Interesting Links for 12-12-2016

[andrewducker]

Confirmation of the topology of the Wendelstein 7-X Stellerator magnetic field to better than 1:100,000 (tags: fusion Technology ) Cats: Helping you read since 8,000 BC (tags: cats books cute ) 11 Habits of Highly Creative People (tags: creativity comic funny ) Revamped Bubble Wrap Loses Its Pop (Could 2016 get any worse?) (tags: packaging )

Comments

[gonzo21]

I was watching some of the chinese news channel this morning, and yeah, they were clearly very concerned about Trump. He came up a lot.

[danieldwilliam]

I worry that Trump does not quite get that part of the "deal" that is being re-negotiated with China is an agreement for both countries not to kill anyone.

[gonzo21]

And ironically the people who should be most worried are the people who voted for him and still worship him.

[steer]

I've chatted with a bunch of my Chinese colleagues about this. (I teach a lot in Beijing right now.)
They say that Trump is actually strangely popular in China (at least among the people there, they don't have particular insights about the leadership).
I was pretty surprised by it but the summary given to me was that many Chinese feel he is charismatic and successful and that the stuff he says about China is just rabble rousing to win popularity and he doesn't mean it.
Not sure -- this is the opinion of a small number of educated Chinese speaking people (some chinese some not) who don't live in China but visit very regularly and work with colleagues there -- I offer it for what it is worth.

[andrewducker]

"The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally." - Salena Zito

From.

[steer]

It makes sense as a comment. We all do this to some extent. We are in an era where every recorded mis-step of a politician is analysed to death... we do excuse the ones we like and berate the ones we dislike. Quite often it's extremely clear they did not at all mean the thing they accidentally said. So a lot of politicians have this super-careful speech because if, for example, they say something about "choice" within the context of an NHS debate people will say they mean privatisation. A lot of the things Trump has said he will do it seems clear he has no intention of doing. (Which is not to say he won't do a lot of other harmful things.)

[gonzo21]

That's interesting. I suppose it does present tremendous opportunity to the rest of the world.