ALGIERS (Reuters) - Sporadic riots in OPEC member Algeria this year risk triggering wider protests against a political elite slow to turn unprecedented oil wealth into jobs and homes.
Street clashes are a prickly issue in Algeria, a major gas exporter to Europe with a record of rebellion and where youth riots in 1988 forced the authorities to abandon one-party rule.
Reuters: International News 6/1/08 8:31 AM worldNews
Aging, illness, and death are inevitable. Many Buddhists deal with this truth by meditating and contemplating such concepts as emptiness, impermanence, and interconnectedness. Another way people often handle thoughts of these pillars of suffering? Delicious cookies. In a study published in New Scientist, participants with low self-esteem who were assigned to ponder their own deaths ate more cookies (thoughts of death had little impact on those with high self-esteem). Ruminations of mortality also inclined them to spend more money. "When you indulge in shopping or eating, it helps you forget yourself," notes Dirk "Captain Obvious" Smeesters of Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
The Washington Post has an inexplicably long article on Jerome White, Jr., also known as Jero who is a Pittsburgh born and bred, 26-year old entertainer in Japan who happens to have a Japanese grandmother (now deceased) and performs old style Japanese enka songs. The article describes enka as WWII-era syrupy and maudlin music. His debut single went as high as #4 on the music charts. The article is certainly interesting and touches on many issues bandied about here on Japundit (gaijin in Japan, greying society, etc.) but the article is about three times as long as it needs to be.
If the Washington Post article doesn't satiate your Jero needs, Japan Today also has a long bio article.
As rising oil prices and food prices eat into household budgets, people are shifting to more affordable edibles. Spam's maker, Hormel, has seen a 14 percent jump in profits for the recent quarter — in part because its famous canned meat product is selling so well, the company says. The average 12-ounce can costs $2.62.
After years of diplomatic wrangling, South Korea announced Thursday that it will start inspecting U.S. beef imports. The move will lead to a full resumption of American beef imports for the first time in four years. A case of mad cow disease in Washington state prompted the nation to close its doors to the imports.
I know you're all giddy with anticipation:
South Korea's agriculture minister will request the posting of the new beef import deal with the U.S. on the government gazette later Thursday, opening the local market to most meat cuts, an official said.
Agriculture Ministry spokesman Kim Hyeong-soo said the announcement is to be made at 4 p.m. and will elaborate on government measures taken to enhance import quarantine control, country-of-origin rules, support for farmers and policies to improve quality of locally grown cattle.
"Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun will make the announcement along with working level officials," the public relations officer said.
From Yonhap News.
Well, at least somebody's being honest about the "crackdown" on illegal protests being one big joke.
A photo montage on the Internet ridicules the arrest of protestors in a candlelit vigil, mocking it as a ``chicken cage car tour.'' A patrol wagon, usually a big bus with cage-like, steel-bared windows, is often called ``dakjangcha,'' literally meaning chicken cage car in Korean. |
Nope, it's the anti-US beef protests in front of City Hall!
Well, it's nice to see the Korean left found something to do after getting trashed in the presidential and general elections. And besides, they were always more comfortable with this kind of stuff than actually governing.
