User Comments - pretzellogic

Posted on: Anyone for Cricket?

Thanks for the correction!

Posted on: Anyone for Cricket?

Cpod, you're telling me that Cricket and Baseball have the same name in Chinese? Not, "flatbat" ball or "roundbat" ball or something creative? :-)

Posted on: The Marks are Out!

There goes the neighborhood :-) Next, Jenny will start reminding us that she went to university in Australia with some "G'day mates!" :-o)

Posted on: Preparing Traditional Chinese Medicine

Ok, so I guess no more input from Siteng....

Is there someone else reviewing this thread that is a TCM practitioner that can help? I've asked about 4 people who are TCM practitioners or patients to explain to me how things work in this area, and they don't seem to reply, or give me vague references to things I already know, or say stuff like, "the research exists, find it". Could a TCM practitioner do me a favor and help me by putting a link or 2 on this site showing a peer-reviewed study that shows TCM in a specific use case was effective? Or that tries to quantify previously discussed theories like Yin and Yang? In other sciences, the practitioners and participants try to quantify what is happening in order to improve the knowledge.

For the record, I was hoping that TCM practitioners would provide information, since they seem to say that it exists. When I look for it, TCM information online doesn't seem clear about what is actually happening in a quantifiable, repeatable way, at least on online sources. Maybe in the TCM world not online there is specific data on efficacy and effectiveness of specific techniques, medicines and so on.

And I mean a study something like this, that tries to quantify Yin and Yang, but for herbs...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15165421

I also get the impression that even if TCM peer reviewed studies are done, they don't change behavior in the TCM practitioners. In other words, TCM practitioners aren't regularly reviewing the research to find out if the techniques they've been using are effective, or need some type of modification, or are effective in less circumstances than they thought.

Posted on: Preparing Traditional Chinese Medicine

"Don't take my word for it: you can do some research yourself (it is possible to find reliable reports from reputable medical researchers online). "

I have been doing research online. In asking about TCM on Cpod discussion threads, it turns out I never got key answers clarified about what TCM thinks its treating, and how its treating it. Yin and Yang are never quantified in any TCM journal that i've read.

I came across this article earlier that to me explains why TCM practitioners don't really seem to understand the compounds in the herbs they use, and how temperature and delivery mechanisms might affect the compound in the body.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/27/world/asia/chinese-western-medicine-trials/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

But what i really loved was stumbling upon this Chinese Medical Journal article about TCM. It was a "Ten Year Audit of Traditional Chinese Medicine".

http://www.cmj.org/ch/reader/view_abstract.aspx?volume=124&issue=9&start_page=1401

I'm copying and pasting this excerpt out of the Conclusions:

" The majority of the research reports described preliminary findings and very few controlled clinical trials in human subjects were reported. Further applied studies will be required to demonstrate the clinical effectiveness, utility and cost-effectiveness of TCM and natural products in clinical practice."

Posted on: MBA

Not that its' any of my business, but who was your employer? DoD perhaps? Sounds like a really sweet deal to have a salary and business school paid for as well.

Posted on: No Tampons?!

If you're referring to a situation where you might want to see a lady socially, and not ask her to bring you another dish of Kung Pao chicken, then I would just say the same things I said in English; Hi, or excuse me. Admittedly, this is what I would say (if I were in the market for companionship for a lady friend), but even in English, I'm on the older side and into computers. I don't know what the smooth Beijing Chinese college guys say to hit on girls :-) Maybe 你好,妹妹? If we can't get David, or Sunix or other Cpod male staff member to come clean with terms, then I would suggest www.chinasmack.com. It's lots of fun!

Posted on: 特斯拉

Amusingly, cpod beat me to making a suggestion about creating a Tesla lesson. There are 2 Tesla sales offices here in Beijing, 1 next to the racing track, and one about 100 meters from my apartment.

Posted on: No Tampons?!

I hear fúwùyuán 服务员 all the time. If you're coming to Beijing, i'm surprised you don't hear that in restaurants a lot.

Posted on: MBA

For anyone else considering attending business school: There are some reasons to go and not go that i'd add, but this website makes reasonable arguments both ways.

http://www.network-twenty.com/school/business_school_who.html