SOME FACTOIDS FROM THE ORIENT

Travel can be educational. You pick up things you normally wouldn't at home. For example:

1. Polygamy is legal in Malaysia, if you’re a Muslim, which comprises two-thirds of the population. Theoretically, four wives are the maximum, but Prophet Mohammed had about dozen. Yes polygamy, even though Muslims can get arrested for drinking alcohol or consorting with the opposite sex when unmarried. Only 2% of Muslims, though, follow this practice.

2. Remember the 60^th birthday extravaganza of China? They wanted to insure for perfect weather, so 400 scientists, all the high tech from satellites and lasers, a squadron of eighteen planes sprinkling dry ice, salt and silver iodide and 1,100 rockets delivering similar chemical catalysts into clouds to coax moisture out of the atmosphere ahead of time...apparently worked. Airmovers were also used to blow away the fog so those colored vapors from 150 jets could be appreciated. China has 37,000 people employed in weather modification. Supposedly, this group earns thirty times their salary and expenses. Well, for their birthday party, this all worked, for the weather was ideal.

3. Not to brag, again, but it was an easy prediction of Brazil as host for the 2016 Summer Olympics, where the winning bid promised to spend $14 billion. Sochi Winter 2014 now will cost $33 billion, nearly triple what they originally estimated, so these budgets are fluid. Japan and Spain had no chance because of China (2008) and U.K. (2012). America, with President Obama, was embarrassed, as we got kicked out on the first ballot. But Chicago did not need this honor and South America deserved it. There is this jealousy in the IOC because we are too supreme. Knocking out baseball and softball should have been sufficient to persuade the Obama’s to stay home. We had no chance and he got really poor advice. However, if he had not gone, he would have been blamed for the U.S. coming in last. So he had, really, no choice, but to go.

4. My two dinners in Seoul were like night and day. The first night, I walked around the night market and decided to buy a beer ($1.25 for a large can) and some fast food. I noticed the Korean Folk Restaurant across the street from the Westin Chosun, so I walked in and asked if they did take-outs, and, if so, I wanted a kalbi meal. This caused mild consternation, and they should have said no, but they said okay. It took forever, but eventually three polystyrene containers were filled with food, in a really nice carry bag. Alas, when I opened it up in my room, there were no utensils, no rice, and a large amount of cold barbecued crab (I'm allergic to crustaceans, although I'm sure the restaurant was probably trying to do me a favor), with a small dish of barbecued meat. This might have been the first take-out this restaurant ever did. The second night KiRyun Choi, an energy economist from Aju University joined me at Ninth Gate, a French restaurant featuring Japanese wagyu beef, with a view of the Temple of Heaven (Hwang Gung U), a sacrificial platform. Professor Choi and I discussed advancing the Green Enertopia, a term he coined when he funded a conference of that name more than a decade ago at Cheju University. This is also the title of Chapter 2 from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth.

Then, tonight, Professors Toshitsugu Sakou, Tadashi Matsunaga, Takeo Kondo and I had another French dinner, Sakura at the International House of Roppongi. We solved most of the problems dealing with the future of ocean resources. I'm also eating too well.

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The Dow Jones Industrials ended the week by slipping 22 to 9488. World markets all fell, with the Japanese Nikkei getting close to the DJI, at 9732. Compare the two over the past few years, and there is a lot in common. Gold snuck up above $1000 again, plus $3/toz to $1002, while crude oil is just about at $70/barrel.

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Typhoon Parma is devastating Northern Luzon, and now at 90 MPH, will begin to turn north, then east, strengthening a bit. Looks like Taiwan might be safe from current predictions. Typhoon Melor, though, is beginning to pose a problem for me. It should skirt north of Guam and close to Saipan, strengthen into a super typhoon, then head for Japan. By Wednesday, when I'm in Saporro, Typhoon Melor will be just of south of me.