USC Asian American Professor Denied Tenure

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Mihee

I received an email recently from Dr. Nami Kim and the Asian North American Religion, Culture and Society Group (ANARCS) asking people to sign the following petition for Dr. Jane Iwamura who was recently denied tenure at USC:

Jane Iwamura is Assistant Professor of Religion and American Studies at the University of Southern California. In May of 2010 she was denied tenure. Dr. Iwamura is not only an award winning teacher, she is also a nationally recognized scholar of Asian American religions, race, and popular culture. […] As scholars with expertise in Ethnic Studies, American Studies, Religion, and Popular Culture, we contend that her work is of exceptional value and that she has made an important impact on these fields. As such, we strongly support a reconsideration of Dr. Iwamura’s case. Jane Iwamura deserves tenure at USC.

Please consider signing this petition and helping her in her appeal process; an incredible woman and scholar, and it would be such a loss to the APA community to not have her making waves in the Academy.

Posted in Education | 4 Comments

Bumperboy Helicoaster 11″ x 17″ Print

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Ernie

Meet Bumperboy, the brain child of Bay Area based Debbie Huey. Her comic series — which includes the books Bumperboy Loses His Marbles and Bumperboy and the Loud, Loud Mountain — are for all ages, but we’re particular of this Helicoaster 11″ x 17″ Print ($25) which would look great in a kid’s room. Or a very orange office.

Posted in Art, Home Decor | 1 Comment

So You Think You Can Dance: The Return of Alex Wong

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Jen

Good news for So You Think You Can Dance fans, because Alex Wong is back! A gifted ballet dancer who most recently performed with the Miami City Ballet as a soloist, he initially auditioned in Season 5 but had to leave due to his contractual obligations with MCB.  He is back on the show, and sadly not listed on the MCB website anymore. Hopefully, Alex will return to Miami but he wowed the judges in his audition with the solo above yesterday.

I hope Alex’s audition highlights the talent that spills out of the pores of ballet dancers everywhere and that male ballet dancers aren’t just feminine princes on stage anymore. Ballet dancers like him are incredibly athletic, beautiful, strong, (and sexy, in my opinion) and their talents extend easily to many other dance forms.

Ballet dancers historically have come oh-so-close to winning in past seasons SYTYCD. Danny Tidwell, being the most obvious example, was an amazing dancer, but as the season went on, adjectives such as “aloof”, “cold”, “proud”, “unemotional” were tossed around by the judges. I hope Alex can win them over this season. He definitely has my vote.

Posted in Entertainment, The Arts, TV | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Olivia Munn Debuts On The Daily Show

Posted on June 4, 2010 by John
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
The Spilling Fields – Vietnamese Fisherman
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Part

Last night on The Daily Show, Olivia Munn from G4’s Attack of the Show debuted as the show’s newest “Senior Asian Correspondent.” She attempts to report on the plight of the Vietnamese fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico in a segment titled, “The Spilling Fields – Vietnamese Fisherman,” until all the other correspondents show up to fight over who gets to be the latest Senior Asian Correspondent. Aasif Mandvi especially has an issue with this. Jon describes Olivia as of Vietnamese descent, which surprised me, considering her Wikipedia profile says she is Chinese and German-Irish. Her faux Vietnamese is pretty decent though.

Posted in Comedy, Current Events, Entertainment | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Students Eating Instant Ramen Increase Risk of Chronic Disease

Posted on June 4, 2010 by jee

I love food; no, no, I really LOVE food. It’s a relationship that has been sacred and intimate and enjoyable. I scoff at canned soups and instant anything.

But, somewhere in my genetic makeup is a deep love for instant ramen.

I blame my Dad for this; I grew up sneaking instant ramen into my belly as often as I can. I had to hide it from the Mother who frowned upon the horror that is instant ramen. She would go on and on about how bad it was and how it’s going to ruin my health. I would have a sassy comeback and ignore her and I happily slurped through my bowl of instant goodness. I love it so  much, I even have my own little method of cooking it.

This is the reason I would never show my Mother this article on students who have ate instant foods increasing their risk of getting chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Oh, the gloating she would do and the triumph she would feel knowing that her nagging has been true all along. She would never be silenced in saying over and over again how instant ramen consumption really does have negative and horrible affects on one’s health.

Posted in Food & Drink, Health | 6 Comments

The Character Genetics of Final Fantasy

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Ben

So I was chit-chatting with my beautiful blond wife and talking about the children that mixed couples would have. If you think about it, any features such as blue eyes and blond hair would be pretty much eradicated by the dominant genes. But here’s the rub of it: maybe it wouldn’t? After all, even Time magazine had an article way back in 2001 about the “Eurasian Invasion”. If that trend holds true, there definitely could be some recessive characteristics that show up again.

If you think about how brunettes have married blonds in Caucasians, the only thing that might happen is that the recessive traits would pop back up a few generations down. This should also hold true also with the multi-racial couples–which brings me to another point.

Did the Japanese know something that we didn’t know? If you look at every single RPG, or anything designed by Squaresoft in the 1990s and Square Enix in the 2000s, the main character designs that seem to have Asian features but with genetic traits from Caucasians. Now whether or not anime and manga carry these looks from a popular design style, or they have some time travel device, I couldn’t tell ya.

Digging deeper, we find that this breaks into racial theory on gaming and the anime genres that have been viewed from a number of angles. Some say that the Japanese are secretly admiring certain Caucasian features:

When most foreigners look at manga for the first time today and see characters with huge saucer eyes, lanky legs, and what appears to be blonde hair, they often want to know why there are so many “Caucasian” people in the stories. When told that most of these characters are not “Caucasians” but “Japanese,” they are flabbergasted (Dreamland 60).

Others believe that it’s just a fantasy driven perception in which each race will see themselves overall in the animation. But why get all edumacated about it? What I do know is this: my grandchildren could perhaps look like Tifa Lockhart and and Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy. And that thought is just so dang cool.

Posted in Observations, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Keitai Otohime Toilet Sound Blocker

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Moye

Curb the embarrassing sounds in the bathroom with the Keitai Otohime Toilet Sound Blocker ($36), a portable gadget that creates a flushing noise so you can go number two (or one) in private! Enjoy two different styles, like a feminine Ribbon or animal-filled Forest.

Posted in Accessories | Leave a comment

DUDE WTF ASIA: Thieves Beaten with Furniture

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Moye

Next time you try to steal someone’s bag while riding a moped in China*, re-think your actions: are the contents of this purse worth being hunted down and beaten with pieces of furniture by a hoard of people? Probably not. It was an ugly handbag to begin with.

Also, check out the “hilarious” comments over at Geekologie. It’s 2010 and people are still saying “Me rove you rong time?”

* Note: I’m just assuming that it’s China. I could totally be wrong, but I’m pretty sure it’s not Japan. There aren’t enough schoolgirl uniforms.

Posted in DUDE WTF ASIA, WTF | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Asian Porn Star Killed in Sword Attack by Fellow Porn Star

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Ernie

This looks straight out of a plot from a mediocre CBS drama, but nope, it’s absolutely true: earlier this week, male Asian porn star Herbert Wong (Porn name: Tom Dong) was killed in a “samurai-style sword attack” by a fellow porn-star Steven Hill (Porn name: Steven Driver) at a fetish porn studio in Southern California, as reported by the LA Weekly. The killer — who is still at-large — was known to be friends with the victim, where they appeared on this DVD cover box together. (No, we’re not going to link to the uncensored image; you guys read blogs, therefore you know how to use Google.) As for a motive:

Hill had been sleeping on a couch at the porn warehouse, and had been updating the adult based website as well as acting in a few movies. Police said Hill was asked to move out a few weeks earlier.

“[Hill] wasn’t performing up to standards and a few weeks ago he was told he would have to leave,” said LAPD detective Joel Price. “They weren’t happy with his product and he had been given a date of [June 2] to leave… He knew today was the day he had to be gone.”

On one hand: this is sad. Someone lost their life over this. Two other people are in the hospital.  And straight Asian male porn stars are like endangered Yangtze River dolphins: we don’t really know how many of them there are, but we only know of three or four, one of them is now dead and we’ve already blogged the last known occurrence.

On the flip side: Really, LAPD detective Joel Price? “Happy with his product?” Liiiike… his webmaster skills? His acting abilities? His penis? Did you, like, start high-fiving the rest of your buddies in the office after releasing out the statement?  Because this Asian-American blogger is trying to take his job of reblogging shit seriously, and all I can really think of is, “He couldn’t perform up to standards folks; the key word here is UP! HEY-YO!”

Posted in Current Events, Lifestyles, Southern California, WTF | Tagged , | 14 Comments

China Tries to Put Best Foot Forward With Shangai World Expo

Posted on June 3, 2010 by John

This week, News Hour is dedicating a whole series on China, including this segment which focuses on the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. I’ve been to Shanghai only once, back in 2002 and I remember seeing billboards for this event. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shanghai has quadrupled (or more) in size since I last visited! China has spent over TWICE the amount they did on the city than they did in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics! The United States almost didn’t have a pavilion there, since U.S. government policy prohibits direct funding for such events. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her rolodex and helped raise over $60 million for the United States to be represented at the Fair. Most of the visitors of the World Expo will be local Chinese residents, making up an estimated 95% of all attendees. With all the grandeur and the incredible crowds of the exhibits, I’m tempted to make another trip to Asia to check out the World Expo myself.

Posted in Current Events | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The 1,500 Year old Recipe to Strong Chinese Buildings: Sticky Rice

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Jeff

Ever wonder how some Chinese buildings have managed to last hundreds of years through earthquakes and the onslaught of time?   Saw the answer in this Slashdot article:  sticky rice!  As detailed here, sticky rice is not only tasty, but when added to mortar, a starchy compound called amylopectin in the sticky rice gives the mortar superior strength and mechanical properties.

Posted in (simple), Food & Drink, Technology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Links: Intermarriage, Far East Movement, The Death of a Porn Star

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Guest Writer
Posted in (simple) | Leave a comment