Wealthiest Chinese Families

Xinhua News: The 0.1% of wealthiest families in China controls 41.4% of the total properties. The number of families that have more than $1 million properties rises from 121K in 2001 to 310k in 2006. The number places No. 5 in the world, following the US, Japan, the UK and Germany. The world wide figure is 9.6 million (0.7%) families with more than $1 million properties controls 33.9% of the total properties. In other words, the depth of the gap between wealthiest families and the rest of the society in China is 8.5 times deeper than the world average.

If We Don't Catch It, Nobody Does

"If we don't catch it, nobody does."

With 8 seconds left in the game and 1 point behind, LSU made a 22 yards filed pass for an ultimate super mega touchdown to win the game. They had a timeout, but didn't use it; instead they threw a 40 yards field goal. It doesn't matter anymore what in their mind, or are they crazy. What matters is that LSU beat Auburn Tigers 24-23. After a lost to Kentucky last week, LSU's national title aspiration is still alive.

Yet another memorable night in the Death Valley!

PKU Welcomes Incoming Student Party Members

The banner reads 'Beijing University Welcomes Incoming Student Communism Party Members'. The banner is hanged atop the south gate of Beijing University. What a shame for the most prestigious university in China to bow and lick a political party's ass in public. Perhaps for PKU faculty and staff, there's no better way to swear loyalty to the Party than humiliating oneselvs.

UN FOR TAIWAN

Blogger Yugan reported his private letters sent to overseas were stamped 'UN FOR TAIWAN', a political propaganda slogan sponsored by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The slogan is not backed by the government. Actually, it is prohibited from displaying at many government installations, although the ruling party is pushing hard. Yugan thought it's a violation of his rights by throwing words into his mouth (stamping opinion on his letters).

Eastern Asia countries are rich in history and culture, but new to ideas of modern democracy. With it's economic success and political freedom, Taiwan has been an exemplar of democracy for its neighbors. However, often an opposite example. Rulers of areas that are still under communism or dictatorship are able to ask their people the question: Do you want a democracy as demonstrated in Taiwan? The answer is often 'never'.

With all the political freedom and transparency, people have been able to watch the 24/7 soap operas of cat fight in Taiwan parliament where legislatures beating each one with chairs, tables and even tear gas grenades. People have been watch the elected president cursing, swearing and lying. By all means, a democratic Taiwan has done more harm than goods for the democratic movement in its neighbor countries, especially its motherland the mainland China.

The Happiest Chinese

Chengdu residents were seen playing Mahjong along the river in summer days. The curving colorful line formed by Mahjong tables winds up to dozens of miles in nearby Hongkou National Reserve.

According to an online survey published by the Xinhua on September 29, Chinese live in Chengdu, Sichuan are the happiest, followed by those who live in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The full list of top ten happiest city are:

Happiest City in China, 2007 Data

1. Chengdu, Sichuan
   
2. Hangzhou, Zhejiang
   
3. Qingdao, Shandong
   
4. Dalian, Liaoning
   
5. Kunming, Yunan
   
6. Suzhou, Jiangsu
   
7. Guilin, Guangxi
   
8. Xiamen, Fujian
   
9. Hong Kong
   
10. Dali, Yunan
    

Chengdu tops the list thanks to its beautiful landscape, leisure lifestyle, low price and low work pressure. It's also not a surprise that those who are living in fast pacing metropolitans such as Beijing, Tianjin or Shanghai were found not planing to move to any other places, because the could enjoy luxury of modern life.

An Open Letter to the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Project

Dear OLPC manager,

Thank you for your hardworking and the excellent idea of enabling information technology for millions of children born in underprivileged families. OLPC will be remembered something the technical field has done that put a positive compact to the progress of the whole world.

However, I want to make a suggestion to expand the countries that you implement the great idea, including which first comes to my mind, my home country China. Regardless how many Made-in-China product you have bought at Wal-Mart, China remains to be a poor country, to be specific, as poor as the average of those in Africa. The per-capital personal income of China is lower than half of African countries. And with the vast gaps between inland and the seashore cities, most Chinese families' income is far less than the average of those in Africa.

The government budget on education in China is a friction of the average of those in Africa. The Chinese people have been made in up by family-based investment, and with the help of generous donations on education from other Chinese people. There are many active education assisting programs supported by oversea Chinese that help poor kids to realize their dreams to read and write. If you can expand your project to include China in the receiving countries, I am sure it will have a great long lasting effect on the generation to come.

Many Chinese are ready to give on this worthy cause to needing children around the world. Having first hand experiences with prevailing poverty in rural China, they are also eager to help their countrymen if possible by all means. I wish you won't be misled by the $29.97 DVD-player you bought last week. Chinese workers and manufacturers made pennies out of it, while the greater share of profits go to designers, distributors and patent holders in the West.

Thank you for your time, and please give this proposal a thought.


Sincerely,
The Seagull

LSU's Computing Program Ranked 38th in the Nation

A study (1) published in the June 2007 issue of the ACM communication ranked LSU's computing graduate program the 38th in the nation, echoed a 1996 study (2) which placed LSU the 40th using different ranking methods.

• 1 MIT
  
• 2 U of Maryland
  
• 3 Carnegie Mellon University
  
• 4 Georgia Tech
  
• 5 Stanford
  
• ........
  
• 10 UC Berkeley
  
• ........
  
• 20 U of Minnesota
  
• ........
  
• 38 LSU
  
• ........
  
• 41 Harvard
  
• ........
  
• 50 New York University
  

Reference:
1.Ren and Taylor, Automatic and Versatile Publications Ranking for Research Institutions and Scholars, Commun. ACM, 50, 6(2007), 81-85;
2. Geist, Chetuparambil, Hedetniemi and Turner, Computing Research Programs in the US, Commun. ACM, 39, 12(1996), 96-99;