Surely we can reconcile this

I don’t have time to go into depth about this, but two stories caught my eye today.

From the New York Times, ‘Experts Worry as Population and Hunger Grow‘:

Scientists and development experts across the globe are racing to increase food production by 50 percent over the next two decades to feed the world’s growing population, yet many doubt their chances despite a broad consensus that enough land, water and expertise exist.

Meanwhile, in today’s South China Morning Post, ‘Waste Food Issue Could be a Real Pig to Solve‘ (content behind a pay-wall):

One solution to the city’s growing waste food problem might come from an unlikely source: turning it into pork.

The suggestion to turn the waste into pig feed came from farmers, businessmen and green campaigners after the government announced in the policy address that a recycling centre would be built in Siu Ho Wan on Lantau Island to tackle increased food waste in Hong Kong by turning it into compost or biofuel.

On the one hand, we have a massive food shortage. On the other, we have so much food that it’s causing a problem. How come we humans in this globalised world smart enough to fix this already? If it was money we were talking about, I’m sure we’d have no problem in figuring it out.

Steps in the right direction

Gallup’s October Crime poll finds 44% of Americans in favor of making marijuana legal and 54% opposed. U.S. public support for legalizing marijuana was fixed in the 25% range from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, but acceptance jumped to 31% in 2000 and has continued to grow throughout this decade.

Link

Two nifty vids: Street View and Shanghai

Cool and cute videos time!

In case you ever wondered how Google does Street View… the mystery is no more! See this video from Google Japan.

Hat tip: Sleepy Animal

And now, I present to you, Shanghai in miniature time-lapse.

Hat tip: Shanghaiist via Made in China

Damn, I can’t figure out how to embed Vimeo videos on WordPress. Can anyone let me know how?

Pay-as-you-go columnists

This blog post seems to argue for an era of hyper-measurement-dictated capitalism in journalism.

The Washington Post recently laid off a columnist because his blog posts didn’t get enough web traffic.

Of course, in the old days, the newspaper had no real way to tell which columns got read and which ones didn’t. So journalists were lulled into the sense that it didn’t really matter…

In fact, in a digital world where everything can be measured, we all work on commission. And why not? If you do great work and it works, you should get rewarded. And if you don’t, it’s hard to see why a rational organization would keep you on.

My nerdy girlfriend shared this on Google Reader, and I was compelled to leave this comment:

This is an old argument that applies to TV and the arts, too. It’s this rationale that actually serves us up the likes of Fox News and consigns the sort of more balanced and investigative journalism found on NPR and PBS to government-funded operations. Or for some arts to not be funded at all, no matter how important or excellent. All that has to happen is for them to only appeal to a small crowd (even if that’s an influential crowd).

And I don’t think blogging and column writing are the same things. I also wouldn’t automatically disagree with an argument that suggested someone could be a popular columnist while at the same time being an unpopular blogger.

Consider this shared item totally commented on.

New things on timeout.com.hk

It’s only a couple of new things, but they’re small strides to increased awesomeness on timeout.com.hk, my esteemed place of work.

First up, we launched a music podcast last week, presented by Sean Hocking, the man behind ace boutique indie label Metal Postcard. The podcast features tracks from bands playing in Hong Kong this fortnight, including DP, Chochukmo, and British Sea Power, and a couple of picks from Sean of cool new stuff.

Check it out here.

We’ve also made a video (well, I did) using Animoto, which lays out the cocktails made by various hotels for a column by Angie Wong about the hunt for Hong Kong’s signature cocktail.

Watch it here.

Keep your eye on timeout.com.hk for new developments in the near future.

Can we make Paul Krugman president?

The claim that climate legislation will kill the economy deserves the same disdain as the claim that global warming is a hoax. The truth about the economics of climate change is that it’s relatively easy being green.

As America gets ready for a messy battle over climate change legislation, Paul Krugman gets in early to say, really, it’s not going to cost that much to save the planet.

Peepoo bags are worth more than the sum of their parts

This tweet from Jay Oatway reminded me of the World Toilet Summit I went to in Macau last year. The summit wasn’t as popular as the Sexpo of the same year and venue, but it was treated by journalists with almost as much fascination. Not that that translated into much coverage.

The problem was, the summit was very serious and had few opportunities to laugh at poos and wees (not that I eschewed those chances, as my column linked to above well shows). Unlike the Sexpo, where couples giggled over the sight of a man painting pictures with his willy, the conference attendees here were pretty much set on saving the world.

Sanitation — or, the clean and effective treatment, disposal, or recycling of human waste — is a life-or-death matter for the 2.6 billion people in the world who don’t have access to a proper toilet. That lack of sanitation infects water supplies, soils, foods, and pretty much anything else the human hand can touch, resulting in mass disease and death.

2.6 billion people. Think about that next time you flush.

Follow that link from Jay’s tweet and you’ll find a page about Poopee Bags, which were distributed for free at the WTO summit (that’s World Toilet Organisation, by the way). These are glorious little disposable bags that carry away and protect your effluent, until eventaully biodegrading.

People who design these sorts of things are my heroes. I’ve always liked talking about poo, but I’m even more willing to talk about how to best get rid of it. Mark it up alongside drug law reforms, digital media, and dick jokes as one of my pet topics.

My portfolio online

This will be of interest to few people other than me (but, Hell, that’s an important audience), but I have launched an online portfolio. Its chief purpose is to serve as an easy access point to my stories whenever I feel like going back to them, but those who know me personally and live outside Hong Kong might also be interested in my columns, which have only recently been published online.

Other highlights include:

• An interview with Sting (full transcript)
• An interview with Robert Smith
• My column about nude modelling
• My column about getting a male Brazilian (not for the faint of heart)
• A long-overlooked story about the cult of Cantopop

The portfolio doesn’t contain all my work, but I will be adding to it later.

Homework and sexuality

For a laugh, I recently joined a Facebook group called HOMEWORK IS GAY. My friend and I taunted a few of the zany teens on that page, and made fun of their dislike for the much-reviled work of the home. We had little to no success in changing attitudes.

Today, however, I am proud to announce a forceful response to those nefarious teens. I have established a group called HOMEWORK IS HETEROSEXUAL, and you can join it now, for free.

Here is the mission statement:

This group has been established in response to the nefarious HOMEWORK IS GAY group set up by a disreputable bunch of teens, probably in Australia. The mission of this group is to promote homework as a necessary and helpful means to furthering one’s education, enhancing one’s career prospects, and, especially, to restore homework to its rightful place as a stoically heterosexual endeavour.

HK Ham weighs in on the rugby

Since leaving New Zealand almost five years ago, I have watched only a few All Blacks rugby test matches. Passions run high for rugby in New Zealand — there is apparently nothing my country loves more than watching 30 strapping young men run around a paddock cuddling each other to the ground.

It’s also funny to watch the reactions unfold in the national press. Depending on whether they win or lose — no matter the margin — the All Blacks are either hailed as a Gods or as the worst team of the last decade.

This week, it’s the latter, because on Saturday we lost by three points to South Africa. If Daniel Carter’s cross-field kick in the last minute was just a few centimetres shorter, it would have been caught in the field of play and ended up as a certain try. We would have won the game by two or four points, and the commentators would be hailing the All Blacks’ spirit, tenacity, hunger to win, skill under pressure, and refound vigour under what is supposed to be an ailing coaching regime.

But Carter’s kick was a few centimetres too long. So. Worst team of the professional era.

What is hardly mentioned is that South Africa happen to be a very good team. They were bruising on attack; every one of their kicks was right on the money; their rush defence was incredibly effective and frazzled the All Blacks; and their backline was clinical when given the opportunity on attack.

Despite all that, the bumbling All Blacks — who couldn’t win a lineout; who had a malfunctioning midfield; who gave away a simple chance for three points; who were stung by two unilkely penalty goals from about 60 metres — still almost won. If that Carter kick had been a few centimetres shorter…

From afar, it’s funny to read rugby journalists who despair at the loss of a game. Sometimes I just want to give them a big hug and tell them it’s going to be all right — that our national pride really needn’t hinge on the sporting efforts of a few young men in tight shiny shirts.

So, Chris Rattue, instead of writing hyperbolic sentences like this:

A sequence of dreadful All Black performances this season reached a nadir of sorts in Hamilton, where helter-skelter desperation should not be confused with any validity to the running rugby claims…

How about instead taking a deep breath and repeating to yourself sentences like this: “It’s just a game”.