Geeky Gospels

Hugo Barra, Google's VP for Android left the company to join Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi.

Hugo's girlfriend Amanda Rosenberg now officially converted to Sergey Brin's girlfriend.

Sergey Brin is the cofounder of Google. A spokesperson for Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki had confirmed today that the couple had split but 'remain good friends and partners.' The GLBT community community protested the lighthearted use of the term 'partners'. A divorce is estimated at around $20 billion for this couple.

As a result, now both founders of Google owns an asian lover, officially.

The Chinese media aliken the fiasco to the Wang Lijun - BoGu Kailai - Bo Xilai romance. Mr. Bo is a member of 25 people CCP politburo and the Governor of Chongqing. Wang lijun is the deputy mayor and police chief of Chongqing. BoGu Kailai is the wife of Bo Xilai and lover of Wang Lijun. When the romance went sour, BoGu tried to arrest Wang, and Wang fled to the United State's Consulate in Chengdu. Bo was tried on incompetent leadership as Wang's boss this month in Jinan.

Not every love story had a happy ending. The Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un's ex-girlfriend singer Hyon Song-wol was executed by machine guns with her family members on watch on August 17. Hyon and a number of her colleagues of the Unhasu Orchestra were accused of producing and watching pronographic materials. Kim's wife Ri Sol-ju was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra.

As it had proved in time, love is a very costly business, sometimes fatally dangerous.

Minor Embarrassment to The US Higher Education

Mike Adams is a professor at University of North Carolina at Wilmington. A liberal commentator Edward proclaimed that Professor Adams was 'the biggest embarrassment to Higher Education in America'. Professor Adams wrote this letter in reply:

Dear Edward:

I want to take the time to thank you for writing and telling me that I should be fired from my position as a tenured professor because I am “the biggest embarrassment to higher education in America.” I also want to thank you for responding when I asked you exactly how you arrived at that conclusion. Your response, “because you insist that marriage requires one man and one woman,” was both helpful and concise.

While I respect your right to conclude that I am the biggest embarrassment to higher education in America, I think you’re wrong. In fact, I don’t even think I’m the biggest embarrassment to higher education in the state of North Carolina. But since you’re a liberal and you support “choice” – provided we’re talking about dismembering children and not school vouchers for those who weren’t dismembered – I want to give you some options. In fact, I’m going to describe the antics of ten professors, official campus groups, and invited campus speakers in North Carolina and let you decide which constitutes the biggest embarrassment to higher education.

1. In the early spring semester of 2013, a women’s studies professor Marilyn Chamberlin and a psychology professor Hal Herzog at Western Carolina University co-sponsored a panel on bondage and S&M. The purpose of the panel was to teach college students how to inflict pain on themselves and others for sexual pleasure. When you called me the biggest embarrassment in higher education, you must not have known about their bondage panel. Maybe you were tied up that evening and couldn’t make it.

2. At The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, there is a feminist professor who believes that women can lead happy lives without men. That’s nothing new. But what’s different is that she thinks women can form lifelong domestic partnerships with dogs and that those relationships will actually be fulfilling enough to replace marital relationships with men. I can’t make this stuff up, Ed. I don’t drop acid. Well, at least not since the late 1980s. But I promise this story is real and not an LSD flashback.

3. At Duke University, feminists hired a “sex worker” (read: prostitute) to speak as part of an event called the Sex Workers Art Show. After his speech, the male prostitute pulled down his pants, got down on his knees, and inserted a burning sparkler into his rectum. While it burned, he sang a verse of “the Star Spangled Banner.” I believe that stripping incident was almost as embarrassing as the other one involving the Duke Lacrosse team.

4. A porn star Tristan Taormino was once paid $3,000 to give a speech at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The topic was “safe sodomy.” After her speech, they sold autographed butt plugs to students in attendance. I’m not sure whether the ink could contribute to rectal cancer. I’m no health expert. But I do know it was pretty darned embarrassing when the media picked up on the story.

5. A few years ago at UNC-Chapel Hill, a feminist group built a large vibrator museum in the middle of the campus quad as a part of their “orgasm awareness week.” I think that was probably the climax of the semester, academically speaking. But they certainly weren’t too embarrassed to display a vibrator that was made out of wood back in the 1920s. Keep your batteries charged, Ed. We’re about halfway done.

6. A feminist administrator at UNC-Wilmington sponsored a pro-abortion event. During the event they sold tee shirts saying “I had an abortion” to students who … well, had abortions. That’s right, Ed. The students were encouraged to boast about the fact that they had killed their own children. That’s how the UNC system is preserving the future of our great Tar Heel state.

7. The following semester, that same UNCW administrator sponsored a workshop teaching students how to appreciate their orgasms. I learned art appreciation in college. Today, college kids are taught orgasm appreciation. I will let you decide whether that’s an embarrassment to higher ed., Ed.

8. A few years ago, a UNCW English professor posted nude pictures of under-aged girls as a part of an “art exhibit” in the university library. The Provost Brian Chapman then ordered the nude pictures to be moved away from the library and into the university union. This decision was made after several pedophiles had previous been caught downloading child pornography in the university library just a few yards away from the location of the display. The English professor was incensed so she asked the Faculty Senate to censure the provost for violating her “academic freedom.” The faculty senate sided with the feminist professor. The provost was later pressured to leave the university.

9. A different feminist professor Lynn Snowden at UNCW accused a male professor of putting tear gas in her office. She was later caught putting her mail in a microwave oven. She did this because she thought people were trying to poison her with anthrax and that the oven would neutralize the toxins. She was not placed on leave for psychiatric reasons. Instead, she was designated as the university’s official “counter terrorism” expert.

10. And then there is Mike Adams. He thinks marriage is between a man and a woman.

So those are the choices, Ed. You can simply write back and tell me which of these professors, groups, or guest speakers has caused “the biggest embarrassment to higher education” – either in North Carolina or in America altogether. Or you can just concede that our system of hire education is the real embarrassment because it has been hijacked by radical feminism. And please pardon any puns – especially those that take the form of ms-spelled words.

On a side note, professor Adams, a criminologist, has good reasons to be suspicious on the direction where the US Higher Education is going. When he was passed over for a promotion to full professor at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, he learned that his boss Dr. Kimberly Cook, the chairwoman of the school's Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, described her ideal candidate for a teaching position at the department as 'a lesbian with spiked hair and a dog collar.'

"American Professor" Spoke out on Academia Issues

Dr. Kaibin Xu, an assistant professor of Temple University, wrote in Chinese media regarding academia issues in the US, illustrated with his own experience.

Dr. Xu was not a stranger to be seen making public comments regarding testy issues in China when they were in-need. A few years back, when a Chinese professor was disciplined after student informants tipped the authority, the country was shocked on using students to spy on their professors. Dr. Xu published an article in Chinese media, self-described as an 'American Professor", defended the authority by testifying the same would have happened in a US classroom.

Recently, amid outcries on tightened control in universities across China, Dr. Xu spoke on academia life in the US. Again, his article was full of inaccurate information, in some places, incorrect information.

On racial tension:

我第一次来美国的时候，在洛杉矶机场转机。在候机厅一看，觉得不对，在那些坐在一起聊天的人群中，怎么白人都是和白人在一起，黑人和黑人在一起，连一个白人和黑人混在一起的都看不见呢？

I was shocked upon arrival at the LAX. Not even a single occasion did I witness a black and a white talking to each other.

Dr. Xu described a segregated airport terminal at LAX, where no single black spoke to white and vice versa, upon his arrival to the US around year 2000. Admittedly there are still large room for improvement, however you would not observe a busy terminal full of passengers where people of different skin colors did not mingle in the 21 century, not in Los Angeles.

About left-liberals:

美国的人文社科主流学者都是自由左翼为主，连这些学者都对黑人有根深蒂固的歧视，

Mainstream scholars in Humanities are left-liberals, who bear deeply rooted discrimination against Blacks.

I bet most 'left-liberals' would reject this serious accusation.

On public v. private:

由于公立学校从小学到高中普遍差，这些学生成绩以及各方面的情况也就不好，也很难考到好大学。

From K-12, public schools suffered from poor quality. Students attending public schools had great difficulties to get in good universities.

The great majority of American youth went to public schools, many with excellent quality. The great majority of students enrolled by top-tier universities graduated from public schools.

On the social hierarchy in a department:

3年前我曾对系里的硕士项目有些不好的方面提出5－6条改进意见，当时几个教授都显得很吃惊，这是因为他们习惯了没有人提出批评意见，而我一个博士刚毕业不久、新来的教授，就提出了那么多意见。

Three years ago, when I made a few suggestions regarding Master level education, several professors at the scene were startled for my candidness. They have been used to kissing up to the administration. How come a new comer like me dare to offer suggestions?

Anyone familiar with US academia would know this could not be true, unless the Temple University was not in the US.

Regarding academia freedom:

所谓的“教授治校”也就成了空话

"Faculty runs the school" became an void statement

Having gone through the US education system, and having been a faculty at a decent university, Dr. Xu should have known better. Faculty does not run the school, the administration does. On the other hand, professors controls the academic side, for example the curriculum.

Overall, Dr. Xu's Chinese publications painted a gloomy snapshot of the US academic world, which in every way smells like communist propaganda. A curious reader would wonder whether Dr. Xu truly believes in what he wrote, or were those words simply quick ways to make up for a poorly paid job. Dr. Xu's infomercial pieces might appear deceptive to many Chinese who have not set foot in the US, regretfully.

Hotel Chain Sued Customer on Objective Review

A Canadian hotel is sued a customer for an objective review. That is, the hotel is not disputing the description of the customer's review. However, it filed a $95,000 lawsuit after the customer refused to take down his review.

On the night of 4/26/2013, Laurent Azoulay was awoke midnight by bedbug bites from his room at the Hotel Quebec at 3115 on Avenue des Hotels in Quebec City. Azoulay trapped a few in a glass bottle and took it to the front desk. Azoulay asked for another room. With the hotel full, the manager offered him to be moved to another hotel in the area with a $40 inconvenient fee. Azoulay was not happy, so he wrote a review on the popular traveling site Trip Advisor.

The offending review, which entitled 'bedbugs in our bed' is quoted here:

At first this hotel looks ok....until you wake up in the middle of the night at 3:00AM because you've been scratching all over and realize your bed is infested with BED BUGS!

What a nightmare! When I reported the situation to the managing stuff, there were no emergency to handle the situation because the decision maker was not available during the week end and it was a Saturday.

Instead they offered to transfer my son and I to a hotel nearby where a room was available because they were concerned I was going to cause Mayhem.

They finally offered to investigate the room despite the 4 BED BUGS I had contained in a glass and pictures and videos I had showed them.

I was supposed to stay one more night but instead chose to move to a hotel nearby; turned out to be cleaner-up to date-bigger room- and cheaper rate and that was the Holiday Inn Express down the road at 3145 Avenue de Hotels.

Beware of BEDBUGS! If you are looking for a scratch free night sleep, stay elsewhere, you will be doing you and your loved ones a favour! Trust me...and that's why the Internet is a great tool!

The Hotel Quebec is a member of the chain les Hotels Jaro. The legal threat is counter effective as many potential customers will now have to think again whenever they read any review regarding this chain. We will never know how many people will withhold their negative experience with hotels in the Jaro chain in fear of lawsuits.

Seeing bedbugs have become more often in recent years in major city hotels. However, suing a paid customer for saying so must be the first case.

A larger issue is with the review site. The Trip Advisor is made by customer reviews. The website itself is protected by the DMCA's safe harbor clause. However, if the Trip Advisor does not protect the reviewer even when it was obvious that the review was objective, then readers will not be able to trust their review system.

Readers at the Trip Advisor initiated a discussion. However, many posts had been removed by the official moderators. The moderators used a standardized template referring to 'the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines', without explaining which specific information were removed and why.

An even larger issue is whether one can speak truly about a business online. The Jaro hotel admitted the bedbug problem as reported by Azoulay, but insisted that it was an isolated incident. The lawsuit was about the customer's refusal to take down the negative review, which allegedly hurt the business (rightfully so, by the way). The prospect of the lawsuit is too vague to tell, but in the least it achieved one mission: to threaten any further negative reviewers with an insurmountable legal bill.

Chinese Couple Detained in Qatar on Daughter's Death

A Chinese American couple Matthew and Grace Huang from southern California were detained in Qatar on suspicious death of their adopted daughter Gloria.

According to Huangs's defense team, 8 year old Gloria died suddenly on unknown reasons. At the time, she had not been eating anything for 4 days. The Huangs alleged that it was a habitual behavior formed when the girl was in an orphanage in Ghana before she was adopted in 2009. Gloria had showed a pattern of not eating for days, then suddenly start sensational binge eating with anything she could find, often in trash cans or from strangers' hands.

The Huangs have all of their 3 children adopted from Africa. Gloria is the middle one, between two brothers. The Huangs had been jailed for 6 months, and their murder with intent trial just began. Qatari police believed Gloria was starved to death. They also believe the Huangs have been in human trafficking business and possible human organ harvesting.

The defense team in the US prepared documents with medical proof that Gloria's rather bizarre behavior was not uncommon, and that it was unlikely that she died of starvation.

For Chinese, what is intriguing is the rationale given by the Qatari prosecutors behind the charge. Law enforcement officers raised questions about why the Huangs would adopt children who were not "good looking" and who did not share their "hereditary traits". Police suspected the Huangs must have hidden evil agenda on these children, especially since they did not send them to schools. ped

Another parent would not have allowed their children not eating for days, not even once. However, we would not second guess Huang's thoughts and their devotion to God as well as their believing in power of supreme blessing.

Although the defense team solicited most authoritative testimonies from famous pediatricians and built their defense on scientific fact findings, it will be a difficult task to challenge opposing common senses.

Award Winning Psychology Professor's Hidden Past

When a curious small town reporter in Georgetown, Texas Googled a local crime 46 years ago, it turned out the murder of his own family, father, mother and 17-year-old sister, was a beloved professor in a renowned mid-west college.

Professor James St James has been teaching at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois since 1976.

Dr. James St James, whose original name being James Wolcott, walked away from the murder using a claim of insanity. After being released from a mental institution, he changed his name.

On the night of August 4, 1967, James Wolcott, then 15 year old, shot his father Dr. Gordon Wolcott while he was reading in the living room. He then walked into the the room of his sister Libby, and shot her in the face and chest. His mother Elizabeth was shot in her chest, and left dead on her bed. James Wolcott would then ran out and cried help, claiming some intruder killed his entire family.

The crime was planned ahead one week ago, but didn't sustain a following police investigation, when James Wolcott confessed to what had happened. There had been many reasons he hated his family, James told police. His mother chew her food loud. His sister had a bad accent. His father would not let him to wear anti-war buttons. However, James was acquitted because he claimed that at the time he was high on airplane glue.

With an IQ of at least 134, James saw little trouble to beat the academic system with a Master's degree from University of Texas and a PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. St James landed a teaching job at the liberal arts college in Illinois in 1997. Dr. St James would be tenured and became the chair at the department of behavioral sciences.

Students consider him 'fantastic', 'awesome' and 'cool', and the University stands behind him after the revelation of his dark past.

Psychological study has gone through a long way since 1967. Newer research had pointed association between behavior and certain genes.

Retrospectively thinking, James Wolcott's insanity claim was insincere but genuine. With few exception, the last bound of an individual to his sanity would be his ties to his family members.

The authentic question is: can he ever retrieve his sanity, given what he had lost?

On the side of the reality, students are easy to be attracted to 'cool', but most parents would not.