Don't Help That Old Lady!!!!

Do not help that old lady, especially if she is from Jiangsu Province.

The old lady made a scene and created a road block near the officer resort of 23rd Army Group in Huashanwan in Zhenjiang of Jiangsu Province around 6:30 pm on January 23, 2008. The girl in red coat crying was a middle school student. When she saw an old lady (right in yellowish parka) stumped after being hit by another cyclist, she came forward to help the old lady. She was astounded when the old lady grabbed her and asked for medical compensations. The old lady claimed that the girl hit her, and that unless the girl paid some money she would not let the girl go. Being shocked, the girl could do nothing but crying. As shown by the picture, the old lady grabbed the girl's bike so that the girl couldn't go.

Fortunately, it was a busy time and there were many witnesses who saw the whole incident. The old lady was surrounded by angry people who demanded her to let the girl go. The old lady refused and kept demanding money from the poor girl.

Soon some journalists rushed to the scene. The old lady was not embarrassed a bit. She even posed to have pictures taken by photo reporters.

Then the police arrived, and released the girl after collecting witnesses' testimonies.

Encouraged by the absurd sentencing in the Nanjing calabash monk case, old ladies in Jiangsu are mobilized to set up traps and maliciously sue whoever helps them. Not everyone is as well informed. It's such a pity for the poor girl to learn her first lesson of reality in such a cold and cruel way, but she's so fortunate to have dozens of witnesses willing to testify on her side. In the Nanjing case, the old lady's son is a police officer. At least two police officer investigating that case gave false testimony (even after caught by TV cameras) to the court. We could only assume the Zhenjiang old lady did not have a cop son.

The words are out though. Last week in Yangzhou, another city in the Jiangsu Province, a young man helped an old lady to stand up after she fell on a slippery ice. Then a friend with him yelled to him 'don't, she will sue you if you help her!'. The young man dropped the old lady in confusion and immediately ran away. The old lady who was otherwise fine at the moment broke her leg.

Michigan Denied Driver's Licnese to Non-Resident Aliens

The State of Michigan just announced that it would ban driver's license to all foreigners on temporary visa, including foreign students who hold F1 visa and foreign high tech workers who hold H1-B visa. This is a big slap on the face to the large Chinese scholars and engineers working in this ailing state supported by the wheels made in Detroit. The message is clear, that they are not welcomed and they should have packed and left or just leave now.

It's a smart move by State Attorney General Mike Cox to appeal to the white trash dominated auto worker state for cheap votes. It probably won't hurt the local economy or even research much. As the single state to expel foreign talents blindly, Michigan will probably do fine by absorbing American talents from all other states. As pointed out by the Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, the state government will be able to focus on serving American residents more efficiently rather than wasting time being confused on all kinds of paperwork (of those legal aliens).

This will not be a good idea, however, if other States joint the suit. It is no secret that American people can enjoy their living standard and style only because the American economy can exploit almost all other economy entities in world wide business and trade. It's a simple fact that any natural population can't produce enough talents to sustain this trends by its own. Unlike other challenges the US is facing, such as the Iraq war, this kind of measure has far deep reaching eroding effects on the US's future. The war may bankrupt American account ultimately, but the rejection of foreign talents is draining American's blood.

Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne

January 20th, 2008, Guiyang. An eight years old girl struck a match to warm up her fingers in below zero temperature. She and two similar age friends collect garbage on the street despite chilling wind. "I like match, it's bright and warm", "but it doesn't last long".

Guiyang is the capital city of Guizhou Province in southwestern China.

Creative Shanghainese

shang·hai (shāng-hī', shāng'hī') tr.v. shang·haied, shang·hai·ing, shang·hais

1. To kidnap (a man) for compulsory service aboard a ship, especially after drugging him.
2. To induce or compel (someone) to do something, especially by fraud or force: We were shanghaied into buying worthless securities.

shanghai. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shanghai (accessed: January 18, 2008).

Shanghainese are known for being smart and innovative. This time however, they are smart and innovative in burning their own (often slim) asses. The environment evaluation report (sec 2-1) published by the Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences in Dec 2007 executed a behavior art showcase on Shanghainese themselves. As the Shanghai scientists measuring the noise impact of the proposed Maglev train between Shanghai and Hangzhou, they creatively used the average noise level in 1 hour instead of the real noise level measured, to make sure the figures fall in the range allowed by national standard. In the history of the science and engineering, this will surely be remembered as the first attempt of using an averaged noise level as the only published measurement to push forward a disturbing engineering plan. Bravo, Shanghai scientists and engineers!

Ford Owners Deserve It

A Ford enthusiastic group, the Mustang folks (BMC a.k.a. Black Mustang Club) to be specific, made a calendar featuring twelve heavily modified Mustangs of their most active members (member of the month) in 2007. They were shocked when Ford noticed the printing firm to stop the process, because it infringed Ford's trademark and trade dress (the unique shape of Ford cars).

If Ford spent money and time to agonize its few fanboys left, then they deserve their ever dwindling market share. If anyone keep buying Ford, they deserve to be treated like trash.

Legally speaking Ford's claim does not stand either. A circuit court repelled an architect's claim of trademark infringement by a photo depicting a building, because the finished photo is seen as a rendering of the building, not what (the trademark or other IP) stand behind the building.

Ford is not even innovative in making the phony claim. Another company has done it earlier and loudly. That company is SCO. For years, SCO has given up their software development business, but switched to a litigation driven company, pumping stock price by blindly threatening lawsuit against every individual on the planet earth. As mighty as Ford, the executives may be able to pull an even sweeter pile of money before they bury Ford as an auto maker once and forever.

Although not the first time Ford's lawyers went insane over its own fan sites, this one is particularly damaging. The absurd story was promptly picked up not only across varies auto clubs and forums, but also by some most popular geek sites such as Boingboing, Slashdot and Digg. Should it be necessary to form a grand jury, it would be hard to find enough English speaking people who hadn't laughed at Ford's stupidity at provoking and handling of this incident.

Another side of the properous new China

Adjunct Teachers Lost Jobs

Adjunct teachers in some remote country side areas caught national attention two years ago, when a news article revealed their poor living conditions. Many of them were paid on 40 RMB Yuan ($5) monthly salary, while taking the most challenging teaching jobs in remote areas where regular teachers won't go. They received a pay raise to 80 Yuan after the national outcry combined with admiration and sympathy.

They were happy on the pay raise and a promise of converting to regular teachers when time would be right. However, this month the national education ministry announced a policy to remove all adjunct teachers, 440,000 of them, from the education system effective immediately. Some of the adjunct teachers taught for the pleasure or for a belief, and some of them taught because they needed the $10 each month for a living.

All gone.

National Champions 2007: Geaux Tigers!

Congratulations to LSU football program, who won the national champion after a roller coaster season. In the final game played at the New Orleans Superdome, they routed the No. 1 ranking Ohio State like chopping tofu with a sharp knife. They made the legend of becoming the first team to take two national champions in the BCS history. They wrote the history of a 31 answered points in any college football national title games. Bravo LSU Tigers!

Reporter Wanted for Slander

Three Xifeng police tried to arrest a Beijing reporter at her office last week on a defamation case. Xifeng is a county of Tieling City of Liaoning province in northeastern China. The reporter Zhu Wenna published a story in Xifeng where a local business woman was alleged wronged by the communism party boss Mr. Zhang Zhiguo.

It's not news journalists had been prosecuted or jailed for reporting on the wrong side. However, this is the first time a local party boss sent police to arrest a journalist working for the party's central committee. Zhu Wennan is a senior reporter of the 'Legal Daily', which is an official propaganda branch of the central committee of law and disciplinary, the top agency that oversees law and order in China.

According to Chinese laws, defamation cases are self-initiated, that can only be initiated by a complaint by the alleged victim. The Xifeng party boss did not file a formal complaint, therefore, the charge filed by the Xifeng police is illegal. Tried to arrest a Beijing reporter who works for the CCP's central committee with a questionable warrant is literally and mentally insane.

In a separate case, another CCP county boss of Suide County, Shannxi province arrested a middle school principle because the principle tried to seek the party boss's signature on government support for poor students. Although the central government allocates money for students in poverty, often the local party boss has the final say on whether the money will be used for its designated purpose. Facing an online and media outcry, the Suide party boss was ordered to apologize to the principle.

By all means, the incident is like a small town mayor sent his pitiful police force to the White House, seeking arresting the press secretary Tony Snow for his negative comment of his office made on a press conference the day before, without either a court warrant nor the involvement of a district attorney. If he got his way, people would know that the president really wanted to silence the media, not long those run by New York Times, but also include his own press secretary. The may serve as a wakeup call to top CCP officials in Beijing on the extend of human rights abuse committed by local party officials, or, we will see.

In the communists-run China, however, this kind of behavior can only be seen as 'insane' and bazaar. Many commentators on the Net associated the incident with an attempt of coup detat. It's amazing to see the CCP central committee was caught out of guard on such a serious offence, made by such an insignificant lower lover party official in remote area, for such an wrongful, illegal and absurd cause.

A Little Girl's Call of Duty

Xiao Dongxiang (little winter aroma) teared when she talked about her mother.

Lei Dongxiang is a 12 years gril who lives in Group 4, Shidi Village, Daxi Town, Jiuyang County of Chongqing. Her Dad died when she was 5 years old, left her a mentally disordered mother and a retard big brother Lei Maolin. From then on, 5 years old Dong Xiang took the duty of taking care of her family.

Dongxiang remembers the morning when her mother was found dead outside two years ago. She died when fell to a dig. "I felt my brother and I were doomed. Although Mom never helped but cause trouble, but when she died, I found totally lost. When Dad died, I knew we still had Mom. When Mom became crazy, I knew the family would rely on me. However, when Mom died, I knew we couldn't live without Mom, but we have to."

"Now I realized, although Mom was crazy, she still loved my brother and me. Now that I couldn't do anything for Mom. Mom is no longer here. I have to take good care of my big brother so that my Mom is happy looking down from heaven."

Dongxiang's 18 years old brother is retard. Dongxiang had to keep an eye on him all the time so that he doesn't make trouble or hurt himself.

Every morning, Dongxiang will get up before the day break, make breakfast and make sure big brother eat his. Then Dongxiang will walk 1 hour to school. She is a 5 grader. Coming back from school, she will do homework and cook dinner for the family. She does not have lunch at school. On Weekends, she washes clothes. Her brother always has many clothes need to be washed, as he always makes them dirty.

Last year, the brother fell ill again. Dongxiang rush to help, but the brother slapped her and beat her, as he always did when ill. Later, the brother saw the marks on Dongxiang's arm and asked her what's it about. After learned what had happened, the brother said, 'I don't know what I did. Please don't get close to me if I fell ill in the future. I will get better in a while'. This is the first time her brother said something that's so intimate and touching. Dong Xiang had a good cry in his arms.

A few nice people had offered to adopt Dongxiang. Everything Dongxiang would ask, 'can my brother come with me?' When she learned it's not a possibility, she determined to live with and take care of her brother all by herself.

"I used to thought my crazy Mom was a burden. I knew I was wrong when Mom died. Now I no longer think my brother is a burden". Dongxiang sometimes discussed stuff with her brother. "Although he doesn't understand, but in the least I have someone to talk to".

Dong Xiang's hobby is drawing. She drew a lot of paintings of her Mom. She has little memory of her Dad. She said her Mom was the most beautiful Mom in the world.

source: small people who touched China