[转载]Labor Day US 美国劳动节

2010-09-01 22:09

The first Monday in September is Labor Day, a national holiday, in the US. It is similar to May 1 in other countries to honor all working men and women. Here below is some interesting statistics compiled by the US Government agencies and the Census Bureau that give a glimpse of American society (from Harvard University Retiree Association newsletter dated 8/31/2010).

Labor Day 2010: Sept. 6

Question from a reader

2010-08-24 22:18

Tenth in a series of unedited blog articles from Grandson Daniel – “Question from a reader”

QUESTION “Hi Daniel, I am wondering how you, as a grandson of an Asian but growing up in US, view your cultural position. Do you consider yourself different from those with Caucasus blood, or you simply does not feel it as an issue? Do you find it easier to make friends with people with similar background as you? Do you think your Asian origin plays a role in your social life? (And if so, what kind of role?)”

How Should the US Think About China?

2010-08-20 22:11

Michael Armacost, member of the President Jimmy Carter’s administration for East Asian and Chinese affairs, the former US ambassador to Japan 1989-1993, and Director of the Brookings Institute – a Washington think tank 1995-2002, now a senior fellow at Stanford University gave a talk with the above title on July 30, 2010. It is a level-headed, even-handed, and dispassionate analysis of US-China relations in the past and for the future. Residents of any country tends to view the world through the filters of the media of their own country. Just try to listen to the reports of the same world news from CNN, BBC, Deutsche-Wella, and CCTV, you will get an idea. Thus, it is worthwhile sometime to see the world from a different viewpoint. I recommend this talk highly. It can be downloaded from http://fsi.stanford.edu/events/how_should_we_think_about_china

On Ethics and Ethical Dilemma (2)

2010-08-15 19:53

I mentioned in two earlier blog articles that one of my favorite features of New York Times and the Sunday magazine is the ethicist column by Randy Cohen who answers everyday ethical dilemma faced by many of us with humor , honesty, and often surprising but sage advices.

http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=1888

http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=303017

[转载]Advices from Donald Trump, the US real estate mogul

2010-08-04 22:44

The self-help magazine –BottomLine:Retirement – recently featured the following interview with the billionaire real estate tycoon and TV personality, Donald Trump on

Donald Trump's 6 Secrets to Keeping Your Edge in Life

By Donald Trump

The Trump Organization

Trump has a flame buoyant personality. You don’t have to agree with his style or what he advocated. But what he says below has quite a bit of truth and worth considering. I have added my own comments where appropriate in red.

How to be a visiting scholar in the US

2010-07-26 23:06

Earlier I wrote the blog article “How to be a postdoc in the US? http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=11258 , This article can be consider an extension. Because of improving and wealthy conditions of the Chinese economy, more and more scholars are self or government financed. When you don’t ask your sponsors for money, the problem becomes simpler. However, even if the Chinese government provides living expense and wages, THIS DOES NOT MEAN THERE IS NO COST TO THE SPONSOR AND INSTITUTION INVOLVED, AND THAT YOU SHOULD BE WELCOMED WITH OPEN ARMS. If someone provides you with an official invitation and status as a visitor, the following costs must still be shouldered by the sponsor:

On the Beginning Stage of Life

2010-07-21 20:39

This is the nineth unedited article by my grandson Daniel

On the Beginning Stage of Life

Having read my grandfather’s insights on the end stage of life http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=338821, I thought that I would try and give my perspective on the beginning stage of life, such as it is. Thus this article will be a bit more free flowing, and I hope, humorous. It is intended to be less serious then my grandfather’s article, but no less honest.

Control Is Dead?

2010-07-16 22:49

In an earlier article

http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=329153

I mentioned in passing that the program manager of the US National Science Foundation on system sciences reportedly said the title of this blog article. Although I thought I provided an explanation of the meaning and implication of this utterance at the time, there were a number of critical comments about my article taking me to task for passing on such a depressing remark.

The FF Fraternity Centennial 1910-2010

2010-07-12 23:04

The FF Fraternity Centennial 1910-2010

Fraternities were an American College invention. They had their heydays in the first half of the 20th century. It is a mixture of male bonding, college drinking party and antics, and shades of a secret society (like the Free Masons). In olden days membership is by invitation and must go through an initiation procedure involving physical punishment and ritual which on rare occasions can result in accidental death. Members of a fraternity are known to each other as brothers. Chinese students studying in America during that period formed their own fraternities for mutual support. There were all together four Chinese fraternities – Alpha Lambda or AL, Rho Psi, PL, and the only one not using a Greek name as tradition dictated, the FF Fraternity. As college fraternities fall into disfavor beginning in the 70s, they disappeared one by

On the End Stage of Life - 少年人的天堂, 中年人的战场, 老年人的坟墓

2010-06-25 22:10

The above Chinese subtitle which contains a lot of truth is a well known saying about life in the United States. Yet the will to survive is a basic instinct of human beings. As one approaches the end stage of life, one cannot help but face this somewhat depressing thought. In the past several years, quite a few of my lifelong friends passed away, some unexpectedly too soon, others more or less expected. Just before we departed for our annual trip to China/Tsinghua, another friend died after a long illness at age of 84 (the doctors privately gave him six months, but he lasted one month). He had a family, wife, five children, many grand children and lived a full life. Everyone was still talking about him returning home from hospital. Plans were underway about remodeling his home so that he can live out his remaining time comfortably with assistance in his own home. But I gu

China Journal (3) - 秦晋深游(3)

2010-06-02 10:04

Continuation of the previous article http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=330481

Days four thru six - We visited two more family compounds of the Wangs and Jao 王家大院及乔家大院. The latter compound is where the famous Chang Yi-Mo movie starring Gong Li “hang the red lantern high” was filmed. The two other days we spent in the famous ancient city of Binyao (平遥古城). This is a 2000 years old city restored many times over the centuries. The hotel we stayed at was done completely in the old courtyard style with built-in brick oven bed (坑) but with all modern conveniences. The forerunner of the Bank of China ( 曰昌昇) was started here

China Journal (2) 秦晋深游(2)

2010-05-31 10:53

Continuation of http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=329153

6. We begin our Shanxi tour on 5/12:

Day one – visit to the huoko (壷口瀑布) narrows fall of the Yellow River. This is a bit of a disappointment compared to Niagara Falls in the US and Iguasu Falls in Brazil (two of the three most famous falls in the world)

China Journal (1) – Observations of tourism in depth in Shaanxi and Shanxi 一秦晋深游(1)

2010-05-30 11:56

A group of friends in California and Taipei organized an in-depth ten day trip to the Shanxi province led by a Chinese tour director. We decided to join the group. The tour started in Xi’an on May 12. We took advantage of the starting point to visit the Xi’an JiaoTung University and the Forum meeting of Chinese department heads and Deans of Automation and Control from May 8-11th. Our host, Yangtze Professor and Dean of XJTU, Guan Xiao-Hong was most hospitable. He introduced us to many sites, sights, and tastes that we have not experienced before despite four previous visits to Xi’an. Recorded below are observations and photos taken during our 17 day trip.

[转载]Language and Translation (7)

2010-05-17 06:13

Search Engine of the Song Dynasty

By RUIYAN XU

Published: May 14, 2010 New York Times

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BAIDU.COM, the popular search engine often called the Chinese Google, got its name from a poem written during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The poem is about a man searching for a woman at a busy festival, about the search for clarity amid chaos. Together, the Chinese characters bi and dù mean “hundreds of ways,” and come out of the last lines of the poem: “Restlessly I searched for her thousands, hundreds of ways./ Suddenly I turned, and there she was in the receding light.”

Two interesting, imaginative, practical and visionary talk on computer science at Harvard I attended during the past three days.

2010-04-30 20:13

The first talk is by Prof. Luis von Ahn who is barely over 30 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_von_Ahn , recipient of the MacArthur genius grant, and professor at Carnegie Mellon University entitled “Human Computation”. Although you may not have heard of his name but you surely must have encountered his invention “Captcha”. This is the dialog box that appears every time you try to register, to vote, or transact some financial matters on line. The box contains a few script and not printed alphabet characters which we are asked to type in to verify that it is a human being that is interacting with the computer (The reason is that computer software cannot as yet recognize such script and not-printed characters despite advances in OCR technology. Using such “Captcha” box will prevent automated software from monopolizing votes, accounts, etc.) Every

[转载]How to write a job application covering letter

2010-04-23 03:52

In any kind of job application, whether on line or off line, you submit an application, your CV, and a covering letter introducing yourself. This last item is the first impression you make on a company. Here reproduced is some sage advice on “Writing Cover Letters That Get Read” from IEEE

http://www.todaysengineer.org/2010/Apr/cover-letters.asp

Writing Cover Letters That Get Read

American Youth on College Life (8)

2010-04-07 01:06

This is eighth in a series of un-edited articles written by my grandson on US college life:

Today, I am going to address that most crucial issue of college life, the roommate. Most people in college will have a roommate, they may have several roommates depending on how the dorms are laid out. For example, freshman year, I lived in a room with one other person. Sophomore year, I lived in a room that entered into a common room around which 2 other rooms were situated. At 2 people per room, there were 6 of us, sharing a common kitchen, showers, and bathroom. Some colleges offer “singles” which are rooms for only one person, but chances are you will end up living with someone else.

One Of The Most Intelligent And Useful Executive Summary (10 Pages) Of A Book On World Energy Need And Policy I Have Read.

2010-04-03 03:39

(see also note added at the end of this article on 4/15/2010)

It is more or less by accident I came across the above summary http://www.withouthotair.com/synopsis10.pdf of the book by David J.C.Mckay, who is an eminent scientist at the University of Cambridge, entitled “Sustainable Energy – without the hot air” http://www.withouthotair.com/

It is one of the best summary of any paper/book I have read for a long time. It certainly satisfies my “a(ccessible) ,e(ntertaining) ,i(nformative) ,o(piniated), u(nderstandible)” principles of writing http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=50188 It is a role model of how to write a summary.

I.M.Pei -Building Chinese Modern

2010-04-01 10:24

Tonight, the US Public Broadcasting System (PBS) premiered the documentary film of “I.M.Pei -Building Chinese Modern” which chronicled the design and construction of the new Suzhou Museum (completed 10/2006) http://www.szmuseum.com/szbwgen/html/xw/2006/0930/157.html

And

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/i-m-pei/building-china-modern/1542/

[转载]Harvard – The Global University

2010-03-30 23:21

Note added 4/17/2010: Harvard just announced today the appointment of William Lee, the first Chinese American, to her seven men governing board which runs the university

From Harvard Gazette,18-31 March 2010 Issue

1. In 2008 , Harvard had 4000 international students who came from 140 countries

2. 300,000 alumnae live in nearly 190 countries

3. In 2010 Harvard faculty are leading 27 study abroad program in 19 countries

科学网博客——何毓琦的博客

[转载]Labor Day US 美国劳动节

Question from a reader

How Should the US Think About China?

On Ethics and Ethical Dilemma (2)

[转载]Advices from Donald Trump, the US real estate mogul

How to be a visiting scholar in the US

On the Beginning Stage of Life

Control Is Dead?

The FF Fraternity Centennial 1910-2010

On the End Stage of Life - 少年人的天堂, 中年人的战场, 老年人的坟墓

China Journal (3) - 秦晋深游(3)

China Journal (2) 秦晋深游(2)

China Journal (1) – Observations of tourism in depth in Shaanxi and Shanxi 一秦晋深游(1)

[转载]Language and Translation (7)

Two interesting, imaginative, practical and visionary talk on computer science at Harvard I attended during the past three days.

[转载]How to write a job application covering letter

American Youth on College Life (8)

One Of The Most Intelligent And Useful Executive Summary (10 Pages) Of A Book On World Energy Need And Policy I Have Read.

I.M.Pei -Building Chinese Modern

[转载]Harvard – The Global University