Space Needle! The famous silhouette on Fraziers. It costs more than its worth to go up to the observation deck. Capturing the sunset was nice. The romantic can have a some wines or coffees and spend hours surrounded by the bay view. I am, however, on a family-plan. Kids are bored easily with views, no matter how breath-taking they are.

The underground tour is very entertaining. The guide turned a moldy historical artifact into a good story: how early Seattle businesses and government dealt with the simple water-table problems.

Foods are excellent. Elliott Oyster Bar is expensive, friendly, and reasonably tasty. The steakhouse at the hotel is worthy of its franchise name. The Olympic Sculpture Garden consumed a couple of leisurely sunny hours in the afternoon. I cannot imagine being a tourist here during the dark and wet winter days. This June holiday is absolutely agreeable.

The public transportation system is surprisingly well done. All downtown transportation are free. A route 99 runs up and down the water-front without charge. A tunnel that cut through downtown makes buses go faster without congesting the normal traffic. It increases ridership, since they are fast and cheap. The 30-minute ride to the airport, no longer than a taxi, costed only $1.50 per person. Maybe the 9% sales tax is a good deal to get those services.

I must conclude that Seattle is an excellent city for living, but not a tourist destination. Maybe I can fill another day with museums? Or I will just jump off to Banff or Victoria Island?

No. It is useless to counts people’s ethnic origins. What turns diversity into a competitive advantage is the difference in philosophy, perspective, or approaches to problem solving. In “The Wisdom of Crowds” James Surowiecki made a point that individuals in a group must be different and independent otherwise the wisdom disappeared.

And I also found the peril of global thinking. Too many company thinks globally by insisting the same policies, strategies, or business processes for all their global presences. This actually turns globalization into a burden: management either simplifies by sinking to the lowest common denominator or complicates by creating bureaucratic machines to handle all differences. Both make globalization a liability. Observe how Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and too many companies failed on capitalizing China.

Companies must carefully choose what should be the same globally and what can be different for each locale. This choice requires courage and a team that knows both the soul of the company as well as the uniqueness of each region, or at least the regions that matter. Does having a large employee base in China help? Or they simply become nuisance in management because they are so far away and so difficult to manage?

Don’t confuse an American company with global presences with a company that is globalized. Similarly, don’t confuse a staff with only diverse ethnic origins with a diversified staff. In both cases, the former is a competitive disadvantage and the latter an advantage.

No, it is not easy at all. Neither is making money. Are you an American company trying to make money in China, or India? Talk to me.

Montana is surprisingly lush. Looping around the Glacier National Park from the west to the east entrance, we drove through this huge valley. Meadows roll gently to infinitive. Those eerie snow caps, in June with ambient temperature hovering on the 80s, look strangely familiar. Gosh, this is a giant golf course: undulated landscape, water hazards, out-of-bound vegetation, and snow-white fairway bunkers. Just the scale is not quite right, I will need a golf ball the size of a barn to play here. Imagine the thunderous, “Fore.” I smile wryly like a SimCity monster.

This Apgar Village Inn sits at the south tip of Lake McDonald. Generous balconies connect together facing the lake. What a view — snow-capped mountain reflected on the frigid lake. Kids toed the water and jumped out instantly. The energetic practiced skipping rocks. I just sit there, Moose Drool beer in hand, and take the lake in. It changes. Every time I stepped out of the door I took a picture of the same lake, same angle. “Big Sky,” I thought. “Indeed.”

This trip is as blindly and carelessly planned as it can be. There is a web-site, I clicked on the most popular lodging option, Lake McDonald Lodge, and did not get in. The next most popular one, Village Inn, has vacancies, and I grabbed them. Another travel site offered flights to Kalispell, an airport 25 miles away from the park. On the day, we woke up at 4am in the morning, boarded a shuttle, and ended up Village Inn at 4pm. After a light row in the lake, we ate at Eddie’s, and pretty much collapsed into the beds.

This national park is geologically interesting. The continental divide, the ridge of the America continent, runs through it. Waters flow their separate ways divided by this line. Glaciers shaped much of the landscape eon ago, but the sculptures are still sharply distinguishable. The park has no cell phone signal (AT&T) or internet connections. The rooms have no TV. Being disconnected takes a bit getting used to. But I have not shown any withdrawn symptom on this 3rd day yet. Recharging feels strangely comfortable.

Glaciers are hard to find here. The map shows each glacier far away from main trials. The main attraction, Going-to-the-Sun Road, offers only far-away vantage points. On the west side, where we stayed, the Sperry Chalet trail seems promising. It is, however, a 6.4 miles long and 3400 feet climb strenuous hike. The trailhead is near Lake McDonald Lodge and we braved ahead. 3 hours later, we achieve half the elevation with patches of snow everywhere. The ambient temperature was in the mid-70s and I have worked out several rounds of wet t-shirts. We realized two things: the glacier is probably 4 to 5 hours away and the return hike is another 3-hour deal. That’s when we turn around. A couple of hours later, I was recuperating on the bench next to the shore of Lake McDonald. The beer from the lodge was cool and thirst quenching. Dinner was delicious too.

Unfortunately, an avalanche closed the most spectacular part of the Going-To-The-Sun road. We ended up taking the 2.5 hour detour to the east side. The short road-trip gave us a nice glimpse of Montana and a lot of its sky. Two Medicine was on the way and we stopped to admire the Running To The Eagle falls.

Somehow, sore-legged and tanned, Glaciers gave me the rest. Next time I come, I will make sure the road is open.

Check out many more pictures.

Practicality has little to do with this. Symbolic meaning is the key in this issue. The word marriage carries such emotional power that people defend and fight for it like a sacred relic. Of course, the ferocity of the defense is always matched with the intensity of the offense. Traditionalists screamed, “You people shall not cheapen it.” Cheapen? An insult! Wars ensue.

I remember vividly the moment I was pronounced married. A weight of commitment thumped on my heart and a wave of joy swept through me too. This is it! My life partner on my side. 25 years and 2 daughters later, I drank in all the sweet and bitterness, joy and heart-ache of a marriage. It is hard work and i would not know if I can stick through it without being married. The word is magic and the ritual transcends a relationship to a undescribable level. I do not want people, like Britney Spear or Dennis Rodman, to cheapen it. Same-sex couples have proven that they can commit, probably not less than what I have, to their life-partners. They seem to have understood and would treasure and guard this ritual as vigorously. I have no problem for them to join me as married people.

I met Samir, 1993, at Kubota Pacific, the afterlife of Ardent Computer, an ambitious project to make super-computing workstation. Samir was the compiler head for Ardent. When Kubota acquired Ardent and launched the grandeur plan to become the dominant player in the computing industry in 50 years, Samir became the engineering director. The troika of Samir, John Loveall, and Jeff Friedberg jointly govern all software development efforts. I was one of their managers.

Samir was young, single, and radiant. He was active in the dating scenes (well admired, but not womanizing), practiced flying on weekends, had good grip on technologies and management. The world was in his hands and looking good too.

Kubota faltered then collapsed. People scattered. A few years later, John called from Adaptec and I went working for him again. Samir was also working for Adaptec, on the “optical” side, a different business unit altogether. I stopped by to chat and we went on with our lives.

Roxio, the part Samir worked for, spun off and went public. Samir’s became a VP. But a dark political maneuver ousted him. Escaped to Sun earlier, I recruited and then witnessed his patience through 4 turbulent years of reorganizations, mismanagement, and reductions-in-force. We lunched once or twice a year to catch up. Samir changed over these years. He settled down, got married, moved to Silver Creek (a.k.a. Atherton-south, an affluent community west of Milpitas), had 3 children, and went through some standard mid-life events that grayed his sideburns. Middle-age added to his charm, albeit with a bit wear and tear at the corners of the eyes.

He joined Innopath after I moved to Beijing and hired several Sun employees, including someone in China. That was a strange project that we designed someone’s career together, across two companies. We talked frequently, held little back, usually for hours, and easily diverted and distracted. I always enjoy capturing a gleam of his wit and genius for people from time to time. We have many overlaps in life values and career paths. We also have lots to share: life experiences, gadgets, travel tips, etc.

He just told me about his new job. I thought of all these years and how our friendship evolved. A blog to commemorate the occasion seems appropriate.

Best of lucks. Samir.

It is hard to underestimate the draw Tiger has. I was riveted to the TV Sunday watching intense 3-way race between Rocco Mediate, Tiger Woods, and Lee Westwood. Surprised, my daughter was riveted on my side. She even called me when Tiger tied for the 1st place at the 18th hole.

It is probably his intensity. You can see Tiger’s emotions: a cringe, a disappointment, some frustrations, and elation. You feel for him.

Of course, his magical skills draw a crowd too. “Did you see that 60-foot putt?” Yes, I did.

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?

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Michael Pollan ISBN: 978-0143038580 Pub. Date: August 28, 2007 Publisher: Penguin

In this world of evolution, the fittest survives. Surely we homo sapiens are the reigning king on top of this game. “No,” said Michael Pollan. “It is corn.” The way he described it, we human race slaves to expand the kingdom of corn. We labor hard, dispense tremendous amount of energy, even sacrifice our lives for corn to proliferate. Yes, over two third of what Americans eat contain corn-derived elements.

Mr. Pollan prepared 4 meals: one for the industrial food system, one for industrial organic system, one from an almost completely self-sufficient farm, and the last one hunted and gathered without spending any money. He traced the ingredients of these 4 meals to their origins. The book narrates his captivating journeys.

Like anyone who’s passionate about a subject, Mr. Pollan became a bit preachy from time to time. Is it wrong to eat meat? He struggled and debated with himself and rationalized that meat-consumption is not only good for the body but also “good to think.” He went religious on Polyface Farm’s lifestyle, painting almost an utopia, even when he literally killed with his own hands. The sermon on hunting was quite long. I imagine, as a person who respect nature a lot, it was a real difficult mental journey for him. He was overwhelmed when he must “dress” his prey, I think, by the gravity of actually terminating a wild life. The mushroom education, however, is fascinating. I never knew the difference between two kinds of mushroom and had no idea that the “fruit” of the mushroom is only a small part of its organism.

Yet I pondered, and eventually disagreed, on his central thesis: that small-scaled, wholly sustainable, neighborhood-only farms are best for man-kind. The utopia cannot feed 7 billion people on this earth and will become a system just for the environmentally conscious with a fat wallet.

This world needs the next green revolution to feed its growing population. Otherwise, more unpleasant, even cruel, consequences, such as food riots, war, or famine, ensue. Somehow, the “management intensive” Polyface Farm does not seen to be the right answer to, literally, world-hunger.

One thing is alarmingly obvious, Americans are literally dying eating. They are drowning in the sea of cheap corns. After reading this book, I see Americans like those foie gras producing geese. Both are fattened and slowly killed by over-eating, only Americans do it voluntarily and wastefully.

Eat less, I sworn to myself.

This book is widely reviewed, including one from New York Times. Check out my Delicious link.

DingTaiFeng has on its menu the sesame bun. The steamer serves two of them always too hot to hold. I always perform this juggling act to break the bun into halves to reveal the shining black filling and the wonderful sesame fragrance. Sinking the teeth into the pillow-like bun is such a joy, particularly after a nice meal at this exquisite restaurant.

Some regional restaurant has sesame porridge on the menu. It is basically a bowl of thick black goo, deceivingly hot. Chinese believe in the medicinal effects of sesame . Ingesting sesame can generally give you more energy, particularly good for those having anemia, liver or kidney problems, generally not energetic, with circulation challenges, or in need of Viagra once in a while.

A friend brought me this little jar of sesame paste from Taiwan recently. The new president MA Ying-Jeou and his family frequent from the shop in HsinChu. The celebrity status clearly boosted the novelty. Honestly, I never had sesame paste in a jar before. It looks just like a peanut butter jar. Hmm…

So I lightly toasted a piece of bread and spread the paste thick and nice. The warm bread teased out the fragrance and I made a mess of myself devouring the whole thing in 3 seconds, accompanied by a nice cup of cold yogurt. Such content!

The only thing wrong with the whole experience is the presentation of that strangely tar’ed toast. I wonder how Chinese this food is. I will think of this deep subject with another piece of toast.

我爱芝麻馅。基本上就是芝麻加糖。芝麻的油让它看来像花生酱，只是带点沙的口感。香，有口感，简单的甜味。汤圆中是最常见的芝麻馅，如果加酒酿，简直是“舒服”食物中的典型。想到它 — 一碗热腾腾的酒酿汤圆，又香又甜 — 就身心轻松,精神愉快。

鼎泰丰有卖芝麻大包，一屉两个，烫的拿不住。我两手轮着拿，分成两半，黑亮亮的馅，香气扑来。一家好餐厅，一顿好菜后，一口咬下枕头般的包子，太美了。

有些餐厅有芝麻糊，基本上一碗烫口黑黑的酱糊。中医说芝麻“滋养肝肾、润燥滑肠、乌须黑发等功效，久食还能益寿延年”。

朋友带了罐芝麻酱，可是新总统马英九家的最爱。罐子看来像花生酱，这要怎么吃呢？我烤了片土司，厚厚的上层酱。新烤好的土司正好带出芝麻香。配着酸奶，三两口吃下。舒坦!

只是卖相不雅，黑糊糊的一片，不像中国东西。再来一片，边吃边好好想这问题。

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. Church became the perfect partner with the government: one controlled behavior and the other military and resources. Governance became easy.

In China, way before Christ, Confucius taught his philosophy on social protocols. Social behaviors — rules of interaction — must accord to the relative labeling: ruler v. ruled, senior v. junior, husband v. wife, etc. Simply put, the moment one acquired a label, the proper behavior rules apply. A person, for example, behaves differently as the son, the boss, the guard, the student, the brother, etc. Titles rule.

Kings in China found this so suitable for governing and put resources behind it. China became a Confucian state. Religions are for faith or philosophy, not ethics or morality.

After the Industrial Revolution, machine replaced human and became the main means of production. New rules challenged Church on its authority on people’s lives: it is not about right and wrong anymore, it is about money. Church felt the pressure to modify rituals to avoid contradiction with the economy: only spiritual rituals are their domain. But which rituals are divine and which are social? Is birth control a matter of faith? Would I go to hell if I eat pork? If I accept Him as my savior, does it matter that I murdered, raped, or betrayed?

The mainstream modern churches, at least in the USA, became social clubs of similarly valued or opined. When one’s value changes, one also change church. Several religions or denominations, however, insist on strict ritual adherence, also known as behavior control, and frequently run into trouble: think Jonestown, Waco, and Texas polygamists.

In 1850s, HONG XiuQuan （洪秀全） started a farmer riot using religion as an organization tool. He assumed divine position and organized his kingdom against the government. The riot went all the way to Beijing and almost tumbled the Qing dynasty. Imagine Jonestown the size of half the country, or the state of Utah passing a constitution contradicting the USA one. Chinese rulers since heeded the lessons and viewed organized religions with suspicion.

Faith is about belief and respect. Religion is about social behavior via organization, morality, and rituals. Government is for the control and distribution of resources. These affect everyone, God believer or not. That’s why confrontations and conflicts will never end. Everyone, just chill.

同步上网于http://blogs.sun.com/syw_zh

早在数千年前，统治者就开始思索如何治理国家。那时的国民尚未开化，社会等级制度森严，因而法律体系看起来并不适用——因为统治者首先要研究法律，然后必须建立执法机构。而最重要的是，统治者并不愿意和平民遵守同样的法律。那该怎么办呢？

教堂给出了答案。是上天决定了神权崇拜的道德性和礼仪性。教堂则成为了政府的完美搭档——前者控制人们的行为，后者控制军事力量和各种资源。这样一来，对国民的统治就变得容易了。

基督教还没有在西方诞生之前，在中国，孔子及其儒家哲学就已成为社会准则。社会行为应当遵循三纲五常，臣事君、幼事长、妻事夫，诸如此类。简而言之，一旦确立了某种伦理关系，相应的行为准则也就确立了。例如，一个人，因其儿子、上司、卫士、学生、兄弟等身份的不同，而需要遵守不同的行为准则。

中国古代帝王发现儒家哲学非常适合统治国民和控制资源，中国由此成为奉行儒学的国度。而宗教则仅限于信仰或哲学，而非关伦理道德。

西方工业革命之后，机器取代人力成为主要的生产工具。新的规则挑战着教堂在人民生活中的权威地位——这无关对错，却关乎金钱。教堂也感受到要避免与经济发展发生冲突，必须改变宗教仪式——只有精神仪式才是他们的领域。然而究竟哪些宗教仪式是神圣的，哪些仪式是世俗的呢？出身是否决定信仰？我吃了猪肉是否会下地狱？如果我将他视为救世主，即使杀人、强暴或是叛国，还能永生？

至少在美国，主流的现代教堂已成为具有相同价值观或想法的人们的社交俱乐部。当一个人的价值观改变了，他也就会转而去另外的教堂。当然，还有一些宗教或教派坚持固守宗教仪式，对行为实行严格控制，并频繁制造惨案——例如琼斯镇事件、韦科惨案、德州多妻制案件。

在19世纪50年代，洪秀全领导的太平天国起义就将宗教作为一种组织工具。他自称天授神权，自立为王，与清政府对立。起义军一路攻到北京，几乎颠覆了满清王朝。那情形就如同琼斯镇覆盖了半个美国，或是尤他州通过了一项与美国宪法相抵触的法律。中国的统治者从中吸取了深刻的教训，并对有组织的宗教活动保持高度警惕。

信仰与信念和尊敬有关，而宗教则是通过组织、道德和礼仪所体现出来的社会行为，政府的作用是控制和配置资源。无论是不是上帝的信徒，每一个人都会受到这三方面的影响。这就是为什么对抗和冲突永远都不会停止。所以，大伙们，退一步吧。