Danger in riding on the road

One of my good friends told me once he and his kids will ride on nothing but bike path/trail. At that time I thought he was a bit paranoid. Well, maybe not. These day you could read a few news articles about traffic accident involving bicyclists almost every week. Here is another one happened in Napa Valley (specifically, St. Helena): An Ohio woman celebrating her first wedding anniversary was killed Tuesday in a bicycle accident on Main Street north of Charter Oak Avenue. 

I certainly don't want to stop road biking but I guess I could use more caution in traffic.

荒謬世界香港篇之包容非法居留人士

日前一名貌似技安（並無歧視之意）據稱非法居港九年之十二歲人士，與自稱其阿婆自首（後者協助非法居留，不知名父母據稱在中國）並獲工聯會嫻姐高調力撐留港入學。

在中港矛盾重重的今日，此事當然引起全城議論紛紛：
1）包括工聯會的建制派曾經明確表示反對此類人士留港（時為公民黨籍律師為無證童打官司成功，法院准其留港，該事一直成為五毛用來攻擊公民黨的把柄）今日的他們（又再）打倒昨日的他們
2）此事件有否成功為政改轉移港人之視線，實在很難講。
3）部份網民到接見該童面試之小學外貼標語表示反對該校收錄非法居留人士，星期六一位該校就讀的小朋友被傳媒拍到在標語前哭訴：「犯左法又點喎」卻被細心的網民聽到背後有成人教唆：「大聲啲」年紀輕輕就成為propaganda的棋子：是悲哀？還是前途無可限量？
4）一向以爭取勞工選票為目標、形象比較正面的嫻姐，突然趕這一淌看似不相干的渾水，所為何事？有分析指面臨殺校危機的黃大仙區小學是事件受益者，才是她真正籠絡的對象。信焉？
5）一向口口聲聲依法辦事的建制派再表演搬龍門絕技：今次講情不講法。

荒謬世界美國香港篇之懷孕旅客早產靠傳媒籌旗支付醫療費

標題基本上已概括整件事件，值得討論的是誰對誰錯。第一錯的可能是主流媒體，大都傾向同情孕婦而指醫院不近人情，我不敢苟同：如果醫院真的不近人情的話，會先收錢後醫治；現在只是按例，先收錢後發出世紙罷了。美國大嬸腹大便便（懷孕七個月）還出國外遊，無論醫生批准與否，也不見得是明智之舉。遇上保險不肯負責，倒真是有點值得同情，雖然美國社會福利再好也不見得包在外國生仔，旅遊保險指嬰兒名字不在保單之上未免有點賴皮。無論如何，傳媒總算幫了大嬸一把：輿論壓力使醫院即發出世紙；煽情的報導又激起網民同情心，捐款大致足夠支付醫院費用。

Saxophone music

Those who are close to me all know I'm in my "all about saxophone" mode lately. I have been listening to mainly jazz for years, most with saxophone already but I'm focusing on music with the instrument even more these days. For the adventurous jazz fans, I strongly recommend these 2:

• Matana Roberts released her album "The Chicago Project" in 2008. Compared to her latest album which features quite a bit of human voices (Rhapsody's review calls it "sound-art installation." So you get the idea), this is more accessible. I could hear a bit of fusion, a lot of avant garde (with clear Coltrane-influences) and most importantly, clever melodies. Here is a link to a good review.
• Rudresh Mahanthappa's latest album is named "Bird Calls" Bird and alto sax immediately made me think of Charlie Parker and Bebop. Although he sounded more like Coltrane, especially on the solo/duets series titled "Bird Calls #1-5", all these pieces contain influences from and references to Parker's work (see this detailed review)

荒謬世界香港篇之假民意撐假普選

五毛團體近兩年多次搞簽名支持假普選方案已經多得有點令人麻木，每次均被人發現一人簽多名，未成年學童簽名，外國遊客簽名，可見簽名毫無說服力，但搞手如張溶等仍然樂此不疲。今次就被踢爆送蠔油，藉口是其他團體入會之贈品，明眼人都知是同一班人所為。下次簽名人數非過千萬不行，五毛團體加油呀！

荒謬世界香港篇之富二代教買樓

摘自此文:

根據現行的按揭規定，月入1.5萬元的年輕入，要通過壓力測試，估計只能買大約售價250萬元物業，但先要儲夠四成首期，即100萬元，月儲3000元，也要儲28年

當然,等28年,樓價又已升了!

荒謬世界香港篇之納稅與選票

某位強國所謂法律學者在香港大放狗屁,說假普選制度下之提名委員會以工商界人士為主是合理的,因為工商界交稅交得最多.意思是:政府收呢班人錢,自然要聽佢地支笛,保護佢地利益,而社會大多數中下階層既人就無需代表,話之佢地死.

果然有道理!

Sports highlights: Tour of California, NBA Playoff, White Sox vs A's, NASCAR, International Challenge of Champion

It was another week of dramatic finishes in the world of sports. First, the 10th edition of the tour of California bicycle race started in Sacramento on 5/10. And San Jose hosted a stage in all 10 years. This year it was the stage 3, which started in SJ, through Calavaras Rd to Sunol, then Hwy 84 to Livermore and up Mt. Hamilton, back down to SJ again and finished with a climb at Metcalf Rd. The winner was an unexpected one: the young rider Toms Skujins from Hincapie Racing Team. He started his attack on the Hamilton climb. And hung on to the lead at the finish. It might have to do with the wrong decision made by the "bigger teams" not trying to bring back the breakaway. The commentators joked that it's because of the poor cell phone signals and the lack of knowledge about Skujins. He had the yellow jersey for 2 more stages with helps from his teammates until the individual time trial in South Cal, which again had an unexpected winner: Peter Sagan, who was better known as a sprinter. In fact, he has won many stages before with his superb sprinting ability. However, in recent years Mark Cavendish has taken over as this tour's premiere sprinter, who won both stage 1 and 2. Sagan's team owner was so disappointed that he publicly challenged Sagan. And Sagan rose to the occasion to not only win a sprinting stage after that but also the time trial to grab the yellow from Skujins. He lost the yellow to another young rider Julian Alaphilippe on the Mt. Baldy stage and fell behind by seconds at the beginning of the final stage on 5/17. Sagan's only hope to retake the lead and win the race came down to the sprint bonuses of the last stage. Cavendish won the intermediate sprint. Sagan came second and Alaphilippe got third so Sagan inched closer but still need the bonus from the finish (10s for the winner, 6s for 2nd place, 4s for 3rd.) Cav won again and prevented Sagan from grabbing that 10s. Sagan and Tyler Farrar were really close for the 3rd place finish and the photo showed Sagan beat Farrar with a margin less than the width of the bicycle tire! What a finish!

Speaking of photo finish, in the Friday night NASCAR Truck race Kasey Kahne barely beat the Erik Jones to the finish by 0.005 second! Jones is also an up-and-coming young star in the sports.

Speaking of young stars, the NASCAR Xfinity race on Sunday was all about them. Chase Elliott would have won the race if not for the caution right before the last lap. Chris Buescher was another driver with a strong car throughout the race. He pitted and got new tires while Elliott didn't. And that's the difference that propelled Buescher to the victory lane with Elliott had to settle for 2nd.

Speaking of 2nd, the #2 seed of NBA's Western conference playoff, Houston Rockets had a slow start and fell behind LA Clippers 1-3 in their best-of-7 playoff series. Well, as a long time Rocket fan I still remember them coming back from the same deficit in 1995. And they did it! However, I guess it's hard to see the history of 1995 repeat itself: they went all the way and won their 2nd championship in a row!

Speaking of 1995, that's not a good year for the Chicago White Sox even though they have these guys on their roster: Ray Durham, Tim Raines, Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, Ron Karkovice, Ozzie Guillen and Wilson Alvarez. I hope their 1995 history doesn't repeat for them as they finished 3rd in their division and had a sub-.500 record. That's a bad year for the Oakland A's as well as they finished dead last in their division. Both are teams I root for and they played against each other last week. The Sox won a few close ones and swept the A's in Oakland. Oh well, it couldn't have been win-win for me anyway.

Last but not the least dramatic finish was the TV rerun of the semifinal of 2014 International Challenge of (9 ball) Champion between Shane Van Boening and Darren Appleton. Van Boening missed an easy shot for the 8 ball and lost to Appleton (who lost in the final to Thorsten Hohmann)

荒謬世界香港篇之殺人放火金腰帶，修橋補路無屍骸

本網誌寫時事的帖好像少了一點,老是音樂和體育可能有點離地,其實我在FB也常常Comment/share相關新聞,例如老牌左派楊光去世,楊氏在早幾年獲頒特府大獎時,他領導六七暴動導致DJ林彬被燒死一事已再度廣被傳揚.其實人死為大,如果不是林鄭代特區政府讚揚楊氏之貢獻,可能對楊氏不滿之聲沒有如今響亮.林鄭也算是抽到下箴,此事剛好在梁特放假時發生,讓她做個醜人.

25 Unusual Albums for Guitarists

I gotta admit I have been paying less attention to guitar (and this blog) these days after picking up saxophone. So, it's time to post one about guitar: GuitarPlayer presented 25 unusual albums every guitarist needs to hear The editors even took the time to link a YouTube video to every entry. What a good read/listen! Gotta admit I am not too interested in those country albums mentioned even though I understand how important/influential those players are. I dig the blues ones: I actually own the SRV/Albert King album! And glad to hear some early 80s Gary Moore. He seemed to rock harder than his late 80's self (Of course he became all blues after that) The list even included an album without any guitar playing: Weather Report's 8:30 because all of us could learn something from bassist Jaco Pastorius. 

荒謬世界香港篇之遊學團面試錄影撐政改

一個名為佔中不代表我的帳號發表了一條影片，內容是訪問數名中學生，他們表示支持政府力推的（假普選）政改方案。影片出街自然引發議論紛紛，有學生所屬學校校長出來澄清，影片源自學生為參加免費遊學團的面試錄影，主辦機構有提供參考答案，又承諾影片不會公開。

主辦機構昆人，固然不該；學生（及家長）也有問題。如果他們真心支持政府的方案，就是助紂為虐；如果不是，即是為便宜說假話，亦大錯特錯。希望他們經一事長一智，以後不要輕易信人，更不要說違心之言。

Sports highlights: the White Sox bats are waking up?

The Sox was down 3-6 to the Tigers yesterday. Looks like it's another lost cause but the Melk man hit a 3-run homer (his first of the season!) in the 8th and then Avisail Garcia followed up with the game winning RBI single. They also beat Detroit the night before. Hopefully this will be a confidence boost.

90% of what people do now is done within a web browser?

I was debating with a friend the merit of a Chromebook (it's really debate for the sake of debate 'coz both of us are not inclined to buy one) I think there's a market for Chromebook because a lot can be done inside a browser these days. It has been more than a decade after Larry Ellison was pitching his concept of "Network Computing" that depends on technology like Java Applet. With today's JavaScript-based technology you could provide very rich UI in your Web apps. Then the next day I read this article "Six things that make open source a no-brainer for your company" The author wrote

90% of what people do now is done within a web browser. Let's face it, most end users today could get by with a Chromebook and still be able to get their jobs done.

If you scroll down to the comment section, you would see two comments are against this point. One said the author lacked stats to back up this argument. (One actually said "browser is a bad terminal" but he agreed he was old-school so let's leave him alone) I gave this some thought and I think we could come up with a list of what people usually do with their computer and decide whether 90% of the list could be done in a web browser! Here is the list on the top of my head:
- social networking
- web browsing (duh!)
- messaging
- office productivity (word processing/spreadsheet/presentation)
- media consumption (browsing photo, streaming music and video)
- media editing (picture/audio/video)

A web browser can certainly handle the Top 5. In fact, Google Doc is so convenient that I'd rather use it than M$ Office. The last one is debatable: for simple manipulation like making a collage of pictures, applying a filter, trimming a video or adding a sound track, web apps are good enough. What a browser cannot handle are the more sophisticated tasks like decoding a DVD or multi-track recording. So I think it's fair to say it's 25% capable for the last task. 5.25/6 = 87.5% which rounds up to 90! (In fact, if you just consider the time one typically spent on these tasks, it's certainly > 90% within a web browser!)

As a side note, even though I am no fan of Chromebook, I can't deny it's a successful product. From this article:

Amit Singh, the president of Google for Work, discussed the vision of Chrome for work and said that Chromebooks are the number one selling device on Amazon and number one selling device for education as well.

And this is from a non-Google source: Top 3 holiday computers sold by Amazon were Chromebooks. 

Sports highlights: another walkoff (the first by the Giants' Joe Panik), Chicharito scored

Just wrote about a walkoff hit by the former Giant (current White Sox) Melky Cabrera earlier this week. Now I'm writing about a walkoff hit (a sac-fly) by the current Giant Joe Panik in bot 9th last night. And it happened at the game we attended on Wednesday (club level seats thanks to Jenny!) Unlike the lopsided 12-0 A's vs Mariners game, this one was a nail-biter featuring the best-of-the-best pitchers in the game: WS MVP Madison Bumgarner and regular season MVP/Cy Young Clayton Kershaw. Both teams indeed pitched really well in the game, giving up only 2 runs each for 8 innings. (Dodger's 2-run homer was pretty much the only mistake made by MadBum) My son was particularly impressed by Santiago Casilla, who kept throwing strikes in the beginning of the 9th.

Also happy to see the A's beating their SoCal rival Angel's with another lopsided victory: 9-2. And the White Sox earned its victory earlier in the day as well. Seems like both Samardzija and Abreu responded to my criticism earlier. The former pitched a good one and the latter hit a homer. Go Giants, A's and White Sox!

Last but not least, the former Man U forward (though mostly on the bench) Chicharito got a rare start at his new team, Real Madrid (who is even more star-studded than Man U, especially for his position) in the very important Champions League quarter-final match against rival Atletico Madrid because of injuries to the regular starters. According to the stats quoted by sports websites, he scored 1 goal per 105 min on average given how rare he plays. I joked that he might be able to score in this game if he played many minutes and he did! Good for him!

Sports highlights: the Melk man walked off

I have been a long-time White Sox fan and no doubt the past few years have been disappointing. There were moments of brilliance from the players at times and that's about it. From what I read, there were lots of expectation on this 2015 team because of the "big additions" of starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija, closer David Robertson, and sluggers Adam LaRoche and Melky Cabrera. Not from me though 'coz I feel that these players probably are more well-known than they should be based on what they have achieved already (the Melk man did contribute to the early success of the Giants who eventually won the WS but he was suspended in mid-season that year. Samardzija really hasn't done enough to push any of his team over the hump. And I wasn't the only one who said so.) And I'm afraid the lone brightspot, Jose Abreu, last year's rookie of the year, might experience sophomore-jinx.

So, unlike those with high hopes, I'm not surprised to see the poor start early this season. Nevertheless, it's good to see that the players have the fighting spirit and be more optimistic, like what Melky Cabrera said on Monday. And he backed up his words with actions that night. The Sox was down 0-3 to the Indians in the bottom of the 9th but they didn't give up. They got on base patiently and slowly climb back to tie the game (with RBIs from Alexei Ramirez and Gordon Beckham) Finally, the Melk man delivered a game-winning bases-loaded RBI single! 

王平建事件

又一單以訛傳訛的網聞：早一陣子在FB見到人人鬧爆一位王平建，皆因這位祖國政協委員在會上發言：不要鼓勵農村的孩子去上大學，網聞還提及其他王平建貶低農村學生的言論。幸好有人查證，算是平反了此君的名聲：首先，名字是攪錯了，王委員實名為王平；其次，她對她這個主張作出了更深入的分析：農村學生入城讀完大學，就業不容易，亦要面對高房價的問題，反不如留在農村。如果一味指農村人進城才叫幸福，實在有點誤導。其實她的講法也不無道理, 這是王平接受南方都市報訪問的節錄：

王平：先实践过，你再去读书就有目的，就有的放矢。比如说，你了解到你的专业和特长以后，你不就知道该去补什么了吗？我们现在闭着眼睛去读大学，而且整个教学方法都是向钱看——老师看钱，学生也看钱。浪费了时间，浪费了青春。所以，我认为不应该鼓励农村孩子都去念大学，告诉他们什么现在读大学，你们以后就会和别人平等了，你们就得到了一切。我认为这是骗了人家。

南都：可是很多农村孩子，都指望进城用知识改变命运啊。

王平：我也听到了一些说法，有的说“我农村的好不容易有个希望进城，你还不让我来”。我想说你不知道，现在整个社会是金钱社会，我们没有一个价值的核心，到底人应该追求什么？在中国的传统文化里面，三百六十行，行行出状元。有些领导人不也是先从农村锻炼出来的吗？依我说，干吗要这样子，把所有的农村孩子，都诱惑到大学这条独木桥上来？

我们现在提城镇化，好像城市越大越好。但也不想想，农村年轻人进城了，小孩、父母都丢在那边呢，家庭也是悲剧。就算城里再好，我们又能够把13亿人，全部弄到城里来吗？

Guitar heroes

I am a big fan of magazines, especially guitar magazines like the Guitar Player. It takes me a long time to finish reading one though. Usually it takes 2-3 years to go from my mailbox to the living room to the bedroom to the bathroom and finally the recycle bin. Just finished reading one issue from 2013 which recommended the instrumental albums "Sound of Innocence" by Kiko Loureiro and "Unfinished Business" by Dean Brown. I enjoyed both a lot as I am a big fan of shredding guitar instrumental (think Vinnie Moore, Joe Satriani) as well as fusion. The funny thing is that I have never heard of Loureiro until this but I'm sure I'll hear more of his work as he just became the new guitarist of Megadeth (replacing Chris Broderick)

I am sure these two guys, Kevin Eubanks and Stanley Jordan, appear in guitar magazines much more often, especially after they collaborated on a new release named "Duets" It's not your "normal" jazz guitar duo album though. They actually took turn to play piano on some of the tracks (with bass and drums) And like the previous releases by Jordan, it included a few pop covers. I enjoy their fresh reinterpretation.

Last but not least, I learned about the new release "Rush" by guitarist Tom Guarna from the "In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond" podcast. And I agree with this review very much that Guarna is in the same league as the "next gen" jazz guitarists that I have seen performing in NYC in the past years like Kurt Rosenwinkel and Gilad Hekselman.

Sports highlights: MLB opening week, IndyCar at NOLA, F1 at Shanghai, the Masters

I took my son to his first A's game at Oakland last Fri (got a decent deal from Groupon) It's also the first game he saw after he really learned the rules and played in little league so he enjoyed it a lot. I did too as it was a 12-0 beating of the division rival Seattle Mariners (featuring superstars like Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz. And Oakland lost the next 2 games by 1 run each!) A's offense reminded me of some of the little league games in which batters keep getting on bases!

The next one I want to write about was not a very-enjoyable event: the IndyCar Grand Prix of Louisiana. The track condition caused by the rain was so bad that basically most of the race in under caution. The early race leaders: Montoya and Power got shuffled back for their pit strategy (or I should say bad luck) The sad thing is: it's actually the 2nd race of the season and I had no idea the season has started already even though I work for the title sponsor! Can't believe I miss all those commercials for the season opener as I watch so much sports on almost every channel every day!

The F1 race at Shanghai was also something I should have missed as nothing really happened during the race. The 2 Mercedes (Hamilton, Rosberg), and the 2 Ferraris (Vettel and Raikkonen) went P1,2,3,4 respectively. The only surprise was how well the rookie Verstappen drove (Saw him in Macau GP last year). Too bad his engine broke near the end of the race.

After a disappointing NCAA title game (my Wisconsin Badgers lost) earlier in the week, finally came some good news. It's regarding my other school: fellow Texas Longhorn Jordan Spieth won his first major, the Masters, in record-breaking fashion. The UT Tower went orange to honor his victory! Coincidentally, I also witnessed another Longhorn and former Masters champ, Ben Crenshaw, playing in his last Masters. Very emotional moments! It almost feels like Crenshaw has found a successor in Spieth. Check out this article comparing Spieth to other well-decorated Longhorn athletes!

The f-hole on string instruments

These days we almost take the f-hole for granted: all instruments in the violin family use this shape for sound hole, which is optimal. Some smart luthier must have figured out the science way back. Well, it might be less "scientific" than I thought but rather a result of natural selection: according to a recent study, it evolved from many other shapes, including a C-like shape. The designs that makes the instrument louder were chosen over the others and eventually all luthier use the f-shape.

I also found it interesting that not only violin magazine mentioned it but also the Economist! I guess the economic Darwinism aspect suits its readers. One question remains: why does flat-top acoustic guitar still use one big round sound hole in the middle? Maybe the f-shape is only optimal for arch-top.

More strange listening experience

I wrote about some unusual experience with the radio the other day. This time it is even more strange. I picked up this book called "The Jazz Ear: conversations over music" from the library because I had nothing better to do the other day. The author asked each interviewee to pick some music to discuss. I usually try finding them on Rhapsody while reading. When I got to the chapter about pianist Andrew Hill, I was too lazy to search for the exact tunes and simply switch the TV to Comcast's Jazz channel on Music Choice just to listen to some jazz to accompany the book. It was playing Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo A La Turk" from the album "Time Out" Guess what? In the paragraph I was reading: Andrew Hill was commenting on this exact tune! Man, it's a bit scary, isn't it?