Power

(Let me continue with the story.)

Anna has her edge. She is humble and all willing to ask people around to help - as well as giving them the power and honor that they deserve. On the other hand, she stands in the front to face the difficulties and works relentlessly to treat her people well. It doesn't take long for her country to recover from the horrible frozen winter.

Of course the story does not end there. Amongst the monarchs previously being ill treated by the Snow Queen, The Duke of Weselton and Prince of the Southern Isles form a league and declare war to Arendelle. Although Anna has a cohesive kingdom under her hands, she is at her wits end because she is quite powerless to a military conflict.

At this time, she remembers her elder sister. She travels to the no man's land and, by this time, Elsa is quite depressed and autistic - convinced that her special power has no earthly value. But Anna gives her all the encouragement and, after a lengthy and wholehearted persuasion, Elsa agrees to come out from the ivory tower and help the new Queen.

For obvious reasons, with the capability of controlling cold and ice, the small army of Arendelle wins. Anna invites her elder sister to stay so that the two of them could run the country together. But, by this time, Elsa knows what she is good at and what she loves. She decides to retreat to her ivory tower for a simple life.

After all the hassles, the Snow Queen learns how to make the ivory tower warm.

Happy new year.

Plot

You may say I am merely criticizing without any constructive suggestion.

Em... If I were writing the story, it might go like this:

*******************
The King of Arendelle has two daughters. Elsa, the elder one, has the special power of manipulating cold and ice at her own wish, while Anna, the young one, is just a lovely ordinary girl.

When the King gets old, he has great hope on Elsa and makes her to become the Queen of the country. Everyone is excited because they all think, with the special power of Elsa, their country will prosper. But, the reality is, after a short honeymoon period, they realize that their new Queen has difficulty to control her power. She looks down upon her ministers because she considers them useless people with no special capability. She takes whatever she wants from Dukes and sovereigns around and does not treat her alliance with fair terms. Soon afterwards, the country gradually gets frozen. Elsa is taken as a monster and has to exiled to an icy ivory tower.

After Elsa is forced to leave the country, Anna becomes the Queen of Arendelle. To begin with, she hesitates, because, without any special power like her elder sister, she doesn't think she could rule the country well. However, since the old King has no other children, she has to agree with reluctance.

I suppose you could imagine how the story is going to unfold subsequently?

Frozen

Vivian and I brought our princesses to watch Frozen the movie during the Christmas holiday.

To begin with, as an adult with a convoluted mind, I am sure I see little point watching this cartoon of Disney. Well, I am almost right. The story is remotely related to Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and, as a musical for kids, the plot is expectedly weak and sometimes unrealistic. For example, why should Prince Hans refuse to kiss Anna? Since Elsa is regarded by everyone as a monster and there is only her younger sister to rule the country, any crook in a sane mind would jump to that opportunity and seize the crown.

Em… I must say my criticism is undoubtedly biased because I watched the 2D Cantonese version; all the songs are converted to Chinese and I am not able to determine how good they are in their original English appearance. Alas, I can’t really understand why the songs need to be converted to Chinese.  After all, do we expect asking some American pop stars to sing for Yam Kim-Fai (任劍輝) and Bak Sheut-Sin (白雪仙) when a gweilo watches The Flowery Daughter of the Emperor (帝女花)?

PS. The best part of the film is, you know what, the cartoon of Mickey and Minnie that appeared at the beginning as a prologue. It is hardly a story and, I believe, has no hidden meaning. Nonetheless, it is immensely funny and entertaining.

The good old traditional Disney is really beyond comparison.

Footprint

The basic idea of water footprint is simple: It is the amount of water used by a household or a country, or the amount used for a given task or for the production of a given quantity of some product or crop. For the latter, it means the total volume of freshwater used to produce a product, summed over the various steps of the production chain.

For example, the production of a cup of tea requires 32 litres of freshwater, a glass of milk means 200 litres, and one kilogram of beef is equivalent to 15,000 litres.

And, therefore, it goes without saying that for countries with limited water supply, it is far more cost effective (and more environmental friendly) to import a spoon of tea leave or a bottle of milk than to transport that gigantic volume of water to make the corresponding items locally. In fact, even if a country does not have to import water from other places to grow their own food (hardly any countries actually need so), there remains an opportunistic cost to pay. For example, do you really want to cut down the petroleum consumption slightly (by doing away with importing food from other countries) but, at the same time, cut down the freshwater available in a local river (with a number of ecological consequences to follow)?

Water

On a first glance, it seems a good idea to grow our own food because agriculture is green.

But no. The reality is quite different.

First, agriculture is, by and large, not environment friendly. To most countries (Hong Kong included), growing our own food does not mean we turn part of the cement forest to genuine ones; it is achieved by converting some woods and grasslands of the country side into farms and fields. The place for wild trees and flowers becomes occupied by edible crops and vegetables.

You may argue producing our food locally is still a good idea because we consume less petroleum (and hence there is less air pollution) for the transportation of crops.

Well, do you know what is water footprint?

Food

I must say I should not be too harsh to the extraterrestrials on Sirius. They are noble creatures and always pave our way with good intentions.

While talking about the swarm from the ocean, I am reminded of a hot topic that comes up repeatedly in the media over the past few months: We should grow our own food.

You may think it is all advocate by fans of environment protection. But no. The original idea comes from nationalists and supporters of protectionism, and the objective is simple: If a country could be self-sufficient in terms of food supply, it has no fear of being isolated and could have all the say on her home affair as well as foreign policy.

Of course that doesn’t work out. A country can affect another by millions of ways, and food has little weight in this equation.

Although the objective is not achieved, however, the idea persists and is carried forward by environment protection groups. Their argument is simple: Agriculture means green and is environment friendly.

Shuffle

If you think it is a pain in the neck to ask a group of creatures that have never seen a tree to discuss the suitable strategy for preserving the tropical forest, you may may even a lower opinion to know what happened that very morning after we fixed up with the direction.

Alas, we had a tea break and then shuffled – all creatures moved randomly to another area and discussed what projects should be undertaken to materialize the strategies being chosen. (You see? It is really poisonous to go outside the solar system. I stayed there half a day and begin to talk like an extra-terrestrial!)

And, if you have ever tried the megaphone game (傳聲筒遊戲), it is easy to predict what’s going to happen. When the earthworm was dismissed (and joined the group for South Pacific Current) and the strategy on the tropical forest was elaborated by a Neanderthal, a polar bear, a platypus, an oyster from mercury, and a ladybird from Uranus, the original strategy was interpreted in an entirely different manner.

As Humphrey Appleby always says, this kind of workshop serves only one purpose:

They appear to be doing something.

Group

The mass began with a speech by the second brain of the Stegosaurus Authority. His message was simple: All creatures in the solar system could pray, but the Lord would choose who and when to reply.

(The very question is, of course, why the second brain of a stegosaurus could speak for the Lord. Well, Fritz could speak for Count Westwest in The Castle, and, in a strong country on Earth, a fox could represent a tiger.)

After the remarkable speech, the Schwarm split into groups and discussed strategies of specific areas.  Em… all creatures discuss; if we define thinking as any exchange of neurotransmitter between neurons, we would have to agree all vibration waves generated  by vocal cord are some form of discussion. On the other hand, you may have a tiny trace of concern to see a group that made up of an Eskimo, an earthworm, a blue whale, a squid from Venus, and a praying mantis from Neptune were assigned to discuss the five year plan of the tropical rain forest.

Alas, you guess that much: The strategy was decided by the earthworm !

Mass

A critical idea of der Schwarm is a group of unicellular organisms could come together, share their memory (by exchanging their DNA), and come up with a unified action that would benefit the group as a whole.

Alas, that may be true for amoeba and other protozoa – but never for multicellular organisms.

(No, not necessarily Homo sapiens. Invertebrates and mollusks are all the worse.)

*************************
Let me go backward and tell you a slightly convoluted story I recently encountered.

It goes like this: On a few unrelated occasions in the past few weeks, I was asked to give an outline on what should be planned for the coming five years – research projects, space, dialysis facility, and clinical service in Hong Kong.

And, it was exactly for that last topic, on the day after the meeting with our professor of obstetrics (who talked about Nelson Mandela), I was summoned to Sirius to attend a Mass.

Em… our extraterrestrial friends actually called their Mass a different name, in which there were 50 or 60 creatures of all kinds, from the Earth as well as other planets. Well, I must say I could only see a religious value of that gathering. As Philo Vance often said, I was so impressed that I lost my nerve.

Let me tell you what happened tomorrow.

Schwarm

My recent leisure reading is der Scharm (群) of Frank Schatzing.

The plot is simple: The ocean that we know is actually controlled by single-cell organisms that operate in groups (or swarms, hence the title of the novel). This organism, which is called yrr in the book, has a form of collective intelligence based on inheritable memories, which are passed generation after generation by manipulating parts of their DNA. (The situation is somewhat similar to the hypervariability segment of our B lymphocytes.)

And, the problem is, although yrr has existed on Earth (specifically, in the ocean) for hundreds of millions of years, it is becoming more agitated recently. Many of our activities - oil mining, pollution, global warming, and what not - are devastating to the ocean. As a result, yrr set up one goal: To eliminate the human race.

Sounds horrible, eh? I agree it is. The story is thrilling. But the book does more than that. Schatzing has done extensive research on related topics before he started writing, and, as an amateur scientist, there is much to learn here and there from this arm-breaking paperback.

Germans are always meticulous.

Gerald

For our own students, I suppose it is meaningful to mention briefly the life and time of Professor Choa, whose career was nothing but remarkable:

Choa began studying medicine at our sister university in 1938. However, the Second World War soon broke off and everything became very haphazard. Eventually, he obtained a basic medical degree from the Cheeloo University (齊魯大學) in 1945, and then a formal bachelor of medicine from the other side of the Victoria Harbour the next year (after the Japanese surrender).

After some further training in general internal medicine and tropical medicine, Choa became a lecturer of medicine of his alma mater from 1949. He was soon promoted to be a senior lecturer and, in 1957, he was transferred to become the consultant-in-charge of the government medical unit of Queen Mary Hospital.

In those days, the consultant post was employed by the Department of Health. In 1967, Choa left Queen Mary Hospital and became the deputy director of the Department. Three years later, he was promoted as the director – a post which he held until his official retirement in 1976, at the age of 55.

But, to us, that’s just the end of the beginning. Choa joined our university after retiring from the government. In fact, he was asked by the government at that time to lead a group to set up the second medical school in Hong Kong.

And, as people often say, the rest is history.

永業

During a recent meeting, TC, our professor of obstetrics, sighed, “You know, sometimes the general knowledge of our students are really alarming. I just recently come to realize that many of them do not know who Nelson Mandela is.”

Our dean replied by a bitter smile, “That’s not the worst. Let me tell you this: A good many of them do not know who Gerald Choa is!”

I nodded – as I could attest that statement beyond any doubt.

For visitors outside my circle, Professor Gerald Choa (蔡永業) was the founding dean of my medical school.

PS. George Santayana said: Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.

That's not entirely correct. I doubt any of our graduate could have an achievement close to our founding dean without knowing him. In fact, those who have no idea of the past would not appreciate why we are here and where we are heading.

邵雍

Believe it or not, my recent bedtime reading is A Pictorial Guide to Meihuayishu (圖解梅花易數) by Tang Hang Yi (湯行易).

For visitors not familiar with Chinese astrology, Meihuayishu - which literally means the plum flower mathematics of change - is a system of divination devised by Shao Yong (邵雍), a philosopher and cosmologist of the Song Dynasty who is often better known by his nickname Shào Kāngjié (邵康節).

Shao was often considered the most learned men of his time, and was the leading expert of studying I Ching (易經). He was best known by using the (at his time) novel image number approach (象數學) to interpret this classical text edited by the King Wen of Zhou (周文王). Meihuayishu is a practical extrapolation of Shao's system.

The best known work of Shao is, of course, The Book of Supreme World Ordering (皇極經世書), which is supposed to be able to predict (no, not only explain) everything under the sun by applying the principles of I Ching. The interesting rumor is Shao was convinced that neither his son nor students could fully understand The Book, and, for that reason, he wrote a less complicated one for them to earn a living.

This very version is The Iron Version of Mathematics (鐵版神數).

Or, Shao himself called it The Mathematics for the Dummies (蠢仔數).

List

Once I come to the opinion that the Michelin guide is not meant for our local people, a (biased, of course) list of good Chinese (or Asian) restaurants not included in the guide come to my mind. They are by no means comprehensive, but just the ones that I have some personal experience.

Here you go:

1. 陸羽茶室
2. 寧波會館
3. 銅鑼灣雪園
4. 銅鑼灣上海綠楊邨酒家
5. 銅鑼灣金不換
6. 炮台山香港老飯店
7. 北角東寶小館
8. 黄大仙詠藜園四川菜館
9. 九龍城清真牛肉館
10. 紅磡時新快餐店
11. 佐敦金山海鮮酒家
12. 佐敦麥文記麵家
13. 澳洲牛奶公司
14. 尖沙咀海景軒
15. 尖沙咀東來順
16. 鹿鳴春
17. 泰豐廔
18. 好時沙嗲
19. 楓林小館
20. 西貢通記海鮮

Michelin

For all local gourmets, the top news recently is the release of the Hong Kong Michelin Guide 2014.

Although not a professional food critic, I suppose I have sufficient experience to comment on the quality of any restaurant, and, for that reason, I always find the result of this tire-man manual inexplicable.

Well, the ranking of French and Italian restaurants are, by and large, expected and sensible (except the very fact that Gaddi’s of Peninsula is not on the list, and my recent experience with Tosca at Ritz Carlton was not entirely satisfactory). The list of star-grade Japanese restaurant is, to say the least, skewed and incomplete.

But, when it comes to Chinese ones, the list is nothing more or less than absurd. Strictly speaking, most of them do not serve traditional Chinese cuisine – but a modified one presented in a western manner. If we focus on the quality of food, how could Fook Lam Moon (福臨門) rank lower than any of her competitor?

PS. I must say I should not be too harsh to Michelin. The guide is not only written by a group of (predominantly) western gourmets, it is intended to be read by white people who come to this, to them, unfamiliar part of the world. The number of star of a restaurant does not reflect its absolute quality, but how well it suits the palate of Europeans and Americans.

Prevention

The idea of temporary licence flashed through the mind of General Forbes, but, in no time, he began to think of something else, “I see what you are getting at. All you worry is our naval students are green and may cause you trouble – with potential legal consequences!”

Colonel Clapperton blushed, “I could not say no to that statement. You know, as the pier manager, my  aim is complete prevention of all accident.”

The naval school principal shook his head, “Seriously, is that a realistic objective? Let me tell you a story: When the US Forest Service was established in 1905, complete fire suppression was the objective. Before that policy, small fires happened every now and then by lightening or other natural reasons, and trees of easily burnt species are regularly destroyed. After the fire suppression policy, however, highly flammable species became much more abundant in the forests. The result is simple: The strategy enjoyed a short period of minimal fire. In reality, the number of ordinary small fire was reduced, but the few major catastrophic ones remained inevitable. More so, because the composition of forests had changed, these fires were much worse - they became uncontrollable disasters.”

Colonel Clapperton was speechless. He appeared like a boy being caught red-handed while stealing candies.

“The same hold true for your zero accident policy.” General Forbes concluded.

Safe

Colonel Clapperton said helplessly, “Sir, if any of the naval student has an accident out there in the storm, we shall be in trouble.”

General Forbes sneered, “That’s hardly an argument. If any of the trained naval officer has an accident, our trouble is all the worse. At the time when a young person decide to join the naval force, he should accept the job has certain risk. And, seriously, we should have the concept that their career in the navy begins when they are a student – not after they graduated.”

The pier manager shook his head, “That depends on what kind of accident. If there is a storm and their skill of sailing is not adequate, they may endanger others’ life.”

“Same for any fully trained naval officer…”

“No, not the same. They are qualified and licenced to do so when they have graduated.”

General Forbes was about to say the Department of Defence should provide temporary licence to all naval students so that they have the legal right to carry out necessary procedures during their training.

Sailing

General Forbes was dumbfounded.

He read the memo again to make sure it’s not his hallucination.

No. It was a real nightmare. As the principal of the Royal Naval School, he found Clapperton’s memo no different from an order to close down the naval school that and there.

Later that afternoon, the general paid a visit to the pier manager and discussed the matter.

“I just want to ask a very simple question,” General Forbes began, “For what?”

“For the protection of everyone! People sailing out there will get into trouble when there is a storm.”

“Don’t beat about that bureaucratic bush. I can understand why recreational and voluntary services are banned. They are not essential. However, the naval school is different. It is always better to sail in an uncharted sea than not to go to sea at all. If our students are not allowed to sail even when there is merely a trivial turbulence, how could they become competent?”

Close

The face of the alternative scientist lighted up, “You know my method, don’t you? Close down the pier. Bar everyone from sailing. Give me the money. I shall work out how to cut down the damage from the storm.”

Colonel Clapperton was about to say the deal is no different from head you win tails I lose. If there was little damage by the typhoon, it’s because of what the alternative scientists did; if the storm ended up a disaster, they had long given the warning. In fact, they could go on and say the situation would be even worse if it was not for their good work.

But the naval officer kept his mouth shut. Instead, he took out an antique instrument and began to type.

A memo was put up at the entrance of the pier ten minutes later:

In view of a forthcoming storm, all activities in the marine areas of the pier will be suspended with immediate effect. This will include all recreational activities, voluntary services, as well as training sections on sailing practice for all students of the Royal Naval School at Plymouth until further notice. Official military duties of the Royal Naval Force will not be affected.

Storm

A bell clang in the mind of Colonel Clapperton. In no time he put up a political smile and went forward to the alternative scientist, “Who doesn’t? Your method is so impressive! Em… What brings you here?”

Professor Y took one step backward in order to keep a (psychologically) safe distance from the naval officer. He was surprised to find someone greeting him so eagerly. “Sir, a storm is coming.”

“Is it?” Clapperton sneered. To be honest, he found it an anticlimax to hear such a warning. It was the season of storm and Plymouth sees five or six typhoons each year; he would be much more amazed if the alternative scientist told him that there would not be any storm in the coming twelve months.

“I know what you are thinking,” Y went on, “But the storm is different this time. Have you heard of El Nino and the south Pacific current? Well, to put it simply, when the conditions are all fit and our luck is really tough, the storm could kill millions of people this time.”

The naval officer wished to say all storms could do that in theory. If everyone in England go swimming during the storm, a mortality in million would be an underestimate.

However, Clapperton did not say such kind of thing. His mind was considering another problem, “Professor, what do you want? Is there anything you could do to help us?” 

Pier

Colonel Clapperton was late.

He overslept. Well, who wouldn’t? It was in the middle of summer but the breeze was remarkably comforting. Thank goodness it was Sunday, and the naval officer had no official duty.

But he thought he had to do something. After thirty years of daily exertion, it had become his habit to go to work everyday. He quickly went to the garage and got into his Land Rover, and, in no time, he was by the shore. To be specific, he was at the pier of Plymouth. As the general manager of the port, he felt home by simply sitting there and watching the boats sailing in and out.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It has the familiar hue of saltiness.

"Em..." a voice appeared from his back.

Colonel Clapperton opened his eyes and turned around. There was a middle-age stranger with a curious smile at the entrance.

The stranger hid his smile and said, “Sir, let me introduce myself. I am Y, the Professor of Alternative Science from the University of Munchausen. You may have heard of my achievement from the local news..."

(See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2013/10/village.html)

Tomorrow

Don’t get me wrong. I am not sorry for making so much trouble and being harsh to my student. But, rather, I feel it’s really unfortunate as he would not have a chance to further his clinical exposure and improve his deficit.

As Groucho Marx said: Yesterday is dead. Tomorrow has not arrived yet. I have only one day to live – today.

Or, as Marius of Les Miserables sings (in Empty Chairs at Empty Tables),

Here they sang about “tomorrow”.
And “tomorrow” never came.

PS. I must say I have a strange feeling with what’s happening. On one hand, the two medical schools are trying to train up global health care leaders for the future. On the other, however, there is a problem of securing the provision of bare basic clinical exposure to our students.

Sorry

Very soon afterwards, that very student sent me an email to clarify the standard and requirement of the case report, and we had a brief communication via the electronic means.

Let me show you the last email exchange between us.

*************************
Dear Professor,

I must apologize for the numerous emails, but I thought it might be more environmentally friendly and less troublesome for the both of us to show you the amended case report via email before I submit a written copy. Please find attached an electronic copy of the amended case report. If this is acceptable
shall I submit a copy for you to mark?

Thank you again and I apologize again for any inconvenience caused.

Best regards, et cetera.

*************************
Dear --,

I will have to accept (with some reluctance). After all, since the ward is closed for the flu alert, you will not be able to see patients for a long while and it would be impossible for you to clerk other cases.

Please submit the hard copy.

Sincerely, et cetera.

*************************
I feel sorry for my students.

SOAP

Many of the visitors of this site may know that third-year medical students of my university have to submit a handful of case reports as part of the continuous assessment of their medical clerkship. The standard of these reports are, as you would expect, highly variable. From the angle of the receiving side, we are often disappointed, but very little could be done. Since the case reports constitute a negligible percentage of the total score, students could advance to the fourth year of study even if they score zero in the case reports – as long as they score not too badly in the OSCE (objective-specific clinical examination).

Some months ago, when we reflected this problem to AK, the coordinator of this exercise, she said, “For reports that are far from acceptable, we can return to the student without giving a score – and ask for a re-do. You know, they have no problem even if the score is zero here, but they cannot have it blank.”

I must say that’s a brilliant suggestion. And, on a recent occasion, I was forced to follow the advice of our professor of endocrinology.

A few days later, I received the revised report from that student. To my surprise, the new version was not much different from the original one – just like juggled the letters of cheating and call it teaching. Again, I returned the second report to PC, our secretary, and said, “This is no good. I’m afraid this student has to do it once again.”

PC twisted her lips. I’m sure she was thinking, “What a piece of SOAP.”

PS. SOAP stands for stubborn obsessive arrogant professor.

Homework

A recent homework that Adler has to do is to pick fallen leaves and flowers from a local garden and make an art work out of them.

To my surprise, the project is really fun.

Here is what we did:

History

During a recent casual dinner discussion on some sensational literature, Vivian asked whether a deputy chief implies a foreseeable promotion.

I shook my head and laughed, “Alas, don’t you remember the story between our Chairman Mao and Lin Bao (林彪)?”

“You know, I have little interest in the history of modern China,” my wife twisted her lips, “It spoils our soul to read too much about the dark side of human nature.”

“In that case we should also ban Macbeth and Othello and a good many others,” I said to myself, “It really depends on what you make out from a story. Yes, as we learn from Theodore Roosevelt, a man may become capable of stealing the whole railroad by having an university education, and a girl may become the worst crook of all time by learning all dirty tricks from her predecessors – like Ada of the Greene family. On the other hand, it is absolutely necessary to have some experience with the evil spirit before we could appreciate the beauty of all virtue. A soul that has never seen the most sordid part of the world is nothing but naive.”

鐵蛋

Vivian went to Taiwan recently for a conference.

As always, she bought some souvenir to our girls and other family friends. To my surprise, I have my share too.

It was a small pack of iron eggs (鐵蛋) - a favorite snack of mine from Formosa.

The dish consists of small eggs that have been repeatedly stewed in a mix of spices and air-dried. The resulting eggs are dark brown on the outside, chewy in texture, and very flavourful compared to standard boiled eggs. As you expect, this interesting snack first came along when hawkers tried to salvage those spiced corned eggs (滷蛋) left over from days of poor business by cooking them again and again.

Suit my taste well.

Timber

After a period of uncomfortable silence, Abraham asked, "Shuah, since you have the insight, are you going for exploration?"

"Yes. I actually decide to go north and pass the Black Sea."

"What do you expect to find?"

"I don't know. It may not be anything valuable - there is a huge forest and all I could find may be wood only. Nonetheless, it is always fun to explore an unknown territory. I would be happy if something could be found, and be proud of myself if I could make the best use of it."

"Alas, that's not a good way to make money!" Abraham shook his head.

"Father, you may be right. But, although timber is way less expensive than petroleum and coal, not every piece of land has oil underground. After all, we need all kinds of raw material. If each and everyone of us work on the liquid gold, we will not have the wood and steel to build the drilling rig."

Destiny

The old man was silent for a moment before replying, ""Because I am an explorer and I want you all to be good ones too. By seeing what you all bring back from your exploration, I would know your capability."

"Father, I don't understand." Shuah said.

"You are too young to understand my plan." Abraham shook his head.

"I know your plan," the young man said, "But I cannot understand how the result of the exploration reflects our capability. Ishmael is never good at anything - he just encountered a fertile piece of land. Isaac is hardworking but stubborn, while Zimran's success has no relation with good exploration. Yes, he is bright and picks up an important omission of his brother - but he would achieve nothing if he is alone. Jokshan and Medan are really good explorers, and the failure of the latter has nothing to do with his ability. What valuable thing would you be able to find in the middle of Sahara? I agree Midian is no good - but he is no worse than his eldest brother. His failure is the result of arriving too late at the fertile field. And, is Ishbak a good explorer? Certainly not. He is successful in another domain. Thank goodness he has his own idea and does not confine himself to exploration!"

"You are correct, and you are not." The old man smile disapprovingly, "I believe in Heraclitus: Character is destiny."

Creative

Next, Abraham asked Ishbak to look for oil.

The young man  headed north-west. A few days later, he was by the shore.

He tried to dig for a while but found nothing – no petroleum, no diamond, and no coal. However, he soon had an idea and began building a castle, followed by gathering a troop and several warships.

Yes, he controlled the entrance to the Black Sea, and crowned himself as the King of Constantinople.

He returned home with glory.

“Good boy. You give up exploration but, to say the least, you are flexible!” Abraham was happy.

Finally, Abraham sent Shuah for the same reason.

To the surprise of the old man, Shuah did not go. Instead, he asked his father, "My lord, why do you send each and everyone of us away for oil?"

(To be continued.)

Explorer

Very soon afterwards, Abraham sent Medan for the same reason.

The fifth son of the old man went west. After passing some rivers and grasslands, there was a gigantic desert in front of him. Medan remembered the story of his eldest brother and began to dig. However, despite being remarkably skillful and spending months for meticulous drilling, all his effort was to no avail - there was not a trace of oil.

Exhausted and disappointed, he went home and told the old man what happened.

“Poor guy. Are you being unlucky, or are you really a good explorer?” Abraham said with a poker face.

Next, Midian was asked to set off.

The young man was anxious and eager to prove himself as a good son of his father. He considered the situation for a moment and, remember the successful story of his eldest brother, he decided to follow the footsteps of Ishmael and went south-east.

He reached the same desert that Ishmael found, and started drilling. However, to the surprise of Midian, there was no oil - all petroleum had been exploited by his eldest brother!

Ashamed but having no idea to go anywhere else, he returned to his father.

"You silly boy! As an explorer, you must be creative!" Abraham said.

Oil

Next, Abraham asked Zimran to search for more oil.

The third son of the old man followed the footsteps of Issac and returned to the forest. Instead of digging, he picked up the shiny stones left by his brother and brought them back to Abraham.

"Why! They are diamonds! You smart boy!" Abraham nodded.

The old man then sent Jokshan to try.

The fourth son headed north-east and, a few months later, reached a no-man's-land. Without the good fortune of Zimran, Jokshan had to dig for himself. Nonetheless, after several weeks of painstaking exertion, no trace of oil could be seen. However, he found a good many stones - no, not the shiny ones that his brother Isaac had carelessly threw away. He tried again and again to see if he could make use of this nondescript finding.

At last, he found that the stones could burn.

He brought them back to his father.

"Good lord. You find a coal mine! Clever boy." Abraham said approvingly.

Sons

Abraham had eight sons.

He sent Ishmael to search for oil. The eldest son travelled south-east for a short distance and reached a desert. He drilled lightly and, in no time, liquid gold gushed out from the ground. He went back and told his father what happened.

"Good boy." Abraham said.

In the next morning, the old man asked Isaac to search for more oil.

The second son headed south-west, and, after a few weeks, found a forest by a long river. With the experience of his elder brother, Isaac was all skillful in drilling - but he found no petroleum. Instead, he dug out some hard and shiny stones. He threw them off, shook his head, returned to Abraham and told the story to his father.

"What a silly boy!" Abraham sighed.

(To be continued.)

Scrubs

A hot topic recently amongst our students is whether they could wear their student uniform (so-called medical scrubs) outside the hospital. A little acquaintance of mine is certainly touched (at the group c nerve fibers) and makes a lengthy open comment (see https://www.facebook.com/MedicSecrets, entry #459).

I must say I agree entirely with his argument. Infection control is an issue but not a critical one. Otherwise we would all have to change our clothes before and after going to work (be they medical scrubs or not) - which was what we did during the time of SARS. After all, the scrubs of our students (especially those junior ones) could not be very contaminated - how often do you think they really contact genuine patients?

However, I would like to see the phenomenon from another angle:

You can find many people wearing the football jersey of FC Barcelona or Real Madrid in the street. Some of them, however, have such a protuberant tummy that they would have difficulty to make their shoelace. A considerable proportion of others would be gasping to death after joining a football match for 5 minutes.

On the other hand, have you ever seen Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo wearing their own jersey to the pub after the national derby?

Present

Believe it or not, as a primary one student, Euterpe was recently asked to give a short speech to her class. Well, it is kind of a English project. Each and every one in her class takes turn to prepare a short speech (with their parents, of course) on the topic assigned and then to give the talk in from of their classmates.

The topic of Euterpe is A Present For Mum. For obvious reasons, I wrote the script with her.

Here you go.

**************************
I want to give a present to my mum. It is about Christmas and I want to make her happy.

What present should I give?

My mum loves reading but we can borrow from the library.
My mum loves music but playing piano is too difficult for me.
My mum loves flowers but carnation is for Mother's Day.
My mum loves Candy Crush but it is not good for her teeth.
My mum loves travelling but she has to stay for exam with me.
My mum loves sleeping but I cannot send her a good dream.

I would present myself as a good girl to her because the most she loves is me.

Overqualified

You may ask: Is my Nexus good?

Maybe to your surprise, but, the scientific answer is I don't know.

To me, the new tablet is nothing more than a handy pile of books and journals and a small note pad, used mostly for my reading of PDFs and sometimes Words documents, with occasional notes to jot down for my flight of ideas. I hardly ever use it for internet search, not to say complicated computations or playing videos. In other words, there is actually no need to have the most advanced version of Android Jelly Bean as the operating system, or a quad-core CPU, or 2 GB RAM, or a screen of over 300 ppi, or stereo speakers with surround sound. All of these are cutting edge technology, but my basic needs are humble.

Nonetheless, I fall into the usual trap. When I consider which model to buy, the new version is almost always preferred. For example, the first generation Nexus is still around. It is around 40% cheaper, and probably serve my purposes equally well - but I still choose the new version released this July.

PS. The first generation of this tablet is, by all standard, overqualified for my requirement. I'm afraid that's a general phenomenon of the computer and electronic industry.

A computer could be no more intelligent than the man who uses it.

Nexus

I end up buying a second generation Google Nexus 7 from a local on-line store.

When I come to think about it, the process of buying is in itself remarkable. To cut the long story short, I set off with a decision to choose one of the common mini-tablets with a screen of 7 to 8 inches. Basically, there are four on the list: iPad mini, Samsung Notes, Nexus, and Kindle Fire; each has their own edges as well as problems.

But, rather than going to one of the chain stores for electronic devices and listen to what the salesperson say, I search from the internet to compare their technical specifications and details. In addition, I look up the YouTuble - there are dozens of videos that compare one device versus another, and many more that talk about the tips and tricks of using each of them. The final choice of Nexus is, therefore, a calm and careful decision. To use the jargon of psychologist, the experience of purchasing is far much better than going to a flesh-and-blood store in person.

Our shopping behaviour has changed - and I come to realize why Tmall is so successful.

Tablet

I bought a tablet recently.

The story goes like this: In the past two years I was using the good old traditional Kindle as my electronic reader (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2011/11/kindle.html), and I read most of my stuff with this handy gadget from Jeff Bezos - journal articles, leisure books, and comfort readings. Although it has no touch screen and practically no internet connection capability, the device is robust and durable. Charge it once and the battery is good enough for 3 to 4 weeks.

But, in the past three months or so, I was increasingly aware of the need to have something new. To begin with, it is not very convenient to read PDF in Kindle, and, if you read a journal article as HTML file, you lose many of the figures. More so, the screen is rather dim and difficult to read when there is little light.

I must say my first solution to all these problems was to rely on my cell phone. It has a very user-friendly apps to connect with Kindle, and, since I now put all journal articles to read in my Google drive, I could access them anywhere. The screen is small, but not uncomfortably so.

The problem is its battery is prohibitive - it doesn't last even for a single day use.

See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2013/03/samsung.html

Competition

Discerning visitors may note that I have neglected a critical factor when I talk about who should be admitted to the medical school.

To put it simply, when there are two competing schools, the consideration becomes more tricky.

You may think we should not worry too much about what happen on the other side of the harbour. As long as we do our best and recruit students whom we think would become good doctors, we would have done a good job. Unfortunately, as I mentioned half a dozen of times, the standard of our graduates depends very little on how well we teach them, but almost entirely on the underlying quality of themselves.

And, the recent development is, if one medical school announce they are going to train up budding leaders of the field, how could the friendly counterpart declare they would accept and train up enthusiastic mediocre as followers?

PS. From the society point of view, it is obvious that we need just a handful of leaders but a whole lot more followers. The sobering truth is, it is against the interest of the two medical schools to direct their effort away from the few high fliers.

Character

At this point, you may think we should follow the Nobel winner of economics and design for the admission interview a structured script that focuses on standardized factual questions for the assessment of personality trait.

But that wouldn’t work. On one hand, senior professors would never agree to conduct admission interview purely for fact collection – and leave the judgement to the central administration. More importantly, we actually do not know for sure what personality traits make a good doctor.

You may be surprised and say, “Aren’t we aiming for applicants who are enthusiastic and eager to help the sick people?”

Yes and no. These are desirable characters but they are in abundant supply. What we really need are youngsters who are willing to take up an extra call when there is an urgent need, those who are willing to be the fifth assistant of a prolonged ultra-major surgical operation from which he could learn nothing, those who could continue to do the ward round when he has a post-nasal drip or ulcer pain, those who are wiling to complete the diagnosis coding or medical report despite they have never seen the patient, as well as those who could stand the temptation and remain enthusiastic ten or twenty years later.

As the Finagel’s Law states:
The data we have are not the data we want.
The data we want are not the data we need.
The data we need are not available.

Interview

You may argue, “We should put more weight on the admission interview. A comprehensive face-to-face assessment by an expert would not only give insight to the humanistic character of an applicant, it may also provide supplementary information about their intellectual capability which the result of open examination does not reveal.”

Very true – if we have the right persons and format.

You see? Not only are there dramatic inter-individual variations (or, actually bias) in the content of interview, professors who do the admission interview are merely experts in clinical medicine (or, nothing personal, even worse, basic science) – most of them have little experience in conducting an admission interview. (How could they be if they only spend a few hours each year on this matter that has little in common with their everyday work?)

And, it is both common sense and evidence-based conclusion that conventional interview with open-ended questions is an unreliable method for the determination of personality trait or prediction of subsequent performance.

Again, go read Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Assessment

I’m sure you notice the flaw of my discussion yesterday.

Exactly – there’s no reliable assessment of the two domains that of our applicants.

To be slightly more specific, the correlation between the intellectual capability of the applicants and their performance in open examination (be it DSE, IB, or any other) is modest, and there is no way to test their enthusiasm or humanistic quality. The result is inevitable: Medical schools will have to neglect the heart and focus on the brain of an applicant, and, as pointed out by Daniel Kahneman’s rule of WYSIATI (what you see is all there is), only the result of public examinations could be considered.

You may ask: How about the admission interview?

Unfortunately, the interview serves, by and large, a symbolic function rather than having any pragmatic value. To say the least, the two medical schools are essentially using the interview as a tool of screening out – in order to eliminate applicants with outstanding performance in the examination but overt untreated psychiatric diseases (vacancies are reserved in the headquarters).

Factors

To begin with, let's take aside emotional factors and assume we have reliable means to assess our applicants, the question at hand is a generic one on decision making.

It goes like this: When there are two (or more) independent factors to consider (in this case, the intellectual capability and the degree of enthusiasm) and the outcome is a binary one (that is, accept an applicant or not), how should we arrive at the decision?

Yes, you guess that much. The traditional way is to give an overall mark by combining the scores on both aspects, usually multiplied with some predefined weighting for each of them.

But, is it the ideal method? Maybe not. With such a system, you would expect the successful applicants are those who do reasonably well on both aspects. If you look at them as a whole, they would be a homogeneous lot of mediocre.

How to get around with this problem? Some tried the two-by-two matrix system with proportional allocation. For example (a really hypothetical one), a medical school could accept one third of the applicants who have the highest combined score, another third who score the highest in the intellectual capability test (as long as they achieve a certain minimum standard in the other component), and the final third who are top on the enthusiastic test (and, once again, satisfy the basic requirement of capability).

Sounds perfect, eh?

Yes, in the ivory tower.

PS. It is interesting to consider what minimal standard of enthusiasm should we ask for from those capable intellectual high fliers. My personal opinion is - low, very low.

Minimum

You may argue, “Yes, it is true that we must take the ability of the applicant into consideration. However, is it all that important to admit only the crème de la crème of the youngsters? Or, isn’t it reasonable to admit schoolchildren who are really enthusiastic and are able enough to become doctors – although they may not be the most high flying few?”

That's a perfectly correct statement, but a few questions remain.

The first, and the more easy one, is this: Take aside the humanistic quality, what is the minimal intellectual capability that is needed so that one could study medicine?

Not low, of course. But neither is it incredibly high. In my experience, and I must declare I have some in this regard, anyone with an average intelligence could pass all examinations and graduate, sooner or later. (Alas, the really average ones may have a hard time for themselves - as well as their teachers!)

The second, but also more difficult consideration is: Should medical schools accept enthusiastic applicants with good enough but not-so-brilliant a capability?

Ability

I shall not discuss the political side of this matter. Frequent visitors of this site would know I explain my opinion on the general principles of recruiting medical students in a few occasions. There are two important points that I need to highlight:

• An enthusiastic and kind-hearted person is not necessarily a good doctor (if he is ignorant enough). 
• The quality of medical graduates depend very little on the teaching they receive, but, by and large, on their intrinsic capability.

For the first point, some of you may argue, “Knowledge and capability are important, but a good doctor must be eager to help and kind at heart. What good is there to have a clinician with superb skill but is only interested in making money?”

Translated to the language of logic, we mean humanistic characters are necessary conditions, but not sufficient conditions, for a good doctor.

Simple, eh?

The inevitable implication of this conclusion is we cannot admit all saints to the medical school – we must consider their ability.

Opinions

A recent hot topic within our circle is the competition for medical students between the two medical schools.

Instead of telling you what I think (which I'm afraid you may be quite sick of), let me show you some posts from Mark Zukerberg's country:

*****************************
"When I was reading all these news about the new "medic degrees" the two universities offering, I just remembered that I would not know if I wanted to become a doctor when I was 17/18 year-old, let alone a health policy-maker, a clinician-scientist and a medical lawyer. (of course there are people that are very determined about these things)... Why wouldn't you let students decide when they have been exposed to the fields and figured out what they actually like... If they want to, I don't really think it is that hard for a medical student/graduate to pursuit a degree in research/public health/law. And now, they are just trying to divide the cohort into different streams on the first day of medical school without good reasons..."

*****************************
"I don't understand why admission to medical schools becomes a competition. What are they looking for? Are they looking for high admission scores to boast of in front of parents, or are they looking for people devoted to the medical career? I just want to study medicine. Don't really care who is winning and where I am studying... Is there really a big difference? I doubt it."

*****************************
“做醫生除左要有心，能力一樣重要。醫科唔單只難入，即使你狀元成績入到嚟都唔代表你可以順利畢業。呢個世界唔係人人都做到醫生，入唔到既唔好質疑其他成績好過你既人有冇你幫人既心。”

*****************************
"我估計那個competition是指兩所醫學院在收生方面的競爭。醫科入學成績固然斐然；但是大學仍希望取錄最優等的學生，不但是因為考試成績能估算一個同學能完成整個醫學課程的能力，也希望畢業同學可以為大學發揮更大影響力。話雖如此，醫學院應確保課程教與學都具良好質素。當絕大多數醫學院學生由醫管局醫生指導，大學教授卻埋首研究，這是個合理的現象嗎？"

*****************************
"現時公開考試是否一個最好的制度去衡量一個人的能力，都是一個問題。這個考試中很低分的人，當然可能是能力比較低，做事懶惰，也可能是家庭沒有資源，加上學校環境惡劣，以致學生難以正常發展。如果你捐助他讀書，給他機會去讀好的學校，朋友圈子唔同，人都會唔同。
考試比較高分的朋友，我們都只是幸運而已，你覺得A和B, 5**和5*差距很多嗎? 未必。為什麼你有A/5**? 只是可能你遇上一個鬆手少少的考官，或者是一個很欣賞你思維的考官，所以你才拿下這個分數。
(這個test 可能很sensitive，但一點也不specific.)
在5**/5*的差距 同 做人的深度差距之間去衡量，我想這才是醫學院要思考的問題。 我們爭取最高成績的學生，只是因為成績是唯一比較客觀的指標，但有能力的人不代表他是最出色的人，有更多的成功要素是沒法衡量的，例如待人接物的態度，處世為人 等等... 醫學院不應只著眼在高分中的最高分那些人，而是想辦法找出有更多其他潛能或特質的學生。這些潛能同特質很可能比考試拿多一個A更重要。"

Practice

“That’s because, in the previous hospital, he was a specialist and doing only junior calls. And, you know, he’s kind of a slippery chap. Whenever there was a call for responsibility, he could always pass the task swiftly to someone else.”

“Yes…?”

“The advantage is his hands were clean and he hardly had any complication in the past. The down side is, unfortunately, in spite of his fellowship and certificates and impressive curriculum vitae, he never really masters the skill and sharpens his tools. When he was promoted to the new hospital, things changed. He is now the senior and has to shoulder the responsibility. Naturally, all his inadequacies come to the surface. After all, it doesn’t look good to be a third-call surgeon and cannot do a proper, say, right hemicolectomy. Unfortunately, forcing himself to do all these is too much a challenge to him.”

I nodded. That's the whole idea of training - ones should not just want to pass the examination, but to prepare confidently for the demanding task ahead.

Resign

Met L on my way home. In addition to many remarkable characters, he is also the lord of the grapevine.

“You know, WT just resigned.”

I know WT; he is a surgeon who was promoted from one hospital to another not too long ago.

“Alas, is he screwed up by his warrant trading, or is it because of a new exquisite apartment that he buys?” I smiled.

“Neither. He has a series of so-called unfortunate incidents in the past few months, and his boss is less than forgiving. In short, he is resigned – in an elegantly executed passive voice.”

“But, how could that happen? I mean, I don’t think I heard of any problem with his surgical technique in the past. Why on earth does he have so much trouble in the new hospital?” I was puzzled.

(To be continued.)

Trotter

A recent obituary that caught my attention is the death of Charlie Trotter.

For those who are not familiar with cookery, Trotter was an American Chef who owned the Michelin two-star restaurant Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago. He also appeared in the TV show The Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter, which I first watched in 2005 and was immediately impressed by his orderly method and meticulous details.

“If there is reincarnation and Hercule Poirot turns into a cook, it must be him.” I said to myself.

Two years ago, I had the opportunity of staying in Chicago for a few days. I was almost courageous enough to book a table and dine alone at Charlie Trotter’s. In retrospect, that’s really a pity – the restaurant closed down last September.

Nonethless, to me, the famous chef survived by two cookbooks of his on my shelf: The Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter and Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home.

RIP.

Balance

In a such question of life or death, why should we be affected by the wordings?

No, we should go back one step and ask: Is it merely the effect of framing?

The problem is, in the “peak-and-end” model, as well as the cold water immersion experiment, the parameter being assessed has only one dimension. A person suffers, and we assess how he values his suffering and makes decision – and same for enjoyment. But, in real life, we have both at the same time, and our decision on accepting a treatment depends on the balance of the two. As Daniel Kahneman points out, the factors are not put on the two sides of a balance and cross out each other.

Unfortunately, in the context of medical decision, Kahneman’s doctrine of loss-aversion does not hold either. (I must admit I am not aware of any experimental proof of my suggestion, but it seems consistent with what we observe everyday.) In general, people do not avoid loss (that is, suffering) even if the gain (pleasure or enjoyment) is minimal. The respiratory drive of many patients is not the degree of joy or excitement some time later, but an imprinted idea that could not be easily appreciated by an outsider (for example, graduation of one’s children, completion of a book, or conclusion of a lawsuit).

In Buddhism, we call that obsession (執念).

Frame

There is a critical flaw in my argument yesterday that may skip your eyes.

As Daniel Kahneman says, the decision really depends on how you phrase the question.

You see? Let’s imagine we ask a cancer patient the following question: Would you accept a treatment that would increase the maximal suffering for a while, have no effect on the terminal symptoms, and could slightly prolong your survival? If we use the “peak-and-end” model described yesterday to assess value, the expected answer would be NO.

But, we certainly agree that’s not the answer in real life.

Why? Because we are trapped in the wrong frame. If we begin by asking this: Would you accept a treatment that neither affects your maximal nor final pleasure, but could slightly prolong your survival? We could reply a logical YES.

Prolong

When I come to think of it, the ideas of Daniel Kahneman are not only applicable to economics and psychology; they challenge many of the common concepts that we hold for clinical medicine.

One notable example is the assessment of suffering. Kahneman's theory is simple: the subjectively experienced degree of suffering has nothing to do with the "area-under-the-curve" amount of pain or other unpleasant feelings, but is determined only by two factors: the maximum degree of suffering during that period, and the degree at the end of the period. In short, by and large, all that ends well feels well.

And, this phenomenon would make a whole lot of difference to the practice of palliative care. For example, the orthodoxical teaching is Do not prolong the suffering. But, if the duration is not a problem, a palliative treatment that prolongs a suffering life is, arguably, not undesirable as long as the finale is not that miserable. On the other hand, if, for example, a treatment of cancer can extend the survival by, say, 6 months, but, at the same time, induces a transient but intense adverse effect, then, assuming there is no change in the suffering before the eventual death, the treatment is valuable according to the traditional view, but it would not be welcome by the patient.

For obvious reasons this theory needs further testing in clinical setting. I must say the cold water immersion experiment presented by Daniel Kahneman is, from a physician's point of view, child's play. Patients may view suffering very differently when we talk about real diseases.

Think

My recent leisure reading is Daniel Kahneman’s Thining, Fast and Slow.

Daniel Kahneman is a winner of Nobel Prize in Economics, and, by and large, this book summarizes decades of his research.

Kahneman's general idea is simple: There are two systems – or, to be exact, two modes – of our thinking. One system is fast, instinctive and emotional, while the other is slow, logical, a laborious. I must say the idea is not new to me – it has been described in quite some detail in Daniel Goleman’s bestseller Emotional Intelligence – and, in fact, has a neuroanatomy basis (the archicortex of the hippocampus and limbic system versus the neocortex of the cerebral hemisphere). The brilliant contribution of Kahneman is, however, his work on how human beings make choices, especially on various aspects of cognitive bias and how we value benefit and risk.

My comment? Very simple. Before I finished with one-third of this book, I decided to read it again some time later - with a writing pad ready for taking notes.

Or, I dare say, it is not an honor of Daniel Kahneman to receive the Nobel Prize - it is the honor of the Prize to have such a recipient.

Everything

The meeting didn’t last forever, but what Mr. Greene said kept echoing in Franz’s mind. Later that evening, when the humble nerd was dragging his exhausted body home, he met Philo – a wise friend of his.

It goes without saying that Franz told his friend what he thought.

To the surprise of Franz, Philo was less than sympathetic, “Although the argument is bitter to the palate, it is, nevertheless, a logical conclusion.”

“How could that be?”

“My friend, it is a romantic idea to run a department store that sells everything. For example, if you think it is not good enough to have dedicated areas for women’s fashion and cosmetics, and a counter for electronic device – say, tablet – is necessary, is it good enough if it sells only iPad and leave out Samsung, Nexus, Kindle Fire, and so forth? You may have a specialty nominally, but you certainly could not cover every subspecialty.”

“That may be true,” Franz scratched his head. He couldn’t really tell whether his friend was speaking the truth or irony.

Difference

“The other way is to close down all teams that are not making money, with an aim to focus our effort on expanding the high flyer.” Mr. Greene said triumphantly.

Franz bite hard on his lips, so much so it bled. Yes, painful. My god, it’s not a dream!

“Sir, that’s not quite possible. We are running a department store. How could we tell our customers that we do not sell toys or lap top computers?” Albert raised his hand and said. He was the head of the toy corner. Franz nodded with approval.

“How couldn’t we?” The CEO sneered, “We are here to make money, not to take care of all the wish of everyone. It is the responsibility of our Minister of Commerce to make sure there are toy or computer stores around so that the need of London citizens are satisfied.

Franz was puzzled. The old Tobias Greene seemed entirely logical, but Franz didn’t feel right. If Debenham & Freebody sells nothing but women’s fashion and accessories, he could not imagine how this so-called department store is different from Esprit or Giordano.

Help

Franz shivered. He felt something was going to happen.

In a lightning speed Mr. Greene went through a handful of slides. The message was simple and clear: some are doing better than the others. Or, as Vilfredo Pareto predicted, 80% of the store’s profit came from 20% of the teams.

The CEO paused for a moment, cleared his throat, and then went on, “Guys, I’m sure the situation is obvious. Women’s fashion and cosmetics are making a good fortune, while toys and electronics aren’t getting anywhere. The problem is: What are we going to do about them? You know, there are two choices.”

Franz gasped. He fancied a good number of people in the room did the same.

“First, we can put more resource and effort to help the teams that are not doing so well…”

An uncomfortable silence filled the air.

“… but this is not the most cost-effective way of using our resources.”

Meeting

Franz took a deep breath before he pushed open the door of the conference room. There were already a few people sitting by the table, but, thank goodness, he was not late - and their CEO had not arrived.

After taking a seat as far from everyone as possible, Franz’s mind began wandering. He was summoned to this meeting no earlier than yesterday, and had no idea what is the purpose of gathering all team managers. He joined Debenham & Freebody for nearly 15 years and had served three CEOs, but he could not remember a single managerial meeting being held in this department store.

But, true, they had a new CEO now.

*******************
Franz’s daydreaming broke off when the door of the conference room sprang open and Mr. Tobias Greene – the new CEO – appeared.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I call you all to come to discuss a serious matter,” the CEO said when he swiftly moved to the center of the room and settle himself in the most comfortable chair, “We shall go through the sales of each and every team.”

(To be continued.)

Excess

While talking about the population growth of the Qing empire, some simple arithmetic may skip your eyes.

It goes like this: By growing Champa rice, the productivity of farmland doubled. In other words, twice as many people could be fed - but the number of farmer needed remained the same. What happened to the people in excess?

In other words, how did they make a living?

Simple. By industry.

That's why the handicraft industry of the Qing empire, notably porcelain and textiles, had such an explosive development during that time. Thanks to Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, international trade became a booming business, and there was no shortage of overseas market. Silk, china and tea were all in great demand by the Europeans, and, since Chinese people didn't quite need any imported goods, the Qing empire was running an astronomical surplus for some decades.

Of course, the wind changed when tea and opium were extensively planted in India - the latter served no purpose except being exported to China for the exchange of silver.

And the rest is history.

Growth

I must say I should not be too excited with the historical record of China population, which you could easily find in the Wikipedia.

In short, the population of China fluctuated but remained around 50 to 100 million from the Tang (唐) dynasty to the beginning of the Qing (清) empire, but it shot up  in the subsequent 150 years and reached 400 million when Daoguang (道光) began his reign.

The obvious problem is why. In addition to the long period of stable society, most western scholars believe it was the result of introducing new crops from the Americas, including peanuts, potatoes and maize. Of course, as Chinese, we know these plants play relatively minor roles in our ordinary diet, and the extensive agricultural use of Champa rice (占城稻) was probably the main reason. This crop originates from Vietnam and was first sent to the Sung (宋) Emperor as a tribute gift from the Champa state of Vietnam. After centuries of adaptation and modification, Champa rice was gaining popularity amongst farmers because it is quick-maturing, drought resistant, and can allow two (occasionally three) harvests each year.

In other words, more land could be used for agricultural purpose, and the productivity doubles for any fixed area of farmland.

PS. The crops from the Americas, nevertheless, do play important roles. Potatoes and maize could grow in arid plateau and rugged mountains - places where rice could not survive. Peanuts, by the very nature of nitrogen fixing, greatly enriches the protein content of the ecosystem.

Weapon

My recent bedtime reading is Strategy, Tactics, and Weapons of the Medieval China (戰略戰術兵器事典：中國中古篇) .

Seriously this is not a book but, rather, a collection of monographs on the history of military science of China - by several Japanese scholars. I found it in Eslite during a trip to Taiwan last year and, as a lover of both weapons and history, it was impossible to resist the temptation of buying it.

Like all multi-author texts, some chapters are brilliantly written with gems here and there, while others are practically intellectual plagiarism. A considerable length of the book is used to discuss and compare the cavalry and infantry systems of the Middle Kingdom and Turks and Mongols. In my opinion, however, the most interesting piece of information appears towards the end of the book, in a table which summarized the population of the whole China at each dynasty.

Why should Japanese scholars have such a keen interest on all these?

Another

"A new church? Yes and no," the mayor tried to be evasive, "The problem is, Father, you have always been so placid and nothing seems to have been done."

"Alas, not competent in anything but competent in not having anything, not skillful in talking but skillful in not talking (無能事而能無事,不擅言而擅不言)," Father Brown murmured.

L apparently did catch what the priest said, "No, that's not what we ordinary people expect. The world has changed. After all, the church has received an astronomical funding from the village bursary. We need to see some work being done - for the hibernating Satan or whatever!"

"And therefore you ask someone to set up a new church. Is that what you mean?"

"That is certainly one option." A voice appeared behind Father Brown and L.

The two men turned to the voice. Professor Y was standing at the door.

The alternative scientist moved forward and continued, "You see? We know everything about devil and exorcism. All we need is money from the village coffers. If Mr. Mayor could redirect his budget for the church to me, I could either take over this church or set up a new one and get everything done."

The priest gasped, "My god. Is that the reason for you to appear in this village from the very beginning?"

Church

Some of you may remember the little story happened in the village recently (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2013/10/village.html). For sure the story doesn't end there. While Mrs. Ferrars and Dr. Sheppard were dinning and talking about their future, another important discussion was going on somewhere.

It was the church of the village.

*********************
"L, you can't do this to us!" Father Brown found himself almost yelling.

And he had every reason to be excited. As the head of the only church in the village, it is a slap in the face if Satan is hiding somewhere around without his knowing.

But it happened - or that alternative scientist from Munchausen convinced everyone in the village that it had happened.

Curiously, L was remarkably calm. He  said slowly, "Father, we didn't do anything to you. At most we just find another group of expert to come around and see to the spiritual safety of our village."

"I suppose it is the duty of our church to dig out where is Satan hiding? Are you setting up a new church?" Father Brown pushed further.

名物

席走至此，其餘各味頃刻蜂擁而至。椒鹽蝦乃此店名物。有别於一般店子的避風塘式做法，楓林是以中蝦先泡嫰油，再回鑊上味，是以鹹味不重，殼脆可吃而蝦鮮益彰。此物相傳，正統做法是以椒鹽和入味精，以添鮮香。楓林所作，食後卻少有口渴之弊，似乎並未隨俗。

煎封豆腐是另一萬人迷。外脆略焦，内滑而有豆香。釀之蝦膠，不過點綴。淋之豉油，卻有畫龍點睛之效。屢次啖之，水準俱能保持，殊非輕易。

之後枝竹火腩炆虎斑乃濃味食際，素為家母所鍾。其實斑類皮厚肉實而脂肪不多，清蒸殊非上策。以火腩熳煮能添其油潤而增其豐腴，方為烹調王道。此味另一作法是以苦瓜炆，鮮後回甘，是更高層次之吃法。只是壽筵之際，凉瓜實有所諱也。

單尾是清炒芥蘭和瑶柱蛋白炒飯。前者脆嫩清甜，除厨子了得，來貨甚佳也應記一功。而炒飯也顆粒分明，恰如其份。餐後奉送芝麻糊，固是意思意思，不能强求。反而碗中湯圓，雖是即食來貨，倒也軟糯不爛。家人難得相聚，能不甘而啖之？

楓林

家慈慶生，於大圍楓林小館設宴。地點為母親自選，菜式則由區區所定。早前有傳此店放盤，而家母對這裡名菜，每每念念不忘，便擇於秋後壽辰，舉家而至，實為花開堪折直須折之意。

區區於此處大小宴會不下十餘次，多係燒乳鴿或椒鹽蝦作前莱 。這次卻是炸鮮奶先上。平心而論，此味奶略過甜，炸粉亦厚，但仍外脆內嫩，席上各人，無不讚好。回心細想，粤菜館子此品有售者聊聊，也數不出那一間勝過這裡。想來此菜難作，暗忖不知日本天婦羅大師又將如何處理。

再上是香酥鴨，仍是次序顛倒。秋季芋頭正是當做，楓林掌廚者炸功，亦少有能及。上桌時鴨肉香而不靱，皮下脂肪，則盡為芋泥所吸，外層蜂巢脆漿，也是適可而止，陰陽火侯，恰到好處。

此時燒乳鴿方至。老饕常言，上品應囑咐掌厨免斬上桌，以防香氣肉汁流失。然而一人一隻，胃納所限，其他菜餚便不能遍嚐盡慶。此機會成本，亦經濟學初階。余等任由店家鴿斬四件，皮騷肉香，仍是不錯，而人手一件，份量剛好也。

Advertisement

While thinking about what is the best next step of Mr. Wong, I come to realize advertisement could well be the next bubble in the financial market.

My concern is simple: The major chunk of profit of many TV companies comes from advertisement. (I just take the opportunity and through the annual report of #511. Although TVB has tried very hard to broaden the source of its income, earning from advertisement remains an overwhelming importance.) The same is true for all printed media as well as paperless ones. In other words, although Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Ropert Murdoch, Jimmy Lai and Mona Fong may seem doing entirely different kinds of business, they are, in a sense, sharing the same pie.

And, don't be fooled by the success of Google and have the romantic idea that advertisement is the eternal spring that never dries - it's got to be based on solid industry and companies that really do the trade.

Or, to put it in a rather blunt way, a pimp could not make any money if there's no woman under his control.

PS. In the field of medicine, the same is true for anesthetist. What good is there to train up so many of them if the number of surgeon is shrinking?

TV

The hottest news headline on our morning paper is certainly the scandal related to the approval of new TV licence.

I must say the black and white of the case is rather obvious, and I have all my sympathy to a true entrepreneur. Nonetheless, if I were Mr. Wong, I would back off - at least for the time being. As a form of entertainment, we have so many options nowadays; as a business, television is a shrinking pie in the red ocean. Competition for advertisement is fierce and, in this part of the world, depends very much on human factors. What good is their to win an argument (or a judicial review) but lose the customers? True, cutting loss doesn't look good, but one should not fall into the psychological temptation of taking more risk and denying a settlement. 

(Alas, for the last bit, I must admit I am reading Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow at this moment.)

Remember: It may be painful for Douglas MacArthur to escape from the Philippines in 1942, but that's all for a later glorious return.

And, my dear Mr. Wong, don't hold the romantic idea that all your supporters outside the Central Government Office would become audience of your TV channel (if it does materialize) - many of them will certainly spend their time on playing games on their mobile phone or watching YouTube.

Response

When the dinner was over and the two were sipping their coffee, the hostess decided to start the conversation.

"James, we have a problem here. They are going to take over our place and lock us up!"

"Yes..." The doctor murmured.

"Come on! Say something. What shall we do?"

"What else could you do other than complying with the Gestapo?"

"But what would I become if they show that Satan is hiding in my body?"

"Isn't that the case? Oh, but no, they won't."

"How could you be so sure?"

"Because there is no test insurmountable. Say, in this case, if they want to test whether a hair from your private part would sink in the water, you can always make sure the hair is well greased before testing." The doctor said with a wicked smile.

"Alas, that's deception!"

"May be, or may not," the doctor was not moved, "You know, to treat a square, we use rules. For crooks, we have to cut corners."

Rumor

For a moment L found it impossible to determine whether he was talking to a honest thick-headed scientist or, rather, an ingenious crook. However, in no time he realized he did not have to tell the difference. After all, he was merely hired by the village as the mayor. The political price - if there is such a currency - is just too high to miss a disaster, while his gain of spotting a scoundrel is trivial.

He remembered a friend of his - a malicious nephrologist - told him there's something called protective medicine. Now, L decided to practice protective administration.

He called his subordinates and asked them to follow the order of the alternative scientist.

***********************
Einstein was wrong. There's something faster than light - rumor.

That afternoon, the village was all panic. Everyone was discussing whether L or Y or some higher authority was using the haunted house as an excuse to take over the properties of rich people in the village. They had heard that such kind of thing did happen in Russia and some other places south to Siberia when some delinquent students of Karl Marx took over the country.

That evening, Dorothy, the wife of Mr Ferrars, invited James, her family doctor, to dine at the King's Paddock.

It could well be the last supper before the Paddock was closed and taken over by the Gestapo.

Owner

L remained uneasy, "Professor, would the... er... test on public hair a bit... innovative?"

"The test should actually be very accurate," the alternative scientist said without hesitation, "But you are right. We need to prove its validity. I think the bursary of the village should give me a good sum of money so that I could conduct some experiment in this regard."

L fancied he smelt something, but he decided to probe further, "Em... with this pubic hair test, if we do find a group of people possessed by Satan, what are we going to do with them?"

"We should try to clean up their soul. But, yes, I'm afraid we could do very little. Sophisticated devils are generally resistant to exorcists, and, based on my experience, the evil spirit usually becomes a permanent inhabitant."

"Alas, in that case, what should we do?" The mayor was now fully alarmed.

"We should keep them in the Paddock and treat the house as an asylum. I suggest I should take the full charge of it - I shall send my people there and see to the situation."

"Do you mean... we should make you - instead of Mr Ferrars - the owner of the house?"

Do

L was impressed. He knew that Mr Ferrars had not been feeling well for some time. (But, that shouldn't really come as a surprise. What do you expect from an old man whose diet is nothing but beer and potato chips?)

"Professor, I suppose you are right. What should we do?"

"Brilliant. I am exactly the expert in this kind of matter," Y said eagerly, "First, you should lock up the front door of the King's Paddock so that no one could get in and out of the building. Make sure all people in that house wash their eyes before and after they meet anyone. Em... above all, get a pubic hair from everyone - if it sinks into the water, this person is possessed by Satan!"

"These are really drastic measures. Em... professor, may I ask how does eye-washing help? I suppose Satan is within our soul and does not move from one person to another by looking at each other?"

"Don't be afraid; just believe."

Disaster

L shivered. He opened his eyes wide and tried to take a closer look at the man.

Mid-fifty, slim, half bald, stooping, formally dressed, and a huge pair of glasses. Yes, scholar-like.

“Excuse me, sir,” L cleared his throat and asked, “Did you say something?”

“I said something bad is going to happen,” the stranger said in a matter-of-fact tone, “To be exact, something is going to happen at the King’s Paddock – the elegant house of Mr. Ferrars.”

L opened his eyes even wider – if that’s at all possible. King’s Paddock is the biggest house of the village, and Mr. Ferrars is the symbol of money in this place.

The man obviously saw the surprise on L’s face, “Let me introduce myself. You can call me Professor Y. I am the Professor of Alternative Science at the University of Munchausen, and I have been investigating the happenings at King’s Paddock for quite some time. You know, a few members of the Ferrars’ family fell sick recently, and I could perceive Satan is growing strong in the house... If we do not do something urgently, a disaster is going to happen.”

***********************
Szeto’s notes: For the “true” story of Mr. Ferrars at King’s Paddock, please refer to Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Village

As a daily routine, L strolled down the main street of the village early in the morning.

It was a warm Sunday morning. Most of the shops were not yet open, and the place was exceptionally quiet.

"How peaceful!" L said to himself approvingly.

And he was probably correct. Ten years ago, when he first became the mayor of this village, the place was rather a chaos. But, with all his work and a bit of luck, things were moving in the right direction.

Yes, it is true that there remains many problems. As the morning paper always say, the village is dominated by a few big families; they get the lion's share of the money, and L has very little say on their internal affair. Nonetheless, the village, as a whole, is making money and everyone is better off - more or less. If you make a comparison with other big cities, you will be surprised to learn how well-managed this village is.

***************
While L was immersed in his pleasant day-dream, he found himself standing outside the Town Hall.

To his surprise, he was not alone - there was a middle-age stranger staring intensely at the entrance.

"Omen!" The stranger murmured.

(To be continued.)

Negative

(The discussion goes on.)

"Em... your view may be true, but I suppose there remains a continual improvement in the quality of care, even though it may not be as dramatic as the program first starts?" The nursing officer says.

"No, it's not only not useful; it has a direct and negative effect on the clinical care."

"How could that be?"

"Because they will come and give this and that instructions without being consulted. You see, perfunctory advice doesn't cost them any sweat and blood, but, once given, it becomes a medico-legal obligation of the in-charge doctor to comply and execute whatever being suggested - more investigations and elaborated treatment. Hospital stay is prolonged. Drug cost is increased. And the patient is often not better off!"

Deliverable

Seeing that the nursing officer is at a lost, the consultant explains, "You know, the sequence of the story actually goes like this: Imagine a clinical team has an experience staff, nurse or medical officer, with little hope of promotion. As a result, their team head puts up a new program and bids for an extra budget from the headquarters, which includes setting up a new senior post for promotion - obviously an internal one."

"Alas..." the nursing officer is speechless.

"Yes, a simple and primitive reason," the consultant goes on, "But a program is a program. You need to show that you have done something - or, in the jargon of extraterrestrials, you need some deliverable. For that reason, they are mad for referrals from the beginning, with the aim to build up the number. However, after a year or two, when the new senior post has become a regular one, the enthusiasm - or, in reality, the pressure to justify their existence - disappears, everything is back to square one."

New

(During the consultant ward round of a regional hospital.)

"Dr. X, there is a new service set up by the clinical theology team. They may better help our patients, and we should refer more cases to them," the nursing officer tells the consultant.

"Is that the case? How are they going to help us? Can they take over our patients?" The consultant asks without much interest.

"Their team head said that they will take over appropriate cases, and they really did so on one or two occasions. You know, this clinical theology program is supported by the Resource Allocation Exercise of the headquarters, with the very aim to improve the quality of care of our patients."

The consultant stares at the nursing officer, with an apparent spasm of his forehead muscles. After a moment of silence, he breaks into a big laugh, "You silly girl! That's not how the game is played!"

The nurse has no idea what the senior doctor is getting at.

Price

Although I tend to agree with Michael Sandel and believe money cannot buy everything, we can limit our focus by considering the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a private enterprise and is all for making a profit.

In that case, on the face of it, Alibaba is a big deal, and turning away Jack Ma's offer means missing a chance of making money.

Of course, some would argue although the decision is not a favorable one at this moment, upholding the core value of HKSE may do good to the business in the long run. Very simply, since Hong Kong keep a clean hand and good reputation, more good companies will join in the future and have their stock listed here. In other words, the potential profit from Alibaba that HKSE does not materialize is not lost; it has been converted to some intangible asset.

But, hold on. How could we estimate the value of an intangible asset and compare to the quick cash that we lost? No way. The reality is, by accepting Jack's proposal, HKSE will attract a whole lot more companies with innovative ownership structure (and possibly others with a fancy financial statement or delusional accounting methodology) to do their IPO here. In other words, the intangible asset that we just alluded to may or may not be genuine, and we cannot tell.

The conclusion is, since it is impossible to determine whether the net result is gain or lost, we should make the choice by higher concerns rather than monetary considerations. Or, in layman's term, we should do whatever we feel appropriate and forget about money.

Alibaba

As a amateur investor, a recent financial news that caught my attention is the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group decides not to list its shares in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Or, probably more close to the reality, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange plans to delcine the company's IPO (Initial Public Offer) application.

The reason is not difficult to understand: Alibaba has a unique partnership structure; Jack Ma, the company's founder, and other senior executives could control the nomination and appointment of the company's board of directors, so much so that ordinary stock holders have practically no say on the running or supervision of the company.

My first response was HKSE made a correct decision. Although declining a gigantic IPO means losing the opportunity of making a big money, it gives a clear message that HKSE is upholding its core value - all shares should have the same right.

But, when I come to think of it, the considerations may not be all that simple.

For example, what is the price of the core value?

Cease

Although VW and I did have a discussion in length on many topics, there is one single comment that I did not have the courage to tell him directly:

What a pity to cease posting his opinion every week.

(The last one appeared by the end of August. See http://vwswong.blogspot.hk/2013/08/talk.html)

Well, yes, I know the reason. But it's a pity all the same.

And, seriously, I thought of stop writing a handful of times. I have my own diary in hard copy. There is no need to worry I forget good things happening on me. But, blog post is different. To begin with, it was a challenge to my own self. (See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2008/12/anniversary.html) But, now, this place has become a window that I could yell and communicate with the rest of the world.

I had the déjà vu feeling of Gregor Samsa.

Notes

(Our discussion continued.)

"Although our distinguished medical officer must be very happy when he sees every student is using his notes, he is not the one to be blamed," I said, "You know, every generation of medical students have their own popular in-house notes. The point is, in the old days, we did not use it to do away with standard textbooks."

VW was silent for a while, and then he said, "Although I agree with your basic idea, it is slightly unfair to blame our students for not reading textbooks."

"Why?"

"You know, ever since our medical school changed the curriculum and adopted the system-based teaching, it is very difficult for our students to find suitable textbooks. For example, if we teach the anatomy, physiology, pathology and clinical aspects of the heart simultaneously, what book should they read?"

"You have a good point there," I nodded, "However, that excuse is not watertight - they could still read good books in their final year!"

Textbook

While my communication with a mysterious friend was unfolding in this site, we held the College's membership examination in my hospital.

I have very little to say about the conduction and running (except the fact that it was exceptionally slow and boring this time). As usual, while waiting for the Earth to turn, I had the gratifying opportunity of discussing various trivial issues with my friend VW.

"You know, it is rather disappointing to see our medical students nowadays - they do not read textbooks any more," my friend began, "All they study is Heyson's Notes!"

"I could understand your frustration. Brilliantly written as it is, the Notes is neither complete nor comprehensive."

"Exactly. And there is no short of good textbooks. Kumar & Clark is easy to follow. Alas, our student's don't even seriously study Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine - although most of them get one in their pocket!"

Poverty

(To my specific audience.)

Second, poverty is not a sin. We cannot choose where we come from, but we can determine what we become.

I remember very well how my parents counted every penny to pass the days when I was a kid, and I am always thankful to Sir Murray MacLehose, who set up a system so that I did not have to pay any school fee for my primary and secondary education. University tuition fee in my days was trivial (HK$3600 for a whole year when I was admitted to the medical school, which gradually rose to HK$9600 when I graduated), and I was fortunate enough to forget about any part time job because I could earn a living from scholarship.

In fact, one of the jokes that my classmates made on me in those days was: We come here to study, but you come for a living.

And, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Kevin Hsu (許開文), who set up the scholarship and nurtured me.

Conclusion

I must say I have to draw a conclusion to this little narrative - or reprint of email communication in reality.

My mysterious friend sent me a few more emails after the one you read two days ago, but I made no reply - except keeping my promise and sharing with her the chapter of my notes on heart problem. She was obviously scared (for reasons that I am not totally sure), so much so she made a few more Freudian slips and I learnt a bit more about her background.

And, for that reason, I would have to say something openly - but to a specific audience:

First, I have little prejudice against people from the mainland. All I said was, based on the method of using punctuations, my mysterious friend probably had her elementary education north to Shenzhen River. (My friend TW was slightly more incriminating, but I'm sure she means no harm.) As a matter of fact, my father was a refugee from Guangzhou, and both of my in-laws come from Beijing. They are decent people and I believe they are prototype rather than rare species. After all, gems remain precious in an universe of crooked physics - although their value may be neglected in such a place.

(To be continued.)

Deduction

I tried to consider what information I had in hand.

To begin with, I am fairly certain that this is a girl. The name is feminine, and the wordings used are somewhat dainty. If the number 1992 is not the year of graduation (which I didn't expect so anyway), it should be her year of birth. In that case she should be a third year medical student.

And, if she does not come from my university, it seems most likely she is from our sister medical school across the harbour. Discerning visitors may notice the way that she uses comma and fullstops suggests an elementary education in mainland China. However, residents north to Shenzhen River should not have regular access to Google personal pages.

Other than these, I know practically nothing. Her name does not appear in Facebook. I click on the hyperlink of the sender. It leads to a Google+ site with the name and a photo. There's no other personal detail. As a last attempt, I try searching her picture from the Internet.

To my surprise, there is a number of matched results - mostly from on-line discussion forum of mainland China on pretty school girls.

1992

Dear XX,

Are you a CU student now? Or did you graduate in 1992?

Szeto

************************

(I asked about 1992 because her email address includes this number. A reply came the next day.)

Dear Prof. Szeto

Graduated in 1992 ? Oh, I'm not that old ................
Yep ,I'm a medical student but not under CUHK ,but I did have some friends in CU med school ,and we found this notes was quite useful for us .

I just want to have a try and never expect you will reply me, but I must say this notes is excellent .Dear professor ,will you publish this notes in one day ? I must be the first one to buy it .

Best regards
XX

************************
I must say by then I became curious with whom I was communicating, and I could not resist the temptation of playing Sherlock Holmes.