Follow the law please, Mr. Prosecutor!

Today I saw a Taiwan News on TV saying that the Taipei District Attorney is going to investigate about "王羽二十年前謀殺許信良事件." The spokesman states that even though the whole thing is beyond 追溯年限, they still have to investigate the whole thing and find out the truth.

It sounded so right with sense of justice at first, but then a question bubble started to rise in my mind. This DA is actually violating the law. There are several issues:

1. If this one becomes an example, shouldn't we find out similar cases for all the cases and trace them back to 100 years ago?
2. If #1 is not the case, then this DA is treating all the cases not equally but selectively, hurting this DA's reputation (even though it is quite bad already.)
3. The law 追溯年限 was established for a reason. Not honoring law is not only a contempt to the justice system but also a waste to tax-payer's money.

If I were a tax-payer in Taiwan, I should be able to sue this DA office because this office is wasting my tax money pursuing something that is apprently breaking the law. But I doubt if people watching the news really think it over from legal system's point of view.

唉...

Such minister, such teacher and such education

Needless to say, the Minister of Education in Taiwan, 杜正勝, is the worse official I have ever seen in my life. I have only heard such kind of people in history book and those people all have very bad reputation and their damages to Chinese people are 罄竹難書. BTW, according to this guy, 罄竹難書 is not a phrase to describe a lot of *bad* things.

Let me just list a few of his *quotable* sayings -
1. 三隻小豬 can be a Chinese idiom, even though he himself does not know how to make a sentence out of it.
2. Microphones have so many germs that he needs to push away journalists who get close him.
3. 我沒有呼呼大睡... 我只是閉目養神... 誰聽到我呼呼啦? And there is a video clip showing him resting in his seat "safe and sound," unmistakeably unconscious.

Enough said about this guy. 所謂上樑不正下樑歪. Let me tell you a real story about our elementery teacher. Mrs. Money just went back to Taiwan with her family. Her son needs to do homework until 11 PM everyday. A lot of homework? Yes. Kids learned anything? No. Why? Here it goes.

Her son goes to a "雙語小學." In the hallway, Christmas is misspelled and nobody noticed. In tests, "white" is 白色. If you ever answer 白色的, 白的, 白, I am sorry that you will not get a point. Similarly, "老神在在" is 悠閒的樣子. If you answer "悠閒的意思", "悠閒的模樣", "悠閒的", I am sorry you will not score either. In math, 80 * 28 = 80 * 8 + 20 * 80. You cannot calculate it as 80 x 28 = 28 x 80 = 28 * 8 * 10.

Mrs. Money asked the teacher why? And the coming out of the teacher's mouth: "為了統一改考卷." I cannot believe such a rigid and stupid thing still exists in Taiwan. And don't get me wrong, this phenomenon is common in Taiwan. Most of Taiwan's teachers, I am sorry to say this, not top grade students themselves. I blame this to our stupid system. Starting from our times, only people graduated from educational institutes can teach in elementary and junior high. 非本科系的人 needs to take 教育學分 to teach. It sounds OK but you will have to look into another factor. In our times, top 50% students would not choose educational institutes when we picked our schools. And also, we simply picked our school based on test scores, not our own interests, meaning those who went to educational institutes may not have a heart at all in teaching young kids. With this kind of system going for 20 years, you can imagine the quality of teachers.

Lastly, I do believe some special professions should receive some extra benefits, such as free of tax, free insurance, etc.. Police and army, for example, belong to one type that they have to risk their lives to protect others. Teacher and special athlete belong to another type that they incubate our next generation. These people should dedicate their whole time doing their jobs without distraction. But this is not the case in Taiwan because all those people I mentioned above are not financially secure. Their minds are not focused on the jobs but rather on how to make more money. When policemen, soldiers, and teachers do not do their jobs, you can go figure what's going to happen to this country.

我為此三嘆

mm

Science is not what it seems

We are bombarded by a lot of information these days and I am specially interested in health studies and researches. But have you noticed some of those studies claim just the opposite results? You do not know which to trust? When it come to a situation like this, I trust my logic sense.

There are a lot of books claiming that there are some miracle substances or foods that can cleanse your body. I have seen a lot of friends, plusy my parents and sisters, follow those books by heart. Even though some of the authors are professional doctors and surgeons, I am still very skeptical. Let me tell you why.

There is a Japanese doctor in US who performs numerous endoscopic surgeries. He wrote down in his book that most diseases, especially cancer, can be prevented if you follow his suggestions, such as eating meat from cold-blooded animals, stop drinking milk and eating yogurt, eat fresh vegetables and fruits, avoid oil and spices. To some extent, it is true, but this doctor made a very serious error - his sample space is biased. All his patients have one thing in common - their digestive system has problems. By following his diet, I agree that most of his patients feel better or never get ill again, but it is not true that ALL people following his diet will be better.

Science is a process. Results deducted from scientific researches are facts, but they are just partial facts, meaning they are only applicable when the environment and pre-condition is the same as in the lab. Most of the so-called scientific reports these days seem to purposely ignore the details how the "sample space" is picked. Keep in mind, with "skewed" samples, you can still have a false claim and have scientific process to prove your false claim.

"盡信書不如無書"

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We are not in the 17th century, are we?

Recently, I have seen so may infomercials and TV news that just try to fool us like we were in the 17th century. Every time I sees this, I just want to scream. But you know, sometimes those messages are hidden, not so clear, or rephrased. Even educated people fall into the traps when those things are "packaged" in a different appearance. 

 #1 is a trick with Physics. For example, "This vacuum machine is so powerful that it can suck a bowling ball." If you have some basic Physics training, you know this is simply air pressure from atmosphere. It has nothing to do with the vacuum. 

 #2 is wrong logic deduction - A implies B so Not A implies Not B, correct? Deadly wrong. For example, "Eating greasy food makes you gain weight so not eating greasy good will make you lose weight." I do need to explain this further, right? But watch this, "A is not a nice person. If B is against A then B must be a good guy." No, B can still be bad person. I do not want to dive in further but I can tell you a lot of people still fall into this trap. 

 #3 is things against basic laws in Physics. For example, "This water purifying system will take out the bad chemicals and ADD BACK the good stuff... You will NEVER need to replace the filter..." Well, nothing is coming out of thin air. So if the machine can keep "adding" good stuff without changing any parts, I really like to know how. 

 #4 is bending the law. The "renaming" movement in Taiwan is a good example. The government waywardly did it before the law was passed by the Congress. People is supposed to follow the law and so is government, even if the law is no so right. You cannot just ignore the law because you think it is a bad law. Once you do that, then you become the judge and the justice system no longer works. Especially for government, it is crucial to abide by the law otherwise this government is just a evil machine of politicians in power. Listen if this sounds right to you - I can kill a man I do not like today and tomorrow I am going to change the law so that my behavior is justified." Sadly speaking, a lot of  people do not understand this importance. 

 #5 is fashion. Since when do we think skin is more important than brain? Since when a bag costs you 3 months of salary? A better to ask is why. Why is a handbag made from plastics and some man-made material so expensive? Why does a fashion designer dress which looks like a rag cost so much? You can see the facial product getting more fancier and expensive everyday. Beauty is only skin deep, isn't it? 

 #6 is wrongly linking two independent incidents. For example, "We should elect Mr. A because Mr. A is a good man." Well, that depends. If you are choosing a boy for your girl's date, it is fine. If Mr. A is doing something that requires professional skills, then being good is not enough. A good gardener is not necessary a good cook, right? The list goes on and on. Just think it over next time you see or hear something. 

Thank you my friend. mm

Do you verify your source of information?

Most of the Taiwanese people of my age are brought up by one-way brainwashing from teachers and text books. Teachers taught us history, mathematics, Manderin, geography and we had monthly tests. Those tests always had one and only one correct answer. Kids with good test grades were "good" kids. Under years of this personality molding, as a result, most of the Taiwanese people of my age take the information for granted without thinking its validity.

Once I thought things could get better over time, but now I think this system is bringing down the future of Taiwan. Actually, most of the countries have similar problems. In school, education becomes a tool of government to go on with certain propaganda. After school, TV takes over and goes on with the propaganda of other groups.

Don't just take my words. Think if

- you take so-called "good food supplement" without checking the claim
- you still believe history is fact
- you believe in whatever doctors tell you
- you think so-called "professionals" really know something you do not know
- you watch TV news or newspapers and believe the stories
- you believe in so-called science and experiments.

I have a really bad habit of questioning what people claim to be truth. What you see is just an observation from one angle and it may not be the truth at all. It is at best a fact. Unless you have all the facts from all angles, you cannot possibly come close to the real truth.

History writers, unfortunately, are not free to write whatever they can. They all live under some kind of government so go figure.
Numbers of scientific experiments depends how samples are picked so they can be biased.
TV stories can be made with reporters and actors to improve rating.
Doctors can be someone who did just D in all subjects.
Professionals lacks common sense most of the times.

We all know how movies are made right? What you see is not the original take. What you see if after the director's cut and special effect processing. Similarly, information presented to us is pretty much like a movie. Just give it a common-sense check before you decide to believe in something.

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Car ride from a different angle

Recently I had a chance to sit in the backseat of my own van to Oakland. It just happened that all my closest family members, including my parents, were all in the car.

All of a sudden, it just hit me that this short trip to Oakland is an analogy to real life. Think of it this way: The car is the symbol of family. You have your family member in the car, going through some trip together. Even though we usually say "We have been there" but eventually, each person sees different things. The person sitting in the back will have a different view from the person sitting in the front. The driver pays so much attention on the road that most likely he/she will miss all the siteseeing funs. The person sitting on the left may not know what happens on the right, and vice versa.

I always say to my wife "How can you not knowing which exit to take since we have been driving so many times?" Well, the fact is, you will never experience the same unless you are in the driver's seat. I have kids now. I have to remind myself not to assume too much and put burdens on them. Sometimes we just forget kids are individuals. They have their life and space. They are in the same car but definitely seeing different things and have different memories.

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Question #8 - Do you ever thank your enemy?

In Chinese, we have a phrase "恩人" which means someone did something good to you. But in fact, your "負面的恩人" may do you more good than you can imagine.

For example -
Someone forced you to do something and later you learned a new skill.
Someone pointed out your error in public and it was so humiliating that you never made the same error again.
Someone made you so mad but you held your temper. You have better magnanimity ever since.

Actually, these "someones" are our implicit teachers. They may influence us more than our school teachers. We usually complain about them instead of thanking them. These people helped forming our personality.

So next time, before you complain, think twice. Maybe you have to say "Thank you." in the end.

mm

What happened to me last year?

"Long time no post."

There are a few reaons:
1. Company started monitoring Internet activities so I avoided doing stuff at working hours.
2. Family occupied my time after work.
3. No resting on weekends - Need to visit Oakland to fix my back problem every Saturday.
4. Simply lazy.

Well, a couple of things happened, of course:
1. Had 2 car accidents within 3 months. Luckily no one was seriously injured, but a lot of money was spent fixing my cars.
2. Per-se got acquired by McKesson. Once I was pretty happy about work but now the future is in murky clouds.
3. Kids went to school.
4. Cooking skills got better and better.
5. Finally, we have some time to watch a movie in 7 years.

Overall, I have more positive stuff than negative stuff. I am thankful for both, which I will explain in my next blog.

mm