interesting stories on China discussion

Yes, I had a client who wanted me to go to Dalian, Shenyang and Tianjin this week. I explained that it was not happening.

This is one of the nicest weeks of the year for me: whenever clients ask me to do something, I just have to tell them that China is closed.

Thanks for the article, though. But I must say....



.... it's years since I've seen the Forbidden City that empty.

 

This does look very cool. The diagonal walls look very disorienting, though.

The only thing I've been on like that was Blackpool Tower, which was brilliant.

 

Another glass walkway cracked during 'Golden Week'

Chinese tourists scream after glass-bottom walkway cracks under their feet | Daily Mail Online

(Henan and Hunan are not the same thing)

There are apparently many of these now built. Tempered glass, right? can be broken by focused impact.

 

That would have been terrifying.

The one in Blackpool was launched with a baby elephant standing on it. But that, while heavy, is a steady, well-spread force. The article suggests someone dropped a mug, so it would be a focused impact, but it still shouldn't have broken it.

Unless, of course, someone corrupt supplied a sub-standard product. But that sort of thing never happens in China.

 

I'm actually surprised it was glass to begin with instead of polycarbonate or acrylic. Glass by its very nature will crack when the right forces show up. Crack-proof glass only exist by declaring the right cracking conditions will never occur. Nature or human mistakes cannot violate the needed conditions...until they do. The problem may not be the supplier but the code requirements set by the government.

 

Once had the occasion to try cutting a tempered glass tabletop. Standard techniques (scribing a line then sharp impact) had no effect so I lit propane torch for some 'uneven heating'.

and heating

and heating

and heating.

Finally the glass failed, explosively, resulting in no fragment larger than a couple cm. One of those 'experiments' I had no right to expect to survive.

Yes glass, well wrought, is extremely strong - until it isn't.

 

Here in hometown a new feature worth visiting has been constructed

China reveals its latest man-made waterfall - Interesting Engineering

 

Fascinating, Thank You.

 

This poem is generating controversy for being racist:

Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet? - The New Yorker

I have not checked with many people here about it, but I doubt they'd care much.

You know how Americans joke with stereotypes about people from other states? Same thing here, among provinces.

 

Ten kilokuai per month is darn good money around here

But cwerdna may pay somewhat more than $3 for a decent dinner out, plus he has to tip

 

I've heard Huawei is not a big thing in America. In Australia and Europe, Huawei is huge: I think it's running Samsung a fairly close second in handset sales. I've got a Huawei handset, and it's really very good: you get the same sort of features and higher quality than you do from Samsung for half the price.

I've also spent some time on the Huawei campus. It's one of the nicest office environments I've ever been to.

But there are questions over the company. Huawei is building Britain's broadband backbone, and the broadband networks for a lot of other countries, because their products are excellent and their prices are low. But they were banned from building Australia's broadband backbone (such as it is) because of their (alleged!) intelligence links. I suspect that's also the reason that they're not really a thing in America.

 

Insect tea.

You may have heard of feeding coffee beans to civet cats, and collecting and cleaning undigested beans 'after processing'. Makes expensive and (they say) wonderful coffee. Kick it up a notch...

Insect tea is made by feeding tea leaves to a few species of moth larvae. Their little poops are collected, and dried and that is insect tea. Said to be super good, I have not tried it yet. Expensive as one would certainly guess. I saw it on TV as 'tea treasure' but that gets no easy results by internet search.

 

On the handset front, you're missing out. They really do make excellent phones.

On the infrastructure side, the US is right on this occasion. I think it is a case of a stopped clock telling the right time twice a day. The US authorities consistently see a reds-under-the-beds threat whenever Chinese companies are involved, no matter what the issue (Cheung Kong's attempt to take over Long Beach port is an obvious example of this), and they're pretty much always wrong. But they have accidentally got this one right.

Yes, my wife had a Huawei phone that was great for her because she carries a handbag, but which would never have gone into my jeans pocket.