莫里茨·科內利斯·埃舍爾: 上上落落循環不盡的樓梯 / M.C. Escher: Infinite Staircase

In the YouTube video above, we see a man who is living in a Escher-like nightmare in which there is no escape. That reminds of the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming 陶渊明 who wished he had quit his bureaucrat career earlier in life. Instead, he found himself kowtowing to his superior in return for his pay cheque (five pecks of rice) which begs the question whether it is worthwhile prostituting one's own values, principle and integrity for a few dollars more.

《晉書·陶潛傳》: 『吾不能為五斗米折腰，拳拳事鄉里小人邪。』

官場打滾,

斗米折腰,

頻頻撲撲,

上上落落,

勞碌奔跑,

所為何事?

According to Wikipedia:

"Ascending and Descending" is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in March 1960. Escher said there are 'free' people and these recalcitrant individuals refuse, for the time being, to take part in the exercise of treading the stairs. They have no use for it at all, but no doubt, sooner or later they will be brought to see the error of their non-conformity. Escher suggests that not only the labours, but the very lives of these monk-like people are carried out in an inescapable, coercive and bizarre environment. Another possible source for the people's looks is the Dutch idiom "a monk's job", which refers to a long and repetitive working activity with absolutely no practical purposes or results, and, by extension, to something completely useless.

References:

* Wikipedia: Ascending and Descending http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascending_and_Descending

* Wikipedia: 莫里茨·科內利斯·埃舍爾: Maurits Cornelis Escher（1898年6月17日－1972年3月27日），荷蘭畫家，其作品包含了不少數學內容，有分形、對稱、不可能物件、密舖平面和多面體等

* 藝術家這麼說 http://www.ylib.com/art/artist/10/artist10-11.html 一九六○年作品〈向上與往下〉，兩對士兵在一座城堡裡走樓梯，一隊士兵一直是上樓梯，爬得累得要死；另一隊相向的士兵下樓梯，輕鬆自在的往下走。如此走法，按正常道理兩隊人應該越走分離越遠，但是圖中這兩隊人卻走成了個循環，這到底是怎麼一回事？

* Wikipedia: 陶渊明 Tao Yuanming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Yuanming

20l2年5月l3日母親節: 生兒育女 / 2012 Mother's Day: Having a Family

The birth of a child marks the transition of a couple’s life from BC to AC (before child, after child). It’s more challenging for the man who can only intellectually “go along for the ride”, as opposed to the mother who actually experiences the physical and emotional rollercoaster for 9 months, the labour and birthing pain, the feeding and bonding with the child, etc, and that’s assuming there has been no complications.

I am not minimizing the role of the man here. In fact, the importance of his support as father/husband to the well-being of the child/mother and the family as a whole must not be underestimated, esp during the period when the woman is focusing her attention more on the child than on the husband.

But let’s face it. A man may feel ignored, but who can resist not giving the tiny baby the best chance to thrive and survive. The feeling of life and death is almost primal !!!

Photo Credit:
I took this photo on New Year's Day Feb 1, 2011 (Lunar Year of the Cat) in Ho Chi Minh City (Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh/previously Saigon), Vietnam.

寶拉·域基芙 - 女子馬拉松世界紀錄保持者 / Paula Radcliffe - Women's Marathon World Record Holder

>>>> Please see UPDATE 20130305 re "Ironman Run Technique - Gliders vs Gazelles" at the end of this blog article <<<< A marathon coach once said: The less time you touch the ground, the faster you run.

Here is a photo of Paula Radcliffe, current record holder of women's marathon.

Talking about BIG AIR TIME !!!!

Photo above: Paula Radcliffe airborne at mile 14, New York City Marathon 2007
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Reference / Photo credit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Radcliffe

According to Wikipedia: "...... Radcliffe is the current world record holder for the women's marathon, which she set during the 2003 London Marathon in April, with a time of 2:15:25. The performance is one of the highest of score's values in terms of the IAAF World ranking points.

Radcliffe is also the current world record holder for the women's road 10k in a time of 30 minutes and 21 seconds, which she set on 23 February 2003 in the World's Best 10K in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Radcliffe won the 2004 New York City Marathon in a time of 2:23:10, beating Kenya's Susan Chepkemei.

Of the seven marathons Radcliffe has run so far, she has won six and set a record in five. She has run four out of the five fastest times in history in the women's marathon ....."
++++++++++++++++++++
UPDATE 20130305: According to the authour of this video documentary, world-class elite runners are mostly gazelles with BIG AIR TIME !!!

有情飲水跑 / I Would Run To You

她: 健步如飛
他: 有心無力
最後還是女人追男人,
她橫渡北美會晤情人。
是現實社會女盛男衰的影照?
還是耐克鞋廣告奉承女顧客?

I Would Run To You (Lyrics):

You're so far away.
You're so far away.
Ain't got too much pride.
Want you back by my side.
Well baby I want that too.
And baby I would run, run to you.

I would run to you.
I would run to you.

The first time you talked to me.
I knew we were meant to be.
And when we finally embraced.
Baby, I can't keep this pace.
I love you. There I said it.
I think I'm gonna need a medic.
You filled the hall with flower petals.
Why does my mouth taste like metal?
Baby I might die without you.
Baby, I might die.

I would run to you.
I'm not as strong as you.
I would run to you.
I (unintelligible heavy breathing) to you.

Love is a speeding comet.
I'm in a pool of my own vomit.
Love is a perfect vision.
This was such a bad decision.
Love makes everything serene.
Give me all of your morphine.

(Spoken)
Baby, I know we said we'd run across the country to be together, but I thought we were being symbolic. Why can't we fly, and meet somewhere in the middle? Like Kansas City? It's the Paris of the Plains...

Baby I love you so much that I would run to you.
You would run to me? You would run to me!
Baby I love you so much that I would run to you.

(Together)
I (you) would run to you (me).

戰爭罪行,危害人類罪: 查爾斯·泰勒被判罪名成立 / War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: Charles Taylor Found Guilty

戰爭衝突是人類歷史起落的主要里程碑,幾乎世界每一個角落都逃不過戰禍鐵蹄的蹂躪。

或許,有灰色人生論者会說:『人之初,性本惡』,好勇鬥狠是動物生存的原始本能,如達爾文【進化論】辨證:『適者生存,不適者被淘汰』。

但是,把人類貶為「衣冠禽獸」,卻似乎是一筆勾消了您我「萬物之靈」数千年的文化成果。

無可否認,人類歷史記錄了無數血跡斑斑的戰爭禍亂,局部或漫燃的內戰、外戰、熱戰、冷戰赤裸裸地暴露了原始人性的暴戾，兇惡，殘忍。

不過,在烽煙戰火之中,我們仍然是希望找到和平,找到雙邊或多邊的國際團體來組織、領導、談判、和解、及懲治戰爭和危害人類罪犯。

故此,國際戰爭罪行法庭在上星期4月26日,就有關賴比瑞亞軍閥查爾斯·泰勒被判罪名成立的宣佈,實在是令人鼓舞,令人感到: 天網恢恢,疏而不漏。

維護正義和平是人類歷史進化的主要里程碑,也就是衣冠与禽獸一鏡兩面的分別。

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根據【維基百科】: "....... 查爾斯·泰勒（英語：Charles Taylor，1948年1月28日－）是一名賴比瑞亞政治人物，曾於1997年至2003年8月11日間出任賴比瑞亞第22任總統。在1990年代初的賴比瑞亞內戰時他是非洲最知名的軍閥之一。內戰結束後他被選為總統。此後他被迫流亡。目前他被關押在海牙聯合國監獄中受塞拉里昂特別法庭審判。... 2012年4月26日，他於海牙被判定在11項罪名指控中罪名全部成立，預計5月3日審判完成。....

Verdict and reactions

The verdict was announced in the Hague on April 26, 2012. The SCSL Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) unanimously ruled that he was guilty of all 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity. Sentencing hearings would commence on 3 May and be announced on 30 May.

Count	Crime	Type*	Ruling
Terrorising the civilian population and collective punishments
1	Acts of terrorism	WC	Guilty
Unlawful killings
2	Murder	CAH	Guilty
3	Violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder	WC	Guilty
Sexual violence
4	Rape	CAH	Guilty
5	Sexual slavery and any other form of sexual violence	CAH	Guilty
6	Outrages upon personal dignity	WC	Guilty
Physical violence
7	Violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular cruel treatment	WC	Guilty
8	Other inhumane acts	CAH	Guilty
Use of child soldiers
9	Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities	VIHL	Guilty
Abductions and forced labor
10	Enslavement	CAH	Guilty
Looting
11	Pillage	WC	Guilty
*Explanation of type of crime: CAH = Crimes Against Humanity WC = Violation of Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II (war crimes) VIHL = Other serious violation of international humanitarian law

References:

* 維基百科: 查爾斯·泰勒

* Wikipedia: Charles Taylor (ex-Liberian politician)

Related Articles:

* 緝捕烏干達戰爭罪犯約瑟夫·科尼 / Capturing Ugandan War Criminal Joseph Kony  http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2012/03/capturing-ugandan-war-criminal-joseph.html

* 【烈血暴潮/裂血大風暴】: 為弟弟雪冤 / "Mississippi Burning": Justice for a murdered brother
* 【烈血暴潮/裂血大風暴】: 為弟弟雪冤之『天網恢恢,疏而不漏』 / "Mississippi Burning": Justice for a murdered brother - the sentencing

Closure of Google's "knowledge" Site:"knol" April 30, 2012

我在谷歌処只登了一篇文章(影響和說服力 / The Power of Influence and Persuasion),但之後發覺在那処「曲低和寡」,所以就再沒有潻加我的knol了。

蓋棺定論,可說谷歌的knol最終是不敵維基百科!!

以下是我唯一的knol:

影響和說服力 / The Power of Influence and Persuasion

I am using ths blog post (ref: http://www.lotusandcedar.blogspot.com May 8, 2007) as my first "knol-how" article.

What this knol article is abt: 維護大家的信任, 靠公德 For those who have the power of influence and persuasion, they have a responsibility to maintain public trust by attesting to their strong moral fabric within the legal framework of the society.

Contents

In our society, we are often bombarded by TV programs that portrait itself as reality; advertisements that tell us to shop till we drop; and opinions that are presented as the truth, and nothing but the truth. At the same time, we learn from our judicial system that some people at the top rung of our society, who once had the power of influence and persuasion, are being prosecuted for fraud and inappropriate behaviours that, surprise surprise, were largely driven by greed.

There is no doubt that one of the most valued competencies of CEOs and senior executives is their ability to exert the power of influence and persuasion. They all have the skills and techniques to rally the troops, secure buy-in from stakeholders, and fuel the fire of our desire to take actions. Ironically, these same people are also the most discipline when it comes to keeping their own emotions in check. Strategies and decisions are often based on cold calculated logic that is devoid of any so-called irrational thinking.

However, what often seems to lack in these modern day executives is what I call the value-and-ethic factor which, if used properly, will complement their leadership competencies and, more importantly, guide their ambitions in the achievement of personal and organizational goals. Here I am not talking about charity or philanthropy, but rather the corporate responsibility of protecting the public good and societal assets. For those who have the power of influence and persuasion, they have a responsibility to maintain public trust by attesting to their strong moral fabric within the legal framework of the society. Public trust is a society asset, without which, our cohesion will weaken.

燃燒別人的情緒, 靠技巧;
冷卻自己的思想, 靠修養;
維護大家的信任, 靠公德。

(Reference/Acknowledgement: The above was written based on some high-profile stories on the front-pages of Canadian newspaper in 2007, as well as a chance review of three articles “我對直銷的一些想法” posted on June 28, 2006 by the authour of “The Bryan Way ” (無名小站 http://www.wretch.cc/blog/bryanwang). I took the liberty of quoting the first two lines from the said blog and added the third line here to round-out my thoughts.)

張貼者： 微豆 Haricot 11:59 下午 位於 http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2007/05/power-of-influence-and-persuasion.html

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Supplementary information:

根據【維基百科】："...... knol 是Google公司的一個計劃，目的是要建立一個類似維基百科或大眾百科（Citizendium）的網站，讓網友可參與編寫知識性內容。「knol」是 Google 自創的新詞，取自 Knowledge（知識），是「一個知識單位」的意思（A unit of knowledge）。每一篇文章亦可以用 knol 來稱呼。此計劃於2007年12月13日發表，在內部測試期間，與 Gmail 初期一樣，需要以邀請的方式才可加入；於2008年7月23日，knol 完全開放給大眾使用。其平台採用Solvitor和Crowd Favorite創建的基於Wordpress的Annotum。2011年11月，Google公司宣布knol在2012年4月30日後不能查看，用戶只能下載自己的文章或者導出到Wordpress.com；10月1日後將不能再訪問 。...."

According to Wikipedia/knol: "..... Lower-case, the term knol, which Google defines as a "unit of knowledge", refers to an article in the project. Several experts saw Knol as Google's attempt to compete with Wikipedia,while others pointed out the differences between the projects. Knol is a Google project that aims to include user-written articles on a range of topics.

The project was led by Udi Manber of Google, announced December 13, 2007, and was opened in beta to the public on July 23, 2008 with a few hundred articles mostly in the health and medical field. Knol has no policies regarding sources or neutrality. Some Knol pages are opinion papers of one or more authors, and others describe products for sale. Some articles are how-to articles or explain product use. Other people can post comments below an article, such as to refute opinions or reject product claims.

On January 16, 2009, Google announced that Knol had grown to 100,000 articles, and users from 197 countries visit Knol on an average day. Since then, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Currents: Influenza and the Harvard University-sponsored forum for Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) Platform have utilized Knol-based collections for rapid exchange of research.

On November 22, 2011, Google announced that Knol was phased out in favor of Annotum. It would be closed on April 30, 2012 and all content would be deleted by October 1, 2012...."