Deathlist & Hatebook

Surfing the web has always been a pleasure to me, particularly running into some hidden gems every now and then. Being a busy person these days, I don’t have the luxury of simply putting dummy words in Google and see what come up and exploring the web that way. Instead, most of my current exploration in the web is the result to either through linkages on websites that I visit for certain purpose, or through Google search results of some particular things I was looking for.

While I was trying to get some ideas of what good books to read today, beside checking out the Amazon top selling lists, I input ‘Celebrities reading list’ in Google to see what came up. I made such search because of an interview transcript of Bill Clinton that I read few months back. In which he mentioned what books that he read and I found his reading list to be very interesting. As such, I was thinking if other celebrities (well the intellectual type, not Paris Hilton type for sure) have similar reading list for my reference. I found some, but they are not that good. However, I saw a search result in Google that just kinda out of place. I wonder putting such item on a normal search result list may be a good way to catch people’s eyes and got some hits. Of course, out of curiosity, I hit the link got to this site.

Well, it would say that it is just a trivia site. I can read the perimeter of this site and see what criteria they put up for the names to be qualified on their lists. Still, I don’t know what exactly the purpose of keeping such site up. Anyway, I think that may be one of the beauties of many sites like this in the English spoken world. People would just do something that doesn’t mean much to most but only for few people who are interested in, regardless how weird or even sick the interest may be. I think this site is clean, definitely not sick from my point of view. Cuz, I’m not one of those traditional old fads who are close-minded about death. The site is just kinda silly, but still a bit informative. If they input some odds and dollar figures in their lists, it wouldn’t be that much different from some betting sites that let people bet on the craziest things that people can come up with, like betting when will be the end of the world or something like that.

Another site that I think it is quite interesting is this. I totally forgot how I get to know this site. I think the idea of this idea is really good. Everybody talk about love. Yes, love is good and positive, but it is all of our human emotion. The opposite of love – hate exists, something that can’t be denied. We were taught to love but not hate. Turn our cheek to be slapped again if we are slapped, etc. I’m not gonna drill down too much about my feeling about ‘love’ vs ‘hate’ here. However, hate should not be suppressed. It is like flood water, when it comes… it comes! The best way is to ‘channel’ the flood water to some drainage. If we can put some power generator there would be even better, if not, at least the least amount of damage would be resulted. I think this site is good way for people to pour their gut out, to scold anyone or anything that they hate. I think that’s actually quite positive. To be honest, I’ve never written anything in that site, however, I can imagine it would be a good way to relieve anger or hatred in people’s heads. At least they are calm enough to put their anger and hatred in words, which takes more effort and thinking than just yelling out or beating someone. I can imagine that the contributors in that site should feel better afterwards, just like people would feel better after they cry their sadness out.

Well, though I would not call these 2 sites as some hidden gems in the web, at least they are fun to spend few minutes on. That’s it for now, till next time!

Due Date

I went to see the movie ‘Due Date’ with my wife the other day while spending a lazy afternoon in a shopping district. It was the first choice considering that there aren’t a lot of good movies out recently. Yes, if I’ve the choice, I would prefer going to see ‘RED’ or ‘ Unstoppable’. However, my wife is not much an action movie fan. She doesn’t hate it, but she would prefer drama or comedy. There was a good tear-jerker out by Zhang Zimou, but I decide not to spend a relaxing afternoon sobbing in the dark. So, just forgot that for the moment.

Well, I think the movie is decent, definitely not great. It is basically a road movie of comedy. Not as dark or ironic as ‘U-turn’ which was a wicked fun movie staring Sean Penn many years ago. This one ‘Due Date’ is starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. Well, I think for a great actor like Robert Downey Jr., the acting required in this movie should be quite elementary. Basically, he is the star attraction of this movie. His sidekick Zach Galifianakis is unknown to me, but he played a decent second fiddle in this movie. However, plot is quite simple and the ending is predictable. It is not boring, has some punchline here and there. Just a movie that is easy-going-in and easy-going-out. It is totally forgettable, not a waste of time or money if you just like us happen to have limited choices and time to kill. Otherwise, wait till you see this on TV won’t be a bad choice. I give a 7 out of 10 for this one.

Update

My blogging activity has been lagging recently. Just can't organize my mind to put in words properly. However, I do have few brief thoughts that I wanna share.

Bringing up a child is not easy. I got frustrated recently because of my son's discipline problem. I think he is old enough to understand what I want from him, he just doesn't comply with my instructions. Physical punishment is not my preference, but I did some anyway without getting the results that I want. I tried to reason with him, but I did lose my patience sometimes. I just think that I need to keep on trying.

I do believe that my son is good person. He is just a bit rebellion and got spoiled by few adults. I wholeheartedly feel that he will turn better if I can find the right way. I believe that I don't have unfair or unrealistic expectation on him like many parents do. I just want him to be a healthy, polite, and happy kid. I don't think that's too much to ask for.

The economy is boiling hot, the QE2 by the U.S. is just killing everyone in the world. It makes me worry for both short and long term. The devaluation of USD is just not good. I'm not comfortable with any other alternatives. The stock market is too hot. Gold and real estates are going crazy. RMB? EUR? JPY? don't trust any of them. Also, potential expense on my home front in coming years are just not very predictable. Need to stay a bit liquid. Though the whole situation doesn't make me lose sleep over, cuz I still thank God for having a job to go to, I do feel sad watching my capitals dwindle as time goes by.

The society is being wrapped by a growing negative sentiment. People don't have hope for a better future. The gap between the riches and the poor iswidening. The upward mobility of the poor and the middle class has been slowed down. With such unhealthy social atmosphere, I can see that the poor will stay poor for their generations to come while the middle class is struggling hard to stay where they are. Life is by no mean easy. The riches just ragging their fortune largely without moral as a result of their natural human greed instinct as well as the slack given by the government. Those civil servants just look the other sides. They are too comfortable in their cocoons and just do what they are told. The officials don't have the support from the people, and they just look after their personal interests after they left office. For those who are in higher office and those who are looking to be there down the road are all selfish SOBs. They know where the source of power is and simply do what they think they can to appeal to the power source. What the society in the long run needs become after thoughts. To be honest, I'm not optimistic of the future of our society. I'm not a radical person. I doubt I will take much action in person, but who know? When there is a justified cause that worth supporting, there are many forms of support that can be given. That's all I gonna say for now.
However, I've not lost my hope for human beings overall. There are still plenty of good people living all over the world and some of them are closely around us. We just need to pay attention, open our eyes and ears to realize their existence. Just read the news and talk to people, and we will see their good deeds.

On my peronal front, I just hope to get my house in proper order and be good. Life ain't no easy, but it is cherishable to live. I thank God everyday before I go to sleep, and only pray for my family and people that I know to stay healthy physically/psychologically, and safe. I never pray for wealth or fortune, that's what my parents taught me and I think they are right about that.

Well, enough blabbering for now. Peace!

Unclogging toilet and Window 7 recovery

Recently, I’ve been quite busy at home for few issues in my household and I like to record some lessons that I learnt in 2 of them.

Unclogging toilet
Last weekend, for some unknown reason, my toilet at home was clogged and it took me almost 2 hrs in the afternoon to fix it. To tell you the truth, the experience was disgusting but valuable. Originally, my wife called a repair man who is responsible for the building of some sort, once he mentioned the ‘fortune’ that he was gonna charge us simply for a visit. I said to her that ‘forget it for a moment’, I would try to do it myself. Yes, we could afford it, but it wasn’t worthy for that shit load of money that he was gonna charge us. Fixing a clogged toilet is not rocket science! I’m no plumber, but I gotta give a try. So, I first use the typical toilet plunger to suck and pull. Certainly, it didn’t work. I went to a household supply store near my home and bought a bottle of dark blue liquid drain cleaner and poured that in the bowl. Some chemical reaction occurred with a bad smell. However, it didn’t work after a 10 minutes wait. Then, I went to another store and was introduced a more advanced toilet plunger with a pump. That sucker was recommended by our watchman downstairs as well. However, it didn’t work. I guess the sucking and pulling weren’t powerful enough. Then, I visited the same store again and was recommended with another larger bottle of more powerful liquid drainer cleaner of yellow in color. The translation of its name is ‘bone corrosive dragon’. It was supposed to be powerful to dissolve all organic tissues, etc. I took extra precaution to pour that sucker in the bowl while white fume with bad smell came up. However, after 10 minutes or so, problem remained. I gave a last try to go to the first store that I visited and asked for a tool that I was introduced originally but was put off in my first visit. It was a metal wire of over 3 meters in length with a twirling handle at the top. I was deliberated by the design of that. The shopkeeper was trying hard to tell me how to use it but I was still too dumb to understand how that handle was supposed to twirl. Anyway, as my last resort at the time, I bought that wire and try to use that to unclog that sucker. I push and twist that wire down the toilet bowl back and forth whenever I got blocked from pushing any further. Then, just a wild guess to stop with about 5 feet remain, I pulled that wire out and flush the toilet again. Damned, it finally worked! I thanked God for that and that saved me a fortune.

Window 7 system recovery
My HP desktop of only few months old had a problem last week in booting. It hit Window screen but went black with message saying ‘Checking file system on C:, the type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is HP. One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended that you continue. To skip disk checking, press any key within 8 seconds.’ I was struggling to stop that checking running every time I turned my PC on, cuz it didn’t simply work by pressing any key as it suggested. At first, I thought it was because the Bluetooth connection to detect my wireless keyboard had problem. Actually, I had to press Esc, enter, spacebar, F1, F4, etc a combination or some sort that finally stop the clock before 1 sec and let the PC jumped to the logon screen. Before going there, the dark screen came back with message of ‘Autochk cannot run due to an error caused by a recently installed software package. Use the system restore feature from the control panel to restore the system to a point prior to the recent software package installation. An unspecified error occurred…’ I tried to click F9 before the Window 7 screen came up and tried to use the system restore function. After repeated attempt with different restored dates of few months back, problem remained. I spoke to the IT guy at work as well as calling HP helpdesk, they tried to help but just wasn’t encouraging. I had no choice at the end except taking the ultimate solution of system recovery.

In fact, I didn’t install any weird stuff before the problem occurred. Only thing that I can recall was installing some Window update packages from MS. Nonetheless, the PC was having problems after problems, such as my iTunes update installation couldn’t be done with errors of missing Quicktime.msi, itunes.msi and Bonjour.msi. I didn’t’ know I had a program installed called Bonjour?! That bit me! Anyway, I had to search the net all over to find those msi files, cuz I need to be able to run iTunes again to run a backup for all my files and setting. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a nightmare to upload all my music files, resetting podcasts, reinstalling apps after my PC was recovered to the factory release mode. Meanwhile, it took me few days to back up my files to my external hard drives and leave the PC on over few nights just to do the stupid copy and paste of tens of thousands of files!

At that time, besides iTunes, my biggest worry was the router-internet connection setting, cuz if that was screwed, I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of program downloads and honestly, I always struggle to get those connection thing setup. Surprisingly, after the system recovery was run. There were actually many files and setup still remained, such as the internet connection, contents in partitioned drives where Window and program folders not resided. So, actually, my music files were untouched. What I did right was backing up all those user related items ahead, e.g. iTunes, my photos, my docs, favorites, etc. Then, after reinstalling most of my stuff, updating window files, etc. Now, my PC is pretty much fine again. However, there are still some problems that I would like to do some researches for solution for the sake of similar problem in future:

1. I can drag my music, app, podcast, video folders from my back up iTunes library to the new library, but the playlists are gone. It was painful to create playlist again. As it seems that iPhone-iTunes sync is more or less one way, i.e. from PC to Phone, not vice versa.

2. Copying/moving files from PC to external 3.5” hard disk is just too slow. I had 3 external hard disks. The 500GB 2.5” flesh drive was the best. It was the newest and file transfer on it was quick. I guess it has something to do with the fact that it uses flesh memory without moving part. After this ordeal, I would say that flesh is the future. Surprisingly, my oldest 320GB 3.5” hard disk wasn’t too bad, which make it surprisingly the other way around for my 1.5TB 3.5 hard disk which was really bad in file transfer. I still don’t’ know why their speeds were so different. Both are using moving part and doing the same action of file transfer, I don’t know why the newer one with greater capacity is so slow! I was using it for my PC backup purpose, I think I may need to rethink my approach and find way to speed up the file transfer process. Otherwise, it’s only gonna get worse in future with increasing number of files.

Honestly, I found that the back up process is still the worse experience overall. One thing that I learn is that I need to organize my files and folders better. Second thing is that I may need to invest in USB 3.0 in near future. Cuz, moving hundreds GB of files is just not a fun task.

Dream on Halloween, 2010

Halloween night, nothing special happened in my household. I had a long family day of the usual, i.e. took my son to music class and to the park, do some household cleaning, shopping for a little bit, then playing with my son again, etc. Another exhausting thing was to fix a booting problem of my Window 7 PC, which required me to reinstall Office 2010 again, etc. Just tiring by the time I went to bed.

Well, I had a vivid dream last night out of the blue. In my dream, I saw my ex-colleagues and a friend of us who passed away early this year. I forgot the place, but it was indoor where we all gathered. ‘He’ showed up, not really like a ‘casper’ if you know what I mean, but slowly walking to us. He was just a bit pale looking, wearing a light blue shirt and dark pant. We were talking. The atmosphere in the dream was a bit eerie. We were kinda surprised of him joining our gathering. We didn’t scream or anything, just have the feeling in the back of our mind saying ‘odd oh’. Then, we talked to him as he was willing to speak. But the strange thing was that he didn’t show too wide a range of emotion like the person we used to know. His response was kinda slow and after a few minutes of conversation, we all kinda got a feeling that he didn’t know he died, he couldn’t recall where he has just been, what he has done, things like that. And, when we talk to him, we were kinda bitting the bushes of trying to find out what has happened to him since his death without saying that directly to him. Anyway, his voice was calm and nothing scary about the whole situation. Then, somehow we left the scene with our backs turn to go somewhere, that dream just end all of a sudden, visually like the end of a youtube clip.

Then, there was a ‘reprise’ of that dream. I have been listening to a net radio station lately when I got time and one of their shows is about paranormal stuff (mainly about ghost). In that dream reprise, it was all audio, visually all black as if I was listening to the radio program with my eyes close. I heard the familiar voice of the host and surprisingly he said that his guest of the show as my ‘deceased’ friend! Then, my friend said ‘Hello’ just like a living normal person. I forgot what happened for the rest of the show, but that’s all I can recall.

Online Translation

I read an article yesterday in Apples Daily written by a very famous Chinese author Chua Lam 蔡瀾. That article titled “才女” is a good one that I wanna share on my blog. As I believe that some readers of my blog don’t read Chinese. So, I was thinking about translating that article in English. Naturally, I went for one of the most popular online translation tool – Babelfish for this job. I’ve read news from some experts saying that the online translation tools have been improved over the years and they are actually quite good now. Well, the quality below speaks itself. Underneath the original text in Chinese, I put the Babelfish translation below in brown, and put my own translation in dark green.

I guess it is an interesting post that I make this time. First of all, you can see the original Chinese text. Secondly, you can see how good the quality of online translation tool currently is (certainly, there must be some better translators in the net, judgment on the current quality of online translation is purely subjective in this case). Thirdly, people can feel free to comment on my translation. I hope I did a decent translation and would welcome constructive criticism for any mistake I had made or improvement suggestions.

才女
The contemporary talented woman
《蘋果》2010.10.27
http://www.bobofanclub.com

當代的才女，必須受過大都會的浸淫：上海、倫敦、巴黎等。用中文的，更非在香港住過一個時期不可，這裏是中國頂尖人物的集中地。

The contemporary talented woman, must receive oversized can gradually: Shanghai, London, Paris and so on. With Chinese, must lives in a time in Hong Kong not to be possible, here is the Chinese apex character's intently.

To be considered as a talented woman in contemporary time, she must spend some times indulging in metropolitan like Shanghai, London, Paris , etc. For those prolific in Chinese, they must live in Hong Kong for a period of time if possible, where the best among Chinese gather.


眼界開了，接觸到比她們更聰明的男女，才懂得什麼叫謙虛，氣質又提高到另一層次，這是物質上不能擁有的。

The field of vision has opened, contacts compared to they more intelligent men and women, only then understood that anything calls modestly, the makings enhance to another level, this is on the material cannot have.

That would be eye-opening experience for giving themselves the chances to mingle with people who are smarter than them. As a result, they will truly understand what modesty is, and their temperament will be raised to a higher level. This is not something that can be attained through material possession.

去美國也行，但只限於紐約。當然，紐約不應該屬於美國，她和歐洲才能搭配。既使不住紐約，最少也得生活在東部，像波士頓和英格蘭等，說起英語來，才不難聽。

Goes to the US to be also good, but is only restricted in New York. Certainly, New York should not belong to US, she can match with Europe. Since does not live in New York, the least also lives in the eastern part, look like Boston and England and so on, mentions English to come, is not only then coarse.

The above can be achieved by going to the U.S., but that would only confine to New York. Certainly, New York actually matches Europe more; it should not belong to the U.S. Even if not living in New York, she should at least live on the eastern coast, in places like Boston and New England region, etc, where the English accent are more comprehensible.

最忌加州，那邊的腔調都是美國大兵式的，而且每一句話的結尾，全變成一個問號，聽起來刺耳，非常討厭，即刻下降一格。

Most envies California, that side tune is the American main strength type, moreover each few words' ending, all turns a question mark, sounds gratingly, is repugnant, instantly drops a standard.

Don’t reside in California, where people speak like American G.I. with every sentence ended as a question. That sounds gratingly and repugnant, and would instantly lower the score for picking up such accent.

除了這些大都會，印度、尼泊爾、非洲、中東、東南亞，甚至南北極，都得走走，學習人家是怎麼活的，懂得什麼叫精采。

Except these metropolises, India, Nepal, Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, even Nabeiji, must walk, how studies others is to live, understood that anything calls brilliantly.

Besides those metropolises, she should still visit places like India, Nepal, Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, even the North and South Poles. By learning how others live, then one would understand what brilliance is.

才女必須熱愛生命，充滿好奇心，在背包旅行年代，享受苦與樂。如果是由父母帶去，只住五星酒店，也不夠級數。

The talented woman must deeply love the life, curious, in the knapsack travel age, enjoys suffers hardships happily with. If takes away by the parents, only lives in the five-star hotel, also not 夠 progression.

A talented woman must love life deeply and be full of curiosity. During her age of travelling with knapsack, she should enjoys both hardship and pleasure. If her trips are tagging along her parents, and only living in the five-star hotel, those trips are actually not fulfilling enough.


基礎應該打得好，不管是繪畫、文學、電影和音樂，都得從古典開始着手，根基才穩。一下子乘直升機，先會抽象、意識流、新浪潮和 Rap，以為那是最好的，就走入了歧途，永不超生。

The foundation should hit well, no matter is the drawing, the literature, the movie and music, must from start to begin classically, the foundation is only then steady. Rides in the helicopter all of a sudden, will be first abstract, the stream of consciousness, the new tide and Rap, thought that will be best, has gone astray, will never be reincarnated.

She should set her foundation well by starting learning in classical form, no matter in drawing, literature, movies or music. Her foundation will only then be steady. Otherwise, if she begins her learning as an analogy of riding in an helicopter all of a sudden, i.e. start learning abstractionism, stream of consciousness, new tide and rap, and thinks that they are the best. She has gone astray indeed, and there will never be way back for good.

時裝雖說庸俗，但也得學習。盡看當代名家，不知道古希臘人鞋子之美，也屬膚淺。首飾亦然，有時一件便宜貨，已顯品味。

Although the fashionable clothing is vulgar, but also study. Looks at the contemporary famous expert, does not know beauty the ancient Greece person shoe, is also superficial. The jewelry however, sometimes bargain-priced goods, obviously have also savored.

Although fashion is vulgar, it should still be studied. However, in spite of going through the works of most of the contemporary famous experts, she would still be deemed as superficial for her ignorance of the beauty of ancient Greek footwear. The same applies to jewelry, personal taste can sometimes be expressed through wearing a piece of bargain-priced accessory.

愛吃東西，更屬必然，這是生活最原始的部份，不得不多嚐。試盡天下美味，方知什麼叫最好，因為有了比較。這麼多條件，一定要有大把金錢灑？那也不一定，有了勇氣，在任何環境下都能生存，從中學習。

Likes eating the thing, is inevitably, this is lives the most primitive part, can not but many 嚐. Tries the completely world delicacy, only then knows anything to call well, because had the comparison. These many conditions, must certainly have the great money 灑? That was uncertain, had the courage, could survive under any environment, studied.

Affection in foods is a must. Eating, for being one of the most primitive activity of human beings, should be done as much as possible. Having try out all delicacies in the world, she would then tell what is the best through comparison. While these many conditions have been mentioned above, must that certainly involve lots of money? That’s not necessary, one can learn a lot through living in any environment as long as with courage within.

說到尾，最重要的還是了解男性。從書本上當然可以吸取，但現實生活中，多交些異性朋友，不是壞事。濫交一詞，那是數百幾千年前的事，不必理會。有了這種豁達和開朗的個性和思想，才能談得上才女。不然，最多只是一個沒有品味的女強人而已。

Speaks of the tail, what is most important is the understanding male. May certainly absorb from the books, but in the real life, a multi-junction opposite sex friend, is not a misdemeanor. Indiscriminates in making friends and finding sexual partners a word, that is several hundred several thousand year ago matters, does not need to pay attention. Had this kind open-minded and the open and bright individuality and the thought that can discuss the talented woman. Otherwise, most is only the capable woman who has not savored.

Last but not the least, the most important thing for a talented woman is her understanding of male. She can certainly pick up a lot from readings, but making all sorts of friend of,opposite sex in real life is by no mean a misdemeanor. Doing that and being accused of promiscuous would only be applied hundreds if not a thousand year ago, that should thus be ignored. Having this kind of open-minded and bright individuality and characters, then she can then worth being considered as a talented woman. Otherwise, she will most likely be viewed as a successful career woman without taste.

By the way, the term '才女' should not be simply translated in English as 'a talented woman' without a subtext to explain what exactly a '才女' is. Cuz, my interpretation of '才女' is a woman who is educated, with independent thought, has her own personal taste in whatever she selects and can explain her rationale behind every decision she made. So, it is much more than just having talent.

There's something about Steve

I read an article in Businessweek today which is an interview of John Sculley, the former CEO of Apple. He talked about his days in Apple as well as the Steve Jobs that he knew. I'm not gonna recite everything he said here. But few things that he mentioned are quite interesting, such as:

Steve Jobs felt the computer was going to change the world, and it was going to become what he called "the bicycle for the mind."

What makes Steve's methodology different from everyone else's is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do. He's a minimalist.

Steve Jobs just didn't believe in having lots of things around, but he was incredibly careful in what he selected.

Steve's brilliance is his ability to see something and then understand it and then figure out how to put it into the context of his design methodology—everything is design.

...designers are the most respected people in the organization. Everyone knows the designers speak for Steve because they have direct reporting to him. It is only at Apple where design reports directly to the CEO.

He's a minimalist and constantly reducing things to their simplest level. It's not simplistic. It's simplified. Steve is a systems designer. He simplifies complexity.

The legendary statement about Microsoft, which is mostly true, is that they get it right the third time. Microsoft's philosophy is to get it out there and fix it later. Steve would never do that. He doesn't get anything out there until it is perfected.

Apple's current success seems to be so tightly bounded by what Steve Jobs has/has not done, I think he has probably set a standard and achieved a level of success that is not replicable by any CEOs/founders of other companies due to his unique characteristics and experience.

Anyway, he is such a fascinating living business/tech icon that following what he said and did has become a pasttime for many teckies/non-teckies, including myself.

Why there is no great Sci-Fi movie from China?

Watching movies have been my hobby for decades, among different genres, sci-fi is definitely in my top 3. Certainly, it is sometimes a bit subjective to categorize a movie into a genre, as some of them are actually fitted in more than one. Cuz, even within sci-fi, there are movies that have ingredients of adventure, horror, comedy, action, etc. Anyway, basically I like them all as long as they are good.

The reason why I like sci-fi is because movies to me is an escape of reality. Sci-fi, though some of them did eventually come true in real life in certain extents, it provides me an ultimate escape of reality in terms of places, creatures, matters or all of the above that are as far away from my encounters in my waking hours as possible. I’m no expert in sci-fi, but I do believe the undisputable fact that Hollywood has led the world cinema in this genre and will continue to do so in foreseeable future. I’m not saying there is no talent available in front of or behind the camera in other places of the world to make sci-fi movies. However, those talents are certainly welcome and will most likely be absorbed into the Hollywood which has the best ‘soil’ for this genre of movie in the world.

I’ve recently read an article in a Chinese blog that compares the current state of Chinese and Hollywood movies. As it is known that, in spite of quota being imposed by the government, Chinese movie market has grown with leaps and bounds in recent years. Box office of blockbusters there are in hundreds of millions, and some of them are domestic products. As a result, there were words among some movie makers there saying that their productions are now as great as those Hollywood imports. However, those voices have been quieted down this year after the release of few movies: 2012, Avatar and Inception in China. All of them are happened to be sci-fi movies which were doing extremely good in terms of not just box office, but also as hot topics on discussion board or in the psyche of general audiences there. The content of that article also comment on why China is not capable to make those sci-fi movies anytime soon if ever.

Overall speaking, I kinda agree with what the author said. I’m not gonna translate word for word, but the point is that even if Chinese film makers can get enough capitals to pay for access of both the technology and the related experts, they still can’t make those movies because Chinese film makers just don’t have the script to make them. Many Chinese films were written by the directors themselves, of whom including those big names, don’t have sci-fi in their ‘genes’, neither do script-writers currently working there. Unlike other genre, Sci-fi movies demand a very high degree of imagination and creativity which only grow well in soil rich in ‘freedom’. Those movies also further backed up with a ‘consistent’ (i.e. credible in the movie universe, but not necessary realizable for real) set of technology framework, i.e. the physical environment, technology products within, a set of social values among ‘beings’, etc. The current Chinese movie industry just doesn’t have the components to fulfill such detailed requirements in an original way. Therefore, movie makers may be able to make great movies in other genre that are comparable to Hollywood products; sci-fi has certainly not yet been one of them. I think that not only applies to movies, but also to science fictions as well. Cuz, many sci-fi movies are actually based on fictions.

To my knowledge, there are actually some decent science fictions written in Chinese, but most of them are written by authors outside Mainland China. In fact, Hong Kong movie makers did put some of them on screen before, but the results were not good for various reasons, such as budget constraint, poor script adaption, etc. Will directors/producers from Mainland China adapt sci-fi fictions written by non-Mainland Chinese authors? That has never been done yet. Nonetheless, even if such attempt will be made, those scripts, same as any written in Mainland China, will still subject to review with scrutiny by certain government authority before being green lighted. Those reviews are done in lack of transparency or objectivity that kills creative stories. If scripts are trying to comply with various ‘political-correct’ suggestions from the authority, the story will most likely become so boring that the movie won’t worth being made.

In addition, if any Chinese sci-fi movies will be made these days, they will be subject to the mentioned problem of creating a ‘self-sustainable and credible’ surrounding to support the stories without being accused of plagiarizing Hollywood movies. I can imagine that audiences would say that what they see in the Chinese sci-fi movie A is so similar to the designs of street and home in Hollywood sci-fi movie X, the vessels and clothing in Y, and props in Z, etc. That would be a discredit to the tremendous amount of effort input by Chinese movie makers in the filming process. I would say that is probably due to the fact that the scientific R&D in China is still not as advanced as those in the States. Yes, PRC has put men in space and can shoot satellites down if needed. However, linking China to innovative advanced technology and Chinese being explorative and adventurous are still not common impressions that most people have, including Chinese ourselves. As such, it will still not an easy sale to the general audience the image of Mandarin-speaking Chinese riding a spaceship with some Chinese characters in the craft on the big screen. Particularly, if you see the props and design in the Chinese movies are similar to those in Aliens, or Star Wars, but at a sub-par standard, audience would simply be distracted and put off, regardless what the story is all about and how good the performance of actors/actress might be.

The growing pain of Chinese sci-fi movies is understandable. Considering that Japanese movie industry during its national economic heydays couldn’t make any decent sci-fi movies, given the strong tech brains in Japan and the successful Japanese sci-fi animation. Chinese will have a long long way to go and audiences are not merciful to lower standard products if they have access to the more advanced ones. Anyway, in their particular regard, I’m not hopeful in seeing any great Chinese sci-fi movies but I’m fine as long as there are good sci-fi movies to be seen in coming years.

Microsoft - Google - Apple

One thing great about the web and computer technology these days is put data and information in a more visualized way that would be easier for people to understand and comprehend. I came across this site and just love it at the first sight. I think the following 3 pictures are great info about the 3 current top tech giants in the world. Just check this out...

33.700.69

33 Chilean miners have just been rescued today after trapped 700 meters underground for the last 69 days. It is exactly a wonderful piece of inspiration news that we need these days. Certainly, different aspects of such international eye-catching story are being sliced and diced as expected. If this incident happens in the States, I’m sure a temporary ‘industry’ will be formed as a result; as money-making opportunities have been all over it. Yes, how the government, industry, and company have responded to the incident, what they should do in future to prevent from recurrence, the technology and techniques being deployed in the rescue are important. But they are more or less the ‘cold’ facts that a relatively smaller size of population (I happen to be one of them) will be interested. On the other hand, the human side of the story is what gonna be covered to death in coming future. Cuz, the readers/audiences are prone to tears and joy, it would be easier for them to digest news reports of the experience as well as emotional state of the trapped miners throughout the whole incident. Since there are 33 ‘crops’ to be picked that hopefully the pressure on the miners and their families would be relieved somehow. However, I would predict that some ‘stars’ out of the 33 will emerge and their stories will be more focused than the others. I guess that those ‘star miners’ are gonna be extroverts, better looking, single rather than married, emotionally expressive, with more unique family background. As such, they will definitely be singled out by the news media and they will be more likely to be the recipients of various exposure opportunities in the forms of book, interview on talk show, movie, spokesmen, etc. Reportedly, some of them are already on the pipeline. The bottom line is that those 33 individuals are gonna be busy in near future.

Put aside the media hoopla of the celebrity creation aspect of the incident, I personally would be more interested in the technical side of the rescue, the sociological effect of the incident on the Chilean society, future actions by the Chilean government/mining industry in accident prevention, and the psyche/experience of the miners. Yes, I’m kinda ‘greedy’ to know multiple sides of this story.

First of all, survivable mining accidents are relatively rare (I don’t have the stat, just based on my impression), particularly those with larger group of people trapped/buried underground for long period. I’ve read that the geographical characteristic of this mine (for being a copper mine near dessert rather than coal mine in moister region) enhanced the survivability of miners as well as the effectiveness of the rescue method being deployed. Reportedly, technology from military and NASA were used, specific drilling method and rescue tools were being developed as well. I think magazine like Popular Mechanics, Science American, etc should dedicate an issue to cover this incident. Can the technology be reused in future in similar or different incident? That would be interesting to hear what experts will say.

Chile is not a country that got much cover by international news media, though it is the third largest country in S. America. The last time that it was on the headline in international news was the devastated earthquake happened last year. Why I am interested in how the incident affected the social psyche of the country is because of few factors about this country. Chile has a population of about 16 million, a modest size and less diversified than other big countries which have so much going on that national attention would be hard to be converged. For example, in contrast to Katrina or BP oil spill, lives still go on as usual for people in northern part and E/W coasts of the U.S. In addition, mining accounts for 40% of Chilean national income. So, this industry is a big deal in this country, and many people would know someone working in mines. This incident, unlike the earthquake, is a man-made accident that should be preventable. How the democratic Chilean government will do to improve the safety of mines in order to retain support from the population would be a good reference for other countries, particularly for China which have the highest toll of death in mining accidents in the world.

Finally, for the 69 days that the 33 miners were trapped underground, my interests of their experiences in the first 17 days (before their survivals were known to the outside world) and the rest 52 days are very different. There are just so many things I would like to know for quenching my thirst of curiosity.

For day 0-17, what I wanna know are:
- What did they do when they learnt that there was an accident? Where did they go and do to stay alive? What did they think at the time?
- Once they know they are safe but trapped, what did those 33 people think and behave? I can imagine that different personalities will behave differently. That reminded me of the movie "12 Angry Men", though the situation was different that those were jurors that locked behind the courtroom to analyze a murder case. The 33 miners were sure a diverse group of people in age, live experience, and characters. How they communicate and support each other would be very interesting. I believe that there must be leader(s) among them. Spiritually, I guess that they might pray to thank for their survival as well as for the hope of being found.
- But, as days go by, everybody must have gone through emotional rollercoaster. How do they keep their hope and stay sane? I would say that is the most interesting thing I wanna know. Also, practically, how do they stay alive in those 17 days without external assistance? How do they manage water, food, and shelter that they had within the group? Was it cold/hot down there? How about ventilation? Where did they go for number 1 & 2?
- What do they do all day long? Had they lost their sense of time? Had their biological clock changed? Did they still feel hungry 3 times a day? Sleepy at night time?
- How do they tolerate the long darkness and silence? I can imagine that many of them told their life stories, some of them would tell jokes, and told everyone what/who do they miss the most, and said what would they do if they get out. What did they do when someone broke down? how they help each other emotionally? For being interest in survival stories, the knowledge of their experience is simply priceless. That would be comparable to other real life incidents recorded by the book ‘Into Thin Air’ about how a group of mountaineers stay alive for being trapped on Himalaya on a hiking trip, and the movie ‘Alive’ about a group of hockey players that trapped on Mount Andes as a result of a plane crash, how they have resorted to eat corpses of their teammates to stay alive after chocolate and bottle of wine had been consumed, and venture out to seek help.

For day 18 – 69, I would like to know
- How excited they were for being found alive. That would be like reborn again I guess.
- What do think when they were told that it would take months before they can be rescued? Did they curse? Cry? Scream? Etc.
- When the outside world was able to drill a narrow tunnel to deliver supplies to them via a 5 inches wide tube, did they fight for supplies? How did they feel when they taste fresh water and foods again after 17 days? What did they think when their survival had been informed to their families?
- How did their daily life changed in those 52 days with external supplies? What were delivered to them by the rescuers? Cuz, that should be quite specific for their situation in terms of clothing, foods, drinks, and medicines, etc. How their hygiene conditions were improved and maintained? What did they ask to be delivered to them? That could be an expression of their emotional connections to the world, and those things would be considered to be important to them. Besides communication with love ones via video-cam, did they ask for toys, personal stuff, or something out of ordinary?
- What were the emotional states when they are pulled up the shaft of 700 meters? Were they scared? Stay hopeful? Thought about what to say and do when they first breathe the fresh air above the ground?

I’m sure if I’ve time to do digging among the 16,000+ news reports of this incident on Google, some of my questions should have answers.* However, there will be more questions that their answers won’t be known for years to come. I.e. what extent of posttraumatic stress disorder (PDS) that these 33 men will suffer. Would they have nightmare? Some kinds of phobia of darkness or locked spaces, like elevator? I’m sure their psychological healing is gonna last for years. Anyway, the lives of these 33 people have forever changed one way or the other. One thing that I believe is that they should all become life-cherish persons after surviving such ordeal.

* Indeed, some answers can be found here.