Counterfeits and Fakes

Apparently China has been buying gold and silver using "ghost steel" as collateral; when people go to look in the warehouses, the steel isn't there. On the other hand, someone's been shipping "gold" bars that are mostly tungsten, which costs about a dollar an ounce. Are the Chinese paying with ghost money and getting counterfeit gold? Sounds like a caper movie where you're trying to figure out who is really cheating whom.

The Meaning of Life

A friend asked me "what is the meaning of Life?" So here it is:

"the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally."

Return Date

Josh is coming back to the US in mid October. Gwen is coming in mid December.

Suit

It's been a long time since I bought a suit, as I don't need one for work, our church isn't too worried about what you're wearing (suits, cut off jeans and tee shirts, whatever). But I felt it was about time to get one. Got it from James at Stark & Legum in Norfolk, which is where we usually go for this sort of thing. It's being tailored and I'll pick it up next Saturday.

Lunch afterwards at Doumar's.

Bridge of Birds

Now reading: the Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox: Bridge of Birds, a tale set in mythic seventh century China. From one of the reviews:

The Chronicles consist of three books based on folkloric Chinese ghost stories. In Bridge of Birds we meet the two main characters. Number Ten Ox is a strapping young man from a peasant village in which all the children between the ages of eight and thirteen have fallen into a coma-like stupor. He travels to Peking with the collected savings of the village to find a wise man who can figure out how a plague can learn to count. Unfortunately, or so it seems, his village is a poor one, and all he can afford is Master Li, a 100+year-old, alcoholic sage with, as he describes it, a slight flaw in his character. The two set off on an adventure that takes them all over China and brings them into contact with such wonderful characters as Miser Chen, Doctor Death, Pawnbroker Fang, Ma the Grub, One-Eyed Wong, the Ancestress, Henpecked Ho, Cut-Off-Their-Balls Wong and Lotus Cloud.

Reality

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

--Phillip K Dick

More books!

Part of the Josh Collection, imported from Canada:

• The Smoke and the Fire (John Terraine)
• Military Uniforms of Britain and the Empire (Maj R Money Barnes)
• Model Soldiers (W Y Carman)
• Weapons of the British Soldier (Col H C B Rogers, OBE)
• The Law and the Profits (C Northcote Parkinson)
• Regimental Heritage