This is why every claim made in China has to be taken with a huge bowl of salt.

最新一期廣州《南都周刊》評選出大陸大專院校的十大荒唐事，其中「漢芯一號」造假醜聞高居榜首。

該份周刊指出，三年前，曾在摩托羅拉公司做測試的工程師陳進，將一片從美國買來的芯片磨掉標誌後加上自己的「商標」，就宣稱發明所謂的「漢芯一號」芯片，並因此成為上海交大教授及微電子學院院長，騙取高達人民幣十一億元科研基金。事件在今年一月遭揭露，震撼全中國。

第二名是上海復旦大學經濟學院院長陸德明，因在二零零四年八月嫖妓被抓，被學校開除黨籍及職務。

第三名是南京師範大學音樂學院四年級舞蹈編導專業十名女生，九月被校方「強行組織」提前下課，陪到校視察的高官跳舞。

第四名是西安翻譯學院院長丁祖詒，三年前在「洛杉磯時報」自費發布丁祖詒校長當選為最受美國高校尊敬的中國民辦大學校長虛假新聞。

其他荒唐事還包括華裔教授丘成桐與北大之間真假人才爭論；北大副教授公布工資單「哭窮」；廈大開辦高爾夫球精英教育等。

《南都周刊》指出，國內的大學已經從昔日的象牙塔變為污穢不堪的「大觀園」，今天的大學與教授們，時常令人感覺不知所謂，爆出的八卦新聞，荒唐程度超乎想像。

I first visited Paris when I was around 9 years old, and then again when I was 18. I was too young at those times to discern the French arrogance, fortunately. As a spoiled HK-er, my sanity would probably be out the window by my second day in Paris.


When I was in NY a few weeks ago, I caught an episode of Saturday Night Live on TV. During the Weekend Update:

"The French have launched their own version of Google, called Quaero. You just type in the subject you're interested in, and Quaero refuses to look it up for you." - Amy Poehler

PARIS (Reuters) - Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
"A third of patients get better immediately, a third suffer relapses and the rest have psychoses," Yousef Mahmoudia, a psychologist at the Hotel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre Dame cathedral, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Already this year, Japan's embassy in Paris has had to repatriate at least four visitors -- including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged and there was a plot against them.

Previous cases include a man convinced he was the French "Sun King", Louis XIV, and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves, the paper cited Japanese embassy official Yoshikatsu Aoyagi as saying.

"Fragile travellers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis," psychologist Herve Benhamou told the paper.

The phenomenon, which the newspaper dubbed "Paris Syndrome", was first detailed in the psychiatric journal Nervure in 2004.

Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families settle in France, said:

"In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them ... People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling."

A Japanese woman, Aimi, told the paper:

"For us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant ... And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own."

How freaked out would you be when you find a pair of flattened duck leg in a beautiful hamper that you received from a business associate?

This was in today's Asia Miles promotional email.

Yung Kee Restaurant - Deluxe Winter Hamper

• Preserved duck leg (2 pieces)
• Preserved goose liver sausage (half catty)
• Preserved sausage (half catty)
• Supreme XO sauce (1 bottle)
• Chinese wine – Yung Kee limited edition (180 ml)

I saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth yesterday.

（《絕望真相》這個中文譯名真的不大妥帖。An Inconvenient Truth 的精髓在於指出這個真相令人覺得礙眼、麻煩，所以就被人忽略。整套電影的主題就是要人正視全球暖化的問題，從而採取急切的行動去逆轉人類對大自然的蹂躪。如果我們立即行動，人類的明天就有希望 - 所以真相絕對不令人感到絕望；相反，對未來的希望才是我們的推動力。《絕望真相》這個名稱只是香港電影發行界的反射式習作，台灣用的《不願面對的真相》就貼切得多。）

The science of global warming is fairly well-understood and undisputed all over the world, except in the United States. Growing up in Hong Kong, I have never been aware of any "controversy" over this subject until I studied in the US. There, the mass media casts a wide web of doubt and uncertainty over the scientific consensus on global warming in the name of impartiality. Political operatives manipulates this topic to their advantage without any regard to the underlying truth and implications. For decades, the people of America continue to be led to believe that global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," while the rest of the world shook their collective head in disbelief. How screwed up this whole situation has become in America is not fully exposed until, I feel, some one like Al Gore comes along and makes a movie like this one.

To me, the movie is fundamentally about a man of great conviction and how he came to be this way.

Al Gore has been an early advocate on climate change. (Apparently he was also an early advocate on the technology that led to the emergence of the Internet, a claim for which he has long been ridiculed.) People who has tracked his career since decades ago are convinced that he sincerely believes that what he advocates is important for the future of human beings. He is not afraid of speaking out against powerful adversaries. He has been perennially frustrated by the same system that has enabled him to achieve so much, and yet he continues to have faith in democracy and people's ability to discern right from wrong.

In this movie, Gore gives the same presentation he has given more than 1,000 times on climate change. Interspersed through the film are snippets of reasons he became so interested in this topic. The narrative was personal, frank, and powerful. I was deeply impressed by how the "wooden soldier" has come alive in this movie. His passion and conviction really came through.

In terms of the message, partisan politics was not the focus of his attacks – the oil and gas lobby was. (See its reaction to An Inconvenient Truth here and here.) America's politics is infamously very well-known to be plagued by interested money. The oil and gas industry is particularly potent, even in Hong Kong.

For example, CLP Group, the larger electricity provider here, is the more efficient and socially responsible of the two (the other one, Hongkong Electric, is owned by the tycoon Li Ka-shing). However, contrary to what most people think, CLP's business in Hong Kong is NOT controlled by the philanthropic Kadoorie family. Instead, CLP's power generators in Hong Kong are owned by Castle Peak Power Co Ltd, which is a partnership formed in 1964 between CLP Power (40%) and ExxonMobil Energy (60%). Yes, that's right, it's ExxonMobil, the oil company that Gore singled out in the movie. CLP and Hongkong Electric are now actively campaigning against the Hong Kong government's attempt to impose stricter environmental standards on them, even though it is public knowledge that their electricity generators are the biggest local source of air pollution.

Enough said about the problems we have on hand. Go and see what Gore suggests us to do to make a difference.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, see it. It is transforming, inspiring, and, ultimately, uplifting.

今天我打破了自己逛博物館的紀錄。

早上，在寄宿的親戚家裏吃了點早餐，便乘地鐵到 The Metropolitan Museum of Art。我上一次到 The Met 是 ... 大學第二年吧，記憶中 The Met 挺大，有很多不同種類的展品，但我對它整體沒有太深的印象。相對來説，MoMA 的主題（現代美術）突出得多，所以我上兩次到紐約來都只逛 MoMA。


一抵達博物館，我參加了一個叫 "The Museum Highlights" 的 guided tour。領隊的是一名中年貴婦，而同隊的十多個觀光客絕大部分都超過五十歲，所以大家都很守秩序。令我喜出望外的是，博物館容許參觀者不用閃光燈的拍照（除了某幾個展廳以外），於是我可以一邊聽講解、一邊前後左右的拍照。而領隊帶我們看的都不算是 The Met 最著名的收藏，但都是很有代表性、非常有歷史價值的藝術品，更會把我們帶到平常不會踏足的展廳。

比如這個 Bernini 的 Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by Children (ca. 1616–17)。當時 Bernini 還是一個十八歲的小伙子，但這件作品已經展露了他未來的驚人成就（如 The Ecstasy of St Theresa） 的端倪。


另外一個令我驚嘆不已的，是 John Vanderlyn 的 The Palace and Gardens of Versailles (1818–19)。在當時的社會，panorama 是一種流行的室内裝飾，可惜 Vanderlyn 在生之年都未能把這個作品賣掉賺錢，只能把它到處巡迴展覽。後來，The Met 收到這件作品，便特地建了這個橢圓形房間，將它一段一段重新裱起來。我一進這個房間便認出這是凡爾賽宮的花園，因為 panorama 的形式把凡爾賽宮磅礴的氣勢表露無遺。

當參觀團解散後，我就自己按著地圖到處走。


The living room from Francis W. Little's summer residence，Frank Lloyd Wright的作品。Wright 固然是美國史上最著名的建築師，但以往我對他的認識只是從書本和照片得來。這次在博物館内乍遇大師活生生的作品，以木頭爲主的傢俬、雅致而又有線條美的擺設、加上秋日溫煦的陽光，這個起居室只欠一對夫婦，坐在窗前喝杯咖啡，閒談家常的瑣事。


走得有點累了，便到天台的公園去，看蔡國強的 Transparent Monument（照片中，藍天下稍暗了的長方形）。一塊透明的膠版，地下陳列著幾隻死鳥，我也不敢太仔細的看。在天台的盡頭，有兩隻這樣的鱷魚：


也是蔡國強的作品，叫 Move Along, Nothing to See Here，背部插滿機場保安沒收得來的利器，在明媚的陽光下，在曼克頓上空耀武揚威。


前面一大片的樹是名聞遐邇的 Central Park， 是我最喜愛的公園。它的 landscape architect 是 Frederick Olmsted（side note: 他在 Devil in the White City 佔挺重要的角色）。他對公園的理解是一個大眾化的、有機的一個環境，而 Central Park 就是這個概念化身。所以公園裏有車路、緩跑徑、餐廳、球場等等讓大眾享受的設備， 但都融入了公園的環境，沒有突兀的感覺。而且儘管 Central Park 有很多樹，裏面的地理跌宕有致、有山有水，比起倫敦的 Hyde Park 鋪天蓋地的綠有所不同。左邊的是第五大道，聳立著一些世界上最貴的高級住宅。

接下來去看現代的美國 Pop art。The Met 的收藏品，可能比較集中吧，都比MoMA的容易消化。比如這個 Roy Lichtenstein 的 Stretcher Frame with Cross Bar III (1968)，就真是 literally 把藝術翻轉來看，很有趣。

走著走著，到了 Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde 的展廳。Vollard是一個近代極有影響力的一個 art dealer，把從 Cézanne 到 Picasso 這一輩的「新潮」畫家捧上天，自己也發了大財。這個展覽把很多經過他手賣出去的作品集合起來，連 Cézanne、Van Gogh、Gauguin、Picasso 等殿堂級大師的作品都平均每人有五幅以上，實在是難得一見的盛會。尤其是畫旁的 caption 寫得有血有肉，比如是 Vollard 怎樣忽略了這個作品、錯以超「低」的價錢賣出，或者是畫家如何等著這幅畫的收入開飯，都令觀衆對作品的背景、它流傳的歷史、以及對 Vollard 這個人的認識都很有幫助。可惜展館内不容許拍照，所以不能在此跟大家分享。

看完 Vollard，已經是晚上七點多。由下午兩點多抵達開始，我已經差不多不停的走了五個小時。我到羅浮宮、大英博物館等都只能撐兩個小時！雖然還有很多很吸引的展館都未看，如 Asian art、Renaissance art、Medieval art、Photography等。但肚子餓得呱呱叫，腿又痠，脖子也讓沉重的「手袋」弄得酸疼。（門口 cloak room 的大叔說他們不能儲存女士的手袋，我說我的是messenger bag，而且「It's very heavy! Please take it!」他還是笑著說不。）

是歸家的時候了。

An in-depth look at the Colbert phenomenon by New York Magazine. According to the article, Colbert was stunned by the public uproar over his performance in front of Da Man at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner and was still reluctant to react to the episode. I am glad that this is so, because his astonishment casts him as a flesh-and-blood person like you and me, which makes his bravado all the more unusual and admirable.

This is so much cooler than what E&Y came up with, and I'm so proud that it is from Hong Kong:

A fascinating tale of how a loyal and trusted politician was brought down by his own team, in a high stake game in front of the entire world.

[Colin] Powell had thrown his considerable personal and professional reputation behind the administration's charges that Iraq possessed chemical, biological and perhaps even nuclear weapons, and posed an imminent threat to the United States. In a crucial speech to the United Nations Security Council six weeks before the invasion was launched, he had single-handedly convinced many skeptical Americans that the threat posed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was real...

He was told that the case had already been put together by the White House, and he assumed that with a little tweaking he could turn it into a speech that would fit his voice and style. He was taken aback on Tuesday, January 28, when he received the bulk of the document, a 48-page, single-spaced compilation of Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction program, replete with drama, rhetorical devices and a kitchen sink full of allegations...

Powell had constantly found himself on the losing side of regular ideological combat inside the Bush administration, particularly against Rumsfeld and the powerful vice president, Dick Cheney, over Iraq and a host of other foreign policy issues. Though Powell had scored some victories, the rumored humiliations had been real. He had been purposely cut out of major foreign policy decisions more than once, and his advice often had gone unheeded or been only grudgingly accepted by the president. Why hadn't he resigned?

The easy answer had the virtue of truth: Soldiers didn't quit when they disagreed with the decisions of their commanders.

If anything else, I believe that Powell's actions tell us the importance of integrity and hardwork in politics, even though the mentality of political operatives seems to be in vogue these days. I eagerly await reader reviews of his latest biography, Soldier: Life of Colin Powell, from which the above excerpts were pulled.

Probably the most ludicrous set of suits I have ever seen, especially the one on the further right.


Taken at a shop near the Fashion Institution of Technology in New York City.