This morning I woke up planning to do my first 2,000 meter sprint on my rowing machine. I had a great experience I’ll describe after extolling the machine’s benefits. Anyone who knows me knows I rarely promote commercial products. Non-commercial products like GNU/Linux, fresh fruit, and public libraries, I promote all the time, but commercial stuff, rarely. This thing has been great. I got it after Thanksgiving last year and[…] Keep reading →

Weirdness is subjective, of course. I’m only describing what I consider weird. And I want to stress that I don’t consider nor mean to imply that weirdness is bad. I consider it interesting. As a friend said, “Nobody is normal.” I celebrate individual differences. I put “weird” in the title to get people thinking and asking themselves questions. In particular, I hope people will consider questions like these, which I[…] Keep reading →

For my last post on Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea for a while, I’ll post some far-reaching ideas, link to articles about it, and give thanks and credit. Einstein said “you cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” And George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Well, if you want peace, I suggest you begin with fun and games, or at least make[…] Keep reading →

Okay, you’re asking, I get the value of sport in opening communications anywhere and thawing relations with people across adversarial borders. What about the games themselves? Did you have fun? Did they? You’ll have to wait for when my posts on pictures from North Korea reach the Ultimate games, but don’t worry, I’ll post interesting stuff in between. For now I’ll say this. You can read books, search online, watch[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I hinted at why playing sports yourself differs from watching sports, especially the big ones. Why not promote interactions through the big sports, like basketball, soccer, Olympics, and so on? First, I don’t discourage them, but I would point out their size, scale, and corporate and government backing make everyday human interaction more difficult. All the profit available makes them easy pickings for rent-seeking government bureaucrats and corporations. As[…] Keep reading →

The scene: Friday 10am at Union Square in Motion. NY1 is interviewing Jeanne Kelly, Josefina Santos, and me. After the interviews, the NY1 crew record us watching the display. The action: While recording us, as often happens, a group of maybe ten or so riders stops to watch the display too. Among the people who stop are there particularly stylish people who show more enthusiasm and interest in the art[…] Keep reading →

The one-on-one interactions between regular players I described yesterday not representing their countries led to a series of ping pong players from each nation touring the others’. With the Vietnam War raging, the press around the world covered the interactions. According to Smithsonian Magazine Soon after the U.S. team’s trip, Nixon, not wanting to lose momentum, secretly sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Peking to arrange a Presidential visit[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I suggested Nixon couldn’t have opened China since ping pong opened it a year before. If you’re like me, you’ve never heard of “ping pong diplomacy.” Or maybe you’ve heard the words together, but don’t know what they mean. I understand people who were adults at the time will all know the phrase, if perhaps from hazy memories. From Wikipedia’s page on ping pong diplomacy: Ping pong diplomacy refers[…] Keep reading →

I left off yesterday’s introduction to Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea, which recounted China’s change from a failing planned economy to an increasingly market-based economy, with the question “Did Nixon open China?”. It looks that way. Yesterday’s post described the huge changes to China’s government and economy occurring immediately after his visit. Searching “Nixon opened China” gets you innumerable hits on the internet. According to the Wikipedia page on Nixon’s[…] Keep reading →