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Dan Wetzel,

Your column about the Olympics and China is exactly what is wrong with American media. As a Chinese-American I am deeply disturbed by your abuse of freedom of speech as you feel it is your prerogative to post an un-fact checked nonsensical diatribe about a country and a culture that you’ve proven to know nothing about.

“Merely a redo of the 1936 Berlin Games.”

This is by far your most egregious statement. To claim that the Chinese Communist Party is anything like Nazi Germany demonstrates your absolute ignorance of political history and economic development in the 20th century. Nazi Germany was a fascist regime arisen from the madness caused by a Depression-plagued economy. The Chinese Communist Party has been a steadily changing government looking in the best interests of economic development to improve the standard of living of the populace. Before you make this caustic analogy, perhaps you ought to see what Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are like. I do believe you would be greatly surprised that the shift to capitalism is working rather well and China has in fact become the bustling financial center of all of Asia.

I am not one to say that China has a good human rights record. Rather, it is something that must be worked on and improved, but cannot be changed overnight. Keeping a nation of over a billion people in check is not an easy feat, especially as capitalist economic development results in an increased income gap. Yet, to claim that this will be like the Berlin Games is to accuse China of the most terrible of crimes, genocide. China is guilty of meeting a violent riot with a violent response. This is certainly not the best way to diffuse a violent situation, but what country, when threatened, has not been guilty of this? Certainly not the one that you and I are sitting in right now (i.e. LA riots, Waco Texas). But I must stress that this is not a genocide, China is a land of many different peoples, including Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui, and Tibetan, and they collectively reflect the identity of China as much as the Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians represent America. Please I would urge you to read some Chinese history and realize that a “genocide” of the Tibetan people is antithetical to the principles of the development of China as a nation.

“Tibet is ground zero, an impoverished, mountainous region that has battled with China for its independence since the Yuan dynasty (we’re talking 1300s). In 1959, China again seized control. Tibet and its exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, have been begging the world to care ever since. Few have.”

Indeed it is an impoverished region and it was in fact more so before the 1950s. Actually, most of China is still impoverished but a lot of it is getting better, since the 1950s. Again I urge you to read about some Chinese and Tibetan history and make your own conclusions. Recognize that China proper, including Taiwan, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, was united for a long time (we’re talking 1300s). To claim that they’ve been fighting for their independence since then is to completely neglect the fact that since the times of the Qin dynasty (now we’re talking B.C.) the Chinese people take pride in the unification of the people of all ethnicities under a common written language and a common rule. Perhaps the most glaringly omitted piece of history by Western media outlets is that during the Dalai Lama’s rule, Tibet became a stagnant society with enslavement of a lower caste of people. The Lamas lived a life of luxury and excess and Tibet possessed no economic leverage. But since 1959, the Chinese government has developed the economy in Tibet and made long strides to integrate the Tibetan and Han people. In fact maybe you should see what Lhasa looks like. It’s a bustling metropolis full of all kinds of Chinese ethnicities, not monks in pagodas.

“In less draconian concerns, the pollution is said to be horrific, the food untrustworthy and just recently the Chinese began installing that cutting-edge technology known as the “sit toilet” at some venues after discovering that the rest of the world isn’t too keen on squatting over a hole in the ground to do their business.”

Finally, I must comment on what is simply an ignorant, unnecessary, and racist statement. This is terrible and that you can say this under the nose of your Chinese boss Jerry Yang is beyond me. You are stereotyping an entire nation of people as backwards and ignorant. Most of China does not have the “porcelain throne” that we hold so dear not because of governmental neglect, but because China is still a developing country and a lot of it is still poor. There’s over a billion people! The whole point of these Olympics is to help China enter the limelight and to display the progress which has happened over the past fifty years. With Western media journalists like yourself focusing on the faults and not paying any attention to where China has come from since the end of World War II how is China ever supposed to continue it’s forward progression? To claim that it is a backwards place with shades of the Nazi Germany regime is to completely throw out the hard work that billions of Chinese people have put into the development of the nation in this past half-century. China cannot be changed in a day and China cannot become like the United States, or France, or England. China possesses it’s own rich history and will develop into it’s own unique being over the course of time. Just like how the USA took about a hundred and fifty years before becoming a dominant force in world politics, China requires time to improve. I ask you to open your eyes and observe how far it’s come and how it’s improving before you take a baseball bat and try to take out China’s knees. If you can’t even do that much, then please, stick to posting your mock fantasy football drafts for the upcoming season and stay out of writing about political and historical issues that you have no clue about.

Jerry M. Chow

Ph. D Candidate
Yale University
Department of Physics
jmchow@gmail.com

Nature 450, 443-447 (27 September 2007) doi:10.1038/nature06184

A few press releases:

http://www.physorg.com/news110032627.html

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12696-quantum-computing-gets-its-chips.html

Find links to the paper off our group page

http://www.eng.yale.edu/rslab

Other than the wedding however, I found some other real interesting facets about the South, mostly food-related:

Nearly nine out of every ten billboards is food related; there were ones for fast-food chains (Bojangles, Krystal, Sonic) as well as for various barbeque places. Everywhere you went on the highway, there were steaks, pulled-pork sandwiches, and fried chicken with biscuits in the sky bearing down on you asking to be eaten.

Waffle House. For those of you who have been to The WH (I think that’s an appropriate tag for it, The WH) must all agree with me that the experience there is unique and quintessentially Southern. The WH is a 24 hour breakfast-type joint. Kind of like IHOP, but they’ve got these huge glass windows and diner-like bar seating facing a grill/skillet/waffle making area where a furiously mad employee handles all the eggs, waffle batter, bacon, t-bones, and hash browns. Whereas IHOP gives you that warm breakfast feel at anytime with their flaky pancakes, The WH on the whole is invariably stressful, frustrating, and even depressing.

My personal experience comes the night after the wedding, as three of us in the wedding party got the late-night post-drinking munchies. The WH was located across the street from our hotel in Decatur. So an Indian, a Chinese, and a White guy walk into a Waffle House (almost sounds like the start of some ethnic joke). But we’re basically stared at by everyone for awhile and the waitress appears visibly flustered by our arrival. She told us it would be awhile before we’d get to order so we just sat still. Then, more of the wedding party arrived and now the waitress was completely up in arms about the whole situation. She started making phone calls to I assume WH higher ups to see what to do about the massive number of people at her WH at 2:30 AM. At some point the sheriff showed up to check that everything was going smoothly. Apparently, WH can be a loaded hotbed of crime.

Still not getting our order taken, we get the pleasure of having two older, visibly drunk women sit down next to us. Cougars? I think not. They were loud, obnoxious, and rude to everyone sitting around us. At some point they asked us about where we were from, what we were doing in Alabama. We found out they were twice our age, “old enough to be your mothers” and that they wanted us to “walk them back to the Holiday Inn.” At one point a fight nearly broke out because of their attitude to some trucker-looking guys who were eating their fluffy buttermilk waffles. Having waited close to 40 minutes with getting any attention from the waitress and the unwavering attention of these two chain-smoking babes we decided to get up and leave.

KrySTAL burgers. Picture White Castle. Now picture it if it were Southern. You can just get sackful after sackful of weeny burgers at Krystal. I like to put the emphasis on STAL to make it sound like the bubbly. But honestly, it’s an experience that your body will fight with for two days after having it. Post-WH debacle, the three of us ended up going to a krySTAL near the Holiday Inn. We ordered about 7 burgers, and yet somehow, we ended up getting 12. As only two of us ate beef, I shoved SIX of these liliputian monstrosities down my throat at 3:30 AM. The best part of the experience might have been their “krySTAL Hall of Fame” tidbits that came on their burger packages. The quintessential southern krySTAL lover:

Jeff Carlisi, Favorite Meal, 6 Krystals and Fries

It’s 5 AM. Just finished recording Wild-Eyed Southern Boys. Took a sackful home and woke the wife. Now that’s breakfast for 2.

For some reason this was incredibly entertaining for us, downing these nasty little burgers in our hotel parking lot. But we decided that this was definitely an experience that could only be had down south.

Overall, it was a great time, and I relished every minute of the non-stop food crazed South.

Here was the plan according to my bookings made a few weeks ago:

Fri April 13th, 5:30 PM Fly Delta Airlines Flight 148 out of JFK to Rome Italy

Sat April 14th, 8:20 AM Arrive in Rome, for one-night stay

Sun April 14th, 10:30 AM Train from Rome to Pisa

Sun April 14th, 3 PM bus from Pisa to Barga, site of conference

Of course, not a single part of the above happened. Instead, upon arrival at JFK a full 2 and a half hours early, my postdoc and I received an ominous “SEAT REQUEST” label instead of the seats I were expecting having chosen on Orbitz. We checked our bags, each with a suitcase and each with a poster tube containing all the posters of RSlab and Qlab for presentation at the conference. The agent explained that we would get our seating assignments a few minutes before they opened up the plane.

But we never got on the plane, our names were never called. We were among 8 individuals not to get on. Normally, the airlines offer you a chance to give up your seat for compensation. Yet, on this day, they didn’t look for volunteers, they already knew who they would screw. So upon rescheduling our flights, the Delta agent kindly offerred us a seat on the Monday evening flight. MONDAY. Everything until Monday had been booked… Upon further inquiry, we learn “Every flight over the Atlantic is booked until Monday.” Smells like bullshit and sounds like an irresponsible business strategy to overbook every single flight.

Finally after much hasseling, we managed to obtain separate flights the next day on Saturday, to Milan, in business class. My postdoc flew direct from JFK to Milan, and I took a LGA to Atlanta, Atlanta to Milan route. They threw in a hotel stay at the JFK Ramada, as well as a $400 voucher each for a future flight. I guess it wasn’t so bad..I couldn’t cancel the Rome hotel anymore since it was less than 24 hours, and the train tickets would be useless since I’d be in Milan, but still I’d get to Milan, Italy on Sun at 9 AM with a good chance of getting to the conference at the right time.

But then upon arrival in Milan, we find out that our bags went on the original flight to Rome. That has got to be illegal, for them to not pull off the bags of someone who was not on the flight. In Milan, I was able to file a claim for the bags (including the posters which everyone else was relying on!) to be delivered to my hotel in Barga.

So, without bags, we decide to take the train to Pisa, and try and catch that 3 PM bus to Barga. I’ve heard about the reliability of the European train system and how it’s something to marvel at. But guess what, the train station at Milan was closed because of some workers strike. So unable to take a train, not having slept in a bed for over 24 hours, we decided to rent a car and drive the 200 miles or so from Milan to Pisa…

We get a Fiat Panda, a tiny little smart-car esque thing on 4 wheels (calling it a car would truly give it too much credit). But then we find out that it was stick, and neither my post-doc nor I knew how to drive a manual transmission. The most experience I’ve had with manual transmissions has been in Gran Turismo and Initial D video games…

So in absolute reckless fashion, we decide to take to the road anyway, with my post-doc learning how to drive stick as we go. Neglecting the stalling at a toll booth 4 times, getting cursed out by Italian drivers for getting stuck at a red light, and never being able to find 3rd gear, we did pretty well, and actually made it to Pisa, with all appendages still attached. But without our luggage.
Cultural note: Latte must be some stupid Starbucks’ invented thing. I got the most wild looks at a roadstop cafe trying to get a coffee to stay awake for the drive to Pisa. I ordered 2 lattes, only to have her ask me if I wanted it hot. When I said yes, I then realized, latte was just MILK. So we got two glasses of hot milk…I wanted to shoot myself.

Well, that is my Italian arrival story. I managed to get my bags yesterday (tuesday) and all the posters are finally placed up for presentation. My postdoc still has not gotten his luggage so I guess I have a little to be grateful for. The weather here is beautiful, the hotel is amazing, and the speakers have been brilliant. Hopefully the rest of the trip will have even more to b-log about.

The best part is how he accentuates the “Peyton Manning Face” after he chucks the football at the little kids. I’m pretty sure Brady’s SNL performance was quite subpar. Anyway, just a few gems to leave with you:

http://justhungry.com/2005/12/omg_turducken_.html 

I really want to know what one of these tastes like…and I feel the mail order method of getting one prestuffed is kind of lame and removes from the greatness of this feat.

Some interesting variants of the Turducken exist as well, including the

Osturduckencorpheail 

which is an ostrich stuffed with a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken stuffed with cornish hen stuffed with a pheasant stuffed with a quail

and then there’s the

turgoduckmaguikenantidgeonck

which is a ten bird roast,

turkey, goose, duck, mallard, guineafowl, chicken, pheasant, partridge, pigeon, woodcock

Even more variants can be seen on the Turducken Wikipedia article

This is actually quite an interesting article to follow up to the discussion about the asshat at Yale. I’m glad that it touches on the existence of the problem of Asian-American discrimination in admissions. I guess the publicity generated by Jian Li’s suit could have a positive effect if more of these articles illustrating the ignorant proclivity of Americans are published. When students at Harvard can come up with quotes such as,

“Well, they’re science concentrators. They stick together. Socially inept.”

“Studious…oh, yeah, asocial, definitely. I mean, that just comes from studying, and not knowing how to talk to people.”

“Yeah, I guess I think of them as having broken English.”

then it certainly seems like the hill that Asian Americans must climb is more like a mountain (This sounds like I should insert an appropriate Chinese poem/proverb involving hills and mountains). I will now take my socially inept self and ‘go studying some science.’

http://yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=34346

This sadly does not tell us everything, so to augment that, here’s the article about him from The Daily Princetonian:

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/11/13/news/16544.shtml

I will summarize my thoughts concisely as the following: I believe in that the fight which he is pursuing is noble and certainly necessary; however, he is not the right person to do the fighting. He’s a total clown with little reason and nothing to back him up. Here is a letter to the editor of the Yale Daily News which I wrote:

To the Editor:

As an Asian American male, I was dismayed to learn of Jian Li’s lawsuit against Princeton University. The issue that Li is tackling is genuine: in many academic forums where standardized tests are involved, there exists the unavoidable tension between meritocratically determined and administratively imposed demographics. This inequality unfortunately falls on the short end for Asian Americans and is indeed an instance of discrimination that deserves attention.

Although I feel it is imperative that the public be made aware of this imbalance, Li’s claims that he was rejected from Princeton entirely due to race are ungrounded. Li himself claims that his SAT scores did not fully represent his full application. This is true and the reason why there is no simple algorithm to follow for college admissions. In the real world, candidates are evaluated by criteria beyond standardized reports. Impressive resumes and scores are often enough to get a candidate noticed, but the interviews, recommendations, and essays, which are the genuinely variable components of an application, will often be what ultimately decides admission.

Moreover, the rejection of Li’s application may have been a statistical fluctuation of the different admissions metrics that each institution applies. Li is but an isolated instance of the trend that he decries. To make a broad claim of discrimination based on a single occurrence is unscientific. The same statistical variability that caused Li’s application to be “rejected” at Princeton (as well as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Penn), clearly worked in his favor at Yale. For every person in Li’s situation, one could find a counterpart with roughly the same scholastic aptitude, who was not admitted to Yale. In addition, college admission, like every human decision, is subject to noise: the mood of the interviewer or application reviewer, the order of the applicants’ reviews, whether the applicant wore a red or blue tie to the interview, etc.). Noise induces variations and is a part of what makes our lives sophisticated and differentiates one person from the next. Thus, the process must be subject to statistical variation because no individual is guaranteed a spot and it is merely arrogant to think so. Li’s arguments are ignorant to the nature of college admissions and lack the ‘smoking gun’ of proof to be taken seriously.

I consider this suit to be sophomoric and believe that it stands to harm far more than Li’s own dubious future. Money will be spent on legal defense against his specious arguments, and the public will come to fear that other Asian Americans, besides Li, might hope to force themselves into areas where their merit could not take them. Asian Americans, a group typically reticent on the national stage, will find themselves increasingly marginalized by the rhetoric of an individual who wrongfully claims to speak for them. Li’s case addresses an issue that is a problem, but with a set of unsubstantiated arguments, the Asian American voice can only get muffled.

Jerry M. Chow

Second Year Ph.D Candidate in Physics

As for my own team, I’m quite happy. I might have drafted the strongest team I’ve ever had. It was fortunate to get one of the top 3 picks, given that this year there truly are only 3 guarantee RBs. My team currently looks like

QB- Daunte Culpepper

RB- LaDainian Tomlinson

RB- DeShaun Foster

WR- Randy Moss

WR- Marvin Harrison

TE- Alge Crumpler

OP- Dominic Rhodes

K- Jay Feely

DEF- Pittsburgh

BENCH- Lelie, A. Bryant, M. Jones, T. Henry, A. Brooks, Toefield

Given the very thin position of RB this year, it was quite nice to grab two stud receivers with my 2nd and 3rd rounders. My concerns are with my RB depth as Foster and Rhodes will be both high-risk starters. The most critical position would probably be Culpepper, who last year went in the first-round. But he was just absolutely horrible and a total waste of space. As long as he’s Daunte of 2004 and not that of 2005, it’s looking pretty solid.

Had an enjoyable relaxing vacation with my family on a cruise to Bermuda and the Bahamas on the Norwegian Dawn.

You should definitely starve yourself before embarking on such a cruise because the massive amounts of food they serve is staggering. Also I’d put the number of overweight people on the trip to about 70%. Just standing next to the all-day buffet line, you start to feel the gravitational pull of the other vacationers.

I probably had the most fun at the casino. I made final table of a Texas Hold Em Tournament (40 entrants) and managed to do pretty well at the enticing $10 Blackjack tables.

As for the islands, here are some of the beaches,

Bermuda is an extremely extremely wealthy place. Offshore bank accounts and insurance companies fuel its economy, NOT TOURISM, as a friendly Taxi driver pointed out to me. Seriously though, Bermuda is the new Cayman Islands. I just need to get into the $5 million minimum deposit range, and I can accrue my interest while sipping on a mai-tai.

Nassau, in the Bahamas, is kind of a different story. There are terrible dilipadated parts which are truly “ghetto.” And then there are resorts like the Atlantis, which have their own private beaches, massive casino floors, open-air aquarium, and $1000 a night staterooms. The income gap is quite large and it is certainly a ‘tourism’ guided economy.

So what could cause such a disparity between Bermuda and the Bahamas? Colonization. Bermuda is still a UK territory, whereas the Bahamas have had their independence for quite a few decades now. By being backed by the Union Jack, nobody will ever believe that Bermuda will default and spiral into trouble. Yet, the Bahamas must deal with all sorts of politics that can only get in the way of economic development. So is independence really all that it’s cracked up to be?

By the way, I found that son of a bitch NEMO. He was chillin at the Atlantis…

with his Lobster friends

and Seahorse buddy