Hilarious article :).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574539642205883198.html

For Hosseini fans:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120182626320733755.html

Of War and Wharton, Starbucks and ‘Peanuts’ by By MARK LASSWELL

http://www.buffalo.edu/news/pdf/December07/WSJNewmanMcJobBestOf2007.pdf

I was able to find some books from the article in the libraries nearby. I hope I can read at least one

[WSJ] Man of the Year?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119828977548646431.html

This week Time magazine named Mr. Putin its 2007 ‘Person of the Year.’

Just want to mention that I am not a politically savvy person nor do I possess the qualifications to agree or object the pick from Time magazine. It is just my 2 cents…

While I was reading the article, I found there is a very little nuance from what happened in South Korea in 1970’s in terms of dictatorship, eradicating democracy, and so forth. I often hear from my father’s generation saying that it was so much better with the president “Park” in 70’s, although he was an autocratic president who rigged many elections, demolished democracy and free press, but still believed to be the man who laid the foundation of today’s economic ‘boom’ among the Koreans who had seen the rapid economic development around them. Similarly, today’s Russia is indeed much better than Gorbachev era economically and in a way politically, since at least what Mr. Putin is doing with his government is making the country more stable compared to Soviet Union — the crime related death rate was the highest in history. Is it good for the people of Russia? In some aspect, it might be good economically, since it seems with an autocratic government with the right direction — whether or not they benefit from it directly — can achieve economic development a lot faster. The huge drawback with this is that all the cheap government money will be lent to a certain selective people who are close to the current administration, so the country is being built with the wrong foundation, and it can never be corrected but only be forgotten. In Russia, indeed this has led many super-corporations run by small group of royalists of Putin, similarly ‘Jaebul’ in Korea in 70’s and 80’s. Politically it is a devastating thing. As the article mentioned it has led and will lead to very real costs in human life like many students imprisoned and died in demonstrating against the government in Korea and one of them was my cousin. In that, rather than being so much worried about breaking relationships with Russia by putting the hard-line stance against human rights violation, the US should at least make a statement with criticism against the reported abuses by the current administration with the help from international community.

With all that said, I would like to predict what would happen in Russia in the next 30 years — again just my 2 cents. In the next couple years, Medvedev — Putin’s handpicked heir — will become a president and their regime will continue. By 2017, with many turmoils in between, the economy of Russia will grow exponentially and people’s high living standard will push Russians for political changes. The government will slowly adjust their stance to people’s needs towards democracy and human rights. The first democratic election will be conducted and will release political prisoners. All the wrongdoings of government in the past will be slowly forgotten and people will mainly focus on their current issues — becoming a developed country. Until Russia gets there, to alleviate the suffing of the good Russian people, we know exactly what to do to help those who follow their heart.

WSJ 12/20/2007

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20071220/with-online-services-foreign-texts-can-get-lost-in-translation/

It looks like machine translation is still far from conquering human translation
In my previous MT attempts on google, it was definitely not enough for interpreting professional & sophisticated documents, but it was more than enough for short and simple text. It would be awesome if FB uses MT to translate multilingual wall posts on the fly.

Harold Evans (Editor, the Week):

- AndrewSullivan.com
- MichaelTotten.com
- HeadButler.com

James Taranto (Editor, OpinionJournal.com):

- KausFiles.com
- InstaPundit.com
- JustOneMinute.typepad.com

Mia Farrow:

- BoingBoing.net

Jane Hamsher (Founder, firedoglake):

- DigbysBlog.blogspot.com
- TBogg.blogspot.com
- CrooksAndLiars.com

Newt Gingrich (Former House speaker):

- RedState.com
- Coner.NationalReview.com
- PowerlineBlog.com

Dick Costolo (Former CEO of FeedBuner):

- FakeSteve.blogspot.com
- Publishing2.com
- Photoblogs.org

Xiao Qiang (Founder of China Digital Times):

- ZonaEuropa.com
- Blog.DoNews.com/keso

Jim Buckmaster (CEO, Craigslist):

- Slashdot.org
- Metafilter.com
- Valleywag.com
- TechDirt.org

Elizabeth Spiers (Founding Editor, Gawker):

- Reason.com/blog

- MaudNewton.com
- DesignObserver.com

www.google.com/reader
www.bloglines.com
www.netvibes.com

They are men are women in their 30s and 40s who have become multimillionaires and billionaires during the wealth boom of the past decade. Yet rather spending their money on yachts, boats and jets, yawns live modestly and spend most of their money on philanthropy.

80s: yuppies (Young Urban Professionals)
- symbols: Armani suits and BMWs

90s: bobos (Bourgeois Bohemians)

2000s: yawns (Young And Wealth But Normal)

Yawns wanna be!!!