NY Times: Growth Up in Japan in Quarter, but Pace Already Seems to Fade

The economy's tepid performance has been made worse by falling prices, which erode profits and make debts more burdensome. Five years of deflation have highlighted what economists here call the three excesses plaguing Japanese companies: too many workers, too many assets and too much debt. To raise cash to pay creditors, companies are closing factories and eliminating jobs, and even companies earning solid profits, like Toyota Motor, are freezing wages.

As unemployment rises Û it stood at a near-record 5.4 percent in July, the government reported separately today Û consumers, in turn, are closing their wallets. Retail sales fell 5.7 percent in July from July 2001 as household incomes fell 4 percent.

Another good Ken Belson article on the lameness that is the Japanese economy. Everyone has excuses for why things don't change there but it's clear that inaction is worse than any action at all for Japan.

Cartoonist & commentator Mark Poyser has a great map of the mess that is Wall Street in this day and age...

NY Times on Joshua Tree, California...

The new pilgrims, many of them commuters from Los Angeles and New York, include the artist Ed Ruscha, who has a house near Pioneer Town, a stage set for westerns with its own O.K. Corral; the New York photographer Jack Pierson; and Blake Simpson, a young Los Angeles furniture designer who is building a compound with a Quonset hut and a 1951 trailer. They are lured not by the night life, which consists largely of Pint Nights at the local cafe, but by what the 37-year-old Mr. Simpson calls "a fascination with stillness."

Salon: "0wnz0red"

"But your meat, it's not under your control. You know you have to exercise for 20 minutes before you start burning any fat at all? In other words, the first twenty minutes are just a goddamned waste of time. It's sacrificing a chicken to your metabolism. Eat less, exercise more is a giant chicken-sacrifice, so I say screw it. I say, you should be super-user in your own body. You should be leet as you want to be. Every cell in your body should be end-user modifiable."

Very fun read from Cory of BoingBoing.net. Reminiscent of Stephenson but in the best possible way.

Eric Eto posted a nice list of Japanese restaurants in NYC to Chowhound recently. The list is copied to my post inside for safekeeping :)

My friend Mike bought a new Husaberg motorcycle recently. I had a chance to ride it last night...

The New Yorker on the paradox of traffic. My paradox is that I must commute for work and I cannot carpool due to the necessity of a flexible schedule. I'd rather walk or take public transportation but for the moment, it's a necessary evil. I enjoy driving, however and I delight in the freedom my car gives me on the weekend- that's my paradox ;)

A team from Slate Magazine travels to Kashmir. Wonderful photos in their gallery- wish they were of higher resolution. Must travel soon!

LA Times: Nevada's Big Empty

"It was 1991," he said. "I'd never been on a playa before. I just couldn't believe it. Something is triggered when I get on a big open spot like this. I generally try to express it as a release. I feel things getting pulled out of me in all directions. Whatever it is--the urban pressures of living in a city, or just the stress of daily life--you get out here and you feel those things getting pulled out of you.

"The space is different. The size of things is different. We don't get to see that anywhere else."

Unabashed Wal-Mart Shopper Speaks

The first hint I had that Wal-Mart was actually on to fashion, and absorbing what was happening on the runways, was a pair of black nylon sandals I bought in 1997. I found them in Asheville, N.C., on the way to pick up my son at summer camp. They had big silver O-rings on the sides, Velcro closures and corrugated rubber soles.

"No, Wal-Mart." I smiled. "Nine ninety-nine."