User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: Food Oddities and Eye Exercises
January 5, 2009 at 1:56 PMHi kesirui
To be honest, my eyes completely skipped the provocative "sweetheart" in the original comment. Chalk it up to jetlag, I guess. Anyway your comments are always informative and to the point.
On a similar note, I'm not very good with names. A friend once suggested that I only need to remember two: "tiger" for men, and "sunshine" for women. I haven't taken his advice, needless to say ;-)
Posted on: Food Oddities and Eye Exercises
January 5, 2009 at 7:39 AMHi changye,
Sadly, it's only the doomsday date for humanity. Mother Earth will keep on spinning long after we are gone.
There will be a few thousand lonely millennia, and then something new will climb out of the mud. It will make love and war, write poems and propaganda for a few thousand years, and then kill itself off. And the Earth will keep right on spinning.
Posted on: Instant Noodles
January 5, 2009 at 7:26 AMHi sballa
Thanks for some interesting questions. Yes, 交通 can be used for both transportation in a city and for traffic. But unlike English, you can't say that 交通很不好 to express the idea of bad traffic. You have to say 堵车了 du3che1le or something like that.
A brief explanation on the website of the prestigious Shanghai Jiaotong University gives three reasons for the origin of the word 交通大学.
The first is that during the early twentieth century when these schools were first being established, they were part of the Ministry of Transportation (they later fell under the Ministry of Education). The second is that the subject matter at these schools was focused on civil engineering, mainly railroads. Finally, the majority of graduates went on to careers in the transportation field.
Posted on: Food Oddities and Eye Exercises
January 5, 2009 at 7:16 AMHi changye
"There are many ways you can save our Earth."
Exactly right. And no matter how much we're doing, it's not enough.
Posted on: Food Oddities and Eye Exercises
January 5, 2009 at 6:13 AMHi kesirui,
We all love a good intellectual exchange. Let's keep it civil.
Raising livestock with modern, industrial methods does consume a tremendous amount of water, petroleum, and feed. It also creates a lot of pollution in the form of animal waste. Slaughtering, shipping and refrigerating meat also use a lot of energy.
On the other hand, modern methods of industrial agriculture do waste a lot of water. Modern irrigation in particular allows a lot of water to collect on the surface of the soil and evaporate pointlessly. This could all be improved, but it would take time, money, and political will. Mukden, since most modern livestock do not graze but instead are fed crops such as soybeans and corn grown with these wasteful methods, they make the problem even worse.
It wasn't always this way. One of the most interesting books on this topic is F.H. King's Farmers of Forty Centuries. He was a scholar with the US Department of Agriculture who visited China, Japan and Korea in the early 20th century and was amazed at their sustainable, smart (largely vegetarian) methods of farming and eating. It's worthwhile reading for omnivores, vegans, sinophiles and gourmands.
Posted on: 盛唐风气
January 5, 2009 at 5:24 AMHi obitoddkenobi
I share your enthusiasm for the Tang. The flowering of art and high culture at that time had many causes.
But there's no denying that it had something to do with the incredible openness and tolerance of China at that time. Chang'an 長安 was a nexus of religious, commercial and literary exchange. Golden ages rarely happen behind firmly locked doors.
Posted on: Connecting with Email
January 5, 2009 at 4:49 AMHi ruyide
Sorry for the tardy reply. The word 给 can be a little tricky to use properly. As other poddies have suggested, it deserves its own Qing Wen.
Your second question is very interesting. You have detected one pattern for making abbreviations, which we can call the first-and-third rule. But it is not universal. For example, you can't say 电邮 dian4you2 for email. Many Chinese just say "email," as it is shorter than 电子邮件 and also lets you sneak in a bit of English ;-)
Jiaojie adds that some groups come up with clever little abbreviations that only those in-the-know would understand.
In brief, don't go making abbreviations on your own. There are too many little exceptions.
Posted on: All the Things You Can Hit: 打 (dǎ)
January 5, 2009 at 4:40 AMHi bingge
I should've known from your avatar that you'd be a hockey fan. I used to enjoy the River Rats, but their glory days are behind them. *sigh*
Posted on: Borrowing and Returning
January 5, 2009 at 4:36 AMHi calkins,
You can definitely use 还给 for things that you have rented or borrowed.
Just out of curiosity, what costume are you thinking of returning?
Posted on: Food Oddities and Eye Exercises
January 5, 2009 at 11:28 PMHi joachim
You're right, of course-- when we go down in flames we'll take a lot of other innocent bystanders with us. I have heard good things about Weisman's book but haven't had a chance to read it. And it's funny you should mention Straw Dogs, which takes its title from a Laozi quote.
Hi rjberki,
I am still trying to strike a balance between iron fist and velvet glove. Don't worry, no danger of me becoming the forum Nazi :-0
Hi kesirui
My favorite thing about the idea of calling someone "tiger" or "sunshine" is that it's so obviously ridiculous, the other person might give you the benefit of the doubt and think that you actually remembered their name!