Air Pollution in China

Apparently China has the strongest and swiftest regulations on air pollution and has done tremendous work in reducing the amount of emissions that go up into the air. China has worked its way to be one of the strongest regulators of emissions in the world. Sadly their mandates and regulations cant compete with the still rapid growth of industry. While there has been a noticeable decrease in air pollution, it is still really bad. It is a hard position for the government to be in, they want to keep the economic success that they've been having, but at the same time many people are suffering because of the condition of the air. While many in China are concerned and angry because of the issue, it is unsure how much they can actually do to reduce air pollution to an acceptable level.

League of Legends World Championship

I'm gonna use this blog to nerd out a little.

On Friday October 4th, the League of Legends World Championship will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. For those who don't know, League of Legends is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Area) game, where two teams of 5 have the goal of destroying a series of objectives to achieve victory.
each person plays as a "champion" who has a distinct set of abilities that can contribute to the team and/or fight opposing champions.

Why talk about a game? Because over the course of the past 3 weeks, teams from all over the world have been competing to try and win the world championship and 1 million dollars. Of the 14 teams that went in, the Asian teams were the ones who showed the strongest, and 2 of those asian teams are in the finals. On Friday South Korea's SK Telecom Team 1 will play against China's Royal Club Huang Zu.

This tournament was a good show of how far teams have developed and how strong E-sports are in each region of the world. The three North American teams for example did awful, and this is because e-sports is still looked down upon in America, and it is hard to set e-sports as a career path. Europe, showed well, but while they have a better developed "pro scene" they pale in comparison to Asians. In China and Korea, e-sports is fully embraced and supported. If you have the talent and dedication (you really gotta be good to be able to play competitively, as well as dedicated to 60-80 hour weeks) then you could play for a professional team. These teams a frequently sponsored by big companies, and are respected by their peers, unlike North American gamers. A good example is one of the Semi-final teams being sponsored by Samsung, Samsun Galaxy Ozone. These Asians practice mechanically and tactically to figure the best ways to out play and out match opponents. League of Legends is hard to understand from a worded description, and really needs to be played to be understood.

The point I am really (feebly) trying to make is that e-sports have developed significantly in Asia and their culture help propel them foreword instead of hold them back.


This video may be dated, but it gives a good overview of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYc8CTtjnZA

China wants to launch a space station by 2023
Apparently the space race is still on for some nations. I had come under the assumption that every nation was a part of the International Space Station, Not China! While it seens to a degree reasonable that China has not taken part in the project (due to political and ideological differences), at the same time it seems strange that they were not apart of the ISS. China has some of the brightest minds in the world and the resources to help support the ISS. It feels egotistical for China to set of on its own space station project, as well as waste of resources. None the less, it is an ambitious project considering China has limited experience when it comes to projects in low Earth orbit. China has only recently completed it's first space docking, which in itself is a great achievement. I simply question is the national pride really worth the resources? if there is anything the cold war has taught us, it was a significant waste of money, the USA and USSR simply thew money at really dumb projects that didn't give much in return.

Hiroshi Yamauchi dies at 85

Hiroshi Yamauchi was the president of Nintendo from 1949-2002 before stepping down to chairman from 2002-2005. While this isn't major social or political news, this news hits home to gamers worldwide. this man piloted Nintendo from a small card manufacturer to one of the leading video game companies in the world. Under his guidance, Nintendo took the risk that was video games (a untested and new form of entertainment at the time) and was one of the companies to popularize it. From Donkey Kong to Mario, From the NES to the Wii, Yamauchi was there, and for a whopping 53 years. It is hard to imagine someone holding any kind of high position for more than 10 years. As well he left Nintendo under what he though were good hands (I mildly question that considering the direction Nintendo has taken over the past year or so), which shows the kind of company he built. 

side note, he bought the Seattle Mariners in 1992 and never went to a game

I thought a bit of lighter news would be good in the wake of the many issues and controversies in the world.

Japan has done it again, they have made a train that can go 311 miles per hour, beating China's CRH380A which as a top speed of 302 mph. It is fun to see the competition for these high speed trains, especially when America is nowhere in the running to have it. China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan all have a train in the top ten fastest in the world, while a few european countries also have some of the fastest trains. The push from these countries for public transportation options is great. While I think its cool to own a car and not have to rely on public transit, which sometimes can be iffy, its good that these countries have developed such good public transit options and operations. If our systems were even half of what they have in the asian and european countries, public transit would be so much more viable. It also shows a difference in the cultures of the regions, we want our won thing, and not have to share transport with others. Cars are a really individualist thing, compared to trains and mass transit systems used in Asia and Europe.

http://www.businessinsider.com/japans-jr-tokai-l0-series-shinkansen-mag-lev-train-2013-9?op=1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23975037

Thought this was an interesting little article that continues the issue and question of language in China. Mandarin is the official language in china but 30% of the population cannot speak it. It has been a source of problems in China for many years as the government has been trying to push mandarin as hard as possible on it's citizens. This conflicts heavily with the diversity of what we call the Chinese language. Chinese is (in my opinion) overly complicated, with main language groups, and then dialects within those groups. As spoken languages, communication is incredibly hard without having a common single language. Most Chinese people will know multiple forms of the language, I for example have knowledge of mandarin, cantonese and toisan which is a dialect of cantonese. While I feel like it is overly complicated, that's how the regions of China developed and they should be able to keep that part of their identity. Should they fully homogenize the language (and this is where many who are against mandarin argue for) it takes away part of the distinct identity of the people in the different areas of China. While i think it would be useful for a population that large to be able to communicate easily, the way China approaches the issue is rather hard to accept. instead of slowly weaning the language in, they more or less force it,as well the government has been trying to suppress other culture and languages, which considering the long history of the nation is hard and wrong.

TL:DR, language is a strong source of tension in China, and how the government approaches it can be much better.