Encyclopedia Astronautica: Tsien (1911-2009)

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/tsien.htm

Tsien Hsue-shen Chinese Engineer. Born 11 December 1911.

Personal: Male, Married, Two children. Born in Hangzhou, China. Ph.D., Caltech, 1939

Tsien Hsue-shen (Qian Xuesen), was the father of Chinese rocketry and spaceflight. A pre-eminent rocket scientist in America, he was driven from the country during the Red Scare of the 1950's. He single-handedly built a national space and rocketry program from the technology base of an agrarian society.

Tsien was born in Hangzhou, China in 1911. A brilliant student, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Boxer Rebellion Scholarship in 1935. Becoming a protege of the legendary Theodor von Karman, Tsien was the leading theoretician in rocket and high-speed flight theory in the United States. He was instrumental in the founding of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and collaborated closely with the newly-founded Aerojet Corporation in the development of the first JATO and sounding rockets built in the United States.

Identified to the US Defence Department as a key person in the future development of military technology for the United States, Qian was a member of Project Lusty - a team of top scientists that entered Germany just behind the American lines, locating and returning to the United States key documents and personnel of the advanced German aircraft and rocketry programs. The team left for Europe before the war even ended. By May 5 Tsien found himself interviewing Wernher von Braun and other members of the V-2 Rocket Team in Kochl. Von Braun prepared for Tsien a seminal report, ‘Survey of Development of Liquid Rockets in Germany and Their Future Prospects’, which provided the road map for future space vehicle development in the United States. Rudolph Hermann revealed that Tsien’s theories of supersonic flow had been confirmed in German wind tunnels during the war. Such facilities had not been available in the United States.

The Lusty Team moved on to the Hermann Goering Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt near Volkenrode in Braunschweig. This camouflaged secret facility had carried out advanced aerodynamics work during the war. Von Karman encountered old acquaintances from his days as a professor in Aachen there. Despite attempts to destroy the most secret documents, the team recovered 3 million pages - 1500 tonnes - of technical papers from Volkenrode. These laid the groundwork for American post-war jet aircraft development. A single set of documents providing details of the design of swept wings to transonic aircraft was deemed so important that the Boeing’s George Shairer microfilmed the details and returned to Seattle in July. The XB-47 design was revised to a podded-engine swept-wing, becoming the ancestor of the B-52 and all subsequent Boeing transports.
Tsien 1956

Meanwhile Tsien was devoting his time to the German work on the Pfeilflugel. The concept had first been proposed by Alfred Busemann in 1937 and elaborated by Hans Lippisch during the war. On May 28 Lippisch briefed the Lusty Team in Paris on his work on the Me-163 tail-less rocketplane and the unflown DM-1 pure delta glider.

Returning from Germany, Tsien edited the leading findings of the project in the 800-page Jet Propulsion, which would become the classified technical Bible for post-war aircraft and rocket technical research in the post-war United States.

By 1949 Tsien applied the knowledge learned to the design of a practical intercontinental rocket transport. He proposed a 5,000 km single stage winged rocket clearly derived from V-2 aerodynamics. The 22,000 kg rocket would carry ten passengers from New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes. It would take off vertically, with the rocket burning out after 60 seconds at 14,740 kph at 160 km altitude. After a coast to 500 km, it would re-enter the atmosphere and enter a long glide at 43 km altitude. Landing speed was to be 240 kph. Tsien’s fundamental theoretical work on this concept lead to him being called the ‘Father of the Dyna-soar’ (a 1950’s/1960’s delta winged spaceplane that was the ancestor of the space shuttle).

But at this same period Tsien’s homeland was undergoing a chaotic period of civil war leading to the victory of Mao Tse-tung’s Communist forces. In the larger world, the Cold War struggle had begun. Stalin had exploded an atomic bomb and it was revealed that the technology had been stolen from the Americans by wartime Soviet spies. In backlash, McCarthyism took root in the United States.

Tsien seems to have undergone a similar personal struggle of loyalty and allegiances at the same time. On the one hand, Tsien married the cosmopolitan daughter of a senior military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek in 1947, applied to become a US citizen in 1949, and had become one of the senior scientists advising the US military on post-war development of rocket technology. He had begun pioneering and highly secret work on the use of nuclear rocket engines. On the other hand, Tsien was revolted by the corruption of the Chinese nationalists, faced racial discrimination in the United States, and constantly vacillated in his desire to return to his homeland. He, like other Chinese scientists in the United States, began to receive letters from their relatives indicating that hardships awaited them unless their expatriate son returned to the motherland.
Tsien

Events culminated on June 6, 1950. Just weeks before North Korean forces invaded the southern Korean zone, leading to a war that would bring the United States and China into direct military conflict, Tsien was visited by the FBI. He was accused of being a Communist party member in the 1930’s and his security clearance was revoked. By this time nearly all of Tsien’s work was classified, and denial of the clearance destroyed his ability to continue further. He decided to leave [for] China, but was instead thrown into a prison cell on Terminal Island by the US Immigrations Service. Leaders in Washington had decided that Tsien knew too much for him to be allowed to move to a Communist country. He was detained under virtual house arrest for five years, while his technical knowledge become more and more dated. In the 1955 Geneva talks on return of American prisoners of war, release of Tsien was made an explicit condition of the Chinese. Eisenhower himself agreed to do so, and in September 1955 Tsien left for China.

Building rocket and aircraft technology in China was to be a long process. Achieving the indigenous technologies in metallurgy, machinery, and electronics was an enormous task. The Russians provided an R-2 rocket, an improved version of the V-2, as a starting point. Chinese political upheavals - the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Tsien’s backing of the disgraced Lin Biao - further delayed progress. But by 1960, Tsien launched the first Chinese-built R-2. By 1970, he had launched China’s first satellite using his DF-2 rocket. In 1968 Tsien founded the Space Flight Medical Research Centre to prepare for manned flights. The large two stage FB-1 and CZ-2 rockets, the basis for China’s ICBM and all existing Chinese space launch vehicles, first flew in 1972. Launches of the FSW photo reconnaissance satellite, with a recoverable re-entry capsule nearly large enough to accommodate a pilot, began in 1974.

Tsien’s manned spacecraft design proposed in the late 1970’s was a winged spaceplane, launched by a CZ-2 core booster with two large strap-on boosters. It so strongly resembled the cancelled US Dynasoar of 15 years earlier that US intelligence analysts wondered if it wasn't based on declassified Dynasoar technical information. It would seem that this was to be preceded by a simpler manned capsule.

First public announcement of the manned program came in February, 1978. By November the head of the Chinese Space Agency, Jen Hsin-Min, confirmed that China was working on a manned space capsule and a "Skylab" space station.

In January, 1980 the Chinese press reported a visit with the Chinese astronaut trainees at the Chinese manned spaceflight training centre. Photographs appeared of the astronauts in training. Pressure suited astronauts were shown in pressure chamber tests. Other trainees were shown at the controls of a space shuttle-like spaceplane cockpit.

A fleet of ships for recovery of manned capsules at sea was built and in May, 1980, the first capsule was recovered from the South Pacific after a suborbital launch. But then, suddenly, in December, 1980, Wang Zhuanshan, the Secretary General of the New China Space Research Society and Chief Engineer of the Space Centre of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced that Chinese manned flight was being postponed because of its cost. Fundamental economic development was given priority.

This was apparently Tsien's last attempt at a manned programme while still actively heading the space programme. Tsien had managed to keep in the favour of the changing Chinese regimes over the years. He was a dedicated Communist who's technical advice on agriculture contributed to the death of millions during the Great Leap Forward in 1958. He met Mao six times and tutored him personally in 1964. He survived the Cultural Revolution of 1968 and supported the Tienamen Massacre in 1989. His active career came to a close when he was awarded the State's highest award, State Scientist of Outstanding Contribution in October 1991. A new manned space program would be approved in 1992, led by leaders and engineers trained in Russia in the late 1950's.

Tsien lived out the balance of his life in seclusion in a guarded residential compound in Beijing.

Tsien Chronology [see original website]

The Language of Economics: Wentong Zheng brings an economist’s eye to legal study

http://ublaw.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/061509/

The Language of Economics: Wentong Zheng brings an economist’s eye to legal study

Growing up in a small city 200 miles south of Beijing, Wentong Zheng was a witness to history: China’s rapid transformation from an isolated nation into an economic powerhouse. The intense debate about economic and political reforms, closely entwined in China, captivated him – and led him to economics as a way to better understand it all.

Zheng, who joins the UB Law faculty this fall, went to big-city Beijing and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Renmin University of China. From there he traveled to Stanford University, where he earned his doctorate in economics in 2005.

But along the way, he says, he realized that “the dismal science” did not satisfy his desire to understand the workings of human economic and political life. “I found economics to be more abstract than I would like it to be, “he says. “We were using very complicated mathematical models without explaining the relevance of those models to reality. I wanted to apply my economics expertise to something more concrete. And I just got very interested in legal issues, especially issues relating to economics.”

So he applied and was accepted at Stanford Law School, earning the J.D. (and serving as executive editor of the Stanford Law Review) while at the same time completing his dissertation for a Ph.D. in economics. He spent the first year on his law courses, and then shuttled back and forth between the law school and the economics department – a fortuitously short five minute walk.

How does someone whose native tongue is Chinese survive such a rigorous challenge? “I started learning English in middle school, “Zheng says. “But when I left China for the U.S., I really knew mostly written English. When I came to the U.S., I realized that I didn’t really know how to talk to an American and make him or her understand me.” Fortunately, he said, much of his economics coursework was in the universal language of math. “I devoted those years to studying economics, but also to watching TV and talking to my advisers and classmates, ” he says.His English – spoken and written – now is impeccable.

After he completed his work at Stanford, Zheng joined the Washington, D.C., firm Steptoe & Johnson, where he works on international trade litigation and trade policy advocacy. For nearly two years, he worked primarily on a case involving the import of softwood lumber from Canada. U.S. lumber producers had complained to the Department of Commerce that the Canadian government was unfairly subsidizing the costs of lumber production by charging below- market stumpage fees, undercutting fair competition.

“It was a very interesting experience, ” he says of the case, in which Steptoe represented the Canadian producers.”We had to hire many prominent economists to prove why the Canadian government’s stumpage policy was not a subsidy. I had to be both a lawyer and an economist, because I was interpreting between the lawyers and the economists.”

That dual orientation – Zheng considers himself a lawyer with an economics background, rather than the other way around – fuels the research interests that he will continue at UB Law.

His major interest is in studying international trade law from an economic perspective. Specifically, he has been looking at the use of the market as a benchmark for the law, as in takings law that requires government to pay fair market value for property acquired through eminent domain.”My research points out that there is a lot of inconsistency with the economic principles behind that approach, “he says.

Drawing upon his advanced training in econometrics and statistics, he also wants to pursue his interest in empirical studies of legal and public policy issues.

He also is doing work in comparative law, such as comparing the Chinese and U.S. anti-trust laws through the lens of political and social factors affecting their development, rather than the traditional economics-only approach.

At UB, Zheng says, he is looking forward to a wide range of collaborations.” Buffalo people have interesting ideas and want to talk about their research, ” he says.” And the Law School has given a very high priority to interdisciplinary research, especially through the Baldy Center. I think that will provide an excellent platform for my research interests.”As well, he says, he expects to build contacts in the School of Management and the departments of economics and Asian studies.

Zheng is married to Zhuqin “Allison” Zhou; a fellow economist, she works as an economic consultant. They have two young sons, ages 21?2 years and 7 months.

Pourquoi - Le Papillon (2002)

Pourquoi les poules pondent des oeufs?
Pour que les oeufs fassent des poules.
Pourquoi les amoureux s'embrassent?
C'est pour que les pigeons roucoulent.
Pourquoi les jolies fleurs se fanent?
Parce que ça fait partie du charme.
Pourquoi le diable et le bon Dieu?
C'est pour faire parler les curieux.

Pourquoi le feu brûle le bois?
C'est pour bien réchauffer nos corps.
Pourquoi la mer se retire?
C'est pour qu'on lui dise "Encore."
Pourquoi le soleil disparaît?
Pour l'autre partie du décor.
Pourquoi le diable et le bon Dieu?
C'est pour faire parler les curieux.

Pourquoi le loup mange l'agneau?
Parce qu'il faut bien se nourrir.
Pourquoi le lièvre et la tortue?
Parce que rien ne sert de courir.
Pourquoi les anges ont-ils des ailes?
Pour nous faire croire au Père Noël.
Pourquoi le diable et le bon Dieu?
C'est pour faire parler les curieux.

Pourquoi notre coeur fait tic-tac?
Parce que la pluie fait flic-flac.
Pourquoi le temps passe si vite?
Parce que le vent lui rend visite.
Pourquoi tu me prends par la main?
Parce qu'avec toi je suis bien.
Pourquoi le diable et le bon Dieu?
C'est pour faire parler les curieux.



Why do chicken lay eggs?
Because eggs become chicken.
Why do lovers embrace?
It is so that the pigeons coo.
Why do the pretty flowers fade?
Because it’s part of their charm.
Why is there a devil and a good god?
It is to make the curious speak.

Why does the fire burn wood?
It is to reheat our golden hearts.
Why does the sea leave?
It is so that we can say “again.”
Why does the sun disappear?
For celebration of his decorations.
Why is there a devil and a good god?
It is to make the curious speak.

Why does the wolf eat the lamb?
Because it is necessary for it to eat.
How about the hare and the tortoise?
Because there is no point in running.
Why do angels have wings?
To make us believe in Santa Claus.
Why is there a devil and a good god?
It is to make the curious speak.

Why do our hearts tic-tac?
Because the rain flic-flac.
Why does time pass so quickly?
Because the wind visits.
Why do you hold my hands?
Because with you I am happy.
Why is there a devil and a good god?
It is to make the curious speak.

Stop Your Search Engines

The New York Times Magazine

October 25, 2009
The Way We Live Now
Stop Your Search Engines
By PEGGY ORENSTEIN

Not long ago, I started an experiment in self-binding: intentionally creating an obstacle to behavior I was helpless to control, much the way Ulysses lashed himself to his ship’s mast to avoid succumbing to the Sirens’ song. In my case, though, the irresistible temptation was the Internet. But before I began, I wondered about the genesis of the term “self-binding.” So I hopped online and found Jon Elster, a professor of political science at Columbia University, whose book “Ulysses Unbound” explores whether voluntarily restricting your choices enhances or curtails freedom.

That reminded me: I hadn’t read “The Odyssey” since college, and because I was pretty sure that my copy was at the bottom of a carton of books in faraway Minneapolis, I Googled the original text. I browsed several versions before downloading what seemed like the best translation. Because my interest lay specifically with the Sirens (quick Web break to make sure that should be uppercase), I sifted through a variety of classicists’ interpretations of their role. Then — and this seemed reasonable enough — I searched for the “Sirens” episode in James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” I can’t quite recollect how I got to the video for the song “Sirens,” by the alternative rock group AVA, but that put me in mind of Blink-182 (with whom AVA shares a frontman), so I clicked over to that band’s site to check for any updates on the release of its new album, then watched its reunion performance from February’s Grammy Awards. . . . When I looked up, three and a half hours had passed.

And that is why I need the mast. It came in the form of an app called Freedom, which blocks your Internet access for up to eight hours at a stretch. The only way to get back online is to reboot your computer, which — though not as foolproof as, say, removing the modem entirely and overnighting it to yourself (another strategy I’ve contemplated) — is cumbersome and humiliating enough to be an effective deterrent. The program was developed by Fred Stutzman, a graduate student in information and library science, whose own failsafe self-binding technique — writing at a cafe without Internet access — came undone when the place went wireless. “We’re moving toward this era where we’ll never be able to escape from the cloud,” he told me. “I realized the only way to fight back was at an individual, personal level.”

Freedom, which runs only on Macs, is downloaded more than 4,000 times a month. Stutzman says this mass-erosion of our self-control was inevitable, as the instrument of our productivity merged with that of our distraction: since computers have expanded from mere business tools to full-service entertainment centers. But I think there’s something deeper going on as well. Those mythical bird-women (look it up) didn’t seduce with beauty or carnality — not with petty diversions — but with the promise of unending knowledge. “Over all the generous earth we know everything that happens,” they crooned to passing ships, vowing that any sailor who heeded their voices would emerge a “wiser man.” That is precisely the draw of the Internet.

It is heartening that the yearning for learning is the most powerful of all human cravings (though it applies equally to obtaining the wisdom of Zeus or the YouTube video on how to peel a banana like a monkey). Yet the sea surrounding the Sirens was littered with corpses. Can increased knowledge really destroy us?

Well, yes. According to Elster, there are certainly occasions when choosing ignorance could be smart. You might decline, for instance, to undergo testing for the genetic marker for Huntington’s disease, which is fatal and incurable. Or say you were an East German after reunification: would you want to read files that may show that your spouse had informed against you? As a culture, we have banned research on reproductive cloning, fearing how future generations might use the results.

In my slightly less agonizing situation, the trap is more of a bait and switch: the promise is of infinite knowledge, but what’s delivered is infinite information, and the two are hardly the same. In that sense, Homer may have been the original neuropsychologist: centuries after his death, brain studies show that true learning is largely an unconscious process. If we’re inundated with data, our brains’ synthesizing functions are overwhelmed by the effort to keep up. And the original purpose — deeper knowledge of a subject — is lost, as surely as the corpses surrounding Sirenum scopuli.

It could be that sometimes our greatest freedom may be to choose freedom from freedom. I am still surprised by the relief that floods me whenever I bind myself from going online, when I have no option but to ignore the incessant tweets and e-mail messages and videos and news links and even the legitimate research.

I’m not wishing the Internet away. It has become so integral to my work — to my life — that I honestly can’t recall what I did without it. But it has allowed us to reflexively indulge every passing interest, to expect answers to every fleeting question, to believe that if we search long enough, surf a little further, we can hit the dry land of knowing “everything that happens” and that such knowledge is both possible and desirable. In the end, though, there is just more sea, and as alluring as we can find the perpetual pursuit of little thoughts, the net result may only be to prevent us from forming the big ones.

Peggy Orenstein, a contributing writer, is the author of “Waiting for Daisy,” a memoir.

Great American Novel

from Wiki

The "Great American Novel" is the concept of a novel that most perfectly represents the spirit of life in the United States at the time of its writing. It is presumed to be written by an American author who is knowledgeable about the state, culture, and perspective of the common American citizen. It is often considered as the American response to the tradition of the national epic.

The phrase derives from the title of an essay by American Civil War novelist John William DeForest, published in The Nation on January 9, 1868. More broadly, however, it has its origins in American nationalism and the call for American counterparts to the "Great English Writers." It is an ideological call for American cultural distinctness, and identity.

In modern usage, the term is often figurative and represents a Holy Grail of writing, an ideal to strive towards, and is a source of inspiration. Aspiring writers of all ages, but especially students, are often said to be driven to write "the Great American Novel." It is, presumably, the greatest American book ever written, or which could ever be written. Thus, "Great American Novel" is a metaphor for identity, a Platonic ideal that is not achieved in any specific texts, but whose aim writers strive to mirror in their work.

An alternate usage is in reference to actual novels. Although the title is not a formal award, it is considered to be a prestigious title for a novel, and is thus seen as a worthwhile goal for writers to attempt to achieve.

Though the term is singular, many novels have been given this title over time. In fact, few will claim there is one single Great American Novel. The earliest contenders for this title are Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.[1] Other important and often cited novels include F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March[2], John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, John Dos Passos U.S.A. trilogy,[3] Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, Don DeLillo's Underworld, and Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections.

菊花臺

詞: 方文山
曲: 周傑倫
唱: 周傑倫

你的淚光
柔弱中帶傷　
慘白的月彎彎
勾住過往
夜太漫長　
凝結成了霜　
是誰在閣樓上
冰冷的絕望

雨輕輕彈　
朱紅色的窗　
我一生在紙上
被風吹亂
夢在遠方　
化成一縷香　
隨風飄散你的模樣

菊花殘 滿地傷　
你的笑容已泛黃　
花落人斷腸　
我心事靜靜淌
北風亂夜未央　
你的影子剪不斷　
徒留我孤單　
在湖面成雙

花已向晚　
飄落了燦爛　
凋謝的世道上
命運不堪
愁莫渡江　
秋心拆兩半　
怕你上不了岸
一輩子搖晃

誰的江山　
馬蹄聲狂亂　
我一身的戎裝
呼嘯滄桑
天微微亮　
你輕聲的嘆　
一夜惆悵如此委婉

菊花殘 滿地傷　
你的笑容已泛黃　
花落人斷腸　
我心事靜靜淌
北風亂 夜未央　
你的影子剪不斷　
徒留我孤單　
在湖面成雙

菊花殘 滿地傷　
你的笑容已泛黃　
花落人斷腸　
我心事靜靜淌
北風亂 夜未央　
你的影子剪不斷　
徒留我孤單　
在湖面成雙

The Hobbit

Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated then a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools. Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of 'the Big Folk', as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find. They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed, and though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements. They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by; and this art they have developed until to Men it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studies magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsier races.

The Lord of the Rings--The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1954.

Read on Thursday, August 20, before flying to Chicago.

吕正操逝世(1905-2009)

http://news.163.com/special/00013QQ6/lvzhengcao.html

National Affairs: MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT. . .

National Affairs: MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT. . .

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890793,00.html

JOHN WILLIAM DAVIS, 80, a white-maned, majestic figure in immaculate morning attire who looks type-cast for the part, has argued more cases (140) before the Supreme Court of the U.S. than any other lawyer living or dead. His first, Pickens v. Roy, came on in 1902—when the present Chief Justice of the U.S. was eleven. Big Steel paid John W. Davis more than $100,000 last year to win the historic Steel Seizure case (Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer). Davis' fee for taking segregation's side last week was more modest: a silver tea service, gift of the South Carolina legislature.

As senior partner of ihe 104-year-old Wall Street firm of Davis Polk Wardwell Sunderland & Kiendl (95 lawyers). John W. Davis represents A.T.&T., Standard Oil Co. (N.J.), Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, International Paper Co., et al. He did not need another client, and he already owned a tea service. ...

聆听中国的声音

http://www.zaobao.com/special/china/zaodian/pages2/zaodian_jing091012.shtml

聆听中国的声音

韩咏红 (2009-10-12)

　　当中国国家主席胡锦涛与新闻集团、美联社、路透社、英国广播公司、共同社等全球著名媒体负责人同坐一排，并列“世界传媒大会”开幕式主席台时，我在人民大会堂观众席里，感觉一幅历史画面在眼前冉冉形成。

　　中国政府与其最公开的质疑者齐聚一堂，并且将后者尊为座上宾，多家一向对中国制度与媒体管理方式持批评态度的西方传媒巨头也应邀出席，这个奇异的画面强烈凸显了前者的雄心勃勃、胜利在望与后者身段的巧妙调整。

　　这俨然是中非论坛、G7、G20、金砖四国等峰会的另外一种版本。主题诉说的是中国不仅将影响力深入到非洲、到世界经济体系、到新兴国家，现在也要将崛起大国的份量，展延到一个没有具体疆界，却对世界走势构成影响，而且至今一直将中国拒之门外的场域——国际舆论场。

　　会场外，有外国同行朋友愤愤不平议论起来了：“你能相信吗？他们竟然主办起来世界传媒大会，而且他们（媒体巨头们）都来了？！”

　　从严格的角度看，一场明显得到中国政府支持，又是由官方媒体主办的全球媒体大会，其建构不乏内在矛盾。多数人会同意，媒体的很重要价值是在不受官方意志左右地对各种真相进行报道，以此发挥针砭时弊与对政府进行舆论监督作用。一些西方传媒学理论更是强调，媒体与政府应该是天然的对立面。按照上述标准，中国显然不是新闻与媒体发展得到充分保障的地方，其新闻自由状况长年受到批评，还有西方非政府组织每年都要发表被囚禁的中国记者人数，以此凸显中国改善新闻自由环境的必要。

　　在中国国内，采访受阻或者信息不能充分流通的例子也不难找到。twitter、facebook等互联网服务被阻挡已数月，而在前不久，首都北京长安街旁几个星期前发生过政府人员打日本记者的不愉快事件。

　　从这些角度看，我的同行确实很容易得出国际媒体巨头在商业利益与潜在中国市场面前妥协原则的结论。

　　但是，我毋宁用比较正面的角度看待问题。过去几十年来中国得以实现快速发展的其中一个要素，就是它不断加入各种国际组织，融入由国际主流社会制定规则的全球体系。这实际上是一个相互影响与融合的过程，中国庞大的经济体积冲击世界经济格局，中国自身的经济面貌、社会结构以及政治领导人所面对的挑战，也因受到外部冲击而出现重大改变。

　　每当选择加入一个国际组织群体的时候，中国也选择了让国际惯例或者国家标准来带动自身的发展与转化。中国发展的历程证明了这一点，而推进中国改进的方法，恰恰不是对它拒之门外，而是与之接触。何况，当中国力争融入一个新领域时，其做法往往也是动用自身资源去促进该领域的发展。

　　在上周五的全球媒体大会上，英国路透社总编辑史进德（David Schlesinger）在开幕式演讲中，公开要求中国政府提高财经信息透明度，公平地对待外国记者，让他们能像国内记者一样参加与充分报道一些官方的重要会议。

　　而胡锦涛在开幕致词中，也表明中国要鼓励和支持中国媒体在“搞好舆论监督和保障人民知情权、参与权、表达权、监督权等方面发挥重要作用”，而且要“保障外国新闻机构和记者合法权益”。

　　随着中国经济发展与各方面的崛起，国际社会期待对中国有更深入与直接的了解，聆听中国的声音，因此让中国在国际传媒领域占有一席之地，是一个客观需要。因此，刚刚过去的世界媒体大会，可以视为双方的一个机会，西方传媒界有机会影响中国同业的发展，而中国也需要在未来的路上，证明自己对世界宣示的保障人民知情权、参与权、表达权、监督权；保障外国新闻机构合法权益等承诺，会说到做到。

期待更多的李安

http://www.zaobao.com/special/china/zaodian/pages2/zaodian_zi091010.shtml

期待更多的李安

沈泽玮 (2009-10-10)

　　中华人民共和国60大寿，结集一百多个明星拍了一部《建国大业》，中华民国100岁，我们是否会看到台湾名导演李安把台湾名作家龙应台的《大江大海一九四九》搬上大银幕？

　　李安和龙应台前晚在台北举行一场题为“这一路走来的我——从台南的泥土谈起”的对谈。提问时间，有出席者以书写方式提出这个有趣的建议。

　　李安俏皮地问龙应台：“这问题不是你自己写的吧？”他接着说，在香港为新戏《胡士托风波》（Taking Woodstock）宣传时，有记者问他，10月1日《胡士托风波》正好对上大陆的《建国大业》，他有什么感想？

　　《胡士托风波》以美国嬉皮年代为背景、以怀旧的调调来呈现1969年性解放及反战精神的年代。虽然不是讲述什么建国的大业，但李安说，他建立的是一个“乌托邦大业”，他甚至认为“这个世界如果没有国家多好，不是鼓吹没有秩序，而是不管是党是国，它们的东西都令人质疑”，民间的东西虽然没有秩序，但却有更多的真相。

　　龙应台也说，有人问过她，国民党写一半的历史，共产党写一半的历史，那两岸各一半加起来，是否就完整？她回说，一半加一半的历史，它还是两党在写的历史，要把民间的合起来，才比较接近真相。

　　受过威权时代的党国教育，摆脱思想桎梏后，两位名人对党国都持怀疑态度，相信好些台湾人也有这样的心态。不管执政当局的教育目的是出于恐惧还是保护，人们一旦跳脱之后，心怀的，总是更多的不信任。

　　日前，新闻节目播放国共历史片断。珍贵的历史镜头中，出现了台湾人拉起一个把蒋介石当作是“民族救星”的大布条，还有在蒋介石生日当天，有阿嬷带着孙儿去吃面线的旧画面。笔者看了觉得好笑，受过党国教育的台湾朋友，更是觉得好笑。时空交错折射出的，是一代人的思想改变，从现在的眼光凝视过往，这些片断都可以被归类为周星驰式的冷笑话。

　　李安走的当然不是周星驰路线，他在电影中多次探讨父与子之间的冲突关系，以及对父权压抑的阴霾。在和龙应台的对谈中，他把父亲、父权隐喻为政权、文化。

　　他透露，自己觉得父亲在家中给他的观感，“很像来台湾的国民党”，“它的权力在慢慢流失，不过大家在保留他的颜面”，“国民党把中国文化带来台湾，在台湾发酵，也在台湾流失、变质”。

　　与父权抗争是因为年轻人想要挣脱、想要自由，但李安也认为，父亲给的压力其实也是一种安全感，它成为一个行为准则、一个纪律准则，成为一些根本的立足条件，“你不希望它变，它变了你反而会觉得飘虚，没有安全感……这是一个理性和感性之间的挣扎”。　　同样的，李安认为拍戏可以乱，可以感性地去拍，不论是悲剧的升华或喜剧的嘲笑，都可以增加戏剧效果，但是生活应该是理性的，人际关系的处理是理性的，不能乱。

　　具备思想、感情与技巧等等条件，李安不只懂得运镜来诠释他对影片的态度，他还能很自在朴实地向出席对话会的1000多个观众，表达他内在的想法。不煽情不激情，浅白的文字最有力量，他总是可以说出一套道理，而且不自觉地渗入人心。

　　李安说，他在拍戏的过程中找寻人生的意义，他要把很多松散的东西，通过电影的结构呈现出来，把他对人生的诠释传达给观众。但他也知道，他是在“找一个没有答案的答案”，他是“去制造人生有意义的假象，这个假象对群体拥抱在一起很重要”。

　　从父亲教他的写书法的“三折法”， 他领悟到的是，“中国人的美感，写字要回峰，圆润才好看，完全破决了其实没有什么意思，要留点东西，让人回想”，就像人生中的反叛，推翻了又怎么样呢？可能往更坏的方向走。

　　台湾人爱用一个词叫做“同理心”，或许就是同理心让台南出发的李安能够跨国跨界。不管是西片、武侠片、同性恋、家庭伦理、19世纪的英国、40年代的上海，还是70年代的美国，他都驾驭得当。

　　说他是台湾的骄傲，应该不为过，但回想他拍的片子，却又不是那么的台湾，这当中多少有点矛盾，但却也是让人惊喜的特质。

　　台湾滋润了李安，李安也让台湾发光。但做导演的，十个大概有八个不成功。台湾若要推展文化软实力外交，那台湾的电影工业应该获得更多支援，商业与创作的机制要加大整合及推广。

　　《大江大海一九四九》是否会成为中华民国100年的贺礼并不重要，笔者反而期待台湾能让人看到更多的李安。

Movie - Inventory

New Portable:

1956-War and Peace
1959-Ben-Hur
1963-Cleopatra
1985-Out of Africa
1997-My Best Friend's Wedding
2002-The Hours
2004-Phantom of the Opera
2006-An Inconvenient Truth
2006-Pan's Labyrinth
2007-Michael Clayton
2007-The Bourne Ultimatum
2008-Kung Fu Panda
2008-Wall-E
2009-Up
2009-Up in the Air

1987-秋天的童话
1993-霸王别姬
1993-东成西就
1993-喜宴
1994-东邪西毒
1994-活着
1994-饮食男女
1996-色情男女
1996-甜蜜蜜
1997-半生缘
1997-春光乍泄
1998-玻璃之城
1998-不见不散
1998-征婚启事
2000-卧虎藏龙
2001-十七岁的单车
2002-蓝色大门
2002-无间道， I
2005-如果·爱
2007-不能说的秘密
2007-练习曲
2007-投名状
2008-海角七号
2008-非诚勿扰
2009-建国大业

1995-Par-Dela Les Nuages
2001-Le Peuple Migrateur
2001-Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain
2002-Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatre
2002-Le Papillon
2004-Les Choristes

1988-龙猫


Old portable:

1953-Roman Holiday
1964-My Fair Lady
1965-The Sound of Music
1974-The Godfather, II
1980-The Gods Must Be Crazy, I
1984-Once Upon a Time in America
1986-Top Gun
1989-The Gods Must Be Crazy, II

1992-Basic Instinct
1992-Scent of a Woman
1993-In the Name of the Father
1993-Philadelphia
1993-Schindler's List
1993-Sleepless in Seattle
1994-Forrest Gump
1994-Legends of the Fall
1994-The Lion King
1994-The Shawshank Redemption
1995-Mr. Holland's Opus
1995-Sense and Sensibility
1997-Titanic
1998-A Bug's Life
1998-City of Angels
1999-Notting Hill

2001-Ocean's Eleven
2002-The Count of Monte Cristo
2003-Big Fish
2003-Helen of Troy
2003-Lost in Translation
2004-50 First Dates
2004-Hotel Rwanda
2004-Million Dollar Baby
2004-The Terminal
2005-Brokeback Mountain
2005-King of Heaven
2005-Lord of War
2005-The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
2006-Blood Diamond
2006-Casino Royale
2006-The Devil Wears Prada
2006-The Pursuit of Happyness

1988-Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
1997-La Vita e Bella
2000-Malena

1989-魔女宅急便
1995-情书
1998-四月物语

1965-Tom and Jerry
1991-东京爱情故事
1995-Pride and Prejudice

Disc:

1987-黄河大合唱（中央乐团交响乐团及合唱团 严良堃 指挥）
1998-Notre Dame de Paris (Musical)
2004-爱在哈佛（1-9）
2004-复活的军团 (Documentary)
2004-艺术人生：红楼梦再聚首

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a Bohemian-born Austrian composer and conductor. He was best known during his own lifetime as one of the leading orchestral and operatic conductors of the day. He has since come to be acknowledged as among the most important late-Romantic/early-Modernist composers, although his music was never completely accepted by the musical establishment of Vienna while he was still alive. Mahler composed primarily symphonies and songs; however, his approach to genre often blurred the lines between orchestral Lied, symphony, and symphonic poem.

The All-Time Richest Americans

http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/14/richest-americans-alltime-biz_cx_pw_as_0914ialltime_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=30000

John D. Rockefeller
Andrew Carnegie
Cornelius Vanderbilt
John Jacob Astor
Stephen Girard
Richard B. Mellon
A.T. Stewart
Frederick Weyerhauser
Marshall Field
Sam Walton

Little Rooms, Big Profits (2009-10-2)

Little Rooms, Big Profits

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

HOTEL KING Sam Chang on West 39th Street, where he has a “three-pack” of connected budget-conscious hotels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/nyregion/04chang.html?pagewanted=1&hp