2 Burst results for "Hulk House"
WGN Radio
"hulk house" Discussed on WGN Radio
"Welcome back to the Jimbo had a show we're talking to Scott spacing. He is the author of China hand from post hill press. It is a novel, a thriller inspired by actual events we are told. Introduce us, if you would, to Andrew Callaghan. So Andrew Callaghan, the protagonist in the book is a 22 year old American. He's just graduated from college and like many young people. He goes off to China to work on the language and have a little adventure. So he has an opportunity to teach at a university in China and he goes off preparing for the adventure of his life. But then what happens is the CIA approaches him and informs them that his beautiful colleague and emerging love interest is actually the daughter of the top general who's on the verge of defecting to the United States and they need his help to get her and the general's family out. So he's sort of dragged unexpectedly into what it's supposed to be as simple operation, but these things never work out that way. And it turns into a run for his life as he flees the country with the full power of the Chinese state after him and lily, the daughter of the general. It would not be a major stretch of the imagination to assume that Andrew Callaghan is Scott spacek. Well, I'm going to plead the 5th a little bit on that, but I'll say the character is definitely inspired by a number of real events, things involving me and not involving me, but what I often say is in the same way that Jack Carr has drawn on a lot of real events and experiences as a navy seal to create Jane's REITs, Jack Carr is not James Reese and I'm not exactly Andrew Kelly on either. So I'll just leave it at that. All right. Inspired by actual events, were you aware of or party two discussions that involved the defection of a high Chinese official? Well, there were a number of things that I was not involved in all of these by any stretch. But part of the inspiration was in December of 2000. So I actually taught back in 1998 99 and in December of 2000, a Chinese kernel named children ping actually defected to the U.S. while with a military delegation. And that just got me thinking. It was only reported lightly in the news. And they made it sound like he could just leave because he often traveled to the U.S. in his military capacity. And just kind of thinking, did he have a family, how did they get out? Because clearly, he probably had some family members in China who presume that we would just leave them behind. And related to that, I was aware of a Princeton professor soon after Tiananmen Square, who was involved in helping a dissident actually who was under hulk house arrest in China, flee to the U.S. embassy in Beijing. And I put the two together and sort of said, you know, imagine if the Chinese colonel's family needed help and just like the Princeton professor helped that dissident get out, what if a random young American just living and living in China had to be had to be involved in this plot? And I tried to weave in a bunch of other either real events that happened in the world around that time, whether the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade or other events as well as things involving the CIA and Chinese politics. I tried to weave those in as well as a bunch of my own experiences. I used to box in China. I had I did have a lot of interactions with U.S. diplomats and business people at the time. And I tried to kind of weave it all together into an authentic, but hopefully fun kind of espionage adventure story. Yeah, and I would agree. I think you have succeeded in that regard. If in real life, let's say a Chinese general decided to defect in an American decided to help that person and they were both caught. What would happen to the Chinese official? Well, I can't say in a completely hypothetical situation, but they certainly do not look kindly on any perceptions of disloyalty. So there's one case and I'm forgetting exactly the name and exactly the context I know. I know there was one case of a suspected spy for the CIA and my understanding is he had a pregnant wife and I think they shot. His pregnant wife in front of him before they shot him in front of a crowd of other people to kind of set an example. So I think I'm always, I shouldn't say surprised. It's probably a good thing about the U.S. system that we presume innocent much more, but it is interesting to see the relative leniency often given in the U.S. relative to what you see certainly in China. And what would happen to the American who was helping this Chinese official defect. Well, my guess certainly he could get the same treatment, what you've also seen, though, as you currently see with some of the discussions with Russia over the WNBA player of Brittany, I think it's griner or greener, I'm not sure how to pronounce it. You could also imagine in that hold somebody to potentially trade them for one of their own spies. But it certainly wouldn't be a pleasant experience to be in a Chinese jail so that yeah, that was sort of what I was thinking. One 8 6 6 5 O Jimbo as our number one 8 6 6 5 O 5 four 6 two 6 I'm just trying to use my imagination here and all of this I would think is certainly in other words let me put it this way just for writing this book. My guess would be that you would not be welcome back in China. Just tell me if you think I'm wrong. Well, I don't know. As I said for this and related reasons, I've had to use a pseudonym I'm pretty open about that. But I should be clear with your audience and potential readers. I mean, this is not, this is not a caricature of China. It's not an anti China China book. What I often say to people, look, I spent 2025 years of my life primarily living and working in China and studying the language and I really did fall in love with the people and culture. It's a fascinating place, rich rich culture and in many ways a fascinating society and people. So I have many, many positive things to say about China. And I actually should also say that there's relatively books I relatively few books in movies I find that really capture that nuance and capture both the good and the bad of China. And so just as what I often say is, just as there are espionage stories involving other countries, other normal countries like the U.S. or Israel or UK or Russia, why can't there be an authentic espionage story involving China involving a general cotton power struggle? A hypothetical power struggle 20 years ago. I
Smashing Security
"hulk house" Discussed on Smashing Security
"What have you something. Very light and weird so okay. So we're going to start with celebrity divorces and we all know that there's been many contentious ones in the past so hulk and linda hogan two thousand seven. You said celebrity stunt. That's going away. I thought you meant the incredible hulk house on. Paul mccartney and heather mills graham. Oh yes yeah. Fifty million and brad pitt angelina jolie started in. Two thousand sixteen apparently is not even settled yet costing and millions and millions. Oh yeah the sleds. it didn't follow. Suit are the so sweet and earnest. You want to perform it. Can you guess who i'm talking about. Oh you're talking about come on who i talk you talk about chris. Martin and the uncoupling conscious uncoupling exactly less them fullest them. I wonder who gets to keep the candles and you take the pachulia. I'll take the love under but this is kind of unusual tech billionaire land. According to the times tech billionaires have typically divorced very quietly behind closed doors and it's rare that they're willing to trade blows in a public courtroom and expose. The complex web of their personal finances makes sense that they do happen. And just this week in tech and mainstream media. It's all a buzz with this high stake tech divorce so in the left corner. We have robotics grew in startup entrepreneur. Scott hassen he was one of the code writers for the original search algorithm for google known as backrub back in ninety six he's kind known as the third unofficial google founder and some circles along with larry page and sergey brin and he's also known for creating those screens on wheels before we all had phones in our pockets. You'd have like a video conferencing and there'd be a screen on a long kind of neck and that had like a almost like those i-it's hospitals it looked like an iv but it had a screen on it talking about that you wail around school order. Yeah so he he. He made that yeah he made. That is apparently now. So he's done like credit would've sort of coding and then a really bare metal hardware. Are you talking about television. What this. I don't i don't know how you call it. They had them even in the white house. They're kind of like they were like basically for virtual meetings before we all could zoom fi. You know whatever. And it's a screen you bring in and back video conferencing but it would be keeping at the height of the person so you could bring it down to be chair height or standing up. She could have a coffee. Meeting anyways went bust. It went president So that's in the left corner and the other corner. We have allison hoon senior research fellow at stanford university robotics laboratory so also a smart cookie and they were married for thirteen years and for the last seven. They've been trying to divorce and the problem is they don't on the settlement so this week this tuesday they've gone to trial and it's proving to be a popcorn eating worthy of fair because it's been open to the public and some allegations have been at little bit surprising such You count say things like the new york post new york post. I'm getting. I'm getting quality. Publication yes well. You know 'cause. I can validate from other news. Sources so but one point eight billion. Is there a state one point. Eight billion dollars out of the sky. Yeah and has son wants to give her a dis- You know disputed fraction of this So he basically there have a company. He has a company with lots of shares in it and the accusation is basically tried to dump the company for a pittance and attacks dodge and a divorce shrinking of the settlement. And she's like dude. We should be going according to law and look after shareholders. So you know an age-old fight of the blistering rich right so we're talking. No one's no one's going hungry here on any side but it's been rough waters for quite a while now. I like even at the beginning. Apparently when he planned to divorce he did it by text. So it's probably safe to say this was not a conscious uncoupling. Shouldn't wale in some screen into a teleconference. Welcome to jen's fill population you with a personal anecdote share right. i was once eighteen. A young lady. Okay and you're quite old now as a young man right you gotta make sure. I was probably in my early thirties. And she was a similar ages well and basically she kind of disappeared right. I thought she's blanqui me. She's not replying. She's ghosted me or whatever clearly she doesn't want to be with me not returning my 'cause it's not returning. My texts accepts. It happened for a couple of weeks. My thought out clearly. I've been dumped it. Would it be nice to have known clearly up being dumped and so i thought just to be all up front. Things sent her a text. Basically right sign. It's i've right fair enough. You know look after yourself etc and then she go really really odyssey and she got asi because she said well there was no way. How dare you dumped me via text. This trying to communicate with you for weeks. You know maybe afraid of being done so. She was just ghosting you. Yeah she she wanted. He claimed she claimed. She was on holiday in scotland and apparently mobile phones. Don't work there and this. This was twenty some years ago. Right twenty or thirty years ago but i just you know but i've since i've since been characterized as someone who dumped someone by text and maybe this this tech mogul guy was a similar scenario. You weren't married to her for thirteen years. No no that's true. Probably been dice moore about five weeks. Yeah yep so. You're saying it's all about the context. We don't know the context doesn't he just sent an emoji or games. I didn't send her an emoji of a dump truck. Shit okay now. what are you thought. I didn't expect to get you up like graham. So i'm very thrilled. I thought you'd be. Why the heck are we talking about this. I don't understand it's her lost graham. It's maybe efficient ac- well hasaan was pratt. Presumably so enraged by the fiscal demands from the other side decided to do something that some might call dumb and it involves computers so so facto smashing security worthy right. Excellent hasaan has admitted earlier this year in february when everything was very fraught with respect to the divorce and maybe he couldn't take it anymore. Maybe it's meditation teacher quit. He came to the decision. It'd be a good idea to create and make a website live cleverly entitled allison dot com his.