Here, for my friends who are not now in China, or haven't seen it before: A quickie tour of my weekday neighborhood, one of Shenzhen's busier districts. If you're already in China, it's not too enlightening, except you may notice I have a foreign accent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuaFFtRh31w

(unable to imbed the tubies from this terminal)

Little Wang Lei tumbled as she ran across the mat for the Women's Freestyle Gymnastics gold medal. After her crowd stunning victory she said "bleeeebbbb, bliffle, thhhbbbb, blllbbb brrrraaaahhhh waaaaahhhh snorffle ma." With the Chinese national anthem blaring in the background, a strong less than pleasant fragrance seemed to emanate from her red and gold training suit as she accepted her gold medal and floral bouquet on the center pedestal of the awards platform . Famed gymnastics coach Bela Karoli, noted that Wang seemed rather short for her age, and questioned whether she is at least the minimum age of sixteen years. "She is two feet seven inches tall, weighs 16 Kilos and only has eight teeth fercryinoutloud" Karoli said.

Acknowledging that she was rather small for her stated age, Chinese Olympic team officials produced Wang Lei's passport proving that he was born on November 19, 1991. Following the medal awards ceremony, The Chinese Olympic Organizing Committee issued a press release that emphatically stated "previous reports that Wang Lei was born November 19, 2006 were erroneous. We consider the matter settled. This is about sports competition and not China's internal matters, so there is no need to discuss Wang Lei's age any further."

"Since these are China's first Olympic games as host country, we have no choice but to accept her passport as proof that Wang Lei is over sixteen and thus eligible to compete," said a top IOC official who, fearing international ridicule, wished to remain anonymous

This is George, with all the news that really sucks.

For some of us living in China, the "little emperor" syndrome is maddening. Not hard to understand from our backgrounds, but then they don't come from our backgrounds. Here's a very thoughful article, showing some of the very reasonable reasons for the phenomenon, and also some of the pressures and costs.

The shift in temperament has happened too fast for society to handle. China is still a developing nation with limited opportunity, leaving millions of ambitious little emperors out in the cold; the country now churns out more than 4 million university graduates yearly, but only 1.6 million new college-level jobs. Even the strivers end up as security guards. China may be the world's next great superpower, but it's facing a looming crisis as millions of overpressurized, hypereducated only children come of age in a nation that can't fulfill their expectations.

This culture of pressure and frustration has sparked a mental-health crisis for young Chinese. Many simmer in depression or unemployment, unwilling to take jobs they consider beneath them. Millions, afraid to face the real world, escape into video games, which the government considers a national epidemic. And a disturbing number decide to end it all; suicide is now China's leading cause of death for those aged 20 to 35. "People in China—especially parents and college students—are suddenly becoming aware of huge depression and anxiety problems in young people," says Yu Zeng, a 23-year-old from Sichuan province. "The media report on new campus suicides all the time."

"In this generation, every child is raised to be at the top," says Vanessa Fong, a Harvard education professor and author of Only Hope: Coming of Age under China's One-Child Policy. "They've worked hard for it, and it's what their parents have focused their lives on. But the problem is that the country can't provide the lifestyle they feel they deserve. Only a few will get it." China's accomplished young elites are celebrated on billboards as the vanguard of the nation, yet they're quickly becoming victims of their own lofty expectations.

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I love road biking, when you can pedal down a smooth, paved road with little interruption. In fact, on the road or not, I'd rather cycle to wherever I'm going if possible. Unfortunately, in China and many other places, the option of a smooth, safe road isn't always available. Sometimes you need to hop in a bus, or subway, or go up an elevator somewhere along the way. This is very difficult with a full-size bike in tow, but clever designers have come up with a few good solutions.

This is one of Dahon's folding models. It's got 8 gears in a decent spread, a smallish rear rack, fenders and 20-inch wheels. Inside that long seat tube, there is also a very nice built-in tire pump. To fold it down to hand-carry size, you first collapse the seat tube and fold down the handlebar assembly. This takes 10-20 seconds.

The seat should go down a little further than in the photo, but I didn't want to undo the taillight for the photo. The next step in folding it up is merely to release the lock on the big middle hinge and swing around the front part until it meets the magnet latch in the rear. There's your package to haul onto the subway or into the taxi:

I like it just fine. It's not the ride of a full-size road bike: the small wheels are a little skittery. But the 1 1/2 inch tires absorb road shock without much rolling resistance, the gearing makes it relatively easy to ride fast, or climb hills. My colleague Dave makes rather long loaded tours on his, but I use mine mainly for scooting to work and back. I've thrown it into a taxi and hauled it onto the bus when I need to have it in other places. Yes, people stare a bit, but often it's in admiriation. I've gotten several comments on what a good idea it is.

Note: In other posts you may see an "I" who doesn't like bikes. There is more than one person writing on this blog, and agreement is not required.

From The Australian:

August 12, 2008

A GIANT inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a window before it landed again.

The art work, titled Complex Shit, is the size of a house.

The wind carried it 200m from the Paul Klee Centre in Berne before it fell back to Earth in the grounds of a children's home, said museum director Juri Steiner.

The inflatable turd broke the window at the children's home when it blew away on the night of July 31, Mr Steiner said.

The art work has a safety system which normally makes it deflate when there is a storm, but this did not work when it blew away.

Mr Steiner said McCarthy had not yet been contacted and the museum was not sure if Complex Shit would be put back on display.

Thanks Tim Blair

Link: http://misterjam.com/

It occurred to me, there's no shortage of fresh water in the world, it's just unevenly distributed, as people are.

So if the spouting from my roof was connected to BJ, there'd be plenty of water in BJ. Of course it'd need a lot pipes to water another golf course . . . or they could just call it the South-North Water Project, as they in fact did.

I wonder how much fresh water is dumped in the oceans, unused, so to speak? I must see how much NZ doesn't use....except to generate power to run an aluminium smelter.

I see a spot to link to URL, which has nuttin to do with water, but he's a funny guy

DaveZu

Not a good week for John McCain; first he gets an huge backfire over his ad where he compares Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton (see Paris' response here).

Then some punks put an Obama bumper sticker on his bus. (link to Political Irony)

Then, to make things even worse, the 'Straight Talk Express" hits a car in Miami. (link to Veridoo) If the Obama sticker was still on the bus the story doesn't tell.

Barack Obama himself has gone on holiday to Hawaii.

I did write this once but I can't . . . so, in February I flew to Xining, 2 hours west of Beijing, and back a week later. Coming back was brill blue sky, the loop of the Huang Ho, brill white clouds, then the pilot announced descent and the horizon announced Beijing. The brill blue sky turned to coffee, weak milky coffee and the clouds disappeared. BJ was invisible under coffee gateau from 6000 metres up and 15 minutes out.
And then I walked out of the airport and got into a taxi and drove off . . .under a blue sky. Amazing. A Beijing blue sky with Chinese characteristics, these being I don't need sunglasses in China, and my tan has faded to a hideous white color. I look English, sick, anaemic. Of course yes part of that is being a teacher and spending hours indoors and I did change color by one tone in June 08. But the girlies still use umbrellas to stop getting anything like Vitamin D. Only peasants have a tan, in Beijing. Only peasants could ever get a tan, in Beijing.

So my conclusion is, there's blue skies New Zealand and there's blue skies Beijing. And there seems little industry around Bj, so I suspect 3million cars have somethng to do with it.

DaveZu

Yeah there is a seafood diet. But the seefood diet is better for you.

If you see some food and you think, I gotta get that, or you're pondering the nature of Chinese girl's universe and you suddenly get an image of sardines, it's intuition and not your left and right hemis making a logical conclusion. It's your SFD, SeeFooddietDepartment sending you a reminder, like your tax guy does.

If you ate lots of strange food earlier in your life, cos your Ma was a vegetarian or your family moved to Siberia, or you went to Boy Scout camps and/or you hitched to Yugoslavia, your SFD has a library of which stuff contains what you need, based on what you've eaten and what goodies each food contained, since you were weaned.

So when you suddenly want to eat marzipan as sandwich filling, it's cos you went to Auntie May's wedding in 1959 and were given a slice of wedding cake. Never mind you thought the icing was disgusting, your SFD analyzed it and now, when you need a top up of Essential Fatty Acid 4B/2, you have a sudden flash of inspiration. Go with it. Your body needs you!

Eat what you want and you stay healthy. Of course the eternal warning is to eat all that in moderation, cos if you way exceed the daily limit of sardines and marzipan sammies (even as separate food items) you're gonna balloon up to 160kgs and that's not good. You'll have to buy a new belt.

An Aside - I found out why I'm not in jail! It's amazing what you learn on TV. If your mother eats a lot of fish during her pregnancy, you end up more social and well adjusted and less likely to commit crimes. The program went on to extol the virtues of fish for some Omega 3 oil and some guy moaned about his teen dau who wouldn't eat fish. The prog briefly mentioned soy and walnuts and evenly briefier mentioned half a billion Indians who don't eat fish and 1 billion Chinese ditto (oily fish for 0m3) but didn't extend the logic of eating soy or linseed bread. A pity. Lots of dramatic music and images of walnuts, or brains, but biased brief content. A Women's Mag in AV format?

And now the medical version of the SFD.. . .

The, err, talented heiress to the Hilton Empire, Paris, has had a few video releases on her name but now she has released one that is funny and safe for kids. After being used by John McCain in an anti Obama ad she strikes back.

The organisation which does not exist, Anonymous, seems to be a victim of it's own success. Or so does the latest video suggest.

In a YouTube video from the 'group' the Chan reading folks are claiming that they have been letting in too many people from outside their own crowd with the result that they have been the target of criticism themselves.

The video calls upon the Anons to retake Project Chanology and to stop making allies for the sake of having them.

It also warns the leaders of Scientology that their card is marked and that the attacks will continue with "more subtle and shocking tactics".

And all of that planned for 08/08/08 of course.

Full Text Of Message:

Read more »

That means bullet proof bra and it is what the German police will be wearing. The female police officers only. I think.

The Guardian reports:

"The new underwear was developed as a second barrier of defence after normal bras were found to cause injuries while on duty.

The officers' bullet-proof vests, while stopping the force of gunshots in an attack, pushed the plastic and metal parts of their underwear into their flesh, causing injury. "

Sounds painful.

The new wonder bras have been properly tested during "Action Brassiere" organised by police officer Carmen Kibat from Hamburg who said: "These can save someone's life so it's not a laughing matter."

So far there are no pictures of the bra yet but they are described as "emblazoned with the word "police" and made from cotton, polyester, elastic and some other synthetic materials, thickly padded and with no metal or plastic studs or fasteners"

Ooh, get in on this one early: Family man, community volunteer driven to suicide by relentless innuendo and investigation? Or nefarious developer who stood to gain from anthrax panic? Six years of complete cooperation with the investigating authorities, but a history of homicidal threats? This one promises to be as big as the Kennedy assassination, unless a smoking gun shows up.

I'm actually anxious to see what details emerge. This was the scare that really cemented the "climate of fear" in the US after the Twin Towers attack, but there's never been a good suspect or hard evidence show up.

And don't forget, there's already been an exonerated (and well-compensated) suspect through the mill. Dr. Steven Hatfill.

For you, half price.

Governor Paterson of New York is thinking the unthinkable; in order to raise cash he wants to sell off roads, bridges, tunnels and other state assets. Budget issues and all that.

So...that would mean that the famous Brooklyn Bridge would finally be for sale? And this time for real?

I wonder how much he would want for it.

I hate cyclists, you hate cyclists, everybody hates cyclists. But this police officer from New York really takes the biscuit. He body checked, ice-hockey style, a cyclists participating in "Critical Mass". Unfortunately for him somebody filmed it and uploaded it to YouTube.

The officer is reported to be stripped of his gun and badge and is placed on desk duty while the investigation regarding his conduct continues. The cyclist, named Christopher Long, was charged with blocking traffic, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and assault, according to prosecutors.

Don't see much of that in the video:

Link to the story on CNet