This Canadian PSA is somewhat disturbing.
Alex
Since it doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere, you can email us at anipacmen@gmail.com.
With Dane on holidays next week, we will probably get around to recording new episode. So now is the time to send us lots of male mail.
Ahh Taiwanese politics…
For those who feel “Jerry Springer” may be too boorish for their tastes; Taiwanese politics contain even more hair pulling, scratching and name-calling; Minus the Nazi-Midgets who are cheating on their wife with their sister.
See what I mean, here.
I normally don’t post political stuff here, but I just had to link to this piece by Ezra Klein on the hilariously vacuous Republican budget proposal.
The best bit?
It reads like what would happen if The Onion put together a budget.
-snip-
The Republican proposal, as you might expect, doesn’t actually have a health care plan. But it does have this: “Republicans will be on the side of quality versus mediocrity, affordability versus unsustainable debt, and freedom of care versus bureaucrats in control. And we will be on the side of patients, doctors, and the American people.” They are also in favor of good things rather than bad things, moving forward rather than going backwards, the hobbits rather than the orcs, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom. That said, the GOP does understand that some voters might be looking for specificity on their health plan. So they included this graphic:
It’s like someone showed them a flowchart. Once. And only for a few seconds. And refused to explain it. My editor Ann Friedman just walked into the room. “It looks like they’re building a budget molecule,” she said.
A budget molecule. Maybe that’s what they were doing.
Alex
A must-read article about life in Japan during this economically troubled time. While I have had mixed thoughts about leaving Japan 2 years ago, the more I read about the economic situation there the more I think I made the right choice. Have a read here at the BBC website.
On a happier note, watch this good BBC video about the Shinkansen, celebrating 45 years of glorious service. Note the average train delay - 6 seconds.
Now lets hope that the California version now in development can be just as good.
Watch this fascinating behind-the-scenes video now how the Shinkansen is able to keep train delays down to single-second-digits.
While I am at it, let me through in the following photo, from this travel article at the New York Times. I just think it looks cool.
Alex
Watch this interesting video about Hong Kong’s subway company, the MTR. It is a very profitable (!) mass transit company. The key? MTR acts as a real estate developer too, making sure to develop the real estate around any new stations that it opens (Why let private developers make all the profit, when it is the MTR that is spark for any increase in land value?). Vancouver has used the MTR as a model.
Alex
NBC news just had a story on the effects of the economic collapse on Nagoya, Japan. Since I used to live in a Nagoya Suburb, Kariya, this story really interested me. The reporter actual films some of the story from a job center in Kariya! I actually miss living in Japan a lot, and seeing the familiar streets of the city made me a bit “homesick”. But, the actual content of the story makes me glad I got out, and into a pretty stable job back in Canada, when the getting was good.
Alex
This is a bit old, but too good not to post: If browsers were women…
For the record, I now use Chrome after years of using Firefox. I think Dane still uses Opera (as he has for years), but has tried Chrome too.
Alex
