Wed Night Shorts

The new blogger control panel is out. I decided to switch over since Blogger is doing a forced switch in any case. It's absolutely, painfully hideous, with no major new functionality, even introducing new clunkiness, as if designed to drive people away from Blogger. With each rebuild Blogger has actually become clunkier and more difficult to use. And no, don't tell me about Wordpress -- their interface makes the cockpit of a 747 look like a child's Lego set.

 Global Voices on the Smear Campaign that provoked the WantWant protests. The problem with WantWant is not merely that media concentration is a severe problem for a democracy, but also that WantWant has demonstrated, concretely, that it is willing to use its media organs to go after those it deems enemies. That is what sparked the protest.

Ma to visit Pengchia Islet...

The Presidential Office's statement confirmed a report in the Chinese-language China Times yesterday, which quoted sources as saying that Ma will inspect the northern islet this coming Sunday.

Since the islet is the nearest Taiwan-controlled territory to the Tiaoyutais, Ma's upcoming tour has been widely seen as a move to assert the nation's sovereignty over the disputed island chain, the report said. 

Once again, Korea is beating Taiwan! Their President went directly to a disputed island to confront Japan mano-a-mano, no mealy-mouthed trips to a place with dull, undisputed sovereignty, like a five year old trying to provoke a securely chained dog. More to the point, the President is keeping the islands in the news, both the South China Sea and Senkakus. This is a good move domestically, especially since Apple Daily had a huge headline today saying that among Asian countries Taiwan is 12th in GDP and local papers were carrying the news that hiring has now reached its lowest level in three years. ECFA has really saved us, eh? In any case it never hurts the President to be seen out defending the 'national' territory. All the noise, as a sharp observer pointed out, is meant to imply that the ROC wants to be taken seriously as a claimant. It might be, if it didn't also claim to be China.....

Oh yeah, Next Media is selling Apple Daily and a couple of other media assets.
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