Over the Lunar New Year weekend Vivian Choi made her annual visit to Wong Tai Sin, one of Hong Kong’s largest Taoist temples, to ask for blessings in the new year. But instead of burning dozens of incense sticks in the age-old Taoist tradition, Ms. Choi slipped a written prayer into a small box. An electronic deity statue then lit up and blew artificial smoke, signaling the acceptance of the offering.

As worshippers welcomed the Year of the Rabbit, Wong Tai Sin temple in Kowloon ushered in a new era of its own: high-tech Taoism.

For 100 million Hong Kong dollars US$13 million, the 90-year-old temple created a  underground prayer room — decked with gold and marble and equipped with LED lights and motion detectors — just in time for the Lunar New Year holiday, which started Feb. 3 and is expected to draw more than a million visitors to the temple over two weeks.

The 10,000-square-feet chamber, which took three years to complete, features a vaulted echo-enhancing ceiling emblazoned with a planetarium-like digital replica of the Hong Kong sky that rotates in accordance with the seasons. Two HK$3 million floor-to-ceiling wall hangings, made of marble and rare gemstones, adorn the entranceway. Worshippers enter the hall and deposit a written prayer before one of 60 statues representing the gods of the Chinese zodiac, which responds with flashing lights and bursts of smoke.

via WSJ.

Ah, what a pity that I missed one of the most prestigious bank in the world, and what a pity citi-group missed a mathematics genius like me, the smartest student ever in the engineering department, the one who beaten math majors in the most difficult competition in the world like idiots, and the one who astutely points out the mars existing in the Gaussian Copula and made proper corrections on it!! [Redacted]‘s stupidity can surely not appreciate my conspicuously superior intellectuality. Woe to the fatuous decision, yet I humbly accpet!

via Dealbreaker.

Brilliant analysis, wonderfully written... slight self-serving bias when talking about Fischer's reasons for not playing Karpov, but a terrific read.

It would be impossible for me to write dispassionately about Bobby Fischer even if I were to try. I was born the year he achieved a perfect score at the US Championship in 1963, eleven wins with no losses or draws. He was only twenty at that point but it had been obvious for years that he was destined to become a legendary figure. His book My 60 Memorable Games was one of my earliest and most treasured chess possessions. When Fischer took the world championship crown from my countryman Boris Spassky in 1972 I was already a strong club player following every move as it came in from Reykjavík. The American had crushed two other Soviet grandmasters en route to the title match, but there were many in the USSR who quietly admired his brash individuality along with his amazing talent.

I dreamed of playing Fischer one day, and we eventually did become competitors after a fashion, though in the history books and not across the chessboard. He left competitive chess in 1975, walking away from the title he coveted so dearly his entire life. Ten more years passed before I took the title from Fischer’s successor, Anatoly Karpov, but rarely did an interviewer miss a chance to bring up Fischer’s name to me. “Would you beat Fischer?” “Would you play Fischer if he came back?” “Do you know where Bobby Fischer is?”

via The New York Review of Books.

The recipe:

Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP

Citric acid: 3 oz

Caffeine: 1 oz

Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity)

Water: 2.5 gal

Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart

Vanilla: 1 oz

Caramel: 1.5 oz or more for color

The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup):

Alcohol:  8 oz

Orange oil: 20 drops

Lemon oil: 30 drops

Nutmeg oil: 10 drops

Coriander: 5 drops

Neroli: 10 drops

Cinnamon: 10 drops

via TIME.

What about Android? Elop admitted at Fridays event that Nokia had also courted Google in the months leading up to its decision to back Windows Phone, but the company felt that Android was heading in the wrong direction, with "prices, profits, everything" being pushed down at a rapid rate as the Android platform commoditizes. "The ... value would be moved out to Google, essentially," he said. He also noted that Google was very eager to snatch Nokia from Microsoft, noting that a Google/Nokia "duopoly" would have had a "decisive impact" for Android. "Were the swing factor," he said. "We can swing it to Android or swing the industry over to create a third ecosystem." Google has since downplayed the loss of Nokia publicly, of course.

via Paul Thurott.

A large swath of blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings, freezing rain advisories, winter weather advisories and winter storm watches are in effect, stretching from new Mexico and the Southern Plains northeastward through the Midwest and into the upper Mid-Atlantic and New England.

via NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory.

The more people buy iPhones and iPads, the more software developers and media companies want to write applications for them, as various as games and digital magazines. And consumers are more likely to buy iPhones and iPads when more entertainment and information applications are available on them. The combination of hardware, software and services is what corporate executives, economists and analysts call a platform. Successful technology platforms sustain and reinforce growth. And this self-reinforcing cycle is known as a network effect. It helps the platform owner and raises a barrier to competitors. “Apple has hit that magical combination of gradually shifting from a product to a platform strategy,” says Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. and author of “Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World” (Oxford University Press, 2010).

via NYTimes.com.