Small Things in Life

Players and tourists from the world visiting Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympic Game will not need to worry about some small things in life. The Beijing based newspaper Jing Hua Times reported (A10 published on 03/11/2008) a statement made by the top Beijing prosecutor Mu Ping indicating minor offenses committed by foreigners during the game will not be prosecutors. Furthermore, any cases involving foreigners must be surrendered to upper level authorities.

People with foreign passport will be able to enjoy games without having to be bothered by paying local prostitutes or the jade bowl they broke the night before, those small things in life.

Mu Ping is the general prosecutor of Beijing, and a national congress member. Yes, it is the son of bitch on the right.

Handling of Terror

BBC was the first main stream media to report a Chinese airplane stalled a hijack attempt by Muslim Eastern Turkestan movement. Flight CZ6901from Urumqi to Beijing made an unscheduled landing in Lanzhou after the crew noticed strange behavior of some passengers and found inflammable liquids in the toilet. The plane and passengers stayed in Lanzhou overnight. Two Uygur Muslims were taken in custody. 179 Passengers arrived in Beijing in the morning of Saturday March 8 on the same airplane after 16 hours of delay.

No details had been released by the officials. According to passengers on the same flight, several sealed coca cans containing gasoline were found. Two cans were found open in the toilet. Two Uygur women took the gasoline cans to the toilet on the airplane and opened the cans. They drew suspicion from the crew when occupying the toilet for an extended period of time. Strong smell of gasoline were evident, although the women tried to cover it with even stronger perfume. It's a myth, though why they didn't actually set fire while they locked themselves in the toilet. Playing dumb, the crew announced a mechanical problem with the plane that it needed to land in Lanzhou, a city on the route.

The incident was leaked by messages posted to the Internet by one of the passengers while all the passengers and crew were kept in Lanzhou overnight. the head of the Xinjiang province confirmed the news when asked by reporters on Sunday. Officials and representatives across the nation are gathering in Beijing to attend the annual meeting of the national congress. It is believed that the incident would not be known to the outside if not for the meeting congress factor.

China is not a stranger to Muslim crimes. Many cities, including Beijing had seen bus bombings committed by Eastern Turkestan Muslim Movement, a group push for separation of Xinjiang. However, the Chinese government has been treating the threat mostly as criminal incidents rather than a war on terrorism. Police actions were used in fighting the Muslim criminals. At the same time, media is tightly control to prevent any of such events to receive any publicity. Partially out of disappointment from lack of attention after sacrificing many bombers, the Muslim group by and large stopped the bombing for almost a decade. The confirmed hijacking, along with some unconfirmed rumors is most likely triggered by the world's attention on the summer Olympic to be held in Beijing.

An Interesting Ranking of World Research Universities

Wuhan University published a "2007 Ranking of World Universities on Research Competitiveness"

Rank	Institution	Country	Score
1	Harvard	US	100.00
2	University of Texas	US	87.49
3	University of Washington (Seattle)	US	72.39
8	University of Tokyo	Japan	69.19
11	University of Toronto	Canada	66.90
17	University of Cambridge	UK	62.93
18	University of Minnesota	US	62.80
45	University of Helsinki	Finland	49.54
47	University of Munich	Germany	48.92
53	University of Utrecht	Netherlands	48.40
58	Hebrew University Jerusalem	Israel	47.04
59	University of Lund	Sweden	47.00
60	Eth Zurich	Switzerland	46.95
71	University of Sydney	Australia	44.94
73	University of Milan	Italy	44.89
75	Seoul National University	South Korea	44.65
77	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands	44.60
83	University of Sao Paulo	Brazil	44.16
84	University Paris 6	France	44.08
92	University of Vienna	Austria	43.23
97	Catholic University Leuven	Belgium	42.37
99	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	42.04
100	Louisiana State University	US	41.88
101	Hokkaido University	Japan	41.63
116	National University of Singapore	Singapore	40.48
119	Moscow MV Lomonosov State University	Russia	40.28
125	University of Barcelona	Spain	39.86
135	National Taiwan University	China-Taiwan	38.90
146	University of Oslo	Norway	37.87
149	University of Hong Kong	China-Hong Kong	37.73
161	University Nacl Autonoma Mexico	Mexico	36.61
192	Beijing University	China	34.57
196	Tsinghua University	China	34.31
198	Chinese University Hong Kong	China-Hong Kong	34.30
200	American College of Cardiology	US	34.29
201	Indian Institute of Technology	India	34.26
233	University of Auckland	New Zealand	32.06
248	Zhejiang University	China	31.03
252	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	30.67
257	Fudan University	China	30.45
271	Nanjing University	China	29.87
273	University of Science & Technology of China	China	29.86
286	Hong Kong University of Science & Technology	China-Hong Kong	29.16
288	University of Buenos Aires	Argentina	29.05
295	National Cheng Kung University	China-Taiwan	28.56
300	University of Houston	US	28.38
301	University of Toulouse 3	France	28.38
307	University of Warsaw	Poland	27.80
308	University of Athens	Greece	27.68
320	City University of Hong Kong	China-Hong Kong	27.20
353	University of Cape Town	South Africa	25.78
357	University of Chile	Chile	25.61
367	Hong Kong Polytech University	China-Hong Kong	25.15
382	Jilin University	China	24.29
387	National Tsinghua University	China-Taiwan	24.16
393	National Chiao Tung University	China-Taiwan	23.82
398	University Ljubljana	Yugoslavia	23.60
400	University of Bremen	Germany	23.49
401	Shandong University	China	23.45
404	Tianjin University	China	23.29
408	Nankai University	China	23.23
413	Sun Yet-sen University	China	23.03
416	Wuhan University	China	23.00
422	Sichuan University	China	22.78
439	Huazhong University of Science & Technology	China	22.40
451	National University of Ireland University College Cork	Ireland	21.83
452	Lorand Eotvos University	Hungary	21.80
456	Hacettepe University	Turkey	21.63
467	University of Zagreb	Czech Republic	21.27
470	National Central University	China-Taiwan	21.13
483	Xi'an Jiao Tong University	China	20.63
486	Harbin Institute of Technology	China	20.50
494	Lanzhou University	China	20.42
498	University of Alaska	US	20.26
499	University Instelling Antwerp	Belgium	20.25
500	James Cook University North Queensland	Australia	20.24

The distinctive feature of this ranking, in many ways sharply different than man other existing rankings, is the fact that it weighs objective measurements （such as patents or cited papers) only. For example, there's no weight for peer reputation or amount of endowment. Consequently, this ranking does not award a school for its traditional heritage or cultural impact. It reflects more ongoing active research rather than a school's potential capacity.

Using publications as the dominant factor makes this ranking favors schools that are strong in humanities and natural sciences, where people tends to publish more. This is not surprising given that the sponsoring agency, Wuhan University, belongs to this category.

Sony Promised Stable Pricing on BluRay Players

SONY US CEO Stan Glascow announced that BluRay DVD players would enjoy a controlled pricing development after defeating Toshiba's HD-DVD as the only left standing DVD standard. The priority now is to persuade consumers to upgrade their DVD players.

Glascow stated that currently the bottom level of BluRay players were sold at $399. The bottom model price will be decreased to $299 on Christmas 2008, then $200 on Christmas 2009. Glascow also promised that the BlyRay players would enjoy a controlled descending in price rather than any free fall. SONY promised it would not license any Chinese manufacture to produce BluRay DVDs.

Before Chinese vendors joined the DVD player making business, a bottom model regular DVD was sold above $200 in a discount store like Wal-Mart. It could be bought at below $20 today.

Six Years Old Patient Died When Parents Managed to Pay for Treatment

Six years old boy Guo Hao died in his mother's arms just when donation flooding in and camera rolling.

Guo Hao developed heart infection after a surgery. For several months he had been suffering, the hospital in Xi'an, capital city of Shannxi Province refused to treat him because his family was too poor to pay. When the story made the news, local residents made donations to help the family. People went to hospital to show support and wish good wills. While the family was interviewed by media in the hospital, the boy died in his mother's arms, while the camera rolling quietly.

The said hospital is the First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

A Stale Invitation

Chinese president Mr. Hu Jintao is to officially visit Japan, the first of such level in a decade due to the obstacle of the Japanese premier admiring WWII war criminals in official capacity. The visit is seen by many on both sides to be the start of a new era in Sino-Japanese relationship, a relationship of two neighboring countries separated by "a waist-belt of water", as ancient wisdom says.

However, the date picked up by the Japanese government is troublesome. April 17th is the anniversary of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed by then Chinese and Japanese government on April 17, 1895, after China lost the war assisting Korea to defend Japanese invasion. The treaty states:
* China withdraw military from Korea; Korea no longer a part of China;
* China surrender Taiwan, Penghu, and Shandong to Japan;
* China pay Japan 200 million liangsilver on military expenses;
* China can not detain any people work for Japanese military;
On the schedule, Hu will visit Tokyo on April 17 and 18, meet with Japanese prime minister and emperor.

Japanese is known for their diligence and intelligence, but sometimes they play it too hard.

Ultimate Citizen's Arrest

New Zealand fugitive Xue Nai Yin was trapped and subdued by a dramatic citizen's arrest in a suburb town on the outskirt of Atlanta, George. Six illegal immigrants from China recognized Xue after reading Chinese newspaper coverage, and tried to alert the police for three times, including went to the police station and talk to patrol officers. Cooks, delivery drivers and waiters in Chinese restaurants, they can't speak English well, and failed to draw attention or assistance from police. Finally they decided to take the matter into their own hands, lured and trapped Xue in an apartment belong to another Chinese. They caught Xue by surprise and tied him up until they got a police to come.

Xue was accused of killing his mail-order wife, who had an affair with a younger man through out the short marriage and blogged in extensive details publicly. Xue left a little daughter born by his wife at a busy rail station before fled to the US. The little girl was known as the pumpkin girl because of the clothing she was wearing at the time.


It's not clear whether the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is aware of the whereabout of the aforementioned six illegals, whose name and address are available on many Chinese newspapers. Anyone who saw the six illegal immigrants (Pictured: Lin Bao Li, Gui Sen Wu, Wei Chen and Jinbo Qi. Not shown in the picture: Dong Shun Li and Ding Qing Chen), call ICE at 1-866-347-2423.