Links: 2008-06-02

• For the life of me - Mountaineer chronicles his Everest rescue by Calgarian Andrew Brash and defends those who left him for dead
• Quotes from Yves Saint Laurent (1936 - 2008) * "I participated in the transformation of my era. I did it with clothes, which is surely less important than music, architecture, painting ... but whatever it's worth I did it." (2002) * New York Times slideshow and obituary
• "Asset-backed insecurity" - an interesting piece about sovereign-wealth funds by The Economists
• Poor People With Checks - nicely done video "Checkmate"
• ABC Blesses Blogs, Endorses Embedding
• Owning the Clouds [via Cory

Sun’s Art of Patent War

I am no expert in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War but I find Chapter 5 (English and Chinese versions) interesting. For example (emphasis added),

• 5. In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.
• 6. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

As Sun Microsystems‘ General Counsel, my blog friend Mike Dillon’s (here is my interview with Mike) latest blog entry “The Patent Arms Race” lays out some of Sun’s latest thinking in IP and patent strategy which I find fascinating and very sensible.

Following is an excerpt from Mike’s “The Patent Arms Race” (emphasis added),

To some degree, this topic has a very Cold War feel to it with companies growing patent stockpiles to use if attacked or as a form of “mutual deterrence”. But, at some point, a company needs to ask how many patents it really needs. And, that’s exactly what we did about three years ago. Up to that time Sun was filing well over 1,000 patent applications per year. But, in 2005, we made the decision to reduce our patent filings to the point that we had about 700 patents issued last year.

I love Mike’s and Jonathan’s frankness and desire to keep Sun as transparent as they can. I hope more companies will follow Sun’s examples.

P.S. Check out some of these links Mike provided in his article,

• IBM hopes to patent ‘dealing with chaos’
• a Live IP auction at IP Business Congress (June 25/26, 2008) - highly recommended - check out some of the 65 lots of IP assets. Wow.
• reconsidering patentability of business methods

In Memory: Sydney Pollack

I am saddened to hear the wonderful director, producer, actor Sydney Pollack has passed away yesterday at 73. Articles by Roger Ebert, IHT, and Washington Post.

Love this quote from G&M “The way he was” (emphasis added),

Asked why he interrupted his own filmmaking career to act for Stanley Kubrick ( Eyes Wide Shut) and Woody Allen ( Husbands and Wives), Pollack replied, “Because I wanted to see how they work. I was curious.

In this YouTube video, Sydney Pollack discusses his documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry” with Charlie Rose.

Here in this YouTube video (at the 1:13 and 6:25 marks), you hear Sydney talking about his love of flying jet plane (actually a Citation X, the “fastest non-military jet”) in the documentary One Six Right (named after the most popular runway at the Van Nuys Airport). Yeap, he flew jets.

Paris Hilton Inc.

You can watch this insightful documentary from CBC Doc Zone Paris Hilton Inc. about our celebrity culture that dominates our daily media and social dialogue.

Wikimedia & Sue

Two interesting articles about Sue Gardner (former head of CBC.ca) and Wikimedia.

Seed Magazine

Seed (subtitled: Science Is Culture) is a science magazine published bimonthly by Seed Media Group (founder and editor-in-chief, Adam Bly). "Each issue looks at big ideas in science, important issues at the intersection of science and society, and the people driving global science culture."

Here are some interesting ones,

• Seed Video Feature: Lawrence Krauss + Natalie Jeremijenko (Full Cut, 45+ mins) - The Star Trek physicist enters the Seed Salon to discuss participation, the politics of knowledge production, and seduction with the artist/engineer.
• The Mandelbrot chat
• The artist/filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson enters the Seed Salon to discuss artifacts, presence, and invisibility with the Stanford archaeologist Michael Shanks. - real neat chat
• Marc Hauser + Errol Morris (and video) - The evolutionary psychologist (Hauser) and the documentary filmmaker (Morris) discuss game theory, Stanley Milgram, and whether science can make us better people.

Mandelbrot chats with Antonelli

A wonderful chat between Benoit Mandelbrot (father of fractal geometry) and Paola Antonelli (senior curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, wrote her thesis on "Fractal Architecture").

Love this exchange (emphasis added),

BM: Well, it is very encouraging for me, because I'm an old man and, as I always mention at some point, I never made up my mind who I really was, which allowed me to spend my life on many things. So what you're telling me is that I can just relax, because I won't have to decide!

PA: I don't know. You're very responsible for what goes on right now. I don't think you can relax any time soon!

BM: Well, yes, but at least I won't have to become a specialist, because everybody is going to become a generalist.

Here is a beautiful video excerpt of the chat. (very well done and wonderfully shot. simply beautiful. and great to see Mandelbrot in person in a video chat. very cool.)

P.S. Have a look at MoMA's "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition which Antonelli curates. Very cool and neat.

Richard Florida @ Google & Banff

I was really lucky to watch a CBC National video report and “discovered” Richard Florida tonight. (smile) I am going to pay attention to Rich’s ideas and I have subscribed to his blog. Check out his latest book - “Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.”

Here is a video of Rich interviewed by George on The Hour.

The following is an hour long video of Rich speaking at Google, NYC.

And if you are really keen and have nothing better to do (smile), then check out another hour long video of Rich speaking at Google, Headquater in CA (essentially the same speech but with a different set of Q&A starting at 48:45).

P.S. On a personal note, Rich reminds me of some of the great U of Toronto professors that I had. Great job in bringing Rich to Toronto. And I am looking forward to listening to Rich live at Banff World TV Festival.

P.P.S. Here is one of Rich’s recent blog post on Jane Jacobs.

P.P.P.S. I wonder if Rich gets some money from this BMW ad? (smile) By the way, I think I actually first read about Rich here in this UT magazine article.

Seeing Hungry, Mood & Money, Bad Belly Fat

Saw these three interesting science news. Enjoy.

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Seeing Hungry

“Why does food look more appealing when you are hungry? Scientists are finding that the same chemical in your stomach that causes hunger also changes how your brain perceives food, as this ScienCentral News video explains.“

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Mood and Money

“Feeling sad and bad about ourselves is not only unpleasant — it can also be hard on our wallets. Psychology researchers have found that these emotions can cost you three times more for the same item than being in a better mood, as this ScienCentral News video reports.“

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Bad Belly Fat

“Scientists are finding more about how that bulge around your belly is more harmful than the pounds you may have elsewhere on your body. As this ScienCentral News video reports, belly fat may cause blockages in the arteries, and the finding could lead to better drugs to protect against heart disease.“

Capitalism’s Woodstock - Live

• LIVE BLOG ARCHIVE: Warren Buffett's Q&A With Shareholders (Morning Session)
• LIVE BLOG: Warren Buffett's Q&A With Shareholders (Afternoon Session)

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May 4, 2008 Update: Warren Buffett Talks to CNBC's Becky Quick at Shareholders Meeting (Video with transcript)

Errol Morris in GQ

A very interesting profile of Errol Morris in GQ.

Ask film buffs for a list of the greatest living American directors and you may hear the name Errol Morris, the documentarian who created an entirely new way of conducting interviews, made classics like The Thin Blue Line (which helped get a man out of prison), and this month gives us the fullest, most honest look yet [in the film Standard Operating Procedure] at the people who took part in Abu Ghraib

ShoeTube

ShoeTube ? Yes, ShoeTube. If “Live Life. Love Shoes.” describes you, check out “The Daily Shoe” @ ShoeTube. [via AdAge]

P.S. If they are going to be successful, they will have to get shoe lovers to create and post their videos/stories, otherwise there isn’t really a community.

What Warren thinks …

Great article from Fortune. Here is an excerpt with emphasis,

Before we start in on questions, I would like to tell you about one thing going on recently. It may have some meaning to you if you’re still being taught efficient-market theory, which was standard procedure 25 years ago. But we’ve had a recent illustration of why the theory is misguided. In the past seven or eight or nine weeks, Berkshire has built up a position in auction-rate securities [bonds whose interest rates are periodically reset at auction; for more, see box on page 74] of about $4 billion. And what we have seen there is really quite phenomenal. Every day we get bid lists. The fascinating thing is that on these bid lists, frequently the same credit will appear more than once.

Here’s one from yesterday. We bid on this particular issue - this happens to be Citizens Insurance, which is a creature of the state of Florida. It was set up to take care of hurricane insurance, and it’s backed by premium taxes, and if they have a big hurricane and the fund becomes inadequate, they raise the premium taxes. There’s nothing wrong with the credit. So we bid on three different Citizens securities that day. We got one bid at an 11.33% interest rate. One that we didn’t buy went for 9.87%, and one went for 6.0%. It’s the same bond, the same time, the same dealer. And a big issue. This is not some little anomaly, as they like to say in academic circles every time they find something that disagrees with their theory.

So wild things happen in the markets. And the markets have not gotten more rational over the years. They’ve become more followed. But when people panic, when fear takes over, or when greed takes over, people react just as irrationally as they have in the past. [...]

[Fortune] Your OFHEO example implies you’re not too optimistic about regulation.

[Buffett] Finance has gotten so complex, with so much interdependency. I argued with Alan Greenspan some about this at [Washington Post chairman] Don Graham’s dinner. He would say that you’ve spread risk throughout the world by all these instruments, and now you didn’t have it all concentrated in your banks. But what you’ve done is you’ve interconnected the solvency of institutions to a degree that probably nobody anticipated. And it’s very hard to evaluate. If Bear Stearns had not had a derivatives book, my guess is the Fed wouldn’t have had to do what it did.

[Fortune] Do you find it striking that banks keep looking into their investments and not knowing what they have?

[Buffett] I read a few prospectuses for residential-mortgage-backed securities - mortgages, thousands of mortgages backing them, and then those all tranched into maybe 30 slices. You create a CDO by taking one of the lower tranches of that one and 50 others like it. Now if you’re going to understand that CDO, you’ve got 50-times-300 pages to read, it’s 15,000. If you take one of the lower tranches of the CDO and take 50 of those and create a CDO squared, you’re now up to 750,000 pages to read to understand one security. I mean, it can’t be done. When you start buying tranches of other instruments, nobody knows what the hell they’re doing. It’s ridiculous. And of course, you took a lower tranche of a mortgage-backed security and did 100 of those and thought you were diversifying risk. Hell, they’re all subject to the same thing. I mean, it may be a little different whether they’re in California or Nebraska, but the idea that this is uncorrelated risk and therefore you can take the CDO and call the top 50% of it super-senior - it isn’t super-senior or anything. It’s a bunch of juniors all put together. And the juniors all correlate.

Links: 2008-04-12

1. Scrabulous - Scrabbling for Legal Rationalism: No Copyright for Games - a nice legal analysis
2. Stars and their silent partners - Production co. co-toppers keep slates on track
3. IBM Research Spins ‘Racetrack’ Nano-Magnetic Memory
4. really cute video of Contortionist octopus. [via Marc]
5. CJR: Dave Marash: Why I Quit [Al Jazeera International] [via Richard]
6. WSJ Law Blog: Chinese Blogger Sentenced to 3-1/2 Years for Subversion, Libel
7. WSJ Law Blog: Administration Declassifies 2003 Torture Memo

Space technologies stay in Canada (for now)

Hot off the press from Globe and Mail (April 10, 2 AM EST) "Ottawa rejects space firm's sale to U.S.". (Note: also see my earlier blog entry about this sale and a link to a legal opinion.)

OTTAWA — The federal government has said no to selling Canada's leading space company to U.S. interests, concluding that the deal would not be in the best interests of the country, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice made the decision to issue an initial rejection of the deal on Tuesday, when he wrote a letter to the potential buyer, Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Edina, Minn., that said the takeover of MDA Corp. would not provide a “net benefit” to Canada.

Under Canada's investment-review law, the company has 30 days to make new arguments to the minister, and Mr. Prentice must then confirm his rejection. But Mr. Prentice's move signals his intention to take the unprecedented step of blocking a major corporate takeover, in an issue that has been fraught with controversy as opponents argued that the sale of MDA could impair Canadian sovereignty.

A spokesman for Mr. Prentice, Bill Rodgers, confirmed Wednesday that the note had been sent, but he was unable to provide further details. When contacted by The Globe and Mail Wednesday night, Alliant officials responded with a two-sentence statement that indicated that they are not willing to declare the deal dead. [...]

The proposed sale of MDA Corp.'s Information Systems Unit has raised nationalist sentiment and fears that Canada could lose control of the data from Radarsat-2 in a dispute over Arctic sovereignty. [K: I agree the Radarsat-2 data has an important role in our national interest and won't trust any US companies (which has to follow US government directives in case of national security related issues). At the same time, I reject the unfair negative implication associated with using words like "nationalist sentiment".] Alliant, also called ATK, is a U.S. weapons and space contractor. The systems unit is responsible for most of MDA's operations and 1,900 employees. [...]

Some of the staunchest criticisms came from within the Conservative Party. Tory MP Art Hanger voiced sharp concerns, and Conservatives on the Commons industry committee treated the sale with skepticism.

One Conservative MP, speaking on condition he not be named, said the sale had raised a surprising backlash among Canadians, who saw it as a point of pride being peddled to the United States – which might possibly use it against Canada's claim to Arctic waters.

I think Minister Prentice did the right thing here in rejecting the sale.

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Update: See report by CBC (with video report) and Reuters.

Randy's The Last Lecture on ABC

ABC is airing an one hour special about Randy Pausch on April 9th, 2008 at 10/9c. Don't miss "The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life" (with a promo clip).

See my other posts about Randy. In particular, this blog entry links to Randy's Last Lecture online video, and this blog entry links to Randy's Time Management video.

[Hat tip to Jeff Zaslow, ghost writer of Randy's book "The Last Lecture"]

Moment of Truth

I watched Fox TV’s “game show” and hit “Moment of Truth” a few nights ago and I think it had clearly crossed the line of good taste.

On the surface, it raised the basic questions of how much will someone be willing to be humiliated and had ones’ relationships with loved ones harmed in order to have a chance to win some prize money? I think Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes said it well, as I think the water pressure should have plunged as “people leapt into showers to clean off the filth after watching … The Moment of Truth“. And blogger Jordon J. Ballor has this insightful observation (emphasis added),

“But I want to pay special attention to the contestants’ motivations. They are essentially willing to air any and all secrets (what used to be called “dirty laundry”) to the public in exchange for money (or merely the chance to win money, depending on their success). That people are actually eager to get on the show as a contestant speaks to how little they truly value and are willing to “monetize” their personal relationships.“

Here is a sample clip (with 290,000+ views),

With an “update” of what happened to this particular “contestant” afterwards,

What I want to explore more are the consequences, unintended consequences, and enabling factors for a show like this to be on TV.

Consequences

Based on the one show and some YouTube clips that I’ve watched, I think it is pretty obvious that the relationships between the contestants and their family members, spouses, closed friends were deliberately designed to be damaged for our “entertainment”.

Unintended consequences

1. Some viewers may now view lie detector as a more authoritative tool than it deserves.
2. TV shows like this will undoubtedly push the boundary of “acceptable good taste” further out. If this show is “acceptable“, what’s next for the TV producers to try?
3. Our willingness to see the actual suffering and break down of relationships of fellow human beings as a form of “entertainment”. Seeing others being put through emotional torture as entertainment? Have our own moral judgment been impaired so badly that we can’t tell right from wrong?

Enabling factors

1. Put yourself in the shoes of the producers of this “game show” for a moment. The 50 questions being asked by the producers ahead of time have been designed to create maximum embarrassment to the contestants to create shock value and “entertainment” for the viewers.
2. And then the show producers have to pick and arrange the questions and sometimes invite extra guest, to the taping of the show, to embarrass the contestants and to shock the viewers to create drama and “entertainment”.
3. Ultimately, for a show like this to continue production, people have to keep watching and advertisers have to keep buying air time.
4. Do TV producers have mortal obligations to audiences? Or can they pretty much put up any shows that advertisers will pay money to put up ads for an audiences?

Not too long ago Jim Carrey made a movie call “The Truman Show” (now a classic). Here is an excerpt of the Plot (emphasis added),

The film is set in a hypothetical world, called Seahaven, where an entire town is dedicated to a continually running television show. All but one of the participants are actors. Only the central character, Truman Burbank (Carrey), is unaware that he lives in a constructed reality for the entertainment of those outside. The film follows his discovery of his situation and his attempts to escape. On the surface level, it criticizes greed, portraying people who would do anything for fame and money. Central characters fake friendship to Truman, and in the case of his “wife”, bury their real feelings of disgust.

One may ask, what kind of society will allow a baby be adopted by a TV production company, his relationships with everyone be lies and his whole life be transmitted as a TV show? I guess we can also ask what kind of society w

(Spoiler alert) Here is the lovely ending of “The Truman Show” to help washing off the filth of “Moment of Truth”. Enjoy.

P.S. TV Guide’s Joe Rhodes share his experience of “Sitting on the Moment of Truth’s Hot Seat”.

Links: 2008-03-26

1. Jim Cramer is still putting random words in random order
2. Companies that use Gmail abroad break the law because PATRIOT makes it possible for US spooks to spy on Google
3. Photos from rotting Chinese theme-park in Orlando - a series of 200+ rather sad pictures
4. Wing On, Hong Kong’s Great Department Store
5. India's Tata Motor to Buy British automakers Jaguar and Land Rover for $2.3 Billion
6. Ta, Ta, Jaguar
   

Something about Meryl

Found this group of old wonderful videos.

Jim Carrey at Meryl Streep’s AFI tribute - Wonderfully Hilarious!

Robert de Niro at Meryl Streep’s AFI tribute

Tracey Ullman at Meryl Streep’s AFI tribute

Meryl AFI Speech

Links: 2008-03-25

1. Patent Troll Tracker & Cisco's New Blog Policy
2. Courts Resist Using the Term Patent Troll
3. The Complexities Behind JPMorgan’s $10 Bear Offer
4. Is JPMorgan Getting Too Clever?
5. JPMorgan and Bear Test the Limits
6. Bear-JPM: Legal News and Views
7. Judges Released in Pakistan, Chinese Land-Rights Activist Jailed
8. Anti-CNN and the Tibet information war