Fake tattoos have come a long way since the ones that came with my 5 cent piece of bubblegum at 7-11. Now they look more real than fake, like the tattoos that covered Guy Pierce's body in "Memento". Yesterday, my students saw my new tattoo for the first time and one of them asked, "Are you ever going to have them removed?" Without skipping a beat, I answered, "No, I'm going to be an old Asian lady with tats." He said, "I wish my grandma had tattoos." We had a good laugh but it did get me thinking about the permanence of these pieces on my body. I love the work that's been done on me. I know they are permanent. However, I can see why people would want temporary ones. I really don't get the whole "wild of a night" thing or idea that you can be a "rebel" for a moment. But maybe that goes with the idea of watching too much Miami Ink. Is it still subversive to have tattoos?
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POPSDebating the Color of Europe: Point-Counterpoint between Marine Le Pen and Tariq Ramadan What people fail to appreciate is that Europe was never as pure as we imagine it. Western culture developed in tandem with Eastern culture, not separately. Most European ethnicities originally came from Central Asian populations. The process of redefinition and cultural influence has been going on in Europe for centuries. Short-sighted people like Le Pen are not just foolish for wanting to stop it, but for even thinking they can. A culture cannot isolate itself from the world. This was true during the Medieval Crusades, and it is even more true today. Immigration is the fundamental nature of man. Isolation is the basic reaction of the ignorant and fearful. Of course, Europe has never been bashful about imposing its culture over local cultures around the world. Could the immigration debate be a vestigial reflex of imperialism?
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POPSCulture Influences Brain Function, Study Shows To read the full interesting article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080111102934.htm There is so much to learn. What is interesting is how this affects testing as in schools or IQ. I think it may start to show what many of us already know. People think and perceive differently and need to be tested that way or tests not given the same importance. People/children learn differently. I have a strong opinion that things won't change very fast in the classroom though. But maybe parents can learn and appreciate what they have. Maybe people can start to appreciate differences and what we all bring to the table.
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POPSHouston's "New" Chinatown I think this may be immigration at its finest. They're achieving their "American dreams" through sharing their cultures, but still being diversified, which in the end benefits us all. So what would work as a visual symbol for the new Chinatown? How could you depict a place that's pan-Asian, old and new, united mainly by entrepreneurial zeal?" "Personally, I hope the winner is a gate: a gate big enough to drive a car through, on a street that seems paved with money.
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POPSCulture influences brain function “Everyone uses the same attention machinery for more difficult cognitive tasks, but they are trained to use it in different ways, and it's the culture that does the training,”
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