damn…
October 13, 2006
October 8, 2006
October 7, 2006
Inflation, what will happen in a hundred years?
I understand that a planed inflation can stimulate economy. The current monetary policy tries to keep the inflation low but avoids deflation. Since early 70s, paper money is not directly linked to gold or silver. What keep its value? Will paper money always worth less and less in the future, and it’s beneficial? Is it unavoidable that $100 bill in 100 years will only have the same purchase power as $50 today? That’s the destiny of market? Maybe we will see $1000, or even $5000 bills soon 😉
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October 4, 2006
Angels & Demons
Before Dan Brown became famous for his best seller Da Vinci Code, he wrote another bestselling mystery novel about Robert Langdon: Angels & Demons. In the novel, Landon and a beautiful lady, Vittoria, follow the "path of illumination" at the night of Papal election, trying to dig out the secrete group illuminati. The path is directed by the statues of angels in churches. However, a "demon" always sits beside the angel, disguising the real path. (Disclaimer: this is not a real plot of the novel. Interested people please click here for the true story.)
However, this topic is not about the novel, nor is it about religion. It’s about mortal human beings. In my opinion, like in many religions, human is the unity of angel and demon (like camerlengo?). Sometimes we are more like angles, sometimes we are not. So, we may want to tell good from bad, right from wrong, angels from demons. However, we must also realize that the notion of "good", "right", "angel" differs from person to person. It can be best illustrated by the recent head to head "debate" between Chavez and Bush in the United Nations speeches.
This is the topic to express my feelings, about me, about you, about everyone else, in an imprecise manner.
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October 3, 2006
杂论
随笔？杂谈？不，是杂论。它杂，任何题目都可以谈。但不像随笔，随手拈来，挥笔而下。它又论，论述一个观点，表达一个思想。有时它先叙后论，叙论结合。有时它有叙无论，论于读者心中。这，就是杂论。
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September 30, 2006
Does SK-II have excess amount of chromium?
Recently, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine discovered trace amount of chromium and neodymium in SK-II skin care products. Then we saw all kinds of news about the refund and the unfair waiver form etc. I don’t know anything about this brand of cosmetics. But I happened to research the amount of chromium that’s needed by a human, for a completely different reason.
I found most vitamin and mineral supplements (e.g. Centrum) have chromium. A warning was posted on the label: diabetes or hypoglycemia patients need to consult doctor before taking the supplements. Why? I googled the web and seemed to have found the answer.
It is generally believed that chromium is an essential trace mineral for human body, while excess intake of chromium may have several undesired effects. However, different sources draw different conclusions.
UC Berkeley Wellness Letter presents a negative view about chromium [1]: There’s little evidence that chromium deficiency is widespread. Some very preliminary research suggests that chromium picolinate can reduce blood sugar in people with Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. But that’s a far cry from a reliable treatment for diabetes, which is not a chromium-deficiency disease. There is no good evidence backing chromium picolinate as a weight-loss aid, a muscle-builder, or a way to reduce blood cholesterol levels. This new evidence does suggest that it may have serious side effects. Nobody should take chromium picolinate, especially not young people.
However, other sources suggest differently. Briggs presents a double blind study in China [2]. The result indicates that daily intake of 1,000 mcg chromium have shown consistent improvement on type II diabetes. Similar results have been obtained by scientists at Agriculture Department’s Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center. A chemical explanation is also presented [3]. Because chromium may potentially treat diabetes, it may interfere with other drugs. This explains the warning message on the bottle of supplements.
Different agencies cannot agree on the exact daily consumption amount as well. The FDA has not evaluated the daily intake value. The Food and Nutrition Board of the NRC has recommended a “safe and adequate” range for dietary chromium of 50 to 200 mcg per day [4]. But this number is argued by other agencies. Most supplements consider 80 to 150 mcg as 100% daily suggested value, with the amount for men less than women. Some research indicates the US population have chromium deficiency [2], while others conclude otherwise [1].
The absorption rate varies a lot for different forms of chromium. Again, different researches result differently. One research showed that 40% of chromium picolinate, 10% of chromium nicotinate, and 1% of chromium chloride can be absorbed [5]. It is very different from another research, which concludes that the absorption rate for chromium picolinate is only 4% [2]. Most mineral supplements have chromium chloride. It means even though one pill of supplement has about 100 mcg chromium chloride, the actual absorbed amount is only 1 mcg.
Another form of chromium, hexavalent chromium, is toxic. Fortunately, it does not exist in food.
Let’s get back to the cosmetics. It is discovered that several major brand of skin care products have between 0.5 mg to 5 mg chromium per kilogram of skin care products. That is equivalent to 0.5 mcg to 5 mcg chromium per gram, which is the normal consumption per day. This number is well below the US daily suggested value. As of now, I have not found any information about the type of chromium compound found in the cosmetics, nor is the amount regulated by Chinese administrations.
[1]: UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, Aug. 1996, June 1999, June 2003.
[2]: Chromium Steels the Body Against Diabetes, Nutrition Science News, Feb. 1999.
[3]: Coffee, Spice, Wine, Science News, May, 2004, Vol 165, No. 18, p. 282.
[4]: National Research Council. Recommended dietary allowances. 10th ed. Washington (DC): National Academy Press; 1989. p 241-2.
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September 28, 2006
Economics…
Don’t know why, don’t know how… I’m suddenly interested in economics… actually that was a year ago… still, now, I’m a novice. But I’m reading economics history, which I loaned from a friend. And more importantly, I’m going to read more… Interesting enough, I’m now reading wikipedia on the internet… just type in a key word and read the description… I’m quite surprised on the amount of information it provides… it’s one secret to kill time in work 😉
So.. as you can expect, this my notebook to scratch everything about economics… and I do expect some experts would answer my questions…
later…
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September 26, 2006
儿时轶事
有人说，在中国相隔两年出生的人就会产生代沟，以此来形容中国变化之快。我觉得这种说法有些言过其词。可我们必须承认的是，我们并不能完全理解在改革开放轰轰烈烈进行中出生的人的心境，也不能真正体会在十年浩劫中度过童年的人的辛酸。我们并不需要羡慕前者而同情后者。一个时代有一个时代的酸甜苦辣，喜怒哀乐。
几年前，一位朋友发给我一段网络广播：出生于七十年代。其实这更适用于在七十年代末和八十年代初出生的人。在此我谨以这段广播作为引子，引出我儿时的回忆，引出具有时代烙印的琐事。
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September 24, 2006
Freestyle writing
Freestyle writing, as the name indicates, means to write at will with no specific topic. The writing may also be spontaneous, which means I will make more mistakes… Please remind me if you ever find one. Thanks in advance.
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September 20, 2006
My 9.11
September 2001, I just started my second year of Ph.D. study at Princeton University. The University sits in a quite little town 50 miles south of New York city, a town just escapes the crowd of the metropolitan, but is still convenient for a day trip. I just started my research projects, which were in collaboration with NEC lab, America. I was required to go to the lab once a while to do some experiments. The lab was not far from the University, only 12 minutes driving. However, at that time, I did not have a driving license, nor a car. How can I get to the lab? The answer is — bike. Sept. 11 2001, Tuesday, I planed to bike to NEC lab. After having a light breakfast, I packed my lunch and headed to NEC lab. When I biked near the math department, I met a friend. The first word he said was “Do you know that the world trade center was hit by a plane?”.
“Really?” I asked. It was the first time I heard the story, very brief and vague. What kind of plane? Was it serious? Those questions were haunted in my head. I hesitated for a while, weighting the news, but I still decided to continue the trip. I had planed the trip for days, and should not be disrupted by an unclear message.
The bike route was surprisingly long, a lot longer than the car route. I biked on sand trails, crossed multiple bridges, as well as a major highway. 50 minutes later, I finally arrived at the lab. The lab was surprisingly quite. Only a few cars were parked outside. The entire 4-storey building seemed empty. I did not meet anyone on the way to my cube. Nobody was in the kitchen as well. A secretary’s desk was a few steps away from my cube. She was not there, but the radio on her desk was constantly broadcasting live news in low volume. Later on when I walked around to look for people, I only saw a few. They were all walking in the hallway and quickly disappeared around the corner. It was definitely not an ordinary day. To be honest, the scene was a bit scary.
I wanted to head back immediately, but that would waste several days’ planning, and 50 minutes biking. I tried to calm down and do some research, but I could not help reading the news on the computer: four planes were down, twin towers collapsed. News were updated in real time. I had too many questions in mind, too many questions unanswered. As a result, I did not do any research in the morning. At lunch time, I quietly finished my packed lunch box in the kitchen, alone. Then, I seated in my cube for a while, became even more uneasy. The radio still murmured in the background, but nobody showed up. Finally, I made the decision to go home.
Again after an hour’s biking, I got home at Annex. Immediately I turned the TV and computer on. I was a bit worried about my host family. My host father used to work in world trade center. But fortunately, his company moved to Jersey city earlier in the year. Still, I wrote them an email asking for their situation. They replied in a couple of hours. It was really fortunate. My host mother was in world trade center the week before to take classes, but both of them were fine that day. I was a little relaxed after reading the email.
I spent the rest of the day in front of the computer, or TV, or both. At that time, all major TV networks refrained from broadcasting the terrible scenes. I no longer saw the crashing of UA175 on the south tower, the collapse of the twin towers, even the flamed towers or Pentagon. Nothing really was new. However, I still constantly reading and watching the updated news till late at night.
After midnight, I fell asleep in my little cozy room at Annex, unawaring that the world was no longer the same.