Truth is, I never left. Three years ago.

Several of us arrived around the same time. Us transient people of this great city from else countries, drank the city in by the fire hoses. We, like all transient people, experienced the trickling out. I left them behind in 2008.

At a great catch-up get together, Friend mentioned the “Beijing fatigue.” Like a lover, this city drives you so crazy that you must leave, once in a while for a while. But you knew you cannot really leave. You will be back.

It is a gorgeous day from the hotel window. Sigh..

A little more than a year ago, I said no to Kindle. At that time, I have a stack of books next to my bed. I wasn’t going to switch before finishing them. Many things changed in this industry this past year.

iPad disrupted the whole publishing industry and eReader business. It forced Amazon to raise eBook prices! It also forced Barnes and Noble, Border, Sony, and many more beefed up their offerings. Amazon reduced Kindle’s price and introduce the 3rd generation. On my many business trips, my age (sigh) exacerbated two problems with books.

On a airplane seat, I read with some difficulty. The dim or poorly aimed lights do not help my aging eyesight. I would sit uncomfortably to read. Secondly, the desire to travel lighter forced me to make hard choices to accommodate either the luggage space or the weight imposed on my shoulders.

This new Kindle is slightly bigger than a paperback and about half-an-inch thick. It weighs enough to feel the substance, but not too much to tax the holding hand. Unlike book, I don’t need to prop the pages open (I like reading with only one hand, twisting and extending my fingers to hold the open book.) Flipping the page is deftly done with one of my knuckles clicking a big button the side. (I practiced and experiment the best way to hold it.) The dictionary is built-in, so I don’t need to put the book down, fetch the dictionary, and come back to it. (I do that a lot.) The bookmark, highlight, and annotation are easy to use. I don’t need my usual pencil anymore and the notes are now legible.

Since now all books are the same font size, I picked one that is easy to my eyes. The reading surface is flat and smaller to find the light. The contrast is usually no worse, if better, than print. (I tried reading from my iPod Touch, it is really too small a surface. I have not read extensively on an iPad yet.)

Kindle is great as a single purpose device. It does not email, browse, play games, or even display in color. Whatever you fancy, there is no app for that. It does one thing: displaying text for books or other things sold from Amazon.com.

And it is $139. I am willing to experiment with that amount of money.

IMF publishes World Economic Outlook twice a year. The latest one was out in October. You need to read only the executive summary and the first table to get the idea.

It predicts that the US will have 2.7% growth this year and 2.3% next. Correspondingly, China will have 10.5% and 9.6%, India’s 9.7% and 8.4%. The good news is that we will be growing; the bad news is no where near the pace that we wish.

What should these countries do? In plain English, IMF recommended that:

• The US should cut deficit, stabilize banks, and export more.
• China should export less, consume more, and allow currency flexibility.

Sigh… Guess this means one more year of the same.

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。