Book of the day: The Shock Doctrine - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Who could have thought of the connections between disasters (natural or man-made), dictatorships and free-market economy? I certainly would not have seen it if not for this book, written by Naomi Klein.

The first example occurred in New Orleans, after Katrina hit. Free-market economist seized the opportunity to rush in and replace public schools by private ones. Later in the book she has also given examples in Argentina, China and most recently, Iraq. And all of them are connected to the highly regarded, Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman.

This book is certainly an eye-opener. Of course, one should always read the other sides to every story. Reviewers at Amazon pointed out that Friedman was actually opposed to the Iraq war.

Topic of the day: do Prop 8 contributors have the right to hide?

Will the people understand that giving money to support unfair legislations (e.g., Prop 8, gay marriage ban) cannot have it all? Simply because you are afraid of boycott of your business doesn't mean you should sacrifice people's right to full disclosure and transparency. If you are so afraid of boycott, my advice: next time think before you give your money. Just so you know, you could "vote" for it and no one would know about your vote.

BTW, Prop 8 proponents have also threaten to boycott businesses that did not donate to their campaign. It is another example of "if I do it, it is right. If you do it, it is wrong."

The irony is: the people who demand for extra right (right to hide their political contribution) are the same people who take away right from others.

Music of the day: Sonatas for Guitar by Bach

This is a free download offered by the local classical station KDFC. Just visit their website, scroll down and you will find the link (require signup and iTunes installed)

This is originally written for violin (Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001: IV. Presto) and arranged by Nicholas Goluses (also the performer) If you want to play it yourself, the tab could be found here.

BTW, KDFC refers this as MP3 but it's actually in AAC format (just like everything else offered on iTunes) I guess the term MP3 has lost its original meaning!

Topic of the day: New York Times selling its stake in baseball

If you know anything about American sports, you would know NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox are the biggest rivalry. The irony is: the newspaper NY Times actually owns part of Red Sox (not Yankees!) I wonder if they have to disclose this whenever they write about Red Sox. Even more ironic is that Red Sox should actually be a better investment than the newspaper business (lost $57.8 million in 2008 because of the decline of ad revenue)

I wonder if New York Times will be joining the following publications by stopping the print version and publishing online only:
- AsianWeek
- Dr. Dobb's Journal
- PC Magazine

Maybe it's just a question of "when?"

Tech of the day: cell phone camera beep sound

The approval rating of our congress reached record low (9%) last July. If you are wondering why, take a look at New York Republican Congressman Peter King, who introduced a bill to mandate all cell phone must make a loud sound when its camera is being used for taking picture. Mr. King: what's your priority?

Topic of the day: class notes seized and destroyed

An Economics teacher (presumably in a US high school) required all students in the class to turn in their notes at the end of the semester for him (or her) to destroy so that future students of the same class cannot copy such notes.

Isn't this strange? Why should he (or she) prevent the students from referring to their notes in the future? The teacher should not prevent future students from being lazy by taking away from current students! This is just wrong. Period.

BTW, it is interesting to look at the issue from the legal standpoint. Most legal opinions on the thread pointed out that the students have right to their notes so the teacher should not be allowed to take them away.

Topic of the day: Faking for the cameras

From the February issue of the Gramophone magazine, there is an interesting article about how actors and actresses play the role of musicians in movies. We have all seen many poor performances. On the other hand, some were quite convincing. The difference is of course related to how much efforts were put into preparations.

Some actors are pretty good musicians, like Jamie Foxx, who has no problem playing the actual piano parts and sang in the Ray Charles movie (he studied classical music in college!) It's different when he prepares for the role of a cellist in the upcoming movie, "The Soloist." Even though the soundtrack will be played by another cellist, he learned how to play cello, a new instrument for him, just so he would look like a real cellist in the movie, down to the small detail like how a cello is being held.

And you could imagine how hard it would be for a non-musician, like Jessica Alba, to play a blind violinist in the movie "The Eye." She has also put in a lot of effort learning the instrument, starting with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

So, next time when we think Hollywood actresses are all about pretty faces, think again. Successful ones like Alba worked very hard at it.

BTW, this story also reminds me of my favorite music themed movie, "The Fabulous Baker Boys", starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff and Beau Bridges. The Bridges are not pianists in real life but their performances were quite convincing. Pfeiffer sang the actual parts in the soundtrack and I enjoyed her singing very much. (Her role was originally written for Madonna!)

每週冷飯:十年前的定位問題

前言
熟悉筆者的朋友可能都知道本blog的前身是99年至04年出版的零零誌，當年筆者結束零零誌，想省掉每年要交的註冊費，於是連域名00zine.com 也放棄了，之後一直後悔！等了四年才把00zine.com買回來重頭開始過。目前的形式是每日一篇，以英文為主（在公司蛇王寫blog寫英文沒有那麼礙眼），盡可能也會寫一點中文（長期停寫恐怕會退化），或重溫一下當年的舊作（當今中外雜誌也頗為流行“開倉”炒冷飯）

以下摘自原刊登於99年11月15日（第二期）的開場白，提到“互聯網的發展令人人只要有熱誠都可以參與［發表］個人化的訊息”，預視了三年後開始大行其道的blog，筆者也算有點遠見吧 :P

我們的“口號”是探討新世紀新人類新生活感受享受以至心理命理﹐我們認為這個新世紀的特色是多元化、全球化、互動化以及網絡化﹐互聯網的發展令活在這個新世紀的新人類一方面能夠輕易吸收各方面的新資訊﹐另一方面亦有機會和廣大群眾分享個人的認知和感受﹐接觸大眾已不再是大商業傳媒機構的專利﹐也就是說資訊已不再受他們操縱﹐人人只要有熱誠都可以參與提高全“地球村”生活以至知識水平的過程﹐這個新資訊網絡可以容納大眾化的內容﹐更可以容納小眾和個人化 (personalized)的訊息﹐這也是我們出版本刊的目標。本刊的作者們都是生活在這個新世紀的新人類﹐我們在每篇文章真誠地表達個人對該話題的認知和感受﹔原創性、真實性和個人化是本刊的“個性”(personality)﹐我想我們能為大家帶來一點新鮮的、與其他主流刊物/網站不同的東西。

Star of the day: Martin Havlat

You might have heard of the expressions "golden goal!" or "million dollar shot!" from sports but Chicago Blackhawks winger Martin Havlat literally made a million dollar shot, not for himself but for a fan. This is what happened: Illinois Lottery has offer a new promotion: a fan at Blackhawks' home game will be picked randomly and if the Blackhawks scored at exactly the 10-minute mark of the second period then that fan would win $1 million. And it happened three days into the promotion!

This seems to be unlikely to happen. Oh well, not that unlikely according to Greg Esterhai of US Hole In One, a company that specialize in insuring this type of contests. He estimated the odd is about 1-in-1000 for a game, and 1-in-25 over the whole season!

And the math is not that complicated: each game lasts 60 minutes if it ends in regulation. Add 5 minutes for OT, which occurs roughly every 5th game or so. So an average game has 61 x 60 seconds = 3660. Blackhawks score on average ~3.3 goals per game. So the probability that a goal is scored in any second is about 3.3/3660 = 0.0009. Pretty close to Ms. Esterhai's estimate.

BTW, what a coincidence that I wrote about lottery two times in a week!

Topic of the day: Al Gore Ice Sculpture

Call me a cynic but I have always been skeptical about "global warming." There is not enough data points to support a clear upward trend. I am not against recycling or endorse pollutions. I just don't like to see people using "global warming" to gain political ground.

I wish I'm as creative as this guy who made a statement. Will Al Gore accept the invitation to see the ice sculpture of himself?

Topic of the day: Health Care San Francisco Surcharge

I had lunch at Boulevard in San Francisco the other day and this is the first time I notice a restaurant charging customers something call "Health Care San Francisco Surcharge" (Boulevard charges 4%) I googled it immediately and found that such practice begun early last year, after the city required employers with more than 50 employees provide health care for all staff members working more than 10 hours a week.

Obviously I'm going to be charged more than expected. So the question is: is it fair? That's no easy answer. Consider:
1) it is a good thing that people are getting health care insurance. No matter how selfish I am, I'd rather be in a city with more healthy people than sick ones.
2) if restaurants in SF didn't have to pay for that in the past, they will pass the additional cost on to their customers, just like what any business would do.
3) my employer provides me health care too but I don't think they put a surcharge on their customer.

(See more discussions at Yelp)

So it comes down to:
(a) restaurants raise food price to cover the cost
or
(b) restaurants charge it separately

Some might appreciate restaurants being "transparent" by doing (b) but I am afraid a side effect is that people will just tip less figuring there's 4% going to those waiters anyway.

Topic of the day: innumeracy

I just learned this word today from an old news: Some time in 2007 a new lottery game was introduced in UK. It was basically a scratch card type of game where you compare the number you scratched with the printed number. The theme is "Cool Cash" and the numbers are temperatures, usually subzero. It was withdrawn because so many players were confused about the result because they were not able to compare negative numbers! One player commented that she thought -6 is lower than -8.

That's a classic example of innumeracy.

Book of the day: Family of Secrets

Here is the subtitle: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America.

This is a thick book (500+ pages) and I only skimmed through it at the bookstore but it was an interesting read: the author didn't jump into any conclusion. Instead, he just revealed related facts that tied the two former presidents to various important events in the history of America. Readers should be able to decide what roles the Bush family played in those events. What amazed me the most is this is the first book I see that gets ALL 5 star reviews (10 of them) at Amazon (at the time I read the reviews). After all, it is by no mean an obscure book (ranked #506 yesterday) I wonder why no one came to their defense by writing a 2 or 1 star review discrediting the book. Not a single one!

Musician of the day: Jason Vieaux

As a long time classical music listener, I had no problem finding violin or piano recitals to go to. In addition, there are big name violinist and pianists visiting the bay area all the time (Lang Lang was here last month. Yundi Li played last week. Anne-Sophie Mutter is visiting next month and Kissin a month later.) After I fell in love with classical guitar last month, I realized that is not the case for guitar recitals. Come to think of it, guitar is just not as popular as violin or piano in the world of classical music. To confirm this, I looked at the local classical station KDFC's website. They have a 2009 Top 100 All-Star (most beloved work voted by listener) It contains only 1 guitar piece. They also have a "Top 30 under 30" list (most promising classical musicians under 30 years old) It has exactly 1 guitar player (Ana Vidovic, who is talented and pretty, BTW)

Fortunately, living in the bay area does have its advantage. We have the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts organizing guitar recital frequently. I went to their first concert of 2009 featuring Jason Vieaux. It's also my first ever classical guitar concert! And it couldn't be more perfect for me (I'll explain later)

Mr. Vieaux started with a few classical guitar "standards" by Albeniz. Those led us to a suite by the Cuban composer/guitarist Leo Brouwer. After the intermission, he played a suite from his "Images of Metheny" album, which are classical versions of compositions by jazz guitar great Pat Metheny. He concluded the show with music by Argentinian Jose Luis Merlin (like his fellow countryman Piazzolla, he wrote beautiful dance music)

What made this concert most enjoyable are:
1) Before playing every piece, Mr. Vieaux took some time to explain the background, the motif or the story behind the music.
2) I have been a fan of jazz guitar for much longer than classical. Pat Metheny's works certainly top my list, in particular, "Question and Answer." Hearing familiar melodies in an unfamiliar context (classical guitar) feels like "home" to me.

To show my appreciation, I bought my first CD in years:

(Got his autograph too!)

BTW, I found a classical guitar forum where people posts concert dates.

Tech of the day: Disney Pix Micro

This is my daughter's new favorite toy. As you could see, the reviews are rather bad. And I can't disagree. It not only requires a proprietary driver/software (which takes a long time to install) but also a proprietary cable to unload the pictures to a computer! What kind of camera still require those instead of plug-and-play using mini USB and USB Mass Storage driver? (Well, the packaging does say Windows required so Mac/Linux users should have stayed away.)

My daughter took a picture of one of her favorite book:


The above pic illustrates another problem with the camera: hard to tell what will be taken from the view-finder (let alone making the subject the center of the pic)

The workaround is leaving plenty of space surrounding your subject, like what I did for this pic:


Anyway, we didn't pay as much as the price shown on that Amazon page and if my daughter is happy, I'm happy.

Book of the day: The Rescue Artist

Just bought this book today. Its subtitle says it all: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece. The missing masterpiece in this case is one of the most famous modern painting: "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. I've just started. Should be a good read judging by the reviews.

BTW, I bought it at a deep discount from the iconic bookstore Stacey's in downtown SF. Probably my last purchase there since it's going out of business. It's really sad. I've read over hundreds of books and magazines there! (I bought about half a dozen) This bookstore will be missed by many San Franciscans.

Album of the day: Democracy is Dead

I have not been impressed by much new heavy bands lately but this band Dead by Wednesday deserves more listening because they make a good blend of hardcore and metal. The "Dead" in the band's name is probably inspired by Dead Kennedy? It's hard to imagine their music is not political! Check out the lyric of the title track. Definitely not subtle. Let's hope Mr. Obama will do a better job and these guys won't have a song about him.

Animal of the day: Hawaiian Petrel

Hawaiian Petrel is the reason why Hawaii is switching over from analog to digital TV today, a month earlier than the other states in US.

For those not familiar with the switch: starting Feb. 17th, all US TV stations that have been broadcasting analog over the air will switch to digital. When this happens, all analog transmission towers could be torn down. The government does not what this to happen during the nesting season of Hawaiian Petrel, an endangered bird species.

BTW, there have been talks from Obama's team about delaying the switch (not specific to Hawaii but the whole US) because (1) the fund for offering free digital-to-analog converter boxes has run out and (2) surveys show that a lot of people still don't understand the implication of the switch and won't be able to watch TV after the switch.

I have to disagree. This kind of "no one left behind" mentality is not always applicable! After all, it's just TV. No one will die from TV-less-ness. (For those who say people rely on TV for emergency info: have you forgotten something called radio?)

Tech of the day: how to surf web slower

You might ask if I am out of my right mind and who would want to do that. Answer: web application developers who want to make sure their apps work fine even when the connection is really slow.

Here is a Firefox plug-in for simulating a slow connection: Firefox Throttle

Topic of the day: prayer for the whole nation

There is an old saying "you can't please everyone" but as the US President-elect, Mr. Obama has to please everyone, I guess.

After inviting a pro-Prop. 8 (gay marriage ban) Reverend to his inauguration, he invited gay bishop Gene Robinson to offer a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural event. On one hand you could say he is trying to please everyone. On the other hand he might just pissed off everyone!

Anyway, I gotta praise Bishop Robinson for saying "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."

This is what I call open-mindedness, one thing that Prop. 8 supporter does not understand.