@JanJal: Okay, I take your points - although I don't see how greed has kept us from war - in fact it hasn't, there are wars in many places - anyway it's impossible to change the past. As for stability, elites ruin it both among nations and within them, sooner or later, and it seems obvious to me that this can't go on into the future, which is really the only important question.
I could go on, but I know I'm drifting from the topic at hand.
@Mike: I agree with you about everyone losing with a 'rogue' nuke owning state, but the terminology of 'rogue state' masks a lot of bs, similar to the division of the world between 'free world' and...enslaved or communist or whatever term has been used by US leaders since about 1945. Is the US a rogue state? I leave the question open. And I think that we have all been losing since nukes were first created to arm maniacally-paranoid 'big boys', as well as others, in the defense of the competitive economic greed that runs the planet, sponsored in virtually every way by those who are benefiting from it...
OK, we're trailing away from the point here, mea culpa - but my point is, none of these bastards can be trusted - and that is not paranoia.
@ Geezer: True, but business folks have a tendency to take a short-term view, and so are not always concerned with the consequences. Bird in hand, etc.
This sort of thing scares me more than Kim, because Kim is not going to start a war, and the US government has demonstrated, many times in the recent and not-quite-recent past, that it is willing to do so, and there's no doubt that it's got a large plurality, or perhaps majority, of the world's nukes.
Should be easy to buy a train ticket in Shilin, although perhaps not as easy during the week beginning May 1, International Worker's Day. If not, I think there will be a lot of buses.
Social cooperation is also hard-wired into the individuals of an innately social species such as ourselves, without which the individuals of our species would not have survived to pass on any genes..Rouseau's 'noble savage' never existed, both he and Hobbes were wrong.
There are economic issues concerning education in China for very poor communities, which obviously need a bigger share of the economic pie than they are getting. Yet China's 'socialist market economy' is increasing the overall level of economic resources within China.
What's wrong with this picture?
Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.
As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.
Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.
China hands out happy city awards, Kunming sad
Posted bySocial cooperation is also hard-wired into the individuals of an innately social species such as ourselves, without which the individuals of our species would not have survived to pass on any genes..Rouseau's 'noble savage' never existed, both he and Hobbes were wrong.
China hands out happy city awards, Kunming sad
Posted bySubjective reports of happiness mean something, but I'm not sure what.
Kunming smells part II: The good, the bad and the ugly
Posted byYou get used to it all after awhile, as most of Kunming's 7 million inhabitants surely have.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
Posted by@nnoble: don't follow - who or what is rotting? I can think of various candidates, but I'm not sure which one you're talking about.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
Posted byThere are economic issues concerning education in China for very poor communities, which obviously need a bigger share of the economic pie than they are getting. Yet China's 'socialist market economy' is increasing the overall level of economic resources within China.
What's wrong with this picture?