Raining days

About 2 days ago, it rained a lot.

Sometimes it's just mild little rain and I didn't need an umbrella .

Sometimes it's pretty heavy like when I was on my way from Krannert Art Performance center to my office on Friday night. 

The former might be my favorite weather. The mist-like air makes people feel comfortable. Walking in this kind of rain is like walking in a poem. I was born and having a childhood  in Keelung, a rainy city. Maybe a raining day like this just reminds my hometown.

The later one, however,  is the one I dislike the most. Maybe it's because of another experience that whenever it rained my shoes get totally wet. Just imagine sinking feet in water with sox sticking on skins whole day long, it's suffering. And this is another memory of hometown.

Taiwan is not a part of China

今天下午Seminar前甜甜圈時間

話題好像是從Liang the Chinese以為Ian和Ruby一樣都是約旦人開始。Ian是埃圾人，但和約旦人一樣都說阿拉伯話。

然後不知道為什麼話題就變成「Is Taiwan part of China? 」

平常碰到這種話題，我都是含糊帶過。因為我覺得這種東西，是要用實力解決的。嘴巴上口舌之快一點意義都沒有。

不過，今天我並沒辦法閃躲。

Liang問阿拉伯的同學：「Don't you think Taiwan is part of China?」

他們的傾向，是的。

然後阿拉伯人就問我了：「Is Taiwan part of China?」

我馬上就回答說不是。

Liang聽了，丟了一句台獨份子給我。

James, the citizen of USA,過來拿甜甜圈，Liang也問他同樣問題。

James說：「Taiwan if not part of China. This is why I support Bush since this is one of his policy.」

我說了一聲：「Thank you」。一個很奇怪的Thank you，幹麻謝謝呢?

最後，為了緩和一下氣氛，我打趣的說：「Actually, we think that China is part of us.」

事後，我對自已的表現很不滿。因為對這個話題，我沒法用強勢的立場來主導最後的結論。而只能微弱的回答：「No, we are different countries.」。

下次若是再碰到這種情況，我要說：

「China is communism, but Taiwan is democracy. Taiwan and China was once a united country, but not right now. 」

Playing soccer

I went to play indoor soccer in ARC with some classmates today.

It was interesting because this is the first time for me to really hang out with foreign friends.

There are James, Ruby, Mohammed, Ian Qiyue and Liang.

The court was busy today. I heard that on Tuesday it's like no body there.

I haven't played soccer for five to six years, so tonight I felt so exhausted. Much more exhausted than it was when playing badminton. Yet, it's exciting and fun as well.

原子層次模擬

這是現在很熱門，但還是在寶寶階段的一項科技。

也就是把原子之間的交互作用，用電腦程式寫出來、運算。

如果這項科技能發展出來的話，我覺得有兩個很棒的地方：

一、以後就不用做實驗即得知材料的性質，省時又省錢。若是再配合演算法，我們就可以讓電腦來設計新材料。想像你在Google裡輸入：「融點>1000K、紅色、密度小於純鐵」，然後Google就幫你開始搜資料庫或是就開始進行運算。然後把設計好最佳的材料組成、結構、加熱退火流程都告訴你。這項技術的缺點就是：一堆材料工程師會沒有工作。

二、若是原子模擬真得到了非常準的話，我會想就直接模擬人類的腦子。一顆原子一顆子的複製、模擬。一旦成功的話，就是一顆活生生的腦子，可以外接眼睛、耳朵、嘴巴等等輸入輸出設備。照理說這應該將是一個有愛有恨、有同情心但又自私自利的人工智慧。接下來，我們可以讓人在不知情的狀況下和它對話，看看是否可以發現他只是電腦。如果不行?那，靈魂是什麼?我覺得這搞不好是人工智慧最單純也最暴力的一條途徑。