Daily Links, May 3, 2010

Fireworks ready for the arrival of the bride's family. What's pyrotechnic on the blogs today?

BLOGS:

• Eyedoc once again with awesome post on Taiwan's 17th century history.
• Waziwei Nature Reserve outside Taipei, from Wandering Taiwan
• J Michael tests the media exemption from the recent strictures on personal data. A myth.
• TAHR on the 4 executions, which it says had many problems.
  
• Agu speaks for many in his discussion of Ma as ECFA winner on points. I'd be curious to see how much Tsai's gender influenced judgments about Ma.
• Spring wenshan Baozhong tea from Tea Masters.
• Taiwan Airpower looks at satellite imagery of Taiwan's SAM sites.
• By yacht to Taiwan, Bradt travel guide.
• Taiwan in Cycles on cycling clothing. Love that opening pic....
• Again: Taiwan in Cycles on Taiwanese firms' experiences in China.
• Stocks and Politics on Ma's CNN interview.
• Patrick notes that Taipei drivers are not yielding to pedestrians.
• Neil Wade with awesome pics of Jiufen.
• Post on surfing at Wai'ao, where I sometimes stop on rides up and down the coast.
• Laowiseass knocks Taiwan media coverage of the landslide on Hwy 3 near Cidu. Even when media people are bloggers, they still criticize the media.
  
• Frozen Garlic with some great posts on Taiwan elections, starting with this one on KMT candidates. I really gotta have a beer with this guy.
• David reports on the Asian Greens conference in Taipei.
• Sabina with excellent post on Giant's failed experiments with carbon bikes. I love this blog!
  

MEDIA: Wonderful, imaginative discussion of how the US lost the naval war of 2015. Apropo: China's naval expansion in the Indian Ocean, and India worries about China's dams. Ruh-roh: Consumer price index in Taiwan to go up for 4th straight month. Tai hao! Manufacturing expands for 14th straight month. First-rate summary of why Taiwanese are skeptical about ECFA. Won't see anything like this out of the usual suspects in DC. Manila's Taipei office says ECFA will be good for the Philippines. ECFA to expand income gap, says Taipei Times. CSMonitor notes that more Americans are giving up their citizenship, a tiny but notable increase. And a trend many of us have long expected, given the declining standard of living in the US: According to the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, (AARO) apart from the military and other US government employees, 5.26 million US citizens reside abroad, a 67 percent increase since 2008. “Among the benefits the study cites of a life abroad are statistics that show expats earn more, pay less tax, have a better work/life balance, have an improved quality of life, enjoy broader cultural opportunities, and enjoy better job prospects.” Once again Commonwealth English with 2 excellent pieces, on what's fueling Taipei's housing price bubble and on public anger. Orz Orz Orz to the translator. Asia Sentinel with a good piece on the DPP and its recent recovery. Taiwan's dolphins face extinction. If you're James Soong and you somehow wind up with millions of someone else's money, you don't get any punishment. If you're Chen Shui-bian..... The prediction markets on Ma's re-election: he leads all comers. At East Asia Forum, Reginald Little calls for western analysts to take into account Confucian values, without saying what they might be.

SPECIAL: Excellent post on oil spill in the Gulf. Thirty years of deregulation madness may well end up poisoning the entire seaboard south of Virginia Beach. And if that wasn't bad enough, colony collapse syndrome continues: a third of all US bee colonies did not make it through the winter.

BIKING: Drew, after a near death experience, collected some blog posts on biking on the island.
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