Daily Links, July 19, 2010

Even in a short three second exposure, this snail munching on a discarded pepper from the compost moves too quickly for a clear night shot. Meanwhile what's bright on the blogs?

BLOGS:

• Cycling Satin Sestina on designing an alloy bike frame and a very professional review of a couple of issues with the SRAM groupsets.
• What does being a friend of China mean?
• Historical cholera epidemics in Danshui.
• Camping in Taiwan from Pat Cowsill
• Hu Shih on missionaries in China. Steven Crook on a medical missionary in Changhua.
• Sponge Bear follows the signs in Taichung
• Snarky Tofu heads to eastern Taiwan for some snaps
• Fili on the Hualien city aboriginal dancing show
• Under the radar news at AsiaEye. Also links from Taiwansecurity.org collected here.
• More from Premier Wu on the pink dolphins
• Good news: Taiwan's growth rate projected to be 7.7% this year.
• A stunning trip through Taiwan

Media

• The BP blowout preventer that failed was modified...where else? in China prior to failure.
• Because tensions have fallen, China is on track to have 2,000 missiles pointed at Taiwan by the end of this year. And PRC preparations to attack Taiwan accelerating. Remember that, and read the link below this one....
  
• Greg Sheridan of The Australian interviews Ma Ying-jeou, praising him for easing tensions. The president is regularly interviewed poorly, no exceptions here. Imagine -- an interview that begins by saying how "provocative" Chen Shui-bian is, but somehow never manages to mention the missiles pointed at Taiwan. In fairness, it seems likely that the questions were approved by Ma's handlers.
  
• Budgets for the new municipalities are in limbo as legislators all want a bigger share for their own areas. When the gruel gets thin, the knives get sharpened....
  
• Taiwan still wants US weapons, as GIO observes. The DPP also called again for F-16 sales.
  
• Francis Lam, the Taiwanese-American who writes on cooking for Salon.com, teaches you how to cook with liquid nitrogen. Kids, DO try this at home.
• A Whale doesn't pass muster in cleaning up Gulf Oil
• Number of births falls in Taiwan for first six months.
  
• China Times poll has Tsai and Chu running neck and neck in The City Formerly Known as Taipei County. Speaking of polls, the RDEC poll that shows Ma has "rebounded" from his low popularity has done its intended work: now Asia Sentinel has picked it up. I'll believe in a rebound when a reliable tracking poll shows it, not an annual poll from a government agency.
  
• Rebiya Kadeer's daughter in Taiwan for film.
• It always makes me laugh to recall what ardent supporters the European businessmen in Taiwan are of the ECFA sellout, and then to repeatedly read criticisms of China's business atmosphere from Europeans. The disjunct is enormous. The latest example of this is the CEOs of BASF and Siemens complaining about the way China does business. Hello! What did you think would happen?
  
• CAA screws up negotiations with China on new flights. How was that possible?
  
• If you read SCMP, don't miss this piece from an old mainlander big businessman in Taiwan on how annexation is already occurring. The subtext of articles like this is that old mainlander businessman like him regard Taiwan as a chip they can sell to China to gain entrance to its market.
• David Brown from CSIS on ECFA.
  
• CFR Bigwig Richard Haas says we're not winning in Afghanistan and its not worth it. Years after ordinary people got rational, the CFR returns to reality.
  

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