For one thing, The Rumor Queen site has a fine list of blogs of people who've just gotten referrals.

So if you want to see pictures of babies, babies, babies, you now have lots of places to go.

On the other hand, I'm curious where people who read this come from, so I want to see if this little gizmo will work:

Create your own visitor map!

Hmmm. The stats showing actual visitor locations should be up here: http://www.maploco.com/view.php?id=204996... more

I wish my children could write like this. It'd make putting this blog together so much easier.

Then again, they'd probably say too much.

Especially afraid of flying Chinese airlines?

Don't read this. And, really, don't look at the pictures.

On the other hand, if you're pilot, you have absolutely GOT to see this. And bear in mind, this was an international flight that landed and took off safely without incident. Well, more or less.

I am entirely in awe.

Don't do this.

Unless absolutely necessary.

The world's energy resources are going to be looking quite different, according to physicists.

China has just tested a fusion reactor. It works.

Designed to replicate the sun's energy generating process, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak fusion reactor recently garnered positive results in tests being conducting at China's Institute of Plasma Physics, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

"The new... more

Check out Curse of the Golden Flower.

Sure looks pretty, don't it? Chow Yun Fat. Gong Li. And a heck of a lot of elaborate sets... (and quite a clean, functional web site, too!).

I think we'll be seeing this one before the month's out.

Net Trawling:

Laowai Chinese is new language blog. Funny. Is learning Chinese. Will follow to make words pretty. And learning. Does anyone know anything about the Philip Hayden Foundation? (Other than that they don't know how to spell T.S. Eliot?) Because they seem to be doing good things for good reasons. In China. With the orphans. (Yes, I still hate that word, but there it is.) Kevin says ... more

Short note, but for those of you who aren't either hopeless NPR fans or consuming every bit of information on the poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, there was a thing last night from Scott Simon about being tracked down by Scotland Yard for questioning.

He lives in Washington D.C., but he, his wife, and his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter (who was adopted from China at about the same time we made our first trip) had been in London together and gotten take-out from the same sushi restaurant... more

A blogroll:

The Decadent Western Dog is young and stupid. Or "Young" and "Stupid." In Chinese. Because his name is Ben Shaw. (Xiao Ben). I'm sorry things didn't work out between Violet Eclipse and Da Shan. They made such a cute couple. (Traveling parents: you remember Da Shan. That Canadian guy on the Chinese channel who spoke fluent Mandarin. That guy. The enthusiastic one.)

Ever wonder what would happen if your computer... more

Hey, you know what I want?

- No, Clyde, what do you want?

I want to go git me one of them Chinese tattoos. Chinese stuff is cool.

- Um, well....

What? It's Chinese writing! I'm gonna get my daughter's name on me!

- No. Don't. Just... don't.

What!? Why not?

- Because you're just going to wind up on Hanzi Smatter. Really. You are.

So? They'll love me on the Internets!

- No.... more