Peking Duck

Have got a few minutes left in this internet cafe so thought I'd jot down some thoughts on China. Have done Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, The Great Wall of China and some typical city life too. All in all, it's not nearly as bad/restricted as the West make out (as far as I can tell)! Going to try and see Chairman Mao's mauseleum tomorrow. Oh, and though the BBC website is firewalled, the aforementioned picture (below) is in fact freely viewable.

Tags: China, Beijing

Current Stop: Tokyo. Next stop: Beijing

Really looking forward to checking out what Beijing is like but no sure what the internet situation is going to be like so am getting a last fix here in Narita airport before the flight.

Don't know if this is true but apparently most Chinese people wouldn't be able to place the world event pictured below -
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Related: Tokyo

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Typhoon!

It's raining hard here in Taipei. Typhoon Bilis is coming... well, apparently it's now been downgraded to a severe tropical storm. Either way a good thunderstorm is quite fun to be in (as long as there's no serious damage of course).

It was also raining at the top of Taipei 101 last night. Went up to the top of the world's tallest building to see what that was all about. Nice view! The elevators are very swift too. 45 sec to the top. Good thing the brakes were working. That takes you to the enclosed observatory, then for an extra $100NT you can climb up 3-4 flights of stairs and go to the open area. Extremely windy and wet! At least now I can say I've been to the top of the world's tallest skyscraper (and paid a visit to what I can only assume to be the world's tallest toilet)...

The Dell'Olio code

England's record against Sweden is pretty awful, is this due to some global conspiracy? Will Sven go all out against his home country? Will we be playing Germany in the next round? Well, like against Paraguay, I've done another simulation on Pro Evolution Soccer 5. The result? England 1, Sweden 0. Clearly that's what's destined to happen. Oh, and Owen scores.

Tags: England, football

This is what to do, Sven

Seeing Poland lose to Germany in the last minute was, well, a swift nut kick for the Poles and despite not having the heat and absence of Rooney to blame, Sven Goran Eriksson almost dished one out himself on England last thursday. At the risk of sounding like Mark Lawrenson, here's what you want to do, Sven.

Drop Crouch - The most embarrassing moment for all England fans during this World Cup must've been when Peter Crouch (at 6ft 7in) tried to do an overhead kick in the Trinidad and Tobago penalty area. It still makes me laugh now. So he's scored five goals in four games, so what? With respect, any premiership forward can score a hat-trick against Jamaica (without missing a penalty) and the most recent goal should've been disallowed as he clearly fouled his marker Sancho by pulling his dreadlocks! The style of play has now become, hit a long ball and try to hit Peter on the head into the goal. It doesn't work.
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Related: Sven, England, football

Wei Hwa's Puzzle Challenges #3

Here's a puzzle based on Erich Friedman's "Distance," from the 2003 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship. Label 14 of the circles above with different numbers from 1 to 14, such that the distance between 1 and 2 is less than the distance between 2 and 3, and so on. Four circles should remain empty.

Note that this image is not part of the solution but just an example.
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Bypass automated phone answering services

Another real world hack (in addition to the elevator one and how to shortcut to a real person in automated phone system) -- how to bypass the "please leave a message after the beep" message.

Tags: hack, elevator, phone

PetrolPrices.com

PetrolPrices.com is a website I've recently come across. There you can find the cheapest petrol station near your post code. Having just passed my driving test I thought I'd have a look at how much it costs to run a car... Answer: TOO much. If I could live in it and not have to pay rent then maybe. That's actually what this person had to do for a while. Now her blog is being made into a book!

car flags In England right now every other car is ornamented in a similar fashion to the one on the right. It's good to be proud of your country and show your support for it, but putting flags of St George on your car does sort of shout, "I'm a bit common." Of course, being a bit common, I'd do it if I had one. After all, Tessa Jowell's even put them on her ministerial car.

Related: petrol

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