Loose change for March 7, 2009 (Part 2)

 Economic news 

• Time asks if we should put a price tag on nature, so that environmental destruction will have a more tangible dollar value attached to it.
• The long lines at California amusement parks are people trying to get jobs.

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• Hyundai Rotem's high-tech, crash-resistant trains that will be used in Southern California's MetroLink have started to arrive and are ready to be assembled.
• I missed this before: the launch of the world's largest cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, built by South Korean company STX's recently purchased European shipbuilder, formerly Aker Yards.
• Some moderate to very interesting K-blogs I've run across: a food blog by the Ginger Ninja (I guess that rhymes in some countries), Kristina in Korealand, and PushTheLimitz.
• The Korea Times compares the shopping meccas of Myŏngdong and Tongdaemun.
• This has already been on several blogs, but here are some very cool pictures of Ch'ŏnggyech'ŏn [Cheonggyecheon] in the 1960s, before the river was paved over and when some people lived in buildings on stilts over the riverbank. 

 Americana and miscellany 

• Tom Hanks has become our historian-in-chief.
• And speaking of history, some folks claim Obama is not our first Black president. A whopping six have had some significant amount of African blood in them, including Dwight Eisenhower, whose mother is shown below.

• Single Black women, better educated than their male counterparts, may have to date outside their race if they want to find a man. I say they should look to Asian men, though some suggest they go gay.
• Thirty-one thousand Californians have applied for a mere fourteen positions on the board that will handle the redistricting of the state legislature, something Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been pushing as a necessary reform to end gridlock (by getting rid of guaranteed seats for each party and thus getting new blood). 
• Topeka is temporarily changing its name to Google. At least it's not as bad as naming babies Nikon.