Last week, I went to shanghai for the EXPO. In fact, I’m not quite a fan of it, besides I’ve heard there are tons of people there in such hot weather. However, it’s a company trip which leaves me no choice.

 I went to the venue right after I put my luggage in the hotel. It was a very hot day in shanghai, however there are tons of people there; you need to wait at least half an hour to get in even the least popular pavilion there, let alone the 4 hours long queue outside Japanese Pavilion and 8 hours outside Saudi Arabia pavilion. The shanghai EXPO committee seems to have predicted the situation, so there are security everywhere. Plus, in order to prevent people from heatstroke, there are fans and sprayers along the queues.

 Due to my personal attachment to Antipodes, I went directly to New Zealand and Australia Pavilion. New Zealand Pavilion is quite small but an interesting one, especially from the perspective of architecture design. Inside of the Pavilion are there many videos playing everywhere, which is an introduction of life in New Zealand. The rooftop of this pavilion is a slope that is used for a garden with local flora.

 Australia pavilion is a large brown-colored building, which symbolizes the red rock in the middle of Australia. Like all other pavilions, it shows the culture and life styles in Australia via sorts of means, either videos, sculptures or posters. The whole theme of Australia pavilion is how different people, either Caucasian, Asian or Black people, live together in harmony there. One interesting thing about Australia pavilion is that they have a camera and a screen with a plate in front of it that will play video on the screen, once you hold towards the camera. That’s why I took a picture there.

 The most innovative pavilion in this year’s EXPO must be British pavilion. British pavilion looks like a hedgehog which is made of thousands of glass needles with seeds in each of them. British attach a great deal of importance on greenery, which is why they choose the seeds of plants as the idea of their pavilions. It’s hardly for me not to be surprised that what a detailed work they have done when I took a close snapshot of the needles with seeds in each of them.

 Some of the pavilions take a lot of time queuing, like Japan, Germany, Switzerland, China and Saudi Arabia, the average time of queuing is above 3hours. I woke up quite early in the second day and I went to Japanese Pavilion, even so it took me 2 hours to get in. The most important part in Japanese Pavilion is the cutting-edge technology, like high-definition camera from Canon and the future personal vehicle from Toyota. Sadly, they don’t allow taking pictures inside of the pavilion. I also went to the Switzerland pavilion, the most interesting thing in that pavilion is the chairlift. However, we failed to take that because there were thunders while we waiting and they shut the chairlift down.

 The last day I went to the urban best practices Area, where there are some practical examples in my professional field, but nothing new.

 The theme of this year’s EXPO is “Better city, Better life” linked closely to energy conservation. But after I come to the EXPO, I cannot help joking with my colleagues that how much energy they could have saved if there were no this EXPO with tons of people here at all.

With guests sitting on the lawn with their picnic in a beautiful garden and with soft breeze and an orange colored sky, our magic madrigal evening starts. It might sound familar to you especially if you are a fan of movies and mini series based on Jane Austin’s novel. True, this cannot be more british. I am very lucky to attend such an activity last weekend at June 5th, not as an audience but as a madrigal singer. Madrigal concert is one the the IFC concerts every year, which is usually held in british ambassador’s residence.

I am always a fan of accapella, chorus without accompaniment, but I didn’t sing it before until this year’s madrigal concert. The repertoire is sort of miscellaneous,  british traditional songs mixed with a bit jazz. I have many favorites this year, including the Prince of sleep, Faries, I got rhythem, Miss otis regrets, Every time we say goodbye.

This year’s madrigal concert proves to be the best of this kind so far. Afterwards at the party, we basically did it again  just for our own sake of fun. Oh, i forget to mention that we had another madrigal concert the day before in Tianjing Concert Hall, and we sang together on the train on our way back. It was so much fun, though it seemed we annoyed some passengers on the same carriage. One of other things i need to mention is that the british ambassador was standing right besides me when he gave the opening speech of the evening.

“We have met the enemy and he is Powerpoint” says a senior officer in U.S. army after he saw a slide shown above, which is a diagram about the military strategies in Afghanistan made by Powerpoint. He even remarked that we would have already conquered the terrorists if we figured out the spaghetti-like slide when the audience erupted into laughter in a conference meeting. It is not just government officers who are complaining. As an engineer myself, I increasingly find that Powerpoint is the culprit in modern enterprises that lowers down the productivity because of its time-consuming and over-simplified nature, or over-complexity for that matter.

 Making Powerpoint slides is obviously a time-consuming task, which, all too often, overwhelms the concrete and productive work. The purpose of making slides is for the convenience of presentation, however its time-consuming and overwhelming nature goes against this intention. A junior officer based in Afghanistan said that he spent most of his time making Powerpoint slides when interviewed by New York Times. In a modern enterprises like the one that I am working at, employees making Powerpoint slides are easily spotted in the office. Sometimes, one may wonder what the slides are about when they make slides all the time. The time-consuming nature of making slides occupies too much time for people that would otherwise be used to do more productive work, thus bringing down the productivity.

 Powerpoint slides tend to be over-simplified, as some victims might state, or over-complex for that matter, the reason of which can attribute to another nature of making slides, interpretation. When making slides, one needs to interpret concepts and ideas in a thesis or a report into Powerpoint language, bullet points. However, the fact is some logical relationships are often too complicated to be stated in this forms. On a contrary, some ideas are straightforward enough that they need not to be interpreted into the diagrams in Powerpoint, or simply not applicable at all. Even so, people in modern enterprise tend to stick to Powerpoint while neglecting the downsides.

 In China, People sing praises to Powerpoint while it is undermining their productivity without their notice. Chinese people, from central government to small local business, are inclined to rank form as their first priority, while Powerpoint really hits the spot for that need. In addition, due to the bureaucracy, it is always your superior who is the presenter of the slides instead of you who make the slides. Therefore, making Powerpoint is not only an interpretation from reports to bullet points but also an interpretation for your superior to understand the reports since they are too busy to read it through. The double interpretation task increases the work load of employees that wasn’t in existence before, thus lowering down the productivity.

 All in all, Powerpoint is the reason of a low productivity in modern society due to its time-consuming and misinterpretation nature. A good presentation does not mean fancy pictures and animations shown on slides but a lively and wholehearted speech delivered by the presenter that arouses compathy and recognition from the audience, which can never be done by just several stupid bullets points.

Advance in technologies has transformed the globe into a village in some sense, where communication is just several finger movements away on the keyboard of your Mactintosh. This gives rise to a new work fashion, working at home. Working at home enjoys enormous popularity in contermporary society, because it brings public with economical,environmental as well as social merits that would prosper this practice in return.

Technology progress that has been achieved in the last decade has made working at home a reality. More specifically, different sorts of online service and chat tools link people together when they need to exchange ideas or discuss problems even if they are thousands of miles apart. Many multi-continental enterprises nowadays use skype, an online chatting tool equipped with video meeting function, for business meetings when several branches in different continents are involved, let alone  brainstrom sessions inside a company, where employees could sit together virtually and present their ideas by the internet. It is exactly through these online gadgets and service that connections between people are completed, spawing this new work mode.

On the other hand, economical and environmental benefits can be brought with the proliferation of this work fashion, especially in this era when energy resource becomes increasingly scarce. It is widely acknowledged that energy consumption in commercial buildings accout for a significant share in a country. More than 90% of the commercial buildings in urban areas are not energy-efficient becasue of its non-flexible HVAC systems and light systems, estimates Green Building Council of USA. Working at home, in this sense, would be a great contributor to energy conservation accompanied by economic and environmental benefits, which would make energy consumption in commercial buildings and energy consumed during rash hour by commuting unnecessary.

Moreover, working at home, from a social perspective, helps entrepreneurs to avoid any social emergency that might disrupt their businesses. Social emergency, like flu pandemic, not only jeprodize the health conditions of its employees but also poses enormous negative impact on business. It has been estimated, by the ministry of economy in UK, that swine flu happened last year led to a loss that amouts roughly to eight millon dollars in London, while the economic growth fell by 2% compared with the same period a year ago. One expert on economic behaviour and social realtions said the loss could have been avoided if companies had and operated in a working-at-home mode when interviewed by BBC. Indeed, technology is so advance nowadays that we can purchase and even close a deal without sitting in the same table in a meeting room. Likewise, it is unjustified to assume people can only work when sitting in the office.

To sum up, the advent of the era of working at home is brought by the rapid development of technology, especially online service, which will become a working fashion acceptedy by mainstream and entrepreneurs considering its economic, environmental and social merits. Companies which appreciate this practice would become a role model among others, and save a great amount of operation cost that could be used for other investments.

Technology development in the last decade has transformed human being’s previous life style in a great deal, as it did in the case of individual’s reading habit. Nowadays, people are more likely to read digital version of magzines than the printed version. This phenomenon has certainly raised a doubt for managers in public libraries about whether they should only provide books to readers instead of various forms of materials. However, this problem can hardly trouble them when considering high-tech media’s extensive contents,  economical and environmental benefits as well as its contribution to economy development.

The extensive content of high-tech media makes libraries providing multi-media materials necessary in order to sever their readers better. Computer science techonology diversifies the forms of expression on printed books. For example, the movie, Pride and Prejudice, producted in Hollywood makes Jane Austin’s original novel more vivid, thus improving understanding on the figures portraited in the novel and intriguing more readers. Furthermore, many modern works are created based on modern technology. An illuminating example is worldwide blogsphere where contemporary writers post their works instead of printing them out. Provided that these materials are available in public libraries, readers could have far more choices than otherwise.

Apart from the quantity of its content, high-tech media can also bring  us with economical and environmental benefits. It is universally acknowledged that the storing form of digital resource is extraordinarily intensive, usually 500mb digital units in a single disc that is equivalent to the information contained by 10,000 books, which saves much space and a great deal of money for maintenance. In addition, it helps to protect wood that traditional books are made from. The amount of wood that is used to produce papers worldwide in a single year equals to 100 acers of forest, estimates Royal Environment Committee, a royalty-sponsored organization.

Providing high-tech media in public libraries can also be recognized as a form of contributing to economy development.  A survey conducted by Chinese economy development ministry suggests the proportion of multi-media industry’s contribution to economy is growing expontentially that accounts for well over 40% of GDP last year. Therefore, introducing high-tech media to libraries has the potential to augment the development in this industry and sustain the growth of economy especially during economic downturn.

Digital resource and materials will certainly prosper and become a prevailing part of information in the future owing to its extensive content, economical and environmental benefits as well as its contribution to economy. Admittedly, printed books should also be provided in libraries as a major and traditional source of information. However, it might be imprudent to draw an absolute conclusion that it is the only source of information that should be provided in libraries. After all, it is always better to have more options than only one.

As the economic downturn hit the western world, most of the developed countries have tightened their own immigration policies. Canada issued new policy in the very beginning of the 2008 to curb the immigration. However, Australia did pretty well during financial crisis since it’s main business partner is China. China’s fast economic growth calls for enormous energy source, while Australia is abundant in coal, petrol and etc, which guarantees the continous prosperity during the crisis. It is said that this sudden policy change is due to the fact that Australia intends to attract more professionals like enginners and doctors instead of  work force like hairdressers or cook.  New policies will be realeased in the middle of the year.

As an engineer myself,  it seems my worries are quite redundant, however I don’t have much work experience and i certainly don’t wanna it be a disadvantage when comes to point testing. There is still something i could do, improving my english writing skills to get a 7 in IELTS. I might start writing essays on this blog… Hope it all work out within the year.

In 2010, I plan to continue to consolidate my knowledge basis  in terms of CFD, enhance skills at work. In 2010, I plan to practise piano to a level that I have never achieved. And I wish my visa application would go smooth. However, most importantly, be healthy and be happy.

Happy 2010 to everyone!

I’m not a Christian and I really don’t  celeberate Christmas. However, I guess I said Merry Christmas to everybody by singing Messiah last saturday.  Because of the late performance permission，we put off the Messiah concert on 19th, usually the first saturday of Dec,  and even change the concert hall to a small one outside Beijing instead of forbidden city concert hall.  Even so, we gave the audience a lovely show in my opinion.

Messiah is a Baroque music production, more specifically, Cantata. I always have affection towards baroque music and I definitely enjoyed singing messiah this time. It is such a great work for chrous.  When we singing the famous Hallelujah, all the audience stood up following british tradition. It is such a sacred moment. According to other members, it is sort of an european tradition for choirs to sing messiah during christmas time, which is why IFC does it every year. I am looking forward to singing it next year.

PS: After the concert, we had an italian dinner party, people danced and chatted and got drunk. And our director told me I am a great great asset to this choir, which makes me very proud of myself. I have enclosed the video of one of my favorite movements, For unto us a child is born, which is not our performance but I do wanna share the joy.

I have heared about the forthcoming shut down of all P2P and BT websites here in China. I just don’t realize it comes so quickly unitl I find out that VERY CD, a website that thousands of users share their digital resourse on, was cracked down today. The authority justifies their actions on the grounds of protecting copyrighted products and controling the widespread piratic and illegal digital resource.

From my point of view, this bold and imprudent action might act as just opposite as the authority expects. Admittedly, some of the internet users might turn to copyrighted movies or softwares. But considering the high price of those products,  I would not call it majority. As a result, most of the internet users here in China who used to download digital resource with P2P or BT via websites like Verycd will probably turn to piratic contents，which in turn would definitely prosper the piratic industry.

In fact, as far as I know, many web users consider VERY CD as their precious resource website, where you can find from exotic tv series and movies with chinese and english subtitles to professional softwares, etc.  Yes, I admit it might need some regulations to protect the copyright of those digital resource. However, I would not call simply shut down the website as a progress action. Instead, related authority and the big players in this industry are well-advised to sit down together and work out a plan to progress and normalize this business, which however is unthinkable here with the authority’s proliferated bureaucracy. Moreover, the real purpose of this action might be controlling the alleged “illegal” content, oversea TV series and movies notably. So there is no room to compromise for the authority.

What leaves me to do right now is just mourning. Now I would not surprise if  someone here is bored to death one day.

The Hotel that we stayed. Intercontinental Hotel pricing 3,000 a night. lol

Inside of our room, I lived with my supervisor. I espcially like the glass facade and the fireplace in the living-room-like space. It looks cozy.

Jiuzhaigou gains its reputation for its stunning view like this picture. I almost feel like myself a photographer. hehe

Isn’t it beautiful? I took it, haha

Water there is so transperant that you can see the green plants deep in the lake, which makes that lake so colorful.

One of its most famoust spot, Pearl Waterfall.  Do you still remember the shot in “Journey to the West”when Monk Tang and his apprentices walk through the waterfall?

The swimming pool in the hotel, I actully climbed up on the glass rooftop to set  thermometer. 

The view from the glass rooftop, where you can see the whole resort.

We caught flight back to Chengdu that night. It took us almost an hour car drive from hotel to the airport. Because that is a rural place where there is no artificial lights, I saw so many stars shining upon the sky when i was in the car to airport. I’ve never seen so many stars in my life. What a breathtaking view!