Christmas Eve was a regular school day, save for lots of time spent decorating classrooms, a secret Santa gift exchange among the teachers in my office, and student Christmas parties in the evening.
Christmas Day was a day-off. It was kinda slow - I got a haircut, went to the gym, which was nearly empty, studied and worked on my final exams, and then had dinner at someone's apartment, where we made huge amounts of pasta, salad, and some brownies, apple pie, and cupcakes.
I posted some pictures from the Christmas parties at school and a dinner with a bunch of people on Christmas Day.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Shanghainese and Wu Chinese
Some poking around Wikipedia led me to an interesting discovery that Wu Chinese, the name for the broad family of dialects spoken in Shanghai and its neighboring provinces, has more speakers than Cantonese. (Chinese dialects use the same characters, but the spoken language is mutually unintelligible, as different as German and English, and there can be some grammar and lexical differences. There’s a number of dialects within Wu Chinese, including a Changzhou dialect.) Although it’s far outnumbered by Mandarin speakers, Wu Chinese, with 77 million speakers, ranks second in China and enough to be somewhere around 10-15th among world languages.
It’s puzzling because Cantonese seems so much more widespread and influential, while Shanghainese is little known abroad, is not taught in schools, and has little media such as radio and films. Some further digging revealed why.
The Yangtze River valley is densely populated, so there have always been a lot of native speakers of Wu Chinese, but the language is dying out quickly because of the movement of people within China and the government’s standardization of the Beijing dialect – Mandarin or putonghua. Instruction of local dialects in schools and its use in spoken media is heavily restricted in and around Shanghai, but less so in the Cantonese areas of Guangdong and Hong Kong, which is more or less autonomous, so Cantonese is flourishing there. And the film industry in Hong Kong is extensive – it was in recent decades one of the biggest film centers in the world – and there are millions of overseas Cantonese speakers.
It’s puzzling because Cantonese seems so much more widespread and influential, while Shanghainese is little known abroad, is not taught in schools, and has little media such as radio and films. Some further digging revealed why.
The Yangtze River valley is densely populated, so there have always been a lot of native speakers of Wu Chinese, but the language is dying out quickly because of the movement of people within China and the government’s standardization of the Beijing dialect – Mandarin or putonghua. Instruction of local dialects in schools and its use in spoken media is heavily restricted in and around Shanghai, but less so in the Cantonese areas of Guangdong and Hong Kong, which is more or less autonomous, so Cantonese is flourishing there. And the film industry in Hong Kong is extensive – it was in recent decades one of the biggest film centers in the world – and there are millions of overseas Cantonese speakers.
Stumbling on hard times
China’s exports fell for the first time since 2001. There was a dramatic drop late this year, and that is bad news not only for weakening the argument that China’s growth would be a bright spot in a global recession, but it’s also bad for social stability in China. So much of the government’s support rests on the steady job creation and rising wages of double digit economic growth.
Likewise, the recession in the States not only threatens our job market and wealth, but also erodes our soft power in the form of our leadership and trust among nations in the world. All kinds of people have asked me how the US could have stumbled so hard and so swiftly, with banks that once dominated global finance have going bankrupt, merging, and going abroad to raising capital, Bernard Madoff’s vast fraud that scams investors out of $50 billion dollars, selling the vacant Illinois Senate seat for personal gain. Thomas Friedman gets it right – we became complacent about our ethics and corporate responsibility, we got greedy, and we got stupid.
No wonder people are throwing shoes out our president.
Likewise, the recession in the States not only threatens our job market and wealth, but also erodes our soft power in the form of our leadership and trust among nations in the world. All kinds of people have asked me how the US could have stumbled so hard and so swiftly, with banks that once dominated global finance have going bankrupt, merging, and going abroad to raising capital, Bernard Madoff’s vast fraud that scams investors out of $50 billion dollars, selling the vacant Illinois Senate seat for personal gain. Thomas Friedman gets it right – we became complacent about our ethics and corporate responsibility, we got greedy, and we got stupid.
No wonder people are throwing shoes out our president.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Bonds in the financial turmoil
People used to snicker at Japan’s government bonds when they were offering yields of 0.001% or so during their worst years of deflation and economic contraction.
It’s happening in the U.S. now, too, even negative yields on short-term Treasury bills. You can pay the government to hold your money. At least that’s a good way to finance the trillions of dollars in government bailouts and deposit guarantees.
It’s happening in the U.S. now, too, even negative yields on short-term Treasury bills. You can pay the government to hold your money. At least that’s a good way to finance the trillions of dollars in government bailouts and deposit guarantees.
Gov. Blagojevich gets bagged
Corruption rears its ugly head again in Illinois. Governor Blagojevich tried to leverage his authority to appoint a replacement for Barack Obama’s Senate seat for personal gain. And his brazen conduct was unbelievable.
One offer was $500,000 in return for Illinois’ Senate seat (which is a bargain, given that the average Senate race costs several millions of dollars), or you could provide a cushy job for the Governor and his wife in return for the Senate post.
If those offers weren’t good enough, that's no big deal. “‘If I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself,’ the governor said in recorded conversation.”
He must be in pretty deep denial about the charges. “The governor was woken at 6 a.m. with a telephone call from the F.B.I., telling him that two agents were waiting outside with a warrant for his arrest, and that he should quietly open his door and let them in, to avoid waking his sleeping children. Mr. Blagojevich’s first response was, “Is this a joke?”’
One offer was $500,000 in return for Illinois’ Senate seat (which is a bargain, given that the average Senate race costs several millions of dollars), or you could provide a cushy job for the Governor and his wife in return for the Senate post.
If those offers weren’t good enough, that's no big deal. “‘If I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself,’ the governor said in recorded conversation.”
He must be in pretty deep denial about the charges. “The governor was woken at 6 a.m. with a telephone call from the F.B.I., telling him that two agents were waiting outside with a warrant for his arrest, and that he should quietly open his door and let them in, to avoid waking his sleeping children. Mr. Blagojevich’s first response was, “Is this a joke?”’
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Tuberculosis
My roommate's sudden diagnosis of tuberculosis in September was an eye-opening experience about a disease that I had thought was only found in history books or in the poorest developing countries. It is still a common killer around the world while its highly contagious nature and drug-resistant strains are a ticking time bomb.
Nick Kristof wrote an insightful essay in yesterday's New York Times on the disease. His previous piece is also a must-read on another overlooked public health problem - iodine deficiency.
Nick Kristof wrote an insightful essay in yesterday's New York Times on the disease. His previous piece is also a must-read on another overlooked public health problem - iodine deficiency.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Marathon
The marathon was marked in kilometers (42.195 total) so I’ll break it down into five kilometer sections and give a brief recap.
Kilometers 0-5: I shuffle along in a dense pack of runners, the sidewalks and pedestrian bridges are also packed with onlookers. The streets are fairly narrow and the sun is still low so we are in the shade and it's pretty cold. Kilometers 6-10: I start to break a sweat and get more room to open up my stride. We run under a raised six-lane road for a while so there is still no need for sunglasses. Every once in a while there is a group of older Chinese women in colorful outfits banging drums and symbols, chanting “jia you… yun dong yuan… jia you…” (let’s go, runners, let’s go…) Kilometers 11-15: we run down long stretches of road heading south, the runners thin out and it starts to feel more like a long-distance race. Kilometers 16-20: the longest race I’ve ever run is 15k, so I’m in new territory by now, and I start to feel a little tight and sore in my butt and calves. Kilometers 21-25: I cross the half way point around 1:50 hours, chat with several runners in my vicinity - a Canadian living in Vietnam, a Korean living in China, and a local Chinese guy.
Kilometers 26-30: I start to feel some pain in my knees from the pounding and my legs are stiffer and harder to move. I close my eyes halfway and settle in behind other runners, just watching their feet and following behind, not thinking about much. We go up and over some six-lane highway overpasses which are the only “hills” on the route. The runners get two full lanes and a long line of cars and trucks are squeezed into one lane and are backed up for long stretches. I see an exasperated man in a suit get out of a taxi, pay, and start walking. Others are sitting in their stalled cars with the doors open, smoking and watching us jog by. Kilometers 31-35: I thought I’d have plenty of time to think during the race, to let my mind run through all the things I’ve done in the past year and a half, think about next year, about my family, etc. but my brain partially shuts down and all I can concentrate on is the next kilometer marker. I strain my neck to look for the big white signs with large red numbers that mark each kilometer. Anything red and white grabs my attention. I don’t do much thinking other than repeating to myself over and over “Where’s 33… just find 33… 33…” There are few people along this section of the run, other than a few bored volunteers with water and first aid kits. We run by lots of factories and make frequent turns, zigzagging north towards the finish area outside a sports stadium.
Kilometers 36-40: Just over four hours into the race and still miles from the finish, I’m walking on and off and I resign myself to the fact that I won’t finish in under four hours. My shirt is hardly even damp from sweat, my back and neck are fine, despite my worries that I’d get a lot of back pain from bad posture. In fact, my entire upper body is feeling great but from the waist down I’m in intense pain. I can barely move my legs. I get a spray of icy-hot from a volunteer on my legs, scarf down a banana, sip a sports drink, all to no avail. I simply can’t move my legs. I shuffle and walk a lot while rubbing down my thighs and butt with my hands, trying to get some flexibility and movement out of my legs. It’s a strange feeling.
The kilometer 40 marker gives me a boost of energy and I’m able to shuffle-jog the last 2 kilometers, cross the finish line (all that was going through my head was “finish… finish… finish”). I immediately head into a large public bathroom in the sports complex, which is full of sweaty half naked men bathing in the sinks and I almost vomit from the stench. I urinate for the first time since the start but never really felt dehydrated due to sweating so little. I get a small medal, a certificate with my time, and a bag of little goodies, including a small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce.
I had little trouble walking later that day and had sore legs for the two following days. The quick recovery made me realize that I could have and should have pushed myself harder at the end. Looking back, it was more my mind telling me that my legs wouldn’t move if I only mustered more will power. I’ve got to do another one next year.
Kilometers 0-5: I shuffle along in a dense pack of runners, the sidewalks and pedestrian bridges are also packed with onlookers. The streets are fairly narrow and the sun is still low so we are in the shade and it's pretty cold. Kilometers 6-10: I start to break a sweat and get more room to open up my stride. We run under a raised six-lane road for a while so there is still no need for sunglasses. Every once in a while there is a group of older Chinese women in colorful outfits banging drums and symbols, chanting “jia you… yun dong yuan… jia you…” (let’s go, runners, let’s go…) Kilometers 11-15: we run down long stretches of road heading south, the runners thin out and it starts to feel more like a long-distance race. Kilometers 16-20: the longest race I’ve ever run is 15k, so I’m in new territory by now, and I start to feel a little tight and sore in my butt and calves. Kilometers 21-25: I cross the half way point around 1:50 hours, chat with several runners in my vicinity - a Canadian living in Vietnam, a Korean living in China, and a local Chinese guy.
Kilometers 26-30: I start to feel some pain in my knees from the pounding and my legs are stiffer and harder to move. I close my eyes halfway and settle in behind other runners, just watching their feet and following behind, not thinking about much. We go up and over some six-lane highway overpasses which are the only “hills” on the route. The runners get two full lanes and a long line of cars and trucks are squeezed into one lane and are backed up for long stretches. I see an exasperated man in a suit get out of a taxi, pay, and start walking. Others are sitting in their stalled cars with the doors open, smoking and watching us jog by. Kilometers 31-35: I thought I’d have plenty of time to think during the race, to let my mind run through all the things I’ve done in the past year and a half, think about next year, about my family, etc. but my brain partially shuts down and all I can concentrate on is the next kilometer marker. I strain my neck to look for the big white signs with large red numbers that mark each kilometer. Anything red and white grabs my attention. I don’t do much thinking other than repeating to myself over and over “Where’s 33… just find 33… 33…” There are few people along this section of the run, other than a few bored volunteers with water and first aid kits. We run by lots of factories and make frequent turns, zigzagging north towards the finish area outside a sports stadium.
Kilometers 36-40: Just over four hours into the race and still miles from the finish, I’m walking on and off and I resign myself to the fact that I won’t finish in under four hours. My shirt is hardly even damp from sweat, my back and neck are fine, despite my worries that I’d get a lot of back pain from bad posture. In fact, my entire upper body is feeling great but from the waist down I’m in intense pain. I can barely move my legs. I get a spray of icy-hot from a volunteer on my legs, scarf down a banana, sip a sports drink, all to no avail. I simply can’t move my legs. I shuffle and walk a lot while rubbing down my thighs and butt with my hands, trying to get some flexibility and movement out of my legs. It’s a strange feeling.
The kilometer 40 marker gives me a boost of energy and I’m able to shuffle-jog the last 2 kilometers, cross the finish line (all that was going through my head was “finish… finish… finish”). I immediately head into a large public bathroom in the sports complex, which is full of sweaty half naked men bathing in the sinks and I almost vomit from the stench. I urinate for the first time since the start but never really felt dehydrated due to sweating so little. I get a small medal, a certificate with my time, and a bag of little goodies, including a small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce.
I had little trouble walking later that day and had sore legs for the two following days. The quick recovery made me realize that I could have and should have pushed myself harder at the end. Looking back, it was more my mind telling me that my legs wouldn’t move if I only mustered more will power. I’ve got to do another one next year.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Over consumption
You ever wonder how the United States could have a negative personal savings rate? The reason may be that whatever little we do save throughout the year we blow on holiday shopping in November and December.
In an article about shopping during last week's Black Friday, one shopper remarked that “in the past she would ‘spend thousands of dollars on Black Friday’ - even withdrawing money from her retirement account.”
Another shopper on Black Friday justified her shopping spree on the recession. "The fact that the economy is down has actually led me to spend a little more this holiday season, because there are so many good sales out there today," said Owolagi, a nurse, who spent more than $1,000 at three retailers by 8:30 a.m.
Another explained her credit card purchases, "I am paying a lot with credit cards, and I'm hoping the banks go out of business and I won't have to pay them back.”
That was not from “The Onion” and those are genuine comments from real people, despite sounding like a outrageous parody of lazy, debt-ridden Americans. Some people are hopeless.
And we overeat, too. Several interesting studies have shown how we underestimate the calories of diet foods, trans-fat free foods, and meals from restaurants that are marketed as health-concious places with more diet-friendly fare. The result of this miscalcuation is that we eat more of supposedly healthier options and in the end consume even more calories.
In an article about shopping during last week's Black Friday, one shopper remarked that “in the past she would ‘spend thousands of dollars on Black Friday’ - even withdrawing money from her retirement account.”
Another shopper on Black Friday justified her shopping spree on the recession. "The fact that the economy is down has actually led me to spend a little more this holiday season, because there are so many good sales out there today," said Owolagi, a nurse, who spent more than $1,000 at three retailers by 8:30 a.m.
Another explained her credit card purchases, "I am paying a lot with credit cards, and I'm hoping the banks go out of business and I won't have to pay them back.”
That was not from “The Onion” and those are genuine comments from real people, despite sounding like a outrageous parody of lazy, debt-ridden Americans. Some people are hopeless.
And we overeat, too. Several interesting studies have shown how we underestimate the calories of diet foods, trans-fat free foods, and meals from restaurants that are marketed as health-concious places with more diet-friendly fare. The result of this miscalcuation is that we eat more of supposedly healthier options and in the end consume even more calories.
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