Had it in both Korea and China. I was surprised the UK didn't already have it in place, seems a pretty standard thing to have! 

Was very useful in Korea when I got two minutes warning of an earthquake and could get the kids outside. In China I mostly get warnings about the weather, which are almost always unnecessary. 

12 hours ago, PussEKatt said:

The US of A must be the only place where you risk your life by just going to school ?!

Malala says hi, plus kids all over the place that make dangerous journeys across rivers or landslides to reach school. 

But probably the only place where you're likely to the victim of a random shooting at school. 

54 minutes ago, desensitized43 said:

The most disturbing thing is that none of these MPs have actually done anything wrong here. It’s awkward, sure, but not against any rules. Something does need to be done about this because if you can earn over a 100k a year from a 2nd job when your 1st job is paying you around 80-90k a year then its not a stretch to say that being an MP is the 2nd job.

I would say nothing against the rules, rather than nothing wrong. 

10 hours ago, Xela said:

Same as an arcade. Who drives along the M54 and thinks... "I really want to play a fruit machine right now"

Mostly HGV drivers who sleep at the services overnight and have a lot of time to kill. Years ago I worked at a motorway service area, the fruit machines always did a lot of business. 

7 minutes ago, BOF said:

Cats. One is never enough.

Well, they are pretty small

2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

So do Hindus consider buffalo to be totally different from cows? 

 

Yeah, my Hindu wife has never quite managed to explain the logic of it to me, but suggesting eating beef has her reacting the same way most people would to eating cat, but buffalo is fine apparently. 

10 hours ago, PussEKatt said:

Why are Russia and China in the United nations ?

Surely they will always disagree with the west and veto important dicisions.

Because the UN isn't just a club for the west. 

4 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Yeah chicken is about 46% of the market share in Nepal , buffalo around 33% then goat 

That seems about right. The goat there is absolutely vile, you either get a lump of fat or a bit of old leather. Either way you have to chew on for 20 minutes before swallowing (or subtly pass it to the dog) 

6 hours ago, bickster said:

Beef/Yak is not the most popular meet in Nepal. It's about 80% Hindu so beef is only available in a few tourist places and Yak meet is only in the sparsely populated mountains. Buffalo is fairly widely eaten so maybe they are including that as beef or yak. 

China are saying they have objects off their coast and ready to shoot them down. Either some deflection or an interesting twist. 

Quote

China ‘Ready to Shoot Down’ UFO Seen Near Shandong Province

China says it is preparing to shoot down an unidentified flying object (UFO) spotted off the coast of Rizhao, a city located around 150 kilometers southwest of Qingdao.

A viral screenshot of a notice – issued yesterday, February 12 by the Jimo District Department of Marine Development – states that fishing boats in the nearby area should take necessary precautions.

It identifies the GPS coordinates of the UFO as 120.51 degrees latitude east and 35.37 degrees longitude north.

The notice requests nearby fishing boats to photograph and assist with salvaging debris, wherever possible.

29 minutes ago, Genie said:

Yeah. I couldn’t believe it. Not only had he not used one, he hadn’t even seen one… maybe he’s been living under a rock for 3 years. 

He's probably just too cheap to buy a test so never saw one. 

17 hours ago, Genie said:

I was just in my team meeting and our boss mentioned he has covid and flashed his covid test at the camera. 

One chap in India asked what it was as he’d never seen a test like that before He said they don’t have those in India. 

 

That's weird because they certainly have them across the border in Nepal and the markets normally look pretty similar. At least half the stock in a typical Nepali phamarcy is normally imported from India. 

PayPal. 

I want to pay for a race. PayPal is the only payment option. Try to log in, it's first time since I've been in China. They want to call or text me, but only have my old mobile number from the UK. There is no 'don't have access to this number' option. Just a dead-end. Unable to pay, can't do the race. It's happened to me before with them, had to set up a new account with a new email, but I'm not doing that every single time I want to use PayPal. Useless. 

3 hours ago, magnkarl said:

I’ve been to China two times, once in the 80s and once in 2014. The change in the amount of overweight people was massive. It is true though, most of the obese people were younger. But when that McDonald’s fat wave hits China in 10-20 years it’ll cripple the big cities.

There a a far fewer overweight people in China than the west. I'm sure the number has risen with McDonald's and KFC everywhere but it's still relatively small. They all do sport at university, and I think I far higher proportion of people here stay physically active through adult life. And while there is plenty of fast food, relatively healthy Chinese food remains king. 

Tobacco is definitely a problem, especially among workers. On the other hand, alcohol consumption is lower. A big proportion of students don't drink at all and much of the beer is around 3% abv (fortunately for me there is still a decent craft beer scene). 

I see China as a really healthy place overall, although that is only based on what I've observed personally. 

15 minutes ago, Milfner said:

But then you get one unevenly cooked and two how they should be!

Why? It never happened to me. 

4 hours ago, JoshVilla said:

Crumpets coming in packs of 9 when literally everyone has 2 at a time.

I'm quite happy to eat them 3. Problem solved. 

8 minutes ago, blandy said:

Always liked this stuff

It's that the one from NZ? Remember it was £1.50 with a student card in Walkabout during my student years. 

I'm ebjoying this chocolate stout from Richkat in Shenzen. However, 8.2% abv before dinner may be a mistake. 

Edit: I've moved on. This is 10 times better. A hint of sweetness but so smooth. 

Another edit as I gradually sink into a happy, relaxed drunk stage. This is Ye Brewing Nightingale Lava Cake Imperial Stout. 8.5% again and I'm definitely starting to feel it. 

McDonald's in China seem to be phasing out the touch screen order terminals and forcing you to order via the app. Except the app in Chinese only, doesn't load properly and last time I managed to order in it, the order was placed in a different restaurant to the one I was in. The machines were so wonderfully simple, the app is worse than my normal point and smile method of ordering food. 

32 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I don't like sweeping generalisations but I think I'm officially at that age where I'm exasperated by kids these days, especially the young lads at work.  Makes me feel old.

Total opposite for me. I live on campus with a bunch of students mostly 18-22 years old and absolutely love it. It's great to hang out with people so energetic and who actually still have loads of optimism about life, instead of the teachers who just complain about everything. Occasionally it makes me feel old, but mostly I feel younger 

10 hours ago, Mr_Dogg said:

Isn't the problem that their vaccine is really not very good?

And boosters aren't being offered regularly. Most people I've spoken to haven't had one for 12 months or more, so basically no protection. 

My WeChat time line is full of sheep (sheep and positive are the same sound in Mandarin) and pictures of thermometers showing temperatures. It's still almost impossible to buy paracetamol, so they're just going to have to suck it up for a while. 

3 minutes ago, sne said:

Bloomberg are reporting that China might be having 1 mil new cases a day and that 5000 people a day are dying from it there. It's from a report made by a firm called Airfinity.

If that's even remotely close to the truth it would be grim a f 

That isn't how it looks from the inside. There are lots and lots of cases for sure, but I'm not seeing a lot of evidence of high numbers of people getting seriously ill. 

If course, China isn't always the most forthcoming with information 

3 hours ago, Nicho said:

Concerning reports coming out of China of mass spread and increasing death tallies.

Went out on Saturday with my football team, 2 confirmed as covid and about 8 of us feeling very rough.

This could just be normal flu but it doesn’t feel like normal flu. 

China has got rid of almost all the restrictions now. I guess about a quarter of my students in Guangdong are currently positive, but mostly with very mild symptoms. Restaurants and malls are quieter now than during lockdown because everyone is trying to avoid getting sick. 

A lot of people haven't had booster vaccines in a long time, and it is almost impossible to buy paracetamol etc at the moment, so it's going to be a rough few weeks here. 

On 09/12/2022 at 02:20, sidcow said:

Anyone remember when Skype was a thing?

I use it occasionally for job interviews, still seems to be a thing in the world of ESL teaching. But that is literally the only time I use it, and it's so infrequent that I end up resetting my password every single time.