Molly Ivins Remembered

As I witness this defining moment in American history unfolds, the words echoing in my mind are Gerald Ford's 1974 speech: "Our long national nightmare is over." Certainly it's far from over yet, as this time it is longer than Watergate and W's legacy crime is far worse and more consequential than Dick Nixon's, but looks at least we can have hope now. I could not help myself thinking of the late Molly Ivins, who, as a political columnist in Texas, in 2000, long before most Americans have any clue what character George W. Bush is, or will be, wrote the most informative book on then candidate Bush, with revelation like how W was helped every step of the way in his life by wealthy and influential friends of the family, how he has always been good at rounding up powerful players to bankroll a variety of ventures, including political campaigns. It certainly sent chills down to my spine, made you wonder what would happen if such character could ever be President of United States? Well, after 8 long years, most Americans (and the whole world) sadly knew by now, at what New York Times aptly put as "the utter failure of government to protect its citizens".

Here is an excerpt from a review of "Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush":

"Behind the down-home style and tasty jokes, Ivins and DuBose (who edits the Texas Observer) lay out plenty of well-documented dirt on GWB's career--though it isn't nose candy they're after: instead, the authors make a case that the affable governor has climbed ladders, traded favors, bent rules and enriched himself, without doing much for the people he governs. W.'s oil ventures "lost more than $2 million of other people's money," netted him $840,000 and tied him to international banking scandals, say the authors."

Molly Ivins died in 2007 at age 62.

Obi-Wan Krugman

Ever since I watched Paul Krugman's highly entertaining talk he gave last year at Google about the ensuing financial crisis than I began to read his NYT column regularly. So it was a pleasant surprise to learn this year's Nobel Economic Prize is awarded to Mr Krugman this past Monday, amid the downward spiral of economics calamity now, which made this particular recognition acutely poignant (or even vindictive for like minded Bush-Republican critics). If you never watch it, here it is:



The best lines of this talk:

"(Fed's bailing out Wall Street firms) gives you a feeling of re-arranging deck chairs on Titantic"
"we now have fair trade with China: they sell us poisoned toys and we sell them fraudulent securities"

BTW, if you are like me watching my retirement fund melt away fast in the past weeks and still confused by what the heck is liquidity, solvency, MBS, CDO, moral hazard, debt deflation, TED spread, you can certainly hit wikipedia for answer, but the best explanation about this mess we are in that I've read (technically, heard) so far is from NPR's "this giant pool of money" (here is its transcript)

BTW, Obi-Wan Krugman also have this to say on America's another bubble health care crisis and actually have some nice words about Taiwan's health care system (see also here in his blog)

Update: Charlie Rose interviewed Krugman on PBS at Oct 23

為了忘卻的記念

又是六四了，看了馬英九莫名其妙的感言，只能說 “wtf”。又想起這兩段話來：

"No one may speak for the dead; no one may interpret their dreams and visions. I have tried to fight those who forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.... We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenting, never the tormented."
--- Elie Wiesel

"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?",
--- Jewish saying

We must always take sides.

讀張系國部落格有感

如題

Fun with Google Translate

昨天一時興起，考一考 Google Translate。（假如你不知道的話，根據公評古狗翻譯大神是目前最棒的自動翻譯機）

先來簡單的：「壓扁」，答曰「crash」，so far so good。

那麼「壓不扁」呢？ 要不要猜猜答案是什麼....Ready?
"Pressure is not Chen Shui-bian"

這個很有意思。那「壓不扁的」呢？
“Chen Shui-bian's no pressure”

那麼，楊逵的小說「壓不扁的玫瑰」呢？
"Chen Shui-bian did not pressure the roses"

唔，單吊一個「扁」字呢？呵呵，果然是
"Chen Shui-bian"

先別說 WTF... Google Translate 用的方法叫 statistical translation models，根据古狗的說明，

we feed the computer billions of words of text, both monolingual text in the target language, and aligned text consisting of examples of human translations between the languages. We then apply statistical learning techniques to build a translation model. We've achieved very good results in research evaluations.

看來問題出在古狗的語庫 (corpus) 上，古狗翻譯用Internet上的中文語詞做為其模型的輸入，而阿扁執政八年以來網路上的「扁」這個字有很大的比例指向「陳水扁」，古狗翻譯用這個 heavily skewed 的詞庫來規訓 (train) 它的翻譯機，「差之毫厘，失之千里」也就難怪了。

又：「差之毫厘，失之千里」的古狗翻譯是 「Hao Li of the poor, suffer from a thousand miles」，挺有禪的味道，是不？

May you live in interesting times

本月初台灣媒體有這麼一則「新聞」“823砲戰美軍建議對廈門動用核武”，內容引用 Washington Post 四月三十號的報導 Eisenhower advisers discussed using nuclear weapons in China。老實說艾森豪政府在 1955 和1958 年的兩次台海危機中揚言動用核武已是半個多世紀前的舊聞了，唯一堪稱「新聞」的只是當年的美方相關的機密文件如今逐漸解密，有心人可以上 National Security Archive 去瀏覽。

這一則報導給人一個印象：看起來58年艾森豪英明地裁示「無法接受所謂核武器與高能炸藥都屬傳統武器」從而否決了軍方的瘋狂建議。然而實際上在 55 年第一次台海危機時那也是同一個艾森豪力主動用核武嚇阻老毛解放台澎金馬。艾帥當時的名言是

"I see no reason why they [the nulcear weapon] shouldn't be used just exactly as you would use a bullet or anything else"

當時的副總統尼克森也放話 "tactical atomic weapons are now conventional and will be used against the targets of any aggressive force." 這些狠話讓許多人毛骨悚然，but guess what? It worked，解放軍終究沒越雷池一步。但這一招也把沒有核武的老毛刺激到快要不行，發誓「寧要核子，不要褲子」。十年以後美國經歷過古巴飛彈危機，自己受到 nuclear blackmail 的教訓後，Lyndon Johnson 才有了深刻體會，說出：

"Make no mistake. There is no such thing as conventional nuclear weapon."

冷戰時的人類幾次接近準核戰邊緣而竟能安然度過，不能不算是老天保佑。今天的新新人類大概很難想像當年的氣氛，也許只能從電影 Dr Strangelove 依稀體會 "how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb" 是怎麼回事哩。

互相觀看有感

最近和朋友聊起 Peer-to-peer 的中文翻譯，忽然想到我曾在另一個時空裏也與人扯過一回，老夫還做了一幅對聯呢。於是重回桃花源一索,果然還在那裡。只可惜的是相關網頁文本—台灣經濟部智慧財產局的專有名詞網頁 http://www.moeaipo.gov.tw/dataserve/public/terms.asp
都渺如黃鶴了，不勝唏噓之至。好在古狗大神幫忙，「互相觀看」還是斑斑可考，史有明證的呢。

古狗翻譯大神把 Peer-to-peer 翻成「點對點」，也罷也罷。

One day in the life of Vista land

I have refrained myself from joining the increasingly populous Vista bashing crowd, but looks I can't. It's getting personal. Recently my three months new hard disk in my brand new Dell Inspiron desktop failed to boot even under repair mode after several consecutive crashes, the 2nd time in 4 months. The first disk failure happened only less than 2 months into the life of this new computer. After spending hours with Dell tech support on the phone, they finally agreed to replace my "ceased to be" hard disk. Four months later another disk failure occurred, this time it crashed on the singular occasion in a year when I use Windows for, running TurboTax to do the tax. I'm so mad that I want to choke Steve Ballmer. It's time to chat with Dell tech support again (this time I was talking to Philip, the 2nd Philip I spoke to in two days, guess Dell's tech support this week all named Philip):

Me: This is a brand new hard disk. What could be the problem?

Philip: Do you have the automatic system updates turned on?

Me: Yes. Isn't this recommended by Dell?

Philip: I think your system may be screwed by recent automatic updates. I suggest you turn it off.

Me: Wow! Amazing! So...Dell is actually aware that automatic updates by Microsoft may damage it's customers' systems and yet doesn't have the courtesy alerting it's customers?

Philip: We only make hardware, not software. It is Microsoft, not Dell, who updated your system.

Me: [speechless]

...then suddenly I'm enlightened, I am not so mad anymore, I no longer want to strangle Mr Ballmer, I'm amused, I've an epiphany, I am going to blog it.

[courtesy to phoenixredux for using his image collections]

news (and no news) on Taiwan

Here comes a funky news:

(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear components for an intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan from a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming.

It said the items have been returned to the United States.

At a Pentagon news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the misshipped items were four nose cone assemblies for ICBMs. He also said they were delivered to Taiwan in March 2005 and had been sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan.

Guess there would be no tips for the delivery?

BTW, in this week's printed issue of TIME magazine (US edition, vol 171, no 14), there is not a damn single word about last week's historical presidential election in Taiwan and yet there is a full page dispatch about Bhutan's election, can you believe that? Guess this itself is a piece of news.

Anthony in Wonderland

Mitsuwa 日本超市是新澤西老中最喜愛的名勝之一，你大概不會想到電視名嘴 Anthony Bourdain 也曾慕名造訪，對 Hello Kitty，珍珠奶茶等玩意大發其東洋之葷哩。As to his intriguing question: "I wonder if there is Bubble Tea related fatalities?", the answer is "you bet".

in sunshine or in shadow

今天又是 St Patrick Day, 且來聽聽不朽的 Danny Boy。這首歌很有意思的是：作詞人是蘇格蘭人，從未到過愛爾蘭，但是百年來離鄉背井的愛爾蘭僑民視它為國歌，此其一。唱歌的對象 Danny 當然是男的啦，但唱者是誰－則唯聽者之意了。

This clip of Judith Durham's rendition is arguably the best Danny Boy performance on YouTube so far, IMHO. But if you are Eric Clapton's fan, you would not want to miss this one...

Pete Seeger sang Little Box

高老頭 Pete Seeger 一直是我最喜歡的 folk singer / humanist / dissident / Communist。這幾天此地的公視放紀錄片 Power of Songs 向 88 高齡的 Pete 致敬，讓老夫重溫了許多 60 年代的抗議歌曲，像耳熟能詳的 Where have all the flowers gone?, We shall overcome, Joe Hill, Guantanamera, Last night I had the strangest dream ...那是個讓人莫名其妙得就會很激動很激動的時代。

如今革命已經垂垂老去，我們都被生涯規劃作了專業白領; Pete 也有一條歌，哀嘆像我們這些把自己也把別人卡在 Little Boxes 裏的 conformists 眾生們。

很黃很暴力的色戒

今年中文網路上最坎普的話語大概是「很黃很暴力」，北京小學生張xx因此暴得大名，網民紛紛發揮創意搞笑，好不熱鬧。大家都很吶悶網上的冬冬要不就是很黃，要不就是很暴力，怎麼我...我就沒有看到又黃又暴力的？想來想去，by George，I think I got it：那就是李安的【色戒】。李安的－不是張愛玲的－色戒裏的情色與暴力不禁讓人想起 Bertolucci 的情色經典之作 Last Tango in Paris，但是後者是講疏離的人際關係，馬龍白蘭度演的保羅令人同情，但色戒的男女主角只讓人覺得 cynical。色戒電影的問題不是在尺度，問題在如何詮釋張愛玲。李黎的影評「失色之戒」說這部電影主題是背叛－老易背叛了王佳芝，王佳芝背叛了任務，易與王倆在情感上背叛了他們自己，但最重要的是－李安背叛了張愛玲－我覺得很中肯。電影版色戒如果不說是張愛玲的原著倒還不失是一部可看之作。但是你如果相信李安夫子自道，說他的電影說出了張愛玲小說中要說而沒說的情與欲，我建議你該讀一讀張愛玲的娘子自道「羊毛出在羊身上」。張愛玲的作品深受英國小說作家的影響，如毛姆，赫胥黎，行文含蓄冷靜而帶機鋒，對人性富于充滿同情的洞見。這篇評論說得非常好，隱隱道出張愛玲之所以為張愛玲，而李安之所以不能為張愛玲與謀：

也因此，李安在電影中泛人性化的說明就顯得不那麼張愛玲化了。無論如何，張愛玲是悲觀主義的。她對人生的眾多面相照單全收，不拘泥于一點上的愛與恨。即便是愛，也是出於人物全部內心的愛，是夾雜著虛榮、慾望等等的愛。正如夏志清在《中國現代小說史》中所說：『一個大小說家當以人的全部心理活動為研究的對象，不可簡單地抓住一點愛或是一點恨就感到滿足』，他說，『這一點，張愛玲做到了』。

兩相比較，溫和的李安不經意間遷就了他的主人公和他的觀眾，而熟稔于中國舊小說傳統的張愛玲，以她『貴族的立場俯視人生瑣碎』（王德威語），背對著讀者寫出了人生的『蒼涼』。

李安硬要說是為劇情需要王小姐易先生非赤膊上陣兼玩S&M，我想張愛玲在九泉之下也只好嘆息－在寫了羊毛一文自辯三十年後，有些讀者的理解力還是不能過度高估的。

YouTube 上 Reel Geezers 的影評是最令人激賞的，老頭老太不識中文，當然沒讀過張愛玲原著，但是明眼人一眼就看出電影色戒的問題："Stop！Enough！...this is actually a movie of illustrated sex manual...it gets nothing to do with two people..." 薑還是老的辣啊。

On Meeting

打工仔總逃不了開各式各樣的會，自從看了 Kill Bill 後每次開無聊的會總讓人想到 O-Ren-Ishi 的風範...

Anna May Wong remembered

在 YouTube 上看到 Sexy Beijing 的 Discovering Anna May Wong 頗令人動容。Anna May Wong, 黃柳霜，是美國 30 年代的華裔巨星，在種族歧視的好萊鄔演了無數的爛片。米高梅 1936 年拍賽珍珠的小說「大地」，原本是一部謳歌中國農民的電影，卡司竟全部找白人演員來演中國人主角，反而首席華裔女星黃柳霜只分到一個壞人的小角色，氣的她乾脆拒演。演女主角阿藍的德藉女星 Luise Rainer 因「大地」一角而獲 1937 年的奧斯卡最佳女主角獎。What a fantastic irony of Gender, Race and Identity。

Anna May Wong in Wikipedia.

Also a most interesting blog, Anna May Wong Daily. Amazingly you can see her 1935 copy of re-entry paper. Note that under Chinese Exclusion Law, Wong was not considered US citizen, even she was born in the State.

High / Low Brow

花花公子雜誌的人物訪談頗具盛名，我在圖書館借了一本 The Playboy Interviews: The Directors，讀到這個有關 David Mamet 的笑話：

A beggar in New York City's theater district approaches a well-dressed man for a handout.

"`Neither a beggar nor a borrower be,'", the man says sanctimoniously, "William Shakespeare.”

"Yeah?", the beggar fires back, “'Fuck you!’, David Mamet.”

如果你不知道 David Mamet 是何方神聖，一定不覺得好笑。此兄乃名劇作家，對白以4 letters 國罵取勝，看這一段就明白了。