Things that don't deserve their own thread

Where goats go to escape
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TB63
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Dinsdale Piranha wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:39 pm
fishfoodie wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:35 pm
C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 6:14 pm

Oy vey
I used to work with a young woman whose first name was Orla; I still remember the first day she called into a meeting with an Israeli team we were working with, & I distinctly heard a snigger when she introduced herself.

As soon as the meeting ended, I got called by one of guys on the other end who was giggling like a schoolboy, & wanted to be sure that he'd heard her name correctly, because Orla is the Hebrew for foreskin, & it's spelt & pronounced exactly the same :grin:

She must have had the only Irish first name* that the they didn't struggle to look at & work out the pronunciation :lol: :lol: :lol:

^ although technically this isn't the Irish spelling, but an English phonetic one.
I have attended a Briss (circumcision ceremony)

The Mohels who perform the ceremony do it as a charity. The don't get paid. They just collect tips.

Ba Boom Tish!
I've heard they stitch a few of them together to make a purse..


Give it a quick rub and you have a handbag...
I love watching little children running and screaming, playing hide and seek in the playground.
They don't know I'm using blanks..
Blackmac
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C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite
To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.
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Sandstorm
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Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am
C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite
To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.
He lied. Can’t do that unless you are PM or President.
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Uncle fester
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Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am
C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite
To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.
If he was straight, there would be some tut tutting and a few pfnarr pfnaar comments.
Blackmac
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Sandstorm wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:26 am
Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am
C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite
To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.
He lied. Can’t do that unless you are PM or President.
Indeed. A celebrity lying to cover up an extra marital affair is a real hold the front page moment. Of all the twats the media should be going after, Schofield hardly merits a second thought.
GogLais
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Uncle fester wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:40 am
Blackmac wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:23 am
C69 wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:03 pm The Holly and paedo Phil shite
To be honest, the pile on on Schofield is fucking appalling. Not a popular man by all accounts but there doesn't appear to be any suggestion that he has done anything criminal. What's really bizarre is that they all seem fixated on his young lover but appear to be oblivious to the fact that he admitted in court that he knew his brother was a paedo but did nothing about.
If he was straight, there would be some tut tutting and a few pfnarr pfnaar comments.
Or an older woman/younger man situation. It would have been good on her.
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SaintK
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Bonkers!!!
A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363
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Uncle fester
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EnergiseR2 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:40 am I only partly agree with you. In the agree column is the British media has a long history of getting their man at all costs and after funeralgate he was going down. They all knew about his riding the young lad and waited as they do. As you all note riding someone who is 18 is just a bit eyebrow raising- as it should be. We shouldn't get caught into anything else ot then the rules get blurred: is 21 acceptable, is 23 acceptable, do we need the same number of wrinkles etc etc
However very much against your argument is he met the lad when he was under 18 and it appears the relationship flourished. Those of us with kids like to think our friends and colleagues aren't thinking about riding them. It makes things very complicated and he broke the unwritten covenant there. No more than DiCaprio who I noted before this all blew up was getting away with something almost identical. Knowing a child, hanging out with a child for years and then later starting to have sex with the child just after they turned into adulthood. He will go down at some point though. That's a given. Bowie rode children and got away with as they didn't cause a big fuss, he was class at music and to be fair in comparison to DiCaprio it was much greyer back then
The local one I think of is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. No laws broken there but clearly a bit ikky.
GogLais
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SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!
A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363
I thought it might be the Sermon on the Mount that they objected to.
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TB63
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SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!
A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363
Think that's more of a kickback for banning books for nonsensical reasons..
I love watching little children running and screaming, playing hide and seek in the playground.
They don't know I'm using blanks..
Sinkers
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TB63 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 11:54 am
SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!
A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363
Think that's more of a kickback for banning books for nonsensical reasons..
Appears to be pretty much that:
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SaintK
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Aaaah! Thanks.
GogLais
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TB63 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 11:54 am
SaintK wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:14 am Bonkers!!!
A school district in the US state of Utah has removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing "vulgarity and violence".
The move follows a complaint from a parent that the King James Bible has material unsuitable for children.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-ca ... 794363
Think that's more of a kickback for banning books for nonsensical reasons..
The dreadful thing is that’s it’s plausible. Well I plaused it anyway.
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Uncle fester
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EnergiseR2 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 11:05 am Oh yeah I had forgotten about that one. Was he friends with her parents or some shit. Vaguely recall reading it and thinking Ah Here
Yes, friends with her father.

Kate Winslet (15) and Stephen Tredre (27) is another one.
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Enzedder
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34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

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I drink and I forget things.
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Guy Smiley
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Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

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https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/arti ... en-square/
May 15 Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Beijing for the first Sino-Soviet summit since 1959, but the hunger strike forces the government to cancel plans to welcome him in Tiananmen Square. His escort is blocked by protestors on nearly every street in Beijing. “[F]or the Chinese government, [this was] a big loss of face, very scary,” says Jan Wong. “… They were aware of what was happening in the Soviet Union — and so were the Chinese people — that the Communist Party in the Soviet Union was more or less imploding. [The Party leaders] were very frightened in China.”

May 16 More than 3,000 people are now participating in the hunger strike. The embarrassing protests during Gorbachev’s visit further polarizes the Politburo. During an emergency meeting, Zhao maintains that the way to end the strike is for the government to retract its April 26 editorial, accept the students’ demand for dialogue and begin reforms.

“[T]he vast majority of student demonstrators are patriotic and sincerely concerned for our country. We may not approve of all of their methods, but their demand to promote democracy, to deepen the reforms and to root out corruption are quite reasonable,” says Zhao.

Li Peng insists the government cannot capitulate: “It’s more and more clear that a tiny minority is trying to use the turmoil to reach its political goal, which is repudiation of Communist Party leadership and the socialist system.” Li says. “Their goals are to topple the Chinese Communist Party … to completely repudiate the people’s democratic dictatorship.”

May 17 When the case is put to Deng Xiaoping, he decides against Zhao’s recommendations and proposes instituting martial law to end the hunger strike. “The aim … will be to suppress the turmoil once and for all and to return things quickly to normal,” he is reported to have said. “This is the unshirkable duty of the Party and the government.” Zhao expresses his problems with this position but concedes: “I will submit to Party discipline; the minority does yield to the majority.”

May 18 Zhao Ziyang visits hospitalized hunger strikers and tries to convince them to call off their fast. Afterward, he is reported to have drafted a letter of resignation to the Politburo, but it is never sent. Li Peng holds a televised meeting with student leaders in the Great Hall of the People. It ends without any progress.

That evening a meeting of Party elders and Politburo members, including Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng, approves the declaration of martial law. Zhao Ziyang does not attend.

May 19 Student leaders learn of the plan to declare martial law and call off their hunger strike. Instead, they stage a mass sit-in in Tiananmen Square that draws about 1.2 million supporters, including members of the police and military and industrial workers. Zhao Ziyang appears in Tiananmen Square in a final, unsuccessful effort to appeal for compromise. It is his last public appearance. He is soon removed from office and replaced by Jiang Zemin.

That evening, Li Peng appears on state television to declare martial law. “We must adopt firm and resolute measures to end the turmoil swiftly, to maintain the leadership of the party as well as the socialist system.”
May 25–June 1 Over the next week, the demonstrations continue, and Beijing operates with no real police presence and with a virtually free press. In Tiananmen Square, the atmosphere is jubilant, but at government headquarters, Deng Xiaoping is devising a new offensive to end the protest. Armed troops will be sent in from every military district in the country.

“I think the leaders felt that they had been thwarted in the most obvious and humiliating manner,”says Orville Schell. “[A]nd the second time around they brought in troops from far away who didn’t have connections to Beijing, whose kids weren’t in the square. And they decided they would brook no obstacle.”

June 2 The Party elders approve the decision to put down the “counterrevolutionary riot” and clear the square with military force. Most hope it can be done without casualties. Unaware of what was about to happen, Hou Dejian, a Chinese rock star, and three prominent intellectuals start a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square. Demonstrators continue their sit-in and their calls for democratic reforms.

June 3 As word spreads that hundreds of thousands of troops are approaching from all four corners of the city, Beijingers flood the streets to block them, as they had done two weeks earlier. People set up barricades at every major interstion. At about 10:30 p.m., near the Muxidi apartment buildings — home to high-level Party officials and their families — the citizens become aggressive as the army tries to break through their barricades. They yell at the soldiers and some throw rocks; someone sets a bus on fire. The soldiers start firing on the unarmed civilians with AK-47s loaded with battlefield ammunition.

“The first rounds of fire catch everybody by surprise,” recalls human rights observer Timothy Brook. “The people in the streets don’t expect this to happen.” The wounded are taken to nearby hospitals on bicycles and pull-carts, but the hospital staff are unequipped to deal with the severe wounds. Muxidi sees the highest casualties of the night; an untold number of people are killed.

June 4 At about 1:00 a.m., the People’s Liberation Army finally reaches Tiananmen Square and waits for orders from the government. The soldiers have been told not to open fire, but they have also been told that they must clear the square by 6:00 a.m. — with no exceptions or delays. They make a final offer of amnesty if the few thousand remaining students will leave. About 4:00 a.m., student leaders put the matter to a vote: Leave the square, or stay and face the consequences. “It was clear to me that they stay votes were much, much, much stronger,” recalls eyewitness John Pomfret, who was near the students. “But Feng Congde, who was a student leader at the time, said, ‘The go’s have it.'” The students vacate the square under the gaze of thousands of soldiers.

Later that morning, some people — believed to be the parents of the student protestors — try to re-enter Tiananmen Square via Chang’an Boulevard. The soldiers order them to leave, and when they don’t, open fire, taking down dozens of people at a time. According to eyewitness accounts, the citizens seem not to believe the army is firing on them with real ammunition.

“[A]fter a little while, like 40 minutes, people would gather up their nerve again and would crawl back to the corner and start screaming at the soldiers, and then the commander would eventually give another signal … and they’d shoot more in the backs,” remembers journalist Jan Wong, who watched it all from her hotel room above the boulevard. “And this went on more than half a dozen times in the day.” When rescue workers try to approach the street to remove the wounded, they, too, are shot.

No one knows for certain how many people died over the two days. The Chinese Red Cross initially reported 2,600, then quickly retracted that figure under intense pressure from the government. The official Chinese government figure is 241 dead, including soldiers, and 7,000 wounded.
June 5 By the morning of June 5, the army is in complete control of Beijing. But when all protest in the city seems silenced, the world witnessed one final act of defiance.

About midday, as a column of tanks slowly moves along Chang’an Boulevard toward Tiananmen Square, an unarmed young man carrying shopping bags suddenly steps out in front of the tanks. Instead of running over him, the first tank tries to go around, but the young man steps in front of it again. They repeat this maneuver several more times before the tank stops and turns off its motor. The young man climbs on top of the tank and speaks to the driver before jumping back down again. Soon, the young man is whisked to the side of the road by an unidentified group of people and disappears into the crowd.
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Gumboot
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Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

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The ex and I were living in Taiwan at the time. There were reports of the PLA moving divisions towards the Fujian coast, just across the Taiwan Strait, and speculation that Beijing might create some pretext to attack as a domestic distraction from the massacre. All pretty damn unnerving, tbh.

And now the twats are sabre-rattling yet again. Same as it ever was.
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tabascoboy
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Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

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Apparently "4th June" is very strongly censored by Chinese authorities and the day is often referred to as 35th May instead
inactionman
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tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 6:47 am
Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

Image
Apparently "4th June" is very strongly censored by Chinese authorities and the day is often referred to as 35th May instead
All a bit odd, surely that just draws more attention to it?
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tabascoboy
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inactionman wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:11 am
tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 6:47 am
Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:22 pm 34 years ago. I have a memory like China; never forget, never forgive

Image
Apparently "4th June" is very strongly censored by Chinese authorities and the day is often referred to as 35th May instead
All a bit odd, surely that just draws more attention to it?
Well authoritarian governments don't appear to think like that, I guess

The Spirit of May 35th
By Yu Hua

You might think May 35th is an imaginary date, but in China it’s a real one. Here, where references to June 4 — the date of the Tiananmen incident of 1989 — are banned from the Internet, people use “May 35th” to circumvent censorship and commemorate the events of that day.

Earlier this year I visited Taiwan, where my book China in Ten Words had just been released. “Why can’t this book be published in mainland China,” I was asked, “when your novel Brothers can?”

That’s the difference between fiction and nonfiction: Although both books are about contemporary China, Brothers touches on things obliquely and so slips through the net, whereas China in Ten Words, by straight talking, goes beyond the pale.

“Brothers does a May 35th,” I explained, “and China in Ten Words is more like June 4th.”

To express oneself in May 35th terms is standard practice these days. According to the latest figures, there are 457 million Internet users in China, and 303 million Chinese can access the Web on their cellphones. It’s a big job to keep all these onliners in line, and the government’s most effective control mechanism is to designate certain words as unacceptable and simply prohibit their use on the Internet.

So people who hanker to express their own views find that their voices are muffled. Internet servers — automated censors, you might call them — are assiduous in blocking any and all commentary that involves these red-flagged phrases.

I once tried to post online a literary essay of mine. Though it made no reference whatsoever to politics, an error message kept popping up. Innocently, I assumed I must have miswritten a character or two, and marveled that technology could detect typos so easily. But after careful proofreading and revision of the odd phrase here and there, that frosty error message continued to appear. Finally I realized that the text had violated several taboos. Though widely scattered in different paragraphs, the offending words left the automated censors with little doubt that I was indulging in political dissent.

We have no way of knowing how many words have been blacklisted, or which once-banned words can now be used. Sometimes you can manage to avoid all the taboos and post your opinion, but if it is couched in too explicit an idiom, it will get deleted almost right away.

So we adapt. With the Chinese government so bent on promoting a “harmonious society,” Internet users slyly tailor the phrase for their own purposes. If someone writes, “Be careful you don’t get harmonized,” what they mean is “Be careful you don’t get shut down” or “Be careful you don’t get arrested.” Harmonize has to be the word most thoroughly imbued with the May 35th spirit. Officials are aware, of course, of its barbed meaning on the Internet, but they can hardly ban it, because to do so would be to outlaw the “harmonious society” they are plugging. Harmony has been hijacked by the public.

Such is China’s Internet politics. Practically everyone has mastered the art of May 35th expression, and I myself am no slouch.

I’ve had a go at broaching freedom-of-expression issues. I once posted an article referring to a talk I gave in Munich. The post said: “I was asked: ‘Is there freedom of expression in China?’ ‘Of course there is,’ I replied. ‘In any country,’ I went on, ‘freedom of expression is relative. In Germany you can curse the chancellor, but you wouldn’t dare curse your neighbor. In China we can’t curse our premier, but we’re free to curse the guy next door.’ ”

On the concentration of power in China, I wrote: “In Taiwan I told a reporter, ‘You need to wear gloves when you shake hands with politicians here, because they are always out canvassing and shaking hands with people. You don’t need gloves on the mainland, because our politicians never have to press the flesh. You won’t find many germs on their fingers.”

Since the first remark seems to emphasize that everything is relative and the other appears to focus on matters of hygiene, both were posted on the Internet without incident. My readers know what I’m getting at.

I have always written much as I please in the May 35th mode, and for that I have the fictional form to thank, since fiction is not overtly political and by its nature lends itself to May 35th turns of phrase. Writing in the June 4th mode, as I did in China in Ten Words, was a departure from my normal practice.

The question asked most often in Taiwan was, “If you had an 11th word to describe China, what would it be?”

“Freedom,” I answered.

What I meant by that, of course, was not the familiar June 4th sort of freedom, but this more recondite May 35th kind.

May 35th freedom is an art form. To evade censorship when expressing their opinions on the Internet, Chinese people give full rein to the rhetorical functions of language, elevating to a sublime level both innuendo and metaphor, parody and hyperbole, conveying sarcasm and scorn through veiled gibes and wily indirection.

Surely our language has never been as rich and vital as it is today. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder, if one day the June 4th kind of freedom were to arrive, would we still be so creative, so ingenious?

Perhaps we can describe China’s Internet politics as a cat-and-mouse game. But you should not imagine China’s Internet mice to be as mighty as the mouse in a Disney cartoon, nor are our government flunkies as dumb as a cartoon cat. When our Internet mice taunt their adversaries, they make sure to have a bolt-hole right next to them. In China today, more and more people want to hear the truth but not many dare to speak it. And so, even if our Internet mice play only a game of wits with the government cats and do not engage in an action sport, it still remains a source of comfort to us — because we don’t have the June 4th kind of freedom, only the May 35th variety.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/opin ... ua-28.html
inactionman
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Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 7:37 am

tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:17 am
inactionman wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:11 am
tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 6:47 am

Apparently "4th June" is very strongly censored by Chinese authorities and the day is often referred to as 35th May instead
All a bit odd, surely that just draws more attention to it?
Well authoritarian governments don't appear to think like that, I guess
Spoiler
Show

The Spirit of May 35th
By Yu Hua

You might think May 35th is an imaginary date, but in China it’s a real one. Here, where references to June 4 — the date of the Tiananmen incident of 1989 — are banned from the Internet, people use “May 35th” to circumvent censorship and commemorate the events of that day.

Earlier this year I visited Taiwan, where my book China in Ten Words had just been released. “Why can’t this book be published in mainland China,” I was asked, “when your novel Brothers can?”

That’s the difference between fiction and nonfiction: Although both books are about contemporary China, Brothers touches on things obliquely and so slips through the net, whereas China in Ten Words, by straight talking, goes beyond the pale.

“Brothers does a May 35th,” I explained, “and China in Ten Words is more like June 4th.”

To express oneself in May 35th terms is standard practice these days. According to the latest figures, there are 457 million Internet users in China, and 303 million Chinese can access the Web on their cellphones. It’s a big job to keep all these onliners in line, and the government’s most effective control mechanism is to designate certain words as unacceptable and simply prohibit their use on the Internet.

So people who hanker to express their own views find that their voices are muffled. Internet servers — automated censors, you might call them — are assiduous in blocking any and all commentary that involves these red-flagged phrases.

I once tried to post online a literary essay of mine. Though it made no reference whatsoever to politics, an error message kept popping up. Innocently, I assumed I must have miswritten a character or two, and marveled that technology could detect typos so easily. But after careful proofreading and revision of the odd phrase here and there, that frosty error message continued to appear. Finally I realized that the text had violated several taboos. Though widely scattered in different paragraphs, the offending words left the automated censors with little doubt that I was indulging in political dissent.

We have no way of knowing how many words have been blacklisted, or which once-banned words can now be used. Sometimes you can manage to avoid all the taboos and post your opinion, but if it is couched in too explicit an idiom, it will get deleted almost right away.

So we adapt. With the Chinese government so bent on promoting a “harmonious society,” Internet users slyly tailor the phrase for their own purposes. If someone writes, “Be careful you don’t get harmonized,” what they mean is “Be careful you don’t get shut down” or “Be careful you don’t get arrested.” Harmonize has to be the word most thoroughly imbued with the May 35th spirit. Officials are aware, of course, of its barbed meaning on the Internet, but they can hardly ban it, because to do so would be to outlaw the “harmonious society” they are plugging. Harmony has been hijacked by the public.

Such is China’s Internet politics. Practically everyone has mastered the art of May 35th expression, and I myself am no slouch.

I’ve had a go at broaching freedom-of-expression issues. I once posted an article referring to a talk I gave in Munich. The post said: “I was asked: ‘Is there freedom of expression in China?’ ‘Of course there is,’ I replied. ‘In any country,’ I went on, ‘freedom of expression is relative. In Germany you can curse the chancellor, but you wouldn’t dare curse your neighbor. In China we can’t curse our premier, but we’re free to curse the guy next door.’ ”

On the concentration of power in China, I wrote: “In Taiwan I told a reporter, ‘You need to wear gloves when you shake hands with politicians here, because they are always out canvassing and shaking hands with people. You don’t need gloves on the mainland, because our politicians never have to press the flesh. You won’t find many germs on their fingers.”

Since the first remark seems to emphasize that everything is relative and the other appears to focus on matters of hygiene, both were posted on the Internet without incident. My readers know what I’m getting at.

I have always written much as I please in the May 35th mode, and for that I have the fictional form to thank, since fiction is not overtly political and by its nature lends itself to May 35th turns of phrase. Writing in the June 4th mode, as I did in China in Ten Words, was a departure from my normal practice.

The question asked most often in Taiwan was, “If you had an 11th word to describe China, what would it be?”

“Freedom,” I answered.

What I meant by that, of course, was not the familiar June 4th sort of freedom, but this more recondite May 35th kind.

May 35th freedom is an art form. To evade censorship when expressing their opinions on the Internet, Chinese people give full rein to the rhetorical functions of language, elevating to a sublime level both innuendo and metaphor, parody and hyperbole, conveying sarcasm and scorn through veiled gibes and wily indirection.

Surely our language has never been as rich and vital as it is today. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder, if one day the June 4th kind of freedom were to arrive, would we still be so creative, so ingenious?

Perhaps we can describe China’s Internet politics as a cat-and-mouse game. But you should not imagine China’s Internet mice to be as mighty as the mouse in a Disney cartoon, nor are our government flunkies as dumb as a cartoon cat. When our Internet mice taunt their adversaries, they make sure to have a bolt-hole right next to them. In China today, more and more people want to hear the truth but not many dare to speak it. And so, even if our Internet mice play only a game of wits with the government cats and do not engage in an action sport, it still remains a source of comfort to us — because we don’t have the June 4th kind of freedom, only the May 35th variety.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/opin ... ua-28.html
Orwell really was a good reader of society.

It's almost doublethink.
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tabascoboy
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A once respected newspaper severely in need of new owners, editors and a massive overall change in its narratives

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Kiwias
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A virgin birth?? I accept that no other crocodiles have been in the enclosure but staff have surely been in there.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/all ... -time-ever
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mat the expat
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Dinsdale Piranha wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:48 am

Some years ago I was in Wong Kei and the two girls next to us tried to do a runner. The speed at which a dozen large Chinese gentlemen with kitchen implements appeared was quite impressive.
God, that place was awesome - loved how, if you were on a date, they'd put you on a group table :grin:
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fishfoodie
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Bees stop play

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The Cricket Ireland Inter-Provincial T20 trophy match between Munster Reds and Northern Knights was disrupted today after bees swarmed on the pitch at the Mardyke.

Munster were 91/2 after 10.4 overs when officials called a halt to the game due to hundreds of bees swarming which eventually settled on a pavillon fence.

The players were unable to go near the boundary line with play stopping after 4.30pm.

Eventually, the queen bee was captured by Mauro Dias from Buzz of Nature. The swarm consisted of 20,000 bees.

The match resumed at 6.15pm and was played over 12 overs, with the Red setting a target of 106-5.
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Grandpa
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Location: Kiwi abroad

Kiwias wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 12:42 am A virgin birth?? I accept that no other crocodiles have been in the enclosure but staff have surely been in there.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/all ... -time-ever
Deliverance.. the prequel? Squeal like a gator!
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Kiwias
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Grandpa wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 11:30 pm
Kiwias wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 12:42 am A virgin birth?? I accept that no other crocodiles have been in the enclosure but staff have surely been in there.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/all ... -time-ever
Deliverance.. the prequel? Squeal like a gator!
She sure ain't got a purty mouth.
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Grandpa
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Location: Kiwi abroad

Kiwias wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 11:41 pm
Grandpa wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 11:30 pm
Kiwias wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 12:42 am A virgin birth?? I accept that no other crocodiles have been in the enclosure but staff have surely been in there.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/all ... -time-ever
Deliverance.. the prequel? Squeal like a gator!
She sure ain't got a purty mouth.
:grin:

I see none of the eggs had a normal foetus in the end? So probably was the cleaner..
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Guy Smiley
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Gumboot
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Cormac McCarthy goooone at 89. Brilliant writer.

RIP
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Gumboot
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Enzedder
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Location: Hamilton NZ

Today in 1959: NZ stole Chinese Gooseberry from the China.
Turners & Growers renamed them "Kiwifruit" and it stuck.

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However, there is solid evidence that a teacher from Gumboot country brought some seeds back in the early 1900s and the first vine was fruiting around 1906/7
I drink and I forget things.
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Sandstorm
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Enzedder wrote: Thu Jun 15, 2023 7:15 pm Today in 1959: NZ stole Chinese Gooseberry from the China.
Turners & Growers renamed them "Kiwifruit" and it stuck.

Image

However, there is solid evidence that a teacher from Gumboot country brought some seeds back in the early 1900s and the first vine was fruiting around 1906/7
Stole it twice? Bigger thieves than your criminal neighbours.
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Uncle fester
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Guy Smiley wrote: Tue Jun 13, 2023 4:25 am
They actually closed recently.
https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/a ... s-to-close
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Guy Smiley
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Closed with a bang, then?
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Guy Smiley
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The lads....

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fishfoodie
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I miss prime time shows like Tomorrows World. It's definitely at least partially responsible for me ending up in Engineering; even as a sprog I can remember looking at the innovations being presented & thinking to myself, "I can do better than that pile of shite !"'

The problems haven't really changed, but the Politicians are even more gutless & electorate more gullible, & it's always hard to get money for projects.
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Jim Lahey
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Quality article in the Torygraph :lol:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/fest ... festivals/
How the middle class ruined music festivals

With tickets costing as much as £340 and attendees rising early to do yoga, music festivals have gone from mosh pit to posh pit

The festival season is upon us. Or, at least, upon those of us with deep pockets. The cost of Glastonbury tickets has, this year, risen from £270 to £340. Who can afford that, you might ask? In brief, the middle aged and middle classed. Or as one Reddit thread put it more poetically: “It’s so middle class these days the welfare tent is run by BUPA!” (Fact check: it’s not, not yet at least...)

So if you (like me), fall into this demographic, you can either give yourself a pat on the back for keeping festivals afloat, or, you could take a good hard look at yourself and tell us if (a one academic paper put it) you too are contributing to music festivals turning “from mosh pit to posh pit”.

Early morning ashtanga
Rising early to do yoga, ideally on a stand-up-paddle-board, balanced on the still waters of a lake, preferably in the grounds of a stately home? Strike one.

Latitude founder Melvin Benn saw us coming as early as 2014, when he said (perhaps slightly too frankly): “Yoga absolutely reinforces our middle-class credentials, and I’ve no qualms about that at all.” The practice, of course, spread faster than you can say “lululemons”.

See ‘Overhead at Wilderness’, a briefly viral hashtag celebrating (or was it reviling?) snippets of conversation from the most middle-class of festivals (think ‘Overheard at Waitrose’ but even more chi-chi). A Huffington Post reporter won with this harvested gem: “Father in a sparkly headband to toddler: “have you done your yoga yet, sweetie?”

Which leads us on to the next test...

Do you drag the kids along?

Diggory and Araminta have been going to festivals since they were in utero. You used to put them in a vintage trailer (expensive ear-defenders optional, fairy lights a must). But then they started expressing opinions on your music choices, which was a bit of a downer. So thank God for the babysitting service in the kids’ field where (for £40) you can park them every evening and – if there’s a must-see talk on microdosing or a gong bath session or some costly cosmic recalibration to do – much of the day too.

Do you know your rights?

Jemima and Henry have absolutely aced the dress code. They could not look more free-spirited and easy-going if they tried (and dear God, have they tried). But they’re not bloody fools. Henry is a man of means and doesn’t have to put up with incompetence. Thus, the teenage minimum-wage workers at the vintage food truck, and the nice eco-entrepreneurs running the floral crown workshops, live in fear of running out of sriracha sauce or peonies.

Jemima and Henry know their rights and (in the absence of the toddlers who disappeared into the creche two days ago and have not been seen since) are more than ready to throw their own toys and privilege out of the pram. Rightly so. As the Mirror recounted when Borough Market’s cheese festival became overcrowded: “Andy Green travelled all the way from Kent to eat cheese and was very upset by the meltdown.”

Enter the echo chamber
Because you’re not only a free-spirit (trapped in Fulham for 360 days a year) but you’re also ‘an enquiring mind’ (temporarily ensnared by the City) you’ve made sure to book into all the most zeitgeisty talks. You are expanding your worldview. It is, I suppose, slightly odd then that everyone in the audience and on stage looks rather like you. In fact, looking around, you feel like you recognise a fair few from the school run/ski trips/the kids’ tennis classes.

Welcome to what the actor Keith Allen has termed: the Whitehallisation of festivals. He was talking specifically about the Edinburgh Fringe, and Whitehalls of the Jack, not governmental variety, though the same probably applies. Either way, posh white men have taken over, he claimed, with the result that: “The festival now has as much creative energy as a chartered surveyors’ away day.”

Wildly overblown use of the world ‘wild’

There will be wild swimming (strictly from 10-10.45 am, only under the supervision of the lifeguard), wild flower crowns (£35 a workshop), wild mushrooms in the organic £15 breakfast rolls, wild cooking by Michelin-starred chefs (£80 a head for some foraged sorrel off a trestle table), wild nights out dancing to DJs in their 50s and ending at just past 10pm. “How was it?” your friends back in High Wycombe will ask. “Oh, it was absolutely wild,” you absolutely must reply.

Tipi or not tipi?

First they came for our perfectly serviceable Mountain Warehouse tents, and we did not speak out because bell tents do have a certain nostalgic charm, especially when sprinkled artfully with bunting. Then came pre-erected glamping tipis. And we still stayed silent because putting up the bell tent was a bit of a bore after a long week at the coal face and while we are still very much (can’t stress this enough) young and free at heart, the double bed and White Company sheets are rather easier on the old back and knees.

But now, suddenly, The Pop-Up Hotel’s “luxe Glastonbury glamping experience” is charging £11,999 for five nights in a “Safari Suite” with a king size bed, sofa, and en-suite bathroom with (crucially) your own private flushing toilet, hot water, shower and basin. There’s a private bar on site too, which is nice as you don’t have to jostle with the grockles, and a pool, restaurant and spa.

So really, you find yourself wondering, do we really need to traipse the ten-minute ‘flat walk’ to the festival itself. We can hear it all at a rather more civilised volume from here, and catch the highlights on the iPad (plentiful charging points). We’ll just dip in at the end to collect the kids from the babysitting service...
Ian Madigan for Ireland.
inactionman
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Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 7:37 am

Apologies for both link to Daily Heil and the fact the article is a bit of rage porn, but please do join me in wishing the vicious little shit a very unhappy time in life.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... years.html

Dickhead who is by all accounts pretty handy at martial arts decided to go into Asda dressed as superman and beat a shop floor worker unconscious for a bit of tiktok clout. The poor lass has fractured eye socket and presumably a newly-found phobia of superheroes.

He thankfully got banged up but god alone knows what sort of clown does this or encourages it. I'm not entirely sure they went to the shop expressly to beat someone unconscious, but surely they expected someone to object and were only too keen to throw a few fists.
GogLais
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Location: Wirral/Cilgwri

inactionman wrote: Wed Jun 21, 2023 1:17 pm Apologies for both link to Daily Heil and the fact the article is a bit of rage porn, but please do join me in wishing the vicious little shit a very unhappy time in life.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... years.html

Dickhead who is by all accounts pretty handy at martial arts decided to go into Asda dressed as superman and beat a shop floor worker unconscious for a bit of tiktok clout. The poor lass has fractured eye socket and presumably a newly-found phobia of superheroes.

He thankfully got banged up but god alone knows what sort of clown does this or encourages it. I'm not entirely sure they went to the shop expressly to beat someone unconscious, but surely they expected someone to object and were only too keen to throw a few fists.
“Leader of the mayhem” got two years and two months.
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