America has reached a shameful milestone in the “War on Terror.” Tuesday, the U.S. Army announced that the U.S. military death tool in Iraq has officially surpassed the number of people killed in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. What pushed the Iraq death toll over the top? Three coordinated car bombs in Western Iraq killed 25, a car bomb in Northern Baghdad killed 7, a bomb in a central Baghdad market killed 5 and two roadside bombs killed 4 Iraqi policemen. This sounds like a middle school math word problem. To make it clear, this was all in one day. And somewhere in all of this bloodshed, 7 American soldiers died, pushing the death toll in Iraq up to 2,978, 5 more than the 2,973 who died on 9/11. I don’t write very much about the war in Iraq because it depresses me and there are enough people out there who are expressing my views on the war quite intelligently. But I am a math person. I like numbers– statistics, box scores, graphs, and everything else. I like numbers because you can’t argue with them. And no matter how anyone feels about the war in Iraq, as of today, Tuesday, we can all say truthfully and irrefutably, Republicans or Democrats, that the war in Iraq has been more devastating to the U.S. than 9/11 was. Part of the reason 9/11 was so horrifying to me, and still is sometimes, was because of how many people died. By the time the war in Iraq is over, the close to 3,000 victims of 9/11 will not seem like so many.

•AP: U.S. Deaths in Iraq Surpass 9/11

A story making headlines from Houston to Shanghai, Houston Rockets center Yao Ming will miss at least six weeks after breaking a bone under his right knee in Saturday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers. While Yao was going for a block, he landed on top of teammate Chuck Hayes and Clipper Tim Thomas. His massive leg got caught under Tim Thomas and immediately, Yao began to grimace like in the photo to the right. Yao was having the his most productive season yet averaging 27 points and 9 rebounds. Rockets guard Rafer Alston said of the big man’s injury, “That’s our guy. You’re talking about a guy who’s on an MVP pace, a guy that’s been carrying this team for the last two seasons. That hurts.” It does. Houston was off to a good start in a tough Western Conference and now will have to stay competitive without their all-star center. Yao’s fractured knee is the latest in a string of bad injuries for the big guy. Last December Yao had surgery for a toe infection and in April, he ended his season four games early with a broken foot. The Rockets lost the game 98-93 and after the game Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said, “We got a major break when Yao went down.” Kind of a dick thing to say. I’ve always thought Yao hits the floor more than your average player. Any big man that falls as much as he will be prone to injuries. Yao is expected to return to the Rockets’ roster in mid to late February.

•AP: Yao Has Knee Injury

The Godfather of Soul, known for his silky smooth dance moves and his revolutionary style of funk, died early Monday in an Atlanta hospital. Brown checked into the Emory Crawford Long Hospital over the weekend with a severe case of pneumonia. Sadly, the hardest working man in show business couldn’t work off his illness. A pioneer for the hip-hop and R&B that now dominates the radio, Brown is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. His style of dancing and singing were mimicked by numerous performers in recent decades and many of his songs were sampled for rap and dance songs. Rapper Chuck D said of Brown, “James presented obviously the best grooves. To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one’s coming even close.” The godfather is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement honoree, recorded over 50 albums and had 119 charted singles. Unfortunately the ’80s and 90s were not kind to Brown as he did a major jail stint for a 1988 conviction for drug and weapon possession and taking the police on a dangerous chase that ended with cops shooting out the Godfather’s tires. His agent said to the media, “We really don’t know at this point what he died of.” My guess is that for once, he no longer felt like being a sex machine and thus, when he lay down in his Atlanta hospital bed, he didn’t want to get up-a, get on up.

•AP: Legendary Singer Dies at 73

As my friend Jess said the other night, “It looks like Christmas came to Shanghai and threw up everywhere.” I noticed a couple weeks ago that the Shanghainese clerks at my local convenient store had started to wear Santa hats. If you’re wondering how strange of a sight this is, picture a Chinese person dressed like an ultra-orthodox Jew. Well, the Santa hats are just slightly less weird than that. Then a few nights ago, I came back to my apartment building after a night of drinking. I walked up to the entrance to my building and in my lobby there were about 30 red and green Christmas plants and two faker than fake Christmas trees. As I walked down this now eerie hallway, I just shook my head in disdain and thought to myself that when it comes to Christmas, the Chinese just don’t get it.

In China, for about three weeks now, the most gaudy, phony and ugly holiday decorations have popped up everywhere– at work, in restaurants and now, in the lobby of my building. From what I’ve been told, this year, the recognition of Christmas in China is greater than it has ever been. There are fake trees and wreaths everywhere. There are these spooky electronic Santas placed in store fronts that have moving arms and legs. They have lighted signs over entrances to malls that say “Happy Christmas.” At my office there is a massive signing board for people to write their holiday wishes to everyone who enters the building. Restaurants in Shanghai offer special Christmas Eve feasts that are special insomuch that the meals are on Christmas Eve and are more expensive than on any other night. Christmas celebration in Shanghai and all over China is at an all-time high.

But Christmas is not even a holiday in mainland China. December 25th is not recognized by the government and there is no day off from work. The extent to which Christmas has gotten “popular” in China does not represent a spike in Christianity, but merely a growing cultural interest. The boom in Christmas celebration stems from a widespread and unhealthy Chinese infatuation with the West. The Chinese see the commercialism and romanticism associated with Christmas in the West, and frankly, the Chinese want in. The urban 20-somethings want to buy gifts for their significant others, wealthy parents see Christmas as a way to shower their children with presents, and everyone wants to use the day as an excuse to feast.

Now, as Christmas is peaking in popularity in China, there is a growing number of Chinese who resent the celebration of the holiday. And the backlash has not come from the elder Chinese who remember a time when any acknowledgement of Christmas was against the law. On Friday, a group of China’s brightest graduate students posted an open letter on the internet calling on the Chinese to reject the Western holiday and embrace China’s own traditions. By Friday, according to sina.com, 43,000 Chinese web users had commented on the letter. The letter stated:

We 10 doctoral students from different universities and research institutes solemnly call on our countrymen to be cautious about Christmas, to wake from their collective cultural coma and give Chinese culture the dominant role…Western culture has been changing from a breeze and a drizzle into a wild wind and a heavy storm. This is vividly embodied in the rising popularity of Christmas.

The authors claim that the Chinese are diving head first into Christmas festivities without any knowledge of how the holiday originated nor what it stands for. The PhD students also criticize the government for allowing the spreading of Christmas within mainland China and not effectively maintaining Chinese traditions.

The debate over Christmas in China is symptomatic of a much greater issue. The Chinese own one of the richest and most ancient cultures in the world. Sadly, with the opening of China’s economy to the Western world, China has left itself open to a Westernization of its culture. The Chinese are struggling with striking a balance between the Western ideals of consumerism and the Chinese traditions of secularism and anti-commercialism. Christmas is testing China’s value system. And as I walk around Shanghai, China’s commercial capital, it is clear which value system is winning out. China is enamored with the ways of the West and while some resent the Western influence in China, for now, Christmas is here to stay.

•Washington Post: In China, Feeling Snowed in by Christmas
•West Fargo Pioneer: China’s Christmas Paradox

Thursday, Chinese officials put the squash on a Christmas Eve naked run in Zhengzhou, Henan province organized by a domestic wine maker. The planned event was aimed at bringing attention to the excessive packaging in the alcohol production industry in China. The absence of clothing on the Chinese runners would supposedly be a statement to beverage companies that all the wrapping and paper simply isn’t necessary. Jixiang Ruyi Alcohol and Tobacco Company offered 10,000 RMB ($1,280) to nearly 300 people to participate in the naked mile. For those who don’t know, in Henan province, this amount is equivalent to roughly 2-3 months of salary. CCTV reported that as of Thursday, over 1,700 people had applied to run. The recruitment called for men and women under 30 with “healthy bodies” and “regular features.” Regular features like two arms, two legs, two breasts? Apparently, Jixiang Ruyi’s standards for beauty are much higher than most. CCTV quoted a Jixiang Ruyi rep as saying, “We have already invited experts from the beauty industry to conduct physical checks on the applicants. Their mental condition must also be sound. According to the tests, there are only 30 or so that qualify.” What the hell kind of tests are these that only 30 of 1,700 applicants are worthy to run naked down the streets of some no-name city? Sorry, that was a bit harsh. I’m just angry because I didn’t make the cut. But what goes around comes around. Jixiang Ruyi’s application for a city permit (like that ever had a chance) was rejected. Similar to what the Ann Arbor Police say every year before University of Michigan’s “Naked Mile”, Zhengzhou police said, “Public commercial events must meet moral standards.” Sadly, the grave national crisis that is excessive wine packaging will not receive the attention and awareness that Chinese streakers feel it deserves.

•China Daily: Police Scraps Wine Maker’s Mass Nude Run

This year, the fictional holiday Festivus, featured in “Seinfeld” in 1997, is not just for the rest of us. It’s for a lot of us. The December 23rd holiday has taken off in America. As reported by the AP on Thursday, sales of the Festivus pole, an alternative to the Christmas tree, have nearly tripled. The rise in the popularity of Festivus stems from a growing resentment for the the commercialism of Christmas. The Wagner Companies, a Milwaukee-based retailer of Festivus poles reports that sales for poles are higher than they have ever been. The firm’s VP of Marketing said, “In many ways, Festivus is taking on a life of its own.” According to Frank Costanza, George’s father on “Seinfeld,” the pole is preferable to a tree because it’s “very low maintenance” and has a “very high strength-to-weight ratio.” Costanza also finds tinsel distracting. The real-life originator of the holiday was the father of “Seinfeld” writer, Daniel O’Keefe, who in 1966 began celebrating the holiday in protest of the materialism of Christmas. The holiday begins with the traditional Festivus dinner, usually meatloaf or pasta. Directly after the dinner, families who celebrate Festivus partake in the “Airing of Grievances” in which each family member tells the other family members how they have disappointed him or her over the past year. After this comes the “Feats of Strength” where the head of the household challenges a family member to a wrestling match. According to the AP report, the only tradition invented by “Seinfeld” is the Festivus pole. Interestingly, some Festivus celebrators, such as Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle, have stopped observing the holiday in protest of Michael Richards racist remarks. I hope Flumesday readers have a happy and healthy Festivus.

•AP: Festivus Poles Now For the Rest of Us

As my buddy Raj put it, this is the coolest entryway to a city’s main drag anywhere in the world. And Wednesday, Shanghai city officials announced the portion of the Yan’an Elevated Road that empties onto Shanghai’s most famous avenue, the Bund, will be demolished as part of a project that will reroute Bund traffic underground. I only hope they’re not using Boston’s model for an underground road system. Anyone that has ever winded around this bend to discover the flashy Pudong skyline on the right and the classy row of old European buildings on the left knows what a big loss this is. Shanghai, and China in general, is so consumed with making everything as grand and efficient as possible that it is losing sight of what is beautiful about this city. It’s these roads and the old Chinese neighborhoods being razed that give the city its flavor. Modernizing a city is one thing, but destroying picturesque views for the sake of traffic flow is quite another.

•Shanghai Daily: Project May Bring Down Photo-Op Spot

French and Chinese paleontologists have discovered a fossil in northeast China of a two-headed, two-necked reptile that roamed China approximately 145 million years ago. The fossil was of an embryonic or newborn reptile that measured a mere 7 centimeters, though scientists who examined the fossil believe that the reptile would have grown to about 3-4 feet as an adult. The remains were found in a fossilized nest along with many other fossils. The region of China in which the fossil was found is a hotbed for prehistoric fossil findings; many birds and dinosaur fossils have been found there in the past. “To my knowledge, it is the only record of a vertebrate fossil showing that kind of malformation,” Dr. Buffetaut, director of research at the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, said. Dr. Buffetaut went on to say, “Two-headed creatures have two brains, which more or less work independently, which is one of the reasons it would be difficult to survive. There is a report of a two-headed snake where one head bit the other off.” That’s crazy. I once saw a double-headed dildo at a sex shop. I thought that was cool. But this little guy is officially the coolest thing I’ve ever seen with two heads.

•Telegraph: Fossil of Two-Headed ‘Dragon’ Found in China

Spotlight: The Baiji Dolphin
From our friends at The Largest Minority
The nearly blind Baiji dolphin, which inhabited the Yangtze River in China, has been declared extinct after a fruitless six-week search for the species came to an end. Fossil records indicate that the dolphin species migrated from the Pacific Ocean to the Yangtze River around 20 million years ago. The Baiji is the first large aquatic mammal driven to extinction since the Caribbean monk seal disappeared in the 1950s from hunting and overfishing. Only three other species of freshwater dolphins now remain in the world.

Sonar from busy ship traffic, snagline and electrofishing techniques, pollution, and run-ins with boat propellers are the main reasons for the Baiji’s extinction. Fishing gear alone is responsible for over half of the dolphin deaths. The impact of the massive Three Gorges Dam may have also been a factor. The world’s only Baiji held in captivity, a lone male named Qi Qi, died in 2002.

The loss of the river dolphin is the canary in the mine shaft for aquatic species. Its extinction is an indication that the ecosystem of the Yangtze is being grossly mismanaged. Randall Reeves, chairman of the World Conservation Union’s Cetacean Specialist Group, said the expedition was surprised at how fast the dolphins disappeared as conservationists were still thinking of ways to save them. “Some of us didn’t want to believe that this would really happen, especially so quickly,” he said. “This particular species is the only living representative of a whole family of mammals. This is the end of a whole branch of evolution.”

Pfluger [a Swiss naturalist who helped put together the expedition] said China’s Agriculture Ministry, which approved the expedition, had hoped the Baiji would be another panda, an animal brought back from the brink of extinction in a highly marketable effort that bolstered the country’s image.The expedition was the most professional and meticulous ever launched for the mammal, Pfluger said. The team of 30 scientists and crew from China, the United States and four other countries searched a 1,000-mile heavily trafficked stretch of the Yangtze, where the Baiji once thrived.

The expedition’s two boats, equipped with high-tech binoculars and underwater microphones, trailed each other an hour apart without radio contact so that a sighting by one vessel would not prejudice the other. When there was fog, he said, the boats waited for the mist to clear to make sure they took every opportunity to spot the mammal.

Around 400 Baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the early 1980s, when China was just launching the free-market reforms that have transformed its economy. The last full-fledged search, in 1997, yielded 13 confirmed sightings, and a fisherman claimed to have seen a Baiji in 2004.
(The Associated Press 12/13/06)

While conducting their search for the Baiji, the expedition also surveyed the Yangtze Finless Porpoise population, which has fallen below 400. “The situation of the finless porpoise is just like that of the Baiji 20 years ago,” said Wang Ding, a Chinese hydrobiologist and co-leader of the expedition. “Their numbers are declining at an alarming rate. If we do not act soon they will become a second Baiji.”

The Largest Minority is a California-based site that puts original and intelligent commentary on the internet daily. I count on this site for two things in particular: interesting and off-color world news and a regular dose of the Daily Show. Where I live, both of these are hard to come by. The Largest Minority has kindly permitted me to use this post

While I’m not the biggest of Rosie O’Donnell fans, I must say, she’s standing up to the Donald in a pretty big way. It all started on Wednesday’s “The View” when Rosie called Donald Trump a hypocrite for acting morally pious in his pardoning of Miss USA/girl gone wild Tara Conner. Rosie made a good point in saying, “[Donald] left the first wife, had an affair. Left the second wife, had an affair … but he’s the moral compass for 20-year-olds?” I can’t say I didn’t have the same thought myself. Well according to TMZ.com, Donald fired back on the Entertainment Tonight website calling Rosie, “disgusting, both inside and out. You take a look at her, she’s a slob.” I can’t say I didn’t have the same thought myself. He went on to say, “I’ll probably sue her because she doesn’t tell the facts. I’d like to take some money out of her fatass pockets.” Rosie responded to the Donald Wednesday on her blog by posting a Wikipedia excerpt on Trump’s less than stellar financial history. You’d think these two were schoolchildren and not filthy rich celebrities. Finally, Donald took a shot at Rosie’s wife saying, “I imagine it would be pretty easy to take her girlfriend away, considering how Rosie looks.” I can’t say I didn’t have the same thought myself. But I thought it about Donald, not Rosie.

• TMZ: Trump Fires Back