Another Ji Lee production!

The recent arrest of Roman Polanski for the rape of a 13 year old girl in 1977 has caused much debate around the world.

On one side, Polanski’s defenders argue he should be freed immediately because the case is too old. On the other side, Polanski’s non-sympathizers argue he should be tried just like any other sex offenders regardless of how old the case is.

What do you think? Cast your vote on POLLanski.com

A twitter like site to share your awesome stuff in 150 characters or less. Do awesome deeds. Raise your awesome quotient. It’s befuckingawesome.com Via Zoomdoggle

Nearly a year ago I was interviewed for Donna Fenn’s next book Upstarts!. Now, I’m in it (there’s an entire section on Undercurrent and our culture) with a handful of my entrepreneur pals from around the globe… It’s a great book and inspiring gift. Give it to your kids. Give it to your students. Give it to yourself. Go, buy it, now.

Oh Hakone, how I love you so…

I’ve been enjoying being off the grid in Asia.  Sorry for the lack of updates, but I promise some pictures and reviews soon.  I’m having a great (and interesting) time!

I arrived safely in Dalian. I think if I squint, I can see the forbidden coasts of North Korea from here. Only kidding (sort of). Dalian is actually a pretty good looking city at night.  Very modern and well lit up. All the sites you would expect to be blocked, well, are. So much for Tumblr-ing. After all that travel and no dinner I went ahead and ordered some dumplings from room service. Wish me luck?

Landed in Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific business class seat put me to sleep for 12 of the 16 hours in flight. Incredible.

Remember last year when I went to Mainland China and Japan? I’m going again– leaving on Sunday (and checking out the new Cathay Pacific Seats on my way there). Speaking of which, I should probably start packing, eh?

The primary purpose of my trip to China is for the Young Global Leaders Dalian Summit. I’ll also be in Hong Kong for a few days, Macau for a night (wish me luck), and then I’m off to Japan. In Japan I’ll be in Tokyo a bit, as well as Hakone for some much needed Onsen and likely a day or two in Kyoto.

If you have any tips, want to meet up, want me in to speak at your company or agency, whatever– drop me a line.

As always I’ll be blogging along the way, but Twitter is also a good place to hear/see what I’m up to.

Friends, family, readers, generous souls:

We did it! We’ve reached my goal. A goal I set on my 25th birthday.

Together we raised $5,000. $5,000 that builds a well and provides clean drinking water for a community of 500+ people.

Dozens of you stepped up and donated to make this possible (more than 100 in total). Names I recognize, familiar names I’d seen around, and names I’ve never seen before.

You all rock.

Each and every one of you has helped me reach my goal and were an integral part of something bigger, something special, something with meaning beyond words.

My wish has been granted. Thank you for your support.

With gratitude,

Josh

P.S. That was easy, right? Got a birthday coming up? How about you build one as well?

What is the last thing you would like to eat before taking that terminal trip into the beyond? Most of us probably won’t have to ponder the answer to this question, but there is a select group of folks who do. In some sort of attempt to humanize capital punishment, the American prison system offers those sentenced to death something called a last meal. James Reynolds shows us that when death is looming, each palate craves something unique. “Last Suppers” is a series of photographs depicting recreations of some of these. Something to make you think: what would you want?

Via Swissmiss

Full story of my DB9 adventure coming soon…

Thanks to my friends at Aston Martin and Gotham Dream Cars, I wont be blogging much today. I’m on my way to pick up a DB9 Volante for the weekend. You can follow more constant updates of my experience on Twitter.

You can check out my Favorite Places for NYC on Google. I even got my own custom pin!

Explore the favorite places of local experts from cities around the world. Find out where they like to go, and why, from their own perspectives.

TechCrunch has the rest of the story if you’re interested…

MadoffMail is genius. Whether you were one of his victims or not, now is your chance to tell him how you feel. Send your letters, drawings, poems, photographs, posters, collages doodles and other Madoff correspondence to madoffmail@gmail.com

On every three-month anniversary of Madoff’s prison term, we’ll send your submissions to Madoff’s prison cell in a MadoffMail care package.

Some of the submissions are fantastic already. Artistic and sharp– I love the power of the internet. Hey Bernie– do not pass go, do not collect 50 billion dollars. Thanks Bret!

The two most important factors in combating a beast such as cancer are courage and hope. Perhaps there’s no better embodiment of those two words than Livestrong founder and seven time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. While Armstrong may have triumphed over the disease there are still many who need the strength to fight it every day and still those who have not been so fortunate. Still, the message of hope and remembrance of the struggle of others goes a long way towards inspiring those currently engaged in such a battle and the loved ones who face it with them everyday. That’s why Nike and Livestrong have teamed up with Deep Local and StandardRobot to make technology a little more human and spread positive messages about the fight survival during this year’s Tour De France. They’re not doing so by passing out flyers or writing pretty messages in the clouds over the Pyrenees. Instead they’re using the wondrous trailer-sized replica of an inkjet printer known as Chalkbot, to spread personal messages of perseverance and remembrance across the roads of competition of all those who have endured the pain over the long haul on the road of life, regardless of which side they’ve come out on. Check out the Nike site for more info or text LIVESTRONG and your message to 36453 and it will let you know when it has been painted. Wonderful.

Update: It wouldn’t be fair to mention this project without a hat tip to the amazing team at W+K who pushed this project through!  Two W+K folks are in France right now with it!  Fantastic work…