On the Vision of WLEF

On the Vision of WLEF (World Leadership Education Foundation)

By Chan Master Wu Jue Miao Tian / Translated by Ronald / 2004

The World Leadership Education Foundation, or WLEF, was founded four years ago. In the early years since inception, frankly speaking, the financial and human resources were very limited. In such difficult situations, WLEF still managed to offer the best programs and attract the best people. It’s fair to say that these early years have laid a solid foundation for WLEF’s future development and vision planning.

In reminiscence, during the past four years, we have recruited many brilliant college students and provided them with a variety of training resources and choices. At the time of WLEF’s inception, we can already foresee what the future world will be like just by observing the world at the time.

From TV news and newspapers, we have seen that the entire world is in turmoil, and the situation is getting worse. If you contrast Taiwan in the past decade with today, for instance, you will see that the society today is more unstable, and people more unhappy and uneasy. We also see that the political instability has disturbed people’s work and life. From a religious perspective, if we rely solely on the power of religion for world peace, we might be struggling in obtaining governing power as it is often in the hands of political leaders. If all political leaders have a long-term plan and vision, thinking for our planet Earth with well-rounded consideration and viewpoints, I think day by day the world will improve. But unfortunately we did not see it happen.

What we have seen is that in every corner of the world, numerous wars, big or small, are disrupting the peace of the world. In Taiwan, political parties are fighting each other and within themselves. Very little time is left to caring its people. If the trend continues, it is not exaggerating to say that Taiwan is on the path to destruction.

We do not want to see such a disaster happen. We do not want to see another world war. That’s why I have been thinking to make world peace our long-term goal. And we will work together to achieve this goal. Some say world peace is impossible. But if everyone has the common faith of world peace and guides his or her life with love, compassion, and altruism, I think world peace is just a matter of time. We have the capacity of making it happen; it just takes some faith, determination, and action.

Therefore, four years ago, I founded the WLEF. I realized the importance of preparing our younger generation with the vision of world peace, and the skills and knowledge to support it. We have since educated many outstanding political, religious, and business leaders. We are still making our best effort in this regard, and we continue to provide our younger generation with the best opportunities for practical education, learning, and growth.

We must also reciprocate to the society within our ability. We must care for all the people and all the sentient beings — animals, plants, and the environment. We must contribute our part to the world in worth, work, and words. We hope to have more people join us, so that love will prevail on Earth.

Being a leader, be it political, religious, or business leader, or leader in any particular discipline, you must have professional knowledge in this discipline to support your leadership.

Therefore, you must start to prepare yourself now. Equip yourself with professional knowledge, skills, and methodologies. Equip yourself with the leader’s character. A leader’s character defines a politician’s electoral and political success. This is evidenced in Taiwan’s many high-profile politicians, such as Lien Chan, James Soong, President Chen Shui-bian, Vice President Annette Lu, and Ma Ying-jeou.

Being a successful leader takes many years of preparation and education. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A successful leader has charisma, says and acts like a leader, and can inspire others to follow the example he or she has set.

In addition to professional knowledge and skills, another defining trait of a leader is his or her determination and perseverance. A leader must not be listless in the face of challenges. Instead, a leader must be able to navigate life’s challenges with courage and will. Your willpower is tempered by those challenges, and you will become stronger in times of hardship. Your mind becomes clearer, which allows you to distinguish right from wrong, advantages from disadvantages, and true from false. You will also be able to see the evolvement of the world clearly, from many different perspectives, and understand the needs of human beings even though the needs are changing. This is what a leader should be.

Lastly, I would like to encourage you to self-equip with techniques and knowledge in your expertise, or the field in which you strive to become a leader. You must self-train your leader’s character day-by-day, and realize your leadership potential step-by-step.

Zen Leadership by WLEF

Source: Taiwan Panorama News Archives

Zen leadership

In the Judo room at National Tsing Hua University, a group of youths sit cross-legged, with their eyes closed and their backs erect. The very picture of peace and calm, they sit in this manner, carefully regulating their breathing, for about 40 minutes. Then they stand up with their knees slightly bent and their palms pressed together in a position known as “Children Pray to Kuanyin.” These aren’t kungfu-fighting monks training at Shaolin Temple on the mainland. Rather, they are participants at a “Zen Leadership” camp sponsored by the World Leadership Education Foundation (WLEF).

Founded just this year by a group of Tsing Hua University professors, WLEF sponsors youth leadership training in order to foster a peaceful outlook among the young.

They are actively trying to create an environment much like what is found at New Age spiritual retreats in the West. The participants, who live at the center and meditate as part of their daily routine there, are exposed to a program designed to imbue their hearts with religious ideals, their minds with visionary thinking, and their spirits with qualities of leadership. A tranquil environment much like a church or Zen monastery replaces the often raucous and heated debates that occur around seminar tables at more politically oriented leadership camps.

Holding that meditation will, along with natural science and behavioral science, emerge as one of the three most important educational disciplines, WLEF has designed a Zen leadership program that emphasizes state of mind. Students are encouraged to probe their inner selves during moments of solitude and thereby cultivate self-discipline, increase their wisdom and potential, and improve their physical endurance and ability to handle pressure. They learn both how to get involved in the world and how to morally transcend it. “Regular exposure to Zen cultivation causes a temporary cessation of the brain’s frenzied inner motion, which improves both physical and mental states,” declares Yu Ting, the foundation’s executive director.

Leaders are servants

What’s more, WLEF emphasizes that spiritual values such as benevolence and peace are important components of leadership. With a curriculum that includes topics such as “Strategic Alliances among International Rescue Organizations,” “Using Science and Technology for Peace,” “Promoting a World without National Boundaries,” and “Implementing a Spiritual Internet for the Global Village,” most of the students it attracts have peaceful characters. The foundation’s educational philosophy puts the focus on inner development, in large part aiming to get leaders to return to a state of “transcendent innate goodness.” In this respect, their concerns are much like those of organized religion. The training methods they have developed involve bringing out innate leadership abilities. It’s an approach that differs greatly from the “confrontation management” typically stressed when teaching political and entrepreneurial leadership skills.

Students who take leadership training with a religious orientation are invariably service oriented, and they don’t think about leadership strictly in terms of political power. “After you develop religious concerns, you become even more inclined to help your fellow man, so you will naturally want to become a leader!” says one smiling student. “Leaders are public servants!” adds another.

Lin Ta, a WLEF student who has just passed her exams to become a judge, took time out from her busy lawyer’s schedule to pursue leadership training because she believes that her life’s purpose is to help bring about world peace. Therefore, among all the various leadership classes, including many put on by political parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), she selected one with a religious orientation.

Facing life and death

“Start with the little battles faced by people every day!” says another WLEF student. “War is the greatest obstacle to peace for contemporary man, so we believe that a defining characteristic of a leader is that he or she lessens conflict between people and thus reduces the potential for war.” Students earnestly consider how to resolve petty interpersonal conflicts, before expanding the scope of their discussion to how to contribute to the resolution of major world crises.

2009 Global Youth Leadership Summit Sponsored by WLEF

This is a chance to educate yourself on global issues. This is also a chance to get inspired on solutions for those issues. In the event, you will share the vision of a better world with many other young talents. After the event, you will feel confident and yearning to continue pursuing your dreams of a better world where people live without wars and poverty. The path will not be easy, but it will be easier if you tread in company.

The flyer (click to enlarge):

Silk Wedding Anniversary

May 26th is me and my wife’s wedding day. This year is our fourth anniversary, or so-called “silk wedding”.

We were pretty low-key on our anniversary, as usual. We know that gifts are nice and heart-warming, but time spent together values more. If we were to celebrate, our typical choice is usually go to a nice restaurant and have an enjoyable meal together. This year, since it’s on a Tuesday, we did not dine out on the day. Instead, I bought a box of chocolate (which we both love) for my wife, which comes in simple but nice wrapping. It’s still something to “eat” (we confess we love to eat), but it’s more symbolic than dining out maybe…

I arrived home finding an e-card pickup notice sitting in my email. My wife sent me an e-card. I loved it. It’s very cute.

Our way of celebrating the anniversary is as simple as that. After all, we live a simple life. Our material desire is scanty, but we are content and happy. We know that it’s always those non-material things that have bound us together and taken us past the fourth year mark, and beyond…

If each anniversary counts as a chapter of the book of my life, then today, a new chapter begins. And I know I am writing this new chapter everyday with a “good old friend”.

The Art of Translation and TCM

Ever since meditation and Chan has entered into my life to open my mind and heart, I have always wanted to make contributions to the people and the world as much as possible. I am hardly achieving anything yet, but I am constantly learning and growing with that goal in mind. Lately I have committed myself to two areas where my heart led me and convinced me that they could be my best assets to make such contributions: translation and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I have always had great interest in both, but not until quite recently (months ago) did I begin my “real” relationship with the second…

Translation

I love the art of translation and language. Translation is like finding crayons (words) to draw the brushstrokes of someone else’s oil painting. You can’t possibly reproduce the exact same thing, as the tool set (language, culture, etc.) available to you is different, but you want it as close as possible, yet equally artistic in its own way. People unable to appreciate the oil painting can at least appreciate your replica, and get a great sense of what the original work is.

With a little skills and passion, I have produced some translation work that will be read by many people (such as this book). I do see much room to improve my skills, though. To further sharpen my skills, I have researched ways to educate myself constantly and keep myself on the track of learning and growing. One useful way I found is to find people more able and knowledgeable than you and learn from them. There are many good writers and translators out there. Lately I have grown particular interest in studying one’s work, who was a Nobel Prize Nominee in Literature, a Chinese, and perhaps one of the most well-known Chinese authors ever known to the Western audience. He has an equally amazing command of both Chinese and English languages. Sometimes he writes in English (actually all his fictions were written in English), and let others translate it back to Chinese. His name is Lin Yutang (1895-1976).

His translation of ancient Chinese classics such as poems is considered a classic. To translate an poem to something in a new language that can also be called a poem, you need outstanding language skills. This may be too much for me to shoot for, and perhaps I will never tap into this area, but the many skills used in translating poems are certainly transferable to other forms of writing, too.

TCM

My heart has long time told me that TCM will allow me to make positive impact to the people and the world just like how translation can. However, not until recently did I know any realistic way of learning it except enrolling in a TCM school, which is not quite feasible for me at this point. Months ago, a great resource emerged, and I quickly immersed myself in it whenever I had time, mostly during weekends.

Just like any type of medicine, TCM is not easy and quick to learn. It takes years and years of hard work and practice to master it. I may not target a goal as high as getting licensed and actually practicing it, but I want to at least be able to provide a solid piece of health advice for anyone around me who needs it. That goal entails an effort to gain thorough understanding of 5,000 years of accumulated wisdom and art, and I am just at the beginning of it…

How do I learn it? I bought a DVD set on acupuncture by a renowned TCM doctor. This is the first of five DVD sets, each on a different but certainly related topic including acupuncture, herbs, and many TCM classics (such as the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic). Now I am half way through the acupuncture, and I am deeply fascinated and happily overwhelmed by the beauty and intricacy of the art. The theory is flawless. The practice calls on a practitioner’s sensibility and wisdom to see a solution — much like being a general leading an army to fight a tough enemy (disease), what’s your tactics and strategy? You have memorized every word in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, but how do you use them now?

I plan to talk more about TCM’s view of many modern diseases, and how it’s utterly different from the Western medicine point of view. An alternative source and perspective for you, the choice is always yours.

Saying Thank You!

Have you ever counted how many times a day you say “Thank you” to other people? It takes a nerd to do that, but the point is, we often say it less often than we should. To the delivery person, to the clerk, or to anyone who does service for us or help us — these are what we can do. But it gets harder to say to your bossy boss, or to difficult people, isn’t it?

Will Bowen has a popular book called A Complaint Free World. The simple message is: quit complaining. The less you complain, the happier you will become. In fact, I would think that saying “Thank you” (even silently at the heart) will help one reduce or quit complaining. “A Thank-You World” complements and catalyzes “A Complaint Free World.”

Why? Because unless you are a good actor and can say “Thank you” superficially or politically, you normally say it from the heart. And if you are more appreciative, and more content with what presents to you, you naturally complain less. This is quite a simple reality, but we often overlook it, so much so that Dr. Wayne Dyer notices that and reminds us in the book Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life.

The idea is simple, but can be challenging to do in practice. Our mind and ego holds us back. That’s where meditation or yoga comes in — it calms and purifies us, so that we naturally and spontaneously feel more appreciative, content, and loving.

Just for fun: In how many languages can you say “Thank you”? I believe with no exception it exists in every language. Maybe this shows nothing but that fact that appreciation is an essential element in humanity — it’s universal regardless of nationality and language. I guess I can manage to say “Thank you” in 9 languages (if dialect counts as a language) — German, French, English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hakka, Taiwanese. Something useful when you travel!

Thank you for reading my post!

Vote for Your Favorite Doodle

Thousands of students from K-12 participated in the doodling competition held by Google under the theme “What I wish for the world.” (The event has been going on for a while but I noticed it just today when I opened the Google homepage.) They played around Google’s logo (i.e., “Google”) by incorporating their interpretation of “What I wish for the world” into their design. Finalists are now up on the Web with both the art and design concept. You are invited to vote for the winner whose design will be up on the Google frontpage on May 21st for 24 hours. The period you can vote is May 11th to 18th.

I find all these designs very creative and inspiring. Each doodle comes with a message. Each one provides a chance for us to see through a young talent’s eyes what a better world means. This includes a eco-friendly world, a united and prosperous world, a world full of flowers, a world without national boundaries, and much more. Often times young people see what adults don’t see, because adults are too busy and sophisticated. In fact, one message, from a 13-year-old, says, “What I wish for the world is that people would slow down to see all the beauties of life of the earth around us. So many people rush on with their lives never stopping to say hello to a lady bug who’s watching the world spin by.” And this one turns out to be my favorite in this group, and I voted for it. Its design was great.

There are four groups overall, divided by age. For each group you can cast one vote. I voted based on a mix of design and message behind it, and of course, personal taste.

Every now and then I try to immerse myself in a “creative world” to seek inspirations. One way to do that is to expose myself to creative work and people, and this doodling event serves that purpose very well.

Slow Down — And the Prisoner’s Dilemma

We have seen more and more people advocating and subscribing to simple living. When the material satisfaction has way exceeded our basic needs, it rarely add much additional value to our body and mind. (Consider from a Honda to an Acura, and to a BMW, etc.) Likewise, when the world has been moving fast and constantly accelerating, we get more stress and pressure than work satisfaction and self-fulfillment. The negative overshadows the positive. Yet, people might say, “I have to earn for a living, and how could I slow down when all other competitors all pace up?” That reminds me of an example in Game Theory: The Prisoner’s Dilemma.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma begins when two thieves were caught in the same incident and put in two separate rooms for confession of their crime (purely out of volition). The rules were given, for three different scenarios:

1. If neither of them confesses, each of them will get a half-a-year sentence.

2. If both of them confess, each of them gets a two-year sentence.

3. If one confesses and the other doesn’t, the one who confesses is freed while the one who doesn’t gets a five-year sentence.

Now, if you were the prisoner, what would you choose? Since you don’t know what the other one would choose, if you choose not to confess, you run the risk of being sentenced for five years (if the other confesses). And if you choose to confess, the worst for you would be two years — not five years — and you have a chance of getting freed (if the other does not confess). So what would you choose?

In fact, the Game Theory states that there is an equilibrium point from which any deviation will result in worse results, or higher cost (in this example, longer sentence). So in this example, the two prisoners will both end up with independent choice of confessing — and each getting a two-year sentence.

Obviously, if you consider the sum of the sentence time, this choice is not the wisest. The wisest would be both remaining silent, so that they would each be sentenced for only half a year. But the interesting thing is that this can not happen given the choice is made independently and based on the game rule.

This theory has many applications in real life. In economy, for example. In fact, I think the reason why we cannot slow down is also related to this.

The reason that we can’t comfortably slow down — in a workplace or as a business — is because we don’t know whether our competitors will slow down or not. The best scenario is we all slow down — the whole world slows down — and on this basis the competition level would remain the same and everyone would get the same profit as they do now. Not less, because we all agree upon working 8 hours a day instead of 12. This scenario corresponds to the “both not confessing” scenario in the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the “genie choice”. Yet according to the theory, this can hardly happen. The reason is we don’t know if the other guy would beat us overnight and throw us out of the business by secretly working 12 hours a day for a mere period of one month.

That’s unfortunate because I do think our quality of life will significantly improve while each of us remains at the exact same level of financial security, achievement, etc. at a slow-motion mode of living. It’s unfortunate that this is difficult to achieve.

Yeah, maybe I am a little communist in some aspects…

Some “slow down” advocacy:

1. Slow Hands (Yoga Journal)

2. Don’t Hurry, Be Happy (Yoga Journal)

3. Zen Habits: Simple Productivity and Living

Cancer Vaccine Extends Survival — A Breakthrough or Not?

Every once in a while an improved treatment of cancer comes out, sometimes a breakthrough or a completely new way of treatment. These scientific advances by themselves are exciting achievements, but from a patient’s point of view (which is what really matters) they are not. A scientific result can be overthrown by a later study but any incremental contribution to a flawed theory is of value because at least the deepened understanding leads to the later proof of its faultiness. But from a patient’s point of view, they become nothing more than a guinea pig. They try the “best” treatment available so far, only to find that years later the best now becomes worse than the worst then, because a more complete and comprehensive study reveals the deeper truth.

In Japan some women lived over 100 years. After they die, the autopsy reveals that many of them have what Western medicine understands as cancer cells. These women, when alive, did not know they had these cancer cells. They lived in harmony with these “malign” cells for decades.

Often times what kills a cancer patient is not the cancer itself but the emotional impact knowing they had cancer. The mind-body system works in such way that the mind affects the body and vice versa. The standard cancer treatment process is even more emotionally overwhelming, which often directly results in the downward spiral of the patient’s health and life. Chemotherapy is one of the worst forms of invasive treatment. Patients are often killed by chemo rather than cancer itself.

Read these medical “breakthroughs” as a reference. There are many viable noninvasive, alternative medicine that’s available to us. Acupuncture for instance, even if it doesn’t work effectively on your body it does no harm at all. It’s virtually free of risk to give it a try.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_he_me/us_med_prostate_cancer

Prostate cancer vaccine extends survival in study

By Marilynn Marchione, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO An experimental treatment added four months to the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer in a study that tested an entirely new approach to fighting the disease, doctors reported Tuesday.

Dendreon Corp.’s Provenge vaccine trains the immune system to fight tumors. It’s called a “vaccine” even though it treats disease rather than prevents it.

Doctors have been trying to develop such a therapy for decades, and this is the first to meet a preset goal for improving survival in late-stage testing.

“There have been a lot of false starts, but this is a real start,” said Dr. Paul Schellhammer, a urologist at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., who led the study. Results were reported Tuesday at an American Urological Association conference in Chicago.

Seattle-based Dendreon paid for the study, and Schellhammer owns stock in the company. Dendreon shares fell sharply, and then trading was halted leading up to the release of the data. Shares fell $9.74, or 45.2 percent, to $11.81. The reason was not immediately clear.

Four months may not sound like a lot, but it is longer than the three months afforded by Taxotere, the only chemotherapy approved for men in this situation. Doctors hope for even greater benefit if they give the drug earlier in the course of the disease. Dendreon would give no cost estimate for Provenge, but other such biotech drugs cost several thousand dollars a month.

It remains to be seen if side effects will keep Provenge from winning federal Food and Drug Administration approval. Two years ago, the FDA went against its advisers and delayed a decision, asking for more proof of safety and effectiveness.

The new study involved 521 men whose cancer had spread and wasn’t responding to standard hormone treatments. Two-thirds were given Provenge, a treatment that is customized for each patient.

Doctors collect special blood cells from each patient that help the immune system recognize cancer as a threat. They are mixed with a protein found on most prostate cancer cells and another substance to rev up the immune system. The resulting “vaccine” is given back to the patient as three infusions two weeks apart.

The other one-third of men in the study had a dummy infusion.

Median survival was 26 months in men given Provenge and 22 months in the others. Three-year survival rates were 32 percent for the Provenge group and 23 percent for the others — a 38 percent improvement.

Strokes and other brain-related problems were no more common with Provenge — a worry raised by earlier studies. However, four men given Provenge suffered lung clots, though none were fatal. High blood pressure was twice as common with Provenge. Overall, the rate of serious side effects was the same in each group.

Improving survival “is the gold standard” for any treatment, and Provenge appears to do that, said Dr. Ira Sharlip, a urologist from the University of California in San Francisco and a spokesman for the urological association.

Dr. Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer, said the FDA had been right to ask for more study. But even if the drug had only extended survival by 10 days, “I would vote for approval,” he said.

One patient said it did not hurt his. Thomas Robbins, 74, of Forest City, N.C., was diagnosed in 2002 with prostate cancer that was growing despite hormone treatment.

“They wanted to give me chemo,” but he feared its side effects and enrolled in the Provenge study instead. He learned afterward that he had been one of those given the vaccine.

“Did it help me? I can’t 100 percent guarantee, but I think it did,” he said.

Advocacy groups cheered the results. Scott Riccio, founder of Accelerate Progress, called them “compelling.”

“For the first time, we have real clinical validation that cancer can be fought by stimulating the body’s immune system,” he said in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands of men fighting prostate cancer will now have real hope that a safe and effective new option will be available to them in their fight for life.”

Thomas Farrington, a prostate cancer survivor and founder of the Prostate Health Education Network, said: “Prostate cancer patients finally have hope for a better life. We are in desperate need of groundbreaking new treatments like Provenge.”

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in American men. An estimated 186,000 new cases and 28,660 deaths from it occurred last year.

All Drugs are Poisons

The report below shows one simple truth: All drugs, FDA approved or not, are dangerous and harmful to your health. Even supplements such as vitamin supplements are not good. The best source of vitamins is food. Eat balanced diet instead of taking supplements. These drugs add burden to the liver — and over time, damage it little by little — which is the “plant” in our body for processing chemicals and for detoxification. And it is a “silent” organ — unless you have unusual sensitivity (developed, for example, in meditation) you usually don’t hear liver’s message sent out to you (“Stop taking those drugs!”).

It’s no secret that the American culture has somehow evolved to become a culture of drugs. Nonprescription drugs can be bought easily and are used widely, such as painkillers. While the short-term side effects may not be so evident, it does have side effects and it gradually consumes your health. Perhaps it leads to your later developed allergy. Perhaps asthma. Perhaps even cancer. The “time delay” makes you overlook their connection. The real danger of these drugs lies in the chemicals contained, as well as in the testing process which “proves” its safeness of use by statistics (90% of time it’s safe, or effective; it improves a previous medication by 3% in survival rate; or something of similar sort). This is a dangerous criterion. Every life is a life. Statistics means nothing.

Drug companies are one of the most profitable industry in the US. New drugs are coming out every several months, and they are all shown to be more effective than their predecessors. The truth is however not as exciting. The truth is that these companies often hide the truth about their drugs and push them to the market for the enormous profits that follow. The result is more and more reports like this one below, which happen to come out just as frequently as new drugs do.

Take the advice: Stay away from pills and tablets. There are many alternatives out there that are much safer and effective. Try Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for instance, which I am earnestly studying and should have more to share soon. (I can also recommend doctors.)

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_bi_ge/us_med_diet_pill_recall

FDA warns dieters: Stop Hydroxycut use immediately

By Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON Government health officials warned dieters and body builders Friday to immediately stop using Hydroxycut, a widely sold supplement linked to cases of serious liver damage and at least one death.

The Food and Drug Administration said the maker of the dietary supplement has agreed to recall 14 Hydroxycut products. Available in grocery stores and pharmacies, Hydroxycut is advertised as made from natural ingredients. At least 9 million packages were sold last year, the FDA said.

Dr. Linda Katz of the FDA’s food and nutrition division said the agency has received 23 reports of liver problems, including the death of a 19-year-old boy living in the Southwest. The teenager died in 2007, and the death was reported to the FDA this March.

Other patients experienced symptoms ranging from jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, to liver failure. One received a transplant and another was placed on a list to await a new liver.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. distributor of the diet pill, Iovate Health Sciences, headquartered near Buffalo, N.Y. Made by a Canadian company, Hydroxycut is used by people trying to shed pounds and by body builders to sharpen their muscles.

Dietary supplements aren’t as tightly regulated by the government as medications. Manufacturers don’t need to prove to the FDA that their products are safe and effective before they can sell them to consumers. But regulators monitor aftermarket reports for signs of trouble, and in recent years companies have been put under stricter requirements to alert the FDA when they learn of problems.

Katz said it has taken so long to get a handle on the Hydroxycut problem because the cases of liver damage were rare and the FDA has no authority to review supplements before they’re marketed. “Part of the problem is that the FDA looks at dietary supplements from a post-market perspective, and an isolated incident is often difficult to follow,” she said.

The FDA relies on voluntary reports to detect such problems, and many cases are never reported, officials acknowledge.

Health officials said they have been unable to determine which Hydroxycut ingredients are potentially toxic, partially because the formulation of the products has changed several times. A medical journal report last month raised questions about one ingredient, hydroxycitric acid, derived from a tropical fruit. The article said it could potentially damage the liver.

Book: Chan Master Miao Tian’s Book of Wisdom (3rd Edition)

Thanks to the help from our friend, who is a writer of a published book and a creative writing major, we have further improved the 2nd edition of the book by correcting some grammatical things. The result is this 3rd edition. (I don’t think there will be further editions!) The content itself remains largely unchanged, so as far as the content goes the 2nd edition is good enough. Yet, since we are going to distribute the book to a few local libraries, this new edition will better meet the market standard and therefore will be used. To facilitate distinguishing between editions, we have also slightly modified the front cover, as shown below.

2009 Easter Egg Contest

2009 Easter Egg contest was held at my wife’s workplace. There were two winners. Most Creative — Black Hawk helicopter, and The Prettiest — Mr. Peacock. The pictures of all entries from all the participants are included below. Can you tell which were the two winners? (should be pretty obvious!)

Enjoy.