http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs eavesdropping on myself Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:57:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In the haunting song, Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Peter, Paul, and Mary. One of the verses wonder where have all the young girls gone. Of course, the song is about anti-war and the girls were mourning their dead boy friends. It appears that many ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/03/08/where-have-all-the-young-girls-gone/ I am a runner and an inapt pupil of poetry. The runner, not this mid-aged over-weight one, is so vivid that I can almost hear his pant and feel his body heat. On a flat road runs the well-train'd runner, He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs, He is thinly clothed, ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/03/03/walt-whitman-1819-1892-the-runner/ SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner 978-0060889579 Do Indian men really have smaller penises? Can you imagine the tease toward our brown friends? They over-hyped the book dead. All interesting concepts were ruined by all those blogs, media coverage, and ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/03/01/over-hyped/ Recently, Kevin Smith, a well known Hollywood director, was kicked off a flight for being too fat. He was furious and started a twitter storm. His flamebuoyant communiques aroused media coverage and strong opinions everywhere. Fat people have rights too! They proclaimed. Besides, the number ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/02/25/ethics/ As a luddite, I did not pay much attention to those 2G, 3G mumble jumble. I turn on my cell phone when I wake up. I would make several phone calls in a day and send/receive some text messages. That's about it. For richer networking experiences ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/02/20/ubiquitous-broadband/ 開始聽三國，總共上百回．有空聽聽，也得年把才聽的完． 曹操聚了各路諸侯，以袁紹為首伐董卓，第一個就碰到華雄．他把袁軍殺的一榻糊塗．終於關羽以馬弓手的低職，一刀取了華雄的首級，揚名立萬． 如果水滸講的是政府腐敗，三國就是政治權謀的黑暗了．曹操有名的"寧教我負天下人，休教天下人負我"． 袁術怕孫監搶功，不發糧草．孫監因此敗陣，差點丟了腦袋．三國的軍事政治鬥爭，於此舖開． http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/02/17/%e4%b8%89%e5%9c%8b-%e9%97%9c%e7%be%bd%e5%ae%b0%e8%8f%af%e9%9b%84/ 靈劍 鄭丰 978-986-6712-74-6 靈劍是天關雙俠的前集.鄭丰被捧成"女版金庸".神雕三部是永遠的經典,她的武俠也比的上金庸的二級作品了.靈劍的情節誨暗悽慘,鄭丰兩集都把虎嘯山莊安排的很不幸.其實"醫俠"是個很有詩意的想法,凌霄也有英雄的特質,典型武俠他不左擁右抱,稱霸武林,也至少能贏得美人歸.但鄭丰兩本都給他悲劇黑暗,這是她對武俠的突破嗎?我讀了40年武俠,還不大習慣離開那模式呢. 傳統的武功已經是超能了,鄭丰還加上了靈能及巫毒.天關裏,主角的武功平常(他是百花掌門,下毒的).這部有改善,但被天關中傳頌的大決戰,卻只有一點篇幅帶過.筆墨放在了燕龍偉大的犧牲上.可惜那過程太"成人",鄭丰不能寫的露骨.遺憾. 武俠就是中國的007,不論如何的公式化,讀者都要能忘了這現實,看完了得不能自及的幻想自己是那英雄主角.天關還行,靈劍看完還真有點失落,沒那期待的滿足感. 鄭丰有個部落格.可以去給她加點人氣. http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/02/15/%e9%9d%88%e5%8a%8d/ How do you set a price of something that has zero variable cost (it costs nothing to make copies and distribute them to the customers) and a limited set of customers? Well, that's online media: newspapers, magazines, music, video, and books that are distributed over the Internet. Once ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/02/12/internet-price-war/ A top Senate Democrat is asking 30 leading technology, Internet and communications companies to provide detailed descriptions of their operations and human rights practices in China. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois sent letters to the companies on Tuesday seeking information about their business in China and their plans ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/02/10/human-rights-free-of-speech-and-privacy/ "So you went to CalTech?" Asked the bartender, glancing the emblem on my baseball hat. "Oh, no. I am not that smart," I replied. "My kid did." "I heard they are, like, #2 or #3 in the world in something." "NUMBER ONE," with a wry smile. "Oh right. MIT is the ... http://www.nomadicminds.org/blogs/2010/02/07/for-the-kid/