A classroom assistant at the school i worked at. very hard-working, curious and funny guy who likes to learn things all the time, so we exchanged Chinese and English and hung out all the time for barbecue and hotpot and all that good stuff.

still friends more than a decade later even though I travel a lot; we got to meet up a few times when I visited Beijing last year and we still talk occasionally on wechat.

I see, yeah, the 10-year anniversary of the 2008 scandal.

good article, I’m curious what the numbers are 7 years later.

it looks like in 2018 80 to 90% of Australian baby formula was exported to China!

I found a PDF explaining the specific domestic and local market share, so even after the scandal in 2008 about half of the baby formula in China was produced and bought domestically.

of course even half of the market is a huge amount of baby formula in real life considering the population of China.

the market research data only goes up to 2017

interesting, how do you mean?

I was literally in the middle of thinking about community groups when I came across your post, I think a lot of people would use this feature.

not for a while, since the US has stockpiles and other outside sources and domestic resources, plus the defense and military arms of the US government will be the last industry to be affected by these import sanctions.

If these Chinese sanctions remain in place for any amount of time however, they will affect US corporate bottom lines much more rapidly and significantly than they affect the DoD, which is no small thing.

Corporate policy is argued to have determined the outcome of the '24 US presidential election, so the ramifications of further industries-wide vast US corporate loss in addition to the 11 trillion already lost are likely to lead to further policy change like the blocking of presidential tariff authority underway now.

the policy decisions of the Chinese government are extremely separated from the everyday lives of the people.

the CCP may refuse to sell expensive minerals to the us, but the Chinese population will buy the cheapest, freshest produce full stop. which is usually the local farmers.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen American produce in China, come to think of it.

during the last trade war, there wasn’t any anti-us purchasing sentiment from Chinese people themselves because everything they want is produced by China anyway.

the Chinese population, in effect, is and has been boycotting every other country all the time for decades because so many of their basic needs are met by domestic production.

i find this very satisfying: gently disagreeing with them via a short single positive message like “gay people do deserve respect”, then letting them throw a very lengthy, time-invested tantrum before gently and completely disagreeing with their comment with another short sentence, over and over until they get tired.

i find that both very funny and I’m putting out positive messages that negate their bigotry without too much time or effort.

that’s just if you have the time and inclination to engage, you aren’t morally obligated to subject yourself to abusive behavior.

if it’s real bad, they’re probably violating a rule, and reporting them will get them banned

hated that work culture so i left as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

went to teach ESL. half the hours for better pay

i travel constantly, and every time I’m flying in a plane i am re-amazed.

i think about how easy and quick it is to fly anywhere in the world and I’m sitting in a bit metal tube floating in the air.

it’s bananas.

I see what you mean now.

I thought you were mainly concerned about shipping things from the US, which neither I nor anyone I’ve known has had intercepted or interfered with en route to dozens of countries, frequently containing valuables. It must happen, but it seems very rare.

The other way though, if you’re sending packages to the US from other countries, you could have that problem occasionally, which I have experienced twice and heard of from other travelers shipping things to the US.

As far as I know, that’s a one-way problem, US-tagged packages seem to slip through sticky fingers.

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Kino’s Journey(2003) - great fix for philosophy and drifty, travel vibes.

I make my own DIY huaraches like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1FrEgeP9jI

extremely comfortable, you can make it with any old slipper lying around and some paracord, lasts for 6 months to a year, depending on the quality of the sandal base.

adjust it to exactly your size that fits perfectly and then you can sew the knots so that all the dimensions stay the same.

takes me maybe 5 minutes to make each pair, and then 5 minutes for the sewing of the knots so I never have to readjust them, costs nearly nothing.

every story I’ve heard about them sounds like yours.

ESL industry is always looking for native speakers to teach English, for your back pocket.

his post is factually incorrect, of course.

https://adcare.com/addiction-demographics/homeless-population/

“homeless” is a term used to describe someone who does not live inside a domicile, 40-60% of all homeless people have and hold down jobs.

travel podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bit-of-a-rambler/id1804692516

sorry about the aliens.

Lemmy is a much nicer environment overall, so i moved here

wow that is crazy, your dad’s actions were crazy I mean, I’m glad to hear you came out to him and severed that tie.

“Parents have no hold over you, not really. If they don’t deserve your presence, don’t allow it.”

can’t agree more with you here.