China's Ghost Cities

A few years ago, I watched a video by a couple of guys on a channel called ADVChina.  They were touring a building and poking fun at the poor workmanship and declaring that this was quite common.  Winston had moved to China from South Africa while Matthew was from the United States.  Both found jobs as language teachers.  They both had an interest in motorcycles and touring the country, which led to their channel.  Both fled China in 2019, which coincided with the Hong Kong crackdown.

Here is a recently reposted video that provides some on-the-ground evidence that China has a serious real estate bubble that is popping.

If that looks interesting, check out some of their other videos.  Each spent more than a decade in China and married Chinese women before returning to the West.  Here are Chinese-speakers who can untangle the cultural differences.  In addition to their combined channel, Winston has an individual vlog as serpentza and Matthew has laowhy86.  Highly recommended for an inside look at China.

China's Coming Collapse

I have read articles and watched programs that declared China was headed for disaster.  However, to look at the news, one would conclude that China is on the brink of being the lead economy of the world and likely to replace the US as the top superpower.  I follow the space industry fairly closely and China is proving to be more energetic than NASA or the ESA.  If not for SpaceX, there is no question that China would be winning the current space race.  Are rumors of impeding doom just wishful thinking from envious competitors or is there something to it?  Here's an interesting take:

This does sound grim.  Has China trod the same path that Japan took 30 years ago?  Will their housing bubble be more destructive than ours from 2008?  As China has tended more and more toward a totalitarian state in recent years (e.g. Uigur concentration camps, Hong Kong takeover), I would not be unhappy for it to crumble.  Unfortunately, China will take the world down too, much as the USA did in 2008.

The Amazing Spider-Man II (2014)

The film opens with Richard Parker - Peter Parker's father - fleeing the country with his wife.  It goes badly and his private jet is plummeting toward the sea as he finishes sending a file called Roosevelt to an undisclosed server.  Switch to Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) plummeting between New York skyscrapers and joining a police chase of Russian Gangsters, most notably Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti).  During this harrowing action scene, he takes a call from girlfriend, Gwen (Emma Stone), who warns that he is going to miss graduation.  As an aside, he saves goofy nerd Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) from being run over.

Sometime later, Norman Osborn - CEO and founder of Oscorp - dies of a rare disease but not before telling his son, Harry Osborne (Dane Dehaan), that it is genetic and Harry is doomed to a similar fate.  Thanks, dad.  Max, who is a brilliant engineer but a social basket case, is treated very poorly by Oscorp.  Sent to fix an electrical failure in the building, he gets electrocuted and falls into a conveniently placed tank of electric eels.  Though apparently dead, he revives in the morgue as a human taser.  Though he is worshipful of Spider-Man from his earlier rescue, he turns against him when Spider-Man joins the police to stop his rampage.

Peter Parker is also a basket case.  He is wracked with guilt over dating Gwen.  Gwen's father (Dennis Leary) died in the previous movie and asked that Peter leave Gwen out of his superhero antics.  Peter regularly sees him scowling, a disapproving ghost.  Nonetheless, he can't help himself.  Then there is the issue of his father, who by all accounts was a criminal.  His efforts to unravel the Roosevelt mystery are thwarted until he gives up hope.  Whenever Andrew Garfield is playing Peter Parker, he's this pathetic oaf who is lost without Gwen.  By contrast, he's this happy-go-lucky, unflappable go-getter when he's in his Spider-Man suit.  Rather than being funny in his Peter Parker awkwardness, it was more often cringy.

All the villains were shallow.  Electro goes from meek introverted nerd to extroverted lightning bolt with little explanation beyond feeling betrayed by Spider-Man.  The bond between Harry and Peter is poorly done.  Unlike in the previous trilogy where they had been friends through high school, this Harry was sent to Europe at age 10 and the pair haven't seen each other since.  Now, they are best buddies.  Weak.  Also, Harry is in a panic to 'cure' his genetic ailment.  Dude, your father died in his 50s or so and you're just 20.  Hey, how about I take this experimental drug and see if that works.  Sigh.  Weak.  Then there is the return of Aleksei at the end of the movie.  Hey, he's an over-the-top Russian gangster and now he's got an armored suit that looks like a rhino.

I am unsurprised that the Andrew Garfield series of Spider-Man films were canceled in favor of the Marvel reboot with Tom Holland.  I had seen all of the Toby Maguire Spider-Man films in the theater but only just now saw Garfield's second outing, 7 years after the film's release.  However, as Garfield appears in the latest Spider-Man, it seemed like required viewing to understand his return.

The Whistle Blower (1986)

Bob Jones works for British intelligence as a Russian interpreter.  On account of recent scandals in British intelligence, the workplace has become a low trust zone where everyone is encouraged to rat out any suspicious behavior.  Bob finds this difficult and discusses it with his father, Frank (Michael Caine).  Frank is a former Navy officer who has had a difficult time since leaving government service.  He encourages Bob to muddle through.  He's even a bit disappointed in his son's apparent lack of patriotism.  Soon after their conversation, Bob is dead and Frank doesn't accept it.  He thinks his son was murdered and he starts poking around.

A run of the mill spy thriller in which the West is killing its own agents in order to prevent the public exposure of a high-ranking and unprosecuted traitor.  Imagine how embarassing that would be.  Yes, better we kill some low-level intel officers and a pesky journalist.  Sure, the Soviets are bad but we're just as bad, maybe worse.  Mostly disappointing.  Not one of Michael Caine's better movies.

Skip.

Elon Musk & Babylon Bee

The noted innovator and world's richest man joined the creative team of the satirical Babylon Bee for an interview.  I was unaware that the Babylon Bee did interviews.  At more than an hour and a half in length, it covers a wide variety of topics, from his youth in South Africa, his philosophy on going all-in for any of his businesses - even when that might risk bankruptcy, views on the role of government, his recent clash with Senator Elizabeth Warren, perspective on Woke-ism, where things stand with Neuralink and what he hopes to achieve with it, and many other subjects.  For a satire site, it is not the interview one expects.

In one humorous exchange, the hosts asked if he considered becoming Batman or Iron Man.  No, but he did propose Irony Man.  "Defeat villains by the power of irony."  Ha!

Check it out here: Elon Musk Interview

Amazon Documentaries

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World: Here is a documentary about Thomas Sowell, PhD economist who studied at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Chicago.  Jason Riley outlines his career and interviews various friends and associates of Sowell.  As a longtime fan and avid reader of Thomas Sowell, I was already familiar with most of what the documentary covers.  This is a good primer for Sowell, but only scratches the surface.  There was not enough of Sowell himself in this documentary about him.  A search on YouTube will provide some great videos of Sowell covering a wide array of topics.  Recommended.

Val: The life and career of Val Kilmer, narrated by his son, Jack.  The story is told both in the present with a dramatically diminished Kilmer (he has survived throat cancer) and in the past through home movies.  Val had carried a video camera with him throughout his career and had captured a great deal of behind-the-scenes video, both on the sets of his movies and of his home life.  Val Kilmer has always seemed like the coolest of the cool, but his autobiography is one long tragedy interrupted by moments of joy.  At least, that is how the documentary paints it.  Well-made but depressing.  Proceed with caution.

Shatner in Space: On October 13, 2021, William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk, went to space on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.  Here is the background of how he met Jeff Bezos and then launched into space to become the oldest person ever (90) in space, surpassing the previous record holder, Wally Funk (82), who had flown on the first crewed New Shepard.  Shatner is astonishingly spry for a man his age and still mentally sharp.  He does not seem 90.  Though sometimes saccharine sweet and occasionally preachy about the environment, it is mostly fun and worthwhile.

Finch (2021)

It is the post-apocalypse and Finch Weinberg (Tom Hanks) lives in St. Louis, MO.  He spends his time salvaging what food he can find at the ransacked stores.  As the ozone layer was destroyed by a solar flare, he must wear an environmental suit to protect him from UV radiation.  Upon returning to his base, he greets his dog, Goodyear.  It is almost immediately clear that Finch is dying from radiation poisoning.  As he does not want to leave Goodyear alone, he has built a robot caretaker.  Before the robot is completely ready, they must flee St. Louis to avoid a superstorm.  So begins a roadtrip to California and the education of Jeff the Robot (Caleb Landry Jones).

The story is mostly boring.  Finch is usually in a panic or frustrated with Jeff.  He has little time left and it doesn't look like Jeff is working out as hoped.  Jeff follows Finch's instructions too literally at times and causes trouble.  Of course, the time period is the near future and a robot with Jeff's abilities and capacity to learn are quite impressive.  Too often, Jeff is comic relief.  What kind of story is this?  Finch is particularly wary of people, declaring that it is a kill or be killed world.  When they are followed by car, Finch breaks out a revolver.  Despite his great distrust of people, he does not offer any lessons to Jeff on how to deal with them.  Yeah, don't want to create a terminator.

Mediocre.  If you like Tom Hanks, you'll probably enjoy this.