User Comments - weibwo
weibwo
Posted on: No TV Before Your Test!
July 16, 2009 at 4:42 AMPearltowerpete: You mention that TV has destroyed westerners ability to read, communicate and basically think. I was with you until you mentioned Moore's law. Moore's law is ridiculous in that it refers to the processor capability doubling in computer chips and has nothing intellectual about it. Perhaps if you referenced some of the philosophers (Hegel, Locke, Sartre) you might have made your point a little better.
Education comes by invitation. The percentage of children who are capable of learning to the Phd level has actually gone up in America, particularly in those disciplines that matter. (Physics, History, Philosophy, Literature) Chinese spend most of their time learning the characters with endless hours spent writing the Chinese characters over and over. Every Chinese will tell you the horrors of the Chinese educational system. Rote memorization is the epistimology of China and does not serve them well when they need to innovate. I have taught History and English to several Chinese children and adults and the number who are capable to synthesizing information is about the same as in the US, Europe, Japan and all over the world. Chinese and Japanese focus attention to the K-12 experience to provide several citizens with basic skills. The University experience is much different in China. The Chinese student is not capable of expressing their own opinions very well and do poorly in seminars and classes where the instructor is looking for input from the student.
Posted on: How Long Has This Been Going On?
June 28, 2009 at 4:51 PMPearltowerpete: Disney's copyright is protected until 2019 under a new US law that is called the Sonny Bono Coypright law passed in 1976. The European Union passed a law that protects Disney pretty much forever as long as the Disney Coproration exists. Trademark and Copyrights are protected by law automatically at the time the trademark is made public. In the case of a dispute the earliest date of a public trademark takes precedence. However, Chinesepod, Spanishpod, Englishpod etc. should be registered in my opinion because most of the copyright disputes internationally, the above law has not been enforced. Which means I could use Chinesepod (I won't) on my own website taking advantage of the hard work that all of you have worked hard to establish and it would require Praxis a lot of money to regain exclusive rights to the trademark. If Chinesepod is a registered trademark you should should show it on your website and all printed material.
Just a thought.
Posted on: How Long Has This Been Going On?
June 27, 2009 at 5:08 PMPearltowerpete: Mickey Mouse was first drawn by Walt Disney in 1928 which makes him 81. He was introduced for the first time in a cartoon short called "Steamboat Wilie" I think.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 12: A Dodgy Opportunity
June 25, 2009 at 3:29 AMHang in there Lao Wang!!!!
Posted on: Funny Rice
May 25, 2009 at 5:11 PMA gorilla walks into a bar. He orders a martini. The bartenders delivers the martini.
Bartender: That will be $100.00
Gorilla: $100.00!!!!! That seems like an awful lot for a martini.
Bartender: That's the price!
Gorilla pays the bill. Drinks the martini and very disgustedly walks out of the bar. As he get to the door a drunk walks in and with shock looks at the gorilla.
Drunk: A gorilla in a bar. I've never seen that!!!
Gorilla: At these prices I don't wonder.
Posted on: Big Bed
May 16, 2009 at 6:26 PMJenny:
I stayed at the capsule hotels when they were first constructed. Unfortunately I suffer from claustrophobia a little and the experience was not good. I am not a small person and the capsule room wasa little small for me. I managed to stay the night but I never checked into another one. Message, if you are claustrophobic see the capsule first.
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Taiwan
May 15, 2009 at 2:55 AMTainan has the best street vendors in all of Taiwan. It is so easy to get something delicious to eat there. Breakfast, lunch and dinner or at the ye shi. Can't say enough about the food there.
Posted on: Boston
April 23, 2009 at 2:42 AMJenny:
Rich area is usually referred to as "an up scale neighborhood" Boston certainly has its charm but as to culture I don't think so. Also there are several colleges that in my opinion are better than Harvard and MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, University of California, University of Chicago, several outside of the Ivy League which provide excellent liberal arts education. Probably one of the best colleges in the US is Reed College in Portland, Oregon which very few people have heard of.
Posted on: GPS Fail
April 16, 2009 at 4:12 AMWhen I was in Shanghai last summer my nephew told me that they tell the cab drivers to say instead of you zhuan and zou zhuan they say xiao zhuan and da zhuan.
Posted on: No TV Before Your Test!
July 17, 2009 at 3:48 AMpearltowerpete: I think western civilization went astray when they moved away from the basic education taught at the University Paris and University of London in the late middle ages. At Paris students studied the Trivium (Philosophy, Math and History) and at London students studied the Quadrivium (Philosophy, Math, History and Rhetorc). Since then education has been going doing hill. With these four disciplines you can understand everything thing. All later disciplines are derived from these four disciplinesl.