This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

• Quite frankly we are witnessing an incredible historical event and it is going largely unnoticed. 55 years after the Chinese Civil War ended, the two opponents are now openly embracing each other. The visit is seen as a welcome thaw in frosty cross-Straits relations. Thanks should be given to the DPP for bringing together the Communists and KMT. And perhaps the pessimistis on the Taiwan question will realise it's not all doom and gloom and that China has a carrot and stick approach...not just a stick approach.
• Mrs M. kindly bought me a copy of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It's a good read, linking together anecdotes and research and in an easy to read style. It comes down to a simple rule my high school science teacher once told me: go with your gut instinct. What is illuminating is the unconscious influences and prejudices on our decisions. As I said, worth a read.
• Triads in Hong Kong are learning that upsetting the status quo with the cops doesn't pay. Since a police raid last weekend in Kowloon turned ugly, police have raided well-known Triad owned premises nightly, despite major Triad leaders apologising to the police and telling their young "brothers" to pull their heads in. Some might wonder why it has taken such an event to get the police to launch these raids. But in Hong Kong that's how it works: there is an unwritten understanding between police and Triads which keeps Hong Kong largely free of petty crime.
• Sobering times for Korean bankers. Sell your Korean beer shares now. I can categorically state there are no harder drinkers in the world than Koreans.
• It's not easy being a woman in China. Besides being vastly outnumbered by men, 71% are sexually harassed.
• Happy birthday Helen. And Jim's gone and organised a nice present.
• (13:20) Virgin have announced they have finalised details of commerical space flight and the first trip will be in 30 months. Instead of a mile high club there will now be the 100 mile high club. Problems of squeezing pass trolleys in aisles are eliminated as you can now float over the top. Leg space issues in economy class disappear. But what does a spacecraft do if there are no landing slots on its return?
• The SCMP Group reported an annual profit of HK$317.5 million on turnover of HK$1.37 billion! That's a 23% profit margin! I gotta start me a newspaper. Maybe they could spare a few dollars and send some reporters to Hunan Normal University's class on sensationilising news.
• Prince Charles' quest for true love hasn't been easy.
• (15:21) I recently wrote about the meme that China will gobble the world's natural resources. Thomas Collins of Quillsnews runs a site looking at links between oil, terror and politics.
• DEL points to a NYT article discussing the current massive petition in China against Japan's bid for a UN Security Council permanent seat. I mentioned this yesterday and note in passing that what both the SMH and NYT have seen fit to print remains absent from the South China Morning Post. Joseph Kahn points out this petition will force China's Government to take a stronger diplomatic line with Japan and re-inforces my view that China's public opinion is more hawkish than the Government's on Japan. But will the rest of the world allow this to disrupt a much needed and desired reform of the UNSC? I doubt it. In the end the most likely is China will abstain on Japan's entry to the Council and cop a huge amount of domestic flak for it. It's not easy being a dictatorship. Thomas Barnett points to several other interesting China related articles today and rightly deals with them.
• April Fools Day: usually a lame attempt by the otherwise dull to appear clever and fun. But Tim Worstall points to some of the better gags over the years...
• It makes you wonder. China's Foreign Minister visited Nepals' King Gyanendra and declared his recent actions an "internal matter". This is the kind of tortured position the "internal matter" of Taiwan forces China into.
• New HK Blog, I think: Madonnalisa.