Category: Networks

— Transterrestrial Musings floats a cover story to misdirect the innocent:

My new theory: Instapundit is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner with a staff of thousands.

But we know the truth.

works, according to William Schneider, who compares “Axis of Evil” with Reagan’s “Go ahead, make my day.”

Reagan’s policy was, “Talk tough, and carry a big stick.” In the end, it worked. The evil empire crumbled. Europeans scoffed in 1987, when Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” But two years later, the wall came down.

The Euro-weenies have such a short memory.

the big news is the prospect of bringing the Summer Olympics to the Frisco Bay area in 2012 (Bay Area bid for Games gets boost) “SALT LAKE CITY – The beauty and the success of the 2002 Winter Olympics could propel San Francisco’s campaign to bring the Summer Games to the Bay Area in 10 years.”

I would hope that the Bay Area Games would include some new demonstation sports that highlight local culture, such as, well, Demonstrating for Lost Causes, where the medal would go to the group with the cause most reflective of unreconstructed 60s values. Or Ordering Chinese and Then Eating it with Chopsticks, even if the main course is rice (something an East Asian wouldn’t do, actually). Or Driving Too Slow on the Freeways, something we do better than anybody in the world. Looking down our Noses at Iowa would be fiercely competitive, and engaging to the Europeans. But nothing would better highlight the essence of the Valley than the Mad Dash for Cash with a Startup, unless it’s Moral Sanctimony without any Discernable Morals, or the Green Card Race.

Silicon Valley and the Frisco Bay Area generally have so much to share with the world.

about curling stones is found on JohnEllis.

— This puts some of this mania in perspective (Korea Herald Infotech):

According to Yahoo! Korea, Korean Internet users are crowding message boards and breaking Web traffic records. Its Kim Dong-sung message board surpassed the daily page view figure of 10 million.

Yahoo! said the popularity of the Kim Dong-sung message board is unprecedented. Even the message board about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. stopped short of 3 million daily page views, it said.

That’s OK, we’ve got Andrew Sullivan and Instapundit.

— From Korea Herald National:

[Jay Leno] said the Korean player must have been angry enough to have kicked and eaten a dog when he returned home.

Leno’s remarks were broadcast on SBS, one of South Korea’s major TV network, on Saturday, and immediately prompted angry reactions from South Korean’s viewers.

But they do eat dog:

A group of 100 dogmeat restaurant owners will set up a nationwide federation next Monday in a city on the outskirts of Seoul to outline plans to promote the meat to foreign tourists before and during the World Cup period.

So where’s the beef?

— Curling is taking-off in the land of the cube rats (New fans get swept up in curling):

Forget figure skating, snowboarding and moguls. From coast to coast, young and not so young are suddenly clamoring to learn about curling — not hair, but stones.

There may be hope for this stinky place after all.

— A prediction: the Athens Olympics in 2004 will be a total disaster. The Mrs. and I visited Greece last October, and just getting around Athens is a major nightmare. The Grecians are trying to upgrade their Metro, but they’re way behind schedule. Similarly, all the upgrades and construction to the venues are behind, and the IOC has admonished the Grecians on several occasions to get their act together. The Games will have to be scaled-back considerably if they’re to take place at all. Modern Greece doesn’t know how to get things done. The Parthenon was built in 30 years with hand tools, but 30 years of renovations with high-tech equipment have succeeded only in keeping it from crumbling, not in restoring it to its former glory.

That being said, Greece is a fun place if you don’t have much to do. While most of it’s falling down, the locals still know how to have a good time, especially if there’s a bunch of drunken Japanese tourists to be entertained.

This is getting a little stale, but just for the record, here’s a nice picture that illustrates the Korean Kamikaze in action. If this isn’t a deliberate take-down, I’ve never seen one.

— A lot the the discussion about America’s enemies in the Middle East since 9/11 has revolved around Islam, and whether it’s an inherently defective religion or not. Since most of the hatred comes from Arab countries, and isn’t evenly distributed around the Islamic world (most Muslims are not Arabs), it’s occurred to me that the problem isn’t Islam or anti-Zionism as much as it’s Arab Tribalism. Islam adapts itself to local beliefs and mythology. One of the people Tom Friedman talked to on his recent trip to Saudi Arabia echoes this notion (
A Traveler to Saudi Arabia)

“The tribal mentality here is very strong, and in the desert, when the tribe is attacked, you’d better stick together or you’re dead. People know there are problems with our [Islamic] education system, and part of them is glad you’re raising it. But they feel under attack, so they won’t talk frankly to you [or want to be seen as making] changes because you demand them. The real problem is not the books, but the preachers who use their Friday sermons to tell [young] people that America wants to destroy Islam.

This link came from the VodkaPundit.