Open Letter on Recent Racial Discrimination Incident at UCSD

Dr. K---- posted his personal apology on the inappropriate comments in his lab website ( http://kubiak.ucsd.edu/letter.php):

Please accept my personal and sincere apologies for the insensitive language recently found on my laboratory's website. I find the language offensive and I am embarrassed by the poor judgment exhibited in posting the offending language. Although I was unaware of the existence of this page until it was brought to my attention, I accept full responsibility. I have taken steps to remove the offending language and will arrange for appropriate training for my research group and me relative to the UCSD Principles of Community.

----. K---.
Professor,Chemistry & Biochemistry

A snapshot of Dr. K---'s apology letter is available at  https://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/large/305804015.png?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF3XCCKACR3QDMOA&Expires=1306293416&Signature=VrQ2Q0yYMZtijjChKd13kt41HAI%3D
-----
Updated May 23, 2011

It is not my intent to criticize anyone particularly but to promote the public awareness of racial issues on campus when I wrote this open letter.

For my Chinese friends, I am proud of those who stood out during this incident, especially RoamingGhost, who wrote the first version of this letter and contacted the President of UC and the Chancellor of UCSD. For any friends from other ethic groups, I would like to emphasize that the C word is as offensive to Chinese as the N word to African-Americans and the K word to Jews. Do not use it.  Additionally, any racial discrimination issues are  serious. You must be responsible for what you say. Try to communicate before you complain.  Try to be considerate with other ethnic groups. 

I will keep my promise and am willing to bring this letter down or at least remove Dr. K---'s name when I see the formal apology of Dr. K----.

Here is an apology from UC San Diego: http://physicalsciences.ucsd.edu/

An apology for insensitive comments on Professor K----'s research lab website

On behalf of President Mark Yudof, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, and the UC San Diego community we are truly disappointed by the insensitive and offensive language that appeared on the website of Professor ------ K-----.

This language does not conform to our commitment to the UCSD Principles of Community. We have communicated today with Professor K----- who has ensured that the offending language has been removed and he will provide a formal, written apology. This apology will be posted on Professor K-----’s website. Further, we have asked the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) to review the matter. Please accept our sincere apologies on behalf of the University.

Suresh Subramani
Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Mark Thiemens
Dean, Division of Physical Sciences

---------
Updated May 23, 2011

I would like to highlight the comment of an anonymous reader who is familiar with Dr. K----. I am willing to believe this reader: this incident is due to misunderstanding instead of Dr. K----'s true intention.

It is not my intention to critic anyone particularly but to promote the public awareness of racial issues on campus. If I receive any formal explanation of Dr. K---- or representatives of Dr. K----- or UCSD, I am willing to bring this letter down and looking forward to a smooth resolution.

I see what you've written and I'm sure it will be removed once brought to their attention.

Professor K----- is one of the biggest proponents of acceptance of all races and diversity on campus. I had him in CHEM 6C and I can attest that he never made any sort of inappropriate comments in class and he was always very respectful and supportive of all students in class and outside of class in his office hours in addition to being a brilliant man and excellent teacher.

Also, I think anyone who's ever worked in a lab (I did this past summer) knows professors don't have time to make, edit, and monitor frivolous details like their own site. I think from the context of the snapshot you have, it's obvious the lab rules there are satirical. I think that term shouldn't be used but I, as an Asian-American, do not find it offensive, especially since it's an old general term and not equivalent to the N word. Instead of writing an open letter and creating controversy, why didn't you just e-mail him personally?

He is a very responsive person and I'm sure he would have removed it immediately once it was brought to his attention, just like any other professor at school.

Also, to bring more attention to his true character, I know he and his wife donated millions to support students' educations at UCSD from an article I found googling him. Don't throw out accusations and make assumptions without knowing someone.

------------
This open letter is adapted from a letter by RoamingGhost at http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/Military/35811421.html

I am writing to bring to the public attention a racial discrimination incident at the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. ----- -. K-----, a faculty member in the Dept. of -----, openly states that  "3.Don't believe anything the Chinaman says." in his lab's website (http://-----.ucsd.edu/labrules.php). As any well-educated people should have known,  the C word is as offensive to Chinese as the N word to African Americans and the K word to Jews. It is really shocking that Dr. K----- uses the C word and attacks the integrity of Chinese people,  openly and officially in the university-hosted website.  As a Chinese,  I am deeply uncomfortable with Dr. K-----'s statements and feel disappointed that UCSD even allows such incident from happening.

The fact that this incident happens in a publicly funded lab at a prestigious university is shameful. What concerns me even more,  racial discrimination seems a widely spread issue on the UC campuses. For example, Alexandra Wallace, a UCLA student, posted racially discriminatory video clip to Youtube not long ago. The UC system obviously fails to fulfill its responsibility to educate its faculty members and students on  racial issues.

I hope that UCSD takes immediate action to deal with Dr. K----- inappropriate and seemly racial discriminatory statements and demand Dr. K-----'s apology to the Chinese students community. I believe the UC system will learn from this unfortunate incident and take the education of racial issue more seriously. I would also like to see more friendly communications between different ethnic groups on campuses so that we together make the UC campus a better place.

The webpage mentioned in this letter is archived in Google Cache at
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:e7DW-P-AlsUJ:kubiak.ucsd.edu/labrules.php+http://kubiak.ucsd.edu/labrules.php&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com

The webpage is also archived by Internet Archives:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090503020539/http://kubiak.ucsd.edu/labrules.php

A snapshot of the webpage on May 21, 2011 is shown below.
http://kubiak.ucsd.edu/labrules.php

Why the New Gmail Interface Is Wrong?

The new gmail interface is imposed on all gmail users today. Personally I really hate this new design. The engineers try to FIX SOMETHING THAT IS NOT BROKEN and they make it  worse.Here is why I think the new gmail interface redesign is wrong this time.

1. The release of a new design should be based on users' feedback 
In the traditional google culture, any design decision should be based on statistics from users' feedback. When they want to test a new feature, they first make it available to a small group of users. In the test phase, there is usually an option that enables you to SWITCH BACK easily. Therefore if most users keeps the new feature, it suggests users like the new feature, and then the engineers make it accessible to a more general group of users. It is like mutation and selection in biology as described by Darwin. If you remember the history that gmail kept the Beta label for five years: this is the right altitude.

But this time the gmail team IMPOSE the new interface to users. Even worse, if you do not like it, you can not switch back. My personal observation is that there is something wrong with the Google's culture and they become very arrogrant. Maybe you still remember the initial release of Buzz.

2. The Big Ugly Useless "Compose mail" Button 
One of the revolutionary feature of gmail is the use of keyboard shortcut in a webmail. When you want to create a new mail, you instinctively press c in the keyboard and who bother moving figures away to the mouse?

3. The Contacts Interface that Clutters the Sidebar 

I like the search functionality in the old interface so much that I can not like anything in the new design. It feels cool to use it when you see dynamically updated result when you type in your search keywords. But in the new interface, the google team seems forgetting the word "SEARCH", instead they use the old style of ordered list of contacts. When you have hundreds of contacts, you can bear to turn twenty pages of lists of contacts? The old 3 column view makes full use of screen but the new sidebar design simply clutter the sidebar. In my opinion, the sidebar is where most used links that are fixed so that you are able to easily find the right link. When there are tens of entries there, it is disaster. Finally let's come to individual's column, in the new design, the big note box occupies half of the screen. Fairly speaking this is not terribly wrong. But you just want to find a peron's phone or email, why should we leave half of your screen blank. What's more, in the old interface, there is a link to either write a mail to the individual or call him or her. But how could you do that quickly in the new one. If you have not feel what I say, go to Google Voice's contact interface before they ruin it as well. 

4. Pop-up style of Task List

Again this is about the full use of wide screen display.

If this post make sense to you, please go to leave a post at Gmail Help Forum and make the voice of us heard.

Help Wikipedia approach the perfect

Help Wikipedia approach the perfect: every digit counts.

Long Distance Relationships

Today I presented a paper in our weekly journal club. My topic is about the Hi-C technique used to mapping the long-range interactions between genomic loci. I adapted a short love poem to describe the long distance relationships between chromatic elements.

Original Version

Though miles lie between us,
We're never far apart,
For friendship doesn't count the miles,
It's measured by the heart





My version

Though millions of basepairs may lie between us,
We're never far apart,
For chromatic interaction doesn't count the basepairs,
It's measured the 3D structure






It may requires some biological knowledge to tell the meaning, here are the slides of my presentation. [slides]

GIMP Expo

I am practising GIMP. Here are some of my work.



Used in an academic presentation about personal genomics and smithlab at USC http://smithlab.cmb.usc.edu/


(These works are based on material from the internet and for personal use only)

Will Apple be a Great Company

The title seems bombastic and I don't have a plan write a complete paper with this title. It came into my mind when I read the book From Good to Great.

There are plenty of evidence supporting that Apple is great companies. It looks like a superstar among technology companies. Macintosh transformed the way we use computers; iPod changed the way we enjoy music; iPhone redefined what a cellphone should be. With all these innovations, Apple brings continuous revenues for investors. It is a great success in terms both of technology and profitability. No one company has ever attracted so much attention since 1970s.

It seems no doubt that Apple was and is a legendary company, however our question now is "will Apple be a great company"? The past success of Apple should give substantial credit to its founder Steve Jobs. His pesonal vision dominated the development of Apple. His influence was so profound that Apple suffered ten years loss during Jobs was out. Luckily, Steves returned and Apple re-emerged.

However, there is a mounting danger that Apple has to face. Steve suffers from health problems and eventually Apple has to evolve without Steve someday. Jim Collins reported in his research of so-called "good to great" companies that great companies usually benefited from so-called "level 5 leaders", who "build enduring greatness through a blend of personal huminity and professional skills" and "set up their successsor for even greater success in the next generation".

While Steve Jobs himself is a superstar leader, he seems to fail to set up a sustainable development framework for his successors. When Jobs announced in Janary he would leave for a period, the stock price of Apple plumpted several points. Investors and analysists shared the concern the Apple without Jobs will not be as successful as it is now. Apple's situation looks like that of Kingdom of Shu of the Three Kingdoms period in the history China. When the founder of Shu, Liu Bei, was alive, Shu was able to recruit great people and eventually held the
Xichuan district. But once Liu Lei was dead, the Kingdom of Shu collapsed within a generation.

What will be the fate of Apple in the future? Apple still have time to find an answer but the time seems very limited.

Yosemite Trip Schedule

I just came back from Yosemite National Park and my heart is still lingering in the scenery of Yosemite. Here is our schedule. I hope it is helpful when you are also planning a trip to Yosemoite during spring break.

The trip lasts two nights and three days, from Saturday to Monday (March 14th - March 16th). The following schedule is very relaxed and we may add more activities when we have the energy.

Saturday:
7:00AM Go to LAX to pick up the car.
Link http://www.thrifty.com/
LOS ANGELES AIRPORT, CA, USA (LAX)
5440 W. CENTURY BLVD
LOS ANGELES, CA UNITED STATES 90045
(877) 283-0898

8:30AM Leave LA

12:00PM Fresno County Blossom Trail
Website: http://www.goblossomtrail.com/
Fresno County Office of Tourism
2220 Tulare Street, 8th Floor
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 262-4271

This part is not worth an intentioned stop. Actually you can see many trees in blossom along highway #99.

1:00PM Continue to Yosemite Southern Entrance
The scenery along highway #41 is fantastic. You will see ranches, flowers and tree decorated hills.

2:30PM Mariposa Grove
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariposa_Grove
http://picasaweb.google.com/songkaiyuan/YosemiteNationalPark#5180785567499148434
In Mariposa Grove, we will see one of the tallest trees in the world: the giant sequoia. The road to Mariposa Grove is closed, so be ready for a hiking about 6miles.

6:30PM Go to our lodge
link: http://www.yosemitelodging.com/
http://www.yosemitelodging.com/studios.html
Yosemite's Four Seasons Office
7519 Henness Circle
Yosemite National Park, CA 95389
209 372-9000 / 800 669-9300

6:00PM check in & dinner & night life
We played a new board game, Bang!, this time. It is very interesting.

Sunday
8:00AM Get ready to today's activities

8:30AM Tunnel View

9:00AM - 5:00PM Yosemite Valley
The exact places and time depends on our interest. Here are some interesting places:
Bridalveil Fall
Merced River
Yosemite Village
Anwahneechee Hotel
El Captain (Hiking)
Yosemite Fall (Hiking)
Mirror Lake (Hiking)

5:30PM Go back to the four seaons lodge
6:30PM Dinner & night life

Monday
8:00AM Get ready to today's activities

10:30AM - 3:30PM Hetch Hetchy
Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy_Reservoir
http://picasaweb.google.com/songkaiyuan/YosemiteNationalPark#5180776427808741506

Hetchy Hetchy is sometimes called small Yosemite Valley. It is very sceneric. We will have a hiking there.

4:00PM Going back for LA
We can directly do back to LA along route 99 or if time avaiable, we may go to Highway #1
and finish our trip with the scenery of pacific coast.

11:00PM Home! Sweet home LA!