07.22.07
Posted in Jokes at 21:34 by panda
One day a guy dies and finds himself in hell.
As he is wallowing in despair, he has his first meeting with the devil…
Satan: “Why so glum?”
Guy: “What do you think? I’m in hell!”
Satan: “Hell’s not so bad. We actually have a lot of fun down here. You a drinking man?”
Guy: “Sure, I love to drink.”
Satan: “Well, you’re gonna love Mondays then. On Mondays, that’s all we do is drink. Whiskey, tequila, Guinness, wine coolers, Tab, and Fresca. We drink ’til we throw up, and then we drink some more! And you don’t have to worry about getting a hangover, because you’re dead anyway.”
Guy: “Gee that sounds great!”
Satan: “You a smoker?”
Guy: “You better believe it!”
Satan: “All right! You’re gonna love Tuesdays. We get the finest cigars from all over the world, and smoke our lungs out. If you get cancer - no biggie, you’re already dead, remember?”
Guy: “Wow…that’s awesome!”
Satan: “I bet you like to gamble.”
Guy: “Why, yes, as a matter of fact I do.”
Satan: “Good, ’cause Wednesdays you can gamble all you want. Craps, blackjack, roulette, poker, slots, whatever. If you go bankrupt, it doesn’t matter, you’re dead anyhow.”
Guy: “Cool!”
Satan: “What about Drugs?”
Guy: “Are you kidding? Love drugs! You don’t mean…?”
Satan: “That’s right! Thursday is drug day. Help yourself to a great big bowl of crack or smack. Smoke a doobie the size of a submarine. You can do all the drugs you want. You’re dead so who cares.”
Guy: “Wow! I never realized Hell was such a cool place!”
Satan: “You gay?”
Guy: “Hell No…”
Satan: “Ooooh, Fridays are gonna be tough…”
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07.16.07
Posted in News Articles at 21:30 by panda
The Calgary Sun - China ignores real problem
China ignores real problem
By EZRA LEVANT
Chinas main diplomatic characteristic — saving face — is in overdrive these days in the lead up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. So recent widespread problems with Chinese food and drug manufacturing are more embarrassing than usual.
“Made in China” is now synonymous with “buyer beware”.
First it was poisoned pet food exported to the West that killed dogs and cats, then it was toxic fish from Chinese fish farms, toothpaste sweetened with antifreeze, juice with unsafe colour dyes and childrens toys painted with lead paint.
Counterfeit products are rife — brand names and quality certifications on labels are meaningless. It ranges from the massive to the ridiculous: A recent news item out of Beijing reported that a dim sum restaurant was selling pork dumplings with shredded cardboard — softened with industrial chemicals — instead of pork.
The arc of all these stories is the same: The Chinese government denies the news, then tries to explain it, then executes a scapegoat.
Its the same approach they took during the SARS outbreak; its the same approach all dictatorships take, including the Soviet Unions approach to the Chernobyl nuclear fire.
And so, it was no surprise that China announced that it had executed Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of that countrys food and drug administration from 1997 to 2006.
The government alleged Zheng took nearly $1-million in bribes over that period from food manufacturers.
Thats likely true — kick-backs and bribes are the standard privilege that all senior Communist Party members take for themselves.
But Zhengs crime in the eyes of China wasnt that he allowed poisonous food, but that his corrupt trail was caught by the media.
The execution of Zheng was designed to show that China is serious about cracking down on poisonous food, and perhaps even on corruption, too.
But it actually does the opposite. Zhengs trial was not a real trial, for there are no real trials in China — no presumption of innocence, no rule of law, no rules of evidence and no independent judges.
The judges — as always — are directed by the Communist Party in how to render their verdicts.
Theyre more clerks than judges.
Because a real trial is exactly what the face-saving Chinese Communists dont want.
They wanted a single scapegoat: Zheng. Not a transparent trial. If Zheng had been the head of the Canadian or U.S. food administration, he would have had a lengthy public trial, where prosecutors would have had to publicize the details of his corrupt deeds.
Zheng himself could have implicated others and the whole thing would have been pored over by the public and the media — and by other food manufacturers and bureaucrats. The trial itself would have become one giant teaching moment — where China could have used the law to teach a new, higher moral code when it comes to food and drug safety.
China didnt do that because it is still a culture of government secrecy and scapegoating. The government wanted someone to blame. Zheng probably was guilty, but a fair trial could have fingered dozens if not hundreds more, and would have forced China to come to terms with its problem.
No doubt, the entire system of food inspection would be overhauled if such a trial were held in the West.
It is only a partial truth to say that China has a food problem — or a pollution problem.
What it has is worse: A dictatorship problem.
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07.14.07
Posted in Random Crap at 17:15 by panda
With my new shift in place, I now work Sunday to Thursday. Which means that I’m at work now. My weekend (Friday and Saturday) wasn’t too bad. I pretty much played FF12 all day long. You know how it is with FF games. Run around and level and level and level and level. 
Can never level too much too early in that game. Around quitting time, me and Nancy went with a bunch of my co-workers to dinner and then play some pool. I am sad to say, that after playing for 7+ years (on and off, of course), I still suck MAJOR butt. Tsk tsk.
Well, the one good thing that did happen was that I got to spend all day with Nancy on Saturday. Cooked up a storm. Jason joined us for dinner and then spent the rest of the night cleaning up the virus on Nancy’s system. We’re guessing either him or June put it on when they were over at our place last Friday when I had a little party.
Oh yes! One cool note. I have SuSE Desktop 10 SP1 installed on my work PC. I’m using it now as we speak. Of course, a few things don’t work correctly yet, but I’m still tweaking that out. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get virtualization going and get XP running on Linux. Then I’ll be able to do everything I need from one PC.
Well, I should be working, so off I go.
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07.13.07
Posted in Rants at 8:23 by panda
If it’d got any slower, you’d see the 1’s and 0’s go by!! Oh wait…never mind, I do see the 1’s and 0’s.
HOLY SHIT. I’m trying to upload an 8 MB file. In US, that’ll probably be done in oh…2 minutes or so? The lights would flash on your modem or your router or even on the little network icon on your computer.
In China…the network icons don’t even light up. Like it’s not even getting a signal. Take a look at the cable modem lights…pretty much no activity. Why? Well, who knows. Maybe China Telecom is targeting me and killing all the packets coming from me. Maybe they’re just so paranoid that they cut down anything that’s trying to use up an amount of space. Shit, I’m better off using a 14.4k modem in the US and it’ll probably outrun this shit. It’s pathetic. I don’t even know why I even bother registering for the Internet in China here at home. I’m better off running my fat ass over to work and doing it there. I’ll probably have that all done and then make it back home before the freaking connection finishes establishing.
Absolutely ridiculous. They should make up a new speed standard for China’s Internet connection. With 1Mb being the ULTIMATE connection where it’s REAL WORLD 1Mb and not Chinese 1Mb.
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