Evelyn Beatrice Hall (pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre) , not Voltaire. It is from Friends of Voltaire, so close but no cigar. Most people think Voltaire is a superhero. Sad. Good name, though.

Lots of posts about prices of housing in Toronto, not sure why they're quoting 1.5 million. Average price in the GTA, that's Durham in the east, Halton in the north west, Peel in the west and York, that being Toronto, was under $800,000 CDN. The median is lower than the average, about $150,000 as of July, 2018. Right now, $700,000 CDN is $535,500 USD. Nowhere near the prices posted in some posts here. To be honest, we don't really want Americans moving up here, at least I don't. We have a decent degree of racial harmony, lots of cultures and ethnicities co-mingling and we're pretty happy with that. Our police can be caught profiling but they don't shoot as many African Canadians as are shot in the U.S. We've got our own problems but they pale in comparison to those south of the border. You're in deep, deep dodoo down there but I don't think you realize it. Politics is pretty much a team sport down there, we've got several parties federally and provincially. We actually switch from one to the other on a reasonable frequent basis. We also turf parties that fail to meet our standards. It's not Utopia up here but it's not bad. We don't go into debt when we get sick. Our infrastructure is solid. We're pretty smart about where we send our military to die. Oh, and we don't do the jet thing at every sporting event. Nine times out of ten, our military personnel aren't dying for our 'freedom', they're dying for someone else's freedom. I think the last war we started was .... wait, maybe there wasn't one. If our government started throwing the military in our faces every chance they got, we'd laugh about it then get rid of them. The Guess Who's 'war machine' was apropos then and it is now.

If enough people 'help with this translation', they can change the meaning of a word in a language to whatever they want. I remember a word that I saw on Renren frequently, Every time I translated it, it would translate as 'kazakhstan'. That made me suspicious that some group had changed the meaning as a joke. It would be easy to do for any other word, too.

This plus shutting Neihan Duanzi down and other seemingly small losses of personal freedom might just stir up enough emotion to finally rid China of its oppressive leadership. I've always admired the way many Chinese get around censorship but I can't see how they will beat this personal score tracking system. Not mentioned here is the rating based on what you buy and where you buy it. Buying products made in China is a plus but what if that product is 'immoral' lingerie from Taobao? Or maybe a sex toy? China in revolt would be catastrophic but unless Xi and his cronies loosen things up a bit, that's what looms in the near future.

The Old Testament mentions giants in a couple of places, once before Adam and Eve. Giants may be a misinterpretation, physical size vs. big brains. but I can't read Hebrew or Greek so I'll never know. I'm not in the least religious, certainly not as far as the New Testament is concerned, so reading the OT was like reading a very old bit of science fiction. It is thrilling, trust me. There are lines that will make you laugh out loud plus others that will make you question whether we came from apes or whether we are a twisted combination of aliens and apes. If you read it, you'll be alone with your thoughts. I can't find a damn soul who's read the OT from start to finish and is willing to swap theories about it. If you're doubting what I say, just read the bits about the Ark of the Covenant. Then check out Leviticus. If that's not atomic radiation or weaponry, then what is it?

Do you think he asked them all to resign or just his immediate supervisor?

I'm thinking too many verbs and not enough adjectives. Dangling participles might be part of it, too.

It's the tail wagging the dog. The NRA has only 5 million members. I get that as roughly 1.5% of the population. How is that tiny percentage of people affecting gun controls? Are the famous 1% and that 1.5% one and the same? Why do people think the NRA is so powerful? Is there another group as small as the NRA that gives an impression of being so powerful?

From what I see, the people of China are happier than the people in the U.S. They can't vote and they're spied on but of the two, the first is the only difference between the U.S. and China. Besides, look who got voted in as President. That's what giving the vote to idiots gets you, doesn't it? As for happy news, isn't that what every State of the Union Address in living memory has put out to the public? Forget about the crumbling infrastructure and the endless poverty across the country, let's talk about the good things we've done. China isn't perfect, I know that very well, but neither is the U.S. The saying about the pot and the kettle comes to mind. As for human rights, the U.S. uses solitary confinement as torture plus they have GITMO for all the sickos who want to torture prisoners with their hands. Is that better than what we hear coming out of China?

More broadly, 'why anyone...would be stupid enough to travel to the US.' If common sense doesn't change the way things are, maybe the loss of tourist dollars will. Same for Mexico and dozens of other countries around the world.

If this is really a major concern, try to sign in to the account, use the 'forgot password' button and the account becomes yours. Change the settings to stop the email and don't log in again. Do that for every site that troubles you. Tell your family what you're doing, of course. After that, adjust your spam settings. Personally, I find outlook/hotmail spam settings superior to gmail's but that's just me, I suppose.

I can think of more than a few things I haven't been charged for over the years when using plastic. Cash or debit is a one shot deal, plastic might not be. Debit cards are easily hacked, at least they were a while ago. Unless I get a decent discount with cash, it's credit card all the way. With bonus cards, I have three, I get free food, cheaper gas and some kind of points towards items that I haven't researched yet (new card).

"That tape would be the biggest leak ever." Not sure if that pun was intended but it's very funny.

The OP could have said anything to describe Wu, none of which have anything to do with the story except 'idiot'. Could be black, Asian, white, metero, celibate...does it even matter? There are dozens of current members of Congress who can't find Syria on a map, Democrat or Republican. Transgender doesn't mean someone is stupid. I could name thousands of straight Americans who are equally as dim. The current POTUS for one.

Solar power requires sunlight, something that the northern part of China, Beijing included, hasn't seen in quite a while, at least on a daily basis.