Off to the woods for the weekend. Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Will return late Monday, and classes begin Tuesday.

Washington Week with Gwen Ifil is going to be at GWU on September 5th, when I saw the ad for free tickets on WETA I emailed them right away to see if any were still available. They came in yesterday. I'm so excited!


 Sorry it's fuzzy, I used my phone.

To the Hilary supporters who are not happy with the fact that Obama didn't choose her for his V.P., I'm sorry, but for the love of god, get over it. We need to learn from the Republicans and untie. We need to unite behind the Obama/Biden ticket, even if we don't like everything about them, because they really are the best choice.

 

The dining room set cam in today, the delivery guys were four hours late and I told them that I wasn't amused, they blamed the office for telling me they'd be there between 9 - 12, and that they shouldn't have done so. Whatever, I don't care, my dining set's here, and I put it together.

The fact that the Olympics are a ratings bonanza in China comes as no surprise to me, Chinese TV as a whole is crap. The programs center around a few themes (Song Dynasty, World War II and Malcolm in the Middle/Friends ripoffs). Our friends would complain about how bad programs were and most of them would download American programs because they hate what's available to them. So of course the Olympics are getting high ratings, it's a welcome alternative to what's currently available.

I'm so excited, I just got a call from JCPenney asking when they can deliver our new dining room set. It's our anniversary present from my parent.s


(We got it in blue.) It'll be in Saturday morning.

It's so purdy!!!

And you thought "re-education" camps were a thing of the past...

To Women Sentenced to 'Re-Education' in China

The women in question, are 77 and 79. Way to go China. I bet you feel proud now.

Just read this in the NY Times.

Hua Guofeng, Mao's Successor, Dies

Filed at 8:11 a.m. ET

BEIJING (AP) -- Hua Guofeng, who briefly ruled China as communist founder Mao Zedong's successor but was pushed aside as a prelude to reforms that launched an economic boom, died Wednesday at the age of 87, state-run media reported.

State broadcaster CCTV said that Hua died of an unspecified illness.

He took power after Mao's death in September 1976, but saw his powers erode until Deng Xiaoping took control two years later. Hua was forced out as Communist Party chairman in 1981 and slipped into obscurity.

In contrast to the harsh purges of earlier eras, when fallen leaders were banished to remote villages, Hua remained part of the inner circle as a member of the party's Central Committee.

Shortly after Hua took power, Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, and other members of the Gang of Four were arrested, marking the end of the violent 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. But it wasn't clear whether Hua played any part in the arrests.

When he was forced out as party leader in 1981, one stated reason was that Hua had continued to espouse the ultraradical ideals of the Cultural Revolution.

Little is known about Hua's final years. Some reports said he resigned from the party for health reasons in 2001, the year he turned 80, but the government didn't confirm that.

Born to a poor family in 1921, Hua became a guerrilla fighter in Mao's communist movement at 15 when it was battling for survival against Chiang Kai-shek's ruling Nationalists.

After the 1949 revolution, Hua served in provincial government and party posts until he was named to the Central Committee in 1969. He became party secretary of Hunan, Mao's home province, the following year.

Hua was named vice premier in 1975 and then premier, succeeding the late Zhou Enlai.

After Mao's death, as rival factions struggled for power, Hua became a compromise candidate to head the party. Mao was said to have told him, ''With you in charge, I'm at ease.''

Hua was described in the official press as ''the wise'' leader, a step below Mao, the former ''great leader.''

When Hua took power, China was in the grip of the Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao as an attack on potential rivals. Millions were persecuted while the economy was pushed to the brink of collapse.

The arrests of the Gang of Four symbolically ended the era of upheaval and self-imposed isolation.

Hua made a highly publicized trip to Eastern Europe in 1978 and visited Britain the next year.

But Deng, who saw Hua as an obstacle to his economic plans, already was maneuvering to replace him. Deng had been purged in Mao's final years but was restored to his official posts in July 1977.

Hua was effectively stripped of his powers at a party meeting in December 1978. The same gathering approved Deng's ''reform and opening'' policy legalizing small-scale private farms, the first step in what became China's successful capitalist reform program.

Hua resigned as premier in September 1980 and was replaced by economist Zhao Ziyang, a Deng protege. The following year, Deng had Hua replaced as party secretary general by Hu Yaobang.

Both Zhao and Hu would later be dismissed by Deng -- Hu in the mid-1980s after he was blamed for allowing student protests and Zhao after the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations.

Early state media reports credited Hua with presiding over the downfall of the Gang of Four.

But by February 1979, papers quoted him as saying he wanted the ''wise leader'' tag dropped. In December 1980, he no longer was credited with the ''Gang of Four'' arrest.

Dear Lester Holt,

You're a smart man, you're a well respected news anchor for NBC. So for the love of god will you please learn how to pronounce Chinese names correctly?

W-A-N-G is pronounced Wong. How would you like it if someone kept pronouncing your name incorrectly over and over again on national television? You'd probably get annoyed. So please take the time to learn how to pronounce names correctly, otherwise people may think you really don't care about your subjects.

Kind Regards,
Caren

As someone who worked with people in the aging community during, as well as seeing how aging has affected those around me, I think this program is a wonderful idea and should be expanded and encouraged.

Simulating Age 85, With Lessons on Offering Care

Does this article really surprise anyone?

No Permits, No Protests in Beijing's Special 'Pens'

I'm pretty naive but even I could see from a thousand miles away that they were going to use the protest registrations against the applicants. Grrrrr

I'm so angry with China, my anger is being fuiled by the fact that I'm reading Red China Blues by Jan Wong. I'm at the part where she's describing her first hand account of the Tienanmen Square Massacre and it's aftermath.

These are things my (former) students will never learn about.

Great article on the fast-food ban in Los Angeles:

Popeyes Didn't Do It

I'll believe it when I see it; the CCP  has too much to lose by allowing a freer access to media.

Openness to media 'will stay' after the Olympics

It's been a little over a week since moving back to the DC area. We're almost settled into our new apartment; there are a few things scattered around the apartment that we're not sure where to put due to lack of shelves.

I love my apartment, it's big and because it faces south gets sun all day, which is important in helping to keep my mood stable.(I could never live in the Scandinavian countries, even though I'd love to because of all their great social programs, the lack of sunlight in winter would do me in.)

Although yesterday I wasn't loving it very much. Over the weekend we finished unpacking our clothes and I spent Saturday morning washing things that had been in storage for two years. Once everything was clean and dry I put the closet in order (in my anal retentive way). Yesterday morning, I went in to grab a shirt and as I was tossing it on the bed I noticed a HUGE cockroach on it. I screamed like a little girl. The cockroach started crawling on the bed, underneath the mattress. I had to tear the bed apart, flip the mattress off the frame and chase the f*cker. I bashed it at least five times with a piece of heavy cardboard I was lucky enough to have lying around. But the the damn thing WOULDN'T DIE. Luckily enough I was able to stun it enough to allow me to get it on the cardboard and flush it down the toilet.

The incident freaked me out so much so that I had to sleep with the lights on last night for fear of waking up with one crawling on me. Thank goodness there were no more creepycrawlies, because if there were it might have put me over the edge.

I hate cockroaches.

...with my new phone

Niels & I got the sleeper sofa and loveseat last night with awesome help from Matt. We found them on Craig's List and are really happy with them. Once I dig out the camera I'll post photos of them and the new place.

From the New York Times

Beijing by the Numbers

By AUSTIN KELLEY

1,200,000 — Broadcast revenue, in dollars, earned by the International Olympic Committee for the 1960 Rome Olympics, the first widely televised Games.

1,737,000,000 — I.O.C. broadcast revenue, in dollars, for the Beijing Olympics.

9,500,000,000 — Amount, in dollars, spent on stadiums and infrastructure ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

40,000,000,000 — Amount, in dollars, spent on stadiums and infrastructure ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

16,330,000 — Permanent residents of Beijing as of 2007.

14,901 — Residents relocated to make way for Olympic venues, according to a Beijing municipal official.

1,500,000 — People evicted to make way for Olympic venues and infrastructure, according to a human-rights group.

80,000 — Meals per day to be served by the Olympic Village’s 24-hour catering service during peak times.

25,000 — Pounds of non-Chinese “lean protein” that Tyson Foods is shipping to Beijing for the United States Olympic delegation.

940 — McDonald’s restaurants in China where the China Mac, a burger marinated in black-pepper sauce, has been introduced in advance of the Olympics.

170 — Pages in the Chinese government’s list of official English translations of Chinese menu items, part of an attempt to steer restaurants away from traditional translations such as “chicken without sexual life” and “pockmarked-old-lady’s tofu” to more tamely named dishes like “steamed pullet” and “Mapo tofu.”

2,008 — Bus shelters in Beijing bearing advertisements for Coca-Cola, the official soft drink of the Olympic Games.

5’ 4” — Minimum height requirement for young women to be selected as Olympic medal presenters.

4,104 — Chinese children given the name “Aoyun,” meaning “Olympic Games,” as of June.

353,000 — Amount of rainwater, in cubic feet, that can be saved annually by the roof and the surrounding paved areas of the “Water Cube” swimming venue for use inside the building.

14,000,000,000 — Amount of “emergency” water, in cubic feet, diverted to reservoirs in the neighboring Hebei Province, exacerbating drought conditions.

21,000,000,000 — Amount spent, in dollars, for environmental improvements in Beijing since 1998, including shuttering factories, taking high-emission cars off the road and switching from coal burners to natural gas.

150 — Scientists and volunteers conducting drug tests at the Beijing Games.

4,500 — Approximate number of drug tests that will be conducted.

10,708 — Athletes expected to compete in Beijing.

12,177 — Population of Tuvalu, the smallest nation participating in the Olympics.

1,300,000,000 — Population of China, the largest nation participating in the Olympics.

28 — Age at which a male Chinese Olympic athlete is reportedly permitted to marry; female Olympians may marry at 26.

67,000 — Taxicab drivers subject to inspections ahead of the Olympics. Organizers want to curb inhospitable traits such as body odor and garlic breath.

6 — Types of foreigners prohibited from visiting Beijing during the Games, including (4) those suffering from mental disorders or insanity, and (6) those who “might engage in any acts that threaten the security or interests of China.”

100,000 — Members of antiterrorism force expected to be deployed for the Games.

300,000 — High-tech public-surveillance cameras in Beijing at the time of the Games.

3,000 — High-tech public-surveillance cameras to be operational in Manhattan by 2010.

5 — Years the Chinese activist Yang Chunlin was sentenced to prison in March 2008 for organizing a 2007 petition titled “We Want Human Rights, Not the Olympics.” Chang was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power.”

Niels and I are now "offically" back in the D.C. area. After a weekend at Chez D&S we moved into our new place Monday afternoon.

Like most moves, this one sucked, but it could have been worse, it could have rained but didn't. Thank heveans for that because I might have shot myself had it rained. The parking lot was being repaved which meant we couldn't use the loading dock and had to instead  to move in through the main entrance. It wouldn't have been bad except there are three stairs in the lobby that lead to the elevators. Instead of just carting everything up, we had to unload into the lobby and then cart things up.

Additionally people needed the elevators so it doubled our unloading time. A two hour unloading turned into four, but my brother and his wife came to help (they are AWESOME). In addition they gave us a bedroom set that they were getting rid of (have I mentioned how much they rock) and now our bedroom actually looks a little grown up.

We don't have much furniture, because we got rid of it all prior to leaving two years ago, so the palce is looking pretty empty. We're hoping to get a couch & loveseat this evening thanks to Craig's List. (Keep your finger's crossed)  

It still feels a little strange, I lived in D.C. for 8 years prior to leaving but this time it feels new. Hard to explain it.

My bill came in over the weekend for grad school, it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to take an undergrad class, to fulfill a language requirement.My undergrad class is over $1000 more than all three of my grad classes combined. How screwed up is that?? It's no wonder people can't afford to get a BA.

Arrived in D.C. this morning, and started my first day back at the university. I don't have a work space which is fine, but I also don't have a copy code, which is not because I can't begin doing any of my tasks without it! oops!