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At least, not until pick-up trucks become more common (they are non-existent out here), or when oil prices decrease dramatically.

I wonder if there is a direct correlation between liking monster trucks and enjoying WWF style wrestling? If so, then some of my students may become gear heads in the future… because they really like that show.

Via Bob Murphy.

In response to my post on the future of agriculture, several people emailed me a short documentary that looks at rural Japan entitled The Slow Life.

Here is the video hosted at Google:

My major complaint with the video is that it paints the farm life as some kind of magical industry that is on the verge of collapse. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

There are two big reasons why farming as a profession resides in the single digits in the developed world: 1) automation and 2) large, healthy harvests

For instance, in Japan, nearly the entire industry is automated. For instance, the RMAX is a fully-automated UAV developed by Yamaha (Discovery Channel had an episode on one of its variants used in the US for topographical mapping). It fills several roles including the delivery of pesticides and fertilizers. And there are thousands of them flying throughout the Japanese countryside.

In addition not only has the harvesting aspect of farming also been mechanized but the actual crop yields are essentially the highest in the world. Thus less land is needed to produce more crops. And GMOs will further help productive capacity over the next several years.

Back to the video, while some individuals and families may indeed flee from urban centers to live in quieter, nicer smelling regions, their marginal contribution to farming output is negligible at best.

Arguably their futile exercise provides an excellent illustration for why farms have been depopulated over the last several decades: the manual labor is literally backbreaking and subjugates participants to battle all of the environmental hazards that billions living in subsistence want to flee from. The video captures a small portion of the industry and only shows one-side of it.

Oddly enough, I am somewhat pleased by their actions in part because there are fewer hippies left in the cities. Now if only all of the Naderites would jump on that bandwagon.

[Note: the Japanese government subsidizes the industry and outlaws foreign competition -- so land use would arguably different than it is currently (what is so bad about importing a lot of food?)]

I’ve been thinking about feedback loops lately.

In fact, the industry I currently work in thrives on a feedback loop.

Even though English is not the most widely spoken language in the world, the industries and markets it is used in are all highly influential and strategically important.

For instance, because many, if not all web standards and Internet-based communications were designed in the English-speaking world, in order to jump into the game, you really need to learn a bit of English. The same can be said for the sciences and various fields of engineering (i.e., most of the basic and applied research in these specialties are published in English). Wikipedia has a good entry explaining the positive feedback loop and why English will probably continue to dominate and grow (yey for my livelihood!).

I mention this because I came across a recent piece from The Economist discussing political segregation and neighborhoods, here is the money quote:

“We now live in a giant feedback loop,” says Mr Bishop, “hearing our own thoughts about what’s right and wrong bounced back to us by the television shows we watch, the newspapers and books we read, the blogs we visit online, the sermons we hear and the neighbourhoods we live in.”

If there is one thing that I do not miss in my life and times in Texas it is residents that have all the tools and access to information, yet only look at certain material that they agree with. I am hardly saying I’m the picture perfect example of cosmopolitan thinking (which of course, I am), but let’s look at an easy example: Christian fundamentalists.

Many of them (at least the ones I was familiar with), only read books written by fundamentalists. Only watch movies and tv shows that are Christianized or music that is blessed by various I-Heart-Jesus groups. Many conversations are entirely unoriginal as they are merely reverberations within an echo chamber.

I should point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with hanging out or talking to like-minded individuals. Nor am I favor of criminalizing this kind of selective or discriminatory behavior (i.e., if you don’t want to hang out with non-Fundamentalists, go for it). But as noted in that piece in The Economist, much of the mantra devolves into petty group-think.

And fundamentalists are hardly the only group that can be identified and faulted for creating self-fulfilling feedback loops. I’ve met so many hippies out here that personify all of the pot-head stereotypes and unsurprisingly, they all hang out with one another and reinforce that lifestyle.

Again, feedback loops are neither inherently good nor bad but as The Economist notes, when taken to the extreme they have the potential to become violently divisive (or in virtual-space as seen in games like World of Warcraft: the Horde versus the Alliance…). Yankees/Dodgers, Star Trek/Star Wars, Lakers/Celtics, Tyson/five-year olds.

So, looking for someone to recreate the world of South Park, Futurama or Family Guy in a video game? Then hire these guys:

And some other interweb news, id software will be releasing a browser-based version of Quake 3 for free in a little bit (probably around QuakeCon in August). It’s called Quake Live and will hopefully be the beginning of a new trend towards more cloud FPS gaming.

Also, if you thought that map was cool, here is the direct link to the download location.

Even at the grocery stores here in azn land, you cannot escape products and isles erratically labeled “organic.”

It really makes one wonder, is everything on the other isles and in other packages… inorganic? Up until this past decade, have we all just been eating tofu-ish matter (and soylent green)?

Speaking of spin marketing, here is The O’Reilly Factor re-spun into 60 seconds:

The host of the British car show quipped the following when talking about the F-150 pickup:

Most people who go for a walk in the American countryside are eaten by a bear so they need a car with a gun rack.

Very true.

Via Ray Daugherty.

While walking through Samsung Plaza yesterday in Seohyeon, my friend and I were bothered by some theology students.

Last year I mentioned that there is a large base of evangelical christians here in Korea and that they arguably waste their English skills harassing foreigners.

While I am not promoting censorship or some kind retaliatory action against this activity, it is nothing short of annoying salesmanship — or as business guru Seth Godin calls it: interruption marketing. And the only reason it is tolerated is because it is shrouded behind a multi-billion person identity group.

For example, my British friend and I were just about the only foreigners in the modern, extremely busy courtyard and were walking to an empty table when two well-groomed Korean men with perfect English interrupted our day to sell us religion.

Here is the dialogue:

Korean man: “Hi, I am a theology student that needs help filling out a survey, could you assist me with this?”
My friend: “Not really, no.”
Korean man: “Are you a Christian?”
My friend: “No.”
Korean man: “So you don’t read the bible?”
My friend: “No.”
Korean man: “Don’t you know the bible is the word of god?”
My friend: “God does not exist.”
Korean man: “Don’t you believe human life is fragile? You could be walking across the street and get killed by a car.”
My friend: “Sure, that is a danger. But you don’t have the solution to that.”
Korean man: “What about asteroids, comets and meteorites? They can kill you at any instant. Doesn’t that worry you?”
My friend: “Not really.”
Korean man: “Don’t you know you are living in sin?”
My friend: “Good-bye.”

At that point my friend and I walked into a convenience store and bought a couple of drinks, sat down at the table and laughed about the whole incident.

I am seriously not making up the part about the seminary student asking us about cosmological phenomenon blowing us up.

This 45-second sales pitch can be summarized along the following: he was trying to reach out to real, seemingly uncontrollable fears in order to sell us phony insurance. And then guilt us for not wanting to join his club.

His insurance method is hardly new or novel. Furthermore, it is no different than the sales pitch used by countless theologians representing hundreds of religions and belief systems.

Seriously, it was no different than someone trying to peddle magnetic rocks or dowsing rods. And a question for the self-righteous members of the evangelical movement: why is this presentation and marketing strategy laudable and someone doing the same thing under a different name (e.g., Islam) wrong?

Would you not be annoyed if a group of Muslims or Pastafarians interrupted your day, without your personal permission, to tell you why you are evil and risk dying at any time? If yes, than I implore you not to financially support anyone that uses this technique to sell their wares (e.g., most missionaries, street preachers).

While I do not wish him or others like him any ill will, I think it is a complete waste to prey on the fears of the uneducated and believe it would be a better, less annoying approach to simply try to be my friend first before condemning me to hell. Perhaps that is why many Mormons are such god damn successful businessmen… because they don’t come across as assholes most of the time. But then again, they aren’t real christians, right? They’re a cult because they marry their cousins — an arrangement which went out of style centuries ago.

So I’m back in Seoul now. Flew out of Taipei on Saturday and am enjoying the clean(er) skies and busier, modern boulevards.

Last weekend, my friends took me to a local baseball game between the Uni-President Lions (from Tainan) versus the Brother Elephants (of Taipei). While it was a route by pretty much any definition, 9-3 in favor of the Lions, the atmosphere at the game was well worth the extremely cheap price of admission ($5 for seats right behind home plate).

For instance, fans of the teams wear the team colors and sing/yell coordinated songs at regular intervals — fan participation was encouraged through the sale of kazoos and plastic sticks. Each team also had a brass band and percussion team that will bellow tunes based upon the events occurring on the field. And young women, who were definitely not ugly, would act as cheerleaders, dancing like go-go girls on top of the dug out.

The oddest part, aside from the fact that the stadium was virtually split in half by the bouisterious crowd was that instead of having a 7th inning stretch they had a 10 minute half-time between the 5th and 6th inning. Other than that, the logistics and rules of the game appeared to be identical to their North American counterparts (e.g., wooden bats, 300+ feet to both foul poles, raised mound, etc.).

Another oddity was that the event managers played many of the same songs you typically find at ball parks around the US. Such as YMCA or the da-da charge! (originally part of a calvary ditty). No one sang along though, except for the pockets of westerners (some gringo girls danced to YMCA during half-time and ended up on “national” TV…).

The only disappointment of the night was the instant replay screen was turned off so you couldn’t see the various bloopers and batters getting beaned by the ball (which happened like 4 times). That and no one did the wave.

Trivia: because of the controversial political climate between Taiwan and China, what is the name for the Taiwanese national team in international competition? Hint, it has to do with Taipei.

Aside from sounding like some kind of plan hatched by MacGyver, what do those items have in common?

I’ll give you a hint: UFOs.

It turns out that those “mysterious” unexplainable lights in Phoenix are, like every other sighting: very explainable.

I actually kind of find it funny because it was just some guy playing a fun prank:

[...] he used fishing line to attach road flares to helium-filled balloons, then lit the flares and launched them a minute apart from his back yard. He said he believed turbulence created by a passing jet caused the balloons to move around.

If anything it shows just how unskeptical some people still are — jumping to conclusions in an effort to prove their beliefs in ET.

Kind of like deists sometimes do, right?

And it’s not that I knew the correct explanation, but a spoonful of Occam’s razor keeps the boogie man at bay. And cures cancer.

I promise this link - “What the Frak?” - actually goes to a funny overview of the last 3 seasons of Battlestar Galactica.

I have never watched the series, in part because I’m too cool for anything on the SciFi channel. That and the two or three previews I have seen make it look like Lost, another show that I’m too cool to watch.

On another note, what was Rick Astley thinking when he put together that iconic music video 20 years ago? Dancing at night in a deserted street with a trench coat… chicks dig that kind of thing — very romantic.

In continuing my catalog of sights and sounds that strike me as odd:

Ghost money — everyday you can zig zag down the perpetually busy streets here and witness an interesting site: flames on the side of the road. Practicing Buddhists will take a metal canister and burn paper. The paper is actually “holy” ghost money (kind of like kosher food) that people buy huge stacks of. They then spend a 20 or so minutes saying prayers and throwing sheets of it into the metal cannister.

Some of the paper has incense so it smells decent, but the subsequent ash that becomes airborne lands on everything and certainly doesn’t help the dirty polluted boulevards. Also, while you may see monks in their traditional garb, you don’t need to wear anything special when you burn the paper.

Feral dogs — I’ve mentioned this briefly before. And based on my conversations with other friends and coworkers out here, this is not an issue endemic to Taiwan. Semi-domesticated dogs roam around scavenging for food. You’ll be standing in line for a box lunch and the dogs will stand next to you looking for scraps to fall. At night you may also see entire packs of 10 or more dogs running throughout neighborhoods. All of them are very friendly and will let you pet them. And while this may seem unsanitary (especially since many of them carry and spread various illnesses) just imagine how much food is hastily thrown out on the streets for them to continue living.

Garbage pickup - there are few, if any dumpsters around this part of town (in fact, I can’t say that I’ve seen one anywhere in the metro). As a result, residents come downstairs and partake in an eerily communal ritual in which they stand on the sidewalk and wait for the local garbage truck to swing on by at prearranged times. Talk about a waste of time.

The truck (which looks identical to the big blue or brown ones in America) is painted yellow and has a red flashing light affixed to the top. And the way you know the garbage truck is nearby: it plays a catchy ice cream tune over and over.

I can’t imagine how the driver does not go insane… I wonder if the ditty plays in their sleep too (it does appear in my dreams!)?

Tans — while I hardly have Yellow Fever all of the hottest Asian girls I knew growing up were tan… or at least not pale. Too bad they didn’t get the memo here. Being tan or any shade of brown is stigmatized here because culturally people believe that if you are pale, you have a white-collar job and can stay inside all day. Conversely, if you are brown, people typically believe you do some kind of manual labor outside. It is a status symbol.

Thus you never see tanning salons anywhere (nor are they in Seoul), which is to their detriment… because Thai and Vietnamese women are so much more attractive because they have darker skin. Consequentially, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese chicas would probably look a darn sight better if they stopped walking around with an umbrella and got 15 minutes of Vitamin D everyday from Mr. Sun.

Not to belabor the point but this reminds me of the first televised presidential debate in 1960 between Nixon and JFK. In the days before the debate Nixon supposedly spent day and night cramming and studying every kind of question that could be asked in this format. In contrast, JFK went to the beach and got some rays. And when Americans turned that knob, those with color TVs saw a pasty, seemingly unhealthy Nixon standing opposite to a golden, youthful JFK. Here are more details to that story.

[As an aside, one of the reasons body builders get that oompa loompa shade of orangishness is because it helps define and articulate muscle definition. You don't see albino's grunting and flexing in Bowflex commercials, but you do see 50 year-old MILFs that are tan]

Most Extreme Elimination Challenge — if you have never watched MXC on Spike TV you are either a Risk Management bureaucrat or eat babies. It is a Japanese game show that takes place with dozens of contestants running through a myriad of obstacle courses. The show is redubbed and edited for all sorts of nutty laughs. And believe it or not, but in both Korea and Taiwan there are several shows that showcase westerners in similar light (like a 24 hour station just for stuff like Candid Camera).

It certainly beats watching yet another Jeanne Claude Van Damme flick that chronically appear on every movie station.

Chinglish — I mentioned Konglish when I was in Korea (mixture of English and Korean) and a similar phenomenon exists here, although it seems to a smaller degree. The one you may encounter everyday is when you call a friend and they don’t pick up. Instead of going to voice mail (which no one on this tectonic plate has) an automated message is played. Usually the script that is read has a number of grammatical errors… which is just weird because the telecom firms here make money hand over fist. You would think they would have better quality control than the local tshirt shop that sells the “Juicy Girl” and “Go Eff Yourself” shirts to little toddlers (they really do wear them to school too).

Things I miss:

- Believe it or not, but I do actually miss Walmart. It’s cheap, has a gazillion products and is open 24 hours a day. And as a tangent, the company that commies love to hate might be up for a Nobel Peace Prize.

- Guacamole. Being raised on Tex-Mex food is bittersweet because all of the cuisine I was used to eating every week is nearly impossible to find. That includes everyones favorite avocado which is non-existent in this part of the world.

- Mosquitoes that die. I don’t care how many times you seal the door or window, these mother fuckers end up eating you alive every night. Okay, so it’s not quite sub-Saharan bad, but you’ll wake up because they’re buzzing around in your nose or ear. And then play Houdini with your fists of fury as you try (in vain) to hunt them down. Please send me more Tabasco.

[Note: yea, all of the images come from a simple search for "bowflex" -- sue me]

I’ve done telemarketing and door-to-door sales in my past. I am glad that I have never come across this insane lady:

As my buddy Ray says, “with crazy bitches like her in mind news stories where something ‘ends in violence’ make much more sense.” For example, “A routine donut purchase ends in tragedy.”

I could be completely wrong, but some friends and family members were wondering why I don’t think the PRC will swim across the straits in September.

- 2009 Deaflympics will be hosted in Taipei
- 2009 World Games will be hosted in Kaohsiung
- 2010 World’s Fair will be hosted in Shanghai
- 2010 Asian Games will be hosted in Guangzhou
- Dozens of other international expos, tournaments and festivals will take place between large cities across the Straits throughout the next several years (who can look past the 2009 International Wine Expo hosted in Taipei?)

There is an old parable attributed to Frederic Bastiat which states that when goods and services do not cross borders, armies will. One of the underlying reasons for why this observation typically holds true is that businesses and patrons can pressure the political class and military brass to be more diplomatic in negotiating with foreign states.

As Hollywood films portray each year, if voluntary cultural exchange continually takes place, even superficial friendships and relationships can illicit a strong desire to protect the life and limb of others.

Why?

Because at the end of the day, the owner of a foreign business does not want his building destroyed or employees sent off to the refugee camps.

And just as the PRC has come under scrutiny for its recent crackdown of protests in Tibet, any similar encroachment on Taiwan’s turf would amount to a huge media circus and an outcry from some of the largest, influential companies in the world (namely semiconductor firms).

And in terms of politics and sporting events, there are several examples of how these tournaments have been thrust into the spotlight. For example, in response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the West boycotted the 1980 Olympics hosted in Moscow. Likewise, the Soviet-bloc boycotted the 1984 hosted in Los Angeles. (Not to mention the politically charged 1936 games in Berlin or the 1974 Munich hostage crisis)

Changing their tune

Based on the results of the 2008 legislative election, the pro-independence movement were swept into minority status. This in turn has given momentum to the reunification politicos (primarily the KMT) which is believed to be a shoe in for the presidential election in 6 days.

One of the current theories that has gained traction with coworkers, expats and Taiwanese nationals I have met in the last few months here in Kaohsiung is that when the KMT comes back into power, they will ultimately create a blueprint for political reunification along the lines employed by Hong Kong and Macao.

This is ironic in part because 60 years ago Chiang Kai-shek (”Cash My Check“) and others involved with the creation of the KMT were opposed to a PRC-led China. Must be the fluoride in the water…

Shooting satellites

I have mentioned elsewhere that the PRC does not appear to have the military capability to defeat Taiwan or the US in a conventional warfare (primarily because of the analysis by professor Geoffrey Forden: 1 2 3).

However, seeing as the current neoconservative administration has bled the US economy to a standstill and overcommitted its imperial armies, the next administration may be unable to properly fund or field a rested and fully-equipped naval task force necessary to counter the PRC in the straits — which by treaty, the US government has pledged to protect. [Note: this is an odd occurrence if for nothing other than the fact that the US government spends more than $1 trillion on the military budget, or the combined total of every other military budget by a nation-state. Be sure to also read "Why the US has really gone broke" by Chalmers Johnson]

And one last twist. Remember the brouhaha back in April of 2001 between the US spy plane that crashed into the Chinese jet fighter? Guess what the American’s were trying to locate and study?

The PRC navy operates several destroyers that employ the Russian-built SS-N-22 Sunburn anti-ship missile which is capable of destroying nearly any vessel in any surface fleet. Guess where one of the ships was located relative to the spy plane? [As an aside, be sure to read Gary Brecher's finest: 1 2. More on cross-strait wargames: 1 2].

With all of this said, I still am bullish on a peaceful coexistence for the near-future and recently wrote about this in “The Vatican Still Recognizes Them, Right?” In the words of Lew Rockwell, commerce and trade can ultimately trump the state. And in 2007 alone, cross-strait trade grew 16% to more than $100 billion.

That’s a whole lot of entrepreneurs, salarymen, and stockholders to piss off.

Many of the expats and Westernized asians that I am friends with keep up with North American politics, primarily the US presidential race.

Back in Texas there were very few instances that the topic of politics was broached at a bar (at least the cool ones I visited). However, in both Seoul and Kaohsiung many of the headline issues are openly discussed by non-citizens. For instance, the owner of the local Belgium pub that I frequently visit is quite the news junkie. As are most of his patrons. You should hear them talk about the Taiwanese independence movement…

Anyways, most of the expats I’ve met along the way have all pretty much have a hard on for Che Guevara and other “lovable” socialists. And in the current election if they are not pulling for Nader or Gore they’re quite the Obama fans.

I mention this because about the only two or three economic issues that we all agree on are: against maintaining an empire, anti-(corporate) welfare, and anti-central banks. [note: my own thoughts are over at the Mises blog.]

However out of all 20 or so presidential candidates from this past year, there were only two iconoclastic congressman from both sides of the political isle that also represented the views from above: Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. And the weirdest thing is that I’ve met a couple expats that seemed up-to-speed about these two guys, lauding their positions over pitchers of beer.

And as luck would have it, both recently won in the primaries and will remain curmudgeons in the House. Thus, giving foreign observers like my Belgium friend another reason to enjoy watching CSPAN.

Over the past several year I’ve mentioned the neuro-supercomputer project jointly being developed by IBM and a biological research team in Switzerland.

Now someone has finally gone to great lengths to detail the latest and greatest results. And for any geek that thinks about a future singulitarian world with cyborgs or even just lots of computronium, you’ll enjoy this piece: Out of the Blue.

Lots of good nuggets that made a skeptic like myself believe these scifi possibilities could possibly take place in the next 50 years.

One of the few television shows that broadcasts most of its material in English is the National Geographic channel (very similar to Discovery and Animal Planet).

Last night I was flipping between it and that incredibly awesome Sandra Bullock film: The Net.

Anyways, this episode on NG dealt with sexual selection in the age of cosmetic surgery. While I’m not saying you shouldn’t go under the knife, the researchers noted that because plastic surgeons alter us to look super sexy, the ugly genes are still passed on. (see: professor Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico in “An In-depth Look into Sexual Attractiveness in Humans”)

For instance, while not everyone in LA with fake boobs fell off the ugly tree, the secondary sexual traits (like big lips and mammaries) send a false positive to men. Because nature has trained us men to look at certain body parts for strong and healthy partners, the beauty is literally skin deep. As a result, the guys that end up fathering children with these unnatural beauties could ultimately create a generation of uglier than normal kids.

While cosmetic surgeons will certainly be able to tune their progeny up to snuff, everyone is going to have to wait until genetic engineers figure out a way to replace the fugly parts of the genome with the fantabulous.

Note: if you are debating whether or not to spend money to look extra sexy, I’d err on the side of sexiness. Jameson might be fake but she’s definitely not ugly.

See also: Heikegani crab

If you have run out of new content on your RSS reader check out these random blogs with funny pics:

Stuff White People Like (here is my favorite post)
The Fail Blog
PostSecret

Honorable mention: Demotivating posters

Whether you like it or not, Wikipedia has become entrenched in many peoples lives.

Even many of the expats I meet throughout my globe trotting adventures are quite fond of it. In fact, in the event that we are wrong about something my friends and I often joke that we’ll just log in and change the entry.

This typical involves something drastic, like deleting the entire entry for Taiwan (because you know, it doesn’t technically exist).

And unsurprisingly The Onion explains the urge to modify the mundane with a probably-true story.

Someone posted a remark in the last post about the Namdaemun gate fire. The guy was mad that I made a couple of jokes about what probably happened. While I shouldn’t have to defend the humor industry I would like to point out that I was right.

It turns out that a 69 drunk man was responsible for the fire. In fact, the same guy set fire to a palace a few years back too.

I should note that I hardly think of myself as an expert on Korea, but I’d like to think that I gained a bit of knowledge of its culture, including its darker side (e.g., business men passed out and vomiting all over the place in public and no one stops because it is so common place).

This topic is tangentially related to DreamWorks in the graphics department. That image of the gate burning was fairly intense, up there with some high-quality CGI flicks.

And to update my previous post about Pixar and rendering capabilities, I recently came across how Shrek the Third was rendered.

Some numbers:
3000 servers
20 million CPU render hours compared to 10 million for number II and 5 million for the original movie

The image to the right is considered Korea’s top “cultural landmark.” And boy has someone redecorated it.

It went up in flames last night and arson is suspected.

Here are my guesses as to the cause:

- a group of very drunk ajossi (salarymen) thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the Lunar New Year by lighting a bunch of fireworks inside the tinderbox
- the image is actually a tweaked screenshot from the upcoming Starcraft II game Korean’s are salivating over
- it is from a deleted scene from D-War
- it is a re-enactment of the LA Riots in which Korean shop owners banded together with shotguns and kept the rioters from looting their stores
- it is from the trailer of the live-action He-Man movie starring Dolph Lundgren or any Jean Claude Van Damme movie that they show on the SuperAction station (channel 26)