Fleta Mcgurn posted:

I'm not as in love with Adelstein as most white Tokyoites seem to be, but the Lucie Blackman case was and is a very real thing.

quote:

–claims in his “non-fiction” book Tokyo Vice, and in various interviews, that his informant, “a prostitute friend” named “Helena”, was murdered due to his actions. He told the BBC that she had been “raped, tortured and killed.” Adelstein’s assistant and another person identified “Helena” as Olivia Stelcer. When contacted in 2013, Stelcer in several emails confirmed that she helped Adelstein’s reporting in 2001, continued to live in Japan for 16 years, and that she wasn’t “murdered”. She said Adelstein continued to contact her, even as he told the public he felt guilty for her murder and lamented her loss.

quote:

National Geographic TV crew dubbed him “Jake the Fake”

quote:

But a few days before the crew left California, Adelstein called from Japan, warning them about “dangers” awaiting them in the shadows of Tokyo. He claimed that gangsters had broken into his house and beaten him up with a phone book. The veteran California crew were puzzled; who in Tokyo has a phone book. It became an inside joke for the crew. They laughed every time they saw a phone booth potentially holding a dangerous, deadly phone book.

barbecue at the folks posted:

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

Why do people hate Tokyo vice so much?

Bajaj posted:

For real though, veg Manchurian owns. Breaded vegetables in Indian "gravy" slime that tastes vaguely Chinesey in chili soy sauce.

TsarZiedonis posted:

Some of the US State Dept interviews with his old friends that Wikileaks released were really illuminating. They painted a picture of Xi as a highly intelligent, driven ladder climber. He apparently approached advancement inside the CCP power structure with a cynical, single minded determination, and ran his public life decades (education, marriage, public persona) as a coldly calculated mask. You have to remember, he rose from internal exile (his father was on the outs during the cultural revolution) to being the most powerful man in china. His friends that were interviewed described him as holding them in contempt for choosing personal pursuits (love, fun, financial security) over the pursuit of political power in the party. He essentially comes across as a less dramatic, real life version of Kevin Spacey's character in House of Cards.

IIRC, his exact personal beliefs are less clear. He's apparently not some kind of actual Maoist, but he does hold some left wing tendencies. Some of the conversations I read in the leaks (and elsewhere) seemed to suggest this isn't because he's some kind of principled leftist, by because he's disgusted by the wealth and power the new rich hold, and firmly believes that all power should be centralized into the hands of the Chinese state. He also seems to be a strong believer in Chinese racial nationalism, and has been advancing policies inimical to other people's alongside a new wave of xenophobic nationalism inside china itself.

He's basically an intelligent, authoritarian sociopath.

Pick posted:

That's always been my read based on what's available, but I think it's interesting because I can see where he gets it, given what he has witnessed in China. For all this thread loves to poo-poo (or pooh-pooh) on traditional Chinese culture, modern Chinese hyperconsumerism is, if anything, way more depressing and represents an almost pitiful greed with no bottom. (I'm not saying the USA is any different.) It does feel like he has genuine contempt for that, but I don't know how he's going to be able to curtail it.

barbecue at the folks posted:

bob dobbs is dead posted:

... and the kid replies in korean

barbecue at the folks posted:

Pham Nuwen posted:

What did they edit out of the second frame? The sign post just ends in mid air.

Fantastic Flyer posted:

"Now hurry up and poo poo in the street so we can get going"

the heat goes wrong posted:

Wrong communists, buddy.

Pick posted:

That's always been my read based on what's available, but I think it's interesting because I can see where he gets it, given what he has witnessed in China. For all this thread loves to poo-poo (or pooh-pooh) on traditional Chinese culture, modern Chinese hyperconsumerism is, if anything, way more depressing and represents an almost pitiful greed with no bottom. (I'm not saying the USA is any different.) It does feel like he has genuine contempt for that, but I don't know how he's going to be able to curtail it.

quote:

Since 2012, the country has retracted more scientific papers because of faked peer reviews than all other countries and territories put together, according to Retraction Watch, a blog that tracks and seeks to publicize retractions of research papers.

quote:

“China wants to become a global leader in science,” said Zhang Lei, a professor of applied physics at Xi’an Jiaotong University. “But how do you achieve that and still preserve the quality of science? We still haven’t figured out how to do that yet.”

Blistex posted:

It's like the author has never heard an American or Chinese mother talk before.

quote:

“China wants to become a global leader in (fill in the blank),” said Zhang Lei, a professor of applied physics at Xi’an Jiaotong University. “But how do you achieve that and still preserve the quality of (fill in the blank)? We still haven’t figured out how to do that yet.”

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

An 8.5-tonne Chinese space station has accelerated its out-of-control descent towards Earth and is expected to crash to the surface within a few months.

The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was launched in 2011 and described as a “potent political symbol” of China, part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower.

Bajaj posted:

I saw this "Chinese" food stall while walking around, which was aptly named CHINA TOWN CHINESE FOOD. I will start writing it as Sizwan from now on.



For real though, veg Manchurian owns. Breaded vegetables in Indian "gravy" slime that tastes vaguely Chinesey in chili soy sauce.

Bajaj posted:

I saw this "Chinese" food stall while walking around, which was aptly named CHINA TOWN CHINESE FOOD. I will start writing it as Sizwan from now on.



For real though, veg Manchurian owns. Breaded vegetables in Indian "gravy" slime that tastes vaguely Chinesey in chili soy sauce.

Switzerland posted:

Fuckin' LOL


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/world/asia/china-science-fraud-scandals.html

simplefish posted:

The original text is Korean and something like
"Study hard or you'll have to work with your hands like him"
"Study hard so you will be able to make a better world for him"

The fact that both are particularly patronising and don't consider the street sweeper making the world more pleasant for the rich is not mentioned in the original Korean (of course)

ladron posted:

The original is something like:
1st woman : "Study hard so you don't have to be street cleaning scum"
2nd woman : "Study hard so you don't become a judgemental bitch like this oval office right here"

ladron posted:

The original is something like:
1st woman : "Study hard so you don't have to be street cleaning scum"
2nd woman : "Study hard so you don't become a judgemental bitch like this oval office right here"

nickmeister posted:

How can you be a leader in science if your work is of poor quality?

barbecue at the folks posted:

Pirate Radar posted:

Skylab came down in somebody's backyard in Australia, leading the town government to send NASA a fine for littering. Mir, obviously, came down in the ocean and Taco Bell did that target stunt. A Soviet spy satellite crashed in Canada sometime in the Cold War, which was embarrassing partly because its onboard power unit was a small radioactive thermal generator (pretty standard) and it scattered a low level of radiation over a wide area (so, not that big a deal at the end of the day, but the Canadian government was pretty sour about it). IIRC a piece of one of the Salyuts almost hit somebody in Argentina.

China joins yet another international club here, basically