Facebook vs LinkedIn

Facebook and LinkedIn are popular social network services (SNS) in the United States. Facebook is getting more and more popular recently. Early adapters or people who love new stuff would like Facebook since it is intensively changing and introducing new services. But since it is developing, Facebook usually contains a lot of bugs which annoy you.

Interesting thing is that I usually find friends elder than me on Linkedin and ones younger than me on Facebook. Since LinkedIn is for established and professional people, it is convincing. But these facts indicate that my age is just between young and established people. I do not know if I want to stay young or to get established soon.

These are links to my facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Firefox

Like majority of my blog readers, I use the Firefox as a web browser. I like this browser because it is easier to customize than others. However, only one problem I am facing is that this browser takes forever to download pdf files. I do not know what is wrong with my setting, but I always have to lunch the Internet Explorer for pdf download. Since I have to download a lot of pdf files for my work, it is actually frustrating. If anyone knows a good way to resolve this problem, please let me know.

Picture of the day.

A cool picture from photoshop contest 07.

U.S. economy is heading to a recession.

It has been suggested that the U.S. economy is now heading toward a great recession (See this article). Primary problem is subprime lending, which lead the U.S. economy into hosing bubble.

The subprime loan is the high risk lending for people without good credit histories. You can easily see the problem of this system: “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?”

Similar hosing bubble actually happened in Japan in the end of 1980s. I was a high school student, therefore I did not actually experienced the bubble phase of Japanese economy. I just watched elder people getting enthusiastic and crazy. They bought unnecessary and expensive brand goods and spent money like water. They just got too much money because their hosing prices were raising too high. And one morning the prices suddenly dropped. They lost everything in one day.

After the blast of the bubble economy, Japan experienced the most severe recession. It took 15 years to fully recover from it.

I just hope that the U.S. economy does not contain such a huge problem. Although this report says U.S. economy is still strong now, I think the U.S. economy will experience the recession soon. I hope the recession will be short and minor.

2008 Presidential Election.

Among candidates for the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama is my most favorite one. His political vision is very similar to that of mine. Although I do not think that he will get strong enough support to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008, I still support him and donated some money for him (Go Obama!).

I personally do not like Hillary Clinton as much as Bill Clinton. I liked Bill Clinton very much but I am bit doubtful that Hillary will be a good president. Although she would be much better president than George W. Bush, I bet.

I usually like the Democratic party more than the Republican party, but I like Rudy Giuliani. I respect the way he acted after the 9/11 incident. He is likely to be the Republican nominee, which is good news for me.

Endless scream.

What a day is it today. Very important good and bad news come together today. My life is like a roller coaster. Endless scream. I cannot write about what is happening to me right now, because I am very confused. The big good news should make me very happy, and the big bad news should make me very sad. But since these two big news come at the same time, I do not know what to feel about them anymore. Not anymore. I really cannot recognize my emotion. It is like an endless scream. I am very confused, and I think I am getting exhausted.

Coffee, strong caffeine-rich drink.

I drink a lot of coffee. It is true that drinking a cup of coffee helps me to concentrate.

However, I think my body is on caffeine too much. In the near future, I will have to decaffeinate my body. I do not want to be like this poor spider who is caffeniated too much.

The picture is from wikipedia.

I swear.

Last couple of weeks, I was very busy at work. I did not have enough sleep or fun. Under such a stressful condition, my mind seeks Japanese contents. I read Japanese manga and watched Japanese anime DVDs, although I promised myself not to use Japanese for a while.

I swear that I wake up now and concentrate on English again.

Favorite minor web page. Xeno Tactic (game).

I do not play video or online games very much, because I think those are waste of time. For me, time is more important than money, and I do not want to waste it.

But this game, Xeno Tactic, is very interesting. I do play this when I am very tired to refresh my mind. Try this out.

http://www.smashingames.com/games/xenotactic_game.html

What to write in your blog. V. Keep motivated.

How to keep the motivation in writing a blog. This is the question I am thinking right now.

When you start writing a blog, you are exploring a new world. It is very exciting and you will experience new interesting things that make you easily satisfied. However, eventually, you will find the traffic of your blog does not increase whatever you write, and people leave many offensive comments on your blog. You will be very discouraged in keep writing the blog.

I think this is the turning point. You have to find the bottom line of the entire picture. Very simple truth is that you are writing your blog for you. Keep writing a blog will cultivate your ability. Even if you do not feel the difference, you are getting better and wiser by writing your blog. It just takes time to see the improvements, as you need a lot of trainings to complete a marathon.

From now on, to train myself, I decided to keep writing at least one entry a day as far as possible.

I will be back.

I was very busy last week. It was too busy to do anything else but work. I feel sad about this situation, but I promise that I will be back here as soon as possible.

Picture of the day

How cute they are... Hope everyone can live life in peace.

Favorite minor web page. Travel IQ (game).

I found an interesting and simple online game. This game is about geographic knowledge, try this out.

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq/

iPhone vs Android

The presumed advantage of the Android over an iPhone is that everyone can develop a software for the Android. However, there is a rumor that Apple will provide the software development kit to create a software for the iPhone. I think this kit will make the iPhone much stronger to compete with the Android.

From Engadet:

It's not anything more than a rumor right now, but reports are floating around claiming that "select developers" are already receiving prerelease versions of the upcoming iPhone SDK.

Quitting to start.

"If you really want to start one new thing, you have to give up one favorite thing." This is a practical lesson I learned in my life. Since I am spending most of my life for science (my work), I seldom have time to do other things. Therefore, it is important to decide what to spend my little extra time for.

Last year, I wanted to start two new things: Running a marathon and comprehending English. To start these two new things, I first decided to quit four really favorite things: Drinking alcohol, eating meat, traveling foreign countries for fun and using Japanese at work.

I hope I can achieve two new things by sacrificing four favorite things in the near future.

iPhone love

I activated my iPhone last week, and I found that this is the best cell phone I've ever used. Although AT&T is very evil and I do not like them, the iPhone is really lovely. Especially, I love its elegant interface and excellent concept. I cannot imagine my life without the iPhone.

Great-grand mother, Setsugi.

Reach a certain moment in your life, and you discover that your days are spent as much with the dead as they are with the living.

Setsugi is my great-grand mother. Biologically, I must have four great-grand mothers, but she is the only one I have personally met. Since she was babysitting us (me and my younger sister) while my parents were working, I do remember her very well.

According to my mother, she was born in 1903, more than a hundred years ago. It is amazing that I have a strong personal link with a person who was born more than a hundred years ago. A hundred years seem to be forever for me.

The tragedy of Setsugi's life was that her first husband, who is my biological great-grand father, died very young in his early 20s. I do not know why he passed away so early, but soon she married again with an another man. Unfortunately, her second marriage went to a wrong way, and it became really suffering for her and her son. However, at that time in Japan, it was the way impossible for her to divorce her second marriage due to very high social pressure. She and my grand father had to tolerate an endless terrible period there.

These experience more or less twisted her and her son. Even though I do not know what they exactly experienced there, I think I am also under the strong influence of their wound. When the wound is too big, it is easily transmitted to the descendant generations. I am really afraid of this kind of wound or trauma which beyond human life.

Vegan -day 35-

I have been a vegan for more than a month. I am getting used to being a vegan and spending a lot of time on reading ingredients at Whole Foods. I have never payed any attention to the ingredients before, but now I understand more things are actually vegan than I expected to (There are many kinds of vegan ice creams taste good).

However, thanksgiving is approaching. This year I have to give up Turkey due to my resolution to be a vegan. A friend of mine suggested that there is a turkey alternative, called Tofurky, which is created by tofu and tastes like a turkey. I decided to cook this Tofurky on this coming Thanksgiving day.


Tofurky

"Android" instead of gPhone

There will be no gPhone but google will just provide the platform for mobile phones. This platform is called Android and is composed by open source materials. Google tries to make the Android a common platform for all mobile phones as Microsoft once monopolize the field of personal computers by providing an essential operating system. Google encourage developers to compose Android native softwares by rewarding 10 million dollars to who invents the best application using Android. I think this strategy is based on their philosophy that "democracy on the web works".

As far as I watch this demo, the Android is not superior to what is achieved by an iPhone at this moment. Therefore, I decided to buy the iPhone. However, I think, the most charming point of the Android is that everybody can develop a software for it. I admire that Google opened a big chance for new challengers to develop new business over the Android. But I think it takes little more time to catch up with what is already done by the iPhone.

Ezekiel 25:17.

I respect Quentin Tarantino very much. I memorized one quote he created in his excellent film Pulp Fiction.

Ezekiel 25:17.

The path of the righteous man

is beset on all sides

by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.

Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will,

shepherd the weak through the valley of darkness,

for he is truly his brother's keeper and finder of lost children.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger

those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.

And you will know my name is the load

when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

He generated this excellent quote by collecting sentences from the bible.

What a running will teach you.

In this wild world, you can only count on yourself. This is the important lesson you should learn in your life. Of course, your family and friends will always help you (they are very important), but when you are in the most dangerous situation, you will find that no one but only you can help yourself.

I found that a running teaches me more truth about this. When I am running very hard, my body and my mind resist against my will. My body refuses to take my order and my mind tries to trick me. You will find that although you can only count on yourself, your body and mind are not your reliable allies. This is the other lesson you should learn in your life.

I physically train my body very hardly to understand these truths: You have to fight against the world alone with your body and mind which are not cooperative to you. No matter how miserable it is, it is the life we have to live.

11-year-old guitarist

He is only 11 years old but covering Andy Mckee's Rylynn. He is incredibly good at it, check this out.

iPhone vs gPhone

My cell phone is getting too old and I am about to buy an iPhone. Since google is preparing its mobile phone, called gPhone, I am wondering if I should wait until the gPhone comes or buy the iPhone right now. However, The New York Times said that the gPhone will be quite different from what I thought it would be.

From New York Times:

But for now at least, Google will not put its brand on a phone. The software running on the phones may not even display the Google logo. Instead, Google is giving the software away to others who will build the phones. The company invested heavily in the project to ensure that all of its services are available on mobile phones. Its ultimate goal is to cash in on the effort by selling advertisements to mobile phone users, just as it does on Internet-connected computers.

Google will provide mobile web platform but not homemade phones. I think this google's idea is very innovative. Although people say that google is as evil as Microsoft, I like them very much (But I cannot wait until the gPhone comes so I will buy the iPhone soon).

Favorite minor web page. What should I read next.

"What should I read next?" is a really cool web site. You can find books that you may like. Check it out.

What to write in you blog. IV. New teacher.

It is difficult to start a new thing. It is also difficult to continue doing a new thing. But once you start writing your blog, you should keep writing it. Now I am thinking how I can keep my motivation.

The biggest motivation for me to write blog is the desire to be able to comprehend English. I have been struggling with this language for quite a long time, but still far away from comprehending it.

I am thinking that I may use blog as new tool to study English more efficiently. For instance, 5 years ago, I had to go to school or see private teacher to learn English, but now the Internet can be my teacher. The readers of this blog can be a teacher: Please explain me the grammatical errors in this blog. If you are good at explaining the errors, I will ask you to be my personal teacher via the Internet (It will be a good and easy part time job at home for you).

Vegan -day 20-

I have been a vegan for 3 weeks now. I can call myself a 100% vegan.

There was an another big change in my body at around 2 weeks after starting vegan diet. Around that time, I started to eat a lot of raw vegetables and that surprised my intestine. My stool frequency was dramatically increased during that week, and I had to evacuate the bowels more than 5 times a day. I was impressed that even though I did not loose any weight. I think that was a part of detox process of my body. Nowadays my intestine gets used to digest huge amount of raw vegetables and I do not have to go to a restroom so frequently (This is more convenient).

After I started to eat huge amount of raw vegetables, I think my skin has changed. I don't know why but it gets much smoother and more sensitive. First thing I did after starting the vegetable diet is to cut off all inner tags of T-shirts. The tags suddenly started irritating me due to my skin condition change (I used not to mind them at all).

Slim MacBook Pro

I found that windows Vista is still a crap and I do not want to use PC anymore. So I am now thinking of buying a MacBook for my work. But the only problem is that current MacBook Pro is too big for me. Since I came from high tech country Japan, I believe that the notebook size is the smaller the better (I would use very big desktop computers but not notebooks).

I found some rumors that Apple is preparing new product that is "considerably slimmer" than the current MacBook. Although 9to5Mac said "They are set to be priced extremely aggressively", I would probably buy this slim MacBook as soon as they release it.

24 miles a week. Phase 1.

I am a runner but not good one. I want to improve my running skills. I have two objects to achieve soon in this regard.

1) I would like to be able to run 24 miles a week, constantly.

2) I would like to complete my first full marathon.

I can run 24 miles a week, but I cannot do it every week in row. I want to be strong enough to run 24 miles a week all the time. Also I have completed a few half marathons but never tried a full marathon. I would like to challenge a full marathon in the very near future.

I will write how the training is going in this blog.

Comments

I transiently hide comments on this blog. I will open comments again when the traffic of this blog becomes more than average 100 accesses/day.

Until then, please e-mail any comment to the following address:

Big flow

Now I am standing on the big turning point of my life. It is too big to write about it right now, but in a couple of months, I will write what is actually going on in my life. This flow I am facing right now is too strong to resist. Therefore, I decided to go with this flow as far as I can. I really have no idea where this flow will take me to, but I would call this a fate and go wherever it takes me.

Language is your brain's OS. -Part 1

As people around me know, I have a weird fate. I was born and educated in Japan but eventually started to work in the United States in my middle 20s.

As everyone can image, I had to change my main language from Japanese to English during my 20s. It was really difficult trial for me to completely shut down Japanese from my mind. I really struggled and still struggling to deal with the language. But during my trial, I found one essential principle about a language: Language is your brain's OS (operating system), and the brain needs functional OS to stay healthy. In this blog, I will write what really happened to me when I installed new (not properly functioning) OS into my brain at middle 20s. It was really life threatening experience for me.

Brain position for optimism

From nature:

Neuroscientists have pinpointed the areas of the brain that help us to look on the bright side.

The group asked people to imagine positive and negative events that had either happened in the past or might happen in the future. Then, the volunteers rated their levels of optimism (as a general personality trait) using a standard psychological test.

Imagining positive events in the future was accompanied by activity in two areas of the brain that usually regulate how emotion affects memory and decisions: the amygdala, buried deep within the brain, and the front portion of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which sits just behind the eyes. Conversely, activation in both these areas dropped below average when the volunteers thought about future negative events.

The more optimistic people considered themselves to be, the greater the activity in the ACC. The results are published in Nature ².

I think being optimistic is critically important to survive. This study may help to overcome depression or pessimism in the future.

Favorite minor web page. Seeqpod music

You should try Seeqpod music web page where you can find any kinds of music. It is an excellent site.

Vegan -day 6-

I wrote:

Write things that no one else knows as everybody else can easily understand.

To achieve this, I will descriptively write what happened to me after becoming a vegan. Because I am the only one who knows what happened to my body.

4 days after I had started vegan diet, there was a striking change in my body. At day 4, I felt really terrible due to severe headache. I did not understand what was going on and my body was so weak at that day. My pee smelled really badly all day long. It smelled really stingingly, which I have never smelled in my life before. I was confused and became really anxious that I might get sickness due to unusual foods.

However, at day 5 morning, everything was cleaned up. My headache was gone and my pee did not smell anymore. Indeed, I felt real health in me. I've never felt this health and happiness before. I think around day 4, I was going through detox process in which the liver cleans up the poison accumulated in my body.

Picuture of the day

Work harder for less reward. Then.

You can walk your lonely way as an elephant in a forest.

Vegan. -day 3-

Since I grew up in Japan, I was strictly told to eat as many kinds of food as I can. Indeed, I was strictly taught to eat everything served for me no matter whether I like them or not. Since it is culture, I do not blame it. If I go to Japan again, I would try to eat everything they will serve me.

But here in the States, situation is much different. I would die if I have to eat everything served for me in restaurants all the time. They usually serve the way too much for my body.

To protect myself, I decided to be a Vegan from last week. I do not know how long I will be able to continue this diet, but I will write what will happen to my body. What kind of change or desire will occur to my mind and body.

What to write in your blog. III. Why you write it.

I am now thinking why should I write my blog. What is the benefit of doing it?

First, writing is learning. Human brain is designed to learn things in an output dependent manner. Writing is a good output, therefore you will learn more as you write more. I would like to keep learning things, and this is the biggest motivation for me to write my blog.

Second, writing blog will advance my reading skill, I believe. You need to read a lot to write. It is like breathing: you need to inhale air a lot to exhale them. It is also like breathing for me that I need to keep reading and writing all the time to be alive. I would like to breath well to stay healthy. Indeed, breathing in English is a big exciting challenge fore me.

Picture of the day.

Read what this road construction sing says. Isn't it amazing?

Of course it is a fake one and you can make custom sings like this at the web site.

Favorite minor web page. Musicovery.

I recently found musicovery where you can discover favorite musics in a very unique way. Check this out.

http://musicovery.com/

Moon light sensor

From Science:

Moonlight triggers the synchronized spawning of reef-building corals; however, the mechanism underlying detection of moonlight by these animals is largely unknown. Levy et al. (p. 467) now demonstrate the presence of ancient blue-light-sensing photoreceptors, cryptochromes, in the reef-building coral.

I think this is cool. However, how these photoreceptors distinguish sun and moon lights? Sun light must also contains blue color that the moon emits. Maybe the photoreceptors are only expressed during night.

What to write in your blog. II. Create expectation.

In his blog, Randfish said that Create Expectations and Fulfill Them to make your blog better. I was totally impressed by his idea and was convinced. I should create the expectation for my blog, and this is the way to establish my own brand in the blogsphere.

Geek T-shirt.

After I got my iPod Touch, finding a hot spot for WiFi in the city became a part of my life. I really would like to get this cool T-shirt which indicates how strong is the WiFi signal around.

Papers, the best browser ever.

I do not watch TV. A lot of people around me also do not watch TV anymore. I used to watch TV all day long when I was a kid, but this habit is getting out of date. We think information should be transmitted via reciprocal communications but not by one way broadcasting.

I do not read printed newspaper. It is easy to imagine that it will take too long to print articles on a paper and deliver it to your home. Meanwhile publishing the articles online takes only a second (Just click the button). I would say printed information is pretty old to catch up. But I still think printed New York Times is worth to read because it contains many informative articles, and the printed paper is much easier to read.

I read books. I like very old novels such as "The great Gatsby" which is available online. However, I still paying money for these old novels because it is easier to concentrate on reading with books. I wish somebody will develop a better browser which will not damage my eyes even after long time reading.

Similarly, I read many online journals. But I usually buy three kinds of printed journals, The New Yorker, Science and Wired, because I want to read them more carefully. Although I can read most of articles online, printed papers are still more suitable for critical readings for me. They are definitely worth for a few dollars, because thus far printed papers are the best browser to read. I just want to read good articles with the best browser.

Will you be quiet, please?

Oh boy, the song "Fly me to the moon" is running in my head endlessly today, all day long. Could anyone stop this music in my head?

Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars
In other words hold my hand
In other words darling kiss me

Fill my life with song
And let me sing forevermore
You are all I hope for
All I worship and adore
In other words please be true
In other words I love you

Novel Prize in Literature

From New York Times:

Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her deep feminist engagement with the major social and political issues, won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature today.

Ms. Lessing, who turns 88 later this month, never finished high school and largely educated herself through her voracious reading. She had been born to British parents in what is now Iran, was raised in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and now lives in London. She has written dozens of books of fiction, as well as plays, non-fiction and an autobiography. She is the 11th woman to win a Nobel Prize in literature.

I would love to read her novels to know how good she is.

Welcome to the world.

My mother e-mailed me that my sister just delivered her son. Wow, he looks like my sister. This means I just become an uncle. Of course, I feel very happy that he was born safely. Welcome to this world!

But son, as you will see, this world is a mess, there is no doubt about it. But boy don't worry, we all will teach you what we learned, so that you can have a higher chance to survive, so that you can take after this planet. I hope you will be a strong man.

We all are wishing good luck for you.

Cover - The cranberries- Ode to my family

I found a good cover of the Cranberries on Youtube. This is the best cover I've ever listened. She has such a lovely voice, check this out.

Experiment with reddit.com

I wrote:

"Write things that no one else knows as everybody else can easily understand. "

To achieve this purpose, I undertook one experiment. Since only a few people were reading my blog, I asked what will be happen if I advertise my blog on reddit.com or digg.com? I submitted my previous entry to them at the same time with an identical title.

The outcome was significant. As you see in the graph, I got more than 180 hits within a day. But I noticed that digg.com only gave me 9 accesses while reddit.com gave me almost 20 times more accesses.

from reddit: 178 accesses/ 1day
from digg: 9 accesses/ 1day

The conclusion of this experiment will be that reddit.com is a better place to advertise your personal blog.

Unbroadcasted scene -Nirvana Plateau-

The beginning of this scene was not broadcast on MTV, I think. Kurt's voice was always great, and makes me feel good.

What to write in your blog?

What should you write in your personal blog? This is the question I am thinking right now.

I thing a good blog is written abut things that only its author knows, and the author writes the blog as everybody else can understand. In other words, "Write things that no one else knows as everyone else can easily understand. " What are things only I know? Hum, I have to think about this more.

Alien's drawing?

I do believe that there are other intelligent creatures in this universe, maybe in many galaxies away. But I personally do not believe that the other intelligent creatures or aliens have ever visited the earth. All of the reports about U.F.O. were fake, I think.

But when I initially found this huge drawing on google map of Australia, I thought this may be written by an alien.... As you see, this drawing is too big to be drawn by ancient human beings.

Take a look at google map!

Cell phones save poverty?

The gap between rich and poor always exists in this world. However, in the near future, the gap might get bigger due to the advancement of the Internet. Richer people who can access to the network will gain more information and poorer people who cannot access to the network will fall apart.

When I was talking about this issue today, a guy told me very interesting opinion. He said that cell phones will solve this problem. People will be able to connect to the network via cell phones, and cell phones are much cheaper than computers. Therefore, most of people in the world will be connected to the network soon.

I am kind of impressed by this opinion. Because the cell phone technology to connect to the Internet has been most developed in Japan. Nowadays younger Japanese people do not use computer but only cell phones.

Japan should be aware of the possibility that their bigger chance on the network business exists in developing poor countries but not in the States or other advanced countries.

Picture of the day.

I should not remember any language.

It makes me return to your bloody heart.

The difference

10 years ago, when there was no company called google, what did you do to study a particular subject? You would probably go to a library to look for information.

Just 10 yeas later, what do you actually do to study the particular subject now? Most of contemporary people will google the subject first.

Please think about this difference. If you have to go to the library, you need at least a couple of hours or even a half day to achieve your search. But with the google, it takes a couple of seconds.

This is an informational revolution. People who know how to deal with the network, get enormous power called knowledge. The network gives you the closest shortcut to acquire essential knowledge or power.

In the near future, maybe in another 10 years, poverty will mean not knowing how to take out essential information from the Internet.

Lack of imagination

I think this clerk at the supermarket lacks imagination. It reminds me fascism.

from BBC

Supermarket staff refused to sell alcohol to a white-haired 72-year-old man - because he would not confirm he was over 21.

Takeshi Kitano, a film director

I do not like Takeshi Kitano as a comedian (I do not think he is funny at all). However, he is a genius artist for sure. I love his movies very much. I usually do not watch Japanese movies but only his.

Abuse or not

from New York Times:

A 13-year-old girl was brought to a doctor’s office to have her clitoris removed, a surgery considered necessary here to preserve chastity and honor.The girl died, but that was not the source of the outrage. After her death, the government shut down the clinic, and that got everyone stirred up.

In Egypt, majority of people still support unnecessary circumcision. I think this is a kind of child abuse, and we should work to prevent it.

Tracking down

I think this is interesting. Scroogled

The U.S. government had lavished $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn't caught a single terrorist. Clearly, the public sector was not equipped to Do Search Right.

It will be google but not any government who will be able to tack down any individual on this planet. We have to be careful so that google will not abuse their power and that they will not be used by the U.S. government.

Smoking

My dad told me he was trying to quit smoking. I really think that it is a good idea. But nature of this week said that gene expression changes would remain decades after quit smoking.

Nature:

Gene expression changes brought on by heavy smoking may persist long after the smoker has kicked the habit, researchers have found. The results could provide a molecular explanation for the continued increased risk of lung cancer and other pulmonary ailments among former smokers.

When smokers quit, their bodies gradually begin to undo the damage cigarettes have wrought. But contrary to popular belief, not all of the body's systems make a full recovery. Although the risk of heart disease, for example, eventually returns to that of a nonsmoker, the risk of getting lung cancer and emphysema — a progressive lung condition that leaves sufferers struggling for breath — remains elevated even if the patient hasn't smoked a cigarette in decades.

"You are reducing the risk of disease by quitting," says Raj Chari, a cancer biologist at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver, Canada, "but it isn't going back to zero."

Flickr

Flickr is a nice tool. I love this web site.

To Built a Fire

Jack London is the one of my favorite writers. I read "To Built a Fire" yesterday. Mother nature mercilessly killed the man who struggled desperately to survive.

Keep it.

Keep swimming, keep swimming.

Debate

I hope the health insurance system in this country will be fixed soon. At this point, it is really a disaster.

Vista

I bought a new computer last week, since old one stop functioning. However, I found that Windows Vista is still a crap. I really do not like Vista.

Rice field art

 I think this is cool.

More

Remind

This is the phrase I usually remind when I feel angry.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby"

Future

Freeman Dyson said;

It has become part of the accepted wisdom to say that the twentieth century was the century of physics and the twenty-first century will be the century of biology. Two facts about the coming century are agreed on by almost everyone. Biology is now bigger than physics, as measured by the size of budgets, by the size of the workforce, or by the output of major discoveries; and biology is likely to remain the biggest part of science through the twenty-first century. Biology is also more important than physics, as measured by its economic consequences, by its ethical implications, or by its effects on human welfare.

I hope this is true.

Shoulder

My shoulder is killing me.  I cannot sleep because I always get acute pain in my right shoulder while I am sleeping.  This is stressful.  I should see my doctor. But pitty thing in this country is that health insurance is not working.  It is very hard to even see a doctor here. 

Oil price

The price of gas is hitting its ceiling. I think someone may be manipulating the price of gas. Since one year ago during the mid-term election, the gas price hits its bottom. It was probably to win the election. If Bush administration or some friends of Bush know the way to change the oil price intentionally, they must have already made tremendous amount of money. I think that is the way some rich people are getting richer in this country.

Streak

Once you start it, you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that you will hit the streak when you going forward. This path, which you are walking alone, will lead you to a new land. The land no one has never seen. How hard people criticize you, you have to be live in it. You trust your ability, instinct and gumption. You will only make it when you think you can do it. This is the war you fight. You have to fight it by yourself.

4th of July

It is independence day here. Barbecue under the clear summer sky. The fireworks coming later. People look happy around. However, I am still struggling through the mud alone.

Great-grand mother, Rio.

I got a picture of my great-grand mother. The picture was taken in the 1930's, I think.

My uncle told me that her name was Rio. I am wondering what kind of life she was spending there. Was she ever happy? Rio?

Homesick.

I went to Japan two weeks ago. It was nice to see my relatives and friends there. But the fact is that I was homesick all the time during my stay in Japan. I just wanted to come back to San Francisco as soon as possible. I even dreamed of it. Now I am very happy to be here again where I am belonged to.

Do not sympathize with yourself

This is the phrase I always tell myself. Life is tough, especially mine is. I must always encourage myself to survive.

Learning from mistakes

Making decision under extreme condition is my work. I sometimes make mistake, and see the consequence of terrible chain reactions. I feel sorry. I do feel sorry that many people suffer because of my bad decision. But most of the time, I cannot undo what I did. All I can do is to take responsibility of the decision and try best to learn from the mistake. I wish I am getting wiser and stronger by overcoming all of these acute pains.

English grammar

For people using English as a second language like me, English grammar is sometimes far beyond from understanding. Why 'mail' is an uncountable noun while 'e-mail' is a countable noun? I can count number of mail you got if you are having any problem.