China Calling: April 2005 Archives
I'm going to start posting the text of the shows up. Not as good as actual sound though (Holmes!).
Aiyo, it's been a long day.
The last couple of hours have been spent polishing a barely comprehensible item for our 'Life in China' slot about the Tibetan chronometer, which seems to be a crazy old mumbo jumbo device for triggering your yak's next ovarian cycle or something. And polishing! ha! Could be either one of the dictionary.com definitions below, really.
adj.
Of or relating to Poland, the Poles, their language, or their culture
To make smooth and shiny by rubbing or chemical action.
To remove the outer layers from (grains of rice) by rotation in drums.
To free from coarseness; refine: polish one's manners.
To remove flaws from; perfect or complete: polish one's piano technique; polish up the lyrics.
Anyway. Last night was spent in a local watering hole talking to pissed up Swedes straight off a 48 hour train journey from Vietnam. Entertainment for the night was helpfully provided by an extremely drunk easyfm dj dicing with death on a suspended rope net floor, to the disgust of the assembled bar staff. Bloody foreigners. Appearing bored with the standard patter of newcomers to China (rant! rant! communism is awful! people should have as many children as they like! executions! argh!) DJ Liu Kwai (Trevor: Imagine calling yourself 'six bucks', man) scaled the barrier next to us and, throwing caution to the wind, almost plunged to his death. And to the almost certain inconvenience to thirty or so mid week revellers on the floor below.
I had a weird experience with the ranting swedish though - a strange moment when I found myself defending everything about China. Not just because I like an argument, you understand. More because I think it is naive and imperialistic to expect to be able to impose entirely western templates for society on a nation and culture which resolutely refuses to fit the model it's expected to. For a start, a population of 1.2 billion is unrivalled by any other nation in the world. In a sense that's enough on it's own. A country so big needs new models. And ranting about how the one child policy is an infringement of human rights is all very well, but what do you suggest, oh angry swede? You have limited resources and your population is out of control. WHAT DO YOU DO? I found myself explaining that ethnic minorities could in fact have as many children as they liked, and sets of parents who themselves are both siblingless can also have more than one child, and realised I was in fact defending something I found totally abhorrent less than a year ago. Odd to find yourself in a position like that, and it happens pretty infrequently if you think about it. China makes me re-evaluate lots of things I previously held to be irrefutable.
I'm sure everyone knows about googlisms but i enjoy this one in particular. I've added some helpful stars beside my favourite entries.
otter is a large mustelid that spends its life
otter is not very common where we live but we do have them
otter is in mourning for his best friend
*otter is fed up
otter is a large mustelid that spends its life in the nearshore marine community along the california coast
otter is long and cylindrical in body shape
*otter is no longer the stealthy
otter is the smallest of all
otter is solitary and there is no strong pair
otter is also threatened by
otter is an endangered species
otter is the longest of all the otter species
otter is swimming
otter is swimming with its mouth full of fish
otter is dark brown and has a white patch of fur on its throat
otter is old town's
otter is a great way to get your family out on the water
otter is the largest otter of all
*otter is here
otter is
*otter is an indicator animal
otter is both an umbrella species and a 'keystone species
otter is essential to a healthy and productive nearshore ecosystem
otter is a large
otter is a shy and solitary animal and is mostly nocturnal
otter is a carnivore
otter is designed to prove theorems stated in first
otter is the largest of the 13 otter species and is found only in the rainforests and rivers of south america
otter is the smallest of all the otter species and one of the most attractive
otter is considered timid and secretive
*otter is a set of lessons in female energy*
otter is an aquatic member of a group of animals known as mustelids
otter is found throughout eastern and western europe
otter is a protected species
otter is a member of the weasel family
otter is a scenic
*otter is distributed in pakistan*
otter is still trapped for fur in 38 states
otter is becoming endangered
otter is an excellent swimmer
otter is acting like a dolphin nothing can be smoother and more elegant than its series of dives which leave a minimum of ripples
*otter is 3/3*
otter is a short takeoff and landing aircraft
otter is a mammal that live in water
otter is een soort familie van de das
*otter is going to have children*
otter is not very common where we live but we do have them around and from time to time they show up in the lakes swimming and chasing each other
otter is classified as lutra canadensis
otter is found throughout alaska with the exception of the aleutian islands
otter is native to northern and central california
otter is more likely to have a run
otter is primarily active after sundown
otter is the world's smallest otter
otter is still a major developed area on the blue ridge parkway
otter is at the top of the rain
*otter is a bear granddaughter*
*otter is an extraordinarily wonderful dog*
otter is well adapted to its amphibious way of life and is a strong and agile swimmer
otter is run on an input file containing the members of þ in the formula_usable list
otter is about the size of a cat
otter is found in rivers
otter is a historical caida tool used for visualizing arbitrary network data that can be expressed as a set of nodes
otter is the largest member of the weasel family
otter is a feminine totem
*otter is astonishing*
otter is an ocean
otter is a mammal that has thick
otter is a "keystone species
otter is a feature
otter is probably the most numerous of 13 otter species
otter is as big and as wonderful as ever
otter is also know as the marine otter
otter is one of the country's favourite mammals
otter is the little station that could
otter is in the grass
otter is part of artist lou rankin's little friends collection created by dakin's artist collections
otter is a motion sensor that snores when disturbed
otter is onder water uitgesproken behendig
otter is 16in lifelike & cuddly click the picture to enlarge
otter is a mammal with alot of fur
*otter is seeking people with martha stewart's social savvy*
otter is pursued by an interdisciplinary approach including the economic and social interests of the landowners and other groups
otter is weer terug in de weerribben
otter is coming to town tuesday
otter is small
otter is a sea otter who lives in large bodies of water
otter is performed by sliding down a staircase on one's stomach
otter is almost certainly a distinct subspecies
otter is a long
otter is the sybil of bike racing
otter is a mail order business specializing in herbs; artwork and crafts of various indigenous peoples
