You Are Here - 2014-01-04

12:17 AM

@andra it's believed the yeager hat is for answering a question with upvotes very soon after it was posted.

2 hours later…

2:01 AM

@uncovery well not really. only one part of a character is the radical. in the case of both the characters he was asking about the radical was the outer "gate" part. the parts inside the gates are not radicals

@Geeo a lot of "etymologies" of characters are in fact just traditional folk etymology mnemonics passed down through the ages and not necessarily true origins at all. the best we have is to go back to the earliest written stages and see how they used to look.

@Geeo furigana is also often called "rubi". it's only used with japanese. radicals go back to ancient times with classical chinese

2:21 AM

@uncovery you don't have two radicals at all. a lot of westerners seem to like to call all parts of a character radicals but there is only one radical per character, and sometimes it is even just one stroke that crosses some other part. the radical a) usually provides the semantic of the character and b) is used for indexing and sorting. there is a set of radicals known as "kangxi" radicals. i believe there are also some alternative ones.

2:53 AM

clearly we are ALL radicals :)

3 hours later…

5:28 AM

but some radicals are more conservative than others

four legs good, three and a bit legs bad!

4 hours later…

9:10 AM

@andra good morning

Doc

9:20 AM

hmm.. i want to downvote Halabi for an incorrect answer, but it's just not worth the pain of having to listen to him bitch about it, so i wont...

9:43 AM

@andra disregard my old answer, I have updated it. I got a comment and then I reread your question..

4 hours later…

1:44 PM

I think a well-explained downvote is always fine. It's just the unexplained downvotes that suck :/

1:59 PM

@MarkMayo you don't know what have you done to me :D

@MarkMayo I was expecting the Tumbleweed badge by tomorrow :D

thanks for the answer anyway ;)

oh no!

sorry man :)

I was looking for questions to put bounties on, and then that one was answerable with a friend online

hahahahahahahaha

well I added 3 answers and 2 bounties in 20 min, and robbed someone of a tumbleweed badge. My work here is done. :D Off to watch some tv

may pop back in a bit

lol enjoy

2:17 PM

yo!

time for to quit procrastinating and just head anywhere tomorrow

Ulanqab anyone?

@hippietrail hi

so, no destination yet?

i think i'm just gonna slowly head in the vague direction of beijing

I guess weather will be better that way.. not as cold as Mongolia?

it's already way warmer here. i never get ice in my moustache

nice

2:25 PM

i think i'll head for taiwan at the end of my visa here, a nice warm island

looks like no hostels in ulanqab. hope i can stay in any old cheap hotel

2:52 PM

who can find a nice half forgotten bit of Great Wall for me on the way east?

3:06 PM

i thought it might be interesting to visit the bit of china north of the north korean border

but my chinese friend is soon doing a trip to harbin then way way north to mohe, much further north than ulan bator, on the russian border

a friend just flew from moscow to yakutsk

Yakutsk! Expecting -40C there.

indeed, it's currently -41

-40 is a guess or actual? everywhere i've been has been telling me it's a very warm winter. i've barely seen much snow at all

i've been in -40 a few times, would not like to do it in yakutsk!!

-13 here. high tomorrow -1

easily warm enough for hitchhiking

my coldest is -27. I went snowboarding - the mountain was deserted :D

so it turns out mohe has a famous snow and ice festival that's already started

(Boxing Day, 2012)

(Northern British Columbia)

3:11 PM

-20 is fine if you're active. -30 and below you just want to get from the vehicle to inside a building as quick as you can

yeah, getting out the car before I'd put on my snowboots and gloves, sucked. doing laces up with frozen fingers, shudder

my -40s where in midwest USA in january and i think alberta in december or january

24 deg and a spot of rain here tomorrow.

I'm fine with that. Past about 35 deg I start getting upset if I have to be on trams :)

yeah used to go ice skating in calgary and -20 was the best temperature, except for putting your skates on and doing your laces! my god! i even had a lace tightener doodad but nearly snap froze my fingers every time

i've had hardly any rain on the whole trip. and none when i was hitching and not already in a car

past 45 i'm liable to get heat stroke

(today in Melbourne)

3:14 PM

you can also see the arora borealis in mohe!

looks familiar

in Russia, I bought new shoes in St Petersburg as my old ones had holes

and kept getting wet socks

I then proceeded to have 6 weeks straight without rain. Murphy's law :)

lace tightener dodad? that could have been handy!

hitting -31 in mohe tonight

down to 22 unanswered questions

shyeeesh

yeah my shoes and my jeans are worn out. i would be pornographic if not for the longjohns and long coat (-:

that's cold

lol

3:17 PM

but can't find where to buy clothes here without a local friend. everything is designer bling prices

edition.cnn.com/2014/01/03/travel/harbin-ice-festival-2014

oh the festival is in harbin, not mohe

should have gone to the black market in ulan bator

lots of cheap stuff there :)

Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival

did go there

not an easy place to shop in winter. all outside. lots of ice on the ground makes your toes freeze much faster than usual. drunks/bums causing trouble

certainly no fitting rooms. my french buddy bought some boots but only when he went back the next day.

The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival () was originated from local Harbiner traditional ice lantern show garden party in winter since 1963. It had been interrupted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution but had been resumed and announced as an annual event at Zhaolin Park on January 5 in 1985. In 2001, Harbin Ice Festival was merged with Heilongjiang International Ski Festival and got its new formal name China Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. The 30th festival is to hold in January 2014. Harbin is located in Northeast Ch...

oh no fitting rooms when we were there too. Just changed in front of everyone (bought some jeans) much to the amusement of the shop owners :)

too hard with the -20 the layers and the thieves taking your jeans off and valuables in pockets and whatnot

but anyway my jeans died suddenly somewhere between erenhot and hohhot. there were dong fine in UB

there are markets in china too, just not in this part of this city as far as i know