My favorite thing about being here is the cafeteria.  You saw all the posts in the beginning of my time here regarding the food.  Refer to the old posts for the pictures.  What I did not realize was how much I was going to miss the food people when they went on vacation.  To make things worse, some of my favorite food people are not back yet and I cannot tell if this is because I have not seen them, they have decided not to come back, and/or they moved someplace else.

What I have now realized is that Coke is a miracle syrup even though if it no longer has cocaine as an active ingredient.  When I was younger my mom insisted that warm coke would help with coughs because our pediatrician stated that the syrup coats the back of your throat and therefore reduces the coughing.  I actually believed that prior to the studies that came out 10 years later stating that sasafrass in root beer and the corn syrup in soft drinks actually do help sooth coughs.

What I did not expect to see was the Chinese variation served in the cafeteria and in restaurants.  Coke cooked with ginger and served to prevent colds, the flu, and other cold weather illnesses.  Coke should probably do a study on this to reclaim market share back from Pepsi in China.  Seriously, there is more Pepsi now than there was previously and I am not a fan.

Current Mood:  Weather here is getting warming and feeling better.  Class lecture is now modified according to my friend’s very good but it took a long time to execute well.  So far so good.  Still need to deal with the tax situation.  Blah.

This was the first time I have ever had the saline drip treatment in a hospital minus when you come in and out of surgery.  Apparently, it is really common if you are ill in China to go and get your medication directly IV’ed into your veins.  It is our version of getting antibiotics from the doctors when you are sick.

Anyhow, the two doctors I saw today at intake were really awesome and worked with me. Turns out that I have some sort of infection in the chest now because I let the cold go on way too long but exactly what kind of infection I am not sure.  So the doctors decided that I needed to go on a saline drip because I have been sick for weeks.

The saline drip experience was eye opening.  You first go to the payment window and hand them the prescription that you need.  Afterwards you head to the pharmacy and pick up these vials of bicarbonate something or other – basically a white powder with some sort of metal in it.  You then head to the treatment room.

There are all these students, elderly people, teachers, and staff sitting in a room with these metal hooks suspended from the ceiling to hold the saline bags with whatever kind of medication a doctor can prescribe to you.  The nurses look at the prescription and then inject some of your saline into the bottles with white powder and shake it up.  Then the materials are re-injected into the large saline bottle which has the rubber stopper seals, wiped with iodine – so no need to worry about introducing contaminants.

You go and choose a seat and everyone either plays with their cell phones, chats with their friends, and/or watches the Chinese soap operas on the television.  I got to see what some of the most popular Chinese dramas were this afternoon as the older people had their heads glued to the show.  Very different from the 24 news cycle that we have in the states in waiting rooms.  Also very different since strangers do not talk to each other in the waiting area and commiserate over their illnesses and treatments – although I was told today that maybe its a New Yorker thing to talk to anyone and everyone.

The drip itself was interesting because at first I thought my taste buds were dying.  There was this weird metallic taste in my mouth after about five minutes of the drip.  A nurse and the person sitting next to me had to assure me that this was normal.  So if you ever do a medical drip in China, remember to bring candy.  This is how I figured out that the powdered solution had some sort of metal.  I assumed the powder also had some sort of bicarbonate because it fizzed when mixed with other solutions.

So these drip treatments usually occur for three days.  When the nurses and the other people in the treatment room were telling me that you feel the effects almost immediately, at first I was skeptical.  However, I have to say that while I am feeling tired right now, my coughing is much better and I feel more alert.  So now I feel stupid for not listening to my Chinese friends sooner and asking for the drip.

Now as for the cost.  Today’s medical treatment cost me about 150 yuan.  I had an x-ray, a medical consult, blood work, and a saline drip with prescription medication.  No wonder people do not want to leave any university position.  Health care for students and university staff is extremely affordable and pretty good.

While it was a little bit of a struggle for me to communicate my medical issues with my baby Chinese, because the staff were so good about it, I did not have to travel to the international health center 2-2.5 hours away from me.  Thank God my Fulbright host way back when forced me to learn a little bit of Mandarin even though I could get around without it.

Current Mood: Thankful for past language learning hardships and for the nice people I met today.  There was even an elderly lady who pointed out that my drip bag was done because I would have kept sitting there and missed my chance to go to run some errands.  Hoping that tomorrow’s trip to find out about salary payment, official tax forms for the IRS, and my first day of class goes just as well.

I think that it is very interesting that the news cycle in 2016 is helping me prove my principles and resulting policy beliefs left and right.

So remember the post about how I thought it was weird that some other professors here claimed that the US had already solved their legal environmental and food safety issues and I thought they were off their rocker?

See the following article which shows that the U.S. and its companies need to be constantly vigilant against food security and environmental compliance issues.

Mars recalls chocolate in 55 countries – http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35642075

California methane leak ‘largest in US history’ – http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35659947

While I love the idea of maintaining gun rights for U.S. citizens, remember how I posted that guns do not belong on school grounds?  Even some long time Texans who love their guns, agree.  For goodness sake, when you have to tell your staff not to talk about anything controversial in case a student has a gun and acts like a child or a Republican Presidential candidate and acts out for no good reason, you are totally screwed.

University of Texas dean to quit over gun law – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35673426

To my friends who thought that my idea of throwing away the lawnmower in my house and buying a pet goat instead, see even the politicians in Oregon thought it might be a good idea.  Unfortunately, there was no way to tell the goats to differentiate the weeds and invasive species from the native plants and the public hates the barnyard smell.  I think that Oregon employed too many goats – 75 seems much.  Even I only thought 2-5 at the most so you can coral them from the good plants and things you wanted saved as goats eat anything…

Oregon scraps goat landscaping scheme due to cost and smell – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35676221

Current Mood: You can tell I have been sick for a few weeks.  Have way too much time to read the news stories of late and think about how to incorporate or rethink about incorporating these schemes in my daily life.

For those of you who do not enough about the American Political Party Mascots, the Republicans are Elephants and the Democrats are Donkeys.  Now you know why the article below is so hysterical for those of us who like political debates.  If you saw the sorry state of the Republican Presidential Candidate Debates last night and the commentary the morning after – the comments are hysterically funny and scary all at the same time.  One of the guest speakers on Real Time With Bill Maher said it best, “These two figures are trying to out ignorant each other.  Worry about the make up and the sweat.  If the Republicans are suppose to be the adults in the room, I am scared of the insane asylum that has been revealed by their lack of maturity and they are proud of that they are unmolested by enlightenment.”

So aside from the political commentors, there are also Republican Party Members such as Lindsey Graham who have stated that the party is imploding with insanity and that Arizona senator Jeff Flake, posted a video of elephants charging him on Twitter, saying: “These elephants have no respect for a fellow Republican. No respect I tell ya.”

Elephants charge at US senator in Mozambique – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35674355

Current Mood:  Above says it all

During Chinese New Years and even now, there are lots of military police in the train stations wandering in and out which I see as a good thing for the most part.  I thought they would be gone by now but they were still there the other day.  The taxi driver told me that it is because the holiday rush is not over yet – students are still getting back to school in some cases.

What I did find surprising about my time in the train station was the fact that a guy was wearing a black earring in his left ear in Wuhan.  As far as I can tell people here are more conservative than the other more cosmopolitan cities in China.  I was trying to decide if I could go up and ask him about it but then he turned tail and ran after his friend bought the train ticket and he was up ahead.

So in terms of earrings when I was younger, there were the rebels and the gay piercings for ears.  My best gay friend from stateside wears a black stud in his left ear so I was wondering if this was a trend everywhere or if it was just in China.

Went online to look for pop culture references as most of my friends make fun of my lack of pop culture awareness unless it is in the arts.  (I am still trying to catch up on the last two seasons of Breaking Bad, last three seasons of Weeds, never watched Game of Thrones, and did not realize that Stephen Colbert took over on Late Night until a few weeks ago).  Anyhow, I found posts from eight years ago which stated that the left ear meant you were gay, that the right ear was gay subservient, the left ear was gay dominant, and that fashion dictates that a man can wear an earring in any ear.

Basically, I am now glad that I did not walk up to the guy and tell him that he was very brave and independent in expressing his sexuality.  Now of course, this happened Thursday morning so now I notice all these articles about gay rights and issues so they are posted below.

Italy gay rights: Senate backs watered-down civil union bill – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35664441

Why a gay Indian professor’s death inspired a film – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35638215

Current Mood: Appalled at the current state of the world in that people are barging into homes filming people and then thinking that this is okay.  Glad but also sad that  wealthy or well known people are getting justice for these crimes – see the news stories where Erin Andrews (sports newscaster) is finally getting her day in court to sue this crazy random stranger who modified portions of her hotel door peephole so that he could take pictures of her coming out of the shower with his cell phone and posted it on the internet for everyone to see.  Crazy guy that she did not know followed her to 3 different hotels in the US before he got his tape. Good thing she is well known and felt like she had options or she might have killed herself like the Indian Professor did.

An issue near and dear to my heart due to personal experience.  Crazy stalkers are actually really common in the U.S. thanks to the increase in technology affordability and availability.  I find it interesting that most of the stories reported on cyberstalking and/or harrassers in the U.S. is usually someone who is educated and in a position of power.  For example see the head lawyer from the Netflix Documentary the Making of a Murderer or the Attorney who use to work in the DA’s office.  See one of the more recent cases where a former DA was using a girl’s naked photos to troll for men on the net – he did not even know the girl.  http://mobile.bergendispatch.com/default.aspx?p=articles&news=37689746&title=Attorney-Among-Two-Charged-With-Cyber-Harrassment-Stalking-A-Bergen-County-Woman.

What I did not realize that this has become an international issue until I read the bbc news article and came to the UN Women’s report.  These articles should be required reading for all the people in law enforcement and also in schools.  I love how there is a large discussion on the need to validate a woman’s feelings that somethings is going on.  Most interesting is the fact that many women do not realize they are being stalked and when they do, people turn around and say how did you not know.  Most of the victims do not even know who their cyber attackers are and apparently there are even mobs of people who are really into some sort of outrage due to things as simple as a post to as bad as doctored revenge porn photos.

Well maybe things will get better. When I was in DC, this strange man had followed me for about a block or two before I realized that he was yelling my name – as usual I had my headphones on.  Only took them off to buy something from a street vendor.  The crazy many with a child in tow then said my name and I turned around and said, “Hi you know my name but I have no idea who you are.  Introduce yourself.”  This seemed to take him aback.  When I tried to report this to the DC police the female officer told me that next time I just need to call 911 when that happens.  Easier said than done when I generally don’t carry a cell phone 🙁  Also does not help me if the crazy attacks me while I call the cops.  (This was years ago).  However, he did seemed weirded out enough after that incident to leave me alone since i never saw him again.

Overall though, at least she seemed nice about it.  When I had spoken to someone in my local precient in NYC more recently about this guy that was harassing me, they asked me for proof which is completely unhelpful since I only had a journal for the days that he popped by at work and near my home and on the express bus once or twice.  Not sure what else I could have done as the whole point was this crazy dude was following me around and I did not know who he was.  (More recent).  After I did try to take a picture of him at my bus stop, he did leave me alone, so all was well.

http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2015/cyber_violence_gender%20report.pdf?v=1&d=20150924T154259

Giving Names to Online Harrassment – http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35600228

wwc speech product –http://wmcspeechproject.com/online-abuse-101/

Unfortunately, with the advancement of technology there are a load of privacy issues and while there are general tort laws that guide and defamation, slander, libel suits, for the most part the laws have not caught up or have made it rather difficult for the victims or plaintiffs to seek justice.

As it is, people have their private information hacked into i.e. banking codes etc. and while most people see it on the news, say “Glad that was not me,” they then quickly forget about it unless they are affected and/or effected by those same issues.  So while there are a lot of people who are disappointed with Apple not handing out a back door to unlock the iphone, I am pretty glad they are not and will most likely buy another one of their phones just to support the cause.

Apple rejects order to unlock gunman’s phone – http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35594245

Problem with people saying that terrorists need to be stopped, is that it also allows governments, and more unscrupulous people to wreck havoc on your lives.  But I also tend to be cautious and prefer to not leap to conclusions which makes me a good scientist and lawyer but a bad people person.  However, I would rather live in my rose colored glasses world then end up a Nazi supporter any day.  You have to remember that most Nazi supporters around WWII started out thinking that the Nazi party was just helping nationalism.  It took the Nazi’s how long before WWII, concentration camps, and a destroyed national sense?  Pretty much a few years – that was without technology as advanced as ours…  If you have not guessed this is my response to John McAfee’s argument in supporting the government…

John McAfee offers to unlock killer’s iPhone for FBI –http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35611763

People often laugh at the lawyers who are carrying around binders at the court houses saying that we are in the dark ages.  However, those people at the Hollywood Hospital have now gone back to the dark ages and are taking notes with paper and pen.  Whether we like it or not, outdated and tried and trued instrumentation is actually the best way to store private data now.  Pen and paper is just harder to track and find without getting caught because you need to sift through papers even if you know what you are looking for.  Outdated technology like the 1.5 floppy drivers are probably great storage devices because most people throw away old technology for new ones and how many have a function old piece of equipment lying around?

There is a good reason for the UK storing all their laws on vellum and then archived.  Did you know that there is a copy of the Magna Carta still fully readable in vellum?

Hollywood hospital pays ransom to hackers – http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35602527

Unfortunately, people who are caught tampering with electronic data and such which are then used to fool the general public into thinking that others are not who they they claim they are or who then have to waste time defending themselves against slander, libel, and other sorts of defamation are often times stuck in a vicious cycle.

Lucky for Mark Rubio, he has a group of people paid and otherwise, who are scanning all the calls and video to prove that he did not say “The good book does not have many answers in it,” when he actually said, [The good book has] “all the answers in it.”  So Ted Cruz has made an apology and his staffer resigned but without people like that going to jail or making restitution of some sort, the typical person will no likely go off and spread rumors and lies just because they can get away with it.

We really need to take a stand on defamation, slander, and libel especially with the advent of the internet.  While I like to fact check and ask people lots of questions, most people just accept everything as true because there is a video, a clip, etc.  Remember the lady from USDA who Obama had to apologize to because she was fired for a 5 minute video where she said that “she did not like white farmers”?  Nope, of course not.  But go and look it up.  It was a Fox news video that edited the 45 minute speech into 5 minutes. The video went viral and embarrassed the Obama administration.  She was fired from her job. Obama later called the woman and offered her, her old position.  She rightfully said, “No thank you Mr. President,” and ended up with a hefty settlement.

So if the President of the US can apologize to someone for jumping the gun and screwing up their reputation, most other people should.  In this case, while Ted Cruz’s communications coordinator was asked to “resign” he was not fired and all he had to do was say, “I’ve deleted the post because I would not knowingly post a false story.”  But the fact remains that I did post it when I should have checked its accuracy first. I regret the mistake.”   (Mr. Tyler)  He does not have to pay a fine, he does not have to do jail time, he is not going to remember not to do this again because there is no accountability.  Mr.Tyler is most likely going to wait until nobody remembers this news article and easily find another job.

US Election 2016: Cruz fires top aide over fake Rubio video –http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35636412

Current Mood:  Disheartened by technology and the Presidential campaign.  This year’s presidential campaigns have just showed the world that it does not matter how old you are but that name calling is alive and well, spreading rumors about people are fine because there are no real consequences, and people are truly getting stupider with technology – see the Google makes us feel smarter than we really are post and scientific journal article from awhile back.

If aliens came from another universe right now and checked in on the Presidential campaigns right now, either we are going to have “Independence Day” or they would just ignore us and think Earth is a primitive backwater hole.

I have to say for the most part I love the taxi drivers in Wuhan, Shanghai, and Beijing.  Most of them are very knowledgeable about the city and are very frank with their opinions.  The only cities where I have had issues with the taxi drivers are Dalian and Guang Zhou.  In both of those cases, the taxi driver tried to avoid using the meter and/or tried to overcharge use for a trip by telling us that there are surcharges that did not exist.

Notice that despite the reputation of Wuhan people being the “rudest in China,” according to some of the other Chinese locals and students I have met, most of my experiences, especially with Wuhan taxi drivers have been the opposite.  One of the Wuhan taxi drivers offered me some local delicacies when he found out that I was not local.  Another Wuhan taxi driver was scheduled to pick me up but then could not so he called a friend to drive me to the train station instead of leaving me stranded.  All in all, I think that all those actions show that they are pretty nice.

As for the Uber situation…  I am pretty happy that Uber is losing money in China because I like the government sanctioned taxi drivers.  In Shanghai, one of the taxi drivers I was talking to was complaining about the amount of money he has lost since DiDi Da Che and Uber has come into the mix.  He told me that business was the worst than it has been in years and at first none of the other drivers could figure out why.  Later the drivers realized that Uber was doing a special where they were trying to gain market share – trips to the airport during Chinese New Years was only 80 yuan when normally it would be at least 120 yuan.

The Shanghai driver felt that this was unfair but there was nothing they could do about the situation.  In some ways, he felt that local taxi drivers actually brought it on themselves because when DiDi Da Che first started, they recruited taxi drivers to use their service and the taxi drivers jumped on the bandwagon because sometimes they made more money per a ride.  Unfortunately, those same drivers realized later that they advertised the service to their clients and now that DiDi Da Che also has private drivers, their profits are down.

Frankly, I like the Shanghai regulation of the taxi drivers and the Beijing system is just as strict.  There are customer service numbers to call if there is a problem and because of the oversight there are less issues of people driving you in circles.  These days in the larger cities your biggest worries are going to be getting stuck in traffic more so than an unscrupulous driver taking you on a “grand tour of the city.”

Uber car-hire app losing $1bn in China every year, says CEO – http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35610147

Current Mood:  Finding the TED Conference Enlightening and looking forward to hearing more about other people’s experiences.  Not keen on being an entrepreneur but I like knowledge.

Justice Antonin Scalia was not the most liberal judge on the bench and he did believe in an “originalist” approach to determining court cases but he was just himself.  His belief in what he believed was correct and what was Constitutional may not have appealed to many but he has given the general public amazing quotes and law students very entertaining opinions to read.

I am very sad that he will no longer be making sarcastic comments and causing a ruckus in the media after the graduation speech rounds in May-June of every year.  However, it will be a very exciting legal period for those who follow U.S. Supreme Court rulings as there are so many cases which are going to most likely run down ideological lines.  The confirmation process is going to be really entertaining especially with this year’s upcoming Presidential nominations ongoing.

Antonin Scalia death: Obama pushes Senate over Scalia -seathttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35592588

How Scalia’s death reshapes four Supreme Court cases – http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-35413880

Justice Antonin Scalia: In his own words – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35571825

I was looking for many torts classes in preparation for the class that I am teaching.  I wanted to show the students that even though we use the same words that we do not always have the same results when it comes to torts cases.

My uncle reminded me of a Shanghainese case where there was a PhD student who poisoned another PhD student at Fu Dan University.  So I am going to use it as an example of a battery case.

In the U.S., there seems to be lots of “Affluzena” defenses and the latest one has hit California.  I am going to search and find the actual court opinion once it is officially published but in the mean time the news articles will do.

Basically in one incident the international Chinese students fought over splitting the check in the restaurant so they kidnapped, beat, stripped a girl naked, and burnt her skin with cigarettes to “teach her a lesson.”  In the second incident, the same Chinese students beat and burnt another Chinese student over some other issue.  Thankfully the Judge sentenced the defendants to jail from 6-13 years.

By the time you are 19 years old, you need to know that beating someone and torturing them because you have a grievance is a “no no.”  Not sure what the perpetrator was thinking with the following statement in court: “Parents in China are well-meaning and send their kids thousands of miles away with no supervision and too much freedom. That is a formula for disaster,” said Yuhan “Coco” Yang in a statement read by her lawyer.

China teenagers jailed in US over kidnapping and assault – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35601189

Current Mood: Aghast by the spread of the Affluenza defense spreading in the U.S. court systems.  On the other hand happy that the cases are relevant to my classes.