Pan-Pacific good news...

Today’s stories come from all over the Pacific - Hong Kong, North Korea, and Australia. Yep, that’s right, North Korea...

As with most things related to the pariah state, this news needs to be read between the lines and carefully parsed, but luckily, The Washington Post is all over that. The Post reported that according to sources inside the country and to watchdog groups, North Korea appears to have abandoned, in practice, Communism. Dictator Kim Jong-Il appears to have admitted his government is unable to solve the food shortage and has told his citizens to start relying on private markets for goods.

Australia has undergone a change in leadership more so than policy, but that may be in the offing as well. After a vote of no-confidence, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been ousted by former deputy PM Julia Gillard. She is the first woman Prime Minister in Australia’s history (and apparently the second redhead). Newsweek has a laudatory article on Gillard and how her personality and leadership skills could bring a breath of fresh air to Australia’s politics. Let’s hope she has better luck than the Socceroos.

Hong Kong does not have a team in the World Cup; if it did, it would be nearly as much of an long-shot as its neighbor North Korea’s team. But Hong Kong does have an inspirational underdog off the pitch, according to CNN. Gordon Wong abandoned a career in health diagnostic equipment to make wheelchairs for fellow Hongkongers when he noticed foreigners had far better equipment than his countrymen.

(Photo courtesy of Newsweek)

Wondering at Nature...

As I have stated before, I do not enjoy "roughing it," but I am still capable of being sufficiently awed by the forces of nature. Some of my favorite photos come from the genius Ansel Adams. I do love me a good view of the countryside after tramping up hundreds of stairs to the top of whatever tower/cathedral/really tall building is handy. The stone I stole from the Cliff Walk in Rhode Island reminds me, among other things, of the power of the waves and the time it took for that rock to become so smooth. 

I do recall one incident sophomore year of college where I was more confused than cowed by Nature, however. I remember being woken out of a dead sleep in my East Coast dorm room without a clue why. I was more peeved than anything else since it was before I had to get up to go to work. Later at the tennis camp where I taught I found out what had woken me up was a low magnitude earthquake. 

I'm not sure if this next story really qualifies as good news, but it isn't bad news unless you're a Kiwi or Aussie who really hates the other nationality. A 7.8 earthquake has moved the island of New Zealand one foot closer to Australia and actually enlarged NZ, as one side of the country moved farther than the other. I guess what does qualify as good news is that despite it being the biggest tremor in the world so far this year, it caused relatively little structural damage and no injuries. 

Yahoo! seems to be the go-to story site today. I just realized all three of my stories are from there... Attached to the earthquake story was a little article on a new contest to name the seven natural wonders of the world. Two years ago, New 7 Wonders held a contest to name the seven man-made wonders that produced the following list: the Roman Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Lost City of Petra in Jordan, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, Macchu Picchu in Peru, and the Pyramid at Chichen Itza in Mexico. For the new contest, there are 28 finalists which people can vote on by phone or the Internet. The winners will be announced in 2011. 

The photo belongs to an AP story hosted on Yahoo! News. The popular seals who sleep and play in a cove in La Jolla have been granted legal protection from being forcibly ejected from the area. A couple years ago, some idiot, ahem, the disgruntled swimmer mentioned in the article filed suit because s/he wanted to swim in the cove and not share it with the seals. This ruling also prevents some poor soul from suffering the indignity of having to walk down the beach with a loudspeaker blaring the sound of dogs barking (to scare away the seals) accompanied by one of San Diego's finest (to ward off attacks from pro-seal demonstrators.)

Funny ha-ha...

One job ago I was chatting with my friend Joel and made a reference to the Keystone Kops. He looked at me and said, "Let me guess. Someone from British comedy?" 

My first thought was, "Wow, this kid has my humor pegged." My second was, "Man, I'm old if he did not get my reference." The Keystone Kops are not, in fact, British, but are a series of silent film comedies about inept policemen produced in the early 1900s in America. 

My theme for today was inspired by a story I received from my Aussie friend Tom. It reminded me how funny that clever and sharp-witted British/Aussie sense of humor is to me. For whatever reason, I have been missing it recently, so the article from the BBC on the wallabies in Tasmania who are getting into poppy fields and creating crop circles after eating the harvest was just what I needed. But what made me laugh out loud were the comments below the story from individual readers.

I searched in vain for the clip I wanted, but eventually found a family-friendly-ish clip from my absolute favorite British TV show, "Coupling." I do not in any way mean the US version of that show. The transformation of "The Office" from Great Britain to America was fantastic, but "Coupling" failed completely. The British version is far superior. In this YouTube clip, one of the core characters, who is known for his insane theories which are just crazy enough to make sense, explains the dangers of "The Giggle Loop."

The last two stories I included mainly because they're British. : ) The first is from the Daily Telegraph, and it details the honorary degree Oxford University bestowed on a street sweeper. Allan Brigham came to the city intending to train as a teacher but ended up in street cleaning and eventually started giving tours around the city. He was honored for his length of service to the town of Oxford. 

News.com out of Australia returned the favor to the BBC and reported on an occurrence on the Piccadilly Line of the Underground. As part of an initiative to promote art and literature, the train drivers have been give books of inspirational quotes to read over the PA. They are encouraged to read ones that are timely to the situation at hand, but I'm sincerely hoping they stick to doing that while the train is not in motion. 

(Photo courtesy of the Daily Telegraph)

Mmm...chocolate. And other good ideas...

Most of you know I am not a giant fan of driving. I don't really know why, but I've just never seen the appeal of road trips, and I really don't like being stuck in a car for hours on end. I will make trips that are four hours or less simply because the hassle of flying (which I actually hate more than driving) is too much for me. But maybe what develops out of the following story will improve my dim view of motor vehicles. I mean, how can the addition of chocolate make anything worse?

Researchers from the University of Warwick in England have built an F3 race car out of biodegradable materials that can go up to 145 mph, and it runs on chocolate factory waste. Seriously. I found in on msnbc.com, so it must be true. : ) Can you imagine, driving down the Mass Pike and all you smell is chocolate? That would make my trips surrounded by Mass-hole drivers much more bearable. Maybe in this time of the restructuring of the car industry, the people on top will take notice that it is possible to build a fast, environmentally friendly car.

Yahoo! announced the winner of the most-publicized job search in the world yesterday. A British man is the lucky one chosen for the "World's Best Job" - blogging about northeastern Queensland, Australia. He gets free accommodations in a gorgeous locale for a year just for blogging about how terrific the reef is. He also gets paid $111,000. This guy sounds perfectly suited - having ridden an ostrich and kissed a giraffe. Yes, Virginia, dream jobs do still exist...

Yahoo! this morning had the final story for today. Clayton Homes has created the "i-House" - a prefab, "green" home that is so far from a trailer that it's not funny. It has bamboo floors in addition to solar power and other energy-saving appointments. It has a V-shaped roof which holds a roof-deck, and at $100 to $300 per square foot, it's much cheaper than green AND conventional alternatives. I'm not really a fan of modern architecture, but this looks appealing, even to me. 

(Photo credit: msnbc.com)