If you are a fan of Blessthefall, then you will be pleased to hear that their first track To Hell and Back from their untitled album will feature the vocal talents of Beau Bokan. The song is about those times when your back is against the wall and the odds are stacked against you.
With Beau [...]

With the state of the American economy you would think that people would be concerned with other things but no, it seems that they want to know what is causing John McCain s left eye affliction.
At first people thought that he might have suffered a stroke at some stage, but according to a number of [...]

As we know Johnny Depp has always expressed how much he would like to revive his role as Captain Jack Sparrow. Well Depp’s reps have confirmed that the A-list star has signed up for Pirates of the Caribbean 4.
We can report that only Depp has signed up so far for the fourth outing of the [...]

There are now details being released as to how former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM both managed to survive their plane crash where the other four passengers sadly lost their lives. Barker and DJ AM real name Adam Goldstein explained how they managed to climb onto the wing of the Learjet.
Both men [...]

Last night saw the return of Criminal Minds, but was the premiere of season 4 worth the wait. I would have to say yes, but hey, I am only one man and it is you who count. The start of the new season kicked off with answering “Whose SUV Exploded” which was last season’s [...]

To say that we have all been watching David Blaine’s dive of death would be a lie, it is such a disappointment. Who care about someone hanging upside-down for 60 hours, well that is what you were meant to think.
Since the Dive of Death, people have now been asking the question: Is Criss Angel Dead. [...]

There has been a lot of concern about the tainted milk scandal in China, and with each passing day, the scope of the scandal gets bigger. How did this happen, why was it covered up, and what needs to be done about it?

My answer is simple: this is the kind of thing which happens when the bureaucracy becomes politicized, and government appointments are made for political instead of professional reasons.

For more than 2,000 years, when China was ruled by an imperial bureaucracy, China had a complex system of imperial exams to insure that anyone who passed could enter the government bureaucracy. This bureaucracy was largely apolitical, except for the most senior appointments in the imperial court or on the provincial level. Most were just professional officials, and would serve their masters, whoever they were.

With the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, and with the foundation of new China in 1949, the party organization affected all levels of the bureaucracy. Endless political movements until 1978 politicized the whole society, not just the bureaucracy. Appointments were made for political reasons instead of professional capabilities. Sometimes, professional qualifications were completely ignored.

The tainted milk scandal is an example of what happens when political considerations override business, health and even ethical concerns. This is what happens when government officials are judged by how much investment they attract and how many jobs they create. Then there is a natural tendency to cover up any information which draws a conflicting picture. What should be a health and ethical issue instead becomes a political issue.

The problem now in China is that there is a severe shortage of people who are apolitical professionals, not politicians. How do they fit in, even survive, in a completely politicized bureaucracy? Does the government have the energy and will to depoliticize the bureaucracy, and create a professional bureaucracy which will fulfill the needs of modern Chinese society?

That is the question for the next stage of Chinese reforms.

We all know David Blaine for being a good magician, as he is well known for walking around and going into a crowd and showing them what he can do. I have to say I have always thought of him as a strange person, but one who can stun a crowd with the tricks that [...]

So i have XP professional edition and i want to install it on my dell XPS 1330 that is currently running Vista. can i do it so at startup i choose which one i want to run? and if i do this is there a way so i dont lose any files on [...]

In the past few days, Henry Paulson has come up with his US$700B proposal to save the major lending institutions which made bad decisions re CDOs, with all the bad loans being covered by the US taxpayer. This is happening at a time when the US middle class is under unprecedented pressure already.

Over the next year, all the bad decisions made by China’s economic planners over the past 30 years will show through. These include:

• The decision to become overly dependent on the US as an export market, and buying US treasuries to effectively buy this single captive market and continue to sell it goods far beyond its capacity to pay for China’s exports.
• Somewhere along the line, a decision was made to jumpstart China’s economy and put it on the fast-track of economic development. To a large extent, this has happened. But China’s economy is like a body builder whose upper body strength is massive, but has toothpick legs. More incidents like the melamine milk incidents will become common, simply because the government is not equipped to handle incidents of this kind.
• China, unfortunately, has a reputation for cheap, low-quality products, in spite of the successful Beijing Olympics. For the most part, Chinese companies do not have the talent to work up the value chain creating better products. (There are some, but they are too few to make a significant difference.) This takes time to build.
• Exports will slow, and the Chinese domestic market will not pick up the slack fast enough to prevent major unemployment problems, especially among university graduates.
• The wealth gap between the rich and poor will widen dangerously, and real estate prices, which are already falling, will fall even more.

China became addicted to US orders and the US dollar the same way Americans became addicted to Chinese junk products. (This is a generalization; many goods are not junk. But the general image is of, well, junk.) For both sides, it was a dream which was too good to be true.

Now it’s over, and the Beijing Olympics are turning into the final hurrah for that period.

If you would like a well-presented systematic presentation, my friend Corbett Wall has written an interesting piece.

The fat days are over, and we are in for a tough 20-30 years ahead.