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)