The Summer Day
Mary Oliver (1935 – 2019)

Who made the world? 
Who made the swan, and the black bear? 
Who made the grasshopper? 
This grasshopper, I mean— 
the one who has flung herself out of the grass, 
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, 
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down— 
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. 
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. 
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. 

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. 
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down 
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, 
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, 
which is what I have been doing all day. 
Tell me, what else should I have done? 
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? 
Tell me, what is it you plan to do 
with your one wild and precious life?

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. – George Bernard Shaw

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. – Edward Abbey

We have everything we need to be happy, and yet we are not happy. – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

猫猫的玩具来了，她没多少兴趣。她感兴趣的是包玩具的纸板盒子，第一时间钻进去，静静地趴着，看我们组装玩具。

news

We have been under no illusions. We recognised from the start that America has changed.

Our government understood, before many, that America would transform all its commercial relationships. That it would put a series of tariffs on its closest allies and use economic integration as a weapon. That its signature was written in pencil.

  • 贝森特在7月底主导了美国三十年来首次买入日元的操作；此举的政策考量之一是稳定日元，从而降低日本政府因支撑本币而被迫出售美债的外部压力。引爆中国金融危机的可能是一场天灾，地方政府枯竭的财政已经没有能力来赈灾了。央行虽然有印钱的能力，但那只是表面现象；中央的财政归根结底还是来自全国各地经济活动所带来的税收。如果地方政府只能靠央行印钱来维持，其结局必然是恶性通货膨胀。

retro-computers

investings

Nvidia reports its earning on this Wednesday. How does Reddit performs after joining S&P500?

notes

capitalism is essentially a destruction of earth with all new machines built. both coal and oil are digged out and burnt. both forest and ocean are harvested till the point of lifeless, far and near. the air polluted. climate changed. glacier and iceberg melted. when the earth is collapsed, it is the doom day for human being.

impossible objects, from 3D design to printable

1922年俄罗斯物理学家弗里德曼(Alexander Friedmann)在广义相对论的基础上建立的一组运动方程。他由此推导出，浩繁的宇宙起源于一次没有任何几何尺寸的点，或者曲率趋于无穷大的小球大爆炸。

The earliest empirical observation of an expanding universe is known as Hubble’s law, published in work by physicist Edwin Hubble in 1929, which discerned that galaxies are moving away from Earth at a rate that accelerates proportionally with distance.

Independent of Friedmann’s work, and independent of Hubble’s observations, in 1931 physicist Georges Lemaître proposed that the universe emerged from a “primeval atom”, introducing the modern notion of the Big Bang.

不论是古典的还是现行的天文学理论皆认为宇宙起源于一个奇点。为此，英国科学家彭罗斯（Roger Penrose）因为他和另一位英国科学家霍金（Stephen Hawking）于1970年共同发表的关于宇宙奇点理论而获得了2021年的诺贝尔物理学奖。而霍金却没有获得此奖，因为他已经于2018年去世。

梅维恒（Victor H. Mair）, 1943-2026:《塔里木木乃伊》The Tarim Mummies

梅教授对新疆塔克拉玛干沙漠塔里木盆地出土木乃伊所进行的学术研究与宣扬工作，使古代中国西域在奥雷尔·斯坦因（Aurel Stein）和斯文·赫定（Sven Hedin）探险并发表有关该地区著作数十年之后，再次闻名于世。

汉学家吉德炜（David Keightley，加州大学伯克利分校中国历史、甲骨文专家教授；已于2017年去世）

kilim, 土耳其语的地毯，织法上属于一种英语中所说的Tapestry（一种“通经断纬”的平织织物）。相应的汉字和意思都应该是“缂”，如“缂丝”、“缂毛”、“缂织”等。

和田的尼雅遗址出土有约760件公元3至4世纪的以佉卢文书写的木犊和木板文书，多为世俗生活记录文件，记录了很多日常生活物品和买卖交易的情况。文献的语言为梵语变异的犍陀罗俗语普拉克利特语（Prakrit），文字为由阿拉美（或译亚兰）字母（Aramaic）发展而来的佉卢文（Kharosthi）。文书里多处出现“和阗地毯”——Khotani kojava 和Khotani tavastaga的买卖交易记录。这些记录为我们保留了不仅是3到4世纪和田地区的纺织品名称，还向我们展示了世界上最早的对“和阗地毯”的专门分类记录和它在塔克拉玛干-塔里木的知名度

在阿姆斯特丹一带，这大风车是用来排水的。荷兰地势低平，早在13世纪就开始了围海造田，至今为止已经造出了6千多平方公里的土地，相比较只有4万1千多平方公里的荷兰国土总面积，这可不是小数目。阿姆斯特丹一带曾是个大湖，要排水才能得到土地，而湖面低于海面，必须把湖水提高才能排向大海。可人力、畜力在汪洋大湖面前太弱小了，所以就借用了风力。一个风车带动下面的叶轮只能提水1.7米左右，于是，每一组用三个大风车连成一排，逐级提水排向大海。后来大湖被排干，湖底变成了农田，也变成部分的阿姆斯特丹城区。

阿姆斯特丹的另一大特色运河。这座城市号称“北方的威尼斯”，老城区密布着165条人工水道，或称运河。总长度超过100公里，把这部分城区分隔为90多个岛，又由1500多座桥连接。

荷兰政府鼓励市民绿色出行，修了很多自行车道，不是在马路上与汽车并行，而是在便道上与行人并行。而自行车和行人，哪个更有威力？所以，一定要小心，绝不能走到自行车道上，想穿过去也要先左右观察。记着：永远是行人让自行车！遇到斑马线，汽车会给行人让路，但自行车道上根本没有斑马线。骑车人早已习惯了特权，所以骑得飞快，根本不顾及行人！还有，荷兰法律不要求骑车人戴头盔，所以骑车人都不戴。

Projects promoting programming in “natural language” are intrinsically doomed to fail.

About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.

The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.

  • Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton - Down from Dover

Dolly Parton - the sweetest gift, with Emmylon Harris and Linda Ronstadt

dream big dreams; learn everything you can learn; and care for all those who care for you. You do all of these things and you can be anyone you want to be. – Dolly Parton

Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.

Gillian Brockell on bsky

  • book: David Karpf, how silicon valley sells the future to control the present

  • book: 邱承光《往事回眸》(邱承光系邱会作之次子）

  • 吴鑫岩：干强枝弱

本人认为朱镕基最大的失误就是没有在进行住房商品化的初期推出房地产税，在西方国家这是基层政府的主要财政来源。结果，在房地产市场繁荣的时候，地方政府靠卖地而一次性地吞噬了土地七十年的红利，从而造成了如今地方政府普遍债台高筑的局面。当然，胡温在执政的十年中并没有注意到这个问题的严重性，习李也没把这事放在心上。俗话说：“等到退潮的时候才能看到谁在裸泳。”如今中国的经济已经开始退潮了，曾经在裸泳的地方政府现在已经走投无路了。

book: 黄亚生. Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics（《有中国特色的资本主义：企业家与国家》）. Cambridge University Press. 2008

book: Huang, Yasheng. The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline, 2023

1987年11月1日，朱镕基在中共十三大上当选中共中央候补委员。1991年4月8日，全国人大七届四次会议补选朱镕基为国务院副总理兼任国务院生产办公室主任、党组书记。1992年1月至2月，鄧小平發表著名的「南巡講話」。1992年10月19日，在中共十四屆一中全會上，時年64歲的朱鎔基實現了中共政壇上罕見的「政治跳躍」：他從原來的中央候補委員，跳過中央委員、中央政治局委員，直接晉升為中央政治局常委（排名第五），正式成為正國級領導人。1997年9月19日，69岁的朱镕基在中共十五届一中全会上順利连任中共中央政治局常委，党内排名由第五上升为第三，仅次于江泽民和李鹏。

Aliexpress webpage keeeping multipoint Bluetooth headphones active with WebAudio fingerprinting

  • 昆德拉《笑忘书》：人对强权的抗争，就是记忆对遗忘的抗争。

  • k.d.lang, 1961-

constant craving, 1992: Even through the darkest phase\ Be it thick or thin\ Always someone marches brave\ Here beneath my skin\ Maybe a great magnet pulls\ All souls towards truth\ Or maybe it is life itself\ Feeds wisdom to its youth

miss chatelaine, 1992: Just a kiss, just a kiss\ I have lived just for this\ I can’t explain why I’ve become\ Miss Chatelaine\ Just a smile, just a smile\ Hold me captive just a while\ I can’t explain why I’ve become\ Miss Chatelaine

he warned that stupidity is more dangerous than evil because the stupidity don’t think for themselves, blindly follow propaganda, and feel righteous while causing harm… his point: societies collapse not only from the wicked, but from ordinary people.

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

It said that debating an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. They’ll knock over the pieces, they’ll crap on the board, and they’ll fly back to their flock and claim victory. It’s funny and insightful, but according to the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it’s also deeply worrying. Because for Bonhoeffer stupidity is far more concerning than evil.

There are evil people in life. There are murderers, cheaters, and liars. But they are not the greatest threat. Because once something is known to be evil, the good of the world can rally to defend and fight against it. When we know somebody is bad, we know how to take a stand. And so, as Bonhoeffer put it, ‘evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion.’

People are far more stupid than they are evil: Never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance. (this is Heinlein’s razor.)

Occam’s Razor: the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements.

Hanlon’s razor is an adage or rule of thumb that states, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. – Things fall apart

There is no story that is not true. – Things fall apart

Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself. – Chinua Achebe

Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. – Chinua Achebe

“Cut off from every root, unfit, moreover, to mix with dust or mud, we have achieved the feat of breaking not only with the depths of things, but with their very surface. Civilization, at this stage, would seem to be a bargain with the Devil, if man still had a soul to sell.”