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    March 30

    Paint It Black

    "The petite waitress finally brought their orders, or at least something on a plate, though it was all wrong, a cheese-and-mushroom omelet instead of her udon soup, Jeremy's burger, but cold, and with salad instead of fries, but they ate them without complaint.
     
    That was how it was at the Atomic. You placed your order and then you ate what the waitress or the cook or Fate served up.
     
    You never got what you wanted but sometimes what you got was edible. Just like life."
     
    by Janet Fitch
    March 26

    Earth Hour

    At the stroke of 8pm on March 29th., I suppose two-thirds of the city will be spending 60 minutes in candlelights!

    这个活动好像是去年由Sydney发起的。逐之蔓延全球……
    About Earth Hour On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.

    就是全城的商家、住宅、学校等机构自愿停止用电一个小时,然后把generate的fund献给环保机构。
    我很好奇的是,这个fund的来源是什么?怎么个generate法?是算出星期六的平均用电量,然后测算出Earth Hour时的用电量,两个数字相减得出用电差,然后电力公司捐出这个用电差给WWF吗?还是所有参与的机构都照算电费,只是电力公司悉数捐给环保机构?
    总之就是很好奇。
    Monash参加了,很多restaurants也参加了,之前上课班上好像有些许人也有举手。
    蛮有意义的。
    只点蜡烛不开灯不算什么,那不是重点。某人很喜欢买蜡烛回家点,都不开灯。而且某个晚上就跟一对老人家吃烛光晚餐。其实好像很浪漫但除了吃饭喝酒聊天然后什么东西都干不了。
    经历了恩个酷暑的夜晚,这么有意义能cut CO2 emission或者还可能顺便降降暑的事情,还是想参加。
    March 09

    Sonntag

    Armadale
    今天收到一个朋友的来信
    想必一定是看到我的signature,所以才问的
    他问我最喜欢欧洲哪个城市
     
    这个问题还真把我问倒了
    如果要说,最喜欢的,还是德国的Dresden
     
    第一次去Dresden是在Christmas market开始之前
    只记得到达的时候才下午4点,天却是已经暗地像8点
    在游人必到的广场上慢慢逛,忽然听见很熟悉的声调,隐约感觉是国语
    可是因为频道一时间没有转过来,所以没听懂
    那是我来到那个国家那么久,第一次看到亚洲人!
    只觉得心里突然很舒坦
     
    那里的建筑群,已经被列为世界文化遗产
    可是因为下午才到,进去参观的意义不大,所以只在周边走走
    后来去了超市买了许多杂货(后来想想就觉得好笑,开40分钟的车去Dresden,到头来只为了那超市)
    然后就闯进H&M扫货了……
     
    也许是因为Dresden距离住的地方不远
    我这个人很奇怪,一定要稳定地住下来,才能够放任自由而认真地去看一个城市
    不管在阿姆斯特丹,科隆,还是维也纳,都住在青年旅馆
    和英国人美国人日本人西班牙人加拿大人法国人波兰人希腊人德国人睡在一个房间
    心都是飘的
    根本抓不准城市的节奏,只能任由自己走马观花
    除了Dresden
    想想才发现,前后去了三次那么多
     
    第二次是去在那里举行的hardcore concert
    全场只有我一个亚裔人
    那种感觉很奇怪,除了在演奏馆里面,大多数时候我都走很快
    刚进去就看到一小圈男生把自己围起来比长度……
     
    那天晚上,能听入耳的只有一首歌
    感觉就是被骗了
    什么punk,明明只有乱嚷嚷的hardcore
    你是摇滚也好,我还能跟着乱挥手
    我对hardcore产生不了任何resonance
    大部分时间都站在最外层看里面的人你推我攘
    唯一后悔的是,没有把自己灌醉
    兴许瞎high比什么都强
     
    直到第三次,才认真地逛了那里的城堡和博物馆
    然后在附近的咖啡馆休息
    那是在欧洲吃的唯一一个提拉米苏
    很难吃,太多的whisky
    咖啡很好喝
     
    Irregular roofs shape the sky
     
     
     
    Sky above High Street
     
    有时候,站在Armadale的High Street,让我有一种回到欧洲的幻觉
     
    我从来不能理解自己为什么会对欧洲持有一种特殊的感觉
    我总是很惊讶为什么自己那么能喝咖啡
    March 07

    There is no design for life, there is no devil's haircut in my mind

    This is about an article I read on the website.The title has nothing to do with what I paste here. Just a piece of lyrics from one of Travis's songs.
    I am very much attracted to and impressed by its topic!
    How interesting and surprising it is for the author to have linked showers in a youth hostel with the stock market!
    I guess the idea must have been hit her like a hit-and-run while she was taking a shower in a youth hostel,only the difference is, instead of running away,it had been stuck within her mind and contributed to this interesting article.
     
    Christina Matzke
    Department of Economics
    University of Bonn
     
    Why Youth Hostel Showers Are Like the Stock Market
         New economics research stresses importance of variety
    Diversity keeps you warm. At least that is true while you're having a shower in youth hostels. If you like, this sums up the research project just published by scientists from the Universities of Fribourg and Bonn. Their result is not as trivial as it sounds. Ultimately it shows that heterogeneity provides stability, whether this is in a shower, in power grids or even on the stock market.

    Having a shower in a youth hostel can be risky when there is not enough hot water for everybody. If only one visitor turns up the hot tap during the early morning shower,
    everyone else is threatened by an icy gush of water. This unwanted form of hydrotherapy is particularly likely to happen when all the shower taps have the same possible settings, in other words if cold and hot water can be adjusted to exactly the same amount in all showers. But if the water taps in each shower have their individual quirks, the risk of extreme fluctuations is less.

    At least that is what the Bonn economist Christina Matzke and her colleague Damien Challet, a physicist at the University of Fribourg, say. They modelled the temperature profile of showers in a youth hostel on the computer. 'All in all, heterogeneous taps offer advantages � they prevent the average shower temperature of all guests from suddenly dropping or rising,' Christina Matzke explains. 'From the perspective of the individual they also have disadvantages, as it�s more difficult for each person to set the right temperature.'

    The problem sounds comical, but in principle it can be applied to all situations where people compete for a scarce resource, whether this is hot water, electricity or equities. One thing is always true, the more individualistic the behaviour of those involved in the market is, the more stable the whole system becomes. Put simply, the only reason why our electricity grid does not break down is that not all the inhabitants of Germany switch on the tumble drier at the same time. And if all shareholders made strictly rational decisions on their investments, there would probably be a lot more turbulence on the stock market.

    The result is also significant from a theoretical point of view. 'We show what different results economic models can produce, depending on whether they are based on homogeneous or heterogeneous behaviour,' Christina Matzke emphasises. Accordingly, it is important to account for differences in individual behaviour when making forecasts. Although it sounds obvious, economists long ignored this insight. For decades their models were dominated by 'homo economicus', an imaginary standardised market investor who always made rational decisions rather than deciding according to individual criteria.

    The complete project can also be found as a pdf file on the internet:

    http://www.bgse.uni-bonn.de/index.php?id=2941