00 Prelude
Chapter I Cities
01 - Pompeii
02 - Ercolano
03 Napoli
04 Praha
05 - Kutná Hora
06 Wien
07 Budapest
08 - Lucca
09 - Cinque Terre
10 Pisa
11 - Siena
Chapter II Museums
12 Palazzo Reale (Napoli)
13 Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Napoli)
14 Pražský hrad (Praha)
15 Lobkowicz Palace (Praha)
16 Schonbrunn Palace (Wien)
17 Imperial Apartments (Wien)
18 Sisi Museum (Wien)
19 Kunsthistorisches Museum (Wien)
20 Piazza dei Miracoli (Pisa)
21 Museo Civico (Siena)
22 Opera della Metropolitana (Siena)
23 Cappelle medicee (Firenze)
Chapter III Stories
24 Dear Neapolitan Thieves
25 Laotian
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
As a long-time Tintin fan, I was so excited to learn that Montreal would be the first to screen The Adventures of Tintin (2011) in North America. So I wasted no time, "not a moment to lose" as Tintin would say, in buying the tickets online at my favorite downtown movie theatre, Cinéma Banque Scotia Montréal. I was a little bit concerned because the title of the movie was presented in French, "Les aventures de Tintin", but after 3 years living in the very bilingual city that is Montreal, I have got used to people switching between or mixing English and French all the time. "It's downtown, the heart of anglophone culture", I said to myself, "even if they were so obliged to show Tintin in its absolutely original tongue, French, they would at least show it with English subtitles to be politically correct."
I was dead wrong.
In hindsight, I was in denial that I made a mistake. Even when we walked into the room with a "VF" sign, which means "version française" (French version), I told my wife that "VF" means French voice with English subtitles. Now that is her favorite joke of me.
I was dead wrong.
In hindsight, I was in denial that I made a mistake. Even when we walked into the room with a "VF" sign, which means "version française" (French version), I told my wife that "VF" means French voice with English subtitles. Now that is her favorite joke of me.
As you could image, we watched it without understanding too much of it. Being utterly familiar with the original plot, I was able to figure out the adaptation they made for the movie but couldn't understand how they made them work. This was unacceptable. I knew that I had to watch it again, in English.
It turned out that Cineplex had this rule about the two versions of movies: If the French name of a movie is exactly the same as the English one, then a "(v.f.)" is added to the French name; if the French name is different, in any way, from the English, then the name itself serves as the distinction. For example, the French version of the movie "Hugo" would be listed as "Hugo (v.f.)"; but the French version of the movie "The Adventures of Tintin" would only be listed as "Les aventures des Tintin". How exquisite! (Would a little redundancy kill you, Cineplex?!)
It also turned out that Cineplex had decided to show only the French version in the downtown theatre while both versions in some of the suburban ones. It doesn't make sense but I couldn't care less. So we drove to a suburban Cineplex theatre for the English version.
It was raining hard, very uncharacteristic of December weather in Montreal. I turned on my front lights and forgot to turn them off as we were running into the theatre. Well, you guessed it. When we came out, my car wouldn't start because the battery was dead: Stupid Driving Errors 101. I called the Honda roadside assistance and waited for an hour to get a jumpstart.
"All's well that ends well", as Tintin would say. It was fitting that my watching of "The Adventures of Tintin" had to be a little, well, adventurous.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
My Two Cents on "The Prince" by Machiavelli
Having had great pleasure in reading "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, I can't help but writing down some thoughts I had in mind.
With all due respect, Machiavelli's advice to a new prince may seem novel to the Greco-Roman world but are almost trite to the Sino-centric world. For example, Cesare Borgia's plan of letting Remirro de Orco, an extremely cruel person (酷吏), do all the dirty job of purging the unruly lords in the newly acquired Romagna then cutting him in half to please the people, which Machiavelli praised as an excellent example of political maneuver, was in any Chinese princes' playbook since probably the beginning of written Chinese history.
What was new to me was Machiavelli's proto-scientific treatment of politics, which draws conclusions on logical analysis of the actual results of each political decision. For example, "it is better to be feared than loved." Modern political science's reliance on polls and data is simply a natural development. Also I feel Machiavelli's (dis)regard to religion was quite ahead of his time.
Machiavelli's life and work remains me of Han Fei (韩非), who also wrote a book meant to be read by a new prince. Indeed, the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) was a fan of his work and his first Prime Minister, Li Si (李斯) was a keen follower of his political philosophy. Like Machiavelli's Italy, Han Fei's China, The Warring States (战国), was separated and chaotic; unlike Machiavelli's Italy, Han Fei's China did not have strong foreign invaders (France and Spain), although some nomadic peoples from the North did cause trouble from time to time.
Han Fei's fortune was worse than Machiavelli's in that he never held an office and was imprisoned and eventually killed by his envious classmate, Li Si, out of the fear of losing the office of the Prime Minister to him. Han Fei can only take pride over Machiavelli in the fact that his prince, Qin Shi Huang, succeeded in the unification of China, his fatherland.
Now that I have read "The Prince", it would be interesting for me to read Han Fei's "Complete Works" (《韩非子》) again in an Machiavellian point of view.
The translation I read was done by Harvey Mansfield, who did an excellent job preserving the original style and subtle nuances of Machiavelli's prose as much as possible. (Of course, speaking no Italian myself, I was just taking the translator's claim and other readers' reviews as true.) Translation is always a delicate compromise between accuracy and literacy. At the end of the day, preferring one translation to another boils down to personal taste. I personally liked the Mansfield translation although I haven't and most probably won't have time to read another translation. At any rate Mansfield himself seemed pretty confident of his own work and was well aware of the impossibility of a "perfect" translation by saying: "If the reader thinks my translation a bad one, let him try his own; if he thinks it good, let him learn Italian."
With all due respect, Machiavelli's advice to a new prince may seem novel to the Greco-Roman world but are almost trite to the Sino-centric world. For example, Cesare Borgia's plan of letting Remirro de Orco, an extremely cruel person (酷吏), do all the dirty job of purging the unruly lords in the newly acquired Romagna then cutting him in half to please the people, which Machiavelli praised as an excellent example of political maneuver, was in any Chinese princes' playbook since probably the beginning of written Chinese history.
What was new to me was Machiavelli's proto-scientific treatment of politics, which draws conclusions on logical analysis of the actual results of each political decision. For example, "it is better to be feared than loved." Modern political science's reliance on polls and data is simply a natural development. Also I feel Machiavelli's (dis)regard to religion was quite ahead of his time.
Machiavelli's life and work remains me of Han Fei (韩非), who also wrote a book meant to be read by a new prince. Indeed, the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) was a fan of his work and his first Prime Minister, Li Si (李斯) was a keen follower of his political philosophy. Like Machiavelli's Italy, Han Fei's China, The Warring States (战国), was separated and chaotic; unlike Machiavelli's Italy, Han Fei's China did not have strong foreign invaders (France and Spain), although some nomadic peoples from the North did cause trouble from time to time.
Han Fei's fortune was worse than Machiavelli's in that he never held an office and was imprisoned and eventually killed by his envious classmate, Li Si, out of the fear of losing the office of the Prime Minister to him. Han Fei can only take pride over Machiavelli in the fact that his prince, Qin Shi Huang, succeeded in the unification of China, his fatherland.
Now that I have read "The Prince", it would be interesting for me to read Han Fei's "Complete Works" (《韩非子》) again in an Machiavellian point of view.
The translation I read was done by Harvey Mansfield, who did an excellent job preserving the original style and subtle nuances of Machiavelli's prose as much as possible. (Of course, speaking no Italian myself, I was just taking the translator's claim and other readers' reviews as true.) Translation is always a delicate compromise between accuracy and literacy. At the end of the day, preferring one translation to another boils down to personal taste. I personally liked the Mansfield translation although I haven't and most probably won't have time to read another translation. At any rate Mansfield himself seemed pretty confident of his own work and was well aware of the impossibility of a "perfect" translation by saying: "If the reader thinks my translation a bad one, let him try his own; if he thinks it good, let him learn Italian."
Thursday, October 06, 2011
RIP, Steve!
I know I haven't blogged for a really long time but I can't help but paying tribute to Steve Jobs (1955-2011).
Ever since I got my first Apple product, a Powerbook G4, I have never looked back. Life is too short to be wasted on figuring out how to use a computer, or using a computer that fails randomly. It should make you life easier, not harder. It should just work, like a Mac.
His 2005 Stanford commencement speech is the best I have ever heard. You should watch it if you haven't already.
The world would have been much more boring if it wasn't for Steve Jobs. We will miss you.
Monday, November 08, 2010
Remembering Fred Jelinek
“It would be an honor if you could be my advisor.” That was what I told Fred six years ago. It still is and will ever be. (For the record, upon hearing the flattering words, he smiled and said, “We will see after we finish this project.”)
As anyone who has gone through a PhD should know, the relationship between a student and his/her advisor is, for the lack of a better word, complicated. The student, out of deep respect for the advisor, has a constant desire of proving him/herself to be smart; the advisor, out of deep love for the student, has an occupational habit of setting the bar even higher. I definitely felt the pressure during my PhD years with Fred, whose towering achievements only made it sometimes overwhelming. Fred had such a reputation as a tough advisor that when the Chief Scientist of my company heard that I was his student, he congratulated me for having “walked the fire”. As someone who has honorably “walked the fire”, I would like to share you the things I have learned from Fred.
The first thing I learned is patience. Students usually underestimate the hard work behind glorious publications and are eager to tell the world what a beautiful seashell they have found, even if it is tiny. Fred was a perfect antidote. Instead of publishing small improvements, he always encouraged us to work towards something big. Like an experienced fisherman, he would not bother with small fishes so that he could concentrate on catching big ones. I have to admit that it wasn’t an easy lesson but the more I grow up, the more I appreciate this life lesson and am glad that I have learned it sooner instead of later.
The second thing I learned is good taste. In research, Fred always preferred real-world problems to, in his own words, “Olympic sports”; in methodology, Fred always preferred mathematical frameworks to engineering hacks, whenever possible. I believe a good taste not only is a key to his success but also help focus his effort on things that really mattered. Fred had good tastes in life, too. He brought us the Rancilio espresso machine so that we could enjoy some real caffè. (No offense to American “coffee”.) We had lots of good memories about that machine. One of my favorites was that, in a weekly town hall meeting, Fred was seriously asking people to remember putting the group handle away after use when we all snickered at him, suggesting that he was the one who often forgot to do so.
Last but not least thing I learned is sense of humor. I know everybody has his/her favorite quote of Fred and we can spend a whole day here just to collect them all. (One of my favorites: “If you build a reputation of saying outrageous things, people will forgive you next time you say something outrageous.”) To me, Fred’s sense of humor not only made him a great person to work with, but also showed how much he enjoyed what he was doing. It was inspiring.
Let me conclude with a quote in Chinese:“今当远离，临表涕零，不知所言”，which roughly translates to, “Now I shall bid farewell to you. I cried in front of this letter and couldn’t remember what I had written.”
November 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
My First Lego Creation
It is hard to believe that I bought this Lego Inventor: Wild Wind Ups (4093) in 2003 but kept it unopened for 7 years!
Yesterday I finally decided to open it and spent a few hours building it up with my dear wife. It was a lot of fun.
Without further ado, I present you: the Stirrer!
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