2010年8月6日 星期五

惟恐其非梦,又惟恐其是梦

昔有西陵脚夫为人担酒,失足破其瓮,念无所偿,痴坐伫想曰:“得是梦便好!”

一寒士乡试中式,方赴鹿鸣宴,恍然犹意非真,自啮其臂曰:“莫是梦否?”

一梦耳,惟恐其非梦,又惟恐其是梦,其为痴人则一也。

陶庵夢憶 明·張岱

《自為墓志銘》云 :“少為紈褲子弟,極愛繁華。好精捨,好美婢,好孌童,好鮮衣,好美食,好駿馬,好華燈,好烟火,好梨園,好鼓吹,好古董,好花鳥;兼以茶淫譎謔,書囊詩魔 。”

“年至五十,国破家亡,避迹山居。所存者,破床碎几折鼎病琴,与残书数帙,缺砚一方而已。布衣蔬食,常至断炊 。

“陶庵国破家亡,无所归止,披发入山,骇骇为野人。故旧见之,如毒药猛兽,愕窒不敢与接。作自挽诗,每欲引决,因《石匮书》未成,尚视息人间。然瓶粟屡罄,不能举火 。”

因想余生平,繁华靡丽,过眼皆空,五十年来,总成一梦。

2010年7月22日 星期四

Hans Rosling on global population growth | Video on TED.com

Hans Rosling on global population growth | Video on TED.com


The world's population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years -- and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth.

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex | Video on TED.com

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex | Video on TED.com

2010年4月28日 星期三

decline of violence

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html

Steven Pinker's books have been like bombs tossed into the eternal nature-versus-nurture debate. Pinker asserts that not only are human minds predisposed to certain kinds of learning, such as language, but that from birth our minds -- the patterns in which our brain cells fire -- predispose us each to think and behave differently.

His deep studies of language have led him to insights into the way that humans form thoughts and engage our world. He argues that humans have evolved to share a faculty for language, the same way a spider evolved to spin a web. We aren't born with “blank slates” to be shaped entirely by our parents and environment, he argues in books including The Language Instinct; How the Mind Works; and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.

In 2003, Harvard recruited Pinker for its psychology department from MIT. Time magazine named Pinker one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004. His latest book is The Stuff of Thought, previewed at TEDGlobal 2005. He is working on a new book that studies violence.

Srikumar Rao: Plug into your hard-wired happiness | Video on TED.com

Srikumar S. Rao conceived Creativity and Personal Mastery, a pioneering course that is one of the highest rated at Columbia Business School, London Business School and the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.


Srikumar Rao: Plug into your hard-wired happiness | Video on TED.com

rotting of the human mind

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/james_randi.html

Randi has pursued "psychic" spoonbenders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water "with a memory," and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public's eyes in the name of the supernatural. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a MacArthur "genius" grant in 1986. He's the author of numerous books, including The Truth About Uri Geller, The Faith Healers, Flim-Flam!, and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural.