Oil Spill Threaten China’s Coasts

According to uncle Chicom, oil spills are a problem for China. It should come as no surprise. If they cannot make milk without fouling it up, what hope is for them to build pipelines… excerpt “Beijing – Oil spills are posing an increasing threat to China’s marine environment as the country’s energy demand grows, a leading environmental think tank warned on Thursday. A report released by the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development said the volume of China’s oil transported by sea now ranked third in the world following the United States and Japan, and its oil handling capacity is growing by more than 10 million tons every year, making China’s oceans a potential site for marine incidents and oil spills. The expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration is also increasing the risk, the report warned. It said from 1973 to 2006, about 2,635 oil spills happened at sea in China, with more than 37,000 tons of oil spilled.The Yangtze River, Pearl River, Taiwan Straits and Bohai Bay are the areas at greatest risk for oil spills, it said. The Bohai Sea, which has the highest concentration of ports in China, is the national strategic petroleum reserve and has the largest offshore oilfield in the country. A total of 178 offshore oil platforms and 1,419 marine oil wells have been built in the sea, and their oil capacity is expected to reach 210 million tons by 2020, the report said. “

China is Climing The Charts- Now Global Leader in Diabetes

BEIJING – China has the highest number of diabetics in the world with an estimated 92.4 million sufferers, 61 percent of whom have yet to be diagnosed, experts warned on Sunday.

Uncle Chicom Dont Be Mean

I am a full grown adult, but feel like a child. Why you ask? Because I am sitting here and cannot access my favorite blog. I am on wordpress, hers in on wordpress, I can access the homepage of wordpress but I cannot access her blog nor my own. It is soooo maddening. It reminds me of the 5th grade when I was told that in the 6th grad I would not be in the same class as my best friend as we were not good for each other, and we disturbed the others. When I was in the 5th grade I thought that their logic sucked. The way i saw it, we’re all endowed with some semblance of a brain and if someone’s brain isnt strong enough to block out the signals it didnt want to hear, then Darwinism is losing its competitive edge and its time to ‘thin the herd’. My mindset has not changed much since then… (did I just say that?) What I mean to say is that my belief structure still supports that hypothesis, but alas this is where uncle chicom (my new name for the wonderful benevolent ruling party of china) diverge. My loving uncle believes that he knows much better than we the common folk , about what is good for us and thus is obviously blocking our access to sites that he feels are not good for us, or maybe they hurt his feelings or make him go yikes. I guess I can understand his arcane logic but had hoped that mankind had progressed since 3000 BC, but I guess I may be wrong.

Unpublished Comments

Here are two comments that didnt get published and I cannot access the screen to do so, so I apologize. Also I have a terrible feeling that I may have missed a few comments so I will try to dig them out and post them. Thanks for the comments … here is from Yasmyn on the post about friends. Actually I think it really is a cultural thing. I’ve been in Taiwan for about 8 years now and the definition of “friend” is definitely very broad here. You can meet someone for the first time and then you’ll be known as their friend. And i noticed that they won’t contact you a lot but when they do contact you and need your help or to fulfill some other “purpose,” AND you don’t help them then you’re a “bad friend.” I’ve gotten in many arguments with so-called friends here. They want people to call their friends but they don’t want to put in a general effort to maintain the friendship. They don’t want to discuss private things that you assume you can talk to a friend about. Even if I share things about myself, 50% of the time I’ll get nothing in return. It’s kind of hard to get used to if you’ve grown up in a western society, which I did. i can’t say all taiwanese are like this but it’s definitely a majority societal thing that I honestly still have not entirely gotten used to. don’t want to accept it either because then i’ll have become one of “them.” by the way, here is something from the owner of the blog http://www.puddingandchopsticks.com/ regarding my post about batteries… (btw his post about trying to pick up a woman at the local store is pretty spot on) his reply Yep that’s right. It’s not the shop owners fault you didn’t check to see if they didn’t work. I also like the fact that if you order something on Taobao you better darn well make sure it is correct, not broken and any other problem before you tell the shipping guy you’ll sign. After you do it’s all on you. Yeah well I know I sent you the wrong thing but you didn’t check before you signed. Not my fault that I swindled you. Ah the China life. and lastly the author of weatheringthejourney made the comment that much of what I say may seem to fantastic or unbelievable to the folks back home and as usual, I agree with her.

Chinese Acupuncture

My back was killing me today, literally I could barely walk so I went to a Chinese ‘specialist’,,,, while there I learned two things. !-Chinese acupuncture doctors rock 2-I am a freaking wimp explanation 1- I walked in to the ‘clinic’ not knowing what to expect. I wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen chicken blood on the walls, and figurines and such. But it didnt happen. the place was actually cleaner than the hospital i went to. It had a cool air about it, the people were sincere and friendly. A friend had recommended the place for me, so I am sure out of giving face to the foreigner, they made sure I got the best treatment and I really did. The doctor was professional and really did a thorough check up. He then asked about xrays and mris and I said ‘na’. So he proceeded with three things. First he did a massage and I guess he is a teacher at this place but it was exceptional. Secondly he did the acupuncture thing- my first time, and lastly that bizarre thing they do with the cups and lighting a fire in them and then suctioning your skin( if you’ve never been here, this will make no sense.) Oh yeah, he did some of that chiropractor stuff where they twist your spine. But I dont know which part of the cocktail did it for me, but I am not kidding it was incredible. I am currently strutting around the house like nipsy russel on the flip wilson show—(wtf is that you may ask.. actually it has nothing to do with this post nor me. they both are black comedians and I am white but i just think the name nipsy russel is so funny and the flip wilson show was on back in the days of dr. max, davey and goliath, laugh in and that one show with redd Foxx where he owned the junkyard.) Back to the facts. If you want the details send a message and i will post them but the acupuncture place was by yong hegong temple, right next to where you renew your visas. Now for pt 2, I am a wimp. point 2, I am a snithering wimp. My whole life i played sports, did some jiu jitsu in Brazil and considered myself a macho man. I always thought if it came down to it I was ready for action. Put me in a jail cell and threaten to torture me for State secrets and I’d laugh while you jerk out my biscupids with stale pliers.. thats what i thought. I am a wimp.. In order to do the acupuncture I had to take off my jeans and lie down on the bed face first. In the room there were three people speaking in hushed tones. I hear the clinking of class, antiseptic i hoped to sterilize the needles. But then came the waiting, i knew about the acupuncture but nothing else. i asked the guy if it would hurt and he says ‘yeah a little’. i had no idea where they’d stick the needles nor the extent of the pain. i’d seen photos of Japanese guys with zillions of those little spikes in their backs and my mind wandered. Then the guy rubbed some ointment on my skin and some powder, or maybe he sneezed. But my body was like —wtf? I got kind of nervous, I felt pretty exposed an vulnerable, me lying there in my briefs and all these doctors milling about an I have no idea what they are up to. Then the guy stabs me with a needle and i practically scream like a hyena. It was all psychological but was really bizarre. Just the idea of being in a place with no idea of what is happening and no way to communicate was freaky. Right then I knew I was not the man I’d always thought i was. my mind wandered to this being the local office of uncle chicom and they begin to batter my kidneys with gloved fists and then heave large phone books at my head… None of that would be necessary for yours truly.. All it would take is for some foreigners to pad around in little sandals and say things i cant understand and wave sharp objects in front of my face and my mind will do the rest. From it all I guess you can say that my battered ego is now supported by a happier spine. ps. seriously if anyone needs the contact send me a message, I’ll make a post of the info and maybe you can get a discount. pps. Oh yeah, the whole thing took maybe 1.5 hours and cost 140 RMB with discount or 20U$ and worth every jaio.

Produce Stand in China

I think this photo captures the spirit of the street vendors in China. You as the viewer can build a story around this photo…

Street Scene in China

This is what the China at night, experience is like.