奥巴马的父亲是一位肯尼亚留学生，在夏威夷留学期间认识了奥巴马的母亲。两人相爱生下了奥巴马，后来他的父亲前往哈佛，之后返回了肯尼亚。奥巴马只见过他父亲一次。他在成长的过程中，一直都在思考自己是谁。他的父亲是非洲黑人，母亲是白人，他跟随外公外婆长大，处在白人社会和黑人社会的交界。

大学毕业后奥巴马决定投身社会工作，试图改善社区中黑人的生活。然而他发现给人往往被某种类似“劣根性”的东西所束缚，生活在美国这样一个大熔炉中总是无法摆脱“black”所带来的东西。奥巴马在疑问中努力工作。

另一方面，对黑人的思考也使他更希望了解自己的父亲，自己的根。终于他回到了肯尼亚，去了解自己的父亲，自己的祖先，自己的根。他发现他父亲并不是他一直以来想象的那样完美，但是在和家人的交谈中，他渐渐了解了自己的父亲，一个为理想而奋斗却有着缺点的活生生的人。他了解了父亲所成长的环境，明白了他父亲始终没有摆脱这个环境给他带来的束缚，但他也看到了自己父亲彷徨之后坚持却又慢慢变化的过程。对于奥巴马来说，这对于他的关于美国黑人命运的思考带来了一些启示。

人无论走多远，都会时刻被自己的根所影响着。

对于我自己来说，我想起了以前听老爸跟我说他成长的经历，讲爷爷的故事，听妈妈、舅舅讲述自己的过去。不知道为何，我对这些故事一直记忆犹新。看完这本书之后，我忽然意识到长久以来正是这些故事指引着我前进。长辈们的经历，他们的成功、失败一直引领着我。一个人无论如何都无法摆脱自己家庭、自己的出身对自己的影响，我现在做的，和我的长辈一样，无可避免地被时代和环境所束缚，但是对家人的爱和奋斗精神是要一直传承下去的。

by Samuel P. Huntington

Content

I. THE NEXT PATTERN OF CONFLICT
II. THE NATURE OF CIVILIZATIONS
III. WHY CIVILIZATIONS WILL CLASH
IV. THE FAULT LINES BETWEEN CIVILIZATIONS
V. CIVILIZATION RALLYING
VI. THE WEST VERSUS THE REST
VII. THE TORN COUNTRIES
VIII. THE CONFUCIAN-ISLAMIC CONNECTION
IX. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WEST

I. THE NEXT PATTERN OF CONFLICT

• The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.       > the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations
• the conflicts of the Western world were largely among princes -- emperors, absolute monarchs and constitutional monarchs        > between nations         > between ideologies
• conflicts between princes, nation states and ideologies were primarily conflicts within Western civilization        > between West and non-Western civilizations and among non-Western civilizations

II. THE NATURE OF CIVILIZATIONS

• COLD WAR the world was divided into the First, Second and Third Worlds
• A civilization is thus the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species.           >  language, history, religion, customs, institutions, and by the subjective self-identification of people

III. WHY CIVILIZATIONS WILL CLASH

• world will be shaped in large measure by the interactions among seven or eightmajor civilizations. Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American and possibly African civilization.
• Why ?
• First, differences among civilizations are not only real; they are basic.        > by history, language, culture, tradition and, most important, religion > Differences do not necessarily mean conflict, and conflict does not necessarily mean violence.
• Second, the world is becoming a smaller place.         > The interactions among peoples of different civilizations enhance the civilization-consciousness of people that, in turn, invigorates differences and animosities stretching or thought to stretch back deep into history.
  Third, the processes of economic modernization and social change throughout the world are separating people from longstanding local identities.       > They also weaken the nation state
• The revival of religion, provides a basis for identity and commitment that transcends national boundaries and unites civilizations.
• Fourth, the growth of civilization-consciousness is enhanced by the dual role of the West.       > A de-Westernization and indigenization of elites is occurring in many non-Western countries at the same time that Western, usually American, cultures, styles and habits become more popular among the mass of the people.
• Fifth, cultural characteristics and differences are less mutable and hence less easily compromised and resolved than political and economic ones.         > Even more than ethnicity, religion discriminates
• Finally, economic regionalism is increasing.          > On the one hand, successful economic regionalism will reinforce civilization-consciousness. On the other hand, economic regionalism may succeed only when it is rooted in a common civilization.           > NAFTA & JAPAN
• Culture and religion also form the basis of the Economic Cooperation Organization,
• Decreasingly able to mobilize support and form coalitions on the basis of ideology, governments and groups will increasingly attempt to mobilize support by appealing to common religion and civilization identity.
• clash of civilizations thus occurs at two levels             > At the micro-level, adjacent groups along the fault lines between civilizations struggle, often violently, over the control of territory and each other. At the macro-level, states from different civilizations compete for relative military and economic power, struggle over the control of international institutions and third parties, and competitively promote their particular political and religious values.

IV. THE FAULT LINES BETWEEN CIVILIZATIONS

• THE FAULT LINES between civilizations are replacing the political and ideological boundaries of the Cold War     > the Iron Curtain     > Western Christianity & Orthodox Christianity and Islam

• This centuries-old military interaction between the West and Islam is unlikely to decline     > Western democracy strengthens anti-Western political forces
• relationship complicated by demography     > population growth in Arab countries increased migration to Europe countries
• The West's "next confrontation," observes M. J. Akbar, an Indian Muslim author, "is definitely going to come from the Muslim world.
• great antagonistic interaction of Arab Islamic civilization has been with the pagan, animist, and now increasingly Christian black peoples to the south. In the past, this antagonism was epitomized in the image of Arab slave dealers and black slaves    > modernization of Africa and the spread of Christianity are likely to enhance the
  probability of violence along this fault line.
• northern border of Islam, conflict between Orthodox and Muslim            > Muslim and Hindu
• underlying differences between China and the United States have reasserted themselves in areas such as human rights, trade and weapons proliferation.
• between Japan and the United States. cultural difference exacerbates economic conflict.
• the Eurasian continent, however, the proliferation of ethnic conflict, epitomized at the extreme in "ethnic cleansing," has not been totally random.

V. CIVILIZATION RALLYING

• KIN-COUNTRY SYNDROME GROUPS OR STATES as the principal basis for cooperationand coalitions.
• A world of clashing civilizations, however, is inevitably a world of double standards: people apply one standard to their kin-countries and a different standard to others.
• civilization. Such conflicts, however, are likely to be less intense and less likely to expand
• In the coming years, the local conflicts most likely to escalate into major wars will be those, as in Bosnia and the Caucasus, along the fault lines between civilizations. The next
  world war, if there is one, will be a war between civilizations.

VI. THE WEST VERSUS THE REST

• "the world community"     > interests of the United States and other Western powers.     > West promotes its economic interests and imposes on other nations the economic policies it thinks appropriate.
• Western ideas of individualism, liberalism, constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law, democracy, free markets, the separation of church and state, often have little resonance in Islamic, Confucian, Japanese, Hindu, Buddhist or Orthodox cultures.    > The very notion that there could be a "universal civilization" is a Western idea, directly at odds with the particularism of most Asian societies and their emphasis on what distinguishes one people from another.  
• "the values that are most important in the West are least important worldwide."
• pursue a course of isolation, to insulate their societies from penetration or "corruption" by the West, and, in effect, to opt out of participation in the Western-dominated global community. The costs of this course, however, are high, and few states have pursued it exclusively. A second alternative, the equivalent of "band-wagoning" in international relations theory, is to attempt to join the West and accept its values and institutions. The third alternative is to attempt to "balance" the West by developing economic and military power and cooperating with other non-Western societies against the West, while preserving indigenous values and institutions; in short, to modernize but not to Westernize.

VII. THE TORN COUNTRIES

• such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, are candidates for dismemberment.
• To redefine its civilization identity, a torn country must meet three requirements. First, its political and economic elite has to be generally supportive of and enthusiastic about the move. Second, its public has to be willing to acquiesce in the redefinition. Third, the dominant groups in the recipient civilization have to be willing to embrace the convert.

VIII. THE CONFUCIAN-ISLAMIC CONNECTION

• In the post-Cold War world the primary objective of arms control is to prevent the development by non-Western societies of military capabilities that could threaten Western interests. The West attempts to do this through international agreements
• The West promotes nonproliferation as a universal norm and nonproliferation treaties and inspections as means of realizing that norm.
• "Don't fight the United States unless you have nuclear weapons."
• In an old-fashioned arms race, each side developed its own arms to balance or to achieve superiority against the other side. In this new form of arms competition, one side is developing its arms and the other side is attempting not to balance but to limit and prevent that arms build-up while at the same time reducing its own military capabilities.

IX. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WEST

• successful political, security and economic international institutions are more likely to develop within civilizations than across civilizations
• escalation that could lead to global wars
• Non-Western civilizations have attempted to become modern without becoming Western.
• require the West to develop a more profound understanding of the basic religious and philosophical assumptions underlying other civilizations and the ways in which people in those civilizations see their interests. It will require an effort to identify elements of commonality between Western and other civilizations. For the relevant future, there will be no universal civilization, but instead a world of different civilizations, each of which will have to learn to coexist with the others.

Apr 16th 2009
From The Economist print edition

现任的中央政治局常委9人中有8人是工程师，奥巴马政府中，总统、副总统、国务卿、Chief of CIA 全都是律师。

In democracies, lawyers dominate. This is not surprising. The law deals with the same sort of questions as politics: what makes a just society; the balance between liberty and security, and so on. Lawyerly skills—marshalling evidence, appealing to juries, command of procedure—transfer well to the political stage. So, sadly, does an obsession with process and a tendency to see things in partisan terms—us or them, guilty or not guilty—albeit in a spirit of loyalty to a system to which all defer. In common-law countries, the battleground of the court is of a piece with the adversarial, yet rule-bound, spirit of politics.

In China, the influence of engineers is partly explained by history and ideology. In a country where education was buffeted by the tempests of Maoism, engineering was a safer field of study than most. In fact, communist regimes of all stripes have long had a weakness for grandiose engineering projects. The Soviet Union, which also produced plenty of engineer-politicians (including Boris Yeltsin), wanted to reverse the northward flow of some great Russian rivers, for example.

The presence of so many engineer-politicians in China goes hand in hand with a certain way of thinking. An engineer’s job, at least in theory, is to ensure things work, that the bridge stays up or the dam holds. The process by which projects get built is usually secondary. That also seems true of Chinese politics, in which government often rides roughshod over critics. Engineers are supposed to focus on the long term; buildings have no merit if they will collapse after a few years. So it is understandable that an authoritarian country like China, where development is the priority and spending on infrastructure is colossal, should push engineers to the top.

That may shed some light on why Chinese leaders always puts “Stable” as the top priority, ‘cauce these people used to build dams…

THE photograph said it all. Leaders of the world’s biggest economies lined up for the cameras before working out ways of tackling the global financial crisis. There in the middle of the front row, in what the Chinese press construed as the most honoured position to the right of the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, was President Hu Jintao of China. The state-controlled media loved the implicit message. China had taken centre stage.

看完所有高达的旅程从这里开始。

看得十分纠结。托雷斯和杰克斯所谓的“大义”前47话让人一头雾水。最后通过他们自己的口说出来，虽然和前面的印证是有道的，但总觉得这样做也太过曲折了吧。两个追求和平的人最后都自愿成为了莉莉娜的“垫脚石”。

看完了TV版之后，很多《无尽的华尔兹》当中不解的地方就明白了。《无尽的华尔兹》的确是最好的剧场版。

两位主角希罗和莉莉娜非常steorotype。战争狂和公主。女的非常主动，整部剧莉莉娜一个人站着念“希罗”的名字次数难以数清楚。男主角则在不停的“我要杀死你”中突然发现自己爱上了她。0式系统暴走之后快要昏迷的希罗眼前出现莉莉娜的形象在日本动画中大量出现。

莉莉娜、希罗和玛丽娜、刹那太像了，战争狂和女王。女方也都十分主动。“希罗快点回到我的身边吧”差点没有把我雷死。当然希罗和莉莉娜的关系明朗许多。刹那和玛莲娜还要看2010年剧场版。两位主角的最终结局在OVA、小说和漫画中各不相同。但是我还是喜欢小说中的描写。希罗会远远看着站在世界舞台中央的莉莉娜，当她需要他的时候，他一定会出现在她的面前。这也对应了TV版中最后之战前分别希罗说“我会保护你。”（好像我看过的日本动漫中男主角都爱和女主角说这句，汗）

2009巫统大会结束了，没啥悬念。马哈蒂尔临结束跑过来往阿卜杜拉的伤口上撒把盐“庆祝”其下台

阿卜杜拉嘴上不说，心里或多或少有些不爽，纳吉还在旁边撮合……

当选署理主席的慕尤丁同学总算还是拍了拍阿卜杜拉的马屁……

A1 迎接另一个晨曦带来全新空气——陈天佳（很干净的女童音，作为整首歌的开篇，耳目一新。曾经在雅典参加了2004年奥运会闭幕式,在全世界观众的瞩目下,用清脆的童音演唱了《茉莉花》）
气息改变情味不变茶香飘满情谊——刘欢（实力派的歌手，很朴实的歌手~又足够的魅力唱第二腔）
A2 我家大门常打开开放怀抱等你——那英（女歌手里的实力派，她随意的发型和衣服都很符合她的气质，有点狂野又不失体面。白衣飘飘与背景的凝重的黑色城墙相映成辉。很艺术。）
拥抱过就有了默契你会爱上这里——孙燕姿 （很多人都喜欢这个，燕姿的嗓音加上她可爱的摸样和孩子们的笑脸组合在一起，让人很舒服）
B1 不管远近都是客人请不用客气——孙悦 （总体感觉这个MV就知道拍的很细致用心，颜色总是用明丽和偏冷暗的背景相搭配，跳跃的美感不至于单调，孙悦的笑容也很到位。）
相约好了在一起我们欢迎你——王力宏 （天生一副帅气的文人脸加上被李安一手打造的文人气质使得王力宏挥墨的姿势很是苍劲优雅。）
A3 我家种着万年青开放每段传奇——韩红（绝对的实力派。用她那很独特的唱腔配上北大的博雅塔，文化底蕴也有了。）
为传统的土壤播种为你留下回忆——周华健 （传统的中国皇家建筑，中国的特色，北京的特色~）
B2 陌生熟悉都是客人请不用拘礼——梁咏琪 （旗袍的改良版，GiGi高挑的身材衬的更加有韵味。而且一张亲切的脸庞的GiGi来唱这句也很合拍。）
第几次来没关系有太多话题——羽泉 （皮影戏，又一个很能代表传统的东西）
C1 北京欢迎你为你开天辟地——成龙 （他一直是外国人眼里的中国英雄，加之其本人本身就很有大哥风范，长城、顶天立地的中国人形象，由我们的成龙大哥来演绎再贴切不过。）
流动中的魅力充满着朝气——任贤齐 （大哥的镜头一过，就是小齐很朝气蓬勃的脸，可爱的衣服可爱的笑容，又是一个不错的转折点，眼前一亮。）
北京欢迎你在太阳下分享呼吸——蔡依林 （美女也是中国的特色了，蔡MM的笑容很大很灿烂。）
在黄土地刷新成绩——孙楠 （黑色的衣服，白色的奥运建筑，黑白经典搭配）
Solo
A4 我家大门常打开开怀容纳天地——周笔畅 （新生力量的代表者，超女毕竟是中国这几年很风靡的一个词语，明星效应，不能忽略角角落落。很朝气蓬勃的小脸，新鲜！）
岁月绽放青春笑容迎接这个日期——韦唯（旗袍，传统糊纸工艺，却配上韦唯很野性现代的长相，亮点~~）
B3 天大地大都是朋友请不用客气——黄晓明 （精致帅气的脸庞，阳光的笑容，喜欢的要死）
画意诗情带笑意只为等待你——韩庚（又一个巨帅的，也很强大，superjouner里唯一的中国人，很能奋斗的一个歌手，致敬~把唐装穿的如此可爱帅气。）
C2 北京欢迎你像音乐感动你——汪峰 （有点小沧桑的摸样，一如他自己）
让我们都加油去超越自己——莫文蔚 （个人感觉莫文蔚的衣服跟她的风格实在不搭，一向走狂野的姐姐这次浑身粉可爱的娃娃装不知道导演这里的用意是什么。）
北京欢迎你有梦想谁都了不起——谭晶 （无论发型着装气质长相都是标准的古典美人的形象，毛笔，桃花相映，东方女性的美被谭晶演绎的很好很有味道）
有勇气就会有奇迹——陈奕迅（这个倒不知道如何评价了。大家有好的想法说出来）
C3 北京欢迎你为你开天辟地——阎维文 （民族唱腔里最优秀的男歌手了，还是军人，很有代表性）
流动中的魅力充满着朝气——戴玉强（著名的男高音歌唱家。中国人民解放军总政治部歌剧团主要演员，中国乐坛上升起的一颗耀眼的明星。嗓音着实很浑厚。）
北京欢迎你在太阳下分享呼吸——王霞李双松 （也是两个高音歌唱家，前面是流行歌手，这一组代表了这些精英的老一辈的歌唱家，涵盖面很广）
在黄土地刷新成绩——廖昌永 （同上面几个，是近年来活跃于国内外音乐舞台的最为优秀的歌唱家，也是目前活跃于世界歌剧舞台上的少数几位杰出的亚洲歌唱家之一）
C4 北京欢迎你像音乐感动你——林依轮（白衬衫黑马甲，很传统的中式衣服。茶艺，竹椅，四合院，无一处不精致。）
让我们都加油去超越自己——张娜拉（这个真是很惊讶的了，唯一一个外国歌手，如果不算燕姿这个新加坡籍的。不过这个可爱的韩国MM一直跟中国保持很密切的联系，这样做嘉宾把同一个世界同一个梦想表达的很贴切了。）
北京欢迎你有梦想谁都了不起——林俊杰（中国龙，金色宫殿，很精神的小伙）
有勇气就会有奇迹——阿杜（这个我看来没什么特点的说，看了名单才知道是阿杜，听他声嘶力竭的歌听习惯了以至于这样都认不出来了。）
solo 京戏（戏曲本身就是最具中国特色的艺术的东西了，京戏又满是北京特色，不能不重视。大家静静的欣赏罢）
A5 我家大门常打开开放怀抱等你——容祖儿（妆容和衣服都很符合祖儿的气质，甜美却得体）
拥抱过就有了默契你会爱上这里——李宇春（新生力量的领导者，纵使有很多反面声音不管你喜不喜欢，她们都是不可取代的中国特色最近几年里最热闹的~~）
B4 不管远近都是客人请不用客气——黄大炜（大男人的孩子气淋漓尽致，中国特有的拨浪鼓）
相约好了在一起我们欢迎你——陈坤 （倒贴的福字，又一个中国特色。陈坤帅气的面庞有神的眼睛，喜欢的不得了。）
C5 北京欢迎你为你开天辟地——谢霆锋（一身合体的白衣，很精神帅气的样子，旁边的容祖儿和徐若瑄都是大红色，用小修的话来说小谢这个还用俩MM陪着，看来看去确实有些个别扭又不知道从何说起。）
流动中的魅力充满着朝气——韩磊 （这个也不知道怎么个讲法）
北京欢迎你在太阳下分享呼吸——徐若瑄 （看完了白天再看个夜景的，徐若瑄这个时间都赶不老的女人一身亮眼的黄色在夜色的北京里显得如此活泼亮丽）
在黄土地刷新成绩——费翔 （这句是几个镜头的快速转换，音调渐高，听起来很振奋。）
solo （这一组图片无一不在诠释什么是北京特色，长城、故宫、天坛、抖空竹、茶道、北京烤鸭、拉面、满汉全席；然后就是铁路航空立交桥以及奥运场馆等现代建筑，融会贯通气势恢宏。）
A6 我家大门常打开开怀容纳天地——汤灿 （很漂亮很又气质的又一个东方女性形象加之绣花的优雅动作更是恰到好处）
岁月绽放青春笑容迎接这个日期——林志玲张梓琳 （台湾很风靡的一个人物了，白衣长发在诺大的故宫里面自由放歌，很有感觉的说。）
B5 天大地大都是朋友请不用客气——张靓颖 （满眼中国红，红色剪纸，张靓颖大红的衣服，红妆佳人，很独特的嗓音，很不错~）
画意诗情带笑意只为等待你——许茹芸伍思凯
C6 北京欢迎你像音乐感动你——杨坤 范玮琪 （人，景，建筑，天空，很多场景变换交叠，把这一句本身音调就气势磅礴的句子唱的更加美妙）
让我们都加油去超越自己——游鸿明周晓欧
北京欢迎你有梦想谁都了不起——沙宝亮满文军
有勇气就会有奇迹——金海心 何润东
C7 北京欢迎你 为你开天辟地——飞儿 庞龙
流动中的魅力充满着朝气——吴克群 齐峰
北京欢迎你 在太阳下分享呼吸——5566 胡彦斌
在黄土地刷新成绩——郑希怡 刀郎
C8 北京欢迎你 像音乐感动你——纪敏加屠洪刚吴彤
让我们都加油去超越自己——郭容刘耕宏腾格尔
北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起——金莎苏醒韦嘉
有勇气就会有奇迹——付丽珊 黄征 房祖明
C9 北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起——全体群唱
有勇气就会有奇迹——全体群唱
北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起——全体群唱
有勇气就会有奇迹——全体群唱

Chinese cartography

China beat Columbus to it, perhaps

Jan 12th 2006
From The Economist print edition

An ancient map that strongly suggests Chinese seamen were first round the world

THE brave seamen whose great voyages of exploration opened up the world are iconic figures in European history. Columbus found the New World in 1492; Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488; and Magellan set off to circumnavigate the world in 1519. However, there is one difficulty with this confident assertion of European mastery: it may not be true.

It seems more likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called “The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft”.

Next week, in Beijing and London, fresh and dramatic evidence is to be revealed to bolster Zheng He's case. It is a copy, made in 1763, of a map, dated 1418, which contains notes that substantially match the descriptions in the book. “It will revolutionise our thinking about 15th-century world history,” says Gunnar Thompson, a student of ancient maps and early explorers.

The map (shown above) will be unveiled in Beijing on January 16th and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich a day later. Six Chinese characters in the upper right-hand corner of the map say this is a “general chart of the integrated world”. In the lower left-hand corner is a note that says the chart was drawn by Mo Yi Tong, imitating a world chart made in 1418 which showed the barbarians paying tribute to the Ming emperor, Zhu Di. The copyist distinguishes what he took from the original from what he added himself.

The map was bought for about $500 from a small Shanghai dealer in 2001 by Liu Gang, one of the most eminent commercial lawyers in China, who collects maps and paintings. Mr Liu says he knew it was significant, but thought it might be a modern fake. He showed his acquisition to five experienced collectors, who agreed that the traces of vermin on the bamboo paper it is written on, and the de-pigmentation of ink and colours, indicated that the map was more than 100 years old.

Mr Liu was unsure of its meaning, and asked specialists in ancient Chinese history for their advice, but none, he says, was forthcoming. Then, last autumn, he read “1421: The Year China Discovered the World”, a book written in 2003 by Gavin Menzies, in which the author makes the controversial claim that Zheng He circumnavigated the world, discovering America on the way. Mr Menzies, who is a former submariner in the Royal Navy and a merchant banker, is an amateur historian and his theory met with little approval from professionals. But it struck a chord: his book became a bestseller and his 1421 website is very popular. In any event, his arguments convinced Mr Liu that his map was a relic of Zheng He's earlier voyages.

The detail on the copy of the map is remarkable. The outlines of Africa, Europe and the Americas are instantly recognisable. It shows the Nile with two sources. The north-west passage appears to be free of ice. But the inaccuracies, also, are glaring. California is shown as an island; the British Isles do not appear at all. The distance from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean is ten times greater than it ought to be. Australia is in the wrong place (though cartographers no longer doubt that Australia and New Zealand were discovered by Chinese seamen centuries before Captain Cook arrived on the scene).

The commentary on the map, which seems to have been drawn from the original, is written in clear Chinese characters which can still be easily read. Of the west coast of America, the map says: “The skin of the race in this area is black-red, and feathers are wrapped around their heads and waists.” Of the Australians, it reports: “The skin of the aborigine is also black. All of them are naked and wearing bone articles around their waists.”

But this remarkable precision, rather than the errors, is what critics of the Menzies theory are likely to use to question the authenticity of the 1418 map. Mr Menzies and his followers are naturally extremely keen to establish that the 1763 copy is not a forgery and that it faithfully represents the 1418 original. This would lend weighty support to their thesis: that China had indeed discovered America by (if not actually in) 1421. Mass spectrography analysis to date the copied map is under way at Waikato University in New Zealand, and the results will be announced in February. But even if affirmative, this analysis is of limited importance since it can do no more than date the copyist's paper and inks.

Five academic experts on ancient charts note that the 1418 map puts together information that was available piecemeal in China from earlier nautical maps, going back to the 13th century and Kublai Khan, who was no mean explorer himself. They believe it is authentic.

The map makes good estimates of the latitude and longitude of much of the world, and recognises that the earth is round. “The Chinese were almost certainly aware of longitude before Zheng He set sail,” says Robert Cribbs of California State University. They certainly assumed the world was round. “The format of the map is totally consistent with the level of knowledge that we should expect of royal Chinese geographers following the voyages of Zheng He,” says Mr Thompson.

Moreover, some of the errors in the 1418 map soon turned up in European maps, the most striking being California drawn as an island. The Portuguese are aware of a world map drawn before 1420 by a cartographer named Albertin di Virga, which showed Africa and the Americas. Since no Portuguese seamen had yet discovered those places, the most obvious source for the information seems to be European copies of Chinese maps.

But this is certainly not a unanimous view among the experts, with many of the fiercest critics in China itself. Wang Tai-Peng, a scholarly journalist in Vancouver who does not doubt that the Chinese explored the world early in the 15th century (he has written about a visit by Chinese ambassadors to Florence in 1433), doubts whether Zheng He's ships landed in North America. Mr Wang also claims that Zheng He's navigation maps were drawn in a totally different Chinese map-making tradition. “Until the 1418 map is scientifically authenticated, we still have to take it with a grain of salt,” he says.

Most forgeries are driven by a commercial imperative, especially when the market for ancient maps is booming, as it is now. The Library of Congress recently paid $10m for a copy of a 1507 world map by Martin Waldseemuller, a German cartographer. But Mr Liu says he is not a seller: “The map is part of my life,” he claims.

The consequences of the discovery of this map could be considerable. If it does indeed prove to be the first map of the world, “the history of New World discovery will have to be rewritten,” claims Mr Menzies. How much does this matter? Showing that the world was first explored by Chinese rather than European seamen would be a major piece of historical revisionism. But there is more to history than that. It is no less interesting that the Chinese, having discovered the extent of the world, did not exploit it, politically or commercially. After all, Columbus's discovery of America led to exploitation and then development by Europeans which, 500 years later, made the United States more powerful than China had ever been.

这是两年前的一篇文章，讲的是也许是郑和的船队比哥伦布更早发现了每周，并麦哲伦更早环绕世界一周。

英雄传说6 空之轨迹 FC SC 3RD

   这是我玩得比较认真，用时最久的游戏了，尽管SC和3RD很无耻地改了数据，但那也是因为太忙没有足够的时间去进行战斗。

   一位朋友说过，一个好的游戏是让你玩完之后像读了一本小说。这就是这个游戏带给我的感觉。

   3rd的最后一起战斗的朋友们要分别了，其中一个角色问女主角（尽管3rd的主角是神父，但我依然认为艾斯蒂尔是整个空之轨迹的主角），分别了，如此悲伤的时候为什么大家还是微笑的，艾斯蒂尔回答说，因为人最终都是要分别的，即使是爱人，一辈子在一起，还是会因为生命的结束而分别；所以离别是应该微笑，即使心里很悲伤，但是微笑着，大家相互鼓励，一起继续生活。

   奥运会结束了，尽管我没有直接参与，心里也有点难受，但是总是要分别的，总是要结束的，我们应该微笑着说再见，把目光投向未来的路。

PS 热切期待英雄传说7中......

The Olympics

Winning streak

Aug 21st 2008
From The Economist print edition

Why Britain’s athletes have done so well

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11975496

Sport in China

All that gold does not glitter

Aug 21st 2008 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition

Questioning a sporting triumph

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11985394

这个是本周《经济学人》上的两篇文章，上面一篇是赞扬英国在本届奥运会上取得突破，是由于政府的大力经济支持。下面一篇是质疑中国的举国体育体系。

附两张表格：

The Olympics

Winning streak

Aug 21st 2008
From The Economist print edition

Why Britain’s athletes have done so well

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11975496

Sport in China

All that gold does not glitter

Aug 21st 2008 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition

Questioning a sporting triumph

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11985394

这个是本周《经济学人》上的两篇文章，上面一篇是赞扬英国在本届奥运会上取得突破，是由于政府的大力经济支持。下面一篇是质疑中国的举国体育体系。

附两张表格：

《瞭望》新闻周刊 2008年第33期 8月18日出版 专题

       “北京2008武术比赛”在8月21日起在奥体中心体育馆登场，设置了正式比赛项目，并有15块金牌，5块套路，5块散打。奖牌在用料和造型上与奥运会比赛项目所使用的奖牌是一样的，只是雕刻的文字不同，没有奥运字样，但也是国际奥委会认可的。

       武术进入奥运的话题由来已久了，一直希望能趁着奥运的东风进入奥运会，但一直未能如愿。希望能像1964年东京奥运会柔道、1988年汉城奥运会跆拳道那样成为奥运正式项目（其实感谢日本韩国引进这两个项目为中国贡献金牌.....），但是无奈奥运正忙着“瘦身”。

       但是武术本身也有一些的问题。1.普及率太低，不要说在世界上，就算是在中国，武术的普及率也很不理想，调查表明国内学习武术的不到总人口5%。2.在进入奥运会的形式上。现在武术比赛有两种，一个是套路，另一个是散打。套路的形式基本上类似于体操，而散打更像拳击，不是武术。事实上武术具实用和表演于一身。3.中国武术太博大精神了，门派套路众多，如何在奥运的几个项目中有效位地整合如此多的项目，是很大的问题。

       近期目标把太极24式捡起来.......

最近一期的《经济学家》杂志上有一副很搞笑的漫画，是关于人民币升值的

标题是：美国与中国商谈货币

水池中牌子上写的是：1.33万亿美元存款

山姆大叔说：我很抱歉，但是如果你们中国不在提高人民币汇率，我们得考虑制裁你们了....

中国龙说：很感谢你的警告！嗯，有个问题问你，你今天带游泳裤了么？

今天去个旧同学的网页看了看，发现她有个留言板

觉得不错，是个好东西，于是就偷过来了（不要见怪，哈）

大家以后有什么对我说就用这个吧……