Sunrise photos

(Please notice my comments are exactly the same, word by word, while sending those photos.)

This one was what I sent to Olivia-Robert.

This one is what I sent to my medical school classmates 26 out of 36 members (classmates and spouses) read these photos.

These photos are what I sent to Dr Chen Chao-Long (only 3 members in this account: Dr. Chen, Katy and I)  It says "Read 2" and Dr. Chen sent a Thumb Up sticker, which means both Katy and Dr Chen read it.

These photos are what I sent to our "Tsai Family" account.  My daughter, Joy, said "Very pretty, did you take the photos with your new phone?" We just bught the new iPhone 8 shortly after New Year.  I said, "Of course, the sun wants to take advantage of my new iPhone 8 to show off."

The following is what I sent to our email group, Katy ("Katie Tsai") is also one of the members.

Immigrants made, make and will make America great

It is fitting to talk about the contribution of immigrants in the U.S. , given the anti-immigrant political climate across the Atlantic Ocean.  It is my understanding that anti-immigrant fervor was a major component of Brexit vote.

On September 30, after reading Jan Vilcek’s memoir (Love and Science), I sent my daughters an email extolling the contribution of immigrants in the U.S.  It is a familiar story of Jewish scientists escaping (or hiding from Nazi as a child in his case) not only from Nazi, but also from communist Czechoslovakia.

I always have difficulty saying or spelling Czechoslovakia, but I am not alone; as Churchill once said, “To English ears the name of Czechoslovakia sounds outlandish”.

Jan Vilcek (an M.D. PhD.) made a fortune by receiving the royalty from Remicade (the first tumor necrosis factor inhibitor approved by FDA).  He has a chapter talking about the contributions (esp. in bio-medicine) from the immigrants like himself.  Vilcek Foundation has Vilcek Prizes for the immigrants who have great contribution in science and art—his wife is an art historian, spending her career at NYC Metropolitan Museum.  Vilcek added a new prize for the children of immigrants a few years ago.

Someone should tell Trump that it was immigrants that made America great in the first place and it is still happening.  “Nobels Pouring Across the Border” is one of the editorials today (10/11/16) in the Wall Street Journal.  It just happened that all six U.S. Nobel Prize winners this year are all immigrants.

Economics prize winners:

-          Oliver Hart (from the United Kingdom)

-          Bengt Holmstrom (from Finland)

Physics prize winner are all from Britain

-          David Thouless

-          Michael Kosterlitz

-          Duncan Haldane

Chemistry prize winner:

-          Sir J. Fraser Stoddart (from the United Kingdom—Edinburgh, Scotland)

Being an immigrant myself, I hate to say U.S. is what it is today largely because of her enormous capacity of accepting and absorbing immigrants.

Foreign-born scientists winning Nobel Prizes for the U.S. is not an isolated event this year; from 1901 to 2015, 31% of U.S. Nobel laureates were not born in the U.S.  In cases of Nobel Prize in Medicine between 1901 and 2014, thirty-three of the ninety-eight laureates were foreign-born.  The recent trend is even more astonishing. “The immigrants have won 40%, or 31 of the 78 Nobels won by Americans in chemistry, medicine and physics since 2000.  The winners came from many countries including Japan, Canada, Turkey, Austria, China, [Taiwan]. Israel, South Africa and Germany” as the WSJ editorial reported.

Similar statistic was also observed in the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator awards and MacArthur Foundation “genius awards”.

If the children of immigrants were included the percentage would be much higher.  Richard Feynman’s parents were born in Minsk, Belarus (used to be part of Soviet Union).  Arthurs Kornberg’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Austrian Galicia (now part of Poland). President Obama’s father was also an immigrant. Seventy percent of the forty finalists of the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search had foreign-born parents.

Happy Doctor’s Day, Maimonides

The Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, was born today (March 30) in 1135.  He was also a physician.  Many of his sayings about medicine are still quite relevant nearly 1000 years later, such as “The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it.”

It is quite fitting that Doctor’s Day happens to be the birthday of a great physician.

The Austrians were as guilty as the Nazi Germans

Today (March 30) in 1945 Russian troops invaded Austria.  Austrians tend to portray themselves as a victim of Hitler Nazi Germany.  But, that is absolutely not the case.  They’re as guilty, if not more, as Nazi Germans.

When Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938; Austrians made up 8% of the total population, whereas 30% of high officials responsible of the Holocaust were Austrians.  Hitler, Adolf Eichmann, and Ernest Kaltenbrunner (head of Gestapo) were all Austrians.

In his In Search of Memory (the first one third of the book is an excellent review of the history of neuroscience), Eric Kandel has a chapter (Rediscovering Vienna via Stockholm) talks about this issue. When the president of Austria wrote to congratulate him, claiming him as an Austrian Nobel laureate (Being Jewish, Kandel, at age of 9, escaped from Vienna to the U.S. with his family in 1938).  He used this chance to organize a symposium to discuss Austria’s response to the Hitler period.  The future generation will learn no lesson from history denying the wrongdoing of that era.

“I’ll be there” soliloquy in the Grapes of Wrath

This YouTube is what I call “I’ll be there” speech (or more precisely, soliloquy), uttered by Tom Joad (played by Henry Fonda) in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath; the highlight and theme of the movie/book.  In 1962, the Nobel Prize committee particularly cited The Grapes of Wrath as the great work leading to the award.  The screenplay is a bit different from the book.  The following is the screenplay; I have changed it from the book, based on the YouTube segment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2JR3FmvVAw

“Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a soul of his own, a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody- and then –”

“Then what, Tom?”

“Then it don’t matter. I’ll be aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where - wherever you can look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there.  I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ - I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when the people eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build - I’ll be there. too?”

“I don’ un’erstan’,” Ma said.

“Me neither, mom” said Tom. “It’s jus’ something I been thinkin’ about. Give me your hand, mom.”

The winter of our discontent

I am not talking about John Steinbeck’s book that helped him to get the Nobel Prize in literature in 1962 (The Grapes of Wrath and The Winter of Our Discontent were mentioned in the Nobel’s citation); of course, the title of the book comes from the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III, (“Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York”).

I am talking about the severe harsh winter we have had so far; the Wall Street fairs no better; more freezing chills, thanks to the turmoil and sell off in the emerging markets.  The Fed announced yesterday that it will continue to trim its bond buying to $65 billion a month in February (it used to be $85 billion a month; and $75 billion a month for January) and that added fuel to the fire for the downward spiraling yesterday.   The market has obviously addicted to the Fed’s so called “quantitative easing” bond buying program (to some this may be a euphemistic way to say government’s printing money).  The market is suffering the withdrawal, so to speak.

Katy had two dispatches to the World Journal (世界日報) published the past two days; they were all about the weather in Pittsburgh; one is rarely seen natural wonder (snow roller). And she never had any report about the weather over the years.

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_pa/24478690/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E9%9B%AA%E6%8D%B2%E5%A5%87%E8%A7%80-%E6%B0%91%E7%9C%BE%E7%88%AD%E7%9D%B9?instance=nj1

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_pa/24461188/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E6%A5%B5%E5%87%8D---%E5%A6%82%E9%98%BF%E6%8B%89%E6%96%AF%E5%8A%A0-?instance=nj1

Acrobatic lion dance—the best I have ever seen

A good friend of us sent me this acrobatic lion dance—the champion of the 2013 International Lion Dance Competition; the best lion dance I have ever seen.  Near the end, I saw another “ad” came out again, just skip it; the final landing is awesome.  The team is from Kee-Lung (基隆), Taiwan.  Enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS13tPOi21Q

(the following is from my friend, describing the acrobatic lion dance beautifully; a beautiful language is the most difficult to translate)

一個舞龍舞獅都能舞出技巧和絕活來，要是沒有個二兩二或三兩三，那敢在這個梅花樁上飛來舞去?  這些年輕小孩必須要練得身輕丶技熟，配合及默契良好,才能如此藝高人膽大,送來給您年節欣賞吧！

My dancing in the wedding

While “dancing” (if you would stretch your imagination and call it a dance) with Paula, I suddenly heard the chanting of “Go Buccos! Go Buccos!” I was wondering what was about; did Pirates win another game?  Little did I know it was Janet’s Pirates hat that was on top of my head.

A fabulous wedding: Splendor on the grass and in life

We’re in a fabulous wedding yesterday (July 6^th).  These photos were taken by Katy, who thought she was still working as the World Journal (世界日報) reporter.  The wedding reception took place at the Destiny Hill Farms; we saw rows of lavender and “splendor on the grass”.

Juliet (to Romeo):                                                      
But to be frank and give it thee again;                      
And yet I wish but for the thing I have.                     
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,                                  
My love as deep; the more I give to thee                 
The more I have, for both are infinite.                     

                   Romeo & Juliet   Act II  Scene 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pay tribute to “those that leave their valiant bones in France”

It is fitting to read the line of “And those that leave their valiant bones in France” (in Act 4 Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s Henry V) on D-Day.

And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
Dying like men, . . . . .
They shall be famed; for there the sun shall greet them,
And draw their honours reeking up to heaven;

I read Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story a few months ago.  Troops from Bradley’s US First Army landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day.

There is a Chinese poem with similar theme and yet more poetic,

可憐無定河邊屍骨，猶是春閨夢裡人 (So sad/pitiful is that the bones scattered along the River Wu-Ding are still the Prince Charming in the dream of a fair lady in her romantic bed chamber.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
I posted this in my FB page and my cousin, 陳英毅, showed me the origin of the poem, and I have made a minor correction.

隴西行 陳陶

誓掃匈奴不顧身，五千貂錦喪胡塵。
可憐無定河邊骨，猶是春閨夢裡人。

An amzing Ukraine girl prodigy

A friend sent me this YouTube; an amazing Ukraine girl prodigy.  I wish I knew the language to enjoy even more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYrpNDB0yCY

Heaven was visited by a Harvard neurosurgeon

The book of  Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife  by Dr. Eben Alexander, a Harvard neurosurgeon will not be released until Oct. 23, but has been a hot topic among the doctors at Sermo.  There are many hilarious comments, but I cannot share them here as Sermo is a physician-only site.  But, here are some of my comments; those in the [ ] are my added explanations here.

If you go to heaven, would you come back were you given the choice ?

“The communication of the [near] dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”  [This quote is inscribed on T.S. Eliot’s memorial stone in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.]

I wonder what Francis Collins would say about this book. After reading his The Language of God, I still cannot guess what he may say.

When asked what he would say to God if he found himself before Him, Bertrand Russell answered, “I should reproach him for not giving us enough evidence.” 

The format of Sermo is a dialogue among physicians; it will make more sense if you can read the entire comments.  I take the liberty of copying two doctors’ comments (those in the >>   <<), without which my next comment would be meaningless. 

> > And I should know, I am married to a neurosurgeon. He has not yet found the anatomical site of the “soul.”< < 

> > Tell me, where is near death bred?            
Or in the heart, or in the head? << 

[This is a song in The Merchant of Venice: Act 3 Scene 2]

Tell me where is fancy bred.

Or in the heart or in the head. 

To the above two comments, I wrote, 

The site of “soul” may not be in the head, like “fancy/desire”, the Bard was wondering may be in the heart. Francis Crick (“the only person who could make a living by being a theoretic biologist”) wrote a book about his “Scientific Search For The Soul”; an unfinished work, not surprisingly. 

One doctor wrote 'thank you' saying that was exactly what he meant; I got his point and he got mine obviously. I have been hanging around at Sermo for more than 5 years and has enjoyed the congeniality and camaraderie among fellow physicians and also learn a thing or two in medicine.

This is the link to the Newsweek magazine article about this book,

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/07/proof-of-heaven-a-doctor-s-experience-with-the-afterlife.html

Two Christmas gifts: Benghaizi (to Churchill) and Savannah (to Lincoln)

It is sad and tragic that American ambassador and three other Americans had to die at Benghazi, Libya.  Since I write about history, not politics; this would be what I’ll say about Benghazi.  On December 24, 1941 (two days after he arrived at the White House), Churchill received two telegrams from General Auchinleck, the first one read, “it appears that enemy can no longer use Benghazi” and the second, “Royal Dragoons [of British Army] occupied Benghazi this morning.  The Army of the Nile sends you hearty greetings for Christmas.”

This is reminiscent to what happened on December 22, 1864 when Union General William T. Sherman arrived at Savannah, Georgia and sent Lincoln a message, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, . .”, to which Lincoln replied the day after Christmas, “Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, the capture of Savannah.”

Charles Lindbergh—an imperfect hero with many faults

Today is 9/11, a day will also live in infamy in modern time.  Another less well known event is today (September 11) in 1941, less than 3 months before Pearl Harbor attack, Charles Lindbergh told an America First (an American isolationist movement in pre-WWII era) rally in Des Moines, Iowa, “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration” were pushing the United States toward war.

In a letter-to-the-editor on 6/12/12 Wall Street Journal (see photo), the writer defended Lindbergh regarding a statement in a book review that Lindbergh had a “crush on Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering.” What he wrote was correct in that the trip was encouraged by the FDR administration.  But, it is also my impression that Lindberghs (both Charles and Anne) did have a “crush on Hermann Goering” (not on Hitler, though); Anne Lindbergh wrote with admiration on their meeting with Goering, and that was after Anne’s editor asked her to “tone down” her praise.

10/1938

FDR wouldn’t let Lindbergh serve in the Air Force after the war broke out.  He later did fly combat mission (not as a pilot) in the Pacific theater.


Against Wind and Tide was published earlier this year; it was Anne Lindbergh’s letters and diaries 1947-1986.  It was published by her daughter as Anne passed away in 2001.  It revealed what kind of husband Charles was: leaves a lot to be desired.  He was a hero with many faults.

Gore Vidal remembered

Gore Vidal passed away yesterday (July 31).  I discovered him a few years ago and read his two memoirs (Point to Point Navigation and Palimpsest); of the 20 some novels that he wrote, I only read his Lincoln. (I have read it more than half way through and dropped it when the garden season began.)  I said I wouldn’t read it in a post in my blog.  But, I have since picked it up and like it.
http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2011/02/revisionist-historianswriters-one-is.html

I also mentioned him in this post, 
http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2010/05/amelia-earharts-turn-5-years-after.html

The photo is from the New York Times showing Gore Vidal and JFK in 1960.  Gore Vidal’s parents divorced and his mother later married stepfather of Jacqueline Kennedy.

If you never read Gore Vidal, you may pick him up after reading his obituary in New York Times.  

How Shakespeare would say of Madonna

Madonna speaks at Super Bowl news conference: photo credit AP

Madonna has been around since “the beginning of the time”.  This “Material Girl” (born in 1958 at Bay City, Michigan, where we visited last year) will give a spirited performance at the Half Time Show (consider the greatest show on Earth nowadays) on the Super Bowl XLVI on February 5.

She said she was never “so scrupulous or freaked out”.  You may wonder what is the secret of her longevity in the performing life. As Stephen Marche said in his “How Shakespeare changed everything”, Shakespeare said of Madonna,

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety:

She keeps reinventing herself.  Shakespeare used these words to describe Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (Act 2 Scene 2—my favorite Act).  Enobarbus (Antony’s lieutenant) explained why Antony can never leave Cleopatra,

Never; he will not:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

(Modern translation)

He [Antony] will never leave her.  Age won’t wither her, and her charms are so varied that she’ll never be a bore.  You grow weary with other women once you’re with them too long.  Cleopatra, on the other hand, make you feel the more you have her, the more you want her.  Even her worst faults are charming, and holy priests bless her even when she acts bad.

  

Isn’t this the Madonna that Shakespeare was talking about? I bet A-Rods will be there watching the Half-Time Show.  By the way, she assures us that there will be no “wardrobe malfunction”.

Super Bowl, Super Model (Tom Brady's wife), Super Tramp

In Memoriam

The photo is taken from Dr. Albert Lin's Facebook page

I picked up Lord Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam many times, but never did I finish it.  It always came to mind with the passing of any worthy man, such as that of Dr. Luke Lin today.  It is a great loss to his family and the Taiwanese community in the greater Pittsburgh area.  Everyone knows how good he was as a physician, friend, father and husband by all measures; such a gentle, loving and noble man.

Strictly speaking, In Memoriam is not an elegy, but Tennyson began the poem right after his good buddy (at Trinity College), Arthur Hallam, passed away not quite two years after graduating from Trinity College.  It took him 17-18 years (1833-1849) to complete it.

Queen Victoria found great solace reading In Memoriam after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861, “Next to the Bible, In Memoriam is my comfort.”

With 133 cantos (including the prologue and epilogue), In Memoriam is a very lengthy poem and difficult one. T.S. Eliot called it “the most unapproachable of all his [Tennyson’s] poems.”  I found the book by Alfred Gatty, “A Key to Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam” helpful (one can get this free eBook on Kindle).

I just read the first 20 cantos again today in memory of Dr. Lin.  In Canto IX one reads,

My Arthur, whom I shall not see

Till all my widow'd race be run;

Dear as the mother to the son,

More than my brothers are to me.

Tennyson views himself as a wife who has lost her husband.  Gatty commented that “Till all my widow’d race be run” is similar to what Apostle Paul declared (in II Timothy 4:7), “I have fought the good fight.  I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”  Gatty stated that the words ‘race’ and ‘course’ are synonymous.

The line of “Till all my widowed race be run” is seen again in Canto XVII, which indicates that they'll meet again once the widow's race (course) is over.

We also read this in Canto XXVII,

I hold it true, whate’er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

’Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all

I always admire Steve Jobs and began to revere him and felt  斯人也 而有斯疾也 (Such a wonderful person, such a dreaded disease!) after reading Isaacson’s Steve Jobs.  The same is also true for Dr. Lin.  This is fate, which is beyond the reach of our knowledge or medical advance.  “We have but faith: we cannot know;” our knowledge is limited by a reverence for that which we cannot know.

I'll borrow a few lines from Macbeth (Act 5 Scene 8) to ask the family to lessen the sorrow (節哀!),

Your cause of sorrow

Must not be measured by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

節哀!

So I think I can dance?

Last Saturday we’re invited to attend a party at Murrysville area; good food, good company and good dancing.  We’re the only new comers for a congenial group.  The gracious hostess and her physician husband are well known elegant dancers of professional caliber, just like the couple shown on the cover of this British Medical Journal (BMJ)—see photo.  They opened their hearts and arms to welcome us to their home and their friends.

Their house, nay, mansion, has a spacious dancing studio that allows electric slide or macarena dance for thirty some people without feeling too close for comfort.  The hostess is a terrific dance instructor; she even gave us (Katy and me) individual lesson—she must have found the daunting task most challenging.  A very sympathetic Pitt professor pulled us away from the group, teaching us a few trick steps so that we can get by with all sorts of music and rhythm, in other words, 學了這幾步, 就可以混下去了, so he claimed.

We dropped out, or more precisely kicked out, of a dancing studio at Monroeville some years ago.  We took the private lesson once a week; feeling confident after a month we wanted to continue, but the frustrated dance instructor politely said, “I think you’re too busy,” and that was the end of the education of my dancing; my dream of getting on Dancing with the Star evaporated; at stake was his reputation.  It turned out our hostess also has the same dance instructor.

The dance lesson we had last Saturday rekindled our interest; after coming home, we 發奮圖強, unfortunately we have forgotten the electric slide and macarena steps that we’re supposed to practice.

Thanks to the hostess’ instruction, for a short while I think I can dance? It is just an illusion, then I realize 我沒有跳舞的細胞.  Through no fault of my own, my genes and neurons (nerve cells) are to blame.  I even have scientific report to back me up.  The article (“So You Think You Can Dance?: PET Scans Reveal Your Brain’s Inner Choreography”) was in the June 16 2008 issue of Scientific American.  The link allows you to read the first two paragraphs only. This is the neuro science of the dance; this is how I keep my neuro science up-to-date.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-dance

 

Lincoln in 1861

I am not alone in lacking the “dancing neurons”; Abe Lincoln was also a victim.  When Abe and Mary first met in a party in Springfield, Illinois, Abe went to Mary asking for a dance saying he wanted to dance with her “in the worst way” (the way I dance) and he did.

  

On the Inauguration Ball (rightly called Union Ball) on March 4 1861 Mary was whirling in the arms of Stephen Douglas (then a U.S. senator); Lincoln’s heavy heart was far away in the Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The Confederate gun fired on Fort Sumter on 4/12/1861 marked the beginning of the Civil War.