As the regimes in Northern Africa were getting under intense pressure, I flew to Ethiopia to visit coffee farms and experience its coffee culture. I'll write about the coffee aspect of my visit later, but I wanted to share an interesting cultural anecdote first.
Before going to sleep in a traditional Sidama hut, my host announced that we'll be having breakfast at 1:30. I looked puzzled, as I wasn't sure if he's letting me sleep in really late or planning a very early rising. Upon inquiring, I unraveled a fascinating aspect of Ethiopian culture -- the way they tell time and dates.
We'll start with time. The Ethiopian day starts at 6am. So when they say 1am, they mean our 7am (so my breakfast was actually going to be at a reasonable time). Essentially, they are 6 hours off.
Now for dates: the Ethiopian year starts on September 1st (at 6am, of course). They have 13 months. The first 12 months each have 30 days (none of this 31/30 days). The last "month" is 5 or 6 days, depending on whether the rest of the world had a leap year or not. So now, in our February, it's June in Ethiopia (it certainly felt that way).
To make things a bit more complicated, it's now 2003 in Ethiopia. On September 1st, 2011, the year 2004 will begin.
You now have all the information you need to write a date converter into Ethiopian date/time. Seems like a fun programming exercise for an introductory course.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The value of eco-system services for coffee production
For reasons that will become clearer in a few months, I've become somewhat interested in bio-diversity preservation and eco-system services. Examples of ecosystem services are pollination by bumblebees, decomposition of wastes, and flood mitigation and carbon sequestration by forests.
One of the main problems with ecosystem services is that it is hard to attach to them a monetary value. As a result, decisions to cut down forests, develop lands and interfere with water flows often undervalue these services. Even if there is a value attached to the service, the fact that it is provided by nature makes it harder to tell who should pay to preserve it.
I was recently shown a nice example of where the value of an ecosystem service has been quantified, an no less, in the area of coffee production! In [1], Ricketts et. al show the value of having a forest close to a coffee plantation. They conduct this study in a coffee farm in Costa Rica, and show that within a distance of 1km from the forest, the benefits of forest-based pollinators (i.e., diversity of bees) can increase the production of the farm by 20%. This observation, as they show, can be directly translated to a monetary value. The basic reason that the proximity of the forest is important is that the diversity of bees in the forest enable better cross pollination among plants (whereas, for example, honey bees typically focus on single branches when flowers are dense). Interestingly, the diversity of bees also reduced the number of peaberries produced, which may be slightly more controversial if your goal is to make money off peaberries (which some do).
Thanks to Gretchen Daily for sharing her article with me.
[1] Taylor H. Ricketts, Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich, and Charles D. Michener. Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 24, 2004, Volume 101(34). Pages 12579-12582.
One of the main problems with ecosystem services is that it is hard to attach to them a monetary value. As a result, decisions to cut down forests, develop lands and interfere with water flows often undervalue these services. Even if there is a value attached to the service, the fact that it is provided by nature makes it harder to tell who should pay to preserve it.
I was recently shown a nice example of where the value of an ecosystem service has been quantified, an no less, in the area of coffee production! In [1], Ricketts et. al show the value of having a forest close to a coffee plantation. They conduct this study in a coffee farm in Costa Rica, and show that within a distance of 1km from the forest, the benefits of forest-based pollinators (i.e., diversity of bees) can increase the production of the farm by 20%. This observation, as they show, can be directly translated to a monetary value. The basic reason that the proximity of the forest is important is that the diversity of bees in the forest enable better cross pollination among plants (whereas, for example, honey bees typically focus on single branches when flowers are dense). Interestingly, the diversity of bees also reduced the number of peaberries produced, which may be slightly more controversial if your goal is to make money off peaberries (which some do).
Thanks to Gretchen Daily for sharing her article with me.
[1] Taylor H. Ricketts, Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich, and Charles D. Michener. Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 24, 2004, Volume 101(34). Pages 12579-12582.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Fun with World Cup Soccer Statistics
As a teenager I was curious about which minutes in a soccer game are the most likely to have goals scored. I wrote a computer program that stored a database of all the goals scored in the Israeli soccer league for an entire year. I diligently went through all the sports sections of the newspapers and entered all the goals and minutes in which they were scored (feeling very mature that I was able to ignore my strong feelings about some of these goals). I calculated the statistics I was looking for, and the answer was: minute 65 was the most goal-rich minute.
Now, a few decades later, as the 2010 World Cup begins, I find myself asking the same question, or rather, revelling at how easy it is to capture the data, compute the statistics and share them with everyone in the world.
Using Google Fusion Tables, the tool developed by my team at Google, I created the visualization below. We're updating the underlying table as more goals are scored, so you'll always see the latest stats.
But that's not the end of it. Fusion Tables is a tool for data integration. We found some data on fifa.com and joined it with our own table, and then created more interesting visualizations.
This one shows the height of the goal-scoring players. Read into it what you want.
This one shows the distribution of goal scoring among defenders, forwards and midfielders.
And finally, this visualization shows the clubs at which the goal scorers play.
Now, a few decades later, as the 2010 World Cup begins, I find myself asking the same question, or rather, revelling at how easy it is to capture the data, compute the statistics and share them with everyone in the world.
Using Google Fusion Tables, the tool developed by my team at Google, I created the visualization below. We're updating the underlying table as more goals are scored, so you'll always see the latest stats.
But that's not the end of it. Fusion Tables is a tool for data integration. We found some data on fifa.com and joined it with our own table, and then created more interesting visualizations.
This one shows the height of the goal-scoring players. Read into it what you want.
This one shows the distribution of goal scoring among defenders, forwards and midfielders.
And finally, this visualization shows the clubs at which the goal scorers play.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Checklist Manifesto
I just finished reading "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande, a very interesting book.
Gawande, a surgeon, essentially makes the following point. Given the incredible amount of knowledge we have accumulated in some professions, the complexity of certain tasks could be incredibly overwhelming to professionals (e.g., surgeons, airline pilots). Since in many situations these professionals work under pressure, they often forget some very simple yet important steps that later create unforseen problems (e.g., making sure the antibiotics are applied at a particular time before the incision is made into the patient).
Hence, he argues for simple checklists that teams should go through to ensure that important details are not glossed over. In the airline industry, checklists are used religiously. At every step of the flight, or whenever anything goes wrong, there is a checklist for the flight crew to follow. Gawande's main argument is that this principle should be applied in other professions as well, and in particular, in medicine. He describes his experiences launching such a checklist program with the World Health Organization and the impact that it had on reducing complications following surgery.
There are two main challenges this strategy. First, the checklist needs to be short as to not to completely slow down work. Hence, choosing and phrasing the items on the checklist requires significant thought. The second challenge is putting ego aside. For example, surgeons are used to being the kings of the operating room, and do not lightly take comments from nurses or other staff. Well, pilots have gotten over it, and they're not slackers in the ego department.
Gawande also gives examples from the construction industry and from restaurants, where constructing a high-rise or making sure that everything comes together at the right time on a customer's plate can be rather challenging. One main observation he makes from all of these examples is the importance of communication among the team members, in addition to the checklist. It is crucial for members of the team to communicate well with each other and building communication into the workflow is key. In that way, it's less likely that things fall between the cracks leading to additional problems.
To me the book was interesting because it points out that even if we build a huge body of knowledge in a particular domain, applying this knowledge in practice can be equally challenging.
Gawande, a surgeon, essentially makes the following point. Given the incredible amount of knowledge we have accumulated in some professions, the complexity of certain tasks could be incredibly overwhelming to professionals (e.g., surgeons, airline pilots). Since in many situations these professionals work under pressure, they often forget some very simple yet important steps that later create unforseen problems (e.g., making sure the antibiotics are applied at a particular time before the incision is made into the patient).
Hence, he argues for simple checklists that teams should go through to ensure that important details are not glossed over. In the airline industry, checklists are used religiously. At every step of the flight, or whenever anything goes wrong, there is a checklist for the flight crew to follow. Gawande's main argument is that this principle should be applied in other professions as well, and in particular, in medicine. He describes his experiences launching such a checklist program with the World Health Organization and the impact that it had on reducing complications following surgery.
There are two main challenges this strategy. First, the checklist needs to be short as to not to completely slow down work. Hence, choosing and phrasing the items on the checklist requires significant thought. The second challenge is putting ego aside. For example, surgeons are used to being the kings of the operating room, and do not lightly take comments from nurses or other staff. Well, pilots have gotten over it, and they're not slackers in the ego department.
Gawande also gives examples from the construction industry and from restaurants, where constructing a high-rise or making sure that everything comes together at the right time on a customer's plate can be rather challenging. One main observation he makes from all of these examples is the importance of communication among the team members, in addition to the checklist. It is crucial for members of the team to communicate well with each other and building communication into the workflow is key. In that way, it's less likely that things fall between the cracks leading to additional problems.
To me the book was interesting because it points out that even if we build a huge body of knowledge in a particular domain, applying this knowledge in practice can be equally challenging.
A Trip to Australia
I recently returned from a trip to Australia, where I gave a keynote at the Australasian Computer Science Week, the annual gathering of computer scientists from Australia and New Zealand. You can see a journalist's account of what I talked about here.
There is a small but very strong database community in Australia, and I encourage anyone who has a chance to go down under and visit. The strength of the community was apparent when two of the three major annual awards were given for database work. Heng Tao Shen from the University of Queensland received the Chris Wallace Award. This is the top prize given for technical achievements across all fields of computer science (full professors are not eligible for this prize). Heng Tao made his mark spanning the fields of databases and multi-media.
The second award was the Ph.D Thesis Award that went to Michael Cahill who received his Ph.D from the University of Sydney under the guidance of my friend (and excellent cook!) Alan Fekete. Michael and Alan also received the Best Paper Award at SIGMOD 2008 for this work on serializable isolation for snapshot databases.
I was very fortunate to spend time with these winners. Heng Tao was my wonderful host in Brisbane and helped make a long-time dream come true -- sitting on a sunny beach in the middle of January (in Gold Coast). When I went to Sydney, Alan took me to an espresso machine making factory, where I got to see up close how these machines are made!
The coffee in Australia is amazing, and will be the subject of a different post. But if you're going to Australia and need coffee, check out my list of favorite cafes and you'll be happy.
There is a small but very strong database community in Australia, and I encourage anyone who has a chance to go down under and visit. The strength of the community was apparent when two of the three major annual awards were given for database work. Heng Tao Shen from the University of Queensland received the Chris Wallace Award. This is the top prize given for technical achievements across all fields of computer science (full professors are not eligible for this prize). Heng Tao made his mark spanning the fields of databases and multi-media.
The second award was the Ph.D Thesis Award that went to Michael Cahill who received his Ph.D from the University of Sydney under the guidance of my friend (and excellent cook!) Alan Fekete. Michael and Alan also received the Best Paper Award at SIGMOD 2008 for this work on serializable isolation for snapshot databases.
I was very fortunate to spend time with these winners. Heng Tao was my wonderful host in Brisbane and helped make a long-time dream come true -- sitting on a sunny beach in the middle of January (in Gold Coast). When I went to Sydney, Alan took me to an espresso machine making factory, where I got to see up close how these machines are made!
The coffee in Australia is amazing, and will be the subject of a different post. But if you're going to Australia and need coffee, check out my list of favorite cafes and you'll be happy.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Fusion Tables: The third piece of the puzzle
When I joined Google in 2005, the goal of my group was to explore the different aspects of structured data and the Web. The first and most burning need was to address the deep web, the collection of databases stored behind forms and invisible to search engines. We developed a completely automated system that has crawled millions of forms in over 50 languages and hundreds of domains. The system surfaces pages from the deep web by guessing good queries that can be posed on the forms, and inserting the resulting HTML pages into the Google index. These pages are shown in the top-10 results for over 1000 queries per second. For all the details, see the VLDB 2008 paper by Madhavan et al.
In a second project, we explored the collection of tables that are already on the surface web. We found over 150 million high-quality tables and developed a search engine for tables (see the VLDB 2008 paper by Cafarella et al. for the details). We also showed how to leverage 2.5 million table schemas that were part of this collection. This collection is now available to the research community.
On June 9th, we launched Fusion Tables, that represents the third piece of the puzzle of structured data and the web. The main goal of Fusion Tables is to make it easier for people to create, manage and share on structured data on the Web. Fusion Tables is a new kind of data management system that focuses on features that enable collaboration. We started with a relatively small set of features, but we’re rapidly expanding them, keeping our users’ requests as our top priority.
You can read the official announcement of Fusion Tables, and a great example of how it is used for data collection in the domain of water. In a nutshell, Fusion Tables enables you to upload tabular data (up to 100MB per table) from spreadsheets and CSV files. You can filter and aggregate the data and visualize it in several ways, such as maps and time lines. The system will try to recognize columns that represent geographical locations and suggest appropriate visualizations.
To collaborate, you can share a table with a select set of collaborators or make it public. One of the reasons to collaborate is to enable fusing data from multiple tables, which is a simple yet powerful form of data integration. If you have a table about water resources in the countries of the world, and I have data about the incidence of malaria in various countries, we can fuse our data on the country column, and see our data side by side. Importantly, we can do this while maintaining complete control of our own data.
Collaboration is not only about integration. Once the data is visible side by side, we may want to discuss it to understand it better or resolve conflicts. With Fusion Tables you can discuss data at multiple levels of granularity: rows, columns and individual cells. Hence, the data and the discussions are deeply integrated (or should I say, fused?)
Given our focus on collaboration, there are a lot of things we do not do (and we're pretty honest about it!). We do not support complex SQL queries or high throughput transactions. Despite our love for query optimization, we’ve implemented very little of it in the current system. We will, of course, add to these capabilities with time, but our real goal here is to explore data management for a broader audience of users and needs.
Please try it out and send us feedback! Our top priority now is to respond to our users' needs.
In a second project, we explored the collection of tables that are already on the surface web. We found over 150 million high-quality tables and developed a search engine for tables (see the VLDB 2008 paper by Cafarella et al. for the details). We also showed how to leverage 2.5 million table schemas that were part of this collection. This collection is now available to the research community.
On June 9th, we launched Fusion Tables, that represents the third piece of the puzzle of structured data and the web. The main goal of Fusion Tables is to make it easier for people to create, manage and share on structured data on the Web. Fusion Tables is a new kind of data management system that focuses on features that enable collaboration. We started with a relatively small set of features, but we’re rapidly expanding them, keeping our users’ requests as our top priority.
You can read the official announcement of Fusion Tables, and a great example of how it is used for data collection in the domain of water. In a nutshell, Fusion Tables enables you to upload tabular data (up to 100MB per table) from spreadsheets and CSV files. You can filter and aggregate the data and visualize it in several ways, such as maps and time lines. The system will try to recognize columns that represent geographical locations and suggest appropriate visualizations.
To collaborate, you can share a table with a select set of collaborators or make it public. One of the reasons to collaborate is to enable fusing data from multiple tables, which is a simple yet powerful form of data integration. If you have a table about water resources in the countries of the world, and I have data about the incidence of malaria in various countries, we can fuse our data on the country column, and see our data side by side. Importantly, we can do this while maintaining complete control of our own data.
Collaboration is not only about integration. Once the data is visible side by side, we may want to discuss it to understand it better or resolve conflicts. With Fusion Tables you can discuss data at multiple levels of granularity: rows, columns and individual cells. Hence, the data and the discussions are deeply integrated (or should I say, fused?)
Given our focus on collaboration, there are a lot of things we do not do (and we're pretty honest about it!). We do not support complex SQL queries or high throughput transactions. Despite our love for query optimization, we’ve implemented very little of it in the current system. We will, of course, add to these capabilities with time, but our real goal here is to explore data management for a broader audience of users and needs.
Please try it out and send us feedback! Our top priority now is to respond to our users' needs.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Coffee: a Competitive Sport
I went up to Portland, Oregon last week to attend the 2009 United States Barista Championship. No, I was not competing, and unfortunately, not one of the judges either.
You can see all my pictures here.
Portland, by the way, has the largest number of cafes per-capita in the US and has a very active and sophisticated coffee scene (I'm sure you appreciate how hard it is for an ex-Seattle resident to admit this). If you're in town, check out Stumptown Coffee.
The competitors came from all over the country, including the expected share of west-coast baristas and even a guy applying all the charm of a cowboy into his espresso drinks. There were quite a few baristas from Intelligetsia Coffee & Tea, including 4 out of the 6 finalists and the champion, Mike Phillips.
So how do these folks compete? They basically put on a show for 15 minutes, which initially can be quite deceiving because they look incredibly relaxed. The show includes their choice of background music and often some accents in their clothing. In those 15 minutes, they need to prepare espressos, cappuccinos and their "signature drink". They prepare 4 of each, for each of the sensory judges.
All this while, the competitors need to show deep knowledge of their coffee, beginning by explaining their choice of blend, and how each of the flavors comes out in the drink. As they prepare the drinks, they are closely watched by a couple of technical judges, who are watching for every little detail of handling the espresso machine, waste management and timing. Multiple video cameras are following them very closely as they do this, and every now and then the emcee will elicit a cheer from the crowd (let's have it for Mike's first 2 espressos!). If you want to see an example of a wonderful performance, watch the performance of Stephen Morrissey from Ireland when he won the 2008 World Championship.
It was a fascinating crowd from all walks of the coffee industry. There were many spectators in the bleachers, some were huge coffee fans and others who wondered how exactly they got there, but were having a great time anyway. And of course, there was an amazing buzz on the floor around each of the competitors' bars -- after all, everyone in the room was caffeinated...
Finally, the awesomeness of the experience came out most poignantly when I was having a conversation with one of the other attendees and I mentioned to him that I work for Google. He asked: what part of Google do you work for? Food services?
You can see all my pictures here.
Portland, by the way, has the largest number of cafes per-capita in the US and has a very active and sophisticated coffee scene (I'm sure you appreciate how hard it is for an ex-Seattle resident to admit this). If you're in town, check out Stumptown Coffee.
The competitors came from all over the country, including the expected share of west-coast baristas and even a guy applying all the charm of a cowboy into his espresso drinks. There were quite a few baristas from Intelligetsia Coffee & Tea, including 4 out of the 6 finalists and the champion, Mike Phillips.
So how do these folks compete? They basically put on a show for 15 minutes, which initially can be quite deceiving because they look incredibly relaxed. The show includes their choice of background music and often some accents in their clothing. In those 15 minutes, they need to prepare espressos, cappuccinos and their "signature drink". They prepare 4 of each, for each of the sensory judges.
All this while, the competitors need to show deep knowledge of their coffee, beginning by explaining their choice of blend, and how each of the flavors comes out in the drink. As they prepare the drinks, they are closely watched by a couple of technical judges, who are watching for every little detail of handling the espresso machine, waste management and timing. Multiple video cameras are following them very closely as they do this, and every now and then the emcee will elicit a cheer from the crowd (let's have it for Mike's first 2 espressos!). If you want to see an example of a wonderful performance, watch the performance of Stephen Morrissey from Ireland when he won the 2008 World Championship.
It was a fascinating crowd from all walks of the coffee industry. There were many spectators in the bleachers, some were huge coffee fans and others who wondered how exactly they got there, but were having a great time anyway. And of course, there was an amazing buzz on the floor around each of the competitors' bars -- after all, everyone in the room was caffeinated...
Finally, the awesomeness of the experience came out most poignantly when I was having a conversation with one of the other attendees and I mentioned to him that I work for Google. He asked: what part of Google do you work for? Food services?
Sunday, January 11, 2009
A Report on Healthcare and Information Technology
I served on a committee of the National Research Council that studied the challenges posed to Computer Science (and computing in general) in the area of healthcare. The report was just released and can be found here.
Needless to say, healthcare is a fascinating area, and progress will require not only collaboration among multiple disciplines (within computer science and others), but also paying attention to the workflow and constraints of the industry itself (doctors' work habits, the way insurance works, or doesn't work, hospitals as businesses, etc).
When reading the report, keep in mind that the goal of the committee was not to analyze what is wrong with the industry right now, but rather articulate the scientific challenges we should be addressing. Gio Wiederhold and Susan Davidson were the other database folks on the committee, which also had experts from other fields of computer science, bio infomratics, and from the medical estblishment.
Needless to say, healthcare is a fascinating area, and progress will require not only collaboration among multiple disciplines (within computer science and others), but also paying attention to the workflow and constraints of the industry itself (doctors' work habits, the way insurance works, or doesn't work, hospitals as businesses, etc).
When reading the report, keep in mind that the goal of the committee was not to analyze what is wrong with the industry right now, but rather articulate the scientific challenges we should be addressing. Gio Wiederhold and Susan Davidson were the other database folks on the committee, which also had experts from other fields of computer science, bio infomratics, and from the medical estblishment.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
A Trip to Vietnam
I just got back from a great trip to Vietnam! (see pictures). Let me first introduce my travel buddy, since he made the trip what it was.
Anhai Doan is a former Ph.D student of mine (he makes sure I emphasize the 'former' part, and adds it himself when I accidentaly forget). Anhai grew up in Vietnam and left after highschool to do his college studies in Hungary, and then went to the U.S for graduate studies, where he ultimately ended up at the University of Washington. He is now an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Anhai is the most well known computer scientist from Vietnam (winning the ACM Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2003 made quite a few waves in Vietnam).
I've been planning to tour Vietnam with Anhai for quite a while now, and a few years ago even decided to tell him about this plan. That turned out to be a great decision. Anhai applied his magic at every step of the way, whether it was whispering the right words in peoples' ears, slipping a well deserved tip at the right time, or shielding me with his body until I was authorized to cross a Vietnamese street on my own. Think of a combination of a (junior, Vietnamese) Godfather-type figure with the potential of some day being a Jewish mother. Since Anhai left right after highschool, he did not see much of the country, and this opportunity gave him the chance to do so.
Anhai does have a few more white hairs than he had before the trip and I take responsibility for that (but I think it's a fair trade for a signature on one's Ph.D dissertation).
We started out in Hanoi -- a city with very strong character with its Old Town full of specialty shops, French Quarter with a very appropriate feel (including the bakeries!), and the promenade around Hoan Kiem Lake at the center. In the middle of Old Town, we found the Green Tangerine Restaurant that was absolutely wonderful (French with Vietnamese influence).
We then went on the mandatory (but very worthwhile) trip to Halong Bay with its many small peaks. We spent a night on a boat there (with a bunch of Australians, the latest invadors to Vietnam). That night was a soccer game (first of two matches) between Vietnam and Thailand, the great rivalry of Southwest Asia. Surprisingly, Vietnam won, which meant the boat crew was ecstatic, and with it being Xmas eve, they started pouring free drinks (accompanied by dried squid from the bay). The second half of the soccer story occurs while we're in Saigon. The next morning, while kayaking in the bay, Anhai and I discovered that kayaking is a team sport, and we have some work to do on that front.
We then flew to Nha Trang, a beach town/resort. It was rainy there, but we still had a good time hanging out in the cafes and even had a schnitzel (I don't think Anhai will ever forgive me for that cultural experience). From there we drove (i.e., sat in the back of a car) to Da Lat, a beautiful city nestled in the mountains, and a resort for Saigonians who need to escape the heat. Also a city with a nice lake in the middle and an amazing variety of flowers.
In Da Lat I was introduced to the Vietnamese 'custom' of serving complimentary tea even when you order coffee. Speaking of coffee, it was a mixed experience. At times, Anhai managed to explain to baristas how to make my macchiatones, and in others we drank Vietnamese coffee.
From Da Lat we drove to Saigon, a much more business-like city than Hanoi and more steeped in history of the American War. The night we got there was the second of the two soccer games, and the result was a draw, meaning that Vietnam won the Suzuki Cup.
Within minutes of the game's end, the streets were flooded with happy Vietnamese. And I mean happy! Literally, you could not move amongst the people and their mopeds. Anhai got me a little Vietnamese flag and we started making our way through the crowds. Being a foreigner and on the tall side by Vietnamese standards, I drew quite a bit of attention. Every time I waved my little flag, I drew cheers and smiles -- almost as if I was the one who scored the winning goal! It was a totally amazing experience!
From Saigon we took a two-day trip to the Mekong Delta, which has now been added to my list of candidate places to retire. Imagine your life when all you need to do for lunch is go to your back yard and fish for a few minutes or pick some fresh fruit from a tree (yes, they have wifi everywhere there too!). It was really fascinating to see how life is arranged when water is such an integral part of your landscape (the delta is actually made of 9 different strands of the Mekong River).
We celebrated New Year's Eve with Anhai's highschool friends in Saigon. That was a great chance to get a glimpse of the life of young professionals in Vietnam, which brought home the point that this country has an amazing future, judging by its people's character and how far they've come in the last 20 years. I'm already thinking of my next trip there!
Anhai Doan is a former Ph.D student of mine (he makes sure I emphasize the 'former' part, and adds it himself when I accidentaly forget). Anhai grew up in Vietnam and left after highschool to do his college studies in Hungary, and then went to the U.S for graduate studies, where he ultimately ended up at the University of Washington. He is now an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Anhai is the most well known computer scientist from Vietnam (winning the ACM Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2003 made quite a few waves in Vietnam).
I've been planning to tour Vietnam with Anhai for quite a while now, and a few years ago even decided to tell him about this plan. That turned out to be a great decision. Anhai applied his magic at every step of the way, whether it was whispering the right words in peoples' ears, slipping a well deserved tip at the right time, or shielding me with his body until I was authorized to cross a Vietnamese street on my own. Think of a combination of a (junior, Vietnamese) Godfather-type figure with the potential of some day being a Jewish mother. Since Anhai left right after highschool, he did not see much of the country, and this opportunity gave him the chance to do so.
Anhai does have a few more white hairs than he had before the trip and I take responsibility for that (but I think it's a fair trade for a signature on one's Ph.D dissertation).
We started out in Hanoi -- a city with very strong character with its Old Town full of specialty shops, French Quarter with a very appropriate feel (including the bakeries!), and the promenade around Hoan Kiem Lake at the center. In the middle of Old Town, we found the Green Tangerine Restaurant that was absolutely wonderful (French with Vietnamese influence).
We then went on the mandatory (but very worthwhile) trip to Halong Bay with its many small peaks. We spent a night on a boat there (with a bunch of Australians, the latest invadors to Vietnam). That night was a soccer game (first of two matches) between Vietnam and Thailand, the great rivalry of Southwest Asia. Surprisingly, Vietnam won, which meant the boat crew was ecstatic, and with it being Xmas eve, they started pouring free drinks (accompanied by dried squid from the bay). The second half of the soccer story occurs while we're in Saigon. The next morning, while kayaking in the bay, Anhai and I discovered that kayaking is a team sport, and we have some work to do on that front.
We then flew to Nha Trang, a beach town/resort. It was rainy there, but we still had a good time hanging out in the cafes and even had a schnitzel (I don't think Anhai will ever forgive me for that cultural experience). From there we drove (i.e., sat in the back of a car) to Da Lat, a beautiful city nestled in the mountains, and a resort for Saigonians who need to escape the heat. Also a city with a nice lake in the middle and an amazing variety of flowers.
In Da Lat I was introduced to the Vietnamese 'custom' of serving complimentary tea even when you order coffee. Speaking of coffee, it was a mixed experience. At times, Anhai managed to explain to baristas how to make my macchiatones, and in others we drank Vietnamese coffee.
From Da Lat we drove to Saigon, a much more business-like city than Hanoi and more steeped in history of the American War. The night we got there was the second of the two soccer games, and the result was a draw, meaning that Vietnam won the Suzuki Cup.
Within minutes of the game's end, the streets were flooded with happy Vietnamese. And I mean happy! Literally, you could not move amongst the people and their mopeds. Anhai got me a little Vietnamese flag and we started making our way through the crowds. Being a foreigner and on the tall side by Vietnamese standards, I drew quite a bit of attention. Every time I waved my little flag, I drew cheers and smiles -- almost as if I was the one who scored the winning goal! It was a totally amazing experience!
From Saigon we took a two-day trip to the Mekong Delta, which has now been added to my list of candidate places to retire. Imagine your life when all you need to do for lunch is go to your back yard and fish for a few minutes or pick some fresh fruit from a tree (yes, they have wifi everywhere there too!). It was really fascinating to see how life is arranged when water is such an integral part of your landscape (the delta is actually made of 9 different strands of the Mekong River).
We celebrated New Year's Eve with Anhai's highschool friends in Saigon. That was a great chance to get a glimpse of the life of young professionals in Vietnam, which brought home the point that this country has an amazing future, judging by its people's character and how far they've come in the last 20 years. I'm already thinking of my next trip there!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
My Favorite Cafes
I recently embarked on a coffee-related project. The end product of the project is not completely defined, but it involves visiting cafes all over the world, studying the variations in coffee customs and preparations, and, of course, spreading the word about macchiatones world-wide.
As a first step, I've created a web site that lists my favorite cafes. These are cafes I visited recently, so the list is still short, but I'm hoping to expand it over time. There are multiple criteria for being included in the list, including having good coffee (duh!), having a charming atmosphere and possibly a good location. Basically, it needs to be a place worth spending time at. I'm happy to hear suggestions for additional cafes and I'll find a way to share those with the world.
As a first step, I've created a web site that lists my favorite cafes. These are cafes I visited recently, so the list is still short, but I'm hoping to expand it over time. There are multiple criteria for being included in the list, including having good coffee (duh!), having a charming atmosphere and possibly a good location. Basically, it needs to be a place worth spending time at. I'm happy to hear suggestions for additional cafes and I'll find a way to share those with the world.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Mumbai Attacks
Pandu wrote a nice post on the Mumbai attacks with a very personal account. Pandu grew up in precisely the area where the attacks took place and knows quite a few people who were affected in various ways.
Friday, November 28, 2008
A Week in Macchiatone-Land
Oriana and I just came back from a trip to northern Italy where we visited Padova, Trento, Venice and Verona. I'm, of course, not qualified as a writer to appropriately describe the Italian experience, so I'll stick to what I know. Some pictures can be found here.
The reason we went to Italy was to visit the University of Trento, where I was recently asked to serve on the advisory committee of the computer science department. It's quite an impressive place! In about 7 years they built a Ph.D. program from scratch and it now has about 200 students. They've also hired quite a few excellent young faculty. They are able to attract students from all over the world (the courses are in English) and it's a very dynamic place. They also have quite a bit of interaction with local industry. If you're looking for a place to do a Ph.D. (and have great coffee in the meantime), this is a great place.
Which brings me to the second topic. Northern Italy is the mecca for my favorite drink, the macchiatone. Whereas in other places in the world I typically need to explain the concept and get a bad approximation of the real thing, in northern Italy you can walk into any cafe and get a great macchiatone. We even visited the original Caffe Del Doge in Venice (and I'm still recovering from the 5.50 euros for that macchiatone). Later I found out that if you drink your coffee standing, then in most places it will cost a mere 90 euro cents! The official explanation I got for this phenomenon is that in Italy coffee represents a short, intense emotion. This trip has given me quite a bit of material for my coffee project (but I'll explain that elsewhere).
Finally, social networks are really cool when you travel. I was able to collect good recommendations on what to do and where to eat through Facebook (thanks, Andrea!). I enjoyed the comments I got on my status messages and uploaded photos during the trip.
The reason we went to Italy was to visit the University of Trento, where I was recently asked to serve on the advisory committee of the computer science department. It's quite an impressive place! In about 7 years they built a Ph.D. program from scratch and it now has about 200 students. They've also hired quite a few excellent young faculty. They are able to attract students from all over the world (the courses are in English) and it's a very dynamic place. They also have quite a bit of interaction with local industry. If you're looking for a place to do a Ph.D. (and have great coffee in the meantime), this is a great place.
Which brings me to the second topic. Northern Italy is the mecca for my favorite drink, the macchiatone. Whereas in other places in the world I typically need to explain the concept and get a bad approximation of the real thing, in northern Italy you can walk into any cafe and get a great macchiatone. We even visited the original Caffe Del Doge in Venice (and I'm still recovering from the 5.50 euros for that macchiatone). Later I found out that if you drink your coffee standing, then in most places it will cost a mere 90 euro cents! The official explanation I got for this phenomenon is that in Italy coffee represents a short, intense emotion. This trip has given me quite a bit of material for my coffee project (but I'll explain that elsewhere).
Finally, social networks are really cool when you travel. I was able to collect good recommendations on what to do and where to eat through Facebook (thanks, Andrea!). I enjoyed the comments I got on my status messages and uploaded photos during the trip.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A Tour of South Tel-Aviv
I recently came back from a trip to Israel to visit my parents. One of the highlights of the trip was the tour that my dad gave me of south Tel-Aviv. For many years, the south part of Tel-Aviv was not considered a great area by any stretch of the imagination, but in the last decade or so it has been significantly beautified and is now one of the more chic parts of the city. You can see all the pictures here.
My dad grew up in that part of town, so it was a great treat to follow him for 4 hours as he was pointing out the various landmarks, and moving about with the familiarity that only a teenager has with his neighborhood (albeit over 60 years later).
The tour started around the corner from the apartment his family rented when they first immigrated from Greece to Tel-Aviv. We then went to what used to be the Alliance School, where my dad went to elementary and middle school, across the yard from the girl's school. In later years, the two schools became meeting points for young activists of the rival underground movements in the pre-state days (the Haganah and the Etzel). Now it is the Suzan Dalal theatre.
We then walked through the Neve Tzedek neighborhood with its charming houses and some Bauhaus-style architecture. We got onto Rotchield Avenue, where the rich people used to live (it's not that much cheaper today either). One of the houses there was where Ben Gurion declared Israeli independence in 1948.
We walked through Herzl St. where my grandfather owned a little store, the big Sephardic synagogue where my two aunts and uncle married and paid a quick visit to my dad's highschool. Finally, we got to the very happening Sheinkin St with its cafes and shops. There we looked for a high-school friend of my dad who had a pharmacy there for 50 years, but apparently retired recently (and by chatting with another pharmacist my dad found out things about his friend that he never knew).
We then sat in a cafe for a bit, and that's where I juxtaposed the present with the past. We got the waitress to take a picture of us with my blackberry and then I showed my dad how I'm instantly sharing it with 200 of my best friends on Facebook. Finally, we walked through the Levinsky Market and spent a bunch of money in a deli before heading home for friday lunch.
A few days later I found myself spending a few hours in Prague. Here are some pictures. Clearly, this was just a teaser and I need to go back.
My dad grew up in that part of town, so it was a great treat to follow him for 4 hours as he was pointing out the various landmarks, and moving about with the familiarity that only a teenager has with his neighborhood (albeit over 60 years later).
The tour started around the corner from the apartment his family rented when they first immigrated from Greece to Tel-Aviv. We then went to what used to be the Alliance School, where my dad went to elementary and middle school, across the yard from the girl's school. In later years, the two schools became meeting points for young activists of the rival underground movements in the pre-state days (the Haganah and the Etzel). Now it is the Suzan Dalal theatre.
We then walked through the Neve Tzedek neighborhood with its charming houses and some Bauhaus-style architecture. We got onto Rotchield Avenue, where the rich people used to live (it's not that much cheaper today either). One of the houses there was where Ben Gurion declared Israeli independence in 1948.
We walked through Herzl St. where my grandfather owned a little store, the big Sephardic synagogue where my two aunts and uncle married and paid a quick visit to my dad's highschool. Finally, we got to the very happening Sheinkin St with its cafes and shops. There we looked for a high-school friend of my dad who had a pharmacy there for 50 years, but apparently retired recently (and by chatting with another pharmacist my dad found out things about his friend that he never knew).
We then sat in a cafe for a bit, and that's where I juxtaposed the present with the past. We got the waitress to take a picture of us with my blackberry and then I showed my dad how I'm instantly sharing it with 200 of my best friends on Facebook. Finally, we walked through the Levinsky Market and spent a bunch of money in a deli before heading home for friday lunch.
A few days later I found myself spending a few hours in Prague. Here are some pictures. Clearly, this was just a teaser and I need to go back.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Claremont Report on Database Research
Once every 5 years, a small group of database researchers, practitioners and opinionated professionals get together to assess the state of field. The report written after the workshop represents the consensus on new research areas and describes some of the discussions that took place. The goal of the report is to foster more discussion in the field, so please go ahead and discuss!
You can find the report here.
You can find the report here.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
OpenII: Open Source Information Integration Suite
Last week I hosted the OpenII kickoff workshop at Google. We had representatives from several companies: IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, MITRE, Google, one guy who was supposed to represent Oracle but decided to be a professor again, and a couple of professors.
The goal of OpenII, as the name implies, is to create an open-source set of tools for information integration. The tool set will include, among others, wrappers for common data sources, tools for creating matches and mappings between disparate schemas, a tool for searching a collection of schemas, and run-time tools for processing queries over heterogeneous data sets.
The main goal of the effort is to foster innovation in the field of information integration and create tools that are usable for a wide range of applications.
In research, we often innovate on a specific aspect of information integration, but then spend much our time building (and rebuilding) other components that we need in order to validate our contributions. Having a set of open-source tools will enable us to focus on our innovations and perform more meaningful comparisons between our methods.
On the applications side, information integration comes in many flavors, and therefore it is hard for commercial products to serve all the needs. Our goal is to create tools that can be applied in a variety of architectural contexts (e.g., materializing all the data in one repository vs. leaving the data in the sources and accessing it only at query time). In addition, many of the tools (e.g., schema matchers or dedup engines) often need to be extended for the particular domain in hand to fully leverage domain knowledge. Open source tools allow application developers to do exactly that.
You'll be hearing more about this project as we make progress. If you would like to contribute to it, please contact me!
The goal of OpenII, as the name implies, is to create an open-source set of tools for information integration. The tool set will include, among others, wrappers for common data sources, tools for creating matches and mappings between disparate schemas, a tool for searching a collection of schemas, and run-time tools for processing queries over heterogeneous data sets.
The main goal of the effort is to foster innovation in the field of information integration and create tools that are usable for a wide range of applications.
In research, we often innovate on a specific aspect of information integration, but then spend much our time building (and rebuilding) other components that we need in order to validate our contributions. Having a set of open-source tools will enable us to focus on our innovations and perform more meaningful comparisons between our methods.
On the applications side, information integration comes in many flavors, and therefore it is hard for commercial products to serve all the needs. Our goal is to create tools that can be applied in a variety of architectural contexts (e.g., materializing all the data in one repository vs. leaving the data in the sources and accessing it only at query time). In addition, many of the tools (e.g., schema matchers or dedup engines) often need to be extended for the particular domain in hand to fully leverage domain knowledge. Open source tools allow application developers to do exactly that.
You'll be hearing more about this project as we make progress. If you would like to contribute to it, please contact me!
Brain Rules and Computer Science Education
I just finished reading Brain Rules by John Medina. The last page of the book inspired this post, but let me first tell you what the book is about.
The book examines different aspects of our brain and derives from them some principles and suggestions on how to improve better behaviors. None of these suggested behaviors are surprising at all, but Medina (very entertainingly) explains why they are good for us given the brain's structure and describes some research that validates these claims. For example, chapter 1 tells you that doing aerobic exercise actually improves your mental capacities. Another chapter talks about the need for sleep and another on why stress is bad. Two chapters talk about memory (short term and long term), explaining why repetition of new knowledge can greatly improve its recall. Another chapter explains (finally!) that men and women are different (women are apparently much more complex than men, in case you need another shocker), and another stresses that we never stop learning in life (or at least, we have the capacity to).
At the end of every chapter, Medina asks how we can apply these nuggets of knowledge to develop new methods for education. In the last chapter, he explains why the unique aspect of medical schools make for well-trained doctors as well as curious researchers. The point is that in medical school students are learning the theory of medicine at the same time they are practicing it (in increasing doses as they advance in the program). Hence, they are able to apply their knowledge immediately and, after observing patients, ask novel questions that lead to new research and discoveries. Medina suggests that the same principle can be possibly applied in other disciplines.
I think Computer Science education can really benefit from such a model. I obviously don't have all the details worked out here, but imagine that every Computer Science department (or set of departments) had a software company on the side. As students go through the program, they start getting tasks from that company to build software for it, participate in designs, see how product decisions affect engineering processes, and even see some company politics at work. These companies will be real (they'll need to pay for these services) -- they'll generate real software for real customers.
I even have an initial idea of what these companies can do. Given that these companies are likely to have challenges competing in the market, they need to address a niche of customers who are willing to put up with lousy service, mediocre products and delays in software release cycles. I.e., customers who have nowhere else to go!
These customers are called scientists. Scientists are always complaining that they don't have the right software tools to do their science. Real companies typically don't find scientists to be an appealing set of customers because, well, they don't really want to pay up and they often have very specialized needs. There are huge challenges in creating good software tools for scientists, and university-affiliated companies could be an excellent place to develop this software, while preparing the next generation of computer scientists for the real world.
The book examines different aspects of our brain and derives from them some principles and suggestions on how to improve better behaviors. None of these suggested behaviors are surprising at all, but Medina (very entertainingly) explains why they are good for us given the brain's structure and describes some research that validates these claims. For example, chapter 1 tells you that doing aerobic exercise actually improves your mental capacities. Another chapter talks about the need for sleep and another on why stress is bad. Two chapters talk about memory (short term and long term), explaining why repetition of new knowledge can greatly improve its recall. Another chapter explains (finally!) that men and women are different (women are apparently much more complex than men, in case you need another shocker), and another stresses that we never stop learning in life (or at least, we have the capacity to).
At the end of every chapter, Medina asks how we can apply these nuggets of knowledge to develop new methods for education. In the last chapter, he explains why the unique aspect of medical schools make for well-trained doctors as well as curious researchers. The point is that in medical school students are learning the theory of medicine at the same time they are practicing it (in increasing doses as they advance in the program). Hence, they are able to apply their knowledge immediately and, after observing patients, ask novel questions that lead to new research and discoveries. Medina suggests that the same principle can be possibly applied in other disciplines.
I think Computer Science education can really benefit from such a model. I obviously don't have all the details worked out here, but imagine that every Computer Science department (or set of departments) had a software company on the side. As students go through the program, they start getting tasks from that company to build software for it, participate in designs, see how product decisions affect engineering processes, and even see some company politics at work. These companies will be real (they'll need to pay for these services) -- they'll generate real software for real customers.
I even have an initial idea of what these companies can do. Given that these companies are likely to have challenges competing in the market, they need to address a niche of customers who are willing to put up with lousy service, mediocre products and delays in software release cycles. I.e., customers who have nowhere else to go!
These customers are called scientists. Scientists are always complaining that they don't have the right software tools to do their science. Real companies typically don't find scientists to be an appealing set of customers because, well, they don't really want to pay up and they often have very specialized needs. There are huge challenges in creating good software tools for scientists, and university-affiliated companies could be an excellent place to develop this software, while preparing the next generation of computer scientists for the real world.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
FOO Camp 2008
I spent the weekend at FOO Camp 2008, an annual event organized by publisher O'Reilly Media (hence the name, Friends Of O'Reilly). The event brought 275 movers and shakers of the tech industry and related industries, and was an incredible experience. It was as if someone injected into my brain the latest and greatest ideas and thoughts with one joyful syringe, accompanied with a few good glasses of wine. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch captures the spirit of FOO Camp in his blog post (and you can even see me standing and looking busy behind Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, in one of his photos).
The conference begins with no set agenda. They put up an empty board with the different time slots and locations of sessions, and as the participants arrive, they fill up the board with sessions. There are about 10 sessions going on in parallel at any given time, most of them looking quite fascinating.
To give you a rough idea, within the span of a few hours, I attended sessions on:
-- aggregating meta-data on the web organized by Esther Dyson (i.e., all the data we create as we use services on the web),
-- the future (or lack thereof) of journalism (organized by several NY Times and SeattlePI reporters),
-- "open education" (tools, policies and politics of),
-- crowd-sourcing vs. curation (i.e., how to balance all the inputs one gets from the bloggers of the world with careful aggregation and analysis of information),
-- how computers can help humanities (e.g., analyzing the Bible, helping archaeologists), organized by Martin Wattenberg, the creator of Many Eyes,
-- educational tools for virtual worlds, and
-- a very well attended session on small things one can do to become happier in life.
There was also a session on "big data", organized by Roger Magoulas, the director of research at O'Reilly. The point I took away from that session is that owners of big data sets are now more confused than ever. They face a much wider array of architectural choices for data management systems than they ever did. These include map-reduce based systems, column stores, real-time warehouses, streaming systems, and various systems built on top of MySQL. Each of these architectures has its advantages and limitations, but it's becoming increasingly harder for application builders to understand the tradeoffs (and it's not like marketing departments are getting rewarded for making the choices clearer). It's no longer the world where you buy your favorite relational database system and you're done (and stuck). I think this situation presents some interesting research challenges for the database community (it's also interesting how some of these architectures get little attention in the community).
The idea of designing the conference program on the spot is very appealing, and I'd like to propose we do a little bit of it in traditional scientific conferences. (There is a concept of birds-of-feather session, but that's usually a grab bag of ideas). We should allot time slots in our conferences where sessions can be organized as the participants come to the conference and stimulate discussions there. That's a much better way of getting up to speed on hot topics and people's current thinking, which is what conferences should be for!
The conference begins with no set agenda. They put up an empty board with the different time slots and locations of sessions, and as the participants arrive, they fill up the board with sessions. There are about 10 sessions going on in parallel at any given time, most of them looking quite fascinating.
To give you a rough idea, within the span of a few hours, I attended sessions on:
-- aggregating meta-data on the web organized by Esther Dyson (i.e., all the data we create as we use services on the web),
-- the future (or lack thereof) of journalism (organized by several NY Times and SeattlePI reporters),
-- "open education" (tools, policies and politics of),
-- crowd-sourcing vs. curation (i.e., how to balance all the inputs one gets from the bloggers of the world with careful aggregation and analysis of information),
-- how computers can help humanities (e.g., analyzing the Bible, helping archaeologists), organized by Martin Wattenberg, the creator of Many Eyes,
-- educational tools for virtual worlds, and
-- a very well attended session on small things one can do to become happier in life.
There was also a session on "big data", organized by Roger Magoulas, the director of research at O'Reilly. The point I took away from that session is that owners of big data sets are now more confused than ever. They face a much wider array of architectural choices for data management systems than they ever did. These include map-reduce based systems, column stores, real-time warehouses, streaming systems, and various systems built on top of MySQL. Each of these architectures has its advantages and limitations, but it's becoming increasingly harder for application builders to understand the tradeoffs (and it's not like marketing departments are getting rewarded for making the choices clearer). It's no longer the world where you buy your favorite relational database system and you're done (and stuck). I think this situation presents some interesting research challenges for the database community (it's also interesting how some of these architectures get little attention in the community).
The idea of designing the conference program on the spot is very appealing, and I'd like to propose we do a little bit of it in traditional scientific conferences. (There is a concept of birds-of-feather session, but that's usually a grab bag of ideas). We should allot time slots in our conferences where sessions can be organized as the participants come to the conference and stimulate discussions there. That's a much better way of getting up to speed on hot topics and people's current thinking, which is what conferences should be for!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Karina helps the earthquake relief effort in Sichuan Province
My (almost 7 y/o) daughter, Karina, was a star at a fund-raising event for the victims of the Sichuan Province earthquake. I'll give a bit of background, and then I'll let the quotes from the press speak for themselves. This event was originally supposed to be a victory party for the newly elected president of Taiwan, and hence highly star-studded.
A few hours before the event (a crowd of 5000+), Karina got a call asking if she would come on stage for a few minutes during the fund-raiser. Nobody told her what was expected of her, but she was happy to participate. She got on stage and was asked a few questions, at the end of which she offered the emcee to share a poem with the crowd. The poem recital apparently moved the crowd greatly and opened up their check books. Her impromptu performance was covered in the Chinese press following the event.
For the readers who do not know Chinese (e.g., me), here are a few snippets from the articles (kindly provided by Oriana). Also note that most of the Chinese press uses her Chinese name -- CunZhong, but I assure you she could have done it perfect Hebrew too.
Notable quotes from the Sing Tao site: (1) "This first-grader was born and raised in the US. Her mother is a Chinese from Beijing, her father Jewish. Standing in the center of the stage, wearing her hairs twisted high into two traditional buns and holding her piggybank, little CunZhong delivered an original poem, entitled "Home", in impeccable native Mandarin Chinese." (2) "Thunderous applause followed her performance." (3) Karina told the reporter: "Television images of the earthquake victims really scared and worried me. I memorized this poem after reading it three times. I want to share it with all the children in the disaster zone, so that they will not be afraid!"
This site carries the original news release with a photo. This site also contains several photos from the concert, including one where the audience responded to the emcee's tribute to "the mom of this courageous little girl." The notable quote from the site is: "Li CunZhong's outstanding and emotion-filled performance deeply touched the hearts of the entire audience, and brought the outpouring of donations to a crescendo."
And finally, here's the YouTube video with the post-interview with sina.com, titled "Karina, the six and a half year old who touched many hearts with her live recitation of the poem". If you're Chinese, the management requests that you go here to see the video and read more background.
A few hours before the event (a crowd of 5000+), Karina got a call asking if she would come on stage for a few minutes during the fund-raiser. Nobody told her what was expected of her, but she was happy to participate. She got on stage and was asked a few questions, at the end of which she offered the emcee to share a poem with the crowd. The poem recital apparently moved the crowd greatly and opened up their check books. Her impromptu performance was covered in the Chinese press following the event.
For the readers who do not know Chinese (e.g., me), here are a few snippets from the articles (kindly provided by Oriana). Also note that most of the Chinese press uses her Chinese name -- CunZhong, but I assure you she could have done it perfect Hebrew too.
Notable quotes from the Sing Tao site: (1) "This first-grader was born and raised in the US. Her mother is a Chinese from Beijing, her father Jewish. Standing in the center of the stage, wearing her hairs twisted high into two traditional buns and holding her piggybank, little CunZhong delivered an original poem, entitled "Home", in impeccable native Mandarin Chinese." (2) "Thunderous applause followed her performance." (3) Karina told the reporter: "Television images of the earthquake victims really scared and worried me. I memorized this poem after reading it three times. I want to share it with all the children in the disaster zone, so that they will not be afraid!"
This site carries the original news release with a photo. This site also contains several photos from the concert, including one where the audience responded to the emcee's tribute to "the mom of this courageous little girl." The notable quote from the site is: "Li CunZhong's outstanding and emotion-filled performance deeply touched the hearts of the entire audience, and brought the outpouring of donations to a crescendo."
And finally, here's the YouTube video with the post-interview with sina.com, titled "Karina, the six and a half year old who touched many hearts with her live recitation of the poem". If you're Chinese, the management requests that you go here to see the video and read more background.
The Macchiatone
Do you often feel like your cappuccino has too much milk? And then the macchiato is a bit too dainty? A conundrum I'm sure many people face on a daily basis.
This morning I went for my usual sunday coffee at Cafe Del Doge in Palo Alto, and I had the chutzpah to point out that their cappuccinos have too much milk. After a short discussion, the barista pointed out to me that I should try the macchiatone. It's basically a cappuccino, but with less milk. I've been making macchiatones for several years now and I didn't know it!
Something tells me that the Starbucks barista course does not cover this material, but feel free to spread the word (note: a macchiatone is NOT a dry cappuccino; very different concepts!)
This morning I went for my usual sunday coffee at Cafe Del Doge in Palo Alto, and I had the chutzpah to point out that their cappuccinos have too much milk. After a short discussion, the barista pointed out to me that I should try the macchiatone. It's basically a cappuccino, but with less milk. I've been making macchiatones for several years now and I didn't know it!
Something tells me that the Starbucks barista course does not cover this material, but feel free to spread the word (note: a macchiatone is NOT a dry cappuccino; very different concepts!)
The Remote Agent
I just returned from the 5-year Database Self-assessment workshop (will post something about this soon), where some of the discussion naturally focused on identifying high-impact ambitious projects for the community.
When I returned, I found Pandu's blog post, describing the Remote Agent Project at NASA that he was involved in about 10 years ago. Now that was a very inspiring project that received a lot of attention in the AI community at the time (including a Best Paper Award in AAAI 1997), and really demonstrates the amazing things that can happen when an incredible group of people get inspired.
I wonder if the database community can come up with something as inspiring.
When I returned, I found Pandu's blog post, describing the Remote Agent Project at NASA that he was involved in about 10 years ago. Now that was a very inspiring project that received a lot of attention in the AI community at the time (including a Best Paper Award in AAAI 1997), and really demonstrates the amazing things that can happen when an incredible group of people get inspired.
I wonder if the database community can come up with something as inspiring.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)