Great blog, written by a wise man living in China

Jonathan (Jono) Warren is a friend of mine who is currently living in Beijing, but is moving to Kashgar, Xinjiang. You know the place where all the riots occurred a little while ago. He is beginning a tea business, where he will be importing Pakistani tea into China, packaging it in China and then selling it to super markets in the West.

Sounds crazy right? Well, regardless of your thoughts of this brief description of his business, the man is quite well read and paints a incredible story with his words... which you can find at his blog Garbage and Noodles (http://garbageandnoodles.blogspot.com/)

Here is a small excerpt from his most recent post "I sing, you sing, we all sing"

Up in Changbaixian, Liu Baiguo was that grower. The owner of a local Chinese-medicine shop (中药房), recommended Mr. Liu as his farm was the closest to the city, but produced some of the best ginseng. Liu walked into the shop and asked for the ones who were looking for him. He seemed genuinely excited to be able to show his roots to two bright-eyed American entrepreneurs.

He led us out of the shop, out of the marketplace, and into his car - a police car that he got to keep after his work as a chinese border customs official. At his fields, he told us everything he knew about ginseng, how he inherited his fields, how there are 92 workers working for him, how he plants trees on the plots where the ginseng is picked because the roots use up all the nutrients...

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Happy 4th of July -- The Vote For Independence -- John Adams HBO miniseries

Notice the faces of the founding father's... John Adams, Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, etc

"Heyyyyy now, worth it yes... but wtf did we just get ourselves into."

Exposing a nice face of Iran to the US -- Two thumbs up for John Stewart

Watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report for you news is not the way to go about getting your daily dose of worldly news.

However, there are quite a few occasions when, the underlying message of their respective shows do carry weight and do indeed shed some light on a greater issue at hand-- albeit, in a cynical and sarcastic way).

Here is one, of the four "special reports" the Daily Show did this week from Iran.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Ayatollah You So
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

The Daily Show lucked out more than their producers could have ever dreamed. Sending on of the shows "correspondent," Jason Jones to Iran was probably planned in reaction to Colbert's shows last week from Iraq, in order to give both hit shows a "piece of the pie."

American Heroes for your viewing pleasure

Deal Announced on Stimulus; Weekend Vote Likely - AP Press

With job losses soaring nationwide, Senate Democrats reached agreement with a small group of Republicans on an economic stimulus measure at the heart of President Obama's plan for combating the worst recession in decades. (Feb. 6)