Earthquakes, of politics and geology. Waves, of unrest and destruction....

Cyrenaica: "an epicenter of anti-American Jihad"

Pre-script: I accidentally posted this here; I meant to post it to my other blog, but since it's here, I'll leave it....

My goodness what a year....
We almost forget that it started with monster floods in Queensland.  Worst in recorded history.  Then the earthquake in Queenstown.  Queens and Queens, enough to make one a republican.
Roiling away in the foreground: the Arabian revolutions -- "jasmine" for some reason I haven't noted and am too lazy to google; perhaps we've run out of colours, though I seem to recall that some of the early East European ones were "velvet".
Then the crunch in Japan, the triple whammy, biggest earthquake recorded, 15 metre tsunami and the melt-down of nuclear power stations.
A few random items:

Kumquats and Superstition

This year's kumquat bushes "retired" to our back yard.  (see below...)

Are you superstitious?  I bet you are.  Most people are, even Richard Dawkins.  I make sure that I follow Chinese superstitions, like loving the numbers 8 or 9 and hating the number 4.  "Eight" is especially auspicious because it's a homonym for "wealth".  "Nine" is a homonym for "long life".  "Four" is no good cause it also sounds like "death".  [Click on "Read more" below for rest of Post]

Singapore and Taiwan

Singapore skyline from 54/F of Marina Bay Sands.  Click to enlarge. Taken with my iPhone.

Cross posted from Xena blog.  (because it's cut and pasted, it's got some funny formatting. To see in original form, go here).  Click "Read more" below to see more photos.