Bushman’s Picks, January 27, 2008

Hui-chen and I been very busy this week hosting an American Customer. We’ve been traveling from Taoyuan down to Taichung. Then we went to Kaohsiung to take a look at a house. Naturally the blogosphere has been just as busy. So, without further adieu, here are my picks for the week:

• Michael Turton has a couple of very interesting articles relating to China. My favorite one is about China’s Pearl Harbor Strategy ^[1]. Basically it’s another case of how humans never learn. I hope it’s not true for their sake.

• Andres has an article about the totally Taiwanese practice of shrimp fishing ^[2]. You bait a very small hook on a mini fishing pole and you catch shrimp. I kid you not.

• Our readers know that I’m partial to articles about life and in particular, home cooking. Our pal Brunty has been busy with some excellent commentary, and of course some cooking at home, with photos ^[3]. I gotta get back to Thailand and then we can do a post featuring all of us together! But just when you thought that was all, there is another article on spicy squid and vegetables ^[4]. I recommend that you do not read this stuff just before bedtime!

• David Reid has a fantastic article on differing perspectives of Taiwan ^[5]. As David points out: “Much discussion of Taiwan is framed in the context of Taiwan as part of China versus Taiwan as an independent nation. However, Taiwan’s geographical position is much more complex than this.” Then David goes on to make some excellent points using Google Earth images. This is my favorite image because it does help to make the point that geographical definition of Taiwan isn’t a clear issue as some might think. But there is even more to it than that – please read the article yourself. Just looking at a map and saying that Taiwan belongs to China because it looks like it, isn’t being realistic.

• Patrick Cowsill had an article that didn’t make it into last week’s picks due to the publishing deadline (sorry about that!). I like Patrick’s stories about life in Taiwan because he takes the time to give us details such as how he referred to an impolite person who hijacked his breakfast ^[6] as an “old spinster” but it literally means “old virgin” in Mandarin. This was just after she referred to him as a “foreigner.” Sounds like the perfect opportunity for a play on the word “old” (Mandarin speakers will understand what I mean). Patrick, the photos of your leg all banged up made my leg hurt just looking at them! Man I hope you get over that soon.

• As to be expected, A-gu has more articles that help people understand wtf is going on over here with politics. According to the latest opinion poll, 43% of voters are “undecided” ^[7] when considering which of the 2 presidential candidates they would vote for. Check out That’s Impossible ^[8] for more enlightenment.

• We’ve all heard of that movie Snakes On A Plane (but I know of no one who’s actually seen it). Carrie got a dose of that in real life this week with Snakes On A Bus ^[9]!

• ProBlogger’s Reality Check about Blogging for Money ^[10], speaks volumes to the blogger looking for income.

• Vern has a couple of new articles this week over at Thaipluse! Blog ^[11] but you may have trouble reading them because of some problem with the main page. I don’t want you to miss them though, because anyone interested in Thailand should be reading Vern’s straight-to-the-point, no BS commentary on the country. Bring Your Kids to Pattaya – you idiots ^[12] makes some succinct points about that area.

• If you have a WordPress platform, then this article may help your mobile phone ^[13] (WAP) readers. It you want to see what this site looks like on your mobile phone, then click this link ^[14].

• Craig’s been at it again. Check out his Dharma Lights photo set ^[15]. Nice depth of field! Craig also has a few events list of interest to those in the photography world ^[16].

• Fili comments on the wisdom of swimming at a beach near a nuclear reactor ^[17]. My guess is that if a nuke goes up it probably doesn’t matter where you are on an island. Also, I’m no expert, I think that design considerations such as containment do make a difference as you can clearly see when you compare the Three Mile Island ^[18] incident with Chernobyl ^[19]. Ahh, to heck with the technical stuff – click on the link and check out the cute girl in the bikini. That’s what I did.

• Owshang has some savvy shopping advice ^[20] for us this week. He doesn’t actually make a list. That’s a good idea!

• Lots of people have recent articles about the dreaded wei-ya company dinner that everyone in Taiwan attends this time of year, but I like Poagao’s story this week ^[21], the best. Yup, you’re famous. Get over it. Btw, Poagao, I have 2 words for you: “D 3” hehe.

• There are literally tons of new photos in our Asian Food ^[22], and Women of Taiwan ^[23] groups on flickr.com. If you are a flickr member (free and part of Yahoo!) I highly recommend photographer karou ^[24] – but only if you love beautiful photographs of lovely Japanese women.

• Deceased: This week we lost one of the greats, Suzhanne Pleshette ^[25], who of course, played the wife of Bob Newhart on his famous show. I will never forget how, on the very last episode of the successor show Newhart, Bob and “Emily” were shown waking up one morning in their old Chicago apartment, as if the entire Newhart series had been a dream! They just don’t make television like that anymore folks.