Sometimes you need to recognize that a system is broken and not as helpful as our expectations. The Western medical system is one such system. Yes, we are living longer, with viruses and bacteria largely at bay. As we progress to better health, chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, heart failure, diabetes and obesity have become much more prevalent. These chronic diseases show little abatement with current guidelines. “Lose weight, reduce salt intake, exercise more” may be medically valid advice, but the words are much easier to say and harder to implement.
There are marked differences on how people are arrested, go to trial and convicted in Canada and China. I have read so many first hand accounts of Chinese arrest and torture that they are too numerous to mention. There are many common methods used in China, and common through numerous different areas of China. The differences are stark: Canada adheres to the Rule of Law, human rights and transparency, while China is very uncertain, oblique, and treated on a case-by-case, “Rule-is-law”, basis.
Huawei, one of China’s large computer companies, has been accused of selling US computers to Iran. The US asked and planned with Canada to arrest Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, when she was on route from Hong Kong to Mexico. The arrest occurred on 2018 Dec 01. Shortly after this China arrested two Canadians in China fo “endangering national security”. They have not been heard from since. It is widely understood to be retribution against Canada by China for assisting the US for the arrest.
Abandon All Hope All Ye Canadians Who Enter Here. SCMP
The first arrest was Canadian ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig, detained in China today for unknown reasons. The second Canadian was Michael Spavor, who runs an NGO specializing in tours to North Korea.
Humans are slow and somewhat unpredictable, at least compared to a bot scraping this web site. I actually like that. After all, my posts are meant to be read by humans and not bots. I welcome bots only if they provide a route for humans to my site, such as search engines. For all other bots, known and unknown intent, you will receive a 403 if I can help it.
It is probably not so clear cut, but what was once a unified World Trade Organization WTO, appears to want to split into two camps, based on their form of government. On one side is the democratic Western group, now countered by China and Russia in the totalitarian group. This cleaving seems to be necessary because of fundamental differences of the independence of companies from their governments.
Yet again, some of China’s air quality PM 2.5 readings are off the chart. Literally, and this is really terrible for people’s health. PM 2.5 measures air pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns, which when inhaled are too small for the body to remove, so they stay there forever.
China needs to do much better to protect the health of citizens. Pollution report
Air Quality PM2.5 2018 Dec 02 10:00 Toronto time, readings for China: Xi’an 592, Beijing 268 vs Toronto at 17. Terrible for your health.
China’s increasingly strict foreign exchange controls is hurting not only Chinese individuals and companies, but also impacts international firms repatriating profits from China. This will make foreign firms think twice about Chinese investments.
Foreign Exchange Controls
Chinese nationals have a limits of $50k US/yr for foreign exchange. This has been the case for many years, though I cannot determine when it started. Before you could send more money overseas by declaring it, but as of 2017 January these rules have been tightened up and now exclude purchases of real estate or overseas securities.
This article “Why the trade war will usher in a long, drawn-out bear market, with stocks, bonds, credit and property all at risk” by Andy Xie took some time to think about.
Shakeout of Speculators
Historically low interest rates have allowed people to take out debt cheaply. These funds have been sued to purchase risky assets. This has led to speculation. Now that interest rates are rising this will force speculators to use more expensive funds to service their debt. Over leveraged companies will not survive.
Information is power, and information, to most people of the world is the internet. For most, this starts with a Google Search. In 2010 Google exited China, due to a massive hack by the Chinese government into Google servers. Now, beckoned by the call for making money, Google is again rethinking China. Can Google stand by its ethics of “Do no Harm” while working with the Chinese Government? There will be some compromizes required.
Bostitch btfp02011 Pancake air compressor, 150psi,6 gallons
Picked up I did, a Bostitch BTFP02011 Pancake Air Compressor. It needed some work, but seems to be intact. As I have no compressor or air tools experience I needed to learn form the ground up. Here’s the start of my air tools journey. This compressor looks robust and made of metal. It has the capacity of 150psi. The canister is 6 gallons.
Docs
The user manual is easily found, and actually quite short. I do read all manuals, especially tools. It was a short read.
