I'm sitting at my desk on the 19th floor in Shanghai doing work and listening to bad 80's music.  I started to feel a little woozy, as if I was dizzy and needed to lay down for a minute.  That's when I noticed that the cords on my window  shade were swinging back and forth.  Earthquake!

The swaying lasted about a minute or two here.  I'm sure it was much worse near the epicenter - no word on that yet.  

More on the flip side...

April 10, 2008

The wave of repression and intimidation of human rights activists and dissidents in China in advance of the Beijing Olympics has also targeted homosexuals, according to China's best-known gay and AIDS activist.

Doug Ireland, an American journalist and blogger, writes in the April 10 online edition of Gay City News on another aspect of the Chinese government's human rights repression and "sanitizing" efforts in advance of the Beijing Games.

China is taking a beating on its human rights records lately for the situation in Tibet, yet there are other areas that need to be talked about as world opinion focuses on this emerging giant.

--see below for more--

In June of 2003, I walked along the legendary Yangtze River in Shanghai, China. On the one hand, it was one of the greatest moments of my life to see with own eyes one of the greatest tributaries in the world. However, the pollution I witnessed was one of the most tragic I hhave ever seen. Now comes a report what I saw nearly 4 years ago.

As we worry about real estate boom in the US, a much greater wave than we can ever imagine has enveloped China and it speaks to the power of what is happening there. If you wonder why Treasury Secretary Snow came back rather sheepishly from his latest trip to make China, our banker, adjust its currency you will now know why. The scale of what is happening is beyond our imagining.