A very cool site at UCLA

Institute for digital research and education. http://www.idre.ucla.edu/podcasts/default.htm February 6, 2006Scientific Discovery through Advanced ComputingPresented by ~ David Keyes http://www.idre.ucla.edu/events/Abstracts/Feb_6_2006.htm January 30, 2006Synthetic Data and Confidentiality Protection Systems for the Census Bureau Data ~ John Abowd http://www.idre.ucla.edu/events/PPT/2006_01_30_abowd_UCLA_synthetic_data_presentation.ppt December 5, 2005Cyberinfrastructure and the Social Sciences ~ Henry Brady http://www.idre.ucla.edu/events/Abstracts/Dec_5_2005.htm November 7, 2005Getting the Big Picture: Cyberinfrastructure and its Role in System-Oriented Science ~ Carl Kesselman http://www.idre.ucla.edu/events/Abstracts/Nov_7_2005.htm enjoy!

Winter Olympics and national identity

As one lives long enough in a diverse society like New York City, one's really national identity becomes blur. You are little bit of this and that, and you begin to refer yourself as a guy living in upper westside, instead of a person from Beijing, China. But the winter Oplympics brings back your home identity and your proud as being Chinese. These great athelets encourage our mind and soul, and I am happy to share the same cultural root with them.

post of Prof.Gelman's blog on David Stork's hypothesis.

http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/blog/ http://webexhibits.org/hockneyoptics/ Did the great masters cheat using optics? Computer vision addresses a debate in Renaissance art history I saw David Stork give yesterday the best talk I've ever seen. Here's the abstract: In 2001 artist David Hockney and scientist Charles Falco stunned the art world with a controversial theory that, if correct, would profoundly alter our view of the development of image making. They claimed that as early as 1420, Renaissance artists employed optical devices such as concave mirrors to project images onto their canvases, which they then traced or painted over. In this way, the theory attempts to explain the newfound heightened naturalism of painters such as Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin, Hans Holbein the Younger, and others. This talk for general audiences, lavishly illustrated with Renaissance paintings, will present the results of the first independent examinations of the projection theory. The analyses rely on sophisticated computer vision and image analysis algorithms as well as computer graphics reconstructions of Renaissance studios. While there remain some loose ends, such rigorous technical analysis of the paintings, infra-red reflectograms, modern reenactments, internal consistency of the theory, and alternate explanations allows us to judge with high confidence the plausibility of this bold theory. You may never see Renaissance paintings the same way again. P.S. Commenter John S. points out this fascinating website on the topic. Here's a summary of Stork's findings.

A lousy day.

Have you ever feld that you are out of your mind for a day or two without knowing the reason why? Yesterday was one of those days. I was very sleepy in the moring and very unproductive the whole morning. Ate too much in the applied micro lunch which further lower my productivity. It followed by an unsuccessful attempt to write a scholarship application in the afternoon. Finally it was 7:00pm and I went to gym for my squash class. I was in such a terrible physical condition that I could not able to concentrate on my shoot. I hit my partner on her back once and the coach was late for the class for about half an hour. Everything went wrong when I came from my jogging on the track, that I could not find my pullover. I had to bear the cold and run back home as fast as I could. I called my mom later that terrible night and she reassured me that I should not work to hard. In fact, I am not. But the pressure to work hard drives me crazy. I always feel powerless under a lot of pressure and can not finish even very simple task. My mom talked about my uncle's heart attack with my grandmom in the past week and she had calmed down a lot. I am happy for her and they sent me some pictures of family at the funeral and at home. Life goes on even some of us leaves the journey earlier.

My uncle, grandmom and mom, Jan 2006 

my grandmom and mom, Jan 2006 

Jiayu, Chunjie's new babe. Feb 13,2006 

Yijia and Jinghua's daughter, Ana. Jan 2006 

My mom at Lunar's new year, at my uncle's place. Jan 2006 

Wang Tao, our class leader in College.  

dinner at Jinghua's home at Queens. Po, Lai Fang, Lai fang's friend from Berkeley, Wang Tao, Wang Yi jia, Li jianghua. Jan 2006 

Jinghua and Cui Jian 

Together. Wang Yijia, Po, Li Jinhua, Lai Fang, Yijia's husband, Cui Jian.  

Li Jin Hua and Cui Jiang.  

Jiang Hua, Po and Lai Fan.  

jinghua and Wang Yi Jia/  

New York, 02-20-2006, Jinghua and cuijian is leaving for Tokyo.  

为了告别的聚会

米兰.昆德拉使许多词语有了特别的意义，比如“为了告别的聚会”。 李金华和她的先生崔建就要从纽约回东京去了，他们的宝贝已经和祖母一起回中国，所以他们这一家人又要开始天各一方的生活了。金华是我的大学同学，毕业后直接去了日本，在东大读书后就在日本的证券公司就职。她和崔建结婚后一直在东京工作，直到一年前他们才到纽约来进修英语，同时也寻找新的工作机会。他们觉得还是更是应日本的生活，所以决定月底就回东京了。但是这一年中他们最大的收获，是他们的女儿。这个小天使诞生在美国，将要在中国生活一段时间，然后再和父母在东京团聚。上个月在金华家见到了他们的女儿，真是个可爱的小家伙。难怪金华觉得舍不得孩子离开她，但是现在她实在没有工夫照顾孩子。他们夫妇走了之后，我们班的同学在纽约的就有少了一个，只有王轶佳，王韬和我了。所以我们才有了这个为了告别的聚会。 这是一家很小的日本餐厅，其实是中国人经营的日本料理。 食物一般但是服务还是很周到的。我们边吃边谈，聊了几个钟头，不过是些对于美国和日本文化的粗浅了解。这也难怪，在那里都是异乡人，边缘人。我们的经历都是盲人摸象，而且中间还夹杂着自己原先的许多文化偏见。无论如何生存的压力太大了，活下去才是最重要的，其次才是对于异文化的理解和沟通。 也许我们还会再见面，但是这谁也说不准。其实现在能见面已经是很大的缘分了。毕业已经七年了，我不想一味地沉湎于回忆之中，希望下次见面的时候我们对自己，对人生，和对于我们所处的世界都会有更深的理解和同情吧。

brokback mountain and more.

There is so many discussions about the film online, in radio and in chatroom, so if you don't mind, here is more. From PPLIVE, you can watch the original online free. But you have to download the ppengine first. http://www.pplive.com/source.shtml And wonderful mimic of the film trailer, a newly adopted verion of the film 'Back to the Future" in Brokback Mountian story line. http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2693690?htv=12 By a group of students from Emerson College. And BBC's review of the film, http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/12/16/brokeback_mountain_2005_review.shtml. I just think it is interesting to put them together. In a day we google everything, the fun strikes you in all directions.

Jiayu Tonio is here with us now.

Chunjie's baby is finally here. We have expected him since early Feb and he seems to be a lazy boy from the start. He is health, pretty and sweet just like a new born baby. He is a miracle. It has been 9 years since we first started our group as alumnis of Prof. Zhu Qingsheng's 文人画研习 class. Since then, many things happend and we grew from early 20's to late 20's. Xu is the first to get married and now Chunjie is the first to have a baby. Mingwei is the first to get doctral degree. We are now in several different countries, Belgium, German, U.S.A., China, and in total different professions. Somehow we still have the emotional links to each other, which is quite rarely considering we are growups now. I don't know what I can contribute to the group, flyingrug, or what shall I achieve first. But I am happy to see my friends grow strong and become self concious intellectuals, while still keep their dream going. Jiayu's coming makes me feel older and begin to realize the responsibilities which will load on our shoulder in near future. Nevertheless, I am glad to promote to be a aunt and am proud to see him last May when his mom did not even know he is there yet.

Flying frog

Jack Frost is a sky spot at PA and the CUCSSA always buses Chinese students there for a winter break. I never take the trip before, partly because I am not a big fun of snow and partly because I think it is kind of expensive sport anyway. While I watch the Winter Olympics on TV, I have a thought , why not going this time and see my potential? Maybe I am a latent "flying tomato" per se. So be it, I join the hundred of other Chinese students marching toward JackFrost. It is actually quite close to town and it takes hour and half to get there. Today is a sunny but chilly day and the temperature catches up only after 1:00pm. Due to the Presendent's Day , the long weekend attracts tons of people here. There is a line for everything, buying group tickets, checking out snowboots, checking out skies and poes, even using the lady's room. While after all these warm up, it is already 12:30pm. The lessons for beginners starts at 1:00pm, so Yu Zhan and Xiaohong show me some basic survival tricks, such as how to get up when you fall (which happens quite often and you see people lying there hopelessly for help), how to move forward instead of backward, and how to climb the hill and stop with a wedge position. The class size is huge due the huge crowd today. I forgive myself as a slow learner since I know how to skate, and people say skaters always have trouble to learn ski. Guess what, I have a pretty strong head start. But, the story becomes complicated once I finish successfully small tricks such as moving, walking and doing wedge. I can not make a turn! It is really terrible that I can not relax my knee and make a simple turn. I begin to fall and fall and fall out of coach's reach. One time, I even run into the construction site. With such a terrible preparation in making turns, I encourage myself to brave to "down the hill" and pray for a miracle. As usual, there is no miracle. On the pretty flat blue track, the rest of my classmates freely down the hill with beautiful turns and I either rush to a big fall or left far behind. In the end, I am alone. It is a terrible feeling to be in the middle of a hill and know you can not make it. I am nothing but a "flying frog" with big toes and urgly turn. It makes me think why am I coming here and what I try to conquer. Nothing but my fear for skiing and falling down. Before all these falls and turns, I don't know how worse it could be like if I fall out of reach. Now I know and I learn. Maybe I can not make good turns and stop beautifully, maybe I can not even walk properly, but at least I am here and in the middle of a hill. The rest of the mountain is still a mystry for me, which I won't be able to know today. Somehow the fear for failure, for the fear for the fear of failure leaves me. I am lying here on my badly hurted knees and hip, while the sunshine is so warm and I feel something inside me is growing and flying. The lifter takes me back to the top of the hill. I try to remember what was like when we climb up the mountain in rainforest, El Yunque, in the last December. I go to mountain to see my own limit, simple as that.