Observations and Links

• The Toronto Maple Leafs have gone 44 years without winning the Stanley Cup.
• In Wuxi, there are brick walls, which are everywhere and are built for a variety of reasons.  Some are built to cover the fact of demolition.  Some are built to stop people from roaming in empty fields.  This morning, I saw workers scavenging bricks from one of these walls.  I presume they were taking the bricks to another construction site in the area.
• Photo of Tony taken Friday Morning.
• On the bus last night, I saw video of Kim Il Sung, the leader of North Korea, visiting Beijing.  It was so surreal, I couldn't take my eyes off it and so I couldn't study my Chinese textbook.  I saw Kim Il Sung being given the red carpet treatment.  Sung posed for photos with, and shook the hands of, all the big wigs of  the Chinese leadership including Wen Jiabao and Hu Jiantao.  He was taken to a commercial display featuring big-screen televisions and Ipad like devices.  I could just imagine the sort of poverty his people are experiencing -- I wondered if any of them had televisions.  Sung wore a brown suit with ugly glasses, and looked for all the world like an Atilla the Hun being shown electricity.  The visit ended at the train station as Chinese officials waved to Sung boarding his train.  Why can't he take a plane? I wondered.
• Wuxi China Subway Update on youtube or youku.
• Near the school is the intersection of Zhongshan and Xueqian Roads.  It is a busy intersection and so it always has three or four traffic cops monitoring it.  They are all equipped with whistles which they blow when someone is attempting a traffic indiscretion.  Most of the time, pedestrians heed the cops and their whistles.  But every once in a while, someone doesn't heed them and it is quite the sight.  This morning, I saw one of these rebellious pedestrians jaywalk in front of a traffic cop.  The cop, a female, whistled at him, but he muttered at her and continued on his way.  The female coop keep blowing her whistle ehile summoning the attention of a male cop  who was standing in the center of the intersection directing vehicular traffic.  He turned around, blew his whistle at the jaywalking pedestrian to no effect.  The two cops then looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and carried on.  I watched the jaywalker continue on his way into the distance.
• Photo of Tony resisting efforts to be woken up.