Kind of stupid, but fun. Sort of. The Bear takes on Georgia.
Part 1…
Part 2…
Part 3…
Remember Qianmen?
Here is sign at the entrance to the street:
See if you can find no skating, no juggling and no puking!
From my friend Pavel Milovanov blogged this neat post on his blog Musing Among The Vegetables:
Inter's Multiethnic Ukraine
Here's a hint of what's waiting for you:
Here's a question: just who are NGO's accountable to?
In theory only to their donor organizations, but, if an NGO's donor organizations are governments (as they often are ) then the NGO would be bound by freedom of information legislation of the donor governments.
But still, NGOs who promote transparency would look pretty foolish if if turned out they operate more opaquely than governments they are promoting transparency too, wouldn't they? You would think they would be bending over backwards showing your their books…
Well, that's theory. The reality is that red tape can spin a pretty secure (and opaque!) cocoon.
Here are two investigative pieces by Till Bruckner on Aidwatch:
From The Register:
People Have No Bloody Idea About Saving Energy: Those Keenest To Be Green Are Most Ignorant
People who make an effort to be eco-friendly - for instance by recycling glass bottles, turning off lights and unplugging cellphone chargers - have no idea what they're on about, according to a new survey. Those who don't bother are more likely to know what actually saves energy and what doesn't.
Really want to be eco-friendly (or whatever adjective is in vogue this week)? Just do this: Don't buy a car. Don't have kids.
Recycling is a waste of time. It's that simple.
I called apple again to confirm the new shipping address for the replacement iMac.
The person on the phone reviewed my file and unilaterally decided that I'd had to call in too often to deal with a problem that was Apple's fault. She apologized and said she was crediting my account for $150 as compensation.
You gotta love Apple.
My iMac arrived busted.
The tension on the tilting platform was set too low so the mac drops about a cm on most positions before coming to a stop. It was maddening even before I went to the Apple store and saw that that is NOT the way it's supposed to be.
The last two days I've been in cotton candy hell dealing with obnoxious, paid-to-be-friendly-and-sympathetic apple employees (after waiting 20 min on line each time to talk to them). All I was trying to do was get them to answer the simplest of questions, ones that an average village idiot in a real country could understand (as apposed to the North America, where everyone is so abstracted from real work that they've only seen pictures of screwdrivers).
How many different ways can you say "Is the tension user adjustable?" before you start screaming?
I think apple is run by at most ten Americans that are irreplaceable, about 3000 Chinese people which are important (and work their asses off making the best stuff the world has yet seen). The rest are gobs of morons like I talked to on the phone.
What pisses me off is how little these morons seem to grasp what a great company they work for and how defiling it is when they're professional conduct isn't as good as the finder.
Anyway, the iMac is going back, and they're sending me a new one. That was always an option, and I had to fight with them to not do it by default. I kept asking if it didn't bug them that this computer would be shipped hundreds, if not thousands of miles, and then sold at a loss by Apple, just to have one bold tightened.
Their response: "What's an iBolt?"
And I would try to explain to them: "Well, it's friction that keeps the iMac from falling, right... So there has to be a tension mechanism.... So there has to be.... HEY, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO ME!? You know, I'm going through this for your benefit you know... I HEAR YOU TYPING WHEN I'M TALKING!!! blah, blah, blah"
And they were like: "I am paying attention sir, I'm just getting your RMA number at the same time."
And I was like: "No. Stop. Stop what your doing. Cup the phone with your shoulder... never mind, you probably have a headset.... Never mind what a headset is... I want you to sit on your hands. Are you sitting on your hands now? OK, listen to me, I'll start from the beginning... blah blah blah"
And so on.
I considered accidentally not including the keyboard and mouse on the grounds that it would be laughingly minimal compensation and retribution for what I went through (any company as stupid as Apple surely would either not notice or would be more concerned about customer relations than, say, theft) but I just couldn't bring myself too.
Apple is just too cool to steal from.
How is it that Canada and The U.S. – both immigrant countries founded and populated from people all over the world seem to be insular places famous for people who seem to know so little (and care equally little) about world?
In Canada we have a policy of multiculturalism but for some reason, I'm uncomfortable with it, though I have trouble articulating why. It seems to me, as well intentioned as it is, it's effect is to make second class citizens out of hyphenated Canadians.
I confess that I don't know anything about Elif Shafak beyond what she presents in this short talk, but I am intrigued.
The last month or so of my China trip was spent traveling around rather than staying in on place and studying Chinese so I didn't get a chance to post much. I'm back in Canada now and I've come home to dozens of small problems to deal with.
I hope in a while to write some catch up posts.
Yes, I'm still alive. Believe it or not, just because I'm not posting doesn't mean I'm dead.
It's just that I'm doing some real traveling (instead of just staying in one city and studying) and I just can't be bothered to post all the time.
But here's an update for you: I went back to Beijing, got tired of the crowds and cars, went back to Shanghai, got tired of the obnoxious Shanghaiese, went to Suzhou and I'm now tired of heat and humidity.
Suzhou is one of the prettiest cities I've ever been too. The downtown core is full of tiny canals cobblestone streets, stone bridges and NO CARS (the streets are to narrow for cars and the canals, well, they've got water in them).
Take a look, here is the Wikipedia article on Suzhou.
So I'm going back to Beijing. I'm just too tired to go somewhere I've not been before and figure things out from scratch. Besides, I know this cute computer programmer in Beijing who promised to have coffee with me if I go back.
And Beijing is not quite all the way across this not exactly small country.
And since I made this decision (just like all my travel decisions) on the spur of the moment, I don't have a seat or bunk. I have to stand the whole way.
What the hell, it's only 14 hours of unbearable heat and misery, all for one coffee.
Good plans go wrong. The beauty of bad plans is nothing really can go wrong.
On other news: I have finished one Chinese textbook, and have done 15 chapters from another. This is in addition to the courses I was taking. Whatever else, nobody get's to call me lazy.
Finally, I decided to buy a bike and get back into cycling. Anybody who knows me knows I hate regular bicycles. I think normal bikes are pretty badly designed with too much tradition, to much fussing over pointless details, too much marketing and too little real engineering.
I'm through with long distance riding though (I used to do 200K rides pretty regularly, 100K was my regular Sunday ride and 50K was my regular after work ride). This time I want a city bike so I don't have to walk everywhere.
I got my choices narrowed down to two: The 2008 Dahon Curve SL and the The 2010 Rans Fusion ST.
The Dahon is tiny, foldable, carry up to my cubicle-able, and of course cute, but probably a pain to ride for more than 10K. The Rans is probably a dream to ride, but big and unwieldy.
To hell with it, I'm tired of being cheap. I might get both!
Also, I'm going to get a the 27" iMac and throw my TV in the garbage.
Finally, I'm going to get some goldfish. I don't want an aquarium, I want to put a tiny goldfish pond in my apartment. I know, it sounds stupid and tacky. Trust me, it won't be.
The whole thought of going back to work is just plain revolting, but since it's unavoidable, I just want to get it over with.
Seriously, anyone with comments about the bikes, let me know...
