Shrinking middle-class

學歷在現代的職場已漸漸式微，技術已成薪水的指標。下圖是美國亞特蘭大聯邦儲備局的統計資料。 http://www.frbatlanta.org/chcs/pubschcs/hcc/130701.cfm 如果你只有"中級"技術而不能充實自己更上一層，那只能準備慢慢被淘汰或淪為不斷增加的低層技術勞工。另外一篇研究也提到，http://www.nber.org/papers/w19762, 如果你的數理能力增加一個統計 "標準值"，薪水平均可增加18% (美國更高達28% )， 不過這統計資料不適用公家機構和工會成員

Pensive story of PH overseas workers

Latest issue of NGM has a sobering article about the Philippine overseas workers. PH has devolved from the 2nd richest country in Asia in the 1950s to a "Blanche Dubois" economy nowadays with 10% of its GDP coming from the remittances of overseas workers. Why the tender-hearted filipino people should be the victims of a kleptocratic political system? 
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2014/01/guest-workers/gorney-text

Catechin may have adversarial effect

It is surprising to learn that dietary supplements account for 20% of drug-related liver injuries as in today's NYT. One of them is green tea extract which has high concentration of catechin (兒茶素). Catchin is a potent antioxidant but it may have adversarial effect on the liver.if concentration is well too high.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/us/spike-in-harm-to-liver-is-tied-to-dietary-aids.html?_r=0

well-off Chinese students and poor US students

Recent BusinessWeek has illustrated how wealthy the Chinese students are. They can spend more than US $50K to buy new car within the 1st week in US and 32% of them use cash. Even the so-called used car price for them is as high as $36,500. Do they come here to study or to enjoy luxurious life? 

first-hand experience of cloud computing

Never did I physically experience the power of cloud computing until this morning. I bought a wireless printer with Google-cloud-printing-enabled feature yesterday. This morning, I was able to print a page in the company office and sent directly to the printer in my house. That means, if I were in Taiwan, I actually can print pages directly to the printer in my U.S.'s house. Wow, the advance of technology is really soaring.

Secret accounts in tax havens

When I read NYT, I found a very interesting link about "How to find any entities that have offshore accounts in tax havens" in http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/search I selected Taiwan and found a large swath of names and addresses. I wonder if any politicians in Taiwan are listed in this enormous trove of database.

所得替代率

最近閱讀一些美國退休後所得替代率的資料，參考美國社會安全福利局的計算公式和規定，得到了下面圖示的資料。美國社會安全福利金以工作35年的薪水平均值作基準(35年總年薪除以420個月。 如果少於35年，不足年數皆以收入等於零來計算)。至少66 歲才能領社會福利金，如果62 歲( 最早可領的年紀) 就開始領，將只能領全額的四分之三。工作期問，每次薪水要被扣6.2%的社會福利金和1.45%的老年健保金( 雇主也要為員工付同樣比率的社會福利金和老年健保金)。美國社會福利金行之有年，算是蠻公平的制度，但仍然面臨有破產的可能性，除非退休年齡再往上提高。台灣的退休制度比美國優厚，勢必無法維持長久。

Clintondale HS

PBS had a coverage of Clintondale High School in Detroit on Dec. 11. Clintondale, the first school to have full flipped classroom approach, has shown dramatic improvement for its disadvantaged students in the last few years and has become a poster child of flipped classroom.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_p63W_2F_4

Robots to replace distribution center labors and truck drivers?

Amazon's business is expanding rapidly and hires 70,000 temporary workers in this holiday. With its octocopter delivery drone going viral since last Sunday, it begs the questions how Amazon can wangle its huge labor force and last-mile logistics? Its acquisition of Kiva Systems last year and the newly unveiled delivery drone all point to the one dreaded choice, using robots to replace distribution center labors and truck drivers.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-05/amazon-drone-delivery-is-bezoss-latest-bold-disruptive-bet

A trendy global income inequality

Though US income inequality is dismal, it seems like China's situation is even worse. Probably income inequality is becoming inexorable globally (due to the advances of technology?). Gini coefficient is a recognized measure of income inequality. In 2011, Taiwan was 0.341 while China was 0.477 (If it is more than 0.40, social unrest is lurking)

Grandfather of Silicon Valley

Just read a story I have always been intrigued in the last 30 years, story of the W. Shockley. Shockley, a Nobel-prize laureate in transistor invention and the "grand-father" of Silicon Valley (The "child" of his "Shockley Semiconductor Lab" was Fairchild Semiconductor and the "children" of Fairchild Semiconductor are Intel and many others). In 1980s, I was amazed by his ingenious theory of PN junction. He filed the 1st patent about robotic eyes in 1948 and pursued a career to implement robots and automation but fizzled out. As in my ingrained belief, "God is always fair": Shockley was endowed with incredible IQ but his capricious temper led him nowhere to his coveted goal, a company of his own.   
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/how-william-shockleys-robot-dream-helped-launch-silicon-valley

osseointegration

Just had three dental implants in my mouth. Five hours have passed and no pain at all. It is amazing that titanium metal inside the jawbone can have basically perfect osseointegration within 4-5 months and not being rejected as foreign materials.  

supercomputer competition

In recent supercomputer competition, China's Tianhe-2 (天河二號) retains its No. 1 perch with 33.86 petaflops/s (毎秒3.4萬兆次數學運算). Even its electrical bill is staggering ( 一年一仟七百萬美元電費) . A few supercomputer applications: weather forecast (good for human beings), nuclear weapons simulations (garbage for human beings), decipherment of password (even 天河二號 will need 幾百萬兆年 to crack 256-bit encryption), simulation of molecular dynamics (good for human welfare development). It was guessed that one of the applications in 天河二號 is to develop C919 airliner.

The power of the underdog

Seldom did I get touched so much by any episode as in tonight's CBS 60 Minutes, "The power of the underdog". Never imagine a kid with dyslexia can climb all the way to the president of Goldman Sacks simply because he, Gary Cohn, can develop much better entrepreneurial capabilities despite the dyslexia handicap.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malcolm-gladwell-power-of-the-underdog/

A country destined to be inundated

BusinessWeek has a sobering article of global warming related to Kiribati (基里巴斯共和國) in Pacific Ocean. This country only has 32 atolls, max. height is only 3m above sea level and max. width of the whole nation is less than 1km. It will be inundated by ocean in the years to come since people sometimes can find fishes jumping around in their living room. We probably don't feel global warming substantially; but for them, it is the devastation of the whole nation.

Aging in China and Taiwan

Latest issue of TIME magazine talked about the recent reform of one-child policy in China and the aging problem in China. In 2050, one of 3 Chinese will be older than 60, more than the total population in U.S. Taiwan has exactly the same problem. 屆時 (2050年 ) 人囗老化將使得臺灣和中國都是一人養3個 (夫妻二人共養六個) 健保費用那時侯將是 flabbergasting (即使在民國99年， 臺灣60歲以上人囗雖僅佔15% 但醫療費用已超過40%) 

U.S. still the most favorite for foreign students

Students from China accounts for more than 25% of all foreign students in U.S. (India No. 2, S. Korean No. 3 and Taiwan No. 6) in the latest Economist. U.S. is still the favorite destination for foreign students but its market share has dropped from 23% in 2000 to 17% in 2011. The trend is obvious since Chinese schools in Princeton area continue to expand for students from China but shrink steadily for students from Taiwan.

Donate at least 50% of your wealth only if you have more than $1B

You are allowed to join the "The Giving Pledge" club if you are worth more than $1B and pledge to donate at least 50% of your wealth in your life time or in your will as in tonight's CBS "60 Minutes". Top 400 wealthiest Americans are worth the total sum of all bottom half of Americans. But many of them are willing to donate their wealth for philanthropic purposes (Bill Gates donates 95% and Warren Buffet donates 99%). It probably will take many years to change the mindsets of Chinese wealthiest to dedicate themselves for philanthropy instead of showing off their wealth and passing it to their sons/daughters.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57612677/the-giving-pledge-a-new-club-for-billionaires/?pageNum=2

Soaring Medical Devices Market

Latest issue of BusinessWeek has an article about the soaring market of medical devices. For example, China's market in 2012 was valued at USD $20B and will grow to $53.5B in 2020. Taiwan's market growth rate in 2013 for medical devices is expected to be 7% (lower than the global growth rate of 10%). It seems like most of the market is on the less-complicated electronic blood sugar, blood pressure monitors and thermometers. (See Figure). Taiwan should be able to tap much more into this market with integrated system of hardware and real-time monitoring app on smartphones.

Shrinking middle class

Another grueling chart to show the accelerated shrinking of middle class after the financial meltdown in late 2007. Shrinking middle class, expanding low-income households and the soaring wealthy households are the inevitable trends. It is probably true for most of the countries. As in today's local newspaper, "In 1980s, all the better-paying jobs for low-skill workers were there for the taking. Those are not there any more."

Inevitable Income Inequality

Latest issue of Economist has an article, "Labor Pains", which basically describes the percentage of labor share continues to decrease year by year, i.e., share of GDP growth going to labors continues to decrease due to technology advancement such as utilization of robots and automation software/hardware. It is pretty pessimistic if any government can do anything to slow or even stop this inevitable trend.

Productivity Comparison

美國人生產能力全世界第三 (見下表，在調整各國不同購買能力後，每一個工作者每小時實際生產的金額。臺灣約每小時40美元)

Same education but more than 25 times in cost

台灣的大學費用實在很便宜，尤其台灣稅率和其他比較國家相對低很多。這大概也算是均一教育的一種延伸。(每年學雜費來自2013年學校網站，每戶平均年收入來自各國政府2012年官方資料)

philanthropists or plutocrats? To be or not to be?

Tonight's PBS Charlie Rose program had the interview with Warren Buffett, his son and grandson, all are dedicated philanthropists. His son loves farming and has to pay his dad the rent for the 400 acres (=1.6 km^2) farmland his dad bought him. The three generations of Buffett family almost spent their full time to distribute 99% of Buffett's $46B fortune for philanthropic purposes. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, No. 1 and 2 of US richest, want people to remember them as philanthropists rather than just plutocrats. Western and Eastern cultures have some significant differences!

Any clean Congressmen/women without using PAC money for personal perks?

Feel unfair about coveted 18% interest rate? US Congressmen can also enjoy 18% interest if they loan their own money to their political funds and charge them with 18%. rate. They can use the political fund to hire their children and their mistresses (as in the 2006 John Edwards scandal) and pay them exorbitant salaries. They can use the money for all of their personal expenses such as personal travelling, vacation, dining, football game and so on as long as the money is from their own PAC (political action committee) fund as in tonight's CBS "60 Minutes". Wow, how many politicians are really clean? Power really leads almost everyone to corruptive trajectory simply because very few can resist so many lucrative perks given to them LEGALLY.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57608255/washingtons-open-secret-profitable-pacs/

Inflicted middle classes migrate to Texas

ince 2008, 58% of job increases in the U.S. are for incomes lower than $28,000 which signifies a well-known fact, i.e., the thinning of middle-class. Th era of low-income and high cost-of-living drives many migrants to Sun Belt, especially Texas, as in the cover story of TIME, "Why Texas Is Our Future". Interesting chart of state-by-state actual average income comparison (after adjustment of cost-of-living and state tax) shows that Texas stands at a coveted No. 3 (California lags far behind at No. 47)

A frugal company with P/E as high as 2767

Just read the BusinessWeek cover story of "The secrets of Bezos", a very interesting story about the amazing Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos. It always beats me with one question: "Why Amazon can be so successful?" Apple's one-quarter profit is more than 2.5 times of Amazon's total profit in the last 10 years. Apple's P/E is only 13 while Amazon's is a mind-boggling 2767 (July, 2013). Amazon's employees don't have fancy office desk, rather, they have door-desks (see photo). It is still hard to imagine the working ethos in this mammoth but extremely frugal company.

a young brainiac may save 40K people in the U.S. every year

Pancreatic cancer has been known as a "humbling" cancer since it is impossible to detect it in early stage; when it is found, patient is at death's door. (Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer and it is the 4th leading cause of cancer-related death). Now, it may change, thanks to a 16-year high-school student, Jack Andraka as in tonight's CBS "60 Minutes". 
He is a brainiac but hardly a genius. During his interview, what it tugs my heartstrings is his quote: "You can be a genius but if you don't have the creativity to put that knowledge to use, then you just have a bunch of knowledge and nothing else." Creativity and dedication are what made him stand out and probably will save the lives of 40K people every year in the U.S.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57606924/teen-scientist-may-have-invented-cancer-test/

Gloomy future of income inequality

Recent documentary film, "Inequality for all", gives a sobering reminder of the worsening income inequality. Famous Koch brothers earn $3M USD per hour (yes, per hour). Income increases a lot in the last 25 years for top 20% but stagnant for bottom 50% after adjusted by inflation. Income inequality started to go up in 1975, the year computer started to emerge. It is so scary that income inequality will be worse in the future since the whole world has started to become skill- and capital-centralized (just imagine that robots now cost $3.5 USD per hour!)

Disability benefit with close to 100% approval rate

I always wonder "For able-bodied poor people with low skill and no intention to take minimum wage jobs, how do they survive after unemployment benefits run out?" Now, I have answer, at least partially, after watching tonight CBS "60 Minutes": "Get the disability benefit". That government benefit almost has a 100% approval rate even you just have, e.g., headache or muscle pain. The number of enrollees in disability program shot up after 2008 financial tsunami. Disability entitlement program is expected to run out of money three years from now and since no legislators want to be labelled as "cold-blood politicians", be prepared to embrace for the next round of payroll tax increase.

Steinfeld Shutdown

The TV news tonight came up an interesting term, "Steinfeld Shutdown", about the recent U.S. government shutdown. It stumps me since I have no idea what it means. Later, I realize it is about the famous TV episode of "a show of nothing" by Jerry Steinfeld. Every TV show must have "something" but Steinfeld wants a show of "nothing". Probably the recent Taiwan political strife is also a "Steinfeld strife". 
a show of nothing

cut-and-thrust interview with Netanyahu

Just finished watching PBS's "Charlie Rose" program with an exciting cut-and-thrust interview with Israel prime minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu's English is always powerful and pungent. I always admire Netanyahu's formidable resoluteness as much as Bill Gates' shrewd insightfulness and Obama's intonational articulation.

Online learning is one of the choices of MIT President

Latest issue of TIME magazine has an article of online learning by MIT President, Rafael Reif. MIT needs to spend three times as much to educate a student as the tuition that MIT receives. Reif seems to put a very positive spin on online learning, probably because he has been with MIT for 33 years and has a full understanding of MIT teaching and learning culture.  

 http://nation.time.com/2013/09/26/online-learning-will-make-college-cheaper-it-will-also-make-it-better/

Read the tea leaves what Chinese leaders are encouraged to think

Top 10 books recommended by Chinese 中央委員會 to all high-ranking government officials. Probably not all Chinese officals are just ideology-preoccupied. 1. 苦难辉煌 2. 激荡三十年 3. 曾国藩（上中下）4. 毛泽东的读书生活 5. 一个大国的崛起与崩溃（共三册）6. 中国经济专题 7. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (In English by Thomas Friedman) 8. 中国共产党历史（第二卷）9. 中国震撼 10. 历史的轨迹

whopping patent fee for universities and tax free

Recent BusinessWeek has reported Princeton Uni. has collected $524M in patent license fee in the last 7 years, mostly from the invention of an anticancer drug, Alimta. Google paid Stanford Uni. $337M because Google was founded in the Stanford campus. Sometimes universities can rake up a whopping windfall. (Princeton Uni. has $17B endowment!!!) 

More creative when you grow older

Recent Time Magazine has an article, "The Art of Living", describing how old people may gain creativity at the expense of other functions such as memory or physical strength. There are many examples, one of them is the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (I really like his FallingWater house in Pennsylvania), who passed away at age 92 in the same year that his work, NYC Guggenheim Museum, was completed. Some theories support that old people may actually be more creative than ever. At least it gives me some taste whenever I pass another birthday. 

peer-to-peer MOOC

My two cents for the sustainability of MOOCs: “As in any new innovation, only products with efficacy and alluring power can survive.” Didactic-pedagogy-based MOOCs may be useful for some highly motivated students but may not be a magnet to attract ever-growing large audience. I am a strong believer that peer-to-peer interaction is a very effective learning tool (though may not be very effective in college entrance exam) and may keep the hype of MOOCs last much longer. Peer-to-peer discussion may actually save time and imprint the very few key and “eureka” concepts in your mind. In addition, peer-to-peer discussion is a perfect tool for social learning which is the part that we lag behind Westerners a lot. Online MOOCs actually can encourage this peer-to-peer interaction more effectively than in-classroom lectures. It can be done by, e.g., stopping the lectures intermittently by asking student questions followed by the “student-engaging time”. Any students’ online feedback can be evaluated by the peers (but not by the lecturers) by clicking a few buttons such as “like” “OK” “interesting” “Are you sure” “You are my hero” “More comments, please” etc. Again, the hype of MOOCs cannot just depend on the sheer volume, it needs some innovation too in order to be sustainable.

An extinct species in politics

A physicist-turned-president? Almost like an extinct species in the circle of politics. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is going to seek her 3rd 4-year term 10 days from today for the position she has held since 2005. A physicist becomes the world's most powerful woman, wow!

Autonomous car

Recent BusinessWeek has an article about autonomous car. Though it is still against the law to have driverless car, but luxury car now offers the option that car can drive for you at speed less than 10 mph or at cruise-control mode at high speed (as long as your hands are still on the wheel). That available package in Mercedes allows you to get off the car at the entrance of parking lot and let the car drive by itself to find the parking space. 10 years from now, for everyone, driving will be much easier and likely much safer.

National parks and Rockefeller

I was basically transfixed in front of TV in the last two nights to watch PBS "National Parks" series. In addition to the breathtaking scenery and early Americans' vision to preserve the pristine beauty, I was impressed by the philanthropic mind of the oil mogul, John Rockefeller Jr., son of the John Rockefeller Sr. He donated US $45M (probably worth US $500M now) to the land purchase and other activities for the national parks of Acadia, Grand Teton, Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountain and others. Some people use their wealth to flaunt their own pride while others use their wealth to show and preserve the national pride. 

Striving to the utmost one's whole life

Just watched PBS's "Mount Rushmore" which has the gigantic 18m-tall carved facial sculptures of four exalted U.S presidents. What it impressed me is their sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, who basically prosecuted this impossible project driven by his love of art and strong-willed endeavor. During the 14-year period in the throes of both Great Depression and WWII, he basically completed this mission impossible and died seven months before the last carving was done. Striving to the utmost one's whole life (鞠躬盡瘁死而後已)

Doomed future for all doing routine jobs

I recently talked to an executive officer of a charity foundation and really appreciated their dedication to help disadvantaged people. However, what it really scares me is the growing trend of disadvantaged people. In U.S. since 2008 financial tsunami, U.S. manufacturing had recovered 75% while manufacturing employment only recovered 21%. NY Port longshoremen has declined 90% since peaking in 1960s. This is basically due to the replacement of humans by robots as in the recent issue of Time magazine. Robots basically replace human beings in routine jobs and robots' average cost is NT$22K per month and decreasing. Amazon bought Kiva Systems in 2012 to deploy numerous smart robots in its huge distribution centers. As predicted by MIT & Harvard economists, the future is doomed for all who perform routine jobs since robots now are so smart that they eliminate jobs much more than the jobs they create. Without any innovative government policy, the storm of social unrest and the gaping chasm between the rich and the poor is gathering day by day. Only the people with capital and non-replaceable skills can survive under the continuing threat of robotics. (Robotics does not refer to just physical robots, it also involves office automation, automatic ticketing, automatic transaction or anything that is routine or semi-routine.)

Roving robots in distribution cetners

Winston Churchill my childhood hero

Just watched PBS TV program of "Winston Churchill", my childhood hero. Looking back at this WWII legend, probably he was just a hard-charging, highly aspiring and probably a clever double-dealing politician. However, his strong determination and numerous passionate speeches still made him stand out among historical figures and probably that was the reason to captivate my childhood cult of heroism.

Sustainable MOOC-based college degree offered by Georgia Tech?

An article in today's NYT claimed that a very prestigious Uni., Georgia Institute of Technology, will offer a MOOC-based online master's degree in computer science for $6,600 - far less than the $45,000 on-campus price. This is the 1st prestigious Uni. to offer degrees by online courses. (Previous records from non-prestigious Uni were miserable; sometimes with zero enrollment in paid credit-award programs.) This is an uncharted wild-west territory and many predict that Georgia Tech will fail since it will cannibalize the campus enrollment and will devalue its credentials. Let's see if it is an epoch-making endeavor or just a flash in the pan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/education/masters-degree-is-new-frontier-of-study-online.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This video of Taipei Zoo appeared in CBS evening news tonight.

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the globe, man would have no more than four years to live"

Recent cover story of TIME magazine, The Plight of the Honeybee, is a sobering cautionary tale. Though the root cause for the soaring dying beehives since 2006 is still unknown, the general belief is "We, human beings, may be the culprit". Neonicotinoids, a pesticide probably unharmed to human beings, may be the slow killer to bees. Industrialized and highly efficient monoculture crops are suffocating bees. Highly profitable corn and soybeans have made farmers less incentivized to join the government's land conservation program. A quote (sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein) is very apocalyptic: "If the bee disappears from the surface of the globe, man would have no more than four years to live". Though this quote may be exaggerated, it does point to an enlightening epiphany: Any disturbance of the balanced ecology may deal a blow to human beings eventually.

1.5% of the medical cost in India compared with U.S.

It only costs $1,555 to have artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery? It did happen in India, which is less than 1.5% of the cost in U.S. ($106,385). Every medical bill in the U.S. is nothing but just opportunistic pricing and its exorbitant pricing never justified its outcome.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-01/indias-walmart-of-heart-surgery-cuts-the-cost-by-98-percent

Africa Mercy - Ship for Disadvantaged People

Tonight CBS "60 Minutes" has an episode of "Africa Mercy" which is a ship dedicated to the medical services (surgery, dental, ophthalmic) for people in Africa. Some of the doctors and nurses on this ship have been on board for more than 10 years and even raised their children on board. It is hard to imagine their totally devoted dedications to the disadvantage people in Africa. Taiwan also has 路竹會 with many respected medical practitioners dedicating their time to the disadvantaged people in the mountainous area.

Africa Mercy                 Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps

Daunting Shadow Market in China by de facto Coin of Realm

NYT on 8/3 has an article to describe how rampant the false or forged receipts everywhere in China. You can buy it online and many employees use them regularly to "rightfully" increase their monthly compensation; executives (as in the recent scandal of British pharmaceutical GlaxoSithKline in China) use them to create slush fund to bribe officials; some companies even ask all employees to submit false receipts half the amount of their pay checks in order to reduce the company tax liability. Since NYT claims that you can buy receipts in 淘寶網 (www.taobao.com), I did try to check if it is true. Interestingly, if you type "购买发票", it will show "根据相关法律法规和政策，无法显示“购买发票”的相关宝贝". But if you type "购买发 票", you will get everything that you want. No wonder people always feel stupefied by the daunting amount of the so-called shadow market in China.

Coin of Realm in China Graft: Phony Receipts

We need more Bill Gates

After Bill Gates finished a book, he placed it in the following link. A lot of books! He even read fertilizer book since fertilizer may increase food harvest and reduce the number of hungry children. His traveling bag as he showed it to the CBS correspondent is so heavy since it all contains books. He is so busy to eradicate the diseases that kill children under 5 years old, so busy to reform the U.S. education, so busy to improve the sanitation in Africa, so busy to increase the food productivity, so busy to invest R&D to increase energy efficiency including safer nuclear energy and he still has time to read so many books, watching knowledge-enhancement CD and reading magazines. When asked how he could have time? His answer: "I don't spend time to mow the lawn!"

Bill Gates' books

flipped classroom

翻轉教室 (flipped classroom) has become a buzzword in the recent education reform.  It has already shown impressive results in some areas of the U.S.   Clintondale High School (a financially disadvantaged high school with 75% of its students need government-subsidized free lunch) near Detroit has become a commonly mentioned school to show the incontrovertible merits of 翻轉教室 as illustrated in the attached figure.   Aiming at this promising out-of-box 翻轉教室 and its huge futuristic market, many start-ups with strong financial backup have actively pursued the "adaptive learning" platform.   The readiness of adaptive learning platform will undoubtedly facilitate the development of  翻轉教室 and make MOOC (massive open online courses) much more useful and popular.
Obviously, any new technology will inevitably go through the so-called "hype cycle" as shown in the attached figure.  Hopefully, in the years to come, when the 翻轉教室 can be slowly adopted, probably it will sluggishly reach the stage of "plateau of productivity".

A pensive President

35 years ago when Obama entered an elevator, a woman subliminally clutched her purse, simply because of the ingrained racial profile: "Black guy is likely a bad guy". This was what a pensive Obama felt during his improvised informal press conference 2 days ago. Racial profile is widely believed in the recent cause celebre of Trayvon Martin case but racial bias is a very high bar in criminal case which, unsurprisingly, led to George Zimmerman's acquittal. Racial profile, in my opinion, is inevitable because of the lurking humanity's superiority complex. "Black" insinuates "crime", "Asian" alludes "quietness", "Hispanic" connotes "laborer". The world can never be an utopia and, in terms of competitiveness, will never be equal. All we can do is to seek social justice and never hesitate to show what we really are.

More languages = More IQ

It is well accepted that having a bilingual brain may help your career but it is surprising that it may make you smarter and delay the dementia in senescence. Latest TIME magazine claims that a bilingual brain can have the following advantages over monolingual brain: 1) 4.1 more years of clarity before dementia sets in, if any 2) larger hippocampus (part in brain to govern memory) and 3) larger areas in three locations of cerebral cortex (part in brain to process high-order reasoning). Wow, that definitely gives a boost for the already packed English camps in Taiwan.

The Power of the Bilingual Br

“We have to surprise them with restraint and generosity”

“We have to surprise them with restraint and generosity.” This is what Mandela told his supporters when he became the South Africa president after being incarcerated for more than 20 years. Arab Spring will never come to fruition without Mandela-like leaders. Any political upheaval will never stop if leaderships lack the broad-minded “to surprise them with restraint and generosity.”

an expedition that started E pluribus unum

Just watched 2-hour "Lewis & Clark" in PBS. In 1803, after Thomas Jefferson bought Louisiana from France, he sent a 30-person team headed by Lewis and Clark in a arduous and trail-blazing expedition into an uncharted territory from St. Louis all the way to Pacific coast. This heroic expedition inspired many adventurous Americans and, driven by the mindset of Manifest Destiny, started the rapid territorial expansion westward. Finally, an E pluribus unum of the United States was formed.

Unscrupulous patent troll lawyer can be a modern Plutus

Patents may mean innovation but nowadays are more likely to become an extremely profitable asset for patent troll lawyers. How rich can a patent troll lawyer be? According to July 14 NYT, a high-school-dropout-turned patent troll lawyer earns $25M/yr with $19.5M house, a private jet and 16 cars, six of them Lamborghini. The rampant scourge incurred by patent trolls will never stop unless US patent system is totally reformed. Even the troll-hunting measures announced by President Obama in June, 2013 probably will not stop patent trolls significantly simply because the skyrocketing profits for patent trolls.

75 years with 33 Nobel Laureates

In the last 75 years, probably only one institute can attract 33 Nobel laureates (including Einstein, Oppenheimer, von Neumann, 楊振寧, 李政道) and 2 out of 3 of the honorees of the top math medal, Fields medal, i.e., Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ; only 20-minute walk from Princeton Uni. and 15-minute drive from my house. I wonder how long this kind of basic research can last. Their research will not see applications for probably another 100 years while corporate CEOs only focus on the balance sheet quarter-by-quarter. This institute is lucky enough that 80% of the operating expenses are funded by income from the $5M endowment in 1930. It is hard to envision the institute's nondescript buildings can house so many bright minds for more than 75 years.  

Soaring venture-capital investment on education technology

U.S. venture-capital investment on education technology has soared up in the last few years, mainly on MOOC (massive open online course) and adaptive learning technology in a recent Economist article, "Catching on at last". It seems like MOOC is what the future education should be (Bill Gates is the strong advocate of it). Not sure if the education culture in Taiwan can acclimatize this trend.

Stealthy cloak

The English composition topic in Taiwan's joint college entrance exam is "invisible cloak". NYT also had a coverage of "stealthy cloak" (partially invisible under thermal exposure). Nowadays, privacy is a catchy word with headlined story of NSA's snooping, composition topic in Taiwan's college exam and haute couture fashion show.

Fracking is so amazing (but not good news for tree huggers)

A recent article in "National Geographic" has the coverage of Bakken shale oil that the total tight shale oil production is now 1M barrel/day (Taiwan imports oil at 0.9M barrel/day). US advanced drilling technology is so amazing (3.2 km down the earth and another 3.2 km extended horizontally, known as fracking) that it begs the question that "Do we need the renewable energy in the next decade?"

Helicopter parenting may not be useful

I stumbled across a Harvard Professor's comment on the upbringing of children which leads to the following link. How much influence that parents can have on their children? Many parents, especially the helicopter parents, believe parenting is the dominant factor for the children in their formative years. (Business Week even has an article "South Korea Tries to Curb Parents's Education Spending" since conspicuous spending on education has slowed down the consumers' spending and, in turn, slower economic growth ensues). Some psychologists, including the author of the famous but controversial book, "The Nurture Assumption", raise the doubt about the influence of parenting on children achievements, which I tend to agree to some extent.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1881384,00.html

Kindle DX is not the forlorn orphan of Amazon any more

Glad to hear that Amazon has brought Kindle DX (9.7" e-reader) back to its store after being dormant for eight months. I have owned a Kindle DX for two and half years and always treat it a treasure trove of knowledge (through the download from calibre-ebook.com and magazine subscription)

Henry Ford, a monomaniacal auto industry icon

Just watched 2-hour PBS's coverage of the biography of Henry Ford, an auto industry icon. He rose from a farmer's son to a billionaire in 1920s, controlled 50% of US auto industry, sold car at $850 when Ford's rivals sold the car at more than $2,000, raised worker's daily salary from $2.40 to $5.00, reduced assembly time per car from 13 hours to 1.5 hours by his innovative assembly line, rolled out ubiquitous T-model at 1,000 cars/day (later to increase to 10,000 cars/day) and many other measures that transformed U.S. from sprawling farm livelihood to clustered urban livelihood. But to my surprise, Henry Ford was also featured by his acerbic anti-Semitic remarks, his egoist bigotry, his constant bullying his only son and his high-handed clamp-down against labor union. God never had any intention to create a perfect human being.

money = sin?

Rich people is more greedy, selfish and dishonest than poor people? It is probably true in a WSJ report. If you want to walk across a street without traffic light, the chance that driver of a cheap car stops to let you pass is 10 times higher than the driver in a BMW car. Rich people tend to cheat more than the poor people. Rich people even tend to steal more candies reserved for children than poor people. More money triggers more unethical behaviors for human beings?

Study: High Social Class Predicts Unethical Behavior