Two notes of interest from daily life:

A couple days ago I made a quick trip to the baby supply store down the street to buy diapers, formula and wipes. The total was relatively high, so when I told the attendants that I hadn't brought our membership card they started hacking at the cash register trying to get me a discount anyways. After trying a particular key combination the cash register froze up, so one lady said "let's stop it." A couple keystrokes later and the cash register's display is showing a Windows desktop with a single window open to... QQ Poker. The next thing I hear is "Majiang is so boring, poker is better." So this is what they do when no customers are in the store.

Today my wife was chatting on MSN with a former business partner who mentioned that she had been busy moving one of her old businesses to a new location a block away. The reason is that the old location is being reclaimed by the city government for the new Maglev line going out to Hongqiao Airport. She also mentioned that many of the neighbors have put up posters of large letters in their windows spelling out protests against the Maglev line due to worries about radiation. This may be an interesting project for my physics students to explore next year.