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He is in fact, I am certain, one of the greatest mathematicians according to any criteria, let it be because he had no formal education, or because of the 3000 odd identities and theorems he came up with.anyway i don’t want to compare but i am just trying to say the striking things i saw in his life.Anyway I would first show the marklist Ramanujan acquired in the 1st year examinations.Roughly speaking, for these things,Ramanujan’s name is seen everywhere around the world, even if some might disagree.•Magic Square•Brocard – Ramanujan Diophatine equation•Dougall – Ramanujan identity•Hardy – Ramanujan number•Landau – Ramanujan constant•Ramanujan’s congruences•Ramanujan – Nagell equation•Ramanujan – Peterssen conjecture•Ramanujan – Skolem’s theorem•Ramanujan – Soldner constant•Ramanujan summation•Ramanujan theta function•Ramanujan graph•Ramanujan’s tau function•Ramanujan’s ternary quadratic form•Ramanujan’s prime•Ramanujan’s costant•Ramanujan’s sum•Rogers – Ramanujan’s identityNow, let us see a quote of an English Mathematician“Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician so great that his name transcends jealousies, the one superlatively great mathematician whom India has produced in the last thousand years.”He continued thus: “His leaps of intuition confound mathematicians even today, a century after his death. His papers are still plumbed for their secrets. His theorems are being applied in areas- polymer chemistry, computers, astrophysics, molecular physics, even (it has been recently suggested) cancer – scarcely imaginable during his lifetime. And always the nagging question: What might have been, had he been discovered a few years earlier, or lived a few years longer?”Now just see Ramanujan’s childhood prodigy:Teacher: n/n = 1. Any number divided by itself is one. If there are 3 apples and there are three students, each one will get one apple. Likewise if there are 1000 children and 1000 pens, each will get one pen.Ramanujan: What about 0/0? If there are 0 apples and 0 students, will each still get one?Teacher got perplexed!Ramanujan’s Explanation: 0/0 can be anything, the zero in the numerator could be many times 0 in the denominator, and vice versa.Just before the age of 10, in November 1897, he passed his primary examinations in English, Tamil, geography and arithmeticWith his scores, he stood first in the district. That year, Ramanujan entered Town Higher Secondary School where he encountered formal mathematics for the first time.By age 11, he had exhausted the mathematical knowledge of two college students who were lodgers at his house.He was later lent a book on advanced trigonometry written by S. L. LoneyHe completely mastered this book by the age of 13 and discovered sophisticated theorems on his own.Now Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902 and he went on to find his own method. Its like this:It is easy to solve simple equation of the first degree, e.g., 3a = 15. And we are taught how to solve second degree equations with the power of x as 2.Ramanujan found his own method in solving not only cubic equations but also equations of fourth degree.Next year not knowing that quintic equations, or equations with power of x as 5, cannot be solved, he tried and failed in his attempt.In 1903 when he was16, Ramanujan came across the book by G. S. Carr on A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics, a collection of 4865 formula and theorems without proofThe book is generally acknowledged as a key element in awakening the genius of RamanujanThe next year, he had independently developed and investigated the Bernoulli numbers and had calculated Euler's constant up to 15 decimal placesWhen he graduated from Town Higher Secondary School in 1904, Ramanujan was awarded the K. Ranganatha Rao prize for mathematics as an outstanding student who deserved scores higher than the maximum possible marksHe received a scholarship to study at Government Arts College, Kumbakonam, However, Ramanujan could not focus on any other subjects and failed most of them, losing his scholarship in the processHe later enrolled at Pachaiyappa' College in Madras. He again excelled in mathematics but performed poorly in other subjectsRamanujan failed his Fine Arts degree exam in December 1906 and again a year laterWithout a degree, he left college and continued to pursue independent research in mathematics. At this point of his life, he lived in extreme poverty and was suffering from starvation.Deplorable Condition of Ramanujan is expressed in his own words:“When food is the problem, how can I find money for paper? I may require four reams of paper every month.”On 14 July 1909, Ramanujan was married to a nine-year old girl, Janaki Ammal (21 March 1899 - 13 April 1994)After the marriage, Ramanujan developed a hydrocele problemsHis family did not have the money for the operation, but in January 1910, a doctor volunteered to do the surgery for freeAfter his successful surgery, Ramanujan searched for a jobHe stayed at friends' houses while hewent door to door around the city of Chennai looking for a clerical positionTo make some money, he tutored some students at Presidency College who were preparing for their examRamanujan met deputy collector V. Ramaswamy Aiyer, who had recently founded the Indian Mathematical SocietyRamanujan, wishing for a job at the revenue department where Ramaswamy Aiyer worked, showed him his mathematics notebooksAs Ramaswamy Aiyer later recalled:“I had no mind to smother his genius by an appointment in the lowest level as clerk in the revenue department.”Ramaswamy Aiyer sent Ramanujan, with letters of introduction, to his mathematician friends.Some of these friends looked at his work and gave him letters of introduction to R. Ramachandra Rao, the district collector of Nellore and the secretary of the Indian Mathematical SocietyRamachandra Rao was impressed by Ramanujan's research but doubted that it was actually his own work !Ramanujan's friend, C. V. Rajagopalachari, persisted with Ramachandra Rao and tried to clear any doubts over Ramanujan's academic integrityRao listened as Ramanujan discussed elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, and his theory of divergent series, through which Rao was convinced of Ramanujan's mathematical brilliance . When Rao asked him what he wanted, Ramanujan replied that he needed some work and financial supportRamanujan continued his mathematical research with Rao's financial aid taking care of his daily needsWith the help of Ramaswamy Aiyer, Ramanujan had his work published in the Journal of Indian Mathematical SocietyOne of the first problems he posed in the journal was to evaluate:He waited for a solution to be offered in three issues, over six months, but failed to receive any. At the end, Ramanujan supplied the solution to the problem himselfHe formulated an equation that could be used to solve the infinitely nested radicals problem. Using this equation, the answer to the question posed in the Journal was simply 3In early 1912 he got a job in the Madras Accountant Generals office with a salary of Rs 20 per month.Later he applied for a position under the Chief Accountant of the Madras Port TrustHe was Accepted as a Class III, Grade IV accounting clerk making 30 rupees per monthHe used to Spend spare time doing Mathematical ResearchIn the spring of 1913, Narayana Iyer and Ramachandra Rao tried to present Ramanujan's work to British mathematiciansOne mathematician, M. J. M. Hill of University College London, commented that although Ramanujan had "a taste for mathematics, and some ability", he lacked the educational background and foundation needed to be accepted by mathematiciansOn 16 January 1913, Ramanujan wrote to G. H. HardyComing from an unknown mathematician, the nine pages of mathematics made Hardy initially view Ramanujan's manuscripts as a possible "fraud“ !Hardy recognized some of Ramanujan's formulae but others "seemed scarcely possible to believe"G.H. Hardy was an academician at Cambridge UniversityHe was a prominent English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis.Later on Ramanujan wrote to G.H.HardyHardy recognised some of his formulae but other “seemed scarcely possible to believe”. Some of them were –Initially, G. H. Hardy thought that the works of Ramanujan were fraud because most of them were impossible to believe.But eventually ,he was convinced and interested in his talent.This is one approximation formula of Pi mentioned in Ramanujan’s letters:Hardy was also impressed by some of Ramanujan's other work relating to infinite series:This second one was new to Hardy, and was derived from a class of functions called hypergeometric series which had first been researched by L. Euler and Carl F. Gauss.After he saw Ramanujan's theorems on continued fractions on the last page of the manuscripts, Hardy commented that the "[theorems] defeated me completely; I had never seen anything like them before”He figured that Ramanujan's theorems "must be true”Hardy asked a colleague, J. E. Littlewood, to take a look at the papersLittlewood was amazed by the mathematical genius of RamanujanRamanujan’s notebook referring calculus and number theory:Ramanujan boarded the S.S.Nevasa on 17 March 1914 and arrived in London on 14th AprilRamanujan began working with Hardy and LittlewoodHardy received 120 theorems from him in 1st 2 letters but there were many more results in his notebookRamanujan spent nearly 5 years in CambridgeRamanujan was awarded the B.A degree by Research in March 1916 at an age of 28 years for his work on Highly Composite Numbers.He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in February 1918 at an age of 30 years.He was the second Indian to become FRS.( First one was in 1841).He was elected to a Trinity College Fellowship as the FIRST INDIAN.During his five years stay in Cambridge he published twenty one research papers containing theorems.A few words regarding the 1729, Ramanujan NumberHardy arrived in a cab numbered 1729He commented that the number was uninteresting or dull.Instantly Ramanujan claimed that it was the smallest natural number which can be written as sum of cubes in 2 ways1729 = sum of cubes of 12 and 1/ sum of cubes of 10 and 9.Actually only this much is available in the popular version of the story.But Ramanujan had worked extensively on this number and made some simple reuslts along with other startling contributions.1729 = 7 x 13 x 19 product of primes in A.P1729 divisible by its sum of digits.1729 = 19 x 911729 is a sandwich number or HARSHAD number."Ramanujan was using 1729 and elliptic curves to develop formulas for a K3 surface," Ono says. "Mathematicians today still struggle to manipulate and calculate with K3 surfaces. So it comes as a major surprise that Ramanujan had this intuition all along."Ono had worked with K3 surfaces before and he also realized that Ramanujan had found a K3 surface, long before they were officially identified and named by mathematician André Weil during the 1950s.Just as K2 is an extraordinarily difficult mountain to climb, the process of generalizing elliptic curves to find a K3 surface is considered an exceedingly difficult math problem.And in Ramanujan’s writing he was relying on this number 1729 in order to arrive at some combination of numbers which could prove that Fermat’s last conjecture could be counter exampled.there are some popular misconceptions regarding ramanujan:Ramanujan recorded the bulk of his results in four notebooks of loose leaf paper (About 4000 theorems)These results written up without any derivations.Since paper was very expensive, He would do most of his work (derivations) on SLATE and transfer just the results to paper.Hence the perception that he was unable to prove his results and simply thought up the final result directly is NOT CORRECTProfessor Bruce C.Berndt of University of Illinois, who worked on Ramanujan note books, stated that “Over the last 40 years, nearly all of Ramanujan’s theorems have been proven right”.Also Mathematicians agreed unanimously on the point that it was not possible for someone to imagine those results without solving / proving.I think I will complete this answer tomorrow, because I feel sleepy: Good Night!Edited in Later:I am extremely sorry for not turning up yesterday to finish the answer I started, because I had gone for an outing to Hoggenakkal in Tamil Nadu.I think I would say something more about the GENIUS before I complete.Well, once G. H. Hardy rated his contemporary mathematicians based on pure talent.Hardy rated himself a score of 25 out of 100,J.E. Littlewood 30, David Hilbert 80 andRamanujan 100 !Hardy also said that Ramanujan’s solutions were "arrived at by a process of mingled argument, intuition, and induction, of which he was entirely unable to give any coherent account”Ramanujan’s genius was recognized by TN Government andNow, Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December as ‘State IT Day’A Stamp was released by the Govt. in 196222nd December started to be celebrated as Ramanujan Day in Govt Arts College, Kumbakonam. Now on 22nd December 2011, Then prime minister Manmohan Singh said that the 125th birth year of Ramanujan will be celebrated as National Mathematics Year and from that year onwards, December 22 is National Mathematics Day.There is a National Symposium On Mathematical Methods and Applications on his name (NSMMA)And there is SASTRA Ramanujan Prize which is given under the auspices of National Mathematics Society and the society for Physics.Let me tell something about the Hardwork of Ramanujan:Once P.C. Mahalanobis, the founder of Indian Statistical Institute visited Ramanujan while in Cambridge and said to him: “ Ramanju, these English Mathematicians say that you are a Genius, A real incomparable Genius.Immediately, showing his thickly black elbow Ramanujan replied, dear friend, everything owes to this elbow.Shocked by the answer, P.C. Asked: How Can it be so?????Ramanujan replied with a smile: “During my childhood days, while using a slate for calculations, repeated erasing used to leave remnants of chalk in it, then I stopped using duster for rubbing.”“This meant that every few minutes I had to rub my slate using my elbow, it means I owe everything to this elbow.”Regarding the spiritual dimension of Ramanujan’s life, all will agree that he was a sort of a mystic, and in fact, Ramanujan was a person with a somewhat shy and quiet dispositionHe was absolutedly a dignified man with pleasant mannersRamanujan credited his success to his family Goddess, Namagiri of Namakkalin fact, He claimed to receive visions of scrolls of complex mathematical content unfolding before his eyes. And we have no idea to contradict his words.And this could be in one way regarded as his Dictom"An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God.”We get amazed the more we know about Ramanujan’s spiritual understanding of many mathematical concepts, I will brief just one.For example, 2n – 1 will denote the primordial GOD.When n is zero, the expression denotes ZERO.He spoke of “ZERO” as the symbol of the absolute (Nirguna – Brahmam) of the extreme monistic school of philosophy)The reality to which no qualities can be attributed,of which no qualities can be there.When n is 1, it denotes UNITY, the Infinite GOD.When n is 2, it denotes TRINITY.When n is 3, it denotes SAPTHA RISHIS and so on.Crazy isn’t it, but all such craziness constituted Ramanujan.He looked “infinity” as the totality of all possibilities which was capable of becoming manifest in reality and which was inexhaustible.According to Ramanujan, The product of infinity and zero would supply the whole set of finite numbers.Each act of creation, could be symbolized as a particular product of infinity and zero, and from each product would emerge a particular individual of which the appropriate symbol was a particular finite number.If you want to go through the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan in its fullness, I humbly refer to you my guide, the book which opened my eyes towards realizing the pearl of Indian Mathematics, and that is:“The man who knew infinity: A life of the Genius Ramanujan”It was written by Robert Kanigel.In that book Kanigel claims some very amazing facts about Ramanujan.Sheer intuitive brilliance coupled to long, hard hours on his slate made up for most of his educational lapse.This ‘poor and solitary Hindu pitting his brains against the accumulated wisdom of Europe’ as Hardy called him, had rediscovered a century of mathematics and made new discoveries that would captivate mathematicians for next century.S.Chandrasekhar, Indian Astrophysicist, Nobel laureate 1983, told thus:“I think it is fair to say that almost all the mathematicians who reached distinction during the three or four decades following Ramanujan were directly or indirectly inspired by his example.Even those who do not know about Ramanujan’s work are bound to be fascinated by his life.”“The fact that Ramanujan’s early years were spent in a scientifically sterile atmosphere, that his life in India was not without hardships that under circumstances that appeared to most Indians as nothing short of miraculous. He had gone to Cambridge, supported by eminent mathematicians, and had returned to India with very assurance that he would be considered, in time as one of the most original mathematicians of the century.The words of Hardy himelf speak volumes of Ramanujan:“I have to form myself, as I have never really formed before and try to help you to form, some of the reasoned estimate of the most romantic figure in the recent history of mathematics, a man whose career seems full of paradoxes and contradictions, who defies all cannons by which we are accustomed to judge one another andabout whom all of us will probably agree in one judgement only, that he was in some sense a very great mathematician.”Bertrand arthur william russell, British philosopher & mathematician, Nobel laureate and almost contemporary to Ramanujan, stated thus:“I found Hardy and Littlewood in a state of wild excitement because they believe, they have discovered a second Newton, a Hindu Clerk in Madras… He wrote to Hardy telling of some results he has got, which Hardy thinks quite wonderful.”The life of Ramanujan is actually a textbook from which many things could be conceived. Despite the hardship faced by Ramanujan, he rose to such a scientific standing and reputation no Indian has ever enjoyed.It should be enough for youngsters like us to comprehend that if we can work hard with indomitable determination, sheer perseverance and sincere commitment, we too can perhaps soar the way like Srinivasa Ramanujan.Even today in India, Ramanujan cannot get a lectureship in a school / college because he had no degree.Many researchers / Universities will pursue studies / researches on his work but he will have to struggle to get even a teaching job.Even after more than 90 years of the death of Ramanujan, the situation is not very different as far the rigidity of the education system is concerned. Today also a ‘Ramanujan’ has to clear all traditional subjects’ exams to get a degree irrespective of being genius in one or more different subjects.He was offered a chair in India only after becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society.But it is disgraceful that India’s talent has to wait for foreign recognition to get acceptance in India or else immigrate to other places.Many of those won international recognition including noble prizes had no other option but to migrate for opportunities & recognition.(Ex. Karmerkar)The process of this brain drain is still continuing.Here is a pic of Ramanujan with his colleagues in Cambridge University.Talking about certain contributions of Ramanujan which shook me off my feet.As we all know we use the notation P(n) to represent the number of partitions of an integer n. Thus P(4) = 5, similarly, P(7) = 15.I don’t need to explain that If we were to start enumerating the partitions for larger numbers, even for small numbers such as 10 we start seeing that there is a combinatorial explosion! To illustrate this consider P(30) = 5604 and P(50) = 204226 and so on. (btw, partitions can be visualized by Young tableau!).A similar search was on for asymptotic formulae for the partition number P(n) and because of the combinatorial explosion an accurate formula was considered difficult. Ramanujan believed that he could come up with an accurate formula even though it was considered extremely hard, and he came close.One work of Ramanujan (done with G. H. Hardy) is his formula for the number of partitions of a positive integer n, the famous Hardy-Ramanujan Asymptotic Formula for the partition problem. The formula has been used in statistical physics and is also used (first by Niels Bohr) to calculate quantum partition functions of atomic nuclei.The formula he proposed gives a very close value to that of the true value, and it is a mouth-watering feat considering its very pattern less nature.I had written another answer in quora regarding how Ramanujan provided a rapidly converging series as the value of Pi. I will just copy and paste it here.For a long time, the series used for finding the value of Pi was given by the Leibniz-Gregory Series.π = (4/1) - (4/3) + (4/5) - (4/7) + (4/9) - (4/11) + (4/13) - (4/15) ...But in order to give the value of Pi correctly upto 5 decimal places, this series required around 500000 terms.Now, in the Indian tradition, another formula was given by Nilakantha, a mathematician of Kerala School of Mathematics who lived couple of centuries before Leibniz and the series converged much rapidly.π = 3 + 4/(2*3*4) - 4/(4*5*6) + 4/(6*7*8) - 4/(8*9*10) + 4/(10*11*12) - 4/(12*13*14) ...And in order to give the value of Pi upto 5 decimal places, this series required only 6 terms. And thats a great thing but which failed to catch the eye of westerners until the nineteenth century.Now, take into consideration all these and what Ramanujan did. Ramanujan simply penned down an infinite series, looking so horrendous, which would be equal to the reciprocal of Pi.And this is the most rapidly converging series ever given for the value of Pi and the algorithm based on this have actually been used in computers.Now the most beautiful factor. In order to have the value of Pi upto 6 decimal places the infinite series of Ramanujan needed only ONE SINGLE TERM.And you take the second term and there you have suddenly the value of Pi upto 11 terms in your hands.I think it speaks something Great, and Ramanujan was indeed Great!!!Ramanujan has done extensive works in finding out highly composite numbers, and he has written down a long list of similar numbers which had more factors than any of the previous number.The highest highly composite number listed by Ramanujan is 6746328388800Having 10080 factorsHe received his degree from the university (later named Ph.D) for his work of highly composite numbers.I would just say another thing which caught my eye and unleashed an array of thoughts.Ramanujan while sick and dying in India, mentioned some very peculiarly behaving functions which mimicked the original moldular functions.The mock theta functions remained a mystery for most part of the last century and only the Great Ono made inroads towards their reality.In fact, no one at the time understood what Ramanujan was talking about.It wasn’t until 2002, through the work of Sander Zwegers, that we had a description of the functions that Ramanujan was writing about in 1920,' Ono said.Ono and his colleagues drew on modern mathematical tools that had not been developed before Ramanujan’s death to prove this theory was correct.Ramanujan actually wrote those functions claiming that he saw it in a scroll in the hands of A Goddess.Anyway now they are used to calculate the entropy of Black Holes ( A concept which developed years after his death.)Ono’s team was stunned to find the function could be used today.'No one was talking about black holes back in the 1920s when Ramanujan first came up with mock modular forms, and yet, his work may unlock secrets about them,' Ono says.Ramanujan’s Intuition Stands OUT!I think, just for a fun I would show the Mock Theta FunctionsNow I think I shoudl mention atleast something about the impact of Ramanujan’s work on statistical physics.For example imagine studying the statistics of a gas made of electrons confined to 2D. You could do something complicated like model the exact positions and momenta of many of electrons along with the force between them. Or you can simplify by imagining that the electrons can only occupy positions on a discrete triangular lattice, and instead of a repulsive force you can make the simple approximation that two electrons aren't allowed to be next to each other.The result is the Hard hexagon model and some work of Ramanujan's appears when you try to model it. Even if it's not physically realistic, these models share characteristics with more realistic physical models and give useful insight.In fact a whole bunch of different identities related to Ramanujan's work can appear when you study these kinds of simple physical models, especially 2-dimensional models. Eg. Hard Hexagon ModelI think I will conclude with a simple assumption of Ramanujan, I think it deserves mention:The mock theta functions which we mentioned earlier looked unlike any known modular forms, but he stated that their outputs would be very similar to those of modular forms when computed for the roots of 1, such as the square root -1. Characteristically, Ramanujan offered neither proof nor explanation for this conclusion.It was only 10 years ago that mathematicians formally defined this other set of functions, now called mock modular forms. But still no one fathomed what Ramanujan meant by saying the two types of function produced similar outputs for roots of 1.Ono and his colleagues have exactly computed one of Ramanujan’s mock modular forms for values very close to -1. They discovered that the outputs rapidly balloon to vast, 100-digit negative numbers, while the corresponding modular form balloons in the positive direction.Ono’s team found that if you add the corresponding outputs together, the total approaches 4, a relatively small number. In other words, the difference in the value of the two functions, ignoring their signs, is tiny when computed for -1, just as Ramanujan said. Incredible Intuition !I am just adding some pictures I came across.his notebooks, the last three,His handwritings and works mentioned without calculation:I think I can say nothing more, but if at all someone asks me, I would say if I know!By the way, I have actally spoken nothing regarding the complex mathematical contributions of this great mathematician,even without that I think you are thrilled and that is why, even if the statement is wrong in itself.“ Ramanujan is the greatest Mathematician of all time, atleast I believe so.”

[無調漢語拼音的缺憾 Toneless Hanyu Pinyin can cause serious problems]GR Tonal Spelling makes names maximally distinctive; Hanyu Pinyin leads to a confusing blend of totally unrelated names that sound quite different to Chinese ears, but look exactly the same to foreign eyes. TL;DR 性命攸關 Outside of China, not using GR Tonal Spelling can have serious, or even life-changing consequencesThree names that look totally different in GR Tonal Spelling: confusingly blended in Hanyu Pinyin:Imaginary, but plausible names: 陸六贏醫師, 魯劉穎大師 and 盧柳鶯大師1. 陸六贏醫師 Dr. Luh Liowyng (Lù Liùyíng Yīshī), the dentist, bears the auspicious name 六贏 “six successes”2. 魯劉穎大師 Master Luu Liouyiing (Lǔ Liúyǐng Dàshī), the photographer, bears the name 劉穎, which is a pun on the word 留影 “take a photo [as a souvenir]” (this phrase is often used for photo captions)3. 盧柳鶯大師 Master Lu Leouing (Lú Liǔyīng), the musician, bears the name 柳鶯 “[literally] willow warbler”, one of many species of songbirds, some of which can be found in Taiwan.In Hanyu Pinyin (promulgated in 1958), Lù Liùyíng ≈ Lǔ Liúyǐng ≈ Lú Liǔyīng are spelled with exactly the same letters. These names look almost identical to foreigners who don’t know Chinese (most of whom ignore the tiny, untypable tone marks) but they sound and look completely different to Chinese police and bureaucrats (Chinese adults only care about the characters; Hanyu Pinyin is a study aid for small children).In GR Tonal Spelling (promulgated in 1928, but ignored by the PRC government), these three names look completely different: Luh Liowyng ≠ Luu Liouyiing ≠ Lu Leouing. Foreign police and bureaucrats cannot and will not learn Chinese characters. They only care about the spelling. Different spelling → obviously different peopleAnswer: Yes, people in Taiwan still use GR Tonal Spelling (a.k.a. Gwoyeu Romatzyh), but it is hiding in plain sight where most foreigners don’t bother looking (not just tour buses ;-). GR Tonal Spelling is used for naming people, clothing, household goods (rubber bands, insecticide), Chinese medicine, noodles, beverages, snacks, doctors’ offices, beauty parlors, restaurants, companies, schools etc.I took all of the photos below within the last month. I live in Taipei, but I managed to locate several samples of GR Tonal Spelling even in Kaohsiung, a DPP stronghold where Southern Min is more popular than Mandarin][Jyma Liuhdow 芝麻綠豆, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh)—a children’s clothing brand I found in a traditional market] [zhīma lǜdòu][Song Jer CPA 松哲會計師事務所, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh)—an accounting firm on Nanjing West Road in Taipei. The sign is bigger than the side of a bus, but is only visible when people look up from their cell phones ;-)] [Sōng Zhé][Piin U Bakery 品屋麵包蛋糕, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh), a bakery/coffee shop in Kaohsiung] [Pǐn Wū][Shiow Chwan Hospital 秀傳醫院, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu), a private hospital with branches all over Taiwan; name is slightly misspelled (omitted -i-)] [Xiù Chuán][Yuh Tay Farm 裕泰農場, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu)][jingpiin pyishye 精品皮鞋, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu), shoe shop in Kaohsiung]GR Tonal Spelling still appears side by side with Bopomofo in many monolingual Chinese dictionaries (字典、詞典) published in Taiwan. Foreign students tend to only consult bilingual dictionaries published outside of Taiwan, so they mostly don’t notice GR’s continued existence.[In Taiwan, dictionaries for native speakers include Bopomofo only, or a mixture of Bopomofo and GR Tonal Spelling/Hanyu Pinyin. Unfortunately, Pinyin is gaining ground; I saw these books in the 國語日報社 Mandarin Daily News bookstore]When it comes to romanization, what most foreigners do notice is the major exception to the use of GR Tonal Spelling: place names, which are a chaotic battlefield for three competing systems: the decrepit 150-year-old Wade-Giles system (and its cousin: Postal Romanization), 1958 Hanyu Pinyin and a modified Pinyin system (slightly different spellings) used mostly in southern Taiwan.Edit: GR Tonal Spelling still survives in certain localities:[Shinnyih Street 信義街 GR Tonal Spelling, 29 June 2019 (Gwoyeu Romatzyh, street sign)] [Xìnyì Jiē, Hanyu Pinyin]Rarely Asked Questions (RAQs)Many people take it for granted that one single commonly-used romanization system is all we need: whatever is used by the majority of Chinese people. The Hanyu Pinyin for everybody approach neglects to consider two important facts:(1) For many western learners, the use of optional diacritics implies that tones are also optional (“Tones are too subtle. I don’t need to be a perfectionist: muddling through is good enough. If I can find the time, I’ll master tones later!”)(2) For Chinese people who spend time abroad, an ill-considered choice of spellings can facilitate identity theft or lead to confusion. The consequences can include canceled credit, job loss, mistaken arrests, medical errors and expensive lawyer’s fees.Rarely-Asked Questions:RAQ 1: Who needs to use romanization?RAQ 2: What is the purpose of romanization?RAQ 3: Why should everyone use the same romanization?RAQ 4: Which problems does Pinyin (un)intentionally ignore?RAQ 5: How is 1928 GR Tonal Spelling better than 1958 Hanyu Pinyin?RAQ 1: Who Needs To Use Romanization?A: Children learning to read and write their native language for the first timeB: Chinese adults who want to# look up the correct pronunciation of less common or problematic words or characters# produce or consult lists or indexes# input characters on a computer or smartphoneC: Foreign students of Chinese, who need a tool for learning and annotating characters, and inputting them on a computer or smartphoneD: Foreign visitors who need an easy way to get around in China (identify people’s names, place names, names of products, items on a menu etc.)E: People outside of China who need easily-identifiable spellings for Chinese people and thingsRAQ 2: What is the purpose of romanization?Groups A & B: Romanization is supposed to correctly and unambiguously annotate the sounds of Chinese. Everything that sounds different to Chinese ears (initials 聲母, medials 介音, finals 韻母, and tones 聲調) should be explicitly marked when romanized. However, because of redundancies that are an integral part of Chinese phonology (音系規則, the Chinese sound system), people (especially computer users) can take shortcuts: tones are often left out, and IMEs (input method editors) can even ignore medials and finals (i.e. a computer user can type HYPY instead of hànyǔ pīnyīn: both yield the same result 漢語拼音).Group C: Foreign students are not aware of how Chinese sounds form patterns. Unlike native speakers, who learn phonology with their mother’s milk (so to speak), foreign beginners have definite trouble dealing with Hanyu Pinyin’s shorthand spellings.Hanyu Pinyin was designed for the convenience of native speakers of Chinese, so it is a less than ideal system for foreign learners, especially in the early stages.Group D: Tourists and short term visitors assume that Chinese is very difficult, so if they can go about their business without too much trouble, they are generally satisfied with Pinyin.Group E: This group has some limited, but very specific requirements that are not at all obvious to Chinese people who spend all their lives in a Chinese-only environment. Chinese people living in other countries need to be easily and unambiguously identified without referring to the Chinese characters of their names. This is where Hanyu Pinyin can cause EXTREMELY SERIOUS PROBLEMS.RAQ 3: Why should everyone use the same romanization?The five groups of users mentioned above have different needs that cannot all be properly served by Hanyu Pinyin. In the 1950s, when Hanyu Pinyin was designed, the world was a different place. The committee that set up and promulgated this romanization only needed to consider the needs of Chinese people within China. 60+ years later, the millions of Chinese who now live, travel or study abroad are affected by the shortcomings of Hanyu Pinyin’s shorthand spellings. Foreigners can also benefit from more than one approach.RAQ 4: Which problems does Pinyin (un)intentionally ignore?In 1956, Pinyin’s designers, who were influenced by Soviet linguists such as А. А. Драгунов 龍果夫, strove to create a simple China-only spelling system with single-letter spellings for each consonant. Thus, hard-to-type letters were used for common sounds: {ç = ch}, {ʐ = zh}, {ч = j}, {ŋ = ng}. Cyrillic, IPA and Latin letters were mixed together with no thought given to ease of use on standard ASCII typewriter keyboards: Robert Matthews (馬學進)'s answer to Why did the Chinese language begin using Latin letters for Pinyin?The 1958 final revision of Hanyu Pinyin finally settled on an all-Latin alphabet solution “with Chinese characteristics”, including some unique letter values that are not commonly used by European languages, such as q, x, z, c, u and i.Thus, people whose family name is either 徐 Xú or 許 Xǔ (both very common Chinese surnames: Shyu & Sheu in GR Tonal Spelling) are both spelled Xu, which many speakers of English will assume is pronounced the same as “Zoo”. Gross mispronunciations aside, Hanyu Pinyin can lead to much more serious problems.Because Pinyin tone marks are optional, the foreigner-readable versions of birth certificates, diplomas, degrees, household registration papers, hospital records, leases, licenses, passports and other documents do not show tones.Readers may ask: So what? Foreigners can’t pronounce tones anyway! What difference does it make?Here’s why. Including tones, Mandarin Chinese has about 1200 different syllables. For the sake of argument, let us assume that each and every syllable in Mandarin could be used as part of a name (obviously not true). Because most Chinese names consist of three syllables, GR Tonal Spelling could be used to write a maximum of 1200*1200*1200 = 1,728,000,000 phonetically distinctive names (although this would never be attempted, such a scheme would theoretically be enough for every person in China to have a unique name).https://www.quora.com/How-many-possible-syllables-are-there-in-Chinese-Mandarin/answer/Robert-Matthews-%E9%A6%AC%E5%AD%B8%E9%80%B2However, because Hanyu Pinyin omits tones, there is only a maximum of 400*400*400 = 64,000,000 distinctive names. Chinese names spelled in GR Tonal Spelling are much more distinctive than toneless Hanyu Pinyin names. 1,728,000,000 [GR] / 64,000,000 [PY] = 27 times more distinctive!Another way to put this: omitting the tones in romanized three-character Chinese names leads to potential information loss of as much as 96%.RAQ 5: How is 1928 GR Tonal Spelling better than 1958 Hanyu Pinyin?[Animated GIF: How abandoning GR Tonal Spelling led to scrambled Chinese surnames][Animated GIF: Different-Sounding Chinese Surnames That Are Unfortunately Blended In Pinyin]GR Tonal Spelling (a.k.a. Gwoyeu Romatzyh, National Phonetic Alphabet Version 2) was created by a small subgroup (數人會) of the committee responsible for creating National Phonetic Alphabet Version 1 (also known by the name Bopomofo or the anachronistic spelling Zhuyin Fuhao).The most important scholar behind the creation and popularization of GR Tonal Spelling is China’s greatest modern linguist, 趙元任 Chao Yuenren, a genius educated in the US who used his knowledge of mathematics, physics, music theory, phonetics and Chinese phonology to create a system based on “native speaker intuition” that also takes English orthographic habits into account (blending the two was not at all an easy task).GR Tonal Spelling is a “green” romanization that follows the Principle of Economy 經濟原則 and its three basic rules: keep, change, add 留改加. The 1st tone is usually the basic, unmodified form (“Keep”). The other three tones are spelled by making minimal changes to the basic form (“Change”), usually a different spelling for a glide vowel. If this is not possible, a letter is added (“Add”).Thus, tiau is a first tone form (spelled tiao in Hanyu Pinyin). The other three tones are spelled tyau, teau and tiaw. Notice how in each case the shape of the glide letter imitates the tone contour: The red bolded strokes of “y”, “e” and “w” are GIANT, indelible tone marks typable on any ASCII keyboard. They also provide valuable mnemonics for foreign learners struggling to remember the correct tones of words such as mae 買 and may 賣: “buy” and “sell”.Robert Matthews (馬學進)'s answer to As an English speaker, what's the best way to learn Chinese?[Animated GIF: 2nd tone tiau → tyau in GR Tonal Spelling; the tone mark is blended with the spelling of the medial vowel][Animated GIF: 3rd tone tiau → teau in GR Tonal Spelling; the tone mark is blended with the spelling][Animated GIF: 4th tone tiau → tiaw in GR Tonal Spelling; 4th tones are always marked at the end of a syllable: the tone mark is blended with the spelling]For almost 1900 years (since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty), the 反切 fǎnqiè / faanchieh system has been used to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters.Each Chinese syllable is split into two parts: 聲母 shēngmǔ/shengmuu “the initial” (the single consonant, if any, at the beginning of a syllable) and 韻母yùnmǔ/yunnmuu “the final” (the rest of the syllable, including the tone). Bopomofo modifies this tradition by using 2-4 symbols to represent each syllable.First tone 張 (a common surname) is marked in Bopomofo with only 2 symbols, ㄓ+ㄤ (first tone is not explicitly marked).GR Tonal Spelling, Bopomofo’s younger brother, is similarly economical. Only four letters are needed for 張: j+ang (just like in the faanchieh system, ang includes the first tone).Fourth tone 賬 (account) is marked in Bopomofo with three symbols, ㄓ+ㄤ+ˋ, and GR Tonal Spelling still only requires four letters: j+anq (again, just like in the faanchieh system, anq includes the fourth tone).Hanyu Pinyin follows the all or nothing European approach of either ignoring all tones or marking all of them with tiny optional diacritics not found on ASCII keyboards. Pinyin thus uses 6 symbols for 1st tone 張 z+h+a+ˉ+n+g (a+ˉ are combined) and six symbols for 4th tone 賬 z+h+a+ˋ+n+g (a+ˋ are combined)Hanyu Pinyin is a system better suited to native speakers who are intimately familiar with the Mandarin phonological system.Thus, in Hanyu Pinyin the letters “i” and “u” have multiple pronunciations:(1) When “i” is preceded by z, c, or s, it is automatically pronounced as an unusual (for European ears) apical vowel /ɿ/, a mosquito-like buzzing sound.(2) When “i” is preceded by zh, ch or sh, it is pronounced as a similar-sounding /ʅ/.(3) When “i” is preceded by any other consonant and not followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a very different-sounding “normal” vowel /i/.(4) When “i” is preceded by any other consonant and followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a semi-vowel /j/.(5) When “i” is preceded by “u”, it is pronounced as /ej/ (not /ui/), as in 對 dui “correct”Hanyu Pinyin’s “u” follows similar rules.(1) When “u” is preceded by z, c, or s, it is pronounced as /u/.(2) When “u” is preceded by zh, ch or sh and not followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as /u/.(3) When “u” is preceded by zh, ch or sh and followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a semi-vowel /w/.(4) When “u” is preceded by j, q, x, but not followed by any other vowel letter, “u” is pronounced as a front rounded semivowel /y/.(5) When “u” is preceded by j, q, x, but followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a semi-vowel /ɥ/ (palatal approximant)(6) When “u” is preceded by “i”, it is pronounced as /jow/, as in 休 xiu “to rest”, pronounced /ɕjow/, not /ziu/.Despite this hidden complexity, many foreigners who cut their teeth on Hanyu Pinyin swear by it and insist that it is much easier and more “reasonable” than GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh)’s traditional 反切 based approach, with its three basic rules.Hanyu Pinyin economizes on symbols by assuming that its users are native speakers who can figure out what sounds right (“i” and “u” rules) automatically. Foreign beginners and casual readers (people who only occasionally need to pronounce Chinese words) have a very difficult time.GR combines Bopomofo’s traditional Chinese 反切 analysis with an ingenious spelling system that is mnemonically-based (letters with shapes that resemble tone contours are used to spell tones) and much more foreigner-friendly than Hanyu Pinyin (even foreigners who have never learned any Chinese at all can usually make a passable guess).Basically, whatever looks different in Gwoyeu Romatzyh sounds different to Chinese ears, and whatever sounds different looks different, including the four tones of Mandarin Chinese.GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh) is widely used for spelling the names of well-educated people in Taiwan (doctors, lawyers, professors etc.).In Hanyu Pinyin, the following four names (Shy, Shyr, Shyy and Shyh) are blended together. Millions of people are forced to share one artificial giant surname (Shī + Shí + Shǐ + Shì → Shi) created for administrative convenience when producing foreigner-readable documents. Typing tone diacritics is a hassle: let Mr. Chabuduo handle everything.Professors, doctors etc. who use GR Tonal Spelling (painstakingly verified characters and professional details)[1st tone surname 施 SHy in GR Tonal Spelling] [Shī][2nd tone surname 石 SHyr in GR Tonal Spelling] [Shí][3rd tone surname 史 SHyy in GR Tonal Spelling] [Shǐ][4th tone surname 釋 SHyh in GR Tonal Spelling] [釋 is a surname adopted by Buddhists who give up their worldly property, including their original surnames] [Shì]A real-life example of potential confusion:(1) The PRC Ambassador to the German Federal Republic is 史明德 (spelled Shǐ Míngdé in “official” Pinyin).(2) Taiwan’s most famous political activist is 施明德 (spelled Shī Míngdé in “official” Pinyin).Imagine the confusion and embarrassment that would result if the PRC ambassador (Shi Mingde in “Street” Pinyin) was erroneously refused entry to a country that had banned the Taiwan activist (they seem to have exactly the same name)!Such problems could be easily eliminated if Chinese names were written using GR Tonal Spelling. 史明德, the ambassador, would be spelled Shyy Mingder and 施明德, the political activist, would be spelled Shy Mingder. The 1928 official spelling prevented such unfortunate misunderstandings.In Taiwan, even people with less common names use GR Tonal Spelling:[Surnames Jin 金 and Jinn 靳 (GR Tonal Spelling, Gwoyeu Romatzyh)]Surnames Bau 包 and Baw 鮑1. Professor Bau Da-Tian 包大靝http://webap.cmu.edu.tw/TchEportfolio/index_1/dtbauGraduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University2. Dr. Bau Tzong-ho 包宗和Professor of Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University監察院 - 人權主題網 ─ Members1. Aser Baw 鮑美瑟Animal Behavior Resource AssociationABRA國際認證訓練師資歷：2014 第二屆亞洲訓練師行為治療師培訓取得ABRA國際認證 LE 資格2. Wayne Baw 鮑維芳Wayne Baw 鮑維芳 (@waynebaw)https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-baw-9438a559/3. Spencer Baw鮑穎https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-4o7m65Xt6KAZejhUqT5FwIdentity Theft And Other Serious Problems Caused By Spelling ConfusionOutside of China, Hanyu Pinyin’s toneless version can lead to or facilitate:1) Mistaken Identity Arrests2) Identity Theft3) Credit Card Fraud4) Medical ErrorAll of these problems can cause financial pain or have life-changing consequences, such as job loss, imprisonment or even worse.1) Mistaken Identity ArrestsA policeman conducting a routine traffic stop may wind up arresting the driver. Why?For one thing, suspect descriptions on warrants can apply to many people: “A black-haired, thin Chinese man in his 20s”. Having a non-distinctive (no tones indicated), Pinyin-only name that is identical to the one on a warrant certainly wouldn’t help.[this subsection was upgraded from my reply to a comment by Ni Ming]:Taiwanese police have an excellent reputation for tracking down criminals and cracking difficult cases. I'm sure the mainland police are equally intelligent and professionally dedicated. Unfortunately, such praise is hard to apply to their American militarized counterparts, who have a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later.Even small town police departments use SWAT teams and armored personnel carriers to handle routine, non-violent cases (such as seizing a child with a fever late at night to take it to see a doctor). They use battering rams to smash down doors, shoot family dogs (even a chihuahua has been viewed as a “threat”) and leave extensive trauma in their wake, especially when they barge in on completely innocent people.If you Google “cops” + “wrong house”, or “cops” + “shoot dog”, you will get a flavor. I very much doubt American cops will stand patiently while listening to an explanation of the subtle tonal difference between three different Chinese surnames who are forced to share one single toneless spelling.Sara Angell's answer to Have you ever read something about yourself in your own medical notes that shocked you?Real people with false homonym namesForeigners outside of China have no way of knowing that 古真福, 顧振福, 辜振甫, 辜振富 are four different people. If they have PRC-issued ID documents, all four seem to have exactly the same name: Gu Zhenfu.Hanyu Pinyin: Gu Zhenfu ← Gǔ Zhēnfú, Gù Zhènfú, Gū Zhènfǔ, Gū ZhènfùThese are all real people:"古真福" - Google Search"顧振福" - Google Search"辜振甫" - Google Search辜振富 (Facebook)GR Tonal Spelling (different people, different names): Guu Jenfwu, Guh Jennfwu, Gu Jennfuu, GU JennfuhIf any one of these people commits a crime (such as ignoring a pile of unpaid parking tickets), the other three could mistakenly be arrested by a policeman whose warrant only says “Gu Zhenfu: wanted for being a scofflaw”.American police don’t fool around. Strictly following the law and making arrests improves their chances of promotion. What’s not to like?法律就是法律，美國警察不講人情.These supposed scofflaws will be thrown in jail, and they will wait for a judge to (hopefully) sort out the mess. How many innocent Chinese people have suffered because of an incomplete romanization that doesn’t work properly outside of China?1. Why Mistaken Identity Arrests Happen2. Can You Be Arrested with a Warrant for Someone Else? | WK LawBeing arrested, even if later proven to be a mistake, can have financial (expensive lawyers) and social consequences (job loss, shunning, shaming of one’s children), and there is sometimes nothing one can do.3. Man jailed based on mistaken identity can't sue, court rules***Examples of Mistaken Arrests Due to Having the Same Name1. Man With Accused Criminal's Name Battles Mistaken Identity2. Man Sues Police Over Mistaken Identity Arrest | Hartford Criminal Defense Attorney3. Woman held in case of mistaken identity to seek compensation [New Zealand]4. Innocent man arrested, jailed twice because of name5. This Woman Lost Kids and Job After Being Mistaken for Drug Trafficking Suspect with Same Name6. Mistaken identity leads to physical arrest of Victorville man at his front door7. Mistaken identity of same-name men causes wrong arrest by Edmond policehttps://www.edmondsun.com/news/mistaken-identity-of-same-name-men-causes-wrong-arrest-by/article_5715e26c-455d-11e6-bc1a-2fe6dfc0ba42.html8. When the Only Crime is a Common Name...9. Grandmother Arrested, Spends 5 Days in Jail.....Whoops, Wrong Person.2) Identity Theft3) Credit Card FraudIdentity theft is a serious problem that is often connected with credit card fraud. Because the US does not have a national ID card, other types of ID are used, some of which are easily forged.A case in point is signatures. Because they are not intimately familiar with Latin alphabet handwriting, many Chinese rely on a very simple foreign signature that is easily copied (to combat this problem in my university language classes, I often included instruction in cursive handwriting).Handwriting University Forgery Proof[Unhappy Consequences of Using Toneless Pinyin On Foreign Documents]A. Report: Medical Identity Theft – The Information Crime that Can Kill YouDefinition: “when someone uses an individual's identifying information, such as their health insurance information or social security number, without the individual's knowledge or permission, to obtain medical services or goods, or to obtain money by falsifying claims for medical services and falsifying medical records to support those claims.”Medical Identity theft can have all sorts of cserious consequences, including:1. Financial losses (you may be required to pay for someone elese’s expensive medical care),2. Harm from false entries in your medical record (such as being given the wrong type of blood)3. Insurance caps reached (Someone may have used up all of your coverage; any further treatment may be prohibitively expensive)Victims of medical identity theft find out the truth in many unexpected ways:1. collection notices (a collection agency insists that you have to pay a penalty for unpaid bills that have nothing to do with you)2. Notification by law enforcement, an insurance company, or a health care provider that you have a problem3. Your insurance company tells you that benefits have run out, or a “lifetime cap” has been reached (you have supposedly used up all of the benefits provided by your medical insurance)Report: Medical Identity Theft - The Information Crime that Can Kill YouB. Exploring Medical Identity TheftDesla Mancilla, MPA, RHIA, principal investigator and Jackie Moczygemba, MBA, RHIA, CCS, secondary investigator, associate professorPerspect Health Inf Manag. 2009; 6(Fall): 1e. || PMCID: PMC2804460 || PMID: 20169017Exploring Medical Identity TheftC. Medical Identity Theft in the Emergency Department: Awareness is CrucialMichelino Mancini, DOWest J Emerg Med. 2014 Nov; 15(7): 899–901. || doi: 10.5811/westjem.2014.8.22438 || PMCID: PMC4251251 || PMID: 25493150“According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), medical identity theft accounted for 3% of identity theft crimes, or 249,000 of the estimated 8.3 million people who had their identities stolen in 2005. More recently, the Ponemon Institute calculated that there were 1.84 million victims of medical identity theft in 2013.”Medical Identity Theft in the Emergency Department: Awareness is CrucialImage Credits (Public Domain images)Digital Camera, Happy Tooth images by Clker-Free-Vector-Images (Clker-Free-Vector-Images | Pixabay)Bubbleman images by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay (3dman_eu | Pixabay)Blender image: OpenClipart-Vectors from PixabayShi Mingde (the bigshot): CC BY-SA Raimond SpekkingShi Mingde (the Taiwanese activist): Public Domain image

Because after nearly 4 years of Trump, America is not ‘Great Again’ and in many ways it is worse than when he took office.Many ‘horrible’ things have happened despite the 2020 GOP convention attempting to rewrite history with distortions, exaggerations and outright falsehoods. For example, the GOP convention doom and gloom predictions about what will happen under Biden, are actually happening under Trump!Here are the facts on a dozen things happening in America and you can decide if they are ‘horrible’:Economy:GDP has plummetedSee how GDP dropped a bit in Q1 2020, dropped a lot in Q2 then bounced back up in Q3. But as you can also see Q3 2020 GDP, is still lower than Q2 2019. Furthermore the record Covid infections in Oct. will, we know, be followed by higher deaths a few weeks later. This doesn’t auger well for Q4 GDP but time will tell.Debt and deficit are rocketingManufacturing was in recession for about 9 months pre-Covid-19 caused partly by Trump’s 25% tariff on steel and aluminum. The US doesn’t buy any aluminum and barely any steel from China. The tariffs affected US allies and US companies. For more detail on Trump’s impact on manufacturing see Why has the US lost so many more manufacturing jobs under President Trump than prior presidents?Agriculture has been in recession for over 2 years. Trumps stupid trade war meant China found other places to buy soybeans, corn and pork . US Farmers have been going bankrupt at the highest rate since the 1930s Dustbowls and have been doing that for over 2 years despite the handouts they have received. See what farmers are saying: Some farmers turn on Trump amid coronavirus pandemic and China tensions.2. Unemployment:ref: Civilian unemployment rate. And another 1 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment insurance benefits last week. The Labor Department released its report on weekly unemployment insurance claims today (ref: Jobless claims): Initial jobless claims, week ended Aug. 22: 1.006 million vs. 1.000 million expected and vs. 1.104 million during the prior week. Continuing claims, week ended Aug. 15: 14.535 million vs. 14.44 million expected and vs. 14.758 million during the prior week.Donald Trump claimed he would be "the greatest jobs president God ever created."But the fact is he's the worst jobs president in recorded history.We can't afford another four years of his failed leadership. pic.twitter.com/uW10KJhMsV— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 18, 20203. Covid-19:Trump put the cart (restarting the economy) before the horse (making people feel safe). He didn’t learn either - now it’s reopen the schools before making people feel safe. See McKinsey on COVID-19: Saving thousands of lives and trillions in livelihoods.Obama handled 3 pandemics fairly successfully, left a national pandemic plan, stockpile, and team based on his foresight below. Trump didn’t replenish/maintain the stockpile, got rid of the team and didn’t use the plan and had no foresight, instead he publicly denied, lied (Woodward tapes show he knew it was airborne and 5X more deadly than flu on Feb 5th), he dithered and fundamentally mislead the country in this crisis.So this is where are we now and what’s forecast to happen?A US forecast is for over 300,000 dead by December: (ref: COVID-19 Projections)For more on this topic including why the US is doing worst in the world see:Why does Trump continue to blame the previous administration for the lack of resources available in the current coronavirus pandemic when he’s been President for almost 3.5 years?Why is the US worst in the world at handling the COVID-19 pandemic and about to get even worse with opening up? Is it bad leadership?4. Law and order: Trump claims to be the ‘law and order’ President but consistently demonstrates contempt for the law and the constitution. He is the President till January 2021. He has all the powers of the presidency now. There is nothing in ‘law and order’ that he can’t do now, re-election won’t add anything else. His ‘you’ve got to dominate’ approach to resolving the protests and riots has failed. Don’t re-elect failure or you are voting for more of the same.He has avoided the Black Lives Matter protests, choosing to deal with them by ‘dominating’ the streets, rather than recognizing legitimate peaceful protests and dealing with their concerns. I recently learned that the mass incarceration of black Americans was architected by William Barr when he was attorney general under George H. W. Bush. He wrote a paper arguing that much greater incarceration would result in a lower crime rate and wrote a report: The Case for More Incarceration. Barr's report influenced the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which aimed to increase the incarceration rate.[2] Read this report and form your own opinion: About 93% of racial justice protests in the US have been peaceful, a new report findsSimilarly, Trump claimed he’d ‘drain the swamp’. Well he hasn’t! Instead he made it worse with his and his appointees corruption. For more on this topic see Do you think Trump has drained the swamp as he said he would?Trump avoids responsibility and accountability and likes to blame others such as actual opponents or fictitious ones like the ‘Deep State.’ Stephanopoulos once made Trump accidentally undercut his own "deep state" FBI conspiracy theory. “You know what, you’d have to ask them,” Trump said. “And you know what — had that gone out before the election, I don’t think I would have had enough time to defend myself.” Even Trump agrees that had top FBI officials leaked word about the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia being under investigation in the months leading up to the election, it likely would have been fatal to his presidential hopes.5. Healthcare: look at the overall healthcare outcomes the US is achieving, pre-Covid-19 since Covid-19 is covered above. For example, in life expectancy the US ranked 46th (ref: Life Expectancy by Country and in the World (2020) and in child mortality the US ranked 33rd out of 36 OECD countries (ref: Findings International Comparison | 2018 Annual Report). Beyond poor average medical outcomes like these, the US pays twice as much per capita as other capitalist countries yet its citizens can expect lives that are 3 years shorter. Putting it another way, the US spends more per capita than any country in the world but 45 countries have longer life expectancy. See Is the private insurance sector setting healthcare in the U.S. back?Trump’s campaign promise on Obamacare was to Get rid of Obamacare and replace it with something "terrific" that is "so much better, so much better, so much better." He repeatedly promised that he would “immediately” replace Obama’s health care law with his own that would provide “insurance for everybody,” and be “much less expensive and much better” than the Affordable Care Act. Last month he promised to reveal it in two weeks. Of course nothing came, after 3.5 years as President there is no sign of Trump's replacement for Obamacare. Even as Americans are still are waiting for Trump’s big health plan reveal he is saying Obamacare Must 'Fall,' Trump Administration Tells Supreme Court, and in the meantime the uninsured rate has gone up (in 2018 for the first time in nearly a decade to 8.5% of the population, or 27.5 million people) according to the Census Bureau.6. Infrastructure:7. Freedom of the Press: President Trump told Lesley Stahl he bashes press 'to demean you and discredit you so ... no one will believe' negative stories about him. He calls the press the ‘enemy of the people’ as he tries to build authoritarianism. Trump continually projects his own failings and weaknesses onto his opponents, including calling the press, “the enemy of the people.” He’s following Joseph Goebbels advice: “Accuse your opponent of that which you are guilty” as he has divided America.8. The Rule of Law: I’m not a lawyer but it seems to me that the rule of law has become diluted. Immunity has led to impunity. Examples include:the President apparently can’t be indicted whilst in office,qualified immunity of the police,different treatment under the law according to your skin color,the actions of the Attorney General in support of the President and his officials,GOP Representatives and Senators aiding and abetting the avoidance of Congressional oversight,The intentional politicization of the courts through appointment of ‘thought to be biased’ judges...As former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recently said, “We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.” (ref: The Full Statement From Jim Mattis)9. Truth: is missing in action with Trump and his allies. His lies and misleading statements are often contradictory. For example, ‘Comey lied’ but ‘what Comey says proves that I was telling the truth’, and who could forget, the ‘fake Mueller Report’ that ‘totally vindicates The President’ such that he’s totally exonerated and yet that report ‘is all lies’. Hmm, which is it?! Also see president-trump-has-made-more-than-20000-false-or-misleading-claims/ and here’s some of the lies in Trump’s convention acceptance speech:Someone give @ddale8 a raise.pic.twitter.com/id6dZ1gDdv— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 28, 2020Truth matters, science matters, having informed leaders matters, having honest leaders matters.Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President.” - Theodore Roosevelt10. Politics: With very few exceptions (eg Romney after the impeachment trial) Republican politicians are loyal to their party/cult but I think most of them have a higher loyalty to themselves - particularly to preservation of their jobs and benefits that come with them. In order of priority:ThemselvesParty/cultCountryConstitution - despite their oaths of office!"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair, Pulitzer Prize winner11. Constitution: this is not a list by importance or this one would be first. Trump aided by his enablers has driven a bus through much of it. For example, by ignoring the checks and balances duties of Congress, and by ignoring the emoluments clause - we appointed a businessman, who made it his business to funnel taxpayer money to himself as he golfs at his own properties, and to direct government patronage to his businesses.It has taken four years for Republican senators to admit, "yes, Trump conspired with the Russians in 2016," see G.O.P.-Led Senate Panel Details Ties Between 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia."There is a cult of ignorance in the United States… It is nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." - Isaac Asimov12. Corruption: see this answer for more detail,but bottom line, the US became measurably more corrupt during Trump’s tenure. We can compare the state of the swamp that Trump inherited to the state he left it in. The USA dropped from 18th in the 2016 ranking of public sector corruption by country, to 25th in 2020 (see Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 for United States and the derived graph below):Which countries are less corrupt than the USA in 2020? In order from least corrupt, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Iceland, Japan, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, France, Bhutan, Chile.I could carry on (international leadership, immigration, etc.) but as ‘horrible’ as many of these are today, I think and hope all of them can and will be fixed, with the support of the majority of Americans. As Churchill said, “Americans will always do the right thing - after exhausting all the alternatives”Stay safe.Edit: don’t just take it from me - here it is from Fox News: Fox News Poll Reveals Decidedly Mixed View Of Donald Trump's Four Years, “55% said the United States was in worse condition now than it was four years ago, while 32% said that it was better, and only 11% said it was the same.”