Coffee is an important agricultural commodity contributing significantly to the economies of many developing countries. Of the 124 species of Coffea, the two main commercial species used in the production of the beverage are C. arabica (Arabica coffee) and C. canephora (robusta coffee). Arabica coffee accounts for about 60% of the total coffee production. Sarada will talk about the botany and production of coffee and the research she has been involved in, including the development of the Global Conservation Strategy for Coffee Genetic Resources.
Berkeley Lab Live Science - Microscopic Chefs Fri, Mar 5, 2021, 2:00 PM PST
Microscopic Chefs:
This week, join chefs and their microscopic assistants in the kitchen! These scientists and chefs will talk about the science behind fermentation as well as share the fermented culinary inventions of past, present, and future.
Speakers:
Sara Harmon is the Communications and Outreach Manager at the Joint BioEnergy Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As a science communicator and educator, Sara is committed to improving the experience and outcomes for learners of all ages, background, and abilities.
Dr. Vayu Maini Rekdal is a scientist, chef, and educator and currently a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley. Vayu first moved to the US to work in restaurants, but the flavors, textures, and sensations of the kitchen eventually led him to scientific research. His journey in both cooking and science has brought him to restaurants and laboratories around the world.
Chef Bill Yosses has held the prestigious title of the White House Executive Pastry Chef from 2007 to 2014. Bill was closely involved with Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move initiative with the goal of reducing childhood health problems related to diet, conducting tours of the White House vegetable garden for school groups and sharing expertise on science and cooking with students.
Chef Courtney Burns is an accomplished chef, writer, and restaurant owner. She earned national acclaim for innovative dishes at Bar Tartine, and her cookbook won a James Beard Foundation Award. She now works with Blue Hill at Stone Barns on their preservation program.
@danimalpena: So much MexAm culture is different from what’s been allowed on the page. Big things, but also little ones. No one ever called me “mijo,” for instance. It was “mi cielo,” my heaven. Those weird textural things like that. Never seen mi cielo in print. Other things too.
Yes! There was nothing better than being called "mijo" by my elderly Mexican great grandmother who made fantastic hot sauce, incredible refried beans and always complained that I wasn't eating too much.
I wanted to share a little about February 28, but I forgot yesterday, so here it is:
Today is a day of remembrance for Taiwanese people, and I'd like to share a bit with you all. In the 1940s, Japan lost WWII and had to cede some of its occupied lands, and the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang/KMT) lost to the Communist Party in the civil war in China. As a result, Japan handed Taiwan over to the KMT (who fled China).
When the KMT arrived in Taiwan, mistrust and misunderstanding led to a massacre on February 28, 1947--the 228 Incident. Some of the physical violence touched my family. My grandfather and his brothers had to hide in the countryside. His father was taken and beaten, and my great-grandmother went around bribing people to try to find out what had happened to her husband. He was one of the "lucky" ones, because he was released after three days. He was never the same. My mom says that, as long as she could remember, her grandfather was sickly, and he died at the age of 49.
Beyond the physical violence, the KMT was systematic in stamping out local cultures in Taiwan. At school, my mom was fined if she spoke her mother tongue (Taiwanese), and the KMT teachers derided Taiwanese students for being "bumpkins." Government posts, education, and business opportunities were only for KMT families. If you dared speak up, you could get disappeared.
Today, I think about how Taiwan has progressed from the martial law of my parents' youth to a vibrant democracy. I fear for the people in Myanmar and Hong Kong, and I see the people who are bravely speaking up there so that someday, their homes may have democracy--even if they might not live to see it.
I think the comparison to the Hong Kong situation is very different because Hong Kong is basically facing outside rule, while the KMT, while outsiders at the time and would publicly say that they are going back to China, were staying in Taiwan. In other words, things could get a lot worse in Hong Kong than it had ever gotten in Taiwan.
On my mother's side, my grandparents were in Taiwan when it was under both Japanese rule and then when the KMT took over. My grandmother has frightful memories of both Japanese and then KMT-occupation, although now that she's, unfortunately, sort of senile and exposed to more anti-KMT propaganda, she blames it all on the KMT (even when her age, etc. doesn't line up). It's interesting for me to see the change since 228 wasn't an officially recognized thing until I had left for the US. There has been a major shift in sentiment from pro-China (obviously not the government but they are cousins)/anti-Japan to the present pro-Japan/anti-China.
Maybe it is a part of my KMT-brainwashing when I was growing up in Taiwan, but it also could be my relative hatred toward learning languages, I thought one of the better thing that the Republic of China did was to pick a Chinese dialect (Mandarin) as the official language and (more or less by force) make everyone learn it. A unified language made a lot of things better, but at some expense of regional culture. Then again, Chinese tradition has included using corporal punishment to force EVERYONE to eat and write with their right hand, even if some people are naturally left-handed.
Nonetheless, it's interesting to see your perspective on 228 and for spreading knowledge about Taiwan.
1) "Chinese dialect" is a political term; not a linguistic one. Linguists would define languages as being mutually unintelligible, but a lot of Sinitic languages are lumped in as "Chinese dialect" because of politics, both internal and external. Internal because a lot of the Chinese unification efforts were under the umbrella of one "right" language; external because outsiders didn't understand/value the diversity of Chinese cultures and languages.
2) Sure, you can have a national or de facto national language, but the accompanying policies and behaviors went far beyond "some expense of regional culture." It's the active destruction of regional culture. You see this all over the world when groups of people aren't allowed to speak their mother tongues, like indigenous people who were kidnapped and put into state-run schools. In Taiwan, this happened to indigenous tribes (at the hands of many different colonizers), and it also happened to people like your mom's family and my parents' families. Interestingly, I recently learned that Chiang Kai-Shek himself was not great at speaking Mandarin.
3) "Hong Kong is basically facing outside rule, while the KMT, while outsiders at the time and would publicly say that they are going back to China, were staying in Taiwan. In other words, things could get a lot worse in Hong Kong than it had ever gotten in Taiwan." I'm not sure I understand this. I don't think it's the fascism olympics, and I wouldn't hazard a guess as to who has it "worse." Both can be (and have gotten) pretty bad. I also consider the KMT of the 1940s to be outsiders in Taiwan, and being forced to stay in Taiwan because they couldn't return to China didn't make them any kinder to the people of Taiwan.
1) I may be way wrong about this, but I thought a lot of the different dialects either share the same written form (or didn't have one) and grammar.
2) Are you saying that they should not have standardized the language and teach it in schools? For Taiwan, there are already several different languages. The number of languages spoken is even more for China. The choice of Mandarin was only made after ROC was formed and based on supposedly aesthetic reasons, so I am actually not surprised that Chiang Kai-Shek didn't speak it. I think now, we know that kids can learn different languages if they are taught simultaneously. The actual execution of it probably could have been greatly improved, but the overall idea of one language is progress.
3) The KMT at Taiwan situation was one of survival for both parties involved. Even after KMT tragically used force, they still need to find a way for everyone to coexist. China vs. Hong Kong is more just posturing. The people calling the shots can do worse and not think about what they had done.
[I'm fairly certain that my attempts to clarify my thoughts may not have accomplished the desired goals.]
The different languages have different grammar/syntax, so while my parents might be able to recognize characters from a sign from Hong Kong, they could still have difficulties understanding what that sign means.
As for teaching one language in schools, that's fine, that's great! What isn't fine (and goes toward the discrimination and dehumanizing stages of genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide) is denigrating the practices and cultures of other languages. When my mom was in school, she would get punished (corporal and monetary) for speaking Taiwanese. Some of her classmates would always be listening, ready to tell on anyone who spoke Taiwanese. Authority figures laughed at her and anyone else with a Taiwanese accent. They were constantly inundated with the message that speaking Taiwanese was bad, it was low, it was dirty. Even now, people consider Mandarin-speakers to be more "country" (in a negative way) if they have a Taiwanese tinge to their speech. That's one of the scars of oppression--the criminalization and dehumanization of your mother tongue.
Just for extra (too much) info, on my father's side, my grandfather died from meningitis soon after arriving from China and my father and his siblings were born. They didn't benefit from the KMT oppression (that I knew off, at least) that I feel the need to defend them.
I don't understand the division that still traces back to 2 generations ago when everyone is now born and raised in Taiwan to forge a new identity. Then again (since I mentioned it yesterday that I have been watching The Expanse), these kinds of things also exist in fiction...and may just be unavoidable political divisions of any kind of colonization movements.
There are definitely a lot of tragic stories in KMT families, like your grandfather's illness and death, and the people who never saw their homelands and families ever again. I don't deny that at all.
As for the "benefitting from KMT oppression" part, well, that's analogous to white privilege. There are white people who feel defensive or attacked by the term white privilege, because they think, "Well, I'm not well off! I have to work hard!" Individually, they may have it harder than certain other people of color. But, the system doesn't disadvantage them based on the color of their skin. When the KMT was in power, they would block non-KMT people from opportunities to advance, and then use their comparative lack of power to further scapegoat them. My point isn't "all KMT families benefitted," it was that it was practically impossible for non-KMT families to benefit.
I say practically because I do know of exceptions. My dad's family was in Taiwan for hundreds of years before the KMT arrived, but they are SUPER KMT. Chiang Kai-Shek loved their village and built an estate there, so the people there flourished under KMT rule. That experience is just as real, though rarer.
I think it's great that many people of our generation and younger now identify as Taiwanese, and that the division between "waishen" and "benshen" isn't commonly used now. (For others here, "shen" is province, so the terminology is from when Taiwan was considered a shen/province of China, so the people whose families had been in Taiwan for hundreds of years were benshen/here-province, and the KMT were waishen/foreign-province. This is separate from the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, who had been there for thousands of years.) But, you have to remember that martial law didn't end until 1987. There are plenty of people who are still alive who felt the effects of KMT oppression, and it's certainly harder for them to let go of the damage (and hard for the damage to heal).
I saw this recently with my friend's book, I Dream of Popo. My friend is the illustrator, and her family speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese. The author's family speaks only Mandarin, so the title of the book is I Dream of Popo. On Fbook, someone protested, "If it were REALLY Taiwanese, it should be I Dream of A-ma." So for that person, there is still a division between waishen and benshen. But, I consider the author's Taiwanese American story to be just as real and valid as the illustrators, and just as real and valid as yours and mine.
I will also say that I am kind of a Rip Van Winkle when it comes to Taiwan. Since coming to America 28 years ago, I have only been back twice before the most recent trip last year, when I finally had aged out of the military service (used to be 2-year, now 10 months?).
The decision for me to stay legally in the US rather than to go back with my family after my dad's 5-yeard PhD stint was up, is still super controversial within my family. While I was away (and even though my family were there), there were definitely a lot of intentional avoidances because it was the one place where I could not go. By the time that was all resolved 3 years ago, Taiwan now is very different from the one that I left in 1993 at age 10 (by the way, I have a ton of very vivid memories dating back to age 5...unlike my sister who couldn't remember a trip we took 10 years ago).
Anyhow, my confusing statement that Cugel asked about is actually because I thought the whole "waishen" vs. "benshen" still exists, but just in kind of a warped form now. I may have been mistaken when I thought I read someone saying that the stuff in the National Palace Museum should be sent back to China because that's not Taiwan. I think it's the sentiment that it's "Taiwan" and not "The Republic of China" (outside the fact that the latter is confusing to foreigners) that I don't fully comprehend. Possibly drawing a bad parallel, I feel like saying something about the Chinese heritage in Taiwan is almost like saying white power/privilege in the US. That feels a bit extreme to me.
The way you wrote that, it sounded like the events were somehow connected - also, "misunderstandings", KMT were rat bastards, which explains in large part why they lost to Mao.
Streaming video and audio in general. I watch stuff ALL the time now. According to my tracking, I spent two entire months of 2020 just watching stuff
Also video/audio lectures EVERYWHERE. I'm ALWAYS plugged in listening to lectures these days. Language, Engineering, Physics, Economics, whatever I'm studying. Man, if these things were around when I was in college, my GPA wouldn't have been so sorry...
I think I have been using video conferencing for over 15 years now, having worked on international collaborated particle physics experiments. A lot of etiquettes, as well as the software (WebEx, BlueJeans, etc.) of choice, have changed over the years (particularly this past year), but then again the World Wide Web was invented by someone at CERN.
I think it might be a benefit for one of the cards I have, but for reasons known only to herself my wife refuses to sign up. Funnily enough, the person who is most upset about this is my sister in law, who views "less hassle from the man" at the airport as being well worth the money.
I just don't travel enough - domestically or internationally - to really get the benefit. Plus there's no use me having PreCheck and the missus not, when we're going somewhere together.
now that I think about this... I suspect that my wife doesn't want to get PreCheck because she thinks I'll use that as an excuse to cut arrivals times closer than she would like (this is fact-based concern on her part, to be clear). BUT if I get Pre-Check AND we arrive in plenty of time for her to be in the slow line, then it is 100% beer o'clock.
Wait until the next time you fly through EWR. Going between the terminals, at least for United, sometimes requires going through TSA again, which sucks. The precheck line is so much shorter.
I have never used it, despite having done a good amount of travel. Does it really save you that much time (I also regularly only show up 75 minutes before a flight, maybe more like 90 for international flights especially if I need to check a bag, to airports) or is it just peace of mind?
The payoff for Global Entry is skipping the customs line and getting waved through. Last trip to Vietnam I was through customs at SFO in less than 5 minutes
I agree on the customs. That is where the longest line is, and not only you can pass all the line, they don't even ask you any questions. Officer just sticks his hands out and you give him the customs form and walk right by. With business class seats and global entry, I am always out of the airport in about 10 mintues from the time plane door opens.
Is that only on the way back or do other countries also let you go through them faster? On my last trip to Germany, customs was super slow because they somehow wanted to see how much cash everyone had on them (and was befuddled that I was just planning to use the atm in the city, once I get there). That took forever (they also took even longer with the Mexican national graduate student that was ahead of me inline)
Global Entry is only on the way into the US. However, one thing Germany has now, is that they allow US citizens to register for something similar to Global Entry. I think you get to use the EU line and put your passport and they do facial rec (I think). I was going to sign up for it last time I had a layover there since United has many flights to Europe through Germany. At one time I had to go out of customs to get my connecting flight and I always made sure I had a couple of hours in between in case customs was long, as it was one time.
What I noticed is Mobile Passport is almost just as fast because no one ever uses it. When I first used it (almost 3 years ago)I think I came back through EWR and the regular line was enormous. Mobile Passport was maybe only 10 people and I was through in maybe 10 min. I still had to wait at least 20 min for my bags though.
The Precheck lines are usually shorter but for me the main thing is not taking off my shoes, removing my laptops, and taking my liquids out. That and usually people in the Precheck lines know the process so you aren't stuck behind someone that takes forever. My first flight with Precheck there was a family that still took off their shoes and removed their liquids. Ugh.
Coincidentally, I think one of my last time flying out of SFO, they just told me to go through the precheck line for some reason. I might also have been one of the noob that was slowing other people down by almost taking out my stuff.
an under utilised, but free and easy download is Mobile Passport - when international travel is allowed again, it helps you skip a big part of the line when re-entering the states.
I used to use it until they started to charge to store passports. When they switched to forcing payment to store a passport or rescan it everytime, I got Global Entry since my CC would pay for it.
I had to wait probably 4 months to get an appt but right before my last international trip before covid to Vienna, I think it was, they allowed people returning to the US to be able to get their final interview they arrive, so I didn't have to wait until Feb and was able to do it in Nov.
The app did used to store passports for free. You could scan it and then MP would hold it for when you landed. They started charging to store it maybe mid 2019.
Football schedule released. At Oregon on a Friday, but it's after a 6th week Bye, so not a big deal. Big Game once again is not the last game. UCLA during Thanksgiving week is the last game.
Inflation has hit the visitor tailgate game really hard. UNC was $40 with food/drink. Ole Miss was $50. TCU looks like it will be closer to $200/person. I need about a dozen and a half pre-commitments otherwise the capital risk is too high. Who's in?
Nevermind. The dopes at the vendor quoted me a full season, not just the Cal game. I can do this for about $50-75/person, depending on the alcohol rules at TCU.
let me know when you need $, I can kick in. I have a good friend who is a TCU alum, I'll see if I can coerce him to make the trip and also get a lowdown in advance of do's and don'ts
Damn if F2F events start back up a bluetooth event starts on Sept 11. So I guess it depends on the schedule if I have to be there the first day. I'm guessing I will be, but if not I'll probably go and then fly to Denver that night if it's a day game.
DoorDash, I started using it once the pandemic got underway and its given me a new avenue to be even more lazy :), also they are a primary sponsor for Bubba Wallace NASCAR team so that's kind of cool.
I've also only used it (and competitor) for pickups in the past due to being cheap and they do allow some kind of discounts to encourage usage. I think now I realize that these delivery companies probably pushed those discounts onto the profits of the restaurants.
I've used grubhub to order ahead for pickup and occasionally for delivery, but have stopped now that I know how predatory their charges to the restaurant can be. The real advantage is in overcoming the accent problem from the predominantly Salvadoran restaurant workers hereabouts: I can understand them for the most part, they cannot understand me for the most part. The only part about this that baffles me is my wife's insistence that it's not happening (she's been there plenty of times when it's happened) and that I'm being unreasonable in using applications ever to basically get what I'm ordering.
https://primaryhealthjobs.com/
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https://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/pahma.html?event_ID=137783&date=2021-03-05&filter=Secondary%20Event%20Type&filtersel=
The Science and Culture of Coffee
Lecture | March 5 | 11 a.m.-12 p.m. | UC Botanical Garden
Speaker/Performer: Sarada Krishnan, Denver Botanic Gardens
Sponsor: Botanical Garden
Coffee is an important agricultural commodity contributing significantly to the economies of many developing countries. Of the 124 species of Coffea, the two main commercial species used in the production of the beverage are C. arabica (Arabica coffee) and C. canephora (robusta coffee). Arabica coffee accounts for about 60% of the total coffee production. Sarada will talk about the botany and production of coffee and the research she has been involved in, including the development of the Global Conservation Strategy for Coffee Genetic Resources.
Do any of you do the monthly meta crossword in the Washington Post? I can't figure out the meta for this month ahhhhh!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/berkeley-lab-live-science-microscopic-chefs-tickets-142035653463
Berkeley Lab Live Science - Microscopic Chefs Fri, Mar 5, 2021, 2:00 PM PST
Microscopic Chefs:
This week, join chefs and their microscopic assistants in the kitchen! These scientists and chefs will talk about the science behind fermentation as well as share the fermented culinary inventions of past, present, and future.
Speakers:
Sara Harmon is the Communications and Outreach Manager at the Joint BioEnergy Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As a science communicator and educator, Sara is committed to improving the experience and outcomes for learners of all ages, background, and abilities.
Dr. Vayu Maini Rekdal is a scientist, chef, and educator and currently a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley. Vayu first moved to the US to work in restaurants, but the flavors, textures, and sensations of the kitchen eventually led him to scientific research. His journey in both cooking and science has brought him to restaurants and laboratories around the world.
Chef Bill Yosses has held the prestigious title of the White House Executive Pastry Chef from 2007 to 2014. Bill was closely involved with Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move initiative with the goal of reducing childhood health problems related to diet, conducting tours of the White House vegetable garden for school groups and sharing expertise on science and cooking with students.
Chef Courtney Burns is an accomplished chef, writer, and restaurant owner. She earned national acclaim for innovative dishes at Bar Tartine, and her cookbook won a James Beard Foundation Award. She now works with Blue Hill at Stone Barns on their preservation program.
For the Mexican Americans here, have you ever been called mijo, mi cielo, or something else?
https://twitter.com/danimalpena/status/1366496477061685249?s=20
@danimalpena: So much MexAm culture is different from what’s been allowed on the page. Big things, but also little ones. No one ever called me “mijo,” for instance. It was “mi cielo,” my heaven. Those weird textural things like that. Never seen mi cielo in print. Other things too.
Yes! There was nothing better than being called "mijo" by my elderly Mexican great grandmother who made fantastic hot sauce, incredible refried beans and always complained that I wasn't eating too much.
<3
DBD AV
Weird...comedy central isn't asking for cable company login anymore. Maybe they just had a glitch?
I wanted to share a little about February 28, but I forgot yesterday, so here it is:
Today is a day of remembrance for Taiwanese people, and I'd like to share a bit with you all. In the 1940s, Japan lost WWII and had to cede some of its occupied lands, and the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang/KMT) lost to the Communist Party in the civil war in China. As a result, Japan handed Taiwan over to the KMT (who fled China).
When the KMT arrived in Taiwan, mistrust and misunderstanding led to a massacre on February 28, 1947--the 228 Incident. Some of the physical violence touched my family. My grandfather and his brothers had to hide in the countryside. His father was taken and beaten, and my great-grandmother went around bribing people to try to find out what had happened to her husband. He was one of the "lucky" ones, because he was released after three days. He was never the same. My mom says that, as long as she could remember, her grandfather was sickly, and he died at the age of 49.
Beyond the physical violence, the KMT was systematic in stamping out local cultures in Taiwan. At school, my mom was fined if she spoke her mother tongue (Taiwanese), and the KMT teachers derided Taiwanese students for being "bumpkins." Government posts, education, and business opportunities were only for KMT families. If you dared speak up, you could get disappeared.
Today, I think about how Taiwan has progressed from the martial law of my parents' youth to a vibrant democracy. I fear for the people in Myanmar and Hong Kong, and I see the people who are bravely speaking up there so that someday, their homes may have democracy--even if they might not live to see it.
I think the comparison to the Hong Kong situation is very different because Hong Kong is basically facing outside rule, while the KMT, while outsiders at the time and would publicly say that they are going back to China, were staying in Taiwan. In other words, things could get a lot worse in Hong Kong than it had ever gotten in Taiwan.
On my mother's side, my grandparents were in Taiwan when it was under both Japanese rule and then when the KMT took over. My grandmother has frightful memories of both Japanese and then KMT-occupation, although now that she's, unfortunately, sort of senile and exposed to more anti-KMT propaganda, she blames it all on the KMT (even when her age, etc. doesn't line up). It's interesting for me to see the change since 228 wasn't an officially recognized thing until I had left for the US. There has been a major shift in sentiment from pro-China (obviously not the government but they are cousins)/anti-Japan to the present pro-Japan/anti-China.
Maybe it is a part of my KMT-brainwashing when I was growing up in Taiwan, but it also could be my relative hatred toward learning languages, I thought one of the better thing that the Republic of China did was to pick a Chinese dialect (Mandarin) as the official language and (more or less by force) make everyone learn it. A unified language made a lot of things better, but at some expense of regional culture. Then again, Chinese tradition has included using corporal punishment to force EVERYONE to eat and write with their right hand, even if some people are naturally left-handed.
Nonetheless, it's interesting to see your perspective on 228 and for spreading knowledge about Taiwan.
1) "Chinese dialect" is a political term; not a linguistic one. Linguists would define languages as being mutually unintelligible, but a lot of Sinitic languages are lumped in as "Chinese dialect" because of politics, both internal and external. Internal because a lot of the Chinese unification efforts were under the umbrella of one "right" language; external because outsiders didn't understand/value the diversity of Chinese cultures and languages.
2) Sure, you can have a national or de facto national language, but the accompanying policies and behaviors went far beyond "some expense of regional culture." It's the active destruction of regional culture. You see this all over the world when groups of people aren't allowed to speak their mother tongues, like indigenous people who were kidnapped and put into state-run schools. In Taiwan, this happened to indigenous tribes (at the hands of many different colonizers), and it also happened to people like your mom's family and my parents' families. Interestingly, I recently learned that Chiang Kai-Shek himself was not great at speaking Mandarin.
3) "Hong Kong is basically facing outside rule, while the KMT, while outsiders at the time and would publicly say that they are going back to China, were staying in Taiwan. In other words, things could get a lot worse in Hong Kong than it had ever gotten in Taiwan." I'm not sure I understand this. I don't think it's the fascism olympics, and I wouldn't hazard a guess as to who has it "worse." Both can be (and have gotten) pretty bad. I also consider the KMT of the 1940s to be outsiders in Taiwan, and being forced to stay in Taiwan because they couldn't return to China didn't make them any kinder to the people of Taiwan.
1) I may be way wrong about this, but I thought a lot of the different dialects either share the same written form (or didn't have one) and grammar.
2) Are you saying that they should not have standardized the language and teach it in schools? For Taiwan, there are already several different languages. The number of languages spoken is even more for China. The choice of Mandarin was only made after ROC was formed and based on supposedly aesthetic reasons, so I am actually not surprised that Chiang Kai-Shek didn't speak it. I think now, we know that kids can learn different languages if they are taught simultaneously. The actual execution of it probably could have been greatly improved, but the overall idea of one language is progress.
3) The KMT at Taiwan situation was one of survival for both parties involved. Even after KMT tragically used force, they still need to find a way for everyone to coexist. China vs. Hong Kong is more just posturing. The people calling the shots can do worse and not think about what they had done.
[I'm fairly certain that my attempts to clarify my thoughts may not have accomplished the desired goals.]
This person talks about language a bit more: https://www.taiwanesedaughter.com/post/forbidden-taigi-%E5%8F%B0%E8%AA%9E
The different languages have different grammar/syntax, so while my parents might be able to recognize characters from a sign from Hong Kong, they could still have difficulties understanding what that sign means.
As for teaching one language in schools, that's fine, that's great! What isn't fine (and goes toward the discrimination and dehumanizing stages of genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide) is denigrating the practices and cultures of other languages. When my mom was in school, she would get punished (corporal and monetary) for speaking Taiwanese. Some of her classmates would always be listening, ready to tell on anyone who spoke Taiwanese. Authority figures laughed at her and anyone else with a Taiwanese accent. They were constantly inundated with the message that speaking Taiwanese was bad, it was low, it was dirty. Even now, people consider Mandarin-speakers to be more "country" (in a negative way) if they have a Taiwanese tinge to their speech. That's one of the scars of oppression--the criminalization and dehumanization of your mother tongue.
Just for extra (too much) info, on my father's side, my grandfather died from meningitis soon after arriving from China and my father and his siblings were born. They didn't benefit from the KMT oppression (that I knew off, at least) that I feel the need to defend them.
I don't understand the division that still traces back to 2 generations ago when everyone is now born and raised in Taiwan to forge a new identity. Then again (since I mentioned it yesterday that I have been watching The Expanse), these kinds of things also exist in fiction...and may just be unavoidable political divisions of any kind of colonization movements.
More on the Taiwanese identity/identities: I found this very interesting, and I wonder if it'll resonate with you: https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-taiwan-generation-gap-20190215-htmlstory.html
Yeah, a lot of that article does resonate with me. Thanks for sharing.
There are definitely a lot of tragic stories in KMT families, like your grandfather's illness and death, and the people who never saw their homelands and families ever again. I don't deny that at all.
As for the "benefitting from KMT oppression" part, well, that's analogous to white privilege. There are white people who feel defensive or attacked by the term white privilege, because they think, "Well, I'm not well off! I have to work hard!" Individually, they may have it harder than certain other people of color. But, the system doesn't disadvantage them based on the color of their skin. When the KMT was in power, they would block non-KMT people from opportunities to advance, and then use their comparative lack of power to further scapegoat them. My point isn't "all KMT families benefitted," it was that it was practically impossible for non-KMT families to benefit.
I say practically because I do know of exceptions. My dad's family was in Taiwan for hundreds of years before the KMT arrived, but they are SUPER KMT. Chiang Kai-Shek loved their village and built an estate there, so the people there flourished under KMT rule. That experience is just as real, though rarer.
I think it's great that many people of our generation and younger now identify as Taiwanese, and that the division between "waishen" and "benshen" isn't commonly used now. (For others here, "shen" is province, so the terminology is from when Taiwan was considered a shen/province of China, so the people whose families had been in Taiwan for hundreds of years were benshen/here-province, and the KMT were waishen/foreign-province. This is separate from the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, who had been there for thousands of years.) But, you have to remember that martial law didn't end until 1987. There are plenty of people who are still alive who felt the effects of KMT oppression, and it's certainly harder for them to let go of the damage (and hard for the damage to heal).
I saw this recently with my friend's book, I Dream of Popo. My friend is the illustrator, and her family speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese. The author's family speaks only Mandarin, so the title of the book is I Dream of Popo. On Fbook, someone protested, "If it were REALLY Taiwanese, it should be I Dream of A-ma." So for that person, there is still a division between waishen and benshen. But, I consider the author's Taiwanese American story to be just as real and valid as the illustrators, and just as real and valid as yours and mine.
I also want to stress my last sentence: I definitely consider your story and your family's story real and valid!
I will also say that I am kind of a Rip Van Winkle when it comes to Taiwan. Since coming to America 28 years ago, I have only been back twice before the most recent trip last year, when I finally had aged out of the military service (used to be 2-year, now 10 months?).
The decision for me to stay legally in the US rather than to go back with my family after my dad's 5-yeard PhD stint was up, is still super controversial within my family. While I was away (and even though my family were there), there were definitely a lot of intentional avoidances because it was the one place where I could not go. By the time that was all resolved 3 years ago, Taiwan now is very different from the one that I left in 1993 at age 10 (by the way, I have a ton of very vivid memories dating back to age 5...unlike my sister who couldn't remember a trip we took 10 years ago).
Anyhow, my confusing statement that Cugel asked about is actually because I thought the whole "waishen" vs. "benshen" still exists, but just in kind of a warped form now. I may have been mistaken when I thought I read someone saying that the stuff in the National Palace Museum should be sent back to China because that's not Taiwan. I think it's the sentiment that it's "Taiwan" and not "The Republic of China" (outside the fact that the latter is confusing to foreigners) that I don't fully comprehend. Possibly drawing a bad parallel, I feel like saying something about the Chinese heritage in Taiwan is almost like saying white power/privilege in the US. That feels a bit extreme to me.
<3
I don't understand the division that still traces back to 2 generations ago when everyone is now born and raised in Taiwan to forge a new identity.
What do you mean exactly?
(uh I know it's your background, but KMT took over in 1945, and fled mainland China in 1949.)
And 228 happened in 1947
The way you wrote that, it sounded like the events were somehow connected - also, "misunderstandings", KMT were rat bastards, which explains in large part why they lost to Mao.
They were connected; the KMT arrived in Taiwan before 1949.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_28_incident
Service
Streaming video and audio in general. I watch stuff ALL the time now. According to my tracking, I spent two entire months of 2020 just watching stuff
Also video/audio lectures EVERYWHERE. I'm ALWAYS plugged in listening to lectures these days. Language, Engineering, Physics, Economics, whatever I'm studying. Man, if these things were around when I was in college, my GPA wouldn't have been so sorry...
I was going to say Spotify, but then realized I've had my account for at least 12 years. 😔
Zoom 😂😭
I think I have been using video conferencing for over 15 years now, having worked on international collaborated particle physics experiments. A lot of etiquettes, as well as the software (WebEx, BlueJeans, etc.) of choice, have changed over the years (particularly this past year), but then again the World Wide Web was invented by someone at CERN.
Heh, as I rarely have to use it for work, I'm cool with it.
PreCheck/Global Entry
I think it might be a benefit for one of the cards I have, but for reasons known only to herself my wife refuses to sign up. Funnily enough, the person who is most upset about this is my sister in law, who views "less hassle from the man" at the airport as being well worth the money.
It definitely was the best $85 I ever spent.
I just don't travel enough - domestically or internationally - to really get the benefit. Plus there's no use me having PreCheck and the missus not, when we're going somewhere together.
skip the line, have a pint while you wait for the missus. BOOM!!! Benefit'd
now that I think about this... I suspect that my wife doesn't want to get PreCheck because she thinks I'll use that as an excuse to cut arrivals times closer than she would like (this is fact-based concern on her part, to be clear). BUT if I get Pre-Check AND we arrive in plenty of time for her to be in the slow line, then it is 100% beer o'clock.
Wait until the next time you fly through EWR. Going between the terminals, at least for United, sometimes requires going through TSA again, which sucks. The precheck line is so much shorter.
I haven't set foot in EWR since 2007 - I think I can keep the streak going!
I have never used it, despite having done a good amount of travel. Does it really save you that much time (I also regularly only show up 75 minutes before a flight, maybe more like 90 for international flights especially if I need to check a bag, to airports) or is it just peace of mind?
The payoff for Global Entry is skipping the customs line and getting waved through. Last trip to Vietnam I was through customs at SFO in less than 5 minutes
I agree on the customs. That is where the longest line is, and not only you can pass all the line, they don't even ask you any questions. Officer just sticks his hands out and you give him the customs form and walk right by. With business class seats and global entry, I am always out of the airport in about 10 mintues from the time plane door opens.
Is that only on the way back or do other countries also let you go through them faster? On my last trip to Germany, customs was super slow because they somehow wanted to see how much cash everyone had on them (and was befuddled that I was just planning to use the atm in the city, once I get there). That took forever (they also took even longer with the Mexican national graduate student that was ahead of me inline)
Global Entry is only on the way into the US. However, one thing Germany has now, is that they allow US citizens to register for something similar to Global Entry. I think you get to use the EU line and put your passport and they do facial rec (I think). I was going to sign up for it last time I had a layover there since United has many flights to Europe through Germany. At one time I had to go out of customs to get my connecting flight and I always made sure I had a couple of hours in between in case customs was long, as it was one time.
What I noticed is Mobile Passport is almost just as fast because no one ever uses it. When I first used it (almost 3 years ago)I think I came back through EWR and the regular line was enormous. Mobile Passport was maybe only 10 people and I was through in maybe 10 min. I still had to wait at least 20 min for my bags though.
The Precheck lines are usually shorter but for me the main thing is not taking off my shoes, removing my laptops, and taking my liquids out. That and usually people in the Precheck lines know the process so you aren't stuck behind someone that takes forever. My first flight with Precheck there was a family that still took off their shoes and removed their liquids. Ugh.
Coincidentally, I think one of my last time flying out of SFO, they just told me to go through the precheck line for some reason. I might also have been one of the noob that was slowing other people down by almost taking out my stuff.
I haven't flown much over the last five years but about half the time I get directed to precheck. I don't ask why.
Lold
And at SFO the precheck lines are usually much much shorter than the regular lines at the United terminal.
I guess this, but I certainly haven't been using it for the past year haha
Last I used this was when I flew back from Philly back in August. Just signed No 3 up for PreCheck.
Venmo. Makes payments between acquaintances so much easier.
I think this is the bigger one for me. I guess PayPal did exist but I only used it for very few things and somewhat distrusted its security.
an under utilised, but free and easy download is Mobile Passport - when international travel is allowed again, it helps you skip a big part of the line when re-entering the states.
I used to use it until they started to charge to store passports. When they switched to forcing payment to store a passport or rescan it everytime, I got Global Entry since my CC would pay for it.
I had to wait probably 4 months to get an appt but right before my last international trip before covid to Vienna, I think it was, they allowed people returning to the US to be able to get their final interview they arrive, so I didn't have to wait until Feb and was able to do it in Nov.
They never used to store passports - the charge is for an added feature.
The app did used to store passports for free. You could scan it and then MP would hold it for when you landed. They started charging to store it maybe mid 2019.
Even though it's even cheaper here in China, I rarely use the local version of Uber (didi dache) - I use shared bikes (Meituan) to get around town.
What I do use is cell phone payments. The two 100 RMB bills in my wallet have been there since June. I used one to pay a plumber.
Today in Covid
Covid-19: The U.S. is heading towards normal, alarming some officials
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/01/world/covid-19-coronavirus
Texas now has no mask mandate and everything open 100%. Wooooooo.
Elsewhere in college
Grading every college football coaching hire - 2021
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/grades-for-every-hire-in-the-2021-college-football-coaching-carousel-gus-malzahn-to-ucf-gets-an-a/
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Trump and first lady received the vaccine under a veil of secrecy....
The CPAC featured anthem singer. . . it's a journey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vga0M4ia5Mc&ab_channel=GuitarDoog
Notes flatter than Kelly Loffler's hair.
All keys matter.
Can you sing the anthem? Yeah, I'll figure it out.
smh, another American event ruined by antifa-so-la-tee-do (from dctrojan)
God, that was hysterical.
I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Does that make me a bad person?
https://media.giphy.com/media/8vtv4cOqDBC6ZD4ZVS/giphy.gif
didn't realize once could sing through their nose
draymond green watching fergie's anthem . gif
That anthem was so bad, even Colin Kaepernick got off his knee and left. - alpha1906
PRO
A’s hit so well that Reds invoke mercy rule twice
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/3/1/22308137/oakland-as-cincinnati-reds-score-result-cactus-league
Nine NFL stars who could be traded this offseason and their best landing place...
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-free-agency-2021-nine-stars-who-could-be-traded-this-offseason-and-teams-that-fit-their-style-of-play/
CAL
Jaden Casey (QB, athletic RS-Fr) is in the portal to transfer out.
https://twitter.com/Jaden5kc/status/1366872474151870466
Go Bears!!!
Football schedule released. At Oregon on a Friday, but it's after a 6th week Bye, so not a big deal. Big Game once again is not the last game. UCLA during Thanksgiving week is the last game.
https://twitter.com/CalFootball/status/1366784744222978051
WHO IS JOINING ME IN FORT WORTH TO WATCH TCU GET SMOKED
I AM HERE FOR THIS BARBECUE PUN
you know what's delicious? Barbecue
I'll eat the sides?
I hope so, but there are still too many unknowns right now for me to lock it in.
We'll be there!
I'm in
Inflation has hit the visitor tailgate game really hard. UNC was $40 with food/drink. Ole Miss was $50. TCU looks like it will be closer to $200/person. I need about a dozen and a half pre-commitments otherwise the capital risk is too high. Who's in?
Nevermind. The dopes at the vendor quoted me a full season, not just the Cal game. I can do this for about $50-75/person, depending on the alcohol rules at TCU.
let me know when you need $, I can kick in. I have a good friend who is a TCU alum, I'll see if I can coerce him to make the trip and also get a lowdown in advance of do's and don'ts
Newellbany and I will be there...crossing Globe Life Field off our ballpark bucketlist as well. We've hit all of them but that one....
ME!
NON-REFUNDABLE AIRPLANE TICKET BOUGHT. AIRBNB IN WALKING DISTANCE TO STADIUM SECURED.
Whoa
Damn if F2F events start back up a bluetooth event starts on Sept 11. So I guess it depends on the schedule if I have to be there the first day. I'm guessing I will be, but if not I'll probably go and then fly to Denver that night if it's a day game.
DoorDash, I started using it once the pandemic got underway and its given me a new avenue to be even more lazy :), also they are a primary sponsor for Bubba Wallace NASCAR team so that's kind of cool.
I never use any of those services, seems wrong to me some how.
I've also only used it (and competitor) for pickups in the past due to being cheap and they do allow some kind of discounts to encourage usage. I think now I realize that these delivery companies probably pushed those discounts onto the profits of the restaurants.
I've used grubhub to order ahead for pickup and occasionally for delivery, but have stopped now that I know how predatory their charges to the restaurant can be. The real advantage is in overcoming the accent problem from the predominantly Salvadoran restaurant workers hereabouts: I can understand them for the most part, they cannot understand me for the most part. The only part about this that baffles me is my wife's insistence that it's not happening (she's been there plenty of times when it's happened) and that I'm being unreasonable in using applications ever to basically get what I'm ordering.
She just understands you so well that she couldn't fathom others not understanding you!
you're very kind, but that's not what's going on 😂
Also doordash sometimes.