Magical Thinking

To my way of thinking, the Chinese government's swine flu policies combine medical science and magical thinking in about equal parts. A teacher who just arrived from the States in perfect health will not be allowed to teach for a week until the government decides she is virus free. However, she will be free to move about China, where she could potentially infect lots of people were she to carry the virus.





























This logic reminds me of the legend of Liuhe Ta Pagoda (above). Hongzhou's Qian Tang River is tidal, and at some times of year, huge "tidal bores" flood the surrounding area. In 970 AD, King Qian (2nd above) developed an interesting way of taming the river-- he assembled a party of 10,000 men and had them shoot arrows into the river. Once he decided the river demons were dead, he ordered the men to build dikes.