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November 27 Scottish Music & Dance Party Scottish Music & Dance Party Organized by the British Council Grand Millennium Hotel, Beijing 19:00 - 21:30, 27 November 2008 UK Alumni only! November 25 From Quantity to Quality From Quantity to Quality How to Improve Innovations at Chinese Higher Education Shangri-la Hotel, Beijing 24 November 2008 Hosted by: Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Education Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Education Co-hosted by: Science & Technology Division, Elsevier Invited Speakers:
 Judy, Xibai and Helen at the conference June 12 KabisyMy friend Weiqi mourns as I prepare to leave Oxford: http://kabisy.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!92D682E8AB1D915E!130.entry Very much appreciated, a true friend he is! April 23 Links 4April 18 Links 3"You are with us, or you are with the terrorists!" One freshman from Duke University got a taste of this "Bushism" when she tried to mediate between two rival groups: The New York Times - Chinese Student in the U.S. Is Caught in Confrontation. She defended helself in a RFA interview: Wang Qianyuan - The Chinese "Angry Youth" Is a Perverted Form of Patriotism. Miss Wang is evidently not alone. My friend Fang Yuan says he looks down on a certain self-conceited brainy "Hanjian", And in China, Singtao Daily reports that Kunming Netizens Denounced as "Hanjian" for Anti-Boycott Show. The ever so satirical Laoxu points out the absurdity of boycotting French goods: Laoxu - Whatever You Do, But Boycott French Goods? Speaking of anti-French sentiments, does anyone still remember the freedom fries? To understand this popular psyche, I always go back to this critique by Hao Jian, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy. Browse down to the last paragraph for a chilling analysis. April 16 No Arguing, Just Links 2
CBS News asked protesters in San Francisco where Tibet is on the map. Guess what, nobody knows: CBS News - Where is Tibet? (YouTube) April 11 No Arguing, Just Links, for Educational Purpose OnlyBefore delving into any serious discussion, I would recommend people to read Wang Lixiong's Sky Burial first. This is one of the most thorough and balanced treatment of the subject: Wang Lixiong - Sky Burial Here we have two opposing interpretations of recent events, published in the same blog. It's painfully obvious, at least to me, which one is more calm and reasonable. Viewpoint No.1: Zhang Hongliang - The Olympic Flame - Sparking the Great Patriotic Movement of the 21st Century Viewpoint No.2: Zhan Yunfei - Why China Is Prone to Demonization If you believe Western media is always "one-sided", you may enjoy this great critique from The New York Times: Patrick French - He May Be a God, but He's No Politician And at Spiked, people with a healthy amount of skepticism have set up a section refuting some of the popular stereotypes and misconceptions: Beijing 2008 - Challenging China-Bashing Finally but most importantly, I have a dose of sanity for BBC bashers. Several days before the the current events unfolded, BBC Four aired a documentary which immediately drew fierce condemnation from a certain group of people, who accused the BBC of "distorting the truth", "being selective", and "shamefully" "whitewashing", phrases that are all so familiar to us now. See, for example, this website: http://www.tibettruth.com/ There is even an online petition: GoPetition: BBC Whitewashes Tibet The BBC is also frequently criticised of being anti-America. The Daily Telegraph said "If you watch the BBC for any 24 hours, you see institutionalised anti-Americanism". In 2004, a FOX News commentator accused the BBC of "anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest.", see: John Gibson: Liar, Liar To make the story complete, the BBC is also anti-British government (Hutton Inquiry), racist, anti-semitist, anti-Christian, biased towards climate change, and the list goes on and on. Basically BBC must be the most evil guy in the world. Give yourself a little treat here: Wikipedia: Criticism of the BBC March 24 和E同学辩论实录经E同学同意，刊出部分辩论实录，更正了部分错别字，并重新编排了段落。 February 27 EARTHQUAKE!In the early hours of 27 February, I felt a strong shaking lasting a few second while reading in bed. The BBC later confirmed it as an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter's scale, the biggest in the UK for nearly a quarter of a century. November 26 社论《谱写诗社事业壮美新篇》
November 17 Thus Spoke John the Wise"Your sonnet is a brave attempt ... any further comment would, I think, be superfluous. Just keep at it, Xibai; writing poetry - if truly a passion - more often than not leads to the creation a body of work that contributes to the delight and consolation of many people." October 31 What A DayI had no choice but to assume an emergence responsibility and was absolutely shattered today. From early dawn to midnight, I worked through various parties and people without any break, constantly on the phone with contacts in Oxford, Beijing and London, and managed to lose my voice too. And Gosh before going to bed I realized that although the birthday present was sitting comfortably on the table I still hadn't got any gift wrap or birthday card, and probably wouldn't have the time to finish the all-important poem I had planned (only one couplet drafted). As if this is not worse enough, tomorrow is the expiry date of my Bodleian card, which means I have to sort out a number of things with the department. But again there is nothing more important than another person's life. Having been entrusted and made the promise I now must keep his words...I only wishes that it will have a happy ending, the sooner the better. September 10 Transformed...http://oxford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2163829&id=36922191 Face Transformer: http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Transformer/ August 18 QuizSo I was poked by Vera to take this little quiz:
Q: How do you know you had a crush on someone?
A: If any of the following is true: (1) You miss her all the time and just cannot let go, even though you are not in frequent touch. (2) You long to travel with her and share your stories with her. (3) Your IQ level drops to that of a 5-year old.
(4) You are consumed with jealousy, an emotion that is virtually alien,
and therefore deeply shameful to you.
Q: The most depressing thing recently?
A: Constantly underperforming, which is the root of all troubles Q: The most desired place to be and why?
A: Beijing, because I can't stop feeling homesick.
Q: The most unbearable weakness of yours?
A: Laziness, otherwise I could have done much more.
Q: The most uplifting thing recently?
A: Uplifting? Nothing that I can think of.
Q: Would you confess your love or stay unrequited?
A: I confessed and did not win over; I stay unrequited and never got closer.
Tell me what to do?
Q: List three virtues of the person who poked you for this quiz?
A: 1) Intelligent and elegent with a refined taste in music, literature and the arts.
2) Stays clean and professional in the filthy world of journalism.
3) Compassionate and committed to charity causes.
Q: Your most treasured person(s)/thing(s)?
A: Liberty, knowledge and love.
Q: Love and being loved, which is more blessed?
A: Being loved by the one you love.
Q: What kind of personality attracts you most?
A: 1) Intellectual, creative and passionate about music.
2) Appreciate my ideas and culture.
3) Unassuming character with tremendous inner strength and serenity.
Q: Have you had one-night stand and your opinion on it?
A: Never. It is against my moral codes.
Q: Are you pessimistic about your future, why?
A: To a certain degree but never overwhelming.
Q: How do you usually spend you summer?
A: Thinking about what do after summer.
Q: What is simplicity?
A: As opposed to complexity, apparently. Anything not involving tensor analysis,
multi-dimensional objects, many-body Hamiltonian or retarded Green function :-)
A: What a lame question.
Q: When do you plan to get married. Are you afraid of marriage?
A: 1) When we are both ready. 2) Slightly.
Q: What sort of life would you prefer and is your life the way you want it to be now?
A: Life is an amazing journey of discovery. You never know what the future is like so accept it
and enjoy it.
Q: Your career choice in your next life?
A: Musician, probably a pianist or conductor.
Q: You most recent goals?
A: Complete my thesis and pass the viva, then find a suitable job.
Q: Do you like taking picutres? Why?
A: Not in particular, because I usually look stupid in front of the camera. I do enjoy photography with the right equipment (e.g. a DSLR and a good lens).
Eight people to answer the quiz: This torturous quiz has to stop at some point so let it stop here. FIN May 30 What I'm up to now...A number of people have emailed me concerning my disappearance from MSN. Basically, I'm working quite intensively on my dissertation. This is a project involving the investigation of the van der Waals interaction between conjugated polymers. The interaction is expressed in terms of second order perturbation to the ground state energy. Evaluation of these expressions for long chains requires going beyond the normal dipole approximation and treating the molecule as a collection of collinearly aligned dipoles. The methodology is a simplified exciton model in evaluating the transition densities and whereas appropriate, more sophisticated exciton models.
To be honest the topic is not a particularly exciting one, not to mention that after writing on electron correlation, I find it repulsive to look at the electronic Schroedinger equation again! My supervisor, however, is quite a nice and approachable guy. I'm still in the early stage of background reading and I hope to get the best out of this three-month project, which, incidentally, will be my very last scientific project. February 19 如此翻译？！首先声明，不是想说自己英语水平就有多高，也不是想故意寒碜人家。其实都是最基本的问题，搞得我这几天改文章改得郁闷，实在是不吐不快。
今儿要说的是我们的某位美国志愿者。去年手里压着很多英文稿子，于是联系小薄介绍了一位会讲中文的美国大学生。她一口答应可以帮忙，在看过稿子后又说质量太差，需要下大力气才能改到出版水平。于是我给了她足足一个月时间，心中满怀期待，想着改出来一定巨牛。结果呢？最主要的那篇文章一个字没改，说是中文原文文件她打不开（那您倒早言语啊！），剩下两篇短的只改了一些拼写错误和单复数，语句不通顺的地方基本还是不通顺，说到底还没我写得好。比如说这个：
"...Although there was not good sound track equipment, or a complete set of performance costume and scenes, "
啥叫sound track equipment啊？用not通吗？以英语为母语就写出这样的病句，实在说不过去吧。
其实我也没啥可抱怨的，毕竟我也不给人家发工资，不能有什么要求，只是现在这几篇文章我又得抽空自个儿重新翻译了，还是那句话，宁可不出版也不能印出来满篇病句。
另，今天在MSN上遇到一个从小在美国长大的朋友，请她帮忙校对一篇文章。我跟她说虽然作者是美籍华人，但语言也不是无懈可击的，文章我已经粗粗改过了一边，比如说把"farm animals" 改成"livestock"了，她听了就说"farm animals"? 然后就开始在对面狂笑...
又另，随手翻了一下今年牛津大学中国学联春节晚会的节目单，差点儿没把嘴里的饭吐出来。“小品”其实不就是sitcom或者situation comedy嘛，怎么就能给译成了opusculum？！我真想问问翻译节目单的老兄：同学，您拉丁文是不是学得太多了啊！ |
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