Whiteboard infinityby Sin-Yaw WangReligion and Governance- May 31, 2008 Cross posted at http:www.nomadicminds.org A few thousand years ago, rulers pondered on how to govern. Citizens were not quite literate. The society was tiered. A legal system seemed futile: first they need to learn the laws, then must build an enforcement structure. But most importantly, the ruling class did not wish to be subject to the same laws as the commoners. What to do The Church was the answer. It has the God-given authority to define morality and the rituals of worshipping. ...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/religion_and_governance Global Site Leads Summit- May 28, 2008 Ten site leads gathered at this lovely city of Prague, Czech, for 2 days. Pictured, back row from the left, are: David Marr (Menlo Park, USA) from legal; our host, Pavel Suk; Robert O'Dea of Dublin, Ireland; Erlend Dahl from Trondheim, Norway; KNR of Bangalore, India; Sin-Yaw Wang of Beijing, China; Akira Ohsone of Tokyo, Japan; Didier Simonazzi, representing Alban Rechard, of Grenoble, France; Michael Bemmer of Hamburg, Germany; and Grisha Labzovski of St. Petersburg, Russia. On the front..http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/global_site_leads Skin Scraping- May 28, 2008 Cross posted at http:www.nomadicminds.org Somewhere between Xi'An and Beijing, my friend and her daughter caught a cold — an ordinary travel story except for the treatment she sought. Traditional Chinese medicine has 4 standard treatment methods: pressure points massage, acupuncture, spot heating, and herbs. Note that surgery is not one of them and the first three are different physical forces on the same system: the "qi" circuitry. Based on a completely different set of theories than...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/skin_scrapping Radical Changes Required- May 26, 2008 Jim and Darren blogged about the possibility and probable impacts of very high oil prices. They both focused on consumer behavior. At industrial level, oil prices will have an even greater impact. Unbeknownst to many, US industries feed on oil too. From California central valley to Iowa corn field to Kansas cattle ranches, regions have specialized into single products. The famed Interstate highway system is the cardiovascular systems of this highly independent organism. Oil is the blood...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/radical_changes_required ErWang Temple, no more- May 24, 2008 Cross posted at http:www.nomadicminds.org Just saw the report that ErWang Temple of DuJianYan collapsed during the earthquake. I took the picture on the left last November. This temple was first built probably 1000 years ago. Last renovations was around 1908. It completely collapsed this time. Guess it qualifies as a once in a 100 years earthquake. It is such as sad feeling that what I saw last year is gone forever. I had a similar sensation when the World Trade Towers collapsed during..http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/erwang_temple_no_more Lagavulin found- May 15, 2008 Cross posted at http:www.nomadicminds.org Last year, I learned whiskey from the master. Still an apprentice, I searched every liquor store that came my way for those Crawford mentioned. Over this year, I have found (and drunk) all but Lagavulin, the Islay whiskey. Of course, my primary search algorithm is to peruse the airport duty free stores. Last week, in San Francisco attending JavaOne, I walked past this store and, what the heck, let's take a look. Hey, on the bottom of the shelf...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/lagavulin_found Earthquake- May 12, 2008 China, at 2:38pm today, had a major earthquake at SiChuan, WenChuan, at 7.8 scale. Few minutes later, at 2:35pm, Beijing's TongZhou had one at 3.9 scale. I was at home and felt the rolling moves. Company evacuated everyone to the nearby open area. I heard no damages.http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/earthquake You have 7 years to learn Mandarin- May 9, 2008 Fortune magazine's Geoff Colvin agreed with economist Angus Maddison that by 2015, China will become the largest economy, supplanting the USA, of the world. That's 7 years from now. He noticed that the US supplanting then the largest economy only in 1890, overtaking, guess which country, China. Since technologies will inevitably spread to every corner of the world, population will eventually became the main factor for economy. It is only natural that China to "resume its natural role as the..http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/you_have_7_years_to C1J1- May 7, 2008 I decided to walk the morning of May 6th. On my way to Moscone center I noticed cliques of people carrying the same designed backpack. Tricles became streams; streams merged into torrent rivers. I arrived at 8:15 and decided to browse the bookstore to kill minutes before the general session. When I was done, at 8:25, guards formed a line preventing more people from tailing the queue. They don't want a mob scene when the doors open. The crowd, I was part of them, waited for nearly 20...http://blogs.sun.com/syw/entry/c1_j1 |