1. Walter Russell Mead:

The looming struggle over water is not difficult to foresee. As China and South Asian countries use more and more water in urban development and agriculture, available resources will be intensely protected. China controls the vast Tibetan plateau, where most of South Asia’s rivers originate. Not only does China appropriate upstream resources, but pollution flows downstream, making what water downstream nations have available increasingly unsuitable for consumption or agriculture.

2. New Resident Evil ARG site and the site it takes you to.



3. Graphic design in the movie Moon.



4. Offline Gmail. (The only Chrome app other than Angry Birds that I've installed. Are there others worth installing?)



5. The latest nick and dent sale at TFAW (lots of comics and toys).



6. Tenacious Toys has Kidrobot Azteca Series 2 Dunny blind boxes on sale.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. Great writing about living in China at the time of the Beijing Olympics. Sample paragraph:

Our son had asthma. There was no use pretending it was the squeaky-clean, sensitive, upper-middle-class kind of asthma. He had the asthma that ghetto children come down with, because they live in the dirt. He was wheezing because at last, today, on the morning of the Olympics, the filth of the city where he was born had gotten into his tender lungs. He was sick because we had let him live in Beijing.

2. How to market to old people. For example:

Marketing to the elderly is tricky. The direct approach—say, calling your product “the soap for the over-70s”—does not work. And traditional advertising fails. “You can’t use TV adverts: they forget them,” groans the 30-something executive. “We show it again and again and again—and they still can’t recall it,” he sighs. Word-of-mouth is the only way.

3. "The governor of a prison near Moscow has lost his job after photographs emerged of his inmates holding a toga party complete with caviar and a McDonald's fast food delivery."



*Buy Olympics posters at eBay.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. "[I]n South Asia, millions remain victims of a wicked form of slavery known as peshgi, or bonded labour. Human Rights Watch estimated as far back as 1999, that India was home to some 40 million bonded labourers. In Pakistan, over one million bonded labourers are currently enslaved in the brick kiln industry alone." Via.

2. Knock-off Ikea store in China. Via.

3. Monastery at dusk. Hell's escalator.

READ MORE - Link roundup

Innocent juice packaging.



Raccoons.



Broomstick.



Vanity plate.



Chinese soldiers form a flood crossing.



Gripping short film about a boy trying to survive in World War II.

READ MORE - Image roundup (and one video)

1. Here's a riddle:

“Why would a tiny woman with no criminal record, who worked 10 years on Wall Street, randomly hold up people at gunpoint at night dressed as a policewoman?”

Absolutely bizarre answer.

2. There's a new Humble Indie Bundle.

3. A claim that China is disassembling and burying the crashed bullet trains to hide evidence. Via.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. It's 60% off posters at Zazzle with the code ZBDAYPOSTERS -- I recommend posters by Steve Thomas, Franco Brambilla, and Adam Koford.

2. Apparently there are 60,000 unsolved murders in Rio de Janeiro, and 24,000 victims haven't even been identified. Via.

3. An assertion that China will lose interest in the NBA with Yao Ming retiring. (It's certainly interesting that there's been no other Chinese players to make an impact in the NBA since him.) Via.

4. Portal to another world. And a similar photo from the same street.

5. Remastered children's books of questionable taste.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. It's mildly interesting from a karmic standpoint that the National Enquirer supposedly videotaped To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen cheating on his wife. It's more interesting to wonder who tipped them off so they could get the scoop.

2. Photo gallery of China's 26-mile Jiaozhou Bay bridge (the current longest ocean bridge in the world). Via.

3. Scientists think these ants raise other bugs for food. Via.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. World of Warcraft is apparently now free to play (but you can't pass level 20). I think I'll give it a try to prepare for The Old Republic. Can anyone recommend a class? (Something cool and straightforward.)

2. "Chinese government photoshop disaster goes viral."

3. Jackasses (NSFW).

READ MORE - Link roundup

Lop Nur, Xinjiang, China:

NASA image acquired May 17, 2011

Located in China’s resource-rich but moisture-poor Xinjiang autonomous region, Lop Nur is an uninviting location for any kind of agriculture. It sits at the eastern end of the Taklimakan Desert, where marching sand dunes can reach heights of 200 meters (650 feet), and dust storms rage across the landscape.

Yet for all it lacks in agricultural appeal, Lop Nur offers something valuable to farmers the world over: potash. This potassium salt provides a major nutrient required for plant growth, making it a key ingredient in fertilizer.

The discovery of potash at Lop Nur in the mid-1990s turned the area into a large-scale mining operation. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured this natural-color image of Lop Nur on May 17, 2011. The rectangular shapes in this image show the bright colors characteristic of solar evaporation ponds. Around the evaporation ponds are the earth tones typical of sandy desert.

During the early and middle Pleistocene epoch, this area held a large brackish lake. Uplift of the northern part of the lake in the late Pleistocene created hollows that became receptacles for potash deposition. The main potash deposits found at Lop Nur today are brine potash, and this site is the second-largest source of potash in China.

Lop Nur slowly dried up in the Holocene. The area now receives average annual precipitation of just 31.2 millimeters (1.2 inches), and experiences annual evaporation of 2,901 millimeters (114 inches), according to a study published in 2008. The study found, however, that this area has experienced seven major climate changes since the end of the Pleistocene, including climatic conditions far more favorable to farming and settlement than today.

Examination of plant and mollusk remains at the lake, as well as studies of sediments, indicate that the Lop Nur region experienced a severe drought about 3,000 years ago, followed by wetter conditions. Between 1,250 and 400 years ago, Lop Nur likely experienced the conditions most favorable to farming and settlement, and red willow trees grew in the area. Pottery dating from the Tang and Song dynasties further testifies to welcoming conditions at the lake centuries ago.
Starting around 400 years ago, however, a more arid climate took hold, completely drying out Lop Nur. Today, by providing potash, the desiccated lake still supports agriculture, but it does so for farming efforts further afield.

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott.

READ MORE - Oasis

1. Jimmy Kimmel has a great article at Grantland about his dad. Here's a taste:

Sun Devil Stadium was about half full. My Dad and I were in Dave's seats. Between the first and second quarters, the PA announcer called out a section, a row number, and a seat. Whoever was in the seat they picked would get a chance to kick a field goal for a sum of money I can't recall. We were nowhere near the winning section, so we paid little attention to the contest. The game resumed. At halftime, we were not among those in line for overpriced beer or a five-dollar hot dog. "That's what they want you to eat!" We remained in our seats. The announcer said something to the effect of "Hey, Cardinals fans — it's time for the Fan Field Goal challenge. Today's fan is from Section 43, Row H, Seat 5 — and let's welcome her now!"

There was some cheering, not much — mostly, I'd guess, from Section 43. The first thing that caught my eye was the dog walking across the field. A German shepherd. The next thing I noticed was a man who looked like a Cardinals team representative slowly leading an older woman by the hand. And then I knew the woman was blind. And the stadium fell silent.

My father looked at me with the same threatening eyes I'd later turn on my 5-year-old son when he spotted a very fat man in the supermarket and started to point. "Don't say a word," they told me. I didn't. Back to the action. At about the 15-yard line, a boy placed a football on a tee. Slowly, very slowly, the team representative led the woman to the ball, allowing her to "feel" it with her foot. I couldn't even begin to process what was happening. A BLIND WOMAN was going to try to KICK A FIELD GOAL in an NFL STADIUM! "Good for her!" you might be thinking, "Now, there's a woman who refuses to let her disability get the best of her!" And, in retrospect, I agree, but at the time my brain felt like it was loaded with Pop Rocks.

The crowd remained frozen. Still holding her hand, the team rep cautiously backed the sightless woman five steps away from the ball. It was happening. No one made a sound. The only relaxed person in the stadium was a dog, which was now lounging on the turf. "And here we go!" the PA announcer boomed.

2. Pretty cute - - when you transfer DSiWare games to the 3DS, Pikmin do the heavy lifting.

3. "A Chinese firm has been 'secretly' copying an entire UNESCO-listed village in Austria, called Hallstatt."

*Buy Pikmin toys at eBay.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. Fast Company:

In the latest installment of Butterfly Effect, we examine China's cheap knockoff cell phones. After being forced out of China and India, Chinese counterfeiters brought their product to the Middle East, where the sudden availability of information had unintended consequences for the region--and for China itself.

2. Ben Wilson paints chewing gum.

3. Map of undersea cables from 1901. Via.

*Buy vintage maps at Amazon.

READ MORE - Link roundup

Syd Mead gallery.




Portal fan art by Lissa Treiman.




Illustration by Chris Buzelli for an article in Global Brief magazine about China's arrogance toward its neighbors. He has numerous prints on sale here.





Jock updated his site to include his Batman covers.




Rosie the Roboteer by Simon Wilches. See also: Ultraman makes a cup of ramen.

READ MORE - Illustration roundup

1. Misconceptions about China.

2. Two lackluster reviews of Samsung's Chrome laptop. Tablets, I understand (although I'll wait until they're half the price). But mostly reading the review of the Chrome laptop I'm left wondering why anyone would buy such a thing instead of buying a Windows laptop with a Chrome browser.

3. If you're a Batman Brave and the Bold obsessive, the latest episode starring The Atom(s) was placed for sale at iTunes ($3) and Amazon ($2) before airing. Via.

READ MORE - Link roundup

"The Empty Chair" by Maarten Baas for Amnesty International in honor of imprisoned artist Liu Xiaobo. Via these sites.

READ MORE - The Empty Chair

1. Comment and win a copy of the 3D Art Book.

2. "China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work. Labour camp detainees endure hard labour by day, online 'gold farming' by night" Via.

3. I actually didn't like Baldur's Gate very much, but this makes me wish I had. (The 4 in 1 box set mentioned is $18 at Amazon.) Via.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. "Infographic: Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus."

2. "In China, where a growing demand for organ transplants coupled with a dramatic shortage of donors has fuelled a rampant black market trade, selling your organs for cash is a mouse click away." Via.

3. Guidance (but not instructions) on how to knit the Companion Cube sweater that was featured on various sites last week.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. China is such a large market that its tastes will become more dominant in consumer items:

When Mercedes-Benz set out to design a new S-Class luxury saloon, to hit showrooms in 2014, Daimler flew 100 Chinese consumers to customer clinics in Germany and the US to ensure they had input in the car’s design.

But the Chinese car boom is shaping the look of some mass-market cars too.

When General Motors designed its LaCrosse saloon, the brand, which is popular in China, devised a roomy and plush rear seat of the kind that Chinese owners – many of whom have chauffeurs – prefer.

2. From a post about the upcoming tv show about Pan Am:

My mother often shared stories with my sisters and me about her training at an “Air Career School,” where students (all women) lived together in dormitories and learned how to become Stewardesses. It was when she exclaimed “And I always was able to eat the pecan pie!” that I understood how times have changed. Each Stewardess-In-Training was weighed every week, and if they gained any weight over the last week, they weren’t allowed to have any of the desserts that they prominently displayed at every meal.

3. Top mp3s are now only 69 cents (and come with free cloud storage) in Amazon's store.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. Great, long article about Stephon Marbury's continuing adventures in China. Via.

2. Serious Eats: Passover Recipes We Love.

3. "Which HBO pilot has more nudity: True Blood or Game of Thrones?" A detailed analysis by io9.

READ MORE - Link roundup

1. Remember this the next time you see the iPad or iPhone prominently displayed:

Try finding the Xoom in Best Buy. It’s not on an endcap and it’s not in the new tablet section located in the mobile department. There are no signs pointing it out. It’s just stuck in with the netbooks, sitting there like an under-appreciated tween in gym class. And they wonder why no one is buying it. There is nothing calling consumers away from the blindingly white iPad display . . .

The bean counters could be to blame for poor placement. Of course this is just me speculating based on six years of Circuit City experience, but profitable products are generally given more visible shelf space than low margin products. For instance people that buy iPads tend to buy accessories. And there are a lot of iPad accessories. Plus, Apple is the king of keeping manufacturing costs low, which often results in higher profit margins that are generally passed on to retailers. The Xoom likely doesn’t have a cushy profitability level, which makes it take a backseat to those products that actually make money.

2. "Comedian Mark Malkoff sets out to prove that getting around in New York City via Big Wheel is more efficient than riding an MTA bus by racing against the M42 across 42nd street."

3. Land is becoming so expensive in China that people can't afford a decent grave:

In Beijing and Guangzhou, where the average per sq m price of a burial plot now exceeds that of houses, some Chinese call themselves fen nu (grave slaves). This label is derived from fang nu (housing slaves) - those burdened with huge housing mortgages.

Via.

*Buy iPads at eBay.

READ MORE - Link roundup