Willem's Planet

It’s still the Year of the Bunny (Rabbit) and the Little Bunny is doing our laundry.    Coupons are not nearly as prevalent in China (yet?) as they are in the USA, but this is a nice one – complete with hologram sticker and all.  (¥12 is about US$2).

Mount Fuji watchers report that the first snow came one day earlier than last year, about 7 days earlier than on average.  (Picture from the TV here).    Mt Fuji is a very symmetrical stratovolcano mountain.  Other such mountains are of course Washington State’s Mt Rainier, and Kilimandjaro in Africa.

Here’s how the numbers stack up for the three mountains.

Mt Fuji	3,776 m	12,388 ft	last eruption 1707
Mt Rainier	4,392 m	14,411 ft	last eruption 1894
Mt Kilimandjaro	5,895 m	19,341 ft	none in recorded history

And hey – I have a Mt Fuji in my wallet as well : the back of a ¥1,000 note (that’s about US$13).

After a long week I was happy to just kick back in the hotel and relax Friday night (instead of making my way to Hong Kong as I frequently do).    On the Japanese TV game show, I admired the colorful graphics but could not make out much more.   Check out the rotating cube with characters to arrange to make a phrase.   Of the solution I have no clue, but hey – I can be the team member that click that ‘OK’ button by the yellow arrow, how’s that? :  )

This carrier pigeon (I assume it’s one! looking at the rings on its feet) landed on my hotel balcony.   I suppose it’s taking a little break from its travel back to its home.    The homingpigeon.com website features a solar wind meter (indicating the strength of disruptions caused in the earth magnetic field by flare-ups on the surface of the sun) .. but there is evidence that the birds actually use freeways and man-made structures to navigate with.

In September 2009, a South African IT company based in Durban pitted an 11-month-old bird ‘Winston’ armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest internet service provider, Telkom.  The pigeon took 1 hr 8 mins to carry the data 80 km (50 miles).   That turned out to be vastly quicker than the ADSL connection could deliver the data !   (I believe the ADSL connection speed will beat the pigeon today).

This 3D map of Dameisha was put on bus stop billboards here recently.   It has a lot of detail on, right down to the fiberglass figures on Dameisha Beach (I took the beach figure picture some time ago).   That’s the Yantian Expressway curving around the beach town.

This ‘water painting’ picture from Monday night’s ride home from work as seen through the bus window– it was pouring.   I felt sorry for people on the street !   It’s still warm here, but despite the rain last night the humidity was much lower than normal today.

Weather for Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

81°F | 27°C

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Scattered Clouds

Wind: NE at 13 mph

Humidity: 61%

88°

70°

91°

72°

91°

73°

88°

73°

This cool map (click to enlarge) comes from the All Nippon Airlines in-flight magazine.   Tokyo was put at the top of the globe and every other point projected around it, radially along the longitudinal lines.   So distances measured from the center of the map along the longitudinal lines are accurate, but all other measured distances are not.   And the farther away a continent or a country is, the more distorted its shape comes out!    (There is actually a map with this projection on the United Nations flag, with the North Pole at the center).

The Rugby World Cup of 2011 started last Friday and is the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial International Rugby Union competition.  This year it is played in New Zealand, the country’s largest sporting event ever with some 90,000 visitors expected.    20 teams are competing, and the USA and Russia have teams as well.   Live TV coverage in the USA is only available as special sports packages from NBC’s Universal Sports channel.  Some matches are shown in full after a day or two, though.  Says the official website (http://www.rugbyworldcup.com) of Thu Sep 15’s match-up in Pool C between the Cold War foes : ‘USA and Russia are prepared for an intense battle in what might be their only chance to record a victory at Rugby World Cup 2011’.  Oh boy. Better go for it, then.   Go USA!  

Of course, I root for South Africa as well; the Springboks are the defending champions and eked out a 1 point win over Wales on Sunday in a Pool D match.  Go Bokke !

The map of New Zealand showing the stadiums is from Wikipedia.   Where is Christchurch located, site of the 6.5 earthquake in Feb?  It sits on the nub sticking out from the south eastern part of the South island (so no stadiums there).

Yes, I am an early bird and got my flu shot today.   I also checked the Centers for Disease Control website to make sure I’m up to date with my recommended vaccinations for China.    Of course, there are some nasty viruses and bugs out there for which there is no vaccine.   Dengue fever is one of them, with no specific medicine that can cure it ! (map for the Eastern Hemisphere dengue fever areas from the CDC website).   I travel to the green strip around Hong Kong.   Seems the best one can do is to pack a thermometer and check in for medical care right away in case of fever.

The pictures are from Sunday.  My friends and I went to the 9th Annual Concours d’Elegance*event in Kirkland here in the Seattle area.  The antique Mercedes hails from 1904.  The in-line 4 cylinder engine produced 32hp and a top speed of 40mph, the fastest at the time.   The star of the show was the James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, one of the most famous cars in the world, and it sold at an auction last year for some US$ 4 million.   The local Mercedes dealer sponsored part of the event and ‘only’ $131,000 will get you this 2011 Mercedes Benz S63 Amg V8 Biturbo – now we’re talking!  For the brand-new Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, one would have to cough up some US$380,000.  (The black one was at the show, the other picture is from Lamborghini’s website).   Some specs : the LP700-4 has a curb weight of just 1575 kg (3,472 pounds) due to its carbon fiber-reinforced polymer monocoque structure. The 6.5 liter V12 puts out 690 bhp / 515 kW.  The gearbox is a 7-speed independent shift rod transmission (with dual synchronizers) supplied by Graziano Trasmissioni Group with 50 millisecond shift times.

*from French meaning a competition of elegance, lit. “concourse of elegance”, referring to the gathering of prestigious cars, dating back to 17th Century French aristocracy, who paraded horse-drawn carriages in the parks of Paris during Summer weekends and holidays.

The football field-size flag was unfurled before the singing of the national anthem for the New York Jets-Dallas Cowboys NFL match in the stadium on the New Jersey side.  The 9/11 Memorial was open to families that lost loved ones 10 years ago today and opens to the general public tomorrow. (Pictures from NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast).

We celebrated the end of the week with some beers in the hotel bar.   Heineken for me.  I tried to look up where the red star on the logo came from, but without success.   Maybe I shouldn’t read too much into it, but then again the 3 e’s were tilted back slightly to make them ‘smile’, according to one description of the logo.  So little details matter.

My bags are packed.   A driver is picking me up early Saturday morning here at the hotel to take me to Hong Kong.   There is usually an extra bag search before boarding a flight for the USA; I am sure it will be even stricter tomorrow. 

 

.. yes, the car.    (Spotted from my perch in the bus on the way to work).  The original Nissan Bluebird was launched in 1957, so the name has been around a very long time.   In China the cars are made under licence by Dongfeng Motor Corporation, one of the three big automakers in the country.