Amazing elocution

President Obama just finished his State of the Union Address. I am always infatuated by Obama's elocution skill. I may not agree with his viewpoints but the confidence and cadence exuding from his speech always helps him win over the support of general public. Speech skill should be the lifetime training for anyone since it is the best tool to present yourself.

Controversial "The Triple Package"

Recent issue of TIME has an article which categorically castigates the newly published book, "The Triple Package" written by the controversial Tiger Mom, Amy Chua. I personally disagree with Chua's sensational claim that the reason why groups of Asians, Indians, Jews, Cubans, Mormons, Iranians and Lebanese thrive is because of three traits: a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control. No race is better or worse than the others. I personally gravitate toward one appealing factor that is supposed to predominantly determine the success of any race, i.e., the parents' human capital.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2163555,00.html?pcd=pw-magic

Ten top-paid physicians

Dermatologists can be among the top 10 highest-paid physicians? U.S. medical bill is way too outrageous!

Manna from heaven at any time

Best way to fight inequality? To ask government to give every citizen USD $33,000/yr no matter if they want to work or not! This is what an advocacy group, "Generation Basic Income" in Switzerland wants to push to hold a referendum 2-3 years from now. Their idea for this campaign is "Unemployment is OK. If you don't want to work, you don't have to work". With income per capita as high as USD $80,000, third in the whole world, why do they think they deserve to be the privileged Europeans and are entitled to manna from heaven all the time?     http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-16/inequality-fight-swiss-will-vote-on-minimum-income

Interview of China's US ambassador

Last night, Charlie Rose interviewed the fluent English-speaking Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai, 崔天凱. He seems to be pretty measured and lacks the swaggering attitude commonly found from an ambassador representing an autocratic country. In 1969, he was an intellectual youth in 黑龍江 collective farm and had climbed upward to the position of ambassador to US in 2013.

http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2014-01-17/chinas-u-dot-s-dot-ambassador-charlie-rose-01-17

Bitcoin mining, the law of jungle

To earn USD $21,725 in every 10 minutes (more than $130K per hour) sounds a pie in the sky. This covetous money is what all the Bitcoin "miners" are fighting for 24 hours a day. It still has more than 10M Bitcoins up for grabs. Bitcoin mining basically follows the law of jungle, if you are strong, you get everything. Any one equipped with a lot of resources, i.e., a lot of computation power with each specialized processor equivalent to 70,000 fastest Intel CPU, can solve the arcane Nakamoto's solutions ahead of worldwide competitors and rake up more than USD $130K per hour (price in the night of Jan. 15). Again, Bitcoin mining enhances the economic gap between high- and low-skill individuals.

1st consumer-grade thermal camera

IR thermal cameras have never been cheap, low-resolution IR thermal cameras in Amazon.com usually cost USD $3K-$5K. In 2014 Las Vegas CES, FLIR announced the 1st consumer-grade thermal camera which can be attached to iPhone5. Its resolution is as low as 80x60 but its $349 price tag dropped a bombshell on the IR market and triggered 9,000 pre-order units in CES. I always wonder if there are any killer applications for IR cameras (except for car). Probably this FLIR low-cost camera on iPhone5 may have the crowd-pulling effect to provoke more IR applications.   FLIR microbolometer thermal camera

Minimum wage in 1968 was much higher than today's

To raise the minimum wage from today's $7.25/hr to $10/hr or not has become a heated debate since raising the minimum wage may be the most efficient way to wipe out poverty. Today's $7.25/hr is actually much lower than the inflation-adjusted $10.56/hr in 1968. However, raising the labor cost may spur employers to accelerate the automation such as using the robots to shred noodles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukNkCnNJuR8

From Norman Rockwell society To Survival of The Fittest society

It has been 50 years after President LBJ announced the epochal social safety net program. In the last 50 years, US poverty rate has declined from 26% to 16%. However, income inequality still shows relentless aggravation. Until late 1970s, US was a Norman Rockwell society. After 1980, US has become a "survival of the fittest" society.

income inequality

Recent Gallup poll shows the comparison of income inequality.  Following figure is just for a few countries.   China is the worst while Japan and Europe seem not way too egregious.

58% favoring the legalization of marijuana

PBS news today has mentioned that U.S. has the majority favoring the legalization of marijuana. Colorado state has legalized the entertainment marijuana on Jan. 1, 2014. Marijuana has the indisputable scientific fact that it will impact the cognitive capacity unfavorably, especially for teenagers. What's wrong with the U.S. social fabric nowadays?

snowbound driveway

Take day off due to the snowbound driveway. The broken snowblower added to the double whammy. Luckily, two kids had no hesitation to help me clean the 5-inch snow on the driveway.