The Smartest man, The biggest Lie

Around a week ago, our global ethics class watched a very didactic documentary file called Enron: The smartest man in the room. Basically, it is talking about an corporation called Enron, and NOT to run business like them. Even though we all know that the philosophies of corporations are all just profits, Enron brought this to another level. But before all that, I’m going to briefly tell you what Enron is. According to little researches online, I found out that Enron is an energy company. In fact, Enron is one of the world’s largest energy companies. However, Enron’s greed took away it’s glory.

The CEO of Enron, Jeff Skilling is an extremely smart, and greedy man. He brought Enron to its climax with a special accounting called Mark to Market. Basically, it gave the owners the ability to hinder the company’s budgets and rewrite those values in anyways the company feels like it. Of cause Mark to Market is not as simple as this, but this is the most I can explain. So basically, Enron is lying to its stockholders about their investments and the profits they are getting. Basically, they are telling the world they are making millions off a project that haven’t even started. Some of their projects are even huge failures. Like when they went abroad to India, that project failed miserably. The power plane is left unfinished, all the money in that project is lost, but no one knows. Enron lied about that project, and people thought they did a great job in India. In respond to that, their stock went higher. For many people, even stockbrokers, they thought the price of a company’s stock represents how well the company is functioning. However Enron is actually loosing money this whole time. Their stock go rocket high while the business itself is falling day by day. If I would to use a metaphor for this, Enron will be like Taipei 101 without interiors. Enron is destined to collapse.

Enron is even connected to politics. Ken Lay, another key player in this corporation is very tightly connected to Bush Jr. I’m not entirely sure about the kind of connections they have, but from what the movie said, bush used a lot of helps from Ken, and in return, Enron is able to free themselves from some troubles. With these connections, Enron moved its target on California. They decided to run the state’s energy, and steal the energy from them. Basically, they shut off the state’s electricity so they can boost the stock price for them. A very complicated process, but they manage to pull it off.

Well, their lies didn’t last forever. After awhile, people started finding holes in their lies, and started fighting against them. Their Stock along with the company gone bankrupt in 24 days. All 20,000 of their employees went unemployed in a day. And of cause, all the leading heads, peoples like Jeff Skilling are sentenced to different times in jail. Even one of them committed suicide.

Jeff Skilling: Sentenced to 24 years and 4 month in Jail. Fined 45 million USD. Current status: Serving time!
Ken Lay: Died of heart attack before being sentenced to anything. Technically, he is not guilty of anything. Died on 5th of July 2006. 64 years old.

So, does any of that relate to my global ethics experience in my junior year? Yes. Referring back to a book we read, Ishmael, Enron is just like what the book is describing, a falling aircraft. The way Enron is trying to get rich is like how the aircraft is trying to accelerate while ignoring the law of aerodynamic and the direction they are going. The results of this falling aircraft is a sudden boom, and compare this with Enron, it is actually very similar.

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I’m thinking of a cool way to end this entry, like a sentence that will make the readers think a bit more, but I’m experiencing a serious brain dead at the moment. So, if you did took the time to read this blog entry, give me a sentence that I should use to end this entry.
My Blog Needs YOUR HELP *finger pointing at your face*

Hawken and McDonough

This is a little reflection after I watched Hawken and McDonough's book and TED talk. First of all, both of them are professionals on their topics. And in the end, there are a lot of informations which I cannot absorb in just a few days. But I will present my views and some of the connections they have in this blog.

First, both of them are talking about the scarcity of resources. Even though they are on the same topic, the way they present their idea is totally different. Ignoring the fact that one of them wrote a book, and the other just had a speech, their content are quite different. Hawken is more...realistic. He pointed out the fact that no matter how much we save in our daily life, is it still not enough. Unless the corporations started working for the environment, there will never be a sustainable life. McDonough, in the other hand is more optimistic, and unreal in a way. He gave his audience "Hope". He educates us ways to save energy. For example, he talked about the green roof, which is something I'm highly interested in. He suggested the idea of planting vegetables on our roof, and from doing that, we are also giving our house one of the best installation ever. The topic of green roof really fascinates me. Since the beginning of last year, I started researching on green roof, and found many interesting facts on it. However, I don’t want to digress this topic, so I am not going to talk about my research on green roof.

Hawken also talked about something that I thought is very…interesting. He talked about how we should redesign some of the systems in our everyday life. By that, I mean hospital system. He said, during the process of going to the hospital, getting medicine…etc are using much more resources then we needed. I strongly agree with him. For example, I feel that all the paper advertisements are a form of waste resources. Why are we still reading paper advertisements when we have internet? Is it necessary to cut down that many acres of forest? Do you even read those advertisements? I guess it is very clear to you now; some of the “system” in our world is not really resource efficient.

I want to end my blog by one of the quote from Hawken. Sustainable businesses create objects of durability and long-term utility whose ultimate use or disposition will not be harmful to future generations. This will be my rule when I made it to the architecture business. I want to contribute to the world, do you?

Waste Not! Senior Projec!

After reading the 3rd chapter of the book “Natural Capitalism”, Waste Not, I feel the urge to tell you more about my passion in green architecture. This will later lead to my senior project and possibly my future job, but before that, let me first talk about this chapter.

Waste Not is basically a whole chapter talking about waste. It started with shocking facts about the amount of waste that is produced by Americans each year. After these shocking, disturbing and distasteful facts, the focus of the chapter slowly moved toward the economy side. It reminded me about my last year’s global environmental issue class. This class is also talking about waste and ecological footprints. I found out that the tremendous waste from any production can be reduced dramatically if the parts of the product is made locally. Without all the pollutions during the process of conveying the products, our earth will surely be a greener place. But for profit, companies decided to exploit this earth. In other words, these peoples are all capitalists. Extreme selfish capitalist.

Unexpectedly, this chapter started talked about the waste of “people”, which I thought was interesting. It talks about how many labors are wasting their talent just because they don’t have opportunities. It mentioned about drugs and other more complicated issues, but I think that will be digressive if the main point of this blog is the connection to my Senior project.

So! Senior project! First of all, I always get excited when I talk about this, so excuse me for adding too much exclamation marks! Well, even though I still don’t have a clear idea of what my senior project is going to be, I know it is going to be about Green architecture. And after a trip to the Lille forum, I’ve learned about how wasteful, and harmful a building can be. This is similar to what the chapter is about, the waste! Also, the combination of the shocking facts I found during my trip to France made me more aware of the production of buildings. It also made me more devoted into the study of green architecture. So, What is my senior project going to be? Green architecture and the design of a more sustainable life~!

Inquiry questions for my Senior Project.

Everyone have different senior project, and everyone have different inquiry questions. We've all put down a lot of thoughts and we all have good inquiry question. Now, I'm putting mine on this blog so people can give me suggestions. Please feel free to criticize it if you think it's crap.

Inquiry questions #1.
Can the design of a furniture change a person's personality?

I came up with this questions because I've realized that the world today is surrounded by designs. Weather it's creative designs or just simple designs, it's all designs. Sooner, a person's personality could be changed by the designs around them. For example, an outback person's personality would change if he move to big city. He's life tempo would be expected to faster, and he's living style would be expected to change as well. So I asked myself, does furniture also have a power to shape a person's personality?

Inquiry question#2
Why aren't people adapting green technologies?

Green technologies are known for saving money and planet in the same time. A energy efficient light bulb might cost more then a normal one, but in a longterm, it saves more money. But how come a lot of people still get normal light bulb? Is it because people don't know it? Is it because people are more interested in their short term income? Is it because people hate the idea of green technology?

This two are my inquiry question. As you can see, it's not fully developed. I will still make changes to it. But so far, this is what I've got. I will answer these questions while working on my senior project, which I don't know yet.

So~if you have anything you think you should add, please feel free to comment on my blog.

Kuso! anyone?

What is kuso? There are a lot of explanations for kuso. To be honest, I don't there is an absolute answer for kuso, and that is the kuso spirit. I personally think, kuso is the kind of stuff that turns everyday stuff into funny things. It is funny because it's something you see everyday, or something that everyone know or heard of. It's the type of things that make you go "Damn! Why didn't I think of that..."
But kuso also serve other purposes. Some kuso works also reflects the reality. The artist might use an ordinary object to talk about a serious problem in today's world. sarcasm is one of the many things you can find in a kuso work.
Now, enough with the explanation, I have a few examples of kuso for you viewers.

Warning! Some of these pictures are not appropriate for immature viewers. Please leave if you are immature!

Kuso T-shirts:
This one is a good example of using a famous scene and change it into something else. Have you ever thought of this scenario? Just after the bikers float into the air, flying over polices and forest...the main character fall. I guess E.T. don't need him anymore....







Once again, it uses everyday stuff, but with an interesting phrase. For this shirt, I see some sarcastic in it. It says "United we Stand" but a lot of the pieces are missing. Id the artist trying to something about the government? Is trying to say the inside of the whole system is corrupted?








This one is very obvious. This shirt serve two purpose in the same time. First, the owner of this shirt is HOT! Second, the reminder of Global Warming.










This one is more interesting. Other then the fact that there is swear word on it, it actually reflects the society. Life could be just like tetris. Everything might work out perfectly fine if you are receiving all the pieces you wanted, but one false move could blow it all up.








These are all shirt from the following website
http://www.bustedtees.com
some of the shirts might be offensive, but if you deep enough, they might serve other purposes.

The Darkside of the Science Park

This article blew me away. Before I read this article, I thought Science Park is a clean industry with good technology and good paid. But after this article, my view towards the science park totally changed. Right now, Science Park is just like another coldblooded multinational corporation. Without the strict regulations on land use and waste disposal, Science Parks are able to expand without limit. When I saw the statistics on the amount of pollutions dumped by the companies, I’m just completely shocked. I never knew about the enormous power the science park have.
These companies are also compressing their employees. When this article talks about how the workers in the science park are forced to sign contracts and keep everything in the park as secrets, I literally got stung. I always thought Taiwan is a free country, until I read this disturbing article. It feels like the employees are forced to live against their will.
Lastly, I’m ashamed when I see how the governments are letting these companies skip pass regulations. This seems like a huge scandal and a huge lie. If the government don’t care about our health, who does? The final feeling I have towards this article is depression. I just hope, this situation can change with the new government.

An unusual Ending

Today, I finally finished the book "Cat's Cradle". This is a book I've been reading for over 2~3 months. Let me first briefly talk about this book. This book is full of satire. It is exaggerating today's society, religious and our life style. This book talk about the selfness of scientists, poverty and lies in religious for the most part. The main character, John is in a island, a third world country with ridicules rules and religion. He is with a bunch of other characters and they are experiencing a major change in that country. The president of the country is very sick, and he is about to die. However, the man he chose to rule the country doesn't want to take the job. He is called frank, a scientist who caries the most powerful weapon in the world, ice-nine. Eventually, John got the job because he wanted power and a woman which he love. After taking the job, he become more arrogant. After taking the job, the old president took a little drip of ice-nine and killed himself. The effect of this deadly weapon shocked him and made him nervous. This is when the author tried to explain what science is doing to our world and how easily an individual could change his/her personality from power.
Eventually, an accident happened, and the ice-nine got into the ocean and freezed the world. Storm started occurring all around the world. Fortunately, John and her beautiful wife survived by hiding in a underground shelter until the storm dies off. During those time, he and his wife had a lot of furious sexual orgy. I believe the author is trying to predict how the judgment day would be like, sexual orgy.
Afterward, John found out what have he done making this world into this huge disaster, and started regretting. He started learning from the natural. While he is trying to survive, he met another major character in the book, Bokonon. He was the creator of the country's religion. The religion is based on one thing and one thing only, LIE. Bokonon figured that the world is full of lies and there will never be an utopia. And when John met him, Bokonon was writing the last sentence for his book, his religious book. It was "If I were a younger man, I would write a history human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of th blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who"
This is very power sentence. It described the main theme of the story, human stupidity. It says if someone is able to record all the stupid things that human did, the pages will pile all the way up and be as tall as mountains. However, I don't quite get the "grinning horribly" part. It could mean the regret from human or the curse to God. What ever it is, it is always going to be an enigma, and there will never be a real answer for that rhetorical question.

Wx5

Who-What-When-Where-Why These are common questions that NEWS reporters ask themselves. And, after reading this article on "Fearing Floods, Chinese Order Evacuations in Quake Area". This is an article on Sichuan earthquake. Basically, its about the possible threats from the aftershocks which might cause serious floodings.

Who: I believe its the citizens, especially the refugees and the armies. It mentioned the refugees because they are the ones that might suffer from the after shock. It also mentioned the technical difficulties for the soldiers who are trying to appease the situation.

What: The earthquake reshaped the geography of Sichuan and some mudslides from the mountains blocked rivers. These rivers normally have villages around it. If there is another aftershock, it is possible for the mudslide block to collapse which allows all the water to rush down into those small villages. So, the authorities are trying to evacuate as many citizens as they can. Right now, they are targeting on 150 thousand peoples. But due to the mudslides in other places which locked the roads for refugees, this operation is getting harder.

When: This is a post on May 28, 2008. It didn't say when the authorities stated evacuating the refugees, so I could give a date.

Where: It is mainly talking about the villages near southwest Sichuan. The main river which is causing a lot of problems, Tangjiashan, is also located there.

Why: I'm not so sure about this one. It is similar to What, but this might be asking for more specific details. So, why? It is because of the threat of the river to flood and kill more refugees. The mudslide is not going to hold the river forever, and once the river gets to a level, its is going to start washing away the mudslide. Eventually, flood. So, the authorities are trying to evacuate as many refugees are possible.

Above is m first attempt of being an news reporter. If you are a real reporter, please correct me.

I Know how you feel

I'm dead. Totally.
When I heard I have to present my ideas in front of the school, I nearly had a mental breakdown. I never enjoy the feeling of standing in front of everyone else, especially to talk about my ideas. Last night, I practiced the presentation but it went out bad. I totally forget what I'm suppose to say, and I mumble nearly all of the words. I'm dead.

After 7 hours of nightmare, I woke up to face my deepest fear. I ate my breakfast and asked my mom for advise. A fruitless attempt. She started talking about her childhood memories and, I'm not so sure, but she started talking about how she and dad met.

About 20 minutes later, we arrived. She gave me a kiss on the forehead and wished me luck. That was unusually encouraging. I nearly cried. But I must hold my together, I must be strong.

It's assembly time now. Every students in our school sat in a huge circle. The circle of death.

My palms and my forehead is sweaty. I have sweats rolling down my cheek into my shirt. I hold tight to my index cards as if they are my life line.

The seniors just finished telling their weekend story to the school. How did they do that?! They are so calm. How come they are so brave? John just finished telling how he helped an old lady to cross the road. He was the oldest student in our school, also the funniest. Everyone was laughing, except me. I can't let anything come into me, I can't. If I blow this one, I might turn into the biggest joke in our school.

Its principle's time now. He is talking about our new school rule, the dress code. But I didn't hear a thing. I was lost in my nervousness. What I do notice was, he totally brought the atmosphere down. His deep voice always indicates that he is serious.

Great, the happy atmosphere which the seniors built is gone. The circle looks like a disease infested swamp due to everyone's angry faces.

About 3 or 4 minutes later, my adviser started speaking. He introduced Jessica and me to the whole school. We are going to be the joker for today. He explained our presentation, and the hard times we are going through now. Yes, finally someone know how I feel. But after taking a quick glance at the crowd, I found out that no one really cares. A bunch of ignorance peoples! This will definitely lead to serious criticisms.

First up is Jessica, yes! Her english is worse then me, I hope she mess her speech up, so that I would look better than her. She told me she didn't even practice the speech, or make any index cards.

Her speech was poorly done. She didn't clearly get her ideas across, but the crowds loved it. She made the crowd laugh. The way she did her speech was terrible, but its was funny, and plus, shes more popular. After accepting the warm cheers and claps, Jessica left the stage. It's me, all by myself, fighting against the whole world with my 3 pages index cards.

A sudden silent came, everyone is staring at me. I totally lost my speech. But looking at my index cards, I realized I had the wrong index card. This is the one I had for my english class's presentation. Damn!

Suddenly, my adviser stood up. He asked everyone to give me a round of applause. So they did, but it made me more nervous. I just want to hind in the corner forever.

After another minute of silence, I decided to just give it a try. I started my presentation. I was mumbling in the beginning. I don't even understand myself, but about 5 minutes later, I started enjoying the presentation. I remember everything I have to say, and I made the audiences laugh a few time. After my presentation, I received lots of compliments. The teachers shacked my hand with a warm smile. The seniors were saying how brave I was. Jessica was mad, I'm more popular now, but I don't care how she feels. All i care is, I made it. I'm a winner.

Cell phone?

Cell phone usage is a HUGE problem in many schools. It annoys the teacher in class and distract the students. But is it really bad?

In HIS (Hsinchu International School), phones are forbidden. It students get distracted easily, and we can not denial it. BUT, we never think of the possible good it could bring to us. Phones are first, one of the fastest way to get to another person. For example, in a huge school, there is no way you can contact another person within a few minutes. You always have to run around asking other peoples. But, if phones are allowed, these kind of things would never happen. Also, using phone is just a good habit in this technology century. We must get use to it, and not be outcast in this world of technology. Messages for example. We must get use to the concept of messaging other peoples, especially when its cheaper. It is going to help greatly even when you enter the business world.

So, I think we should allow phones in school.