Leaving the WSJ for the Marines

Thanks to Miles B. for passing along this moving op-ed from Matt Pottinger, who recently left the Wall Street Journal, at age 31, to join the Marines. More info here.

Pottinger says that living abroad made him more patriotic. I feel the same way. I’ve never loved America more than I do now.

Kobe Drops 81 Points on the Raptors

Are you kidding me?

Categories
Misc.

When Bjork Attacks

Bjork goes nuts on a reporter in 1996. Wow. (Via)

On Texting

The New York Times’s Charles McGrath examines text messaging around the world. As I’ve mentioned before, I find texting to be an especially useful and enjoyable mode of communicating; as McGrath notes, the practice is huge in Asia, and I became enamored with texting last year in Taiwan.

My only gripe with the article is that, like many pieces written about text messaging, it focuses entirely on the standard method of texting, in which abbreviations and acronyms reign supreme (i.e. instead of “tomorrow,” you type “2morrow;” LOL means “laughing out loud,” etc.). But all serious texters I’ve ever encountered — and yes, I consider myself one — use predictive texting. It’s way faster. And more coherent.

Newley.com: Best in Comments

I’m happy to see that some of my posts have elicited comments from a wide range of passionate folks.

First, I’ve been remiss in pointing out that my criticism of Friends of the Earth’s over-simplified and misleading Metro posters linking global warming to killer hurricanes prompted a response from a representative of FOE. I replied to his comment but have yet to receive a follow-up.

Second, a pair of commetns from both the left and the right. One comes from someone named “VoRtoN.” He takes issue with my argument that Howard Dean is a bombastic moron for saying we can’t win the war in Iraq. I replied, in my follow up comment, that “winning,” at this point, must mean securing the country and bringing our troops home. No response from VoRtoN yet.

The other comment comes fom one Jim Mulligan, who questions my love of country for merely pointing out that newly-elected Bolivian president Evo Morales used the expression “Death to Yankees” as part of his campaign slogan.

“Don’t you wish,” Jim writes. “I hope you don’t call yourself an ‘American.'”

But, of course, I didn’t say “Death to Yankees.” Evo did.

Though, in truth, my favorite part of Jim’s comment is the way in which he concludes, by assessing Evo’s rise, that “You media elites and foolish liberals proclaim this as progress for the people.”

Yep, that’s me. A media elite and a foolish liberal. (Okay, foolish liberal maybe, but media elite?)

Elsewhere, a post from back in July about swimwear that “highlights the face, rather than the body” continues to draw feedback from readers (mostly, I imagine, because the item ranks sixth in a Google search for “modest swimwear.”) My favorite of the bunch is the latest, from a reader named PJ, who writes:

We are to treat our bodies as a temple, respect them and take care of them, and save the viewing of our “temple” for our spouses only when we are joined in matrimony. Question to ponder: If the Lord were to return here, right now, how many would feel right standing before Him practically naked?

Whoa. Me standing before God in nothing but my zebra-striped Speedo? Scary. Very, very scary.

Categories
Misc.

Luxury Tourism in Cambodia

Don’t miss Matt Gross’s fascinating piece in today’s New York Times detailing the rise in luxury tourism in Cambodia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia:

In almost every part of the country, you can find a conceptually and architecturally ambitious hotel: In mountainous Ratanakiri, there’s the Terres Rouges Lodge, a former provincial governor’s lakeside residence that has, Time Asia said last July, “the best bar in the middle of nowhere.” On the Sanker River in Battambang, Cambodia’s second-largest city, there’s La Villa, a 1930 house that in October opened as a six-room hotel filled with Art Deco antiques. And sometime this summer, you should be able to head south to Kep and stay at La Villa de Monsieur Thomas, a 1908 oceanfront mansion that’s being transformed into a French restaurant ringed with bungalows.

And then there is Angkor Wat. Foreign visitors are flooding in – 690,987 paid entrance fees last year, up from 451,046 in 2004. And while there are no official figures as to how much each spends in Siem Reap, the town’s dizzying array of luxury hotels – at least 10 by my count, ranging from the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor to quirky boutiques like Hôtel de la Paix – testifies to the emergence of a new generation of high-end travelers, who not only demand round-the-clock Khmer massage but are also willing to pay $400 a day to hire a BMW L7 or $1,375 an hour for a helicopter tour.

Cambodia is not alone in its luxury revolution. Since the mid-1990’s, the former French colonies of Southeast Asia have made enormous leaps in catering to tourists who prefer plunge pools to bucket showers. From the forests of Laos to the beaches of Vietnam to the ruins of Cambodia, you can find well-conceived, well-outfitted, well-run hotels that will sleep you in style for hundreds of dollars a night.

Cambodia

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Misc.

A Nine-Month Project Comes to Fruition

I rarely write about my day job here in DC; I spend my time helping foundations and nonprofits communicate online. I launch Web sites, publicize existing ones, and give clients advice on how to build effective sites or re-design existing ones. My employer is Burness Communications, a 30-person public relations firm that works exclusively with nonprofits. (I’m delighted to be at Burness — I have smart, friendly colleagues, and our clients do interesting work.)

When I came back to DC in April after living abroad for two years, I re-joined Burness and took on the task of project managing the re-development of our new Web site, which just launched. I’m quite proud of it. I’m passionate about Web usability, and I think we did a good job of striking a balance between ease of use and attractive graphic design.

My job was to act as a liaison between Burness and the Web development firm that built the site, a DC outfit called iapps. (Technical note: the site is database-driven and is maintained using a custom content management system.) The graphical design was handled by Nicolette and Frans van der Lee of vanderleeMEDIA. If you’re looking for Web development or design, I enthusiastically recommend these two groups. And if you’re a nonprofit looking for communications help, look no further than Burness.

(Oh, and if you’re wondering what our old site looked like, you can see it here. I think you’ll agree our new Web presence is a vast improvement.)

Categories
Misc.

Joe Rogan: “Fear Factor” Host, DMT Expert, Philosopher

Who knew?

Taipei: WiFi Everywhere

The WSJ reports that Taipei’s burgeoning WiFi grid:

…is expected to soon become the world’s first citywide wireless-computer network in a major metropolis. The network, initiated by the Taipei city government and built by a private company, already includes more than 3,300 wireless “access points” that cover half the city’s 106 square miles.

H2Oh No!

And speaking of the Cult of the Nalgene Bottle (of which, I must admit, I am an agua-swilling member), Stanley Goldfarb, in The Daily Standard, writes:

The supposed health benefit of consuming large volumes of water has become one of those urban myths that even some physicians have come to endorse without real insight into the science underlying water intake and its effects on the body.

Goldfarb (who’s an MD, by the way) says the human body’s exceptionally good at regulating hydration; any extra liquids we take on are unceremoniously excreted without having much of an impact on our overall health.

Related: Can Nalgene bottles make you sick?

I say this: Who cares, when their product design is so great? They’re like the Macs of water bottles.