Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Chanakya -- The Indian Machiavelli
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanakya
Chānakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya Tamil: சாணக்கியன் Cāṇakiyan ) (c. 350–283 BCE) was an adviser to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupt (c. 340–293 BCE), and was the chief architect of his rise to power.
Chānakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya Tamil: சாணக்கியன் Cāṇakiyan ) (c. 350–283 BCE) was an adviser to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupt (c. 340–293 BCE), and was the chief architect of his rise to power.
Chanakya has been considered as the pioneer of the field of economics and political science.[2][3][4][5] In the Western world, he has been referred to as The Indian Machiavelli, although Chanakya's works predate Machiavelli's by about 1,800 years.
His works were lost near the end of the Gupta dynasty and not rediscovered until 1915.
The Arthashastra (IAST: Arthaśāstra) is an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategywhich identifies its author by the names Kautilya[1] and Viṣhṇugupta,[2] who are traditionally identified with Chāṇakya
Friday, December 17, 2010
Does history repeat itself?
All have the same question =)
+ Mark Twain
- "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
+ Zosimus, 5th century,
- "empires fell through internal disunity"
- Greece and Macedonia. In the case of each empire, growth had resulted from consolidation against an external enemy
- Rome herself, in response to Hannibal's threat posed at Cannae, had risen to great-power status within a mere five decades. With Rome's world dominion, however, aristocracy had been supplanted by a monarchy, which in turn had tended to decay into tyranny; after Augustus Caesar, good laws had alternated with tyrannical ones. Subsequently the Roman Empire, in its western and eastern sectors, had become a contending ground between contestants for power, while outside powers acquired an advantage.
+ Niccolò Machiavelli
- "when states have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline. In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend, and thus from good they gradually decline to evil and from evil mount up to good."
- The circle: virtù (valor and political effectiveness) => peace => idleness (ozio), idleness disorder, and disorder rovina (ruin) => order => glory and good fortune
- human nature as remarkably stable—steady enough for the formulation of rules of political behavior
--------------------------
Potential books
- The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought, G.W. Trompf
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000, Paul Kennedy
Monday, December 6, 2010
The tidy African national boundaries
I was wondering why African nations have such tidy boundaries.. where is the trace of nature?
(See the boundaries between
Italy & France, Switzerland, Austria
China & Pakistan, India, Nepal)
Then I found this
In the Scramble for Africa, national boundaries in sub-Saharan Africa were established by Europeans using latitude and longitude rather than natural borders. This separated population centres from their supplies of food and natural resources. The artificial borders of modern African states cut across cultural, tribal, linguistic and religious boundaries, creating ethnic and religious cleavages which impede national unity and induce internal violence.
Is this still sort of natural? since the tidy borders are mostly within Sahara.. -__-
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Story of Psychology notes II
+Sigmund Freud, Austrian
- both extravagantly praised and savagely castigated for his theories
- outsider, an isolated Jew in anti-Semitic Vienna, the son of an impoverished itinerant Jewish trader, lifelong anxiety about money, Godless Jew,
- The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud hypothesized that dreams fulfill wishes that would otherwise wake us and that their basic purpose is to enable us to continue sleeping. Freud said that whenever he had eaten salty food he dreamed of drinking in great gulps. But wish fulfillment of many dreams is far subtler. The unconscious mind disguises disturbing elements, transforming them into relatively innocuous ones.
- The dynamic unconscious, mind has three levels of functioning: conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious. The last was the largest and most influential part; far from being a warehouse of inactive material, it was an area of highly active and powerful primitive drives and forbidden wishes that constantly generated pressure on the conscious mind, in disguised or altered form, thereby motivating and determining much of our behavior.
- The structure of the psyche: conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious is too simple. Freud later depicted instead a tripartite psyche comprising id, ego, and superego. They are names of groups of mental processes that serve different functions. In the newborn, all mental processes are id processes, unconscious and primary. There is nothing akin to logical reasoning in the id; it is a cauldron of instinctual demands for the satisfaction of primitive desires having to do with self-preservation, sexuality and aggression.The demands of the id operate in accordance with the pleasure principle. Since social life would be impossible if the id directed behavior, child is trained and educated, the conscious mind understands, reasons and functions according to secondary-process thinking; this is ego, or self. Much of the ego, however, is not conscious. Many of its processes are preconscious - not repressed but not in the spotlight of attention (when a solution pops into mind seemingly from nowhere, it is because we were working on it all along). The preconscious operates many of our well-learned skills, freeing the conscious mind to use its limited attention elsewhere (like trained musician's figures automatically strike the right notes). In contrast, the superego, which monitors and censors the ego, is unconscious and critically important. Perceived commands like "you must not" or "you should" are transformed by identification into "I must not" or "I should". This mechanism turns all sorts of moral values into internalized and self-imposed rules; collectively, they form the "ego ideal" or superego, what we usually call conscience.
- Repression is the fundamental defense against all anxiety-producing wishes, memories or feelings, and the very bedrock of the psychological structure. The psyche finds adaptive ways to handle the repressed material. It does so by means of a number of other defenses unconsciously: denial, rationalization (acts out of one motive but justifies the act in terms of another that is more acceptable), reaction formation (exaggerating and displaying for all to see a trait exatcly opposite to the repressed one), displacement (directs repressed feelings towards an acceptable substitute, new wife who looks like dead wife), intellectualization (ostensibly intellectual interest in an impermissible desire), projection (attribute one's own unacceptable impulses to the object of those impulses, people who deny racial hatred may believe that persons of the other race hate them), sublimation (writing/performing, sublimations of the impulse to exhibit oneself; surgery, a noble transformation of the urge to do harm; athletic games, sublimations of aggression).
- A number of elements in Freudian psychology have recently been validated by contemporary neuroscience, making real his 1905 fantasy that psychological phenomena would someday be explicable in physical terms. Among them for instance, the major brain structures essential for forming conscious memories are not functional during the first two years of life (Freud called infantile amnesia, it is not we forget our earlier memories, we simply cannot recall them to consciousness).
+ Alfred Binet, IQ test
+ Here come the behaviorists
+ Thorndike and Pavlov
- two different principles of behaviorism: the laws of natural learning (the chickens' associating a particular color with the reward of the sweet-tasting corn, the cat's associating a step on the treadle with escape and food), and the laws of conditioning (the dog's salivating at the sound of the metronome, a stimulus artificially linked to the salivary reflex).
+ Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1947), Massachusetts, USA
- homely, lonely and painfully shy child who found satisfaction in his studies
- others classified him as functionalist, behaviorist, but he himself as neither
- studied under William James who approved his project on animals
- the cats had not learned to escape by means of reasoning or insight; rather, by trial and error they slowly eliminated useless movements and made the connection between the appropriate action and the desired goal (which Thorndike formulated a theory of "connectionism").
- although human behavior is vastly more sophisticated than that of cats, behaviorists argued that it is explicable by the same principles; the difference, Thorndike said, is simply that "the number, delicacy and complexity of cell structures" in the human brain make for a corresponding "number, delicacy, and complexity of associations". He even held that the reason human culture develops so slowly is that it is the result of trial-and-error learning with accidental success, the same method by which animals acquire associations.
+ Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian, physiologist
- born in Russian farming village, abandoned priesthood after reading Darwin's Origin of Species and Ivan Sechenov's Reflexes of the Brain
- "conditioned reflexes", dog's salivating, a psychologist would have called the conditioning process associative learning, but Pavlov explained it in physiological terms. he theorized tht an unconditioned response, such as salivating on taking food into the mouth, was a brain reflex: a direct connection existed between the sensory and motor nerves in the spine or lower brain centers. In contrast, a conditioned response, such as salivating at the sound of a bell or other formerly neutral stimulus, was the result of new reflexive pathways created by the conditioning process in the cortex of the brain.
- Timing. the sequence of the stimuli is critical. Only if the neutral stimulus precedes the unconditioned reflex.
- Extinction. Unlike the unconditioned reflex, the connection between a conditioned stimulus and a conditioned reflex is impermanent.
- Generalization. If the conditioned stimulus is slightly different (louder voice, brighter color), it still works.
- Differentiation. differentiate the noise and ignore.
- the fundamental unit of learning in animals and human beings: nothing but "a long chain of conditioned reflexes" whose acquisition, maintenance, and extinction were governed by the laws he discovered.
+ John B. Watson, South Carolina
- son of a petty farmer of violent nature and unsavory reputation. When he was thirteen, his father abandoned the family and ran off with another woman, like his father, violent when young
- somehow developed the desire to make something of himself and had the courage to request a personal interview with the president of Furman College, particularly liked those philosophy courses which included psychological subjects.
- did excellent work at University of Chicago and at thirty was offered the chair of psychology at Johns Hopkins University
- gifted huckster, energetically and skillfully peddled himself and his ideas to his colleagues, rose swiftly to the top of his profession while launching the behaviorist movement, and later, having been expelled from academia because of a sexual scandal, had a second and financially lucrative career as psychological adviser to a major advertising firm
- self-assured, flamboyant outside, insecure, afraid of the dark, emotionally frozen inside. reject introspection and self-revelation, dealt only with external acts.
- "the behaviorist manifesto", 1) the content of psychology should be behavior, not consciousness; 2) its method should be objective rather than introspective; 3) its purpose should be "prediction and control of behavior" rather than fundamental understanding of mental events.
- both extravagantly praised and savagely castigated for his theories
- outsider, an isolated Jew in anti-Semitic Vienna, the son of an impoverished itinerant Jewish trader, lifelong anxiety about money, Godless Jew,
- The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud hypothesized that dreams fulfill wishes that would otherwise wake us and that their basic purpose is to enable us to continue sleeping. Freud said that whenever he had eaten salty food he dreamed of drinking in great gulps. But wish fulfillment of many dreams is far subtler. The unconscious mind disguises disturbing elements, transforming them into relatively innocuous ones.
- The dynamic unconscious, mind has three levels of functioning: conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious. The last was the largest and most influential part; far from being a warehouse of inactive material, it was an area of highly active and powerful primitive drives and forbidden wishes that constantly generated pressure on the conscious mind, in disguised or altered form, thereby motivating and determining much of our behavior.
- The structure of the psyche: conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious is too simple. Freud later depicted instead a tripartite psyche comprising id, ego, and superego. They are names of groups of mental processes that serve different functions. In the newborn, all mental processes are id processes, unconscious and primary. There is nothing akin to logical reasoning in the id; it is a cauldron of instinctual demands for the satisfaction of primitive desires having to do with self-preservation, sexuality and aggression.The demands of the id operate in accordance with the pleasure principle. Since social life would be impossible if the id directed behavior, child is trained and educated, the conscious mind understands, reasons and functions according to secondary-process thinking; this is ego, or self. Much of the ego, however, is not conscious. Many of its processes are preconscious - not repressed but not in the spotlight of attention (when a solution pops into mind seemingly from nowhere, it is because we were working on it all along). The preconscious operates many of our well-learned skills, freeing the conscious mind to use its limited attention elsewhere (like trained musician's figures automatically strike the right notes). In contrast, the superego, which monitors and censors the ego, is unconscious and critically important. Perceived commands like "you must not" or "you should" are transformed by identification into "I must not" or "I should". This mechanism turns all sorts of moral values into internalized and self-imposed rules; collectively, they form the "ego ideal" or superego, what we usually call conscience.
- Repression is the fundamental defense against all anxiety-producing wishes, memories or feelings, and the very bedrock of the psychological structure. The psyche finds adaptive ways to handle the repressed material. It does so by means of a number of other defenses unconsciously: denial, rationalization (acts out of one motive but justifies the act in terms of another that is more acceptable), reaction formation (exaggerating and displaying for all to see a trait exatcly opposite to the repressed one), displacement (directs repressed feelings towards an acceptable substitute, new wife who looks like dead wife), intellectualization (ostensibly intellectual interest in an impermissible desire), projection (attribute one's own unacceptable impulses to the object of those impulses, people who deny racial hatred may believe that persons of the other race hate them), sublimation (writing/performing, sublimations of the impulse to exhibit oneself; surgery, a noble transformation of the urge to do harm; athletic games, sublimations of aggression).
- A number of elements in Freudian psychology have recently been validated by contemporary neuroscience, making real his 1905 fantasy that psychological phenomena would someday be explicable in physical terms. Among them for instance, the major brain structures essential for forming conscious memories are not functional during the first two years of life (Freud called infantile amnesia, it is not we forget our earlier memories, we simply cannot recall them to consciousness).
+ Alfred Binet, IQ test
+ Here come the behaviorists
+ Thorndike and Pavlov
- two different principles of behaviorism: the laws of natural learning (the chickens' associating a particular color with the reward of the sweet-tasting corn, the cat's associating a step on the treadle with escape and food), and the laws of conditioning (the dog's salivating at the sound of the metronome, a stimulus artificially linked to the salivary reflex).
+ Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1947), Massachusetts, USA
- homely, lonely and painfully shy child who found satisfaction in his studies
- others classified him as functionalist, behaviorist, but he himself as neither
- studied under William James who approved his project on animals
- the cats had not learned to escape by means of reasoning or insight; rather, by trial and error they slowly eliminated useless movements and made the connection between the appropriate action and the desired goal (which Thorndike formulated a theory of "connectionism").
- although human behavior is vastly more sophisticated than that of cats, behaviorists argued that it is explicable by the same principles; the difference, Thorndike said, is simply that "the number, delicacy and complexity of cell structures" in the human brain make for a corresponding "number, delicacy, and complexity of associations". He even held that the reason human culture develops so slowly is that it is the result of trial-and-error learning with accidental success, the same method by which animals acquire associations.
+ Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian, physiologist
- born in Russian farming village, abandoned priesthood after reading Darwin's Origin of Species and Ivan Sechenov's Reflexes of the Brain
- "conditioned reflexes", dog's salivating, a psychologist would have called the conditioning process associative learning, but Pavlov explained it in physiological terms. he theorized tht an unconditioned response, such as salivating on taking food into the mouth, was a brain reflex: a direct connection existed between the sensory and motor nerves in the spine or lower brain centers. In contrast, a conditioned response, such as salivating at the sound of a bell or other formerly neutral stimulus, was the result of new reflexive pathways created by the conditioning process in the cortex of the brain.
- Timing. the sequence of the stimuli is critical. Only if the neutral stimulus precedes the unconditioned reflex.
- Extinction. Unlike the unconditioned reflex, the connection between a conditioned stimulus and a conditioned reflex is impermanent.
- Generalization. If the conditioned stimulus is slightly different (louder voice, brighter color), it still works.
- Differentiation. differentiate the noise and ignore.
- the fundamental unit of learning in animals and human beings: nothing but "a long chain of conditioned reflexes" whose acquisition, maintenance, and extinction were governed by the laws he discovered.
+ John B. Watson, South Carolina
- son of a petty farmer of violent nature and unsavory reputation. When he was thirteen, his father abandoned the family and ran off with another woman, like his father, violent when young
- somehow developed the desire to make something of himself and had the courage to request a personal interview with the president of Furman College, particularly liked those philosophy courses which included psychological subjects.
- did excellent work at University of Chicago and at thirty was offered the chair of psychology at Johns Hopkins University
- gifted huckster, energetically and skillfully peddled himself and his ideas to his colleagues, rose swiftly to the top of his profession while launching the behaviorist movement, and later, having been expelled from academia because of a sexual scandal, had a second and financially lucrative career as psychological adviser to a major advertising firm
- self-assured, flamboyant outside, insecure, afraid of the dark, emotionally frozen inside. reject introspection and self-revelation, dealt only with external acts.
- "the behaviorist manifesto", 1) the content of psychology should be behavior, not consciousness; 2) its method should be objective rather than introspective; 3) its purpose should be "prediction and control of behavior" rather than fundamental understanding of mental events.
- infants have three innate emotional responses to certain stimuli: fear at hearing a loud sound or at suddenly being dropped; rage when its arm or head movements are forcibly restrained; and love when stroked, rocked, gently patted, and the like.
- "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."
+ "B.F. Skinner (1904-1990), neobehaviorist, Pennsylvania
- "subjective entities" such as mind, thought, memory, and reasoning do not exist but are only "verbal constructs, grammatical traps into which the human race in the development of language has fallen"
- he considered theory of learning unnecessary, everything we do and are is determined by our history of rewards and punishments
- on his very first TV appearance he posed a dilemma originally propounded by Montaigne -- "Would you, if you had to choose, burn your children or your books?" -- and said he himself would burn his children, since his contribution to the future would be greater through his work than through his genes.
- "We do not need to try to discover what personalities, states of mind, feelings, traits of character, plans, purposes, intentions, or other perquisites of autonomous man really are in order to get on with a scientific analysis of behavior... Thinking is behaving. The mistake is in allocating the behavior to the mind."
- "We are what we are because of our history. We like to believe we can choose, we can act... [but] I don't believe a person is either free or responsible." The "autonomous" human being is an illusion the good person is one who has been conditioned to behave that way, and the good society would be one based on "behavioral engineering" -- the scientific control of behavior through methods of positive reinforcement.
- Walden Two (1948), his vision of the ideal, scientifically controlled society in the form of a Utopian. The book became a cult book with undergraduates, and has sold well over two million copies.
- "operant conditioning", in "classical conditioning" (Pavlov's), the crucial element in the behavior change is the new stimulus (dog salivating); in "instrumental conditioning" (Thorndike's), the crucial element in behavior change is the response (accidental stepping on the treadle); in "operant conditioning", by rewarding a series of little random movements, one by one, the experimenter can shape the behavior of the animal until it acts in ways that were not part of its original or natural repertoire.
- human being -- a mindless robot assembled by operant conditioning from a multitude of meaningless bits.
- instant rewarding, powerful reinforcer of behavior, used in school and mental hospital
+ Problems with Behaviorism
- The failure of universal learning: different species has its own built-in circuitry that enables it to learn some things easily and instinctively, others with difficulty, and still others not at all
- purposive thinking? at the beginning of an extinction trial an animal would respond to the stimulus with greater vigor than it had during a long series of reinforcements. (in Behaviorism, the response should fade because no stimulus)
+ Here come the Gestaltists in Germany
+ 1890, Christian von Ehrenfels, an Austrian psychologist, pointed out that when a melody is transposed, every note is changed, yet we hear the very same melody. He explained that we recognize the sameness of relations among the parts of the whole -- what he called the melody's Gestaltqualitat or "form quality," a crucial characteristic perceived by the mind, rather than the ears.
+ 1897, Ernst Mach, a physicist noted that when we see a circle at different angles, it seems circular to us even though it looks ellipsoidal to a camera. The image on the retina changes but the inner experience of seeing a table does not.
+ The three men of Gestalt: Wertheimer, the "intellectual father, thinker, and innovator," Koffka "the salesman of the group", and Kohler "the inside man, the doer". In only ten years, breached the defenses of Wundtian psychology and established the legitimacy of their new mentalism -- a psychology of the mind based on demonstrations and experimental evidence rather than on rationalist arguments and metaphysical speculations.
+ Maz Wertheimer, Prague
- On a train, Wertheimer noticed the illusion that distant telegraph poles, houses, and hilltops, though stationary, seemed to be speeding along with train. Why?
- the illusion of motion takes place not at the level of sensation, in the retina, but of perception, in the mind, where incoming discrete sensations are seen as an organized unity with a meaning of its own. Wertheimer called such an overall perception a Gestalt, a German word that means form, shape, or configuration but that he used to mean a set of sensations perceived as a meaningful whole.
- our mental operations consist chiefly of Gestalten rather than strings of associated sensations and impressions, as followers of Wundt and associationists believed. A Gestalt, he said, was not a mere accumulation of associated bits but a structure with an identity; it was different from and more than the sum of its parts. The acquisition of knowledge often took place through a process of "centering" or structuring and thereby seeing things as an orderly whole.
- laws of Gestalten. Proximity: when we see a number of similar objects, we tend to perceive them as groups (e.g., 323-845-7451); Similarity: when similar and dissimilar objects are mingled, we see the similar ones as groups (e.g., 11 00 1111 0000 11); Continuation of direction: in many patterns, we tend to see lines that have a coherent continuation or direction (e.g., "hidden figure" puzzles); Pragnaz: we tend to see the simplest shape; Closure: special case of laws of Pragnaz, when we see a familiar or coherent pattern with some missing parts, we fill them in and perceive the simplest and best Gestalt; Figure-ground perception: when we pay attention to an object, we see little or nothing of the background; Size constancy: an object of known size, when far off, projects a tiny image on the retina, yet we sense its real size.
+ Kohler
- famous chimpanzee studies, Kohler created a number of different problems for his apes to solve. The simplest were detour problems (no trouble for apes). More complicated were tool problems. Some chimpanzees took a long time to see that boxes could be used to reach the bananas, and they never did use them well. Others, clearly smarter, learned to stack boxes even when it took more than two boxes. The ape would seem to suddenly see a solution at some juncture and Kohler called the sudden discovery"insight" (like Gauss's insight on 1+2+...+100), and defined it as "the appearance of a complete solution with reference to the whole layout of the problem", obviously quite a different process from the trial-and-error learning of Thorndike's cats.
- "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."
+ "B.F. Skinner (1904-1990), neobehaviorist, Pennsylvania
- "subjective entities" such as mind, thought, memory, and reasoning do not exist but are only "verbal constructs, grammatical traps into which the human race in the development of language has fallen"
- he considered theory of learning unnecessary, everything we do and are is determined by our history of rewards and punishments
- on his very first TV appearance he posed a dilemma originally propounded by Montaigne -- "Would you, if you had to choose, burn your children or your books?" -- and said he himself would burn his children, since his contribution to the future would be greater through his work than through his genes.
- "We do not need to try to discover what personalities, states of mind, feelings, traits of character, plans, purposes, intentions, or other perquisites of autonomous man really are in order to get on with a scientific analysis of behavior... Thinking is behaving. The mistake is in allocating the behavior to the mind."
- "We are what we are because of our history. We like to believe we can choose, we can act... [but] I don't believe a person is either free or responsible." The "autonomous" human being is an illusion the good person is one who has been conditioned to behave that way, and the good society would be one based on "behavioral engineering" -- the scientific control of behavior through methods of positive reinforcement.
- Walden Two (1948), his vision of the ideal, scientifically controlled society in the form of a Utopian. The book became a cult book with undergraduates, and has sold well over two million copies.
- "operant conditioning", in "classical conditioning" (Pavlov's), the crucial element in the behavior change is the new stimulus (dog salivating); in "instrumental conditioning" (Thorndike's), the crucial element in behavior change is the response (accidental stepping on the treadle); in "operant conditioning", by rewarding a series of little random movements, one by one, the experimenter can shape the behavior of the animal until it acts in ways that were not part of its original or natural repertoire.
- human being -- a mindless robot assembled by operant conditioning from a multitude of meaningless bits.
- instant rewarding, powerful reinforcer of behavior, used in school and mental hospital
+ Problems with Behaviorism
- The failure of universal learning: different species has its own built-in circuitry that enables it to learn some things easily and instinctively, others with difficulty, and still others not at all
- purposive thinking? at the beginning of an extinction trial an animal would respond to the stimulus with greater vigor than it had during a long series of reinforcements. (in Behaviorism, the response should fade because no stimulus)
+ Here come the Gestaltists in Germany
+ 1890, Christian von Ehrenfels, an Austrian psychologist, pointed out that when a melody is transposed, every note is changed, yet we hear the very same melody. He explained that we recognize the sameness of relations among the parts of the whole -- what he called the melody's Gestaltqualitat or "form quality," a crucial characteristic perceived by the mind, rather than the ears.
+ 1897, Ernst Mach, a physicist noted that when we see a circle at different angles, it seems circular to us even though it looks ellipsoidal to a camera. The image on the retina changes but the inner experience of seeing a table does not.
+ The three men of Gestalt: Wertheimer, the "intellectual father, thinker, and innovator," Koffka "the salesman of the group", and Kohler "the inside man, the doer". In only ten years, breached the defenses of Wundtian psychology and established the legitimacy of their new mentalism -- a psychology of the mind based on demonstrations and experimental evidence rather than on rationalist arguments and metaphysical speculations.
+ Maz Wertheimer, Prague
- On a train, Wertheimer noticed the illusion that distant telegraph poles, houses, and hilltops, though stationary, seemed to be speeding along with train. Why?
- the illusion of motion takes place not at the level of sensation, in the retina, but of perception, in the mind, where incoming discrete sensations are seen as an organized unity with a meaning of its own. Wertheimer called such an overall perception a Gestalt, a German word that means form, shape, or configuration but that he used to mean a set of sensations perceived as a meaningful whole.
- our mental operations consist chiefly of Gestalten rather than strings of associated sensations and impressions, as followers of Wundt and associationists believed. A Gestalt, he said, was not a mere accumulation of associated bits but a structure with an identity; it was different from and more than the sum of its parts. The acquisition of knowledge often took place through a process of "centering" or structuring and thereby seeing things as an orderly whole.
- laws of Gestalten. Proximity: when we see a number of similar objects, we tend to perceive them as groups (e.g., 323-845-7451); Similarity: when similar and dissimilar objects are mingled, we see the similar ones as groups (e.g., 11 00 1111 0000 11); Continuation of direction: in many patterns, we tend to see lines that have a coherent continuation or direction (e.g., "hidden figure" puzzles); Pragnaz: we tend to see the simplest shape; Closure: special case of laws of Pragnaz, when we see a familiar or coherent pattern with some missing parts, we fill them in and perceive the simplest and best Gestalt; Figure-ground perception: when we pay attention to an object, we see little or nothing of the background; Size constancy: an object of known size, when far off, projects a tiny image on the retina, yet we sense its real size.
+ Kohler
- famous chimpanzee studies, Kohler created a number of different problems for his apes to solve. The simplest were detour problems (no trouble for apes). More complicated were tool problems. Some chimpanzees took a long time to see that boxes could be used to reach the bananas, and they never did use them well. Others, clearly smarter, learned to stack boxes even when it took more than two boxes. The ape would seem to suddenly see a solution at some juncture and Kohler called the sudden discovery"insight" (like Gauss's insight on 1+2+...+100), and defined it as "the appearance of a complete solution with reference to the whole layout of the problem", obviously quite a different process from the trial-and-error learning of Thorndike's cats.
- insight thinking does not take place in simpler animals. girl>dog>chicken
- insight learning does not depend on rewards, as did the stimulus-response learning of Thorndike's cats. The chimpanzees were, of course, seeking a reward, but their learning was not brought about by the reward; they solved the problem before eating the fruit.
- another finding is that when animals achieved an insight, they learned more than the solution to that particular problem; they were able to generalize and apply the solution in modified form to different problems (deductive reasoning?).
- chicken experiment: the chickens had learned to associate food not with a specific color but with a relationship of two backgrounds. The animals and humans perceive and learn nearly everything in terms of relationships. This object stands on top of that one, is between two others, is bigger than, smaller than, earlier or later than another, and so on.
+ Karl Duncker,
- studied with borh Wertheimer and Kohler at Berlin
- deeply depressed by the outbreak of war, committed suicide in 1940
- Education creates expertise but also functional fixedness (similar to Freud's preconscious?). An expert sees the tools he has at hand in terms of the functions he knows they serve a neophyte may, while coming up with uninformed and even absurd suggestions, see them more creatively.
+ Koffka
- instinctive behavior is not a chain of reflexive responses mechanically triggered by a stimulus; rather, it is a group or pattern of reflexes -- A Gestalt imposed by the creature on its own actions -- aimed at achieving a particular goal.
- against the behaviorist doctrine that all learning consists of chains of associations created by rewards, Koffka argued the much learning takes place through the processes of organization and reorganization in the mind in advance of reward. But the exact cause of those organizing processes, he admitted, was not yet known.
- The theory of organization: "psychophysical" forces inherent in the brain -- neuronal energy fields -- act like the force fields else where in nature that always seek the simplest or best-fitting configuration. Hence the mind's tendency to construct and reconstruct information in the form of "good Gestalten".
- Memory hypothesis: physiological basis of memory is the formation of "traces" in the central nervous system -- permanent neutral changes induced by experience. Another keen guess, unlike associationism, which said that new experiences are merely added to old ones, Koffka said that new experiences interact with traces, and that this interaction is the cause of mental development.
To be continued from Part Three: Specialization and Synthesis..
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The Story of Psychology notes I
+ 1st psychological experiment, 700BC
- Psamtik I, King of Egypt
- hypothesis: If children had no opportunity to learn a language from older people, they would spontaneously speak the primal, inborn language of humankind.
- result: success
+ ancient people believed that their thoughts, visions and dreams were messages from the gods. (e.g., Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire)
+ lawgiver Solon and philosopher Thales (two of the seven sages of Greece) proposed rational mind, saying a man's nous (soul/mind) is trained in all things at age forty.
- Psamtik I, King of Egypt
- hypothesis: If children had no opportunity to learn a language from older people, they would spontaneously speak the primal, inborn language of humankind.
- result: success
+ ancient people believed that their thoughts, visions and dreams were messages from the gods. (e.g., Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire)
+ lawgiver Solon and philosopher Thales (two of the seven sages of Greece) proposed rational mind, saying a man's nous (soul/mind) is trained in all things at age forty.
+ Democritus
- first man guess that all matter is composed of invisible particles (atoms) of different shapes linked together in different combinations
- knowledge is from perception, perception is the interaction of atoms
+ Socrates
- teaching technique, known as dialectic, first used by Zeno, "to educate" comes from Latin meaning "to lead out"
+ Plato
- Theory of Ideas: we bring eternal ideas with us when we are born. When we see objects in material world, we remember our ideas (abstract, generalized rules)
+ Aristotle
- differ with Plato (saying soul is born with knowledge), sensation brings us perceptions of the world, memory permits us to store those perceptions, imagination enables us to re-create from memory mental images corresponding to perceptions, and from accumulated images we derive general ideas.
+ After Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), not much has been developed till 17th century.
- During this long period, St. Augustine (Plato-like) and St. Aquinas (Aristotle-like) tried to adapt old philosophy into Christianity.
- 14th century, people believed their thoughts and dreams following Christian doctrine are messages from God/Angels, while the "evil" thoughts and dreams are from the Devil. (This is what ancient people did as well)
+ Descartes, French, rationalist
- physically weak, lots of time remained in bed when young
- "I think, therefore I am" proves my existence
- ideas are from perceptions, but some of them are innate since they cannot be experienced, "perfection", "substance", "quality", "unity", "infinity". These innate ideas need to be discovered through experience, that's why we need examples to understand abstract ideas.
+ Spinoza, Dutch, rationalist
- God = universe and all the mind and matter in it
- most basic of human motives is self-preservation
+ debate between nativists (Plato-like, innate ideas) and empiricists (Aristotle-like, no innate ideas) again happened in 17th century. Most English philosophers are empiricists.
+ Hobbes, English, empiricists
- "Myself and fear were born twins"
- tall, handsome, lively, friendly, and exceptionally healthy
- all men are by nature enemy of all other men, can live in peace only through autocratic government, preferably a monarchy. Without such ruling power, life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short".
- visited Galileo, impressed by his physics. Hobbes reasoned that all mental activities must be motions of atoms in the nervous system and brain reacting to motions of atoms in the external world.
- materialist, nothing is incorporeal, complex thoughts are derived from simple thoughts, simple thoughts are from sensations
+ Locke, English, empiricists
- two sources of ideas: sensation and reflection (mind's own operations on whatever it acquired, such as comparison)
+ not much development in 18th century, either rationalist-nativists in Cartesian tradition or empiricist-associationists in Hobbist-Lockean tradition.
+ Hume, Scottish, empiricist
- main purpose writing the Treatise was to develop a moral philosophy based on the science of man, meaning psychology
- association: how to get complex/abstract ideas from simple perceptions? 3 forms: resemblance, contiguity in time and place, and cause/effect.
- assault on the concept of causality: we cannot experience causality directly and therefore cannot know what it is or even prove that it exists. We know only that certain events seem always, or almost always, to be followed by certain others, and we therefore infer that the first causes the second.
+ Empiricist-Associationists reducing the major mental processes to perception and association, was not able to explain high-level mental phenomena as consciousness, reasoning, speech, unconscious thought, problem solving and creativity, and was not able to explain abstract ideas with no perceptual basis, such as virtue, soul, non-being, possibility, necessity, or the non-dimensionality of a point in geometry.
+ Locke, English, empiricists
- two sources of ideas: sensation and reflection (mind's own operations on whatever it acquired, such as comparison)
+ not much development in 18th century, either rationalist-nativists in Cartesian tradition or empiricist-associationists in Hobbist-Lockean tradition.
+ Hume, Scottish, empiricist
- main purpose writing the Treatise was to develop a moral philosophy based on the science of man, meaning psychology
- association: how to get complex/abstract ideas from simple perceptions? 3 forms: resemblance, contiguity in time and place, and cause/effect.
- assault on the concept of causality: we cannot experience causality directly and therefore cannot know what it is or even prove that it exists. We know only that certain events seem always, or almost always, to be followed by certain others, and we therefore infer that the first causes the second.
+ Empiricist-Associationists reducing the major mental processes to perception and association, was not able to explain high-level mental phenomena as consciousness, reasoning, speech, unconscious thought, problem solving and creativity, and was not able to explain abstract ideas with no perceptual basis, such as virtue, soul, non-being, possibility, necessity, or the non-dimensionality of a point in geometry.
+ Kant, German
- we make judgments about sensations by means of other innate ideas (Kant's "categories"): unity, totality, reality, cause and effect, reciprocity, existence, and necessity. Without them we have no way of making sense of the chaotic mass of our perceptions. (Noam Chomsky's theory of the innate capacity of the child's mind to comprehend the syntax of spoken language)
+ The Physicalists are the ancestors of cognitive neuroscientists, such as the Skull Reader: Gall, Specific Nerve Energy: Muller, and the ones below.
+ Weber, German
- just noticeable difference, delta(R)/R = k, vision is the most sensitive, k=1/60; pain, k=1/30; pitch perception, 1/10; smell, 1/4; taste, 1/3.
+ Helmholtz, German, 19th
- shy, serious, major interest was physics, goal was to explain perception in terms of the physics of the sense organs and nervous system, admire Newton, but unlike him, courteous, generous, remarkably normal middle-class
- "The conservation of Force"
- some time taken by responses involving cognitive activity was spent by the activity.
- human vision can detect primary colors and hypothesize that retina must have three different kinds of receptor cells
- "our ideas of things cannot be anything but symbols, natural signs for things that we learn how to use in order to regulate our movements and actions" (similar to Aristotle)
- sensation and perception: sensation (the excitation of the retina's rods by light of whatever color, and the resultant impulses of the optic nerves), perception (the meaningful interpretations the mind makes of the arriving impulses).
- Disagree with Kant that the mind innately possesses "categories", the "categories" are learnt through trial and error. We learn about space by means of unconscious inference (every parent who has watched a baby trying to grasp object knows this). Used glasses to do experiments.
- Agree with Kant we innately possess the ability to interpret cause-and-effect relationships.
- Influenced the mainstream of psychology to experimental direction.
+ William James, American
- dress in what was informal garb for a professor, friendly, charming, outgoing, so vivacious& humorous that student interrupted and asked him to be serious for a moment
- complex personality: strong yet intermittently frail, hardworking yet sociable, joyous but given to spells of melancholy, frivolous but profoundly serious, kind to students and loving to his family but easily bored and exasperated.
- born in NYC in 1842, child of privilege and by all odds should have become a playboy. But his father, Henry James, broadened William's education and experience.
- at age 28, he had an emotional crisis, a horrible fear of my own existence. He was particularly troubled by the German physiologists' mechanistic vision of the world, the scientific equivalent of the Calvinistic determinism him own father had rebelled against. If mechanism gave a true picture of the mind, then all his thoughts, desires, and volitions were no more than the predetermined interactions of physical particles. Finally, he was freed from his depression by reading an essay on free will by Charles Renouvier. "My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will. I will go a step further with my will, not only act with it, but believe as well; believe in my individual reality and creative power". (when you are in doubt of something and you cannot find an answer, you have to choose to believe to live on)
- Effort of attention is thus the essential phenomenon of will
- the mind is a cause of behaviour, not an automaton responding passively to outside influences. Voluntary action implies freedom of the will.
- To believe in total determinism would make us passive and impotent; to believe in free will allows us to consider alternatives, to plan and to act on our plans. It is thus practical and realistic.
- Emotion: the emotion we feel is not the cause of bodily symptoms as a racing heart or sweaty palms; rather, the nervous system, reacting to an external stimulus, produces those physical symptoms, and our perception of them is what we call an emotion. (later showed to be faulty though, but it has practical applications, we exercising to get rid of depression, count 1-10 to control rage)
To be continued from Sigmund Freud.. -_-||
- Effort of attention is thus the essential phenomenon of will
- the mind is a cause of behaviour, not an automaton responding passively to outside influences. Voluntary action implies freedom of the will.
- To believe in total determinism would make us passive and impotent; to believe in free will allows us to consider alternatives, to plan and to act on our plans. It is thus practical and realistic.
- Emotion: the emotion we feel is not the cause of bodily symptoms as a racing heart or sweaty palms; rather, the nervous system, reacting to an external stimulus, produces those physical symptoms, and our perception of them is what we call an emotion. (later showed to be faulty though, but it has practical applications, we exercising to get rid of depression, count 1-10 to control rage)
To be continued from Sigmund Freud.. -_-||
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The fearless kind
What makes people fearless?
Is the one who wants nothing fearless? like the ascetic monks who deliberately extinguish their natural fire.
Is the one who wants something but believe his wants will never be lost fearless? like the martyrs who believe their faith party will never betray them.
Is the one who is so innocent that he believes the world turns around him fearless? like the 3 year old boy whose goal is to conquer the whole world.
Is the one who is so optimistic (or perhaps dumb) that he believes nothing he cannot acquire fearless? like the hardworking guy who tried again and again and again.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Berkeley Book List - Psychology and Cognitive Science
http://books.berkeley.edu/2003/psychology.shtml
John F. Kihlstrom, professor, Psychology
The Story of Psychology, Morton Hunt, Doubleday, 1993
The Mind's New Science, A History of the Cognitive Revolution, H. Gardner, Basic Books, 1985
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language,Steven Pinker, Morrow, 1994
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, Judith Rich Harris, Touchstone, 1999
House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth, Robyn M. Dawes, Free Press, 1994
The Oxford Companion to the Mind, ed. by Richard J. Gregory, Oxford University Press, 1987
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
I feel lucky
for meeting so many great people,
especially the ones I spent lots of time with. =)
Thanks to the ones being patient&understanding to me.
You give me confidence and strength to marching ahead.
Thanks to the ones being non-patient&direct to me.
You alert me, treat me as an independent person, and push me forward.
especially the ones I spent lots of time with. =)
Thanks to the ones being patient&understanding to me.
You give me confidence and strength to marching ahead.
Thanks to the ones being non-patient&direct to me.
You alert me, treat me as an independent person, and push me forward.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Cows, Vegetarian, Protein
I eat much less meat than before. So I begin to worry, would I lack enough protein? This worry drove me go online and search "How do vegetarians get protein?" The fancy web gave me answers including "dairy products, eggs, beans, and nuts".
Fine, I'll eat those stuff. But wait a minute, how do cows get protein?
Isn't it that they just eat grass?? Oh, no, I remembered a lot of corn produced in US are fed to cattle as well. Okay, let me find out what else they eat.
After checking out Wikipedia, yes, cows do eat corn (or silage), and even beans (or more appropriate, legumes)! hmm.. interesting.. however..
"For pasture-fed animals, grass is the forage that composes all or at least the great majority of their diet."
Eh.. doesn't this mean that there still exist certain cows only eating grass? And it turns out people even have debated over what should be fed to cattle. It seems that the more grass the cow eat, the more organic it is.
Okay, now we do have cows only eating grass, and the question became "How do the grassarian cows get protein?"
I went online and search for the answers again. Yahoo answer gave me this page, and Baidu zhidao gave me this page. Basically they are saying that our stomach is not as good as the cows', and cows can even convert certain things in grass to protein.
Now I found the scientific answer, but I also want to mention the funniest answer which is:
"你真傻，牛B嘛"
Fine, I'll eat those stuff. But wait a minute, how do cows get protein?
Isn't it that they just eat grass?? Oh, no, I remembered a lot of corn produced in US are fed to cattle as well. Okay, let me find out what else they eat.
After checking out Wikipedia, yes, cows do eat corn (or silage), and even beans (or more appropriate, legumes)! hmm.. interesting.. however..
"For pasture-fed animals, grass is the forage that composes all or at least the great majority of their diet."
Eh.. doesn't this mean that there still exist certain cows only eating grass? And it turns out people even have debated over what should be fed to cattle. It seems that the more grass the cow eat, the more organic it is.
Okay, now we do have cows only eating grass, and the question became "How do the grassarian cows get protein?"
I went online and search for the answers again. Yahoo answer gave me this page, and Baidu zhidao gave me this page. Basically they are saying that our stomach is not as good as the cows', and cows can even convert certain things in grass to protein.
Now I found the scientific answer, but I also want to mention the funniest answer which is:
"你真傻，牛B嘛"
Friday, April 9, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
A Theory of Human Motivation
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm?guid=on
Homeostasis refers to the body's automatic efforts to maintain a constant, normal state of the blood stream. Cannon (2) has described this process for (1) the water content of the blood, (2) salt content, (3) sugar content, (4) protein content, (5) fat content, (6) calcium content, (7) oxygen content, (8) constant hydrogen-ion level (acid-base balance) and (9) constant temperature of the blood. Obviously this list can be extended to include other minerals, the hormones, vitamins, etc.
Young in a recent article (21) has summarized the work on appetite in its relation to body needs. If the body lacks some chemical, the individual will tend to develop a specific appetite or partial hunger for that food element.
Undoubtedly these physiological needs are the most pre-potent of all needs.
The physiological needs, along with their partial goals, when chronically gratified cease to exist as active determinants or organizers of behavior. They now exist only in a potential fashion in the sense that they may emerge again to dominate the organism if they are thwarted. But a want that is satisfied is no longer a want. The organism is dominated and its behavior organized only by unsatisfied needs. If hunger is satisfied, it becomes unimportant in the current dynamics of the individual.
Another indication of the child's need for safety is his preference for some kind of undisrupted routine or rhythm. He seems to want a predictable, orderly world. For instance, injustice, unfairness, or inconsistency in the parents seems to make a child feel anxious and unsafe. This attitude may be not so much because of the injustice per se or any particular pains involved, but rather because this treatment threatens to make the world look unreliable, or unsafe, or unpredictable.
There are certain conditions which are immediate prerequisites for the basic need satisfactions. Danger to these is reacted to almost as if it were a direct danger to the basic needs themselves. Such conditions as freedom to speak, freedom to do what one wishes so long as no harm is done to others, freedom to express one's self, freedom to investigate and seek for information, freedom to defend one's self, justice, fairness, honesty, orderliness in the group are examples of such preconditions for basic need satisfactions. Thwarting in these freedoms will be reacted to with a threat or emergency response.
If we remember that the cognitive capacities (perceptual, intellectual, learning) are a set of adjustive tools, which have, among other functions, that of satisfaction of our basic needs, then it is clear that any danger to them, any deprivation or blocking of their free use, must also be indirectly threatening to the basic needs themselves. Such a statement is a partial solution of the general problems of curiosity, the search for knowledge, truth and wisdom, and the ever-persistent urge to solve the cosmic mysteries.
We must therefore introduce another hypothesis and speak of degrees of closeness to the basic needs, for we have already pointed out that any conscious desires (partial goals) are more or less important as they are more or less close to the basic needs.
There are some people in whom, for instance, self-esteem seems to be more important than love. This most common reversal in the hierarchy is usually due to the development of the notion that the person who is most likely to be loved is a strong or powerful person, one who inspires respect or fear, and who is self confident or aggressive.
Another cause of reversal of the hierarchy is that when a need has been satisfied for a long time, this need may be underevaluated. People who have never experienced chronic hunger are apt to underestimate its effects and to look upon food as a rather unimportant thing.
Perhaps more important than all these exceptions are the ones that involve ideals, high social standards, high values and the like. With such values people become martyrs; they give up everything for the sake of a particular ideal, or value. These people may be understood, at least in part, by reference to one basic concept (or hypothesis) which may be called 'increased frustration-tolerance through early gratification'. People who have been satisfied in their basic needs throughout their lives, particularly in their earlier years, seem to develop exceptional power to withstand present or future thwarting of these needs simply because they have strong,[p. 388] healthy character structure as a result of basic satisfaction. They are the 'strong' people who can easily weather disagreement or opposition, who can swim against the stream of public opinion and who can stand up for the truth at great personal cost. It is just the ones who have loved and been well loved, and who have had many deep friendships who can hold out against hatred, rejection or persecution.
Homeostasis refers to the body's automatic efforts to maintain a constant, normal state of the blood stream. Cannon (2) has described this process for (1) the water content of the blood, (2) salt content, (3) sugar content, (4) protein content, (5) fat content, (6) calcium content, (7) oxygen content, (8) constant hydrogen-ion level (acid-base balance) and (9) constant temperature of the blood. Obviously this list can be extended to include other minerals, the hormones, vitamins, etc.
Young in a recent article (21) has summarized the work on appetite in its relation to body needs. If the body lacks some chemical, the individual will tend to develop a specific appetite or partial hunger for that food element.
Undoubtedly these physiological needs are the most pre-potent of all needs.
The physiological needs, along with their partial goals, when chronically gratified cease to exist as active determinants or organizers of behavior. They now exist only in a potential fashion in the sense that they may emerge again to dominate the organism if they are thwarted. But a want that is satisfied is no longer a want. The organism is dominated and its behavior organized only by unsatisfied needs. If hunger is satisfied, it becomes unimportant in the current dynamics of the individual.
Another indication of the child's need for safety is his preference for some kind of undisrupted routine or rhythm. He seems to want a predictable, orderly world. For instance, injustice, unfairness, or inconsistency in the parents seems to make a child feel anxious and unsafe. This attitude may be not so much because of the injustice per se or any particular pains involved, but rather because this treatment threatens to make the world look unreliable, or unsafe, or unpredictable.
There are certain conditions which are immediate prerequisites for the basic need satisfactions. Danger to these is reacted to almost as if it were a direct danger to the basic needs themselves. Such conditions as freedom to speak, freedom to do what one wishes so long as no harm is done to others, freedom to express one's self, freedom to investigate and seek for information, freedom to defend one's self, justice, fairness, honesty, orderliness in the group are examples of such preconditions for basic need satisfactions. Thwarting in these freedoms will be reacted to with a threat or emergency response.
If we remember that the cognitive capacities (perceptual, intellectual, learning) are a set of adjustive tools, which have, among other functions, that of satisfaction of our basic needs, then it is clear that any danger to them, any deprivation or blocking of their free use, must also be indirectly threatening to the basic needs themselves. Such a statement is a partial solution of the general problems of curiosity, the search for knowledge, truth and wisdom, and the ever-persistent urge to solve the cosmic mysteries.
We must therefore introduce another hypothesis and speak of degrees of closeness to the basic needs, for we have already pointed out that any conscious desires (partial goals) are more or less important as they are more or less close to the basic needs.
There are some people in whom, for instance, self-esteem seems to be more important than love. This most common reversal in the hierarchy is usually due to the development of the notion that the person who is most likely to be loved is a strong or powerful person, one who inspires respect or fear, and who is self confident or aggressive.
Another cause of reversal of the hierarchy is that when a need has been satisfied for a long time, this need may be underevaluated. People who have never experienced chronic hunger are apt to underestimate its effects and to look upon food as a rather unimportant thing.
Perhaps more important than all these exceptions are the ones that involve ideals, high social standards, high values and the like. With such values people become martyrs; they give up everything for the sake of a particular ideal, or value. These people may be understood, at least in part, by reference to one basic concept (or hypothesis) which may be called 'increased frustration-tolerance through early gratification'. People who have been satisfied in their basic needs throughout their lives, particularly in their earlier years, seem to develop exceptional power to withstand present or future thwarting of these needs simply because they have strong,[p. 388] healthy character structure as a result of basic satisfaction. They are the 'strong' people who can easily weather disagreement or opposition, who can swim against the stream of public opinion and who can stand up for the truth at great personal cost. It is just the ones who have loved and been well loved, and who have had many deep friendships who can hold out against hatred, rejection or persecution.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
杯具
百度百科一看，原来有这么多版本，人民的智慧与幽默真是无穷的～
1.0版：人生是杯具。
2.0版：我的人生就像茶几，上面摆满了杯具。
3.0版：人生像茶几，上面摆满了杯具；人生又像茶杯，本身就是个杯具；人生更像茶叶，终究要被浸泡在杯具之中。
4.0版：人生就像牙缸，你可以把它看成杯具，也可以看成洗具。
5.0版：人生就像茶几，上面摆满了杯具。当你努力跳出一个杯具时，却发现自己跳进了一个餐具（惨剧）。
6.0版：人生就像是一个茶几，上面摆满了杯具。当我们认为自己跳出一个杯具时，却已经掉进了另外一个杯具。而若你发现你没有跳进另一个杯具，那恭喜你，你掉下茶几了。
7.0版：人生就像一个透明的杯具，我们自知身在其中，偶尔和另一个杯具一见
“
钟情，却出不去。
8.0版：我跟上帝说我渴了，于是上帝给了我一大堆杯具。
9.0版：女人是水做的，为了迎合她们，男人注定成为一个个杯具。
10.0版：人生要泡在杯具里才能入味。
11.0版：人参就是要泡在杯具里才能有滋有味。
12.0版：君子此言差杯具。
13.0版：既然这样，那就杯具吧。
14.0版：生之若案，其覆器皿焉，君子不器。（又名“子曰版”，此乃高仿《论语·为政》：“子曰：君子不器”一语）
15.0版：杯具基本上是瓷器造的
终极版：人生是一只茶几，上面放满了杯具。而本身就是杯具的我们还非加上茶叶自以为与别人没有 茶具（差距），结果人人都说咱现在要用就用餐具（惨剧）。我们在沉默中灭亡，成了文具；在沉默中爆发，成了火炬。我们想明哲保身，都成了面具。我们想一鸣 惊人，都成了京剧。不能再次相聚，执手相看泪眼，成了哑剧。生活是自己的杯具，别人眼里的洗具（喜剧）。 [1]
2010版本全新出炉：人生是一个茶几，摆满了春碗，夹一块光糕，拿出杯具，向钱锅倒满灌盅！
1.0版：人生是杯具。
2.0版：我的人生就像茶几，上面摆满了杯具。
3.0版：人生像茶几，上面摆满了杯具；人生又像茶杯，本身就是个杯具；人生更像茶叶，终究要被浸泡在杯具之中。
4.0版：人生就像牙缸，你可以把它看成杯具，也可以看成洗具。
5.0版：人生就像茶几，上面摆满了杯具。当你努力跳出一个杯具时，却发现自己跳进了一个餐具（惨剧）。
6.0版：人生就像是一个茶几，上面摆满了杯具。当我们认为自己跳出一个杯具时，却已经掉进了另外一个杯具。而若你发现你没有跳进另一个杯具，那恭喜你，你掉下茶几了。
7.0版：人生就像一个透明的杯具，我们自知身在其中，偶尔和另一个杯具一见
“杯具”大全
8.0版：我跟上帝说我渴了，于是上帝给了我一大堆杯具。
9.0版：女人是水做的，为了迎合她们，男人注定成为一个个杯具。
10.0版：人生要泡在杯具里才能入味。
11.0版：人参就是要泡在杯具里才能有滋有味。
12.0版：君子此言差杯具。
13.0版：既然这样，那就杯具吧。
14.0版：生之若案，其覆器皿焉，君子不器。（又名“子曰版”，此乃高仿《论语·为政》：“子曰：君子不器”一语）
15.0版：杯具基本上是瓷器造的
终极版：人生是一只茶几，上面放满了杯具。而本身就是杯具的我们还非加上茶叶自以为与别人没有 茶具（差距），结果人人都说咱现在要用就用餐具（惨剧）。我们在沉默中灭亡，成了文具；在沉默中爆发，成了火炬。我们想明哲保身，都成了面具。我们想一鸣 惊人，都成了京剧。不能再次相聚，执手相看泪眼，成了哑剧。生活是自己的杯具，别人眼里的洗具（喜剧）。 [1]
2010版本全新出炉：人生是一个茶几，摆满了春碗，夹一块光糕，拿出杯具，向钱锅倒满灌盅！
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sichuan Travel Plan
These are what I found out on the web.
九寨沟黄龙双飞峨眉山乐山汽车五日游
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=485
九寨沟九寨天堂自由行(九寨沟＋黄龙)
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=475
九寨沟黄龙双飞三日旅游线路（常规团）
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=465
峨眉山乐山大佛全景二日游线路
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=460
都江堰青城山一日游
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=813
Does anyone have any suggestions? either travel agent, or anything else.
Btw, there are so many "青年旅行社"..
九寨沟黄龙双飞峨眉山乐山汽车五日游
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=485
九寨沟九寨天堂自由行(九寨沟＋黄龙)
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=475
九寨沟黄龙双飞三日旅游线路（常规团）
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=465
峨眉山乐山大佛全景二日游线路
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=460
都江堰青城山一日游
http://www.43xing.com/lines.aspx?id=813
Does anyone have any suggestions? either travel agent, or anything else.
Btw, there are so many "青年旅行社"..
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
So..
I decide to learn Japanese with the spirit for GRE four years ago.
learning partners, advises, recommendations, all welcome!
PS. any good textbooks or way of learning suggestions?
Some resource:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese
http://thejapanesepage.com/w/index.php
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C
http://www.grandgent.com/tom/j/
learning partners, advises, recommendations, all welcome!
PS. any good textbooks or way of learning suggestions?
Some resource:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese
http://thejapanesepage.com/w/index.php
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C
http://www.grandgent.com/tom/j/
Friday, February 19, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Tail of Ox
It's the last day, and it comes every 12 years, so I'd better leave something labelled with today's date.
But I dunno what to write.
What I used to do is summarizing what happened, what have been done this year, and what to expect, what I'm gonna do next year.
Just like a end-of-year work report.
Usually I will be moderately satisfied with this year. Although much time should be used to do this but I did that, generally I can still persuade myself I'm in good control of my ever-shrinking time pool. I might got a A for my planned work&study, but I might also fail the unexpected lessons jumped into my life. Life has a rough track, but with random vibration along together. Sometimes these vibration can deviate you from the original track. Good? Bad? it much depends on how you view it.
Usually I will have a lot of hopes for the coming year, both for the growth along the original track and the exciting unexpected vibrations. I guess my last year's wish did come true. Thank you. =)
All right, what's gonna happen next?
Life, please surprise me. XD
But I dunno what to write.
What I used to do is summarizing what happened, what have been done this year, and what to expect, what I'm gonna do next year.
Just like a end-of-year work report.
Usually I will be moderately satisfied with this year. Although much time should be used to do this but I did that, generally I can still persuade myself I'm in good control of my ever-shrinking time pool. I might got a A for my planned work&study, but I might also fail the unexpected lessons jumped into my life. Life has a rough track, but with random vibration along together. Sometimes these vibration can deviate you from the original track. Good? Bad? it much depends on how you view it.
Usually I will have a lot of hopes for the coming year, both for the growth along the original track and the exciting unexpected vibrations. I guess my last year's wish did come true. Thank you. =)
All right, what's gonna happen next?
Life, please surprise me. XD
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Wikipedia Notes -- Ming Dynasty
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E6%98%8E%E6%9C%9D#.E6.9C.80.E5.90.8E.E7.9A.84.E6.8A.B5.E6.8A.97
明朝（1368年1月23日－1644年4月25日）
明朝是中国继周朝、汉朝和唐朝之后的盛世(黄金时代)，史称“治隆唐宋”、“远迈汉唐”。
然而元末时蒙古贵族有靡烂之象，亟需财帛，除了加重赋税以外还发行新钞“至正宝钞”并大量印制，导致金融紊乱，并饱受严重的通货膨胀，民不聊生。
hyperinflation in 14th century..
朱元璋
朱元璋采纳了谋士朱升“高筑墙，广积粮，缓称王”的建议，经过几年努力，朱元璋军事和经济实力迅速壮大。
朱元璋借此两兴大狱，即“胡蓝党狱”，几乎将功臣全部诛杀。开国功臣除了汤和外几乎全部被杀。朱元璋通过打击功臣、特务监视等一系列方式加强皇权。
汤和: 洪武十八年（1389年）告老还乡，赐第凤阳。(1388天下初定)
朱棣
建文帝立刻与亲信大臣齐泰、黄子澄等密谋削藩。周王、代王、齐王、湘王等先后或被废为庶人，或被杀。结果燕王朱棣在姚广孝的建议下以“清君侧”的名义起兵南下，占领京师，是为靖难之役，燕王即皇帝位，改年号永乐。建文帝(惠帝)在宫城大火中下落不明。
在内政上，朱棣下令修大型类书永乐大典。在三年时间内即告完成。永乐大典有22877卷，又凡例、目录60卷，全书分装为11095册，引书达七八千种，字数约有三亿七千多万，且未有任何删节，这是之后的四库全书无法相提并论的。
Nice wikipedia at that time~
从永乐三年开始，朱棣派宦官郑和下西洋，前后七次，规模空前，扩大了明朝的影响力。
但是永乐帝同样对异议者大肆杀戮.
由于朱元璋猜忌好杀，洪武十三年，以宰相胡惟庸谋反伏诛，于是废去宰相一职，子孙不得复立。
相权与君权合而为一，明朝皇帝大权独揽，在世界政治史上明朝的政治体系也属于罕见的专制政体，施行军权、行政权、监察权三权分立的国家体制，后期由于监察权被废止，国体失衡很快衰败。
由于国家事务繁多，皇帝无法处理，洪武十五年九月罢四辅官，仿宋殿阁制设内阁。内阁只为皇帝的顾问，相当于今日总统府秘书长的职务（但后来内阁的地位逐渐提高，内阁首辅成为事实上的宰相）奏章的批答为皇帝的专责。
内阁大臣与皇帝沟通，全赖司礼监（宦官）。
丰臣秀吉统一日本后，意欲占领朝鲜。万历廿五年后，日本再次进攻朝鲜，战争进入僵局状态。万历廿六年，丰臣秀吉逝世，日本军心动摇，结果大败逃回日本。此即为壬辰卫国战争。这次战争严重削弱了明朝与朝鲜两国，明朝在张居正期间积蓄的国力大量被消耗，日本复又陷入分裂，女真部落成为相对的得益者。
手工业方面，明代仍然延续了元代的匠籍制，也就是规定全国技术好的手工业工人必须于官营手工业部门服务的制度。
景德镇成为了世界瓷都。然而明代推行“重农抑商”的原则以及严厉的海禁政策，使得商业受到了一定的压制，但明穆宗隆庆元年（1567年）废除海禁后，海外贸易重新活跃起来，全盛时远洋船舶吨位高达18000吨，占当时世界总量的18%。
明太祖洪武十四年（1381年）：59,873,305人。
明思宗崇祯十三年（1640年）：140,000,000人。
So now the population is 10 times..
明代沿袭了元代，将人户分为民、军、匠三等。手工业者为匠籍。匠籍、军籍比一般民户地位低，不得应试，并要世代承袭。若想脱离原户籍极为困难，需经皇帝特旨批准方可。
明代的文化事业非常发达。在文学方面，中国小说史上的四大名著中的《西游记》、《水浒传》、《三国演义》三本就是出于明朝。写于万历年间的《金瓶梅》则侧重于描写市民阶级的生活。
在哲学思想上，王阳明继承陆九渊的“心学”并发扬光大，他的思想强调“致良知”及“知行合一”，并且肯定了人的主体性地位，将“人”的主动性放在学说的重心。而王阳明的弟子王艮更进一部的强化了此方面的论述，提出“百姓日用即道”，肯定了平民百姓日常生活的意义。而李赞则更肯定了“人欲”的价值，认为人的道德观念系源自于对日常生活的需求，表现追求个体价值的思想。
明代早期，社会风气比较节俭。后期伴随着商品经济的发达以及政府控制力的下降，社会风气转向浮华与奢糜，不论士大夫或百姓，在饮食、居住、穿着、娱乐各方面都更为讲究，与过去儒家崇尚简朴的风气有很大的差别。商人的地位也明显提高。明代也成为了中国历史上社会生活最丰富的朝代。
著名的书画家如擅长花鸟的徐渭、擅长人物画的陈洪绶，“明四家”沈周、文征明、唐寅和仇英，山水画大师董其昌。
明朝的宫殿建筑也十分宏伟，故宫即为例证。明朝各种历制建筑也十分严谨工整。天坛、太庙、社稷坛、孔庙都是十分巍峨庄严的建筑。
明朝（1368年1月23日－1644年4月25日）
明朝是中国继周朝、汉朝和唐朝之后的盛世(黄金时代)，史称“治隆唐宋”、“远迈汉唐”。
然而元末时蒙古贵族有靡烂之象，亟需财帛，除了加重赋税以外还发行新钞“至正宝钞”并大量印制，导致金融紊乱，并饱受严重的通货膨胀，民不聊生。
hyperinflation in 14th century..
朱元璋
朱元璋采纳了谋士朱升“高筑墙，广积粮，缓称王”的建议，经过几年努力，朱元璋军事和经济实力迅速壮大。
朱元璋借此两兴大狱，即“胡蓝党狱”，几乎将功臣全部诛杀。开国功臣除了汤和外几乎全部被杀。朱元璋通过打击功臣、特务监视等一系列方式加强皇权。
汤和: 洪武十八年（1389年）告老还乡，赐第凤阳。(1388天下初定)
朱棣
建文帝立刻与亲信大臣齐泰、黄子澄等密谋削藩。周王、代王、齐王、湘王等先后或被废为庶人，或被杀。结果燕王朱棣在姚广孝的建议下以“清君侧”的名义起兵南下，占领京师，是为靖难之役，燕王即皇帝位，改年号永乐。建文帝(惠帝)在宫城大火中下落不明。
在内政上，朱棣下令修大型类书永乐大典。在三年时间内即告完成。永乐大典有22877卷，又凡例、目录60卷，全书分装为11095册，引书达七八千种，字数约有三亿七千多万，且未有任何删节，这是之后的四库全书无法相提并论的。
Nice wikipedia at that time~
从永乐三年开始，朱棣派宦官郑和下西洋，前后七次，规模空前，扩大了明朝的影响力。
但是永乐帝同样对异议者大肆杀戮.
由于朱元璋猜忌好杀，洪武十三年，以宰相胡惟庸谋反伏诛，于是废去宰相一职，子孙不得复立。
相权与君权合而为一，明朝皇帝大权独揽，在世界政治史上明朝的政治体系也属于罕见的专制政体，施行军权、行政权、监察权三权分立的国家体制，后期由于监察权被废止，国体失衡很快衰败。
由于国家事务繁多，皇帝无法处理，洪武十五年九月罢四辅官，仿宋殿阁制设内阁。内阁只为皇帝的顾问，相当于今日总统府秘书长的职务（但后来内阁的地位逐渐提高，内阁首辅成为事实上的宰相）奏章的批答为皇帝的专责。
内阁大臣与皇帝沟通，全赖司礼监（宦官）。
丰臣秀吉统一日本后，意欲占领朝鲜。万历廿五年后，日本再次进攻朝鲜，战争进入僵局状态。万历廿六年，丰臣秀吉逝世，日本军心动摇，结果大败逃回日本。此即为壬辰卫国战争。这次战争严重削弱了明朝与朝鲜两国，明朝在张居正期间积蓄的国力大量被消耗，日本复又陷入分裂，女真部落成为相对的得益者。
手工业方面，明代仍然延续了元代的匠籍制，也就是规定全国技术好的手工业工人必须于官营手工业部门服务的制度。
景德镇成为了世界瓷都。然而明代推行“重农抑商”的原则以及严厉的海禁政策，使得商业受到了一定的压制，但明穆宗隆庆元年（1567年）废除海禁后，海外贸易重新活跃起来，全盛时远洋船舶吨位高达18000吨，占当时世界总量的18%。
明太祖洪武十四年（1381年）：59,873,305人。
明思宗崇祯十三年（1640年）：140,000,000人。
So now the population is 10 times..
明代沿袭了元代，将人户分为民、军、匠三等。手工业者为匠籍。匠籍、军籍比一般民户地位低，不得应试，并要世代承袭。若想脱离原户籍极为困难，需经皇帝特旨批准方可。
明代的文化事业非常发达。在文学方面，中国小说史上的四大名著中的《西游记》、《水浒传》、《三国演义》三本就是出于明朝。写于万历年间的《金瓶梅》则侧重于描写市民阶级的生活。
在哲学思想上，王阳明继承陆九渊的“心学”并发扬光大，他的思想强调“致良知”及“知行合一”，并且肯定了人的主体性地位，将“人”的主动性放在学说的重心。而王阳明的弟子王艮更进一部的强化了此方面的论述，提出“百姓日用即道”，肯定了平民百姓日常生活的意义。而李赞则更肯定了“人欲”的价值，认为人的道德观念系源自于对日常生活的需求，表现追求个体价值的思想。
明代早期，社会风气比较节俭。后期伴随着商品经济的发达以及政府控制力的下降，社会风气转向浮华与奢糜，不论士大夫或百姓，在饮食、居住、穿着、娱乐各方面都更为讲究，与过去儒家崇尚简朴的风气有很大的差别。商人的地位也明显提高。明代也成为了中国历史上社会生活最丰富的朝代。
著名的书画家如擅长花鸟的徐渭、擅长人物画的陈洪绶，“明四家”沈周、文征明、唐寅和仇英，山水画大师董其昌。
明朝的宫殿建筑也十分宏伟，故宫即为例证。明朝各种历制建筑也十分严谨工整。天坛、太庙、社稷坛、孔庙都是十分巍峨庄严的建筑。
Monday, February 1, 2010
Don't ever give up
"I have been always wondering that how to seize Fate by the throat as Beethoven did. And this picture explained it very clearly."
This is so funny that I cannot resist to post it on my blog (I didn't make it and I dunno who made it) ..
This is so funny that I cannot resist to post it on my blog (I didn't make it and I dunno who made it) ..
Monday, January 25, 2010
To discover
Beverly Hills Public Library
444 N. Rexford Drive; Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Parking is available adjacent to the library at
450 N Rexford Drive
The first two hours are free, then 75 cents per 1/2 hour.
Beverly Canon Gardens
241 N. Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Greystone Mansion
Greystone Park
905 Loma Vista Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Weddings and Special Events Phone: (310) 285-6834
Filming at Greystone: (310) 285-6835
Main Office Phone: (310) 285-6830
Park Hours:
Open daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Daylight Savings Time
Please note that on weekends (especially during Spring and Summer months) we have weddings and special events, therefore, some areas will be off limits. Please call our office to confirm.
Admission to the grounds and parking are free.
World History Timeline
http://www.history.com/wt.do
http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/timeline.cfm
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E5%8F%B2%E5%B9%B4%E8%A1%A8
444 N. Rexford Drive; Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Parking is available adjacent to the library at
450 N Rexford Drive
The first two hours are free, then 75 cents per 1/2 hour.
Beverly Canon Gardens
241 N. Canon Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Greystone Mansion
Greystone Park
905 Loma Vista Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Weddings and Special Events Phone: (310) 285-6834
Filming at Greystone: (310) 285-6835
Main Office Phone: (310) 285-6830
Park Hours:
Open daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Daylight Savings Time
Please note that on weekends (especially during Spring and Summer months) we have weddings and special events, therefore, some areas will be off limits. Please call our office to confirm.
Admission to the grounds and parking are free.
World History Timeline
http://www.history.com/wt.do
http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/timeline.cfm
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E5%8F%B2%E5%B9%B4%E8%A1%A8
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Byebye rain, hello sun
Tired of being sunny everyday, Los Angeles made its effort to change.
It rained for almost a week.
I have never seen this happened in LA before during my nearly 3-year stay. And I liked it, both the huge amount of water and the weirdness.
Everything felt fresh, new, and pure,
even my car.
I wanted to save the air in a huge bottle.
I remember the rain was pouring on me and the wind was huge enough to keep me from going forward. When I finally got into my office building, after 1-second surprised face, the guard began to laugh at me loudly. I wiped the water on my face, hardly opened my eyes, looked at him, then looked at myself, and began to laugh loudly with him.
The rain was not really that adorable, at least it made me missed one movie night =P.
Dear rain, I think I'll definitely miss you.
But for now, I have to say goodbye to you, and I will say hello to the sun again.
It rained for almost a week.
I have never seen this happened in LA before during my nearly 3-year stay. And I liked it, both the huge amount of water and the weirdness.
Everything felt fresh, new, and pure,
even my car.
I wanted to save the air in a huge bottle.
I remember the rain was pouring on me and the wind was huge enough to keep me from going forward. When I finally got into my office building, after 1-second surprised face, the guard began to laugh at me loudly. I wiped the water on my face, hardly opened my eyes, looked at him, then looked at myself, and began to laugh loudly with him.
The rain was not really that adorable, at least it made me missed one movie night =P.
Dear rain, I think I'll definitely miss you.
But for now, I have to say goodbye to you, and I will say hello to the sun again.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
One way to get over with an addiction
is to do it to an extreme extent.
You won't want to eat cookies anymore if you only eat cookies for days.
Probably you can do this with heroin as well, but the problem is that you are dead before you reach that extreme point.
You won't want to eat cookies anymore if you only eat cookies for days.
Probably you can do this with heroin as well, but the problem is that you are dead before you reach that extreme point.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Wikipedia notes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless_communications_service_providers
UMTS=W-CDMA=3GSM=3G=FOMA(Japan)
GSM(voice)+GPRS(data)=2.5G
GSM(voice)+EDGE(data)=2.75G
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handhelds_with_WiFi_connectivity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G
The second 3G network operator in the USA was Verizon Wireless in October 2003 also on CDMA2000 1x EV-DO. AT&T Mobility is also a true 3G network, having completed its upgrade of the 3G network to HSUPA.
In December 2007, 190 3G networks were operating in 40 countries and 154 HSDPA networks were operating in 71 countries, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).
By June 2007 the 200 millionth 3G subscriber had been connected. Out of 3 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide this is only 6.7%. In the countries where 3G was launched first - Japan and South Korea - 3G penetration is over 70%.
How about now? with iPhone and gPhone..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
Similar to the internet, mobile is also an interactive media, but has far wider reach, with 3.3 billion mobile phone users at the end of 2007 to 1.3 billion internet users (source ITU).
60% in the world
54% in China
88% in US
has mobile phones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
A study by Motorola found that one in ten cell phone subscribers have a second phone that often is kept secret from other family members. These phones are used to engage in activities including extramarital affairs or clandestine business dealings.
In 1999 Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo introduced its mobile internet service, i-Mode, which today is the world's largest mobile internet service and roughly the same size as Google in annual revenues.
In 2006 the total value of mobile phone paid media content exceeded internet paid media content and was worth 31 Billion dollars (source Informa 2007).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_standards
For comparison, imagine a cocktail party, where couples are talking to each other in a single room. The room represents the available bandwidth. In GSM, a speaker takes turns talking to a listener. The speaker talks for a short time and then stops to let another pair talk. There is never more than one speaker talking in the room, no one has to worry about two conversations mixing. In CDMA, any speaker can talk at any time; however each uses a different language. Each listener can only understand the language of their partner. As more and more couples talk, the background noise (representing the noise floor) gets louder, but because of the difference in languages, conversations do not mix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29
In October, 2009, Gartner Inc. predicted that by 2012, Android would become the world's second most popular smartphone platform, behind only the Symbian OS which powers Nokia phones very popular outside the US. Meanwhile, BlackBerry would fall from 2nd to 5th place, iPhone would remain in 3rd place, and Microsoft's Windows Mobile would remain in 4th place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership
As of 2008, The Walt Disney Company is the world's largest media conglomerate, with News Corporation, Viacom and Time Warner ranking second, third and fourth respectively.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_corporate_assets
Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM ) or Yum! is a Fortune 500 corporation, that operates or licenses Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Wingstreet, and Long John Silver's restaurants worldwide, and A&W Restaurants (excluding A&W in Canada).
it is the world's largest fast food restaurant company in terms of system units—over 36,000 restaurants around the world in more than 110 countries and territories.
No wonder why Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut always appear together..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Nuys_Airport
the world's busiest general aviation airport and the 25th busiest airport (in terms of takeoffs and landings) in the world.
Hollywood celebrities, politicians, and business executives are known to use this airport because it offers them convenience and anonymity.
Ah..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_source
The Three Gorges Dam in China, the largest hydro-electric power station in the world.
I dunno this before.. but I do remember the trip I went before this project was launched. A lot of places in Sichuan were buried (including the cool ghost city!) and I got the last chance to see them before they drown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_sites
Useful Links
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-command-to-gathers-up-information-about-a-linux-system.html
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/top-linux-monitoring-tools.html
UMTS=W-CDMA=3GSM=3G=FOMA(Japan)
GSM(voice)+GPRS(data)=2.5G
GSM(voice)+EDGE(data)=2.75G
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handhelds_with_WiFi_connectivity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G
The second 3G network operator in the USA was Verizon Wireless in October 2003 also on CDMA2000 1x EV-DO. AT&T Mobility is also a true 3G network, having completed its upgrade of the 3G network to HSUPA.
In December 2007, 190 3G networks were operating in 40 countries and 154 HSDPA networks were operating in 71 countries, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).
By June 2007 the 200 millionth 3G subscriber had been connected. Out of 3 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide this is only 6.7%. In the countries where 3G was launched first - Japan and South Korea - 3G penetration is over 70%.
How about now? with iPhone and gPhone..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
Similar to the internet, mobile is also an interactive media, but has far wider reach, with 3.3 billion mobile phone users at the end of 2007 to 1.3 billion internet users (source ITU).
60% in the world
54% in China
88% in US
has mobile phones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
A study by Motorola found that one in ten cell phone subscribers have a second phone that often is kept secret from other family members. These phones are used to engage in activities including extramarital affairs or clandestine business dealings.
In 1999 Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo introduced its mobile internet service, i-Mode, which today is the world's largest mobile internet service and roughly the same size as Google in annual revenues.
In 2006 the total value of mobile phone paid media content exceeded internet paid media content and was worth 31 Billion dollars (source Informa 2007).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_standards
For comparison, imagine a cocktail party, where couples are talking to each other in a single room. The room represents the available bandwidth. In GSM, a speaker takes turns talking to a listener. The speaker talks for a short time and then stops to let another pair talk. There is never more than one speaker talking in the room, no one has to worry about two conversations mixing. In CDMA, any speaker can talk at any time; however each uses a different language. Each listener can only understand the language of their partner. As more and more couples talk, the background noise (representing the noise floor) gets louder, but because of the difference in languages, conversations do not mix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29
In October, 2009, Gartner Inc. predicted that by 2012, Android would become the world's second most popular smartphone platform, behind only the Symbian OS which powers Nokia phones very popular outside the US. Meanwhile, BlackBerry would fall from 2nd to 5th place, iPhone would remain in 3rd place, and Microsoft's Windows Mobile would remain in 4th place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership
As of 2008, The Walt Disney Company is the world's largest media conglomerate, with News Corporation, Viacom and Time Warner ranking second, third and fourth respectively.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_corporate_assets
Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM
it is the world's largest fast food restaurant company in terms of system units—over 36,000 restaurants around the world in more than 110 countries and territories.
No wonder why Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut always appear together..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Nuys_Airport
the world's busiest general aviation airport and the 25th busiest airport (in terms of takeoffs and landings) in the world.
Hollywood celebrities, politicians, and business executives are known to use this airport because it offers them convenience and anonymity.
Ah..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_source
The Three Gorges Dam in China, the largest hydro-electric power station in the world.
I dunno this before.. but I do remember the trip I went before this project was launched. A lot of places in Sichuan were buried (including the cool ghost city!) and I got the last chance to see them before they drown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_sites
Useful Links
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-command-to-gathers-up-information-about-a-linux-system.html
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/top-linux-monitoring-tools.html
Sunday, January 3, 2010
'Rome' is a good show
As someone told me before, but I wasn't be able to appreciate it that time..
And thank you for that I learned to appreciate people/things partially even they have certain characteristics I dislike. ^____^
What is more magic is that vices I despise before may become virtues now, or at least, reasonable and acceptable.
Too many judgements are made from too few perspectives, too little information, knowledge and reasoning.
And thank you for that I learned to appreciate people/things partially even they have certain characteristics I dislike. ^____^
What is more magic is that vices I despise before may become virtues now, or at least, reasonable and acceptable.
Too many judgements are made from too few perspectives, too little information, knowledge and reasoning.
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