A Friend Whom I still Remember and Wish to Know

Six months ago I asked one of my female cousins about how her best friend is doing. The three of us went to the same elementary school back in Gaozhou, and I had a crush on her best friend. I had my hopes.

I found out that she was studying to become a clinical psychologist. It was an odd choice, my cousin mentioned, because the recognition and treatment of psychological disorders is not widely talked about in Southern China. Reminiscing about her, it didn't seem odd at all. She was quiet, had good grades, and hid a tremendous will. The imagination that one can change things and people around her for the better is a universal dream. Becoming a clinical psychologist is a... romantic way of realizing it. But why not? If a person can be happy in changing society for the better, then they deserve pleasure in their choice of jobs.

"She has a boyfriend", my cousin said. Ok, fair enough, I thought to myself - when you really want to know, then the truth is inevitable.

"Her boyfriend is wealthy too, he comes from a family that is pretty successful in commerce" Right, directly to the business then.

After struggling to word everything carefully, I asked my cousin if she had a picture of her friend. She asks, puzzled, "For what?"

When I said it was for reminiscence, cousin retorted back, "What is there to reminiscence about?"

I had to chide my cousin to get away with it all. Yet... what is there to reminisce about?

Five Four

Had it been spurred mainly by economic grievances, it would have little resonance in today’s China, where the standard of living in the cities is so much higher than it was then. If it had been moved by a desire for things American, satisfaction has in many ways been more than granted: fast food, Hollywood films, television quiz shows are everywhere, business principles are exercised more vigorously at all levels of administration than in the US itself. The reason the memory of 4 June still haunts officialdom is that it was about something that high-speed growth and giddy consumerism have not altered. For despite all the economic records it is setting, China today is not a sea of social calm.

Diary - Chaohua Wang

Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk

Raining pretty hard these few days. A welcome respite in this region. Roommates and work group went to Schlitterbahn and San Antonio for the weekend, but I didn't want to go to the water park again.

This week, traveling abroad came up during work. Nigeria came up simply because it is so dangerous. Separated by distance and fascinated by colleagues who had been there, people talk about it with equal measures of relief and envy. This is a country that looses almost half of its oil income to corruption and theft. Daily, people try to tap into pipelines by blowing part of it up or drill holes in them. And when they get injured or killed, the oil company gets blamed.

One has gotten accustomed to thinking that the Middle East is not safe. But the most problematic country, Saudi Arabia, has kicked out every other foreign company a long time ago. Its state oil company, Saudi Aramco, dwarfs all the Majors. It single handedly controls all the oil in the kingdom. The kingdom, meanwhile, has become a buffer in the Middle East. It separates the Israel, Iraq, and Turkey hot zone from the relatively stable southern Arabian peninsula.

Everyone wants to go to Oman. The safest country in the middle east. It would not be an exaggeration to say it is safer than Houston. One can drive at any time to the beautiful interior, or enjoy the beaches. Dubai is mere hours away by plane...

Making of an EVE industrialist - part deux

The strip miner business is going smoothly. Since last month, I have been able to reduce waste on the laser manufacturing process by 12% by training up my production efficiency skill. A miner that use to have a 25% waste factor has been reduced to merely 13%, and sometimes 9% for parts that require the rarer, more expensive refined minerals. This means margins have increased. Before, it used to take 1.5 million ISKs to create a miner, now it takes 1.35 million ISKs; an 10% cost reduction on every unit I make.

Marketing and distribution

Manufacturing is the easiest part of this enterprise. It take no more than collecting the required materials in the appropriate amounts, a blueprint, and clicking on a button. Setup cost and running cost of production is negligible. Anyone can use a manufacturing spot on a space station, the availability of which is driven by supply and demand.

The real cost is in the time it takes to transport materials into the manufacturing station and selling the finished products. I use to manufacture in large bulks and sell them in bulks with a single price. However, In EVE, products have no brands, and therefore distribution and pricing are the only strategies. I discovered that I can make more money if I produce in fewer batches.

By producing in smaller batches, I can price my products according to the supply and demand at several different points in time as oppose to one point in time. Smaller batches are also easier to sell because the market lists the sellers from the least amount of a product on escrow to the most amount of a product on the market. I was able to achieve 80% sales within the first hour of putting my products in the market as oppose to days when placing them in bulks.

There are times, however, when an industrialist with a better researched blueprint flood the market with hundreds of units of strip miners at fire sale prices. No other prices come even close and the other products takes days, even weeks to sell. Eventually, when those cheap miners gets sold, there is a surprising lull in the market as the other manufacturers have basically gave it up for a few days. During this time, the rest of the products gets slowly cleared from market and a shortage occurs. I stumbled on to this lull one or two times and was able to price my miners at ridiculous prices and have them sold within 2 to 3 hours.

Lectures about Heaven - Thomas Laqueur

Stern’s ancestors stood at the pinnacle of the Bildungsbürgertum, the cultivated middle class, who regarded culture generally and Wissenschaft – science in the broadest, purest sense – as the core of an ethical and useful life, both private and public. All four of his great-grandfathers, both grandfathers and his father were successful, well-regarded doctors. The physician’s white coat, as Stern writes, ‘was the one uniform of dignity to which Jews could aspire and in which they could feel a measure of authority and grateful acceptance’. Although medicine was in the 19th century, as it is today, far from a pure science, it held out the promise of a dispassionate, unideological, rational approach to the ills of the body, both social and individual. It was, in Max Weber’s sense, ‘a calling’, a secular equivalent to being chosen by God for his purposes. Germany’s Jews embraced this calling: at the beginning of the 19th century, perhaps 2 per cent of German doctors were Jews; by the early 20th century, at a time when Jews constituted something like 1 per cent of the population, they provided 16 per cent of all doctors. The proportion was far higher in big cities. Excluded from the higher ranks of the civil service and the military, medicine offered them entry into the life of the nation.

Forgiving Germany

Foreigners surveyed about Chinese cinema

So how do you factor in?

After coming to China, what do you think the greatest difference is between China in the movies and China in reality?

2. It's not a bunch of fighting all the time - you never see people who know kung-fu or who can fly: 18%

EVE

Playing EVE itself is a constant lesson in market capitalism.



I started a strip miner manufacturing business with the help of some capital donation. Since I have no compunction to generate a return right away, I squandered a few million ISKs just shopping around, buying a few frigates and fitting them to my fancy. By the time I started manufacturing, the business is under tremendous financial pressure from daily operating activities.

Another mistake was inadequate research: I got into the strip miner manufacturing business because EVE's economy is based on mining; strip miners, along with their tech 2 cousins, Strip Miner II, are the most powerful mining lasers in EVE. My logic was to tap into this constant demand and go for a steady stream of income... but a variety of factors proved that the initial optimism is simply nativity.

One, I chose to manufacture and sell in the most competitive solar system in the game: Jita. It is the biggest market exchange in the universe with 500 players buying and selling on average and 700 on peak time. The pricing arbitrage that takes place is a killer. Not only are input prices high due to the fact a lot of rich players shop here, but the margins for end-user products are extremely low because of the price competition.

Two, the capital involved for strip miner manufacturing is tremendous. Aside from the blueprint, the materials involved in making a strip miner costs more than 1 million ISKs. As an upstart industrialist researcher, my character's low manufacturing skills means that the production process is very wasteful. Around 25% of the input materials are discarded as waste. This puts the manufacturing cost of one unit of strip miner around 1.5 million ISKs. At one time, the prices for strip miners in Jita are little more than 1.5 million ISKs, recouping the initial capital will take weeks at this rate.

Three, time and distance is a big factor in buying and selling. Since all the public manufacturing facilities are already in use in the region, I had to establish my base of operations in a system one jump away from Jita. The difference in this one jump is between night and day. Because the new system is not in The Forge region as Jita, the products do not show on the Jita market. Here the demand for mining tools is really erratic and unpredictable. Sometimes it takes weeks to sell one product. In addition, materials are just as difficult to procure as for end-user goods to sell. Transporting the finished good is not the problem, but getting the raw material input to the location is a huge headache. By myself, I had to spend hours in my destroyer hauling the materials purchased in Jita. Later I was to mitigate this factor by learning the skills and purchasing an industrial for the hauling. One problem is apparent: the operation is going to face big scaling challenges.

The Stasi on Our Minds - The New York Review of Books

The Lives of Others

Liked this movie very much, despite its faults.

when the petals depart from the flower
当花瓣离开花朵

the faint aroma remains
暗香残留

the aroma fades after wind and rain
香消在风起雨后

and no one comes to smell
无人来嗅

if love tells me to continue on
如果爱告诉我走下去

I will press forward to the end
我会拼到爱尽头

if heart dies in the splendor
心若在灿烂中死去

love would revive in the ashes...
爱会在灰烬里重生


难忘缠绵细语时
用你笑容为我祭奠
让心在灿烂中死去
让爱在灰烬里重生
烈火烧过青草痕
看看又是一年春风
当花瓣离开花朵
暗香残留

Erinnerung an die Marie A.

On that day in blue-mooned September
Quietly under a young plum tree
I held her there, that silent pale love
In my arm like a graceful dream.
And above us in the beautiful summer sky
was a cloud, which I saw for a long time
It was very white and immensely high
And when I looked up, there was no longer a sign.

Since that day many, many moons have
Quietly swum down and past.
The plum trees probably have been chopped off
And you ask me, how is it with the love?
So I say to you: I cannot remember.
And yet, sure, I do know what you mean
But her face, I really do not know it anymore
I only still know: Once I kissed it.

Even the kiss, I would have forgotten it long ago
had the cloud not been there
That I still know and will I always know
Very white it was and came from above.
Perhaps the plum trees are still flowering
And that women now perhaps has her seventh child
But that cloud blossomed only for minutes
And when I looked up, it already was disappearing in the wind.

In the lovely month of May

Haven't written a real post in a while.



Probably read more books outside of class in the last four years than in class. The bad news is that the total number of those books are not many. The more interesting authors are Naipaul, Borges, various contributors of the LRB. At the moment I feel like reading nothing in particular and just something in general.

Some occasions, realized that the girl in front of me is a pale imitation of the woman I want. It is hard to imagine less when you think you have seen your ideal.

Staying another year in school. Why? To take ballroom dancing, read a bit more outside of class, build the resume a bit more, take a few more Chinese lit classes.

Wish there are more peers with the same interests and more lofty ideals. Most people just want to get by and not leave their mark on the world; they scoff at the notion of contributing something back to society, of making it better through sheer will and intellect. Even in this day and age of specialization and free exchange of ideas... disappointed.

Apocalypto

"My son... don't be afraid."

Spiderman 3

Too much exposition; where is the inquiry? where is the subtlety?

Rushed. Good overall, but the other points prevented it from being great.

安静 - 周杰伦

...
你要我说多难堪
我根本不想分开
为什么还要我用微笑來带过
我沒有这种天份
包容你也接受他
不用担心的太多
我会一直好好过

你已经远远离开
我也会慢慢走开
为什么我连分开都迁就着你
我真的沒有天份
安静的沒这么快
我会学着放弃你
是因为我太爱你
...

Regression toward the mean and cruel

In the marketplace of ideas, competition creates virtue.

Some people here at the business school have no maturity to participate in an open academic environment. Their grades might have gotten them here, but grades alone shouldn't keep them here. Trying to silence dissent and claim sole credit for teamwork is not only petty, but worst of all - against the spirit of the marketplace of ideas. The best part is that they end all their speech with a quote about how great a leader they are. How they can afford to live with that attitude and intellectual dishonesty just baffles me.

50 BS Jobs

Stanley Bing

Necons in the Treasury

In Gold Digging, China Matters writes:

"Glaser injudiciously escalated the confrontation by promising further investigation of mom-and-pop banks in Macau, possibly an indictment of BDA’s directors for being knowing conspirators (something that was bruited about in the Macau press) and, most unwisely, threatened to make it known that Treasury considered Bank of China Macau to be implicated in the North Korean money laundering web.

This kind of threat against the reputation and viability of Bank of China Macau is the best explanation I can come up with for China’s remarkably harsh and pointed subsequent summons to Treasury...

If the sanctions against BDA were removed explicitly to facilitate the Six Party Agreement, then the legitimacy of Patriot Act Section 311 investigations—and their intimidating aura of implacable, inexorable malice—would be lost.

And Daniel Glaser and his boss, Stuart Levey, would look like jerks who had been using the pretext of supposed U.S. law enforcement obligations to promote a secret, unilateral, destabilizing North Korea policy under false pretenses...

Given the general contempt for North Korea and the credulity and sloppiness of most Western reporting on this subject, the only reason that we know or care that the Treasury Department is out to screw the North Koreans no matter what is the embarrassment and chaos its intransigence has brought to American diplomacy."

Ignorance Collides With Political Naïveté, and the Olympics become the Sandbox for the Promulgation of the Yellow Peril

"One possibility that activists are weighing: trying to get Olympic athletes to carry a replica of the Olympic torch from Darfur to the Chinese border."

Darfur Collides With Olympics, and China Yields - New York Times

Perhaps Steven Spielberg should read The Twisted Triangle: America, China, and Sudan and redirects his letter to the Bush administration.

The Good Tinker

Just watched The Good Shepherd. It reminded me of Smiley's People.

It seems the people who prefer discretion are the ones end up leaving their mark in the world.

April Fools from the Chinese media

Better than anything you read in the U.S.

some examples are: PhD holders are exempt from the one child policy, China would return to Daylight Savings Time, the Qianmen Tower had been sold off, Jinan had installed pipes for beer distribution, and counterfeit goods could be legally purchased with counterfeit money

and of course there is the other stuff about problems of higher education in China

Accountants, the soldiers of modernity

There is a Chinese saying, "Don't use good steel to make nails; don't use good people to make soldiers." We hear that from our parents, we hear that from our peers. If there is a profession that suffers the same level of under appreciation, it would be the accountant.

I suspect the hierarchy of the prestige ladder for Chinese people all over the world looks something like this:

1. Doctor (U.S. ones, of course)
2. Lawyer
3. Engineer (hard sciences)
4. Scientist
5. Entrepreneur (in China)
6. Engineer (software)
7. Accountant

For Chinese expats in the U.S.:

1. Doctor
2. Investment banker
3. Lawyer
4. Engineer (hard sciences)
5. Engineer (software)
6. Scientist (professor)
7. Entrepreneur
8. Accountant

The scientist is less desired by the Chinese community in the U.S. because they are so badly compensated. You spend your whole life to get a PhD and then end up getting paid $50,000 a year doing research in a lab.

The entrepreneur is lower on the ladder because the Chinese community here is conservative. Chinese parents prefer their kids to get jobs in big MNCs for job safety and also bragging rights "Oh yeah? my son works in the #3 Fortune Global 500 company!"

But, those who become scientists and entrepreneurs are true idealists, admired for their technical mastery and daring visions. So that leads me to the last on the ladder, the accountant.

Let me clarify the previous Chinese saying, one would not "willingly" use good steel for nails, nor "willingly" use good people to make soldiers. So, in this day and age, who would "willingly" become an accountant?

The idealist? Sure, young Chinese people dreammmm of becoming a number cruncher sitting in front of a general ledger.

The materialistic? I could start as an analyst in an investment bank for $100,000 a year, or I could be an accountant, working the same hours, and getting paid 50% less. The latter sounds like a deal!

To be sure, those who know a bit more about the accounting profession would say that Due Diligence and Compliance work approach the same level of respect that lawyers get, but doing anything meaningful in these work require you to be a Partner in any well respected accounting firm.

In short, there are very few people in the Chinese community who would willingly become accountants because the profession is perceived as equivalent of becoming a soldier. Indispensable? yes, like nails, but also commodity, expandable. Who would let their good sons and daughters become that?

Constructing the Future

builders are now able to build with incredible precision with robots

from Monocle

Study says: leave the multitasking to your computer

it took an average of 15 minutes to return to the task they were working on after being interrupted

our context-switching penalty is extremely high

Even a small distraction such as a noticeable sound playing in the background can hamper the formation of "declarative memory," which is necessary for a full understanding of a new idea.

Yu Qiuyu: why book reading is a waste

Unlike the yearnings of literati of old, I do not believe that reading is an important affair. Investigation, travel, experience, and creativity are more important for cultural insight.:

"Literature is somewhat different, but the American author Singer said that one sign of a mature writer is that he no longer reads books. For the highest plane of writing is consulting one's own soul and facing the silence of nature."

黑社会 Election

I was really impressed by this movie. The knife fight scene(probably the only real fight scene in the whole movie) is intense in an movie that is filled with battles fought with wit.

I did not imagined the sequel: 黑社会2以和为贵 - Election 2 could best the first movie, but it surprised me. The ending message is just chilling. Just imagine that everything you do is really the whim of a greater power.

The unbearable weariness of being

=( on recruiting. My self-esteem right now is like an old man who keeps yelling, "Oiy-my knees!"

Amazon's Series of Fortunate Events

Computing power finally becomes a commodity

"...a high school student can rent one of the best, most proven, storage platforms of them all -- for a little less than $.50 per month. If he or she is willing to lay off the occaissional candy bar, he/she can be on an equal web infrastructure footing with the richest technology companies in the world. If I was an investor in MSFT, I might even ask if investing $200 million in Amazon makes more sense than $2 billion on your own technology and starting from scratch."

As Far as Florence

Netvibes RIP

Google finally puts its weight behind personalized homepage, and the result is beautiful.

Interview with Lego CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp

Lego finishes restructuring

sorrowing, as water streams without

I could speak to her on a day like this,
on a day when it rains as heavily.
You can open your heart on a day like this –
when you hear the clouds as the rain pours down
in gloom unbroken by light.

Those words won’t be heard by anyone else;
there’s not a soul around.
Just us, face to face, in each other’s sorrow
sorrowing, as water streams without
interruption;
it’s as if there’s no one else in the world.

Chinese financial magazines and media

From personal experience, Chinese magazines, TV talk shows regarding finance are much more technical than their U.S. counterparts.

The financial magazines and talk shows in China engages with the audiences very well. In this regard they mix investigative reports, common people reactions from the street along with technical exposés by famous financial figures in the U.S. It is no wonder then, these finance magazines and talk shows are ranked rather highly in the reader and viewer ratings.

In some aspect, this detailed technical focus reflects a tremendous curiosity and desire on the part of the audience to learn everything about the market.

Gmail outages

What is with the erratic outages lately? If Gmail turns out to have the same amounts of problems as blogger has, it is really going to hit Google's reputation. I couldn't access Gmail for over 30 minutes in just the past week. That puts Gmail's reliability around ~99.8%. This means I wouldn't want to use Gmail to communicate if I were the Navy or doing anything important, like pulling a major presentation that is worth 30% of my grade on Gmail for backup... oh wait, I just did that. Luckily I have a backup on flash drive.

Perhaps I am paranoid, but I see cracks everywhere on Google's services. Google spreadsheet being out competed by best of breed applications like EditGrid down the road. Lack of progress on natural language search and vertical search (although Google blog search is a good start). Blogger still remains behind the curve in terms of offering features that its competitors have for a long time. Now Gmail is having weird problems. Blogger and Gmail both have reliability issues. So instead of buying into Google when the stock price were at $440, I put my money into the S&P index.

Google really needs to refine its products now that they are mainstream, and focus on providing value added services for these products. It needs to do so in order to differentiate itself from all the upcoming startups, and must offer quality in order to survive.

Things

Things. In deluges.

Openings and closings, some are just the way I imagined them to be. I always smirk about the saddest things.

Time will pass you and this post by, and you would have gained nothing but a sense of your own mortality. Could there be a more sorrowful thing in the world?

The Buena Vista Social Club!

is awesome.

The Hardest Heart - Blank and Jones

Let the morning sun proclaim
The light of the world
Let the golden day unfurl
On every wave
On every hill

Each angered fist uncurl
Caress the hardest heart
Stir the sleeping earth
Each stone
Each blade of grass

The soul of the world
Ignite a brand new day
Let the morning sun proclaim
A brand new start
Caress the hardest heart

Caress the hardest heart

The soul of the world
Ignite a brand new day
A brand new start
A brand new way

Parenting Advice from a Polish Holocaust Hero

Janusz Korczak

Search engine arbitrage and the decline of Google

R/W mentions that California is home to quarter of top 100 alt search engines. What is amazing about this news is not that California is the center of web innovation, rather, it is striking that there are 100 alternative search engines (and them being mentioned).

Other search engines like Naver are gaining strength in the local and vertical search markets. What puzzles me is that there are so few news about Google's search engine innovation in comparison to the torrents of startup specialized search engine companies. If Google fails to keep up in areas of natural language searches and vertical search, then it will loose its technology leadership. Furthermore, this might pave the way for best of breed products to replace Google in different industries. Result: erosion of Google market share.

Where is my termocline transducer?!

Wave farms

renewable energy from the oceans

Liechtenstein invaded!

Fri Mar 2, 8:51 AM ET

ZURICH, Switzerland - What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.
ADVERTISEMENT

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

"We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army.

雷场相思树

1986年电影《雷场相思树》片段 - 胡亚捷媒体资源

The Lives They Left Behind is the title of the movie.

Low quality, heavily abridged version. The files are in Real Player format.
http://kmyc.gbaopan.com/bt/e0/e07b622a92214cbe938a6e62aacfc25f.torrent
http://kmyc.gbaopan.com/bt/12/1267099c5eb44c9e8f9b4876533cf4aa.torrent

Windows for Warships nears frontline service

For a Type 45 to be even vaguely worth having, you really do need five-nines, rock-solid dependability. A 90 per cent punt won't do here. Against six sea skimmers, that equates to only a 53 per cent chance of survival.

Wealth managers: The new masters of the universe

Catching up with the Joneses

Al Qaeda has a China problem

Al Qaeda has a China problem, and no one is watching. Despite al Qaeda’s significant efforts to support Muslim insurgents in China, the Chinese government has succeeded in limiting popular support for anti-government violence.

When She Makes More Money Than He

At $45 Billion, New Contender for Top Buyout - New York Times

Two Nobel laureates sit down and talk about the dangers of today

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China's lost talent overseas

YouTube - Real battle field video from Chinese Army (1984) part 1 of 7

Documentary. About The Second Sino-Vietnam war of 1984-1989. Part 1 of 7. The series shows the team taking a hill in 15 minutes.

Sarfraz Manzoor: When art imitates life

on memoirs

EditGrid - New Online Spreadsheet, Better Than Google Spreadsheets

I use it; its pretty nice.

Congress to FCC: You've got some splainin' to do

Google defeated in Belgian copyright case; everyone but Google loses

Ma Ying-jeou resigns

My guess, the DPP controlled judiciary will find Ma guilty, sentence him to maximum number of years in jail, therefore giving the DPP victory in the next election.

don't want to sleep yet but must in order to wake up early. can't wake up early because I am forcing myself to lie in bed

If GRRM were to write the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree, it would be the greatest story of all time. Until then...

His is the song of ice and fire

What makes a master?

A Chinese air conditioner tycoon

A singing workforce, Mongolian millionaires in Porsches, and saving the planet—inside the empire of a Chinese tycoon with more than money on his mind

Zhang has never wavered from this technology, even when, in the early 2000s, market conditions temporarily turned against it and his sales force begged him to add normal, electric-powered air conditioners to Broad’s offerings. Its advantages all involve energy savings. Compared with typical compression systems, nonelectric air-conditioning as Broad makes it will always require less energy per unit of cooling, because when energy is converted from one form to another, some of it is lost. Electric-compression cooling requires more stages of conversion—fossil fuel to electricity at the power plant, electricity to mechanical power at the compressor, both stages very wasteful—than does using natural gas to boil liquid. Nonelectric cooling will also always be more adaptable to other sources of energy, since it is easier to apply a variety of heat sources, including solar power and biomass burning, to do the boiling than to use them to generate electricity in a remote plant and transmit it to the air-conditioning site. And this method of cooling helps reduce the costly peak loads imposed on the power grid, because natural gas is cheapest and most abundant in the summer, exactly when the demand for air- conditioning goes up. Indeed, since storing natural gas is expensive and difficult, in many countries the available gas is simply burned off—wasted—during the summer, when no one needs it for heating. In China, air-conditioning accounts for as much as 50 percent of the electric load during peak times in the summer. Zhang pointed out to me—as he has noted in countless speeches, and as is emphasized by the Harvard Business School case study—that with all of these advantages, his kind of air-conditioning can make both the electric and the natural-gas networks less wasteful while still keeping people cool in the summer. And while we’re at it: the nonelectric systems use a relatively benign natural salt (lithium bromide) rather than using—and inevitably releasing—Freon and other chlorine-based products that erode the Earth’s ozone layer.

Chinese refusal to recognise the authority of the Vatican is an "act of war", Hong Kong's cardinal tells the BBC.

Er, ok.

I think the cry of English kings down the centuries was, "Who runs Britain - the government or the Vatican?" Or in this case, "Who runs China - the government or the Vatican?"

Costume dramas sing the main theme

As Ming Dynasty 1566 was being broadcast, an official in SARFT's TV show department revealed that starting in February and lasting for at least eight months, all cable TV stations would have to broadcast "main theme" television shows during prime time. As the news circulated, many local stations expressed confusion over the concept, not understanding where the line would be drawn - for example, would Ming Dynasty 1566 be considered main theme? Subsequently, an official at SARFT explained that "main theme" should be interpreted broadly, that it would primarily be a look at the value orientation of a show; as long as a show had a positive, uplifiting attitude toward life and expressed desirable emotions, there would, in general, be no problems. This could be a very innovative definition. Judging from this interpretation, Ming Dynasty 1566 ought to fall under the "main theme."

This is not an imperial drama that preaches reverence for royal power. What it describes is not the "rise of a great nation," but rather the lessons of a great nation's fall. This is the critical era when feudal Chinese society moved from prosperity into decline. Here, we see the corruption of the political system and the loss of humanity, we see the rulers issuing decrees and the insecurity of the common people, and we see the long-absent Hai Rui - he lambasted the emperor, was dismissed from office, and 400 years later even became the fuse that set off the Cultural Revolution - at odds with the bureaucratic system. The show discovers the impotence of morality yet praises moral beauty. It seems to lead us to believe that the just, upright, filial Hai Rui is the backbone of the Chinese people, a representative of outstanding culture, the hope of modern China. There is no question that the Hai Rui of Ming Dynasty 1566 is yet another performance of the "main theme" of the traditional spirit of the Chinese people.

However, in that age of exploding population, a calcified system, slack law enforcement, and an insular country, regardless of how pure or corrupt the officials or how worthy or foolish the emperor, the sun would ultimately set on the massive, once-flourishing empire that had exhausted its potential. Hai Rui used a Puritan-like moral self-discipline and lofty ideals as instruments to transform society, intervening in land rights, placing limits on the brutal gentry, and controlling corruption, but ultimately things could not be repaired, and things even turned out contrary to his desires. Morality evidently cannot replace the rule of law; public opinion cannot replace the rule of law; severe penal codes cannot represent a true legal system. Hai Rui used all his strength to sound the "main theme," but it was the "Guangling Melody"* of the old era, and ultimately never entered the powerful current of modernity.

The Kingdom of This World

In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no grandeur to be won, inasmuch as there all is an established hierarchy, the unknown is revealed, existence is infinite, there is no possibility of sacrifice, all is rest and joy. For this reason, bowed down by suffering and duties, beautiful in the midst of his misery, capable of loving in the midst of afflictions and trials, man finds his greatness, his fullest measure, only in the Kingdom of This World

Disappointed by 龙应台's writings. She seems to think that Chinese people are sheep incapable of thinking or acting for themselves and therefore must be guided like children (shown in 中国人，你为什么不生气？）.

She also helped promulgate the stereotype that Shanghainese men (and of course by extension - Chinese men) are effeminate.

This reminds of me of something in our 12th grade AP U.S. history book. It mentioned an American female (anti)feminist who urge women to wait for their husbands to get home from work by wearing an apron, "and that's all!".

Ok, the comparison is a bit crude and comic. So are 龙应台's writings.

Prejudice for all

Stereotypes of Chinese people from different regions of the country.

Scientists 'reverse' vCJD signs

Is modern Chinese in need of a revival?

In this sort of outcome, the variety of unique perceptions and creative discovery stemming from individual observation have been obliterated. I am indeed speaking, but not my own words; rather, I am following the current thinking pattern, as if a steamroller has rolled across my heart.

Read the comments

Love is the Pulse of the Stars

Something from my childhood:

A gust of wind carried away the verses of the ages 一阵风 , 留下了千古绝唱

Back for a week now; school has started, I'll slowly recall my trip and write it down.

I find it hard not to despair a little after traveling. The enormity of China's problems are there for everyone to see. Here are some notes on the places I visited, in chronological order; I'll revisit them periodically and add details I remember.

Guangzhou:

Airport - Sleek, clean and awe inspiring. Impressed. Cousin jests that it is built with blood.




Smog, bridges, cars, traffic, new airport, and new metro. Living in Guangzhou is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Wake up in the morning, taxi around all day, and by the time you get back home your nose is all black. Pictures of the lungs of chronic smokers come to mind.




Not yet Hong Kong, but getting there. West side of the city have apartments like those towering buildings of Hong Kong. The environment is cleaner on this side too, well, all except for the half-black-half-brown river one can see during the day.




Real estate prices: 500,000 - 1,000,000 RMB - 2 bedroom 1 living room to 3 bedrooms 1 living room. that is $60,000 - $125,000. Consider the average income of Guangzhou is around $7,500 (for those who are well off), it takes a couple of lifetimes to pay off the mortgage. Actually the prices are pretty "reasonable" if one compares Guangzhou to the other less well developed big cities in China. A lot of overseas Chinese investors. They buy a unit, contributing to the price inflation, in hopes that one day they can retire here. In the meanwhile, they will rent it out and let the rent for for itself. Expected more Hong Kong investors and higher price inflation, but I guess they are all in Shenzhen, where the real estate are 2 to 3 times more expensive.

Metro - best subway system I've experienced. A marvel of Teutonic engineering. Cousin mentioned that the city's public servants' salaries were frozen for a couple of years to contribute the subway.

Food - when one thinks of Chinese food, it is actually Guangdong cuisine they are thinking about.


Ningbo:




Poor country side, reminds of the cultural revolution movies. Especially miserable because of the cold weather. As a general rule, the countrysides get poorer and poorer the further north one gets.

Home of Jiang Jieshi - didn't/don't care.

Place of Zhang Xuelang's first imprisonment - lonely, cold. worthy place of imprisonment for a hero.


Putou Shan - Monks try to rip people off, WTF. This is one thing that I am really furious about.

Uncle's high school classmate, now a PLAN captain, invited us to dinner. Got drunk. Never drinking with PLAN naval officers again.

Fast boat to Shanghai.



Shanghai: It's cold here. The winds cut to the bone, and even northerners complain about the freezing weather. Cousins sleep with windows open when it is 4 degrees Celsius outside...

Suzhou: Just another travel spot




Nanjing: Zhong San Ling, the steps become harder and harder to climb the high up you are. Sun Zhongsan is about 5'5''-6''. The city seems a bit desolate.

Hangzhou: Just another travel spot

Maoming: Didn't realize how poor it is until I saw it this time. Well, it is a developing city.

Gaozhou: second home. Even in a small (relatively speaking) such as this, there are huge wealth disparities. For example, Me and two cousins, including one of their parents and my grandfather and grandmother use to/still live in a 3 story/now 2 story (1st floor rented out) house. Whereas one of my cousins has two floors of his family's 7 floor house all to himself. Although, while living here I have never felt "poor". There were always things I would like, but I was too busy studying to begrudge.


Zhanjiang, Nanyou: Never saw Zhanjiang proper until this time. I grew up in a medium enclave called Nanyou, a bit south(?) of Zhanjiang proper. It is the base of operations (is it the HQ? I'm not sure) of CNOOC in the south.






The place I lived is still the same, fifth floor of a building bordering on: civilization, a hospital, a water pumping station, and the country side. #2-18. Even the discoloration on the building is still there. I wonder if any of my childhood friends are still there. They are probably in college, Winter Vacation don't start for them until the end of January. On second look, where I grew up is really not a bad place to live. Nanyou is pretty nice, palm trees everywhere, the park during night time is lovely, you can see the beach and occasionally, fishing boats. There was a French village here that my mom never told me about until I came home this time... I swear, some adults treat kids like they don't/shouldn't know anything...





The elementary school I attended has changed its name. From Nanyou Second District Elementary School to Nanyou Central Primary School. Just another way of saying it got upgraded. The arboretum is still the same: small. But the plants inside are as green as I remembered them. Green and brown. Leaves and dirt.



I remember digging up cicadas around here. During the summer, you can start digging on the dirt around the trees. About a few inches down you will find unhatched cicadas, sleeping. What is weird is that occasionally we find red, soft coral like flowers (they have no leaves, only the stem part that grows out like a flower). When we dig down we find that the root is actually a unhatched cicada. The plant sprout from the cicada's body. And like the Cicada flower, people in Nanyou are from different places in China, transplanted and sprout up in a protective body, and grow up to be beautiful but strange.

Perhaps it is the sea wind here, my aunt remarked that I was once very dark. Now I am all pale (relatively speaking). I think my complexion is once brown, from the sun and the palm trees. Of all the places, I never thought I would miss this place. I wonder when will I be back next time? If only to walk among the rocks in the park during sunset, and feel the sea wind.

Guangzhou crime dog "trained" to swipe cellphones - Engadget

HBO to Adapt A Song of Ice and Fire

They better not ruin the series.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Duel for Financial Capital

Hong Kong has better food

China January 2007 (1)

China January 2007 (2)

China January 2007 (3)

Pictures taken from the trip

Feeling sick. Body is still on Beijing time and caught a cold. Hope school cancels tomorrow.

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

good predictions

Is it health care vs. high-tech in the war over obvious patents?

Will be traveling until January 12th. Guangzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Gaozhou

In the meanwhile, the reader can engage in a voyage of the imagination, imaging the protagonist of this blog encountering exotic roadsigns and confronting the memories of his past.

Happy holidays! I will bring back lots of pictures. I would bring back love too, but we all know that my heart is an engine forged from the remnants of a supernova.

Kindest regards,

“I don’t know much about this restaurant, but generally, American food is not known for any particular virtues”

The 2006 Weblog Awards

gems here and there

China Tightens Adoption Rules for Foreigners

Professor Murray is single and she adopted Bin from China. In our business law class we would hear hilarious stories from her, such as how Bin developed a Shreveport accent (Professor Murray is from Louisiana). I am glad the professor adopted Bin before these rules are coming into being.

"Contained inside is absolute truth in liquid form!"

Just finished watching Days of Being Wild. Leslie Cheung is simply incredible with his acting. Another one of his movie that I also liked is Farewell My Concubine. His death is truly a great lost to cinema.

如果我还有哀伤　让风吹散它
如果我还有快乐　（也许吧)

birthday

Have you ever experienced waking up, but it is too late for breakfast? How about after eating lunch, you watch an old HK film and then when you set foot out of your apartment, the sky is already dark. Oh how time passes us by...

Perhaps I should move to Antarctica. I hear it has light 24 hours a day, it never rains, and there is never darkness.

Today's children, who so want to be 'cool', are growing up to be the miserable victims of consumer culture

Cooked for myself, the beef actually turned out pretty well, and watched a HK film (Chungking Express), feel like I am being spoiled.

National Flag 'Re-branding' for Political Correctness or Marketability

watching the autumn leaves fall,轻看着人间风浪.

I wrote the story of O

Read this article while I was in France.

It piqued my interest, so I went to Shakespeare's and ask them where I can find The History of "O"?

The ever helpful response I got was, "Look in the history section."

Smiley's People

OLED with blue methyl alcohol fuel

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy... Jedimaster

Spacing out on the bus. Missing my stops.

foreign authors win 4 of 6 major French literary prizes

the Yangtze freshwater dolphin (baiji) appears to be extinct

Very Rich Are Leaving the Merely Rich Behind - NYTimes

狼图腾

Getting Rich - Pankaj Mishra reports from Shanghai

‘Alternative modernity’ and ‘institutional innovation’ may also sound like mere slogans. The New Left belongs, after all, to a very small and powerless minority of intellectuals. But its growing appeal suggests that the post-Mao reversals of ideology and politics – based on a simple moral opposition between socialism and capitalism, the free market and the state, private and public property – are beginning to lose their force as the storm of progress blowing through China continues to scatter debris everywhere.

Is this what the final frontier has become? A golf course?

It is a troubling symbol of humanity's aspiration: the latest installment in our great space quest saw an astronaut tee off

Dégringolade
Union Sucrée

The first article I read about the decline of France. The scholarship of which, and many more self critiques made me believe that there is still hope for France in the future. If it wasn't for the alacrity with which these authors continue to seize the problems at hand, I would have given up on French long ago.

I offer something more with these thoughts, which only you will notice. Do you remember that moment by the banks of the Ganga? That silent dark? Those wanderings in imagined worlds? Those deep discussions in low, serious voices? The two of us sitting silently, saying nothing? That breeze at sunrise, that evening shadow! And, once, those rain-bearing clouds, Sravan’s downpour, the songs of Vidyapati? . . . I have concealed a handful of contentment and grief in these thoughts; open these pages once in a while and look upon them with affection, no one but you will be able to see what’s in them! The message inscribed into these words is – there’s one writing that you and I shall read. And there’s another writing for everyone else.

Selected Poems by Rabindranath Tagore