It’s a real scandal. Can’t even read my newspaper anymore, looking at my balcony.
I was shocked by the scene. Tried to stop it, in vain. They were too much in it.
As I say, when you really need the police, there are not to be found.
Moulinex Crystal Arôme: how to repair
I bought this coffee maker in 1994. That means, 15 years of heavy duty service as I am a real big coffee drinker. I regularly clean it completely.
The machine started giving up about two years ago. The plastic tube that carries the boiling water upwards was cracking up. A first simple repair lasted for quite some time: I took out the damaged tube, put aluminum foil around it and secured it by lots of cotton sewing thread, as you cannot use any glue or plastic stuff due to the hot temperature.
But then the whole tube disintegrated. Solution: our Chinese maid found some stainless steel pipes that were a near fit. I replaced the plastic with the stainless steel tube.
As the boiling water goes through it and the pipe sits in the water container, the water starts to warm up slightly but that is not a major problem.
I hate to throw away stuff. Repairing keeps it for much longer instead of polluting the environment with the discarded machine and using more of our precious resources.
I know, the USA is number one in buy – use – throw away when broken; China is a willing copier of this nasty and shameless consumer habit.
The mother of all squash
I had no idea there were so many different squash, gourd, pumpkins etc.
After lots of Google and other search, seem these monster squash are a subgroup of, well guess, squash; called in Chinese “changnanhua” which means long pumpkin or something, the scientific name should be “Cucurbita moschata var. toonas”; it is also sometimes called “long cushaw”.
Me, Obelix in the kitchen, ready to knock someone down.
Letter to China Daily 31 August
Guess what…. China Daily did publish my letter, though modified. I just wonder why they made certain modifications.
I’m not complaining too much as the essence of the message was kept.
You can check with the original version posted earlier. See here what was published:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/2010-08/31/content_11233134.htm
Being:
Letters-Rethink over foreigners needed
Comment on “Foreigner communities” (China Daily, Aug 25)
I doubt that there were 20,000 “green cards” holders, that is, foreigners granted permanent residence permit in China, by 2004. Official figures for 2009 show a total of 311 “green card” holders in Beijing. Figures for Shanghai are most probably similar, but could be a bit higher. As a matter of fact, China has almost stopped issuing “green cards”. Applications are accepted but permission rarely granted.
A consequence of the near non-existence of such card holders is the weird experience of using it. Most airport security officers ignore its existence and ask people to produce their passports. The lack of training on the part of security officers and others makes “green card” holders a discriminated rather than a privileged lot.
Some Chinese people’s worry over the impact of foreigners on China and their call for a new “immigration law” to limit the influx of foreigners would only paint a bad image of China.
Reliable figures on foreigners in China are not available. Beijing is said to have more than 110,000 long-term foreign residents. Figures for Shanghai may be higher. The latest official figures (2007) show 538,892 foreigners have been living in China for more than six months. I believe the real figure is much higher, considering foreign students and many unaccounted for foreigners. Even if we assume a total of 1.5 million foreign residents in China, that is a drop in the ocean compared to the Chinese population of more than 1.3 billion.
If China wants to be an open and international society and part of the world community, some of our Chinese friends have to rethink their attitude toward foreigners.
Gilbert Van Kerckhove, via e-mail
Repairing the iMac screen
I love my iMac (PowerMac6,1 – model M6498 – 1GHz PowerPC G4), bought in 2003 but still running so well. A PC would never be able to last as long.
Over time the screen started failing, usually doing a sleep/wake up helped but finally the screen gave up. Once on it would work, as long as I would not switch of or let it go to sleep.
Apple and all so-called specialists said the model was too old and they could not repair. So sad, Chinese technicians have become pretty lousy (and lazy).
Thanks to my good friend Patrik (Swiss and used to mess around with computers and watches) we looked into the problem that appeared to be the screen Backlight/Invertor. The made-in-China spare part was of course nowhere to be found in China but I ordered it online (welovemacs.com) in the USA and got it delivered. Then Patrik simply dismounted the whole iMac, screen and all, to do some cleaning, put in a new internal battery and change the backlight.
All done and … working.
Now the funniest part is, the (in)famous Mac startup “boing” is gone. We tried and checked everything. Nothing. The iMac works great but no more startup sound. We probably must have done something to the hardware while cleaning as all software checks with TechTool Pro and other did not show anything wrong.
Thanks Patrik and too bad for Apple after-sales and the Chinese “specialists”.
Remark – 23 Sept 10
Funny, my iMac sometimes “starts talking” again when starting up. But mostly still no start-up “boing”. Did not yet find a pattern. At first I thought I was dreaming but, it really “talked”… Mystery remains.