16 Comments
Sep 12Liked by Linh Dinh

I really enjoyed the the moving pictures of Vung Tau. It looks like a nice place to live. My Canadian mother also loved the sweet powder and included it in every meal - brand name was Accent. She lived to 93 and three of her four children still hale and hearty in late 60s and 70s (me). Not that i recommend it; neither do i recommend the poison sprays we all imbibed, growing up on a commercial fruit orchard. Nor, for that matter, the beautiful, cold water pumped from the 40 ft well my father dug. I have learned recently our very small town is situated on or near uranium deposits and people building now need to install radon shields in some cases. Heigh ho, life on earth is not for sissies. I hope Taipei is good for you Lin. I have spent quite a few hours in Taipei int'l airport and found it very beautiful, full of orchids.

One unexpected feature of listening to your essays on the substack app is that the slightly irritating AI woman's voice changes seamlessly to Vietnamese or German or whatever pronunciation when she deems fit. That delights me as i hate not knowing how the words should be pronounced. Cheap thrills.

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Sep 13·edited Sep 13Liked by Linh Dinh

Media outlets like AP write "The flooding in Hanoi has been reportedly the worst in two decades" and yet, elsewhere in their article, use people's misery to underline the assertion "Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall."

Mainstream media never lets a chance to reinforce the man made climate narrative go to waste - even if it means ignoring the fact that they just wrote flooding was WORSE two decades ago. https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-flooding-typhoon-yagi-43af9564655861bafb2b6a211f8bd679

By the way - thanks for educating me on the gift a salesman left in my office this morning. Until reading your article I had no idea they were mooncakes or what the celebration was. I hope the harvest is as delicious as the cakes are.

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Hi Jon,

If you're not familiar with Dane Wigginton, do check him out:

https://www.youtube.com/@DaneWigington/videos

I agree with Wigginton weather worldwide is way out of wack because of climate engineering deployed for decades. They certainly used it here during the Vietnam War.

Linh

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Sep 13Liked by Linh Dinh

That reminds me of a poem by Erich Kästner,`The Final Chapter`(1930)

google translate,sorry

On the twelfth of July 2003 the following radio message ran around the earth: that an air police bomb squadron will exterminate all of humanity. The world government, it was explained, states, that the plan to make peace once and for all cannot be realized in any other way, than to poison everyone involved. To flee, it was declared, had no purpose, Not a soul should be allowed to stay alive. The new poison gas creeps into every hiding place, one does not even need to disembody oneself.

On July 13, one thousand aircraft flew from Boston loaded with gas and germs and accomplished, whizzing around the globe, the murder ordered by the world government. The people crawled under the beds, whining. They rushed into their cellars and into the forest. The poison hung yellow like clouds over the cities. Millions of corpses lay on the asphalt. Everybody thought he could escape death, no one escaped death and the world became empty. The poison was everywhere, it crept as if on tiptoe. It ran along the deserts, and It swam across the sea.

The people lay bundled up like rotting sheaves. Others hung out of the window like dolls. The animals in the zoo screamed terribly before they died. And slowly the large blast furnaces went out. Steamers swayed in the sea, loaded with the dead. And there was no more crying or laughing in the world. The planes strayed with a thousand dead pilots, under the sky and sank burning into the field. Now mankind had finally achieved what it wanted. Admittedly, the method was not decidedly humane. But the earth was at last still and content, and rolled,completely calm,in its well-known elliptical orbit.

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Sep 15Liked by Linh Dinh

Hi Linh, I've read Judith Curry and Anthony Watts over the years as well as purchasing Mark Steyn's 'Disgrace to the Profession' about Michael Mann's standing amongst his peers.

Dane is rather more forthright (and graphically entertaining) so thanks for the link.

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Thanks for the link which, as well as reading myself, i have passed on to two friends.

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Sep 15Liked by Linh Dinh

I used to buy mooncakes in the shopping centre near my office. It is almost entirely Chinese now and there were some delicious treats available. My favourite was ripe mango encased in rice pastry. Or barbecued duck pasties.

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Sep 12·edited Sep 12Liked by Linh Dinh

I lived in Taipei for years. Enjoy.

Recommend you take an overnight trip by train to Hualien on the East coast. The ocean is rough and reminds me of Northern California.

Fun walking town with an eclectic mixture of cafes.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WwEvW7evRVk14kV7A

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founding
Sep 12Liked by Linh Dinh

Have fun in Taipei, dude. Lots of great old man bars and cafes to hang out in. Give the coffee a break and drink some good tea instead.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/iPcpp9gXaF41pGkGA

https://maps.app.goo.gl/8n5edcjBiZWXmxMPA

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QmrR81gQTaDS1q8Y7

https://maps.app.goo.gl/P6qX2SRi89Q1SBMv7

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It looks like a new batch of tinder sticks are being primed to ignite in the vicinity of Taiwan. I wish it were happening in and around Washington DC instead...that'd be much much more interesting to watch.

p.s. I stand with Russia

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founding

I really enjoyed Taipei all the times I was there. Over 10 years or so, I've probably racked up almost a year there in total. I used to go at least once a year with my wife, but my last visit was just pre-Covid in late 2019. She still goes back every year.

If you start feeling too claustrophobic, you need not go far to get away. There are buses running up to Yangmingshan, where it is cooler and there are lots of beautiful paths to walk and mountains to see. The steaming sulfur pools are pretty neat on some of them, and there is at least one public hot spring you can get a good soak at.. Another easy bus ride from the city is the ride down to Wulai, which also has hot springs both public and private. Also a cool place.

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I used to walk by those street sweepers in VT, sometime if I had on me would give them whatever low denomination notes I had on me which they appreciated. You know the ones...given as change instead of coin, always soiled and folded. These people have character and fortitude, getting on with their lives. They are the soil and the rock of society.

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After you moved to Vung Tau, I got curious and explored YT channels of rural Vietnam life. The typhoon has indeed had a devastating effect on some communities.

I'm quite amazed at the lifestyle, though. I understand that some of it is staged for views but it's amazing how people get together to pool their labor together and fix things. Even the government officials put boots and and help the folk.

It is very much like the Amish in the US.

It's funny how women control the money, how both genders work together but when it's meal time, women sit separately from men.

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Geez, Linh, would you go talk to the poor lady and find out what's wrong with her? So the rest of us can know and understand?

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Hi James,

There's no way I can find her. It's not likely she'd want to talk to me anyway. She went to an open space near the ocean to pray, and that's it.

Linh

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