Hawksmania

Posted on January 19, 2014 by sinyaw

Seattle Seahawks is having a great season. Riding on last year’s moment, they finished the season winning 13 games out of 16 and clinched the conference champion. They won the first game of the play-off and will face the long-time rival, San Francisco 49ers, this Sunday, January 19th, for the conference championship game.
Photo: Elaine Thompson, Associated Press

I have seen my share of sport fans. Seattle breeds the most energetic bunch. For this city, they have 5 professional sport teams: Seahawks (American Football), Sounders (Soccer), Mariners (Baseball), Thunderbirds (Hockey), and Storm (Woman Basketball). The brilliancy of Seahawks is to give their fans a jersey number. This number, 12, strengthens the solidarity. The “12th man” flags are at every street corner, on people’s face, and even shown on the side of a tall building at night.

On Friday, Starbucks gives away coffee for 12 cents each, as long as the patron wear a Seahawk gear.

The Century Link Stadium, the home field, was designed to amplify sound. The fans made into the Guinness world record as the loudest one in the world. When Seahawks scored a touchdown on January 8th, the seismic sensor in USGS registered an earthquake. And that was not the first time.

Unlike 49ers that brought back the trophy 5 times before, Seahawks never won the Superbowl. The anticipation is palpable all around the city. Comes Sunday game, these fans will give everything they got. Monday will see many hoarse throats and absentees from the workplace. They will be recuperating from the night before.

I might become one of them.

Epilogue:
Sunday’s game was a super-charged nail biter. 49ers led by 7 points at the half time. Seahawks came back. At 2-minute warning, Seattle won by 6 points. And 49ers has possession. With 22 seconds left, 49ers threw into the end-zone, but was intercepted by Seahawks.

Seahawks goes to Superbowl, second in team history. This town is going to be crazy!

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Books of Mortals

Posted on January 13, 2014 by sinyaw

In the year 2065, or so, the first world Sovereign unleashed a retrovirus, called the Legion, that would remove all primary emotions, except for fear, for those infected. Since retrovirus changes the genes of the host, generations that were born after would know no emotions at all. In a couple of generation, the Era of Chaos ended, the timid populated the entire world, and began the Era of Order.

But the lone genecist, who created the Legion, did not agree. He formed a a secret sect, the Keepers, to guard a secret and wait for a prophecy, that in about 500 years, someone will be born with a natural immunity to the Legion. This boy, technically a mutation, would restore human emotions and bring back Life, implying those live without emotions were as good as dead. The secret was a vial of antidote to revive the emotions for those who took it. There were only 5 doses. Therefore, 5 people will be fated to find the boy and save the world.

This was the stage of an epic struggle. Five to reshape humanity.

Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee wrote a SciFi without much science or technology, but a really a social fantasy.

These Books of Mortal, a three volume series, were enjoyable yet too long. The first book, Forbidden, is excellent and stands on its own. The 2nd, Mortal, and the 3rd, Sovereign, are really just one long book. The plot turned religious, as many good SciFi, but I felt it deviated too much from the SciFi genre rules: that things must be plausibly scientific. Otherwise, it became fantasy.

They are still very enjoyable stories and memorable characters.

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$15 Minimum Wage

Posted on January 9, 2014 by sinyaw

If we give everyone more money, what happens? Since the total amount of goods and services stay the same, by the general laws of supply and demand, everything will become more expensive and everyone ends up the same as before. This is the basic theory behind inflation. The effect is almost immediate, since the extra money must come from somewhere: new taxes, fees, or any other form of price increase.

Minimum wage has a rippling effect. When it gets higher, the pay grades above it must also go up. If the businesses cannot raise prices then they must absorb the increased costs. They will make less profit or shift the costs elsewhere: hiring less workers for example. Raising minimum wage therefore either causes inflation or worsens unemployment.

The city of SeaTac passed the measure to increase minimum wage to $15. This is a small city about 10 sq mi (about 4 are the airport). It houses 27,000 residents and 900 businesses, including Alaska and Horizon Airlines. The current federal level is $7.25, and the state $9.19 (highest of the nation). With their minimum wage 63% higher than the rest of the state, businesses face difficult choices: raise prices, absorb the costs, move out, or find some loophole.

Loophole it is! The new laws subject only hotels with 100 or more rooms and 30 or more employees. There are similar ones for other industries, like transportation. It turned out that airport workers are also excluded. Simply, few people really benefited, except for the politicians behind the measure.

The newly elected mayor of Seattle, Ed Murray, said he is also thinking of the same idea. There is only a simple problem: he does not know how to pay for the increase. Let’s see his options: new taxes, new fees, raise prices of city services, or reduce city workers. Anything else? Oh, yes, create loopholes so that no one actually gets paid more.

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Jobs v. Union

Posted on January 4, 2014 by sinyaw

The Machinist Union Members narrowly approved Boeing’s proposed contract and sealed the deal that future 777x will be manufactured in the Puget Sound area. Boeing guaranteed that the composite wing, the most advanced part of the airplane, stays here.

The focus of the disagreement is retirement. Boeing proposed to switch to 401k, only for new members, and away from pension programs. Pension programs brought down GM, city of Detroit, and many mighty institutes. For the past 30 years, fewer and fewer workers in the US have that. Everyone, it seems, has moved to 401k.

Economically, they are exchangeable. One can compute the net worth of their pension program into a single “present day value.” Then the same person can formulate a new wage so that he/she will receive the same benefits during the retirement years. This calculation is complicated but very doable. The key issue is the risk.

The pension program is guaranteed and 401k depends on the performance of the investment. Maybe those Machinists are not savvy enough investors to stomach the risks. It is therefore not about economy, it is about emotions.

The fact is unions have weakened in the US for decades. Many states have legislated “Right to Work” laws that gave people the option not to join the union. When Kid was working at her university, she was not happy that an union fee was deducted from her paychecks without her consent. Union fees was the same as taxes for her. Had she worked for a “Right to Work” state, she would opt out and keep the union fees to herself. This means fewer and fewer members.

Boeing’s union leadership knew about their weakening and chose to fight for the union’s survival, even against the interest of the union members. There is no conceivable logic against the contract. It affects only new members, guarantees the jobs for decades to come, and stabilizes the regional economy. No one’s pension need to be saved, since none were endangered.

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Appreciating Geography

Posted on January 1, 2014 by sinyaw

In few days, I traversed across north America and really experienced the extremity of weather. Starting at Seattle,I first went to Toronto, via Chicago, then Ottawa, and Charlotte. On my way back, I stopped at Detroit. Several days later, I drove all the way down to San Jose, then LA.

Toronto was similar to Seattle then, about 45°F. Chicago was covered in snow, so was Ottawa. The temperature hovered around 25°F. Freezing temperature, 32°F, was something to celebrate. Charlotte, NC, was sunny and crisp. A simple long-sleeved shirt was all I needed for around 50°F. Detroit was punishing cold like 15°F. When I got back home, Seattle was covered with a light powder of white, one or two inches, but people was “stuck in the traffic” and must take a “work-from-home” day. Yeah right. That was the Friday before Christmas week.

I had a bit trepidation driving to San Jose. A friend advised me to get a set of chains, even that I have a 4×4. I did not take her advise and braved the road. There was no sweat what-so-ever, although southern Oregon saw ice on the road side. Temperature was about 45 to 50°F through-out. But San Jose greeted me with balmy 70s and bright sun.

A couple of days later, I was sweating under LA’s 82°F blazing sun. The mall witnessed healthy California girls in shorts and tank-tops. I was in simple t-shirts. What’s going on here? I turned on the TV and saw record snow-storms howling at most of the country.

At a social gathering, a woman commenting on her husband’s sensitivity to coldness. “Even in this warm weather, he needs a sweater.” It turned out that they have been living in sub-tropical of south-eastern Asia for the past 15 years. “What would he wear in Minneapolis, where Kid lives?” I wondered.

Weather affects people greatly, yet people live in all climates. They all complain, they all appreciate, and they all live with it.

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Retrovirus

Posted on December 22, 2013 by sinyaw

Three consecutive fictions I read had retrovirus as a key element of the plot. Seriously!?! I did not know before I started them.

In Inferno, the genius villain used the retrovirus to render a third of the human population infertile.

In Atlantis Genes, the ingenuity is the way the virus spreads. It lies dormant until the host receives a specific radiation exposure. Two things happen next: the host dies from the virus infection in a nasty way; the host also beams out the same radiation pattern that activate the genes nearby. Clearly the host is infectious even after death. In this way, the disease would spread extremely quickly and across all containment barriers.

The book is the first of a two-book series. The second book is Atlantis Plague. The plot is really too complex, borderline confusing. Clearly, we human beings were being bred, genetically over the past several hundreds of thousands of years to become warriors for another species far far away. The harvesting time comes when they activate the genes that were long ago embedded in everyone of us. Those who survive, roughly 10% of us, are the fruits of this breeding program and will multiply further.

In Forbidden, the founding fathers introduced retrovirus to rid human kind of all emotions, except for fear.

All other emotions: love, passion, sorrow, regret, joy, etc. were deemed evil and causes for human self-destruction. If this species, homo sapiens, is to survive, there shall be no emotions, except for fear, used to govern and control orderly behaviors. The new is the era of Order and the old was Chaos.

But someone had 5 doses of “cure” that can restore 5 people’s full emotions. Also, someone, after 500 years, will be born with a natural immunity to the viral genes. And the story begins…

It is the first of a 3-book series. The second one is Mortal and third Sovereign.

This seems to be a trend. SciFi is no longer about life forms, but genes. I probably should just get used to this.

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Lipid v. Fructose

Posted on December 12, 2013 by sinyaw

Since the 1950s, the medical industry and world public health organizations have subscribed to the Lipid Hypothesis: eating red meats and saturated fats will increase the cholesterol level in the blood stream; the cholesterol will then clog arteries, lead to heart disease, and eventually kill. The solution is simple: eat less red meat and saturated fats. If that does not lower your cholesterol level, then take statin drugs.

However, to this date, the Lipid Hypothesis is still just that. The link between dietary meat and fat consumption and cholesterol level has not been established. Most interestingly, the link between heightened cholesterol level to heart disease was never established either. This lipid hypothesis is more like religion than science.

On the other side, there is the fructose hypothesis camp: excessive fructose consumption leads to increased free radicals. Free radicals attack various parts of the body, particularly the liver and arteries, and cause diabetes and plagues. Of course, they also kill. This camp says that refined carbohydrate is the root of all evil, not fat.

Which to believe? Are both actually safe?

We could all become vegetarians (in fact, vegans) and also abstain from all forms of refined carbohydrates such as sugar and breads. There are Asian monks that live long and healthy. We can live just like them.

There is a cynical claim that the US government colluded with the food and medicine industries to turn us all into farm animals. The tax money subsidizes the corn industry that feeds the food industries to poison us addictively, so that we must pay the medicine industry to prolong our lives.

What to do?

The industries exist to make money, pure and simple. Maybe there are CEOs who would rather make less money to produce healthier choices, but most would first go for the “win-win” strategy: optimal profits based on sound health claims. We, the consumers, must vote with our wallets and use the power of the market to drive the industries. To do so, we must be educated. Michael Pollan advised us to eat like our great grand parents.

As for me, I am skipping dessert most of the time, but won’t refuse a good pie when it comes along. A nice juicy burger is great, but only once a month. Yep, striving for moderation in everything.

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Thanksgiving in Minneapolis

Posted on December 6, 2013 by sinyaw

“Where are you going for Thanksgiving?” The question was the standard response when I revealed my plan for the holiday. A smart remark on the weather typically followed. Honoring Kid’s convention, I switched to Celsius when the temperature is below 10°. When I boarded the plane, the weather widget showed the destination to be -7°C (19°F).

Before the journey, I asked about local flairs. “What’s the equivalent of Zingerman’s of Ann Arbor in Minneapolis?” So we went to Blue Door Pub. On this cold night, it was packed to the rim. After standing uncomfortably close to the patrons and in the heavy traffic lanes of the waiting staff for 15 minutes, we were seated at the bar. (I was half way into the first beer.) Quickly, we ordered Blucy, Tater Tots, Fried Beans, and Chicken Wings.

It is the Blue Door’s variation of the Juicy Lucy burger, a Minneapolis contribution to the world of deliciousness. They put bleu cheese inside the beef patty and cook until the cheese melts. I tasted the nice beef and the perfect blending of the cheese, plus its warmth. Excellent! The rest of the meal was equally good, particularly the fried beans and tater tots. The second beer went down very nicely with the satisfaction of a good burger.

For the Thanksgiving meal, we had turkey, brined for 24 hours, rubbed, and baked to perfection, American-style stuffing (as opposed to 油飯), Mac&cheese with Beecher’s, Honey-baked ham, corn bread, green veggie, pumpkin pie from the store, and home-made lemon meringue pie. It was wonderful, busy, fun, and an unforgiving defeat for the weight-control regiment.

On Black Friday, we went to the Great Mall of America. Our visit was more for the claim of “I’ve been to the biggest mall in the world” than anything else. (Indoor theme park with full thrill rides.)

Like many cold cities, downtown Minneapolis (the Nicollet Mall) is well connected with “sky bridges”, a set of corridors linking the second floors of buildings so that patrons don’t need to walk on the surface street, subject to the elements and car traffic. To our amazement, many simply strolled around this downtown in summer clothes: t-shirt and light footwear. Clearly they are experienced and know it is easier to shop in those free-spirited outfits.

This is not the first time I visited the Twin Cities but was the most personal one. It was sad to part with kids. When we landed at SeaTac, it was 47°F and sunny. Balmy.

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A Hundred Years to Shape People

Posted on December 1, 2013 by sinyaw

Chinese say, “It takes 10 years to shape trees, and 100 years to shape people.” To shape people is to educate them. In doing so, the government must think very long-term. Only educated parents and teachers will generate better educated children. Therefore, to shape the whole population, it takes generations.

NBC is airing a series called “Education Nation.” It explores various ideas and experiments that promise better results. One theme was clearly missing: how to re-build the respect for teachers.

I grew up surrounded by family members who devoted their entire adult lives to teaching, many elementary school teachers and some college level professors. Almost year-round, there will be former students visiting the house. They drop by or call first. They chit-chat about the good old times and basically just pay their old teacher a visit. During the holidays, the house will be like a revolving door. Batches of students came and went, stayed for meals, left seasonal gifts, then went out for their own partying. One thing was clear, the only reason for them to come was their gratitude and respect. Their teachers shaped them into better adults and changed their lives. They owe their successes to their teachers.

This level of respect, far more incentivizing than money, does not exist in the US. In China, or generally Asia, a teacher will be proud to declare, “I am working on a hundred-year enterprise.” His impact on this world is far more profound than other more material pursuits. This pride is also lacking in the US. The joke is, “those who can’t do, teach.” Instead, it should be, “those who are the best, teach.”

In nearly all major cities in China, you can find a shrine with a Confucius statue. He was recognized, universally by all Chinese, to be The Teacher, not to be confused by the philosophy he represents.

Get people to respect teachers first. That is the first step to shape the people.

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Ender’s Game

Posted on November 24, 2013 by sinyaw

There is no spoiler in this post.

This has been near the top of my all-time favorite SciFi books. Orson Scott Card has also been near the top of my all-time favorite SciFi writers. Imagine why I don’t want to watch the movie. Rarely can the movie match the perception from the mind when reading the book.

Harrison Ford is really the deciding factor for me to go to this movie. I also waited several weeks. To make sure both the crowd has thinned out and the movie is not a disastrous disappointment. As a relative cheap-skate, I also picked the matineé game on Sunday.

And I really enjoyed it. Having read the book or not, this is a good movie.

The book reader will appreciate the imaging, the costume, and the visual of the battle training. The movie cut off much of the training and did a good job moving to the “command simulation” more quickly. The setup for that simulation was stunning and very enjoyable. I also like Abigail Breslin’s Valentine a lot, although that was a minor role. The ending was excellently done and was the only part that I think the book readers would have enjoyed even more.

Funny that, unlike Kids, I never read the sequels of Ender’s Game.

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