College Rankings

There has been quite a lot of discussion around campus recently about college rankings, and now that our school has decided to get itself involved, there will be even more pressure to "play the game" and toe the line on research and publications.

Interestingly, the New York Times reported that a number of US liberal arts colleges have declined to be ranked. I wonder if this is just a small, quickly contained "rebellion" of a few, or the start of a larger trend? If it is the latter, then HK will be picking up on something just as people in the US are starting to find problems with it... which wouldn't surprise me.

Cat vs. Snake

Okay, this is fast becoming the video blog, but as my LCD TV is dead (let's hope it's just a blown fuse), I am getting my TV fix on various videos on the web.

Here's one with a bobcat and a rattler. As the commentary says "the cat is like Mohammed Ali, quick and agile. The snake is more like George Foreman, head down, straight ahead, one blow and you're dead. Lay your bets."


Bobcat vs Snake - Free videos are just a click away

Still proud to be Chinese?

StephenC asked in his blog post about whether people are truly more proud to be Chinese nowadays, or whether that's just a byproduct of the booming economy.

I think we all know that there's a good part of that economy that's built on some pretty sinister stuff, like fake (and unsafe) food and medical products, and gooodness knows what else.

Another scary part came to light today in the New York Times: forced child labor. Now this is a little different from other countries, like India, where children pretty much have to work alongside their parents and help out with family finances. Since children are a pretty scarce resource in China, I think most parents would try to ensure as good a future for their kids if they could. No, these are kidnapped children who are then put to work in harsh, dangerous jobs.

Now I know that there's an exploited class in any country or society, and even the US has its share of teen prostitutes who are runaways from home, and then tricked into the flesh trade by pimps who "befriend" them.

But somehow, this business of China's seems much more horrifying.

Retake, then tritake, then quadtake, then...

CNN.com reported this story of a man in India who has failed his 10th grade high school exams 39 times, but is hoping that the 40th time around will be a charm.

The man concerned is 73 years old, has had no formal education, and he claims that his not having passed these exams has hampered him throughout life, including his career prospects, and also his chances of getting a decent wife.

Would that our students had half the tenacity of this guy!

Girlfriend ban

CNN.com reported this news article about a Canadian man who's banned from being in a relationship for the next three years.

Basically, this guy stabbed his girlfriend when she tried to break up with him. Doctors say that he has "a dependent personality disorder" and "finds it hard to deal with rejection". The judge sentenced him to jail time served (150 days) and no girlfriend till 2010.

Interesting punishment. Some guys I know probably deserve that, too.

Cat Herding

I first saw this video several years ago as an ad in the Superbowl (forget which one now), and I remember totally enjoying it then. I had forgotten about it since, but I stumbled across it this evening while I was googling for something else, and it's just too funny not to share.

Enjoy!

Cats Rule

I had to post these after the cat chases bear up tree post. I found these two videos on Youtube. One of them shows a jaguar fighting an anaconda, and another one shows a jaguar fighting a pirarucu, which is a giant freshwater fish.





Cats RULE. That's all there is to it.

While I am on the topic of fighting animals, let me share this one of a shark being eaten by a... just watch and see.

Truly Freaky Robot

It's amazing what Japan keeps on coming up with where robots are concerned. The most recent one is the CB2 child robot.

Youtube won't allow me to embed this into my blog, so you gotta click here to watch that thing in motion. And you ought to. This is really truly scary.