list of things we can do without, thereby preventing global warming and pollution

Air conditioners
television
automobiles
motor sports
large wardrobes
carnivorous diets?

Out of the list above, the no-brainer is the large wardrobe.

One can argue that the air conditioner is a necessity in hotter climates; however, the same effect may be reached by drinking cold fluids and swimming- in the worst case, one would have to take siesta during the hot hours of the day.

Automobiles must either be fixed to be energy efficient or banned if an efficient solution is not readily available.

Motorsports are a subcategory of the automobile issue- while they are probably not widely-polluting, they also do not serve much purpose, and hence they may be banned.

Television sets resemble automobiles in that they must either be made extremely energy-efficient, or banned.

Shanghai Public Transportation

This morning as I was getting the metro, I noticed that there was a normal police officer waiting outside the turnstile at my metro station.

'That is a bit unusual', I thought to myself.

As I walked through the turnstile I noticed two more city guards standing inside the station. Each of the city guards had a bomb sniffing dog by his side.

'Hmmm, this doesn't look good. I wonder if there has been an incident, or if this is just for show,' I thought.

On the off chance that there had been an incident during the morning rush hour, I sent a text to some friends asking whether there had been any new incidents this morning. One of my friends texted me back:

'my cop friend told me not to take public transportation for the next two days. I didn't ask why.'

That certainly made my day. I am now trying to think how I will get home later today. I normally change lines at People's Square. For those of you unfamiliar with the public transportation in Shanghai, the People's Square metro station is an interchange between three lines. The station is a bit old, and extremely crowded during rush hour. In short, if there was anyplace in the Shanghai public transportation system where one might say it was likely that the excrement might hit the fan, People's Square would be the prime candidate.

Certainly, we are cursed to live in interesting times...

Lately I haven't written much here because I have been trapped under a mountain of reading, mainly literature and essays pertaining to the recent nationalism here in the PRC. Interesting times indeed...