NewsBytes

Thursday, March 19, 2009

From around the way:

Slanties Eyewear?

In addition to the stunningly racist name, those fuckers will set you back $75. If you look on the sites photo gallery, you get to see people wearing these in public.

Interestingly enough, when I did a search for Inuit eyewear to see what they were actually called, I came across this tidbit [...]
student fights idiotic english language exam

This is an outrageous story out of Iowa... Lori Phanachone is a Laotian American high school senior at Storm Lake High School. She's a member of the National Honor Society, has a 3.9 grade point average, ranks seventh in the her class of 119 and has been offered a number of college scholarships.

But to school officials, she is considered illiterate and has been serving three days of in-school suspension. Why? Lori refuses to take the complete the English Language Development Assessment, a test she says is demeaning and racist: Student rejects 'demeaning' test, is suspended.
Japanese Boob Clawing Arcade Game

Not to be mistaken with fellow BcB founder, C-boob-slanger, this Japanese claw game replaces the typical Batman plush dolls with something a little more close to the heart of mens. Plush BOOBS! Thanks Gizmodo, this isn’t something Engadget would take on, but your blog is all about the hard hittin’ tech news.
Peering Through The Glass Ceiling

Readers of 8asians may not realize this, but writing for this blog doesn’t pay the rent, so most of the writers here have day jobs. I’m no exception. My day job is in marketing for a high technology company in Silicon Valley. In this slowing economy that we’re in, I’m fairly lucky in that I work for a company that’s still making money, and in a field that’s still growing. My company also happens to be fairly diverse in their hiring practices, as my coworkers span every racial and ethnic group. The company has also grown quite a bit since I started almost two years ago, and I’ve never really felt there was a glass ceiling at this company until today. (Glass ceilings for Asians has been a recent topic this month with the appointment of Jim Yong Kim as the President of Dartmouth, and L. Ling-Chi Wang’s comment that he could count the number of Asian presidents of universities in the U.S. on his hand.)
Urban Dimwitters

I was browsing the overpriced, shoddily produced merchandise on the second floor of my local Urban Outfitters today when I overheard this conversation by a trio of white store employees:

Girl 1: "My mom totally hates my boyfriend."

Girl 2: "Why?"

Girl 1: "He's like totally [whispers] Mexican."

Girl 2: "Is he a Norteño?" [laughs]

For those non-Bay Area folks, there are two main clashing Mexican gangs here: Norteños from Northern California and Sureños who moved up from Southern California

Girl 3: "Oh my God, she totally likes [whispers] Mexicans. We were at this club and there was this gross [whispers] Mexican guy with like a long ponytail and she totally thought he was hot."
“The Japanese example” is not suicide

The furor over bonuses given by AIG to employees after taking more than $170 billion in bailout money from the U.S. government is made all the more furious because of the sheer breathtaking scale of the cash flow. AIG paid 73 staffers more than $1 million, with one getting $6.4 and seven more getting $4.
A trip into Angel Island's past

Don Lee was 11 years old and recovering from seasickness when the SS President Coolidge anchored in San Francisco Bay in the summer of 1939. He had spent weeks in the luxury liner's steerage on the voyage from Hong Kong, struggling to sleep beside the rumbling of the ship's engine.

His journey would soon take a frightening detour.

Immigration officials boarded the Coolidge, separated Lee from his grandfather and ferried the boy and several dozen other immigrants to Angel Island. Here, he was detained in a bunk room behind barbed wire, with frequent interruptions for interrogations about his family lineage and his tiny village in southern China.