Sal's Posts - Changchun Friends2024-03-29T14:40:27ZSalhttp://richardroman.ning.com/profile/Salhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2209101128?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://richardroman.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=1z7z2dsr4rjzx&xn_auth=noMixed Up Marriagestag:richardroman.ning.com,2011-12-21:4698766:BlogPost:2986412011-12-21T06:06:45.000ZSalhttp://richardroman.ning.com/profile/Sal
<p>Thanks to globalization, we are seeing more and more mixed marriages that produce mixed (up) kids. We all know that a Chinese-English mix will give you a Chinglish baby, but what about:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A person from Iceland with someone from Cuba? - You're going to get an Ice-Cube</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Or an Italian with a Jamaican - What else? A Pasta-Farian</p>
<p> </p>
<p>An Indian with a Jew will have a Hinju</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Guy from Harlam with a girl from the Filipines will have Baby…</p>
<p>Thanks to globalization, we are seeing more and more mixed marriages that produce mixed (up) kids. We all know that a Chinese-English mix will give you a Chinglish baby, but what about:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A person from Iceland with someone from Cuba? - You're going to get an Ice-Cube</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Or an Italian with a Jamaican - What else? A Pasta-Farian</p>
<p> </p>
<p>An Indian with a Jew will have a Hinju</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Guy from Harlam with a girl from the Filipines will have Baby Harla-Pinoes</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A French and a Greek wil be a Freak</p>
<p> </p>
<p>German and Newfie - sounds Goofie!</p>What do you really wanttag:richardroman.ning.com,2011-12-21:4698766:BlogPost:2985722011-12-21T05:28:43.000ZSalhttp://richardroman.ning.com/profile/Sal
<div id="syn_content"><img src="http://content.comicskingdom.net/Broom_Hilda/Broom_Hilda.20111221_med.gif"/></div>
<div id="syn_content"><img src="http://content.comicskingdom.net/Broom_Hilda/Broom_Hilda.20111221_med.gif"/></div>Moving - AGAIN!tag:richardroman.ning.com,2011-10-23:4698766:BlogPost:2846292011-10-23T00:15:45.000ZSalhttp://richardroman.ning.com/profile/Sal
<p>About a thousand years ago, my family and I emmigrated from Italy to Canada. It was permanent for my parents at the time. I would have thought for me too. We only had the clothes on our backs</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Then 4 years ago I moved from Canada to China. It was more difficult for me as I wasn't a toddler any more and far more responsible. It wasn't traumatic, but it was eventful. I brought most of my clothes, books and a few personal items</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Earlier this year I departed my new…</p>
<p>About a thousand years ago, my family and I emmigrated from Italy to Canada. It was permanent for my parents at the time. I would have thought for me too. We only had the clothes on our backs</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Then 4 years ago I moved from Canada to China. It was more difficult for me as I wasn't a toddler any more and far more responsible. It wasn't traumatic, but it was eventful. I brought most of my clothes, books and a few personal items</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Earlier this year I departed my new second city of Changchun with Joanna and travelled to Qingdao. A bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I was excited to begin and break in a new city, however I was saddened to leave the huge number of friends I made there. (I won't miss the : ( idiots). We needed a moving company</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Today, we are moving again to a new place, from the shoebox we have to a spacious 200 sq metre 2 floor home. And its just up the street in a great part of the city. The logistics are proving to be a tad cumbersome. I must have people staged in places to make this work!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Move 1: 17,000 km - easy</p>
<p>Move 2: 12,000 km - harder</p>
<p>Move 3: 1,000km - emotionally draining</p>
<p>Move 4: 200 metres - stressful</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The closer I go, the harder it is! Next move is to the moon, I'll only need a laptop and food/oxygen supply!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzletag:richardroman.ning.com,2011-09-20:4698766:BlogPost:2752062011-09-20T02:08:34.000ZSalhttp://richardroman.ning.com/profile/Sal
<p><a href="http://ca.news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-puzzle-175427367.html">http://ca.news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-puzzle-175427367.html</a></p>
<p> </p>
<div class="yog-col yog-11u" id="yui_3_3_0_1_1316483580468288"><div class="yom-mod yom-art-content" id="yui_3_3_0_1_1316483580468287"><div class="bd" id="yui_3_3_0_1_1316483580468286"><p>Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the…</p>
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<p><a href="http://ca.news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-puzzle-175427367.html">http://ca.news.yahoo.com/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-puzzle-175427367.html</a></p>
<p> </p>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1316483580468288" class="yog-col yog-11u"><div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1316483580468287" class="yom-mod yom-art-content"><div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1316483580468286" class="bd"><p>Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade. The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV. Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of many diseases and developing drugs to block them. But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal potential targets for drugs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is where Foldit comes in. Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Cracking the enzyme "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs," says the study, referring to the lifeline medication against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is believed to be the first time that gamers have resolved a long-standing scientific problem.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Firas Khatib of the university's biochemistry lab said in a press release. "The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One of Foldit's creators, Seth Cooper, explained why gamers had succeeded where computers had failed. "People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," he said. "Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."</p>
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</div>When I die, please please my friends, do this for metag:richardroman.ning.com,2011-09-17:4698766:BlogPost:2745192011-09-17T02:57:19.000ZSalhttp://richardroman.ning.com/profile/Sal
<h1 class="ts"><strong><span class="font-size-4">Friends charged after driving dead man to bar, strip club</span></strong></h1>
<h1 class="ts"><span class="font-size-1"><strong><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1055181--friends-charged-after-driving-dead-man-to-bar-strip-club?bn=1">http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1055181--friends-charged-after-driving-dead-man-to-bar-strip-club?bn=1</a></strong></span></h1>
<p>The police statement says the accused, Robert Young and Mark Rubinson,…</p>
<h1 class="ts"><strong><span class="font-size-4">Friends charged after driving dead man to bar, strip club</span></strong></h1>
<h1 class="ts"><span class="font-size-1"><strong><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1055181--friends-charged-after-driving-dead-man-to-bar-strip-club?bn=1">http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1055181--friends-charged-after-driving-dead-man-to-bar-strip-club?bn=1</a></strong></span></h1>
<p>The police statement says the accused, Robert Young and Mark Rubinson, didn’t have the “consent and permission” of Jeffrey Jarrett to put their bar, gas and strip-club bills on his bank card. That’s because the Toronto-born realtor was dead. Riding around in the back of Rubinson’s car, but dead.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This is fairly unusual,” conceded <a target="_blank" href="http://www.denverda.org/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Denver District Attorney’s Offi</span>ce</a> spokeswoman Lyn Kimbrough to the <em>Star</em> on Friday. “We were caught a little by surprise” by stories this week in the Denver media following Young and Rubinson’s arrest, Kimbrough said. “The coverage seems to ignore the fact that the death was of a real person. Folks from my office are reaching out to the family. I don’t know how much detail they were aware of.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jarrett, a 43-year-old hockey loving father of one son, was found dead in his Denver home by Young, a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a> buddy and friend, around 11 p.m. on Aug. 27, said an affidavit filed by Denver Police Det. Ranjan Ford.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Young, 43, fetched another friend, 25-year-old Rubinson. Then, like a script ripped from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098627/"><em>Weekend at Bernie’s</em></a>, they hauled Jarrett’s body into Rubinson’s <a target="_blank" href="http://www.lincoln.com/suvs/navigator/">Lincoln Navigator</a> and “all three parties,” according to Ford, drove to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/teddy-ts-denver">Teddy T’s</a>, a Mexican bar and grill. Young and Rubinson drink for an hour and a half and pay with Jarrett’s bank card. Jarrett is lying in the back of the Navigator. “It was obvious Jarrett was dead while all three were at Teddy T’s,” Ford said Young told him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The trio made for <a target="_blank" href="http://samsno3.com/">Sam’s No. 3</a>, the diner where Rubinson works, to “hang out” then back to Jarrett’s house where the man is finally laid to rest on his own bed. But the party goes on, with a Mexican meal at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vivaburritoco.net/">Viva Burrito</a>, a gas-station stop and, finally, to the strip club Shotgun Willie’s, said Ford.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>On the way home, they flag down a police officer and tell him Jarrett might be at home, dead. He is, said Ford, “obviously deceased.” Neither is charged in Jarrett’s death.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This is a bizarre and unfortunate crime,” Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson told the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_18907533"><em>Denver Post</em>.</a> “This isn't anything you want to have happen to a loved one. You want them treated with respect in death.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I'm horrified, I'm absolutely, I can’t even put in to words, I can’t imagine anybody thinking that maybe their friend is in trouble and not calling 911,” TV station <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/Men_Take_Friends_Body_On_Joyride_129944598.html">KKTV</a> quoted a relative as saying.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jarrett was buried Sept. 1 with dozens of heartfelt and anguished <a target="_blank" href="http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/denverpost/guestbook.aspx?n=jeffrey-jarrett&pid=153376371">condolences</a> offered in an online guest book. A <a target="_blank" href="http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?%20n=Jeffrey-Jarrett&lc=4958&pid=153375076&mid=4795936&locale=en-US">note from the family</a> spoke of a man “proud of his Canadian roots” whose “pride and joy” was his son Cameron. Born in Toronto, Jarrett grew up in Colorado, where his father Gary still lives.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Young and Rubinson, arrested Aug. 28, have been charged with identity theft, unauthorized use of a debit card, and abuse of a corpse and released on bail with separate court appearances Sept. 27 and Oct. 4.</p>English Books Being Bannedtag:richardroman.ning.com,2011-08-16:4698766:BlogPost:2598032011-08-16T02:00:00.000ZSalhttp://richardroman.ning.com/profile/Sal
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">School Board pulls Sherlock Holmes book over complaint by Mormons</span></p>
<p><i>August 15, 2011</i> – <strong>Lesley Ciarula Taylor</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The anti-Mormonism in the first Sherlock Holmes' mystery is too much for students in Grade 6, a</span> Virginia<span style="color: #000000;">school board has decided. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s <strong><em>A Study in Scarlett</em></strong> introduced the cerebral…</span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">School Board pulls Sherlock Holmes book over complaint by Mormons</span></p>
<p><i>August 15, 2011</i> – <strong>Lesley Ciarula Taylor</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The anti-Mormonism in the first Sherlock Holmes' mystery is too much for students in Grade 6, a</span> Virginia<span style="color: #000000;">school board has decided. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s <strong><em>A Study in Scarlett</em></strong> introduced the cerebral sleuth to the world. Part of the revenge murder mystery hinges on the Danites, supposedly a band of 19th century religious vigilantes and long a sore point with Mormons.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">When a parent complained in May, the Albemarle County School Board set up “a committee of educators” to investigate, board chair Steve Koleszar told the <em>Star</em> on Monday.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Last week, the board decided “there are better books by Sherlock Holmes, ones that make better use of deductive reasoning” for Grade 6 than <em>Scarlet</em>, he said. “A part of the book that deals with Mormonism may or may not be historically accurate and reflects the biases of the writer.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">What clinched it for Koleszar was that teachers “weren’t dealing with these issues. Sixth graders might not have an understanding that it has a bias.” The book uses flashback to recount the forced marriage of a young woman to a Mormon even though her father had vowed to prevent it. “Such marriage he regarded as no marriage at all, but as a shame and a disgrace,” Conan Doyle wrote. The father is murdered, the daughter dies of a broken heart, and her true love seeks revenge.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">About 20 students turned out for the board vote to defend the book, including Quinn Legallo-Malone, who called it “the best book I have read so far.” <em>A Study in Scarlet</em> remains in the school library but the Grade 6 curriculum will likely substitute <strong><em>The Hound Of The Baskervilles</em></strong>, Koleszar said.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The Albemarle board turns down parents’ requests to remove books they find objectionable more often than it approves them, he said. What’s his position on that perennially thorny work, Shakespeare’s <em><strong>The Merchant Of Venice</strong></em>? “It is really great writing. As an English teacher, you have to talk about it.”</span></p>