And on a lighter note...exciting news from China

Here is one that many academics would recognise...

Once you have published a couple of times your name goes into a massive database of evil which does several things.  Firstly if you are researching SALTM then your Big Pharma shill cheques get activated.  Secondly there is peer review.

Most do not realise that peer review is something scientists do for free.  It isn't done by a Secret College of guardians it is done by workers in the field, in their imaginary spare time.  Well actually it is often done by the Igors of the workers in the field. Its dreadful, that ping in your inbox which means at least 4 hrs work just dropped in your lap.  If you are being honest and diligent that is.  And if you are not then blame yourself for the crappy reviews you get.  That video, by the way, is practically a documentary.

But on top of this is the requests for conferences.  Conferences are a bit like opiates.  being accepted for a talk is a warm, fluffy, addictive experience.  Iin my field, for example, one conference has a 90% failure rate on talk submissions.  Invited lectures are even better.  That goes on your CV.
But...last few years there has been a plague of invites from China.  They offer invited lectures in Qingdao or wherever.  They don't offer to defray expenses.

I got one this morning from someone with the delightful name Vantasy Wang.

I have never knwonw anyone who ever took them up on these invites.  I have also no idea if this is real or a scam.  If it is real I really wonder what is going on in China to give sooo many conferrences.

For many academics the Chinese conference invite is displacing the Nigerian royalty email as the spam du jour.

Folded flags

I suppose a new year is something we all think of as a place to start again. Logically this is silly of course as the calendar date has no significance at all. 21st December would be better as that is the darkest of winter. But the clickover of the year lets us yhink that things will change. Or that we will.
This is silly, naturally. If people are involved it is always silly. Also people do not change. Iknow that puts me out of line with many gurus etc but it is true in my experience. People only change when the ability to remain the same is forcibly taken away.
Gloomy thought perhaps. But I think that if we accept this and try to acheive goals in a way that recognises our invariance we will be much much happier.
This thought comes about thanks to an interaction with my boss. Relations with my boss have been strained for a while. This is partly because I have been going through a lot of issues with my disability and other problems, and partly because of mismatches in how we work and think. I had hoped to get a new start this year but I think it is unlikely. Without going into detail I had an email which indicates another year of the same shite.
What is the best way of dealing with this? My own tendency is to think that we should resign ourselves to it. I have long been averse to plans or dreams or ambitions because they give the illusion that we control our lives. So a question for you, dear reader, is this...is it better to be calmly resigned to our fate or to ride the rollercoaster of hope and despair?