Science shows us a reality of the universe, not complete but better than guessing. However some problems of human being are not scientific but social. Each of us has our own small world, so our own different realities. Our worlds are small and partial of the whole world. Some overlapping perhaps. But how much? This reminds me of the story by Natalia Ginzburg, Family Lexicon. In this memoir, Natalia moved between fact and fiction. She puzzeled why her father and silbings argued so vehemently while they were all against fascism. The reality each of us has is really unique. ...

世界是很奇怪的。通货膨胀依旧，乌克兰抵抗俄罗斯的入侵依然，美国股市在技术性的经济衰退中一片繁荣景象。似乎乌克兰的战火只要还在乌克兰，世界就依然太平，似乎通胀只要没有影响到自己，经济就依旧繁荣。夏季的热浪从来没有如此普遍，只要没有吹进自己的家里，气候还依然正常。就像乌克兰不仅为自己的自由而战，而且为世界的和平而战一样。无数挣扎在贫困线的人们在为通胀和气候变暖付出代价，而其他人却丝毫不受影响。The war affects Ukraine. The inflation affects the poor. The climate change affects the vulnerable. Here is Volodymyr Yermolenko’s orignial tweet. He is a Ukrainian philosopher and chief editor at Ukraine World. War is when your friends die. When you see this breathless cruelty of death. You remember talks with this brave young man, a talented scientist, now he’s gone. Or a woman who cares about her rose garden, and you thought of her as the kindest person on earth. She’s gone too ...

前几天因为美国议长佩洛西访问台湾，社交媒体上热闹了一阵。在佩洛西离开台湾之后，中国立即开始在台湾附近海域进行实弹演习作为反制。为此，新华社发了公告(www.news.cn)，其中为了所谓的避讳，将军事“演习”改为军事“演训”。 避讳本来就是陈规陋习，在封建社会也只是不提君王、贵族或高官的名号以示尊重，名讳而已。不过在习近平准备终身连任的过程中，党章宪法都可以修改，避讳从名讳升级到了姓讳也就不奇怪。这无论怎样都是件很荒唐的事，难道以后别人都不能姓习了。习字从此只能习近平一人独享？ 邓小平敢开放敢于打破终身制，其他不论，仅此一点就可以写进史书。而习近平却在搞复辟，修改宪法以便终身连任。而现在利用网络审核和过滤，大肆进行封建避讳。这种倒退是逆历史潮流，完全违背自由平等的普世价值。不过，复辟也只是一时热闹，迟早是要失败的。

“And they laughed a little and were very friendly together, the three of them, Anna, Emanuele and Giustino; and they were pleased to be together, the three of them, thinking of all those who were dead, and of the long war and the sorrow and noise and confusion, and of the long, difficult life which they saw in front of them now, full of all the things they did not know how to do.” -― Natalia Ginzburg, All Our Yesterdays ...

For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live. – Theodor Adorno In our society there seems a general rule that the more obviously one’s work benefits others, the less one is likely get paid for. – David Graeber

I wish you happiness, if there is such a thing, as happiness. – Natalia Ginzburg, Happiness, as Such 不知从什么时候开始，我已经不再追求幸福。一个人能够做点自己喜欢并力所能及的事情，看看周遭的世界，就够了。宇宙之大单是看看NASA发的照片就可感知一二。火星的表面一如地球上的荒漠，借由韦伯太空望远镜我们可以更清晰地看到更多星系，若干光年以前的景象。时间太少，心愿太多如书，看不过来，实现不及。而读书越来越像雾里看花，文字似乎可以给我一个世界，可是这个世界几分真实几分假？这个夏天超乎寻常地越来越热了。宇宙星空离我们越来越近，而家却离我们越来越远。

What are we going to do with the projects? key: on the way to complete the design. proceed to prototype. wm: the concept interesting. finalize the details. start the design. read & code

Here is a short note on Gillian Rose’s Love’s work from Merve Emre. Love’s work is coextensive with the work of thinking and the work of criticism. Despite what advice columns and self-help books might teach, love, like criticism, is a peculiarly autocratic pursuit. One authorizes one’s own judgments and must live with the consequences. Sometimes—most of the time, some would say—we get it wrong. We err on the side of indulgence or cruelty, blind to (blinded by?) our own power. Yet to fail is not to fall into despair. Failing in love, and in criticism, lets us gain a sense of ethical relations: we perceive the conditionality of our judgments, and embrace our capacity to forgive and to be forgiven. Rose puts this better than I can hope to, in lines I often repeat to friends: “There is no democracy in any love relation: only mercy. To be at someone’s mercy is dialectical damage: they may be merciful and they may be merciless. Yet each party, woman, man, the child in each, and their child, is absolute power as well as absolute vulnerability. You may be less powerful than the whole world, but you are always more powerful than yourself.” —Merve Emre ...

The book of disquiet is a great book, unique in its own way. To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing arts (such as acting and dance) entertain. Literature, however, retreats from life by turning in into slumber. The other arts make no such retreat— some because they use visible and hence vital formulas, others because they live from human life itself. This isn’t the case with literature. Literature simulates life. A novel is a story of what never was, a play is a novel without narration. A poem is the expression of ideas or feelings a language no one uses, because no one talks in verse. ...

Today the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. This ended the right to abortion upheld for decades. From the leak in early May to this ruling near the end of June, there is time to prepare and to act. But still, what can we do next to codify the right to abortion?