China's Reproach

About once a year China publishes a scaling diatribe against America's putative human rights double standards in its response to America's own reports about China's human rights abuses. On the one hand they are extremely hilarious because of the vituperative-verging-on-jingoistic language, on the other hand they offer a candid view of some of the social ills that America itself is facing. This one is a bit old, but nevertheless a good example.

Some Telling Stats

From MoJo:

In 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires, a 62% increase since 2002.

Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any one time has steadily risen. Now 13% of all Americans—37 million—are officially poor.

Only 3% of students at the top 146 colleges come from families in the bottom income quartile; only 10% come from the bottom half.

Since 1983, college tuition has risen 115%. The maximum Pell Grant for low- and moderate-income college students has risen only 19%.

Bush's tax cuts give a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722—or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids.

Bush’s tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those earning $1 million are saved $42,700.

Chinese Freshwater Dolphin now "Functionally Extinct"

Photo from NY Times
A sad day indeed. The baiji, a white, freshwater dolphin living in the Yangtze's sandy shallows for 20 million years is "functionally extinct". The last count conducted in 1997 found 13, now, according to a recent search conducted, the number is zero. It happens to be the first species of the Order of Cetaceans (including the sperm whale and bottlenose dolphin) to be erased in its natural environment. Read the article here.

What A Week

This week was quite eventful for many reasons, not the least of which was Mao's grandson (Mao Xingyu) almost came to my house!! I know, I know, almost only counts with horseshoes and hand-grenades but hey, it's true! And instead they ended up filming a documentary about my life and work in Beijing! Why me? Who the hell knows. Maybe cause they had nothing else interesting to shoot? It will be aired in China sometime within the next six months, I am assuming. Yes, my boss has mad connections, and threw me into the flames when he said, "Justin, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce is coming in at 3 p.m. tomorrow for an interview with Guangdong Television. I want you to translate." UMMM, "Yes, sir. But I warn you that I may make an ass out of both myself and the president of AmCham, sir." Him: "Just go with the flow." Well, I thought, whatever flow I go with will probably resonate with the tsunami that just hit southeast asia. Anyhow, that was also canceled, but not after I spent half the night before trying to memorize words like integrated circuit, auto manufacturing industry, FDI, $150 billion trade surplus/deficit, and other fun ones. Hew!

On a sidenote, looks like I won't be posting regularly for a while (not that I ever did anyway!) since I am finding myself inordinately busy since taking on some fun and challenging volunteer work on the nights and weekends, part of which entails writing and editing grant proposals. Maybe too much but life is too short. I would love to write more but can't. It's funny though how paranoia works! I can't even imagine how Stalin must have felt.

More on Metadata

Law firm to install metadata removal program
Woodland Hills, CA-based law firm Stone, Rosenblatt & Cha has signed up with UK-based 3BView in order to implement a new program called 3BClean. The program removes document metadata, ensuring secure exchange of critical business information and preventing confidential information leaks. Metadata is information about a document that has been stored by a computer after the user has deleted it. According to 3BView, 3BClean integrates directly into email systems "to provide rule-based transparent removal of sensitive information from email attachments" and can also integrate with intranet, content management, and document management systems. Although Stone, Rosenblatt & Cha is the first U.S. client for 3BView, a number of American law firms are expected to follow suit. --www.lawcrossing.com

Torrents

From Randall:

"Torrents are files that you can download and open with a certain torrent program. The .torrent file is basically an announcement, which helps computers connect directly to each other to share files. You download this very small announcement file (which helps the server save time and bandwidth), and the announcement file helps you connect directly to other computers. It's probably the fastest way to download things off the internet at the moment.

"I use a really small program to run .torrents, called uTorrent: http://www.utorrent.com/

"There are a few places where you can get .torrent files to download:

http://www.mininova.org/
http://thepiratebay.org/

"General common computer sense applies: make sure to virus scan *everything* you download, and be aware of the whole copyright issue. It's a less transparent program than Kazaa or Limewire or whatever (I think), but I'm sure if the music industry really wanted your ass, they could figure it out.

"So, if you want to try it out, download uTorrent, then download a .torrent file from one of the two sites I mentioned. Then just open the .torrent file with uTorrent, and away it goes."


That makes it clear enough! Thanks buddy!

Behind The Times

In the past few days I heard references to the words "Torrents" (actually BitTorrents) and "FTP" (File Transfer Protocol) and had no idea, none, nil, zilch about what the hell they were or meant. So I've done some Wikisearches and blog searches to find out a little bit more about these two, what I came out to find are, online services.

Torrents basically allow large files to be distributed and apparently are mostly used to file-share. For example, I can download (parts?) of Wenlin--a chinese language program--or even documentaries, shows, music, etc. for free using torrents.

FTP is a service that as far as I can tell allows one to transfer files (or to backup files) to an external server and share them with others if so desired. Apparently it is also used in designing or building webpages. I think some charge a fee, others don't depending on if your internet provider offers the service???

As you can see, I am still not too clear about all of their functions or uses. Anybody got some good info or tips they want to share about them?

Another service I am not familiar with is RSS feeds. I guess I am just too lazy to really go and check! Again, any tips would be great. And as I find out myself I will post more...Cheers!

Larger Than Life

Igor was up for the night on Wednesday and thanks to a rendezvous with a mutual friend who goes way back--Jack--we had a delightful evening. Funny thing is, Igor is one of the most modest men I've met and here is a perfect example of how.

After our reacquaintence with Jack, we proceeded to rather aimlessly amble the streets of Beijing, in search of nothing in particular, but as always finding the rioting comfort of each other's company. So about 11 p.m. and he gets a message on his cell phone, which read something like: "Igor, I admire your bravery and courage so much. You are great man!" And I said, who in the HELL is that? You get messages like that often lover boy? Of course, he demurred saying he hasn't told me, or anybody really, the story. What story?

Igor saved a young Chinese man's life last week. The guy jumped off a bridge intending to commit suicide and Igor happened to be taking a stroll along the river bank when he saw a body floating, and then sink into the water. There were other Chinese there watching this and Igor, without hesitation, threw off his bag and shoes and jumped in after him, blindly and desperately grasping under the brown, cold water, until finally he got hold of him. Luckily the man was close to the shore. By that time however the man was dead and Igor dragged him ashore immediately trying to resuscitate him using only what he has learned watching TV! Well it worked! and Igor said the most exhilarating moment, the most profound moment, was seeing life flow back like a jolt of electricity into the man's eyes.

Funny thing is, he didn't tell his parents, his friends, or anybody. His boss from Ukraine happened to be there that week, and with the press hounding Igor, he inevitably found out and sent flowers to Igor's parents. Anyhow, he was rewarded by the government, was on the news and headlines! And to top it off, after asking him questions like Why did you do it?! Why did you risk your life to save him?! he told the press (in Chinese): "I saw about five people next to the river, just watching, doing nothing. I thought it strange. Why didn't they jump in and save him? When it's life we're talking about, the choice is very simple. Even though I am a foreigner, I live in this city, I love this city, and I love the life and people here. It is my duty/responsibility." The next day the young man's parents brought Igor flowers and expressed their gratitude.




I found a great commentary on what Igor did on a Chinese blog. This is some of the best Chinese writing I've seen (which doesn't say much given my lack of experience). It is introspective, retrospective, well-expressed, and it is interesting because it offers a constructive criticism, which is rare: 国人缺少的恰恰就是这种朴素的生命伦理观，而今一位乌克兰小伙子用自己的勇敢行动和质朴的话语给国人上了一堂生命伦理课。(Chinese lack exactly this kind of plain moral outlook, and yet today a young Ukranian man courageously acted and offered simple and unadorned words, both to give the Chinese people a lesson in morality.)

Of course, that was never Igor's intention, he acted as he always does, with an uninhibited heart and mind.

Psiphon

Designed and invented in Canada, "Psiphon is a human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies [in Toronto] that allows citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor."

Here's how it works:

"Psiphon works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor Internet content to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does -- China, for example.

"The Canadian user would then pass on the information to the Chinese user, who would log on to the Canadian's computer and effectively use it as a server to browse the Internet without being censored by the Chinese government." --CNN article

If you are interested in trying it, you can download it here

A response to Peiking Duck's mention of Psiphon asked a good question:

"This may or may not be related information, but the SSH tunnel that I've been using over the past six months or so is no longer functioning. Well, not functioning isn't quite the right wording... I can still visit all the same sites I'd be able to visit when not using the tunnel, but Technorati, Wikipedia, and the BBC News (all previously accessible) or now consistent timeouts. If this is the work of our loving Cyber Nanny, I don't see what would stop them from disrupting Psiphon." Posted by: michael

Guess we'll have to see....

To be fat or not to be fat, and where

An article in the NY Times came out on the effects of obesity in the U.S., statistically proving it stifles professional and thus economic mobility, creates much higher living expenses (i.e. insurance premiums, health costs, etc.), and leads to marriage discrimination. Weight discrimination is stronger than racial discrimination they argue. And it's stronger against overweight caucasian than overweight caucasian men, whereas there is less against heavier black women, that caucasians are more accepting of heavier black women whereas blacks in general are more accepting of overweight people in general.

More interestingly, it points out that the upper classes in America are significantly less overweight, are thinner than the lower classes, live longer, and are in better health. That brings up the chicken-egg question they point out: what stifled mobility, weight or class?

Anyhow, in China I would argue it is the opposite to some extent. At least amongst men, the richer, the more overweight, and the poorer the thinner. In fact, to be overweight is perhaps even a status symbol. The more money you have, the easier to get married and find a spouse. I don't know about career potential though. That's quite fascinating to think about actually. Why the hell is it that poorer Americans are so much more obese? It's usually thought that as one becomes wealthier, they can enjoy more luxurious food, eat more lavishly, and thus gain weight, which seems to be the case in China. Why is it the opposite in America?

An Unappetizing Article

Just read an op-ed by a Stanford professor in the NY Times about cigarettes containing polonium, a radioactive substance (the same radioactive substance that has been tenuously linked to that Russian spy's death in Britain). As a cigarette smoker, this is indeed unsettling, especially in Beijing, one of the world's most polluted cities. In fact, just last Tuesday I read that the air in Beijing reached "hazardous" levels, the worst it can get. I remember that day clearly (or rather not so clearly) too. I looked out of the window of our office and could barely see the building across the street! Literally dense, dirt-brown air. Definitely the worst I've ever seen it.

Cancer is a big killer worldwide and China is no exception. I swear, each Chinese I've befriended has told me at least one story about a nuclear relative getting cancer. Not a surprise to me since I've long suspected (and I may be wrong) that exposure to carcinogens in this country is especially high. Not only from the air and water but from the food and clothing. YES! Clothing! Dies run like the godam Nile out of cheap clothes and the chemicals in the dyes are absorbed by the skin. Also, how the hell can a bellpepper stay glossy-fresh in my fridge for two weeks? It looks like they have a thin, shiny wax-like lining on them (which actually might be a kind of wax to prevent insects from digging in--this is done to apples in fact). And god only knows what the hell are in cigarettes here, especially fake ones ("the World Health Organization estimates that 10 million people will be dying annually from cigarettes by the year 2020 — a third of these in China"). I heard that wood shavings were found in some cigarettes and I've also heard that processed meats (those that are enclosed in individual airtight packages, for immediate consumption, that look like individually packaged hotdogs, but much pinker) have been found to contain plastic in them! Could just be hearsay, I know, but I have my suspicions, especially after a huge milk company, about a year and a half ago, was shut down because there were exorbitant amounts of some hormone or something in the milk.

As I argued earlier, environmental standards are a bit lax here and I wonder with how much impunity processed-goods makers, and others, take advantage of this.