Invitation to be Chinese
What a disgrace that all of you keep writing “Taiwan and China” and “Taiwanese and Chinese.” Does the mainland [China] have a copyright on the word “China?” Taiwan is the Republic of China (ROC) and China is the People’s Republic of China (PRC), so why not “ROC and PRC?” Not that I advocate the notion of “two Chinas.”
I am from New York and I am a proud American-Chinese. Are Taiwanese ashamed to say they are Taiwanese Chinese? Should I start calling myself Americanese?
John Chiu
New York
Universal answer to come
The excellent article in the Taipei Times, (“A century ago, Einstein’s theory of relativity changed everything,” Nov. 28, page 9) was beautifully written and leaves one with the impression that relativity provides a complete answer of the mechanics driving the motions of the solar system. Every article like this leaves out an important piece of information; relativity tells us why bodies move without a physical connection, but it does not, and cannot tell us “how” the solar system moves.
Relativity obeys the laws of physics, which have at their core the second law of thermodynamics. This states quite clearly that physics only moves from order to disorder. You will notice that leads to a contradiction: The solar system started out as rubble and dust, but ended up as a clock so accurate it keeps time better than human mechanical devices. This is disorder ending up not only in regular motion, but the startling beauty and harmony as seen in Saturn’s rings.
Physics says this is allowed, but does not provide any mechanism. If it did, we get a contradiction described in a mathematical proof written by Kurt Godel, The Incompleteness Theory. Physics is never going to provide an answer that collapses the logic of its own being.
This problem was first uncovered by Newton, who found his equations only worked for two bodies. Worse, Henri Poincare proved in 1887 that there are no equations that describe the motion of three bodies. If it looks like science is beginning to unravel here, that is because it is!
We know the physics of atomic structures is correct, we know the physics of gravitational structures is correct, but there are two very different kinds of physics, neither of which can describe how atomic structures and gravitational structures end up in the order we observe in cells and solar systems.
Now we are stuck. Modern science comes to a dead end here: two incompatible theories of physics that cannot explain anything as complex as three bodies moving in space, or how the bodies of animals contain nothing but elements.
One can stare at the periodic table all day, but will never be able to predict all the chemical complexity that makes up a rainforest. The internals of a single cell has millions of complex interactions every second, a rainforest goes off the chart. Universities do not present information like this, it would simply confuse students and lead to a lack of confidence.
There is a complete and consistent answer, and that answer will be put before teams from universities and The National Museum of Science. This is the peer review demanded by the discipline of science.
On Dec. 26, a theory will be laid out that shows how the universe is not a predictable physical structure at all. In fact, it is all built from entities that have no properties of volume or substance.
Base quantum entities have no properties except mathematical ones. The universe can be described correctly as a mathematical system that self assembles and is nothing more than a relationship between energy, information and time; a computer based upon binary and complex computations. It can be simplified down to a matrix written by Paul Dirac. Shocking stuff, but the theory can answer all of the above problems without ending up in a contradiction.
The answer is already being put to good use in industry and schools are rewriting curriculums in which all information cross references. Students are taught mathematics and science as a single, integrated subject. It turns out that the universe is a sensible place after all; it does obey the demands of first-order logic.
It might not be what Newton wanted, a predictable physical place, but who says it has to be what humans want, it is just how it needs to be to self-assembled from the mathematical entities at the base.
P.A. Cook
Taichung
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sits down with US President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday next week, Xi is unlikely to demand a dramatic public betrayal of Taiwan. He does not need to. Beijing’s preferred victory is smaller, quieter and in some ways far more dangerous: a subtle shift in American wording that appears technical, but carries major strategic meaning. The ask is simple: replace the longstanding US formulation that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence” with a harder one — that Washington “opposes” Taiwan independence. One word changes; a deterrence structure built over decades begins to shift.
The cancelation this week of President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visit to Eswatini, after the Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius revoked overflight permits under Chinese pressure, is one more measure of Taiwan’s shrinking executive diplomatic space. Another channel that deserves attention keeps growing while the first contracts. For several years now, Taipei has been one of Europe’s busiest legislative destinations. Where presidents and foreign ministers cannot land, parliamentarians do — and they do it in rising numbers. The Italian parliament opened the year with its largest bipartisan delegation to Taiwan to date: six Italian deputies and one senator, drawn from six
Recently, Taipei’s streets have been plagued by the bizarre sight of rats running rampant and the city government’s countermeasures have devolved into an anti-intellectual farce. The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office has attempted to eradicate rats by filling their burrows with polyurethane foam, seeming to believe that rats could not simply dig another path out. Meanwhile, as the nation’s capital slowly deteriorates into a rat hive, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection has proudly pointed to the increase in the number of poisoned rats reported in February and March as a sign of success. When confronted with public concerns over young
Taipei is facing a severe rat infestation, and the city government is reportedly considering large-scale use of rodenticides as its primary control measure. However, this move could trigger an ecological disaster, including mass deaths of birds of prey. In the past, black kites, relatives of eagles, took more than three decades to return to the skies above the Taipei Basin. Taiwan’s black kite population was nearly wiped out by the combined effects of habitat destruction, pesticides and rodenticides. By 1992, fewer than 200 black kites remained on the island. Fortunately, thanks to more than 30 years of collective effort to preserve their remaining
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