Michael

Interesting tidbits on intelligence and other subjects

2011-06-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

From Scientific American online magazine, June 2011:

"Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the Spanish Nobel-winning biologist who mapped the neural anatomy of insects in the decades before World War I, likened the minute circuitry of their vision-processing neurons to an exquisite pocket watch. He likened that of mammals, by comparison, to a hollow-chested grandfather clock. Indeed, it is humbling to think that a honeybee, with its milligram-size brain, can perform tasks such as navigating mazes and landscapes on a par with mammals. A honeybee may be limited by having comparatively few neurons, but it surely seems to squeeze everything it can out of them.

At the other extreme, an elephant, with its five-million-fold larger brain, suffers the inefficiencies of a sprawling Mesopotamian empire. Signals take more than 100 times longer to travel between opposite sides of its brain—and also from its brain to its foot, forcing the beast to rely less on reflexes, to move more slowly, and to squander precious brain resources on planning each step.

Human intelligence may be close to its evolutionary limit. Various lines of research suggest that most of the tweaks that could make us smarter would hit limits set by the laws of physics.
Brain size, for instance, helps up to a point but carries diminishing returns: brains become energy-hungry and slow. Better “wiring” across the brain also would consume energy and take up a disproportionate amount of space.
Making wires thinner would hit thermodynamic limitations similar to those that affect transistors in computer chips: communication would get noisy.
Humans, however, might still achieve higher intelligence collectively. And technology, from writing to the Internet, enables us to expand our mind outside the confines of our body."

How Simple Photos Could Be Used as a Test for a Conscious Machine [Contest]

Join Scientific American's contest to show why conscious humans best unconscious computers and win a recently authored book by renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch

By Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi | Monday, June 13, 2011 | 14

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?: To judge that this image is incorrect, a machine would need to be conscious of many things about the world (unless programmed for just such a photograph). Image: Geof Kern

The mystery of human consciousness appears routinely as one of the greatest science problems of all time. One way to get a grip on this seemingly ineffable property would be to build a conscious machine. It may be many years before that happens. But the overriding question, when someone does try, will be: how will we know whether that machine is really conscious—and not merely faking it?

Probing a machine for consciousness need not require an elaborate mathematical construct. In fact, it might derive from something as simple as a street photo snapped with a cell phone camera, or you could use photo editing software to devise an image that just about any human would recognize is irrational or nonsensical, but that even today’s smartest computers might pass over as reasonable.

With that in mind, Scientific American invites you to create a photo (or two) for our Great Consciousness Contest that is based on a challenge set out by two leading neuroscientists, Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi, in the magazine’s June issue. The contest is looking for photos or images that depict a nonsensical scenario that could be perceived as sensible by any existing machine that attempts to imitate the conscious reasoning abilities of a human.

The authors define consciousness here as an ability to understand whether a photograph depicts an image that makes sense based on knowledge of the world that most people share—general knowledge that no present-day computer is capable of storing and processing in the way people do. A person, for instance, knows that a keyboard belongs in front of a computer screen, whereas a potted plant in that spot does not.

A computer might be able to win at Jeopardy, but it doesn’t have the basic common sense to understand that something is just plain wrong with the off-kilter juxtaposition of an iMac paired with a geranium. Koch and Tononi describe similar examples in their article, "A Test for Consciousness," available to readers free of charge. Even a six-year old, for instance, can pinpoint the fundamental improbability of an ice skater on the rug in the living room, a transparent cow or a cat chasing a dog. Yet a computer doesn’t "know” these things about the world.

These absurd yet simple images devised by the authors to illustrate this distinction between conscious human and unconscious computer led us to the idea of a contest in which readers could contribute their own examples of pictures that might fool a machine. Entries of digital images that display illogical imagery similar to what is described above can be submitted to ScientificAmerican.com for judging by Koch and Tononi and Scientific American editors (see the rules below). Koch and Tononi are the judges because unfortunately a real machine that could be used to carry out such a contest does not yet exist.

Princess Mediterranean Cruise

2011-06-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

Notes to a friend on her upcoming trip of a same cruise.

I went back looking at my notes re. our Princess Mediterranean Cruise in 2008. Hopefully, some of this may be helpful on your upcoming trip.

Our trip started in Barcelona, Spain on Friday September 19, 2008 and ended in Venice, Italy on Oct 3, 2008. We flew home from Venice to Denver via Munich, Washing Dulles airport. The ports we visited were: Barcelona - Spain, Marseille - France, Livorno - Italy, Civitavecchia - Italy, Naples - Italy, Mykonos - Greece, Istanbul - Turkey, Kusadasi - Turkey, Athens - Greece, and Venice - Italy.

1. General suggestions: There will be lots of walking so comfortable shoes, socks, clothes are recommended. Long sleeve shirts, head scarf, long pants are required to visit St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome and mosques, etc, ... in Istanbul. Bring some moleskin if long walks irritate your feet. A pouch with lanyard to keep passport, money inside shirt would deter most pickpockets. A hat, sun screen, sun glasses would also be helpful. It should be noted that it can get hot in the Mediterranean countries in summer. I also suggest you exchange a couple hundred US dollars to Euros at Las Vegas bank before leaving since the exchange rate and fees overseas and on ship can be more expensive.

If you can arrive in Barcelona a day ahead of the departure it would be nice to look up places to stay in Barcelona in travel books - Barnes and Nobles - by Rick Steeves or Lonely Planet. These books list current information re. recommended places to stay and cost. Since you'll be outside a lot there is no need to stay at an expensive hotel.

On your departure package from Princess Cruises you should have details re. departure location. Use Google Translate to translate it to Spanish and print it out: we nearly got lost from our Barcelona hotel to the ship embarkation location since the taxi driver did not speak English nor knew the area well.

There were some rough seas from Naples to Mykonos and from Athens to Venice. If you get sea-sick easily bring some medication/patch for it. There will be lots of English speakers around to help out. Pick-pockets and small time thieves have been known to pretend to help tourists take their pictures and run away with their camera. Bring several camera memory cards to take lots of pictures. Don't forget to bring the camera's charger. If necessary, you should call your cell phone company to see if there is a limited package for international calls.

Food costs in Europe can be quite expensive: the sit-down price is different from the take-out. We took fruits and non-perishable muffins, cheese from the ship with us when we went out. A small back-pack is also recommended for food, maps, note book, and camera.

I also recommend to Google the places that you will be visiting ahead of time to read about what to see, history, .. to put everything you'll see in a good context.

2. Places to see:

Barcelona, Spain: It is famous as the Gothic center of Spanish Catalan. The most well-known artist is Antoni Gaudi. His works are all over the city. the most famous one is the on-going construction of the Sagrada Familia (the Church of the Holy Family). It is a must see. The city is easy to walk around. There are many shops, stores and the foods were quite reasonably-priced and good. If you can, please walk down the famous La Rambla in central Barcelona.

Marseille, France: We did purchase some excursions with Princess before leaving home. In Marseille we went on a tour to charming Provence. Walking around Provence and its market place was fun.

In Livorno, Italy the ship arrived in port at 7:00am and left port at 6:30pm. It was enough time for a trip to Florence [Firenze in Italian]. This is a must see. The Firenze Cathedral called il Duomo is an incredible place to visit. Pay several euros to climb the Campanile which is a structure attached to il Duomo: you'll never regret it. Also please visit the world-famous bridge Ponte Vecchio which was so beautiful that Hitler's generals refused to blow it up during WW II retreat. All are within walking distance to the Piazza delle Signoria which has a replica of Michelangelo's David. Make sure to enjoy some of Firenze famous gelato!

In Civitavecchia, Italy the ship arrived in port at 7:00am and departed at 6:30pm. It was enough time for an excursion to Rome. I would suggest to pay for the Rome excursion since it would expedite entrance to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel instead of long wait. The most famous sites you must [sorry about this emphasis!] see are the Colosseum, the Trevis Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and of course St. Peter's Basilica which is the Vatican itself.

In Naples, we took the high speed hydrofoil to Capri. Immediately we purchased a funicular [hillside tram] to go up to the Capri town. It was a beautiful place to stroll and to take pictures. We did not have time to see the famous Blue Grotto.

Mykonos, Greece: we walked from the ship to town. It was a pleasant long walk several miles. However, I would recommend to take the bus there. There are lots of beautiful island pedestrian paths all over the town. Buy souvenirs but make sure to bargain!!

Istanbul, Turkey: there were so many famous places to see there. We did not see the Topkapi Palace nor the Hagia Sophia and regret it. We went to the Blue Mosque which was very crowded. Women are required to have a head scarf. Plastic bags were freely given to put our shoes inside. It was a good visit but not great. You will be greeted by friendly merchants bringing you to their stores which are also their houses trying to sell you Turkish rugs. We were charmed by two brothers inviting us to visit the massive and beautiful basement floor of their home. Unless one knows much about rugs I'd not recommend to buy anything. Try some of their foods sold in stores along many streets nearby. We went to the underground Istanbul Cistern and was amazed by the water aqueduct system.

Kusadasi, Turkey: we took the Princess excursion to Ephesus. It was spectacular!! The second stop of the same excursion was the home purportedly where Mary, mother of Jesus lived on her final years was good. I bargained and paid 1 Euro [the owner wanted 3 Euros] to have our picture taken leaning on a Turkish camel. It was hot so take some water with you.

Athens, Greece: we hiked the long walk to the Acropolis. It is an incredible site to see. Again, it was very hot and a somewhat arduous hike so bring lots of water. Many pedestrian-only marketplaces had great food, drinks and at reasonable prices. There were also lots of stores selling souvenirs. Again, bargain away.

Venice, Italy: Make sure to be on the top deck of the ship when it enters Venice. It was very beautiful and [hopefully] the ship captain will play Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli's "Con te Partiro" (Time to say good-bye). You'll never forget it. You'll take the water bus (very inexpensive) from ship port to the Piazza San Marco! It is an unbelievable sight to marvel. Walk. Do not pay big bucks for the gondola rides. The food was spectacular. Get lost in the labyrinth of Venice and you'll love it.

Colorado Senate Bill 126

2011-02-13T20:40:00.001-08:00

I oppose and hope that Colorado Senate rejects SB 126 granting illegal immigrants the education privilege to pay in-state college/university tuition.

This bill, if passed, will be a new, added incentive for illegal immigration to our state. It will unfairly deny the much lower resident tuition to qualified students from outside of Colorado. Or to those left or leaving Colorado with their divorced parents for out-of-state jobs. In addition, there are possible several issues regarding the legality of this bill granting in-state tuition to children of federal immigration law-breakers.

Current Colorado severe fiscal constraint demands prudent and careful long-term control and management of resources. Colorado Senate Bill 126 will directly increase the budgetary deficit due to the financial subsidy to each in-state tuition-paying student.

Egypt uprising

2011-02-11T11:19:00.000-08:00

Feb 11, 2011. Almost to the day in 1979 the Iranian revolution took place. The Shah of Iran was overthrown. The very impressive military machinery was overpowered by Ayatolla Khomeini returning from France. And the rest is history: a theocratic dictatorship in Iran ever since. It is an irony that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its Supreme Leader Ayatolla Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i came out - on the same side with the USA - supporting the Egyptian revolution!

Quick notes:

1. Unthinkable events [the overthrow of the Saudi Royal family, a nuclear war/exchange, ...] are not as unthinkable as we'd like to believe. The connectedness of global events, news, telecommunications and the increasing power of a group of common individuals or people can accelerate events.

2. Many traditional intelligence gathering apparatus have not been successful to predict/monitor/understand this new type of political changes/upheavals.

3. The concern of the USA's long time allies (Israel, Saudi Arabia, ..) due to its fickle and "opportunistic" foreign policy will further exasperated.

4. Powerful, international news organizations such as CNN breathlessly makes news instead of reporting it. Their reporters seem so naive and optimistic for a democratic Egypt after the revolution. The instability and risk of major war/problems for the Middle East, our allies and our national interest are very real and sobering.

5. The first democratic election in Egypt may be its only and last one similar to what happened in Hamas-controlled areas or World War II Nazi election.

On reading "A mathematician plays the stock market" by John Paulos

2011-02-04T13:10:00.001-08:00

I am reading an interesting book "A mathematician plays the stock market" by John Allen Paulos. Paulos, a Temple University mathematics professor is the author of several best sellers including "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences", "Beyond Numeracy: Ruminations of a Numbers Man", "Irreligion: A Mathematician explains why the arguments for God just don't add up".

Here are some nuggets of wisdom I gleaned from "A mathematician plays the stock market".

"Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security." Paulos did not tell us not to invest in the stock market. He cautioned us about misunderstanding of applying mathematics to the stock market and investing. His humorous, interesting book includes explanation of scams, psychological blindness such as confirmation bias, and examples of investment mathematics mistakes and analyses. He admits to losing a bit of money himself during the dot-com boom in early 2000.

1. Psychological blindness. Paulos quoted John Maynard Keynes who likened the position of short-term stock market investors picking five prettiest out of hundred contestants in a newspaper. The rewards go to folks who correctly pick the contestants whom they think are most likely to be picked by other readers, and the other readers must try to do the same. This is what Paulos distinguishes between "Being right versus Being right about the Market". He then gave several interesting examples of mathematics involving game theory.

Other psychological blindness include emotional overreactions - the irrational exuberance- and despair. Paulos cited unfounded financial hype and unrealistic "price targets" which influence investors by putting an "anchoring effect" number to stock price.

2. The incoherent market pundits/analysts, blog and chat room noises. Many seemingly technical analyses are fundamentally wrong. There have been data mining and faulty attempts to discover investment scheme that supposedly worked in the past. An exhaustive search of the economic data on a United Nations CD-ROM in the mid-90s found the best predictor of the value of the S&P 500 stock index was - drum roll here - butter production in Bangladesh. He reminds us of the mathematically ignorant attempt to "decode" the Bible hidden codes to show that the September 11, 2001 event was "prophesied".

Paulos, through extensive but easy to follow mathematic examples in several chapters gave strong evidence that the technical analysis of trends, cycles, supporting and resistance stock price levels, waves, moving average are ridiculous and quasi-mathematical which seldom hangs together as a coherent theory. Many of current fads are just rehash of past failed theories; the Elliot wave theory to predict the behavior of stocks was based upon the Fibonacci number sequence. He boo-booed the claim that folks have made good money using the rules of technical analysis by saying that some other folks also make money in the stock market using strategies involving tea leaves and sun-spots!

Matterhorn and UnBroken

2010-12-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

Just finished "Matterhorn: A novel of the Vietnam War" by Karl Marlantes and "Unbroken: a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand. Felt so drained, shocked and sad.

Happiness project

2010-07-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

I've been reading "The Happiness Project: Or, Why I spent a year Trying to ..." by Gretchen Rubin. It is quite an interesting book. The eBook looks great on the iPad using B&N app. I

On sheep, wolves and Sheepdogs

2010-03-09T17:33:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me the following essay. It is a long but worth reading.

On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs
by LTC (RET) Dave Grossman
03/02/2010
Gen. Dula's letter to the University of Washington Student Senate Leader, Jill Edwards. Jill Edwards is one of the students at the University of Washington who did not want to honor Medal of Honor winner USMC Colonel Greg Boyington because she does not think those who serve in the U.S. Armed services are good role models. I think that this response is an excellent and thought provoking response.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
General Dula is a Retired Air Force Lt Gen (3 Star Gen).
Gen. Dula's letter to the University of Washington student senate leader. To: Edwards, Jill (student, UW) Subject: Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs Miss Edwards, I read of your 'student activity' regarding the proposed memorial to Col Greg Boyington, USMC and a Medal of Honor winner. I suspect you will receive a bellyful of angry e-mails from conservative folks like me. You may be too young to appreciate fully the sacrifices of generations of servicemen and servicewomen on whose shoulders you and your fellow students stand. I forgive you for the untutored ways of youth and your naïveté. It may be that you are, simply, a sheep. There's no dishonor in being a sheep - - as long as you know and accept what you are. Please take a couple of minutes to read the following. And be grateful for the thousands - - millions - - of American sheepdogs who permit you the freedom to express even bad ideas.Brett DulaSheepdog, retired ---------------------------------------------------------- ON SHEEP, WOLVES, AND SHEEPDOGSBy LTC(RET) Dave Grossman, RANGER,Ph.D., author of "On Killing." Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending?What is worth dying for?What is worth living for? - William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997 One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident."
This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another. Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million. Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep. I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me, it is like the pretty, blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers, and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators. "Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial. "Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf." If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.Let me expand on this old soldier's excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial, that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids' schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid's school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial. The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours. Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports, in camouflage fatigues, holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa." Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog. The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door. Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how many times you heard the word hero? Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed, right along with the young ones. Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into "warriorhood", you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference. There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population. There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: Slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself. Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I'm proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs. Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When he learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd dropped his phone and uttered the words, "Let's roll," which authorities believe was a signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers - athletes, business people and parents. -- from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground. There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men. - Edmund Burke -- Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn't have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision. If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior's path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door. For example, many police officers carry their weapons in church. They are well concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or inside-the-belt holsters tucked into the small of their backs. Anytime you go to some form of religious service, there is a very good chance that a police officer in your congregation is carrying a weapon. You will never know if there is such an individual in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to massacre you and your loved ones. I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break, one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, "I will never be caught without my gun in church." I asked why he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a cop he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning down fourteen people. He said that officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot, and all he could do was throw himself on the boy's body and wait to die. That cop looked me in the eye and said, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?" Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this police officer was carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid and would probably scorn him. Yet these same individuals would be enraged and would call for "heads to roll" if they found out that the airbags in their cars were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers in their kids' school did not work. They can accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them. Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the sheepdog quietly asks himself, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones were attacked and killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?" It is denial that turns people into sheep. Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up. Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: you didn't bring your gun, you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by your fear, helplessness and horror at your moment of truth. Gavin de Becker puts it like this in "Fear Less", his superb post-9/11 book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation: "...denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side effect. For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn't so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling." Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows the truth on some level. And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes. If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be "on" 24/7, for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself..."Baa." This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from "sheephood" and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.

Gout is gone

2009-10-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

It took almost three weeks with several days of Colchicine and Advil to make the gout go away. I will try to adhere to a better diet to minimize flare ups.
...

I saw a Joan Baez special on PBS yesterday evening and was quite impressed.
She has been a courageous woman with a very strong sense of social
justice. She also was a very attractive lady with beautiful voice and a talented guitar player. Her romantic songs of a bygone past brought me joyful sadness. Old pictures of the Vietnam war, marches in the South with Martin Luther King, Sarajevo, ... and Joan Baez's songs brought me the melancholy nostalgia of a time, place I thought has long forgotten.

Gout

2009-08-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Gout has flared up the last several days. It started on the left toe joint and later around ankle. I've been taking Advil to reduce the pain and swelling. I have a low fever, headache and feel a sense of helplessness walking with severe pain around the house on crutches. It has not been fun.

Happiness

2009-08-06T16:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday evening we saw “Happiness”, an excellent PBS special.

Dr. Tal Ben Shabar is a Harvard professor teaching class about happiness. His thesis of ingredients for a happy life includes:

1. Simplification of life. The many choices that we have bring confusion and chaos. He proposes that we ought to simplify our life with simple pleasures; perform less multi-tasking activities; take time out to recover from stress.

2. Positive acceptance. This is not passivity. Positive acceptance means to make choice based upon available information; learning from mistakes and move on.

3. Exercise. Referenced many medical studies, Tal Ben Shabar posits that regular physical exercise reduces stress, disease risks, … which will lead to a happier, healthier life.

4. Happiness can be learned.

5. Mindful meditation. The simplest daily exercise is the deep breathing method. More advanced mindful meditation will further relaxation, stress-reduction and many other benefits.

6. Focus on the positives. An attitude of gratitude concentrating upon all the good things in our life is an important element for a happy life.

Tal Ben Shabar has written several best-sellers including “Happier” and “Pursuit of Perfect”.

Pan's Labyrinth - the Movie

2009-08-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

We saw it yesterday eve. I was absolutely mesmerized and amazed
by the many layers of interpretation of reality and un-reality, fantasy and religiosity,
dream vs. life, good vs evil... Especially, when all these layers are seamlessly interwoven into great story-telling with many subplots.
The last scene when Ofelia was killed is the most astounding: it brings up the historical context of the Spanish Civil War, the alliance of General F. Franco's dictatorship and the Catholic Church against the International Brigades. Her death and the afterlife sequence is the memorial of the deaths of many innocents during the War and the implication of martyrdom which ironically is on the side of the Church opponents; at the same time the evil of the Captain is explainable: he had a job to do and he could not see the faun Ofelia conversing with and I am sure that he believes that she was possessed and worse.

It was an incredible movie.

It's always something...

2009-06-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

The hired help has done their job and are gone. We spent quite a bit of time and labor to work along side with them. I had to be watchful so that the work got done correctly. It was physically hard. I discovered today that the underground electrical wiring to the low-voltage outdoors lighting system was cut accidentally. I wish that the worker had noticed it and made the cut location known. Now I have to dig up the finished yard to locate the damage section of the wiring to fix it. The workers were good but still not as careful as I would like. I am glad that I did some measurement to prevent the installation of flagstone slabs outside the basement windows; if it was done we may not be able to open the windows [especially when it snows] since the slabs would have blocked them. Some sprinkler heads were caked with cement which was used by the workers to fix the front steps. I will have to drill a couple of holes on the bottom of the drain since its shallow bottom does not empty all rain water which can be a mosquito breeding ground. Oh, well. We still have to spend quite a bit of time this and next several weeks to clean up the yard and add shrubs.

Quotable quotes

2009-06-09T04:50:00.000-07:00

Chance favors the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur

"It's easier to do whatever it is you want to do if Warrent Buffett is your dad."
[The outside world sees China as a rising world power... But for all its gaudy economic statistics, on the inside the country is an economic pressure cooker. Children with aspirations for college put in 14 to 18 hours a day studying, desperate get accepted to a good university. Fortune, Oct 17, 2011]

"Never ignore a person that loves you, cares for you, and misses you. Because one day, you might wake up from your sleep and realize that you lost the moon while counting stars."

"For battles of wit, I refuse to fight unarmed opponents."

"Let us leave pretty women to men without much imagination."
Marcel Proust

"When you get to be our age, you all of a sudden realize that you are being ruled by people you went to highschool with... You all of a sudden catch on that life is nothing but high school."
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. at 47 years old to a high school graduate

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
Stephen Hawking

"Without the aid of prejudice and custom I should not be able to find my way across the room."
- William Hazlitt

"The soul, being eternal, after death is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things." Plutarch c. 46 - 120 CE (The Consolation, Moralia)

"Telling people you cannot beat the market is like telling a six-year old that Santa Claus doesn't exist. The six-year old doesn't want to believe. Neither do people on Wall Street."
Burton Malkiel, Princeton Univ. Professor of economics.

"PhD student is someone who forgoes current income in order to forgo future income."

"Be very careful if you make a woman cry because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man's rib, not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal! Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved."

"It's like playing chess with a monkey. You get them to checkmate, and then they swallow the king [piece]."
An unnamed diplomat, on the difficulty of nuclear talks with Iran.

"Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?"
James Thurber.

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.
Charles Wadsworth

"What has always confused me is the fact that some folks are more than willing to legislate the most intimate and private part of a woman's life [re. abortion rights] but are indignant over any limits on the Second Amendment right to bear [deadly, killing] arms." A. Loberg.

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." Stephen King

"Draw, Antonio, draw, Antonio, draw and do not waste time."
Note scribbled by the elderly Michelangelo to an apprentice.
Found in Michelango's studio after his death.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

Car accident

2009-05-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I've visited a car accident victim, a young woman
engineer working with me for several years. She was driving normally on highway in late afternoon and a car illegally turned and hit her on the driver's side. Her spine was crushed. The other driver does not have insurance and State of Colorado refused to prosecute him and just deported him.

It is shocking and heart-breaking to see such a vital, smart young lady in pain,
in hospital bed, cannot move and possibly will be paralyzed for life. I was quite emotional visiting with her and some of her siblings. Her life has changed for ever.

Adverse possession of land in Boulder, Colorado

2007-11-18T10:08:00.001-08:00

Bob Greenlee, a Boulder, Colorado City Council for 16 years and served the last two years as mayor wrote a column re. adverse possession of land in the local "Daily Camera" newspaper a couple of weeks ago. I excerpted part of Bob Greenlee's Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007 column to summarize the controversy.

"[Bob Greenlee] wrote about a rather disturbing adverse possession case affecting a portion of Don and Susie Kirlin's property that Judge James Klein gave to former district court Judge Dick McLean and Edie Stevens. I had no idea what a firestorm my describing this situation would stir up. I'm gratified that so many people were as disturbed by this ruling as I was...

The facts still seem pretty clear and undisputed: One neighbor [the McLean and Stevens, both lawyers] trespasses on a neighbor's [the Kirlins] property for over two decades and then claims they not only have a "right" to do so but sue the rightful owners of the trespassed property in order to actually claim it as theirs. Many attorneys apparently agree that the case will likely not be reversed if appealed. It was then revealed that McClean and Stevens asked the court to award them court costs and attorney fees. I think this can be described as adding insult to injury. The whole thing is still hard to believe, although I have no reason to think there's some other motivation driving this matter.

One of the truly disturbing things about this situation is that it may bring further discredit to the courts and the legal profession. Sure, there's such a thing as adverse possession — and many people have pointed out it's a rather historic part of our common law heritage. One can justify its existence because over the years various property boundaries involving thousands of acres of ranch and farmland may not have been properly surveyed, staked or adequately documented.

A fence here and there may have inadvertently gotten built where it shouldn't have been. An old barn or outbuilding might have inadvertently ended up a few feet off a boundary line. Things like this happen all the time. The essential difference is that many of those transgressions were largely inadvertent; not knowingly manipulated. It's rather apparent what happened in this case.

Whenever the courts and judicial decisions appears to extend beyond the boundaries of reasonable or justifiable behavior, it's a travesty if for no other reason than how such a perversion impacts a person's acceptance and respect of our legal system and its ability to render justice. Respect for the law is critical in a free society.

Whenever there are instances when common sense seems to be absent — particularly on the part of those of us who don't believe government always respects personal property rights — we become more suspicious if not somewhat paranoid. When we read about government taking away a person's property by decree or by eminent domain or by adverse possession, some of us tend to get rather exercised.

In addition, when I wrote about this situation, I had no idea how often this seemingly benign application of the law has affected so many property owners in one way or another. Several people have shared their own stories that involved claims of adverse possession and purported government "taking" of their lands by questionable means, including the imposition of a variety of government mandates that don't allow certain things to happen because of claimed health, safety and welfare concerns.

The final chapter in this unfortunate situation has yet to be written."

There are lots of things in our society which are not illegal but surely are unethical and immoral. If I've had sex with former judge McLean's wife for the last 18 years without his knowledge it would not be entirely illegal but sure as hell is immoral and unethical. I hope that the old judge and his lawyer wife settle this adverse possession of their neighbors' land and return it to the rightful owners.

Homelessness and compassion fatigue

2007-08-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

I ride my bicycle past many homeless folks every morning. It's early morning and they have been awake for some time, congregating at several spots along the bike path. Some smoke; others telling stories, jokes and laugh. Some would be yelling, spitting at no one or nothing in particular. There are abandoned trash, dirty clothes, styro foam cups, take out containers near where they stand, sit, lie or strewn alongside the bike path near the creek. Loners prefer sleeping on the grass away from the crowd. They would be preparing their panhandling signs for the day. All smell bad. Students on foot, bicyclists, and runners mostly ignore the homeless since their compassion is overloaded. I wonder why these people do not get the jobs that the illegal aliens who do not speak English as well and with no legal status are doing.

Fourth of July Morning Hike

2007-07-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

Decided to start the 4th off with an early morning hike before the sun was too fiercely blazing. Ate a good breakfast of cereal with fresh blueberries, arranged our hiking paraphernalia and off we went with our constant sidekick Sheba. She was so excited and happy to be going on a surprise walk. Right off the bat, she did her business in the middle of the road, two little tootsie roll turds. Then she was off prancing down the street, barking her head off. She was able to walk all the way to the park since it was a little cooler this morning. Then she wanted into her doggie pouch. Michael and I took a little breather halfway up near a big rock with a gorgeous 360 view. I mentioned that this is where I would like my ashes spread once I have departed this good ole life. Then upward we trudged. Once we reached the top of the hill, Sheba was out and on her little hooves hiking away. To spur her on, I encouraged her to look for mousies. This always gets her excited. We tried a new trail for a short distance, then decided to go a bit longer than we did last week. Many people were out enjoying the pleasant weather and the holiday. Also lots of doggies. We passed a woman with two dogs. One dog was afraid to cross the wooden bridge. She told us to go on past her. The hardest part of the hike was the first part which was uphill all the way. Then it was pleasant and easy walking. We did a total of 2 hours and were back home before 10:00. A great way to start the 4th.

Terrorist attacks in England

2007-06-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Since I also have much admiration for the English sensibility and stoicism
it is sad to watch yesterday and today's terrorist events unfolding in England.

May 29, 2006 - Return home

2007-06-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

[Note: This post is for a past event.]

We returned home yesterday evening after spending 4 nights in London.
London is a very livable city with lots to see and taste. We walked around the city
quite a bit and I got big blisters on my toes. We took a one-day tour to visit
Oxford, Stratford (the birthplace of W. Shakespeare) and Warwick a
well-preserved English's Middle-Age Castle.

May 21, 2006 - Venice

2007-06-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

[Note: This post is for a past event.]

We took the wrong train yesterday afternoon; instead of jumping into
the high speed EuroStar train from Firenze to Venice (a 3 hours ride)
we rode a different train the opposite direction to Rome. My only excuse was
that we were in a hurry: the very short - couple of hours - Italian-style railroad
strike was over and we had to hurry to catch our train. We managed
to get to our hotel in Venice at about 1 am dead tired. We just
climbed into bed and was attacked by a couple of mosquitoes: I was
glad that I took the insect spray with me! One should remember this if
ever planning to travel to Venice.

Venice is as crowded as Rome. It is sad to see such a glorious city
almost abandoned and decayed. Only parts of Venice do now have
residents. We walked the back streets this morning and had a wonderful
brunch of Italian panini, coffee and fresh grapes. The table next to
us sat a couple from Australia and we had a good time chatting with
them.

The San Marco piazza had thousands of pigeons which are so used to
people that they climb on their heads and arms begging for foods. The
city is going through a major renovation so hopefully it will continue
to live on for another 500 years.

We are off to London tomorrow to return home
so Ciao for now.

May 21, 2006 in Cinque Terre

2007-06-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

[Note: This post is for a past event]

We are in Cinque Terre. It is a beautiful, interesting Italian region.
We hiked really hard yesterday for about 3 hours up the mountain
to a height of about 1000 feet.

The Mediterranean sea breezes helped cooling the hot and muggy air
quite a bit. Our feet still feel the bistering sores from yesterday. The day before we
were in Sienna. It was very hot and humid even in the shade. The train
rides were exciting listening to the simultaneous chatting of the
Italians without understanding a word of the conversations. The
Italians seem able to understand continuous and simultaneous
conversations without any problem.

We will be traveling to Venice tomorrow. It will be a long (about 7 hours)
train ride since we have to backtrack through Firenze.

May 17, 2006 in Italy

2007-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00



[Note: This is for a past event]

We took the high speed EuroStar from Rome to Firenza yesterday.
The 90 minutes train ride was interesting; we watched several older
European couples arguing quite passionately about something. They went
on for the most of the train ride until a conductor came by with an
intepreter. We still did not know what it was all about except that
they showed their Romanian passports to the conductors.

We checked in to the Degli Orafi hotel. It is about a hundred feet
from the Vecchio bridge. I blamed it all to the Internet. Before the trip
I checked many Internet sources for hotel and many had reported
about unsavory characters loitering near the hotel. I then remembered
that one of the rooms in the  Degli Orafi - which I assumed to be in a
safer neighborhood - was used for the movie °Room with a view" so I
sent them emails and made the reservation. Well, all Firenze hotels
have loitering
unsavory characters. Degli Orafi has them across the street!

Degli Orafi is a very nice hotel. We had two rooms and two baths! The decor
is quite amazing. After checking in we walked to the Duomo and were
very impressed with the famous church and its Dome. Everything costs
money in Italy nowadays. We paid to get in to climb the 414 steps
leading to the top of the church. The view was spectacular there to
most of Firenze, 92 meters down.

I had made the Uffizi museum reservations so we did not have to wait
to get into the museum this morning. As we strolled through the two
wings of  paintings and statues I was thinking that a PBS DVD of the
Uffizi may not be a bad idea unless one prefers to justle with the
zillions of tourists ooh-aahing about art. By the way,
we now know the difference between tempera and tempura.

Susan did look at the previous email today and claimed complete
innocence. I had provided her with deniability for all the grammatical
and spelling errors.

We will be going to Siena tomorrow and will travel to Cinque Terre a couple
of days later.

First day, May 15, 2006 in Rome

2007-06-29T11:22:00.000-07:00



[Note: This is for a past event.]

Susan and I arrived in Rome yesterday evening. It was a very nice
flight: when told that we were on our first anniversary we were
upgraded to first class on British Airways. It sure was high flying:
the foods were good and on real china with real silverwares. And the
seats were converted into a twin-sized bed after dinner. Still we were
somewhat tired when we arrived in Rome. We checked into our hotel, the
Belle Suite Rome and after a short nap we walked several miles to the
Spanish Steps which are underwhelmed, the so-so Travis Fountain and
had some gelato which is the Italian version of our American ice
cream! There are absolutely so many people, tourists packed in Rome.
Millions of tourists.. the subways were so packed that we lost the
fear of pickpockets; there was no way anyone could move so picking
someone pocket is - I was sure - out of the question.

After a long night of sleep we felt a bit ambitiously adventurous: we
took the very early subway to the Vatican and to visit other places
later. I had made reservation ahead of time so we did not have to wait
for several hours in hot Italian summer to get into the Vatican
Museum. The Sistine Chapel frescoes had been cleansed so they looked
very bright and almost fake. Again, people are everywhere. Tour groups
from every country on Earth were here today. We then walked several
miles to the Pantheon and were awed by the incredibly fine example of
early first centuries Roman architecture and engineering inside. We
have with us a Rome map, one of the very best but still were lost
several times. Many Roman streets change name quite abruptly.

We took several buses later to travel to the Colosseum and to the
Roman ruins near by. The Colosseum looked much larger when we climbed
upstairs to level 1. It made ones paused thinking about all the bloody
sports that took place there and the thousands of people died there
for the entertainment of the Romans back then. We took the subway back
to Termini, the main train station and walked to our hotel dead tired.
Dinner at Del Giglio - recommended by our hotel manager was excellent.

The hotel's computer does not have an Xd card reader for me to
download our pictures. We will be travelling to Firenze (Florence,
Italy) tomorrow. Hopefully, we will be able to report to you our
travel as we progress.

So Ciao for now.

Memory

2007-02-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

I've been surprised many times by the selectivity of memory. Recalls of same events, feelings, emotions are so different, at times conflicting or contradictory to one another by different people or at different time dependent upon one's state of mind at the moment. My memory of my younger past as a single father was filled with moments of tenderness, days of quiet contentment and happiness. There were moments of anger, frustration. But they were transitory leaving faintly vague traces.

Life lessons from a dog

2007-02-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

I noticed that our little Pomeranian is getting a bit slower, less energetic as she approaches her 8th birthday, middle age in human term. She is still a very lovely dog with twinkling beady eyes and gentle joyful wagging tail. But a bit slower and not as fast sprinting upstairs to greet "Mommy" every morning. Her growing older is much more observable and obvious than that in humans. She has been teaching me about love, unconditional love, joy, loyalty, sadness, joy. It took me a couple of years to earn her love and trust but after that love is constant with unquestionable faithfulness. Her slower walks, less energy, a bit darker demeanor, gently remind me that all things shall pass and life will end someday. Isn't it a bit ironic that when we love for someone we also are reminded that love will eventually end.

Regret about a blog post

2006-12-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

I posted a blog entry about an ugly incident with my niece and now deeply regret it. It seemed so bad then but not as bad now. Unfortunately, the post was read and remembered.

Movie: Merry Christmas

2006-11-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

We saw "Merry Christmas", a French movie with English subtitle this afternoon. This is about a true event in the early days of WWI; a temporary truce was declared unofficially by the waring soldiers of Germany, Great Britain and France on the Christmas Eve of 1914. My wife and I were both moved by the humanity of the story.

Intrinsic value of beauty, happiness...

2006-11-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about the conversation I had with my son several days ago. It was about beauty, happiness and whether there is an intrinsic value which bounds them to all mankind. This morning I was walking along the creek path with my wife to her office and thought about it. I'd like to believe that there is an intrinsic foundation to what we call beauty and happiness. Without this we are left with subjective valuation for life and its meaning. My son believes that beauty and happiness are subjective and are given value by individuals.

If indeed beauty and happiness are values shared universally then why they are defined so differently by different people and different cultures/socieities. Many of us can't seem to understand the "... happiness and joy", shown by the relatives of an Iraqi grandmother blowing herself up to kill their enemies. This sentiment of "happiness and joy" is so foreign/bizarre to us; it defies a reasonable evolutionary biology explanation. If one accepts the 'martyrdom' of suicide bomber brings true happiness and beauty to some but abhorrence to others then there may be no intrinsic value to them.

However, the joy I had walking our dog in the autumn early morning seeing the beauty of the creek, the trees, birds, squirrels and the peaceful wonder of nature would seem to be desirable to all. It is hard to believe that some people would not enjoy the simple pleasure of mindful walking, secure and comtemplative upon the quiet beauty of this autumn morning walk.

2006-04-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, my wife and I went to listen to the 'Exploring the Evolution of Life' Symposium at the university. What a pleasure to meet and hear articulate, intelligent discussion! Dr. Douglas Futuyma from the Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York gave a wonderful forty-minute presentation of Evolution as the "most important theory in Biology" and to a large extent a scientific theory about life and all its living things. Futuyma gave examples of experiments and studies - from geneticists to geologists and naturalists which support the incredibly intricate but correct predictions of Evolution.

Dr. Warren Allmon is with the Paleontological Research Institution and Cornell University gave a passinate discourse about the "spectrum of God", the scientific basis, conflicts, reconcilation for our understanding of its existence, scientific honesty and the politics of religion in America. Allmon does not rule out God's existence but added that there are several critical areas where the religion(s) cannot reconcile with our understanding of life and all consistent scientific, engineering successes which make our life work the way it is.

Ovarian cancer

2006-01-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

I have been reading as much as I could about ovarian cancer. There are articles in magazines, books (e.g. "It's always something" by Gilda Radner), newspapers, and on the Net. Just Google "ovarian cancer personal story" and you can read hundreds of bewilderingly painful stories of the horror. The more I read about the ovarian cancer the more appalled, horrified I am of its devastation and the attempts at its treatment. Not only the disease attacks a very sensitive organ of a woman it is so unpredictable and deadly. There are not many consistent symptoms; its cause is almost unknown and there is no prevention. It is so terrifying a random blow and the surgeries and subsequent chemotherapy is almost equally chancy. What is the purpose of living a good, clean life and befallen by a random disease with a guarantee of barbaric poisonous attempt to cure? A healthy woman with vague symptoms could one day be an attractive person and on the next day an ovarian cancer patient with assured horrid, tortured treatment. This is the injustice, the unfairness and horror of cancers - ovarian cancer in particular - that I can't find words to describe my sorrow, anger and fear.

Poor technical writing and machine interfaces

2005-12-29T09:47:00.000-08:00

I've had a Nikon CoolPix 8700 digital camera for some time. I am now trying to experiment with its short movie recording capability. Having these short movies with audio on my web site is fun.

Well, it was not all that easy to decypher the poor technical writing of the Nikon's user manual. The step-by-step procedural explanations are quite unclear (example: the description to set the camera into movie mode did not explain how to 'enter' the options selected; meaning that the manual assumes the reader would know to press the 'Quick' button to select the options!??).

The interfacing displays are not so well-designed: one has to select many steps to get to 'User Mode 1' or '2' before setting the movie mode. Sure, there is a short cut to use the 'Func' button but one has to set it up using multiple steps first!

My Toolset

2005-12-26T07:44:00.000-08:00

I have used computer and electronic tools for as long as I can remember. Back in the 1970's I bought a very first personal computer which really was a single board computer running Motorola 6800 microprocessor with several 7-segment LED's and a couple of toggle switches. It could not do much; a simple binary program turned the LED's on/off. I graduated to an Altair 8080 running an Intel 8080 microprocessor. I had to borrow a lot of money for it. The years went by fast and things changed so much along the way. Nowadays one does not talk much about what kind of hardware one owns. Software makes the tools.

I use X1 Technologies, Inc. (which recently sold to Yahoo, I believe) for local Windows machine searches. It is a superior tool compared to Google Desktop which can not search inside many file types including PDF. The Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard is another tool that I absolutely need. It allows me to convert and shrink large scanned images of magazine, newspaper articles which cannot be readily found/downloaded into PDF [which is universally readable on many platforms]. Norton SystemWorks allows me to keep Windows happy; it scans the registry, checks for lost links, shortcuts, scans and repairs disks, ... Norton Internet Security is the tool to keep the bad buys from my local machines. Quicken Premier and Home system keeps my business and personal finance straight. Roxio Easy Media Creator is another software program that I can not do without. It is a bit cumbersome but has so many utilities to organize, create CD's and DVD's. I also use Microsoft Office Suite including Outlook and PowerPoint every day. I also use my Google gmail account and its other tools daily.

The MKS Unix commands and tool set package for Windows machines is also one of my daily favorite tools. I use 'tar' instead of 'WinZip' to consolidate files to be 'ftp'ed to various machines including to the Linux boxes.

Of course the Treo650 with built-in Palm organizer software is my constant companion. I put it on the night stand before going to bed every night and carry it with me as soon as I wake up.

At my office I have the D-Link Wireless router setup and it helps to connect all my computers and printers wirelessly. The 2-Gigabyte Mini Cruzer thumb drive has a nice little built-in encrypter protecting my critical data from casual hackers.

I have a couple of digital cameras: a Nikon with 8 Mega pixels and a physically much smaller Olympus with 6 Mega pixels. They both are very nice cameras with movie capability.

I run several web sites using a local Linux server. NetworkSolutions registers all my domain and supports URL forwarding. I recently purchased an Apple's Mac machine. Its 'Spotlight' search engine is quite amazing.

These tools have made my work a bit easier, more organized and my life richer with better information, wider contacts and reach. The tools allow me to explore, search and learn things which I could never be able to do without them and to realize one of my assertions at my PhD interview that data at a sufficient quantity can yield intrinsic qualitative information.

All good things must end

2005-12-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

We had a quiet Christmas. We decided not to buy anything for ourselves this Christmas. We spent time hiking to the park with our little Sheba and catching up on movies we had not seen. "Mulholland Drive" is dark and sad. "Magnolia" can be confusing. "Empire of the Sun" is also sad. We enjoyed the light-hearted "A Room with a View".

We had Russian King Crab legs for Christmas Eve Dinner. Costco brought these luscious creatures to the local market recently and they are a great buy. We also made the Italian Cioppino for Christmas day and after. It is also delicious.

Will be going for a hike again today. It has been quite warm here this week. Forecast to be raining and snowy tomorrow.

Rants and Raves

2005-12-19T09:44:00.000-08:00

We look up health information, notably on ovarian cancer on the web quite often [because we know someone who has elevated risks of the disease] and use them as another set of data points to make informed decisions. Unfortunately there are many anecdotal tales (e.g. ovarian cancer symptoms, ...) of heart breaks but the lack of quantitative information details (how often, every 6 hours, 10 days cycles, ...? the IBS-like symptoms or pains/symptoms occur?, ...) makes these stories much less useful.

The obscene millions of dollars that CU Boulder football coach got when fired for poor performance are noted in a letter to the Denver Post by Anne Culver on December 17, 2005, "... What happened to the concept of sports as a contribution to health, character and the spirit of teamwork? In a world where ball catchers, throwers and other 'entertainers' make millions, and social workers, school teachers and nurses make a pittance [What's wrong with this picture?], it's high time somebody laid it on the line: Sports [especially, collegiate ones] shoudl comprise a contribution to the quality of our lives [and secondary to the goal of a university to educate all students], not a hot commodity for buying and selling."

Frank Petkovich of San Francisco wrote in the Dec 26, 2005 Businessweek that "... in my eight years with three venture capitalist-funded startups, I have found that many of these VCs are simply lucky imbeciles hiring other lucky imbeciles to run most of the Valley companies." He wrote to comment about the fair play that Google is requesting VCs to complete information spreadsheets before meeting with them.

Stem cells researches & 'Cinderella Man' movie

2005-12-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

We watched in awe a PBS Innovation segment about stem cell researches and experiments to re-grow human organ cells. Both embryonic and adult stem cells - from nose, bone marrow - were employed with good results to repair damaged heart muscles, the immune system and spinal cord injuries. [The horrific stories of spinal cord injuries/accidents were also so sad]. I am sure that more researches, studies will have to be carried out before this modality of therapy can be used more widely. And if this therapy works, hopefully it will be a tremendous medical breakthrough.

We also enjoyed 'Cinderella Man'. Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger's performance was terrific. The story of Jimmy Braddock, the Depression-period common-man hero boxer is beautifully told. The little scene of Braddock telling his hungry son not to steal was touching. This uplifting story of family, love, poverty, integrity and courage is worth seeing.

'March of the Penguins' & 'Spring, Summer, ...' movies

2005-12-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

We saw 'March of the Penguins' and enjoyed it so much. What quality movie! The cinema photography was gorgeous and the story is compelling. Last week we re-rented 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring', a Korean movie. It was also a very quality movie. Highly recommended.

Ayn Rand

2005-11-03T22:21:00.000-08:00

We went to the university lecture on Ayn Rand and her objectivism philosophy. I did have some previous exposure to her view on ethics, morality and what it means to live an egotist life of reason, purpose and self-esteem and that "... man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achiement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." The lecturer was good in introducing the overview of Ayn Rand's philosophy and adept at answering questions from the audience. However, he left some unsatisfied questioners with slippery arguments on happiness, altruism and the demanding life of a true Ayn Rand follower. In its purest form, Ayn Rand's philosophy is idealist and heroic. But with the messy reality of societies here and abroad, the vastly different levels of educations and socio-economic standings it would be hard or impossible to apply her objectivism philosophy to our daily life: how would one respond to victims of natural disasters here and abroad; how should one accept cheaper products/services manufactured by illegal aliens which would definitely be to one's benefits; how would society survive if the more numerous, better armed and less enlightened would threaten the life, liberty and freedom of the rest?

There are some evidence shown by evolutionary biologists that a society of an organism would have better chance of survival if the majority of individuals acted altruistically. This is contradictory to Ayn Rand's ethics of every man is an end in himself. I do like and agree with many of Ayn Rand's philosophical views of self-reliance and heroic individualism. But at the same time I am not sure how her philosophy would change the messy, uncertain predicaments of our current society. Try telling the millions of Americans who worship Hollywood celebrities or sports heroes or the undereducated underclass mass about living a life of reason, purpose of self-esteem and see how far you'll get!

Avian flu

2005-10-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

I have been reading about the seriousness of bird flu and the potential pandemic risk for some time now. The possibility of the mutated virus is quite scary with rapid spread of the contagion which could kill or disable hundreds of millions of people world-wide.

However, there are some experts expressing their skeptical opinions of the danger. They said that the mutated or a combined avian flu and regular influenza virus may not carry the same potency of the current virus.

It is hard to know whether this very sensational danger will materialize soon or it will just gradually reduce to a dangerous but localized and manageable disease such as West Nile virus.

Overcome with nostalgia

2005-10-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

It was dark outside. I sat here and listened to some old recordings. Linda Ronstadt, Bocelli, BeeGees, and Brahms, and ... suddenly I was overcome with emotion, a sense of loss, of nostalgia but also of joy. The images of my past rushed through and over me. The soft, hazy picture of a young father and his son on an early Saturday morning outing along the cliffs of Palos Verdes Estates beach, of my mother, of old loves and losses, ... The emotions were so powerful that I had to stop the music and walked upstairs to get away, to run away.

Woke up from a dream

2005-10-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

It was quite cold for a couple of days. We did not get any snow here but reportedly several feet of snow had fallen on I-70 and in the mountains. I've just finished reading "Complications, a surgeon's notes on an imperfect science" by Atul Gawande. The gut-wrenching stories of medical uncertainty, mistakes, and enormous sufferings were soberly told.

I looked out my windows into the night and saw the city lights below our house. It felt as if I was just awaken from a dream to the dark, sad, and certain reality of aging, sickness and death. I realized that the only painful certainty is the sad, permanent separation and the real sufferings of those I love the most. My thoughts were in California, on the coast, in the mountains thinking dreaming about time lost, gone and of nostalgic feelings. I lingered at the window looking outside for a long time before going to bed. I gave my wife - still sleeping soundly - a tight hug and gentle kiss as I lay down next to her. Wide awake and uncertain.

The new "used-car" salesmen

2005-09-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Electronic store sales folks are the new "used-car" salesmen/women. They - generally, more men than women - pompously and unwisely believe that they do know more than what they really know.

I went to the local Verizon store yesterday to purchase the new broadband wireless service. This is to back up our regular Net access to approve employee time cards if and when our computer system is down or during long winter power outages.

John, a polyester-suited, portly store sales manager came over to me with a big greeting smile and a tight handshake. I noticed his 90's yellow power tie neatly wrapped around his thick neck. I explained to him what I came looking for and he told me that the product was in stock and "... you would love this baby... it is rock hard.... it is a snap to install it... Come back here and I'd help you if any problem at all."

Verizon's online map showed our home area was within the broadband wireless coverage. Well, it is on the border of the coverage area. I installed the client software, the PC card, and was not able to activate the service. After long, tedious and somewhat dumb-down conversation with a Verizon technician I was able to configure the card and activate it manually. However, the technician thought that I ought to return and get a new Verizon's cellular modem card.

I brought the laptop and the Verizon equipment back to the store and explained to John what I'd done. He's now not the gregarious sales person I met in the morning. He told me that it must have been my installation and went right ahead to reinstall the software. He ejected the card without using the safe disconnection method demanded by Microsoft Windows. It got worse when he shutdown the laptop without going through the normal stopping process. I was not too happy about his heavy-handedness and took the machine back telling him to let me do what he thought would be necessary to recheck the card and its access. John finally agreed that the PC card is defective. He gave me a new card. I was able to configure and activate it within several minutes. The Net access via Verizon broadband wireless at the store is fairly fast and would be adequate for my needs.

Verizon broadband wireless will drop to lower national access bandwidth (14.4Kbps) automatically when it detects an inadequate broadband signal strength. Well, that what I experienced at home. This new problem would prevent me from provide an adequate Net access backup.

The overly optimistic Verizon sale pitch and the less-than knowledgeable sales people
remind me of those sleezy used-car salesmen of years past. This is not the first time I encounter these clueless and pompous sales folks. It is unfortunate that many less experienced customers will continue being buffaloed and misled by sales pitches and advertisements. Caveat Emptor.

Catching up with news

2005-07-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Got a 2 am wakeup call from Jan telling the good news that Andy passed the OCPD Academy final. Andy was exhausted from the night test so I asked her to pass our big congratulations to him. Susan and I could not be happier for Andy.

I have been quite busy with work and did not have time to update the blog. The last entry stopped just before we boarded the North Passage Alaska Celebrity cruise. I continued to maintain that Alaska is a bit over-rated. Susan liked it better than me. The foods on the cruise were so plentiful and overly abundant. They are definitely not for any one on a weight-reduction or maintaining diet. I almost had to peel Susan off the delicious European pastries counter.

Our last visit to the home of the Iditerod champion Jeff King and his family was memorable to us. Susan loved dogs and almost did not want to leave those huskies behind. We were so glad to be home, though. Sheba was absolutely nuts seeing us.

Butchart Gardens

2005-06-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

May 19, 05: The ferry ride from Port Angeles, USA to Victoria, B.C., Canada was fun. It was windy, cold and drizzling all the way. It took about 3 hours for us to cross the strait and only about 15 minutes to clear Canadian custom. We took a cab to the Swans Hotel. It still was early in the morning so we decided to run to the bus station to get tickets to the Butchart Gardens. The bus ride, about 1 hour reminded me of the bus excursion we had in Hawaii: winding roads through tree-lined and forested areas.

The Gardens were a very nice place. Flowers were in bloom everywhere. All kinds of colorful, carefully cultivated flowers sectioned into many dedicated areas/gardens. British-style gardens of flowers, plants and Japanese intimate ponds, Koi fish, bonsais, flowers and small deserts of cacti, bamboos, ...

We had lunch at the Butchart Pavillion. It was a very British event with crumpets and formal teas. We asked the Canadian waitress with a crisp English accent to take our pictures which we found out later to be a bit underexposed.

We returned to our hotel later in the afternoon. After a short nap, we walked several miles to the Coast Hotel to have dinner at the famed Blue Crab restaurant. The service was impressive. The foods were good but not exceptionally so.

Seattle: start of the Alaska cruise

2005-06-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

May 17, 05: We flew to Seattle. Nowadays, air travel is just like cattle-car of years past. The flight was packed. Mercifully, it was a short flight. It took a while for us to get a taxi to our hotel near the Space Needle. We tried to check in but the room was not ready, yet. The Hampton Inn clerk was a bit absent-minded. We left our luggage at the counter and walked to the Pike Place Market. We passed by the Space Needle. It was a bit shadier than I'd thought.

May 18: Richard came by early waiting for us in front of the hotel. We checked out and went with him to Port Angeles. It was a bit farther than I'd thought. We had a nice dinner with his wife. Their house in the country is spacious. He'd drop us off at the Coho MotorCoach to Victoria, B.C.

Food poisoning scare

2005-05-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful party yesterday afternoon. Probably fifty folks showed up in waves. Our neighbors enjoyed the back patio while Susan's friends from work staked out the living room and the kitchen. There were plenty of foods. We over-ordered for 70 folks. We have 3 shrimp and 1 sandwiches trays left over. I should have put them in the refrigerator immediately. Well, come to think of it the refrig was pretty packed. The trays sat in room temperature for at least 3-4 hours.

This afternoon I re-boiled the shrimps and we ate them. Two more days and we will be on our honeymoon Alaska cruise. I felt a bit dumb now risking food poisoning before this important trip. Just have to wait and see...

My seasonal allergy is gone!

2005-05-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

Before our wedding I had the heating system filter replaced. We also vacuumed our house a little more frequently and the new bedding. The rains might have washed away the pollens or we are now well into spring when pollens are not as prevalent. Well, my allergy is almost gone now! I still have a little sniffle in the early (say, 5am) morning and some nose blowing. But the allergy severity is much less. My sleep is much, much better at night. Oh, life! Healthy and beautiful life!

Got married

2005-05-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

We got married on May 7. It was a beautiful day after a couple of weeks of weird weather going from heat to snow to rain. The photo session at the photographer's studio was quite fun; we were able to have many pictures, poses, groupings with my son, our little Pomeranian, Miss Sheba which behaved impeccably well - I think she enjoyed the exhibition - and our friends. We went to Chautauqua Park for the wedding ceremony with the local Municipal judge. We are now married!

Miserable allergy

2005-04-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

Can't sleep. My nose is itchy and running. Eyes are watery. The allergy season starts out in earnest for me. Feeling really miserable. I took an anti-histamine pill. I used to cut it in half but now feel that I need the whole pill to stave off the allergy. It should take about half an hour before the pill takes effect. Surely, allergy does not kill but the misery index is quite high.

Deeply moved by pope's death

2005-04-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

I woke up early - around 3 am - watching the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The ancient rituals and the scenes of the 21st century crowds hand-clapping celebrating the life of the pope were one of the most moving time for me that I ever remember.

Extended Warranty not worth it..

2005-04-07T08:42:00.000-07:00

I bought an expensive (several thousand dollars) photocopier
for my business and a 3-year extended warranty (cost $300) for
it from Office Depot. Its Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) acted
defective. Copying single pages was fine. Copying via the ADF
caused dark streaks across the copies.

I called the warranty depot and after being put on hold for
several long intervals (one was about 40 minutes) I was put in
touch with the "technical service manager". I told him that I
thought the ADF did not seem to work right. He asked me to go through
an inane procedure and returned with the verdict that the defective
ADF was considered a "consumable" hence it was not under warranty.

I went to the local Office Depot where I purchased the unit and
talked to the managers. Again they seem to be clueless.
I wrote a letter to Office Depot Headquarters explaining
my complaint and also copied it to David Horowitz, the consumer
advocate.

While waiting for Office Depot response I experimented with
cleaning the ADF: I sprayed a bit of Windex on a couple of blank
pages and ran them through the ADF. Well, that clears all the
streaking and the copier is working fine!

It has been a couple of weeks and I still have not received
any response from Office Depot nor from David Horowitz.

Lessons that I learned: Many of the Extended Warranty may not worth
the paper they are written on. Majority of the appliances, especially
electronic ones will often fail during their manufacturer's warranty
period and also it may make more economic sense and less hassles
to buy new one instead of having them repaired.

Had wedding anniversary dinner with friends

2005-04-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Susan and I were invited to have the wedding anniversary dinner with our friends, Kevin and Jean. It was their first year of marriage. We had a wonderful time. The foods and drinks were superb. Took several pictures and emailed to them. It is interesting to note that as we get older we start to hear more about the urgent message of living a worthy life...

2005-03-19T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Women at the Farm House

Mr. Hodges' pictures

2005-03-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

We met Mr. Hodges, a World War II fighter pilot ace. He flew in support of the Nationalist Chinese war effort against the Japanese. He showed me his wall of medals and honors he received as the commander for the 'China Bombers' figher/bomber group. He was present at moments of history in the making including his meeting with General Chang Kai Chek and his wife, Madam Chang. Madam Chang's story is a fascinating one. She was born in America, spoke beautiful English, married to Gen. Chang Kai Chek while her sister married Mao Che Tung, the 20th century dictator of Red China. Gen. Chang and Mao fought each other for years until Mao triumphed and Gen. Chang moved his troups and people to Taiwan. The world continues watching the potentially explosive conclusion if China invades Taiwan and the U.S. comes to the aid of Taiwan.

Mr. Hodges' heroism was documented in a published book titled 'China Bombers, the Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II' written by Ken Daniels.

I am very honored to meet Mr. Hodges. He kept his words and has sent me many pictures of his family including Nick's, his first son who is an F-16 fighter pilot supporing the Iraq war. Click here to see some of the pictures. One picture is of Gen. and Madam Chang Kai Chek, inspecting the 3rd Bomber Squadron in China. The tall American in the picture on the right is Col Tex Hill. He shot down 18 planes during the war. Tex was Mr Hodges' commanding officer at the Proving Ground Command. He married Mazie (see picture) Scales a campus beauty at the University of Alabama.

Below is an article about Mr. Raymond Hodges in the Randolph County's Daily Local News Source in Roanoke, Alabama.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2005 Last modified: Wednesday, November 9, 2005 11:32 AM CST

Raymond Hodges displays some of the medals he received for his service during World War II. /Penny L. Pool
A life that could have been a movie
by Penny L. Pool
It could be a movie but it's not. It is the life story of Raymond Hodges and the contributions he made in development of aircraft to fight in World War II; the missions he flew and the contributions he made to the Chinese effort to stop the Japanese.

Now, 86, not the cocky young man shown in the book, “China Bomber The Chinese-American Composite Wing in World War II,” he still has those bombardier eyes.
He loved to fly. He may be one of the few who were in the U.S. Air Force and the Chinese Air Force at the same time. The Third Bomber Squadron, the Chinese-American Wing, was crucial in stopping the Japanese. He was one of its three commanders.

While doing what he loved he met legends. He trained Jimmy Doolittle of Doolittle's Raiders. Terming the stripped-down plane's bombing of Tokyo, Japan “a publicity stunt” he said it did show the Japanese they could be touched.

He had met Doolittle at Elgin, but the flight to Japan was super secret. No one knew what had been planned until they later read about it in the papers. ”The Tokyo raiders were a pretty rough and rugged bunch,” he said.

He knew the famous Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, who assisted Chiang Kai-Sheik in creating an air force to defend China.

He flew B-25s with the Chinese red star on the tail.

“I worked with Chennault's group. We all loved ‘the hawk,'” he said.

The Nationalists and the Communists worked together but they hid parts in the wall for after the war when they planned to fight each other, Hodges said. Chiang Kai-Sheik's people charged to bring downed pilots out but the Communists did it for free, he said.

After WWII, the Communists ran Chiang Kai-Sheik from the mainland to what is now Taiwan. Hodges' first bomb squadron is still active there, he said.

The war in Europe has always caught the lion's share of attention, he said. “We were kind of the stepchild and got what was left. We ate off the land. We didn't get food and supplies until the war in Europe was over.

“We were just a sideshow-kind of like an orphan,” he said. He came home before the atom bomb was dropped. He left the service in September of 1945. He will never forget flying home over the Himalayas. He had a huge bowl of fruit cocktail and ate the entire thing. The Chinese could cook chicken 100 different ways, he said, and his love of Peking Duck lasts to this day.

How did a Randolph County boy end up there?

“All my life I built model airplanes. I grew up wanting to fly. I guess I was a pioneer in Randolph County. I had the first plane. It didn't have any landing gear. I had to get two fellows to stop me when I landed,” Hodges said.

His flying lessons in 1938 at Georgia Military in Milledgeville, Ga., morphed into his joining the Air Force in September of 1940. From there he went to Jackson, Miss., then Gunter Field in Montgomery, was commissioned in 1942 and finished at Barksdale Field in Shreveport, La.

The country was building up for war and there were flying schools all over the South. Assigned as a training instructor in Albany, Ga., he was one of 10 quickly picked to go to the “Proving Ground” at Elgin Field, Fla.

“That's where as a test pilot I got to fly some Navy, some foreign, some experimental planes. I would come down the flight line and see what I was going to fly that day,” he said. Of the 55 kinds of planes he flew some were “God awful looking,” he said.

He flew them testing how they dropped bombs; how they handled; their gasoline consumption and other crucial requirements for bombers.

“It was fun. I enjoyed every minute of it,” Hodges said. He was 21 when he entered the military and spent every Christmas at a different place. In January of 1944 he shipped out from Goldsboro, N.C. to China.

The aircraft carrier took about six weeks, including stops at Madagascar, Karachi, India, Brazil and Cape Town, South Africa. Taken on a tour in Cape Town, he had tea and scones at the home of Cecil Rhodes of the Rhodes scholarships.

In early 1944 they were training crews and ended up in the rain forests of India, flying missions in Burma. Called the Burma Bridge Busters, they would do everything they could to disrupt supplies to the Japanese.

He got shot down, almost making it home but losing power. They landed in a rice paddy; he borrowed a bicycle and met his rescuers who had come to pick up the crew. He flew 31 missions where he got some of this many medals.

He received the Chinese Silver Star and three Distinguished Flying Crosses, among others, including two air medals, one given for every 25 missions flown.

He went to Kwellin, then moved about two weeks later to Hanchung, which is at the same latitude as Roanoke with about the same climate. He remained there about nine months providing ground support for the troops, flying 30 missions.

The language barrier was difficult. At first they ran mixed crews but some Chinese crewmembers misunderstood and bailed out so they reverted to separate American and Chinese crews. The Chinese pilots who spoke English often did so with a Southern accent because they had trained in the American South.

Madame Chiang Kai-Sheik's mission to get help from President Franklin Roosevelt worked. China's towns were being bombed heavily but after the American group was implemented it turned the tide of the war, Hodges said. The Chinese had had no air force until the Americans began training their people. The British also assisted.

“The Japanese had used China as a sort of training ground,” Hodges said. The Japanese were advancing on the old capital of China but his squadron flew around-the-clock missions night and day to stop them. One day he flew three separate missions, returning to get bombs reloaded.

“That was a turning point of the war. From there the Japanese went backwards. I think we had a big effect on the war,” he said.

Much of the Japanese supplies came by way of the Yellow River Bridge, an about three-mile-long bridge, that was heavily fortified. Pilots had to fly through heavy ground fire to get to it and the bombs would slide off the target and go into the water if not hit just right.

Before him the pilots would come in low and fast, but his experience in Navy dive bombers enabled him to approach the bridge, go into a modified dive and then a 90-degree dive, destroying the bridge spans. A P-38 attached to him would take photos. About six weeks later when the span was repaired “We'd hit them again, which must have been frustrating,” Hodges said.

He is e-mailing his many experiences to his grandchildren and of his stories he says: “There's no place to stop really.”

Flying is a family affair. His daughter, Susan, married Sid Hare, who flies DC-10s for Fed-Ex. Their son, Nicholas, is an F-16 pilot. He flies for a small airline and is in the Air National Guard in Montgomery. He served in Qatar and will go back next year. Twin boys Raymond and Joel his grandsons, soloed when they were 16 years old.

Raymond Hodges, who went to work for his father in the wholesale gasoline business, retired in 1982. He and Eleanor have been married 58 years. His other children are: Eleanor Hodges Eakes and John and Frank Hodges.

His past is always there. He remembers in Christmas 1944 “a couple of boys went scouting for a Christmas tree. They brought a Himalayan bear back. The bear had a mind of its own. I went where the bear wanted to go, not where I wanted to go. He weighed about 150 pounds,” Hodges said.

When the group moved from base to base they would give the bear rice wine, which he loved, holding it between his paws. They would give it to him until he passed out, then they would load him on the plane and they would hope they would get there before he woke up with a bad hangover, he said.

It was really dangerous flying in the Chinese mountains at night and one commander lost his command after saying it was suicide to fly there at night.

One time they got out just ahead of the Japanese, who were closing in fast, but they went back and retook the bases quickly.

His last plane was the Firebug B-25, so named after one run hit a weapons dump that resulted in massive explosions. He was flying home from a mission. Ground fire had damaged his hydraulics and he couldn't get the landing gear down.

He asked the tower what to do but they had no answer. He flew around burning up fuel. His co-pilot wanted to bail out but Hodges wanted to save the plane. Crewmembers decided to stay with him and the landing tore up the plane but everyone walked away, he said. He found out later the plane was salvaged for parts.

Of the danger, he said: “You don't really think too much about it. I told someone a combat pilot spends hours of sheer boredom and minutes of sheer terror. Anybody that says he wasn't afraid isn't telling you the truth,” he said.

Copyright © 2005 The Randolph Leader
Address: PO Box 1267 Roanoke, Alabama 36274 • Phone: 334-863-2819

2005-03-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

March 4, 2005
Left home at about 9:45pm to DIA. Got there early and it was a pleasant wait. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful. We arrived in Atlanta 5:19 a.m. Georgia time. Hertz rental was a breeze – no line that time of day. Michael drove us out of Atlanta and onto Roanoke, Alabama. Susan remembered the way except for the exit at Newnan. We went 16 extra miles, but plenty of time to spare. Called Michael S., Susan's nephew in Newnan, GA. He and his wife, Joyce were just getting up. Susan and Michael killed about 2 hours at the Huddle House in Roanoke waiting for them to show up.

Lori, Michael and Joyce arrived about 9:00 a.m. We had lots of fun and laughed and joked a lot. Michael S. has really matured and Susan was so surprised at how good a conversationalist he is now. We visited a couple of hours, then he and Joyce headed out. Lori went with Michael and Susan to the Galley for lunch with Freddie. Susan and Michael were both not hungry so we did not clean our plates. Then stopped by Superior Gas to see Mrs. Ann M. Lo and behold, the receptionist turned out to be Lorraine W. M. Susan did not recognize her at all. She recognized Susan and it was so good to see her. We visited for about 30 minutes with Ann and Little Bill. Michael was entertaining the whole office.

Take a look at these pictures taken on our trip home south. Note: Since Michael stashed all pictures in several 'albums' you have to click on one to view all photos of that albums one at a time or as a slide show.

Lorraine told Susan Gail B. W. was back in Roanoke, so we stopped by the pharmacy she and her husband own and chatted. Gail did not recognize Susan at all. Susan recognized her by her nose. We then did a quick drive through of Roanoke and headed back to LaGrange to the Holiday Inn Express for a quick nap. We met Mrs. M. and Mrs. H. on the square in front Mansour’s and followed them to the restaurant. Don’t remember the name of the restaurant. Dinner was wonderful and we had such a good time they practically had to kick us out. Mrs. H. was really have a good time with Michael yes-mamming her. Mrs. M. was ever so insistent to pay for the dinner and prevailed. As we parted ways on the square in LaGrange, Mrs. M. was shouting out the window at us and me back at her. It was so much fun. She yelled “Love You!!!” We feel very good that she and Mrs. H. will come visit in Colorado.

Lori and Brandon came to the hotel at 8:00 March 5 to eat breakfast and visit. Brandon was fussy and did not feel well when they first got here, but Michael was able to play video games and ask him questions to draw him out, so he had fun. We took pictures, talked and had a good time. Michael and Susan then headed to Roanoke.

Saw Susan H. coming out of her parents’ driveway. Stopped and rolled down the window. She recognized Susan immediately. Went to her house and visited with her and Syd. Got a grand tour of their historic home. It was a good visit. Syd and Michael had a lot in common talking about planes and such. Nick, their oldest son, is a fighter pilot. Flies the F16. Raymond and Joel (the twins) just got married within 4 months of each other and Georgia (their youngest girl) was home from Charleston College for spring break. She was in Auburn visiting.

We then dropped by to see Mr. And Mrs. Hodges. It was so good to see them. Michael had a grand time 'interviewing' Mr. Hodges about his World War II time as the Commander of the 'China Bomber' group. John, their son and Cindy, John's wife dropped in also. We talked with them about their cruise to Alaska 4 or 5 years ago.

We drove around Roanoke to show Michael some of the beautiful neighborhood and beautiful homes. We then went to Lagrange to visit with Susan's high school best friend, Sally and her family. Sally was just as gorgeous as ever, and their little dog Jasmine, a Shih Tzu (spelling?) was so cute. Caroline played us a concert on her cello (Mary Had a Little Lamb). We visited at Sally’s home for an hour then went to the square in LaGrange and ate at an Italian Restaurant. Susan was so busy talking and she could not eat very much. We had a wonderful time talking, laughing and left at nine. I gave Caroline $20.00 for her fund-raising. She was so happy. Michael and Kip fought to pay for the dinner and Kip eventually lost the fight.

Continue to improve

2004-05-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

May 19, 2004:
Had gout on left big toe. It was quite painful. Went to see a local internist and received a prescription for powerful painkiller. I decided to tough it out without any medication. Continue making good progress.

Another day at the park with Sheba

2004-05-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

May 11, 2004:

I walked with Sheba, our 5 years old Pomeranian to the park this afternoon. It was still cool and the wind picked up a bit now. There were not many people here this afternoon. Sheba ran through the park, sniffed the grass, rolled onto it - I don't know why she does it - and shot across the field as fast as she could do it. It was pure joy for her and for me. Her eyes were glistening in the afternoon sun, her tongue hanging out into a smile and her cream color hair fluttered in the wind as she flew to me! I remembered reading somewhere that "... those who never loves a dog has left part of their soul untouched."

First entry

2004-05-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

May 9, 2004:
Just created "mwyn.blogspot.com" from Google and started first entry. Not sure on how to enter text, links, photos.