I support whatever Ukrainians want to do with their territories on their own land. If I am allowed to have personal wishes regarding Ukraine, they will be: Never concede any territories.  Pause all high casualty ground offensives regardless of the outcome. If Rashists have offensives, set up optimal meat grinders to induce their human wave assaults to incur maximum casualties on them. Beef up SOF activities and drone/missile attacks in the occupied territories to maintain constant maximum pain on occupiers. Work with international communities constantly to impose maximum sanctions on PRC's Russia province. Rejuvenate Ukraine's legendary defense industry to provide the bulk of the weapons to sustain the fight and churn out high-performance and highly cost-effective weapons. Start reconstruction now and integrate the economy with the EU as much as possible to bring back high single-digit or even double-digit growth. Ukraine has both the brains and resources to make it with intern...

I regarded the US News World Report's college ranking as the gold standard when I was applying to US schools. My faith in it faded slightly over time for various reasons. It is their ranking of a bunch of PRC colleges in the top 1% that made me realize the deep flaws of the ranking. The primary function of a college is education of which critical independent thinking is the most important part. How can a college with little academic freedom and a lot of mandatory indoctrination be ranked among the world's top 1% ? The ranking is largely about research.  I fully appreciate the high correlation between research and education, but there are two issues for this method: 1. The correlation is not a simple linear relationship. 2. Their way of research assessment is flawed - the PRC is not a normal free country. You cannot apply the same method used for a normal country to the PRC. Academic fraud in the PRC is rampant . For example, with their method, the Chinese middle school dropout ...

I entered Ukraine for the first time on October 25, 2022, and reached Kyiv on October 27. I thought it was a good idea to write about various ways to enter Ukraine on my Ukraine visit anniversary, based on my own two trips, because I had seen people, including Ukrainians, offering wrong directions, so I posted here initially in 2023. I updated it in 2025 after my 4th trip to Ukraine. Two important points first: 1. The USG is against its citizens traveling to Ukraine, understandably. I went there to bring donated items requested by people on the frontline for my first three trips. 2. A train is usually the best choice for a quick and comfortable border crossing. Routes from five different countries based on my own experience. 1. Poland. A. Warsaw route . The direct train from Warsaw to Kyiv (16:49CET to 10:45EET) is probably the most convenient.  The train had its gauge changed (standard to wide) at Rymachi.  I have not taken this 18-hour overnight, but I took this train the ot...

Google's Local Guides program's policy enforcement is unbelievably bad. It is despicable. Here is what it does things sometimes: Publishes a review initially, then rejects it later without notifying the reviewer. Suspends the reviewer's Local Guides account because of the above rejected reviews without notifying the reviewer. They do this to users who have made thousands of contributions over the years benefiting millions of Google Maps users. Continues to allow a suspended account  The review rejections are done by their flawed AI. Reposting the review without any changes will get approved often.  Notifies a reviewer of a rejection without giving a specific reason. This is the worst part.  It seems that one may get these punishments by posting multiple reviews quickly. I have not seen any online policy enforcement nearly as bad as Google Local Guides'. Bing Maps is worth trying. For reviews, Tripadvisor may be a better place. My journey of  Local Guides: I have made...

I am starting to feel that some galaxy brains believe that the PRC is gaining an upper hand in its assault on the free world after the middle school dropout's visit to Moscow.  No, the CCP has to be increasingly nervous about the situation in Ukraine which can be an existential threat. The Russian invasion does wear the free world standing with Ukraine and may incur further internal divisions.  All good for the PRC. The problem for the PRC is the risk of Russian disintegration, or even worse, becoming a free country after deposing the dictator. Let's see the worst scenario for the free world first: Russia temporarily defeats Ukraine and takes Kyiv to put up a puppet gov as a result of dwindling international support for Ukraine. The chance for this worst scenario is close to zero. Even if it happens, Ukraine will just becomes the 2nd Afghanistan for Russia. Bloody insurgent fights will drive out Russia eventually but incur far greater damage to Russia than Afghanistan did to t...

I started to write down these thoughts in February 2023 before my second trip to Ukraine, paused for many months, picked it up intermittently in the summer, and finally finished on Saturday, September 23, 2023. I will not edit this post because I want to come back to it to see how my views will change or remain in the future. It has been a long and brutal 19 months since the Moscow KGB thug launched the slaughter in Ukraine.  My views on this war are simple and straightforward, not much different from freedom lovers who stand with free people fighting for their freedom. I wanted to provide some background. I have some slight differences from others that make me treat certain things slightly differently. Why I support the Ukrainians' fight for their freedom I firmly support people fighting for their freedom regardless of their political leaning (left, right, or center), race, or religion (Buddhists in Tibet, Christians in Ukraine, Muslims in Xinjiang, Iran, and Afghanistan). To me, ...

Time: 2024 Location: LA County Orchestrated by the PRC's LA Consulate, a large number of Chinese protested against the incoming regime in DC which they claim is anti-China and pro-West, and declared independence.  The PLA sends weapons and plainclothes troops to support them. The US army tries to take it back, and the PRC keeps providing weapons and personnel to support LA's independence, bloody battles ensue and last for 8 years.  A lot of civilian collateral damage on both sides.  By 2032, NATO has been dissolved due to conflicts among its members. The PRC has long outmanufactured the US and exceeded the US in GDP, and its military size is 5x that of the US and its navy vessels 3x that of the US. On Feb 24, 2032, the PRC launches a Special Military Operation to denazify the US, cheered by both the far right and far left. Germany and France immediately send their signature strong prayers and thoughts and urge constraints on both sides to prevent escalation. India urges p...

Most people enter Ukraine from Poland during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I needed to do it from Hungary but could not find any information describing the journey. Even a Ukrainian gave me the wrong information. Hope this information helps those who have such a need. Take the InterCity train IC 34 leaving Budapest at 7:23 (Central European Standard Time). The Hungarian side border paperwork is done on the train. That is a significant advantage of taking a train to enter Ukraine. The train is modern and has free Wi-Fi. The train travels for 5:17 and arrives at Chop at13:40 (Eastern European Standard Time, one hour ahead of Hungarian time). If you jump off the train as soon as it stops at Chop, you can go through the Ukrainian side border checkpoint in a few minutes, then catch the train leaving at 13:52 for Kyiv. It was 14:00 when I went there. I stayed in Chop to catch the next day's train. Now, there seems to be a train leaving at 16:58 and arriving in Kyiv at 8:38 the next da...

I write this on the CCP's "meritocracy" for 2 reasons: 1. Even some fierce CCP critics still imply certain CCP's meritocracy by thinking the CCP has some capable officials in its top echelon but they are marginalized by the middle school dropout (a.k.a. General Secretary Xi). One example is the current premier Li. Li is surely significantly better educated than the MSD and likely has a higher IQ, but I can't think of any significant achievement in his entire career. His tenure as the head of the Henan province was marred by the horrific Aids epidemic.   2. The Moscow KGB thug's regime shows similar kakistocracy. First, let's use CCP's own words to show its kakistocracy. This is a screenshot of an article from THE main CCP mouthpiece titled "Reverse selection in bureaucracy endangers national security". "Reverse selection" here means the opposite of the natural selection of the fittest to survive. Their own words: "The bad elimi...

Summary PRC COVID-induced excess deaths: Absolute minimum requiring a miracle: 1 M Likely minimum: 2.5 M Likely range: 3 M - 5 M How I derived these numbers: First, if you doubt the current high COVID fatalities based on anecdotes instead of official data, let's think in this way. People are paying what is equivalent to 2 - 3 months' salary to avoid unpredictable long waits at Beijing crematoria, so long waiting lines are common. Beijing has 12 crematoria and many more in its vicinity. If people could drive 100km or more to have timely cremation, they would not spend so much money to save the 1 or 2 hours of transportation.  If Beijing with the best healthcare resources has such a high fatality rate, you can imagine the fatality rates of other places. It is fair to compare the PRC with other East Asian countries. Japan, S. Korea, and TW are exemplary - high vigilance, high vax rates, and orderly opening, so they have much lower excess death rates than most other countries. If t...