Attachment 1124 An amazing guy. He speaks Chinese very well, and exhibits a fun spirit.Attachment 1125
Attachment 1126
http://i.youku.com/u/id_UMTk5MjI1ODEy
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDczNzE2MDY0.html
Attachment 1124 An amazing guy. He speaks Chinese very well, and exhibits a fun spirit.Attachment 1125
Attachment 1126
http://i.youku.com/u/id_UMTk5MjI1ODEy
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDczNzE2MDY0.html
amusingly, he actually worked at the same company I'm at now though quite a few years earlier.
he's quite something, he was studying political science in Taiwan IIRC, but also did late night stand ups at clubs here (pretty rare in Taiwan), and seem to have accidentally stumbled into the show business when a recruiter picked him up on the streets for a role in a documentary here on one of Taiwan's most famous early missionary, the Scottish Canadian George Leslie Mackay
Is RollingWave in Taiwan?
Attachment 1127
given that my avatar is a ROC flag, and I list my location in Taiwan...
A few days after Japan's election, Korea heads to the polls today as well, an interesting fight as it is very close, and also the backgrounds of the candidates are interesting. The most famous would be Ms. Park Geun Hye. Ms. Park is the daughter of the late South Korean dictator Park Chung Hee who ruled Korea with an iron fist in the 60s and 70s, both he and his wife were assasinated in seperate attempts, so Ms. Park certainly have grown up in the center of Korean politics and have seen a good deal of personal tragedy through her life.
The other candidate is Moon Ja In, who was a rights lawyer that was imprisoned during the Park era. so it's certainly settling some old scores . Moon has the wider support of the younger folks while Park's supporter is primarily the 40 and above .
Policy wise both candidates are fairly similar though.
Park won, becoming the first female (and unmarried) leader of East Asia.
She certainly lived through interesting times to say the least. after her mother was killed she had acted as the defecto first lady for her father for several years at a fairly young age until his father's own assassination. South Korea is reaching a cross road of it's own, as it has achieved great economic strides but came at the cost of a lot of things, will they affirm that to be the final road they take or will they start changing ? we'll see.
Few updates:
As expected, Shinzo Abe is now the new PM of Japan, which marks the 7th PM in less then 7 year... starting from... ummm.. Shinzo Abe 7 years ago.
Abe and the LDP has said that they want to depreciate the Yen to the 90:1 ish range to the dollar (right now it's about 80:1).
Good news(?) for the US, as China appears to be making a more serious crack down on corrupted officials, many are doing their best to send their money abroad, and the US is often a final destination of said money. that has been happening for quite a while now, but expect a high tide in the next year.
China opens the longest high speed rail way in the world a few days back. though going from one end to the other (Beijing to Guangdong) is actually almost as expensive as a plane and about 3 times slower, however for shorter runs it does beat out airplanes due to waiting time.
Mister D (12-26-2012)
Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.
~Alain de Benoist
It's useful in shorter runs. for example, the highspeed train here in Taiwan from Taipei to Gaoshung (our #1 and 2 city respectively) has basically put the domestic plane industry out of business, because they are faster once you account for the waiting time for planes and also that airfields are usually further away from the city center. and the price is lower for that sort of distance.
But further out planes begin to win.
So for example, if the US have one running from NY to say... Miami (a fairly comparable distance to the China one) it would be pretty cost effective to take it from NY to Philly / DC, but not so much to Atlanta, and certainly not to Miami directly.
Last edited by RollingWave; 12-26-2012 at 09:00 PM.
NY to Philly is only a couple hours by regular train. High speed to DC would be interesting. I'd be a big supporter of high speed rail if it was significantly cheaper than a flight. When I fly I really have to shop around and play with the dates because the ticket prices are sometimes outrageous. Sitting on a train isn't nearly as uncomfortable and to save money I wouldn't mind the extra time. I guess our geography plays a big role. European countries, like Taiwan, are small enough that high speed rail makes a lot of sense.
Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.
~Alain de Benoist