Global Voices Online

Lawyer and blogger raymiyatake expresses his doubts [ja] over the election of Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano as director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). First, he says, Amano was supported by only 23 nations out of 35. Second, he points out the difficult situation that the Agency is dealing with, at present, and the “unfairness” of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which should be applied also to the five members already recognized as possessing nuclear power. Lastly, he suggests that instead of promoting a “pacific use” of nuclear energy, this should be replaced with clean energy sources (such as the geothermal or the aeolian ones).

This year is Mobile Suit Gundam's 30th birthday.
While a giant statue of the robot stands in Odaiba's park (in the Tokyo bay area), in a theatre of northern Tokyo, blogger/actress Rie Takahashi [ja] and her crew pay tribute to the animated television series in stage play Robot.

Bernard Leong observes that Facebook is almost the dominant social networking platform in Southeast Asia. It has overtaken Friendster in Malaysia and is getting more members in other countries in the region.

Rajan Rishyakaran has written an article critiquing the Malaysian university admissions process.

Mongkol visited the National Museum and was able to view the recently donated rare Angkorian gold and jewelry which have never been seen before in Cambodia.

Matt Holland at Feedbackward on Aokigahara, and Meaningful Suicide in Japan - “The ubiquitous and accessible nature of trains in Japan make them a logical and effective choice for those attempting suicide, but it is Aokigahara, the forest situated at the base of iconic Mount Fuji that hosts the most suicides of any location in Japan, and is second in the world only to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.”

ESWN has a review on the newspapers coverage of this year July 1 rally.

Netizens from cat898 started spoofing the collapsed Shanghai building with PS photos.

Sam Verran from China Elections and Governance translated a blog post written by a Shishou official reflecting on the local government's “mistake” in handling the investigation and riot.