I Am Not Going To China.

 No, really. 

Can anyone stop China, please? In a major violation of human rights and the sanctity of one's rectum, Chinese came up with the evil procedure.

Following reports that the more virulent strain – which reportedly originated in the UK – had arrived in Beijing, the Chinese government has boosted its testing regime both in the capital and in a handful of northern cities. But it isn’t just using the standard nose and throat swabs.Using anal swabs “can increase the detection rate of infected people,” a doctor at Beijing’s Youan Hospital told local media, explaining that “traces” of the virus stay longer in the anus than in the respiratory tract. A video demonstration of how to perform the swab surfaced on Twitter on Friday.

Bye, bye China and my possible visit there. Before that, I simply never seriously contemplated visiting China, now I developed a decisive, resolute rejection of such plans because... you know. The terrifying procedure was already performed on unsuspecting passengers of some of Chinese airlines. As you might expect, a hilarious hell broke loose in both Chinese and international comments. Hypothesis like this sounds pretty convincing to me:

No doubt big tech will adopt this policy, too. Only way to get verified in the future will be to send Jack an anal swab.  

I say, why wait, if you know what I mean. We all can start early. My only quarrel with all that is that what is known as a "big tech" is not really "tech". It is a bunch of social networks and other internet "platforms" ran by people with a maturity level of teenagers. Boeing is a "big tech", Intel, GE--that's "tech". But never mind. While at it, you may "enjoy" the other piece of "advice" from Mr. Lukyanov. You may remember this guy from here. Now he came up with a new stratagem. He proposes to:

The best way to repair the Russian/American relationship is for both sides to minimise contacts, and keep out of each other’s way

It is a piece rich in platitudes and feeble attempts to hide his lack of any understanding of the nature of power--a feature of political "scientists"--and America's (geo)political kitchen. The only item I can agree with Lukyanov is in the very end of his piece and it reads like that:

The old US-Russian diplomatic experience has little more than academic value.  

This I can agree to. But for the rest of his pseudo-academic  drivel--I would rather take an anal swab for Covid-19.