Tibet

While the world has been going crazy talking about the repression in Tibet - one newspaper article tries to look at what the Chinese think of what's happening. Looks like the Chinese Govt has used the media skillfully to play the nationalist angle - the general feeling in China seems to supportive of what the Chinese Govt is doing there.

“We couldn’t believe our government was being so weak and cowardly,” said Ms. Meng, 52, an office worker, who was appalled that the authorities had failed to initially douse the violence. “The Dalai Lama is trying to separate China, and it is not acceptable at all. We must crack down on the rioters.

Extending China's reach

While we in India fight over caste and other issues, China has been busy building a road from Kunming to Bangkok going through Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and then onto Thailand. I guess this will use part of the old WW II road - the Burma road. India has been lobbying (unsuccessfully) to get the Stillwell road going to link India's East to the Burma road and then onto Kunming. A lot of money was spent on the road:

The Chinese spent $4 billion building the highway from Kunming to the border. One particularly difficult stretch of road required the construction of 430 bridges and 15 tunnels. That portion of the road is also monitored by 168 cameras centrally controlled by highway department officials who watch for elephants — there are an estimated 275 in the area — and other stray animals. The cameras also assist the police in catching suspected criminals.

The net benefit (as always) is trade:

The new roads, as well as upgraded ports along the Mekong River, are changing the diets and spending habits of people on both sides of the border. China is selling fruit and green vegetables that favor temperate climates to its southern neighbors, and is buying tropical fruit, rubber, sugar cane, palm oil and seafood.

“You never used to see apples in the traditional markets,” said Ruth Banomyong, an expert in logistics who teaches at Thammasat University in Bangkok.

China has blasted shallow sections of the Mekong to make it more easily navigable for cargo barges, allowing traders to ship apples, pears and lettuce downriver. The price of apples in Thailand has fallen to the equivalent of about 20 cents apiece from more than a dollar a decade ago. Roses and other cut flowers from China have displaced flowers flown in from the Netherlands, making Valentine’s Day easier on the wallet for Thais. Traders now have the choice of shipping by barge, truck or both.

The earliest audio recording - discovered!

In 1860, a French scientist - Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville - recorded 'Au Clair de la Lune' on a piece of paper blackened by oil smoke. Scientists have now reproduced that recording and and the article and the recording is on the NYT

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville has certainly been obscure, at least until now. Researchers say that in April 1860, the Parisian tinkerer used a device called a phonautograph to make visual recordings of a woman singing “Au Clair de la Lune.” That was 17 years before Thomas Edison received a patent for the phonograph, and 28 years before his technology was used to capture and play back a piece of a section of a Handel oratorio.

Making Beijing sweat

Dream for Darfur has done a good job of pushing China on Darfur and it seems to be working as per an article in the NYT magazine. A lot of work by Mia Farrow who coined the term "Genocide Olympics" via an op-ed in the WSJ a year ago.

Book of the week

The making of a monster - attempting to explain Robert Mugabe. Read the review in the Economist

Explaining Religion

The Economist has an article in it's Science and Technology Section attempting to explain religion. There are many studies and tests done on persons to test if religion is really linked to some chemicals or process in the brain:

It is an ambitious shopping list. Fortunately, other researchers have
blazed a trail. Patrick McNamara, for example, is the head of the
Evolutionary Neurobehaviour Laboratory at Boston University's School of
Medicine. He works with people who suffer from Parkinson's disease.
This illness is caused by low levels of a messenger molecule called
dopamine in certain parts of the brain. In a preliminary study, Dr
McNamara discovered that those with Parkinson's had lower levels of
religiosity than healthy individuals, and that the difference seemed to
correlate with the disease's severity. He therefore suspects a link
with dopamine levels and is now conducting a follow-up involving some
patients who are taking dopamine-boosting medicine and some of whom are
not.

Cartoon of the week

From the Economist: KAL's cartoon | Economist.com