People’s Republic of China (Province Map) 中华人民共和国行政地图
May 23rd, 2009
Archive
Archive for May, 2009
约翰·拉贝 – 维基百科，自由的百科全书
May 23rd, 2009
Just occurred to me that John is “约翰”, so John Rabe is 约翰－拉贝。There’s a Chinese movie about Rabe’s role in saving as many in Nanjing as possible called 《拉贝日记》. In 1997 Rabe’s tombstone was moved from Berlin to Nanjing in honor of The Good Man of Nanking’s work saving many chinese during the Japanese attack on Nanjing.
[From 约翰·拉贝 - 维基百科，自由的百科全书]
Network Overview /// Internet Traffic Report
May 16th, 2009
Synchronicity. Nirvana.
May 16th, 2009
We’ve got Plaxo to keep our contacts and calendars synced up
We’ve got Dropbox to keep our important documents synced up
We’ve got IMAP servers to keep our email synchronized across many devices
We’ve got Google Reader and Reader Notifier to keep our RSS feeds synchronized across many devices
We’ve got MobileMe to keep our Preferences and Dock Items in sync
We’ve got Evernote to keep notes, website clips and other scraps of information sync’d up
We’ve got 1Password to keep all of our passwords, credit cards and licensed synced
We’ve got Teleport to keep our mouse, keyboard and clipboard in sync while we’re working
And we’ve now got Del.ciou.us and DeliciousSafari to keep our bookmarks in sync
The only places that I’m not in sync now are: Things for my Task Management, true Video Chat and Skype support inside Adium and some unified, synchronized storage format for all of the logs from the Skype integrated version of Adium.
[From DeliciousSafari]
American Ambassador to China: Jon Huntsman, Jr.
May 15th, 2009
Jon Meade Huntsman, Jr. (born March 26, 1960 in Palo Alto, California) is the governor of the state of Utah, having first won the office in 2004. His first term as the 16th governor of Utah began on January 3, 2005. He was re-elected, with running-mate Gary R. Herbert, on November 4, 2008, with over 77% of the vote.[1] It was reported that Huntsman will be nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as United States Ambassador to China on Friday, May 15, 2009.[2] It is anticipated that a press conference will be held to make the official announcement on Saturday, May 16, 2009. [3] Huntsman is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.
He served an LDS mission in Taiwan and speaks fluent Standard Mandarin Chinese.
Huntsman’s name has appeared on some lists of potential Republican nominees for the 2012 presidential election,[9] and John McCain has gone so far as to mention his name as a potential candidate as well.[10]
[From Jon Huntsman, Jr. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
goosh.org – the unofficial google shell.
May 15th, 2009
This is pretty geeked-out, but it’s one of the most fun website ideas I’ve seen in quite a long time – The Google Shell: goosh.org
[From goosh.org - the unofficial google shell.]
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PostGlobal: Global Power Barometer
May 12th, 2009
Interesting, updated daily “Power Barometer” put together by the Denver Research Group on behalf of the Washington Post. The Power Barometer tracks each nation in terms of it’s own ability to influence world events in line with it’s own goals – so you’re seeing how each interest is meeting it’s own goals, not necessarily a direct “win/loose” relationship between the competitors. The Post provides a brief summary of the methodology.
[From PostGlobal Global Power Barometer (washingtonpost.com)]
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Google 2084
May 11th, 2009
Last night I noticed that Google took the liberty of installing a Google Update Daemon on my computer. I did a quick check of my Applications folder but noticed that there were no Google applications even running on my computer. The only google related software installed is excellent 3rd party Reader Notifier to keep in sync with the Google RSS Reader.
While searching my computer to see if anything Google related was still installed (other than the Google Update Daemon), I came across this Google 2084 shot:
In case you haven’t seen Terminator II recently, this part might bring back some memories.
By the time Skynet became self-aware it had spread into millions of computer servers across the planet. Ordinary computers in office buildings, dorm rooms; everywhere. It was software; in cyberspace. There was no system core; it could not be shutdown. The attack began at 6:18 PM, just as he said it would. Judgment Day, the day the human race was almost destroyed by the weapons they’d built to protect themselves. I should have realized it was never our destiny to stop Judgment Day, it was merely to survive it, together. The Terminator knew; he tried to tell us, but I didn’t want to hear it. Maybe the future has been written. I don’t know; all I know is what the Terminator taught me; never stop fighting. And I never will. The battle has just begun.
If you just want to remove the Google Update Daemon, then you’ll want to run:
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
sudo rm -fR /Library/Google
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
Ruby On Rails 中文社区论坛 – Powered by Discuz!
May 11th, 2009
[From Ruby On Rails 中文社区论坛 - Powered by Discuz!]
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Marco Polo @ National Geographic
May 11th, 2009
Beautifully photographed National Geographic feature on the travels of Marco Polo. If you are trying to be like Marco Polo, just remember that you’re 735 years too late 
Part I: Venice to China
Part II: In China
Part III: Journey Home
The full articles are no longer available online, but worth checking out these issues of NatGeo at your local library.
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Fun Tourist Stuff in Shanghai
May 11th, 2009
Shanghai Horror Story Restaurant
网址：at dianping.com
店名：天界新概念主题餐厅
地址：静安区江宁路495号博鸿大厦二层B座（康定路口）
电话：021-51156766
营业时间：上午10：30—凌晨1：00
Or–
地址：普陀区文化馆的8楼灵异空间
上海兰溪路138号普陀区文化馆八楼 在2006年底新开了一家”灵异空间”恐怖主题馆，据说是个勇敢者的恐怖冒险，里面采用的是迷宫的设计思路。一共分五个恐怖等级，据悉，这里的最低等级曾把采访记者吓了魂。
“如果你半途实在受不了，可以大叫结束。工作人员将会把你带出安全出口”，“你最好不要往后看..”
等进馆前的说明无一不让游客感觉不妙。 恐怖程度一共分为五个等级，据了解，通关后会有礼品，但目前为止最高恐怖等级还没有人能走到终点，都在半途退出了。 其恐怖馆是一日本海归华人、按照日式恐怖馆为灵感而开办的一个恐怖馆、喜欢挑战恐怖的可以去尝试、有心脏病高血压的禁止入内。 另外值得一提的是：此馆采用的是人工扮鬼的方式
Simply Thai Restaurant
网址：simplylife-sh.com (Note, I currently get a “Malware Warning” when visiting this page)
Papa Johns Pizza in Shanghai网址：papajohnshanghai.com (棒约翰）
Papa Johns at Big Thumb Plaza (Century Park, Pu Dong) (棒约翰）
网址：at dianping.com
Avis Rent-a-Car (Requires Chinese Drivers License to Drive)
网址：avischina.com
English article about car rental in Shanghai at Shanghaiist.
Online car reservations. Get the Passat. About 500￥/日. 卢湾店: 复兴中路596号 @ 021-64730543 (周一~周日 8:00-20:00) 长宁店(本部): 长宁路1387号 @ 021-62410215 浦东店: 浦东张杨路2988号（名人苑）@ 021-58335759
Mandara Spa at Tomorrow Square
网址：mandaraspa.com
Raffles City Plaza, Peoples Square (来福士)
网址：rafflescity-shanghai.com
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Shanghai （香菲宾）
网址：coffeebean.com.cn
Fun “3D Maps” of Shanghai (E都市)
网址：sh.edushi.com
Three on The Bund (外滩三号）
网址：threeonthebund.com
Longhua Temple (龙华寺)
网址：sh.gov.cn
Duolun Road (多伦路)
网址：on wikipedia
Yi Cafe at Shangri-la (怡咖啡)
网址：shangri-la.com
Lucky Greens Mini Golf (丛林球场)
网址：luckygreens.com
Shanghai Climb (攀登上海)
网址：shanghaiclimb.com
营业时间为：AM10：00－PM16：00。 票价原价80元/人，试营运期间为68元/人。 浦西广场地址：鲁班路909号
Dino Beach (热带风暴)
网址：dinobeach.com.cn
电话:8621-64783333 地址:上海闵行区七宝镇新镇路78号 (环西一大道顾戴路出口处，七宝卫星站对面)
海湾之星 (Beach near Jinshan)
网址：baystar.cn
地址：上海市奉贤区海湾旅游区海浪路39号 电话：021-57121919 021-57121955 周一至周日，每天9：00--20：00（受天气影响，有可能临时关闭） 海鲜排挡人均消费30元--50元
Authorized Shanghai Mac Repairs – Computer Solutions
网址：computersolutions.cn
Uncategorized
The Dollar Is Safe for Now — Seeking Alpha
May 9th, 2009
Interesting article about the dollar’s reserve currency status:
- There’s not enough gold to replace China’s dollars
- Investors are taking on more risk
- Borrowing dollars is still expensive
- We can’t change the reserve currency overnight
Perhaps the most interesting is when going on to talk about SDRs:
Doing the shopping in SDRs
But is there another way? Part of the speculation about the dollar’s future came after Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, published a paper arguing for an end to the dollar standard.
He argues that any system in which a reserve currency is also a national currency is flawed. Instead we should use a super-sovereign reserve currency managed by a global institution. In particular, he suggests Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which are essentially an internal unit of account at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a handful of other international institutions.
Most economists rejected this idea outright. Now, it’s fair to say that economists don’t have a great track record when it comes to spotting how major shifts in the financial system will play out. Take the 1970s, by when decades of growth in crossborder capital flows had made it impossible to sustain the Bretton Woods system, in which the dollar was pegged to gold and other currencies were pegged to the dollar.
It seems that most analysts thought that switching to floating rates would reduce cross-currency flows – a conclusion that seems hopelessly misguided given our hyperactive modern foreign exchange markets. According to economic historian Charles Kindleberger in Manias, Panics, and Crashes:
“Most economists had thought that the adoption of floating exchange rates would kill the movement of interest-sensitive capital and that once currencies were floating central banks would be able to follow independent monetary policies without untoward external effects. Economists differed about whether speculative capital movements would be stabilizing or occasionally seriously destabilizing; the general view was that fear of exchange losses would deter capital flows. That view proved mistaken; many banks regarded currencies as a new asset class to be traded for a profit.”
Still, it certainly looks like there would be a lot of issues with adopting something like the SDR as a reserve currency. The issues with the renminbi apply on an even larger scale. There are no assets priced or traded in SDRs; not even bank accounts in SDRs. While we can never be certain about these things, the prospect of SDRs – or anything else – replacing the dollar in the next few years look very remote.
[From The Dollar Is Safe for Now -- Seeking Alpha]
Spelunking in Shanghai?
May 9th, 2009
Caving has started in China. You can’t find it in any dictionaries yet, but the chinese name is “洞穴探险“, pronounced dòngxué tànxiǎn.
There is a western club called the “Red Rose Caving Club” (红玫瑰洞穴探险俱乐部) that has a small english language website about caving in China.
There’s also a chinese book called “Caving” from the China Caving Training Network that was published by the Guangxi branch of the Geological Society’s Committee on Speceology (the study of caves).
The official Committee on Speceology has a page dedicated to Caving that you can check out for some background facts about caving, but it’s pretty dry (枯燥乏味的).
【原】 你可以把这样的房车当家吗？- Can you make a motor home a home? – OC*OC* 的日志 – 网易博客
May 8th, 2009
Everyone on planet earth, it seems that there is discrimination, frequently racial or socio-economic. When explaining discrimination in the USA, in addition to racial discrimination, I also like to explain that there is social-economic discrimination between people of the same skin color, just as there is in China…
注释：
Trailer trash (or trailer park trash) is a derogatory North American English term for people of low socio-economic standing. The term originates from the belief that those of low standing within society often reside in trailers or mobile homes, especially in trailer parks. Because trailers often provide housing at a lower cost than conventional foundation-built houses, and some trailers have few amenities, there is a popular cultural conception that those who live in trailer parks are usually only those who are too poor to afford anything else. Although trailer parks have a high density compared to other rural or suburban housing, they are usually created on large tracts of undeveloped land in rural or suburban areas.
拖车活动房垃圾是北美英文中一个有伤品格的名称，它是指那些生活低于社会经济标准的人们。这个词来自大众对于这些以拖车活动房屋或房车为家，特别是住在拖车公园里的人的看法，因为拖车型活动房屋的住宅费用远远低于建筑型房屋住宅的造价，有些活动房屋几乎没有任何舒适惬意可言。
美国的大众文化有这样的概念，通常住在拖车公园里的人们，只有那些太穷而支付不起其它的任何东西的人们。然而与乡村或郊外相比较，拖车公园有着较高的稠密度，它通常在乡村或郊外地区形成了大片未开发的空地。
* 根据这个定义，用“拖车活动屋垃圾”形容上面的超级豪华房车，显然是具有讽刺含义的，是个玩笑。
美国社会是有贫富差别，但整体社会生活水平并不很低。美国文化是鼓励人人奋斗，争取富有，穷人成功的致富机会也是大有存在，例子很多。但是有些人是不想工作不愿付出辛苦，自愿选者过那种“拖车活动房屋垃圾”的生活方式，这也是他们被社会歧视的原因之一，并不完全是因为他们贫穷。
[From 【原】 你可以把这样的房车当家吗？- Can you make a motor home a home? - OC*OC* 的日志 - 网易博客]
The Human Clock
May 7th, 2009
Current research indicates that the “human clock” is 24 hours and 11 minutes ± 16 minutes. The “clock” resets itself daily to the 24-hour cycle of the earth’s rotation. More on Circadian rhythm (wikipedia).
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