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