Book Review The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley ISBN 1451654421

Before getting to the specific book, this is the first book I finished reading on eReader device. In my case it is Kindle. Somehow I still cannot quite equate reading on eReader with the experience of holding a paper book on hand. The sense of possession of the knowledge is just not as much holding a electronic device as holding an ink-on-paper book. Maybe it is just me.
Now back to our subject. The book is about 300 pages long, but excluding a lot of notes and references, it is a bout 180 pages. It is an enjoyable read about why American kids not faring well in PISA test and tracking three American high school exchange students experience in PISA superpowers Finland, Korea and Poland. If you are European parents or Asian parents living in America with high school kids at home and interested in education issue, you probably already had the same conclusion as the authors and there is really little gain reading the book.

Bat queen and king

Cindy is five, and she is a natural born artist. Here is her latest master piece: a bat queen and king

Can you guess who is queen and who is king?

Grasshopper

A good size grasshopper waited patiently on our screen windows this morning

Here is a picture from another angle

Book Review of The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer who temporarily worked as a network administrator due to funding shortage at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(LBL). The first assignment he got as network administrator was to figure out a 75 cents discrepancy in Unix system's user computer usage. His investigation led to the discovery of a foreign hacker breaking into US military computer systems and first fully documented case of computer espionage. As a scientist, Cliff Stoll did an excellent work explaining the technical side of computer hacking without losing the entertaining side of a good story telling, and he also artfully blended in his opinion on network security and privacy. The espionage happend in 1986 and the book was published in 1989, but it doesn't feel outdated reading it today. With recent Edward Snowden case of NSA eavesdropping on US citizens, the book seems ever more relevant.

鹿鸣翠谷

摄于公司院内

书评： 《神权，民本， 民主： 二千五百年的竞赛》 郑楚材著 ISBN:978-957-41-4915-5

书的作者是住在华府的一位内科医生和风湿病学家，写历史人文方面的此书纯粹是兴趣，但很显然是下了多年的功夫，所以读来很有收获。作者认为中国从秦汉至现在走的是儒家：以民为本，以仁爱为中心，以中庸为方法的作者称之为民本政治，对比与西方民主国家的”For people, by people"的民主政治， 两家之外就是宗教立国如阿拉伯国家即作者所称的神权政治。另外作者认为中国在民国以前更具体的应该定义为帝制民本政治，因为汉武帝以来的帝王绑架了儒家民本思想以服务于帝王朝的稳定，但帝王却没有任何监督和约涑，只有自上至下从君主对臣民的约涑却没有自下而上臣民对君主的约涑。另外作者认为现在的中国不应生硬照搬西方民主政治，而应把儒家民本思想从帝王或一党专政的枷锁中解放出来，取民主政治的长处，走自己的政治道路。民本政治实际是精英治国，好处是效率高，成本底。但当民本政治，民主政治和神权政治的精英都出自Harvard, Yale等Ivy League时，不知作者的政治分类还有没有意义。 另外大概由于作者的自然科学背景， 书中做了一些关于中国历史有趣的统计, 比如：“从秦使皇到轻宣统共218个皇帝（五胡十六国的皇帝未计算在内），77个皇帝未达18岁即以登位，其中34个10岁以前就登基，竟有11个在5岁以前就登皇位，2个仅1岁也登上皇位，甚至3个月大的婴孩也做了皇帝，“，”仅26位皇帝活到60岁以上，其中14位是开国皇帝，6位功业彪炳，但这20位所谓英明贤君都在晚年犯下严重错误，其余6位乏善可陈，宣统帝溥仪5岁被废后活了61岁，阿斗刘禅56岁被废，继续活到64岁。在总数26个末代皇帝中，仅此2人享此高寿，其余竟有15个末代皇帝都死于非命，其平均年龄只有19.6岁。在218个皇帝中竟有81人活不到30岁，占总数的37.2%.位上被弑36人，被废34人，被废后遭杀12人， 被逼禅位6人，自杀3人，他杀2人，战死1人，被俘3人，总之居皇位未能善终的高达85人，占总数39%。死于非命的有54人，几近总数的25%。“总括言之中国二千一百多年的帝制民本政治仅有四百来年的天下太平人民受惠，只占总时期的18.5%"。仅这些统计功夫， 就可以给作者5分。

EV charger

书评： 《被利益集团拖跨的王朝》

先讲两句题外话， 这本书是2011年出版， 可依然延续了中文书的痼疾， 没有索引， 文中引用典故不注明出处。白玉微暇。
《被利益集团拖跨的王朝》是世界知识出版社出版的《同舟共进》杂志精华系列的一本，ISBN 978-5012-4105-7。这是一本文集， 文章评点中国历史成败兴亡， 借史喻今。启发很多， 容我分别道来。
网上国人每谈及中日历史纷争，算我在内， 很快就热血沸腾，杀气腾腾，情绪压制了冷静的思辨。李扬帆文<<中国近代之败，实为意识之败-两千年中日交往中的反思>>细数历史，结论：中国不了解日本，日本摸透中国，中国必败。记得小时候看李默然主演的〈甲午风云〉，心中不平，恨一颗鱼雷，击沉致远舰，似乎于日本的胜负全系于那一颗鱼雷上。后来又看冯小宁拍摄的电视剧《北洋水师》，约略明白甲午海战，中国不止输在那一颗鱼雷上。读了此文，终于明白，中国输在，我们中国人口口声称与日本是一衣带水的邻邦，却从没有认真的去了解我们这位邻居。日本有阿倍仲麻吕，高杉晋作，宗方小太郎， 长期居住中国，考科举，学中文，考察经济，社会，文化，把中国摸个底透；可我们中国人，却对日本一无所知，了解依然停留在日本是中国文明的分支，是小亲外戚。有多少中国人知道日本国策自丰臣秀吉到伊藤博文的演变？有多少中国人知道日本民族称雄世界（不只是东亚）的野心？日本人学习中国，是为了文化上独立于中国文化。此文对我最大的提醒是：日本有个思想家福泽谕吉，他比我们中国人更理解中国文化，也因次他提出日本“脱亚”，于西方各文明国家共进退。一旦看到日本文化的这个转变，你就会理解为什么日本对二战侵略罪行躲躲藏藏。因为他们认为自己是西方一分子，西方从未对亚洲认错，为什么你们让我日本认错？对我们这个邻居，在未来很长的时期，我们都无从避开，或合作，或对抗，但我们应该记住此文作者的警告： 请别漠视你的对手

Financial engineering: necessary evil

I have read a lot about financial engineering after 2008 financial crisis. Books like All the devils are here by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, The big short:inside the doomsday machine by Michael Lewis, Hedge Hogs: The Cowboy Traders Behind Wall Street's Largest Hedge Fund Disaster by Barbara T.Dreyfuss, The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson. Some of the pioneers of financial engineering are Noble Laureates who essentially invented Wall Street money machines. My take home message is: Financial engineering is like germs on our body, they plays a critical role in the health of global financial system if under control and regulation, but they will destroy the whole system if let grow unregulated.

What drives an investment property value: demography

So you bought a investment property, and you are looking for cash flow and appreciation. There are a lot of rules and calculation to guide you for a non-negative cash flow . But what drives up the value of the property? I think it is human. To be more specific, the demographic composition of the area your property resides. If the area is composed of highly educated people, the long term economic prospect will be good and property appreciation will be high. In an extreme case, if you turn your investment property into an incubator and rented out to entrepreneur, the payback and appreciation from the property can be huge.

What sets a great Chinese entrepreneur apart from a great entrepreneur: Confucius ethics

Yang Yuanqing, CEO of PC vendor Lenovo made news lately by sharing his $3.25 million bonus with 10000 Lenovo staff. Lenovo overtook HP to become world's biggest PC vendor, and Yang earned his bonus, by market standard. According Wikipedia's profile of Yang, he grew up in China before western market economy was introduced to communist China, and I assume he was influenced by Confucius philosophy in his upbringing. And his sharing of his bonus money with his staff manifests core belief in Confucius ethics, the superiority of personal exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. With market economy takes its root in China and more and more Chinese people are looking into Confucian ethics and philosophy for their identity in world stage, we can hope more and more great Chinese entrepreneurs like Yang will emerge, successfully blending western management acumen with eastern Confucian ethics.