Daily Links, June 6, 2011

My friend Ellen at an overlook on Sanfeng Rd south of Hsinchu. A pretty road that runs along the ridges between Hsinchu and Miaoli, Sanfeng Rd is highly recommended. Saturday I rode 111 kms up to Hsinchu to perform at the first Open Mic night at Titty Tea in Jhubei (Facebook). The event was a great success with enjoyable performances by locals and foreigners; if you're in the area on a Saturday night, stop by to enjoy. The next day I rode with Ellen on Rte 3 through Miaoli back to Taichung. Despite the tough ride of 120 kms and probably 1100 m of climbing into blustery headwinds the whole way, Ellen took the hills of Miaoli by storm. Great ride, great ride partner (map).

Whew! It's hot out there! What's burning up the blogs this week?

BLOGS:

• Three culinary treasures of Donggang in Pingtung.
• Sun Yat-sen, American citizen when he founded ROC?
• Frozen Garlic on nominations for the Legislative Yuan, to date.
• Ozsoapbox with the media timeline of the DEHP scandal and some more background.
• Part III of Laorencha's work on marriage in Taiwan.
• AsiaEye's Underrated news for the week. 
• Those hot Italian bikes that people buy because they aren't made in Taiwan? Guess what.
• Fulong Training Camp for triathletes and cyclists June 25-6.

Me on Open Mic night at Titty Tea (blog) in Jhubei. They will be doing this every Sat night this month.

MEDIA:

• Ralph Jennings in the NYTimes with a good piece on the environmental movement and Robin Winkler.
• China intensifying maritime surveillance (Jamestown Foundation). We here in Asia can expect an even more confrontations in the years ahead. East Asia Forum on the contradictions in China's external security approach.
• Liu Shih-chung with good piece on DPP Chairman Tsai's overseas trip to Europe.
• US-China rivalry driving China's South China Sea expansion? Yes, that's right. The US also compelled China to invade Tibet, asked Beijing to shoot everyone in Tiananmen, and is paying China not to regulate its coal mines. *sigh*
• Commonwealth with pieces on psychosomatic disorders this month. Good stuff, starting with this one.
• CSIS on avoiding another Cold War.
• Straits Times writer on US-China meeting there.
• Taiwanese singers dominate Mandarin music world.
• New paths to powering Taiwan from Taiwan Panorama.
• Cram schools in Taiwan from AFP
• Wealth gap could drive election. In the WSJ, too. Kudos to the author.
• Outstanding Taiwan forger of US dollars lives -- where else? -- in Taichung.
• Head of Public Construction Commission says ground subsidence is as serious as food contamination, so where's the public outrage?
• Don't flip the bird, you can be sued and promoted to the priesthood.

One reason I like riding on the railroad access road is that it goes by the wind farms along the coast.

HELP:
NCKU student is running a study on bike stops. You can do the survey here:

• Chinese Version (中文): http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/544404/NCKU-Bike-Stop-Study-Chinese-Version-2
• English Version (英文): http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/554057/NCKU-Bike-Stop-Study-English-Version-2

_______________________ 
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/544404/NCKU-Bike-Stop-Study-Chinese-Version-2