Beijing 2008 - It’s a wrap - The Big Picture - Boston.com. awesome set of photos.

Five American Batters Hit By Chinese Pitchers In Brutal Olympics Game. includes some video footage. one guy was brought to the hospital with a concussion.

The Finance Buff: China’s Stock Market Bubble Burst Fast “A Chinese bank became the most valuable bank in the world. A Chinese life insurance company became the second most valuable life insurance company in the world. A Chinese oil company became the most valuable company in the world.” that definitely sounds like a bubble.

Jim Rogers on CNBC talking about fed bailouts and inflation rates. “I don’t want more regulation. If XYZ needs to go bankrupt, let them go bankrupt. you’ll have lots of self regulation after that”

The Informed Reader - Why a Yuan Revaluation Wouldn’t Help the U.S.. some interesting points on how a cheaper chinese yuan might not even help US manufacturing.

Reduce Reuse Recycle: My phobia of marriage: shark fins. on chinese wedding culture and eating shark fins. via ram.

Digital Urban: Edushi.com - Possibly the Best City Maps in the World?. whoever made this app must have LOVED simcity. via kyle.

Crash test video of a Smart Car hitting at wall at 70mph as compared to 2 chinese made cars. “The head of the driver is supposed to be stopped by the airbag - and not the dashboard”. and if that doesn’t get you in the chinese car, I’m sure the lead paint will.

reportonbusiness.com: China sends loonie flying above $1.10. dear god.

Bloomberg News - Jim Rogers on Investing. interesting conversation with a hard-line bear whose basic advise is get out of the US and go to Asia (literally and figuratively). via amr.

China redirected Google and Yahoo to Baidu on the day the US gave the Dalai Lama an award. I’m surprised this wasn’t mainstream news.

shanghai urban planning model
One huge ass model from the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition

Inhabitat » BEIJING’S OLYMPIC STADIUM by Herzog and DeMeuron. ri-diculous. if that isn’t enough, check out the National Swim Center.

Humanizing China - a Photo Gallery. some cool photos. via ram

China to Buy 4 Westinghouse Nuclear Reactors - New York Times. which, unfortunately, won’t make a dent in how much coal they’re burning.

the high cost of low prices

WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Prices - Google Video. First off, the production quality of this doc is pretty poor. Though it’s well researched, I’m pretty sure I could have made a better looking movie. Fortunately, it is quite informative. The story is told by showing an excerpt of Walmart’s CEO saying how good they are on benefits, the environment, equal rights, labor relations, human rights in china, and community involvement, and then detailing how the company does the exact opposite. It is truly mind-blowing how Walmart is so evil in so many different ways. The movie mentions some mind blowing statistics about Walmart. For example, Walmart tells its own employees how they qualify for Medicare and food stamps because they are paid such a low wage. This basically amounts to the government subsidizing Walmart for billions of dollars every year. Another example, Walmart has 26 million square feet of abandoned stores to avoid paying county taxes. Most of the time they build a new store just a couple miles to the edge of the county’s borders. The documentary doesn’t even get to how terrible Walmart is to the producers of retail goods. You can learn more about that in a frontline special did about Walmart back in 2004. I would have never shopped their to begin with, but now I’m going to make sure as hell my parents don’t.

The shadow of Walter Duranty. a guest writer on lessig’s blog contrasts a discredited pulitizer prize winner to google in china.

Labor Shortage in China May Lead to Trade Shift - New York Times. i’m not sure i believe these numbers. also, the nytimes redesigned their site. it’s cleaner and looks more like a blog. i personally like it.