Sunday, May 30, 2010

Oil leaks, last century and this century, same disaster

Megabus

便宜、舒適、又便捷的Megabus終於開始走Philly-Baltimore-DC路線了。

可是小珊抓都已經畢業那麼久了才開通,有鳥用阿?(掀桌)

如果Megabus早一年開通這路線不知道可以省下多少排隊等灰狗的時間和多少被灰狗坑掉的車錢......

Thursday, May 13, 2010

UPenn台灣同學會

一陣子沒參加同學會了,這次再去參加送舊,驚覺情侶配對比率竟然高達60%(目測估計)?!

有沒有這麼成功的聯誼性社團阿@@

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

資格考過後...

下週刺激的拷問結束後該來好好規劃夏天怎麼過了...

  • 堆積了一堆未整理的lab notes
  • 欠了老闆一屁股的實驗債
  • 要趕快整理出一個paper草稿
  • 趕快想辦法把paper所需的data補齊
  • 把承諾幫別人的paper生的data也補齊
  • 荒廢、亂七八糟已久的人際關係該來處理一下了
  • 買新登山車
  • 規劃夏日冒險旅行行程
  • 辦好Philly car share會員
  • 準備參加朋友婚禮(第一個紅色炸彈耶)
  • 找個週末租車去New England海岸走走(MA, RI...)

ANA airplane music

影片不重要,重點是葉加瀨太郎的作曲「Another Sky」超好聽
這是全日空抵達目的地後,下飛機時播的音樂

既然請假不好請,又要考試,那聽聽飛機音樂過過乾癮好了

Monday, May 10, 2010

越想專心寫proposal,心思越往奇怪的地方飄@@

為了專心,帶上耳機聽音樂避免被外界干擾,音樂反倒令人回想起某些非常特別的回憶吧。

真的是令人永生難忘的回憶呢...



阿~雜念退散~!!!

Sunday, May 09, 2010

About Facebook... Spring cleaning

Facebook used to be that private place where you share stuff with friends that you find hard to keep in contact with. Well, they are taking your private stuff and going public, giving advertisers and application developers full access to your private data, so they can make more money. It's like Facebook taking your data and selling them for pure profit. I won't dispute the fact that when you open an account, the legal statement you're forced to read states that FB owns all the data you posted on your profile. Well, sure it's fine the way they did it in the past. But now as they are going open, I am not comfortable with it.

It's a bait and switch tactic. Years ago, it's a locked down community. Facebook encouraged you to post as much private info as possible on the promise that your profile is only accessible to your friends. Thus you can control who sees what by going into the settings and choose who can see what, and make careful consideration when "Friending" someone. Well, not anymore. There's nothing wrong with going open. But sneakily playing bait and switch is just playing dirty.

I won't delete my profile as some friends are still using FB as an important contact tool. But I well be deleting most of my info, and avoiding posting stuff here. Photos would stay in my Flickr account as before, and all notes on the wall are synced from my blog as this one.

For Reference:
WIRED | Facebook's Gone Rogue

Saturday, May 08, 2010

跟老美唱歌

跟老美去卡啦OK bar唱歌還滿有趣的。

不同於亞洲人大多喜歡抒情歌,美國人覺得唱歌就是要大家同樂,所以就是要點high歌,最好是全場所有的可以很high的一同合唱、一同手舞足蹈的那種high歌。(當然,還要一同喝酒嚕,不喝酒還叫老美嗎?)

也難怪他們喜歡「卡啦OK bar」的形式而不是包廂形式,因為他們不管陌生人、好朋友都要一起同樂、一起high。

不過一直唱著80年代的超嗨芭樂歌,怎麼唱完有種「我好老」的感覺?!
(對啦,老子就是比較會唱老歌啦,年輕人的歌唱不慣啦XDDD)

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Ethiopia... notes

從首都Addis Ababa到咖啡產區Yirga Chefe似乎是可以4天內悠閒的騎到(若估一天100km)。這樣算起來若搞趕路模式的話2天就到了耶。中間還經過某個國家公園呢。
Gmaps路線
嘿嘿,越研究越心動,我想看世界最古老的咖啡儀式^^

機場現場辦理簽證$20USD也好方便呢

據說每個村落都有旅館、餐館,也許不用背帳篷睡袋呢。只是據說廉價旅館很多兼營酒館+妓院,似乎要帶耳塞吧XD

只是如何把單車帶上飛機、如何請多於兩週的假、如何弄到便宜機票、如何學會Amharic 56字母,都還是大挑戰。

中國觀光客喜歡青天白日滿地紅 T shirt


這麼有趣,原來中國觀光客喜歡青天白日滿地紅 T shirt阿

呵呵,政治敏感度來說,似乎跟去台灣買民進黨「勿通匪類」T shirt 的某位中國朋友有異曲同工之妙

不過怎麼我看覺得這國旗T會令我想到......「國葬」orz (身上蓋國旗不就是「為國捐軀」嗎?)

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

The curious story of Claritin

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/11/magazine/the-claritin-effect-prescription-for-profit.html?sec=health&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Some interesting bits...
- Claritin, sold at 10mg is shown to reduce allergies better then placebo. (Claritin v.s. placebo is 40% v.s. 30%, only a little better) An FDA scientist suggested that Claritin is more potent at 40mg, but at that dosage it's not "non-drowsy" any more. As "non-drowsy" is Claritin's main selling point, they sell at 10mg, where drowseyness is minimal, yet efficacy is also minimal XDD
- Claritin is one of the most strongly marketed drugs on the market. As on page 7 of the linked article quotes Marcia Angell from The New England Journal of Medicine: ''Marketing is meant to sell drugs, and the less important the drug, the more marketing it takes to sell it. Important new drugs do not need much promotion. Me-too drugs do.''

Interesting stuff indeed. No wonder Loratidine (the generic name of Claritin) never works for me, but Loratidine still makes me drowsy :D

Amharic

如果說日文五十音不好記,這個衣索比亞官方語言(唸作「阿嗎另亞」)56個字母更是大魔王orz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amharic_language

免費Amharic教學:
http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Amharic

小筆記:
Amharic 你懂嗎? = 阿嗎另亞 阿五嘎嚕?

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Time square car bomb suspect caught...

已經抓到了,好快,超驚人

一般這種大案件都習慣等幾個禮拜以上的新聞連續追蹤報導說...

這辦案效率之快簡直是讓案發到抓人之間發生的事件還不夠John Grisham寫一本小說XD

這次事件:
車子未爆提供大量線索->由引擎號查到車子原賣家->發現兇手拿來當汽車買賣聯絡用的email帳號還在用->從email帳號確認兇手身份->對國家安全局公佈追緝兇手->乘客名單比對在飛機上找到兇手
6個步驟逮人,真的是簡潔俐落呢

Sunday, May 02, 2010

RIP Continental Airlines

Continental, my favorite airline in the US, just got eaten alive by the one I hate the most: United.

I guess it's time to say good bye to clean-as-new cabins, comfortable seats and free airline food. The last US airline that treated passengers as real humans just died.

I guess all we can do is wish some foreign airline (like Virgin) expands it's flights in the US.

Update:
They've got a new website for this, turns out the new "United" would be using the Continental logo, how weird.... United CEO would take over as Chair while the Continental CEO carries out the actual operations. Let's see which company's culture is stronger. If Continental's attention to passenger comfort takes over at the new United, this might be a good thing.

Saturday, May 01, 2010

CNN interviews Taiwan's President Ma (馬英九)

CNN | Ma: Taiwan won't ask U.S. to fight China

CNN had a recent interview with President Ma, and I have to say, he is really good at giving a good talk. If you believe all that he says, you would be easily convinced that he has done an excellent job as president of Taiwan. Sadly, the reality shows that he is a politician of speech. The way he handles issues (by avoidance), the way he addresses the economic crisis (by neglect), all shows signs of an incompetent imbecile. The sad thing is that there is yet no viable alternative president candidate that seem better then this imbecile.