In the movie Princess Bride, Westley took an ever-increase dose of poison over a long period of time to build up his resistance, part of his herculean effort to rescue the princess.

A recent Darwinian award winner tried the same with cyanide and died.
Scientists seem to agree with Westley on the matter of peanut butter; they proved that kids can indeed build up their immunity by eating very small amount of peanuts to start.

When I was a kid, adults frequently said “不乾不淨,吃了沒病” (a little insanitarity makes you healthier). I never quite understood it. Then I found American kids are allergic to everything. Could it be, gosh, that they grew up too cleanly?

Either that, or they really should let natural selection work harder.

The economy is bad. Your company considers a reduction-in-force (RIF). Geographically, how to do it?

Sort sale regions by anticipated rebound speed. Infra-structure and employees spin up slowly. If a company’s capacity is not ready, it will miss the rebound, a one-time chance.

Middle managers instinctively protect home-base and therefore RIF evenly, like peanut-butter. The economy, however, never recovered evenly. Peanut-buttered previously, the company is ill prepared for the faster regions and wastes capacity elsewhere. Darwinian result ensues; wrong decision leads to non-competitiveness.

If your company did it wrong, seek employment elsewhere. You will have to in several years.

When travel via air, carry-on are restrictive, but checking-in comes with the worry of lost or, worst, being looted. They are so vulnerable. What if a stranger reaches in? Are my jewlery safe? They may touch my underwear!

TSA may cut off locks for random inspection.

The humble cable ties are pennies per pound. The smallest one withstands the strongest fingers, yet yield to the least threatening cutting tool. It is basically temper-proof, also colorful as an identification device.

Throw a bunch into the hand-carry bag. Tie your check-in luggage at the counter and board with a peace of mind.

Three years ago, I stayed at Grand Hyatt for several days waiting for my apartment to be ready. All family members came with me. I left them on their own and went to work. One night, I came back and found them at the Red Moon bar having Japanese foods: very delicious.

Tonight, my last in Beijing, I have Japanese again in this high-end bar. Three years’ memory rolled by.

Wow!

China just banned flimsy (0.025mm or less) plastic bags. Stores cannot provide them free of charge anymore. In days, usage shrank by 80%. Triumph for environmentalists. It seems.

People hate paying for something that was free. Ignorant or defiant customers quarrel at the check-out. I had several surprises: a piece of dripping red meat hung on a twine from the butcher; a handful of cherry tomatoes poured into my canvas bag.

Market will react: a supermarket switched to paper bags. Customers will get used to paying for them. Stores will find plastic bags sales a mandated profit. Would Earth win?

Normalcy comes back. A girl brushes teeth in the open air, to a stainless steel sink part of a long row, in front of a tent city. A motherly woman misses cooking, saying the mess-hall foods lack home flavors. An elderly worries about her youngling missing education. An official nearby told her the planned k-12 boarding school that houses a few thousand kids in about 2 weeks.

The manufacturing prowess shows. Centralized macro-planning skills shine. Villagers willingly follow a 4-step plan: tent, temporary pre-fab house, 2nd one near home, and the final rebuilt village.

Could any country have done better?

Across the Universe Directed by Julie Taymor Pub. Date: 2007

Cross posted at http://blogs.sun.com/syw

My iPods collects 128 Beatles songs.

They have cryptic lyrics, but mysteriously beautiful, bringing tears or smiles from the heart. You can’t talk when the music is still playing; and have long buried the moment in your heart when the song ended. When the movie scene starts, they all came back.

Maybe it is a clever musical strung together with Beatles? No, that’s possible only with ABBA. This is Julie Taymor’s interpretations. Nicely done.

She was giddy talking about Paul McCartney at the pre-screening. Oprah joined her like a teenage slumber party girl. “Wow,” I thought. “The power of Beatles.”

我的iPods里有128首批头四的歌.

这些歌的歌词晦涩但又特特迷人，常让人泪上心头或不由心暖一笑.歌放的时候不能讲，放完了就过了。于是那感觉就被深埋心中。电影中唱起来时，又被翻起。

可能编剧心巧的用批头四的歌穿成这音乐剧吗？我想不能，又不是ABBA。Julie Taymor的心血尽在此了。而且是一佳作。

Paul McCartney看预演时就挨着Julie Taymor坐。她说到那时可真是雀跃。Oprah居然也像小女孩到朋友家睡过夜一样的跳。
批头四，真魔力不减。

Beijing discourages high-rises, no ShangHai-styled skyscrapers. CBD’s Hyatt Park holds the current record: 64 stories of nearly 250 meters. Others are strangely uniform at about 60 meters, or about 30 stories. Not too high and consistent enough to create an industry for future spider men.

  A single rope is his lifeline. The job requires covering a range just out of reach. Don’t waste the bucket of soapy water; it needs to survive the lowest window. A harness is a meager insurance attached to the same lifeline.

Keep up! Everyone needs another sweep before lunch.

Hey, you missed a spot.

This 2008 election made fools out of pundits. Which of them even considered McCain just a few months ago? Bright-eyed, confident, 72-year-old, he is too pleased to see the attrition war on the other side.

Hilary definitely did not expect a bloody and exhaustive hand-to-hand battle. The party sees a classic prisoners’ dilemma: their fights to win will make the winner lose the big one and hurt the party. Is the sure-win Hilary-Obama ticket — experienced at the head and charismatic as 2nd-in-command – too obvious? The dynasty lives on when she returns to Arkansas to build the 2nd Presidential Library.

At airport, someone zoomed through the security line with a privileged air, leaving us normal people enviously curious. I observed. Impressive machines hide behind the entrance guarded by burly uniformed. “How do I?” “Have 30 minutes?” I did and could get a card like that privileged one. Excited.

“Government is finally making progresses,” I thought as I fed personal information into the machine with an appetite. Then the kiosk asked for $128 for a year’s services. “Yack!” Would company pay for this?

I walked away. Not paying that for a card that probably save me just minutes each time.