Concert pianist and composer Jennifer Lin gives a magical performance, talks about the process of creativity and improvises a moving solo piece based on a random sequence of notes.
Jennifer Lin, born in Florida in 1990, was only 14 when she performed at TED, drawing tears with her extraordinary improvisation.
A student of the Yamaha Music Education System from the age of 4, pianist Jennifer Lin has an unusual talent for improvisation. Speaking at TED, she compared her creative process to drawing a comic, and admitted that the state of “flow” — when she is able produce beautiful music instantly — cannot be forced. Her virtuoso performances, particularly the improvisations, are profoundly moving, and — even via podcast — have been known to reduce listeners to tears. As one blogger recorded, “I was listening to a presentation by a 14-year old girl named Jennifer Lin who plays the piano like whoa … I wasn’t expecting it, and when she was a minute or two into the piece, I was literally crying in the crowded subway car.” Lin was featured on ABC World News Tonight as Person of the Week and also appeared on a “Little Geniuses” segment on Oprah, where Winfrey declared her “a miracle prodigy.”
She has performed for Oprah and The Daily Show, among others. On The Oprah Winfrey Show, she composed a piece on the spot with 5 random music notes that Oprah chose.
Michael Anti (aka Zhao Jing), a key figure in China’s new journalism, explores the growing power of the Chinese internet & the truth behind the great firewall of China.l
He has been blogging from China for 12 years. Despite the control the central government has over the Internet — “All the servers are in Beijing” — he says that hundreds of millions of microbloggers are in fact creating the first national public sphere in the country’s history, and shifting the balance of power in unexpected ways.
One morning in 2011, Michael Anti woke up to find himself a nonperson: His Facebook profile, with 1,000+ contacts, had been suspended. Anti, whose given name is Zhao Jing, ran up against Facebook’s real-name policy – but he points out that for Chinese bloggers and information activists, the pseudonym is an important protection for the free exchange of information.
Facebook itself is blocked in China (along with Twitter and YouTube), but the country boasts some 500 million netizens – including 200 million microbloggers on sites like Sina Weibo, a freewheeling though monitored platform for text and photo updates that offers, perhaps for the first time, a space for public debate in China. It’s not a western-style space, but for China it is revolutionary. It’s the first national public sphere. Microblogs’ role became clear in the wake of the high-speed train crash in Wenzhou in 2011, when Weibo became a locus of activism and complaint – and a backchannel that refuted official reports and has continued to play a key role in more recent events.
Recently a TED video featuring Michael Anti on China’s Censorship seems to be making the rounds. I think Anti does bring some unique insights to the English speaking audience about China that we don’t generally see in Western media; hence his video below:
Imagine there are 500 million internet users in China!
300 US marine already stationed on the border of Jordan with Syria
US involvement & its hidden agenda
Ben Swann was an award-winning television reporter, producing a fact-checking news series entitled “Reality Check” at Fox19 in Cincinnati, Ohio when he announced he was leaving Fox19 at the end of May of this year.
On May 30, 2013, he launched the crowdsource-funded “Truth in Media Project,” to produce his new show, “Full Disclosure”.
Let Sirena transport you to your dreamworld with the mastery of her violin. Born 1994, she is a Taiwanese American concert violinist. In 2011, Huang was appointed as the first Artist-in-Residence of Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
When asked why she picked up violin instead of piano (which she referred to it as monstrous), her delightful response was “ . . . it’s small . . . and I can even hide it if I don’t wish to practise.”
To her the violin is an old 16 century technology, nothing to compare to the modern technology of her iPod, iPad or iMac . . . but she produces beautiful music, both classic & new.
She speaks eloquently with delightful humour, besides being young & pretty. You’d just love her.
Violinist SIrena Huang gives a technically brilliant and emotionally nuanced performance. In a charming interlude, the 11-year-old praises the timeless design of her instrument.
Sirena Huang started taking violin lessons at age 4 and made her professional solo debut at 9 with the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. She has won top prizes in numerous international competitions, delighting audiences worldwide with her virtuosity and charm.
Only 11 years old when she performed at TED, Serena Huang is still technically a child. But as anyone who sees her perform can attest, she has a musician’s soul that transcends her years. “Her musical imagination is boundless,” said Juilliard dean Stephen Clapp, who described her as “a musical artist with qualities of maturity far beyond her age.”
What’s most striking in her performance style is the way she combines technical ability with emotional force and nuance. Her fiercely virtuoso performances are profoundly moving, even via podcast. “Amazed,” “delighted” and “spellbound” are the words bloggers often use after watching her play. She has won numerous awards for her brilliant performances worldwide, and has played for the likes of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and the Dalai Lama.
“Journalism is the activity, or product, of journalists or others engaged in the preparation of written, visual, or audio material intended for dissemination through public media with reference to factual, ongoing events of public concern. It is intended to inform society about itself and to make events public that would otherwise remain private.”(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The catchword of “freedom” in the western democratic world has lost its crystal ringing . . . drowning all aspects of privacy, human rights & civil liberties. Big corporations, money & power rule at the expense of human lives so preciously enshrined constitutionally & propagated. All sense of human values is turned topsy turvy & disregarded under the guise of national security. This is so profoundly pursued in the recent “Snowden” surveillance whistle-blowing phenomenon. There appears to be new sets of law of convenience & interpretation to meet the objectives of Obama Administration, as they did previously with Bush-Cheney Programs.
In the following video interview, Jeremy Scahill, Dirty Wars author & journalist, simply and plainly describes what is happening to the privacy and freedoms of all human beings on planet Earth under the Obama Administration.
He says, “Unless we, as a society make it our business to address the root cause of the problem, which is that corporations are running the the show in the United States, then I don’t have any faith that [any] bill passed by Congress . . . is going to have any meaningful impact . . .”
“One of the fundamentals of a democratic society is a free and vibrant press and the role of journalists in a free and democratic society should be to hold those in power accountable . . . to give a voice to the voiceless, to fill in parts of the story that aren’t being covered by those in power, and to provide information the people can use to make decisions about what policies to support or oppose.
“What is happening under Obama – and was certainly happening under Bush, is that journalism is being criminalized.
“If you are cutting too close the heart of the National Security State – we have whistle-blowers that are being prosecuted in record numbers by the [so-called] ‘Constitutional Law Expert’ – President, you have journalists that are having their phone records seized, that are being surveilled, are having their discussions intruded upon – the end result of this is an attempt to chill whistle-blowers and to stop . . . people from talking to journalists.
“When you have a White House such as we have right now . . . that engages in official leaks . . . they will leak Classified information or stories that make them look like the great defenders of peace, freedom and democracy around the world. [However,] almost everything they leaked in the immediate aftermath of the Osama Bin Laden raid turned out to be false – but they were managing the story.
“If journalists only have access to the official leaks and the pronouncements of the PR people, spinning for the White House, the Pentagon or the CIA, that’s not a democratic press. That’s not independently-verifiable information.
“Noble is brilliantly pioneering the new film-making . . . incisive analysis, compelling sound and footage, fearless and independent reporting, and the aggregation of the best information out there into powerful, educational and free online feature films – all on a shoestring budget.
His filmseducate and inform while building the movements needed for real change at the grassroots. Noble’s films are dedicated to democracy; they fan the flames of non-violent, people-powered revolution.”
US democracy is but a name . . . globally it’s going crazy!
Prescription placebos used in research and practice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Fake Surgery
Chances are if you are struck with depression, aches & pain or even cancer you might not require medications or surgery. Instead of drugs often with their side effects, your doctor might just prescribe you “placebo”.Therer have been cases of cure for patients without medication or surgery – all well documented as revealed by this documentary for your viewing.
For example, you witness a woman suffering from deep depression mysteriously cured with placebo effect – a miraculous effect which seems to dwell deep within us.
Fascinating documentary about the science and psychology of placebos, centered on a gathering of the Harvard Placebo Study Group at a remote cottage in Ireland.
Featuring Nicholas Humphrey, Anne Harrington, Dan Moerman, Howard Fields, Fabrizio Benedetti – all professors or top personnel in the medical field.
Scientists have always claimed that there are no pyramids except pagodas in China, unlike Egypt or Mexico.Though only discovered in the 20th century, they had been built just as long ago as ancient Egypt.
These days Google Earth can reveal all unknown landscape from the sky. They are placed near the city of Hsien-yang north-west of Xi’an where a “pyramid nest” exists, as shown by satellite images.
The biggest one has a length at the base of about 219 to 230 meters, corresponding to the size as those in Egypt and Mexico.
Interestingly, there is this “White Pyramid” near Xi’an first published in 1947. It is the well known Maoling Mausoleum of the Emperor Han Wudi who reigned from 140 – 87 B.C. Deep within China near the ancient capitol of Xi’an lies a series of pyramid mounds virtually unknown outside the China. Entwined with the reality of these remote tombs, lies a legend of an even greater pyramid seldom seen; a pyramid of such size and grandeur as to put all the other pyramids of the world to shame. This is the legend of the “White Pyramid” of China.
Qin Shih Huangdi, the emperor who lived from 259 to 210 B.C., is said to be the great architect & builder as with the Great Wall of China.
Despite speculation about the existence of great pyramids in China, archaeologists and bureaucrats have refused to consider even the rumours about such structures. But recent pictorial evidence proves that China’s pyramids are indeed real, rivalling those of Egypt and Central America for their age, size and significance
Hartwig Hausdorf, a researcher in Germany, sent over these photographs from his collection, taken during his 1994 trip to the Forbidden Zone in The Shensi Province in China. Estimates for an age are 4,500 years old, but Hausdorf mentions the diaries of two Australian traders who, in 1912, met an old Buddhist monk who told them these pyramids are mentioned in the 5,000 year old records of his monastery as being “very old.”
It’s most intriguing is that around 5000 b.c, everyone in the world was building pyramids just like everyone today build 4 walled houses and skyscrapers.
It’ll be great if the Chinese pyramids would be further investigated by archeologists. Interestingly, did these ancient peoples coincidentally build the pyramids all over the world at almost the same time frame without having any contact with each other or did they collaborate with each other?
Also, why would our ancestors build something that can last thousands of years. They must have planned that. No skyscraper will last more than 100 or more years.
It’s interesting to lend two attentive ears to Eric Li‘s view on the meritocracy of the One-Party System of Chinese government. Then you’d be the judge & jury on the question of legitimacy, adaptabiiity, competence, transparency & meritocracy.
Then truth will set you to rethink about“Democracy” being the only panacea to political, economic and social ills of nations so often asserted by the western world.
China‘s “We-can-do vision” & its political will & skill has outshone all other nations in the world. It’s a system evolved over thousand of years, though not perfect, but dynamic & ever changing for the better.
It’s unique & not exportable . . . it can perhaps be duplicated with some variations as in Singapore & Vietnam.
The reality of “Chinese Dream” will dawn sooner than expected.
In the Next Ten Yea
China will surpass the US & become the largest economy in the world; income per capita will be near the top of all developed countries.
Corruption will be curbed, not eliminated, and China will move up 10-20 notches to above 60 in TI ranking.
Economic reform will accelerate, political reform will continue, and the one-party system will be holding firm.
“It’s a standard assumption in the West: As a society progresses, it eventually becomes a capitalist, multi-party democracy. Right? Eric X. Li, a Chinese investor and political scientist, begs to differ. In this provocative, boundary-pushing talk, he asks his audience to consider that there’s more than one way to run a successful modern nation.”
24 Paragons of Filial Piety 5 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
China, a country steeped in traditional Confucianism of filial piety, the foundation of all social values, is without exception as with Japan, rapidly facing the changes & challenges of an aging population.
While the physical needs of the aged can be taken care of financially, their social, spiritual & emotional needs are in fact far more critical.
Can we expect the old folks to be left on their own in care or nursing homes? Left to their own accord to congregate among themselves to play Chinese chess, mahjong or tai-chi exercise, as they are fond of & popularly known to indulge?Many old folks complain about being left there alone at care or nursing homes without visits from their loved ones.
Without adequate safety net for the elderly & which is not quite in place, the staggering number & rapid growth of the aged are indeed scary.By 2050 more than a quarter of the population will be over 65 years old and younger generations face an unprecedented burden of care.The present figure stands at 180 millions. The enforced one-child policy & the fact that longevity is prolonged nationally at around 75 because of improvement in health & medical care further aggravate the situation.
The unprecedented growth of such sheer numbers will definitely posea serious threat to China’s social fabric and economic stability.The planning & tasks ahead are enormous.
China has recently stirred family emotions with a new law making it compulsory for grown adults to visit their elderly parents. It states that adults must take care of their parents’ spiritual needs. The law is short on detail – frequency of visits or potential punishment, but courts could impose fines or jail terms. This is indeed a surprised move.
Another area of concern, both in China and globally, is the proportion of older people living alone. The UN estimates that 40 percent of the world’s elderly are living independently alone or with their spouse, with an big gap depending on where you live – urban or rural.
So, is China right to make children legally obliged to look after their aged parents? Is the world ready to cope with a rapidly ageing population?
Old parents/grandparents, in their golden years of life, deserve to be well looked after & enjoy whatever leisure & pleasure that the diminishing years ahead of them have to offer.
It’s a shame that in this fast changing world, a lot of traditional practices are phasing out. Nothing pleases the old folks more or can replace the simple pleasure & joy of family reunions during birthday & anniversary celebrations, Spring festivals & others . . . or two, three or four generations simply coming together for meals. Now you see old folks selling off their family home and downsizing to live in apartments or care homes.
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