Imprinting

Today's PBS "Nature" program has an interesting episode about "imprinting", i.e., any one when an animal had seen right after they were born will be regarded as their Mom or Dad. The picture shows a group of beautiful Greylag geese following a speeding boat since one of the passengers is their parent.

NY Times under pressure?

The recent few articles in NY Times about China new leadership have some food for thought. NY Times, known for its liberal-leaning stance, never hesitated to level criticism against Chinese government in the past and was culminated by its report of the flagrant corruption of Premier Wen's family members. However, in the last few articles, they sound more like hagiography. A while ago, Chinese authority threatened to revoke NY Times journalists visa. Will that threatening make any difference for NY Times to steer clear of its usually respected "the fourth estate"?

SBTC

Economic growth or social fairness as discussed in a recent NY Times article? Before 1950s, American workers captured a solid share of the economic growth that economists call that era as "Great Compression" since income equality was minimal. Since 1979, the top 0.1% has taken in 25% of the nation's income while bottom 80% of households saw their incomes drop steadily. S.B.T.C. (skill-based technology change) should be the deciding factor to this growing income equality. Only education and abiding skill-enhancement can keep your head above water in this competitive world.

Princeton Art Musuem

Accompanying friends to have a campus tour around Princeton Uni. yesterday. Last time to visit its art museum was more than 12 years ago. Princeton Uni. is really rich with a lot of endowments from its wealthy and powerful alumni. This art museum is free and has tremendous amounts of Egyptian, Chinese, European, Japanese, American, Greek, Roman and Mayan art collections. Not all universities are created equal.

Chinese model

In today's NBC "Meet the Press", "Chinese model" was raised for discussion. Everyone dreams to have full democracy and high income growth. In reality, no political system can provide such dream for everyone in this highly competitive world. An elitist authoritarian system such as "Chinese model" may give rise to better economic growth but its insidious kleptocracy may lead to simmering social unrest.

Affirmative action makes you strong

My highest respect to the newly appointed Supreme Judge, Sonia Sotomayor, for her comments in tonight's CBS "60 Minutes". She mentioned that she was admitted to Princeton Uni. when the other two students in her high school with better grades did not due to affirmative action. Because of that, she always needs to be "stubborn" to work much harder than her colleagues to prove that she deserves to be better than any others. This sobering reflection probably reverberates in every non-Caucasian mind in the U.S. societies of every walks of life.

Robots eliminate jobs more than they create

NT$22K/mo too low? Probably not quite. In tonight's CBS "60 Minutes", it was reported that companies can spend US $23K to buy a robot and can "teach" the robot immediately to perform productive assignment. It can last for 3 years, i.e., equivalent to US$3.4/hr which is roughly NT$22K/mo. It is the hard fact, as claimed by experts, that new technology may eliminate jobs more than it creates. This ominous prediction had been claimed before. However, this time may be different and most of the unskilled works worldwide will continue to lose their jobs as times go on in the future.

Watson to save lives

With only 6% of medical schools' graduates to target for "saving people", the disease curing of future generations is at stake. In January's IEEE Spectrum, it has "IBM's Watson Goes to Med School". Watson had a hyped victory in 2/2011 TV show of "Jeopardy" by beating its top two human competitors. Watson is now "learning" from the top oncologists in the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In the future, if your doctor cannot diagnose or decide the treatment plan for your cancer disease, he or she may "ask" Watson. It is because Watson can process natural language and has the know-it-all database learned from the top-notch oncologists.

Free Harvard education if less than $65k/yr

Just watched the interview of Harvard University president, Drew Faust, on NBC's "On the Money" about education. In Harvard, no family contribution for Harvard education if family income is less than $65K/yr (approximately 280% of poverty line). Of course, Harvard can do this due to the generous endowments for its alumni. In U.S, kids with outstanding performances from the less-than-advantaged families can get top-notch education without causing any family burden.

Stem cells, magic elixir or snake oil

Latest issue of Business Week has a stem cell report, "Stem Cell Showdown: Celltex vs. the FDA". Stem-cell treatment still has not got FDA approval but there are at least several hundreds clinics on the web to claim their miraculous efficacy by stem cells without any regulatory oversight at all. But for patients with immune system diseases such as ALS and MS, it may be tempting to try stem-cell treatment even it may turn out to be just the snake oil results. To make huge financial profits by exploiting desperate terminal patients 

Polio eradication at stake due to drone attacks

Smallpox was completely eradicated in 2011 and polio, down to several hundred cases in 2012 and corralled only within Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, should be the next. The major obstacle: Taliban, in 6/2012, ordered to kill all polio vaccine-inoculating field workers unless U.S. stops drone attacks on Taliban's leaders. We probably should count our blessings since not all human beings are created equal.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2132760,00.html

Elect Republicans or Democrats?

David Brooks, a NY Times columnist, had a pungent remark in PBS news tonight that probably reflects most of the Americans' mindsets. "You elect Republicans because you don't want to pay for it (since Republicans always want to reduce taxes) and you elect Democrats because you want government to give you everything (since Democrats always want to increase spending)".