Hi. I'm Newley Purnell. I cover technology and business for The Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong. I use this site to share my stories and often blog about the books I'm reading, tech trends, sports, travel, and our dog Ginger. For updates, get my weekly email newsletter.
I am normally loathe to link to stories that involve a man dying as a result of equine beastiality. But this particular report contains the following quotation, which I simply cannot ignore:
“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” said Sortland. “In the rare, rare case this happens, it’s the person doing the animal. I think that has led to the astonishment of all of the entities involved.”
AP:
“DENVER — A Colorado congressman told a radio show host that the U.S. could “take out” Islamic holy sites if Muslim fundamentalist terrorists attacked the country with nuclear weapons.
Rep. Tom Tancredo made his remarks Friday on WFLA-AM in Orlando, Fla. His spokesman stressed he was only speaking hypothetically.
Talk show host Pat Campbell asked the Littleton Republican how the country should respond if terrorists struck several U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.
“Well, what if you said something like — if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites,” Tancredo answered.
“You’re talking about bombing Mecca,” Campbell said.
“Yeah,” Tancredo responded.
The congressman later said he was “just throwing out some ideas” and that an “ultimate threat” might have to be met with an “ultimate response.”
BBC:
At least 16 people have been injured in one of the most powerful typhoons to hit Taiwan in recent years.
Typhoon Haitang, with winds of up to 184 km/h (114 mph), has already dumped nearly a metre of rain in mountainous areas in the north-east of the island.
Talked to my friends Mammoth and Crystal in Kaohsiung last night just as the storm was making landfall. Sounds like quite a hurricane. You can follow the storm’s progress by checking out news stories here, photos here, and blog posts here.
(Sidenote: when we left Taiwan, Jill and I sold our scooter to our friend Miriam; according to this account from her boyfriend Pete, they had to abandon our beloved fuzzy amid a torrent of rain and wind.)
So it comes down, for most of us, to a decision: We can work like hell to try to take activities in intersection 2 and move them to intersection 3 — though it’s really tough to create a need, or even get an unrecognized need recognized (that’s where I’m at right now). And opportunities in intersection 4 are even tougher (and take courage) to find, though they’re probably easier to move to intersection 3 (practice, practice, practice). As a result, too many of us spend our lives doing jobs we hate in intersection 5, and we fill the empty place inside with hobbies in intersection 1 or (if we’re good) intersection 2.
My sense is that it’s easier to keep searching for opportunities in intersection 3, and, if that proves fruitless for too long, finding something in intersection 4 and working hard at it. This is hard work that requires great courage and enterprise, but books about people who have found great happiness in their lives are almost all stories of this type of journey. You have nothing to lose but your chains.
AP:
June 28, 2005 — Skip the newborn clothes sizes. A Mequon couple’s new baby will fit right into the larger sizes, weighing in at nearly 14 pounds at birth — which came three weeks early.
“I’m Going to Teach English in Japan, but I’ve Never Been to Asia. Any Tips?”
Rolf Potts — with input from yours truly — provides some feedback over on the new World Hum.
File under: Something I Could Seriously Envision My Dad Building in His Backyard. How cool would it be to kick back on the chia-couch?
WSJ: “Using Fiction to Sell Fiction: Book Publishers Create Fake Web Sites, Offer Free Downloads to Promote Titles”
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) — A former star of the “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV show is urging fans to skip the forthcoming movie version, calling it “a sleazy insult.”
Ben Jones, a former Georgia congressman who played the wisecracking mechanic Cooter on the popular series from 1979 to 1985, said profanity and sexual content in the film make a mockery of the family-friendly show.
“Basically, they trashed our show,” said Jones, who read a script of the Warner Brothers movie, which is scheduled to be released next month. “It’s one thing to do whatever movie they want to do, but to take a classic family show and do that is like taking ‘I Love Lucy’ and making her a crackhead or something.”
(Incredulous emphasis mine.)
My buddy Peter H. is the Master of All Things Internet Research-Releated. So when I mentioned to him that I collect metro cards from around the world, and that I’d considered trolling ebay for ’em, he sent me this amusing, meticulously-researched guide:
You shouldn’t get them on eBay. Thats not collecting, its buying. But then again, when are you going to get on Chelyabinsk metro? Maybe you should have friends collect them for you on their trips. Its more fun that way. And free.
I don’t think that any of us will be getting on the Tehran Metro http://www.tehranmetro.com/schedules/maps/index.asp anytime soon.
Surprsingly, they have a map in English. I don’t see the Kill the Christian-Zionisit Crusader station, but the nexus of all their lines, which could just be blandly named “Metro Center” like ours is Imam Khomeni.Here you can actually buy them direct http://www.city.sapporo.jp/st/doni-chika/donichika.htm from the system in Sapporo, it seems. But only if you can figure out the process in the graphic at the bottom of the page. It seems you start from home, consult the frowning monkey, have a bowl of nail polish soup, buy a gift, and then return home. Got it? Where’s the part where you buy a fare card?
There’s Montreal http://www.stcum.qc.ca/English/metro/a-mapmet.htm, which seems to say come ride beneath, away from the charred, barren landcape of Southern Quebec. Actually, my experience confirms this. Its got a very sad kind of overbuilt a generation ago fell (67 expo and 76 olympics). Christy and I came to one ticket booth a couple of years ago and the ticket agent was so lethargic they didn’t even want to deal with taking our money and waived us through. I asked somone, “Is it free today.” They said, “No, sometimes they just don’t feel like dealing with tourists and their questions.” Merci, I say!
Look at this kooky subway in http://subway.city.fukuoka.jp/index.html
Japan. Each stop has got a little symbol id’ing it. I’d like to go the the deer droppings station
http://subway.city.fukuoka.jp/eki/stations/sakurazaka.html please! Thankfully there’s a little bear-dog to direct you.Then, there’s other nifty things. On the Seoul Subway you can apply to perform on one of the three “Subway Cultural Stages” http://www.subwayworld.co.kr/english/index.htm> And, only the Seoul Subway has Oh!zemidong. Sorry, its in frames. You have to find the button on the left side of the Subway Cultural Stage page.
I could go on…
UPDATE: An addendum from Peter:
And, the winner of the worst subway map —
The Deagu Metropolitan Subway Corpration
http://www.daegusubway.co.kr/english/dream/index.htmlBut, their moto quite candidly says “Towards the Subway Era”. Not there yet, but headed in the right direction.
I like their Andromeda Strain-Running Man type graphic.
http://www.daegusubway.co.kr/english/index.html