BNT’s Best of the Week 04/19/08

Ooh, ooh! In light of the Earth Day madness, I found it important to remember that rational reasoning and healthy critique are necessary for both sides of any argument. Remember DDT? It’s making a comeback. If you think that sounds horrible, here’s a very interesting article on why banning it in the first place was–perhaps–not a well-thought out move (think ‘malaria’):

http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2008/MediaMyth/NineWorst/NineWorstStoriesFull1.asp

A funnier version of the same topic can be found here:

http://www.cracked.com/article_16078_p5.html

When I saw the headline I thought – impossible – the writer is promising too much…but the advice is damn good and who knows, maybe with enough dedication and effort, it is possible to…

Become Fluent In A Foreign Language In 6 Months Or Less

http://matadorstudy.com/10-steps-to-becoming-fluent-in-a-language-in-6-months-or-less/

Bestselling author Amy Tan has an article in the latest issue of National Geographic (May 2008) about an isolated farming community in the Chinese province of Guizhou. Tan writes about how the Dong minority that lives there is coping with entering the modern world.

The link has the full text of the article, but not all the pictures that are in the magazine.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/guizhou/amy-tan-text

Hey Chrysser, want to go scouting in the Congo? Thanks for the link!

Some of the more unconventional vagabonds:

http://www.keepingpaceinjapan.com/2008/04/unconventional-vagabonds.html