Daily Links, July 24, 2008

A couple of days ago I went up to Sun Moon Lake with some friends....what are my friends talking about on the blogs?

Frog in the Well with a great post on pre-2-28 Taiwan pamphlet on "What is democracy?" -- in Japanese.

Sponge Bear goes to Ta-ken and finds lots of storm-damaged trails.

J Michael at the Far Eastern Sweet Potato has a detailed write up of Paul Wolfowitz's talk in Taipei this week.

Taiwan matters! on the Ma intervew on CNN.

Erik on the arrival of Chinese web marketer Alibaba in Taiwan.

David On Formosa, soon leaving for Oz for a month, comments on the nutcase "patriot" who attacked Chen Shui-bian.

Fili blogs on a survey of international students at NCKU.

The big Ugly Brown Building in Tainan.

My Several Worlds goes to the Penghu.

Jerome on Taiwan's Black Hole and Chinese cultural imperialism.

Rank with the continuing series in great Taiwan bike rides: the Northern Cross island highway.

Kitesurfing in Taiwan.

Sean Reilly finds some funny stuff over at The Gentle Rant.

My friend and fellow NCKU student Olga and her in-laws, went with me to the lake. Here she poses on Route 136 in Nantou. Despite her awesome good looks, it is almost impossible to get a good picture of her, but here I think I got close.

NEW BLOGS ON THE ROLL: Stocks and Politics, Hitech Taipei, Taiwanese Identity, Taipei Personality, Strait Talk, A Man in Tainan, Pangolin Scales, The Dutch Lady.

A landslide. Mud and trees had been hastily pushed off the road all along the road that winds around the lake.

MEDIA: Did we have a quake last night? I could have sworn....USGS says a small one, far away. Wolfowitz says Bush Administration will eventually OK arms deal. Taiwan's aviation consortium, AIDC, urges that upgrades to Taiwan's indigenous IDF fighter be carried out. Nursing homes becoming more popular here. Taiwanese factories have discovered Bangladesh. Don Isenberg has an excellent review of the whole Taiwan arms freeze mess at Asia Times. Taiwan's export orders finally fell for the first time since 2003. Ma save us! I'm so glad our economy took off after Ma's election. Radio Australia reports that -- Ma save us! -- the new Administration's popularity is plummeting as AFP reports our unemployment rate pushes 4%. Don't miss: Kanwa's Andrei Chang with a great piece (as always) on Taiwan's deteriorating defense situation.

Here you can see how a landslide gashed the forest and filled the road with mud. Road crews have moved the mud off to the side, pushing it over the concrete embankments. Clearly, if you want perpetual employment, road crew at Sun Moon Lake is a good choice.

Life on the lake went on. A farmer tends his flowers...

As the sun was setting, we left....

[Taiwan]