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!