Windows for Warships nears frontline service

For a Type 45 to be even vaguely worth having, you really do need five-nines, rock-solid dependability. A 90 per cent punt won't do here. Against six sea skimmers, that equates to only a 53 per cent chance of survival.

Wealth managers: The new masters of the universe

Catching up with the Joneses

Al Qaeda has a China problem

Al Qaeda has a China problem, and no one is watching. Despite al Qaeda’s significant efforts to support Muslim insurgents in China, the Chinese government has succeeded in limiting popular support for anti-government violence.

When She Makes More Money Than He

At $45 Billion, New Contender for Top Buyout - New York Times

Two Nobel laureates sit down and talk about the dangers of today

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China's lost talent overseas

YouTube - Real battle field video from Chinese Army (1984) part 1 of 7

Documentary. About The Second Sino-Vietnam war of 1984-1989. Part 1 of 7. The series shows the team taking a hill in 15 minutes.

Sarfraz Manzoor: When art imitates life

on memoirs

EditGrid - New Online Spreadsheet, Better Than Google Spreadsheets

I use it; its pretty nice.

Congress to FCC: You've got some splainin' to do

Google defeated in Belgian copyright case; everyone but Google loses

Ma Ying-jeou resigns

My guess, the DPP controlled judiciary will find Ma guilty, sentence him to maximum number of years in jail, therefore giving the DPP victory in the next election.

don't want to sleep yet but must in order to wake up early. can't wake up early because I am forcing myself to lie in bed

If GRRM were to write the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree, it would be the greatest story of all time. Until then...

His is the song of ice and fire

What makes a master?

A Chinese air conditioner tycoon

A singing workforce, Mongolian millionaires in Porsches, and saving the planet—inside the empire of a Chinese tycoon with more than money on his mind

Zhang has never wavered from this technology, even when, in the early 2000s, market conditions temporarily turned against it and his sales force begged him to add normal, electric-powered air conditioners to Broad’s offerings. Its advantages all involve energy savings. Compared with typical compression systems, nonelectric air-conditioning as Broad makes it will always require less energy per unit of cooling, because when energy is converted from one form to another, some of it is lost. Electric-compression cooling requires more stages of conversion—fossil fuel to electricity at the power plant, electricity to mechanical power at the compressor, both stages very wasteful—than does using natural gas to boil liquid. Nonelectric cooling will also always be more adaptable to other sources of energy, since it is easier to apply a variety of heat sources, including solar power and biomass burning, to do the boiling than to use them to generate electricity in a remote plant and transmit it to the air-conditioning site. And this method of cooling helps reduce the costly peak loads imposed on the power grid, because natural gas is cheapest and most abundant in the summer, exactly when the demand for air- conditioning goes up. Indeed, since storing natural gas is expensive and difficult, in many countries the available gas is simply burned off—wasted—during the summer, when no one needs it for heating. In China, air-conditioning accounts for as much as 50 percent of the electric load during peak times in the summer. Zhang pointed out to me—as he has noted in countless speeches, and as is emphasized by the Harvard Business School case study—that with all of these advantages, his kind of air-conditioning can make both the electric and the natural-gas networks less wasteful while still keeping people cool in the summer. And while we’re at it: the nonelectric systems use a relatively benign natural salt (lithium bromide) rather than using—and inevitably releasing—Freon and other chlorine-based products that erode the Earth’s ozone layer.

Chinese refusal to recognise the authority of the Vatican is an "act of war", Hong Kong's cardinal tells the BBC.

Er, ok.

I think the cry of English kings down the centuries was, "Who runs Britain - the government or the Vatican?" Or in this case, "Who runs China - the government or the Vatican?"

Costume dramas sing the main theme

As Ming Dynasty 1566 was being broadcast, an official in SARFT's TV show department revealed that starting in February and lasting for at least eight months, all cable TV stations would have to broadcast "main theme" television shows during prime time. As the news circulated, many local stations expressed confusion over the concept, not understanding where the line would be drawn - for example, would Ming Dynasty 1566 be considered main theme? Subsequently, an official at SARFT explained that "main theme" should be interpreted broadly, that it would primarily be a look at the value orientation of a show; as long as a show had a positive, uplifiting attitude toward life and expressed desirable emotions, there would, in general, be no problems. This could be a very innovative definition. Judging from this interpretation, Ming Dynasty 1566 ought to fall under the "main theme."

This is not an imperial drama that preaches reverence for royal power. What it describes is not the "rise of a great nation," but rather the lessons of a great nation's fall. This is the critical era when feudal Chinese society moved from prosperity into decline. Here, we see the corruption of the political system and the loss of humanity, we see the rulers issuing decrees and the insecurity of the common people, and we see the long-absent Hai Rui - he lambasted the emperor, was dismissed from office, and 400 years later even became the fuse that set off the Cultural Revolution - at odds with the bureaucratic system. The show discovers the impotence of morality yet praises moral beauty. It seems to lead us to believe that the just, upright, filial Hai Rui is the backbone of the Chinese people, a representative of outstanding culture, the hope of modern China. There is no question that the Hai Rui of Ming Dynasty 1566 is yet another performance of the "main theme" of the traditional spirit of the Chinese people.

However, in that age of exploding population, a calcified system, slack law enforcement, and an insular country, regardless of how pure or corrupt the officials or how worthy or foolish the emperor, the sun would ultimately set on the massive, once-flourishing empire that had exhausted its potential. Hai Rui used a Puritan-like moral self-discipline and lofty ideals as instruments to transform society, intervening in land rights, placing limits on the brutal gentry, and controlling corruption, but ultimately things could not be repaired, and things even turned out contrary to his desires. Morality evidently cannot replace the rule of law; public opinion cannot replace the rule of law; severe penal codes cannot represent a true legal system. Hai Rui used all his strength to sound the "main theme," but it was the "Guangling Melody"* of the old era, and ultimately never entered the powerful current of modernity.

The Kingdom of This World

In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no grandeur to be won, inasmuch as there all is an established hierarchy, the unknown is revealed, existence is infinite, there is no possibility of sacrifice, all is rest and joy. For this reason, bowed down by suffering and duties, beautiful in the midst of his misery, capable of loving in the midst of afflictions and trials, man finds his greatness, his fullest measure, only in the Kingdom of This World

Disappointed by 龙应台's writings. She seems to think that Chinese people are sheep incapable of thinking or acting for themselves and therefore must be guided like children (shown in 中国人，你为什么不生气？）.

She also helped promulgate the stereotype that Shanghainese men (and of course by extension - Chinese men) are effeminate.

This reminds of me of something in our 12th grade AP U.S. history book. It mentioned an American female (anti)feminist who urge women to wait for their husbands to get home from work by wearing an apron, "and that's all!".

Ok, the comparison is a bit crude and comic. So are 龙应台's writings.

Prejudice for all

Stereotypes of Chinese people from different regions of the country.