An article form the Economist: The new waterway is part of the biggest water-diversion scheme in the world: the second arm of what is known as the South-North Water Diversion Project. This is designed to solve an age-old imbalance. The north of China has only a fifth of the country’s naturally available fresh water but two-thirds of the farmland. The article goes into detail about the gross mismanagement of China’s water supply for industrial and agricultural uses, and how this canal is not really going to do much for the country as a whole, especially long-term. All you care about is that it won’t be skateable after October 31st, because that’s when the water starts flowing. – Thanks to Gene Sato for the tip.

Looks like they took over a basketball court, somewhere in Malaysia. As seen at the Skate Malaysia blog. Although it appears to be some sort of pay-to-play setup. Well, its open for public and its in Sungai Petani, Kedah. Pay RM10 for lifetime access. So that’s about 3 USD for a lifetime membership. The Interwebs tells me a domestic beer costs about the same.

Pursuitist.com profiles a house in Tokyo, Japan with a cement bowl of sorts that looks like it was added after the fact. I can appreciate the thought, but not so much the execution. – Thanks to Danimal for the tip.

My friend JeNny, [sic] a skateboarding “hip hop girl” circa 1999 from South Korea. Maybe it took a little longer for 90’s baggy jeans to make it to Korea. It’s only $19.99, but I don’t know about shipping it. The skateboard on the front of the box looks like a clown shoe. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Everyone in the Phillipines, at least. It’s the Mountain Dew skate bomb.

North Korea has it’s first skatepark, and boy does it look… fun? Apparently, red and blue tracksuits are mandatory. Enjoy the weird, depressing, and joyless “Wellness Center” video after the jump. [Source: Good] – Thanks to Mac for the tip.

U Mobile is a Malaysian telco and broadband company that was founded in 1998, so as a teenager you’d think they be a little hipper. – Thanks to Boy from SkateMalaysia.com for the tip.

Haroshi makes lots of cool sculptures out of used skateboards, including this forthcoming electric guitar collaboration with Deluxe and HUF. Pretty damned cool, although what does Deluxe need to be involved for, other than to provide pre-recycled skateboards? Maybe they are seconds. Rock on.

Not because it’s breaking news, but because I keep getting tips out the wazoo. It’s popular demand. I love these videos, one of the few where the soundscape is an important part of the video, an equal with the and the skating instead of just filling the run time with some rad skating. It’s a sequence with Gou Miyagi (2009 SLAP interview) from Daisuke Takahashi’s “Subspecies.” A little bit parkour heavy, but still good fun, no matter what Carl says.

We live in a world so extreme that, err… uh, different commercials for different.. planets I guess. It’s been a while since we’ve visited the car-as-skateboard theme, nay, archetype. Nope? Too soon. OK. – Thanks to… I can’t remember. I ‘ve been out of the loop for a while. Hit me up and I’ll add it.