Android In China

On the back of a major #Fail for Apple’s iPhone in China, HTC has been very adamant to get the G1 into China by mid year 2009. The Google powered handset can already be found on the streets of China for about $580 and with the major uptake on the streets already, it only makes sense for HTC to bring it legally to the market! ]]> https://dchetty.co.za/2008/11/android-could-hit-china-in-june-2009-2/feed/ 4 https://dchetty.co.za/2008/10/visiting-the-great-wall-of-china/ https://dchetty.co.za/2008/10/visiting-the-great-wall-of-china/#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:30:00 +0000 http://dchettyblogger.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/visiting-the-great-wall-of-china/ The Great Wall of China is an ABSOLUTE must see when visiting China!

Its an absolute marvel and the history behind the wall is simply amazing. Spanning a total length of about 6700 km end to end and during its peak, the wall guarded by about 1 million soldiers of the Ming Dynasty at any single given time.

It was build as a defensive structure to safe guard the empire from attack from the Mongolians and the enormity of the structure is simply mind-boggling to imagine a wall wrapping an entire nation. It is also said to be the only man-made structure that is visible on Earth from the Moon!

The wall was a great cost to the empire and as a result the Ming Dynasty lost millions on building the wall, but it deemed it a necessary expense in assuring the safety of the of the dynasty from raids from the north eastern neighbours.

I saw the wall during a national holiday. I highly recommend that you avoid these days, as the wall is bustling with local tourists who come to share in the oogling of the masterpiece. It makes for a crowded trip and is not desirable.

A tour to the wall at Badaling came with a trip to the Ming Tombs (which is not great), a stop at a silk factory (which was pretty interesting for the first 20 minutes before I got bored) and a trip to a Jade factory (this was very cool and i really did enjoy it!).

The tour cost us CYR180 each and included pick up and drop off at the hotel and an authentic Chinese lunch. We had an English speaking tour guide who was friendly and fairly knowledgeable of the sights. She did try to crack a few jokes that I just didn’t get, but all in all it was cool. The bus was air-conditioned and decently comfortable!

I’ll post the tour companies details as soon as I find it again

The cleaner, clearer skies mean measurements of warming temperatures are not confused by smog. So the current measurements of a 0.04 °C warming per year can be taken as the true signal of man-made global warming.

This shows smog levels in Beijing after a rainfall(left) and on a sunny day(right)

A team led by Martin Wild, of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland, has been monitoring changes in temperatures, the amount of aerosols in the air and the amount of sunlight that is getting through and warming the different continents.

Their data, taken from over 2500 locations, shows that in Europe and the US the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground is increasing. Satellite data shows that the optical density of the air above Europe, a measure of how dense the suspension of aerosols is, has been stable since 2000.

This, says Wild, suggests that aerosols are no longer influencing brightness and something else is making it more sunny – possibly a reduction in cloud cover, although he does not yet know why this might happen. Wild was speaking on April 17 at the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna, Austria.

Crucially, the stability of smog levels also suggests that ever-cleaner air cannot be the cause of increasing temperatures. Satellite data shows that overall the continents have warmed by 0.04 °C per year between 1999 and 2007. This, says Wild, could be the true, unadulterated signal of man-made global warming.

Based on optical density data from 6 sites in the German and Swiss Alps, Rolph Philipona of MeteoSwiss, the national weather service of Switzerland, says that as much as half of the warming observed in the 1980s and 1990s could have been due to “global brightening” as the smog cleared.

Asian dimming

It’s a different story in other parts of the world. Previous research led by Padma Kumari of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology had shown that India became less sunny, starting in the 1980s as its industrial activity increased. The latest data shows the Indian “solar dimming” is continuing.

In China, the situation is slightly different. Wild’s data shows that the country was dimming already in the 1980s, but then the smog levelled off in the 1990s. This may have been because the country cleaned up its act for a bit, or could simply be the consequence of the nation’s then economic downturn.

Whether economic or environmental, whatever caused the dimming to level off in the 1990s is no longer there. Since 2000, overall the optical density of the air above China has risen dramatically – an observation which correlates well with anecdotes of very low visibility in major Chinese cities.

Back to superhuman “flame protectors”! These guys form part of a special unit set up by the People’s Armed Police, which is sub-division of the army that is used for riot control. Especially selected for their physical strength, size and endurance, these guys have been training since August of last year to run along the flame and ensure its 24hr safety while it moves across the globe in a 137 000km tour.

The smallest member of the giant ninja’s is 1.9metres tall and they have all been running at least 10km a day since August last year. Currently some of the ninja’s are running upto 50km a day with the torch ready for a fight.

It is also important to notice that these guys don’t really care about the torch carrier, but only the safety of the torch. Watch the video that I posted yesterday very carefully and notice how the tracksuit clad ninja’s protect the flame!