One-Liner Salad

Today on campus, I walked by one of the group study rooms which are all outfitted with a dry-erase board, which btw are not eco-friendly. But anyway, written on one of the dry-erase boards was a quotation from Ghost in a Shell. I played the computer game a bit, but also saw the movie. It went:

"A copy is just an identical image. There is the possibility that a single virus could destroy an entire set of systems, and copies do not give rise to variety and originality. Life perpetuates itself through diversity..."

One thing I can never discredit from my experience of anime is the fact that the 'good ones' are often laden with little profundities. This one hit home as I feel that I am on the verge of …*gasp* … a change?

Having lived in of London, I’ve seen a lot and I’ve listened to a lot of different perspectives from all walks of the world. I’ve learned a bit in addition to new trade skills.

I really know that the “sweet is not as sweet without the sour.” I’ve tasted failure here and I know it’s a good ingredient in any recipe.

I’m not so skeptical anymore to believe that all saints have a past nor am I so naïve to believe that all sinners have a future. I’ve been down that road and I’ve seen how it ends.

I know how pain makes us make bad decisions, and that we should never let a crisis go to waste.

I know how a little bit of knowledge is often a dangerous thing, and that we resist change because it invalidates years of earlier behavior.

I’ve learnt how to balance my life by planning my days and leaving my nights to chance. In Girona, finding the Roman walls by accident with Tangie is still one of my favorite moments here.

I’ve learned that I am not being persecuted every time I’m contradicted. Diverse interactions strengthen my knowledge base, either by testing it or demolishing anachronisms.

Batman Justice

Two competing definitions.

1) Justice is when people get what they deserve.
2) Justice is harmony among people.

Examples:

1) Joe Chill gets the death penalty for murdering Bruce Wayne's parents. Eye for an eye.
2) Joe Chill gets parole if he provides incriminating evidence on a big mob boss. This for that.

Rationale:

1) Bruce Wayne gets satisfaction for the death of his parents by seeing Joe Chill executed. Since Bruce Wayne was the one who was hurt, therefore he is the proper beneficiary of Joe Chill's death.
2) Bruce Wayne's satisfaction comes second to what is good for society (many other people). The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (Spock), therefore society is the property beneficiary of justice.

Commentary:

When apologists make society the proper beneficiaries of justice, it can often leave those who were violated without any personal satisfaction. Eg: what is good for society may not be good/satisfying for Bruce Wayne. On the flip side, what is good for Bruce Wayne may not be what is best for society to function as a whole. Eg: Bruce Wayne is satisfied, but society still suffers from the mob boss being at large.

What to do?

Of course the masses win. It's the enlightened way of utilitarian thinking. By releasing Joe Chill, a great number of people benefit, therefore Bruce Wayne is gonna have to bench his dissatisfaction.

I would argue that Joe Chill's fate should be in the hands of Bruce Wayne. He can have Joe killed, or he can strike a deal to release him if he testifies against the mob boss. I don't think society has the right to take away that satisfaction. Sure some would argue that Bruce Wayne's satisfaction is narrow and that he is selfish for demanding death instead of helping out the city; however, (if selfishness is a bad word) isn't it equally selfish for society to demand its own satisfaction over that of Bruce Wayne's?

Society doesn't ask Bruce Wayne to give up that satisfaction though. They often don't because personally, it would be satisfying to see Joe Chill executed or sit in a prison cell for the rest of his life. It's always the middle man that preaches society. The Lawyer, the salesman, the politician, the evangelist.

1) The lawyer argues that society is better served by giving Joe Chill parole in exchange for testimony.
2) The life insurance salesman argues that the monthly premiums are there to protect your family and it's selfish to want to keep that money for your own personal consumption.
3) The politician tells high-income earners that society is also the proper beneficiary of your labor. You make 100 bucks, 20 of that needs to help those who cannot help themselves.
4) The evangelist tells you that you are your bother's keeper, therefore you must provide for them even though it will cause you privations. It is sinful to live well when others suffer.

Never do you see any of these four people saying that your sacrifices/privations/levies are for them. Oh no, it's always for the great good. Those who can produce are asked to give to those who can not, otherwise they are demonized as being selfish and for wanting to enjoy their own life and labor.

Best Scenario:

Bruce Wayne commutes the death sentence to life in prison in exchange for mob information. If Joe Chill is truly reformed, he should offer up that information for the great good of society.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Obama to the AMA

His full presentation is here so you can't say that I'm taking things out of context.

"Our costly health care system is unsustainable for doctors like Michael Kahn in New Hampshire, who, as he puts it, spends 20 percent of each day supervising a staff explaining insurance problems to patients, completing authorization forms, and writing appeal letters; a routine that he calls disruptive and distracting, giving him less time to do what he became a doctor to do and actually care for his patients."

-- This is a matter of organizational efficiency. He needs to bring on a specialist who can explain these things better to patients so that Dr. Kahn can treat more patients. I assure you, there are plenty of college graduates that can be trained to do this for cheap! Lots of clinics already do this.

"First, we need to upgrade our medical records by switching from a paper to an electronic system of record keeping. And we have already begun to do this with an investment we made as part of our Recovery Act."

-- The first thing I agree with in this entire speech. Let's be more efficient! It's like going green for real estate developments. People will go green once they realize that it's profitable in the long run!!!

"The second step that we can all agree on is to invest more in preventive care so that we can avoid illness and disease in the first place. That starts with each of us taking more responsibility for our health and the health of our children. It means quitting smoking, going in for that mammogram or colon cancer screening. It means going for a run or hitting the gym, and raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside.

It also means cutting down on all the junk food that is fueling an epidemic of obesity, putting far too many Americans, young and old, at greater risk of costly, chronic conditions. That’s a lesson Michelle and I have tried to instill in our daughters with the White House vegetable garden that Michelle planted. And that’s a lesson that we should work with local school districts to incorporate into their school lunch programs."

-- I AGREE!!! Healthcare costs correlate with obesity in the country.

"Building a health care system that promotes prevention rather than just managing diseases will require all of us to do our part. It will take doctors telling us what risk factors we should avoid and what preventive measures we should pursue."

-- I agree! This part of the speech is exactly the kind of reform we need.

"It is a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care; that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients even if you can’t spend much time with each; and gives you every incentive to order that extra MRI or EKG, even if it’s not truly necessary. It is a model that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession – a calling – to a business.

That is not why you became doctors. That is not why you put in all those hours in the Anatomy Suite or the O.R. That is not what brings you back to a patient’s bedside to check in or makes you call a loved one to say it’ll be fine. You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers. You entered this profession to be healers – and that’s what our health care system should let you be."

-- Obama contradicts himself on this one. IF DOCTORS ARE PUSHING FOR MORE QUANTITY TO MAKE MORE MONEY, THEN OBVIOUSLY THEY DIDN'T ONLY ENTER THIS PROFESSION TO BE HEALERS! DUH! Doctors make a lot of money and if for a second you think that all those pre-med applications aren't also driven by the 300k paychecks then you're really really naive. Too bad no doctor will admit this. It's too shameful to what to heal and make a profit. Besides doctors also make these extra tests because they're worried about making mistakes. It's better to be safe than sorry.

On Humor

Schadenfreude, the tendency to gain pleasure from another's misfortune.

(Literally translated from German, it means "bad joy.")

Sounds sinister.

It was psychoanalysis guru Sigmund Freud who theorized that all humor has to do with a sense of superiority. We find it funny when a character in a sitcom walks into a wall, because that person feels pain and we do not. And Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" theory implies that we might instinctively rejoice when one of our rivals falls off the evolutionary ladder.

Philosophia: A young man's perogative

May all your problems be philosophical (and good luck),
- Martin

I hated this signature from my professor. Philosophical problems are the source of moral contradictions! If all my problems are philosophical, then I'll be a walking hypocrite!!!! I'll lack consistency and I'll have the integrity of silly putty!!! Oh NOES! More on this later.

The other day, I was having afternoon tea with my flatmate and our discussion turned the corner to philosophical banter. Philosophy has always been my bible --the genesis of Plato, the psalms of Aristotle, the gospels of Rand, the revelations of Nietzsche, and so on. It's been my bedrock of rationale. I know all too well the face people reserve for philosophy majors. It's goes kinda like "ah... riiiiiight." However, I always feel that the major was an advantage, not a handicap. Aside from acts of impulse and intuition, deliberate action is a result of thought, and thoughts are rooted in philosophical rationale. Anyway, this is not what I want to write about.

The question that came up during tea was about why humans are here. In the same manner as polling questions, whenever you ask 'why' questions on human existence, you are framing the answer to be in the realm of morality. The purpose of human existence is a tired question like the genre of self-help books. There are too many answers leading into each and every direction (and everybody is an expert). Young people will typical espouse hedonism as the answer to human existence. Pleasure via drugs, alcohol, sex, clubbing, etc. HBO, MTV, and Snoop Dog have done a good job documenting pop culture. Other young people of my generation who haven't paid tribute to the Olympians of Hedonism fall into other minority sects. You have Hipsters, Goths, Emo kids, and the indie cherry-pickers of culture. The common denominator I've seen so far is an attempt at finding things to be meaningful.

I feel like the type casted republican yuppie when I write this-- I'm very much a disciple of self-responsibility and personal ambition. That's explains my distaste for government acts of paternalism; however, I'm not so naive anymore to think all people can manage their own lives well. Maybe this is why nanny states and government paternalism is justified. Anyway, I digress again.

Pondering questions of human existence seems to become more trivial the older we get. The demands of everyday life begin to take priority. How do I afford transportation, shelter, a family, and god willing, kids? My father did an excellent job as a provider. Not once did I ever have to worry about money when I was growing up. He's raised me through 2 recessions and I couldn't tell if we were in a recession at all. My parents married in 1978, and they just celebrated their 30 year anniversary last summer. My dad who promised my mom that he'd take her to Niagra Falls 30 years ago, finally took her there with my two brothers. Is this quest of finding a transcendent personal nirvana really all that or is the act of celebrating your 30th anniversary more meaningful? I vote for the latter.

I realize that hoping that 'all your problems [are] philosophical' is a very parental thing to say. It's anti-ascetic and anti-transcendent. It posits that it's better to live abundantly than to find this philosophical or spiritual nirvana. However, we should keep in mind that Elvis died abundantly taking a shit. I think he was happy?

Update

I haven't blogged in a while now. It's been busy but not really. Tomorrow is my last day at my 3 month long internship. I think my boss is happy with the work I did for her, and I will hopefully be able to count on her as a reference in the future. Working on sustainability has been interesting for me especially since I'm always interested in efficiency and profitability.

On a side note: if anybody is wondering out there, sustainable buildings do cost more, but they save on energy costs (depending on the price of oil) and they have lower rates of obsolescence. Investors haven't picked up on this fact yet as they're waiting for more results, but mark my words, sustainability will be the way of the future... way of the future... way of the future...the future...

I finally booked all the Three Wangs Eurotrip of 2009. London to Paris to Munich to Vienna to Venice to Rome. It's a 14 day blitz. If you ever go traveling in Europe, do check out a Eurail pass. It's cheaper than buying individual tickets. Lots of places to go, people to meet, and pictures to take.

Today, my friends and I decided on an impromptu trip to Cambridge. We always hear about the stuffy intellectuals from Oxford and Cambridge, and today I had a chance to finally see it. All I have to say is the home of Newton and Darwin is awesome! The city is quaint. It's got a nice small town feel to it without all the crazy traffic. Plenty of nice shops and the architecture is all very well preserved Gothic. Museums (as always) are free to admission; however, the real treats are outside walking around. It was a cloudy/rainy day, but thanks to Adobe Photoshop, I can turn showers into shine. Midas touch!



Here's the cheap trick I figured out:

• Go to edit colors on the Adjustments tab on photoshop.
• Go to Shadows first to work out the base colors. Make it heavy on red (+15), medium on green (+7), and weak on the yellow (-15). Then do the exact same on the midtones.
• Play with contrast and brightness and boom. You're done.
  
• Who needs a SLR, when you can completely cheat using photoshop? ;-)

Also, I saw Terminator Salvation tonight. Just as bad as the one right before it... and they're gonna be making two more just like it. I bored of how all war movies now shoot everything like Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan. Desaturate the color, add lots of dirt, make it so actors don't shave, light fires wherever possible, etc.

There's a tube strike in London right now, so tons of people are all crowding the buses. This is one of the reasons why public transportation sucks. You're at the mercy of the labor unions; however, I read in the newspaper that a rival union has stepped in and they are running a few of the essential trains. Tube worker union wants 5% increase in pay and a guarantee that nobody will be laid off. Most people are just trying to keep their jobs, and the train drivers want a pay raise?