Lotus seeds (picture from Wikipedia) are used extensively in traditional Chinese medicine and in Chinese desserts.Mung beans (picture from Wikipedia) come from India.'Wong Lo Kat 王老吉' (Cantonese) or 'Wanglaoji' Lotus seed and Mung Bean drink (green can) and on the right herbal tea drink (red can).
Saturday was cold and rainy, so I felt better about having to knuckle down and work .. and drink my beverages that I got from the grocery store across the street. The sweetened Wanglaoji herbal tea (red can) rivals Coca- Cola in popularity in mainland China. I think the green Wanglaoji version is a new flavor since I had not seen it before. It’s certainly new to me : you go whoa! what are those flavors in there? Well – it’s lotus seed and mungo bean, buster ! And of course I had to look both up on Wikipedia to see that they look like.
This stuffed dragon is from the Carrefour department store here in Shenzhen. I took the picture a few weeks ago.
We’re in the final testing phase of our SAP project, and some ‘dragons’ have emerged that have to be slayed. One can even find – as we are – that standard SAP transactions are not working as expected. It all depends on the volume and combination of data that had been converted and the system settings and resources that have been put into place. So it pays to be paranoid when testing software*.
Test it again even if it was tested before (in a previous phase of the project), even if it’s out-of-the-box functionality from a top-notch vendor and even if you ‘think’ it will work. Of course, no project has infinite resources, so you have to apply what time and personnel you do have, as best you can !
*I am thinking of the Andy Groves quote ‘only the paranoid survive’. Grove was CEO of Intel from 1987 to 1998 and a pioneering figure in transforming the company into a giant. He insisted that people (working together) be demanding on one another, and is said to have been an idol of the late Steve Jobs from Apple.
I like to check out the baijiu* packaging in the grocery stores here. Some are downright spectacular. And at 50% alcohol I am sure one soon starts to experience the fantasy worlds depicted on the boxes that the liquor is presented in.
*clear white liquor drink typically distilled from rice (southern China) or sorghum (northern China)
There is a wonderful fruit market here at the local shopping center at work. The oranges on the left are sweet and seedless. The little yellow fruit on the right are mangoes, but I’m not sure of the cultivar name. There are hundreds, says Wikipedia. The little ones have the same tough skin, and taste the same as the bigger, rounder ones that have a red ‘blush’ .. that wild tropical mango taste. I have never quite grown fond of the way mangoes taste, though. Maybe I just have not eaten enough of them to appreciate them!
Tuesday is long gone in here in China (it’s 1.00pm Wednesday) – and almost gone in the USA. But the politicos at politico.com are posting up-to-the-minute tallies of the precincts in the outcome of the Republican primaries in the ten states of ‘Super Tuesday’. Wikipedia says the phrase Super Tuesday goes back at least to 1976 in US presidential primary elections. Right now the state of Ohio is most closely watched, where it’s a neck-and-neck race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.
Cycle Irina is churning off the South African coast and likely to remain over open water between Maputo and Richards Bay for the next 24 hours, says a weather report. So it makes for very rough seas and a marine storm surge on the coast. Currently : Wind: 55 MPH — Location: -29.4S 34.5E — Movement: S
Here's the fish. We don't know the name. It might be a flounder of some kind.
My colleague and I ordered fish for dinner at a restaurant here. A good bet is always one of the flat white fishes. They are quick to cook – you pick one from the fish tanks outside! And the bones stay in one piece. We are not sure if it’s a kind of flounder, or maybe a sole. The fish is very white inside when cooked, and it is served up with a sesame oil-soy sauce and a garnish of spring onion. Very tasty.
.. and here's the restaurant. The blue at the bottom are fish tanks with fish, shrimp and other shellfish.
Tokyo is making a bid for the 2020 Olympics, and there was a section about it on NHK TV. They hosted in 1964 and will be able to use some of the facilities after upgrading it – such as increasing the capacity of the 54,000-seat National Stadium to 80,000 seats.
Which other cities are putting in a bid? Here are all of them. Baku and Doha are certainly not as well known as the other three! Rome withdrew its bid after the government dropped its support, citing the financial difficulties of Italy and that the money is needed elsewhere.
Stellenbosch is smack bang in the middle of South Africa's wine country. Look for the Kleine Zalze estate to the right of the airstrip (aeroplane symbol)..My glass is almost empty! The Kleine Zalze is not a fancy Pinotage - it comes with a screw top - but we liked it well enough.
Three of us went to the Dameisha Sheraton for dinner, but this time in the Italian restaurant instead of in the lobby downstairs. And what wine did we have? A pinotage from the doorstep of my South African homestead Stellenbosch where I was a student, and lived for some time later on. Pinotage is probably South Africa’s signature red grape, around since 1925. Even so, some South African winemakers will not have it in their vineyards. Says Wikipedia : ‘A common complaint is the tendency to develop isoamyl acetate during winemaking which leads to a sweet pungency that often smells like paint’. Ouch.
This morning the air was foggy and the streets were soggy. I knew about the fog Thursday morning even before I rolled out of bed. A fog horn that must be close by on the coast sounded a few times in the night. Fog horns emit sounds at around 50 Hz, and humans can hear sounds between 20 Hz and at most 20 kHz. (Check out the cool animated picture of a sound wave that I found on line). And my research also found that blue whales can hear sounds as low as 5 Hz, while on the opposite end there is the Jamaican fruit bat, that can pick up ultrasound squeaks pitched at 130 kHz. Whoah Mr Bat! What fine ears you have!
(It’s actually early Thursday in the hotel in Dameisha). The pictures are all from the flight to Incheon airport in Seoul, and at the airport itself. Good news from North Korea is the announcement that the NK government has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile tests, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities.
My traditional Korean 'bibimbap' meal - before the rice, red pepper sauce and sesame oil have been added.Our circumspect approach to Incheon airport around North Korean territory.'Welcome to Korea' arrival sign as we were stepping off the plane and into the airport.Doll with traditional Korean dress in an airport restaurant's display window.Wednesday's weather in Korea. I love weather maps.I'm heading downstairs to gate 45 for the departure to Hong Kong.A Dunkin' Donuts. W 1,000 is about US 90c. (Americano is 'American coffee' : an espresso shot with hot water added).About to board the 747 that took us to Hong Kong.
I made it through security and now I’m waiting for my flight to Seoul. It looks like our flying machine is an Airbus A330-300. It’s 11 hrs to Incheon airport and then 4 hrs to Hong Kong for a late Wednesday night arrival. So the rest of my Tuesday is about to disappear in thin air and I will have to catch the outcome of the Michigan Republican primary election on the other side!
Location of Incheon International Airport on reclaimed land joining Yeongjong and Yongyu Islands. Source: Wikipedia.
I’m packing my bags for one more trip on Asiana Airlines to Hong Kong via South Korea’s Incheon airport (outside Seoul). Incheon airport was constructed over water about 1-3 meters (3 to 10 feet) deep. These types of airports are inevitably subject to some subsistence. Incheon’s is expected to be about 2.5 cm (1 inch) over the next 20 years. Hong Kong’s airport appears to be the best-engineered marine platform in the world and had hardly budged since 1998. Then there is Japan’s Kansai airport built over the sea 5 km off Osaka at a depth of 17-18 meters (56 to 59 feet). The world’s longest 2-tiered bridge connects it to the city nearby. It sinks 2 to 4 cm in any given year, so in 20 years’ time, it may sink 40 to 80 cm (16 to 33 inches). Yikes! .. however, the soil engineers from Osaka University are confident it will not sink completely into the ocean.
So what’s (really) old in film is new again with the 2011 silent French romantic comedy drama film The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, that took the Best Film award at this year’s Oscars. (The film already has a Golden Globe award and a French César Award). I read on-line that 80% of silent movies were destroyed when modern sound film (the ‘talkies’) started to take over in 1929.
Jean Dujardin as George Valentin won Best Actor. Here with co-star Uggie* as Jack (the dog) in the 2012 Best Film Academy Award winner 'The Artist'. *Uggie is a trained Jack Russel terrier, born in 2002. He is already famous for his roles in Mr. Fix It and Water for Elephants.
The 2012 Lunar New Year stamp issued by the US Postal Service.
I got some 2012 Lunar New Year stamps for my collection. The US Postal Service issued them as ‘forever’ stamps. Forever means there is no explicit price on (so the price can go up forever?). First Class postage might soon go from 45c to 50c .. so in theory, investors can make 11% overnight by buying a ton of stamps at 45c before the price goes up. (A little difficult to quickly dispose of the little paper investments).
On Thursday the USPS announced that it plans to shut 223 of its 461 mail-processing plants by February 2013. Maybe I should have mailed that property tax check after all ! The agency has gotten rid of about 140,000 jobs in the last five years, mainly through attrition, but still had about 650,000 workers at the end of 2011.
A sheet of the stamps. The designer is artist Kim Mak.
I braved the steady rain yesterday to go downtown and pay my property taxes. (I’m not putting a check for several thousand dollars in the mail!). The offices on 500 Fourth Ave have a diamond pattern on the exterior. And where does my money go? Only 17 cents on the dollar go to the county, and 50 cents to schools. Where in the country would property taxes be the highest? Westchester county in New York State. On this side of the country on the west coast it is Marin County in the San Francisco Bay area. The artwork is from a construction site close by. That must be an Ursus arctos horribilis (grizzly bear) with the American buffaloes (bison), but the curly clouds and background images are definitely Asian.
King County Administration building on 500 Fourth Ave, downtown Seattle.Artwork from across the street at a construction siteBreakdown of how King County property tax money is spentWestchester county in New York state has the country's highest property taxes.
The Singha beer is from the Jamjuree restaurant where my friends and I had some wonderful Thai food Thu night. The the ‘panda burgers’ are from Wednesday night’s Jay Leno Show. The prankster offered the product to people on the street (supposedly from a small area in China where it was legal to hunt them!). The first two passers-by just said ‘Sure! I’ll take a bite‘ and ‘Pretty good!’ . Finally a young woman said ‘Are these really panda burgers?’. But she was a sport and tasted the burger as well. Aww. Leave the panda bears alone. See how cute they are on the card from the World Wildlife Fund?
From the Jay Leno show on Wed night. The woman asks 'Are those really panda burgers?'The World Wildlife Fund uses the panda bear on its logo .. and this panda bear card from them have a 2012 pocket calendar on the back.
The Electric Light Orchestra sings that a cure’s been found for good old rocket lag (in 2095) in their song ‘Here is the News’. But hey – it’s only 2012. So travelers jetting across the world and I still have to make do with sleep remedies that are no silver bullet. Melatonin does not work for me – at least not the recommended 5 mg. I now use prescription zolpidem (generic ‘Ambien’) which is definitely effective to putting one to sleep, but for no more than 4 hours. I take it only for two or three nights, get up when I can no longer sleep, and then take a 2 hour nap later in those first few days. After that my body is up to its own devices to get fully adjusted! And how does the stuff work, anyway? Well, it’s a short-acting hypnotic that inhibits neurotransmission – brain activity – by binding at the same site as the brain’s natural inhibitor called GABA.
Zolpidem, as made by Israeli drug manufacturer TEVA
The stuff works quickly : in 15 mins! So not long before you start to drag and g o t o s l e e e p ..
I thought this picture below of a neuron was very cool (picture from Wikipedia’s entry for ‘neuron’). A neuron is an electrically excitable nerve cell that transmits signals. The connections between nerve cells are called synapses.
Diagram of a typical myelinated vertebrate motoneuron from Wikipedia's entry for 'neuron'.
President of the European Central Bank, Mario DraghiItalian prime minister Mario MontiStandard & Poor's recent ratings of the debt of European nations. Source : Wikipedia, search for 'European sovereign debt crisis'
Greece’s latest bailout has been approved by the European Union members : some €123bn. (Japan’s NHK TV put President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, and Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, in the outfits of the classic Nintendo video game Super Mario brothers*). The target is to reduce Greece’s debt to 120% of GDP by 2020. (Yikes). Count among the skeptics Germany, the Netherlands and Finland – given that derailments in Greece’s adherence to austerity measures have happened several times now.
So Greece’s finances are in terrible shape, but the whole of Eastern Europe, and the I’s : Italy, Ireland and Iceland, have have debt ratings of ‘speculative’ according to Standard & Poor’s.
*Pop quiz : what is Mario’s younger brother’s name? Answer – Luigi.
As a footnote, public debt in the USA at the end of 2011 was some $15 trillion, close to 100% of GDP. The Congressional Budget Office is worried about it, and during June 2011, called for ‘large and rapid policy changes to put the nation on a sustainable fiscal course’.
The third Monday of February is celebrated in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. (Yes, the official name for Presidents’ Day is Washington’s Birthday .. and his actual birth date was February 22, 1732). The Republican party’s candidates were out campaigning and I havesay most reasonable people will be taken aback by some arguments being made. Rick Santorum actually compares President Obama to Adolf Hitler, saying that Americans at that time waited 18 months before acting against Hitler thinking ‘he’s not that bad’. And this is a guy now leading/ on a par with Mitt Romney among Republicans in Michigan for the state’s upcoming Feb 28 Republican primary. Romney’s father George was chairman and president of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, and the 43rd Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.
