The Olympic Games has begun some days ago. I watched the opening ceremony. I do want to watch some more (like swimming, gymnastics etc), but somehow it is not happening.
We just moved to an apartment, and are still unpacking. It is a stand alone two-storied house with a yard we are renting, and I am beginning to like the character. A nice cable guy just showed up this morning and connected the apartment.
In the office I am writing a review about a class of drugs used for cancer chemotherapy. It takes a lot of reading.
A heat wave came, and yesterday it was 111 degrees outside. Certainly it is not a good time for wondering around.
We have not watched the new Batman movie yet (?!). I love movies by Chris Nolan (they are very smart, or thought provoking, movies), and I have liked his "Law and Order" version Batman movies so far. Maybe Friday evening?
Come to think of it, this weekend we are planning to go to Tulsa for a milonga and a West Coast Swing dance party.
So much fun. Lots of things to do. Love it.
July 31, 2012
July 25, 2012
Life: "A Tax fable"
There was an article a few weeks ago, about a rich woman giving up her US citizenship and moving back to her family's place in Europe. By doing it, she would save multi-million dollars on tax.
The comments from readers (US citizens) on the article were mostly negative. Common response word was "despicable".
Following "tax fable" was among the comments. Apparently this "fable" has been circulating in the web for a while, although the author is unknown. An economics professor who was named as the author officially denied his authorship in his webpage.
This fable is so well written (I think). How about reading it first, if you have not read this?
A Tax Fable
"Suppose that everyday 10 men go to a restaurant for lunch. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If it were paid the way we pay our taxes, the first four men would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. The 10 men ate lunch in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." Now lunch for the 10 would costs only $80. The first four are unaffected. They still eat for free. Can you figure out how to divvy up the $20 savings between the remaining six so that everyone gets his fair share?
The men realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but if they subtract that from everybody's share, then the fifth and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal. The restaurant owner suggested that it would be only fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount that each paid and he started to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of $59. Outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man pointing to the tenth, "and he got $7!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!"
"That's true," shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks."
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor."
The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up. The next day he didn't show up for lunch, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important: They were $52 short!
And that, boys and girls and college instructors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. There are lots of good restaurants in Switzerland and the Caribbean."
That was the fable.
Until I read the fable, I was not certain how the tax system works in the US. Or, I am still not certain whether this fable actually reflects the real tax situation. But let's say it does for now.
You can draw different lessons from the fable, and it depends on which guy in the fable you are.
At least, this fable clearly demonstrates the face of unequal distribution of the wealth in this country.
Let's say, you are among the people who are paying $3 for the lunch. You'd be the sixth guy, a "middle class". Since you pay some for your lunch, you feel entitled to your lunch. After all, you work hard for it.
Now, in the middle, how do you feel toward these other guys?
You may feel some dislike against four freeloaders. "Come on, lazy bums. What are you doing?! Work to eat!"
Then, how do you like the richer, ninth or tenth guys? They are corporate tycoon or something. You may envy and to some extent you may want to know how they get that rich. perhaps? But there is no way you get that rich keeping your current ways. You know no matter how hard you work, you won't build that much wealth. Now you may be jealous. Maybe even frustrated and angry.
"The rich always get richer and the poor get poorer, the rich must be doing something despicable and predatory. That's not right. The unequal wealth distribution should be tamed in some ways. How about occupying Wall Street to change the situation? "
From the standpoint of the $0 paying four guys, it would not be easy either, would it? The sixth guy may be resentful and unfriendly. The nineth and tenth guys may not even talk with you, and certainly they wouldn't speak up for you. You may feel,"Damn! All they care is money!" Sure you get free lunch, but you get free lunch because you get nothing else. You get sick and hospitals won't even welcome you (unless the new health care law works out). You can't afford the bill. You can't get sick nor retire. When you work, you are other guy's cash cow. WTF.
How about you being the tenth guy? You are rich. You make your money because most other guys work for you. You pay for them, but you have established a system so that the money comes back to you (hehe). In other words, they hand over their money back to you. You built this system, and you will not give it up. The other guys may know the existence of the system. Probably because of that, although you are paying money to these guys, they look ungrateful. Still, on a downside, you take care of most of the bill. Ugh. You'd say, they should be grateful. And you want to keep it that way. You are outnumbered in Democratic mass-voting system. They would beat you up if you don't take care of their resentment and something comes up. Yikes.
At least, this fable clearly demonstrates the face of unequal distribution of the wealth in this country.
Let's say, you are among the people who are paying $3 for the lunch. You'd be the sixth guy, a "middle class". Since you pay some for your lunch, you feel entitled to your lunch. After all, you work hard for it.
Now, in the middle, how do you feel toward these other guys?
You may feel some dislike against four freeloaders. "Come on, lazy bums. What are you doing?! Work to eat!"
Then, how do you like the richer, ninth or tenth guys? They are corporate tycoon or something. You may envy and to some extent you may want to know how they get that rich. perhaps? But there is no way you get that rich keeping your current ways. You know no matter how hard you work, you won't build that much wealth. Now you may be jealous. Maybe even frustrated and angry.
"The rich always get richer and the poor get poorer, the rich must be doing something despicable and predatory. That's not right. The unequal wealth distribution should be tamed in some ways. How about occupying Wall Street to change the situation? "
From the standpoint of the $0 paying four guys, it would not be easy either, would it? The sixth guy may be resentful and unfriendly. The nineth and tenth guys may not even talk with you, and certainly they wouldn't speak up for you. You may feel,"Damn! All they care is money!" Sure you get free lunch, but you get free lunch because you get nothing else. You get sick and hospitals won't even welcome you (unless the new health care law works out). You can't afford the bill. You can't get sick nor retire. When you work, you are other guy's cash cow. WTF.
How about you being the tenth guy? You are rich. You make your money because most other guys work for you. You pay for them, but you have established a system so that the money comes back to you (hehe). In other words, they hand over their money back to you. You built this system, and you will not give it up. The other guys may know the existence of the system. Probably because of that, although you are paying money to these guys, they look ungrateful. Still, on a downside, you take care of most of the bill. Ugh. You'd say, they should be grateful. And you want to keep it that way. You are outnumbered in Democratic mass-voting system. They would beat you up if you don't take care of their resentment and something comes up. Yikes.
As election season approaches, there will be many political comments in the web and in Facebook posts. When I read these comments, I try to guess which guy is making the comment, just for fun. Is he the $3 paying sixth guy? First four? Seventh? If we assume they speak for themselves, their comments would reflect their positions.
Speaking of Presidential election, I know Mitt Romney is super-rich 10th guy. I wonder who he is speaking for.
Our moving is almost complete. I'm beginning to like our new place.
Speaking of Presidential election, I know Mitt Romney is super-rich 10th guy. I wonder who he is speaking for.
Our moving is almost complete. I'm beginning to like our new place.
July 18, 2012
Science: "Data, Information and Slogan"
I got a deadline for a review article. The scope was only roughly defined so far. So that last several days while doing research, I easily wondered off to some loosely related, interesting, modestly relevant subjects. Although it is nice to catch up with missed papers and to update my knowledge, as the deadline looms, I got to start thinking about how to organize the information I read.
Contemporary research technologies have expanded the amount of data available. As a scientist/specialist, an important task (besides generating primary data for our own research) is to put the available data into perspective and to extract information for others. And it is getting more difficult, because of increasing amount of data. Some of the data are even contradicting each other.
A saving grace is that research for medical science or natural science is less murky than research for political issues. You know what kind of murkiness I am talking about. Even if you pretend not to, Presidential election is coming up in the US and you will see how biased "facts" can be. A statistics result is a dataset and a fact, but it can be interpreted and concluded in so many ways, depending on how you see it.
I digress. I got to find ways to translate undigested, overwhelming and confusing pile of data to organized information. At the same time, I should be careful against temptation of oversimplifying things. Slogans are nice and easiest to understand. They have appeal and are memorable. "This drug [unpronounciable-something-something-zomib] works" is a good slogan, but we got to elaborate the slogan for a scientific writing.
Scientific training can make us aware of the difference between Data, Information and Slogan. It is good to know. Many of facebook posts are slogans. Quotes from Bible or great people are slogans. They can become relevant and valuable information only when you put them back in context and apply to your life. The knowledge regarding how to distinguish the three can make us more resistant to manipulators.
We are preparing for moving, and I just bought a bunch of solar lights for landscaping and for lighting things up practically. Somehow I like something glows in the dark. I am certain I am not alone for this one.
Scientific training can make us aware of the difference between Data, Information and Slogan. It is good to know. Many of facebook posts are slogans. Quotes from Bible or great people are slogans. They can become relevant and valuable information only when you put them back in context and apply to your life. The knowledge regarding how to distinguish the three can make us more resistant to manipulators.
We are preparing for moving, and I just bought a bunch of solar lights for landscaping and for lighting things up practically. Somehow I like something glows in the dark. I am certain I am not alone for this one.
July 9, 2012
Life: "Effortless efforts"
The title "Effortless efforts". Is it an oxymoron? It is not necessarily so. It depends on how you define efforts.
When I started learning dancing, somehow I liked it. I came to classes. I spent hours on dance floor. I danced with a lot of different people. I watched a bunch of dances, in live performances and in videos. I did exercises and stretching regularly to stay fit and healthy. And I never saw these as making efforts. It was a series of fun time for me. It is not limited to dancing. There are some things I just do without anybody asking for me to do, and I do not feel like I am making efforts for them. As a result, I tend to appreciate them and become good at them.
I realized that all other things are quite similar. What we like and dislike defines what we likely spend our time and efforts for. And time and efforts are the door to become good at it. There is a positive feedback loop here.
How about the opposite? What if I ask someone who does not like dancing to do the same? Probably it is long hours of torture for him.What if I have to force myself to do something I don't like? I don't see myself having a lot of fun. Efforts become efforts. Tedious. Tiring. Boring. Something I would want to get rid of. Spending a lot of time and making efforts for it? No way.
With all reservations that I'd suck at anything at first, and it will take time to start appreciating it, still there are some things I am not cut out for. Sure, patience is important. But I do have my cut-off line to sort things out. If I want to stay happy, a good strategy would be to stick to what I like.
However, here comes another factor. To live in this society, we (most of us anyway) will need to make money. What we like, do, and spend time for; will it make money? This is a relevant question. Anything half-as*ed just don't work under professional standards. That's why we usually take long hours of training to be a professional for something.
If it does not make money, it is a hobby. We need to find something else for living. Hopefully, that something else (your job) is also something you like.
Tricky thing about life is that it is not always easy to find what we really like. And turning what we like to something that makes money is another critical transition. Critical transition from a service consumer to a service provider.
If you can find something that you can make effortless efforts for, and if it turns to be something you do for living, it is great. I believe it is an important task and responsibility for each of us to aim at.
Last weekend, I went to Tulsa for a milonga at Casa Tango and for a WCS party (at a new studio, Just Dance Swing Club). I met some new people. It was fun. I appreciate the people who made these happen.
When I started learning dancing, somehow I liked it. I came to classes. I spent hours on dance floor. I danced with a lot of different people. I watched a bunch of dances, in live performances and in videos. I did exercises and stretching regularly to stay fit and healthy. And I never saw these as making efforts. It was a series of fun time for me. It is not limited to dancing. There are some things I just do without anybody asking for me to do, and I do not feel like I am making efforts for them. As a result, I tend to appreciate them and become good at them.
I realized that all other things are quite similar. What we like and dislike defines what we likely spend our time and efforts for. And time and efforts are the door to become good at it. There is a positive feedback loop here.
How about the opposite? What if I ask someone who does not like dancing to do the same? Probably it is long hours of torture for him.What if I have to force myself to do something I don't like? I don't see myself having a lot of fun. Efforts become efforts. Tedious. Tiring. Boring. Something I would want to get rid of. Spending a lot of time and making efforts for it? No way.
With all reservations that I'd suck at anything at first, and it will take time to start appreciating it, still there are some things I am not cut out for. Sure, patience is important. But I do have my cut-off line to sort things out. If I want to stay happy, a good strategy would be to stick to what I like.
However, here comes another factor. To live in this society, we (most of us anyway) will need to make money. What we like, do, and spend time for; will it make money? This is a relevant question. Anything half-as*ed just don't work under professional standards. That's why we usually take long hours of training to be a professional for something.
If it does not make money, it is a hobby. We need to find something else for living. Hopefully, that something else (your job) is also something you like.
Tricky thing about life is that it is not always easy to find what we really like. And turning what we like to something that makes money is another critical transition. Critical transition from a service consumer to a service provider.
If you can find something that you can make effortless efforts for, and if it turns to be something you do for living, it is great. I believe it is an important task and responsibility for each of us to aim at.
Last weekend, I went to Tulsa for a milonga at Casa Tango and for a WCS party (at a new studio, Just Dance Swing Club). I met some new people. It was fun. I appreciate the people who made these happen.
July 3, 2012
Life: 7 (8) considerations for Learning
Ask yourself following 7 questions.
(i) Do you want to learn? [Yes/No]
(ii) What do you want to learn? [(fill the blank)]
(iii) Why do you want to learn the particular subject? [(answer)]
(iv) How do you want to learn? [Choose appropriate]
From/with people
School
Seminar
Group
Private tutorial
Self
(Books, Videos, Internet, practice)
Environmental
Going there/being there/participation
(v) How do you make assessment for your learning? [Choose appropriate]
Performance improvements
Exam score
Contest results
Time you spent (not a good measure)
Money you spent (not a good measure)
Efforts you made (not a good measure)
Number of the learning experience (if applicable)
Satisfaction (subject to manipulation)
a Diploma (not necessarily a good measure, subject to manipulation)
Other (specify)
(vi) What is your goal? [(answer)]
(vii) How do you exit/end the process (if applicable)? [(answer)]
Optional 8th question:
(viii) What are you going to do if you don't learn the subject as well as you hoped? [(choose appropriate)]
Quit, blaming self
Quit, blaming others
Quit, thanking self and/or others for revealing who you are
Continue, with adjustments in your hope
Continue, with adjustments in your time frame (someday...)
Continue, with adjustments in your learning plans (change teacher/school etc)
Continue, with more efforts on your side
Other (specify)
Learning appears to be very interactive process. But deep down it is not. Learning something means that you learn something. It is a change inside you. Unless there is a change inside you, you did not learn a thing.
Tomorrow is July 4th, Independence day holiday in the US. I am looking forward to BBQ, watermelon and fireworks.
(i) Do you want to learn? [Yes/No]
(ii) What do you want to learn? [(fill the blank)]
(iii) Why do you want to learn the particular subject? [(answer)]
(iv) How do you want to learn? [Choose appropriate]
From/with people
School
Seminar
Group
Private tutorial
Self
(Books, Videos, Internet, practice)
Environmental
Going there/being there/participation
(v) How do you make assessment for your learning? [Choose appropriate]
Performance improvements
Exam score
Contest results
Time you spent (not a good measure)
Money you spent (not a good measure)
Efforts you made (not a good measure)
Number of the learning experience (if applicable)
Satisfaction (subject to manipulation)
a Diploma (not necessarily a good measure, subject to manipulation)
Other (specify)
(vi) What is your goal? [(answer)]
(vii) How do you exit/end the process (if applicable)? [(answer)]
Optional 8th question:
(viii) What are you going to do if you don't learn the subject as well as you hoped? [(choose appropriate)]
Quit, blaming self
Quit, blaming others
Quit, thanking self and/or others for revealing who you are
Continue, with adjustments in your hope
Continue, with adjustments in your time frame (someday...)
Continue, with adjustments in your learning plans (change teacher/school etc)
Continue, with more efforts on your side
Other (specify)
Learning appears to be very interactive process. But deep down it is not. Learning something means that you learn something. It is a change inside you. Unless there is a change inside you, you did not learn a thing.
Tomorrow is July 4th, Independence day holiday in the US. I am looking forward to BBQ, watermelon and fireworks.
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