"I actually feel very sorry for Marburger, because I think he probably is enough of a scientist to realize that he basically has become a prostitute."

--Dr. Howard Gardner, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard, comment on Dr. John H. Marburger III, President Bush's science adviser, in a recent interview on National Public Radio.


Support Unions of Concerned Scientists.

Atheist Presents Case for Taking God From Pledge [NYTimes].

"That's only because no atheist can get elected to public office."
-- Dr. Newdow, when Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist observed "under God" as a non-divisive sounded addition to the pledge, which was voted unanimous in Congress 50 years ago.

This is really an interesting time for Supreme Court. Read more @ First Amendment Center [fac.org].

"Get Out of My Namespace!"

The German car company known as Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche AG has fought a series of battles to protect the name CARRERA. But another contender is a Swiss village, postal code 7122. ''The village Carrera existed prior to the Porsche trademark,'' Christoph Reuss of Switzerland wrote to Porsche's lawyers. ''Porsche's use of that name constitutes a misappropriation of the good will and reputation developed by the villagers of Carrera.'' He added, for good measure, ''The village emits much less noise and pollution than Porsche Carrera.'' He didn't mention that José Carreras, the opera singer, was embroiled in a name dispute of his own. The car company, meanwhile, also claims trademark ownership of the numerals 911.

Methodists Put Minister on Trial for Declaring Herself a Lesbian [NYTimes]

"It's a big deal at any point when a church puts one of its ministers on trial. In this case, you're putting someone on trial basically because she was honest about who she is."
---Mary Ann Tolbert, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion.

"This small gathering in this room is a microcosm of the United Methodist Church in its pain, in its yearning for healing, for grace and for direction."
---Bishop William Boyd Grove, serving as judge at the trial of the Rev. Karen Dammann.

St. Patrick Day today, and the spring break is just 3 days away. Aki should play his Irish tin whistle for me today. =) If everybody can try to appreciate the essence of a culture better, the world would be a much better place. Also consider the endless Chief stuff on this campus- human beings are just poor and sadly ignorant creatures.

This Splendors of China's Forbidden city- The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong [filedmuseum.org] exhibition at Field Museum seems very interesting.

Maybe also a Swan Lake by ABT [abt.org]! (My body is kind of heavy now and I hate it....)

Seems that taking one day off in spring break hanging out with my brother in Chicago and have some fun is not too bad for a hard- working ppl like me, hehe.

There's still some snow these 2 days in Urbana, but the green is coming, which is such a great comfort to me. Monday I talked to the new visiting grad student, and I do know what kind of mixing feelings I have for this little town- a place without green, without bumps, without rivers, without rocks in the earth, only endless corn field and depressing winter seasons. But you can always find something shining in some corner if you love the life and also have a sensitive heart. Life is hard, every place is the same, I guess. The place where you can get peace from, is your real hometown- I suppose that's somewhere deep in the heart.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field has been released [hubblesite.org].

We must not believe those who today with a philosophical tone and a hint of superiority in their voice, perdict the fall of our culture and indulge in the "ignorabimus". For us there is no "ignorabimus", and in my opinion especially not in the nature sciences. In the place of this silly "ignorabimus", our motto should be on the contrary

We must know, we will know

-- Hilbert

I was kind of happy yesterday afternoon and that mood is just so obvious in the email to P. But I still did not tell him about the concert before yesterday, the reading of a little book about differential geometry when the Tokyo String Quartet was playing Dvorak. An old man was sitting behind me carefully taking notes on the program during the concert (maybe a critic or something), and he gave me such a smile after the concert that I know our pleasure is actually the same. Oh, and another thing in the intermission, an old gentelman come up to the balcony and I gave him some suggestion on the choice of sitting next year. It was a nice small talk and when he said to me" Miss, Thanks a lot for your suggestions" I know that's why I love to work here in the Krannert. I still remember the warm and long smile on Adam's face after the Takacs Quartet's concert, how could you deny there still some beautiful feelings deep inside human beings waiting to be awakened?

I like this Editorials about the fate of HST so much that I will just paste it here instead of just a link:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[The NewYork Times]
March 5, 2004
An Astronaut Changes His Tune

What a difference a few months makes. Last July, John Grunsfeld, an astronaut, waxed enthusiastic about the value and sheer pleasure of participating in servicing missions to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the most productive scientific instruments of all time. In testimony prepared for an expert panel, Mr. Grunsfeld called Hubble missions "highly coveted assignments" and said his own two Hubble flights had been the most important achievement in his life. Despite the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia, he said, he judged Hubble missions as little more risky than other shuttle flights. "I can say without hesitation that traveling to space to upgrade the instruments and ensure the future of the Hubble Space Telescope was worth the potential risk to my life," he testified.

Then came new requirements to enhance safety after the Columbia accident, followed by President Bush's expansive plan to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars in distant years. That plan requires maximum use of the shuttles to complete the international space station, relegating Hubble to the status of an inconvenient diversion.

So Mr. Grunsfeld, now NASA's chief scientist, has changed his tune. He has become a defender of NASA's recent, and wrongheaded, decision to cancel the next servicing mission, thereby sentencing Hubble to a slow death. Suddenly, the mission he deemed worth the risk of his own life has to be canceled for safety reasons, as he explained yesterday in a letter in The Times. Mr. Grunsfeld has acknowledged more candidly than most officials that other factors were also at work — namely, the demands of the Moon-Mars program and the complications of meeting new safety requirements. Although the shuttles should be safer than before once they are upgraded for their return to flight, he says, any Hubble mission would require repair and rescue options that are not readily available.

The implication, of course, is that if a self-described Hubble-hugger like Mr. Grunsfeld is comfortable with killing the telescope, that decision must be the right one. The only question is whether he is speaking from the heart, as he clearly was last July, or is simply a good soldier ordered to front for the premature curtailment of a great instrument.

Physics about the flutter of a flag [physics/0403001]. And a 2000 Nature article about the related experiment. Pretty interesting stuff. =)

Documents Reveal the Evolution of a Supreme Court Justice [NYTimes], some story about Roe vs. Wade, a nice read. This is also a year of Brown. vs. Board's 50 aniversary. The reform of the law system of China has a long way to go, yet, but maybe there's some hope lying in the history, and perhaps the justice and humanity is not that far away.

Another old concert memo:

Prague Chamber Orchestra & the Eroica Trio
Nov 6, 2003 @Krannert
----------------------
Reicha: Overture in C Major, Op. 24
Beethoven: Triple Concerto
J.C. Bach: Sinfonia No. 1 in E-flat Minor for Double Orchestra, Op. 18
Dvorak: Czech Suite
----------------------------------------
Eroica is made up of 3 beautiful ladies, and obviously, they have great
passion for the music. But their performance is just ok, Cello and violin is
kind of weak, esp. the cello, she need more strength to handle the technique,
thus hardly talked to others. Although the orchestra provided a good companion
to the trio, you will feel there's something not so satisfied in this highly
spirited piece. I have the CD by Perlman, Yo-yo and Barenboim, which is far
better than this. But audience still gave them great applause, hehe, you can
not expect every woman musician is du Pre or Mutter. And finally they show
their clarity and sparking melodies in the final Tango encore.

Czech Suite is fantastic. The flute is the treasure of the orchestra, and also
the clarinet, which is the key to grasp the spirit of this famous piece, by
Dvorak, who got a lot from Czech folk music and put his enthusiasm to his
country back to his music. It's also amazing that you see 36 musicians work
together without a conductor, that's also why I love chamber, the musicians
really listen to others while express themselves. I stood up and applaud for
them after they finished the first Overture encore, they are really great!
After they finished with the funny Peter and Wolf, and everybody were happy at
the end. These prague guys are real musicians.

found some old stuff lying in some corner of my computer about a concert last year:

Nov. 11, 2003 Krannert

Vladimir Fedoseyev, conductor
Nikolaj Znaider, violin

violin concerto in D Major, Op.61 Beethoven
Symphony No.3 in E-flat Major, Op.55, "Eroica"

----------------------------------------------------------------
Znaider is a really stunning genius,"blessed with an overwhelming command of the instrument and the courage to offer unconventional interpretations reminiscent of the grand old days of violin playing" (by Strad Magzine), handle techniques fluidly with great poetic lyricism, and also communicate with the orchestra quite well. The most enjoyable thing is that he really has a mastero stand on the stage, which is all about the music, and his grand yet hudmble personalities. Nearly at the same day, Langlang had his Carnegie Hall Recital @New York, while the New York Times critisized him as a "show man" and lack the basic respect and artistic treatment of classical music works. At the end of the article they said " If I am his manager, I will cancel his contract and send him to music camp in Vermont to play with fin Chamber musicians young and old". Technique is nothing if you lost the heart of the music, lack of the ability talking to the composer, to the audience, to other minds.

Eroica is just so so, though their first oboe is really good, and the horn satisfying.

The encore is , which I feel so bad about their choice, this really become a popular show. Well, this is true, we had a sold-out.

Some other things, I signed up as a supervisor, but due to some miscommunication, there are 5 supervisors in total. But finally I got a seat. Julie&Shawshank were there too.

Harvard Says Poor Parents Won't Have to Pay [NYTimes.com]. Good, but true, it is just a posture to the very little percentage of the undergraduate body, maybe a strategy on recruiting students. Nothing fundamental is changed, the higher education in US is a circle used to copy the elite. And more ionic thing is, the students there who supposed to get the most libral education to become free thinkers are those who in root most conservative. And all the beautiful idealism attaching to the higher education just fade in the circles of alumnus. I kind of prefer Germany's system, but nobody can deny the effect of personal $$$ on higher education in the last century. Ha, so there comes the political debate again...