This day, 9 April, in 1998, a naval fleet consisting of the guided-missile destroyer “Qingdao”, the training ship “Shichang” and the supply ship “Nancang” set sail from...
In a previous entry for Strainer, we explored the use of green tea as an additive in various processed goods; from skin creams to air fresheners to slimming pills to ice cream.
We explored how seldom it is the flavour of the green tea that qualifies it as capable of “adding value”, which, by the way, usually means added shareholder wealth, not added customer pleasure.
We explored how green tea carries connotations of “healthfulness” to most people in most countries, as well as ambitious health claims for anyone who cares to...
This is the era of big data. There was more digital data created, stored and shared in the past 2 years than all of the digital data existing before that.
What used to be a computer thing is now a watch and fridge and spy-camera thing. Lots more ones and zeroes flying around.
Yes, but this 2-year rule has been true for far longer than 2 years. The “big data” term is 800 bytes, which has somehow survived that exponential data churn unharmed, used by humans for decades, most continually...
Suntory’s bottled “Black Oolong Tea” is an institution, as well loved in China as in its native Japan. And here it is, refrigerated and available for purchase, in the UK.
Always the stingy skinflint, I resent paying three times the price when the main ingredient, water, is on tap and essentially free. But here it is. Nice to know.
I buy a packet of oolong leaves instead. This is an Asian supermarket in Cardiff. These stores are easier to find than ever, thanks to the steady stream of Chinese students...
Of course it’s not reasonable to expect commemoration or contemplation.
The “Great War” was concluded more than a century ago. How can I expect “the eleventh day of the eleventh month” to resonate somewhere so far away from where the Armistice was signed?
Yes, China was the non-European nation which committed most men to that war, with real casualties and real costs. It’s a story that needs telling, one which may one day receive more airing. But those events are too far away to claim such as exclusive calendar slot in...
