KPAO by Dave Cortright

In this time of political divisiveness, this is a good reminder from an ex-CIA undercover agent on the perspectives of those we consider “the enemy”…

Travel tips for Beijing, China

I found a fantastic fare to Beijing via Scott’s Cheap Flights. Definitely sign up for their free newsletter, and I recommend paying the $40/year for the premium one. It more than paid for itself.

 

I used Passport Visa Express to get our visas. It's on the pricey side, but given the time and transportation savings, I though it was worth it. $89 service fee per passport, +$60 ($30 each way) for FedEx shipping.

 

Install the Google Translate mobile app, and also be sure to download the offline translation engine for Chinese before you go. And definitely check out the camera option; It is like magic.

 

Absolutely get a China SIM card to use while there. I ordered this one from Amazon ($15 for 2GB LTE over a week after which it falls back to 3G speeds) and it worked perfectly with my unlocked iPhone 8. Having one immediately when I landed was great because I could then set up and use…

 

Didi (the Uber of China). Download and configure before you go, especially if you don't have a phone number that can receive text messages over WiFi. (And honestly everyone should sign up for a free Google Voice number.) Using this app much easier than dealing with taxis. A ride from the airport to our hotel near the Forbidden City was less than $20 for a Premier car. Express cars are even a few dollars cheaper. For rides around town within a few km, an Express car costs $2-$6.

 

Bike share services are big in Beijing. We used Ofo which is the leading brand. You have to buy $10 of credit, and then rides are 3元 (about 45¢)/hour with a 1 hour minimum. If I had to do it again, I'd probably go with Mobike which seems to have good coverage and is only 1元/half-hour. And their bike’s industrial design is very cool.

 

We used China DIY Travel to book train tickets. There is a service fee, but you can reduce it using the code OCTZK (which I got from the most excellent rail travel site Seat61). You often need to book many days (and preferably weeks) in advance.

 

For a most excellent Great Wall experience, go to Jinshanling. It's a bit further, but it is gorgeous and much less crowded (for now; the current construction of the visitor center portends some serious crowds in the future). You can do some serious hiking along both restored and decayed sections. It is quite sturdy: steep slopes, narrow stairs, the occasional questionable footing—so be in shape and wear hiking shoes. We went with this tour company ($53/person) and I’d recommend them.

 

For amazing Buddhist temple (vegetarian) cuisine, I highly recommend Fu Hui Ci Yuan. We loved it so much, we went there twice on our visit. A gorgeous menu with full color pictures and English translations make ordering easy. And of the 8 dishes we tried, all were worthwhile. It's an easy walk (or bike ride!) from the East gate exit of the Forbidden City. A fellow tourist recommended the Happy Cow mobile app, and that’s how we found this place.

 

The Guardian: Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals

Really interesting stats in this article:

The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since the dawn of civilization, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and 50% of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds… 

Farmed poultry today makes up 70% of all birds on the planet, with just 30% being wild. The picture is even more stark for mammals; 60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock—mostly cattle and pigs—36% are human and just 4% are wild animals.

 

DNC lawsuit shows they've learned nothing from the 2016 election

So the DNC filed lawsuit against the Russian government Trump campaign and Wikileaks. I think The Onion said it best: the American people must remain solely preoccupied with every little goddamn detail from the 2016 presidential race... The American people have a right to publicly re-litigate Hillary Clinton’s defeat and promote far-reaching conspiracy theories instead of concentrating on anything remotely politically constructive for the next few decades at least.

My suggestion to the DNC: How about you actually take responsibility for nominating the wrong candidate and move on in a more productive manner? Your unwavering petulance just continues to turn off independent voters like me. It seems you have learned nothing from the entire experience. Life's lessons will be repeated until they are learned.

Humans are the original "grey goo"

Grey goo is a pessimistic hypothesis about the upcoming nanobot revolution in that an overly successful self-replicating bot will consume all resources on the planet making copies of itself. 

But it turn out we humans are the grey goo. We are continuing to expand our footprint at the expense of other diverse organisms on the planet.

Online clothing stores that carry tall sizes, including medium tall (MT)

I am tall and thin and none of the standard sizes (S, M, L, XL) fit me well. M fits well through the body but is too short and binds at the armpits. L better, but then I am swimming in with excessive width of it.

Medium tall is perfect for me, but understandably, very difficult to find. I pretty much can’t buy this size from a brick-and-mortar store (except for LL Bean and their outlets). But I have found over the years that several clothing retailers do sell this size online. Here’s the current list of ones I know about:

• LL Bean
• Land’s End
• REI
• American Eagle
• Gap
• Old Navy
• Banana Republic
• Eddie Bauer

eBay also has MT sizes, but many items are simple resellers of the same brands listed above. Let me know if there are others I missed!

Shaun White—two time Olympic gold medalist—on winning and happiness

Shaun White talks about his “loss”* at the 2014 Winter Olympics. I love his perspective:

People felt for me even more to see the one expected to win… not win.
People that were in the sport that really disliked me were all of a sudden posting on their Instagrams about how great I was and “he's just a spectacular guy…”
And I'm like, “you hated me like just before this!”

It was amazing to see the mind-set [change]
and the veil that got dropped [from] over people's eyes where they realized that I'm just like them.
I had the tricks to win. I had everything going my way and I just couldn't let myself do it.

Winning is great, it makes you feel great.
It's like you accomplished something.
You set out a goal and you did it.
And it's amazing and you earned that.

But, you know, [winning] doesn't really equal happiness…
I won the Olympics [in 2006] and I was unhappy.
I won the Olympics [in 2010] and I was unhappy,
I lost the Olympics [in 2014] and I was happy.

He talks about how people connected with him and felt for him more in his loss than in his wins; the people who were his biggest haters before were suddenly praising him.

When he was winning so easily, he wasn’t relatable. But when he lost, suddenly he’s human; he’s fallible; and then the connection happens. And that's what drives happiness. Connecting with others. He also says in there "I had everything going my way [in order to win]; I just couldn't let myself do it." It almost sounds like he subconsciously threw the match. So interesting…

*seriously, the guy came in 4th out of 41 in the finals, but Shaun considers 4th best in the world to be a loss.

 

Women nearly twice as likely to report experiencing depression as men

Wow. This is self-reported data so grain of salt, but according to 23andMe, nearly twice as many women have reported experiencing depression compared to men.

FakeSpot checks how legit the Amazon and Yelp reviews are for a product or place

I've been buying a lot of items from Amazon based in part on the rating. My go-to baseline search criteria these days for any item is Prime and 4 stars and above. Of course some sellers know this, so they generate fake positive reviews. Amazon hasn't done a lot to prevent them or take them down (or if they are doing something, it's not enough). So that's why I now check FakeSpot before buying.

If I'm feeling particularly motivated too, I ask a question on an Amazon product asking what the FakeSpot rating is for the product. It's an indirect way to let other shoppers know. And it doesn't require me to write a review for a product I have no direct experience with (which I don't feel would be right).

FakeSpot Amazon product review verification service

Some thoughts on the recent women’s marches, #meToo, sexual assault and rape

These are sobering stats: ⅙ of all women will be a victim of rape/attempted rape in her lifetime; nearly ½ (44%) of rapes happen to minors.

I tried to find stats on the profile of the assailant/rapist. ⅔ are family/partner, friend or acquaintance. I couldn't find stats on the number of victims (please comment if you do). But it did remind me—and I just verified—that for pedophiles, the number of lifetime victims is between 50-260 HFS! And sad to say, Larry Nassar sits in the middle of that range at 160+.

The thing that immediately popped into my head was this Elton John lyric (with ‘funny’ replaced by ‘a complete and utter travesty’): “It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain…”

I‘m a huge proponent of Brandeis’ assertion that “Sunlight is… the best of disinfectants”. It needs to not only be OK—but essential—for victims to report. They need to not be afraid of doing so. That's a hard obstacle to overcome, since the percent reported goes down the younger the victim is and the closer the victim is to the assailant.

So much credit goes to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina for allowing any victim to speak her truth in court to be inscribed permanently into the public record for the whole world to hear. I encourage you to read them. This is progress.

At least we’ve now started having these difficult conversations more openly. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

—feeling drained yet hopeful