Iron Man 3 (Spoilers)
I suspect the subset of the Earth’s population which includes the intersection between those who read this blog and those who want to see Iron Man 3 but who have not yet done so is… Iron Man 3 (Spoilers)
Astronaut Alvin Drew in China, Now at the Space Station
In 2009, our family went to China to see a solar eclipse. This was the second solar eclipse we had gone to, the first being in Turkey in 2006, but this time we also took… Astronaut Alvin Drew in China, Now at the Space Station
A Solar Eclipse Is Much More Than Just A Visual Experience
“First Contact!”
The shout came from the group of professional astronomers and experienced amateurs who were collected at the edge of the plaza at the local Wuhan University which our group had reserved to watch the eclipse.
Excitement increased among the crowd of ninety Eclipse Chasers who had traveled from all over the United States, Venezuela, Columbia, England, and Canada. The noise level from the nearly 1000 local citizens mostly standing on the edge or the plaza rose also though it was obvious they were less clear on what was happening.
First Contact refers to the first moment that the edge of the moon touches the disk of the Sun. From that point on begins what is both the longest and shortest periods of time that any of the observers will experience. First Contact in Wuhan was called out at around 8:15 am, three hours after our bus left the hotel and five hours after the first of the three buses had left the hotel; that first bus carrying those people with telescopes and specialized photographic equipment.
Serenity On The Yangtze
For those who have come in late to the story, I am a member of what some might call a cult that worships Firefly and Serenity.
Firefly was a TV show created by Joss Whedon, who among other things was the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which lasted less than one season. It was shown on the Fox Network who evidently weren’t exactly clear on what to do with a quirky, character driven, space western whose principals ran around in a spaceship, used six-shooters, rustled cattle, and whenever feeling strong emotions would rattle off a phrase or two in Chinese.
The end result is that only 11 of the 14 filmed episodes were ever shown on TV and the show was canceled.
I never saw Firefly on TV during that season. Serenity On The Yangtze
Our Time In Shanghai
Chaos. Traffic, Construction. Heat. Really, really bad drivers. Financial transformation. New York with a lot more Chinese Restaurants. Western.
Some of my quick reactions to Shanghai in our 2.5 days here. Home to over 13 million people, it is hard to describe the sense of change and transformation that is happening. One of our guides mentioned that over 20% of China’s GDP is generated here. Construction is going on everywhere, the traffic is awful, and the driver’s make Boston driver’s seem tame.
Traffic signals are evidently suggestions, often ignored. Vehicles make left turns across multiple lanes in front of cars and trucks rushing toward them, each daring the other to stop or not. Pedestrians do not have the right of way our guides emphasize over and over.
What to make of a society that has an enormous complete model of every building in Shanghai at the Urban Planning Exhibition Center, updated a few times each year. Perhaps one that also has beautiful exhibits of ancient ceramics and jade and furniture at the Shanghai museum, and notes the existence of the various ‘concessions’, which are where Western powers carved out areas under their control within Shanghai in years past.
Our 90 fellow eclipse chasers are divided into three buses; called sun, moon, and stars. My family is on the stars bus.
Our guide in Shanghai was a lovely young woman, Jin Jing, who provided us with much information an entertaining stories about herself and China.
Here is her name in Chinese:
One of the stories she told involved the head of the United States, the head of Russia, and Deng Xiaoping riding in a bus.
The bus driver asked the head of the United States which direction to take at an intersection, and he answered turn right since we support capitalism.
The bus driver then asked the head of Russia which direction to take, and he said turn left since we support socialism.
Worried at what to do, the bus driver asked Deng Xiaoping what he should do. Deng said turn the turn signal so that it signals left, but turn right. We will call this Socialism but with Chinese characteristics.
My take is that the people of Shanghai have embraced this approach completely.
Shanghaied
I am sure no-one is particularly interested in the trip details from Washington DC to Shanghai, assuming anyone is interested in what I am writing at all, so will keep this short.
We were up by 4am to leave by 5am to pick up my younger daughter, Tamar, at 5:30am, to get to Dulles airport at 6am, where we got through the entire ticketing process and security within 30 minutes so were way early for our 8am flight. I can never get the timing of these things right.
We had two flights to take us to Shanghai, the first to Chicago and the second from Chicago to Shanghai. The second which was scheduled to take off a little after 10:30 was about ½ hour late due to debris on the runway, a new reason, at least for me, for a delay, and took just under 14 hours; the longest flight I have ever had.
WHAT I DID FOR MY SUMMER VACATION
On Monday, July 13th at 8am, my wife Ellen and my two daughters, Miriam and Tamar, and I are getting on a plane at Dulles Airport. Approximately 18 hours later, we land in Shanghai, China at 1:55pm, July 14th.
Eight days later we hope to see the longest total solar eclipse in this century, slightly less than six minutes long at Wuhan, China. Regardless of the viewing conditions that morning, we will get an all too short glimpse of this still controversially emerging global super-power between July 14th and July 27th when we leave Beijing to return home.