Gotta Make The Exercise As Realistic As Possible!

Verisimilitude:

A fire drill at a school in northwestern China left more than 190 people injured, nine critically, after participants inhaled smoke used to simulate accident conditions, state media said Sunday.

More than 400 students at the middle school in Gansu province's Tianshui city took part in the combined fire and air raid drill on Friday when the artificially generated smoke surged out of control, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"Many students began to cough and vomit after inhaling the smoke," the report quoted the local government as saying.

...Organisers said the air raid drill in Beijing was aimed at educating people about national defence with one academic linking the exercise to the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Xinhua said, which the country marked earlier this month with a military parade.

Rogue Traders - Watching You

Gabe set me thinking again about Australian rock music. Rogue Traders were huge in Australia 9 years ago. Then Natalie Bassingthwaite moved to LA and more-or-less vanished (terrible representation). The group got a different lead singer (they were in the habit of rotating people through), but Natalie eventually returned to Australia. In the last few years, she's been a judge on "Australia's Got Talent."

A "My Sharona" vibe here....

"Black Mass" With Johnny Depp and Jesse Plemons

Tonight, I went to see "Black Mass", and was totally creeped out by Johnny Depp's dark portrayal of Southie kingpin, Whitey Bulger. Great movie!




At one point, they used this favorite tune from Disco days....




As an alternative, they also used this song, when Whitey Bulger distracts the FBI once again:

Spy Skullduggery Rumors From Loomis

Recent reports in the Chinese press (not in English; rumor comes to me via word-of-mouth) indicate China is willing to pay a very, very high ransom to the United States for this man's return from Loomis, California, just outside Sacramento.

Rumor has it, China will expedite the return of 40,000 Chinese stuck in legal limbo from the U.S., whose visas have expired and yet whose Chinese paperwork is also not in order. China will make it happen, presto. Plus, the United States can just pocket the man's $600 million. China doesn't care about the money. All China wants is to get this guy back under their control again.

The English-language press needs to catch up and watch this story more carefully. Spy skullduggery galore! This backgrounder is from last month:

LOOMIS, Calif. — China is demanding that the Obama administration return a wealthy and politically connected businessman who fled to the United States, according to several American officials familiar with the case. Should he seek political asylum, he could become one of the most damaging defectors in the history of the People’s Republic.

The case of the businessman, Ling Wancheng, has strained relations between two nations already at odds over numerous issues before President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United States in September, including an extensive cybertheft of American government data and China’s aggressive territorial claims.

Mr. Ling is the youngest brother of Ling Jihua, who for years held a post equivalent to that of the White House chief of staff, overseeing the Communist Party’s inner sanctum as director of its General Office. Ling Jihua is one of the highest-profile casualties of an anticorruption campaign that Mr. Xi has made a centerpiece of his government.

Schrödinger's Cat

The Reason I've Been Slow At Blogging Lately

I've been working on a memoir of my 1960's (and early 70's) childhood. At the time it felt like an ordinary life, but after the passage of half a century it seems strange to look back at it - like a tale from a foreign land, or a kind of hallucination. I have blogged some of these tales over the years, but I'm collecting them together, reorganizing them, and adding in new material.

Just An Ordinary Florida Residence

Just an ordinary Florida residence....:

Sheriff's deputies discovered a virtual warehouse of knives, swords, machetes and hatchets inside a house trailer when they arrested a Florida woman, police said. CNN affiliate Bay News 9 reports.

Bella Rizzo Was Once A Regular On Soul Train, And She Has The Video Proof!

She's wearing the green dress! Amazing!

Tai Chi On Crack

As Bella and I finished our walk, and rounded the last turn into our dark home alley at 1:15 a.m., we came upon a man, age about 60, doing slow motion martial arts exercises. He seemed a bit self conscious at being discovered, so I gave him a cheery wave as we walked past.

Ahmed And His Clock

Every high school has someone like Ahmed. We had a fellow named Hoskie with a briefcase full of projects:

School officers questioned Ahmed about the device and why Ahmed had brought it to school. Boyd said Ahmed was then handcuffed “for his safety and for the safety of the officers” and taken to a juvenile detention center. He was later released to his parents, Boyd said.

Tesla Could See The Future