I'm in my own last few days before an extended trip overseas. I can relate to what Mike went through recently, though I know I'll be back in a few months, so all my "last time for...." aren't permanent lasts.

 First thing on the agenda when I get 'home' in Thailand? An operation. Yeah, medical fix-em-up. I've managed to wait till this trip, and why did I wait, and not take care of the problem while here in the US you ask? Because I'm one of the millions of Americans without health insurance. So while most of you think this trip is to see my wife and family (and don't get me wrong, seeing Lena and my daughter and granddaughter are the primary reason for the trip) it's actually "medical tourism". I can't get my operation in the US, because I don't have the money for it. If the Thailand option weren't available to me, I'd put off the surgery until I had a crisis, and then it would be an ambulance ride to the ER, and if I survived, my credit would be ruined.

This is no way to run a country, folks. Especially one that thinks it's the best there is. Guess what.....we're not! 

In a move to woo multinational corporations to set up R&D centers in China and conduct with Chinese partners, Wu Bangguo, Chairman of China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, stresses that the Chinese government will protect the lawful rights and interests of all foreign investors and intellectual property rights holders in accordance with laws.

The move is part of the steps the Chinese government is taking to achieve the goal to turn China into an innovation-based country by 2020, Wu says in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of this year’s annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia.

“The Chinese government gives high priority to independent innovation,” Wu says.

The Chinese government has formulated the outline of the Medium and Long-term Scientific and Technological Development Program, which sets the targets for 2020, according to Wu.

The program contains three major goals: scientific and technological advances should contribute to over 60% of economic growth; dependence on imported technologies should be brought down to less than 30%; and third, research and development expenditures should increase to over 25% of GDP.

link 

And still you tell me, its a good idea to cap H1B visas at 65000 per year. Yeah. Let the rest go to China.

I know I am a very lucky man. I’m not addicted to drugs, except maybe chocolate.

I go regularly, for months at a time, without even an alcoholic drink.

And don’t feel deprived while doing without one.

Except maybe chocolate.

Oh the sweet.

melting.

on.

my.

tongue.

Except maybe chocolate.

I know I am a very lucky man.

And listening to hundreds of bullfrogs in the concrete-lined creek, I marvel at the wonders you miss when you pass by so quickly in your sound-dampening car....

and I round the corner and note the flags in front of the McDonald's are at half-mast. First thought: Who died? Second thought, no, don't tell me you lowered the flag for the students.

I understand it's a tragic day in Virginia. I empathize with family and friends of the innocent who lost their lives. I agree with those who suggest we should never again speak or write the name of the whacko who did this. I'm incredulous that a local newspaper columnist warns there may be a backlash against Asians because of this sick, twisted soul.

But did you lower the flags for the 60 killed in the market bomb blast in Baghdad? The latest 33 soldiers to die in Iraq on either side? The hundreds of Palestinians killed by missile attacks? The 22 lost in the latest tsunami (Solomon Islands)?

No. And it cheapens the symbology to do it for these 33 folks.

You might as well leave the flags down all the time. Someone is always dying tragically, unexpectedly, at the hands of others. Odds are good there will be another group dying soon, somewhere. Mourn them too.

It will take another eight months to determine whether he got the other correct say scientists analysing data from Nasa's Gravity Probe B satellite.

Gravity Probe B uses four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure two effects of Einstein's general relativity theory.

A scientist starts with a bulldozer, follows with a shovel, and then finally uses dental picks and toothbrushes to clear the dust away from the treasure. We are passing out the toothbrushes now William Bencze, Stanford University

One of these effects is called the geodetic effect, the other is called frame dragging. A common analogy is that of placing a heavy bowling ball on to a rubber sheet.

The bowling ball will sit in a dip, distorting the rubber sheet around itself in much the way a massive object such as the Earth distorts space and time around itself.

The data from Gravity Probe B's gyroscopes clearly confirm Einstein's geodetic effect to a precision of better than 1%.

The scientists from Stanford are still trying to extract its signature of frame-dragging from the data.

They plan to announce the final results of the experiment in December 2007, following eight more months of data analysis.

link 

Jim had a smile that said, “Gotcha!” and a laugh, low and quiet, that said, “It took you long enough to figure it out!”. He’d been back from Viet Nam over 10 years when we met. While I fancied myself liberal and educated about peace and war and all, I knew nothing. I’d no clue what horrors he had seen, what memories kept him from sleeping more than minutes at a time.

I only knew that he was scarred by his time overseas, forever marked with sadness, and mistrust of others. When he was crossed, real or imagined, it was immediately clear that he was capable of whatever measures were required to end the problem. Including death, if that were to be necessary.

That frightened me, a soft liberal who managed to evade the trauma of SE Asia by being born late enough to avoid the draft that had snared my friend. I made sure, after only a few demonstrations of the depth his anger could reach, to avoid making him angry with me.

I thought we had learned our lesson, back then. Movies, like “4^th of July”, tried to clue in the clueless about what life was like inside the heads of some vets. But we were so totally ignorant of their plight, so insensitive, that many of the most damaged become the invisible homeless in our town. Unable to cope, unable to fit back into society after being driven to such extremes during combat, many found solace with drugs, alcohol, or a gun barrel in their mouth. I thought we would never put our young through that kind of hell again. I was wrong.

Why didn’t we learn that invasion, the toppling of other governments, the insistence that our way of life be universal, will destroy our own society? Why didn’t we learn that we must live in peace with other religions, other races, other ways of seeing the world? Why did we give up our innate compassion? Why do we, especially now, deny our own beliefs of equality and fairness and opportunity? Put another way, what gives us the right? What have you done lately to show that you deserve to decide the fate of others living thousands of miles away? Why do you let our future, our young generation, be scarred and abused thousands of miles away? What can possibly be right about that?

and so I've been a little to busy lately to post. Please don't think I've abandoned this blog. And I do intend to continue it shortly. I'm not quiting.

By The Dalai Lama, A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night

Before we do anything, we should always ask ourselves whether we will be able to do it properly and complete it. If the answer is no, we should not start. Leaving tasks uncompleted creates a habit for the future. So once we have begun something, we should be sure not to go back on our decision. Self-confidence is not to be confused with pride. Pride is thinking highly of oneself without good reason. Self-confidence is knowing that one has the ability to do something properly and being determined not to give up. Ordinary beings are prepared to make a good deal of effort for relatively insignificant ends. We have promised to work for the immensely more important goal of liberating all beings, so we should cultivate great self-confidence, thinking, Even if I am the only one to do so, I will benefit all beings. --The Dalai Lama, A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night

while riding my bike home from work yesterday. It was still light out, because I was taking the evening off. I would be going in to work all day on Easter and get caught up, so tonight I could finally relax a small bit. I was just over a mile from home when, rounding a corner, I could see a smoky haze about a block ahead. Firefighters know when they see smoke. I slowed down on my bike, and tried not to breathe hard while riding through the murk. It really stunk, I thought, of tires. But more stuff too. I almost dialed the local dispatch to see what was burning. Turns out it's a salvage yard fire 50km (30 miles) upwind. The news called it "toxic" then neglected to say why or what to do about that.

Reminded me of Louis Black: Our government actually said the duct tape would protect you from chemical attack. How can you trust these people? 

But this time next month, I'll be looking to buy my doublestuffed oreos from the local 7-11, since it's the only air conditioned market in town, and thus serves the freshest of the packaged foods. Only I'll be riding through the smoke of trash fires, plastic and all, to get home.

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.

Just a different kind of poison. 

with Japan saying that it will use its Dollar FX reserve portfolio to make official payments rather than convert Jpy via commercial banks. Of the Usd 4.8 bn of overseas payments Jpy 570 bn) around 90% is made in Dollar. Overall, suggests a slight Usd-Jpy negative, although the relatively small amounts suggest that this will be minimal and swamped by other factors. Nonetheless, it is another way of seeking to make more productive use of burgeoning Fx reserves (by avoiding transactions costs0 and could set the lead for other countries.

I can hear it in your sotto voice.

What drama do we have here.

Some one dies. Some one has an accident. Some one loses. But Kat and Nancy go to school in a country where school’s not a given. Their future depends on navigating the tech world, from a world where tech is used but not understood.  In my business I deal with people seeing the US through new perspectives, as outsiders trying to blend in. I see it when I travel overseas, and see America from the outside. Women are increasingly striking out on their own, crossing oceans alone to find that pot of gold in America. And families too. They know they have to pay tax, at home they pay more. They still have the flow to send some $$$ back home.

Why do we limit H1B visas to 65,000 while our tech industry clamors for hundreds of thousands?

What possibly reason is there to hold back the US economy by limiting the influx of the next generation’s engineers? Would you rather the brightest minds, the next-gen code, get developed somewhere else, not here, because you held back the educated horde and diverted them to….China? The next hungry and developing superpower? Are you that scared of innovation?

The agreement was signed during a three-day visit to Russia by China's president Hu Jintao.

A small satellite developed by China will piggyback on the Russian launch of a spacecraft called "Phobos Grunt", probably in October 2009.

link