Pollution in China

A fantastic photo essay here.
True, this is an inevitable downside to industrial development and wealth creation, but one wonders how much this is exacerbated by weak property rights and inadequate governance.

Clubbed to death? Chavez takes a swing at golf.

Golf is coming in for some stick in Venezuela:
“Let’s leave this clear,” Mr. Chávez said during a live broadcast of his Sunday television program. “Golf is a bourgeois sport,” he said, repeating the word “bourgeois” as if he were swallowing castor oil. Then he went on, mocking the use of golf carts as a practice [...]

Chinese succumb to Icky Stuff to which we’ve long grown accustomed.

China is building what is billed as its first sex theme park, aimed at improving both the sex education and the sex life of its visitors.
Due to open in Chongqing in October, Love Land will include displays of giant genitalia, naked bodies and an exhibition on the history of sex.
The park will also offer sex [...]

Deconstruction – Example (Martin Jacques)

As promised.
Here is how you would deconstruct this Guardian article: The great shift in global power just hit high gear, sparked by a financial crash — Martin Jacques
The text in question predicts the rise of China and the decline of the USA in terms of global power.  Here’s how we deconstruct:

First take some of the [...]

Deconstruction – worth(-)less boll-ox ^¦牛¦^ ?

I’ve just been reading about deconstruction and that worthless charlatan esteemed intellectual Jacques Derrida.
As far as I can ascertain, this is how you are supposed to deconstruct a text:

Take a bunch of concepts or things from the text.

For each thing, take its opposite.  There may be many possible choices of opposite but it is important [...]