Sachi and I are still trying to nail down the accommodations of our long-overdue honeymoon. We will be in Rome in late April, but it’s turning out to be harder than I thought to find a good place to stay. Hotels in the center of town are nice, but are far too expensive. At first I thought the prices were for the full five days, but the sites keep that nebulous just long enough to try to get you hooked; when I found out that 300 Euros was what these hotels charged for a day instead of all five days of our stay, that dropped out as an option. We found a great hotel in central London for a better price than anything that’s turned up in Rome, even outside the city center.

Apartments are available for rent around the city center, but they too tend to be overpriced. My sister stayed there when she went, but that was a better solution for her family as it was four people. The only affordable (under 100 Euros a day) apartments I can find lack both laundry and Internet, which are not exactly deal-breakers but do put a damper on things.

Hotels outside of city center look better–I found an acceptable place not too far out of town for about 105 Euros a day–but it is all a bit disappointing. One would think that something for less than $130 a day would be halfway decent, but not that I can find.

We’re still trying to figure out which to go for–the more centrally-located and cheaper apartments downtown, or the nicer, more-fully-equipped, catered hotels just outside of the city center which are nonetheless a short bus trip away.

Anyone with suggestions would be very much appreciated!

They just declared Reiki to be “heretical.” Why? Among other reasons, it’s because only god can heal, and only if you pray for it. Reiki, apparently, is cheating–getting your healing through a non-authorized outlet. They also claimed that somehow Reiki forbids the use of other treatments (not from anything I have heard) and again that makes it a competitor to the brand of spiritual healing the church offers.

What that means is that Reiki, according to the bishops, contradicts the first half of the Ten Commandments, which, in summary, declares “thou shalt tolerate no competitors.” Religion can be like that.

PZ Myers at Pharyngula claims that this is not one of those fake church signs, but is a real one from Arkansas:

Naturally, this is not the opinion of all believers, but it does point to a common failing among the faithful: to always see faith as trumping reason. As I see it, faith applies where reason cannot; it’s a fallback. Perhaps I am to be blamed for seeing reason as trumping faith, but that’s just me. If I were the type to believe in the motivation of a god for giving us certain qualities, then I would say that god gave us reason for a good reason–not to dump it and believe anything that someone tells you because they say they represent god.

A lot of people talk about faith as being important, and perhaps where it gives you emotional support I can see the value. But generally speaking, faith means believing without facts. If it’s a matter of trusting those you love when you have no rational way of knowing whether that trust is well-placed or not or making the decision to take a new career path where you could fail or succeed in equal measure, in places where reason has taken you as far as it can and cannot take you any farther, I can see faith as meaningful.

But where reason can give you important indicators as to the wisdom of a decision but faith tells you otherwise, I really have never seen the value in trusting faith and abandoning reason.

Am I wrong?

Wow. Republicans seem pretty intent on preventing the people of Minnesota from getting full representation in the Senate.

Can you say, “sore losers”?

A new commercial from Microsoft:

Microsoft has begun a new ad campaign focused on pricing differences between Macs and PCs. The most prominent piece of the campaign deployed so far has been a TV commercial in which “Lauren” is given a $1000 budget with which to find a 17“ notebook computer. After a brief stop at a ”Mac Store“ where she comes away empty-handed noting that the only computer available for under $1000 has a 13” screen and saying “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person,” she settles on a $699 HP notebook from Best Buy.

Of course, they don’t show Lauren a year and a half later after her dirt-cheap notebook has suffered numerous breakdowns and other problems, and Lauren is about ready to climb into her phone and strangle the customer support people. Nor do they show the hidden costs, such as buying the anti-virus package (nor the speed hit her computer will take from having it running constantly).

The ads are somewhat conflated–why does Lauren need a 17“ screen, for example? Arguably a very uncommon laptop monitor size choice, especially for someone working on a budget–but perfect for an ad campaign designed to show cost differences. They take Apple’s high-end model and compare it with a bare-bones Turion system (that’s the ”speed“ she was looking for?). Had she been looking for a desktop replacement, for example, the Mac Mini would had fared a lot better relative to similar Windows machines offered, and the iMacs would not do too shabby either.

All that said, the commercial is perhaps the best-done PC vs. Mac commercial Microsoft has done–far and away more effective than any often their previous efforts.. They will just have to count on people not looking too closely at their (now usual) legerdemain in the details.

Bobby Jindal:

Jindal described the premise of the question — “Do you want the president to fail?” — as the “latest gotcha game” being perpetrated by Democrats against Republicans.

“Make no mistake: Anything other than an immediate and compliant, ‘Why no sir, I don’t want the president to fail,’ is treated as some sort of act of treason, civil disobedience or political obstructionism,” Jindal said at a political fundraiser attended by 1,200 people. “This is political correctness run amok.”

Yeah. Because under the Bush administration, no such show of support for the president would ever have been deman… um… oh.

Difficult to see how Republicans could be more startlingly hypocritical. During the Bush administration, a Democrat who dared criticize the president while troops were on the ground was called a traitor. Now, with a Democrat in the White House, Republicans are unabashedly not only criticizing the president while troops are on the ground, but they are openly stating that they hope he will fail–and then railing at anyone who dares criticize them for it.

Stunning.

The other day, Japan was playing Korea in the World Baseball Classic, and that apparently was a huge thing. Students all over my school were watching the game on their cell phones using the “1-Seg” TV-tuning feature.

You might think that this is a good example of why the iPhone isn’t doing better in Japan, but I didn’t get that impression. When I asked these students if they usually used the feature, I got the reply, “this is the first time I’ve used it.” Indeed, I never see them using this–and then today the student lounge had about 15 cell phones playing the game.

But then I saw the reason why:

I noted that most people were watching more than one cell phone at a time, together. Didn’t make sense until I saw the reception: it was horrible. The picture was constantly stopping and breaking up. And really, who wants a telescoping antenna like that on your cell phone?

Ironically, the people at China Unicom, the mobile provider that is claiming it got the iPhone contract there, is aggressively advertising the next iPhone as having a TV Tuner–at least, something called “UNITV,” which might be a broader technology interconnecting cell phones, PCs, and TVs–not sure about that.

Other leaked 3rd-Gen iPhone features: E-wallet, video conferencing, and PC tethering (i.e., using your iPhone as a modem to channel an Internet connection to your PC).

Sounds cool. Could even be true–SoftBank let loose with iPhone 3G news well before Apple announced it, and turned out to be on the money. Should be interesting to see how this develops.

Sheesh. There’s now a big deal going on because a brilliant 34-year-old computer guy Obama hired to be Chief Information Officer was arrested for lifting 4 t-shirts… when he was a 21-year-old kid. He paid his dues, and is now regarded an outstanding person. But the media is wondering how this filthy criminal could have been considered for a government job.

Need I remind you that at that age, George W. Bush was arrested for stealing a Christmas wreath from a hotel. I think he occupied a slightly higher office later. The media didn’t seem to give a damn about that, despite it being well-known. They even gave him a break for his drunk driving arrest at the age of 30, accepting his “Democrat Dirty Trick” excuse.

Perhaps a wee bit of a double standard? Not surprising–after all, this is still a Liberal Media, right?

And miserably so. Internet Explorer 8 got a lousy 20 out of 100 on the Acid 3 test to check whether a browser complies with Internet standards. Apple’s Safari, in contrast, scores a perfect 100 out of the box. Why am I not surprised that with years to work on it and no excuse for failing, Microsoft’s browser breaks most web standards? IE6 is infamous in the developing world for being a browser you have to account for but which breaks most modern web standards and forces you to dumb down your page.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft ignored the Acid test results and claimed that IE8 is “a leap forward in web standards.” Yeah, riiight. Microsoft is very much interested in maintaing web standards instead of breaking them to make other browsers less usable.

And Microsoft, what are you doing to make it easier for the users of IE6 to upgrade? And if you’re trying, then why are so many people still using it?

Sachi and I came in from China to Narita Airport this morning. We woke up early, at 5:00 am, and got ready to go. At 6:00 am, we went to the lobby and checked out. We caught a taxi to the airport, and arrived earlier than most passengers, securing nice opposing aisle seats in row 18. We left Shanghai Pudong Airport at about 9:00 am, and arrived at Narita just past noon. The pilot warned of turbulence coming in for landing–in fact, I recalled pretty clearly that there were more warnings than usual about that, but simply accepted it as a special circumstance. As we landed, we watched the approach on the cameras below and at the front of the plane, giving us a runway view of the landing. Coming in, as advertised, the plane was buffeted by winds and felt less stable than most planes on landing, but once on the runway, the landing was smooth and clean. De-boarding was uneventful, nothing seemed untoward, and we just went home, happy to be back.

Just now Sachi and I watched the news and saw something they (naturally) did not mention to us: there was a plane crash that morning at Narita, a plane that had left China just like ours had, buffeted by winds just like ours had. The pilots died, but since it was a FedEx flight, they were the only casualties.

But Sachi and I felt kind of spooked when we heard that, remembering the turbulence on landing, and that the flight was, like ours, a large jet from China to Narita. It must have crashed just before we checked out of the hotel. There but for…

I realize that most of the posts I’ve written about Shanghai are pretty negative. And I have got to admit, my view of the city has been a pretty bad one. In an unbalanced way or not, I don’t know. That’s just how we’ve reacted this time.

But that’s not to say that there’s nothing we don’t like here. While street interactions have been less than ideal (as I’ve noted), getting to know people socially is a very different deal; people here are kind, patient, and friendly.

Shanghai is also very cheap. Yeah, western places like Starbucks and Pizza hut maintain prices that are equivalent to prices overseas, and that can be jarring. But most prices are very low. A 15-minute taxi ride costs a buck and a half. A new SIM card for Sachi’s phone with 400 minutes on it cost about $15. A yakiniku lunch for two with really good beef, a salad, drink, and soup for each totaled only $10. And KFC keeps prices low even if other foreign fast food places don’t–a 6-piece dinner with large popcorn chicken and a small salad cost only $8–less than you’d pay in Japan for just three pieces (and Japan’s KFC doesn’t have Popcorn Chicken, another reason I like Shanghai!).

I also like the way that traffic is designed, if not how people actually drive. China has enough room, and uses it; big roads abound, and each has a fenced-off lane just for scooter, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic, unmolested by the cars that will just as soon run you over than they will give way. And I really like the traffic signals; they have several extra indicators to let you know when things are changing. They blink green before they turn yellow. They turn from red to yellow before they go green. And at the end of the green or red light, you often get a countdown before they change.

I’m sure that if I stayed longer, I’d come up with a longer list. It is by far not all bad–as I said, we just probably got a bad look at parts of it, and probably our filtered memories from a few years back colored our expectations. Nevertheless, I doubt that we’ll be coming back again soon.

I have heard this idea tossed around for some time in Japan–to increase the national sales tax from 5% to 20% and so do away with some other taxes. To me, this sounds like a foolish idea–it is essentially a way to tax the poor and give the rich a relative break, and could be a huge brake on spending in general. As I recall, the last times they raised the sales tax–from nothing to 3%, and then up to 5%–the economy did very poorly. Of course, other things happened at those times that make it uncertain as to how much of a bad effect the sales tax increases alone had, but it seems almost intuitive.

I do recall that before Japan had the sales tax, there were other taxes, like luxury taxes, that were aimed at the rich–and these taxes disappeared, the sales tax taking their place. To me, the sales tax in Japan has always seemed a way to make taxes in Japan less progressive. And it helps to remember that there are no exceptions for the sales tax–you pay the tax for food, for example, unlike in the United States.

However, my understanding of this issue and how it works is spotty at best. So could somebody explain to me how a 20% national sales tax is not a bad idea?

One thing you can say for Chinese people, they’re not shy. Three or four times now I have been in line at stores and people come up from behind and shove their way in front of me. People on the street treat you as if you’re not there, even more so than in Japan; they assume you will get out of their way, and have no problem stepping right in your path and stopping.

Automobiles are even worse. Instead of like it is in America and Japan, cars in Shanghai assume that pedestrians will get out of their way. They do not stop until the very last inch, and every moment up until then they show no signs of slowing or hesitation in anticipation that you might not see them coming or might not stop for them. I remember once in Palo Alto, when driving with Sachi, I rounded a corner and a pedestrian was coming up. He did not reach the intersection until I was just rounding away from him, but he was able to reach out and touch the car–and he did, banging on the rear corner edge and shouting at me for the close call. I thought he was being a bit touchy, getting pissed because I took a turn in which I didn’t even come close to hitting him instead of stopping and waiting for him to arrive and to cross; at worst, all he had to do was slow down a bit, maybe not even that. I can only imagine what this guy would think of drivers in Shanghai. You can be in the middle of the street, with right of way, and they will come at you like you don’t exist. I suppose that people here get used to dodging the cars and jogging out of their way.

Last night at dinner, I asked one of Sachi’s friends what she liked about Shanghai. She said that you don’t have to be reserved here, you can say what you feel any time you want. I can certainly see what she means by that–people in China do not hold back. People here say what they feel, tempers flare, shouting happens–and it’s not a big deal.

The thing is, that’s one of the reasons I like Japan–that you don’t have this constant barrage of confrontation. I prefer everyone holding back in public. I got tired of always worrying in the States about who would find some reason to start an argument with me. I’m probably just over-sensitive, but then that’s probably why I like Japan that way better.

Last night, after the dinner where I asked that question, we saw a good example of this assertiveness. As we left the restaurant and waited for a friend to arrive in his van to take us to the next destination, we were assaulted by three women with a little six-year-old girl they had trained to walk up to each of us and beg for money.

The women were using the kid to get money, and it was uncomfortable to say the least. The girl seemed to treat it like any chore adults set kids to do, but you kind of cringed at what this kid’s life was like, being used by adults like that. Yeah, I know, happens all the time. Still.

The thing is, that was not the end of it. As the van came around, we piled in. There were a few bottles of tea in the door I was getting into. After I climbed in, one of the women came up and just took one of the bottles out, holding it as if to say, “hey, thanks for the gift!” When I protested–it wasn’t mine to give up–the woman gave it to the girl who quickly cradled it close and turned around as if to keep me from getting at it. Quickly enough that it was obvious she did this often; she even smiled, as if she liked this part because it was like a game of keep-away. I left it at that, which is certainly what these women expected. I imagine that it’s a usual move–grab whatever you can from the car that is worth having but not worth someone trying to tear from a little girl’s arms.

When I told the others about what had happened, I added the qualification of how poor they must be, and everyone in the car hooted at that one. The common opinion is that these people are doing very well, thank you–all of the grown women were clearly clean, well-fed and sheltered, with clothes that looked new. They probably collect enough from tourists to claim a better income (tax-free) than most people in the city. And the little girl–no one was sure, but some doubted that she was the child of one of the women.

Lots of people like that on the streets in this town. Probably lots of people like that everywhere, but you see it a lot less in the U.S. and rarely if ever in Japan.

Sachi and I went out for lunch and then went shopping. At the restaurant, things went OK, except that a bottled drink Sachi ordered didn’t come for about 20 minutes, despite repeated reminders from us. All the had to do was grab the bottle and bring it to the table. For me, what was interesting was the menu–and not interesting in all that good a way. Unless you consider deep-fried duck chins and crispy pigeon to be yummy menu choices. Some excerpts:

In case you were wondering what duck chins look like:

After lunch, we walked up and down the street. As I’ve mentioned, Shanghai is littered with skyscrapers–they’re everywhere, and seem to be the simple standard-issue building style. There was a 20-story building that looked important, with a big something-or-other “Plaza” sign, with escalators and stairs going up to it. Thinking there was something worth looking at, Sachi and I went up–and found what seemed to be a more or less deserted shop area, not that there was likely much there to begin with. A couple of shop clerks, a man and a woman, played a game of badminton in front of their shop, looking briefly at us to determine whether they needed to put away the game.

We went down the road and across the street on the way to the local supermarket to do some shopping. Along the way, we saw three or four card games going on, a typical street event.

In between a few of these games, a police officer seemed to be telling a lady selling fake DVDs to move her show along–despite the fact that just 30 feet away, another guy was selling the same assortment of DVDs. Maybe the lady just didn’t pay off the right people, or she was in front of someone’s store who didn’t like it. (By the way, they have “Blu-Ray” DVDs on the carts–I have to wonder, are they actually Blu-Rays, or is that part fake too?)

A few steps down the road, Sachi and I were shocked to see an old man fall flat forward on his face in front of us, either because his shoe got loose or because the pavement was so uneven. He started spitting blood on the sidewalk. People rushed to help him, I gave him a package of tissues, and he seemed to be okay, but it was a bit jarring.

I also noticed that this area–right across the street from our four-star hotel–was pretty darned run-down.

I simply cannot get over how much Shanghai looks like a slum much of the time. And not just some parts of it, it’s pretty much throughout with exceptions. Crumbling masonry, dilapidated sidewalks, dust and trash all over, rickety houses everywhere. It’s like a modern city is thrusting up through a third-world city, and much of the modern part is falling into disrepair and being taken over by the run-down parts at a fast clip.

Just before we got to the supermarket, there was a homeless guy laying face-down on a makeshift mattress on the sidewalk, playing a harmonica to beg for money.

In the supermarket (their theme song is, strangely, “Happy Birthday to You”–betcha they don’t pay royalties on that), we were trying to check out when a guy came up to our cashier with a worn & torn box of Crest toothpaste and started shouting at her. At about this time, a guy right around the corner from our register dropped a case of Great Wall Red Wine, leading to a crimson pool slowly spreading and flowing across the floor.

Just another afternoon in jolly Shanghai.

Even Obama can say dumb stuff. His “Special Olympics” joke on the Tonight Show was uncalled for and very unlike him; his apology was at the least an absolute must.

Although people like Tim Shriver, the head of the Special Olympics, and moderate conservatives like Arnold Schwarzenegger understood that Obama’s heart was in the right place but just had a lapse of judgment in his words, not everyone was so forgiving:

“I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics,” said Palin, whose son, Trig, was born with Down syndrome last year. “This was a degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world.”

This came 20 hours after the piece aired, and despite the fact that Obama apologized to Shriver profusely even before the segment was broadcast. And let’s not forget that Palin dragged poor Trig across the country during the campaign, unafraid to use him as a campaign prop; her statement smacked of political opportunism.

Not to mention that Palin’s own actions, contrary to her noble words, are less than sympathetic to these same kids. Palin, as Andrew Sullivan points out, accepted stimulus money where it applies to construction (despite her non-stop insistence during the campaign that she would always say “no thanks” to exactly that kind of federal funding), but refused to allow $170 million go to education, with some of that going to special needs children:

The biggest single chunk of money that Palin is turning down is about $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students. Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau said she is “shocked and very disappointed” that Palin would reject the schools money. She said it could be used for job preservation, teacher training, and helping kids who need it.

So, Obama works to get funding for special needs kids but makes a bad joke on a late-night show; Palin acts all offended at the joke in front of news cameras, but then blocks the money from getting to “our world’s most precious and unique people.”

Actions speak louder than words, don’t they?

From a new poll:

A record-high 16 percent of Americans now believe that global warming will never occur; in more than ten years of polling, no more than 11 percent of respondents had ever expressed this opinion.

And about 50% of the American people don’t believe in evolution. So, despite the rising number of people believing the right-wing rhetoric, we still have a long way before we reach the levels of denial seen elsewhere.

Although there are still a lot of bicycles, there are a lot more scooters and motorcycles than I remember before. Or scooters made up to look like motorcycles.

As you can see in the image just above, many of the big streets in Shanghai have partitioned-off side paths that are reserved for bicycles, carts, and scooters. Not that they are restrained to these areas–everyone, including pedestrians, run rampant everywhere on the streets, including those bicycle-driven carts which seem to be required by law to load 20 times more stuff on them than was ever intended.

But the trespassing does not end with the street; scooters often ride right through crowds on sidewalks, as if that were as legitimate a path as a street.

As with all traffic in Shanghai, the general rule seems to be anything goes, and watch out for life and limb–but primarily your own.

They love the big advertisements here in Shanghai:

A surprising number are for American and Japanese goods.

Sachi and I saw several stores that bore prominent Apple logos. None were official Apple Stores (do they even have any in Shanghai?) but Apple gear apparently has a bit of a reputation here.

Of course, much of the “Apple” gear you see here is fake, like so many of the bags and watches that are sold. This display was in the Yuyuan shopping area; some of the fakes were very good, but some were less convincing.

I think they have to work on getting the Apple packaging style down, however. I don’t think many would be fooled by this:

One thing that strikes you immediately in China is the pollution and the sense of constant construction and destruction. The smog hits you hardest–you can’t see farther than a few miles through this soup. I don’t see how people stand it, frankly; I for one would not want to live in this. One might not think this, but Tokyo, by contrast, has clean and clear air. If you see this kind of haze in Tokyo, it is due to the weather more than anything else; many days you can see more than 50 miles in the distance, and even on bad days you can see across town. It never gets as bad as what passes for normal in Shanghai.

You can see the effects on the ground–the dust from the smog accumulates, as you can see from the grime that is more visible closer to walls as in this photo from a Shanghai sidewalk far from any other source of dirt:

But dirt there is, as well as crumbling concrete. I remember a similar thing in Spain, where you would see shells of buildings still standing behind cracked and crumbling concrete walls.

Even where construction is building new things, there is mess and disarray. This is the center-divider of the street below our hotel window, where dirt and wood for construction is laid seemingly anywhere.

It’s as if the whole city is crumbling and falling apart sometimes. We’re staying at a 4-star hotel, and yet there is broken plaster fallen from the ceiling of our balcony, just sitting there. Considerable chunks of broken plaster was even left in a corner of our room.

And the smell can be pretty strong, too–much of this hotel has a caustic, chemical odor, in varying levels. I almost don’t notice the cigarette smell on the street sometimes, as it is almost welcome compared to other smells that are found here.

Not that the city does not have its charms. But its faults are pretty darned significant.