Trash

Happy 4th July to all you American, Yankie type people.

We went to the trash market at Jong He yesterday. In Britain we would call it a car boot sale. Hundreds of people show up, each with a car full of second hand items, and they attempt to sell said items. It was fun, but too hot. I even managed to turn my skin a little pink in the sun. I bought a traditional Chinese abacus for NT$50. More accurately, it was Japanese style I have since found. That would be about 80p in Britain. I have only the very vaguest idea of how to use it. The Dragon has been trying to explain it to me but, though she is a very talented artist, linguist, and teacher, a mathematician she is not. She learnt how to use it at shcool, but the twenty years which have since elapsed have erased nearly all the maths from her brain it seems.

We also went and visted a temple up a mountian in Jong He and I did take some photos of that, but they're not uploaded yet, stand-by.

While out and about I saw a tee-shirt with a slogan in English printed on the chest. I always find myself interested in the English I see printed on clothes here because it's so often wrong and clearly the wearer often has little idea what it means. I suppose we do the same in the west. Tattoos with oriental characters seem very popular and you just know when you see them that the bearer knows nothing of what they mean. However, to return to the tee-shirt I spotted this weekend, after much veiled staring, I eventually saw that it said, "I am the way, the turth, and the life". No, not a typo, it really did say "turth". And for the rest of the day, I was wondering whether it was a joke, an attempt at profanity, or a genuine balls up. I'm leaning towards the balls up theory.

George Bush has said that he will not agree to any G8 measure to counter environmental damage if it involves reducing carbon emissions. The reason he gives for this is that it would wreck the US economy. The US never signed the Kyoto agreement citing the same reasons. My reply to this would be that every other nation in the world, all of them, every last one, manages to produce less carbon emisisons per capita than the US, even the indistrial nations and the very cold nations. Not every nation in the world however is led by a man who's family fortune was made in and continues to depend upon the oil industry. I'm dubious about the link between global warming and carbon emisisons. In fact I'm dubious about global warming in general. I do however realise the need to move away from fossil fuels. In case you were wondering.

A Japanese man has entered the record books after reciting pi to 83,000 places, from memory. I told the dragon about this, to which she replied, "hasn't he got anything better to do? I'd learn 83,000 new words in English". One has to agree with her feelings on that one I think. Apparently he lost his place half way through his first attempt and had to restart. It seems he tried once before but had to abandon his attempt because the venue where he was performing this amazing feat, wanted to close. Not very well planned. Click.