The typhoon FUNG-WONG is now about 540km east to Oluanpi and is almost certain to make a landfall next Monday.
Everybody is staying alert because of KALMAEGI, the typhoon hit Taiwan last week (18 July) that caused severe damages and took 20 lives.
And US Navy forecasts:
Do you know that you are likely right-handed, Kuro?
Human brains are divided in to left and right hemispheres, likewise, dogs too. Each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body. And because of developments of hemispheres, there is tendency of using more one side of the body than the other.
Most humans are right-handed, what about canines? "Most male dogs are left-pawed." I didn't know that.
Maybe next time when I say shake hands, I shouldn't be expecting you to give me your right paw.
One Blue legislator said a only a stupid government would let the gas price rise to full extent.
Our one-week-old government has just proved that it was not that stupid. It let the gas price rise ONLY $3.9 compared with the full ＄6.2. Now that's smart.
And it was also smart enough to announce that in the evening during the rush hours to give drivers about 6 hours to go to gas stations. So we could see roads near the gas stations were blocked by cars with drivers trying to save some $$$.
Did anybody estimate how much gas was burned in the whole island by cars waiting to pump gas?
知道自己很受女性歡迎，像明星般享受粉絲的尖叫，所到之處引起騷動視為理所當然。有了新的身份之後也不改心態，粉絲也得吋進尺，強抱、搓臉都來了，隨扈似乎都是假的，終於有新的烏鴉跳出來語重心長"要知所收斂"。
"騎單車不穿內褲，洗澡忘了帶毛巾"可以慎重其事報告給粉絲分享；早晨照例慢跑，只是多了好幾圈人牆，我在期待哪天來個露點游泳。
謝謝指教！
Day care is the working new parents' biggest nightmare. In Taiwan, this becomes the new grandparents' new job.
In the US, more companies are allowing babies in workplace, a good news for moms and dads. And as a result, employee loyalty may also rise. I wonder if Google employees can bring their babies to the Google wonderland. But definitely not all companies can host babies at work. This might become one of the deciding factors for people seeking job.
這是中時電子報寫的。
《根據民航局初步調查，昨天上午八點四十四分，桃園國際機場塔台告知在０６跑道上的長榮ＢＲ９０１班機準備起飛，飛機緩緩轉彎仰起，但鼻輪離地、機身還未脫離地面時，機長夏毅敏聽到疑似由起落架傳出異響，但仍決定起飛，八點四十五分飛機起飛。》
鼻輪離地...，但仍決定起飛 -- 這樣寫好像是機長的決定有問題，但是機長有別的選擇嗎？可以不起飛、壓下機鼻、緊急煞車把飛機停在跑道上?
在此我選擇懷疑記者的報導。
兩岸共同市場基金會的蕭董事長參加了一年一度的博鰲論壇，這是他第六次參加這個"年度盛事"，還是隔壁的胡總書記熱情邀請之下臨時報名參加的(註:當事人說選後有了空閒，打電話去問，得知可補報名故決定報名參加之)，因為蕭董事長前一陣子在忙選舉，錯過了報名時間。找了一下，我是第3491名進去參觀兩岸共同市場基金會的客人。
兩岸共同市場基金會是博鳌亚洲论坛的"钻石会员"，歸類於"国家/地区"的"中国香港、澳门、台湾"，看來是把台灣視為省級單位，排在特別行政區之後。
今年蕭董事長因為身分即將調整，參加博鰲論壇的座位安排也受到升等，坐到第一排，與富豪汽車CEO，美國前國務卿鮑爾相同，前幾年是坐不到第一排的，不過這種升等要說是元首級的待遇似乎有點誇張，因為其他元首是坐在台上的而且我很確定鮑爾沒當過美國總統，港澳特首也是坐第一排。
Thanks to latest software technology, the happiness is now measurable. Japan's Omron Corp. has the answer.
How? First the face is identified and then analyze the curves of lips and eye movement and other facial characteristics.
Ho do we tell a person's mood? We see the face and "analyze the curves of lips and eye movement and otherfacial characteristics" and we search our memories to find a match of predefined mood.
The difference is that the software has a database of 1 million faces, that means the software can be more accurate than human.
這是新聞的標題，選後變天了就不一樣。
是誰說過不敢坐高鐵，是誰說愛河根本沒有那麼乾淨？
高鐵通車時，曾有位藍色的名嘴，女性，批評高鐵設的育嬰室，說是浪費，還說有誰搭高鐵會提前30分去等車，然後又剛好有機會使用到育嬰室？
你可以批評政府不應該投資BOT的高鐵、你可以批評高鐵車站偏遠不方便、景觀不好、電扶梯太快、售票系統爛、沒有提供飲料、沒有電動玩具、沒有漫畫、沒有Wii、沒有電影、沒有俊男美女、沒有Spa.....但是女性一枚，居然批評育嬰室的設置不應該？！
男的批評育嬰室的設置肯定被批到爆，女性就可以？
Electronic gadgets with pre-installed virus have been reported like digital picture frame and portable hard drive.
Hard to believe but it's not impossible. Imagine a QA engineer or test engineer plugs in his MP3 player which is infected, anything plugged in the computer for testing will be ingected.
Why is mosquito the termite's Dream?
The deHavilland MOSQUITO was a British combat aircraft during WWII. It was a plane made of plywood, thus made it "popular among termites".
The mosquito was light and fast, when used as a bomber, it does not need any armour because no other enemy airplanes could catch up with it.
Even the Nationalist China had some Mossies.
Two huge galaxies, M81 and M82, locked in a gravitational combat for the past billion years. When the galaxies pass, the gravity from each galaxy affects the other for hundred million years.
Following the laws of gravity, these two galaxies will become one in a few billion years. In that scale of time, our existence is nothing.
Scientists found 2-foot starfish in New Zealand's Antarctic waters. Imagine Spongebob's best friend of that size. How will they go jellyfishing on those with 12-foot tentacles?
感謝Teddy君簡潔有力的意見，民主就是服從選舉結果，可是2000與2004年總統大選後有些人似乎不太習慣這個規矩，當然他們自有理由，不過這次另一方就找不出理由了，只能乖乖的滿地找眼鏡碎片。
其實，這次的結果從一開始就已經確定了，過程中所發生的所有事件都不造成影響，就連綠卡議題都不成氣候，沒辦法，馬長得太帥了。
上週四，3月20日下午收到這篇台灣數位多媒體報對馬英九的評論，不知道他們從哪得到我的電郵，通常這種消息我是不會到處發送的，因為信者恆信，不信者恆不信，不過馬英九的最大優勢在於媒體會主動幫他淡化處理。
註：上面對馬英九的評論的連結在24日下午還看得到，到晚上就不見了，真是令人好奇啊。
After 8 years, KMT won back control of the government and it began to rain. Is it a sign?
It proves that people in Taiwan care only about their wallets and their stomachs.
Regime, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines: "a method or system of government, especially one that has not been elected in a fair way"... I didn't know that.
An avalanche on Earth can be disastrous. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted an avananche in February 2008. No human casualties reported... : )
Black means no light reflection. Since nothing in the world is perfect, there is no "real" black thing. Scientists at Rice University in Houston and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. developed a material that is near perfect, rerlecting only 0.045% of incident light.
The rule is simple, the less light you reflect, the darker you are.
With carbon nanotubes of random length and arrangement standing on the surface, light reflection is minimized.
The use? Light-detecting sensors. How? I don't know.
想去美國當保姆嗎？Au pair 是一種新的文化交流形態，以勞務交換住宿的方式藉由接待家庭提供食宿及津貼，讓外國人可以住在美國並照顧接待家庭的孩童，讓彼此接觸對方的文化，是一種互惠且直接的文化交流。
AuPairCare 是一個安排外國人士到美國接待家庭照顧孩童的單位，有興趣的人可以去看一看。
AccuWeather says it's 13° C and feels like 10° C.
I believe that because my hydrometer shows 54% relative humidity and it's windy.
It was 15° C when I walked Kuro at 8:00PM and it was really chilly.
The Travel & Living Channel is introducing an aquarium. There's a baby sunfish, a strange looking fish. Because the sunfish is not seen often, scientists don't know it much. They only know sunfish fry looks just like ordinary fish. But as it grows up, it begins to transform to look like cut in half, and it can grow up to 4 meters long and weighs 2 tons. This is huge. What if the baby sunfish in aquarium grows to that size?
對於台灣的新聞報導，我想大家都有相同的認知，那就是“丁丁“，而且毫不掩飾的反應在報導的內容裡。
昨天，四年才有一次的2月29日，看到年X新聞報導高雄的水質，因為這是長久以來高雄人的痛。記者找了檢驗單位看報告，發覺所有數據都有進步且符合規定，記者還是不死心的找來民眾說不敢喝高雄的自來水。這報導的目的到底在哪裡？結論到底是什麼？
這是怎樣？ Now what?
為了找一個節目，Google 跟我說「這個網站可能會損害您的電腦，如果警告訊息隨著搜尋結果一起出現，即表示我們已辨識出該網站可能會將惡意軟體安裝在您的電腦上」。
I tried to find a program and Google told me: "This site may harm your computer. This warning message appears with search results we've identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer."
也就是說 Google 告訴我國家地理頻道的網站有害？
So Google is telling me that the National Geographic Channel web site is harmful?
Apple's OS X has a built-in function of weather forecast.
Found the forecast comes from this site:
AccuWeather.com: http://www.accuweather.com/
The international weather:
http://www.accuweather.com/world-index.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0
Just type "city, country" in the box right to "Your Local Forecast"
A single digit temperature at 8:20PM. Would it be lower than that early tomorrow morning?
Temperature shown at the balcony at 11:50PM.
It eased a little bit last Saturday because a drier cold front came down from the north and brought the temperature down to 9 degrees that night. Now the cold front is gone and it's raining again.
It will be an unpleasant beginning of a new semester tomorrow.
As safety flaws in Microsoft Windows, XP or 2000, are found over
time, Microsoft issues patches whenever necessary. One may have downloaded many patches during the use of Windows for a period of time. If some day someone decides to re-install the Windows, the downloading of necessary patches will take a long time. There's a technique called slipstreaming, it is to integrate those patches into the installation CD.
Today's the last working day before the Lunar New Year holidays. The company's tradition is that the big bosses will go to each department saying "Congratualtions" and "Happy New Year" to the employees at 3PM, then everybody can leave the office earlier so as to avoid the traffic jam.
Right after the routine greetings I went down to the parking lot at B2 with a few coleagues. When I tries to start the 6-year old Opel Zafira, the engine just wouldn't start, the battery's down! Luckily one of the coleague has the jumper line with him and gave the Zafira a jump-start. If it were ordinary working day off, there wouldn't be other people ready by the side to offer a hand.
What a way to end a lunar old year!
It finally stops raining, but the temperature is only 12 degrees outside. The good news is, the relative humidity is 65%.
This is a flash game very popular recently:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz
Some of the stages are quite straightforward, some may be frustrating. Very often, after fooling around trying desperately to find a way and suddenly, you find your block standing where you want it to be.
有個狗友家裡有隻狗瑞，17歲的秋田。不久前大病一場，被老獸醫治好後昨天第一次看到，除了動作慢以外看起來很好。之前看過另一隻老狗，也是17歲，已經全身僵硬不太能動了。
There is a 17-year-old Akita, it looks fine. I wonder what Kuro would look like at that age. I've seen another dog that was also 17 years old, it's body was stiff and could barely move.
Just learned from CNN that a self-destructing palm tree is discovered in Madagascar:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/01/16/madagascar.palm.tree.ap/index.html
It says this palm tree flowers every 100 years and then dies. This reminds me of the saying that bamboos don't flower, when they do, they die.
Scientists can't explain this phenomenon, they can only guess.
This palm tree is called giant because it can grow up to 66 feet high... that's about 7 stories high. I hope it does not produce any coconuts.
This one is made in China. Although looks similar, the quality and workmanship are no match of the original German Feuerhand lantern.
It's time to use my Feuerhand 276 tin-plated storm lantern, it makes the room look warmer in this cold winter night. It's sold on Internet for €12.49. I bought it 2 years ago for NT$600, first-hand.
突然想起20多年前當兵時用過的National BG-307懷爐，馬上從儲藏室找出來，加了臭臭的去漬油，用電池點火，很快就熱起來了。因為去漬油很容易揮發燃燒，一定要放在保護絨套裡，不然會太燙。
在網路上找到這個：
Sanyo Eneloop Kairo KIR-S2S三洋充電式懷爐
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/bajenny&article_id=11718533
以及非推薦文：
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/samihere&article_id=25518975
一方面說狂賣熱銷、補貨無期，一方面又說效果不夠好，這東西在日本到底賣得熱不熱？
It was sunny yesterday morning, perfect for voting. As the cold front approaches, it became windy and cloudy. It's called 變天.
It's just past midnight. A new day begins, it's the voting day.
For the first time in history we use 2 ballots to select new legislators, one for the candidate and the other for the party.
There are also 2 referendums.
Installed Ubuntu 7.10 in another hard drive, took me more time than expected. The first Ubuntu 7.10 freezes too often!
Leopard panics when trying to startup. Found some information and will try in the evening.
Fingers crossed.
