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I was talking to an old friend in Taiwan and realized that I hadn’t put up many pictures from my life and times there.

So here are some:

This was taken during my stay at Liuchiu Island southwest of the main island. I went with coworker of mine and we terrorized the locals and flirted with the women. Okay, maybe not, but the story behind the beer is kind of funny. Both of us were about to head to bed when we heard someone say hello. As we were the only foreigners on the island, we proceeded to track down this voice and it was attached to a group of Chinese tourists.

Actually, the group was comprised entirely of Chinese travel agents from Hong Kong that wanted to see if the island was the next Jeju-do (a Korean island that is a popular vacation spot). They proceeded to stuff our faces with dried squid and play drinking games. Unfortunately Team USA lost to the Hongs. A sad day indeed.

My coworker and I were uber popular just for being us. Seriously. You’ve heard stories of locals in Beijing approaching people just to be in a picture (my friends experienced that last month). Well, the same holds true for their rebellious counterparts in Formosa. This was taken next to the light house on Liuchiu island.

So there are a million Buddhist temples all throughout East Asia, and many of them look the same. The reason I chose this picture is because I look semi-cool with my bike helmet. Fortunately I didn’t show you the picture of my bad ass cruiser, aka 50cc scooter. Actually, if you get a chance, you would probably enjoy speeding around the hilly, yet scenic island. The weather was superb the weekend I visited Liuchiu. And, don’t tell my doctor, but I drove around without a helmet — and tried to emulate a ride down Highway 1.

This is near my home in Kaohsiung. I just wanted to point out that most urban centers in East Asia look like this: developed. Imagine that, people, just like you and I, wanting to live in an air conditioned room, far away from subsistence on rural farms… how dare they!

I briefly mentioned the March election over at AWC. This is an image of a daily occurrence during the run up to the election. Motorcades run by volunteers drive down each and every block blaring music and campaign statements through mega phones. It is kind of cool the first couple of times you see it simply because it is alien to Westerners used to automated phone calls or mass mailings. And each candidate is given a number to be identified with. This was done because it aids those who are illiterate. Thus, don’t blame me, I voted for #9!

This was taken on January 8th, my first evening in Taiwan. I was on a bridge in downtown Taipei and was amazed by the army of scooters that seemingly owned the roads. This was a few blocks away from the Shin Kong building.

I don’t recall the importance of the shot, but it is in downtown Taipei near the Far EasTone building (the easiest place for a foreigner to get a cell phone) and McDonalds (yes, I did actually eat there). Just like I ate at McDonalds in Japan and have done many a time in Korea. Be sure to also check out the Big Mac Index.

For the Bob Barr activists that keep emailing me: stop por favor. Out of principle I don’t vote or donate to any campaign, not even Ron Paul — a person I generally agree with. Plus, I’ve never really liked Barr let alone his running mate.

And speaking of Ron Paul, I saw this picture over at his CfL site:

Ignoring whether or not you like Paul or libertarianism in general, I find the quote spot on.

While the collapse of the I-35 Minneapolis bridge comes to mind, the fact of the matter is the interstate highway system (which the federal government refuses to deregulate or privatize) has been a state of disrepair for years.

For instance, over the past decade, studies published by the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) have estimated that it will cost $1.3-1.6 trillion to upgrade highways to a “good” condition.

Remember, these are the same highways in which 40,000 people die each year.

Yet as Walter Block recently noted in a podcast, if 40,000 people died on private highways, every human rights or consumer rights activist would be screaming at Congress to do something. But because the roads are already owned and maintained by the government, it is just seen as a fact of life. No one is ever fired or held accountable. And there is no incentive to upgrade or fix the roads because there is no outside competition.

In contrast, private companies have an incentive not to kill their consumers because customers will take their business elsewhere. Furthermore, entrepreneurs would be held accountable for negligence as they are in every other market-based industry.

But let’s ignore road socialism and look back at that quote.

According to the July report from Congressional Research Service the total costs for just the Iraq war is roughly $650 billion. If the troops were magically withdrawn today, the long-term costs for funding healthcare and welfare liabilities for the soldiers would reach more than $1 trillion or even $5 trillion.

If you include Afghanistan then add another $170 billion for a bill higher than Vietnam.

The human toll is at least 86,000 dead Iraqis from coalition-related violence and up to 1.2 million due to a combination of sectarian strife and civil war. And roughly 10,000 have died in Afghanistan.

So, the question remains: is either political party going to solve the quagmire they created? I am willing to bet all of the money I have earned this past year in Asia that neither party will solve these issues.

And that by next election cycle, government highways will still celebrate 40,000 fatalities annually and there will be a sizable presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan (think of Japan, Korea, Germany or Italy for continued US occupation).

Any takers?

Like bird watching, there is bound to be someone that likes a good toxic plume. And for your viewing pleasure, Boston.com has compiled a decent collection that involve some space-based photography.

Have you had more than your fill of fake sports?

Looking for some real sweaty action that doesn’t involve judges?

And… you’re a history buff?

Then you might be interested in Assembly (Ji Jie Hao). It’s a new movie, based on the story of a captain in the Chinese Army (PLA side). It takes place during the Chinese civil war (specifically the last major battle in the Northern campaign) as well as some skirmishing in Northern Korea.

If you liked Letters from Iwo Jima (the Japanese-side of the conflict directed by Clint Eastwood; which was also well-done), then you’ll probably like this, as it provides a more humanistic look through the eyes of a non-politicized soldier.

My only beef with the action sequences is during the main artillery bombardment at the beginning, none of make-shift mortar or machine-gun emplacements were destroyed. Super realistic, eh?

Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. Definitely worth grabbing at the video store. Or if you grab a torrent, there are plenty of websites that provide subtitles to it.

If you’re looking for a quick laugh that involves graphs and fake data, check out GraphJam.

One of the better ones:

Then I recommend watching Redbelt. There’s actually more drama/character development than action scenes, so it might not be your cup of tea if you have posters of Steven Seagal hanging in your room.

It has some unexpected twists and turns, and Chiwetel Ejiofor does a great job as the lead actor (you might remember him as the sword-brandishing enforcer in Serenity).

I’d give it a 4 out of 5 as the ending could’ve had a coda to wrap things up.

And speaking of martial arts, for those looking for some funny kicking and punching, be sure to check out Kung Fu Hustle. It’s by the same guy behind the creative Shaolin Soccer.

If you’ve always wanted to do your own decathlon, here is a funny series of athletic pranks (video) by the always-funny Frenchman, Remi Gaillard.

Is being the default fitness instructor for her older sister in college. Seriously, a couple years ago I was a kinesiology instructor at A&M. One of the students told me her sister (Rebecca Soni) competed on the national swim team and knew Michael Phelps. I didn’t think much of the claim, but now I see she wasn’t joking.

I liked Sixth Sense. I kind of liked Signs, at least until the end. But his other movies are just ridiculous. In fact Lady in the Water didn’t make any sense whatsoever as it was completely anticlimatic.

And unfortunately, his latest — The Happening — doesn’t do much for the audience goer either. It combines the most annoying cliched arguments of intelligent design with the sky-is-falling environmental alarmism that would make Al Gore blush.

So, skip it at both the theater and from the local rental store.

Verdict: 1 out of 5. It helped me keep up with my English speaking skills.

NBC reportedly spent $2 billion on securing the broadcast rights to transmit the 2010 and 2012 Olympic games in the US. They had previously spent $1.5 billion securing similar rights for the 2006 and 2008 games. And video access in every other country was sold off like wireless spectrum to regional broadcasters.

While this is not a new phenomenon (FIFA and many other sport leagues have similar operations), there is a bit of annoying statism involved.

For instance, even with oodles of bandwidth I am still prohibited to stream any Olympic event (including rhythmic gymnastics!) from my high perch in Seoul, legally. Wired put together a list of online sites that allow you to view the games, but alas, South Korea is not party to any of the legal streaming agreements.

And this is one of the problems of IP rights over artificially scarce resources. Because firms like NBC will sue enterprising webmasters that upload or post images or videos of the sporting events, few individuals are willing to risk the squeeze. So even though no one is being harmed, no property destruction is taking place, the threat of lawsuits prevents badminton fans from watching total South Asian domination.

And it’s not just NBC, as both the BBC and CBC will not transmit data to the hermit kingdom.

Last year the same problem cropped up with the Rugby World Cup. The event organizers ruled the broadcast rights with an iron thumb and sent DMCA take-down notices not just to fans, but also credentialed journalists. In fact, organizations like AP and AFP refused to go along with these ruggers and wouldn’t partake in covering the event.

Fortunately I was able to watch most of the matches due to torrent sites, but of course, none of them were live (don’t tell me the score to the Welsh-Scotland game dammit!).

This all ends up bumping into the $1 billion Viacom lawsuit against Google (which owns YouTube) for hosting copyright-infringing materials. To me, the ironic part is that the mega content firms are doing a disservice to themselves, because all of the uploading actually shows how popular a show is. So rather than shooting your fans, you’d think that Viacom could somehow monetize this new technology.

Oh wait, after nearly three years of sitting on their hands, Viacom now has dedicated streaming sites for South Park, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report — full episodes, full seasons, for free.

Now if only NBC would allow the same thing to take place with SNL overseas (I can’t watch anything on Hulu because it only serves the US).

Again, I’m not expecting or wanting to force NBC to accommodate people like myself, but I do not think it is very savvy (or libertarian) to sue others for providing a service that you won’t. Plus, I’m a blackhole out here: no one is providing online service at all, so a bottom-up provider wouldn’t be eating up competition…

Boo to the DMCA and the new ACTA.