You're probably as tired of this argument as I am, but Google's presence is doing a LOT to open Chinese society to freedoms of thought, expression, and movement, even class mobility, in completely unexpected ways. Without Google Video, there would be no "Back Dorm Boys" (I'm sure you've seen the video; if not, I question whether you know enough about Chinese culture to pass judgment on companies who do business there). Without Blogger, there'd be no Sister Lotus. This is a society so unaccustomed the celebrity of individualism (from a Western perspective) that when Lotus/Hibiscus became a role model for millions, the authorities felt so threatened that they made her take down her blog. It didn't matter; she was already part of Chinese pop culture. And it owed everything to the ready availability of a forum for her expression.
How would it have helped for Google to preemptively take that forum away? What good does it do to keep China in the digital dark ages? To me, the "fuck China, stay out" attitude is little different from the "fuck Iraq" attitude of those sanctions in the '90s that only resulted in medicine shortages, neglected infrastructure, and increasing provincialism. These conditions only perpetuate authoritarianism. If you're concerned for Chinese freedoms, you ought to be pushing the other way.
Here's one such url that suggests, one, people diagnosed with ADHD do tend to be smokers, and two, nicotine's stimulant properties may work in the same way as Ritalin and Adderall to alleviate the symptoms. Here's another url, yielding such soundbites as "Nicotine, in particular, may act as a medication that improves ADHD symptoms" and "Nicotine May Help Calm ADHD Storm, Study Finds." I'd summarize my further explorations, but I lost interest.
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Perhaps they're cultivating an appeal to a demographic who's sick of business as beige and natty usual. Pity if the suits in midtown doubt the strategy, but based on a quick and dirty survey of everyone currently in my apartment (me), it's a 100% home run for Google. For all we know, the site was developed in proper Queen's English, and marketing came along later to mangle it for that shoestring/indie/DIY atmosphere.
I admit this doesn't explain why they chose to represent "shoestrting/indie/DIY" with redneck speak like "anyways." Folk is trendy, I guess.
Heh heh. Sentiment appreciated. But really, in my case it'd probably be an extra twenty years mumbling to myself, growing a beard, and drawing welfare as opposed to enjoying an abbreviated lifespan as a productive, high-earning, high-taxpaying member of society, all enabled--in a hypothetical world without pharma--by the wonder drug known as nicotine. Even better in our age of synthetic dependency, now that I can regain those twenty years just by remembering to take my ADHD medication (safe, they assure me) instead of relying on cigarettes.
Anyway, I live in New York. You probably end up paying more in cigarette taxes here every month than they'd bleed from your income in twenty years of subsistence-level mediocrity, which is probably my strongest incentive to stick to those happy little pills.
I can't claim firsthand knowledge of whether ADHD medication would help a smoker quit, but I'll attest to the fact that on the occasions I skip my morning Adderall, I'm pretty damn likely to find myself in line for a pack of Parliaments later that day. And as long as I stay on the pills, that is for weeks at a stretch, I won't need to smoke at all. My doctor mentioned the same thing re: ADHD-type personalities frequently found to self-medicate with cigarettes, and it seems perfectly natural to me. Obvious, in retrospect.
This is also why I feel it's inaccurate to portray the dirty, disgusting habit of smoking as an unqualified negative. Take away a man's cigarettes and you'll increase his life expectancy twenty years, but if he's anything like me, you'll also turn him into a gibbering mess. And this has nothing to do with physical dependency--nicotine or amphetamines, I'm an equal-opportunity druggie. Either one lets me stay as focused and creative as I need.
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You're probably as tired of this argument as I am, but Google's presence is doing a LOT to open Chinese society to freedoms of thought, expression, and movement, even class mobility, in completely unexpected ways. Without Google Video, there would be no "Back Dorm Boys" (I'm sure you've seen the video; if not, I question whether you know enough about Chinese culture to pass judgment on companies who do business there). Without Blogger, there'd be no Sister Lotus. This is a society so unaccustomed the celebrity of individualism (from a Western perspective) that when Lotus/Hibiscus became a role model for millions, the authorities felt so threatened that they made her take down her blog. It didn't matter; she was already part of Chinese pop culture. And it owed everything to the ready availability of a forum for her expression.
How would it have helped for Google to preemptively take that forum away? What good does it do to keep China in the digital dark ages? To me, the "fuck China, stay out" attitude is little different from the "fuck Iraq" attitude of those sanctions in the '90s that only resulted in medicine shortages, neglected infrastructure, and increasing provincialism. These conditions only perpetuate authoritarianism. If you're concerned for Chinese freedoms, you ought to be pushing the other way.
But hell, I'm not gonna change your mind.
Here's one such url that suggests, one, people diagnosed with ADHD do tend to be smokers, and two, nicotine's stimulant properties may work in the same way as Ritalin and Adderall to alleviate the symptoms. Here's another url, yielding such soundbites as "Nicotine, in particular, may act as a medication that improves ADHD symptoms" and "Nicotine May Help Calm ADHD Storm, Study Finds." I'd summarize my further explorations, but I lost interest.
Perhaps they're cultivating an appeal to a demographic who's sick of business as beige and natty usual. Pity if the suits in midtown doubt the strategy, but based on a quick and dirty survey of everyone currently in my apartment (me), it's a 100% home run for Google. For all we know, the site was developed in proper Queen's English, and marketing came along later to mangle it for that shoestring/indie/DIY atmosphere.
I admit this doesn't explain why they chose to represent "shoestrting/indie/DIY" with redneck speak like "anyways." Folk is trendy, I guess.
Heh heh. Sentiment appreciated. But really, in my case it'd probably be an extra twenty years mumbling to myself, growing a beard, and drawing welfare as opposed to enjoying an abbreviated lifespan as a productive, high-earning, high-taxpaying member of society, all enabled--in a hypothetical world without pharma--by the wonder drug known as nicotine. Even better in our age of synthetic dependency, now that I can regain those twenty years just by remembering to take my ADHD medication (safe, they assure me) instead of relying on cigarettes.
Anyway, I live in New York. You probably end up paying more in cigarette taxes here every month than they'd bleed from your income in twenty years of subsistence-level mediocrity, which is probably my strongest incentive to stick to those happy little pills.
I can't claim firsthand knowledge of whether ADHD medication would help a smoker quit, but I'll attest to the fact that on the occasions I skip my morning Adderall, I'm pretty damn likely to find myself in line for a pack of Parliaments later that day. And as long as I stay on the pills, that is for weeks at a stretch, I won't need to smoke at all. My doctor mentioned the same thing re: ADHD-type personalities frequently found to self-medicate with cigarettes, and it seems perfectly natural to me. Obvious, in retrospect.
This is also why I feel it's inaccurate to portray the dirty, disgusting habit of smoking as an unqualified negative. Take away a man's cigarettes and you'll increase his life expectancy twenty years, but if he's anything like me, you'll also turn him into a gibbering mess. And this has nothing to do with physical dependency--nicotine or amphetamines, I'm an equal-opportunity druggie. Either one lets me stay as focused and creative as I need.