Finally new picture.  Now people can stop bothering me about using pictures from millions years ago lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AverageIQ-Map-World.png

THE AVERAGE IQ OF THE WORLD

Was not a big surprise to learn that East Asians are the Smartest people in the world.  But it is a big surprise to learn that the domest people are not Africans nor Latin Americans, but actually Australians. 

This means that dolphines average IQ is actually higher than Australians.  WOW

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping that everyone is enjoying a great new year weekend.  I actually spent mine working.  Nevertheless, here I am at the finish line.  I have about two days to enjoy and off I go to Hong Kong, Shen Zhen, and then Beijing business trip.  Hectic times.  But that's what you get for starting your own company and quitting your full time job.  I am unabashedly happy though.  Below is a letter I wrote to all the students we helped get into a great school this year.  In a way, I help inspire them to do something extraordinary.  In many ways, they have shown me how true my voice sounds.  Below is my letter.

Dear scholars of the future:

            I want to first and foremost congratulate each and every one of you for your wonderful successes during college admissions.  Your hard work has resulted in the luxury of enjoying the rest of your senior years.  And as I am sure, they will surely be filled with moments you will cherish for the rest of your lives.

            Many of you have ardently thanked me for helping you during your college admissions, but I am compelled to express my sincere gratitude for your appreciation, and ask kindly for you to put away your thanks until the near future.  Although I am extremely delighted that each one of you will be attending the most prestigious of colleges, my ultimate mission however, is not written on your acceptance letters; rather, it rests on your ability to achieve your individual visions through the wonderful opportunities that you have just graced yourselves with. 

            From the very first moments that we discovered each other, I have determinedly sought after your passions.  While some of you aspire to become doctors, scientists, politicians, humanitarians; all of you, aspired for greatness.  That, my friends, shall prove to be a much harder task.

            There are many great people in our lives; what we lack is greatness.  In fact, there’s only one thing that separates the two:  will power.  While great people do achieve, at some point in their lives they become content, and the enriching pleasures of life pull them in.  They will be one at peace in our world, but one too many as well.  Greatness is pain as much it is suffering; greatness is pushing oneself to a level where it hurts, a level of no contention; a level where most others would kindly refuse at the door.  Nevertheless, greatness is what you aspire. 

            My passion rests on your passions.  You have portrayed your passions artistically to others, enough to convince them of your realities.  With successes at each stage, you will evolve a bit closer to what you desire, and this is only the first step.  Now is a time where I would kindly remind you of our famous motto, “Vision without action is just a dream; action without vision is just activity”.  To step a little closer, make sure you have plenty of both.  And always keep this delightful knowledge in the back of your minds, that we are all here to help each other.

            Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in society”.   At Brown, Cal Tech, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, NYU Stern, Princeton, Stanford, Upenn, Yale, you are sure to learn the changes you wish to see in society.  And upon the delightful day of your graduations, while some of you will continue your learning, others I would hope, will be that change. 

            Summer is almost here.   With global warming and all, I assume it's a sizzling hot one.   So knowing you are still the crazy seniors that you are, it's probably time to go out and have a little fun in the sun.  I am privileged to have met great, ambitious and passionate students like all of you, and hope that we will not be strangers in the years to come, but forever here to share with each other our passions, and remind each other when the days are not so sunny, that the sun does indeed exist.

Add Oil,

Chen Zhang

Whether to continue the study of confuscianism - my two cents

Should Asia, which has seen transformations that were once considered unimaginable, abolish confuscianism to fit with the current society?  Always known for being the passionate advocate, I seek to offer my opinions.

I believe the fundamental values must be maintained: the emphasis on responsibility for the care and education of one's children, to teach them to be filial, to be loyal to family and friends, to be thrifty and modest, to study, work hard and become a scholar, to grow up to be a gentleman (junzi); they ahve sustained the continuity of Chinese civilization and saved it from the oblivion that has been the fate of other old civilizations.

Today, however, the Chinese economy is driven by new knowledge, new discoveries in science and technology, innovations that are taken to the market by entrepreneurs, So while the scholar is still the greatest factor in economic progress, he will be so only if he uses his brains not in studying the great books, classical texts, and poetry, but in capturing and discovering new knowledge, applying himself to management and marketing, to banking and finance, and to the myriad new subjects that ned to be mastered.  Those with good minds to be scholars should also become inventors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs; they must bring new products to the market to enrich the lives of people everwhere. 

All in all, keep the family values, but shed the definition of a scholar.  With this, I believe Confuscianism is here to stay for awhile longer.  Meanwhile, let's keep our classics, but remember to take our interpretations of them outside, and even around the box.  Hardly anything is everlasting, and if it is, flexibility is the key to its survival, not stubborness.