December 2009
25 posts
Amazing Mental Math Insight of the Day
“As I think I have told you in the past, my father always stressed to me the importance of being able to do math in your head. This has turned out to be good advice for me and I have been a collector of “tricks” over time to help me be faster at it.
Example: knowing all the pairs of numbers that multiply to 100 (or thereabouts). As a result of this knowledge, I never waste a moment...
Excerpt
“I’ve got something to tell you, but I don’t know if I should,” said Gong Hao. “It’s OK, what is it?” “You’re going to think I’m stingy.” Gong Hao isn’t used to either drinking beer or hanging out with foreigners, so he was a little nervous. “Now you have to tell me.” “Well, I had a long talk with my professor about this. I’ve given you eight files, right? Well, there are two more recordings....
Nice work, Women!
Women and work | We did it!
Dec 30th 2009 From The Economist print edition
The rich world’s quiet revolution: women are gradually taking over the workplace.
AT A time when the world is short of causes for celebration, here is a candidate: within the next few months women will cross the 50% threshold and become the majority of the American workforce. Women already make up the majority of...
PREACH, H.WANG.
romachic:
This is a hilarious summary of the confused minds of Chinese people (from China Herald).
What do you want from us?
When we were called “sick man of Asia”, we were called peril. When we billed to be the next superpower, we’re called the threat
When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open markets. when we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs.
when we’re...
All you ever needed to know about Chinese Energy
Analysis of China’s energy import and export
26 March 2007 Xinhua News Agency BEIJING - China has become one of the world’s important countries in energy products trade. — The proportion of China’s oil trade in the world is on the rise. The country’s net import of energy amounted to 169.45 million tons of standard coal, accounting for 7.6 percent of the energy...
BBC World Service - 10/05/2009 - The Forum →
MEET THE GUESTS
British novelist AS Byatt transports us back to the eve of the First World War to discuss the lures, dangers and deceptions inherent in the world of children’s writing, just one of the subjects covered in her multi-layered novel, The Children’s Book.
Russian born conductor Semyon Bychkov believes there can be total harmony in music and explains why he thinks there...
Random Musing
How is it that two of the three biggest government spending programs—Social Security and Medicare (the third being Medicaid)—are services for the elderly? Not to sound callous but, do the elderly really deserve that money more than other groups, say, children, or the poor? Economics is all about making trade-offs, making decisions about how to allocate finite resources among...
F^3 = F Cubed = FINALLY F***ING FINISHED
Awkward moment of the day
Having a conversation about how the recent spike in autism cases across America was likely due to the fact that mild cases used to be under-reported…with somebody I strongly suspect has a mild, undiagnosed case of autism.
Have fun at the Expo!
Dancing and Music. Shanghai flames with millions of flashing jewels at midnight. The centre of nightlife is a vast crucible of electric flame.
The throb of the jungle tom-tom; the symphony of lust; the music of a hundred orchestras; the shuffling of feet; the swaying of odies,; the rhythm of abandon; the hot smoke of desire under the floodlights; it’s all fun; it’s life.
Joy,...
“…a riot of wild architectural hats—levitating, spiky, jagged, like...”
– my new hero Christopher Choa, describing the Pudong skyline
Overheard at Tufts
Same fireman, five minutes later:
“What’s a ‘dreidel’”?
Overheard at Tufts
A 300-pound fireman, with a thiiiick Boston accent:
“We’d bettah find a little boy’s room…[contemplative pause]…or else I’m gonnah go pee-pee in my pants.”
Overheard at Tufts
[casually] “It’s not that it wasn’t memorable, it’s just that I was blacked the fuck out.”
TOP TEN CHINA MYTHS OF 2009
Posted by Evan Osnos
China in 2009 was the land we all hoped it would be: the enemy, the friend, the brilliant tactician, the bumbling oaf. China is such a mix of strength and weakness these days that it provides endless material for opportunistic arguments. Here are the top ten myths about China in 2009 and how they fared:
China’s carmakers will never range far beyond their borders. Fact: It...
“An increase in the specific excise tax of RMB1 on a pack of cigarettes would...”
– Tobacco Taxation and its Potential Impact in China, a 2008 paper produced by four US and Chinese researchers and academics. Story.
Incomplete Manifesto
Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. Collectively, they are how we approach every project. 1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience...
For your socially conscious Christmas shopping. .... →
The IGL, for whom I work, helped start this place. So there’s my plug. (Four syllables, in every clause!)
Trendy Art →
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