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  • Michigan Wine

    “Michigan’s Wine Country Grows Where the Cherry Is King” – a NYT article about what great wine Michigan has to offer. The focus is on Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties in the northwestern part of lower Michigan. (By the tip of the pinkie finger is you look at the palm of your right had.)

    I’m not a big fan of the cherry wines, which are very sweet. But both the white and red wines I tried at the Leland Wine Festival in early June were delicious.

    It’s always fun to see your home area highlighted for good products.

  • Happy Friday the 13th

    How are you celebrating Friday the 13th? We have a couple horror movies to watch here: Ghost Rig and Vacancy. Actually, we got six DVDs for 25RMB ($3.50US). Not bad.

  • Recent Chinese News

    OK, here’s a quick list of China news stories I’ve come across in the last couple of days:

    “Who wants a Hover Wingle?” – Could China have picked a better name for the first Chinese-made car? I think not. The cars are selling very well in Europe, not for their horrendous safety record, but because they’re so damn cheap.

    “Beijing Censors Silence Influential Newsletter” – The headline should read, NPC doesn’t like idea of free media. With only CCTV, I don’t like the NPC.

    “Billions of Rats Invade China” – This isn’t that new, but it’s gross. I can’t imagine what a billion rats would be like. It makes me want to leave the country.

    “Cardboard Chinese Food” – Great, I heard about this eight hours after eating dumplings twice in one day.

    “Chinese Internet Usage Rivals U.S.” – Yeah, and they only have a billion more people than us.

    “China Executes Former Watchdog Chief” – So, this is what happens when you take bribes for food.

    “A Virgin Mary-themed Urinal? Online in China” – Forget Summer Palace, forget Terracotta Warriors, forget Forbidden City – seeing stuff like this is what makes a trip to China worth while. However, I don’t think I’ll be down that way.

    (This post makes me realize that I get most of my news – especially while traveling – from blogs. And it all seems credible. That’s kind of weird.)

  • Anti-DRM T-Shirts

    I would classify myself as an anti-DRM person. I like my MP3s to work when and where I want them to. And I want to play them as many times as I want to on as many machines as I want.

    That’s greedy, but it’s also the mainstream thought process when it comes to digital music, which has proved very difficult to protect (from the label’s perspective). And very easy to obtain from the “listener’s” perspective.

    However, I also fall into a group of people who don’t mind that Apple has a vice grip on my media, players, computer, etc. etc. I’m OK with only being able to play my music on iTunes and my iPod because I really like the iPod. But, as you may have heard (because Steve Jobs made it abundantly clear) that Apple is not the one behind the iTunes DRM, the labels are.

    I get why. They want to protect music. But it doesn’t work. And because it doesn’t work, and there isn’t a clear alternative other than completely abandoning DRM, which is a scary proposition, they’re clinging to it for the moment. People want expect music (and movies to a lesser degree) for free, now. But that’s hardly fair to the people putting in time and effort to make what we love to listen to and watch.

    So, what is the answer? Maybe make some t-shirts like these.

  • Happy Fair Use Day

    Happy Fair Use Day, which was apparently today or yesterday. It’s tough keeping track while living a day ahead of what I’m used to. (Link)

    This is §107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, which provides a for exception to an author’s exclusive rights that come with copyright. Fair Use is generally what allows you to reproduce limited amounts of an author’s work for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research” without infringing on an his copyright.

    Be careful, though. If you use the “heart” of the author’s work (E.g. – A passage from a book that is so compelling as to be the only reason to buy the book.) then you could be found to be infringing.

  • Food Is Cheap In China

    Today, we found the Muslim quarter in Xi’an, which is located just northwest of the Bell Tower. The Muslim quarter is several blocks long and lined with many street-food vendors and market-type shops hawking imitation terracotta warriors, tea sets, Chinese clothing, etc. We bought some Chinese sweets for 5RMB (less than $1US) and then had steamed lamb dumplings and spicy cold noodles. Lunch cost 18RMB (less than $3US for two people) and we were stuffed.

    Depending on where you eat here, food is very very cheap from an American perspective. We’ve had Mexican food in Beijing and paid 193RMB. That was the most expensive meal to date, which is probably equal to a reasonably priced meal at a sit-down restaurant in the US. A large Pizza Hut pizza and two soft drinks cost 100RMB (about $15US). McDonald’s was not as cheap as I would have anticipated. For a cheeseburger meal and a McNugget meal, it cost about 47RMB (about $7US). Still not bad.

    Today, we had Tall Iced Chocolate drinks at Starbucks after lunch, which cost 42RMB. This seemed shockingly expensive after only paying 18RMB for lunch. But… but… but… in the 95* heat and humidity and without a proper dessert in site for weeks, they were very good.

  • Dangerous Made-In-China Products

    I’ve been trying to keep track of the China news in the U.S. while in China. Most of what I have read has been in the NYT and consisted of FDA warnings about food, toothpaste, dangerous toys, etc.

    A blog titled, “Who Sucks,” put together a comprehensive list of all of the 2007 dangerous made-in-China products. Click here.

    Recently dangerous items from the list include shoddy hammocks, lead jewelry, collapsing recliners, and shattering glassware.