wanderer

Ke and I had a walk the other day. I said, 'So there is still a water crisis going on.' 'Yep, lots of places are short of clean water.' She replied. 

'But the earth surface is mostly covered by water.' --'That's not drinkable.'

'I wonder how it would look like if human being was evolved into marine habitat species.' --'Then we go to land for vacation. No water park, scuba diving and snorkeling, we all go safari.'

'And we don't need to buy shoes and clothes. What a simple life.' --'No no, we still have other fashion to follow, maybe decorated fin and scales?'

'But we won't have sports. ball games.' --'Swimming, of course. there must be some underwater events. Say, shooting, or long distance endurance race from the north pole to the south, far more cool than Tour de France.'

'How about music, we will be out of audio and video entertainment.' --'Dolphin screeches. But I'm not sure of instrumental music. Yeah, TV and movie equivalent are hard to fathom.'

'Do all the kinds of discriminations still exist?' --'I think so, I think it will be a class society. Probably dolphins are the elites, those shrimps and scallops might be pariahs. And those sharks are probably outlaws. Hmm, maybe racial issue is a big one, far more severe than a Black professor was arrested by a white cop...Wait, I think there should only one dominant fish in the pond, others are like dogs and cats or bears to us. And those whales are like dinosaurs. Ha, here you go, we got live, gigantic animals. And the race is not an issue.'

'Should the beings be mammals? Can it stay both in the sea and on the land?' --'No, I think it should be strictly marine habitat. Say, if there is a flying vehicle, it is filled with sea water for 'us' to breathe.'

'Is it possible to have the equivalent  technologies such as airplane, wired and wirelss communication?' --'Sure it is. Dophins are very intelligent animals, remember? And we all have to work too. Besides, there are global current, if you are in low social status, maybe you can ride on those tide and travel around for free. It just takes time. While on land, wind doesn't blow you to anywhere.'

'Sounds cool. I wonder if the marine life can outsmart our human beings' civilization. We sent human beings to the moon." --'I think the world is simply becoming more complex and advanced. Think about the scale of the world water body, and all the possibilities. Probably we would know more about the core of earth. It's kind of interesting we ended up being living on land.'

'And what about the problems we are facing? war, famine, disease, global warming, pollution. The sea world must be fraught with conflicts and merciless fight.' --'Maybe not. I believe it would be a better life and better society. Our world is too chaotic and too insane....'

By the way, we were not delirious, even our walk was winded.

40 years ago, exactly the same day today, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins became the first human beings stepped on the moon. I wonder how Armstrong felt the moment he put his foot on the powdery surface, looking around at the austere scene of the moon, and walking a few steps with 6 times of buoyancy of earth gravity. Now he looked over to the direction of mother Earth, three hundred and seventy thousands kilometers away, equivalent to circling the equator 10 times, hanging there was a shining blue planet with white patches, in the overwhelming scale of darkness and silence.  Nothing can be more thrilling than that. Maybe the coolest thing is to set up a tripod, mount the camera and start shooting the pictures of the earth, our home with the moon horizon. 

How about shooting from the space? That's second coolest thing, maybe. One NASA photo shows the sunset line divided European Continent by lighting the Britain Island, part of France, large part of Spain and all Portuguese, the rest of Europe was shadowed into darkness. It simply leaves us stunned.

The third coolest thing? Be an assignment photographer for National Geographic. Document the wild life and the people in the remote corner of the world. Say, Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Record by photos how the bears catch the spawning salmon and the people there living their lives, celebrating their wedding.

The fourth? New journalists who snapped their once-in-a-lifetime frame on historical events.

The fifth? Studio photographers make portraits.

The sixth? The seventh?...

The one next to the bottom? Random amateurs using a DSLR take pictures of daily life. I'm one of those.

Geely, China's independent car maker based in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, is set to make another round of bid for the Volvo unit of Ford Motor Corp. Analysts say the chance of the bid success for Geely is not fat, given their market share in China, high level management expertise, technolgy sophistication to digest the world renowned brand, and so on and on, even they have had some strong financial backing for the attempt. Quoting the founder, Chairman of Geely, Li Shufu, as saying in April, 'Volvo is like a myterious, beautiful woman, we just look at her from far away, amazed. We don't dare get close to her. We're just a bunch of farm boys.'  Another humble and rustic comment in 2006, 'We realized you cannot create a car by simply gathering needed components, we're only a baby, learning to crawl let alone walk on our own.'

Yet this so unimpressive looking guy is leading a prior copycat workshop factory, which was the target of Toyota's law suit defendant for its lousy and crass imitation, to a ever-growing manufactor, and now he is wanting to play at a world stage. Kudos to Geely's endeavor, and Mr. Li's audacity, and best wishes to their development.  

The cell phone and laptop have becoming more popular than ever. Smart phone, netbook. All the functionalities are plunged into a gadget. But a portable phone can't have the ease of a laptop's bigger screen and keyboard, laptop doesn't have the portability to lug around. the customer's unsatiable desire hasn't been quneched yet.

How about a new product, a cell phone dock with foldable screen and keyboard? When immobolized, you plug the cell phone into the dock then you have a full scale laptop. when you are on move, bring your cellphone and/or the dock, you either have a smartphone or a laptop, depending on your need along the trip. 

From the technique point of view, both cell phone and the dock should have a CPU, but the dock doesn't work alone. The power of CPU in cell phone shouldn't be too big, otherwise it sucks up too much energy and gives off too much heat. So two low-end CPU parallel computing structure is a viable scheme. Syncronization should be automatic and setting adjustable. The product line should be more low and medium end in order to control the price. If the whole thing is kept under $300, it will be a hit. Everyone can have a moving computer if desired, how cool is that? The wireless phone company would love to see that happens, too. It opens new avenues for profit.

For the record, the idea is not brand-new, IBM (or lenovo) has dock product for their laptop computer, what they plug in is a laptop computer to make it become a desktop. But patent my idea, someone out there. It's lucrative, and I'm letting it out for free.

The perfect scenario in Xinjiang: Ugihurs plus other minorities enjoy a large degree of freedom, better education and better living condition as the Han Chinese have. Ethnics live truly in harmony as that in Greater Detroit Area, while white and black equally aggregate. Any ethnic discrimination is not only legally liable, but morally a taboo. Xinjiang prospers from its oil and natural gas industry, it is a great tourism destination due to the distinguished culture and nature attraction. Xinjiang has a formidable soccer team, a great powerhouse in basketball while the pop music and movie, TV industry that mingle Han and Uighurs enjoy a huge success, its influence radiate into not only inner land of China, but central Asia countries as well.

The very likely future scenario in Xinjiang: The ethnic relationship is always strained. Yet the conflict is contained to an individual and sporadic scale. The separatism never become a force. Uighur culture and tradition are washed out, evolve into a tourism decoration like that of American Indians in the southwest states of US. large scale social turmoil is still possible. The Xinjiang problem is a world hot spot from time to time, Xinjiang's role in China lies in its energy source and strategic position in central Asia, but no more.

The perfect scenario needs a lenient and open-minded leader from Chinese Communist Party, CCP, top. He is definitely charismatic and highly influential. He sketches the outline for the ethnic policy that materializes the spirit of tolerance and regulations of iron fist for any wrongdoings from both sides. He should relish a godfather stature in history, all his successors follow his guideline for the future policy-making and decision-making. Could there be one? No one knew.

The most likely scenario is more foreseeable. Given the CCP's hard line towards Tibet and Xinjiang, and more importantly, the success of Hu Jingtao in Tibet back in 1980s and now hard-nose Secretary General in Xinjiang, Wang Le-quan, there is no need for CCP Politburo to adjust the policy to make Uighurs happier and grant more opportunity and freedom. The policy will very likely continue even after Hu Jingtao retires in 2012. Another aspect of the issue is, CCP does not think it vital to monitor the law enforcement and policy enact at lower levels. Tiny incident of cop brutality  or secondary rank official's corruption could easily ignite ethnic mistrust and hatred. So the tension will always be there.

Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, riot happened last weekend, about 150 people were killed and many more injured. The largely straight picture is that minority Muslim Uighur people clashed with the Hans, the 90% majority in the whole country of China. The cause of the conflict, however, is a mix of fact-claiming with imagination. The major media in the US reported the incident. What fascinating is, as long as there is comment section attached to the report on the online coverage, opinions fly. For an incident pertaining to killing, race, minority, Muslim and communist government, everyone seemed geared up to utter his/her emotion or wisdom. Unfortunately, nearly everyone is biased.

USA Today bought second-hand report. One reader said China should set an example to crack down relentlessly Muslim radicals, outlaw Islam in China against the spineless appeasement in the rest of world; another one mentioned Xinjiang, the region covers 1/6 of China's area, takes huge oil, natural gas reserve besides other minerals, Beijing would clamp down any independence movement as ruthless as to Tibet---the hatred toward certain religion or the aversion to certain ideology can't be more obvious.

New York Time has more readership. NYT Beijing Bureau chief Ed Wong wrote carefully about the incident. Sensible readers readily pointed out that he is biased. 'Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese?', one post challenged, 'They are all Chinese!' Others were upset by the reporter's presumptuous title 'China locks down a restive region after deadly clashes' among East-Turkestan Movement sympathizer from Istanbul, expats living China, and no surprising, many IDs with pinyin name. Given Ed's interest in Tibet and minority China, his unpleasant days of containment by authorities in Qinghai when he visited for an article, it seems natural his coverage deluged his personal sympathy or  opinion. Wall Street Journal readers, on the other hand, are more sober and cool-minded (Another difference, WSJ requires real name comment), nonetheless people are even more opinionated, they are not shy of showing their stand. Chinese IDs fought harshly with an Islamic one, another Chinese ID laid out 'facts' why Uighurs in China were more prone to pocket-lifting and women molesting, then Jeff or Mark in DC/New York calmly pointed out why the facts were logically faulted personal experience and listed historical anecdotes tracking all the way to medieval time, with links. Another ID discourse the discussion into Islamic religion, more refute followed. In the end, one is left with the impression that 1) You can't make friends with everyone; 2) You have to safeguard your stand with knowledge and reasoning. It doesn' t help to be a bonehead anger youth, either by whining or shouting. 

I'm a Han Chinese, obviously I am saddened with the conflict. My personal experience with Minority people in China (Tibet, to be exact) is far from disconcerting, and I can imagine how easily people hold bias when minor people stay in their own enclosure. For example, local Chengdu people towards Tibetan communities, turning head at their binge drinking or aggressive behavior in urban life. It is very complicated issue to reach the 'racial harmonic co-existence and co-thriving', even the CCP authorities try hard. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort to understand the problem thorough, get to know the fact and be less biased. Unlike news report that biased report that sells, personal blinded bias in some case is not only haplessly imbecilic, but dangerous.

Yeon came back from her month-long trip from Seoul. How was her flight? 'Tiring,' She commented as she poured boiled water into a cup to make tea, 'The food is so bad. The boxed rice is so dry, I can barely bite....Did I tell you my flight back to Seoul was canceled from Chicago? I took Asiana instead. Compared with United, Omigod, Asiana is amazing! the seat is wide and has this much longer of legroom,' Yeon gestured a comfortable spacing with two hands, 'and the flight attendants are all smiling at you like they are genuinely wanting to make friends with you. Their reply to your request is so mellifluous, lets you feel really like being waited. The food is so delicious, I kept telling the girl next to me how good it tastes......But those middle age American flight attendants at United, with their snobbish look? I'll tell you what, they suck!' Yeon went to conclude, 'I think in regard of service, Korea is a more advanced country than the United States.' One out of five Koreans live in the mega-metropolitan, how did she feel about her hometown? 'Amazing!' Yeon's eyes beamed, 'Life is very dynamic, it is full of change. All my friends seem to be very enthusiastic, they are passionate... they are working harder than I do, I think. When we sit down for a meal, they were constantly interrupted by phone calls. And they all smoke, men and women. You know, I hate the transportation in Seoul, driving is the last thing I like to do, but the bus and subway takes forever!' She rolled her eyes. 'And there are so many people everywhere, it is so loud and noisy everywhere. I felt my place is so quiet,' She smiled and turned down her voice, 'Those are things I don't miss in Korean. But my friends are all happy and energetic, they are all ambitious, always thinking, calculating things even walking on the street, they gave me pieces of advice without me asking. They are competing at any occasions, for example, if they buy a TV, it has to be certain brand, and I don't even have one!' Yeon sighed, 'That's Seoul, and this is America, quiet America.'

Aren't Shanghai, or Beijing, or Guangzhou or Chengdu the same?