dainty 206-gram gizmo

Kindle Paperwhite reader is really a bang for the buck. Other than its dainty 206-gram lightness, it has a very powerful "vocabulary builder". Whenever you tap a word in the article, the explanation in the built-in dictionary pops up and stores it in vocabulary builder for later reference. In the vocabulary builder, you can trace the context of this word in the original article. Job well done, Amazon.

gobbledygook

Ten days ago, I sent a patent lawyer two pages of PowerPoint drawings. Today, he returned 22 pages of writing in patent disclosure, full of turgid gobbledygook (or, euphemistically, patent-class language) and flight-of-fancy technical description. Remember the old joke? "How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?" Any number from 3 to 53 is a correct answer.   

Act your age

Spent this afternoon reading the waning of once Internet giant, Yahoo, from $128B market cap down to nothing today (if its Alibaba shares are divested). Every old legacy giants dream to restore their glorious past and reinvent themselves to become another example akin to the renaissance of Apple. Apple had the epochal disruptive innovation, ipod, in 2001 which brought forth the coveted resurgence of its glorious legacy. However, Yahoo has no mind-blowing innovations in the last five years.   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/magazine/what-happened-when-marissa-mayer-tried-to-be-steve-jobs.html?_r=0

neuron network vs. computer

電腦也許越來越聰明但是想完全取代人類的大腦恐怕沒有那麼簡單. 人類的大腦有一千億個神經元，一萬兆的神經聯絡點。 電腦的反應時間是十億分之一秒而人類大腦的反應時間是千分之一秒，但是人類大腦還是比電腦聰明。 電腦可以取代人類固定反覆性的工作,但是要取代用複雜腦力的工作還是有一段很長的時間   

A much-vaunted deity

A hagiography for Steve Jobs' s tour de force? He may have 313 patents but almost all of them are related to minute design details and was listed as one of the many co-inventors simply because his deified name has immense commercial and legal values. Yes, I do agree that if Edison or Bell look at Jobs's achievements, they probably will say: "He is a great guy but he is not one of us"   http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532841/steve-jobs-lives-on-at-the-patent-office/#comments

Goldilocks economy

Just learn a buzz word, Goldilocks economy, from radio. First bowl is too hot (inflation rate is too high) while 2nd bowl is too cold (inflation rate is too low) and 3rd bowl is perfect (inflation rate lands at the magic 2%). Obviously, U.S. is inching toward the Goldilocks economy.  

Disrupting Cancer

Tonight's CBS "60 Minutes" had a very intriguing story, "Disrupting Cancer", about Patrick Soon-Shiong, 黄馨祥, the wealthiest man in Los Angeles. He has spent more than $1B of his own money to prove his innovative idea: "If focusing on mutation, cancer can become just a chronic disease and drug can be developed in tow". His approach is pretty comprehensive: genome mapping of cancer, T-cell gobbling cancer cell, and separating cancer cells in the bio-microchip. This is a formidable task but does not seem to be a pie-in-the-sky. If successful, this wealthiest man in LA may become a Nobel prize laureate.http://www.cbsnews.com/…/billionaire-doctor-fights-cancer-…/

Most disruptive 85 ideas

Latest issue of Businesweek has listed 85 most disruptive ideas. No. 1 is jet-engine (jaw-dropping?) and No. 2 is microchips (rightly so).  Most disruptive 85 ideas

Enigma of Income inequality

Something is fishy about income inequality. According to US Congressional Budge Office, top 20% households earn 10 times more income than the lowest 20% and pay 11 times more tax. However, when taking government subsidy into account, top quintile households pay $46,500 tax while lowest quintile earn $8,650. Income inequality is a hard fact or just a figment of imagination? 

Mistakes are the portals of discovery

In a video in PBS TV news tonight, it shows a tagline, "Mistakes are the portals of discovery", affixed at the entrance of a school with innovative approach and curriculum. "An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made."

cognitive capital

以前和朋友聊天時，共同的感覺是55 歲左右最可能被公司"嫌棄"。最近看到一篇美國聯邦政府的研究報告(如附圖)，一個人在經驗增加，但分析能力降低(從20歲起，每年降1%)的相互影響下, 綜合能力在50-60歲達到高峰(不考慮薪水因素)。這似乎也驗證55歲左右是"很危險"的年紀。如果再加上越來越聰明的電腦競爭，情形更不樂觀。

High development cost to justify failure

USD $2.6B cost for average new drug development? That is the number in a new study to "justify" the exorbitant price tag of brand-name drugs. However, other independent study estimated the development cost less than $0.5B. The stiff price tag for brand-name drug is sometimes intimidating. For example, Baraclude sold in Taiwan is NT$210/pill but at a gouging price of NT$1,050/pill elsewhere.
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21635005-startling-new-cost-estimate-new-medicines-met-scepticism-price-failure

Shale oil boom is not that rosy

Beholden to the surging US shale oil production, Brent crude oil price tumbled to below $73/barrel today. There is always a downside for this boom: for every 1 barrel of shale oil produced, 1.4 barrels of toxic brine is generated. Scores of inferno and serious oil spillage in North Dakota in the last two years. Shale oil production needs yet to be proved as a sustainable shot-in-the-arm for US economic development.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/23/us/north-dakota-oil-boom-downside.html?_r=0

ethnic diversification

Healthy ethnic diversification or victim under the justifiable race-conscious admission policy?

WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) school?

In the last 20 years, admission rate for Asian Americans has stayed flat, between 15% and 18%, though college-age population of Asian Americans has doubled. Affirmative action in favor of disadvantaged minorities stacks up against the dismissal of academic achievements in Asian students. However, it is also unapologetically and unfortunately true that there is no financial or institutional incentive for elite schools to admit Asian Americans who don't fall emphatically into the categories "wealthy, cultured and connected."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/opinion/is-harvard-unfair-to-asian-americans.html?_r=0

education and income inequality

最近法國經濟學家 Piketty 在台灣演講，引起教育和貧富不均關係的熱烈討論。實際上，Piketty 在他書中並没有太多對教育的著墨。倒是一個月前，廣受尊敬的美國聯準會主席(相當中央銀行總裁) Janet Yellen 在波士頓的演講, http://www.federalreserve.gov/newseve…/…/yellen20141017a.htm，對教育和貧富不均的關係，有較深的描述。她指出創造"經濟機會"有四大因素。前兩項是她稱之為最重要奠基石，也和教育有關。第一是兒童可以擁有的資源，二是可負擔的高等教育。其他兩項則較人驚呀，一是 business ownership，二是繼承。家庭經濟狀況，必然對兒童教育有些影響。至於高等教育的負擔，大學教育在台灣真的很便宜(見附圖). 美國窮人的小孩子，只要非常努力，資質夠好，仍有很大的翻身機會。世界排名第一第二的普林斯頓和哈佛大學，學生百分之六十有獎助金，平均每人每年的 grant 超過四萬美金。哈佛大學更是家庭年收入少於六萬美金的學生，學費全免。但是不幸地仍有很多用功但貧窮的小孩遭受挫折的報導 http://www.nytimes.com/…/poor-students-struggle-as-class-pl…&

Moore's law vs. Eroom's law

For semiconductor companies, it is Moore' law (transistor count doubles for every 2 years). For pharmaceutical companies, it is Eroom's law (drug approved decreases by half for every 9 years). One of the reasons for Eroom's law: Pharmaceutical companies depend on the newfangled target-based genomics rather than the old-fashioned and laborious trial-and-error method.   

Piketty in Taiwan to pitch for his proposal of global tax on capital

French economist, Piketty, arrived in Taiwan today to give a speech about his best-selling book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" which was out of stock in Amazon.com for many weeks in April and May this year. The major reason for this book to make a splash this year is simply because income inequality is an ubiquitous global problem. I don't believe any economists have any elixir for this malaise of income inequality. Piketty's solution is "a global tax on capital" of which even himself admits may be Utopian. Probably to possess a competitive skill (or even multiple skills) is the only way to weather the storm of this increasingly capital-intensive society.  http://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-Piketty/dp/067443000X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416105105&sr=1-1&keywords=capital+in+the+twenty-first+century

Trendy way to learn language

I am an obvious old guard since I have problems to appreciate the way youths learn either Chinese or English. Jessica Beinecke's videos to teach both English and Chinese have been going viral like gangbusters in the last 3 years. It is surely interesting, cool and trendy but how about its efficacy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5T2mpr-E34

Children happiness index

UNCEF (聯合國兒童基金會) published a report about children happiness index in April, 2013. Dutch kids are happiest. Kids in Spain and Greece seem optimistic while kids in Germany are pessimistic. US kids are slightly optimistic. Kids in Taiwan probably will not be as happy as those in these 29 countries.  

Basic skills required for racing with machines

在這電腦漸漸取代人類的時代，下一代的教育最需要什麼基本技能？1825年，三個 R(Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic) 的基本技能在英國被提出，到1970年代後期都還適用。現在似乎已不完全正確。現代教育所需的能和電腦競爭的基本技能，我個人偏向於相信 "Second Machine Age" 這本書第十二章 "Learning to Race With Machines: Recommendations for Individuals" 裡面所提到的 "構思能力，綜觀的模式認知，多元的溝通”。這三種技能似乎很抽象但並不完全盡然。書中提到一個例子，西班牙服裝公司 Zara, 想知道同一個店往後一兩個星期顧客會買什麼衣服？電腦模式無法預測極短期的顧客需要。於是每個 Zara 店的經理開始不斷地和顧客"多元化溝通" 她們的需求，"綜觀認知" 顧客當天的穿著，尤其較時髦者，再用"構思”的能力，準確地將綜合觀察的結果每天彙報給總公司。似乎這一套人為系統一直比電腦模式準。那確切的教育方式又如何實施？書中提到 SOLEs (Self-Organizing Learning Environments) 自我組織學習環境。這個抽象的 SOLEs 在書中被具體地描述成(也在多年實際研究觀察出) "學生自己組成 groups, 搜尋多元的資料，團體討論溝通，構思最佳的答案"。似乎這也是翻轉教育的形式。也許翻轉教育在無形中也是人類在抗衡電腦取代人類趨勢的轉變過程中所必要的途徑。

Telepresence is on hand

Teleportation may exist in sci-fiction but telepresence is on hand now. Kids in US can feel the omnipresensce of grandma in Taiwan (maybe too much!!)    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUb4TrPyxs

stagnant wage increase with declining unemployment rate

U.S. unemployment rate drops to 5.8% from data released today. Wage increase is still hovering around 2% in the last 3 years even with the declining unemployment rate. This stagnant wage increase bucks against the traditional expectation: "Labor shortage during declining unemployment should drive wage higher".  

High income inequality spurs "working hard" mentality

Interesting trend for parenting: "In a country with high income inequality, i.e., higher Gini index, more parents emphasize working hard in raising their offspring."   China has highest income inequality followed by US.  

novelty-seeking ADHD

今天的紐約時報有一篇過動兒(ADHD)的報導。由於現代多變化數位世界的刺激，在較沈悶的教育系統對照下，過動兒數目直線上升(由11年前的7.8%升到3年前的11% 而且全美有 6.1%的小孩在吃減輕ADHD 的藥). 遊牧民族不太可能有過動兒，因為他們不可能有長時間的枯燥環境。也許翻轉教育真能意外地減低過動兒的比率。翻轉教育的看 video 進度可自主控制，上課不再是枯坐在椅子上而是充份地討論和發問，這可以使得過動兒比一般小孩強烈的 novelty-seeking 能充分發揮。長期而言，不是特別嚴重的過動兒，反而能將自己的疾病，轉換成具有 novelty-seeking 的特質。http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/a-natural-fix-for-adhd.html?_r=1

restoration of reproductive genetics

CBS "60 Minutes" tonight has an interesting episode about reproductive genetics which is supposed to breed out any foreseeable diseases for any newborn. This technology is a substantial boon to human beings. But if "a child could have other traits, like eye color, hair color, social intelligence, even whether a child will have a widow's peak?", then, it is really scary that reproductive genetics may drastically alter the subtle balance in our current society.  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/breeding-out-disease-with-reproductive-genetics/

customers#1 stockholders#3

Jack Ma (馬雲) appeared in tonight's CBS "60 Minutes" to claim that "We treat customers #1, employees #2 and stockholders #3". That sounds pretty assertive. However, I do have some cynical view on this statement since it seems to be tinged with the pretense of Alibaba's controversial management scheme: His 30-member core team can overwrite any opinion from the majority of stockholders.

1 F22 raptor = 6 satellites to Mars

Just heard from radio that cost of every unit of F-22 raptor can send almost six Indian satellites to Mars. Pax Americana has been swelling since Roosevelt era but how long can it last? This fraught situation is especially glaring when 75% of government tax revenue is spent on social safety net.

phubber

Just learned a new word, phubber (低頭族), which was coined in 2012 and has become a buzzword since then. It is derived from "snUB someone in favor of mobile PHone (專注手機而冷漠他人)". This kind of portmanteau words will become more popular in the future.

Jack Ma

The frenzy IPO of Alibaba increases the wealth of Jack Ma by almost 25% to $20.8B and boosts his world wealth ranking to #36 from last year's #395. Hopefully, the whopping increase of his wealth will make him ante up his $3B philanthropic trust declared in April this year.

stagnant household income growth

US census bureau released 2013 household income today. 2013 median household income was only $51,939, $180 higher than in 2012, which accounts for 0.35% increase, well below the 1.5% inflation rate in 2013. US economy is still disappointingly stagnant. However, Asian household income is still towering over the other ethnic groups.    

Scratch

以前從來不知 Scratch 是什麼，搜尋一下，發現 Scratch 應是很適合給八歲小孩以上，互動式入門 coding 的免費軟體。https://docs.google.com/.../0B8aMeqYeJfEIM2Y3MDVk.../edit...# Scratch 來自於 MIT 的 Media Lab。小孩子由Scratch 的生動 GUI, 可以寫出簡單互動式的多媒體程式。進階的小孩子，還可以連接 Scratch 軟體到硬體(如經由 S4A 連到 Arduino board 或 直接連到 TI 的 Scratch Booster Pack) 而發揮小孩子無限的創新想像力。小孩子要是能減少一點玩電動，將多出的時間用來學習"自己寫的簡單電動遊戲"，以後台灣的創新競爭力一定不差。 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8aMeqYeJfEIM2Y3MDVkNjQtZWM2YS00ZTVmLTllOTctZjJmNjNhZTgzMWMz/edit?ddrp=1&pli=1&hl=en

Arduino toy

Spent a few hours to play Arduino "toy", a $90 starter kit for micro-controller applications. Pretty cool. You can use simple C programming to generate various visual/audio effects. Following photos are temperature sensor and LCD display controlled by Arduino board.  

free elixir

Sleep-deprivation is equivalent to leaving toxic detritus in your brain as shown in various medical studies. Enough sleeping is more like a panacea than any other anti-oxidant diets.  http://time.com/3326565/the-power-of-sleep/

U.S., a form of colonization by China?

Tonight, PBS had a coverage of last year's $4.7B purchase of pork producer Smithfield with price premium as high as 35% from China's 雙滙集團. It may be a good deal for Smithfield stock holders, but this purchase is criticized as a deal of "pork to China, resources consumption left behind in the U.S." (600 gallons of water is consumed for a pound of port and huge piles of stinking manures). It seems like the only upside for U.S. is "probably Smithfield will not use ractopamine (瘦肉精) since ractopamine is not allowed in pork in China". U.S. starts to become a form of colonization by China through purchase rather than conquest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/opinion/bittman-on-becoming-chinas-farm-team.html?pagewanted=all

Pedigree of elite university has a market price

It is a lucrative business if someone is going to pay you $1.1M if you can guarantee his son to either Harvard or Princeton; $0.6M to No. 50 and $0.3M to one of the top 100 universities in the US. This is how a company, ThinkTank, to boom from $8,000 in 2002 to $60M today. For many affluent families in China, the pedigree of US elite university has a market price.   http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-03/college-consultant-thinktank-guarantees-admission-for-hefty-price#p1

David Gregory got the heave-ho

I have been a fixture in watching Sunday's morning news of NBC's "Meet the Press" in the last three years. Suddenly, from mid-August, the moderator of "Meet the Press", David Gregory, vanished into thin air. It was believed that Gregory may be slightly reckless in the rigor of journalism. This kind of traits in TC moderator may lead to the third place in revenue among competitors, trailing CBS's "Face the Nation" and ABC's "This Week". Even the inadvertently theatrical performance on TV for socially sensitive issues may be repudiated by viewers.

Looming common-core standardized test

Education reform has always been a thorny task. In 2014-2015 academic year, students in public schools of more than twenty states will face an excruciating reality of how deep of their understanding in math and language arts. Test scores are expected to plunge in many states due to its more rigorous emphasis on thinking rather than memorizing. This well-intended education reform has already been a breeding ground for raucous political debate and will become even more ugly when the test results are released.   http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/09/03/03assessment.h34.html

Lucy

Went with Kueiling to watch "Lucy" this afternoon. Impression: disappointed. Other than the phantasmagoria and Taipei city backdrop, I felt it is almost a cartoon sci-fiction movie. The development of human brain is by evolution and it is hard for me to believe God would pre-endow such an immense pristine labyrinth of neuron networks and only allows human being to explore 10% of them. Yes, we are still in the rudimentary stage of neuron network understanding but it does not mean that our potential takes only 10% of its maximum capacity.

Quantum dots

Quantum dots feature prominently in the display applications and probably will outshine the hyped iPhone6 IGZO display technology. Kindle Fire HDX has adopted quantum dots technology and seems to have better RGB color saturation. I had ephemeral exposure to quantum dot study but did not foresee its ascendant application in display technology.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/will-quantum-dots-dominate-displays

ALS

漸凍人 (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease) may be able to use their "mind" to control robotic limb to do basically any simple activities that their sclerotic muscle cannot handle any more. This is not new but usually it needs to have risky implanted electrodes BENEATH the cortex. New technology will allow electrodes ABOVE the cortex to transmit human's mind to the robotic limb. Hopefully, in the near future, these brain electrodes will be as safe as implanted cardio-defibrillators. Further research on BMI (brain-machine interface) will make all the recent zealous philanthropic activities for 漸凍人 pay off.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/how-to-catch-brain-waves-in-a-net

Common core is rolling out

In this month and the next, Common Core is rolled out in every public school in the 41 states. Every student from Mississippi to Maine will take classes with more rigorous academic standards and take the nationwide standardized test to evaluate both the students' and teachers' performances. All the students are supposed to be endowed with the capability of critical thinking before going to colleges. If successful, US will still be a hard act to follow in the next few decades. If failed, it may drag further down the confidence of underachieved students.
http://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards-2/

$10M for posting one word "yo"

An app that does nothing but post the word "yo" to a phone is worth $10M. I guess I am a fuddy-duddy but is it really an innovative app or just over-rewarding the inanities on smartphones?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_(app)

92% failure rate of new drug development

The recent flap of the plummeting stock price of 基亞生技 raised my attention to the success rate of new drug development. From a report by Bain Consulting in 2003, it showed, in 2000-2002, the failure rate of new drug development was as high as 92% with a whopping $1.7B total cost and only 5% ROI if approved by FDA. The lucrative profit of new blockbuster drug dreamed by any upstart bio-tech company starts to become holy grail nowadays.
http://www.bain.com/bainweb/PDFs/cms/Public/rebuilding_big_pharma.pdf

Student Goal Objectives

The students learning in one year can lag behind for as long as 11 months if they are unlucky to stumble across ineffective teachers. Realizing the importance of the teachers' effectiveness, NJ government has introduced SGOs (student goal objectives) for teacher evaluation. Of course, lots of backlash from incumbent teachers, citing the murky evaluations of teachers on subjective goals in SGOs. That being said, does it mean every teacher can run their own course without being evaluated by some criteria? (and leave students to their own devices?)
http://www.nj.gov/education/AchieveNJ/intro/OverviewPPT.pdf

鋪路種豆

After reading an article in Economist, I feel compelled to search an interesting news of "鋪路種豆" in 江蘇泗洪縣. 泗洪縣 bureaucrats had illegally converted farmland into highways. Last month, they all panicked after having heard the upcoming visit of inspectors from central government. Under this antsy situation, they figured out an ingenious remedy: Dumping multitudinous truckloads of soil on the highway and soybeans were planted on it.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2014-07/27/c_126801918.htm

author of best-selling books in three centuries

Spent almost 4 hours transfixed in front of TV in the last two weeks to watch "Mark Twain", author of best-selling books in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries including his autobiography a few years ago as #1 among Amazon's best-selling books. Still amazed by the appealing writing styles in his best-known books such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Never did I realize that Mark Twain is a pen name of Samuel Clemens until watching this TV program.
http://video.pbs.org/program/mark-twain/

Banks are more important than schools

Larry Summers, former secretary of treasury, Harvard President, director of national economic council and nephew of two Nobel Prize laureates, has recently raised public attention of "secular stagnation" in modern economy. However, one comment in the following article from a little girl to Summers probably tugs at readers' heartstrings more than his "secular stagnation". When Summers extolled how important education in government's policy during a school visit, one little girl asked him "Why should any of the students believe you when there is paint chipping off the walls of their classroom and when the first lunch period has to begin at 9:45 a.m. because this school is so overcrowded? There is no chipping paint at any bank. Maybe we think bank is the most important thing.”
http://larrysummers.com/2014/04/11/idle-workerslow-interest-rates-time-to-rebuild-infrastructure/

NYT endorses legalization of marijuana

"The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana" claimed by NYT editorial board today. It has already triggered an intense debate in this morning's political TV programs in NBC/ABC/CBS. Hard for me to believe that the story in Prohibition era can be applied to the ban of marijuana.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html?_r=0

To be or not to be a wise politician

Winning World Cup probably made all Germans feel everything is coming up roses. German Chancellor, Merkel, now enjoys 71% popularity and this may be the interesting paradox for any likable politicians. " The wise man voluntarily does in good times that which the stupid man involuntarily has to do in bad times 聰明人在順境自願做的事就是蠢蛋在逆境時被迫做的事". Merkel lowers the retirement age from age 67 to 63 (US is still 66.2 and will go up) and spends only 1.2% GDP on infrastructure compared to 4.2% in the 1970s. Her predecessor, Schroder, had a painful and unpopular economic reform and was repudiated by voters. Do we need a wise or a stupid politician for the long-term economic growth?    Wise or stupid politican

dogfight in medical school admissions

Medical school admission has become a dogfight. In 2002-2013, enrollment in 141 accredited medical school increases less than 22% while number of students to take MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) in the same period increases by a whopping 65%. Nowadays every field is competitive including physicians since 粥不增僧增  On top of that, D.O. (doctor of osteopathic medicine) starts to encroach M.D. residency chances, though D.O. enrollment is not as competitive as M.D.  (In 2012, the average MCAT and GPA for students entering U.S.-based M.D. programs were 31.2 and 3.68 respectively, and 26.85 and 3.51 for D.O. matriculants.)  

vacuum transistor

Moore's law has commanded MOSFET transistor channel length down to 16nm and max. speed up to 40GHz. Physics, especially the tunneling effect, must start to rein in further significant advancement (Well, I'm thinking inside the box). Now, a promising(?) research on vacuum transistor (similar to the old bulky vacuum tube) may push the speed 100X faster or more. Since the extremely short channel length is much less than the mean free path of air particle, exactly what vacuum transistors require, these still-experimental transistors may push computing technology to another unimaginable milestone.  vacuum transistor

Reputation quotients of major companies

The 2013 Harris Poll for the "reputation quotient, RQ(名聲指數)" of major companies. Excellent: RQ>75 Poor: RQ<55. Amazon and Apple proudly take the top and runner-up positions while AIG and Goldman Sachs disgracefully cower at rock bottom.  

Blend Learning model in Innova Schools

To revamp the school system by asking the help from a design company which has done Apple's first mouse and Wells Fargo's recent ATM interface? The design company, Ideo, did create a very successful school network, Innova Schools, by adopting the blend learning model. This model emphasizes the combination of group learning (4-6 students) and individual learning by adopting Khan Academy online resources. To facilitate the blend learning model, classroom walls can be adjusted to accommodate more students or to break up spaces. It seems to be a highly acclaimed educational project sponsored by the Peruvian billionaire , Rodriguez-Pastor.
Innova Schools

Amazon Rising

Just finished watching "Amazon Rising" from CNBC. Always infatuated with any thinking-outside-the-box initiatives from Amazon. Their P/E ratio is several hundreds or even thousands and still is a teacher's pet of Wall Street. They can afford to lose billions of dollar in shipping just to win over customers' confidence. Amazon never hesitates to have strong-arm tactics against their own 3rd-party suppliers by using cunning playbook. And they plan to have 1-hour drone delivery probably after FAA approves commercial usage of drone at least five years from now.  Amazon Rising

Baumol's cost disease

1787年莫札特的弦樂五重曲需五個人彈奏，現在還是需要五個人。醫護人員幾百年前，一次只能看一個病人。現在還是。他們的生產力幾百年來並没有增加 (所謂的 Baumol's cost disease)。但產品生產人員，四十年來生產力就成長了 250%   教育也是 Baumol's cost disease 最常被提到的例子之一。和醫療不同的例子是 MOOCs 很可能改變這幾千年來教育一成不變的 "一對數十個人的局面"，尤其是大學教育。
Wisconsin 大學商學院院長曾開玩笑說 "以後全世界可能只需要四個人教微積分，一個人用英文，一個人用中文，一個人用法文，另外一個人待命在其他人死亡時可隨時接替"

Sotomayor, People's Judge

Pretty impressed by the comments from Supreme Court Judge, Sotomayor, in ABC's "George Stephanopoulos for This Week" in this morning. Sotomayer, dubbed as "People's Judge" commented about her strong support for the affirmative action in college admission and dismissed some of the comments on the Internet against affirmative action as "In the fast-paced Internet world, reporters are no longer reading about cases before they comment on them."   Sotomayor Interview with ABC's Stephanopoulos

Moonshot Factory

Google does not have R&D Center, they just have "moonshot factory". I love this term since "moonshot" connotes the pride of being in the skunkworks projects which "factory" hints its path to the final product.
Moonshot Factory

Handwriting learns more than verbatim laptop note-taking

Taking handwritten notes will learn more and have better test performance than verbatim laptop note-taking. Though I take it with a grain of salt, I strongly agree that, by handwriting, it forces you to ruminate constantly what the teacher just delivers. That listening-while-thinking will definitely facilitate the learning process.
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2014/06/princeton_university_study_finds_students_more_likely_to_learn_by_taking_handwritten_notes.html

Nuanced aptitude distinction from common-core education

Recent NYT has an article about the impact of standard common-core education in NY state. The test score in 2013 (after common-core) is 58% worse than in 2012 (before common-core). The common-core guidelines seem to be just the basic training and it proves that US students have lagged behind way too long. By adopting the rigorous common-core, according to NYT, only the strong dedication from teachers can make a difference. Typical 4th grade math question under common core is as follows: "A club’s first meeting was attended by 28 people. The first meeting was attended by 4 times as many people as the second meeting. How many people attended the second meeting?" The question should be pretty easy but it stumps many 4th-grade students in NY city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/education/common-core-in-9-year-old-eyes.html?_r=0

Reflection of personality from Facebook posts

Want to know your personality? Go to http://labs.five.com/ and it will evaluate your Facebook posts and display the scores of your openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion. Then, you can compare your scores with scores of Bill Gates, Obama and Zuckerberg.
Test your personality from Facebook posts

10-to-10 schedule in Xiaomi

When 100k Mi3 smartphones were sold out in 86 seconds, it is not surprising to witness Xiaomi is in the ascendant. What it impresses me is the hard-driving entrepreneurship of its founder, Lei Jun. Is that really true that everyone needs to work 12 hours a day in Xiaomi (so-called 10-to-10 schedule)?
Xiaomi smartphone in the ascendant

Only 4 calculus professors are needed in the whole WORLD

"Winners-take-all" and "disruptive innovations" may evolve online education into a touch-and-go world. A sobering question is asked in today's NY Times, “How many calculus professors do we need in the WORLD?” The answer is 4: one to teach in English, one in French, one in Chinese, and one in the farm system in case one dies.
Business Schools, Disrupted

You are watched by your instructor in online learning

A new interactive online learning in Harvard Business School will make its debut in June, 2014. It has 60 HD TVs, each a stand-in for an off-site student. 
Harvard Business School new online learning

Protect workers, not jobs

Protect the jobs will increase unemployment.  "Protect workers, not jobs" as advocated by 2010 Nobel Prize laureate, Christopher Pissarides.

Job protection increases unemployment

Adaptive learning by big data: knewton

最近閲讀有關一家教育平台的公司，knewton.com，的資料。這家公司這六年來，投資者已挹注超過一億美元的資金。knewton 收集大量的數位學習資料，加以總體學習趨向的分析。然後根據每一個學生個人的學習資料和性向，給予個人化的即時學習建議和即時提供難易適中的問題。knewton 也提供老師每一個學生的詳細數位學習效率和預測每一個學生的學習效果。至今為止，knewton 平台在美國已經有五百萬學生使用，也提供超過二十億次的個人化學習建議。knewton 現在合作的對象，仍侷限在大型數位學習和教育機構，大型考試鑑定中心，大學和政府教育部門。knewton 網站宣稱他們在將來會免費供應中小學校老師軟體，讓老師能客製化學生的數位學習分析(但我相信老師使用的數位教學軟體供應者仍需和 knewton 合作，才會使得客製化學習分析達到最大效果)。knewton 的服務範圍仍限於美國和英國，以後可能會擴展到亞洲。
Knewton adaptive learning

It takes a village to raise a child

Astonished by the unfortunate events in the last few days across the Pacific Ocean, obviously attributed to the social anomie and discontent, probably many may beg the question that "it takes a family to raise a child" or it should escalate to "it takes the village to raise a child" ?
It takes a village to raise a child

Constant manna from heaven for bottom 20% stratum

Income inequality as measured by the tax records in the last 100 years may be "exaggerated". However, it is simply because government subsidy is not included in the statistics. In 2010, for family income in the bottom 20% stratum, 74% of the household income is from government alms. Income inequality has become more and more twisted.

Substantial salary disparity between male and female?

Is it really true that female salary is substantially lower than male salary as shown in this 2003 data (source: Congressional Budge Office). This buzzed-about topic was accentuated two weeks ago due to the ousted NY Times executive editor, Jill Abramson. Hard for me to be convinced that the salary disparity is based on the apple-to-apple comparison.  

Chinese transcends English

How to quench the craze of English-learning and promote the Chinese-centric nationalist mentality? The most effective approach is to de-emphasize the weight of English in College entrance exams. This is exactly what Chinese government is planning to do. The only unintended consequence of this government intervention is to widen the income inequality since it definitely will encourage more expensive private English-teaching institutions to sprout up everywhere.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-22/china-moves-to-protect-its-language-from-english#p1

Service sector as a magnet for employments

As technology advances, more people are employed in service sectors, as high as 80% in US now. More than 20% in education and health, 20% in leisure activities, 20% in finance, transportation, real estate and services to companies, more than 10% for government and security services. More people in service sectors inevitably invites more competition.  

ever-declining population (and GDP!)

With the expected population growth as 0% or negative 40 years from now, GDP growth probably will hover around 1%; 2% will be excellent and 3% is virtually a miracle.  

Education spending as percentage of GDP

台灣2010年教育經費占國內生產毛額 (GDP) 和其他國家比，算蠻高的。似乎我們的教育品質還有改進的空間. 但是學生平均每年政府的花費，可能有誤導作用。紐澤西州的學生去年平均花掉政府 $18,891 美元 (美國平均值 $12,743 美元)。但是在紐澤西州內，有些地區高達 $43,775 美元，有些低到 $12,587 美元。而且，學生每年花費不一定和績效成正比。紐澤州的老師，因受到工會保護，幾乎没有任何淘汰制度。學生碰到什麽老師，只能靠運氣，除非和學校有"密切"關係。而且有些學區的行政費用的比率，實在是很驚人 

Top-12 countries with most rich individuals

美國富人最多 , 日本也不少, 中國急起直追. 南韓 2011 年加入 Top-12 富人俱樂部. 香港和印度 2012 年富人成長率高達 35.7% 和 22.2% 但總人數還無法進入 Top-12 富人俱樂部 source: http://www.capgemini.com/resource-file-access/resource/pdf/wwr_2013_0.pdf

Living beyond 90

How to live longer and resist from cognitive decline? Tonight's CBS's "60 Minutes" provided guidelines based on 23 years study for 14,000 cases. 1) no smoking 2) exercise (45-minute is the optimal) 3) 1-3 cups of coffee per day 4) modest amount of wine 5) normal weight or slightly overweight (yes, no typo here) 6) slightly high blood pressure (yes, no typo here) 7) Vitamin pills do not help 8) Modest indulgence in "unhealthy" food is OK 9) healthy social life 10) romance (yes, romance even after 90). However, it is inevitable that dementia rate may double for every 5 years after age 65.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/living-to-90-and-beyond/

US wealth distribution in the last 100 years

Amazon #1 best-seller book

Bought an Amazon #1 Best Seller book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, this morning (to my Kindle and its hardcover version is out of stock since it is so popular). This tome has 696 pages dedicated to income inequality which gives detailed trace back to 18th centuries. As Nobel prize laureate economist, Paul Krugman, put it in NY Times for this book: "Conservatives are terrified .... warn that Mr. Piketty’s work must be refuted, because otherwise it will spread among the clerisy and reshape the political economic landscape."

Half of the universities will evaporate

A Harvard professor predicted "as many as half of the more than 4,000 universities and colleges in the U.S. may fail in the next 15 years ... in large part by the growing acceptance of online learning."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-14/small-u-s-colleges-battle-death-spiral-as-enrollment-drops.html

Charlie Rose among the TIME 100 most influential people

Charlie Rose is among the TIME 100 most influential people this year. At least, he did influence me.
http://time.com/70815/charlie-rose-2014-time-100/

1st step of rectification of corrupt system?

In the past, China's elites were the reputed kleptocrats. Recent detention of 周永康 ( former top guy of security apparatus, former member of politburo standing committee and former head of CNPC), his wife, son, brother, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law may test President Xi's determination to rectify the flagrant corrupt regime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/asia/severing-a-familys-ties-chinas-president-signals-a-change.html?_r=1

If bottom 5% of teachers are out, ---

Interesting data from the study of 2.5 million American schoolchildren.

Moravec's paradox

Jobs most likely being replaced by robots or automation in the next 20 years. Part of the following job list reflects the Moravec's paradox: High- level reasoning is a cakewalk for computers while low-level sensorimotor skill is a square-the-circle task for computers.

Only the fittest can survive - incoming university rating system

With the expected avalanche of opposition from universities, Obama administration is still scheduled to launch an university-rating system as early as 2015-2016 year. Two-thirds of public university revenues and more than 40% of private university budgets are from federal government. Universities spent a whopping $91M in 2012 just to lobby Congress. The result: A whole bunch of graduates are saddled with debts and with low-paid jobs. Universities in Taiwan have the same problem. I bet Taiwan government, unlike Obama administration, may be submissive to the public pressure and flinch to charge ahead to allocate funding and to weed out the disqualified universities based on the rating system.
http://time.com/66259/obamas-college-rankings-raise-campus-backlash/

How to spend $500M a year?

NYT has the survey of 100 highest paid CEOs. However, these CEOs definitely are NOT the highest paid CEOs. Leon Black of Apollo makes $500M while Bill Gross of Pimco makes $200M in 2013. Gross of Pimco needs to get up at 4:30 a.m. to work everyday. How much they earn probably is just a number, a symbol in the upper echelon of the gilded society.
http://www.equilar.com/corporate-governance/2013-reports/the-new-york-times-100-highest-paid-ceos

Company growth preempts workers' safety

When a company's revenue accounts for 24% of GDP, will this country's judicial system be on the side of workers? It is a David vs. Goliath battle between a poor family and Samsung. A Korean girl, started working at Samsung at age 18 and died at 22. Same rare disease happened to the other girl standing side by side with her on the same semiconductor workstation in Samsung. They all had acute myeloid leukemia (急性骨髓白血病) which occurs in 3 out of 100,000 people. Samsung still refuses to admit any wrong-doing. Growth just cannot preempt the priority of workers' safety and poetic justice is waiting to be served against Samsung.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-10/deaths-at-samsung-alter-south-koreas-corporate-is-king-mindset

Which came first, money or patient interests?

If a patient with macular degeneration (黄斑變性) can be treated with either a medicine that costs either $2,000 or $50 with the same effect, guess which medicine eye doctors will choose? If eye doctor chose $2,000 medicine for many thousands of his patients, he can become the doctor with top reimbursement in Medicare, $21M in 2012 from Medicare alone for ophthalmologist Dr. Melgen. The reason for doctors to choose $2,000 instead of $50 with the same effect: The pharmaceutical company that makes the $2,000 drug gives lucrative rebates for eye doctors who use this expensive medicine. Money instead of patient interests is the top priority for some high-paid doctors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/business/doctor-with-big-medicare-billings-is-no-stranger-to-scrutiny.html?smid=pl-share

只能靠資本和技術

最近閲讀一篇 Brookings Institution 去年九月發表的一篇台灣經濟的研究報告。台灣的進出口貿易佔 GDP 總額的 74%, 所以國際上的任何風吹草動，皆會影響台灣的經濟。在進出口貿易中，中國大陸(包括經由香港的轉口貿易 ) 已佔40% , 對美貿易已降至 10%( 雖然在大陸的台商仍大部分對美國出口) 。十年來和大陸貿易金額成長了6.6倍。對印尼，馬來西亞，菲律賓，泰國和越南的總貿易額十年來成長的金額高達12倍，但總金額不到對大陸貿易的5% 台灣的出口99% 是工業產品，但進口產品 77% 是農產品和原物料，這充分顯示台灣天然資源的不足，而台灣只能靠不斷的投資和人工技術的提昇，才有競爭力的可能。没有人喜歡對大陸的依賴漸深，但我相信全台灣沒有任何一個人知道 "如果不繼續和大陸保持密切貿易關係，請問如何讓台灣經濟繼續成長，甚至只是讓經濟原地踏步?" 中共從不諱言，他們在 ECFA 上作了重大讓利，唯一的目的就是希望在以後能以平和的方式在政治問題上和台灣有一個可被接受的解決方案。小國無外交，所以小國的外交不能講技巧，不能講權謀。小國的外交是藝術，没有絶對的對錯可言，只要在不完全平等的談判中，爭取多多益善的利益，那就是對台灣有利。對一個進出口佔 GDP 高達74% 而出口 99% 是工業產品的台灣，我們真的是只能靠資本和技術，才能在經濟成長上有競爭力。

Those good old days after WWII will not come back

According to a recent study by the famous income-inequality specialist, Berkeley economist Saez, the strata of wealth (not income) distribution in 2012 of total US household wealth is as follows: 25.6% for bottom 90%, 34.6% for the next 9%, 39.8% for the top 1%. The era of reasonable income distribution in those 30 years after WWII will never come back.

0.07% profit is a mind-boggling profit

Halfway through the book of "Flash Boys" that may unwind my confusion of high-frequency trading (HFT) in the last few years. It is estimated HFT may make 0.07% profit. For daily $225B U.S stock market, it amounts to $160M every day for HFT companies as long as they are able to reach the stock exchanges one milli-second faster than your stock transaction (Your eye-blink takes 100 milli-second)
http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Wall-Street-Revolt/dp/0393244660