From the Brooklyn Paper via Albany Project comes a disturbing piece of news: apparently, four New York City residents have been arrested in Beijing for protesting against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

The Chinese, who are hoping that their efficient oversight of the Beijing Games will wipe away memories of Tiananmen Square, have arrested one of Williamsburg’s best-known multi-media artists after discovering that he planned to project a pro-Tibet message on a building in the Chinese capital.

Artist James Powderly has been in a Chinese jail since Aug. 19 — though the official charges are unknown.[...]

Though Powderly was apprehended alone, he traveled to Beijing to collaborate with five activists from the group Students for a Free Tibet — including Brooklynites Samantha Corbin, Jacob Blumenfeld, and Lauren Valle — who were arrested later that day after unfurling a light-up “Free Tibet” banner in front of the famed “Bird’s Nest” stadium, the student organization said.

The whereabouts of Powderly and his American compatriots remain unclear. A spokesman from Beijing’s Municipal Publicity Security Bureau refused to comment on Powderly’s arrest, according to the Associated Press.

Bad things happen to people who wind up in the jails of authoritarian regimes. Please act today to start bringing pressure on China to free its prisoners. Call China's representatives here in the United States, and the Department of State to act quickly to get our citizens released.

Chinese Embassy, Washington: (202) 328-2500
Chinese Consulate General, New York: (212) 244-9456
United States Department of State, Washington: (202) 647-4000

I have been reading two books that deal with pre-Columbian America: 1421 by Gavin Menzies and 1491 by Charles Mann. Both present controvesial but interesting theories of what happened before Columbus in the Americas. I find my self only partly convinced by each book and, in fact, think that the two theories wind up, in their extreme forms, to be mutually exclusive.

My mother was an Anthropologist and as a kid we often went to museums of all sorts. I was exposed to pre-Columbian art and archaeology, but never found it as compelling as European and Asian art and archaeology. Looking back, I felt little connection with pre-Columbian cultures. I had more connection to modern Native American culture than ancient, as if in some ways I bought the olf fallicy that Native Americans didn't really have a history of their own. I think I first awakened to the pre-Columbian cultures in graduate school when I was lucky enough to see the Treasures of Sipan exhibit at UCLA (the only US museum that got to display the exhibit...it is permanently housed in Peru). This was billed as being as spectacular as the Treasures of King Tut which I had seen and was amazed by as a kid. I scoffed at that, but still went to see it. It was just as spectacular as any ancient art and I was blown away. The Treasures of Sipan showed artifacts from a nearly untouched tomb from the Moche culture in South America. It made me appreciate just what the ancient Andean cultures were really like and was the first time I felt an affinity with a pre-Columbian culture.

It is illegal to take a drug that is manufactured here in the United States across the border to Canada and then back into the U.S. and sell it. But making drugs in China and then selling them here is just fine.

This example of incredible insanity has led to the Heparin scandal. Heparin is a blood thinner, and much of it is manufactured in China. Unfortunately, we don't have full control over that manufacture, so when an imitation drug came across the Pacific marked as the real thing, it killed 19 Americans.

You would think that these deaths would cause Congress to wake up. But no, they're still asleep on the job. According to the NY Times, "Congressional Democrats are talking about authorizing more money so the F.D.A. can do more overseas inspections, particularly in China, where more and more drug ingredients are made."