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.
Alberto Fujimori, the disgraced and exiled (and ethnically Japanese, interestingly) former president of Peru, says he’s on the verge of a political comeback in his Andean homeland. And many Peruvians would love to have him back (although if he entered the country he’d be arrested).
Two un-related items: Garbage Pail Kids, which I loved when I was 10, are returning next month. And 29,000 rubber duckies, adrift at sea for over a decade, are about to wash ashore. (Both links via Reenhead.)
It’s a wonderful thing to have friends who’re way smarter than you.
Responding to my political musings herein, Jack W. says I should dispense with the “anti-Bush rhetoric” and “stay away from citing the NY Times op-ed board too frequently.”
And although he feels we shouldn’t conclude just yet that Iraq never had WMDs, and though he says our relations with our allies haven’t been too severely damaged by Bush’s unilateralism, he says he’s a bit worried about the state of Dubya’s economy:
“Bush is turning into a modern day Hoover with increasing unemployment rolls, reliance on state and local agencies to cover unfunded mandates (even though they
have no money in their budgets), and large federal deficits (though it is only at 4% of GDP, which is not bad–in 92′ the deficit was 8% of GDP). Granted not all of the extra expenditures are his fault, but you can’t blame everything the cost of the war on
terror.
Obviously the fiscal police at the Fed would not let another Great Depression happen but we could see continued stagnant growth (1-2% per quarter) for the foreseeable future, which is not good for the job market, business re-investment, and general competitiveness of American large cap industrials against foreign rivals.”
Okay, Jack, you got me there.
Everyone out there: I want an Octodog Frankfurter Converter for Christmas. (Via Miles B., obviously.)
Chris D. sends word that Explore Indochina, formerly known as Motorbiking Vietnam, has re-vamped their site.
The fine folks at this Hanoi-based outfit guided us on a thrilling four-day motorcycle ride last year. And their new site includes a couple new photos–me navigating a rather difficult bridge, and Chris dangling from a precarious steel cage used for crossing a valley.
Got back last night from an excellent weekend-long excursion to Vilcabamba. We stayed at a hosteria called Madre Tierra; it was, as always, exceptional.
ESPN.com: “Pittsburgh first baseman Randall Simon was booked for misdemeanor battery for hitting one of the Milwaukee Brewers’ popular racing sausages with a bat during Wednesday night’s game.” (Via Miles B.)
Don’t know how I missed this: back in December, the incomparable David Brooks analyzed the differences between the areas of the US that voted for Bush (the red swaths on the electoral map that covered the American heartland) and the parts of the country that picked Gore (the blue that lined the coasts).
Brooks, who lives in “Blue America,” observed, among other things, that “things are different” in “Red America”:
Everything that people in my neighborhood do without motors, the people in Red America do with motors. We sail; they powerboat. We cross-country ski; they snowmobile. We hike; they drive ATVs. We have vineyard tours; they have tractor pulls. When it comes to yard work, they have rider mowers; we have illegal aliens.
Not always, says an interesting new report.
Last Friday, Takeru Kobayashi, a Japanese man who weighs a mere 145 pounds, won the annual Nathan’s International Hot Dog Eating Contest for the third year in a row.
He ate 44-and-a-half hot dogs in 12 minutes.
This hilarious article (from Miles B. via Mike W., with input from Benny C.) voices the suspicions of some of his competitive eating foes: that perhaps Kobayashi is doping. Or that perchance he’s gone under the knife to gain an unfair advantage:
“There have been rumors on the circuit that he was surgically altered by the Japanese government,” added “Crazy Legs” Conti, a wild-card entry in the contest who finished with 15 hot dogs and buns. “I just think he’s the greatest athlete of all-time.”
“Surgically altered by the Japanese government”? Heh.
“Greatest athlete of all time”?
Miles B. supplies this sarcastic list, in which the Japanese dynamo places right up there with the big boys:
Ruth
Jordan
Gretzky
Thorpe
Brown
Ali
Kobayashi
