Whenever I start getting worried about China maybe taking over the world, I see news stories like this:
China School Teaches Children Kung Fu – to Fight Against Air Pollution 

If the article is accurate (who knows), the facts are *almost* as mind-snappingly stupid as the headline might lead you to believe. While they aren’t using Kung Fu moves to keep smog at bay, they are using Kung Fu moves to somehow – apparently magically – mitigate the effects of smog.

Two of them are particularly interesting:
1) Very deep breathing. Because if there’s something you want to do with airborne particulates, it’s force them as deep into your lungs as possible.
2) “Pressing the Hegu acupoint, located between the thumb and index finger at the back of the hand, helps promote lungs’ detoxification.”

Riiiiiiiiiight.

In a way, it’s comforting to see that the US isn’t alone in having anti-science idjits as typified by the anti-vaxxers, newage aficionados, creationists, “prayer instead of surgery & meds” types, and so on. Perhaps, if China really does start to become a force to be reckoned with, the CIA would do well to run a black propaganda campaign in China to convince the Chinese people and government to reject “western” science and medicine in favor of traditional Chinese folk remedies. As the man said, there’s a reason why “alternative medicine” isn’t just called “Medicine.”