Sunday, September 27, 2009

Why do we trade?

China launches probe into imports of US chicken


BEIJING — China on Sunday started investigating complaints that American chicken products are being dumped in China and are unfairly benefiting from subsidies, adding to a string of trade disputes with Washington.
Well, obviously, the USA is dumping chicken feet into the Chinese market at below cost. That's because American consumers don't put much value into chicken feet while Chinese consumers do. Thus USA chicken farmers have an abundance of chicken feet that they used to throw away (or make into hot dogs) and now they get shipped to China as a delicacy.

But Chinese chicken farmers had been selling chicken feet as a delicacy for years at higher prices, and must be upset that the prices is now going down with a flood of US imports.

You'd think the Chinese would figure out that you could substitute "abundance of cheap labor" for "unwanted chicken feet" and decide discretion is the better part of valor/creating an economy based on exporting manufactured goods.

On a more interesting note, I wonder if China now consumes more chicken feet than chicken bodies?

Maybe there are ghost chickens roaming the Tyson plants in Arkansas that can never go to heaven because their feet are in China?*

allusion to Chinese eunuchs keeping their penis' in a jar, much as a married man lets his wife keep his....

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Chen Wants a Piece of Obama



Of course you can leave prison, travel to Washington, and testify in an american court. Link to China Post article in the title.prison sentence article

Monday, September 21, 2009

Late nite




Gonna miss u Michael J.
But we still got OJ:)



13

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Saturday thoughts

First off, congrats to tech for keeping it within two scores last night. A mighty improvement on past trips to Austin. Now for some reflections:

1. Texas is not near as good as I anticipated. McCoy spent too much time listening to how great he is this past summer and not enough time practicing it appears.

2. Jhole has graciously listed several southern states running on E.S.T. While that's all well and good, the fact that John partakes in liberal east coast elitism by giving us times on the east coast when nobody who reads this blog lives in that particular time zone is surprising given his obsession with Fox "News." I wasn't aware the internet had made it to South Carolina yet. My bad.

3. I didn't say I was going to kick Paul's ass, I said he was off the friend list. I mean really, what joy is there in whipping up on an asthmatic Indian from Canukistan who calls himself Pokey? It's like taking money from a drunk Texan in Iron Cross. Wait, that's fun. Nevermind the analogy.

4. It appears the Twins are trying to give us at least one decent divisional race. Thank god, because this baseball season has been extremely lame. So lame that mid market owners are scaling back payroll for next year, meaning the somewhat sense of parity we have had over the past few years is going to be shot. Teams like Houston, Seattle, and San Diego which have been decent over that period of time are cutting payroll, citing poor attendance. Hmmm, you mean sucky teams draw worse? I have an idea, let's make our team more sucky and then blame the fans for not coming!

5. Fall has finally reached the Northwest. Birch trees are yellow, Maples are red, the tamaracks are copper and for the first time since I've been back, I'm not entirely prepared for what comes after fall. Ugh.

6. Going to rob some bees of their honey today. Haven't done that for a while...

7. Special shout to Dean's Spiders. At 3-0 with wins over Duke (an FBS team) and Delaware (a perennial contender in the FCS), the champs are rolling. The Griz are also 3-0, but haven't played much of anybody (but they did whip Jerry Glanville's Portland State squad yesterday!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_9UTvESBIc

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Guns are Up in Taiwan!

Front row: My colleague Paul, me, my colleague Andre
Back row: the Generalissimo CKS Teasipper, UT class of 1907


Texas Tech vs. Texas, 8:00pm Saturday

下 一 項
This was sent to me from my mother. It's a promo for Texas Technological College from 1947. Not positive, but the homecoming parade might have a bit of insensitivity towards others displayed.



Friday, September 18, 2009

Commodity Prices & Pig Farmers

Pig farmers in southern China are stockpiling copper and zinc to the tune of tens of thousands of metric tons, in speculation of higher prices going forward.


No word on whether copper miners are purchasing frozen pork bellies.






Thursday, September 17, 2009

Transporter 9



Movin.. movin... movin....
Keep em moving............






Cockroach?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Tonka XXI issue, vol 20



Beach Tonka.......




col.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

S W A S h a n t o u





Did You Know?

  • SWA has 70 flights departing per week for short haul destinations.
  • There are over 11 international flights per week from SWA.
  • The longest flight from SWA is 1,242 miles.
  • There are over 116 domestic flights per week from SWA.
  • The largest aircraft flying out of SWA is a 737 with 180 seats.
  • There are over 18 long haul flights per week from SWA.
  • The shortest flight out of SWA is 197 miles.
  • There are 10 flights per week flying on small aircraft from SWA.


Staggering....





FM

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Dalai Lama arrives in Taiwan today. Providing the Chicom point of view is Saturday's editorial in the Xinhua Chinese Taipei China Post. Poor ol' President Ma can't seem to catch a break. He's destined for another life if he does, destined for another life if he doesn't. However, no meeting with the Dalai Lama is scheduled. At least he's got that going for him.

下 一 項
In Little League World Series action, the Kuei San (龜 山 )Taiwan team from Taoyuan advanced to the championship game with a 9-4 win over Mexico. They will face Chula Vista, California. Game time is 3:00am Monday for us.
下 一 項
Red A , I think I'll give the mao dou hummus a pass. When I eat them, they are like this (with simple instructions in Chinese). Also, Karl, lots of Taiwanese supermarkets sell the Taiwanese version of avocado. Karl, I have been lugging around a gift for 3 weeks that I suspect you will enjoy but I never see you out. I'll be at Mom and Pop's this afternoon if you would like to get it.

Friday, August 28, 2009

B- for Pen/Ploughmanship

Having trouble embedding the video, so here is the link. There is only a bit of audio at the end. This link from a Texas Monthly blog has a short report and interview.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Edamame Fever

Edamame is now a trendy health food item in the USA. Apparently this is a young soybean and is called 毛豆; pinyin: máodòu in Chinese.


The best edamame product I have found is edamame hummus at Trader Joe's. The stuff tastes great and reminds me of guacamole.

Maybe the J-hole or Karl can give it a try to make his own in Taiwan.

Here is a recipe.



DISCLAIMER FOR J-HOLE: YES, I REALIZE IT IS NOT GUACAMOLE, AND NOTHING CAN REPLACE GUACAMOLE. But maybe if you don't have any avocados or want to try something different it would work.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

God Damn Squirrel

My rental house has a nice peach tree in the back.


There are a lot of peaches this season, and I have been watching them ripen up.

Then, when they finally get ripe, some god damn squirrel comes over and eats a bite or two out of each peach and leaves them to rot. The tree is full of yellow peaches with the red and orange ones on the ground with a chunk off them.

So now I have to pick them a little less than ripe to beat the squirrels.

If I were a Texan I would shoot the squirrel's and eat the peaches in squirrel pie form.

IJ, how do I BBQ squirrel?





Tuesday, August 11, 2009

America so far

Fridge is full of microbrew AND coors light, in case Karl pops in.


Microbrew runs about 7.99 a six pack.
Coors light 30 pack is 19.92 at Costco.

AT&T Uverse offers me phone, internet (15 mps) and TV for US$ 160 / month, including two Taiwanese channels...you know, to keep it real. This set-up includes DVR and video on demand - I think Taiwan is really behind in this area. Well, when you have one cable company what do you expect. Cable companies, a term I use loosely to include anybody running lines into your house, always suck, and when you have 3-4 to play against each other, at least they have to offer actual service once in a while.

Taiwanese family members universally agree that Pizza is better in the US. So far, the winner is Mountain Mikes.

IKEA got most of my furniture dollars and I enjoyed learning how they assemble stuff. I only blew assembly on one bookshelf - ironically after assembling everything else. Problem solved with spray paint.

Wife is actually cooking. She likes the dishwasher. Grapes and peaches in our yard. Local eating. Squirrels, too, but we're not Texans via Arkansas.

Parking. Curteous drivers. (Passed my driver's test 100/100 for the reinstatement of a 17 years old license.) Grandma to help babysit. Steak on the barbecue. Two fridges, one full of beer.

OK....so its been good so far. Here are some of the cons I have seen:

1. Costco food court. Taichung Coscto DESTROYS USA Costco in seating and condiment availability - no sauerkraut here, and only one hot dog station.

2. On average, Taiwan's government agencies are far more efficient than California's. Possible exception in the revenue department. 8.75% sales tax. Yet, our State is broke. Go figure.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Poker Report



Good Golly Miss Molly brought nothing but trouble.
Match the pot,hot seat in or out,deal rotates, straights beat flushes, 3 aces highest hand, one draw of one, must beat Molly. The pot saw 960, 1920, 3840, 7680, and finally 14360. There were players writing signatures and some giving autographs.

Good times. I saw the heavy folding black poker table out, I think it found a home at Steve's. It is still quite heavy and hard to tip despite the number of drunken beer holders.

These nuts kept the games running from about 6pm to 4am.

Is there a bounty on Brit Brett's rat tail?

Caption Suggestions?


This was the main photo on page one of the Apple Daily in Taiwan, Saturday, after Typhoon Morakut left the island. There was an island-wide typhoon day with the north and east getting the worst of it. In Taichung we got some heavy winds, overcast skies and about zero rain.

Later that day: Well, most everything above was wrong. The typhoon had not left, just resting between sets and it made sure all the island got a good soaking.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Award winning slideshow

You will MARVEL as my camera channels Marlin Perkins.
You will OOOH at heroic feats of gunplay.
You will AAAHH at the end.

Click PLAY and then click the bottom right to enlarge the picture and activate the controls. Click on SHOW INFO to get full descriptions and witty banter.


Saturday, August 01, 2009

Back

Returned to Taichung late last night (Friday). Who's still in town? I'll be reviewing Southern Command (Mom & Pop's) starting around noon today if anyone would like to join.