Assignment: China - "The Week That Changed The World"

ichinaforum — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:51:00 +0800

Mike Chinoy

It’s been a while – SKAFFOLD Launches

SinoPeach — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:50:00 +0800

It’s been a long while between posts.

In the interim the following has happened:

- Gone through a public company’s voluntary administration and subsequent exit

- Started consulting more and bringing some up to date Infrastructure and Linux love to Australia

- Bought a house

- www.skaffold.com went live! Check it out.

I will get back into this now that things start to settle down. A bit to also talk about in China and most importantly now that I am in Australia. I am gaining a better understanding of China as I can compare and contrast. A whole new insight so to speak.

The Cultural Revolution Cookbook

Milan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:09:00 +0800

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. My son will be 16 months this week and while I usually am chasing him all over creation, he has been sick for the past few days. During a break from the crying and Motrin dispensing, I was able to read the Cultural Revolution cookbook.
Despite having lived in China, I never learned how to cook any authentic Chinese food. I like to cook, but for some reason I have always been intimidated to cook Chinese food, even though it's authentic dishes are usually simple to prepare. Maybe it was the time consuming Jiaozi assembly process that put me off a bit...anyway, I was very excited to see this book available. Not only is it a cookbook full of delicious recipes, author Sasha Gong includes her personal account about what it was like to grow up in China during the Cultural Revolution. The book is also full of other interesting bits about what was happening in China during the time, it's like a culinary history lesson.
Here's an excerpt from her NPR interview about the book:

Gong has lived in the U.S. since 1987, and she earned a Ph.D. from Harvard. But her childhood in China was a hard one. Ten years old at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Gong was sent to the countryside as punishment because her grandfather was accused of being a counter-revolutionary.

Gong and her family worked on farms, but the food all went to the government. Her family, like so many others, was left to fend for itself, and she learned to cook with whatever she could find.

In the cookbook, she shares the peasant recipes of that time and how food kept families together, despite a revolution that was pulling them apart. Seligman says the book is not meant as an apology for the Cultural Revolution.

"It was a horrible time. People starved, people died. A lot of people suffered. And that's not really the point of the book," he says. "This is a celebration of the people who triumphed though this horrible time when there wasn't enough food, and there wasn't freedom, and all those awful things were happening. But somehow they managed to make do with what they had."

When Gong sits down to these meals now, it reminds her of family ties. She remembers cooking many meals for her friends when she was a dissident in China, working in a factory.

"We put things together — whatever meager ration we [had]," she says. "There's something about humanity. It's hard to suppress."

One thing I quickly learned, while living in China, was the importance of sitting down and enjoying a meal. Chinese people gather over food and meals can last long into the night.

I'm looking forward to making some of these recipes myself and finding people to test them on.

Here's a recipe from the book that looks tasty. It was also included in the NPR interview.

Photo: Melissa Goh/NPR

Recipe: Braised Pork in Soy Sauce

Ingredients

1 lb. (450 g.) pork shoulder

1 large piece ginger, about 1 inch (2.5 cm.) on a side
1 Tbsp. (15 ml.) cooking oil
4 Tbsp. (50 g.) sugar
4 Tbsp. (60 ml.) soy sauce
1 cinnamon stick (1/2 tsp. or 5 g. powdered cinnamon may be substituted)
1/2 cup (120 ml.) rice wine (or any other wine)

This dish is traditionally made with pork belly, but it's hard to find in many supermarkets and it's far fattier than other cuts. There's enough fat in pork shoulder to give the dish a great taste, and still save a few calories and maybe a hardened artery.

Cut the pork shoulder into cubes, about one inch (2.5 cm.) on each side. Smash the ginger with the side of a cleaver; no need to peel it.

Heat a wok and add the oil. When it begins to smoke, add the ginger and then the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved completely, add the pork. Stir-fry the mixture until most of the liquid has evaporated, but not until it is completely dry. Then add the soy sauce, cinnamon and wine.

Mix well and then cover the wok tightly. Turn the heat down to medium and let simmer for 1/2 hour. Remove and serve.

The Chairman's Brain Food

Chairman Mao believed that the fat in Braised Pork in Soy Sauce had the capability to boost his brainpower. The dish is traditionally regarded as brain food in his native Hunan Province, and it was well-known as the Chairman's favorite. In fact, he insisted that his Hunanese chef cook it for him often, even during his years in Beijing and over the strenuous objection of his personal physicians.

Mao was especially fond of eating this dish before he went into combat — either physical or political — and believed he never lost a battle when well-fed on braised pork.

Return to the Peach Blossom Spring (Chapter 2)

Jason — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:42:00 +0800

When Jin passed through the long passage, he noticed that he could not see light from the village behind him when he turned his head back to look. A current seemed to propel his boat quickly through the tunnel, and he shot out the other side with a splash, finding himself in the ocean, with a rocky shore on one side and the wide, wide ocean to the other.

American Football is the most watched sport in America and growing!

haojies — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:26:00 +0800

According to Wikipedia:

...The Super Bowl has frequently been the most watched American television broadcast of the year. Super Bowl XLV played in 2011 became the most watched American television program in history, drawing an average audience of 111 million viewers and taking over the spot held by the previous year's Super Bowl, which itself had taken over the #1 spot held for twenty-eight years by the final episode of M*A*S*H. The Super Bowl is also among the most watched sporting events in the world, mostly due to North American audiences ... 2011's Super Bowl XLV holds the record for total number of U.S. viewers, attracting an average audience of 111 million viewers, making the game the most viewed television broadcast of any kind in U.S. history.

From The Nielson Company:

Prime-time television viewership numbers compiled by The Nielsen Co. for Dec. 26-Jan. 1. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership for the week. The Top 5 programs were:

"Sunday Night Football," NBC, 27.62 million viewers

"Sunday Night Football Kickoff Show," NBC, 21.23 million viewers

"Monday Night Football," ESPN, 15.64 million viewers

"60 Minutes," CBS, 14.45 million viewers

"Football Night in America", NBC, 14.44 million viewers

From Orange County News:

Prime-time NFL football draws its biggest audience in 15 years ... "Sunday Night Football" drew the largest audience in its six seasons on NBC.

From NFL Communications:

49ers-Ravens on Thursday Night Football most-watched game ever on NFL Network ... Ranks as Thanksgiving’s all-time No. 1 show on cable & tops 2010 NFLN Thanksgiving game by 50 percent.

Clearly not a game in decline, no matter what some Soccer elitists would like to claim (And I love soccer too!)

I LOVE The NFL PRO BOWL!

haojies — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:28:00 +0800

I love it! The best of the AFC vs. the best of the NFC. A forced 4-3 Defense (which I prefer to the 3-4 even though Green Bay runs it exclusively).

In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League (NFL). Since the merger with the rival American Football League (AFL) in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference (AFC) against those in the National Football Conference (NFC).

Unlike most other sports leagues, which hold their all-star games during (roughly) the halfway point of their respective regular seasons, the Pro Bowl is played at the end of the NFL season. The NFL's all-star game has a tattered image. It is the only major all-star game that draws lower ratings than its regular-season games. However, the biggest concern of teams is to avoid injuries to the star players.

The first "Pro All-Star Game," featuring the all-stars of the 1938 season (as well as three players from the Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Bulldogs, who were not members of the league), was played on January 15, 1939 at Los Angeles's Wrigley Field. The NFL All-Star Game was played again in Los Angeles in 1940 and then in New York and Philadelphia in 1941 and 1942 respectively, after which the game was suspended due to World War II. The concept of an all-star game would not be revived until 1951, when the newly rechristened Pro Bowl played at various venues before being held at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii for 30 consecutive seasons from 1980 to 2009. The 2010 Pro Bowl was played at Sun Life Stadium, the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins and host site of Super Bowl XLIV, on January 31, the first time ever that the Pro Bowl was held before the championship game, with the conference teams not including players from the teams that will be playing in the Super Bowl. The 2011 Pro Bowl was played again in Hawaii, but again held during the week before the Super Bowl. The 2012 game is also scheduled for Hawaii.

Currently, players are voted into the Pro Bowl by the coaches, the players themselves, and the fans. Each group's ballots count for one third of the votes. The fans vote online at the NFL's official website. There are also replacements that go to the game should any selected player be unable to play due to injuries. Prior to 1995, only the coaches and the players made Pro Bowl selections.

In order to be considered a Pro Bowler for a given year, a player must either have been one of the initial players selected to the team, or a player who accepts an invitation to the Pro Bowl as an alternate; invited alternates who decline to attend are not considered Pro Bowlers. Being a Pro Bowler is considered to be a mark of honor, and players who are accepted into the Pro Bowl are considered to be elite.

The Pro Bowl head coaches are traditionally the head coaches of the teams that lost in the AFC and NFC championship games for the same season of the Pro Bowl in question (not the case for the 1980 and 81 seasons played in 1981 and 1982). However, for the 2010 and 2011 Pro Bowls, a new rule was presented: The teams that lose in the divisional playoff game with the best regular-season record will have their coaching staffs lead their respective conference Pro Bowl team. If the losing teams of each conference had the same regular season record the coaches from the higher-seeded team will get the Pro Bowl honor. This was, presumably, to allow the coaches more time with the players while the Pro Bowl is held during the week before the Super Bowl, since the conference championship losers would only have one week to prepare as opposed to three weeks when the Pro Bowl was held the week after the Super Bowl.

The Pro Bowl has different rules from other NFL games to make the game safer.

No motion or shifting by the offense
Offense must have a tight end in all formations
Offense can’t have 3 receivers on a side
Intentional grounding is legal
Defense must run a 4-3 at all times
No press-type coverage except inside the 5 yard line
No blitz
Not allowed to rush a Punt, PAT or FG attempt
No calls can be challenged
Players can tweet to Twitter on the sidelines and locker room

The teams are made of players from different NFL teams, so using their own uniforms would be too confusing. The players each wear the helmet of their team, but the home jerseys and pants are either a solid blue for the NFC or solid red for the AFC, while white jerseys with blue or red accents, respectively, for the away team. While it has been speculated that the color of Pro Bowl jerseys is determined by the winner of the Super Bowl, this is untrue. The design of Pro Bowl uniforms is changed every two years, and the color and white jerseys are rotated along with the design change. This has been Pro Bowl tradition since the switch to team specific helmets, which started with the January 1979 game. The two-year switch was originally created as a marketing ploy by Nike, and has been continued by Reebok, who won the merchandising contract in 2002.

The early Pro Bowl, contested by the National Football League's Eastern and Western Division stars and played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, featured the same uniforms from the 1950s to mid-1960s; the Eastern team wore scarlet jerseys with white numerals and a white crescent shoulder stripe, white pants with red stripe, red socks, and a plain red helmet. The Western team wore white jerseys with royal-blue numerals and a Northwestern University-style triple stripe on the sleeves, white pants with blue stripe and socks and a plain blue helmet. Perhaps oddly, the Eastern team, wore home dark jerseys, although the host-city team, the Los Angeles Rams, were members of the Western Conference. From January 1967 to January 1970 both teams wore gold helmets with the NFL logo on the sides; the Eastern helmets featured a red-white-red tri-stripe and the Western a similar blue-white-blue tri-stripe. In fact the players brought their own game helmets to Los Angeles, which were then spray-painted and decorated for the contest. (For the 1970 game the helmets featured the 50 NFL logo, commemorating the league's half-century anniversary.)

In the earliest years of the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, the players did not wear their unique helmets, as they do now. The AFC All-Stars wore a solid red helmet with a white A on it, while the NFC players wore a solid white helmet with a blue N on it. The AFC's red helmets were paired with white jerseys and red pants, while the NFC's white helmets were paired with blue jerseys and white pants.

Two players with the same number who are elected to the Pro Bowl can now wear the same number for that game. This was not always the case in the past.

The 2008 Pro Bowl included a unique example of several players from the same team wearing the same number in a Pro Bowl. For the game, Washington Redskins players T Chris Samuels, TE Chris Cooley, and LS Ethan Albright all wore the number 21 (a number normally inappropriate for their positions) in memory of their teammate Sean Taylor who had been murdered during the 2007 season.

The Pro Bowl even has the best of the best cheerleaders cheering on the sides of the fields!

My AFC Team for 2012: The Miami Dolphins

haojies — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:27:00 +0800

I love the placement of the uniform stripe on the Miami Dolphins' uniforms. I think the future of the uniform stripe is right there at the end of the sleeve with the trend of sleeves getting shorter and shorter every year.

The Miami Dolphins just took the Green Bay Packers' Offensive Coordinator and made him their head coach. Matt Flynn will either be franchised by the NFC's Green Bay Packers and traded or become the hottest free agent in the NFL. Either way, logic says he goes to the AFC's Miami Dolphins.

The Dolphins already have a number 10, so the question is, will Matt Flynn take over #10 as a 'Fin, or will he change numbers?

Either way, Matt Flynn will join the ranks of my favorite non-Packers players in the NFL: Troy Polamalu and Rob Gronkowski. I just will have more love for the Miami Dolphins than either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the New England Patriots! Hey, we could maybe even have a Green Bay Packer vs. Miami Dolphins Super Bowl next year! I'd love it!

PIPA & SOPA: Response From Senator John Cornyn

haojies — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:42:00 +0800

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Stanosheck:

Thank you for contacting me about the PROTECT IP Act of 2011 (S. 968). I share your concerns regarding this legislation, and I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this important issue.

The PROTECT IP Act of 2011 was introduced in the Senate on May 26, 2011, in an effort to counter the increasing number of websites, often foreign, dedicated to selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals, pirated copies of movies, music and other stolen property. While I appreciate the intent of this legislation, and believe that Congress should exercise its constitutional authority to protect Americans' property rights online, I have concerns that certain provisions of the PROTECT IP Act could lead to unintended consequences, including breaches in cybersecurity, damage to the integrity of the Internet, burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights.

In response, on January 13, 2012, I along with several of my colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Majority Leader Harry Reid expressing our concern that the PROTECT IP Act was moving too quickly. We argued that it was necessary to hear from experts and build consensus before moving forward with this legislation. On January 20, 2012, Majority Leader Reid complied with our request and announced the indefinite postponement of scheduled votes on the PROTECT IP Act.

I appreciate having the opportunity to represent Texans in the United States Senate and you may be certain that I will oppose any legislation that will censor the Internet or otherwise infringe upon an individual’s First Amendment rights. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator
517 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-2934
Fax: (202) 228-2856
http://www.cornyn.senate.gov

PIPA & SOPA: Constituent Response From Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

haojies — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:58:00 +0800

Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (the PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA). The parallel, but not identical, legislation in the House of Representatives is H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). I welcome your thoughts and comments.

I did not cosponsor this legislation. By letter, e-mail, and telephone call, thousands of constituents like you have highlighted the potential pitfalls in the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was a strong supporter of PIPA, has withdrawn the bill from Senate floor consideration. I agree with this decision. Although there are legitimate issues to be addressed regarding so-called internet piracy, I believe that several provisions of the current legislation need to be clarified or revised.

Protecting intellectual property is more challenging than ever before. For example, high speed broadband enables access to the entire catalog of movies, music, books, television, and technology. These protections should not censor free speech, nor should they hinder innovation.
Online promotion of counterfeit goods by foreign entities is also a growing concern. Assessing how to protect copyright, patent, and intellectual property rights — and doing so without infringing on consumers’ legitimate interests — requires dealing with a complex series of problems.

Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind should this bill or related legislation be reported to the floor for action by the full Senate. I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to contact me on any issue that is important to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator
284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5922 (tel)
202-224-0776 (fax)
http://hutchison.senate.gov

If you would like more information about issues pending before the Senate, please visit the Senator's website at http://hutchison.senate.gov. You will find articles, floor statements, press releases, and weekly columns on current events.

Thank you.

Costs of Raising Kids in Beijing

Milan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:24:00 +0800

A few days ago, a friend in Beijing sent me the following article that was written up in The Beijinger. I found it really helpful and maybe you will too.
It's expensive to raise kids anywhere, but it takes extra money and consideration when thinking about school options in China.
My husband is a teacher and we would most likely choose the home school option after our son was able to experience kindergarten and get better socialized, not to mention better his Chinese skills.
If you're raising kids in Beijing or elsewhere in China, please feel free to give your opinion on the article!

Is It More Expensive to Raise Kids in Beijing?

by pjsheeps | Posted on Jan 17 2012 |

See All 1 Photos

One of the things that I feel most guilty about is…well, me. More specifically, all of the wonderful things that my parents had to give up in order to have and raise me: extravagant trips around the world, an ocean-front villa in Thailand, fancy date nights, etc.

For those who think that I’m exaggerating, consider this: my four-year stint at the University of California Davis cost my parents approximately US$60,500, and that's just in tuition alone. Factor in the cost of textbooks, rent, groceries and a summer in Spain, and that figure becomes much higher.

In addition, current estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture place the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 years at US$226,920, the equivalent of about ¥1.5 million. This amount includes housing, child care and the big money drain: school tuition.

Thankfully, my parents were spared the duty of footing the bill for much of my lower education thanks to a combination of four years of U.S public schooling, followed by another eight years at a Beijing international school on IBM’s dime. These eight years alone, I calculated, would have cost my family about ¥1.4 million—just ¥100,000 short of what the USDA estimates as the total cost of raising a kid for 18 years. Scary. No wonder then, that my father insists that if my tuition hadn't been covered, “we wouldn’t have moved to China period!”

Brian Hutson is the founding partner of financial advisory firm Hutson Associates, and has come across his fair share of expats in his line of work. He says: “Expat parents repeatedly tell me that the most expensive portion of raising children in Beijing is school fees. I think that this is partially because most Western countries offer free public education, making tuition expenses a non-issue.”

Beijing international school fees have been known to reach up to approximately ¥200,000 or US$32,000 per year for high school students. This is almost the equivalent of a year’s undergraduate tuition at Harvard. “The cost of some of the schools here is insane,” says father-of-one and entrepreneur Sam Goodman. “I mean, I attended what was possibly one of the best boarding schools in Canada growing up, and it still wasn't nearly as expensive as certain schools here.”

Suffice it to say, for those without the elusive expat package, raising a child in Beijing can be a very expensive business. As a result, families in this category are often forced to think long and hard about their children’s schooling. The decision comes down to not just finding a good fit for their children, but also finding the right balance between quality of education and price.

“The headache, the headache!” says long-term Beijing resident and mother Astra Holmes. “We are paying out of pocket, so we have to consider the level of education and weigh it against how useful it will be later in life and the cost to us. I’ve found it very difficult to balance my high expectations and big eyes—so much of our decision depends on what we can afford.”

Ultimately, Beijing parents have three main choices. “The way I see it, you either go 100 percent local, go 100 percent international, or aim for something somewhere in between, which is what my wife and I did,” says Goodman. “There is a small handful of schools here that offer a decent combination of Eastern and Western education. These not only cost less than big international schools, but also offer a Chinese immersion element—a necessity while living in China, if you ask me.”

Tom Miller also feels that a solid foundation in Mandarin is paramount, and for that reason has enrolled his two children in a nursery class at a bilingual school. However, he concedes that eventually he will have to send his children to an international school. “When I realized how much my children’s schooling would cost me, it was like a sudden dawning,” Miller says. Suzi Roberts is a mother and educator whose job allows her children to attend an international school at no extra cost. Even so, school tuition and family expenses remain a primary talking point among her and her peers. Roberts says that homeschooling has emerged as a popular fourth option for many parents, and adds that financial aid packages are now available at some international schools, though most require parents to lay bare their financial situation.

Fortunately, school tuition aside, all other expenses can be significantly lower than in the West. Despite rising prices, groceries, clothing, transportation and food can still be purchased for a mere fraction of Western prices as long as parents are willing to go local.

And therein lies the rub. Parents always want the best for their children and for some families in Beijing, that means forking over fistfuls of cash for imported baby formula, organic food, name-brand clothing and vitamins. For many, weekly trips to Jenny Lou’s and April Gourmet are the norm, despite the fact that Sanyuanli and Jingkelong offer the same items for less—albeit a little worse for the wear.

“In the end, how much parents spend raising their children in Beijing really boils down to lifestyle choices,” says Goodman. “I think that it is extremely easy to live either very cheaply or very expensive here.”

Hutson agrees: “Everyone who moves here certainly has the option of a lifestyle that is either more expensive or cheaper than back home. Ultimately, what is most important is that families are living within their means.”

Want to calculate about how much you spend on your children each year? Go to www.bankrate.com (amounts are shown in US dollars).