Product Hunt

台灣似乎也應該有像 producthunt.com 的這種網站(成立才一年,但似乎已經很轟動), 可以結合投資者和創新者。 這個網站每天將有一點點價值的創新產品，公佈在他們的網站，由經過初步篩選的人來評價，而且也讓投資者和創新者能夠有交流的機會，並且也讓創新者能夠為自己的產品辯護。 這個網站似乎有點公信力，因為禮拜二的Pebble Time已有765個人說讚，而且在同一天的 Kickstarter，Pebble Time創新 Kickstarter 的紀錄, 在49分鐘之內籌到100萬美金.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-17/why-startups-want-this-28-year-old-to-really-like-them

Economic growth or income equality?

上個星期剛出爐的白宮經濟顧問委員會給美國總統的年度報告, 提到"如果1973年到2013年的經濟成長和1948年到1973年一樣地快速的話, 美國每個家庭中位數的收入可以增加3萬美金. 如果1973年到2013年貧富不均和1948年到1973年差不多的話, 美國每個家庭中位數的收入可以增加9千美金" 下列這張圖似乎在提示美國總統，經濟成長還是最重要的？

Elementary my dear Watson

"Elementary, my dear Watson", a famous saying by the fiction character, Sherlock Holmes, probably should only apply to humans. For computers, the "elementary" stuffs are not that elementary any more. Chinese version is in   http://technews.tw/2015/02/27/ibm-computer-ai-cat/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-18/even-the-smartest-ai-can-mistake-zuckerberg-for-a-cardigan

A snarky put-down that needs to do a double take

I came across a sentence, "A modest man but then he has so much to be modest about (他是一個謙卑的人，但他還有很多卑微之處)" regarded as a "high-class" put-down attributed to Winston Churchill. Churchill used this sentence to deride his political rival in which many people may need to do a double-take before understanding its true meaning. Political dogfight does not need to be in-your-face; rather, a more euphemistic way as in this sentence may have the same effect. 

Schools closed in observance of Chinese New Year

I start to be convinced that "new blood is a more capable enabler than old guard."  On 2/19, the public schools in my township were unprecedentedly closed in observance of Chinese New Year. This is accredited to a 26-year-old Chinese young upstart who was elected into local school board last year. Jews always enjoy time-honored days off for the whole local public schools during their new year holiday. Now, because of the political clout in school board, Chinese are now on the same standing as Jews.

mentor-mentee relationship in entrepreneur course

An article in NYT yesterday piqued my interest to browse through the following site for entrepreneurship course in Stanford Uni. Stanford Uni. is in the catbird seat since it is located next to Silicon Valley. Students in this course can enjoy the privilege that no other schools can provide, one-to-one mentor-mentee relationship for the experience from successful entrepreneurs.   http://e145.stanford.edu/

Musing about how origami-frog catches a fly will show students' academic performance!!!

I guess probably TIME editor wants to use the "origami-frog" as the metaphor to tease the schools that are so afraid to take the forthcoming rigorous standardized tests. It is because they expect most of the students' scores will precipitate in the standardized tests. The school in this article claims that by watching how students devise the approaches for origami-frog to catch the paper fly is a "better" way to evaluate students' academic performances than the standardized tests. Oops!   
http://time.com/3696882/leaving-standardized-testing-behind/

Political favoritism is everywhere

80% of herbal supplements sold in US stores are heavily adulterated.  Ginseng pills are just powdered garlic and ginkgo biloba pills are just powdered radish.  Reason for this lack of oversight of medicinal herbs: "US Senator Orrin Hatch quashed any legislation to regulate medicinal herbs and receives a lot of campaign contributions from the same industry".  Political favoritism is universal everywhere.  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/new-york-attorney-general-targets-supplements-at-major-retailers/