Path of Physicist

As most people will not or not necessarily go to Grad School, even some went to grad school, different major will have different path. so, let me give a rough picture on "How to become a Physicist - in a normal path "

the path is began from entering university, basically, as long as you are in math or physics department, or some engineering department, you are able to become a physicist.

after undergraduate course, there are 2 paths lay in front of you. 1 is become a Master student, and the 2nd one is become a Doctoral student. Lets me talk more on the difference.

there are 2 kinds of master courses, one is a taught based, and one is research based. the taught based is a bit more easy, you take courses, have a little paper then you will finish it after 1 or 2 years. your title will become Master of Science, or M.Sc. it basically is an extension on the undergrad study and seldom bring you to a new level of learning.  the research base is like, you take courses for 1 years, then do a 1 year research, finish your thesis with the help of your supervisor. it will take you at least 2 years. If your research is not going so well an smooth, or may be you have a high requirement professors (your supervisor), you may be delayed, take half or 1 more year before finish. And some cases, you can be fail to meet the requirement and not able to finish. your title will be Master of Philosophy, or M.Phil.

OK, now you hold a master degree, the next step is going to doctoral study. or, if you just hold a bachelor degree, you also able to apply a doctoral course. the difference is, once you have a master degree, your doctoral course will take you 3 years, if you don't have, the course will take you 5 years.

so, why not take the doctoral course, right after undergrad? the reason is, unless you already doing some kind of research during undergrad course, most students have no idea how a research look like. even you did undergraduate research course, it is still different from real research. just like the difference between part-time and full-time. Moreover, students may hear from other how a research is, and what is the career development. So, most people will take a master course, and get to know how research is fitting or not. and tell you from statistics, most of them, found that it is not.

Moreover, to process to doctoral study is a big decision in your life. the reason is 2 folds. first, you are going to sign a "contract" of 3 years. if you quite in the mid-way, you wasted time, and in that among of time, you can gain other competitive experience from working, that will help your salary. 2nd, after you finish a doctoral course, can you go back to the market? no, the reason is simple. you are well trained in a very special area, which mean, you are blank in other things, especially no one will hire a doctoral student for clerk work. while they also not going to place you in some decision making task. the fact is, you are too well-qualified and specialized, you can only survive in your field. unless you can accept after many years of study, go back to job market and earn fresh grad paid. Therefore, it is a big decision. it determines where you will go and who are you. in my advice, people, no matter which major, before you entering doctoral course, please ask as many advice as possible, say, from your teachers, from your friends, or from your parents. ( parents may be not a good choice, especially in Asia.)

So, now, you become a Doctoral course student. you already known how to do an independent research, how to look for reference, make hypothesis, do experiment,  learn theory by yourself. yes, in most case, there is no text book for doctoral student, since it is already cutting edge research. If you are in a new field, then even few papers (scientific publishments) available. you are on you and your professors alone. so, doctoral course normally don't take any course but a full time research.

anyway, you finish, and now you can tick the square "Dr." on any documents or forms. Or more academically a " Ph.D", Doctor of Philosophy. Cool hah !?

now, as a doctoral degree holder, you need to find some labs to do the so called "post-doctoral" research. and your life may be end in this post. (of course salary will higher, but most of us will not satisfy, not because of the salary, is because all we want is a place in university or have our own research team. )

after many years, your research was recognized. some university, or lab, will invite you to join them. and Now, in this sense, you say bye-bye to "post-doc" life and having your own research.

if you go to university, you will first be a lecturer, then assistant professor, then professor.

so, the finial goal is becomes a professor.

so, now you know, a Professor is really hard to be. and that why most of them are wired. :P

Sleeping problem index

Imagine a world that you don't have to work, no appointment. There is no sleeping problem, right?

Think about Sunday or holiday, you can sleep when ever you like.

So, the sleeping problem is come from your work, somebody require you to be some places on certain time.

And usually, job require a regular schedule. Thus, in my point of view sleeping problem is the mis-match of the schedule and your sleeping pattern.

For simplicity, we can defined a naive sleeping problem index to indicate how serious is that mis-match.

P= (wake up time - scheduled time) /12.

Today, my P = 0.5 , very serious.

For little complicated definition, a mis-match should be in term of "phase shift".

for normal people, there sleeping pattern can be well described by a periodic function, say, a square pulse function, with duty (sleep-on time) 8 hours and 24 hours a cycle.

Then, the mis-matching is the synchronization of this function and working schedule.

Lets put little more math on it. The sleeping function is:

S= 0, for 24>t>8, 1 for 8>t>0=24

The working function is

W= 1, for 18>t>8, 0 for 8>t>18

Then it is perfect match. And the sleeping problem index is zero.

However, If the sleeping pattern becomes

S= 0, for 24+a>t>8+a, 1 for 8+a>t>a

Then, the mis-matching hour "a" is related to your sleeping problem.

Since the clock run 24 hours a cycle. The worst case is a=12. Thus, we should divided 12 for simplicity. Or if you like, we can compare your sleeping problem in different planet, which 1 day can be any hours.

Of course, this is a very simple model. The sleeping and working function can be variated. And in principle, the mis-matching can tell you how bad your are, coz mis-matching hours, is not quite comparable.

Why? Think about an extreme case, the working pattern is 1 hour work, the next hour off, an repeat. And your sleeping pattern is same. Is the 1 hour mis-match is the same as the normal case?

Selfishness among Chinese

the translation:

we hate corrupted governors, but we are very eager to work at government.
we blame monopoly, but we want to earn as high as possible.
we criticize injustices, when we work, we seeking every relationship we can.

we angry, it is not because we feel unfair, it is because we are in the disadvantage side in this unfair situation.

we don't really want to eliminate this unfairness, but just want to be privileged.

this deep -down selfishness, is the one we have to eliminated.

by Cheung You

特權

adjective 特權

Chinese - a concept

as many foreigners have simple incorrect concept on Chinese, i think i have to make it clear.

a most easy analogy of Chinese is, Westerner. Lets me list some common features between them.

1. there are many different kind of Chinese, who lives in different countries.
2. there are many different countries, who is form and rule by Chinese.
3. Chinese speaks different languages
4. Chinese is NOT ALL Asian, as Westerner is not ALL European.

the 1st point don't have to mention. it is just like there are many westerners around the world. But one thing is, china people really love to group together. they like to form China town. However, may be westerners like to "colonized" the whole place, or make some "controlled area", which does not obey the local law and reign. so, there is no need for "england town" or "german town". may be it reflected the difference nature between chinese and westerner.

the 2nd point, Singapore, Taiwan, are 2 country who is formed by Chinese people. Although Taiwan is not a "country", but she has everything a country have, even more like a country then Palestine, or Monte Carlo. Just like Westerner, they have US, France, England, German, etc. 

one particular point i want to raise in here is, The so called "One China" is only from the dictator of PRC (people republic of china), or so called "mainland" china. In fact, the "One China" concept of PRC is Cultural. when PRC said anything about Chinese or China, she means everyone who genetically and cultural chinese all over the world. And this is very dangerous from a dictator. because it means, every "chinese" in this board sense should listen to PRC, the dictator. and in War time, you can imagine. (the sad thing is, some idiot believing in. it is hard to imagine all westerner from a single country.) anyway, there should not be "one china" and "one china" is not a real situation. 

(while PRC love to modernize as much as westerner, the dictators love to have rocket, satellites, more is better. but the number of Chinese countries, more is not better, in their point of view. )

However, in fact, Chinese is very diverge, as diverge as westerner. in chinese history, about 2500 years ago, china is very much like european, there are many countries. however, once after unified, it stay unified for ever. i don't know why. The main difference between chinese history and european history is, china is from many to one. while european is one to many (roma empire to many countries and state). 

you may think, then, chinese was enjoying peace fro more 2500 years. i tell you, not, we suffered from the war of changing dynasty, which controlled by 1 single family. in average, every dynasty can last for 200 to 250 years. in each dynasty, the first 50 years may be a peaceful time. and then, a long corruption occurred. and it repeated for at least 8 times. Chinese people never learn there is a problem in this political structure.

OK, back to the topic.

the 3rd point is, languages. There is no language call chinese, as there is no language call "westernese". 3 major speaking language among chinese people are, Mandarin, Cantonese and Fujian. Mandarin is, in fact, a foreign language 1000 years before, who speaks by the northern area of china. at that time, a primary society formed from Norman. And the corruption of former dynasty gives chance for those norman took over northern china. Then people changed their language and mixed with it. Cantonese and Fujian is a direct off-spring from ancient and original chinese language, they keep a lot pronunciations. therefore, when people using Cantonese and Fujian to speak poems of ancient china, the sound is more accurate and get the rhythm correctly. Now, Mandarin is spoken by northen part of  "mainland" china and Taiwan. and Cantonese and Fijian were spoken by southern part and oversea (Singapore, Mayasia, China towns over the world). However, as PRC keep "exporting" students oversea, you may found more and more "chinese" speak mandarin. 

the 4rd point is, Chinese is a cultural mean or genetic mean. chinese culture dominated the east part of asian for long time, and make influence to many other countries nearby. however, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc, has their own culture as well. And people from southern part of china, they more like adventure, can take risk and populate around the south Asia and the world. i guess it is so called "meme" is social science. Chinese not only pass the genetic features to their child, but also the meme. that make chinese think similar. never the less, through education, these changed. however, i never met a chinese, who totally unfamiliar with chinese culture, as if he is raised by westerner. No, never met one. 

at last, Chinese - Westerner analogy will give you a sense on how diverge "Chinese" are. As a HongKonger, i strongly think it is a insult when other mainland chinese regard me as same as them. Just like a Franch is regarded as British by Bristish people ( i am not sure are they now hate each other as much as the past ). We are so different! you speak "Mandarin", a foregin language which is spoken by invader, an you think it is "Chinese"! just like a robber rob your mom and you now call him father!

僕には簡単じゃないことだよ

僕は透明人間さ きっと透けてしまう 同じひとには判る
噂が走る通りは 息を吸い込め 止めた儘で渡ってゆける
秘密も愉しいけれど直ぐ野晒しになるよ それを笑わないで
好きなひとやものなら有り過ぎる程有るんだ 鮮やかな色々

あなたが笑ったり飛んだり大きく驚いたとき
透き通る気持ちでちゃんと応えたいのさ
毎日染まる空の短い季節
真っ直ぐに仰いだら夕闇も恐ろしくないよ

僕は透明人間さ もっと透けて居たい 本当はそう願っているだけ
何かを悪いと云うのはとても難しい 僕には簡単じゃないことだよ
一つ一つこの手で触れて確かめたいんだ 鮮やかな色々

あなたが怒ったり泣いたり声すら失ったとき
透き通る気持ちを分けてあげたいのさ
毎日染まる空の短い季節
手を叩いて数えたらもうじきに新しくなるよ

恥ずかしくなったり病んだり咲いたり枯れたりしたら
濁りそうになったんだ
今夜は暮れる空の尊い模様を真っ直ぐに仰いでいる
明日も幸せに思えるさ
またあなたに逢えるのを楽しみに待って
さようなら

Brain vs Heart

i heard one thing long time ago. it said,

if you wondering which one , your brain, or your heart,  you should follow during decision making, you better think about their statistics.

for myself, brain is definitely win. but wait.

without heart that give you the passion, give you faith when you are hopeless, helpless, it seems that the world is too computational.

the world is computational. everyone can only act within their imagination. some people more, some people less.

people like to follow habit, follow social rituals. just somebody follow more, somebody care less. we are all bounded by somethings. when someone has smaller common "social rituals", people may label it as crazy. because people cannot predict what they are going to do next.

think about the joker in batmen.


("you know one thing about chaos, it is fair" , truly bring up a whole new philosophy on social planning)

joker is crazy (and happy), because he does not following order, social ritual. he against it, he embrace chaos. however, even as crazy as joker, he still bounded by himself. imagine a society, that chaos is common, just like the war times, joker is not crazy at all at that society.

may be i gone too far. Brain VS Heart. as if "to be or not to be". biggest problem of life. one solution is, "To Be AND Not To be", "brain and heart". How?

as one of the different between adult and kids is, adult will foresee the consequences, while kids do not. So, if we think back, oh yes, kids never understand what is "to be or not to be", they are always "to be". Thus, kid has no fear. in contrast, adult always consider the consequences, and the consequences we don't want may be "the result does not same as i imagined" or "that will make people unhappy".

the motivation is from our heart. it give us reason to do things, to do extra things then support our life. and the brain plan to do to achieve that goal. so, when talking this... my heart can never make mistake, coz setting goal cannot be wrong. but it is the problem of my brain that fail to achieve that goal. oh... interesting.

although the world is computational, our brain is not powerful enough to compute the world.

...skipping

at last, different people has different needs and requirements. so, "To be, or not to be" should be " To change yourself, or not to change yourself ".

i don't mind to change. am i? can i?

Droste effect in Conway's Game of Life

This always remind me How a complex world can be created by simple rules. But sadly, in the game of life, time is implicit build-in.

wiki links : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life