Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, almost all in the United States. They are served in Chinese restaurants in Britain, Mexico, Italy, France and elsewhere. In India, they taste more like butter cookies.Related: Read NYT readers comments to the question: What's the most memorable fortune you've found in a fortune cookie?
But there is one place where fortune cookies are conspicuously absent: China.
Now a researcher in Japan believes she can explain the disconnect, which has long perplexed American tourists in China. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan.
January 16, 2008
A Riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a cookie
Haah... Not everything is made in China! :)
A bunch of hooptedoodle
Elmore Leonard has advice for writers.. no point excerpting anything - just go read it.
I found it at a post by Amit Varma, who found it at a post at Prufocks page. Amit had also blogged earlier (I thought I had too but cannot find the post!) about VS Naipaul’s Advice To Writers and Eight Rules For Writing Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut.
I found it at a post by Amit Varma, who found it at a post at Prufocks page. Amit had also blogged earlier (I thought I had too but cannot find the post!) about VS Naipaul’s Advice To Writers and Eight Rules For Writing Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut.
Also: Top 10 bookshops from around the world, from the Guardian; also via Prufocks page.
January 15, 2008
Happiness factor
My question is doesn't wealth bring you better access to good health care and education. Aren't these confounded effects? Interactions, anyone!
A study pulled together from sources and surveys found that good health care and education are as important as wealth to modern happiness
Fractal beauty
I love the fractal nature of tree branches...amply displayed after the leaves fall off ... but it looked doubly beautiful after yesterday's snow. I took some pictures after I got home and finished shoveling last night but they were taken in the dark and not the best. So, on the way to work today, I took the camera with me and took a few pictures.
Here they are... start again at the house, repeats of 2 pictures from yesterday but this time taken in daylight and then a few taken along the walk to work and the last one is of a cute snowman taken at one of the houses on my street.
Enjoy!
January 14, 2008
What a difference a week makes
The snow is back again ...and lots of it! After a week of 60 degrees+ weather which had melted every last remnant of the 20+ inches of snow from December, we got about 8-10 inches of snow in the Boston area again today! Unlike last time, no crazy traffic jams this time - or at least I am not aware of it.
But it looked beautiful. Its wet sticky snow...and all the trees were encrusted with snow (so much so, many branches are bending over!). I wish I had a camera this afternoon to take some nice pictures but had to wait till I got home in the evening and it was already dark and after shoveling for over an hour, all I did was to take a few snapshots outside my house. Doesn't even look as pretty as it did getting to work this morning and looking out the window at work this afternoon!
Take a look!
Trees bowed over due to the weight of the snow. That's the neighbour's car!
A small shrub ..what did you think!
Back yard... snow on the chair gives you an indication of how much we got.
Fun, Fun! (NOT! My back is still hurting from all the shoveling!)
10 deadliest natural disasters ever
Its amazing that other than #10 (which happened way back in 1138 in Syria!) and the 2004 tsunami which was across a huge area, which included the Indian sub-continent to a significant extent, all other disasters on the list are from the Indian sub-continent or China. Especially amazing that 6 of the 10 occurred in China. Comments about 'respect for the value of a life' come to mind but I will stop here.
History's 10 deadliest natural disasters... via the Futility Closet
1. Yellow River flood, China, summer 1931: 1 million to 2 million dead
2. Yellow River flood, China, September-October 1887: 900,000 to 2 million dead
3. Bhola cyclone, East Pakistan, Nov. 13, 1970: 500,000 to 1 million dead
4. Shaanxi earthquake, China, Jan. 23, 1556: 830,000 dead
5. Cyclone, Coringa, India, Nov. 25, 1839: 300,000 dead
6. Kaifeng flood, China, 1642: 300,000 dead
7. Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami, Dec. 26, 2004: 283,100 dead
8. Tangshan earthquake, China, July 28, 1976: 242,000 dead
9. Banqiao Dam failure, China, August 1975: 231,000 dead
10. Aleppo earthquake, Syria, 1138: 230,000 dead
See also Death Tolls.
History's 10 deadliest natural disasters... via the Futility Closet
1. Yellow River flood, China, summer 1931: 1 million to 2 million dead
2. Yellow River flood, China, September-October 1887: 900,000 to 2 million dead
3. Bhola cyclone, East Pakistan, Nov. 13, 1970: 500,000 to 1 million dead
4. Shaanxi earthquake, China, Jan. 23, 1556: 830,000 dead
5. Cyclone, Coringa, India, Nov. 25, 1839: 300,000 dead
6. Kaifeng flood, China, 1642: 300,000 dead
7. Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami, Dec. 26, 2004: 283,100 dead
8. Tangshan earthquake, China, July 28, 1976: 242,000 dead
9. Banqiao Dam failure, China, August 1975: 231,000 dead
10. Aleppo earthquake, Syria, 1138: 230,000 dead
See also Death Tolls.
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