Relax, it's fine. Last time I have my doctor inserted that high-tech medical probe, which I have no idea what it was for, via my orifice and the whole process went very smoothly. He put his right hand on my right shoulder, and then put his left hand on my left shoulder, then inserted that snakey, slimy probe into my....

HEY WAIT A MINUTE!

Actually the first batch of video footages are taken by civilians with their smartphones, rather than news reporters coming to the scenes promptly with their flashy video camera. That is the only real trusty news source nowaday in China. Sad, very sad.

"a fight among workers from different production lines,"

From the local news "" Translation: Foxconn security started the fight, which triggered riots in Shandong and Henan.

How could this become "a fight among workers" in international news I wondered.

The only thing international news coverage is correctly accounted for is that the root cause is still a mystery, but we would imagine it should be more along the line of suppression under high working pressure.

Don't worry, that's what super-admin password is for! ....did I just say that out loud?

This is just a political show. You can see from the pictures, those picking up plastics are civilians, not any government official. WSJ is like millions other media wanting to please local governments with mild reporting, but this is the best English source I could find. Local news has much better insight on that.

The HK Government responded AFTER a month of media coverages and civilians' volunteering activities. When reporters questioned the number collected, the officials immediate revised the number to "collected some of the plastic pellets that has been spilled", and explained that the revision is due to including sands into the calculation of weight (if that is not intentional deceiving I don't know what is). Nevertheless, reporters' request to check the pellets collected were denied because they have already been "disposed of".

Well none that anybody would concern anymore but I just wish you to know.

After a cargo accident, millions of tiny white plastic pellets have been washing up on the Hong Kong's shores. No authority, no government cares. Civilians voluntarily organize cleaning up activities every weekend and the situation is still catastrophic. Uncountable fishes have their stomachs stuffed with plastic pellets, but Hong Kong Government still insists that those fishes are harmless and safe to eat. Those fishes are dying of staving because they couldn't take any more real food, and the Government only cares about whether it is safe to eat them.

Sadly, environmental disasters effect everyone in the same planet but they would hardly raise mass concern.

First reference: One Professor taught you long time ago. He definitely not remembers you but you may visit him and invite him to lunch for a brief chat. He would be gratefully referring you if you told him your research plan. You may even get valuable opinions from them.

Alternatively, if all professors taught or supervised you were retired or dead, as in my situation, you may ask around if you happened to have any friends that attended higher level of academic with honors, and ask them to help.

It would be nice to find two profs for your reference. Failing that you could find one friend, or your previous boss, who is doing good in your field of research as your second reference. Unless otherwise specified, they may not expect second reference to be very academic.

Regardless of what other respondents said, a PhD is very useful title anywhere in the world: you could devote yourself into research if you happened to discover a good topic of your interest, or you could at least find a teaching job in a college. Most important, it would increase your chance of getting venture capital for your future startup if one of the founders has a PhD.

One of my clients whose company is a Android/iPhone developer was approached by Microsoft, asking them to port their applications to Windows Phone 7. They got like 2 grands for each app ported, even fart apps. This company still own the apps ported, and get all the money they receive from selling these apps, if any. Microsoft aren't buy these app, they just purely reward them for porting.

So if you asked me whether developers should support Windows Phone 8....Sure, with a fee.

Small animals survived last five mass extinctions because they have relatively large penis, not the brains. Human dominates over other species simply because we have biggest penis, relatively to our size. Bigger penis is always been an advantage over bigger brain, in any given time of history, or party.

So you should be proud of your species dominance for having a bigger penis, no matter how small in absolute term it is; chances that it's already bigger than an average chimpanzee, in relative term.

Last year in Hong Kong, which is under common laws system, a young political activist was charged of committing rape. Throughout the trial period, no evidence of violent, unconsenual intercourse, or any trace of the victim being subjected to helpless state was presented, still the activist was successful charged and the court ruled a prima facie case.

The case was finally dropped simply because the girl dismissed the charge for unspecified reason and then disappeared. This young activist has never been so active ever since.

So no matter how you argue on insufficient evidence or legal fallacy, it is rape as long as the girl testified it is. Assange chose to flee from the prosecution because he knows better, he knows every well what would be the result if he chose to face the trial.