歲末感言

俗語'一年之際在於春',但最能夠利用春的利益是有充分準備的冬天. 秋天是豊收的季節,冬天是思考冥想的時節. 冬至剛到,這是歲末總結和計畫來年春天的時侯.

Gradually we find that we are the oldest one in most of the social gatherings. We most of the time think the older people are those 15 years senior to us. However when we find that a lot of well known or accomplished people are not only younger than us, but also younger than our children. This is the time we feel in our soul that we are really quite old. The old is not necessarily bad, the Golden Age must be golden and good. Each period of our life has its own meaning and we must embrace it with positive attitude and fulfill it fully.
'健康是一切之本'. Without good health, we can't make decisions in a positive way. Health influences the way we think about life and so determines our life style. But like any other activities, it is an art to maintain the balance among various activities. If we forfeit all the enjoyments of eating just for the reason of health, it may just prolong our life but lose one of the basic enjoyment of our life. So every once in a while, we may indulge in some food without feeling guilty. As long as we have guidelines and stick to it most of the time, we should feel good. Life is full of trade-off and compromise.

In many early mornings of winter, I stand in my backyard & watch the blue sky. While the cirrus lines up in the blue background (藍天馬尾雲), I can never miss the upright redwood thrusting toward the sky. They are always green, erect & tall. they give you an awesome feeling of loneliness but elegance and loftiness (遺世孤高之感). Every time I watch them, I have an urge to measure their heights. Some of them can tower up to 250 feet & keep going up. The redwood species contains the largest and tallest trees in the world. These trees can live to a very old age, with some for hundreds to thousands of years. The most humble experience may be the one when we are near a redwood tree & know that it has been around here since the time of the birth of Confucius, about 500 BC. I once visited Sequoia National Park near Fresno. I have never forgot the experience the first time I saw 'General Sherman', the largest living thing in the world in volume & weight. 'General Sherman' is a sequoia, related to redwood & has a name Sierra Redwood. I am glad California adopts The Redwood as its State Tree. It is interesting to know that the redwood only found in the northern coast of California with a thin strip of about 50 miles wide. Somehow I think men should be like redwood, serene in mood, elegant in personality, erect in character and immune to a lot of violence and mistreatment.

Steve Jobs passed away this year. He left the company he founded with the most value of asset in the world. The more stunning fact is that he accomplished this feat in just about ten years though we have to trace it back to 1976. I consider he was a failure in PC business. Apple is never a major force or mainstream in the PC world although it started the Personal Publishing with Macintosh & laser printer. The three major products relive & transform Apple are iPod (with iTune), iPhone & iPad. The iPod rewrites the way music industry operates & is the more important than the iPhone & iPad. But to judge his position in history, we have to wait, only the time will tell. I think when time goes by, iProducts may not dominate for long as the competitions heat up. However, we can not judge Steve Jobs only based on the iProducts. We must judge him based on the impact of industry & activities influenced by him. Jobs's influence is in the area of Graphic Interface, Personal Publishing and Music Distribution. Many people adore him and shower an overwhelming admiration on him. Some even put him on the same pedestal of Thomas Edison & Henry Ford. I think people overreact. Jobs is more like Ford but Edison is in the another league. Although only time will tell who is more influential, Jobs is not a true inventor like Edison. He only repackages the existing technology with his aesthetic acumen to create a new market. Edison however truly invented the phonograph, motion picture and light bulb just to name a few. Each of the three inventions creates its own industry and continues for more than 100 years. Imagine even today we are talking & working on video, audio & lighting. Our PCs are still trying to optimize these three activities. One thing interesting is to find out how Jobs could accomplish the feat in just about ten years. I think it was the past twenty years from 1976 to 1996 that molded & prepared him to grab the opportunity that was matured to the state he could take advantage at the right time. The fruition of spring is from the seeding and budding of winter---最能夠利用春的利益是有充分準備的冬天.

Life & Loss

While we are young, we seldom think about death except that it imparts some fear in us. When time goes by & we age gradually. We start to see or hear some of our role models like teachers, movie stars or some celebrities died one after the other. Suddenly, we feel a sense of loss. We no longer feel invincible & understand some day it will be our turns & nobody is exempt from this destiny.

We lost Mark Yang last year & this year professor Ma and KY Cheng, our classmate. Per AJ, KY suffered from oral cavity cancer last year and was cured later. Unfortunately, the cancer spread to become Lymphoma & he just couldn't make it this time. I have to admit I know very little about KY. He was a good table tennis player & was talkative sometime. However, he kept low profile most of the time. The last time I saw him was in a Taipei city bus returning from the airport after seeing someone off. It has been 46 years since but felt just happened not too long ago. I still remember the way he talks, smiles & makes jokes. I have never seen him since and he seemed never wrote anything or appeared in any of our reunion trips. Recently I visited his website and learned a little bit about him. Here is the information of his career:

鄭國揚
中央研究院資訊科學研究所
台北市南港區 11529 研究院路二段一二八號

博士, 應用數學研究所, 紐約州立大學(石溪), 美國 (1967/9–1972/6)
碩士, 電子工程研究所, 北達科達州立大學, 美國 (1966/9–1967/6)
學士, 電機工程學系, 國立台灣大學, 中華民國 (1960/9–1964/6)

副研究員, 中央研究院資訊科學研究所, 中華民國 (1978/07-1979/06)
副教授, 清華大學資訊/應數所, 中華民國 (1975/07-1978/06)
客座副研究員, 中央研究院數學研究所, 中華民國 (1972/09-1974/09)

Research Interests:
Chinese Processing
Computer Graphics
鄭博士的研究工作包括電腦圖學和數位幾何處理。負責視覺化環境實驗室，主要工作為發展一套實用之臉部動畫系統。

KY published several papers in some professional journals. The descriptions & contents of the papers look impressive. His research is in the image processing using digital techniques & algorithms. His research interest includes Chinese Processing though I didn't see any of his papers related to this discipline. I am surprised why he didn't participate in the discussion of Chinese language in the past few years as we did in our blog or forum. As far as I can remember, he never showed up in our email communication even after MarkYang urged him once to say something. Instead, MarkYang & a few of us were quite vocal arguing the pros & cons of Mandarin as a language comparing to the Western Language System. Perhaps he considered our discussion not professional enough for him. However, I think he should have said something no matter it is positive or negative.

We hear someone dies almost everyday but life keeps going on. We feel a sense of loss if the person passed away is close to us or somehow influenced us one way or the other. I think this sense of loss is inevitable. The positive attitude is trying to learn something from the dead and keeps our head high and straight. The future is always awaiting us and we should embrace it joyfully.

PS: Notable people died in 2011:

Steve Jobs (age 56) and Elizabeth Taylor (age 79), two completely different personalities and careers.

Elizabeth Taylor was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery of Glendale with other celebrities like Michael Jackson, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Nat King Cole.

Steve Jobs was buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, right across Gunn High School with other famous people like David Packard (HP's founder) and Frederick Emmons Terman (Father of Silicon Valley). Terman was the author of "Electronic and Radio Engineering", a famous book (1,078 pages) we referred to at least a few times in our school years. I bought this book (Fourth Edition, 1955) a few years ago in a Palo Alto Library book sale at $1.00. This is one of the most nostalgic bargains in my life.

馬雲龍 與 電机机械

馬雲龍 just passed away. It is sad to hear the news. However, we are all getting old. Inevitably our professors will all fade away eventually. It was about the time of 1961 that we took his course "Electric Machinery" in NTU. I never really did well in this class for some reason. Perhaps I hated the details of intricate winding method related to the designs of motors & generators. I think this course should come with a lab work to get us familiar with the actual hardware. I think hand on experience in this course is important. We had some outdated machines operated by a technician who looked like a 退伍軍人 with a poker face & we got to see the machine only once a year. It was really a joke. I had seen many types of motors in that four years of NTU life, but never really took them apart except the one in the old electric phonograph at home. That was a little motor with black metal housing. I was particularly fascinated to see the speed control mechanism. Get back to our class, it was the assignment problems at the end of each chapter that really gave me headaches. The problems usually were quite hard & required extensive use of slide rules. I still remember the endless weekend spending time on tinkering those problems. I usually worked with 蔡宗元 as he lived nearby (長安東路 & 吉林路) at that time. However, sometime we just couldn't figure out the way to solve the problems. Here was the final backup, wait for Apo finishing his assignment & got some inside track information from him.

As far as I can remember, professor Ma got above average quality in teaching with some interest in his students. I rated him (teaching quality) above 凌霄, 江德曜, 許振發, 楊進順 & 白光弘. I once walked with him along 新生南路 & found that he was actually pretty easy to talk to & would listen to my concern & opinion. Like old soldiers, eventually our professors will all fade away & the best way to memorize professor Ma perhaps is to talk about motor & generator, his main subjects in teaching. Electric Machine is generally considered a branch of EE, Power. But Power actually consists of generation, transmission, distribution & control. Some of us switched the field & ventured into non-EE disciplines. I think very few of us actually work in the field of Power later in our career. With the coming of digital technology & semiconductor applications, the opportunities were wide open to most of us in the decade of 1970. I happened to have the opportunity to work on motors, especially step motors, dc motors & ac synchronous motors in the printers. It sounds ancient now to talk about daisy wheel printer. But between 1973 & 1987, daisy wheel printers were widely used. It actually replaced IBM's Selectric Typewriters (IST) & the famous Teletype work station at that time. Teletype was an electronic controlled communication terminal & IST were the workhorse in corporate offices. I used IST to type my Ph.D dissertation with several metal balls (font). The problems of Teletype & IST are that they got too many mechanical movable parts. Teletype has more that 600 movable parts & IST more than 300. The new Daisy Wheel Printer (DWP) got only about 10 movable parts. That is the total difference, reliability matters. What are those movable parts? Alas, they are motors: carriage, print wheel, paper feed & ribbon advance etc. These motors work hard to the moment that requires a final step of the printing: Hammer. Hammer actually is a solenoid relay. From the paper, it seems quite complicate to make a simple printing. In fact, it is hard to figure out how Teletype with so many movable parts can accomplish the task in a reasonable time. Fortunately, when I worked on DWP, I had microprocessors at my command. We found a way to convert those intricate sequence of movements to some sequential instructions, ie computer software program. After debug & check out the logic, we put the software instructions onto memory of a microprocessor. We call it firmware instead of software as we can't change the instructions after burning them onto the chip. I remember we used two Intel 8041 chips, one controls carriage & paper feed motors & the other one controls print wheel & ribbon motors. Carriage & print wheel motors are DC motors with close loop servo. Paper feed & ribbon are step motors with open loop control. Nowadays two types of printers rule the market: Ink Jet Printer (JP) & Laser Printer (LP). Why? It is the print font. Only matrix type printers can handle the font effectively. JP & LP are matrix type, construct font electronically & print it with matrix dots. It should also be mentioned that the similar motors are used widely in the disk drives to position the read/write head.

Let's get back to our main subject, motors & generators. There are three major types of electric machines: DC, AC Synchronous & AC Induction. The step motors & VRM (Variable Reluctance Machine) are similar to AC motor with no winding in the rotor (rotor is a permanent magnet). Interestingly, transformer & motor are very close in concept. If the secondary winding is cut out from the transformer (mount in the air gap) with terminals shorted, it becomes a rotor of an induction motor. The energy transfer is from the primary winding to the motor instead of going to some device like bulb. The main difference is the energy transfer to mechanical energy instead of heat & light. From the historical view point, we always think of Michael Faraday & Joseph Henry when it comes to motor & generator for their work on the interaction of electricity & magnetism. Farad (capacitance) & Henry (inductance) are the units in honor of them. With the passing of 馬雲龍, We thank him for teaching us the engineering aspect of electric machinery & enhancing us the understanding behind the physical theory.

芭蕾舞欣賞

In ballet, a pas de deux (steps of two in French, 双人舞) is a duet in which two ballet dancers perform the dance together. Among the most famous pas de deux are the following:

The Black Swan (黑天鵝) Pas de deux from the third scene of Swan Lake
The Bluebird (青鳥) Pas de deux from the third act of Sleeping Beauty
Le Corsaire (海盗) pas de deux
Don Quixote (唐吉柯德) Grand Pas de deux
The Nutcracker (胡桃嵌) Pas de deux
The Flower Festival (花之慶典) at Genzano Pas de deux

Let's select the last one to demonstrate the form, grace & its rich content of ballet dancing, a unique art form that combines music & the power of body movement with grace & endurance. The Flower Festival in Genzano is a one-act ballet by Danish choreographer and ballet master August Bournonville (1805–1879). Bournonville created the work for Denmark's Royal Ballet in 1858 on the basis of the general enthusiasm among Danes for Italy. The libretto is taken from a tale found in Impressions de Voyage by Alexander Dumas and tells the story of two real-life lovers, Rosa and Paolo. It is considered one of Bournonville's most perfect compositions, a charming love duet between two young people where the steps express both their joy and their teasing playfulness. It is often performed at ballet galas to showcase the Bournonville style.

A typical Pas de deux usually consists of an entree (開場), adagio (慢舞), two variations (獨舞,one for each dancer) and a coda (結尾).

The entree is typically a short number which serves as an introduction for the Pas de deux. Adagio literally means 'at ease'. In song, Adagio means "slowly", and in ballet it means slow movement. This Adagio is typically the outward movement of the Grand Pas where the female dancer is partnered by the lead male dancer or one or more suitors. Variation in ballet is a solo dance. As with an Aria in opera, which allows the singer to demonstrate his or her interpretive skills, the variation in ballet has the same function. As in music, a Coda is a passage which brings a movement or a separate piece to a conclusion. In ballet, the coda is usually the "Finale", a set of dances and brings almost all the dancers onto the stage.

Rosa and Paolo in the Flower Festival in Genzano are in their twenties. They play and tantalize, but are throughout tempered by the sweetness of falling in love. The pas de deux opens with an episode for solo violin, succeeded by a polka-like section. More sensual tones are struck in the adagio, which is followed by a swinging waltz (first male solo). The series of relatively short, tuneful passages continues and the pas de deux concludes with a characteristic and riveting coda.

The names of most ballet positions & steps are in French. This usually causes some difficulty for non-French people. However, with the video clip with timeline, we can correlate the name with its actual step & movement that makes the whole process educational. In watching video clip, it is best to open two windows - one for video & one for the text of description. This video clip can be found in the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjWgab_PFBQ

0-0.18: Prelude, opens with an episode for solo violin.

0.19-0.45: A young couple enter from upstage. They are holding hands and they look around as if inspecting the landscape (0.21-0.27). They stop in the middle of the stage (0.30), the young man invites the girl to dance & the girl cheerfully agrees (0.33-0.37).

0.46-1.10: Unlike the traditional structure of a classical pas de deux, which begins directly with the adagio, we here have a short preamble (介绍) introducing the couple: a few cabriole-leaps diagonally (0.51-0.52 & 0.57-0.58) across the stage demonstrate her graceful lightness, as does a series of swift turns on pointe resolved in a soft landing in an attitude (1.00-1.10).

1.11-1.37: The young man, to the musical repetition of the theme, responds with some characteristic Bournonville-steps: forward spring with open arms, embracing the audience as it were grand jete en avant (1.12-1.27), small circles of the leg ronds de jambe (1.28-1.34) before concluding with a spirited series of pirouettes (1.34-1.36).

1.38-3.59: This is the adagio, in which the two dance together. He invites her again to dance (1.40-1.42) and they perform a promenade. He stands in attitude whilst she is leading him round, up on her nimble toes (1.45-2.00). She is a little shy (2.01), whereas he is chivalrous and holds her waist tenderly as she slowly stretches her body in an arabesque (2.01-2.09) inclining downwards towards the floor (2.10-2.15). She then reverse the arabesque to the up position (2.16-2.20). They walk forward, hand in hand & turn around (2.21-2.28). At 2.39, she finds he is running away. He kneels (2.45) & invites her but she turns away (2.45-2.47). She decides to come back (2.48-2.51) and she executes an elevated attitude, supporting herself on his hand. She turns this position a half figure and leans backwards, still supported by his hands. They run from one another, play and come together again (3.00-3.10). They spar mischievously with their eyes as they cross the stage (3.11-3.20). She goes on pointe, supporting herself on his shoulders as she stands in attitude (3.20-3.27). He looks at her and she teasingly averts her eyes (3.27-3.42). They repeat the game until the adagio concludes with a graceful position she in an arabesque while he holds her hands from behind (3.42-3.59).

4.00-4.41: This is the first male solo. The young man demonstrates his vigour and suppleness in a series of elegant step combinations. He soars in attitude-jumps, turning in the air, his feet shifting rapidly in nimble sauts de basque (4.17-4.29), before concluding with a series of pirouettes (4.37-4.42) with upright position.

4.46-5.50: The young woman begins the first female solo in hovering flight across the stage with a series of cabriole steps (4.48-5.00) repeated three times in varying directions. This step - the legs are thrown forward, beating together in the air was one of Bournonvilles favourite steps as it gave a sensation of weightless hovering, from which his sylphs also derived benefit. Downstage, the young woman now executes elegant ronds de jambe (4.57-5.10), one hand holding out her dress, and she then plays the flirt with steps pas de chat (貓步) in which her feet seem to disappear under her dress (5.11 & 5.17,). She stands on pointe in an arabesque and suddenly turns her body rapidly forward and back (5.15 & 5.21), a subtle elegance of balance. She concludes with a series of fast little steps pas de bourre (5.31-5.42) before circling the stage in expansive leaps (5.43-5.48).

5:50-6:34 The young man is now ready for the second male solo, in which he impresses with three double-spins in the air (two clockwise & one counter-clockwise), soaring cabriole-leaps (6.12-6.28) and searing pirouettes (6.28-6.34).

6.37-7.10: The young woman in the second female solo counters with big grand-jete leaps towards the audience (6.38-6.52). This solo is characterised by the lightness of nimble feet and the play with balance and shift of weight as she goes up on pointe on one foot and down again in a lively tempo (6.52-7.00). The solo ends with a series of hops in arabesque (looks like ostrich's turnaround step) , which are resolved in a spiral-pirouette (7.01-7.12).

7.14-8.12 The two come together in the coda. Their shyness has vanished. He takes her by the waist and whirls her round with typical arabesque pose (7.14-7.34). They take wing in parallel across the stage in grand-jet leaps (7.35-7.53). The epaulement of the forward movement (7.57-8.00) is elegant. He finally supports her in an attitude (8.09). The tempo, joy and celebration thus conclude in a graceful, harmonious unit.

Gravity Hills

I came to Silicon Valley in 1972. One thing I remember clearly up to these days is the visit of a place called "Mystery Spot" at Santa Cruz in 1973. It has been almost 40 years, I still remember seeing some strange things & phenomena in that place. However, I knew at that time, the whole thing was like a magic show. You were awed at what you saw & wondered how they could do things like that. The tour guide tried to convince the visitors it was all due to some magnetic field, some aliens from outer space buried heavy metals beneath or some unknown force around this mysterious spot. But deep down, you knew it was like a magic show, a full show of illusion & entertainment. The place is still open today. One thing different is that with the advancement of science, they throw in some new terms like Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Torsion Field to impress the visitors. Fortunately they haven't got the Lee's gospel of "信息場". The whole scenario was interesting that I describe in the next paragraph.

In some weekend, nice & sunny, you longed for a relax afternoon & drove to Santa Cruz. After a nice lunch, sightseeing the wavy coast & some begonia garden, you came to a shop ordering some beer to quench your thirst. After that, you still got some time to kill. Ah, you noticed the board nearby enticing you to visit the "Mystery Spot". What a nice idea this was. You hopped into your car & drove to the spot. A tour guide greeted you in front of the entrance friendly. Within a few minutes, several other couples with kids joined you. The guide then briefed us this mystery spot, its history & super-natural event was going to happen. We were guided to walk in a narrow path, the slope is so tiny you didn't notice it. Meanwhile, you saw two rows of junipers or some pine trees grown along the path. Here the poem of 李白 applies " 綠竹入幽徑,青籮拂行衣". Pretty soon, you were in front of a little house with a capacity of 20 people. By this time, you were so relax & also with the help of beer drank before, you were ready to believe whatever the guide told you. Inside this little room, with window of course, the guide showed you all bunch of strange phenomena about gravity that included water flowing from low spot to high place. Also a guided marble moved from low-left corner of the window toward high-right corner. All kids were marveled at what they saw & parents awed with their eyes wide open. Whole thing was very magical & entertaining. Of course the guide showed us other attractions & spent a lot of time to emphasize the mysterious & super natural field around the spot not yet discovered yet by science. Time went fast while you had a good time. After one & half hour, you found that you were in front of the entrance again. All visitors were happy & believed what the guide had said. At this time, the poem of 李白 applies again "我醉君復樂,陶然共忘机". You totally forgot you were a "台大電机系高材生".

I found it educational, because I thought I knew all the tricks & the truth. Here is the trick. While you were guided into the narrow path, you actually walked into a slightly uphill slope that you didn't notice. The trees planted along the path were not vertical to the earth surface (horizontal plane). Instead it is perpendicular to the hill. It gave you the feeling you were not walking on the slope. The little house was built the same way, perpendicular to the hill. So when you were in front the house, you were already tricked into thinking you are leveled with the earth gravity. The angle of the slope was big enough to perform the tricks, but small enough for you not to sense you were actually on the slope. Here is the lesson, our eyes & ears are not good enough under certain circumstances like the one I just described. The figure 1 shows actual plan you are in. The figure 2 shows the plan you think you are in. You think point 'a' is the same level of point 'b' & so point c is lower than 'a'. Actually point 'c' is the same height as point 'a'. So if you pick any point d between b & c, the water will flow from d to a (since d>c & c=a). But you still think b is the same height as a & b higher than d, so a is higher than d or d is lower than a, ie water flows from low to high.

Now we go back to this Magnetic Hill in Canada. I visited Montreal, Quebec & the surrounding area 15 years ago. I heard this Magnetic Hill of Moncton. But I figured this had to be something like Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. I rather stayed & spent the time walking around the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. This was the battle field between James Wolfe & Louis de Montcalm in 1759. The battle of Quebec was the turning point of the history. Since then, French were driven out of North America & it led to American Revolution indirectly. Quebec is the only walled city in America. The wall is well kept but not that impressive comparing to China's Great Wall. Both Wolfe & Montcalm died in this battle. There is an obelisk below the fortress near St. Lawrence River commemorating both of them.

I think the whole scenario of Magnetic Hill is similar to the Mystery Spot except that the little house becomes a long hilly pavement. In order to demo it well, I add figure 3 & 4 to show the possible plan of the situation. The road can be separated in three sections with three different slopes. The slopes are possibly all uphills with the middle slope less hilly.

Here comes the interesting part when we look at the website of 林星雄(LSH). Per his own description, he is 1963 NTUEE graduate, one year senior to us. His career & track record are impressive. However, in this matter of Magnetic Hill, he seems way off the tangent of normal engineering thinking. I know we studied General Physics from 許照 & Applied Mechanics from 翁通楹. Since I don't know the whereabouts of 許照, perhaps we should just visit 翁通楹 (台北市青田街) to see what he says. He may ask you whether you believe what the website says. If you say yes, I bet 9 out of 10, he will kick you out & says, "How could you believe such a thing?" First he (LSH) believes what he saw but not simple instruments like Bubble Leveling or plumbing lines. He perhaps forgot his ears (crude leveling device). Since he trusts his eyes but not the simple instruments & forgets his ears, he can't explain the strange phenomena of Magnetic Hill. He has to elicit the help of Dark Matter, Dark Energy or String Theory, M-Theory, Universal Hidden Dimension, Parallel Universe etc. I think these are all unnecessary red herrings (misleading clues). The phenomena is really easy to explain with the Newton's Theory. The trick from LSH is that he doesn't trust the instruments because he argued that the instruments are also affected by those Dark Matter or horizontal gravity stuffs. In other words, he wants you to prove there is nothing like dark matter, hidden dimension or horizontal gravity exist. But isn't it true that the burden of proof is on him since he claims all these wield stuffs have something to do with the Magnetic Hill? LSH trusts his eyes but his argument of point 'L' is lower than point 'S' is not all that convincing.

I add Figure 3 & 4 that may depict the scenario of the Magnetic Hill. The actual terrain is as Figure 3 shows & Figure 4 is the road people think they are in. They think L is the lowest point on the road but actually as Figure 3 shows it is actually higher than the starting point S. The trick is that the guide tells you to proceed or drive down to the lowest point L. They never says to coast down (with neutral transmission) to point L. I bet you will never be successful by coasting down to L as the case of bicycle & horse carriage experienced uphills described in the website. It seems an independent test from GPS should resolve the problem. Unfortunately, even the newest GPS is not accurately enough to a few feet of R coordinate. If a modern geographer can measure Himalayas raises its peak 2.4 inches every year, why can't they measure the exact geographical location to a few inch accuracy? I think we have the technology to do it. But since nobody is serious enough to tackle this kind of magic show problem, it is just not worthwhile spending the time & money on the illusion of Gravity Hills. If there are people still thinking the whole thing have something to do with some horizontal gravity field around the mysterious spot, I will tell them the following: Give me enough money, I can create something similar anywhere in the world (except oceans where people can detect the real horizontal plane right away). As a matter of fact, if our classmates would like to build one in Taiwan, we can make it happen & may make money from it since we haven't heard anything like it in Taiwan.

One easy way to prove the point 'S' actually is lower than point 'L' is the following as shown in Figure 3 (in green color):

1. At point S & L, use water bubble to find horizon & raise a pole of 12 meters high.
2. Pick a point of 8 meters from the pole base of S & shoot a green laser beam to 'D' of Pole L. Green laser has more range & better quality for this purpose. Just be sure the laser beam is parallel to the horizon.
3. Measure the distance (D) from the laser beam on Pole L to its base.
4. If D>8 meters, it means L is lower than S. Otherwise L is higher than S.

I agree with AhMo on his statement: They are all TRIVIAL in principle but can be highly bewildering and entertaining in practice. This is the postscript. I just wonder perhaps there are some inherent problems in our NTUEE education. We have prof Lee & now we have LSH. They are all brilliant in their field & yet get side tracked to pursue something phantom & mysterious. Finally I heard that 李家同 is our another controversial NTUEE graduate, 1961. I have no comment on him as I know very little about him.

ps: You can expand the figures to see them in details.

Bicentennial of Franz Liszt

Liszt was born in 1811, one year after the birth of Robert Schumann and Frederic Chopin. This is the reason why very often we see three of them show up in the same movie. Liszt was born in Hungary with German ancestry. He was a child prodigy in his early life. He appeared in concerts at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franz's musical education abroad. He was a terrific piano virtuoso & considered perhaps the greatest pianist in history. His greatest contribution is the creation of Symphonic Poem. Haydn composed 104 symphonies & earned titles of "Father of Symphony" & "PaPa Haydn". The Haydn's symphony is a form of four movements. It always begins with an Introduction lasted about 2 minutes & followed with a main theme. The 2nd movement is always slow & the 3rd movement is always a Minuet (小步舞曲). The 4th movement is usually fast & lively. Later composers followed this format closely with some adjustment as needed. For example, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony has five movements, Mozart's Prague Symphony has three movements & Schubert's symphony #8 has only two movements as it is "Unfinished". Beethoven very often replaced Minuet with Scherzo (詼諧曲). However, Liszt was the one who collapsed the four movements into one & called it Symphonic Poem (交响詩). He created a new form that he could combine literature, painting & music in one pot. The new style enabled him to express the feeling & emotion much more freely. He composed twelve Symphonic Poems. The most famous one is the #3, "Les Preludes (前奏曲)". It is based on Ode of Alphonse de Lamartine's Nouvelles meditations poetiques (拉馬丁的'詩的沈思錄').

Liszt was one of the most generous composers in the 19th century. He had the look & talent that attracted a lot of women. He was successful in career early enough that free him from insecurity, anxiety & jealousy of others. He gave helps to Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Berlioz & even Wagner. The following is a legendary story. Liszt once traveled to a little town near Budapest. He checked in a tavern & saw one notice in the lobby. It stated "A Piano Concert will be performed this evening at 8 pm by XXX (female name), a student of Franz Liszt". Since Liszt couldn't figure out who she was, he went to knock her door. You can imagine what happened after that. This pianist was shocked to see Liszt standing in front of him. She begged his pardon. Liszt comforted her & led her to the piano. He told her to play "Hungarian Rhapsody #2", one of the piece in the evening concert. She played (誠惶誠恐地) and Liszt offered some suggestions. After 15 minutes, Liszt stood up and said to her, "Don't worry, now you are my student". The pianist was so moved that she cried uncontrollably. The story ends here. We don't know whether Liszt invited her to dinner or went to her concert. This is indeed a heart-warming story. It gives you some idea how gracious and generous Liszt was in his time.

There is a movie "Song Without End" which was released in 1960, our Freshmen days. I went to see this movie in Taipei. The cinematography is fantastic. It was shot by 黄宗沾 (James Wong Howe), a famous Chinese photographer in Hollywood. The movie portrays the life of Liszt and his love affairs with Countess Marie d'Agoult and Russian Princess Carolyn. Liszt was once considered a womanizer. Marie d'Agoult abandoned her husband & eloped with Liszt. She bore three daughters for him. Ironically, one of Liszt's daughter Cosima later eloped with Richard Wagner without permission from Liszt. Now you know how romantic people were in that Romantic Era.

One of Liszt's famous piece is Liebestraume (Dreams of Love), very very dream like romantic piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGRdyfjgp8Y

The music is based on the poem "Love as long as you can!" by Ferdinand Freiligrath. The lyrics is something like the following:

愛之夢,奇妙心声... 愛之夢,柔情蜜意...

愛之夢,温馨纏綿... 愛之夢,歡樂無窮...

愛之夢,幸福充盈... 愛之夢,綿延永遠...

Another Liszt's famous piece is Hungarian Rhapsody #2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goeOUTRy2es

This rhapsody is a typical Hungarian folk dance Csardas. It usually consists of two parts, one slow "Lassu" section followed with a fast "Friss" section in dance form. I found a video clip of Csardas in the next link. Although the music is not composed by Liszt, it shows you how a typical Csardas looks like. The dance was performed in the Imperial Hofburg from Vienna. Thanks to Andre Rieu. If you are interested, the music is "Komm, Zigany (Come, Gypsy)" from operetta Grafin Mariza composed by another Hungarian, Emmerich Kalman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFCUlGEzoo0&NR=1

It should be noted that while Liszt is famous for his Hungarian Rhapsodies, Brahms is the king of Hungarian Dances. Brahms composed 21 dances based on Hungarian folk tunes with #5 the most popular.

The last video clip is from the movie "Song of Love". This is the beginning part of the movie. Clara Schumann played the famous Piano Concerto #1 by Liszt. She played the 1st movement & switched to 4th movement. Usually a typical concerto has three movements. Here Liszt got away with four movements and played without pause or interruption between movements, unconventional. If you are popular and talented like Liszt, you can do whatever you like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP_iU-lcZ5Y&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=PL98929D8FB524764A

0:00 - 3:02: 1st movement, heavy & forceful

3:02 - 4:01: near the end of 3rd movement

4:03 - 4:17: The person sat behind the king was Franz Liszt.

4:02 - 6:24: 4th movement, lively & brilliant

5:10 - 5:18: The person sat beside Clara was her father Friedrich Wieck.

Note: Due to copyright issue on YouTube, the above link is no longer available.  However, you probably can check out the DVD from Netflix.

Here is another legendary story. Liszt put words to the opening measures purposely. The first two measures sounds like "Das versteht ihr alle nicht, haha!". Translated into English is "None of you understand this, HaHa!'. 0:38- 0:42 is the first two measures. It repeats once at 0:43-0.48. I was in Davies Symphony Hall of San Francisco last October. They performed this masterpiece with pianist & full orchestra. With its acoustics & subtle echo of the hall, I heard something like "You don't know what this is, HaHa!". Listen carefully, you will know what I mean.

Scientific Research?

李嗣涔 got involved in some research that related to extra-sensory perception, especially finger viewing (手指識字). I watched his seminars (two video clips) & found that his method of research is not scientific at all. Especially some of his conclusions are shocking & wonder how he can get away that kind of conclusions without the scrutiny of scientific societies. It also raises a question how he can publish the paper without some peer reviewing. What is going on in NTU & its EE Department?

It is not uncommon for a scientist to do research related to something supernatural. You can do “大胆的假設”. But before you reach some conclusions, you had better do “小心的求証”. 李嗣涔’s research is filled with holes & false claims. The following are some of them.

He proposeed there is a field “信息場” & it leads to “靈異世界”.
But he never defines exactly what it is, let alone to prove it. What is the unit of the field strength & how does he measures it? It sounds like the good old "Ether" again.

He believes the story that a person who made a dream & got the whole copy of “数学考題” in 大專联考.
How can he verify that this person is not lying? This is simply the faith as if you believe some miracle.

地震就是陰陽不順的結果.
I don’t know what he is talking about. If this is true, who needs geology?

氣是宇宙最基本的物貭. 生命的產生是道器的交互作用所產生的.
This statement is very “玄”. I don’t know how he can say this after he learned all those basic particles in physics. The way he defines 氣 is really pseudo scientific.

古書,武俠小說並沒有騙我們
This statement is a joke. If you believe what 武俠小說 says, you live in some fantasy world. Researchers need imagination but not fantasy.

1990年,嚴新氣功在北京体育場有一場盛會,全場鬼哭神號,大家跳舞. 一些有慢性病的人就治好了,連他們的家人也跟著好轉.
李嗣涔 don't think the whole thing was a fake. This reminds me of the movie “Elmer Gantry (by Sinclair Lewis)”. There was a scene that Sharon Falconer, the evangelist was doing healing & all bunch of people got crazy & dancing.

'道'就是西方的宗教.
道 has never been defined precisely. I assume this '道' is from 道德經. Then 道 is like Nature. How can it be equivalent to 西方的宗教? His research mixes up supernatural stuff with religion & science.

氣功是一种生理狀態,完全可以用科学儀器去測量.
This is a claim never explained & has no substance. What is the unit & how he measures it? Which 科学儀器 was used?

Finger Viewing or remote viewing lead to 光的訊息 & 宗教字眼.
My comment on this is: 我胡思乱想,故我胡乱存在.

高橋武,最厲害的小妹妹,她是非常穩定的实驗者(手指識字 & remote viewing),consistent, 從來没出过錯.
It has been found that 高橋武 was cheating in some of her show. Also the condition of the show was totally controlled by her mother. There is no scientific proof that she can do 手指識字 most of the time. Yet 李嗣涔 keeps using her example in his research data & paper.

佛, Buddha, 耶穌,一片亮光,信息場像是網路的世界.
Some one did 手指識字 on some words like 佛 or 耶穌, he saw 一片亮光 in his brain. 李嗣涔 believes him & draws some conclusion that borders absurdity.

所有宗教都告訢你有一個另外的世界存在. 另外那個世界是存在的. 宗教是科学的基礎.
I don’t know how he reaches this conclusion. There is no proof, no logical reasoning that I can see to lead to this conclusion. 李嗣涔 sounds like the Pope in Vatican. But the Pope doesn’t need to spend more than ten years & large amount of money to reach this conclusion. To him this is his faith. But faith is not science. I am very disappointed that we have this kind of research in our EE Department. I am equally ashamed & embarrassed that we have a 校長 like 李嗣涔 in NTU.

李娜

Li Na (李娜) just made history in clinching the trophy of French Tennis Open at Roland Garros. I watched the match on Saturday. She did a convincing win by a strong baseline drives, both forehand & backhand. The key points are the depth & the placement of balls. The opponent Francesca Schiavone equipped various strokes & spins that were also very impressive. Ultimately the consistency of Li Na's baseline drives prevailed. This is the first Chinese woman has ever achieved the feat since the tennis open era. It was reported that more than 60 million people watched this match in China. So far it seems the women in China perform much better than their male counterpart in the field of sport. There is no reasonable explanation & I haven't heard anyone tries to explain it.

Li Na uses two hands in her backhand drive. She seldom uses under-spin or slices in both forehand and backhand. This creates powerful hit & deep ball placement. Of course she sometime hits the ball out of the baseline. But overall, the high percentage of the good balls (consistency) determines the outcome of the match.

One area Li Na can improve is the serving speed. Coupled with her current >75% of first-serve in, if she can serve the balls with greater than 100 mph speed, she is going to be a formidable opponent to reckon with. However, time is not on her side. She is 29 now & we don't expect her to continue this form for more than five years.

One thing is interesting. Before Bjorn Borg & Jimmy Conner showed up in the horizon in the decade of 1970, it was rare to see tennis players use two-hand backhand. Especially before 1970, Aussie dominated the tennis circuit & nobody in Australia adopted two-hand backhand. Since 1980, most women adopted two-hand backhand & they started winning. There are pros & cons of two-hand backhand. You can drive the ball harder but you limit your range of reaches. In order to compensate this, the player has to run faster. Roger Federer used to beat Raphel Nadal, but not any more since Nadal makes improvements on serve & running speed. From the view point of health, it seems using two hands must be better. After all, why let one hand idle just to hold the racket. In fact, if you hit one-hand backhand too often, you risk to have tennis arm. Lately Justine Henen announced her retirement due to her right arm problem. Her one-hand backhand is impressive with style & power. But it will not be useful when it gets injured. I played tennis since I came to the US. I played with one-hand backhand for many years. However, I played more often after my retirement, I found that I got tennis elbow. Since last year, I started to adopt two-hand backhand. Now I am able to keep & enjoy the tennis play. I feel better especially that I utilize my left hand more. It is like a balancing diet to make my body more fit. Surprisingly, I found the another Chinese woman, Peng Shuai (彭帥), whose ranking is about 29 in WTA. She adopts two-hand forehand. She is not that strong in body built comparing to Li Na. This makes sense for her to hit the ball with more pace. However, my experience is that it is easier to control the direction & placement with one-hand forehand. So far Peng Shuai may be the one & only one two-hand forehand player in the world.

If you think it is not that hard to get a grand slam of tennis, it is. This reminds me of the Tiger Mom's book "The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother". Amy Chua learned that her younger daughter wanted to pursue tennis instead of violin. Her first thought was that she is not going to get any prize out of tennis. I think she is right on this. Chinese already have 林昭亮,Yo Yo Ma, Lang Lang, Li Yun-Di in the music world. But there is only one Li Na, one & only one Chinese get a Grand Slam in the tennis world. After saying all the above, I have to mention that some wise man used to say: "Life is not that simple. Sometimes, it is the pursuit of something that counts, not necessary what prize it gets ultimately." I hope Amy Chua realizes this & not blindly pursues her prize instead of her kid's endeavor.

PS: In the decade of 1980, there was a Chinese female tennis player, 胡娜 (Hu Na). She defected from China, played in WTA (Women Tennis Association) circuit. She didn't go very far, but did play in the center court of Wimbledon once. She got injured at age 29 & retired. She teaches tennis in Taiwan for several years. I remember some TV commentators in 1980's used to ask Who? when they saw this Chinese girl. The answer was unanimous Na!

成功嶺

大學四年,最不尋常的是大三時暑期上成功嶺集訓. 对我們的一生,這三個月可是驚天動地,非同凡响. 成功嶺的大專学生集訓有多方面的時代意義和政治目的,但對我們正滿二十歲的年青学生,提供一個人生很難得的经驗. 這种經驗非身歷其境很難了解. 我想大部分同学會同意我的看法,也許感受比我更深.

從第一天入營後,發現時間不是你的,而是被別人控制的. 一下子失去了自由才了解自由的可貴. 最痛苦無奈的是開訓的前三個星期. 原本在大学自由自在地生活,又可家教赚外快. 現在一下子碰到一些以整人為快樂之本的士官和剛畢業的陸軍軍官. 他們騎在你頭上,發号施威,全不把我們當人看. 那頭三個星期可說是在考驗我們的忍耐力. 过了這三個星期而不神經崩潰的,大概都可以順利結訓. 這种集訓就是 boot camp 的一种,是一种初級軍官的 orientation training. 編制是十人一班,四班一排,四排成一連. 連上面是營,团,師. 算算一師總共一萬人左右. 每年有這麼多大專学生上成功嶺,可謂盛况空前. 短短三個月經歷不少,以下是我的一些感想.

軍人絕对服從. 小地方可以施展才智,但 the goal of the task is not negotiable.
獅子樣的体力. 天天操練,善用工具和武器.
猴子樣的敏捷. 迅速行動, 神出鬼沒, two-minute shower etc.
駱駝樣的精神. 長途行軍,跋踄千里
研究兵法. Strategy & Tactics (effectiveness & efficiency)
統御訓練. Leadership training
思想灌輸. 忠貞愛民,為國而戰.

這些訓練和操演和一些美國軍校的 boot camp 有雷同之處. 在以後的日子裏,多多少少發揮了不少效用. 來美國以後,發覺很多商業学院皆提到両本書,'王子論(The Prince)' 和 '孫子兵法'. 這是商場如战場的寫照,軍事乃政治之延伸 & vice versa. 將近結訓時,有一实際統御操演. 就像 business school 的 case study 一樣. 那時我深深体會到 leadership 有一大部分是天賦,衹有小部分是可以学來的. 我們那一年的成功嶺總指揮是王潔中將. 他在一次夜間演習集會時向我們訓話一個多小時. 講詞風趣,不落俗套. 他居然提到人生四大樂事: "久旱逢甘霖,他鄉遇故知,洞房花燭夜,金榜提名時". 時隔將近半個世記,現在思之,有不虛此生之感,幸甚.

在這三個月,天天与我們不離身的是 M1 半自動步槍,裝一個 clip 可射八發子彈 (.30-06). 天天学習大部分解,到後來閉著眼睛也可勝任. 麻煩的是要常常擦槍. 第一天拿槍覺得好重,以後天天操練,駕輊就熟,訓練有素,打起槍來,三百碼没問題,倒是眼力跟不上. 三個月下來,居然和這步槍有了感情. 最後一天才依依不捨地還給成功嶺. 正像計算尺一樣,它們現在都進了博物館,然而我永遠忘不了它們曾在我生命史上寫下很有意義的一頁.

在艱苦的訓練中,時而穿插一些康樂活動,彌足珍貴. 有一次,建國中学音樂教師張世傑率領國防部軍樂隊到嶺上勞軍. 那天他慷慨激昂,最後軍樂隊奏了一首名曲,印象深刻,那是 Dvorak 的新世界交响曲第四樂章. 讓我驚訝的是這個曲子祇用銅管樂器 (沒有弦樂器 )也可以達到令人動容的程度和效果. 從此以後我对國防部軍樂隊敬佩萬分.

最後一個月過得特別快,我們在算饅頭就像 new year count down 一樣. 發覺訓練變得輕鬆起來,那幾個排長 (陸軍軍官) 也開始和善起來. 最後幾天居然讓人有依依不捨之感. 最後一天,我們脫了軍裝,換上自己帶來的衣服,坐火車專車回台北. 王潔居然坐快車來送行. 當我們大夥兒在離開車站前,大家唱了那首我們熟悉而常唱的出征歌:

槍在我們的肩膀,
血在我們的胸膛.
我們來捍衛祖國,
我們齊赴沙場.
統一意志,集中力量.
衝！衝破了一切惡勢力,
幹！貫徹了領袖的主張.
抱定殺身成仁的決心,
發揚中華民族之榮光.

當走出車站的那一剎那,隱約覺得我好像由 Boy 變成了 Man. 大学四年,routine 的事都如過往煙雲. 唯獨成功嶺三月集訓,深深地刻在我的心版上.

PS: 在成功嶺幾乎天天唱的歌是 "陸軍軍歌", 乃"黃埔軍校校歌". 有正版和野版,兹抄錄如下:

正版　
怒潮澎湃，黨旗飛舞，這是革命的黃埔，
主義須貫澈，紀律莫放鬆，預備做奮鬥的先鋒，
打條血路，領導被壓迫民眾，攜著手，
向前行，路不遠，莫要驚，
親愛精誠，繼續永守，
發揚吾校精神，發揚吾校精神！

野版
早晨起床, 迷迷糊糊, 這是睡覺的床鋪,
不怕饅頭小, 不怕豆漿稀, 只怕中午出特別操,
打通関節, 賄赂班長開小差, 看電影 (my version, lose the original line)
抽根煙, 喝杯茶, 聊聊天,
大家一起, 混水摸魚,
擦槍我没精神, 發餉我有精神!

陳之藩

時已五月,想起五四運動.這個運動源於1919年五月四日.胡適先生提倡德先生和賽先生,对這運動影响很大. 我想在古今文選裏找幾篇胡先生的文章,不意卻看到陳之藩的一篇文章---'失根的蘭花'. 陳先生是我們學電机工程的前輩,曾在台大講学. 我在大三時有次俏悄悄去聽他一堂課. 那時他在教Lagrange Polynomial & Matrix. 一堂課下來,我覺得他声音太小,没精打彩. 倒是他翻譯兩本書,我看了獲益良多,一本是'基本電子學',另一本是'宇宙與愛因斯坦'. 後來出國讀了他幾本文学作品---'在春風裏','劍河倒影','旅美小简'. 我不知道他在電机工程学有何特別貢献,倒是覺得他寫文章很女性化,有時傷感过了分. 本想查他对電机工程的貢献,不意竟查出他一段緋聞. 在1997年,有人在台北控告陳之藩誘拐他妻子,破坏他家庭. 這個案子後來被地檢處以不起訴為由,事情終沒鬧大. 可是餘波蕩漾,原來童元方女士背着他丈夫和陳先生做了一些不可告人之事. 後來童女士乾脆也到香港中文大学和他會合. 童女士小陳先生25歲,乃北一女高才生也. 寫到這兒不禁想起徐志摩和林徽因的恋情,胡適和 Ms Williams 的邂逅以及楊振寧和翁帆的婚事. 這些赫赫有名的人都有一些不能上台面的女人經,就像 Tiger 和 Arnold 一樣,真是嘆為觀止. 雖然這些是不光采的事,但其格調並非同等. 以我看來有classy,上,中,下之分等. 胡適和 Ms Williams 的邂逅乃屬 classy,有分寸,有romance 而又沒有 family side effect, ie 江冬秀女士照打麻將,不受影响也. 徐志摩和林徽因的恋情可稱上级. 徐先生明著來,先離婚再追求. 而林徽因揮淚挽別,恰到好處. 楊振寧和翁帆的婚事,82 vs 28,年龄差太大,加上缺乏romance 乃屬中级也. 雖說如此,82+28=00 (exclude carry,活过百歲的人不太多),乃人生重新開始, reset from 00. 至於陳之藩和童元方的軼事乃屬下级, 因為他們暗著來,又拆散一個家庭. 雖然後來正式結合,但幾年來做了一些不太光彩之事,在人格上總是有點缺陷. 不過從另一個角度看，他們的故事倒是很浪漫。又聽說她有家暴，也許遇人不淑，婚姻無奈，值得同情。 寫到這裏,不得不提李敖. 他每次和人家私通或離婚,總是把以前女友的事公開乱翻一陣. 他又有乱公開春宫照片的坏習慣. 總之在人品上,習慣上皆有可非議之處. I rate him below 下等也.

1949 往事

龙應台寫了一本'1949,大江大海',引起一陣迴响. 陸陸續續有些文章報導那世代的塵煙往事. 有些令人唏噓,有些令人浩嘆. 時代巨輪,不停旋轉,芸芸眾生,隨波逐流,予人一种無助之感. 大部分的回應來自我們的上一代,他們身受体驗,身臨其境,歷盡滄桑,加上時不我與,再不寫就來不及了. 1949,我們當時才上小學,應當不受影响. 可是在那大遷徙的時代,可謂人在江湖,身不由己. 連我們莘莘幼子皆受影响. 以下是我在當時的一些塵年往事.

我七歲上小学,正逢1949. 當時家住南京西路十四巷,正好在南京西路和長安東路之間. 我的學校是在最近的建成國小. 我想我們大学四十多位同学,也許沒有一位聽过這間小学. 原來這小学的半衰期奇短,和大部分重金屬放射性元素一樣,可說是曇花一現,來去無蹤. 原來政府遷台,臨時决定把市政府設在建成國小. 從此以後,我們莘莘学子就成了一批無家可歸的社會孤兒. 每次看到地震後一些小学生徬徨無主,街頭上課的情景,就想起我的那些塵煙往事.

建成國小的消失使得住在附近的小學童必須借用別的小学教室. 我的小学生涯第一天是在日新國小. 因為教室是借用的,所以一個月後,卻要去蓬萊國小. 三個月後居然上起靜修女中. 一年下來已記不清楚究竟上了多少不同的学校. 雖然如此,校長和老師則是始終如一,他們和小學生同甘共苦倒是值得欽佩. 這樣遷徙流離的小学生涯居然有兩年. 我們這些可憐的小学生要長途跋涉,步行数里,才能上課. 小時身体還沒長好,經此顛波,常常生病. 從'來來來,來上學...' 到注音符号,居然就這樣學會了. 現在想想,這種生活實在苦不堪言,可是當時小学生頭腦簡單,也不知道抱怨,更不會上街抗議. 後來當局决定建新教舍,改名長安國小,校址在長安東路和吉林路口. 小學生聽到有新學校,雀躍萬分,可是要走好幾里路,比上日新還遠. 好在當時新生北路口有一條小溪流,可以涉水抓青蛙,鳴蟬,蚱蜢和一些蜻蜓,使得小学生涯增加不少情趣. 在快上三年级時,我生了一場病. 父親認為是我長途通學的緣故,所以决定轉學日新國小. 從此四年,日新日日新,和日新結了不了緣. 日新國小在太原路口,離圓環和台北後車站很近. 附近三教九流,賣菜的,擺攤販的,小鐵工廠,一樣不缺,很本土化. 但從此以後也是惡夢的開始. 那時小学惡性補習非常普遍,上課常到晚上八時,可稱暗無天日. 小學六年級時,老師忽然要我們買一本書"愛的教育". 原來那年初中联考國語的閱讀測驗是從這本書來的. 不看則已,一看大開眼界. 原來我們的小学生涯是恶夢連連,不堪回首. 我的小学生涯就在看完'愛的教育'和参加联考结束.

PS0: "愛的教育" 是義大利作家 Edmondo Amicis 的作品,夏丏尊翻譯.

PS1: 在我的小学生涯中,祇有一位二年級老師'宋清樑'能夠和"愛的教育"拉上關係.

PS2: 在那遷徙流離的長安國小中,有一位令人注目的女生'潘美智'.她後來考上台大外文系.

Sublimation of Faith

Several years ago, I was walking around a neighborhood of Menlo Park in one afternoon. It was a nice day around five o'clock when the sun hang in the western sky. Suddenly I heard some singing coming out from some distance away. I found that it was a chapel with some people inside performing a mass. The solo singing was beautiful & I couldn't name the song. However, I was deeply moved at that moment. The music with the chapel, sunset & colorful cloud in the background created a spiritual world. I stood there & listened until the song was over. I later found that the song is Vesperae Solennes-Laudate Dominum by Mozart. Vespers is the evening prayer service used in the mass of Catholic church. It is also in limited use in some Protestant denominations to describe evening services or evening prayers. The psalms and hymns of the Vespers service have attracted the interest of many composers, including Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, Anton Bruckner & Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The one by Mozart is the most well known. Mozart was an Austrian & his Vesperae Solennis was for Catholic mass. If Mozart belongs to the world, his Vesperae Solennes belongs to all faiths. Indeed, this work is very ethereal & has effect of sublimation & transcendence to another world. With disaster one after the other in recent years, the nature selects no particular target. The world is a village indeed, all people should help & treat each other decently transcending nation, religion & race. Let's dedicate this music (the following link) to our village with the substitution, (Cosmos for Lord, Sun for Father, Earth for Son, Mother Nature for Holy Spirit):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ug0PYot-mE&feature=related

Lyrics in Latin:
Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
Laudate eum, omnes populi
Quoniam confirmata est
Super nos misericordia eius,
Et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.
Et in saecula saeculorum.
Amen.

English Translation:
Praise the Lord, all nations;
Praise Him, all people.
For He has bestowed
His mercy upon us,
And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever,
and for generations of generations.
Amen.

Note: I sent the above in email to the classmates on 3/12/2011. I think it is proper to save it in our blog here.

Electrical Engineers

There are some events in our history exert more influences to our civilization than all others combined. The following is the list of these events.

Printing Press (Knowledge Revolution)
Since Johannes Gutenberg developed a streamline process of printing press, the pamphlets & books were spread very quickly & reached almost every corner of the Europe & eventually to the whole world. It was truly a Knowledge Revolution. Common people could access the new idea & classical books easily. It led to social reforms & changes. The impact can be seen from the fact that the majority members of the’ Top 100 Most Influential People in Our Civilization’ were born after Gutenberg.

Steam Engine (Work Revolution)
James Watt improved the steam engine to the stage that it replaced human labor easily. Before this, the human beings depend on the wind or water for transportation & work. Since Watt’s steam engine, the harness of the Mother Nature is no longer limited to the sea or near the water. Human beings can harness the Mother Nature for work that replaces the human muscle labor at any place in any time. The spreading of this power & force at low cost led to the Industrial Revolution.

Electricity (Energy Revolution)
People have used fire as main energy source since ancient time. It was until Michael Faraday & James Maxwell, human beings started utilizing the electricity to power various type of equipment & lighting. Nowadays electricity is the standard of household energy source. It is hard to imagine a common daily life without electricity. The spreading of energy to every house is a revolution in itself. So far we don't see any other type of energy can replace the electricity at home in the foreseeable future.

Internet (Information Revolution)
The electronics & computer usher in the Internet. The easy access of information changes our life & social fabric. Almost all activities in our society are affected by the proliferation of the Internet. The spreading of information is truly an Information Revolution.

It is even more striking that all the above revolutions have been going on these days are enhanced by the current electrical engineering. The printing is enhanced with instant displays, laser/inkjet printers & electronic books. The train & car are gradually replaced with electric locomotives & electric cars. The power & logical intricacies of Internet are powered by the electronic technology. All in all, these revolutions are enhanced & become part of the disciplines of the Electrical Engineering. Electrical Engineering lays the foundation of our modern society. It sows the seeds for other developments that also change our life, a life to the better. Aren’t we proud of being Electrical Engineers?

Note: The photo is from the Embankment of The Institute of Electrical Engineers (London, England) with statue of Michael Faraday in the foreground at Savoy Place.

2011 & Prime Number

Is 2011 a prime number? It is not obvious as there is no easy formula to test it. Since 2011 is not a large number, the Eratosthenes Sieve Method can be used. But the faster way to know is table look up. Since a table of prime numbers up to 10,000 already exists. The answer is Yes, 2011 is a Prime number. Now the question, why bother with the prime number? What is the use of it? Prime number used to be a subject of curiosity in the Number Theory. You don’t usually ask the use or application of the subject when you sit in the class of math. However, we know at least one use of the prime number in finding HCF & LCM of two numbers. We learned in the primary school, what is the HCF & LCM of 72 & 45? We factor them first into several prime numbers & find the answer.

When I was a kid, I liked cicada very much. I lived in the area which had a lot of tress & open area. During the summer, it was my busy season. The singings of the cicada were everywhere. I was fascinated on the loud audio level with their tiny body. Some of them were green, some were red, some were in between & some were black & bigger. I tried various ways to catch them but not very successful. Eventually I dwelled in the state of enjoy their singings all day long.

Several years ago, I heard the news that in the East Coast, some cicada emerged in huge number and the cycle is 13 or 17 years. Of course we see cicada every year as some of them are not synchronous or cyclical. But these two species are something special because of their huge number when they emerge from the ground. One explanation is that the Mother Nature constantly does the experiment & finds the formula: Prime Number. By mutation, some cicadas hit that number & survive easily. The theory is that most life cycle of predators is 2,3,4 or 5 years. If they hit the same year as our cicada, they eat a lot of cicadas but will miss the cicada in the next cycle when cicadas emerge because 13 and 17 are prime number. In other words, the LCM is a large number. The whole thing is very interesting. If this theory & explanation hold true, the cicadas survive and multiply in large quantity not because they are smart, but because of the Evolution by Mother Nature. Since the evolution is a long time process, we may say that “Time will eventually heal the wounds & solve all the problems”.

PS: I went to Kaiser for physical checkup on January 11. When I got out around eleven o'clock & passed by the register desk, I saw the digital clock on the wall showing 01 11 11, 11 11 11. In other words, I got eleven "1" time wise. So I hit eleven 1 in total. You have to wait until November 11 to supersede this.