China has launched a pilot programme in the northern province of Hebei requiring the public to apply for approval if they plan to make large cash deposits or withdrawals at commercial banks.
The regulation comes after a series of bank runs in the past year at debt-laden small lenders and as an unprecedented pandemic-related economic contraction starts to take a toll.
From July 1, residents in the province will need to provide information about the source of deposits or the purpose of withdrawals for transactions over 100,000 yuan (US$14,162) for individuals, and 500,000 yuan for corporations, the state-backed China Securities Journal reported last week.
Applicants will have to give one day’s notice to the bank to make a withdrawal of this size or larger, and gain the branch’s approval of the registration information, the report said.
The pilot programme will be expanded to Zhejiang province in the east and the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province from October 1, affecting individual account transactions of more than 300,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan, respectively.
FWIW, I have zero invested in China funds and zero in “emerging market” funds (that tend to have a big Chinese component).
What with the EU headed for a financial crisis now that the UK money has left the budget, Africa in social turmoil and afflicted with Chinese takedowns via debt trap diplomacy, Brazil headed for a Chinese Wuhan Covid virus stumble, and other odd markets having similar issues, IMHO, money is best kept in the Anglosphere for now (and has been for a while). UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, and perhaps India (need to balance effects of uncontrolled virus vs companies relocating to India out of China).
For just general FYI notices, use to “tips” pages. All the old ones remain for historical reference:
“Tips Pages”
What’s Going On?
First up, a small apology. I’ve been slow about doing these posts, and worse on the “tips” pages. The whole political climate and Chinese Wuhan Covid thing has been somewhat depressing and motivation killing. I’d really rather be doing “tech stuff” or camping or doing R&D on how the climate works. But no. The Dimocrats have decided we must ALL be fixated on those two topics. Amazing what a few hundred $Million of Soros Bribe Money can buy, isn’t it? (Just my opinion…)
Chinese Wuhan Covid
This has been beat to death in a bunch of postings. Only thing to add is that there’s a new “study” that finds if very effective IF GIVEN EARLY (i.e. not in stupid last ditch before dying once the damage is done “make Giliad happy” quasi-studies…) I’d like to /sarc; tag that, but I don’t see how that would be honest…
It has its own set of threads to follow in its own category: Covid-19.
The Dimocrats have now seized on this as a cudgel to beat Trump with to try to stop his rallies and campaigning. It won’t work. It just makes them look like scared little children (when they are not looking like lying hypocrites as they say riots, oh, pardon, “Protests” with fire bombs, looting, and shooting; they supposedly do NOT increase the risk of the Chinese Virus. Supposedly as it is able to distinguish Communist and Socialist rioters from Conservative voters…)
China
China has really put their foot in it with Hong Kong & India. They have now caused The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, India, the USA and likely a few others to to decide China is not their friend and they need to band together to fix things. Russia is to be in the same pot soon too, as Xi has made “me want it back” noises about wanting Vladivostok.
“On Chinese maps from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Vladivostok is called Yongmingcheng (永明城 [Yǒngmíngchéng], “city of eternal light”)”
So, you know, it’s “only” been 600 years ago, so of course it must be just fine for China to take it… Putin is not amused.
So is there anyone China has NOT pissed off?
At least Australia, UK, Taiwan, and the USA have passed ore are passing laws to let the Hong Kongers emigrate with ease. Taking their skill and markets with them. The UK is letting the 6 million (out of 7.5 million) who have the special BNO British National Overseas Passport (and their families) move in. Everyone else is trying to figure out how to get a piece of the action too.
In the mean time, the USA has moved to remove the special access to tech, goods, and money that Hong Kong enjoyed. Any business with a brain will be looking to get the hell out while they can.
BTW, the new Hong Kong Security Law claims GLOBAL reach and ANYONE who criticizes the Chinese Communist Party or their actions or suggests Taiwan ought to be free (or that the UN Ruling that Taibet was an illegal occupation is valid, and China needs to get out) and anything else that causes Xi or his minions upset can be hauled off to China and tossed in a dungeon (or just organ harvested on arrival). There’s some 59? nations with extradition treaties with China, including Russia and Venezuela, so be careful where you go on a visit. I see France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Philippines, Turkey and South Korea on that list too. Australia, Canada and a few others have already revoked their extradition agreements.
Oh, and the penalty for violating the “don’t suggest China is being bad” law is death. Just sayin’… Until France, Italy, Brazil, etc. cancel those extradition treaties with China, you might not want to visit them if you have EVER said anything bad about China. (Did I mention is is RETROACTIVE to all prior time too?)
While I don’t expect anyone would be looking to bag me on the streets of Paris, it is entirely “legal” for China to do that now, per their laws and treaties.
Brexit
Coming along nicely. Last date to extend is past, so it is December this year no way out of it. Biggest risk is someone signs stupid stuff with the EU (who continue to demand UK Brexit In Name Only with ongoing £Billions to be paid to the EU, the UK Military to be under EU rule, and UK adopt all EU laws and regulations (and, BTW, not have their own waters to fish as the French will be hoovering them empty). The current government seems to be holding to the nice line that no agrement is just dandy and is NOT willing to sign crap deals, so there’s hope. But 5 more months of bickering and backbiting to go until the UK is fully free.
Other Stuff
Turkey and Egypt are making nasty noises at each other over Libya. Almost absent from US News. This has the potential to become a hot war. As a NATO member, Turkey theoretically can pull the EU and USA into it too. Turkey is also making claims on Greek waters in the Mediterranean sea. This has the potential to become a regional war with Turkey in the thick of it.
The USA and Philippines are doing the Make Nice again. The USA is getting a nice airport to work from and port rights. We’ve also got 3 aircraft carrier groups around China. Possibly a move to kick them out of the South China Sea soon? China sunk some Philippines boats and has intimidated may others in the area. They are also doing regular jet fighter flights into Taiwan air space. It looks to me like China is trying to get a war started so that they can mask their looming food crisis.
China has a new H1N1 swine flu (coming soon to a country near you) along with massive flooding in the central farming areas and frost damage in the north. They have shut off buying food from several external sources (likely to conserve cash as they have a 3 month hole in export earnings and what with fake gold bars in the $Billions found in the collateral of Kingold (a major Chinese company) their credit is likely not so good lately either.
Watch that space for future stresses on China. There’s some talk of China breaking up into the 9 major provinces as independent parts. No idea of that’s “silly talk” or a real possible. But a hungry army is no friend of Xi’s.
BTW, If you have not seen Trump’s speech at Mt. Rushmore, ti’s a gem. He “gets it” about Antifa, BLM Marxists, The Culture War, the whole deal. I’d been worried his lack of action was from ignorance. Now I know it is strategic staying out of the Color Revolution trap. The Marxist Media is of course calling it “divisive” and “dark” and other evil things. It isn’t. It is uplifting and comforting to know he’s clued in to the game.
Then, it’s clear that the American Spirit of Rebellion is still alive and well. It is a $50,000 fine to fire off fireworks in Los Angeles and our near-Marxist Fascist leaning Democrat Governor and Mayors all said The 4th Of July is CANCELLED and everyone needs to hide in their houses and DO NOTHING. Well, no.
See this video (skip to the middle for the full effect if impatient). This is the sky over Los Angeles. Thousands, perhaps millions, of individuals giving a big middle finger to Government Overreach and lighting up the sky like it’s the 4th of July… ’cause it is! Makes a fella proud to be a deplorable who tells the “powers that be” to go stuff it.
While I’m mostly interested in things having to do with:
Computer stuff, especially small single board computers
Making money, usually via trading
Weather and climate (“Global Warming” & “Climate Change”)
Quakes, Volcanoes, and other Earth Sciences
Current economic and political events
(often as those last three have impact on money and climate things…)
And just about any ‘way cool’ interesting science or technology
Oh, and lately, cars &
numerical computing / graphing with languages like Python & Julia ;-)
If something else is interesting to you, put a “tip” here as you like.
If there is a current Hot Topic for active discussion, try one of the Weekly Occasional Open Discussion pages here:
You can also look at the list of “Categories” on the right hand side and get an idea of any other broad area of interest.
This ought not to be seen as a “limit” on what is “interesting”, more as a “focus list” with other things that are interesting being fair game as well.
The History:
Note that “pages” are the things reached from links on the top bar just under the pretty picture. “Postings” are reached from the listing along the right side of any given article (posting).
Since WordPress has decided that comments on Pages, like the Old Tips Pages, won’t show up in recent comments, it kind of breaks the value of it for me. In response, I shifted from a set of “pages” to a set of “postings”. As any given Tips Posting gets full, I’ll add a new one.
I have kept the same general format, with the T page (top bar) still pointing to both the archive of Tips Pages as well as the series of new Postings via a link to the TIPS category.
The generic “T” parent page remains up top, where older copies of the various “Tips” pages can be found archived. The Tips category (see list at right) marks Tips postings for easy location.
I was pondering my collection of emergency and camping stoves. I’m ready for anything. At least a dozen stoves in at least 5 fuel types I can think of right off. (Gasoline, Kerosene, Propane, Butane, Methanol, Ethanol, Isopropanol, Hexamine tablets, wood… OK, so more than 5 ;-)
That got me thinking about times I’ve been on the road, well, really, in the air, and without all that nice kit. What would I do if I flew into somewhere and the AwShit happened and I had none of them? So suppose I was looking at a few packages of ramen, a tin of sardines, and maybe some other canned foods. Was there a way I could cook the ramen, heat some Ravioli from a can, and do it with just things regularly found around the house or on the road?
Well, first off, I figured there’s rubbing alcohol / hand sanitizer everywhere now. Then if you ate the sardines, that would make a decent tray for burning alcohol. While Methanol would be ideal, as it doesn’t soot, even strong booze or rubbing alcohol will do. But what about the pot holder?
Well, the classic is the “three rock fire”. You put some wood in a small pile with three rocks around it and then place your pan on the rocks. But I don’t have any rock in my yard and rarely find them in hotels. But I do have cans of food (or I’d not really need a stove all that much ;-) So can I make a “3 Can Stove”?
Why, yes, I can:
4 empty cans stove
The cardboard box in the background is a bit of a wind screen as it was a bit blustery on and off today. It also let me test radiant heating of nearby surfaces. It got very warm, but not hot enough to be an issue.
Here you can see the three regular sized cans arranged in the “3 rock” pattern and the empty sardine tin as the burner (a tuna can would also work). These (15 oz. or 2 & 1/2 size) cans are a little taller than ideal, but as everyone has canned food in this size it was what I wanted to test. The smaller 10 ounce soup cans or even the smaller oyster / clam cans would heat better being closer to the flame. Also note that I used a Visions (Corningware) glass pot. This takes a while to heat, but lets me watch what is happening. It also assures that if IT works, a regular tin pot will do better. Also, soot cleans from it easily (more on that below).
I chose to use 70% propanol as it is the most common medicinal / rubbing alcohol found in houses. Methanol would work better as it does not soot, and even Bacardi 151 rum, while expensive, would soot less. But the test was to use the “worst choice” at each turn. I filled the sardine can about 1/2 full and lit it.
After 10 minutes (in less than ideal gusts of wind, and without a lid) the noodles did reach a bare occasional simmer. I stopped the test there since the fuel was running out (and letting it burn dry to refill would throw off my timing while filling while flaming makes a big bonfire…). Plus, I wanted to eat the noodles ;-)
The ramen was cooked “al dente”, or a little stiffer than my typical “getting mushy”. Quite fine to eat. Improvements in the can spacing, height and fuel type used (not to mention out of the wind and with a lid) would work faster and likely get to a full boil.
All in all, I count the experiment a success. I would recommend removing the labels from the pot stand cans though ;-) I chose to leave them on just to see how much a problem it would be if folks didn’t remove them. It isn’t much of a problem at all, but probably added a bit to the sooting. Speaking of which, here’s a photo just after I finished the noodles, showing the bottom of the pot and the soot. (Yeah, you really want to buy a can of fuel line dryer methanol if possible ;-)
Cans Stove Soot After Burn
The soot mostly all came off with a wet paper towel. The rest was removed with a slightly soaped paper towel and a bit of sponge time. Note that the cans have burned labels on the side facing the flame, but no bad thing came of it. Also note that the soot free rings on the pot bottom are rather large. As this was a glass pot over concrete, I was VERY conservative in support area. It would likely have heated faster had I been willing to “push it” and have less hanging on the can pot support.
So, overall, my conclusion is that this is a simple to make emergency stove that will work with commonly available fuels found in most homes, drug stores, and many other stores (auto parts, hardware, …) and requires not much more than eating some sardines (or tuna) and opening 3 cans of other food to eat (say, chili, canned fruit, and a vegetable to be named later…) then heating the chili… Oh, and you might need a can opener if they are not all pop-top cans.
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