China Building 300 Billion Dollar Train System

China is putting some of it's hard earned money to good use - by building the world's largest, fastest, and most advanced train system in the world. The high speed rail line will connect Shanghai to Beijing, and boast a top speed of 220 mph and be able to deliver passengers in just four hours.

Is the world drifting into chaos?

Or is it becoming steadily more ordered, while things of chaotic nature are simply over advertised and broadcast? This is a question that always comes up as one thinks of the things that are happening today - for example recently we have a man who had claimed his son was in a balloon that could not physically carry that much weight 10,000 feet above sea level; we also have pirates going wild in Somalia and have in the past year witnessed the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Berneke: Asians Spend More Plz

When it comes down to the bottom line, a huge role in the disaster that is the US economy comes from trade imbalance. Asian countries, especially China, are exporting to the US more than they are consuming by the US therefore killing our local manufacturing sector while increasing our national debt thanks to the horrifically low average savings rate of the US citizen - less than 5 percent of income according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (link).

Another strong issue of contention that was skirted by the Fed Cheif during today's talk was the US dollar and the RMB's value compared to it, which is widely believed to be severely undervalued thanks to its government-determined pegging rate to the USD. The government imposed exchange rate is bound to explode resulting in the exploding value of the RMB compared to the dollar.

The Senseless Drunk ROTC Kid at Lunch

Ok, finally a story worth writing about. My friend Aaron and I went to lunch at Seasons here at Iowa State, and happened to sit not far from a dude who had snuck in cans of beer and was pouring them into his glasses and drinking them. It would have been fine if he kept it at that, but he kept on yelling to his friends about how many he had drank and sardonically mentioned that he was drinking 'apple juice'.

All would be fine and dandy except this boisterous young ROTC student was halfway yelling profanities about trivial matters and calling women (the ones he had been talking to just a few minutes beforehand) names that should never be used to describe women. The topics he was discussing were lewd and trivial yet spoken in such an ostentatious way as to attract the attention of others including myself.

This was not the first instance of this individual evoking my disdain, as just a few days ago he and his buddies were yelling at people getting drinks out of the soda fountain. "Sierra Mist .. Yeaaah!!! Go Sieraa Mist!!" They would shout when anyone happened to be foolish enough of get a drink out of their 'territory'. They would yell, jeer, and clap when anyone walked near their table.

My greatest fear through these experiences is that these individuals who participate in such barbaric activity will pass their ROTC training and be commissioned as officers in either the Army or Navy. Who knows what mischief they will indulge in when stationed overseas, or God forbid to a combat zone. I hate to make sweeping generalizations, for I know there are a lot of good people in ROTC but there are just a few that stain the program's reputation.

Mid-Autumn Festival Disaster

I don't really know why I still go to these things, I guess it's to meet a lot of friends I haven't seen for awhile. It took place in the Ames city hall, and started half an hour late. In the meantime, you could wait outside with the five or more smokers clearly disregarding the city ordinance banning smoking in and around public buildings. Inside, after you paid five dollars for who knows what you are given a moon cake that doesn't have any egg yolks inside (aka a cheap and fake moon cake).

The shows were absent of any traditional China, except for the lion dance performed at the beginning by the Malaysian team. After that it just got worse, including break dancing, cheerleader-like activities with scantily dressed girls in essence fooling around on stage without the synchronization or technical aspects that real cheer leaders possess.

The singing was simply karaoke taken to the next level, with a large audience. I did get some enjoyment out of the instrumental music, but the one piano performance was cut short by the closing of the curtains.

There were a few skits, the first of which the actors failed to be audible and the rest consisted of chiefly dirty jokes and cross-dressing to impress the audience. It really amazes me how little it takes to get a clap out of the audience...

The visit was worthwhile, however, since I participated in one of their no-talent contests (in my case taking a three syllable word and saying it backwards) and won a wooden cutting board.