Jack

Semi-retired professor of history. Buddhist. Eclectic interests. East Asian dramas. Pop music. Fitness and meditation.

[Chris M @ChrisinLiuzhou]

What has China achieved in a quarter of a century?

I'll shut up, stats speak louder than words.

Stat | 2000 | 2025

Life expectancy 71.4 79.25
Absolute poverty 66% 0%
Nominal GDP $1.22T $19.6T
GDP per capita $959 $13,962
Higher education 12.5% 62%
High-speed rail 0km 50,000km
Urbanisation 36.2%. 67.9%
Internet users 22.5M 1.12B
EV production ~0 16.6M
5G town coverage 0%. 95%
Forest coverage. 16.6%. 25%

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Have a great weekend.

[Shannon Joy @ShannonJoyRadio]

Canadian Geese RENAMED. They’re officially Donald Ducks.

[Renee Libby @ReneeLibby95084]

The worst part of the last 10 years really isn't Trump.

It's realizing how many people are just like him.

[John Fugelsang @JohnFugelsang]

My dad was a public school teacher; and he always said the toughest parts of the job were:

1. Having to pay for your own classroom chalk, and
2. Performing gender-reassignment surgeries during class hours w/out parents finding out.

[Rep. Jack Kimble @RepJackKimble]

There are some things that I will never be able to touch, not because they are so stupid (and it is), but because they are so vile.

[Michelle @D162Michele]

What is China going to do with your obesity, diabetes and genital herpes data?

[Andy Boreham 安柏然 @AndyBxxx]

LOL now they're using video from an Indonesian theme park as "evidence" of mosques being destroyed in Xinjiang.

These people...

[Tong Bingxue 仝冰雪 @tongbingxue]

Xu Jiayin (许家印), founder of China Evergrande Group and former China’s richest man, was sentenced to life in prison by a Shenzhen court today.

He was convicted of fundraising fraud, illegal deposit-taking, securities fraud and embezzlement.

Evergrande Group was fined RMB 8.82 billion; Evergrande Real Estate RMB 7 billion. All his personal assets are seized.

[Rep. Jack Kimble @RepJackKimble]

Two Presidents who had to pay tribute so their ships wouldn’t be attacked, but in Washington’s defense we didn’t have a navy to fight the Barbary Pirates yet.

[George Galloway @georgegalloway]

It’s hard to describe just how far out in front of us is China 2026. Luckily record numbers are checking out for themselves. Increasingly visa-free travel makes it easier than it’s ever been. I’ve just been on a “High-speed train” which description fails to do justice. It travels like the wind. If you closed your eyes you wouldn’t know you were moving. China has 50,000 miles of it. It links cities so far better than ours it brings me to tears. Clean. Crime free. The cops don’t carry guns and their cars don’t have sirens, only flashing lights. Prices are so cheap I’m scared to tell you. A slap up lunch £2.50. Shirts £12. Deluxe taxis (BMW electric) £4. And this in a Tier 1 City (Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Shenzen). It’s cheaper elsewhere! The shops are tumbling with goods from the west (at Chinese prices) from the east and from a home manufacturing base easily the biggest in the whole world. Nobody litters or jaywalks, nobody lays in shop doorways, nobody begs. Vertiginous towers of bewildering variety arise everywhere. At night these cities don’t even look real. I have a young wife. When she was born Shenzen was a one-horse town nobody outside had ever heard of. Today it is a Wonder of the World. One of dozens. If you deny it, you’re a fool.0

[🌎 Kev_Almighty 🌎 @BigYash_609]

A single Black woman recently bought her first home in Antioch CA. She's since been constantly racially harassed by her neighbor Gabriel Ramirez, even to the point of having to obtain a restraining order. It seems to have little effect as he's seen continuing to harangue her.

[David Hogg 🟧 @davidhogg111]

People will look at a member of Congress who’s one of the few not involved in insider trading and act like it’s a bad thing they don’t have a lot of money. This is what happens when we elect normal people to Congress who have student debt and don’t engage in insider trading.

[Atheist Girl @iamAtheistGirl]

christian love ❤️

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

That is so much going on here.

Trump sleeping while RFK JR. shakes uncontrollably…

[Jamison Daniel @AntiquarianMuse]

Brutal comedian on comedian crime.

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

The Republican Party is way too comfortable with Trump being a pedophile and Republicans abusing their spouses for me to ever take their lectures about values or morality seriously.

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

He broke his toddlers collarbone and put a gun to his wife’s head.

[Willie Ross Jr. Knee Deep @RossKneeDeep]

Wow. Ain't that a kick in the head?

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

Is anyone else fucking exhausted by how overwhelmingly stupid everything is?

[Colin McCarthy @US_Stormwatch]

California just became the first major grid system on the planet to generate more than 50% of its electricity from solar across an entire month.

Battery costs are falling rapidly, and utility-scale solar is among the cheapest sources of new power in the US.

Solar is the future.