“Study finds robot pets as good as live ones” I just saw this article on engadget in the Web Clips at the top of my Gmail Inbox. Apparently, a bunch of Vet Science people at Purdue did a study that shows that the robotic Aibo dog can be just as emotionally satisfying as a real [...]
To anyone who has the misfortune of viewing this (or any of my) site, using Internet Explorer, I apologize sincerely! (And suggest that you move to Firefox as soon as possible.) I actually opened my site in IE for the first time in ages the other day, and it looks quite rubbish. I’m surprised you [...]
When we went to Harbin a week ago, weather.com promised us optimistically pleasant high temperatures around -7°C. This was wildly incorrect, and we were in fact there on some of the coldest days this season! However, The Weather Channel somewhat redeemed itself today when I opened my browser and my Firefox weather extension informed me [...]
As a follow-up to the post below, extolling the fantastic blog of Imagethief, I’m posting links to a few of my favorite recent Imagethief offerings: Chinese Restaurant Calculation Made Easy A wonderful essay on ordering dishes at a restaurant. It will hit all too close to home for anyone in China, and for those of [...]
I was just updating my MyYahoo! page to create a second tab with all the RSS feeds for the Beijing blogs I like to read (yeah, that list over there, plus a few more), and I decided to do a Yahoo! RSS feed search for “Beijing” and see if this blog showed up. Sure enough, [...]
The Materials vs. Labor Cost Ratio in China The materials vs. labor cost ratio is one of the biggest differences between the US and China, and seeing how this plays out in daily life is one of the interesting experiences as an ex-pat. In the US, materials are relatively inexpensive, but labor costs a fortune. [...]
It’s snowing today, and more importantly, the snow is sticking! This is the first time we’ve been in Beijing when it’s snowed and the snow has actually stuck around, so everything is starting to develop a nice white layer. Unfortunately, we had to run an errand this morning before work, so we didn’t begin our [...]
I finally managed to download the photos from my phone, so here’s a collection of random stuff from the last few months… We ordered a plate of whole, deep-fried fish for lunch one day, and Anuj managed to his entire fish, leaving a perfect little fish skeleton. It looked just like it does in cartoons. [...]
While I swapped files and did other menial, brainless tasks at work today, I ended up catching up on a lot of the popular China and Beijing blogs (like those in that list over there), and it really struck me that we (the Austin transplants) live in a very isolated bubble over here. I think [...]
For amusement, we stopped by the new Cafe Provence in Lucky Street on Sunday. I knew we were in for an overload of frills and flowers just from the lampshades in the windows. You can see from the street that they must have used a bolt of lace on each one! A waitress in a [...]